How it works

FormaCAD opens straight into a drawing area. You draw with the tools on the left, manage layers and properties on the right, and type exact values whenever you need them.

The screen

• Left: the tools panel. The tabs in the menu bar — Select, Draw, Draft, Modify, Components and View — choose what it shows.
• Centre: your drawing.
• Below the drawing: live coordinates, a prompt that always tells you what the active tool needs next, and a command line.
• Right: layers, and the properties of whatever you have selected.
• Top: menus, and Find action, which searches every command by name.

Draw

Line, polyline, rectangle, circle, arc, ellipse, polygon and point. Circles, arcs and ellipses each offer several ways to construct them (for example, by center and radius, by three points, or by two points). Text and dimensions are available too: aligned, linear, angular, radius and diameter.

Modify

Move, copy, rotate, scale, mirror, offset, trim, extend, fillet, chamfer, stretch, align, break, join and array (rectangular or polar). You can also match the properties of one object onto others, change the draw order, and group objects from the right-click menu.

Draw precisely

• Snaps: endpoint, midpoint, center, intersection, perpendicular, nearest and more, with tracking guides that extend from points and lines.
• Grid, ortho and polar: constrain your lines to horizontal, vertical or set angles.
• Type instead of clicking: just start typing a number, such as a length or a coordinate, and press Space or Enter.
• Units and scale: work in millimetres, centimetres, metres, inches or feet, with a drawing scale of your choice.
• Distance and divide: check distances and angles between two points, and divide a curve into equal parts or by a set length.

Organize

Put things on layers, and give each layer its own color, line type and line weight. Any object can also override its layer. Line weights can be shown at real thickness or as a constant thin line for clarity.

Save, import and export

• Start a project: a new drawing first asks for the project's name, type, units and template; the rest of its information (site, team, codes, sheets, costs) lives in File → Project Settings.
• Save your drawing as a .dft file on your own device, and open it again later.
• Import DXF files, PDFs and images (used as a background you can trace over).
• Export to PDF, DXF or SVG.

Commands and shortcuts

Most tools have a short command. Type it, then press Space or Enter (for example L for line, M for move, AR for array). Press Esc to cancel, Enter to finish, and Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on Mac) to undo. Ctrl+K (⌘K) opens Find action. See Help → Keyboard shortcuts & help for the full list.

Your files stay yours

Drawings are created and saved on your device. FormaCAD does not upload or store your drawing files. If you clear your browser data, saved files on your computer are not affected, but a drawing you never saved is gone, so save often.