Getting started with zCAD.Online

zCAD.Online is a browser-based mechanical CAD workspace. If this is your first session, do not try to learn every command at once. Start with one small part and use it to understand how projects, sketches, features, and the model tree fit together.

Set up a useful first session

Use the account and desktop browser your team has approved for product work. Open an existing project if you are joining ongoing work; otherwise create a project for a real but manageable component. A mounting plate, bracket, spacer, or simple housing is a better first exercise than a complete machine.

Keep the dimensions, reference drawing, or design notes beside you. The point of the exercise is not merely to make a shape that looks right. It is to create geometry whose size and relationships can still be changed later.

• Confirm that you can open the intended project and create or edit the required file.

• Decide which dimensions control the part before drawing the first profile.

• Use a small representative part before opening a large assembly.

Know where the work lives

The published workspace uses a Folder > Project > Part / Assembly / Drawing structure. The project is the working container; the individual CAD files inside it describe the product. The Project Panel is where you move between those files. The Structure Tree records planes, sketches, features, components, and their modeling order.

When you select a sketch or feature in the Structure Tree, you can return to the decision that created it instead of rebuilding the model. That is the main habit to learn early: edit the design definition, not just the visible result.

Build one controlled feature

Create a Part, start a sketch on a suitable reference plane, draw a closed profile, and add the dimensions and geometric constraints that matter. Exit the sketch and create the first solid feature. Rotate the model, inspect it from more than one direction, and check that the new feature appears in the Structure Tree.

Then change one controlling dimension. If the model updates in the expected direction without breaking the profile, you have completed a much more useful first test than simply matching a screenshot.

Before you close the tab

Let the current operation finish and confirm that the latest geometry is present in the correct project. If another person will continue the work, tell them which file is current, what was changed, and which dimensions or references still need review. A short handoff note prevents people from treating an unfinished state as an approved design.