This is a portion of our DraftSight User Manual, which should be accessible via the EagleRock Help icon on your machine's Desktop.  If you do not have a Help icon, contact EagleRock customer support to have this feature added.


Command Window

As I mentioned in the introduction, The command window is where everything happens. If you are not sure what to do next, or what went wrong, the answer is almost certainly in the command window. Because of this, it is important to learn how the command window works; however, with DraftSight’s ample toolbars and other graphical aids, you will rarely need to enter commands manually.


The command window can be hidden or un-hidden by right clicking on a tool bar and then checking/un-checking the box next to Command window.


The command window has two prompts:


:

&

Specify... >>

 

The first prompt, a colon, is displayed when no command is being run and DraftSight. When you see this prompt you are ready to enter a command. If you want to enter a command but do not see this prompt, press the escape key to exit out of the current command.


The second prompt, which usually starts with “Specify” and ends with two greater than signs, is displayed when a command has been run and the command requires your input.


To execute a command or specify a value, type it in and then either hit enter, or the space bar.


Specifying Options

Some commands have options that can be changed. The options are displayed in blue after a command has been executed (or a toolbar button has been clicked). The current or default settings appear above the options.


For example, after entering the fillet command, the following appears in the command window:

 

: fillet
Mode = TRIM, Radius = 2.0000
Options: Multiple, Polyline, Radius, Trim mode, Undo or
Specify first entity>>

 

On the second line, we see the current settings and, on the next line, the options.


Note that even though the prompt is asking us to specify an entity, we can enter options if they are available.


The shortcut for each option is the underlined portion of the option. For example, if we wanted to change the radius from 2.0000 to 1.0, we would enter r into the command window.

 

Specify first entity>> r
Default: 2.0000
Specify radius>>

 

Now the prompt has changed, informing us of the default radius and asking us to specify a new radius. At this point we would enter 1, changing the radius:


Specify radius>> 1
Options: Multiple, Polyline, Radius, Trim mode, Undo or
Specify first entity>> <specify entity with mouse>

 

As you can see, we have exited out of the radius option and are now back at the beginning of the fillet command.


Command Aliases

Most commands have shortcuts called aliases. For example, f is the the alias of the fillet command. This means that instead of writing fillet into the command window, you only need to enter:

 

:  f

 

In each section of this guide, common commands are listed with their aliases. You can also find a complete list of commands and their aliases by going to Help ⇢ Help... ⇢ Command Reference ⇢ Commands listed in alphabetical order.