Getting started
Install
Download the file for your platform from the Releases page.
macOS — open the .dmg and drag Quickdraw to Applications.
Windows — extract the whole Quickdraw folder out of the .zip to somewhere
permanent, then run Quickdraw.exe from inside it. Running it from within the zip
viewer will not work.
Nothing else to install. Python, Qt and every dependency are inside the bundle.
The first time you open it
Quickdraw isn’t signed with a paid Apple or Microsoft developer certificate, so your computer will warn you that it can’t verify the app. This is expected, and you only need to deal with it once. The full instructions travel with every download as Opening Quickdraw.txt, and they are on the Releases page too.
The short version: on macOS, either run
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Quickdraw.app in Terminal, or open
System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway after the first
blocked attempt. On Windows, click More info then Run anyway on the SmartScreen
dialog.
The window
Four things, and you will use all of them within a minute:
The component bar, across the top. Every symbol Quickdraw has, in a nested menu
grouped by domain and subcategory — Optics / Free space, DSP / Filters, and so on.
There is a search box; typing mixer or photodiode is usually faster than browsing.
Symbols you use often can be pinned to a favourites row, which sits in the same bar.
The canvas, in the middle. A grid you drop symbols onto. Everything snaps to it, and that is what keeps a diagram tidy without you aligning anything by hand.
The properties panel, docked at the right. It shows whatever is selected — a symbol, a wire, a container — and it is where you set a label, a parameter, a rotation or a colour. With nothing selected it shows the document’s settings, which is where the defaults that apply to everything live.
The menu bar, with File, Edit and View. Most of what is in it also has a keyboard shortcut; the keyboard reference has them on one page.
Open an example
The app ships with five example diagrams. File ▸ Open… and look in the examples
folder inside the application bundle — or download the same files from the source
repository. They are the fastest way to see what a finished diagram looks like:
| File | What it shows |
|---|---|
laser_lock.dsd |
A laser locked to a cavity — optics, detection and servo, in containers |
mach_zehnder.dsd |
A Mach–Zehnder interferometer |
dds_mixer_chain.dsd |
A DDS driving a mixer chain — the RF/analog side |
free_space.dsd |
A free-space beam path with folding mirrors |
parametric_amp.dsd |
An optical parametric amplifier |
Open one, click things, and press ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z) as often as you like. Every change is
undoable.
Next
Drawing a diagram — placing symbols and wiring them up.
Screenshots still needed on this page: the annotated window.