Construct Parts

Instead of importing parts file, you can construct parts directly in CypCut, especially for simple ones.

Draw Command Window

The Draw command window is the most important communication platform between you and the PC while programming parts. The PC tells you which insertions it expects you to enter for the chosen command.

For example, when you enter line in the Draw command window, or run the function by selecting the function Line in the menu or clicking on the button Line, you will see the message below.

Command: New Line
please specify start point:

The PC is waiting for an insertion in the form of a coordinate. Insert an X and Y coordinate and separate the two values with a comma (do not use the decimal point of the number block. It is only needed for entering decimal values). Confirm your entry with Enter. If the message Unknown param appears, you have either forgotten to enter a second value or have not separated the X and Y coordinates properly.

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Object Transformation Functions

The object transformation functions will scale, move, align or rotate the selected objects.

The scale functions will change the size of the selected objects, and are grouped in the menu Scale in Home.

Select one or more objects and click on the menu icon to open the dialog Modify Size.

Set a new size and click on OK to scale the selected objects. If the button is checked, the ratio of the objects will be kept when scaling. And the point of the bounding frame being set as the Scale Center will be kept there when scaling.

You can also choose the other commands in the pulldown-menu Scale to change the size of the selected objects by a fixed width, i.e. 100mm or 200mm, or to a size times of the current size. If you want to scale the objects in the way of dragging and setting, select the command Scale, and follow the prompts in the Draw command window to complete the command.

The other transformation functions are grouped in the menu Transform in Home.

Select the command Translate to move the selected objects by dragging and setting, follow the prompts in the Draw command window to complete the command.

In this way, you can move the objects precisely by choosing an appropriate reference point and moving it to, for example, a snapped key geometry point. There is an another way to move the objects in a specific step. Click on the button Fine on the bottom right to enable the fine translating function. The selected objects will be moved in the specified step when the arrow keys on the keyboard are pressed down. Or there will be a new copy created at the target location if the Ctrl key is held at the same time, instead of moving the original objects.

For quick move, just press down the left mouse button on a drawing element of the selected objects, and then drag the objects to where you want. And you can create a new copy with the Ctrl key held, same as above.

Check the menu command Disable drag and copy in Home>Select will disable the fine translating and the quick move functions, only the Translate function left effective.

The align functions are grouped in the menu Align in Transform, will align the selected objects.

Icon	Label	Function
	Left-Aligned	Align the left side of the objects to the left-most one.
	Right-Aligned	Align the right side of the objects to the right-most one.
	Center-Aligned	Align the center of the objects to the center of the bounding frame horizontally.
	Top-Aligned	Align the top of the objects to the top-most one.
	Bottom-Aligned	Align the bottom of the objects to the bottom-most one.
	Vertically centered	Align the center of the objects to the center of the bounding frame vertically.
	Align Center	Align the center of the objects to the center of the bounding frame.

Select the command Horizontal Mirror or the command Vertical Mirror to mirror the selected objects horizontally or vertically. If you want to mirror the objects by a self-defined axis of symmetry, select the command Mirror, and follow the prompts in the Draw command window to complete the command.

Select the command 90, the command 270 or the command 180 to rotate the selected objects 90°, 270° or 180° counter clockwise. If you want to rotate the objects with a self-defined rotation center and angle, select the command Rotate, and follow the prompts in the Draw command window to complete the command.

Drawing Functions

We will not cover too much details but general procedures about drawing functions in this section.

You can find all the drawing functions on the drawing toolbar or in the menu Draw, i.e. Line, Rectangle, Circle, Polyline, Text, etc.

If you are familiar with some other CAD systems, e.g. AutoCAD, and get used to enter commands for drawing parts, you can still do that in the Draw command window in CypCut, refer to Draw Command Window for more information.

Here is a list of the drawing commands.

Button	Menu Command	Command	Function
	Line	line	Draw line segments.
	Rectangle	rect	Draw a rectangle.
	RoundRect	rrect	Draw a round rectangle.
	Round	round	Draw a special round rectangle with its sides replaced with half rounds.
	Circle	circle	Draw a circle.
	Point Arc		Draw an arc by specifying three points.
	Scan Arc	arc	Draw an arc by specifying the center, the radius, the start and the end points.
	Ellipse	ellipse	Draw an ellipse.
	Polyline		Draw a polyline.
	Polygon	polygon	Draw a polygon.
	Star		Draw a star.
	Point	point	Draw a point.
	Text	text	Draw a letter sequence.

The command prompts will be shown in the Draw command window no matter how you select the command, and you can get hints there on how to complete the command. Complete the drawing command by left-click for setting points in the drawing window, by right-click for bring up the context menu, by entering appropriate parameters, or by a combination of them.

The Rectangle, Circle, Polygon command and the commands similar with them will automatically create closed contours which are ready for setting technology.

The Line command will create a line segment immediately when the start and the end points are specified, and can be chained up to create line segments. Each line segment is separated with others and can be selected separately. Set the end point of the last line segment to the start point of the first one, choose all the line segments, and then select the command Combine near to make them a closed contour.

On the other hand, the Polyline command will not create the polyline (composed by line or arc segments) until you complete the command by selecting commands in the context menu or entering commands in the Draw command window. Select the command OK in the context menu, the polyline will be closed automatically if the end point is set to the start point, otherwise, the segments in the polyline are connected with each other but the polyline itself will be treated as an open contour. Or, select or enter the command Close in the context menu or in the Draw command window, and the software will close the polyline automatically by connecting the end and the start points by a line or an arc segment according to the current choice of the command.

In general, we recommend using the Polyline function, other than a combination of the Line and the Arc function, to construct parts because it usually expresses human intent better and need fewer post procedures to finish the job.

The Text command will create a text object and activate the menu Text after you confirm the creation. You can change text, font, size and placement of the object in the menu.

After creation, you need to select the command Text to Curve to convert the text object to normal contours which are ready for setting technology. Otherwise, you will get error messages when doing that.