Draft Preferences/cs

Introduction

The preferences for the Draft Workbench can be found in the Preferences Editor. In the menu select Edit → Preferences... and then Draft. This group is only available if the Draft Workbench has been loaded in the current FreeCAD session.

There are five pages: General, Interface, Grid and snapping, Visual and Texts and dimensions.

Some advanced preferences can only be changed in the Parameter editor. See Fine-tuning.

This page has been updated for version 1.0.

In version 0.21 and below some preferences may appear on a different page, and in some cases FreeCAD must be restarted after changing a preference.

On this page you can specify the following:

Name	Description
Internal precision level	The number of decimals used in internal coordinate operations (for example 3 = 0.001). Values between 6 and 8 are usually considered the best trade-off.
Default working plane	The default working plane for new views. The options are: Automatic: If set to Automatic the working plane will automatically align with the current view whenever a command is started. Additionally it will align to preselected planar faces, or when points on planar faces are picked during commands. XY (Top) XZ (Front) YZ (Side)
Show working plane tracker	If checked, a widget indicating the current working plane orientation appears when picking points.
Include groups in layer list	If checked, the layers drop-down list also includes groups. Objects can then automatically be added to groups as well. See Draft AutoGroup.
Show prompts in the Report view	If checked, instructions are displayed in the Report view when using Draft commands. introduced in version 1.0
Set focus on Length instead of X coordinate	If checked, Length input, instead of the X coordinate, will have the initial focus. This allows to indicate a direction and then type a distance.
Select base objects after copying	If checked, base objects, instead of created copies, are selected after copying.
Create Part primitives if possible	If checked, Draft commands will create Part primitives instead of Draft objects. Note that this is not fully supported, and many objects will not be editable with Draft modification commands.
Keep face colors during downgrade/upgrade	If checked, Draft Downgrade and Draft Upgrade will keep face colors. Only for the splitFaces and makeShell options.
Keep face names during downgrade/upgrade	If checked, Draft Downgrade and Draft Upgrade will keep face names. Only for the splitFaces and makeShell options.
Mouse delay	This is the delay in seconds during which the mouse is inactive after entering a number in one of the Draft task panel input fields. During the delay moving the mouse won't change the entered value. Set to 0 to disable the delay.
Max. number of editable objects	The maximum number of objects Draft Edit is allowed to process at the same time.
Edit node pick radius	The pick radius of edit nodes.
Label prefix for clones	The default prefix added to the label of new clones.
Construction group label	The default label for the construction geometry group.
Construction geometry color	The default color for Draft objects in construction mode.

Interface

On this page you can specify the following:

Name	Description
In-command shortcuts	These shortcuts only work when a Draft or BIM command is active. Note that not all commands support all shortcuts.
Relative	Shortcut to toggle relative mode. If relative mode is on, coordinates are relative to the last point, if available, else they are relative to the coordinate system origin.
Global	Shortcut to toggle global mode. If global mode is on, coordinates are relative to the global coordinate system, else they are relative to the working plane coordinate system.
Length	Shortcut to change the focus from the X coordinate input box to the Length input box and vice versa.
Fill	Shortcut to toggle filled mode. If filled mode is on, the created object will have ÚdajeMake Face set to true.
Select edge	Shortcut to press the Select edge button. See Draft Dimension.
Subelement mode	Shortcut to toggle subelement mode. If subelement mode is on, the command will use the selected subelements instead of the whole objects.
Copy	Shortcut to toggle copy mode. If copy mode is on, the command will create modified copies instead of modifying the original objects.
Undo	Shortcut to press the Undo button.
Wipe	Shortcut to press the Wipe button.
Close	Shortcut to press the Close button.
Exit	Shortcut to press the Finish button.
Continue	Shortcut to toggle continue mode. If continue mode is on, commands will restart after finishing.
Cycle snap	Shortcut to change snap priority to an object that is obscured by other geometry. See Draft Snap.
Add hold	Shortcut to insert a "hold point" at the current location of the cursor. See Draft Snap.
Set working plane	Shortcut to press the Set WP button.
Snap	Shortcut to toggle Draft snapping.
Increase radius	Shortcut to increase the maximum distance at which Draft Snap Grid detects the intersections of grid lines. See Draft SelectPlane.
Decrease radius	Shortcut to decrease the maximum distance at which Draft Snap Grid detects the intersections of grid lines.
Restrict X	Shortcut to constrain the movement of the cursor to the X axis. See Draft Constrain.
Restrict Y	Shortcut to constrain the movement of the cursor to the Y axis.
Restrict Z	Shortcut to constrain the movement of the cursor to the Z axis.
Only show the Draft snap toolbar during commands	If checked, the Draft snap toolbar will only be visible during commands. introduced in version 1.0
Show the Snap widget in the Draft Workbench	If checked, the Snap widget is displayed in the Draft statusbar.
Show the Annotation scale widget in the Draft Workbench	If checked, the Annotation scale widget is displayed in the Draft statusbar.

Grid and snapping

Note that several grid preferences can also be changed with the Draft SelectPlane command.

On this page you can specify the following:

Name	Description
Always show the grid	If checked, the grid will always be visible in new views. Use Draft ToggleGrid to change this for the active view.
Show the grid during commands	If checked, the grid will be visible during commands in new views. Use Draft ToggleGrid to change this for the active view. introduced in version 1.0
Show grid border	If checked, an additional border is displayed around the grid, showing the main square size in the bottom left corner.
Show human figure	If checked, the outline of a human figure is displayed at the bottom left corner of the grid. Only effective if Show grid border is enabled.
Use colored axes	If checked, the two main axes of the grid are colored red, green or blue if they match the X, Y or Z axis of the global coordinate system.
Major lines every	The number of squares between major grid lines. Major grid lines are thicker than minor grid lines.
Grid spacing	The distance between grid lines.
Grid size	The number of squares in the X and Y direction of the grid.
Grid transparency	The overall transparency of the grid.
Grid color	The color of the grid.
Snap symbol style	The style for snap symbols. The options are: Draft classic style Bitsnpieces style.
Snap symbol color	The color for snap symbols, snap dimensions and edit nodes.
Always snap	If checked, snapping is activated without the need to press the Snap modifier key.
Snap modifier	The Snap modifier key.
Constrain modifier	The Constrain modifier key.
Alt modifier	The Alt modifier key. The function of this key depends on the command.

Visual

On this page you can specify the following:

Name	Description
SVG pattern size	The default size for SVG patterns. A higher value results in a denser pattern.
Additional SVG pattern location	An optional directory with custom SVG files containing pattern definitions to be added to the standard patterns.
Dashed line definition	An SVG linestyle definition used by the TechDraw DraftView command.
Dashdot line definition	Idem.
Dotted line definition	Idem.

Texts and dimensions

These preferences are the defaults used when creating new objects. Changing them does not affect existing objects.

On this page you can specify the following:

Name	Description
Font name or family	The default font for texts, dimensions and labels. It can be a font name such as Arial, a style such as sans, serif or mono, or a family such as Arial,Helvetica,sans, or a name with a style such as Arial:Bold.
Font size	The default height for texts, dimension texts and label texts.
Line spacing factor	The default line spacing for multi-line texts and labels (relative to the font size).
Scale multiplier	The default annotation scale multiplier. This is the inverse of the scale set in the Draft annotation scale widget. If the scale is 1:100 the multiplier is 100. introduced in version 1.0
Text color	The default color for texts, dimension texts and label texts.
Show dimension line	If checked, the dimension line is displayed by default.
Line width	The default line width.
Arrows type	The default symbol displayed at the ends of dimension lines. The options are: Dot Circle Arrow Tick Tick-2
Arrows size	The default arrow size.
Line and arrow color	The default color for lines and arrows.
Show unit	If checked, a unit symbol is added to dimension texts by default.
Unit override	The default unit override for dimensions. Enter a unit such as m or cm, leave blank to use the current unit defined in FreeCAD.
Number of decimals	The default number of decimal places for dimension texts.
Feet separator	The optional string inserted between the feet and inches values in dimensions. introduced in version 1.0
Dimension line overshoot	The default distance the dimension line is extended past the extension lines.
Extension line length	The default length of extension lines. Use 0 for full extension lines. A negative value defines the gap between the ends of the extension lines and the measured points. A positive value defines the maximum length of the extension lines. Only used for linear dimensions.
Extension line overshoot	The default length of extension lines above the dimension line.
Text spacing	The default space between the dimension line and the dimension text.
Default ShapeString font file	The default font file for the Draft ShapeString command. For Windows users: please read the Font file selection on Windows paragraph on that page.