OCAD Preferences

GUI (Graphical User Interface)

Context menu in drawing area

If enabled, the context menu is shown by clicking on the drawing area with the right mouse button.

In the upper part of the Context menu, you can switch between the current Drawing Mode, the Select and Edit Object mode and the Select Object and Edit Vertex mode.
In the lower part of the Context menu, you can change the view either with the Pan, Zoom In, Zoom Out or the Show Entire Map tool.

If disabled, you can switch between the current Drawing Mode and the Select Object and Edit Vertex mode by clicking on the drawing area with the right mouse button.

Wider splitter between drawing area and symbol box

If this option is enabled, the splitter between the symbol box and the drawing area appears wider as usual. This feature may improve the user-friendliness.

Toolbars

Show or Hide the following toolbars in this field:

• Editing and Drawing Toolbar
• Edit Functions Toolbar
• Mobile Toolbar
• Numeric Keypad Toolbar
• Standard Toolbar
• View Toolbar

Click the Customize button to add or remove icons to/from the toolbars.

Status bar

Choose the format of the coordinates appearing in the Status Bar in this box.

Style

Change the style of the GUI by choosing one in the dropdown list.

File

Auto file load when opening OCAD

Check this box to load the last map you worked on automatically when OCAD is started. Otherwise no map will be loaded.

Auto file save

This option is not enabled when a map is loaded. Please close all maps before opening OCAD Preferences.

Check this box to save all changes to the original file automatically.
When this box is not checked, all changes are saved in a temporary file. When you close the file you will be asked if you want to save the changes to the original file.
This option has no effect for untitled files (new files which have never been saved to disk).

In the mode of permanent automatic saving, the file is considered as "read only". If you want to save it, you are re-directed to the Save as procedure requesting a new name for the file.

View

User defined zoom in menu item

Enter a value to specify the User Defined Zoom. Choose User Defined in the View menu to apply the specified zoom to the map.

View mode loop

With the View mode loop tool you can easily switch between different view modes. Select the view modes you want to switch between in the View mode loop box in the View category of OCAD Preferences.
To use the View mode loop you have to define a Shortcut for View - View Mode Loop. Afterwards you can switch between the set view modes using the Shortcut.

Select

ToDo

Object

ToDo

Drawing and Editing

Drawing Bézier curves

Choose the preferred mode for drawing curves.

• In OCAD mode, only the direction of a dragged tangent is used. The distance from the normal vertices to the curve vertices is calculated automatically. This is the recommended mode.
• In Illustrator mode, the length of the dragged tangent is used to calculate the distance of the curve vertex.

Convert freehand to curve when drawing

Check this box to convert lines and areas to curves when drawing in freehand mode. Otherwise they remain as polygons. The tolerance settings Smooth when drawing freehand determine the smoothing level.

Close area objects when drawing

OCAD closes areas object automatically when drawing. If start and end point are different then OCAD add an end point with the same position as the start point.

Choose Close Area Objects in Object -> Topology to close already drawn area objects.

Following existing objects

Uncheck this option if side lines of double lines should not be traced by following existing lines.

Following existing objects

Tolerances

Select objects: This tolerance defines the maximum distance on each side of a thin line where you can click to select it. Objects with a thicker main line than the tolerance can be selected by clicking on the entire line width. The default value is 3 pixels.

Snapping: This tolerance defines the maximum distance a vertex is moved by using snapping. The default value is 5 pixels.

[Snapping]

Join when drawing lines: This tolerance defines the maximum distance a vertex is moved to join another line end. The default value is 0.25 mm. If the line width is bigger than this tolerance then OCAD takes the line width as tolerance.

Smooth when drawing freehand: There are three smoothing levels for freehand drawing mode: slightly, medium and strong. They correspond to 0, 1 and 2 in earlier OCAD versions.

Change to Bezier curve: This tolerance defines the maximum distance the vertices can move away from the original position by changing from polyline to Bezier curve. The default value is 0.10 mm. Note that the distance between the curve and the polyline can be greater between the vertices.

Smooth (generalization): This tolerance is used by the Douglas-Peucker smoothing algorithm. Vertices that are closer to the direct line between the previous and the next vertex are removed. The default value is 0.05 mm.

Cursor color

Set the cursor color to black, red, blue, purple or yellow.

Mark

Set the mark size to normal, large or very large and choose a mark color.

Enable live preview

Enable this option to show the real line width by drawing line objects.

Auto scroll

Check this option if the map view should automatically scroll if you drag out of the drawing area. Uncheck this option if you have a slow PC.

Symbol

ToDo

Map

ToDo

Layout

ToDo

GPS

ToDo

Warnings

ToDo