1 MIN 1 CAD: Be Productive with CAD Commands Beginning with P & Q

Hi there, it’s been a while. How’s it going and have you been honing your CAD skills? Today, I’m sharing with you some CAD commands beginning with P and Q that are so easy to master that you can become a more productive designer. Let’s jump into it!

PAINTPROP

As I’ve expounded before, hatches can help enrich your drawings with vivid textures. However, since there’re so many materials in the world, the default hatches might be insufficient to meet our needs. Besides accessing PAT (the format of patterns) files, you can "borrow” custom patterns from other drawings with the PAINTPROP command! Like MATCHPROP which formats the properties of objects, PAINTPROP enables you to format the patterns across drawings. Interestingly, you must execute MATCHPROP to use PAINTPROP. Steps:

1. Input [MA] and press ENTER.
2. Select a source pattern.
3. Go to another drawing and select the destination pattern.

As the GIF below shows, I “copied and pasted” the pattern of the lawn to another drawing with just 2 clicks.

If you copied object properties with MATCHPROP in one drawing and switch to another without terminating it, PAINTPROP will be executed automatically.

PASTEORIG

Collaborative design is quite a buzzword nowadays. Take plan design for example, it usually involves more than one person: John is responsible for area A, Jane area B, and Bob takes care of the rest. How to combine the designs into one? You might need PASTEORIG, which helps you paste objects at a preset insertion point, a.k.a. the origin of the coordinate system in a drawing. Steps:

1. Select the desired objects.
2. Use COPYCLIP or Ctrl+C.
3. Go to another drawing, input [PASTEORIG], and press ENTER.

Identical origins are essential to the successful combination of drawings.

PDFIMPORT

As its name suggests, PDFIMPORT can help you import entities (vector geometries, raster images, solid fills, and TrueType texts) from a PDF file that is generated with a CAD program, to a DWG drawing in ZWCAD. Steps:

1. Input [PDFIMPORT] and press ENTER to invoke the Import PDF dialogue box.
2. Browse and select a PDF file.
3. Customize the settings (the insertion point, scale, angle of rotation, etc.) and click OK to finish importing.

Now, the objects in PDFs have been turned into CAD entities for you to edit.

If you want to use a PDF file only for reference, the PDFATTACH command is exactly what you need.

PDFADJUST

PDFADJUST allows you to modify the PDF underlay by means of Fade, Contrast, or Monochrome. For instance, in architectural design, the attached PDF file is usually a map showing the surroundings of a site. With PDFADJUST, it is no longer confusing when the lines of the PDF file and the DWG drawing are alike in color. Steps:

1. Input [PDFADJUST] and press ENTER.
2. Select a PDF underlay and press ENTER.
3. Input one of the three options (“F” to make it duller/”C” to make it lighter or darker/”M” to apply a monochrome effect to it) and press Enter.
4. Enter a value from 0 to 100 if you opted for the “Fade” or “Contrast” effect.

See? I can trace on the map way more easily after making it translucent.

QDIM

Tired of manually adding dimensions? QDIM (Quick Dimension) is a shortcut to get the task done because it’ll recognize the entities automatically and create the corresponding dimensions, for example, a linear dimension for a line. Steps:

1. Input [QDIM] and press ENTER.
2. Select the entities you’re annotating and press ENTER.
3. Place the automatically generated dimensions.

If you need to edit a series of existing dimensions, like align them, you can select them after Step 1 instead of the entities you’re annotating. Trust me, “p”racticing and mastering these CAD commands beginning with P and Q will “q”uicken your design process. Also, “r”emember to subscribe to our blog for the ones beginning with R to come!