Re: software to do drawings of houses, gardens, etc.

[Joe <joe@jretrading.com>]

On Thu, 23 Nov 2017 21:26:12 +0100
Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> wrote:

> Cousin Stanley wrote:
> 
> > You might find useful information at the
> > LibreCAD site [...]  
> 
> OK, thanks Cousin Stanley and Farmer Joe, so
> the short answers to my question "how do I draw
> an approximate rectangle and then set the
> properties to the measured values" is
> 1. don't do it, 

By preference. While you are placing the second corner of the
rectangle, the X and Y size will be shown in the status bar. That is by
far the easiest way to get a rectangle of the size you want. But you can
select a finished rectangle by dragging around it, open Tools, Modify,
Scale and you will be asked to mark a reference point, then enter X and
Y scaling values. It's up to you to know the current size, and the
scaling factors you need.

What you won't be given is a dialog box with X and Y size and
coordinates, and invited to edit them, it doesn't work that way. That's
how an object-oriented drawing program would work. In LibreCAD,
'Properties' and 'Attributes' are just types and colours of lines, and
the layer on which the line sits. These things can be edited. 

You can drag individual rectangle corners after creating it, but you
don't get a reading of overall size, you have to keep track of how much
to enlarge or shrink it. On the other hand, if you're fitting a
rectangle around other existing objects, and you don't know the size in
advance, this is the way to do it.

The Tools, Modify menu contains a large range of transformations, from
duplicating to scaling to moving to another layer to trimming two
intersecting lines so they just meet, and others. You can dock this
menu as a toolbar with icons if you wish. With CAD, there's always a
tradeoff between displaying toolbars and having enough area to work in.

-- 
Joe