5   File Handling

Menu: File - New
Hot key: Ctrl-N
Click this button to create a new empty drawing. QCad creates a new drawing automatically on every startup. If you plan to use QCad regular, it's recommended to create a template drawing with a standard border and the layers you usually use. To start a new drawing you can simply open this template and save it under a new name.

Menu: File - Open
Hot key: Ctrl-O
Click this button to load an existing drawing. QCad can load drawings in the DXF, HPGL (PLT) and DGN (beta) format.
Alternative to this, you can use File, Add to add a file to the current active drawing.

Menu: File - Save As
Using this option shows a dialog where you can choose a name for the file to write. You can either overwrite an existing DXF file or create a new one.

Menu: File - Save
Hot key: Ctrl-S
If there's been chosen a name for this drawing or it was loaded from disk before, QCad won't ask for a name with this function. The old version of the file gets overwritten. If there's no name known for this drawing, this function makes the same like "Save As".

File - Close Input
Hot key: Ctrl-W
This function closes the active drawing. Note: You need to save the drawing before you close it. Otherwise you will loose the drawing.