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Keyboard Settings

Choose shortcuts that feel natural to you; they are saved to this browser immediately. Layers live in Company Standard Layers, and the drawing layer for new lines is picked in Model Space.

Drafter

Your name and phone number, saved with these settings and used on titleblocks and sheets.

Tour roof — placement increments

The guided tour’s roof step snaps gable placement and edge pulls to these grids, counted from the building corner. The chip beside GABLE cycles the resting grid; Shift and Ctrl+Shift are momentary overrides.

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Bone reveal

Every BUILD HOUSE bone press that grows the house jumps to the front elevation and the house rises out of the ground. Turn it off to stay on the plan after a build.

Commands are grouped by purpose. A key can include modifiers such as Shift+W, Ctrl+L, or Alt+1. Some shortcuts reserved by your browser or operating system may not be available.
Layout presets

Pick a preset to fill the bindings below with the closest match to that application; every key stays editable afterwards.

Snap zone

One number rules every snap: how close the cursor must be, in screen pixels, before a node, midpoint, or polar ray catches it. The wider magnetic pull and the close-the-outline radius scale from the same number. Larger catches from farther away; smaller only snaps when the cursor is nearly on the point. Saved with your keyboard settings.

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BUILD HOUSE deals windows onto the exterior walls by the office siting rules — front and back maximized, one side left bare until the site plan says which. Every one is an ordinary window you can move, resize or delete; the bone only ever deals the first hand. Off means every window is yours to place.

Room stamps project a dashed boundary preview of the room each will claim, and BUILD HOUSE grows real 2x4 interior walls from the stamp program. Off means stamps stay labels and every wall is yours to draw.

The guided tour's stair step and a BUILD HOUSE press with no stairs offer a rule-derived stair placement — riser math from the level heights, the run along the beam edge — as a suggestion to accept, replace or delete. Off means place every stair yourself.

Bone crunch — the short crunch when a bone spends on BUILD HOUSE (board #261). Sound only; the spend itself never depends on it.

Layout notes & missing-command report

Why presets are approximations

AutoCAD and MicroStation muscle memory is typed multi-letter command aliases (PL polyline, TR trim, EX extend), and Revit uses two-letter shortcuts (WA wall, DI dimension). Draft currently binds a single key plus optional modifiers, so each preset is the nearest single-key match — usually the first letter of the alias. Multi-letter key sequences are a possible future upgrade if a preset ever needs to be exact.

How the presets map

  • AutoCAD style — A arc (node tool), Q trim (TR), E extend (EX), I insert for doors/windows (blocks), T toggles the 90° T-square like F8 ortho, Space repeats/commits like the ACAD spacebar, Ctrl+Y redo. Shape keeps P, compass moves to V.
  • Revit style — W wall (WA), Shift+W window/door (WN / DR), D dimension (DI), Q trim (TR), Ctrl+Y redo.
  • MicroStation style — Q element selection (first tool in the task list), P place shape, M trim, mnemonic letters elsewhere; Ctrl+Y stands in for redo because the browser keeps Ctrl+R. Compass moves to V.
  • ArchiCAD style — A arrow (select), W wall, Shift+D door/window pair, L line; Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z undo/redo as ArchiCAD ships them. Shape keeps P, compass moves to V.

Commands other apps have that Draft doesn't (yet)

Ranked by how often a drafter reaches for them:

  • 1. OFFSET (ACAD O, Revit OF) — copy a line/wall parallel at an exact distance. Probably the single most-used AutoCAD command.
  • 2. MIRROR (ACAD MI, Revit MM) — flip a copy across an axis; half the fixtures in a house are mirrored pairs.
  • 3. COPY / MOVE (ACAD CO / M, Revit CO / MV) — explicit copy and move with a base point and typed distance.
  • 4. FILLET (ACAD F) — join two lines into a clean corner (radius 0) or a radiused one.
  • 5. ROTATE (ACAD RO, Revit RO) — spin around a base point by a typed angle.
  • 6. ARRAY (ACAD AR, Revit AR) — repeat at a spacing; ideal for joists, studs, piles.
  • 7. STRETCH (ACAD S) — window-select and pull geometry, keeping connections (Draft's Extend covers part of this).
  • 8. MATCH PROPERTIES (ACAD MA) — paint one object's layer/type onto another.
  • 9. TEXT / LEADER (ACAD T / LE, Revit TX) — notes with arrows; needed before construction sheets.
  • 10. ALIGN (Revit AL) — snap one element flush with another.
  • 11. SPLIT (Revit SL) — break a wall/line at a point.
  • 12. PIN (Revit PN) — lock an element so it can't be nudged accidentally.
  • 13. TAPE MEASURE (ArchiCAD M) — measure without placing a dimension.