2D CAD Drawpad

Drawing an accurate part when you only do this once in a while

Most people who open a DXF editor are not draughtsmen. They need one bracket, one nameplate, one hole pattern — and it has to be exactly right, because a cutting machine will follow whatever is in the file, mistake and all. The trick is not to learn CAD but to let the numbers do the work: point roughly with the mouse, then type the measurement. Everything below is built around that one idea.

Type the size instead of trying to hit it with the mouse

The mouse decides the direction, the keyboard decides the size. Start a line, point roughly where it should go, type 40 and press Enter: exactly 40 mm in that direction. 40<30 is 40 mm at 30 degrees. 40;15 is 40 across and 15 up. The separator is a semicolon because the comma is a decimal separator here — 20,5 stays twenty and a half. The same keys work with every drawing tool: for a rectangle that second pair is the opposite corner, so 40;15 gives a rectangle of exactly 40 by 15, and for a circle a single number is the radius.

Or work entirely from the coordinate panel

Every tool also has plain number fields. After Add shape the end point becomes the new start point, so each next segment costs two numbers instead of four. The Δ button reads the second point as an offset from the first — and then 15 up, rather than an absolute position — and it stays put after placing, so pressing the button again repeats the same step: a staircase, a row of holes, a bolt pattern. Several segments in a row become one single polyline, exactly as when you click on the canvas; Finish ends it and Close joins the last point back to the first.

Trim: cut a shape back to where it meets another

Drawing past an intersection and cutting back is faster and more accurate than trying to stop a line on exactly the right spot. Draw both shapes so they cross, pick Trim, and click the piece you do not want. It works on lines, circles, rectangles and curves. Hovering shows in red what will disappear before you commit to it, so a misclick costs nothing, and Ctrl+Z takes any step back.

Before you send it to a laser, router or waterjet

Three things a cutting shop looks at first. Units: the mm/inch button only changes how numbers are shown and typed, it never rescales what you have drawn, so a drawing made in millimetres stays millimetres. Closed outlines: a contour that is meant to be cut out should end where it began, which is exactly what the Close button does. No duplicates: a line drawn twice gets cut twice. DXF is the safest thing to send, because every machine reads it. If you need rounded corners, snapping onto existing points, layers per cutting operation or a check for gaps and duplicates, that is what the CAD Studio next door adds to the very same drawing, also free.

What this is — and its honest limits

This is a small, coordinate-bound drawing tool, not a full CAD program — built for the odd job (a bracket outline, a simple part, a quick sketch to send to a laser or CNC), not for complex assemblies. Every shape can be placed by clicking on the canvas or by typing its exact coordinates in the panel, and existing shapes can be reshaped by dragging their handles. Trim works on lines and circles only: click a piece near where it crosses another line or circle and that piece is cut away — curves, rectangles and text aren't trimmable in this version. The mm/inch toggle only changes how numbers are displayed and typed — the underlying drawing never gets rescaled by switching it. Imported files (SVG/EPS/AI/DWG) are added at their own native coordinate values; if the size looks off after import, use the separate Shrinkage Scaler tool afterward to rescale the whole thing by an exact percentage.