ARCAD Documentation

Overview

Work in Progress

ARCAD is in active beta and these docs will keep growing. If something is missing or unclear, let us know!

Introduction

ARCAD is a browser-based parametric CAD app that runs on PC, Android tablets, and iPad. It builds real solid models you can export to STEP, with a focus on staying simple to use.

Getting Started

Open app.arcad.studio and start a new project or reopen a recent one. Your work saves automatically.

The Workspace

The tools float at the edges of the 3D viewport, each centred along its side, so the model stays centre stage.

Create

Tools

Selection mode

History

Scene settings

Parameters

Create · top

Adds new geometry: primitives like boxes and cylinders, a fresh 2D sketch, or extruded text. Anything that introduces a new body starts here.

Tools · bottom

A searchable palette of every modelling and editing tool. Your favourites and the tools you used recently sit up front, and each tool has its own help popup.

Selection mode · left

Sets what your clicks pick: whole objects, faces, edges, or vertices. The active mode decides which tools apply and what the smart-selection commands act on.

Feature history · left

The parametric tree of your model, grouped under each body. Select any feature to change its parameters — the model rebuilds from that step onward.

Scene settings · right

The rail of view panels: Scene, Shading, Materials, Lights, and Camera. This is where you change how the model looks rather than its geometry.

Parameters · right

The inspector for the current selection. Edit dimensions, position, and options here and the change applies live.

The Tools bar

The Tools bar sits at the bottom of the viewport and is the same three things every time: search on the left, the tools you used recently in the middle, and your favourites on the right. Recent fills itself as you work; favourites are the ones you star, and they stay put between projects — so the four or five tools a given part needs are always one click away. Open the search and start typing to reach any tool by name.

Search every tool

Recent

Favourites

UnionQ?

SubtractShift+E?

IntersectShift+I?

ExtrudeE?

Fillet?

Chamfer?

Tip

Not sure what a tool does? Click its ? for a short popup with a description and a quick example.

Selection modes

The left rail sets what your clicks pick — whole objects, faces, edges, or vertices — and the mode also decides which tools apply. Smart selection does the tedious part:

Select Similar — everything like what you picked.
Grow / Loop — expand or follow an edge loop.
Select All — every face or edge on the body.

Box select is a button rather than a held key, and that is deliberate. ARCAD runs on desktops, tablets and pens, and a modifier key does not exist on a touch screen — so dragging a rectangle is a mode you switch on instead of a shortcut you hold down. It then behaves identically on every device, which is the whole point: what you learn on the laptop still works on the iPad.

It follows the mode you are in — faces in Face mode, edges in Edge mode, whole bodies in Object mode — and it only ever adds, so you can sweep in several passes without losing what you already picked. While it is on, dragging draws the rectangle instead of orbiting; switch it off to spin the model again.

Object

Face

Edge

Vertex

Box select

Feature history

The left pane lists your model as a tree, grouped under each body. Click a feature to edit its parameters.

Objects (3)

Box

Cylinder

Sphere

Parameters

The right pane shows the parameters of whatever you select, edited live.

Parameters

Wmm

The right rail

Each icon on the right rail opens a settings panel:

Scene & grid

Snapping

Shading

Transform

Material

Lights

Camera

Parametric history

Every operation is a feature in a tree. Select one to change its parameters and the model rebuilds.

The right-click menu

Right-click the model for the most useful actions for what you’re doing — a quick way to work faster without hunting through menus. It is context-aware: the options change with your selection mode. Here it is for a face and for an edge:

Face mode

Extrude faceE

Shell (open this face)

Inset face

Hole

Select similar

Select all faces

Edge mode

Fillet corner

Chamfer corner

Select similar

Grow selection

Select edge loop

Select edge ring

Select all edges

Pick a face and you get face tools; pick an edge and you get edge tools; in object mode you get object actions.

Smart Editing

ARCAD works out what you meant from what you selected. These are the shortcuts worth knowing.

Grab the hole, not the number

Click a face inside a hole — or any face a Boolean made — and the tool that cut it turns up as a translucent ghost you can drag. The hole travels with it.

You stay in Face mode throughout, so Thread, Inset and push/pull still apply to that face. Right-click → Move / edit hole if you would rather type the numbers.

The tool that cut the hole

Drag it — the hole follows

Arrays edit as one

An array is one feature, not a pile of copies — so an edit to any instance lands on all of them, and stays parametric when you change the count. The tool popup has a This instance only toggle for the exception.

fillet this one…

…and every instance has it

Push and pull a face

Select a flat face and grab the arrow, or type an exact distance — the drag and the field stay in sync. What you see while dragging is the real result, boolean and all.

drag, or type the distance

the selected face

Draw straight onto a body

Draw a primitive on top of a body and it is subtracted for you. Keep as body flips it back to a separate body, as often as you like.

draw on the body

it is cut for you

Appearance follows the part

Paint a body, then fillet or boolean it — the result keeps the paint. Per-face materials are pinned to the geometry, so they survive edits further up the tree.

Tools tell you what they need

Pick a tool in the wrong mode and it says what to select instead of doing nothing. Every tool in the search list has a ? with a worked example.

Live preview

Anything you scrub — a fillet radius, a dome height, a shell thickness — is computed for real while you drag, so what you are deciding on is what you will get.

Reference Geometry

Import a mesh (scan or photogrammetry) as a view-only reference and place it with the gizmo. Build parametric geometry on top — it never affects your solids.

Units, Saving & Export

ARCAD works in millimetres but lets you display and type in mm, cm, or inches. You can download a .arcad project file or export STEP for any other CAD package.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
`B`	New box
`C`	New cylinder
`S`	New sphere
`E`	Push / pull the selected face
`F`	Fit the model to the view
`Ctrl/⌘ + S`	Save project
`Ctrl/⌘ + Z`	Undo (Shift to redo)
`Esc`	Cancel the tool / clear selection

ARCAD Documentation

Overview

Work in Progress

ARCAD is in active beta and these docs will keep growing. If something is missing or unclear, let us know!

Introduction

ARCAD is a browser-based parametric CAD app that runs on PC, Android tablets, and iPad. It builds real solid models you can export to STEP, with a focus on staying simple to use.

Getting Started

Open app.arcad.studio and start a new project or reopen a recent one. Your work saves automatically.

The Workspace

The tools float at the edges of the 3D viewport, each centred along its side, so the model stays centre stage.

Create

Tools

Selection mode

History

Scene settings

Parameters

Create · top

Adds new geometry: primitives like boxes and cylinders, a fresh 2D sketch, or extruded text. Anything that introduces a new body starts here.

Tools · bottom

A searchable palette of every modelling and editing tool. Your favourites and the tools you used recently sit up front, and each tool has its own help popup.

Selection mode · left

Sets what your clicks pick: whole objects, faces, edges, or vertices. The active mode decides which tools apply and what the smart-selection commands act on.

Feature history · left

The parametric tree of your model, grouped under each body. Select any feature to change its parameters — the model rebuilds from that step onward.

Scene settings · right

The rail of view panels: Scene, Shading, Materials, Lights, and Camera. This is where you change how the model looks rather than its geometry.

Parameters · right

The inspector for the current selection. Edit dimensions, position, and options here and the change applies live.

The Tools bar

The Tools bar sits at the bottom of the viewport and is the same three things every time: search on the left, the tools you used recently in the middle, and your favourites on the right. Recent fills itself as you work; favourites are the ones you star, and they stay put between projects — so the four or five tools a given part needs are always one click away. Open the search and start typing to reach any tool by name.

Search every tool

Recent

Favourites

UnionQ?

SubtractShift+E?

IntersectShift+I?

ExtrudeE?

Fillet?

Chamfer?

Tip

Not sure what a tool does? Click its ? for a short popup with a description and a quick example.

Selection modes

The left rail sets what your clicks pick — whole objects, faces, edges, or vertices — and the mode also decides which tools apply. Smart selection does the tedious part:

Select Similar — everything like what you picked.
Grow / Loop — expand or follow an edge loop.
Select All — every face or edge on the body.

Box select is a button rather than a held key, and that is deliberate. ARCAD runs on desktops, tablets and pens, and a modifier key does not exist on a touch screen — so dragging a rectangle is a mode you switch on instead of a shortcut you hold down. It then behaves identically on every device, which is the whole point: what you learn on the laptop still works on the iPad.

It follows the mode you are in — faces in Face mode, edges in Edge mode, whole bodies in Object mode — and it only ever adds, so you can sweep in several passes without losing what you already picked. While it is on, dragging draws the rectangle instead of orbiting; switch it off to spin the model again.

Object

Face

Edge

Vertex

Box select

Feature history

The left pane lists your model as a tree, grouped under each body. Click a feature to edit its parameters.

Objects (3)

Box

Cylinder

Sphere

Parameters

The right pane shows the parameters of whatever you select, edited live.

Parameters

Wmm

The right rail

Each icon on the right rail opens a settings panel:

Scene & grid

Snapping

Shading

Transform

Material

Lights

Camera

Parametric history

Every operation is a feature in a tree. Select one to change its parameters and the model rebuilds.

The right-click menu

Right-click the model for the most useful actions for what you’re doing — a quick way to work faster without hunting through menus. It is context-aware: the options change with your selection mode. Here it is for a face and for an edge:

Face mode

Extrude faceE

Shell (open this face)

Inset face

Hole

Select similar

Select all faces

Edge mode

Fillet corner

Chamfer corner

Select similar

Grow selection

Select edge loop

Select edge ring

Select all edges

Pick a face and you get face tools; pick an edge and you get edge tools; in object mode you get object actions.

Smart Editing

ARCAD works out what you meant from what you selected. These are the shortcuts worth knowing.

Grab the hole, not the number

Click a face inside a hole — or any face a Boolean made — and the tool that cut it turns up as a translucent ghost you can drag. The hole travels with it.

You stay in Face mode throughout, so Thread, Inset and push/pull still apply to that face. Right-click → Move / edit hole if you would rather type the numbers.

The tool that cut the hole

Drag it — the hole follows

Arrays edit as one

An array is one feature, not a pile of copies — so an edit to any instance lands on all of them, and stays parametric when you change the count. The tool popup has a This instance only toggle for the exception.

fillet this one…

…and every instance has it

Push and pull a face

Select a flat face and grab the arrow, or type an exact distance — the drag and the field stay in sync. What you see while dragging is the real result, boolean and all.

drag, or type the distance

the selected face

Draw straight onto a body

Draw a primitive on top of a body and it is subtracted for you. Keep as body flips it back to a separate body, as often as you like.

draw on the body

it is cut for you

Appearance follows the part

Paint a body, then fillet or boolean it — the result keeps the paint. Per-face materials are pinned to the geometry, so they survive edits further up the tree.

Tools tell you what they need

Pick a tool in the wrong mode and it says what to select instead of doing nothing. Every tool in the search list has a ? with a worked example.

Live preview

Anything you scrub — a fillet radius, a dome height, a shell thickness — is computed for real while you drag, so what you are deciding on is what you will get.

Reference Geometry

Import a mesh (scan or photogrammetry) as a view-only reference and place it with the gizmo. Build parametric geometry on top — it never affects your solids.

Units, Saving & Export

ARCAD works in millimetres but lets you display and type in mm, cm, or inches. You can download a .arcad project file or export STEP for any other CAD package.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
`B`	New box
`C`	New cylinder
`S`	New sphere
`E`	Push / pull the selected face
`F`	Fit the model to the view
`Ctrl/⌘ + S`	Save project
`Ctrl/⌘ + Z`	Undo (Shift to redo)
`Esc`	Cancel the tool / clear selection

ARCAD Documentation

Overview

Work in Progress

ARCAD is in active beta and these docs will keep growing. If something is missing or unclear, let us know!

Introduction

ARCAD is a browser-based parametric CAD app that runs on PC, Android tablets, and iPad. It builds real solid models you can export to STEP, with a focus on staying simple to use.

Getting Started

Open app.arcad.studio and start a new project or reopen a recent one. Your work saves automatically.

The Workspace

The tools float at the edges of the 3D viewport, each centred along its side, so the model stays centre stage.

Create

Tools

Selection mode

History

Scene settings

Parameters

Create · top

Adds new geometry: primitives like boxes and cylinders, a fresh 2D sketch, or extruded text. Anything that introduces a new body starts here.

Tools · bottom

A searchable palette of every modelling and editing tool. Your favourites and the tools you used recently sit up front, and each tool has its own help popup.

Selection mode · left

Sets what your clicks pick: whole objects, faces, edges, or vertices. The active mode decides which tools apply and what the smart-selection commands act on.

Feature history · left

The parametric tree of your model, grouped under each body. Select any feature to change its parameters — the model rebuilds from that step onward.

Scene settings · right

The rail of view panels: Scene, Shading, Materials, Lights, and Camera. This is where you change how the model looks rather than its geometry.

Parameters · right

The inspector for the current selection. Edit dimensions, position, and options here and the change applies live.

The Tools bar

The Tools bar sits at the bottom of the viewport and is the same three things every time: search on the left, the tools you used recently in the middle, and your favourites on the right. Recent fills itself as you work; favourites are the ones you star, and they stay put between projects — so the four or five tools a given part needs are always one click away. Open the search and start typing to reach any tool by name.

Search every tool

Recent

Favourites

UnionQ?

SubtractShift+E?

IntersectShift+I?

ExtrudeE?

Fillet?

Chamfer?

Tip

Not sure what a tool does? Click its ? for a short popup with a description and a quick example.

Selection modes

The left rail sets what your clicks pick — whole objects, faces, edges, or vertices — and the mode also decides which tools apply. Smart selection does the tedious part:

Select Similar — everything like what you picked.
Grow / Loop — expand or follow an edge loop.
Select All — every face or edge on the body.

Box select is a button rather than a held key, and that is deliberate. ARCAD runs on desktops, tablets and pens, and a modifier key does not exist on a touch screen — so dragging a rectangle is a mode you switch on instead of a shortcut you hold down. It then behaves identically on every device, which is the whole point: what you learn on the laptop still works on the iPad.

It follows the mode you are in — faces in Face mode, edges in Edge mode, whole bodies in Object mode — and it only ever adds, so you can sweep in several passes without losing what you already picked. While it is on, dragging draws the rectangle instead of orbiting; switch it off to spin the model again.

Object

Face

Edge

Vertex

Box select

Feature history

The left pane lists your model as a tree, grouped under each body. Click a feature to edit its parameters.

Objects (3)

Box

Cylinder

Sphere

Parameters

The right pane shows the parameters of whatever you select, edited live.

Parameters

Wmm

The right rail

Each icon on the right rail opens a settings panel:

Scene & grid

Snapping

Shading

Transform

Material

Lights

Camera

Parametric history

Every operation is a feature in a tree. Select one to change its parameters and the model rebuilds.

The right-click menu

Right-click the model for the most useful actions for what you’re doing — a quick way to work faster without hunting through menus. It is context-aware: the options change with your selection mode. Here it is for a face and for an edge:

Face mode

Extrude faceE

Shell (open this face)

Inset face

Hole

Select similar

Select all faces

Edge mode

Fillet corner

Chamfer corner

Select similar

Grow selection

Select edge loop

Select edge ring

Select all edges

Pick a face and you get face tools; pick an edge and you get edge tools; in object mode you get object actions.

Smart Editing

ARCAD works out what you meant from what you selected. These are the shortcuts worth knowing.

Grab the hole, not the number

Click a face inside a hole — or any face a Boolean made — and the tool that cut it turns up as a translucent ghost you can drag. The hole travels with it.

You stay in Face mode throughout, so Thread, Inset and push/pull still apply to that face. Right-click → Move / edit hole if you would rather type the numbers.

The tool that cut the hole

Drag it — the hole follows

Arrays edit as one

An array is one feature, not a pile of copies — so an edit to any instance lands on all of them, and stays parametric when you change the count. The tool popup has a This instance only toggle for the exception.

fillet this one…

…and every instance has it

Push and pull a face

Select a flat face and grab the arrow, or type an exact distance — the drag and the field stay in sync. What you see while dragging is the real result, boolean and all.

drag, or type the distance

the selected face

Draw straight onto a body

Draw a primitive on top of a body and it is subtracted for you. Keep as body flips it back to a separate body, as often as you like.

draw on the body

it is cut for you

Appearance follows the part

Paint a body, then fillet or boolean it — the result keeps the paint. Per-face materials are pinned to the geometry, so they survive edits further up the tree.

Tools tell you what they need

Pick a tool in the wrong mode and it says what to select instead of doing nothing. Every tool in the search list has a ? with a worked example.

Live preview

Anything you scrub — a fillet radius, a dome height, a shell thickness — is computed for real while you drag, so what you are deciding on is what you will get.

Reference Geometry

Import a mesh (scan or photogrammetry) as a view-only reference and place it with the gizmo. Build parametric geometry on top — it never affects your solids.

Units, Saving & Export

ARCAD works in millimetres but lets you display and type in mm, cm, or inches. You can download a .arcad project file or export STEP for any other CAD package.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
`B`	New box
`C`	New cylinder
`S`	New sphere
`E`	Push / pull the selected face
`F`	Fit the model to the view
`Ctrl/⌘ + S`	Save project
`Ctrl/⌘ + Z`	Undo (Shift to redo)
`Esc`	Cancel the tool / clear selection