STEP 1. Set display mode and paper size.

The Set Display command in the Settings section of the menu enables you to control some options for the display. If you would like your display to match the ones in the SpaceCAD lessons exactly, then leave the box next to Reverse Video unchecked. Your entities will then appear black on a white background.

The Paper Settings command allows you to control the size and scale of the drawing. CAD drawings should always be drawn full scale. For example, if you are drawing a rocket that is 90 feet high and 10 feet wide, then you can specify a Custom paper size of 100 feet by 15 feet to accommodate it. However, when it comes to printing your drawing, your printer cannot handle a paper size that big! That's where the scale comes in. If you are printing on 8.5 X 11 inch paper, then you would scale the drawing to fit the paper. 90 feet X 12 inches per foot = 1080 inches. Type this number in next to Scale-Paper. Type 11, the length of the paper in inches, next to Scale-Real World. When you click on the "=" icon, the program calculates the scale factor for you: 98.1818 : 1.

What if the subject of your drawing is not very large, but very small? Let's say you are drawing a pipe fitting that is only 1 inch long. Then you would type in "1" next to Scale-Paper and "11" next to Scale-Real World. When you click on the "=", the program calculates the scale factor of: 0.0909 : 1.

If you do not know the precise dimensions or size of what you are drawing, then you can just select one of the standard sizes at the top. The "A" size corresponds to a standard size sheet of paper. Engineering drawing plotters can accommodate the larger sizes shown at the top.

For the first few projects in SpaceCAD, we will not be drawing to a precise scale. For example, for the Title Block in Lesson 3, just select the A-size, landscape orientation from the Paper-Settings menu.