Getting started with

Lesson 1
Start up IntelliCAD.
If the command bar is not visible, make it visible by pressing F3.

Commands:
Line, circle, rectang, erase.

Snap codes:
nea, end, mid, cent.

The line command.
At the command line, type in the command line and press enter (or space bar). You will be prompted to enter the first point. After the first point has been issued, you will be prompted to keep issuing more points or to include an angle, length, follow, close, or undo. The line will appear to rubber band as you move the cursor to locate the next location. Draw the two sides of a triangle then type the letter c.

Notice how the command has ended and the shape has closed. This is the neatest and quickest way to ensure the start and end co-ordinates are coincident. Perfectly horizontal or vertical lines can be achieved by pressing F8. This turns on ortho mode. Pressing F8 again will turn this mode off.

Line using relative co-ordinates.
Invoke the line command with line and press enter. Left click somewhere near the centre of the screen. The status bar will prompt you for the next point. Here is where we will deviate briefly from locating points by eye. If you know the exact size of something this is particularly useful. At the command line type:

@2<0 enter
@3<90 enter
@2<180 enter

Lastly type close or c.
What has happened here? The @ symbol means literally 'from the last point'. 2 means 2 mm. The < means 'at an angle of' and 0 being the angle. So in plain English we just tols IntelliCAD to 'draw a line from the last point 2mm long at an angle of 0 degrees to the horizon. IntelliCAD being based on AutoCAD, uses the same principles when it comes to angles. 0 degrees is horizontal pointing to the east. 90 degrees is 90 degrees anti-clockwise to 0 degrees and so on.

The circle command.
At the command line, type the command circle and press enter. You will be prompted to enter a location for the centre of the circle (as well as a host of other choices). Click some where on the screen. Next you will be asked for the location of the radius or diameter or just simply click somewhere to locate it. Notice how the circle grows as you move the cursor to show how big the end result will be prior to finishing the command in the same way that line does. Draw another circle and type in the number1 when asked for the radius. The circle command will finish with a circle of the exact size that you specified.

The rectang command (draws rectangles).
At the command line, type the command rectang and press enter. Enter the first location with the mouse above and to the left of the currently drawn graphics. This command has no options for input other than the cursor (or co-ordinates). Draw a rectangle around the graphics you have drawn this far. You should end up with something much like the image below.

The erase command.
This command does as it says. You can select individual items or put a window around a group of unwanted items. Fortunately IntelliCAD is much like most other Windows programs in that it has undo and redo (just in case).

The snap codes nea (near), end, mid (middle) and cent (centre).
There are others, but they will be introduced gradually. Snap codes literally tell IntelliCAD where to start, end and locate items we are drawing.
Start the line command.

line enter
cent enter

Click the mouse just inside of the circle. The start of our line will have snapped to the centre of the circle.

mid enter

Click near the middle of the rectangle.

nea enter

Click near the frame around our drawing.

end enter

Click near the end of a line in our triangle. Keep entering new points if you wish or simply press enter again to finish.

This concludes our first tutorial. The drawing can be saved or discarded much the same way you would use any other document or graphic on your computer.