BranchCAD user guide

BranchCAD is a professional 2D CAD application that runs entirely in your web browser. There is nothing to install: sign in, open a model and start drawing — with the AutoCAD-style commands you already know.

Built for real work on real sites. Draw site plans, buildings and details to exact dimensions; place the drawing on its true map location; fetch parcels and building outlines; design fences with posts, rails, gates and a bill of materials; and plot finished sheets to PDF. Your work is saved automatically and can be shared, edited together in real time and versioned like code.

Who this guide is for

Anyone who draws with BranchCAD — from first-time users to experienced AutoCAD drafters. Chapters 2–5 get you productive in a few minutes; the later chapters are a reference for each area of the program. If you already know AutoCAD, read Chapter 4 and keep the cheat sheet beside you: almost every familiar alias works the same way.

The sample drawing

The screenshots in this guide use a single example: Lot 12, a 30 × 40 m residential section with a 16 × 11 m house, a timber deck, a driveway, trees, dimensions, notes and a 1.8 m timber paling boundary fence with a pedestrian gate. You can reproduce every step on your own drawing.

Create your account

1. Open BranchCAD in a current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
2. Choose Register and enter your name, e-mail and a password — or sign in with Google.
3. Confirm your e-mail address from the verification message we send you.
4. Pick a plan. Free is enough to learn everything in this guide; you can upgrade at any time.

After you sign in, BranchCAD opens straight into the editor: your last-opened model, otherwise the most recently changed one, otherwise a fresh model called Untitled.

Your models

In BranchCAD a drawing is called a model. Open Browse all models to see the Your models page, which lists your active and archived models and shows your plan usage.

Saving is automatic

There is no Save button. Every change is saved as you work, and the status indicator in the top bar tells you where things stand: Saving…, Saved, Reconnecting… or Offline · saved on this device. If you lose your connection, keep drawing — the changes are kept locally and sent when you are back online. To mark a milestone, name a version (see Chapter 20).

Your first drawing in two minutes

1. Click in the command line at the bottom of the screen, type REC and press Enter.
2. Type 0,0 Enter for the first corner, then @30,40 Enter for the opposite corner. You have drawn a 30 × 40 boundary.
3. Type Z E Enter to zoom to everything you have drawn.
4. Type O Enter, then 3 Enter, click the rectangle and click inside it: a 3 m set-back line appears.
5. Type DLI Enter, click two corners of the boundary and click where the dimension line should sit.

Press Esc at any time to cancel the current command, and Ctrl+Z to undo the last change.

The editor is a full-screen drawing canvas with floating tools around its edges. Everything floats, so the drawing always gets the most space.

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Tool groups

The floating tool groups at the bottom hold the most-used tools. Hover any button to see its name and command. The ˄ arrow at the end of a group expands it to show the less common tools. Drag a group by its ⠿ handle to move it anywhere on screen; it snaps neatly to the edges and to other groups. You can restore the default arrangement from Settings → Editor defaults → Toolbar layout → Reset to default.

The panel rail

The column of round buttons on the right opens the side panels. Panels are floating cards: drag them by their header, close them with ×. The same panels open from the command line (for example LA for Layers).

• Share link and Layers
• Object snap settings and Properties
• Groups and Linetypes
• Georeference and Dimension styles
• GIS / map and Text styles
• Fences and Fence elevation
• Grid, Blocks, Import, External references

The Properties panel also opens by itself whenever you select something (you can switch that off with its Auto-open box).

The status bar

Highlighted (filled) buttons are on; click any of them to toggle.

Everything in BranchCAD can be done from the command line. Clicking a toolbar button and typing its command do exactly the same thing — use whichever is faster for you.

Running a command

1. Type the command or its alias — LINE or just L — and press Enter. Commands are not case-sensitive.
2. Read the prompt on the left of the command line, e.g. LINE: Specify next point or [Close/Undo]. Words in brackets are options; type the capital letter (C, U) to use one.
3. Answer by clicking in the drawing or typing a value or coordinate, and press Enter.
4. Press Enter on an empty line (or right-click) to finish. Press Enter again to repeat the last command. Esc cancels.

Typing coordinates

Wherever a command asks for a point you can type it instead of clicking. Angles are in degrees, measured counter-clockwise from the positive X axis (east = 0°, north = 90°).

Options that work inside commands

While a command is waiting for one of its options, those letters belong to the command — typing C at a POLYGON prompt chooses Circumscribed and does not start the CIRCLE command.

Commands that act on a selection

Many commands work noun-first: select the objects, then type the command. GROUP, UNGROUP, EXPLODE, ERASE, REGION, UNION, SUBTRACT, INTERSECT, LAYISO and FENCEAPPLY all act on whatever is selected. Modify commands such as MOVE and ROTATE use the current selection if there is one, and ask you to select otherwise.

Saved views

Type V (or VIEW) to open Saved views. Frame the part of the drawing you want, type a name such as Front yard and click Save. Click a saved view later to jump straight back to it. Saved views are stored with the drawing, so collaborators see them too.

NAV opens the navigation settings, where you can adjust mouse-wheel behaviour and turn smooth zoom animation on or off.

Every drawing tool follows the same rhythm: start the command, give it points (by clicking or typing), and finish with Enter. New objects go on the current layer shown on the status bar.

Example — a house outline with internal walls

1. Choose the BUILDING layer from the status bar.
2. REC Enter 6,14 Enter @16,11 Enter — the outside of the house.
3. L Enter 14,14 Enter @0,11 Enter Enter — a wall between bedroom and kitchen.
4. L Enter 6,20 Enter @8,0 Enter Enter — the living-room wall.
5. A Enter and click three points to draw a door swing.

Object snaps

With OSNAP on, the cursor locks onto exact points of existing objects. A marker and a tooltip show what it found — for example Endpoint · 8.38 < −162.6° — before you click.

Turn individual snap modes on or off on the status bar. The crosshair button on the panel rail opens the full object-snap settings.

Grid and snap

Ortho, polar and tracking

• ORTHO (F8) — the cursor moves only horizontally or vertically from the last point.
• POLAR (F10) — the cursor locks to multiples of the polar angle shown on the status bar (e.g. 90°, 45°, 30°). Choose the angle from the list beside it.
• OTRACK (F11) — object-snap tracking: hover a snap point, move away, and the cursor tracks along alignment lines from it.

Ways to select

The Properties panel

Every object type has its own properties. Change a value and press Enter (or click away) and the drawing updates at once. Common to all objects: Layer, Color (tick ByLayer to follow the layer), Linetype, Line weight and LT scale. Below that are the geometry fields — for example X, Y, W, H for a rectangle, centre and radius for a circle, and a vertex table (with insert and delete) for polylines, splines and revision clouds. Text, tables, dimensions, hatches and fences have the richest sections. When several objects are selected, the panel edits the values they share.

Quick select

Type QSELECT (QSE) to select by property. Choose a Type, Layer, Linetype, Color and an optional Length range; the dialog shows how many objects match before you click Select.

Example: select every circle on the LANDSCAPE layer — Type = Circle, Layer = LANDSCAPE, Select — then change their colour in the Properties panel in one go.

Groups

Select objects and type GROUP (G) to bind them into a named group that selects as one. UNGROUP dissolves it. GROUPS opens the group manager, where you can rename, select or remove groups.

Layers are how you organise a drawing: put boundaries, buildings, dimensions and notes on separate layers so you can colour, hide, lock and plot them independently.

The Layers panel

Each row has, from the left: on/off (eye), freeze (sun), plot (printer), lock (padlock), the layer colour, its name, lineweight and linetype, then rename and delete. Click + to add a layer. Click a row to make it current.

• Off hides a layer. Frozen also hides it and excludes it from selection everywhere.
• Locked layers stay visible but cannot be selected or edited — ideal for a survey you trace over.
• Turning plot off keeps a layer on screen but leaves it out of PDFs.

Layer commands

Linetypes

LT opens the Linetype panel: CONTINUOUS, DASHED, DOTTED, CENTER, HIDDEN, DASHDOT and more. Assign a linetype to a layer or to individual objects. LTSCALE (LTS) sets how long the dashes are across the whole drawing; each object's own LT scale fine-tunes it.

Lineweights

Set lineweights per layer in the Layers panel or per object in Properties. Turn on LWT on the status bar to see them on screen; they always apply when you plot.

Dimensions are associative: when the geometry they measure changes, the dimension follows and its value updates.

Dimension styles

DIMSTYLE (D) opens the Dim Style panel. A style controls text height and scale, arrow size and type, extension-line offset and extension, text gap, baseline spacing, precision and angle precision, units, text colour, and whether extension lines are suppressed. Create a style with +, choose it as Current, and new dimensions use it.

To override one dimension, select it and change its text, size or arrows in Properties.

TipUse Text scale to make one style read well at different plot scales — e.g. 1 for 1:100 sheets, 2.5 for 1:250.

Hatching an area

1. Type H (or click Hatch in the Measure group). The prompt reads HATCH: Click on or inside a closed boundary to fill it.
2. Click inside any closed area. BranchCAD finds the boundary itself — including islands inside it, which are left unfilled.
3. Select the hatch to change its Pattern (ANSI31, EARTH, SOLID and others), Angle, Scale and Line weight, or type HE to edit it.

Hatches are associative: move or stretch the boundary and the hatch refills to match.

Regions and boolean shapes

A region is a filled area that can have holes. Select closed shapes and type REGION (REG, BO) to convert them. Then combine regions:

• UNION (UNI) — merge into one shape.
• SUBTRACT (SU) — cut the others out of the first one you selected.
• INTERSECT (INT) — keep only the overlap.

Blocks

A block is a named, reusable symbol. Every drawing starts with a library of built-in blocks such as BH, SPT, CPT, PILE, ANCHOR and FOOTING.

1. Type I (INSERT) to open the Blocks panel.
2. Click Insert beside a block. It follows the cursor.
3. Type S to set a scale or R to set a rotation, then click to place it.

To make your own block, select the objects and type B (BLOCK), or click Define in the panel. Explode (or X) turns an inserted block back into separate objects. Blocks may carry attributes — text values such as a tag or a level — that you fill in for each insert.

External references (XREFs)

An XREF overlays another DXF or DWG file — a survey, a base plan from an architect — as a locked, dimmed underlay that you can snap to but not accidentally edit.

• XREF (XR) opens the manager; XATTACH (XA) or + Attach .dxf / .dwg picks a file.
• Select an XREF frame to set its insertion point, scale and rotation in Properties.
• XBIND copies the XREF's contents into your drawing permanently; XDETACH removes it.

Raster images

Type IMAGE (IAT) to attach a PNG or JPEG — a scanned plan or a photo — and place, scale and rotate it like any object. Images can be traced over with snaps and are included in plots.

Draw at full size in Model space; arrange it on paper in a layout. A layout is a sheet of paper with one or more viewports — scaled windows onto the model.

Making a sheet

1. Click + next to the Model tab, or type LAYOUT (LO). Name the sheet and choose a paper size and orientation.
2. Click + Viewport in the Sheet panel (or type MVIEW) and drag the viewport frame on the paper.
3. Select the viewport and set its scale (e.g. 1:250) in Properties. Double-click inside it to pan the model while the scale stays fixed; click outside to return to the paper.
4. Fill in the Title block section — project, drawing title, scale, date, drawn by.
5. Add a Scale bar and North arrow; they read their scale and orientation from the viewport.

PAGESETUP edits the active sheet's paper size, margins and plot scale.

Plotting to PDF

1. Type PLOT (or click the printer in the Edit group).
2. Choose the Layout to plot — the Model or any sheet.
3. Choose a Colour mode: Colour, or monochrome for clean black-on-white drawings.
4. Optionally open Plot styles (map colours to lineweights) or Pen widths per layer.
5. Click Export PDF.

The PDF is a true vector plot: line thicknesses are the assigned millimetre weights and text stays sharp at any zoom.

Georeferencing tells BranchCAD where your drawing sits on the earth. Your geometry stays in convenient local metres; BranchCAD translates to and from the map grid whenever you need it.

Georeference a drawing

1. Type GEOREF (or click the globe on the panel rail).
2. Choose the Coordinate system — NZTM2000, the NZ meridional circuits, or MGA2020 / MGA94 zones for Australia.
3. Enter the grid coordinate of local (0,0): the easting (E) and northing (N) where your drawing's origin belongs. Round to 100 m tidies the values.
4. Click Apply. The status changes to the CRS name, and the coordinate read-out shows E / N.

Nothing movesApplying a georeference does not move your drawing. It changes only the read-out, typed Geasting,northing input, the Properties panel and exports in grid coordinates.

Working in grid coordinates

Once georeferenced, type a grid coordinate with a G prefix wherever a point is asked for: L Enter G1752300,5428100 Enter @20<90 Enter draws a line from that survey mark straight north for 20 m.

The GIS panel

Type GIS to open the GIS panel (currently available for New Zealand, New South Wales and Queensland):

• Basemap imagery — show satellite imagery (with or without labels) or a street map under your drawing. Imagery is drawn in the drawing's own projection.
• Address search (ADDRESS) — type at least three characters to find a property and frame it.
• Parcels — type PARCEL and click inside a property: its legal boundary is inserted on locked GIS layers, with its appellation.
• Building outlines — type BUILDING (BLDG) and click a house to insert its footprint as a closed polyline. The tool stays active, so click the next house to grab it too. Footprints are indicative, not survey-accurate.

Map mode

Type MAP to switch the editor to an interactive map environment — satellite, streets or terrain that you can pan, zoom and rotate, with your drawing overlaid in place. Type CAD to return to the CAD canvas. AOI (MAPAREA) lets you drag a rectangle to restrict the map to an area of interest.

GIS data in and out: CSVIN imports a CSV point schedule, GEOJSONIN imports GeoJSON features, and DXFOUT GRID exports a DXF in real grid coordinates (Chapter 19).

A fence in BranchCAD is a single intelligent object. You draw the path and choose a fence type; BranchCAD generates the posts, rails, infill, gates, elevation and material list — and regenerates them every time you edit the path.

The fence library

Type FT (FENCETYPE) to open the Fences panel. Fence types are grouped — Boundary, Front fences, Pool, Rural — each with a thumbnail and height, for example Timber paling boundary 1.8 m, Picket front fence 1.1 m, Pool barrier 1.2 m, Steel sheet panel 1.8 m, Aluminium horizontal slat and Rural post and wire. Search the library from the box at the top; Details shows the specification.

When a newer version of a type is available, an Update button appears on its card.

Drawing a fence

1. Click a fence type in the library to arm it (or drag its card onto a boundary or parcel to fence it in one go).
2. Type FN (FENCE) and click the corners of the fence, just like a polyline. C closes it into a loop; Enter finishes an open run.
3. Add gates: type GATE and click on the fence where the gate goes. Set the gate kind (pedestrian or driveway), width, number of leaves, hinge side and swing in Properties.
4. To change the type of existing fences, select them and type FENCEAPPLY, or pick another Type in Properties.

In plan, a fence shows its posts (end, corner, line and gate posts), corner letters (A, B, C…), the length of each side and a type tag such as Paling 1.8.

Elevations, designer and takeoff

• Elevation — select a fence and type FEL (FENCEELEV). Choose a side from the Side list to see posts, rails, palings, gates and dimension chains drawn to scale.
• Per-fence adjustments — change height, post centres, infill gap and number of rails for this fence only in Properties, or choose Edit type… / Save as My fence to create your own reusable type.
• Fence designer — FENCEDESIGN opens the designer for building a fence type from scratch.
• Compliance — rules such as pool-barrier requirements are checked as you draw; findings appear in Properties.
• Bill of materials — the Fences panel's BOM produces the quantities of posts, rails, palings, gates and hardware for the selected fences, ready to price.

Sharing a drawing

1. Click Share in the top bar. The Share this drawing dialog opens.
2. Choose the link permission: Can view, Can comment or Can edit (edit links need a paid plan).
3. Click Create link and Copy it — or type a Recipient email and click Send.

People with a view or comment link need no account. People with an edit link sign in (or create a free account) and then edit alongside you. The dialog lists every link with its status (Active, Revoked, Expired) and open count; Revoke stops a link at once. Every shared link supports up to 20 people at the same time.

Editing together

• Everyone on the drawing appears as an avatar in the top bar, with a colour dot for Editor or Viewer, and a count such as 3 here.
• Click someone's avatar to Follow them — your view tracks theirs. Click again to stop following.
• Changes appear for everyone instantly. If someone edits an object you have selected, it flashes so you notice.
• Each person's undo affects only their own changes.

Comments

Click Comments in the toolbar. Click + Add, click the spot on the drawing, type your comment and click Comment. Comments can be replied to, edited, Resolved and Reopened; filter the list by Open, Resolved or All, and click a comment to jump to its place in the drawing.

Version history and branches

Click History in the top bar.

The Branch tree shows the history visually — click two nodes to compare them. Owners also see an Activity tab with an audit trail of who did what.

Settings

Plans

See the Plans page for current prices; annual billing is discounted.

I typed a command and something else happened.

While a command is running, its option letters belong to it — e.g. C means Close inside LINE, not CIRCLE. Press Esc first to end the current command, then type the new one.

My clicks don't land where I expect.

Check the status bar: SNAP (grid snap) or ORTHO may be on, or an object snap may be catching a nearby point — watch the snap marker and tooltip before you click.

I can't select an object.

Its layer may be locked or frozen. Open LA and check the padlock and sun icons. Imported XREFs are locked by design.

I can't see my drawing.

Type Z E. If nothing appears, the layers may be off — open LA. If you used LAYISO, type LAYUNISO.

The dashes of a dashed line don't show.

Adjust LTSCALE — at large drawing sizes the dashes can be too small (or too large) to see.

My dimension text is tiny on the plot.

Increase the Text scale of the dimension style to suit your plot scale (Chapter 12).

Grid coordinates (G…) are rejected.

The drawing needs a georeference first — type GEOREF.

Map imagery or parcels don't load.

These need an internet connection and are available in New Zealand, New South Wales and Queensland. The drawing keeps working without them.

I went offline.

Keep working. The status shows Offline · saved on this device and everything is sent once you reconnect.

I made a mistake an hour ago.

Open History and Restore an earlier version, or use Auto-saves (recovery). Restoring never deletes the newer work — it becomes part of the history.