New user from Australia

Been trying LibreCAD for a few days now and despite my best efforts I cannot get it to function properly.
I have used CAD programs before, namely AutoCAD an TSCAD.

Despite having experience with other CAD programs and trying to follow tutorials on LibreCAD, nothing is working as expected.

If I try to dram a horizontal line 150 unit long it only draws the line 10 units long, the same happens with vertical lines.

If I use the line tool with two ends it will draw a line from the start point to the end point but the line at the start and end are both only 10 units long and the space between is blank.

If I try to draw a line downwards or to the left of a point it will draw the lines upwards and to the right of the point instead.

In some of the tutorials I have followed it mentions a "Tool Options" text box, but I can not find where this is even though it is enabled.

I have been able to create layers but can not find a way to lines on a drawing layer to follow lines on a construction layer.

I can dimension a line but no dimension displays.

Some of the tutorial mention to carry out certain action such as entering certain parameters but it gives no information how to enter this information.

Can anyone tell me what might be wrong. I am using Version 2.2.0.2. I have already uninstalled and reinstalled LibreCAD but it did not help.

I had high hopes for LibreCAD as my idea was to learn it well enough to be able to print out engineering drawings on A3 paper.

 I currently do the drawings by hand at the moment but was going to get a A3 laser printer to produce and store my plans. I have shelved my plan to buy the printer until I have the ability to produce the drawings.

The options are shown by default within the top toolbar, for example, the "Length" option for line drawing in the following screenshots.


You may also try with commands and coordinates, if with previous CAD experience.

Thankyou for that information I tried it and it works.

That is one problem solved but there are still some issues that I cannot find an answer to and the user guide does not provide the answers so I will just keep trying.

Quickly go through our docs would help, in your case with previous cad experiences.

However, your experience may also cause confusion, since LibreCAD from beginning didn't try to simulate another cad or following their development.

We have been following our user feedbacks, within the constraints of limited development resources available to our small team of developers.

John Murphy wrote

Thankyou for that information I tried it and it works.

That is one problem solved but there are still some issues that I cannot find an answer to and the user guide does not provide the answers so I will just keep trying.

John Murphy wrote

In some of the tutorials I have followed...

Welcome to LibreCad.

I can relate to the confusion using LibreCad when you have experience with other packages. You only get one chance to record first impressions so it would be useful if you could make a few notes as you go and make them available. By the time you have been through the wiki tutorials you should be fairly competent and understand how it works.

The community have put a lot of effort put into the tutorials on the wiki to make sure they work. If you find any problems we'd appreciate your feedback on the specific tutorial and part so it can be fixed saving future users from the same problem.

I admit that LibreCad is confusing at first. I have taken the approach to try and forget how other CAD programs had worked and spend more time reading through the user manual to work out how to do things.

I have even installed a 2nd computer monitor so I can read instructions and practice them at the same time.

I am going to try and produce a drawing based on a hand drawing I did for a small wooden tray I recently made.

I figure this will be the best way to learn the basic processes to produce a simple drawing and the more I use it the more I will Learn.

Whatever works best for you. I often learn something new by just starting a project referring to the manual. While this usually works, and I found I could draw with LibreCad, I didn't really understand how it worked until I did a few tutorials from the wiki.

You'd likely produce your drawing quicker if you took time out to do few tutorials first. If they seem too easy to be engaging then try doing the steps without following the detailed instructions at each step until you need them.

Well I have been spending hours each day going through tutorials and reading all the documentation I could find. Last night I created a drawing and added dimensions and then printed it out. Had a few problems along the way which I was able to resolve.
 
I had an issue with dimensions not showing on the drawing only boxes, but I checked to make sure draft mode was off, which it was. Doing a print view showed the dimensions and they printed out. Eventually I got the dimensions to show on the screen, It seems that if Zoom Panning is used and left active the dimensions won't show.

For some reason the printing mode defaults to portrait mode even though I set it to Landscape and had the program to change printer defaults. I set the printer default to be landscape but it still printed out in portrait mode unless I changed from the print options for each printout I did.

Today I decided to add to my drawing that I had done by including a side elevation of the object. All went well until I tried to bevel a corner of a rectangle. Nothing would work even after following the instructions from the user manual. Ater a couple of hours I finally got a bevel, sort off. I had to separate the rectangle into individual lines. The bevel function still did not work but drawing a line between two points did.

I completed my side elevation drawing which I had placed on a separate layer so I could print it out separately to keep the drawing a large as possible.

When attempting to print out the side elevation I encountered another problem which I had not found a solution for.  When I used Print Preview to check that everything as positioned properly, I went to make a change to the drawing before printing and when I exited print preview the drawing had vanished. It seems my drawing had closed and had been replaced with the default blank page.

I had auto save on so it was not too much of a problem. I tested this out a few times and every time my drawing was replaced by the default blank page. Even after I printed the drawing I loose my drawing when I exit print preview.

I have been willing to accept some of the oddities of Librecad, but loosing my drawing and having to reload the last autosaved version each time well, I am afraid that this is a deal breaker for me, as it is quicker for me to do manual drawings instead.

If Librecad had been useful for me I was intending to purchase an A3 laser printer, but I think investing in a new draughting table may be the better option.

Thanks to those who helped me to learn Librecad.

Just don't use zoom panning. You can pan simply by grabbing and shifting the drawing with the middle mouse button/wheel and zoom at the same time by turning the mouse wheel.

There is indeed a bug with landscape mode not kept with imperial paper formats and inches. This is fixed in newer LibreCAD development versions.

A rectangle drawn with the 'rectangle' command indeed is fixed as a rectangle and thus cannot be bevelled. It has to be exploded, as you did.
Bevel still not working: in Tool Options set to 0?

Your drawing is not lost when you exit Print Preview. It is still opened hidden in the background but LibreCAD switches to the default empty drawing, a bug resolved in newer versions. Go to Drawings - Tab mode instead of of Window mode, all open drawings and print previews are indicated then.

If you are more comfortable with hand drawing, why not? It is always quicker, but CAD has a great advantage when modifying.

dellus wrote

Just don't use zoom panning. You can pan simply by grabbing and shifting the drawing with the middle mouse button/wheel and zoom at the same time by turning the mouse wheel.

Yes, I tried that it works.

There is indeed a bug with landscape mode not kept with imperial paper formats and inches. This is fixed in newer LibreCAD development versions.

I am using Ver 2.2.0.2

A rectangle drawn with the 'rectangle' command indeed is fixed as a rectangle and thus cannot be beveled. It has to be exploded, as you did.
Bevel still not working: in Tool Options set to 0?

I tried the example from the user manual on a rectangle I drew and the bevel worked. I then tried the bevel on known rectangles on my drawing and it worked on those rectangles as well. It also worked on separate lines as well, but sometimes it took two or three attempts before it worked.

Your drawing is not lost when you exit Print Preview. It is still opened hidden in the background but LibreCAD switches to the default empty drawing, a bug resolved in newer versions. Go to Drawings - Tab mode instead of of Window mode, all open drawings and print previews are indicated then.

Tried Tab Mode and it works as you said. However sometimes the drawing tab is greyed out and does not always activate when selected. Deleting the default tab allows the window to display.

If you are more comfortable with hand drawing, why not? It is always quicker, but CAD has a great advantage when modifying.

Most of my drawings will be for articles made from wood, so even after the drawing is completed there will be need to modify the drawing sometimes.

I drew a rectangle 100 x 125mm that I beveled and dimensioned. I printed it out at a scale of 1:1 but it did not come out at the correct scale.  This is very important for me as I will often need to use the drawing as a template.

When I clicked on the 'Drawings' in the top menu bar the program closed down and no error message was given. This is the second time this has happened.

Librecad does not operate like other cad software I have used which is understandable, but the inconsistencies with the commands not always working means it becomes stressful to do basic drawings let alone complicated ones so I think I will stick to manual draughting.

'I printed it out at a scale of 1:1 but it did not come out at the correct scale.'

You also have to ensure that in the printer's driver software 100% print scale is set and not 'fit to page', which means within the printable area.