Changes

=== Drawing CAD Objects in the Active Color Group ===

At any time, only one color group of the Navigation Tree is active, where all the newly drawn objects are placed and listed. CubeCAD displays the active color's name in bold. When you start [[EM.Cube]] for the first time and draw a new object in CubeCAD, a default color named "Color_1" is immediately created and set as the active color. Every time you create a new color, it is set as the active color. To change the active color, right click on the name of a color and select '''Activate''' from the contextual menu. New objects will now be added under the new active color.

To draw an object in [[EM.Cube]], click one of the many '''Object''' buttons in '''Object Toolbar''' and start drawing a new object in the project workspace. Alternatively, you can call on any object creation tool through one of '''Menu > Object > Solids''', '''Surfaces''' or '''Curves''' submenus. Once an object creation tool is selected, the shape of the cursor changes to a cross, signifying that [[EM.Cube]] is in object creation mode. Left click anywhere in the Main Window to draw an object of the selected type. While the new object is being drawn, a property dialog appears on the lower right corner of the screen. Also, a small '''Help Tip''' window opens up on the upper right corner of the screen that guides you through the drawing process. The property dialog allows you to customize the new object's dimensions and other parameters. The entered values for lengths are always in the currently selected project units and angles are measured in degrees.

===The Property Dialog & Object Parameter Types===

CAD objects are characterized by their Local Coordinate Systems (LCS). Spatial information contains two sets of information: '''LCS Center'''– the X-, Y-, and Z-coordinates of the origin of the local coordinate system, and '''LCS Rotation''' – the right-sense rotation angles of the object about the X, Y, and Z-axes before the object is translated to the specified base center. As you will see later, objects in CubeCAD can be linked to each other. The linkage information part of the property dialog shows whether an object is linked to another "parent" object and if so, in what manner. The type and number of property fields are unique to each native CubeCAD object. The box object, for instance, contains Length, Width and Height values along with Lock Base and Cap Ends check boxes.

===Modifying Objects Using Edit Handles===

=== Using the Grid & Work Planes ===

[[CubeCAD]] is a full 3D CAD environment that allows you to move your mouse to any arbitrary point in the three-dimensional coordinate space. A work plane is the plane on which the mouse cursor is located and moves freely around. When you start the [[EM.Cube]] application, the mouse always moves on the XY plane, meaning that the XY plane is your default work plane. In addition, [[EM.Cube]] shows the project workspace's grid, and its "Snap-to-Grid" mode is enabled by default. As you move the mouse around, it snaps to the grid points. This provides a convenient way to draw objects with precise dimensions and at precise locations. The coordinates of the current location of the mouse are reported in the Status Bar.

When the work plane is set to the ZX plane, the Y-coordinate of the mouse is fixed and equal to zero.

=== Object Snap Points & EM.Cube's Snap Modes===

{{Note|Snap to object always has priority over snap to grid. In other words, the mouse jumps from a grid node point immediately to the closest object snap point.}}

In addition to Snap-to-Object mode, [[EM.Cube]] provides three more snap modes: