A tour of the interface

This page names the parts of the Musa CAD window, so the rest of the wiki makes sense. The layout and the names are the same as AutoCAD’s “Drafting & Annotation” workspace, so if you know AutoCAD you can skim it.

The Musa CAD window with a wall selected and the Properties palette open. Musa CAD 0.8.0

The ribbon

The ribbon is the strip of buttons across the top. It has seven tabs: Home, Insert, Annotate, Parametric, View, Manage and Output. Each tab is split into panels. The Home tab, for example, has the Draw, Modify, Annotation, Layers, Block, Properties, Groups, Utilities and Clipboard panels.

A few things worth knowing:

• Hover over any button to see the command’s name, its short alias and what it does.
• A small arrow under a button opens more ways to use it. Circle, for instance, has six ways to draw a circle.
• A small arrow in a panel’s corner opens the matching window, such as the Dimension Style Manager.
• A greyed-out button is a tool Musa CAD does not have yet. Its tooltip says so. The whole Parametric tab is like that in version 0.8.0.

When the window gets narrow, the panels shrink to icons so everything still fits. Extra tabs appear while you work on a hatch, a text, a block or in the Block Editor.

The application menu and the Quick Access Toolbar

Click the Musa CAD logo at the top left for the application menu: New, Open, Save, Save As, Import, Export, Plot, DWG Setup, Options, Check for Updates, Save Bug Report, About and Exit.

Next to it is the Quick Access Toolbar with New, Open, Save, Save As, Undo, Redo and Plot. Its small drop-down arrow lets you add more buttons, or move the toolbar below the ribbon.

Drawing tabs

You can have several drawings open at once. Each one gets a tab above the drawing area. Ctrl+Tab moves to the next tab, and Ctrl+W closes the current one. Each drawing keeps its own view, selection and undo history. You can copy objects from one drawing and paste them into another.

Typing commands: Dynamic Input

Type a command and the matches appear right at the cursor. Musa CAD 0.8.0

This is the part of Musa CAD you will use most, and it is switched on from the start. You never need to click into a command line. Just start typing on the drawing:

• The command you type appears next to the cursor, with a list of matching commands and what each one does. Press Enter to run it.
• Musa CAD’s question, the prompt, also appears next to the cursor, for example Specify next point or [Close/Undo]:.
• At a prompt with options, press ↓ (the down arrow) to see the options as a list, and pick one.
• While you draw, the length and angle of what you are drawing appear in small boxes. Type a number into them to make it exact. Tab moves between the boxes.

The length and angle of the line, at the cursor, ready to type into. Musa CAD 0.8.0

Prefer the classic command line at the bottom of the window? Press F12. The prompts and commands are exactly the same either way. Read more about Dynamic Input.

Typing rules (the same as AutoCAD)

• Type a command’s full name or its alias: LINE or L.
• Choose an option by typing its capital letters: C for Close, U for Undo.
• Enter or Space confirms. Esc cancels.
• Enter when no command is running repeats the last command.
• ↑ and ↓ step through the commands you typed before (at the command line).

The status bar

Along the bottom of the window are the drawing aids. Click one to switch it on or off, or press its key:

Button	Key	What it does
OSNAP	F3	Snaps the cursor to exact points on objects, such as ends, middles and centres
3DOSNAP	F4	3D object snap. It exists to match AutoCAD; a 2D drawing has nothing for it to snap to
DUCS	F6	Dynamic UCS. Also only there to match AutoCAD
GRID	F7	Shows the background grid
ORTHO	F8	Keeps lines horizontal or vertical
SNAP	F9	Makes the cursor jump in fixed steps along the grid
POLAR	F10	Guides the cursor along set angles, such as every 45°
OTRACK	F11	Guides the cursor along lines through snap points
DYN	F12	Dynamic Input: typing at the cursor

When a new version is out, a small notice appears at the right of the status bar. Click it to see how to update.

The Properties palette

Type PR (or click Properties on the View tab’s Palettes panel) to open the Properties palette on the right. It shows the selected objects’ layer, colour, linetype, lineweight, transparency and size, and you can change any of them there. If you select several objects and a value differs between them, it shows VARIES.

Layers

On the Home tab, the Layers panel has a drop-down showing the current layer. Click the small icons next to a layer’s name to turn it on or off, freeze or thaw it, or lock or unlock it, without closing the list. Type LA to open the full Layer Properties Manager.

The right-click menu

Right-click on an empty part of the drawing, with no command running, for quick actions: Repeat the last command, Recent Input, Clipboard, Isolate, Erase, Select Similar, Quick Select, Deselect All, Undo, Redo and Properties.

Make it yours

• Your own keyboard shortcuts: type CUI (Manage tab ▸ Customization panel).
• Your own command aliases: type ALIASEDIT. It can also read an AutoCAD acad.pgp file, so you can bring your aliases with you.
• Show or hide ribbon tabs and panels: right-click the ribbon.

Next

You know your way around. Try Dynamic Input in more depth, or read Coming from AutoCAD if you are switching.