PlanCAD

Appearance

Construction Tools ​

Construction tools place specialized entities used for area fills, masking, walls, blocks, images, and symbols. They complement the core drawing tools for architectural and technical workflows.

Hatch ​

Command: HATCH

Fills a closed area with a repeating fill pattern. The target boundary must be a rectangle, circle, or closed polyline. PlanCAD detects the smallest closed shape under the cursor automatically.

Available patterns:

Pattern nameDescription
solidFlat solid color fill, no lines
linesParallel diagonal lines
crossTwo sets of crossing diagonal lines
diagonalSingle-angle diagonal lines (similar to lines, with a fixed angle)
horizontalHorizontal lines only
verticalVertical lines only

Step-by-step:

  1. Type HATCH and press Enter, or click the Hatch tool.
  2. Select the desired pattern from the pattern bar that appears above the canvas.
  3. Move the cursor over a closed shape. When a valid boundary is detected, a colored ghost fill previews the hatch.
  4. Click inside the shape to apply the hatch. The tool switches to the Select tool automatically and selects the new hatch entity.
  5. If the cursor is not inside a recognized closed shape, a status message indicates "No closed shape here."

Pattern scale and angle: After placing a hatch, select it and use the Properties panel to adjust the pattern scale and rotation angle.

Fill color: The hatch fill color matches the active stroke color at the time of placement. Change it in the Properties panel after placing.

Note: A hatch entity is associated with the boundary it was created from. It does not update automatically if the boundary geometry is edited afterward.

Wipeout ​

Command: WIPEOUT

Creates an opaque masking region that hides geometry behind it. Wipeouts are useful for clearing areas before placing labels or title blocks, or for whiting out portions of a drawing without deleting the underlying entities.

Step-by-step:

  1. Type WIPEOUT and press Enter, or click the Wipeout tool.
  2. Click to place the first vertex of the wipeout polygon.
  3. Click additional vertices. A closed polygon ghost is shown as you work.
  4. Press Enter to close the polygon and commit the wipeout (minimum 3 points required).
  5. Press Escape to remove the last vertex one at a time. Pressing Escape when no points have been placed deactivates the tool and returns to the Select tool.

Appearance: The wipeout is rendered as a filled polygon using the drawing background color, effectively masking what is behind it. It has no visible border in the final output.

Layer and draw order: Place wipeouts on a dedicated layer and control draw order to ensure they appear above the geometry they need to mask.

MLine / Wall ​

Command: MLINE Alias: ML

Draws parallel double lines (walls) along a centerline path. MLine is designed for architectural floor plan walls, where two parallel lines represent the wall faces at a configurable width.

Wall width and justification are configured before or during drawing via the MLine options panel or command prompts.

Width: Defaults are unit-aware — 0.2 m (20 cm), 20 cm, or 200 mm. To change the width, type the new value in the command bar before placing points and confirm.

Justification modes:

ModeDescription
centerCenterline is the drawn path; wall faces offset equally on each side
leftLeft face follows the drawn path; right face is offset inward by the full width
rightRight face follows the drawn path; left face is offset inward by the full width

Step-by-step:

  1. Type ML and press Enter, or click the MLine tool.
  2. Configure width and justification in the options bar if needed.
  3. Click to place the first centerline point.
  4. Click additional points. Two parallel lines track the path with a live preview.
  5. Press Enter to commit the wall as a closed shape (joining the last segment back to the first), or press Escape to commit as an open path. With only a start point placed, Escape cancels without creating anything.

Ortho and polar constraints are applied to each segment, relative to the previous point.

Editing: A placed MLine entity stores the centerline points, width, and justification. Adjust these in the Properties panel after placing. Grip editing moves the centerline points.

Block Insert ​

Command: IMAGE (for image insert — see below); blocks are inserted from the Symbols panel.

A block insert places a reusable symbol definition at a specified position, scale, and rotation. Block definitions can come from the built-in symbols library or from blocks defined within the current drawing (e.g., by grouping and naming entities).

Step-by-step:

  1. Open the Symbols panel from the left sidebar.
  2. Browse or search the symbol library.
  3. Click a symbol to select it.
  4. Click on the canvas to place the block insert at that position.
  5. Adjust scale and rotation in the Properties panel after placing, or set them in the insert dialog if prompted.

Exploding a block: Select a block insert and use EXPLODE (or Edit > Explode) to replace it with its component geometry as individual editable entities.

Block properties: Scale (X and Y independently), rotation angle, and layer assignment are editable in the Properties panel.

Image Insert ​

Command: IMAGE

Inserts a raster image (PNG, JPEG, or similar) into the drawing as a rectangular entity that can be scaled and repositioned.

Step-by-step:

  1. Type IMAGE and press Enter, or click the Image tool in the toolbar.
  2. A file picker dialog opens. Select the image file from your computer.
  3. Click on the canvas to place the image. The image is inserted at a default size.
  4. Resize by dragging the grip handles, or enter exact width and height values in the Properties panel.

Properties: Width, height, opacity, and position are editable in the Properties panel. Images are embedded in the drawing file.

Symbols Library ​

The Symbols panel provides a curated library of built-in CAD symbols organized by category (furniture, fixtures, structural elements, north arrows, etc.).

Using the library:

  1. Click the Symbols icon in the left sidebar to open the panel.
  2. Browse by category or type in the search box to filter symbols by name.
  3. Click a symbol thumbnail to preview it.
  4. Click on the canvas to insert it at that location as a block insert.

Custom symbols: Groups and named blocks you define in your drawing are also accessible from the Symbols panel for reinsertion elsewhere in the same drawing.