How to use the drawing tools

Activating a tool

Where to find:

Keyboard shortcuts  (preferred method)

Tool Box (If no shortcut available)

OPTION + click existing element (if you know what you’re doing, as you might otherwise propagate existing problems throughout your project)

Archicad will remember settings from the last time you activated and used a tool, or in the case of picking up parameters of existing elements and activating a tool (OPTION + click) it will use the settings of the element you clicked on. Therefore before using it you will have to make sure these settings are as required.

Drawing & Pet Palette

Where to find:

Pops up next to cursor after the first click.

The pet palette contains options relative to the activated tool.

You can cycle through the available options with the “F” key.

The content of the pet palette is contextual, i.e. Dependent on the tool you are using, constructing method and editing method.

For example:

Polygonal construction: Image 1 (in Carousel)

Edit (3D): Image 2

Edit node (2D): Image 3

Edit edge: Image 4

Drawing

Geometry methods:

Where to find:

Icons in the Info Box: Image 5

Cycle through the various options with the “G”-key. Cycle through construction methods with the “C” key. The available options vary per tool. Although not recommended, you can also use this key while drawing instead of setting it correctly before.

First click

If you want to start from a known point you can bring up the tracker for numerical input: SHIFT + X,Y,Z

Last click

The following options exist:

1. Single click in case of single geometry method,

2. Single click when finishing on the first node,

3. Double click the final point to finish.