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== CubeCAD in a Nutshell ==

All of [[EM.Cube]]'s computational modules use CubeCAD together with individually customized navigation trees as their graphical user interface and geometry definition utility. Learning CubeCAD is therefore the stepping stone for learning all the other modules. Once you have mastered the basics of CubeCAD, using the other modules will be very straightforward.

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CubeCAD provides a diverse set of standard geometric objects that are fully parameterized. In addition to the center coordinates and rotation angles, these objects have a variety of dimensional parameters that are used to set and control their size and geometrical shape. More complex objects can be created by editing and combining these basic shapes. Objects can be created by clicking on one of the object buttons on the '''Object Toolbar''' or from the '''Object &rarr; Solid''', '''Object &rarr; Surface''', or '''Object &rarr; Curve''' menus. Once an object tool is selected, left click anywhere on the work plane to draw the object.

=== Local Coordinate System ===

When you start the [[EM.Cube]] application, you will only see the world X- and Y-axes in the Project Workspace. A small trident icon at the lower left corner of the workspace also shows the world coordinate system at all times. There are many instances when the relative orientation of objects with respect to one another and their positive or negative directions are very important. In such cases, making the LCS of objects visible would be very useful. You can enable the local coordinate system of an object by selecting it, right clicking on the surface of the object or right clicking on its name in the Navigation Tree and selecting '''Show LCS''' from the contextual menu. This will display the red, green and blue local X-, Y- and Z-axes of the objects in dashed lines. To disable the LCS, select '''Hide LCS''' from the contextual menu of that object.

You can move objects from one color to another in CubeCAD. You can also move objects from CubeCAD to other modules or among different modules. To transfer an object from its current color group to another color group, first select it in the Project Workspace and right click on its surface to open the contextual menu. Select '''Move To''' from the contextual menu. This menu item opens up to a number of submenus that include CubeCAD and possibly the names of some other [[EM.Cube]] modules. Each submenu leads to yet other submenus that contain the names of all the object groups that are available for object transfer. For instance, if CubeCAD has three color groups, color_1, color_2, color_3, you will see submenus like''' Move To &rarr; CubeCAD &rarr; Color_1''', '''Color_2''' or '''Color_3'''.Select the desired object group to transfer the selected object to. The transferred object's name is removed from its original color group and is added to the new color group. The color of the transferred object also changes to that of the new color group. In exactly the same way, you can transfer any object from its current group in any module to any other object group in any other module as long as it is listed in the '''Move To''' submenus.

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Only one color group of the navigation tree is active at any time. All the newly drawn objects belong to the active color group. CubeCAD displays the active color's name in bold letters. When you start [[EM.Cube]] for the first time and draw a new object in CubeCAD, a default grey color named &quot;Color_1&quot; 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 group and select '''Activate''' from the contextual menu. New objects will now be added under the new active color.

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* Nodal information such as node indices and coordinates (this applies to nodal object types like polyline, polystrip, etc.)

===Modifying Objects Using Edit Handles===

=== General Drawing Rules ===

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*Super-Quadratic Curve

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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]]'s &quot;Snap-to-Grid&quot; mode is enabled by default even though the project workspace's grid is not displayed by default. As you move the mouse around, it snaps to the invisible 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.

Using the View Toolbar, you can easily change the work plane to any of the three principal coordinate planes:

Sometimes, highlighting objects simply by mouse-over may turn out to be rather bothersome especially in dense structures. In this case, you can turn off the &quot;Snap to Object&quot; mode. To do so, double click on the small window at the right end of the Status Bar, which reports the current state of object snap mode. This will cycle through the different objects snap mode. Continue double clicking until you get '''Obj. Snap: OFF'''. Double clicking one more time will lead to '''Obj. Snap: ON'''. You can also enable the '''Snap to Object''' mode using the keyboard shortcut '''O'''. The illustration below depicts several objects and their corresponding snap points.

{{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.}}

Oftentimes, you may simply need to set up your work plane parallel to one of the three principal planes but at an offset distance. [[EM.Cube]] provides easy shortcuts for this purpose. Hover the mouse over any object in the project workspace and highlight one of the snap points of that object. Then, type {{key|X}}, {{key|Y}}, or {{key|Z}} on your keyboard. This will establish a new work plane centered at the snapped point and parallel to the YZ, ZX or XY planes, respectively. You can also set up an arbitrary work plane non parallel to any of the principal coordinate planes.

{{Note|A new work plane will stay in effect until you switch to one of the three principal work planes.}}

In order to modify or apply CAD operations to objects, they must first be selected. The navigation tree provides a convenient interface that allows you to select one or more objects. The simplest way to select an object is to click on its surface in the project workspace. When an object is selected, its color changes to the &quot;Selection Color&quot; (yellow by default). When you select an object in the project workspace, its name on the navigation tree is highlighted in the selection color. Alternatively, you can select an object by clicking on its name in the navigation tree. In that case, the selected object's name is highlighted in the navigation tree, and the object itself is highlighted in the selection color in the project workspace. To deselect a selected object, simply click on any blank point in the project workspace.

Cut, copy, paste and delete are some of the most common edit operations. As in many other Windows applications, you can cut an object (from the workspace) and hold it in the Windows' clipboard until you paste it back to the workspace. You can also copy an object and paste it back to the workspace. Deleting an object removes it forever from the project workspace, although you can undo your delete operation.

When you paste an object or a selection of objects to the project workspace, CubeCAD allows you to place the pasted object(s) in any arbitrary location right away. First, a wire-frame of the pasted object(s) appears in the workspace, which you can drag around with the mouse. Wherever in the workspace you click the mouse, the pasted object(s) will be dropped. A dialog titled &quot;Place&quot; appears on the lower right corner of the screen that shows the current coordinates of the mouse point (as you drag it) in three X-, Y- and Z-coordinate boxes labeled '''Destination''' as well as three X-, Y- and Z-coordinate boxes labeled '''Vector'''. The vector coordinates show the Cartesian components of the displacement vector pointing from the original position of the cut or copied object(s) to the current mouse position. As you drag the mouse around, all these values get updated continuously. You can fine-tune the final location of your pasted object using either of the two coordinate sets.

===Glossary of EM.Cube CAD Tools===

[[EM.Cube]] provides a large number of CAD tools that translate, rotate, scale and perform more complex geometric transformations on one or a selection of several objects.

=== Importing Objects from External Files ===

Building complex geometries often requires the import of external CAD models. Currently, [[EM.Cube]] can import the following CAD file formats:

{{Note|You can import external CAD files only into CubeCAD, from which you can then move the imported objects to [[EM.Cube]]'s other modules.}}

You can save the structure that you build in [[EM.Cube]] to an external CAD file for later use or transfer to other applications. Currently, [[EM.Cube]] can export the physical structure to the following file formats:

To export the project structure to an external file of one of the above formats, select the menu item '''File &rarr; Export...''' Once the standard Windows "Save As Dialog" pops up, select the desired file extension from the drop-down list labeled &quot;Save as type:&quot;. Then, type in a name for the file and click the '''Save''' button of the dialog. This opens another dialog that shows the progress of writing the exported file. You can abort the export process at any time by clicking the '''Abort Process''' button.

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