Installing and Starting RazorCAD

Running RazorCAD

Double-click RazorCAD.exe. It is one standalone program: it needs no browser, Python or installation, and it runs offline. It uses the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime, which comes with Windows 10 and 11.

Installing with the setup program

Testers can be given RazorCAD-Setup.exe, a single setup program with RazorCAD inside it.

Install for the current user (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\RazorCAD, no administrator rights), for all users (Program Files), or into a folder you choose.
Setup installs the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime and .NET Framework 4.8 from Microsoft if they are missing.
It creates Start-menu and desktop shortcuts and registers RazorCAD under Windows Installed apps with an uninstaller.
The uninstaller asks before removing settings and crash reports. Part files are never touched.
Running setup again updates an existing installation.
Until RazorCAD is code-signed, Windows may show "Windows protected your PC" for the setup: click More info, then Run anyway. The Read me first file that comes with the setup says what to expect for that version.

Silent install and uninstall:

Command	Effect
`RazorCAD-Setup.exe /S`	Silent install for the current user
`/D=folder`	Install into this folder
`/ALLUSERS`	Install for all users
`/NODESKTOP`, `/NOSTARTMENU`	Skip the desktop or Start-menu shortcut
`uninstall.exe /S`	Silent uninstall

Updates

A little after it starts (at most once a day), RazorCAD asks GitHub for the newest RazorCAD release. When there is a newer one, a notice in the corner offers Download (the release page), Later or Skip this version. Nothing is shown when you are up to date or offline. Only GitHub is asked; nothing about you or your parts is sent.

Help ▸ Check for Updates… checks at once and says what it found. Its window also turns the check at start on or off. Help ▸ About RazorCAD shows the version you have.

The start window

At launch RazorCAD shows a start window with:

New to RazorCAD? Take the one-minute tour (until you have taken it; see Getting Started Tour)
New Part, New Assembly and New Drawing
Open…
Sample Part, a ready-made part to explore
Recent Parts: name, folder and date. Missing files are greyed out and can be removed with ✕. Parts that have an auto-save waiting are marked.
Recover Previous Session, offered once when unsaved work from an earlier version is found
A notice when new crash reports have been written

Reopen it any time with File ▸ Recent Parts / Start….

The RazorCAD window

Area	What it does
Menu bar	File, Edit, View, Insert, Tools, Help. Next to the menus are quick buttons for Save, Save As, Rebuild and Search commands (the magnifier).
Document tabs	Each open part or drawing has its own tab. ✕ closes a tab and asks to save.
Command ribbon	Tabs of tool buttons: Features, Sketch, Surfaces, Sheet Metal, Fast Structure, Evaluate and Claude. Buttons with a shortcut show the key in their bottom-right corner.
Feature tree	The part's history, with folders for Solid Bodies, Sheet Metal Bodies and Surface Bodies, the material, the planes and every feature. An eye column on the right shows or hides each item.
Configurations tab	Next to the Feature tree and the Property panel at the top of the left panel (see the Configurations chapter)
Property panel	Opens in place of the tree while you create or edit a feature. ✔ accepts (`Enter`), ✕ cancels (`Esc`).
Heads-up toolbar	Above the 3D view: view orientation, display style, selection filters, visibility (eye button) and section view
Confirm corner	The top-right corner of the view holds ✔ / ✕ for the active feature or sketch
Status line and progress bar	Bottom left. Long operations (opening, rebuilding, importing, meshing, exporting) show progress here. The rebuild time is shown at the right; when features have errors it shows their number in red: click it for Fix References.
Units	Bottom right: MMGS (millimetres) or IPS (inches). Click it to change the document's units.

Customising the ribbon

The ribbon shows its buttons in two rows.

Icon size: Small, Medium or Large, from View ▸ Toolbar Icons or by right-clicking the ribbon.
Rearrange: drag a button to a new place; the others slide aside.
Your own toolbars: click + after the tabs (or right-click a tab ▸ New Toolbar…). Add tools by dragging a button onto its tab or with right-click ▸ Add to "…". Drag a button off to remove it.
Right-click a button on a built-in toolbar to hide it or add a separator after it. Customize Toolbars… shows hidden buttons again, and Reset puts a toolbar back as it was.

The layout is kept in prefs.json in RazorCAD's data folder.

Getting Started Tour

A one-minute tour of the window in eight short steps, each pointing at its part of the window: the ribbon, the feature tree, the view and its mouse buttons, how to make a first part, the command search and the units. It ends with Open the Sample Part. Use Next / Back (or → / ← and Enter); Esc or Skip the tour ends it.

The first time RazorCAD starts, the start window offers it. If you close the start window on an empty part, it starts by itself, once. Afterwards it is in Help ▸ Getting Started Tour.

Search commands

Press Ctrl+K (or /), or click the magnifier next to Save, and type part of a command's name: "fil" finds Fillet, "circ pat" Circular Pattern. Pick a result with ↑ / ↓ and Enter, or click it.

It searches every command of the menus and the ribbon of the document in front: part, sketch, 3D sketch, assembly or drawing.
Each result shows where the command lives (its menu or ribbon tab) and its shortcut.
With nothing typed, the commands you used lately come first.

Your own keyboard shortcuts

Help ▸ Customize Shortcuts… (or Customize… in Help ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts) gives commands keys of your own. Find a command, click Set and press the keys, for example Ctrl+Shift+F, G or F6.

A shortcut works wherever its command is, in the document in front.
It takes the place of a key RazorCAD uses itself; the window says when it does (for example F, Zoom to Fit). Giving a key to another command moves it there.
Esc, Enter, Tab and Backspace can't be used.
✕ removes a shortcut; Remove All removes them all. Your shortcuts are listed at the top of Help ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts and shown in the command search. They are kept in prefs.json.

Units

Each part, assembly and drawing is in millimetres or inches. Click MMGS / IPS at the right of the status bar, or use Tools ▸ Units: Millimetres / Units: Inches. Changing the units keeps every size exactly as it is; only how sizes are shown and typed changes.

In an inch document:

Feature fields show and take inches. The arrow keys step 0.1 in (Shift: 1 in).
Sketch dimensions, the Modify box and the sizes shown while drawing are in inches.
Measure shows in, in² and in³; Mass Properties also gives the mass in pounds.
New features start at round sizes, to the nearest 1/8 in.
Equation variables used in a length count in inches: with w = 3, a depth of w/2 is 1.5 in.

Any value can name its unit: 2in, 30 mm, 1.5cm, 2ft, (w/2)*in. Values typed before a document became inch keep their size; an expression typed in millimetres shows as (…)*mm.

Drawings have units of their own (see the Drawings chapter). A drawing made from an inch part starts in inches.