The RealCADD Manual Mac version
On-screen Menus

The RealCADD menus are discussed in detail under the individual menu items in the manual. However, there is also this small set of icons bottom left on the RealCADD screen that we will take a quick look at now.

From left to right they are:

Zoom out – halves the magnification on each click.
Zoom percentage – displays the current zoom % – default is 100%
Zoom in – doubles the magnification on each click.
Print – brings up the Page Setup window.
Save – brings up the Save window.
Auto save – toggles whether the Save Reminder is in operation for a this drawing (shown here toggled off).
See pages – toggles displaying the page borders on or off (shown here toggled off).
Display attraction names – toggles enhanced Snap and Highlighting on or off (shown here toggled off).
Nudge – shows the number of units (as set in Preferences) that the Up-Down-Left-Right keyboard arrows will move a selected object.

If you click the Zoom %, you see the regular zooms displayed as pictured right. You can select another zoom (400% for example) simply by clicking it.

To zoom to a specific place on a drawing, click the desired location before clicking a zoom %, or the zoom out, or zoom in buttons; where you clicked will be the centre of the zoom and will continue to be so with multiple zooms in or out.

Selecting "Other..." will bring up the small dialogue shown to the right, allowing you set a custom zoom %. Just type the zoom you want in the "Zoom =" box.

Tip: Selecting a custom zoom is useful when saving a drawing to, say, a JPEG file, as it will affect the size of the resulting image.

RealCADD can zoom beyond 3200 magnification – just keep clicking the "Zoom-in" icon. If you zoom using the magnifying glass tool (Window >> Tools pallet) the zoom % pane will display the zoom you are at. For large numbers, you will only see the first part of the zoom % in the zoom pane, but if you click it, the panel will expand to show the full amount.

Tip: Text tends to display more accurately in relation to other objects at the regular zoom percentages.

Shown here to the right, the Auto save, See pages and Display attraction names buttons are toggled on. When you open a new drawing the buttons will toggled on or off depending on how they are set in Preferences. For a discussion of "Auto save" see RealCADD >> Preferences >> General section. For a discussion of "See pages" and "Display attraction names" RealCADD >> Preferences >> Display section

Nudge is initially set to the default value of "Snap to grid" (see RealCADD >> Preferences >> General). To change it, click on the figure(s) in the nudge box and type in a new value. This won't change the "Snap to grid" figure in Preferences. Note that Nudge uses the units of the drawing (as set in Preferences). So if you are drawing in millimetres a figure of "1" in the nudge box will move a selected object 1mm; if you are drawing in Decimal feet, for example, it will move the selected object one foot. It can be set to less than one (e.g. 0.5, 0.025, 0.003 etc.)