Draft Preferences

The preferences for the Draft Workbench are found in the Preferences Editor, in the menu Menu Edit → Preferences → Draft.

There are four tabs: General settings, Grid and snapping, Visual settings, and Texts and dimensions.

General settings

General settings allows you to set certain basic properties like the default working plane, the name and color of the construction group, a prefix to use for the Draft Clones, and the internal precision of the calculations.

Grid and snapping

Grid and snapping allows you to set properties of the visible grid, which can be used with the Draft Snap methods.

By default the option "Always snap (disable snap mod)" is active, which means that you don't need to press a modifier key to activate the snapping tools. If this option is not active, you must press a modifier key to activate snapping.

You can set three modifiers:

• Shift constraint modifier, to constraint the movement of the cursor along the X, Y, or Z axis.
• Ctrl snap modifier, to snap the cursor to specific modes given by Draft Snap.
• Alt alternative modifier, to activate an alternative function for a Draft tool.

You can specify the space between each grid line, between each major line, and the total number of lines displayed in the working plane.

Visuals settings

Visual settings allows you to specify the default line color and width for new objects, and the color of the Draft Snap symbols. By clicking the "Save current color and linewidth across sessions" checkbox, changes made in the Draft Tray will be saved and restored the next time you open FreeCAD.

Texts and dimensions

Draft

• Drafting: Line, Polyline, Fillet, Arc, Arc by 3 points, Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, Polygon, B-spline, Cubic Bézier curve, Bézier curve, Point, Facebinder, ShapeString, Hatch
• Annotation: Text, Dimension, Label, Annotation styles, Annotation scale
• Modification: Move, Rotate, Scale, Mirror, Offset, Trimex, Stretch, Clone, Array, Polar array, Circular array, Path array, Path link array, Point array, Point link array, Edit, Subelement highlight, Join, Split, Upgrade, Downgrade, Wire to B-spline, Draft to sketch, Set slope, Flip dimension, Shape 2D view

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• Draft Tray: Select plane, Set style, Toggle construction mode, AutoGroup
• Snapping: Snap lock, Snap endpoint, Snap midpoint, Snap center, Snap angle, Snap intersection, Snap perpendicular, Snap extension, Snap parallel, Snap special, Snap near, Snap ortho, Snap grid, Snap working plane, Snap dimensions, Toggle grid

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• Miscellaneous: Apply current style, Layer, Manage layers, Add a new named group, Move to group, Select group, Add to construction group, Toggle normal/wireframe display, Create working plane proxy, Heal, Show snap toolbar
• Additional: Constraining, Pattern, Preferences, Import Export Preferences, DXF/DWG, SVG, OCA, DAT
• Context menu:
  • Layer container: Merge layer duplicates, Add new layer
  • Layer: Activate this layer, Select layer contents
  • Text: Open hyperlinks
  • Wire: Flatten
  • Working plane proxy: Write camera position, Write objects state

User documentation

• Getting started
• Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

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• Help: Tutorials, Video tutorials
• Workbenches: Std Base, Arch, Assembly, CAM, Draft, FEM, Inspection, Mesh, OpenSCAD, Part, PartDesign, Points, Reverse Engineering, Robot, Sketcher, Spreadsheet, Start, Surface, TechDraw, Test Framework, Web

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• Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

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• Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub