The Pingendum Window

Spend five minutes here and the rest of the documentation gets much easier. Most "where is that control?" questions answer themselves once you know which strip is which, and this chapter gives every part of the window its name.

The screenshot below has eight regions marked with numbered orange dots. Each numbered heading in this chapter matches one of those dots, in the same order — so if you see a number on the picture, scroll to the heading with the same number.

Two more parts of the window are described at the end of the chapter. They carry no number, because the screenshot was taken with a drawing already open: the drawing tabs along the top, and the Welcome tab.

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1. The tool palette

The tall strip of buttons down the left-hand side. This is where the drawing tools live.

It holds every tool for drawing, editing, annotating and measuring, grouped into sections that follow the menus: Draw, Modify, Annotate, Inquiry.

A detail you will be glad of: clicking a tool leaves the keyboard pointed at the drawing. So you can click a button and immediately start typing a number, and the number goes to the drawing rather than into the palette.

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2. The toolbar

The row of buttons and drop-down lists across the top, just under the menu bar.

Where the tool palette holds tools, the toolbar holds the things you need no matter which tool is running.

The properties strip

Those four lists in the middle — Layer, Colour, Linetype, Lineweight — are worth understanding early, because they do two different jobs depending on whether anything is selected.

First, the words themselves:

• Layer — the named group an object belongs to, like a transparent overlay sheet. More on layers.
• Colour — the colour it is drawn in.
• Linetype — the pattern of the line: solid, dashed, dash-dot, and so on.
• Lineweight — how thick the line prints.

Now the two jobs:

• With nothing selected, the lists set what the next thing you draw will get. This is called the current layer and the current properties.
• With something selected, the lists show that selection's values, and picking a new value changes every selected object at once (as a single undo step). Where the selected objects disagree, the list reads Varies.

Colour offers By Layer, By Block, the classic drafting colours, and Other…. Linetype offers By Layer, By Block, the built-in linetypes, any the drawing already uses, and Load Linetypes… at the end.

Common mistake

Getting those two jobs the wrong way round is the most common beginner slip in the whole program.

If you change the colour expecting something on screen to change colour and nothing happens, it is because nothing was selected — you have only set the colour for the next object you draw. Select the object first, then change the colour.

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3. The context bar

The thin strip directly above the drawing area. In the screenshot it reads "Select objects, or choose a command", because nothing is running at that moment.

This is where the program talks to you. Read it often — especially while learning. It shows:

• the running command's name, in amber;
• what it is asking you for right now;
• a field for anything you type;
• the command's options, each as a button labelled with the key that picks it.

How you use it:

• Pick an option by pressing its key, or by clicking it.
• Type a value — start typing a number, @ or ( and the field takes what you type; Enter accepts it.
• Read an answer — measuring commands put their result at the right, with a Copy button.
• Press Esc to end the command, wherever you happen to have clicked last.

If you have used AutoCAD: this replaces the command line. There is no separate command-line window in Pingendum.

Note

The context bar is above the drawing, not below it. If you are hunting along the bottom of the window for a tool's options, you are looking at the status bar (8) by mistake.

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4. The canvas

The large dark area in the middle of the window: the sheet of paper you draw on. It is dark unless you change that in View ▸ Canvas.

The cursor tells you what the program wants

The shape of the cursor is a status message. It is worth learning these three:

Grips

Click an object when no command is running and it is selected: drawn in violet, with small squares at its ends, middles, centres or corners. Those squares are called grips, and they are handles you can drag.

• Drag a line's end grip and that end moves. Drag its middle grip and the whole line moves.
• Drag a circle's quadrant grip and the radius changes.
• Or click a grip once, then click or type where it should go.

The drafting aids keep working while you drag a grip, so editing this way is every bit as accurate as drawing was. See Editing with Grips.

Grips appear while 1,000 objects or fewer are selected. Select more than that and they stop being drawn — that is a deliberate limit to keep big selections fast, not a fault.

While a command runs

The canvas gives you live feedback: snap markers showing exactly where the next point will land (with the snap's name beside it), amber marks on the points you have picked so far, and measurements drawn on the geometry itself as it takes shape.

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5. The Layers panel

The panel at the top right, headed Layers.

What a layer is. Think of a stack of transparent sheets laid over one another. Walls on one, furniture on another, dimensions on a third. Each sheet can be hidden, locked or given its own colour, without disturbing the rest. That is a layer. Every drawing has at least one, called 0.

The panel lists the drawing's layers one row at a time: 0 first, then the rest by name. Each row shows an amber bar if it is the current layer, the layer's colour as a dot, its name (with its linetype and lineweight where there is room), and then three switches: On, Freeze and Lock.

Every one of those is a single undo step. Working with Layers explains what On, Freeze and Lock actually do, and when to use which.

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6. The Properties panel

The panel on the right, directly below the Layers panel, headed Properties.

This is where you read and edit the exact numbers behind whatever is selected. It names the selection at the top ("1 Line, 2 Circles"), then lists its general properties, and — when everything selected is the same kind of object — its geometry as well.

With nothing selected it reads "Nothing selected: current properties", which is what the screenshot shows.

Type a value and press Enter or Tab. Arithmetic works here: typing 2*6 is a perfectly good way to enter 12. With several objects selected, a field reads Varies where they differ, and a value you type applies to all of them. Each edit is one undo step.

Why some fields are greyed out. Length, angle, circumference, area and arc length are derived — the program works them out from the geometry, so they are results, not settings. You cannot type into them.

To make a line a particular length, move its end point, or use Lengthen.

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7. The sheet tabs

The small tabs at the bottom left of the drawing, just above the status bar. In the screenshot they read Model and +.

They hold Model first, then any sheets this drawing has, then + to add a new one.

What the difference is. Model is where you draw everything at full size. A sheet is a piece of paper, with your drawing shown on it at a chosen scale, ready to print. Model Space and Sheets covers this properly.

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8. The status bar

The strip along the very bottom of the window. In the screenshot it starts with the word "Ready".

Reading left to right: messages, then the drafting aids, then the scales, then the cursor's position.

Drafting Aids explains each aid and when to use it. In a narrow window the names disappear and just the icons remain.

Note for anyone arriving from a parametric program

There is no degrees-of-freedom readout here. Pingendum 2D has no constraint solver, so there is no "under-defined / fully defined" state to report. See What drafting means here.

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Not numbered on the screenshot

These two are part of the window, but carry no dot in the picture above.

Drawing tabs

Along the top, under the toolbar. In the screenshot they read Welcome and lesson-2-end.

Every open drawing gets a tab, exactly like tabs in a web browser. The name is shown without the .pingdrw ending; hover over a tab to see the full path to the file.

• A dot where the close button goes means there are unsaved changes.
• Right-click a tab for Save, Close, Close Others, and Show in Explorer (Finder on macOS).
• Drag tabs to reorder them.

The Welcome tab is always first and cannot be closed. File ▸ Start Page takes you back to it.

Drawing tabs or sheet tabs?

They are easy to mix up, so: drawing tabs are along the top and switch between open files. The sheet tabs (7) are along the bottom and switch between the model and the sheets inside one file.

The Welcome tab

The first tab along the top, and where every session begins. It is not visible in the screenshot above because a drawing is open in front of it.

• New Drawing, New from Template, Open and Import DXF.
• Recent Drawings — a card with a thumbnail for each; click one to open it. View all lists the rest. Drawings you have moved or deleted stop appearing.

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Next Steps

Now that everything has a name, the next chapter draws something.

Next: Drawing Basic Shapes