Draw your first part (Bracket Plate)

What it does

This tutorial walks you through drawing a bracket plate that is 240 x 140 mm, with a Ø50 centre hole and four Ø12 mounting holes in the corners. You add dimensions and save the file. It takes about 5 minutes.

Step 1: Turn on grid snap and draw the rectangle

1. Type SNAP 10 and press Enter. This turns on grid snap at 10 mm, so your clicks land exactly on grid points.
2. Type REC and press Enter (or use the Ribbon Draw › Draw › Rectangle).
3. Click the first corner at point 0,0.
4. Move the mouse to the upper right. The Smart Input box next to the cursor shows W and H.
5. Type 240, press Tab, type 140, then press Enter.

Step 2: Draw the holes

1. Type C and press Enter. Click the centre point at 120,70.
2. Type the radius 25 and press Enter.
3. Repeat for the 4 mounting holes at 20,20 / 220,20 / 20,120 / 220,120 with radius 6.
4. Type SNAP OFF to turn off grid snap. Object Snap keeps working as usual.

Step 3: Add dimensions with Smart Dimension

1. Type DIM and press Enter (or use the Ribbon Draw › Annotation › Smart Dim).
2. Click the bottom edge, then click an empty area below the part. A 240 dimension is attached to the mouse. Click again to place it.
3. Click the right edge, click an empty area, then click to place it. This gives 140.
4. Click the circumference of the centre hole. This gives Ø50. Move it into position and click.
5. Press Esc to end the command.

Step 4: Save

1. Press Ctrl+S. The new drawing has no name yet, so the Save As dialog opens.
2. Choose the type AutoCAD Drawing (*.dwg) or DXF (*.dxf), enter a name and click Save.
3. The tab at the top changes to the file name, and the Status bar shows Saved ....

Note: FILLET works on LINE objects (and a LINE with an ARC or CIRCLE) only, not on an outline drawn with REC or PLINE. For R12 rounded corners, draw the rectangle as four LINEs, then FILLET. See FILLET and CHAMFER.

Try it: Your second drawing, a house-number plaque

You have drawn the plate. Now make something for your front gate: a 300 x 150 mm house-number plaque with screw holes, ready to laser-cut from a DXF file.

Don't have the program yet? Download the installer from license.mechdesigned.com/download/MCAD or get it from the Microsoft Store.

1. REC 0,0, then 300 Tab 150 Enter.
2. Screw holes: C 20,75 radius 4 and C 280,75 radius 4.
3. Type TEXT, set the height to 90, click in the middle of the plaque and type your number, for example 27.
4. Press Ctrl+S, choose DXF (*.dxf) and name it house-number. It is ready for the laser shop.

Challenge: Redraw the plaque outline as four LINEs (FILLET does not work on a REC outline), then round all four corners with FILLET radius 15. See FILLET and CHAMFER.

See also

• Command Line, Aliases and Smart Input
• Smart Dimension (DIM)
• NEW, SAVE and SAVEAS