PlanX CAD Toolset

Drafting-grade CAD for urban planning — inside QGIS.

Type L ↵, draw a line. Type F ↵, fillet a corner. 30+ CAD tools, an AutoCAD-style command line, and road-platform design — without ever leaving QGIS.

Install · Tools · Command line · Urban tools · Shortcuts

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✨ Why PlanX CAD?

⚡ Muscle-memory friendly	AutoCAD-style command aliases (L, PL, TR, F, CO…), empty-Enter repeats the last command, Up/Down recalls history — a real command loop.
📐 Drafting-grade picking	A true 10-px pickbox with snap markers, hover highlighting, and self-pick protection in two-step tools (Fillet/Trim/Extend).
🏙️ Built for planners	Interactive road platform generator, junction topology fixer, and block-corner chamfering — tools you won't find in generic CAD plugins.
🌍 Global by design	A concise English-only workbench, documentation set, command palette, and output schema built for international teams.
🧩 Zero friction	Pure QGIS API — no external dependencies, no build step. One dockable panel, native snapping, works on QGIS 3.28 LTR through QGIS 4.

Developed with feedback from educational workflows at Dokuz Eylül University, Department of City and Regional Planning.

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🛠 Tool Catalog

Draw

Tool	Command	Shortcut	Notes
Line	L	Ctrl+Shift+L	Click-click, Enter to finish
Polyline	PL PLINE	Ctrl+Shift+P	Backspace undoes last vertex
Rectangle	REC	Ctrl+Shift+R	Two-corner
Polygon	POL	Ctrl+Shift+G	N-vertex closed ring
Circle	C	Ctrl+Shift+C	Centre + radius
Arc	A	Ctrl+Shift+A	3-point arc
Construction line	XL / RAY / SEG	Ctrl+Shift+K	Infinite / ray / segment reference, dashed cyan layer

Modify

Tool	Command	Shortcut	Notes
Offset	O	Ctrl+Shift+O	Side-aware parallel copy
Multi-offset	MO MOFF	Ctrl+Shift+X	N offsets in one pass
Trim	TR	Ctrl+Shift+T	Click the side to remove
Extend	EX	Ctrl+Shift+E	To nearest boundary intersection
Fillet	F	Ctrl+Shift+F	Radius arc + auto-trim, live hover preview
Buffer	B	Ctrl+Shift+B	Attribute-preserving
Hatch	H	Ctrl+Shift+H	Parallel/cross/diagonal pattern fill, export-safe attributes
Divide	DIV	Ctrl+Shift+U	Equal-length segmentation
Join	J	Ctrl+Shift+J	Weld touching polylines
Vertex edit	VE	Ctrl+Shift+V	Drag to move, click to insert, right-click to delete

Transform

Tool	Command	Shortcut
Move	M	Ctrl+Shift+M
Copy	CO CP	—
Rotate	RO	—
Scale	SC	—
Mirror	MI	—
Array (rect + polar)	AR	Ctrl+Shift+Y

All transforms are multipart-, curve-, and Z/M-safe — holes, multi-rings, CircularString/CompoundCurve geometry, elevations, and measures survive.

Measure & Annotate

Tool	Command	Shortcut	Notes
Distance	DI DIST	Ctrl+Shift+I	Snap-aware running total
Area	AA AREA	—	Polygon area on canvas
Measure by selection	—	—	Length/area totals of selected features
Linear dimension	DIM	Ctrl+Shift+D	Permanent dimension layer with distance attributes + labels

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⌨ AutoCAD-style Command Line

The dock's search box is a command line:

Command:  L ⏎          → Line starts
Command:  ⏎            → finishes the active sketch; repeats the last command when idle
Command:  ↑ / ↓        → recall command history
Command:  fil…         → autocomplete popup suggests Fillet
Command:  500000,4250000 → absolute point in the map canvas CRS
Command:  @10,0        → 10 metres east of the previous/base point
Command:  @25<45       → 25 metres at 45 degrees
Command:  12.5         → 12.5 metres along the current cursor bearing

Resolution precedence: alias → exact tool key → fuzzy name match. Unknown commands echo a clear message instead of failing silently. There is also a global command palette (Ctrl+Alt+P) with category filtering and usage-based ordering.

While a drawing or transform tool is active, type a number, -, or @ directly on the canvas to move focus to the command line without breaking the current operation. Precision point entry is available for Line, Polyline, Rectangle, Circle, Polygon, Arc, Move, and Copy. Rotate accepts a signed angle in degrees; Scale accepts a positive factor. Relative, polar, and direct-distance values are always metres, even when the project uses a geographic CRS; absolute x,y values use the canvas CRS.

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🏙 Urban Planning Tools

🛣 Road Platform Generator	Interactive road cross-section design: draw an axis, configure carriageway and lane widths, and generate ready road-platform linework.
➕ Junction Topology Fixer	Solves X/T/skew road corners with a selectable metric Chamfer or tangent Fillet, exact curb trims, and gap-free connections.
🔲 Block Chamfering	EasyFillet-powered corner rounding for urban blocks — one click per corner.

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📦 Installation

From QGIS Plugin Hub (recommended)

Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins… → search for PlanX CAD Toolset → Install.

From ZIP

Download the latest planX_CAD_arac_Seti.zip from Releases, then Plugins → Install from ZIP.

From source (development)

git clone https://github.com/YusufEminoglu/PlanX-CAD.git
set QGIS_PLUGINPATH=<clone parent dir>   →  restart QGIS

Requirement	Value
QGIS	3.28 LTR → 4.x (PyQt5 and PyQt6 verified)
Dependencies	None — pure qgis.core / qgis.gui / qgis.PyQt
License	GPL-3.0

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⌨ Keyboard Shortcuts

Full shortcut map (click to expand)

Tools — Ctrl+Shift+…

L Line · P Polyline · R Rectangle · G Polygon · C Circle · A Arc · O Offset · T Trim · E Extend · F Fillet · B Buffer · M Move · Y Array · V Vertex edit · H Hatch · K Construction line · D Dimension · I Measure · U Divide · X Multi-offset · J Join · Space Repeat last tool · S Focus command line · / Shortcut guide

Workflow — Ctrl+Alt+…

P Command palette · E Toggle editing · C Cancel active tool · F Preflight checks · Q Quick start · H Docs · D Diagnostics · W Health check · T Usage stats · R Reset workspace · Y Shortcut audit · G Session checklist · N Issue template · V Release readiness

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♿ Quality & Accessibility

• Screen-reader complete — every interactive dock control exposes accessibleName/accessibleDescription; tool buttons are tab-focusable with a visible focus ring.
• Dual-runtime verified — a static 12-check smoke gate (py -3 tests/smoke_compat.py, no QGIS needed) locks Qt5/Qt6 enum safety, metadata, English-only release surfaces, pick-aperture behaviour, and import discipline on every release.
• Real QGIS runtime gates — lifecycle, geometry-regression, and urban-workbench suites run headlessly on both QGIS 3 LTR/Qt5 and QGIS 4/Qt6 before release.
• Metre-accurate everywhere — distance-based CAD and road tools use a local metric work CRS, so a 5 m offset remains 5 m even when the source layer is EPSG:4326.
• Guardrails everywhere — writable targets enter edit mode automatically; missing, incompatible, or truly read-only targets get guided status messages instead of silent failure.

🧩 Part of the PlanX ecosystem

This plugin belongs to a growing open-source QGIS ecosystem for urban planning by the same author:

Planning & analysis	CAD & production	3D & visualization
PlanX — spatial-planning suite	PlanX CAD Toolset — drafting-grade CAD	PlanX 3D City — Three.js city viewer
GeoStats Lab — spatial statistics	EasyFillet — tangent-arc fillet	3D OSM Model — OSM → 3D city in browser
Suitability Lab — raster MCDA	Settlement Toolset — 9-stage settlement plans	OSM Quick 3D — OSM → native QGIS 3D
DataCube Lab — spatiotemporal cubes	UIP Toolset — master-plan automation	Urban Procedural 3D — parametric zoning lab
Urban Resilience — 28 resilience tools	ParcelFlux — parcel subdivision	CartoLab — publication cartography

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🤝 Contributing & Support

• 🐛 Bugs / requests → Issues — the in-plugin Issue Template dialog (Ctrl+Alt+N) pre-fills diagnostics for you.
• 📜 Changelog → CHANGELOG.md follows Keep a Changelog.
• ✅ Before a PR: run py -3 tests/smoke_compat.py (12 static checks, including the English-only release gate), then run all tests/smoke_* runtime suites with both python-qgis-ltr.bat and python-qgis.bat.

👤 Author

Yusuf Eminoglu — urban planner & developer GitHub · yusuf.eminoglu@deu.edu.tr

_{Built with ❤️ for the planning classroom and the drafting desk. If PlanX CAD saves you time, a ⭐ helps others find it.}