The tutorial explains the creation of Compass symbol step by step. The tutorial covers the wide area of features and techniques that are accessible under ShortCAD.

The approx time for tutorial: ~10-15 minutes.

Resulting compass drawing is available for download here: Compass.ShortDWG

[Creating Empty Drawing]

Run ShortCAD and create empty drawing by selecting File->New menu item.

[Resizing Drawing]

Resize drawing which is A4 size by default to 100x100 units in order to match square form of compass object. Open Command Palette and press Drawing Settings button. Drawing Settings Dialog appears.

Change Upper Right Corner coordinates to [100, 100] as shown and apply changes by pressing OK in the caption of the window. Now the drawing area takes 100x100 units and suitable to start drawing compass object.

[Creating Lines]

Open Command Palette and press Line button.

The creation of line object starts. Create a triangle by coordinates [50,50], [40,60], [5,50] as shown below.

This triangle is a basic figure, which rotated and mirrored properly, will form a compass hull. Let’s do that step by step.

[Mirroring objects]

Mirror two upper lines over bottom line to create symmetric side arrow of compass. Open Command Palette and press Mirror button. Objects mirroring starts.
Select object to be mirrored, then define mirror line by two points as shown.

[Managing layers]

The lines that were created are to be used for reference when tracing the shape of compass by Trace objects, but before that we need to remove them to separate layer.

Open Command Palette and press Layers button. Layer Dialog appears.

Create new layer “aux” and change layer color to gray. After that submit all changes and return to drawing area.

[Matching properties]

Moving objects from one layer to another is done by Match Property command.

At this point we should have ‘aux’ layer created, gray and active (see green check icon in Layers Dialog).

Create a new line, any size at any position. This line will serve as a source of properties.

Open Command Palette and press Match Properties button.

The matching of object properties starts.

Select a line from ‘aux’ layer as source object and pick one by one lines of compass as target objects. Lines move to ‘aux’ layer and change color immediately. Press Stop or when done.

[Rotating objects]

At this point we have left side of compass. Now copy it three times by Rotate command.

Open Command Palette and press Rotate button. The rotation of objects starts.

Select objects of compass and press button to continue operation.

Rotation requires base point, define it on the next prompt of ShortCAD by tapping onto the drawing at coordinates [50,50]. Use Object Snap or Grid Snap to do it accurately.

After rotation base point ShortCAD prompts rotation angle which may be defined by tapping on the drawing or by entering numerically in degrees. Numerical input is more recommended for this case.

Rotating compass parts two more times will produce finished compass shape.

If lost lines, it is always easy to restore them manually, or Undo/Redo copy operation.

By this point basic shape of compass is finished and now it is easy to trace it with Trace primitives. Create a new layer ‘border’ for it, set any color for it and set this layer active.

Note:
Lines do not display width in ShortCAD windows. The width of objects appears only when drawing printed. ShortCAD allows overcoming this restriction by using traces instead of lines.

[Creating Traces]

Open Command Palette and press Trace button. The creation of trace objects starts.

ShortCAD prompts starting point, trace width and end point for each trace object. All these parameters allowed to be entered by tap of stylus or manually in special dialog.

Note:
As ShortCAD keeps the previous width parameter for Trace object, there is no need to input it for each trace separately. This makes tracing lines as easy as creating simple lines.

At this point we have basic Compass form traced and we are ready creating solid parts of the drawing. Create a new layer ‘solids’ for it.

[Creating Solids]

ShortCAD is capable to create solids of two types: 3-point solids and 4-point solids. Both types are very similar in creation. For compass object we need four 3-point solids.

Toggle Object snap on and all other snaps off.

Open Command Palette and press Solids button. The creation of solid objects starts.

Note:
It is possible to pan/zoom the viewport, toggle on/off different snaps, access layers and styles even in object creation mode.

The context toolbar has the most used commands that do not interrupt your current command.

[More Transformation Techniques]

At this point everything is ready to create small diagonal arrows of compass. One of the ways of doing it is duplicating existing bigger arrows and modifying them symmetrically.

Before start, please, hide all unnecessary details and make visible the hull of compass (layer ‘aux’).

Rotate by 45 degrees about compass center and move by [6,6] the left arrow, see reference below.

Rotating symmetrically lines of minor arrow by 10 degrees we achieve minor diagonal arrow.

The final view of compass hull will be like following:

At this point the compass minor arrows are ready to be traced (don’t forget to switch on/off snaps properly)

[Send to Back and Bring to Front]

The close view makes visible the overlay of solid objects and trace objects.

ShortCAD provides Send to Back and Bring to Front commands to resolve such problems.

[White background]

Displaying drawings in white background may decrease drawing contrast and cause poorly visible objects. Show Drawing Settings Dialog and switch to white background.

As you can see, yellow solids and blue traces are not enough contrast on white background. Inversed Color is a good solution to keep your drawings contrast at any settings.

[Creating Texts]

Original compass image has North-South-East-West text symbols. ShortCAD is capable to add any texts to drawings aligned by left, center and right.

Open Command Palette and press Text button. The creation of text objects starts. Text Creation Dialog box appears.

Define text parameters like text itself, style, height, justification and submit Text Creating Dialog box by pressing OK.

Depending on height, rotation values defined in the dialog, ShortCAD creates text objects by one, two or three points.

Create other text objects for letters “S”, “N”, “E” by repeating described steps.

[Changing text style]

The font of text on original image differs from ShortCAD standard font. Manipulating with ShortCAD text styles solves the issue. ShortCAD provides the extensive variety of standard fonts and capable to use extension fonts.

Open Command Palette and press Text Style button. The Text Style Dialog appears. Set ‘COMPLEX’ font for ‘STANDARD’ style and apply style changes.

Notice that the font changed for all texts with ‘STANDARD’ text style.

[Summarize]

Doing this tutorial you had the possibility to touch basic functions of ShortCAD using them in complex and logical sequence on practical example.

• Creating drawings,
• Resizing drawing,
• Creating lines,
• Mirroring objects,
• Managing layers,
• Matching properties,
• Moving objects,
• Rotating objects,
• Deleting objects,
• Creating traces,
• Creating solids,
• Changing object display order,
• Changing background color,
• Creating texts,
• Styling texts,
• Other minor actions.