iengtips

You can click on the Double-line Tool in the main Toolbar, (directly
beneath the menu bar), to automaticly offset any line, curve, or arc
drawn.
The Ortho mode can toggle you into and out of constraints for drawing
straight lines. Just press the H key on your keyboard while drawing a
line.
The Point Select mode allows you to move points on objects with great
precision. Just choose Point Select Mode from the Options menu.
You can press the right mouse button to bring up a context menu of
common commands, or to snap to the nearest point in the drawing.
To repeat the last drawing command, press F3.
To cancel the current drawing command, press Esc.
You can use Undo repeatedly, using Ctrl-Z key, Undo on the toolbar, or
Undo from the menu. Redo will undo an Undo.
To move objects in front of or behind others, change their stacking
order in the Edit / Selection sub-menu.
Use the Cursor options to set the cursor step size. This makes it easy
to move the cursor certain distances in the drawing with the arrow
keys.
Use the Shift key with the arrow keys to move the cursor smaller
distances. Set those distances in the Small Cursor Step Size field in
Options.
Try our new Tangent snap tool, (at the bottom of the Snap Tools
toolbar), to snap lines tangent to an existing arc or circle.
The Instant Engineer toolboxes can be moved, docked, enabled, and
disabled.
You can now control the resolution, (in pixels) of images as you save
them, regardless of which format you use.
Images can be rotated. Just select any inserted image and press R to
start the Rotate command.
The new Double-Line mode Toolbar controls the offset distance of
objects in Double-line Mode.
You can enter a formula in Instant Engineer whenever a number is
required. For example, you could enter "sqrt(15) / 3", "45*4/3" or
"cos(30)" when asked for a distance.
You can now Print the current view only, which is great for printing
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an area of the screen you're zoomed into.
Main Toolbar beside Print Preview.

This tool is found on the

To set a point a certain horizontal and vertical distance from another

in the drawing, use Point Relative.
To set a point a certain distance and angle from another in the
drawing, use Point Polar.
You can print a color drawing print as Black and White only by
checking that options in the "Type" tab of the Print dialog box.
To create custom colors just double click on an existing color on the
color pallet.
You can use the double line mode to draw walls with an automatic
offset.
You can right click on any toolbox to bring up the show/hide menu for
all the toolboxes.
To quickly move one point in an object, use the Point Select tool and
drag the point.
The Convert To Double Line command, (in the Edit menu), allows you to
offset any existing line just by clicking on it.
You can use the Duplicate command for quick copy and paste operations
with in the same drawing window.
The Line Split by Distance and Line Split by Points commands will
break a normal or double-line, and cap the double line's opening
automatically. It's ideal for inserting holes for doors and windows.
Use the shortcut keys for faster access to commands.
The Line Connect command connects lines and double lines again where
they were broken.
Instant Engineer has a built-in calculator. You'll find it under the
Tools menu.
It's a good idea to save your drawing often, either manually or with
Autosave.
You can pre-assign colors to layers for a cleaner more professional
drawing.
To edit any given entity just select the object in the drawing, and
enable the Info Box.
Any Instant Engineer drawing can be used as a symbol. Simply save your
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file in the desired location on your hard drive and use the symbol
load command to place it in another drawing.
A Macro can save lots of time if you do repetitive tasks. To make a
macro, select Macro Record from the tools menu. Then do the task to be
repeated in Instant Engineer, and stop the macro recording when the
task is finished.
You can press Q to bring up the Options tabs, and then set any of the
Instant Engineer options.
You should keep backup copies of all your important work.
You can place different parts of your drawing in different layers just
by selecting them and using the Info Box.
The Snap Grid causes the mouse to jump in specific increments so you
can set points precisely, for example, at the nearest centimeter.
For on-line technical support, click on the web site button in Help,
About Instant Engineer.
You can quickly change a dimension's text using the Info Box and the
Fixed Text option.
The "Same As" tool makes it a snap to give one object the same color,
layer, and linestyle information as another.
The rotate, scale, and circular repeat command use the handle for the
center of rotation or scaling. Use Set Handles to position the handle
for these commands.
In point select mode, you can draw a box around more than one point to
move several points at once.
You can easily resize a part of your drawing using the resizing
handles found in the options menu.
Use the Import and Export commands to exchange drawings with AutoCAD
and most other CAD programs, through DXF or DWG file formats.
You can save a circle as a Circle or Line at the time of creation.
Instant Engineer features full context sensitive help. Just press
Shift + F1 then click on any command icon or menu item to bring up
help on that item.
To change the accuracy of dimensions and displays, check the
Coordinate Precision settings in the General Options and Dimension
Options menus.
You can get help by sending an E-mail to support@designcad.com.
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Unlike other software companies, we don't charge for support.

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