3 DIMENSIONING AND TEXT

We have drawn our work and now we need to add dimensions and text. First of all,
lets look at dimensioning a drawing. It would also at this point select edit then current
drawing preferences and then dimension and make sure the text height is 2.5 and if it
is not, then change it to 2.5 and click ok.

Dimensions

To start we need to create a drawing. So lets start a new one.

1. Click file, then open, and select blankdrawing and bring it back out on the
workbench.
2. The first thing you are going to do is click file, then save as and type
dimension and text and then click save. We now have a new drawing called
dimensions and text on the work bench.
3. The first thing we need to do is draw a simple object to dimension so now is a
good test to see how much you remember from the drawing lesson. Pick and
spot on the workbench and draw a rectangle. It can be any size or shape you
want. Go ahead and do this now. If you have a problem, refer back to the
drawing section of the manual.
4. When you have finished go ahead and save your work by clicking file, save or
the save Icon on the top.
5. Now click dimension from the menu bar on top. You will get the pull down
menu as shown below.

Let's look at the menu a moment. Notice several options are available to us. The first
4 are for dimensioning lines, the next 2 allow us to dimension a circle by defining
either the radial (radius) or diametric (diameter) of a circle. The next one, angular,
will give us the angle in degrees of an object. The last one is leader which is used with
text in a drawing and we will use that later in drawing. So now lets continue

6. Select horizontal from the dimension menu.

7. Move the crosshairs over either the left top point or bottom left point of your
rectangle and click 1 time.
 8. Move the crosshairs horizontally to the right to the right edge of the rectangle
and click 1 time.
9. Without clicking the mouse move the line up or down a you will notice the
dimension appears. You can now place it where you want to and when you are
satisfied left click 1 time to set it and then right click 1 time to come out of
horizontal dimensioning.
10. Notice the Icon menu on the left side now. You can select a dimension option
from that menu also now. (as long as you only right click 1 time when you
finish a dimension the dimension Icon menu will be on the left).
11. Select vertical from the Icon menu and select the upper left point of the
rectangle and click 1 time.
12. Move down and select the bottom left point of the rectangle and click 1 time.
13. Without clicking move your mouse to the right and the vertical dimension
appears. Move it where your want it and left click 1 time and right click 1 time
and now you have dimensioned the rectangle.

If you don’t like where you put the dimension, or you need to make room, you can
move the dimension as follows:
14. Put your cursor on the dimension line and click 1 time.
15. Notice the line turns to a red dotted line to show its selected. Notice also a
blue point by one of the dimension arrows.
16. Touch your cursor to the blue point and hold down your left mouse button.
Keeping the button held down move your mouse and you will see the
dimension move with the cursor. Move the dimension where you want it and
left click 1 time to set the new position. If you are satisfied then right click 2
times to come out of the command otherwise grab the blue point again and
move it where you want it. Then left click 1 time and right click 2 times.
17. Click on the line 1 time to deselect it. You will notice the line change from red
back to white.

Now lets draw a circle. Put the circle in any available open space. Again, if you have
problems, refer back to drawing a circle we covered earlier. This is good practice for
you too. As we go further into the manual, you will become more familiar with
drawing that it will become like second nature to you.
To Dimension the Circle:
1. Select Dimension and click Radial on the pull down menu
2. Touch the edge of the circle with your cursor and click 1 time
3. Without clicking your mouse, move it away from the circle. Notice the
dimension appears. Now move the around the circle and you will see the
dimension moves around the circle. Pick a spot you want your dimension and
left click 1 time and right click 1 time to come out of the command.
4. If you are not happy with where the dimension is, then you can move it again
by clicking on the dimension and notice it turns red to show its selected.
5. Touch the cursor to the blue point on the edge of the circle and hold the left
button down. Notice when you move the mouse you can move the dimension.
When you have it where you want it release the left button and click the left
button 1 time. If you are happy with the position right click 1 time to come out
of the command and left click 1 time with your cursor on the dimension to
deselect it and the dimension will change to its normal white color.
6. Take the opportunity to save your work now.
Dimensioning the diameter of the circle is done the same way as the radius. I want
you to do that now by yourselves. Again, this is good practice and kind of self-test to
check how you are doing. You can use the dimensioning a circle as kind of guide if
you get stuck (just remember that when it says radius, to substitute the word
diameter). Go ahead and try it now.
One other point I want to make here on dimensions. You can change the color of your
dimension if needed. You do this by clicking modify on the menu bar on top and then
clicking properties. Put the crosshairs over the dimension and click. A box will pop up
and it has a pull down menu under color that will do that for you. Just click on a color
and then ok and you will see the new color on your dimension. To change a
dimension height, then click on edit on the menu bar and choose to draw preferences.
Click the dimension tab and change the height area by typing in a new value. Then
you click ok and the dimension size will change.

Drawing a leader line

Notice that I said draw. This is not on the drawing menu itself, but is found on the
dimension menu. A leader is usually used together text as part of dimensioning a
drawing. It is adding a note to the drawing. Note the example below.

This is a way of adding a note to a drawing as a way of communicating information

about the particular entity. A tradesman would look at this note and know that there
are 4 holes and they are all 10 mm. radius even if the other 3 holes were not
dimensioned. Since we are using dimensioning and text this time it will provide a
good lead in to our discussion of text in this chapter.
Let's try drawing a leader. Use the circle you created in the last exercise:
1. Click dimension from the menu bar at the top. The leader is the last option on
the pull down menu so click it.
2. Move the cursor down to the circle and click on the top right edge of the
circle.
3. Without clicking move your cursor diagonally away from the circle about 20
mm and left click 1 time.
 4. Move your cursor horizontally to the right about 10mm then left click 1 time.
This sets the position. Right click one time to come out of the command.
Notice an arrow is now on the leader on the end that touches the edge of the
circle.
5. Now save your drawing by clicking file save or the save Icon above.

This completes the drawing of the leader. All that is left now is to add text.

Adding Text to a Drawing

Now we will add text to the drawing. This adds notes and other important information
to our drawing. Notice on the left Icon Menu there is a large A Icon. This is the text
Icon. Click on this Icon now and a text box will open like the one below.

Let's take a look at this box. Notice there are many options you have. Starting on the
top left you can choose the Font. Click the arrow and you can see on the pull down
menu you have several fonts. We will play with these options a little later but for now,
choose the standard font.
The next option is text height which is how big the text will be. We don’t want it too
big or too small so 4 would be a good height to type in that box. So go ahead and do
that.
Next down is spacing and the default spacing is good so leave that as is.
Move over to thee right side now and click inside the text box. You are going to type
4 places and then click ok on the bottom. The box will close and you notice you have
the yellow reference lines and the words 4 Places by the crosshairs. Use your mouse
to move the text up by the right end of the leader and left click 1 time and right click 1
time to set the text. You can move the text by clicking the text to select it (at this point
you might want to turn off grid snap by clicking the snap on grid Icon on the lower
top Icon menu). You will notice when you clicked on the text, it turned red to show it
is selected and there is a blue point by the text. Put your cursor on this blue point and
hold down the left mouse button and move the text where you want it and click the
left button 1 time and right click 1 time. Your text is now where you want it.
Save your work again at this time.
Now lets look at the text box again. Look at the font area and click font and look at
the choices. Usually for drawings you will use either the standard font or the iso font
but there are many more choices. Notice below that the height option as well. Within
the height box you can type in any size you want. The lower the number the smaller
the text and the larger the number the larger the text. I am going to leave it to you now
to type a word or two into the text box, select a font, type in a height click ok and
insert the text into the drawing where ever you have some space. Try it several times
with different fonts and sizes for practice. Get a good feel for this so you will become
very familiar with it.
When you are done, save your file and close it to put it away.
4 LAYERS

Now we are going to touch on Layers. These are especially important in certain
drawings. I want to point out one example now and I am going to get kind of technical
here so please bear with me. Engineers will understand what I am saying but this may
be more challenging to understand for others so I am going to try to make it as simple
as I can.
Layers are especially important in Assembly drawings. An Assembly drawing is a
drawing showing 2 or more parts as an assembly on a drawing. Each part is drawn on
its own layer and when all the layers are shown on the drawing you have the complete
assembly in view. In the Automotive industry, an Assembly drawing may show a
complete car with 50 or more layers each layer showing a different part. Not only do
they show the parts, but also how they fit together in an assembly. By studying this
you can find any mismatches that may occur in assembling the vehicle. Having been
in the Automotive industry myself, I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at
these drawings and found gaps between parts which wouldn’t allow the parts to be
welded together or parts too long that would interfere with other parts. By seeing
these mistakes before the car goes into production, it can be corrected quickly. If not
found before production, then this causes car recalls that you see now and then or
halts and delays in production of the car.
So now we are going to work with Layers. But before we do so, lets take a look at the
Layer box area. This is located on the right side of the work bench. The Illustration
below shows the Layer box.

Looking at the Layer box we note some Icons. The eyeball turns on and off the
Layer’s visibility. The plus sign when we click it will produce a new Layer and we
will look at that in a minute. The minus sign will delete a layer and here you must be
careful because it is very possible to accidentally delete the wrong layer so be careful.
The last Icon on the right is the modify Icon and allows us to modify the attributes of
the Layer or rename it.
Below the Icons we have the Layer list. Here all the Layers in the drawing will be
shown and if they are visible or invisible and if they will print. For instance, a help
layer will be shown but will not print which makes it ideal for putting reference lines
and points for your own use in working on the drawing. We will create a help layer
now. First of all, click file and then open and bring your [Link] out onto
the workbench then go ahead and click on the plus Icon in the layer box now.
Notice a Layer settings box pops up like the one above. Click in the layer name box
and delete noname and type reference. Next check the box Help Layer. In the default
pen area click color and then choose red. What this does is make the default drawing
color red so that all lines and text drawn on this layer will be red. Leave the rest as is
and click ok. Notice on your layer list you have a reference Layer now. Go ahead and
save the drawing by clicking file and then save. What we have done is saved this layer
as part of our [Link] so that when we use this blank drawing the reference
layer will always be loaded with the drawing.
Now we are going to add some reference text to this layer.
1. Click either draw, text or the text Icon on the left Icon panel.
2. The text box will open. In the text box type X. Make sure it is a capital X. In
the height box type 5 and then ok at the bottom.
3. Drag the X down below the Big Red Crosshairs and move it to the left about
50mm.
4. Left click 1 time and right click 2 times. The X is set in position.
5. Repeat step 1. In the text box type Y. Click ok.
6. Drag the Y to the left of the Big Red Crosshairs and up 50mm from the
Crosshairs.
7. Left click 1 time and right click 2 times and the Y is set in position.

We are now going to use the leader drawing command to draw a couple of arrows.
This will further help us to define direction. We want everything to look as in the
picture below.
To get the arrows:
1. Click draw on the menu bar and then leader.
2. In order to place the arrow properly, we need to left click 1 time at the 30mm
and move back to 0 and left click 1 time to set and right click 1 time to make
the arrow appear. Do this with both X and Y coordinates.
3. You can now add numbers if you wish like I did use the text box like we did
before. This will complete our reference layer for now.
4. Click save or the save Icon to save the layer as is.

This reference layer will especially help us when we use the command line to draw
lines. It will also remind us of the X and Y axis and which is which.
5 USING THE COMMAND LINE

There is another way of drawing in LibreCAD and that is with the command line. By
using the command line we can place entities specifically and accurately in a location
in a drawing. We can draw lines, rectangles, circles and more. The command line
appears on the bottom of your screen in LibreCAD and looks like the picture below.

Notice there is a box next to the word command. This is where we will type our
information. To activate the box we only need to click inside the command box and
you will see that it turns blue to show its activated and awaiting you command.
Before we use this box however we need to do 2 things. First, is you notice the layer
list, there are 2 layers now. You notice that one will have a grey stripe though it. The
grey stripe indicates the active layer (like in active for drawing). We need to make
sure that layer 0 has the grey stripe. If it does not, click on it now to activate it for
drawing. Also while you are in layer 0 click the edit icon and make sure the layer 0 is
not checked as a help layer. If it is uncheck it and check ok. If you don’t do this, all
the lines you draw will be infinity which means they have an indefinite length.
The second thing we need to do is click file and then save as from the pull down
menu. We will save this drawing as L-Block. Click save and we will be good to go
with our first drawing. We are going to draw the L-Block using the command line.
The L-Block is an actual Automotive fixture part used in the fixtures that surround a
car as it is being built. It is used as a stop block in the fixture to hold a part in correct
position for welding.
To use the command line we need to know some things first. You notice in the
drawing there is an X axis which is horizontal direction and a Y axis which is vertical
direction. When you use the command line you are entering points on the drawing.
The grid is a guide for you and the red crosshairs represent 0 on the drawing….that is
0,0 or X=0,Y=0 so when you enter points it will always be X, Y with the X always
the first dimension. You will understand this better when we actually run through the
exercise. So now lets give it a try: if you make a mistake click edit, undo from the
menu bar.
1. Left click one time in the command line box. The word command should turn
blue to show its active.
2. We have to tell it what we are drawing so type line and press the enter key on
the keypad.
3. It should be asking us now to enter the first point so type 0,0 and enter on the
keyboard.
4. Now it is asking us to enter the second point so type 70,0 and enter on the
keyboard. You should see a horizontal line appear 70mm long. This is the base
of the L-Block.
5. We need to enter the next point so type 70,50 and enter on the keyboard. You
will notice it drew a vertical line to a point at X=70 and Y=50. That is a 50mm
line.
 6. Now type 50,50 and press enter. We have another horizontal line this time
20mm long.
7. Now type 50,20 and press enter. This draws another vertical line for us 30mm
8. Now type 0,20 and press enter.
9. Now type 0,0 to bring us back to our start point to complete our drawing of the
L-Block. You can also type close to do this as well.
10. Right click 2 times to come out of the command.

As you can see, we can be very accurate drawing this way. If you wanted to draw a
circle you simply would type circle and follow the command prompts. Same with
rectangle. Go ahead and experiment with those now. You might try drawing a 5.5
radius hole with the center point at the 100,70 for instance. That is a 11mm hole
which would be hard to draw any other way.
Take the opportunity now to save your drawing using file, save or clicking the save
Icon.
6 PAN AND ZOOM

Pan and zoom are very useful tools in LibreCAD. The zoom tool is invaluable when
you need to move up close to an entity to work on it. This is especially true when the
area is very small, or several lines drawn close together. As you will see in a moment,
there are several ways to use zoom.
Pan allows you to move the drawing up, down, right, or left. This is especially useful
if your drawing is large. Pan and zoom are accomplished using the Icons below.

Starting from the left, is the zoom in icon. Click on this and you gradually zoom in on
the drawing. The next Icon is the zoom out icon. Click on this and you gradually out
on the drawing. The next Icon is autozoom which zooms you in faster. The next Icon
is the previous view Icon which when clicked returns you to the last view. The next
Icon is window zoom which allows you to put a window around a certain area and
zooms you right into the area. It is the fastest way to zoom in. I particularly love using
this because I can get close up in a small area very fast, do my work, and click the
previous view icon to bring me back out of zoom quickly. The last Icon on the right is
Pan. Click this icon and place your cursor in the work area and hold down the left
mouse button. You can move the drawing all over the work area and view the drawing
area outside the work area as well.
You should still have your L-Block drawing out on your work bench so take some
time now and experiment with Pan and Zoom.
To use the zoom window:
1. Click the zoom window icon
2. Move your cursor down into the work area. Notice you have the orange
reference lines and the cursor turns to a magnifying glass. Move the cursor by
the area you want to zoom and hold down the left mouse button DO NOT
RELEASE THE BUTTON YET but move the mouse to create a window
around the area you want to zoom. When you have done that release the left
mouse button and you will zoom right into the area. The smaller the zoom
window you create, the closer you will zoom into the area.
3. When you are done, click the previous view icon to zoom back out.