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Getting Started

A first session in Kav2D: find the tools, draw a rectangle, transform it, and export SVG or DXF.

The interface

From top to bottom you will see:

  1. The menu bar: File, Edit, Object, Path, Align, Tools, View, Help, plus the document name field and the Kav2D logo.
  2. The toolbar on the left: drawing tools, Box Generator, Gear Generator, Trace Image, Image to Laser, Line colour, and palettes for Group, Align, Distribute, Mirror and Boolean.
  3. The canvas in the middle, with optional rulers and grid.
  4. The inspector on the right: size, position, stroke, fill and object actions. An advertisement slot sits under it on the public site.
  5. The status bar along the bottom, with zoom controls.
Kav2D editor showing the menu bar, left tools, drawing page and right inspector
The editor chrome. Document name sits next to the logo.

Create a document and name it

  1. Choose File → New (or Ctrl+N / ⌘+N). If the current drawing has unsaved work, Kav2D asks Discard unsaved changes? This cannot be undone.
  2. Click the name field in the menu bar (it starts as untitled) and type a title such as first-tag. The browser tab title follows the document name.
Renaming the document in the Kav2D menu-bar name field
The name field is in the menu bar, not in the inspector.

Units and page size

  1. Open File → Document & material….
  2. Choose a Preset (for example 300 × 200 mm or A4), or type Width and Height.
  3. Set Units to millimetres, centimetres, inches or pixels (96 dpi).
  4. Optional: set material Thickness and Kerf for later export compensation.
  5. Click Done.
Document and material dialog with preset, units, width, height, thickness and kerf

Draw a basic shape

  1. Click Rectangle in the left toolbar (or press R).
  2. Drag on the page to place the rectangle. Release to finish.
  3. Press Esc or click Select (V) when you want to stop drawing.
A rectangle just drawn on the Kav2D page with the Rectangle tool selected

Other first shapes: Ellipse / Slot (corner-mark tool, E for ellipse), Polygon, Star / Ring / Spiral, Arc / Pie, and Text (T). Click a tool with the corner mark to open its menu.

Select, move, scale and rotate

  1. Switch to Select and click the object. A bounding box and handles appear.
  2. Drag the interior to move. Hold Shift after you start dragging to constrain if snapping allows.
  3. Drag a corner or side handle to scale.
  4. Use the rotation handle above the box to rotate.
  5. Exact values live in the inspector: position, size, rotation and corner radius for rectangles.
Selected rectangle with move, scale and rotation handles on the Kav2D canvas

Change line colour

  1. Select the object.
  2. Open Line colour on the left toolbar (or the inspector Line colour field).
  3. Pick a named swatch such as Black, Red or Blue. These names are not assigned a cut or engrave meaning inside Kav2D.
Line colour flyout open with named swatches including Black, Red and Blue

Duplicate and copy/paste

  • Edit → Duplicate (Ctrl+D) copies the selection on the page.
  • Copy / Paste / Paste in place use the Kav2D clipboard (not always the system clipboard).

Undo and redo

Edit → Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z). Boolean mistakes are easier to reverse than to reconstruct — undo immediately if the outline is wrong.

Zoom and pan

  • View → Zoom to page (Ctrl+0), Zoom to drawing, Zoom to selection.
  • Use + / − and the percent field in the status bar.
  • Hold space or choose the pan behaviour to slide the view without moving objects.
  • View → Toggle grid and Toggle snapping help with measured drawing.
Status bar zoom percent and zoom in and zoom out controls

Save, load and import

  1. File → Download project (Ctrl+S) writes a Kav2D project file you can keep.
  2. File → Open… reloads a project.
  3. Import SVG… and Import DXF… bring geometry into the current or a new document, with a scale step if units need mapping.

Export SVG or DXF

  1. Choose File → Export… or the orange Export button (Ctrl+E).
  2. Pick SVG or DXF.
  3. Choose This sheet, All sheets (one file per sheet, named Name_1.svg …), or Selection.
  4. For laser work, keep Convert text to outlines on. Optional: Remove fills and Apply kerf.
  5. Click Download SVG or switch to DXF and download from there.
Export dialog showing SVG and DXF tabs and convert text to outlines checkbox

What to learn next

Trace a photograph by hand with Tracing with a Reference Image, or convert it automatically with Trace Image, or dither a photo for engraving with Image to Laser. Bring in a file with SVG and DXF Import/Export, combine shapes in Boolean Operations, build a box with Box Generator, pack parts with Optimize Layout, then follow Preparing Files for Laser Cutting.