Video Tutorials
Lesson 46 - Working with Sheet Metal in nanoCAD Mechanica
nanoCAD 21 Mechanica introduces sheet metal design that is parametric. Sheet metal is bent into shapes and has holes and other features punched into it. In this video, you learn how to create and edit sheet metal parts:
• How to set up nanoCAD Mechanica for sheet metal design
• Drawing sheet metal parts with sketches
• Adding bends, holes, and louvers
• Editing sheet metal parts
Lesson 45 - Working with Isometric Drafting in nanoCAD
nanoCAD 21 introduces new tools for creating isometric drawings. These drawings show three sides at the same time - left, top, right and look 3D but are in fact 2D. In this video, you learn how to work with isometric drawings:
• How to start a new isometric drawing
• Accessing commands for drawing isometric rectangles, circles, and arcs
• Setting up text styles and placing isometric text
• Setting up dimensions styles and placing isometric dimensions
Lesson 44 - Working with Interactive Arrays in nanoCAD
nanoCAD introduces parametric arrays that are interactive. Instead of specifying their look with a dialog box or at the command line, you now interact with them while drawing the array. In this video, you learn how to work with interactive arrays:
• How to create rectangular and polar arrays interactively
• Editing arrays using grips
• Creating 3D arrays
Lesson 43 - Placing Raster Images in nanoCAD Drawings
You can place raster images, like photographs, in drawings, and then use them as backgrounds or to trace over them. In this video, you learn how to place them in drawings and then change them:
• Using the ROpen command to place a raster image file in a drawing
• Understanding how to select images, and how to turn them off
• Changing the brightness and contrast of the image
• Clipping an image to reduce its size and shape
• Removing clipping boundaries from images, and images from drawings
Lesson 42 - Inserting Drawings in Drawings (About DWG References)
Sometimes you need to reference other drawings, and nanoCAD lets you insert those other drawings in the one you are working with. This is called 'DWG references' or 'external references' or 'xref' for short. In this video, you learn how to insert drawings in drawings:
• Using the XAttach command to attach an external drawing to the current one
• Editing the attached drawing and updating it
• Toggling the visibility of xrefs
• Removing xrefs form drawings by unloading them
Lesson 41 - Viewing Proxy Entities with nanoCAD
nanoCAD uses the DWG file format, which means it can open and edit drawing files from many other CAD programs. One quirk about DWG is that it can define custom objects that are unique to one program. When you open such a drawing in nanoCAD, the custom objects are displayed as proxies -- entities that can be seen but not edited very much. In this video, you learn how to work with proxy objects:
• Identifying which objects are proxy objects
• Changing the look of proxy objects with the ProxyShow variable
Lesson 40 - Creating and Working with Groups
nanoCAD has several ways of working with groups of entities, and one of them is called "groups." Groups essentially are named selection sets. In this video, you learn how to create and insert blocks in drawings:
• Using the Group command to make a group of entities
• Understanding the difference between "selectable" and "uselectable" modes
• Using groups in commands
• Eliminating groups
Lesson 39 - Working with Attributes in Blocks
Blocks can hold data called "attributes," such as prices and model numbers. In this video, you learn how to add attributes to and extract data from blocks:
• Adding attributes to blocks
• Filling data into attributes
• Editing attribute data
• Toggling the visibility of attributes
• Exporting attributes to a spreadsheet program
Lesson 38 - Editing and Sharing Blocks with nanoCAD
Once you have added blocks to a drawing, you may want to change them, and you definitely want to use them in other drawings. In this video, you learn how to edit and share blocks with other drawings:
• Using the Block Editor to make changes to blocks
• Editing blocks in-place
• Sharing blocks between drawings through the Clipboard
• Saving blocks to disc with the SaveAs and WBlock commands
• Adding blocks to the Tools palette
Lesson 37 - Creating and Inserting Blocks with nanoCAD
CAD is all about drawing efficiently, and one of the most efficient tools is the block. A block is a symbol that you use a lot, such as a door or a bolt. In this video, you learn how to create and insert blocks in drawings:
• Using the Block command to make a desk symbol from a rectangle
• Inserting the desk block in the drawing with the Insert command
• Understanding unit blocks
• Inserting a unit block as a scaled desk symbol
Lesson 36 - 2D Drawings from 3D Models in nanoCAD Pro
Once a 3D model is finished, it is a common task to generate 2D drawings from it for the shop floor. nanoCAD Pro does this for you semi-automatically. In this video, you learn how to generate 2D plans and sections, as well as how to employ live sections to make cutting planes in one, two, and three dimensions.
Lesson 35 - More Ways to Edit 3D Solids with nanoCAD Pro
The most common edit made to 3D solids probably is rounding and flattening edges. In this video, you learn how to apply 3D fillets and 3D chamfers to 3D solids. As well, you find out about a trick to edit a 3D polyface mesh object, then turn it into a solid, thereby making shapes not otherwise possible with solids.
Lesson 34 - Modifying 3D Models
Once the basics of a 3D model are placed with primitives or extruded 2D objects, you can begin to modify it. In this video, you learn how to change the shape of a 3D model using logical (Boolean) operations named Union, Subtract, and Intersect. You learn also how to change the shape with 2D entities and with the PressPull command.
Lesson 33 - Simple 3D Modeling in nanoCAD Pro
nanoCAD Pro provides several ways to construct 3D model. In this video you learn about drawing 3D primitives, like a box. You also learn how to turn 2D drawings into 3D models, such as a rectangle into a box and (with the Extrude command) into a pipe shape (with the Revolve command). You see how to edit this 3D models using grips, and learn the names of the parts of a 3D model.
Lesson 32 - Introducing 3D Modeling with nanoCAD Pro
nanoCAD Pro is excellent at 3D modeling. In this video, you learn some introductory concepts to 3D modeling, such a how to use dynamic UCS to draw on 3D faces, changing the 3D viewpoint quickly, and adjusting shading modes so that the model looks better.