Getting started

From the installer to your first NC1.

About fifteen minutes, most of it the download. The full user manual is installed with the app: Settings > HELP.

1. What you need

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Indolent CAD is a desktop application; nothing runs in a browser and there is no server for your shop to host.
• About 2 GB of free disk space for the app and its bundled geometry engine.
• No CAD software, no Python, no runtimes to install first. The installer carries everything.
• An internet connection once, to activate. Modelling, drawings and exports then run offline.

2. Install, and check who signed it

After purchase you receive a download link and your license key by email. Before you run the installer, right-click it, open Properties > Digital Signatures, and confirm the publisher is Blake Holmes, the owner of Indolent Designs LLC (installers carry his individual signature until the company's own is issued). If Windows reports an unknown publisher or SmartScreen asks you to bypass trust, stop and write to support. Then double-click the installer and follow the prompts. It is a standard Windows installer: Indolent CAD lands in the Start menu and on the desktop.

3. Activate

1. Launch Indolent CAD. It opens on HOME with the six section cards.
2. Open Settings from the gear in the upper-right corner (or press Ctrl+,) and choose LICENSE.
3. Paste the key from your email. It looks like IND-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX, capitals and dashes included.
4. Click ACTIVATE. The status line changes to ACTIVATED with your renewal date and the seat in use.

The key is stored in Windows Credential Manager under your Windows account, not in a settings file or a shared folder. If activation fails you get a plain-language message under the button; the usual causes are a mistyped key or no internet connection.

4. Your first part

Go to PARTS. At the bottom of the screen is the command line with a > prompt (press / from anywhere to jump to it). Type the part the way you would say it across the shop:

6x6 base plate, 3/4 thick, four 13/16 holes on a 4" gauge both ways, A36

Fractions, feet-and-inches, gauges, bolt counts, copes and AISC designations all work. Press Ctrl+Enter (or click Generate). The first generation of a session warms the engine and takes longer; after that a part comes back in about a second.

5. Check it before anything else

The part opens in the centre viewer with tabs for 3D MODEL, DRAWING, EDIT, NC1, DXF and SPEC. On the right, open ASSUMPTIONS. Everything the software filled in that you did not say, edge distances, hole type, grade defaults, is listed there. CHECK BEFORE FAB. If something is wrong, fix it on the SPEC tab and the part rebuilds exactly; the rebuild is pure geometry, no AI.

6. Export

Press Ctrl+E or click Export. The default is NC1 / DSTV; the menu also offers the drawing PDF, DXF, STEP and STL. You do not have to export to keep the files: every generation already wrote drawing.pdf, part.nc1, spec.json and the 3D model to a timestamped folder under outputs/. Open Output Folder takes you there.

7. Where to go next

• 3D MODEL for parametric work: constrained sketches, extrude, revolve, fillet, chamfer, patterns, and steel members placed on work lines by AISC designation.
• DRAW for the full-screen 2D sketcher: draw a closed profile, and its circles are the bolt holes.
• PDF to import a vector PDF, calibrate with two picks and one true distance, and trace over real geometry.
• PROJECT to set a job number so every part files itself to the job, with cut lists and submittals built from it.
• WELDING for WPS, PQR and welder continuity records.
• Press ? anywhere for keyboard shortcuts. Sections are Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+6.

8. Updates

The updates we release during your subscription year are delivered to the installed app: when one is available the app tells you and offers to install it and restart. What changed in each version is on the release notes page.

9. Help

The manual is installed with the app (Settings > HELP). For anything else, SEND FEEDBACK inside the app attaches the diagnostics we need, or write to support@indolent.design. We answer within one business day.