Ilumax CAD guide

Use the command line

• Type a command or its alias anywhere, for example CIRCLE or C, and press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) or Space. As you type, CAD suggests matching commands.
• Each command asks questions, such as Specify next point or [Close/Undo]:. Options in square brackets can be clicked, or typed by their capital letters (C for Close).
• Esc cancels the command. Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) or Space on its own repeats the last command.
• ↑Up arrow and ↓Down arrow step back through what you typed. F2 opens the full Command History.
• During a command, a quick right-click is the same as Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows). Hold the right button a moment for a menu with the command’s options.

Enter exact points and distances

• 0,0: an exact point, given as X and Y.
• @100,0: 100 across and 0 up from the last point.
• @100<45: 100 long at 45 degrees from the last point.
• Point the pointer in a direction and type a length, such as 100: the next point is that far that way. Turn on Ortho Mode (F8) or Polar Tracking (F10) to keep to straight or set angles.

With Dynamic Input on, as it is to begin with, a second point typed without @ is still taken from the last point. Type # first, as in #100,0, for a point measured from 0,0.

Snap to exact points on objects

Object Snap (F3) pulls the pointer to points on what you have drawn and shows a marker. Endpoint, Center, Intersection and Extension are on to begin with. Choose others, such as Midpoint, Perpendicular, Tangent or Nearest, in Tools ▸ Drafting Settings... under Object Snap.

For one point only, hold Shift and right-click to pick a snap from the menu, or type its short name, such as MID or INT, when CAD asks for a point. Tab steps through the snap points under the pointer.

Draw

The Draw menu and the Tool Sets have every drawing tool. Typed, with their aliases:

• LINE L, PLINE PL (lines and arcs as one object), RECTANG REC, POLYGON POL
• CIRCLE C, ARC A, ELLIPSE EL, SPLINE SPL
• XLINE XL (construction line), POINT PO, DIVIDE DIV, MEASURE ME
• HATCH H, TABLE TB, MLINE ML, REVCLOUD, WIPEOUT

Change what you have drawn

The Modify menu has the editing tools. Typed, with their aliases:

• MOVE M, COPY CO, ROTATE RO, SCALE SC, MIRROR MI, STRETCH S
• OFFSET O, TRIM TR, EXTEND EX, FILLET F, CHAMFER CHA
• ERASE E, EXPLODE X, BREAK BR, JOIN J, ARRAY AR, LENGTHEN LEN
• MATCHPROP MA copies one object’s layer, colour and other properties to others; PROPERTIES PR opens the Properties palette.

You can select objects first and then type the command, or type the command and then select.

Select objects

• Click an object to add it to the selection; Shift-click it to take it out again.
• Drag from left to right to select what lies wholly inside the window; drag from right to left to select everything it touches.
• Esc clears the selection. ⌘CommandA (Mac) or CtrlControlA (Windows) selects everything; Edit ▸ Quick Select... selects by type or property.
• Selected objects show grips. Click a grip to stretch from it; press Space to switch to moving, rotating, scaling or mirroring about it.
• With objects selected, right-click for Erase, Move, Copy Selection, Scale, Rotate and more, or press Delete to erase them.

Zoom and pan

Turn the mouse wheel to zoom about the pointer, and drag with the wheel held down to pan. Double-click the wheel to zoom to everything. On a Mac trackpad, pinch to zoom and scroll with two fingers to pan.

ZOOM Z has Extents, Window, Previous and more; PAN P pans with the mouse. The View menu has the same.

Organise the drawing with layers

Format ▸ Layers, or LA, opens the Layer Properties Manager. New Layer adds one; set its Color, Linetype and Lineweight, and switch it On, Freeze, Lock or Plot. Set Current makes it the layer new objects go on.

To move objects to another layer, select them and choose the layer under Layer in the Properties palette. Format ▸ Layer Tools has quick ways to isolate, freeze, lock or merge layers.

Add dimensions and text

The Dimension menu has Linear DLI, Aligned DAL, Radius DRA, Diameter DDI, Angular DAN, Continue DCO, Baseline DBA, Quick Dimension and Multileader MLD.

Single Line Text (DT) places short lines of text; Multiline Text (T) asks for a box and opens an editor with fonts, bold, alignment and lists. Finish it with ⌘CommandReturn (Mac) or CtrlControlEnter (Windows), or cancel with Esc. Double-click any text to edit it. Format ▸ Text Style... sets up text styles.

Fill an area with a hatch

Draw ▸ Hatch... opens Hatch and Gradient. Choose a Pattern, its Angle and Scale, then Add: Pick points and click inside a closed area, or Add: Select objects. Double-click a hatch later to change it.

Make and insert blocks

A block is a group of objects you can place again and again. Type B (Draw ▸ Block ▸ Make...), give the block a name, pick its base point, then select the objects it is made of. Insert it with I (Insert ▸ Block...), or pick it from Window ▸ Blocks. BEDIT opens the Block Editor to change it everywhere.

Measure

DIST DI measures between two points, AREA AA measures an area by its corners or an object, LIST LI describes the selected objects and ID gives a point’s coordinates. They are in Tools ▸ Inquiry and on the Tool Bar.

Lay out sheets with viewports

Draw at full size on the Model tab, then arrange sheets on the layout tabs. + beside the tabs makes a new layout with one viewport over the page. A new drawing’s Layout1 and Layout2 start empty: add a viewport with View ▸ Viewports ▸ 1 Viewport, or MVIEW MV.

Double-click inside a viewport to work on the model through it, and double-click outside it to go back to the sheet. The MODEL or PAPER button in the status bar does the same, and the status bar sets the viewport’s scale.

Print or make a PDF

File ▸ Print... (⌘CommandP on a Mac, CtrlControlP on Windows) opens the Plot dialog: the Layout, the Printer/plotter (Ilumax CAD PDF, Ilumax CAD PNG or Ilumax CAD SVG), Paper size, Orientation, Plot area, Fit to paper or a Scale such as 1:50, and the Plot style table. Preview shows the page; OK asks where to save the file.

CAD plots to a PDF, PNG or SVG file rather than straight to a printer. To print on paper, open the PDF and print it from there.

File ▸ Page Setup Manager... keeps these settings with each layout, Plot Preview shows a page, and Batch Publish... writes one PDF for each sheet. File ▸ Plot Styles... manages the plot style tables, such as monochrome.ctb for black-and-white output.

Automatic saves and recovery

Every 10 minutes CAD keeps a recovery copy of each open drawing (.sv$). Change how often, or turn it off with 0, in Tools ▸ Options... ▸ Open and Save ▸ Automatic save every.

If CAD closes unexpectedly, the next start shows Drawing Recovery with the copies it kept: Open, Discard or Later. A recovered drawing has no file name yet, so save it with Save As. Closing a drawing with unsaved changes always asks whether to save it.