Drawing shapes

Chipload draws three kinds of shape, for the odd hole, slot or outline that isn’t in the DXF, or a project without one:

• Circle: centre and radius.
• Rectangle: centre, length and width, a rotation, and a corner radius (0: sharp corners).
• Polyline: points joined by straight or arc segments, open or closed.

Circle, Rectangle or Polyline in the ribbon’s DRAW group, then click on the canvas. Clicks snap to the drawing’s ends, centres and middles, else to the grid, whose step the status bar gives (“grid 1 mm”). Anything more is CAD’s job: draw it there and import the DXF.

Editing

• Handles: drag a selected shape’s handles to change it. A drag snaps to end points, centres and middles; hold Alt to turn snapping off.
• Exact values: under Selection in the Properties panel, a selected shape has its exact numbers and its layer.
• Rounded corners: a rectangle’s Corner radius rounds all four corners with true arcs (G2/G3 in the program). It can be at most half the shorter side: half of it rounds the short ends fully, into a slot. A larger radius is refused rather than shrunk, and a corner handle won’t drag the rectangle smaller than its corners allow; lower the radius first. The reset button makes the corners sharp again.
• Move, turn and size: select a polyline, or several drawn shapes (Ctrl+click), and a dashed box shows round them: drag the square in the middle to move them, the round handle beyond the right side to turn them (in steps of 15°; hold Alt for 0.1°), a corner to scale them evenly, the opposite corner staying put. One circle or rectangle keeps its own handles instead. The shapes keep their ids, so the operations that cut them follow, and so do the operations’ start points, corner choices and tabs placed by hand on them (also with shape move, turn and scale, and when you change one shape through its own handles or form: a corner’s choice stays with that corner of a rectangle you move or resize).
• Position and Turn: a selected polyline’s form, and the Selection section when several drawn shapes are selected, have Position (the lower-left corner of the box round them: type a value to move them there) and Turn: ⟲ 90, ⟳ 90, or type an angle and press Enter. A polyline keeps no angle of its own; turning moves its points.
• In the Browser: under Drawing, the Circles, Rectangles and Polylines groups list their shapes, in a folder per layer when there are several. Click a row to select the shape (Ctrl+click adds or removes); right-click to rename, copy or delete it. A group with more than 20 shapes starts closed.
• Names: give a drawn shape a Name in its form (or Rename… in the Browser); the Browser shows it, with its number beside it. Empty: it’s shown by its number. Copies start without a name.
• Copy and paste: Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Draw > Paste puts the copy 10 mm right and up; Ctrl+V over the canvas pastes at the cursor.
• Mirror: Draw > Mirror left–right and Mirror up–down flip shapes about the middle of their box.
• Delete: Del. Operations that cut the shape are flagged.
• Undo: Ctrl+Z.

Imported shapes can’t be edited: they change only with the DXF, unless you explode it. Lines whose ends almost meet can be joined into one shape with Draw > Join ends… (same page).

On the command line

chipload shape add part.chipload circle --center 40,30 --radius 5 --layer HOLES   # prints its id
chipload shape add part.chipload rectangle --center 80,30 --length 40 --width 10 --angle-deg 15
chipload shape set part.chipload 9 --corner-radius 3  # round the rectangle's corners
chipload shape add part.chipload polyline --points "0,0 50,0 50,20" --bulges "0 1" --open
chipload shape set part.chipload 8 --radius 6         # change a value or the layer
chipload shape set part.chipload 8 --name "Lid"       # its name in the Browser ("" takes it away)
chipload shape copy part.chipload 8 9 --dx 25 --dy 0  # copies, with new ids
chipload shape mirror part.chipload 8 9 --axis x      # flip in place; ids kept
chipload shape move part.chipload 8 9 --dx 10 --dy -5
chipload shape turn part.chipload 8 9 --angle-deg 30  # about the middle of their box (or --about X,Y)
chipload shape scale part.chipload 8 --factor 1.5
chipload shape remove part.chipload 8
chipload shape join part.chipload --gap 0.05   # join ends that almost meet

Bulges are as in DXF: tan(sweep / 4), 0 straight, 1 a counter-clockwise half circle, −1 clockwise.