| Feature Category | Specific Capabilities | |----------------|------------------------| | | Line, arc, rectangle, polygon, spiral, wave, grid with exact coordinate input | | Dimensioning | Linear, aligned, angular, radial, diameter, baseline, continued, tolerance dimensions | | Scaling & Units | 80+ built-in scales (architectural, engineering, metric). Supports feet/inches, meters, mm, miles, etc. | | Construction Aids | Snap to grid, snap to point, guide lines, axis constraints (ortho mode), polar tracking | | Labels & Callouts | Automatic numeric labels, price labels, area/perimeter labels, custom text tags | | Editing Tools | Scale, rotate, move, duplicate by precise distance/angle | | Object Info | Instant display of length, angle, radius, area, perimeter, volume (extruded) | | Artboard Sync | Scale entire drawing including dimensions (auto-updates values) | | Live vs Static | Live dimensions update when geometry changes; static for final output |
Today, if you see a technical diagram in a car manual, a dieline for a perfume box, or a floor plan in a real estate brochure, it was almost certainly touched by a CAD plugin. These tools forced the "creative" beast that is Illustrator to sit still, do its math, and become an engineer. adobe illustrator cad tools plugin
Created by a developer named , CADtools began to dominate the niche. The story of CADtools is the story of listening to a very specific, very vocal customer base: packaging designers, architects, and technical illustrators. These tools forced the "creative" beast that is
It is the story of how a plugin ecosystem bridged the gap between creative vector illustration and hard-line engineering, effectively turning a creative tool into a legitimate engineering interface. It is the story of how a plugin