LeoCAD Coordinate System

Piece position is recorded by a set of three coordinates, X,Y and Z. X and Y are in the horizontal plane, Z points in the up direction. Default unit is LeoCAD internal coordinates (10 units for the distance between two studs), but you can choose to display coordinates in centimeters (0.8 cm for the distance between two studs) in the preference menu. To do that, select "Preferences" under the "View" menu, then go to the "Drawing Aids" tab and check the box "Centimeter units").

Coordinates of a piece are displayed on the right of the status bar.

LeoCAD vs. LDraw coordinates

While LeoCAD has a straightforward coordinates system, LDraw uses a stranger orientation: Y axis is vertical, with negatives values in the up direction. 1 LDraw unit equals 0.5 LeoCAD unit.

Here are the coordinates of the same piece in both systems:

	X	Y	Z
LeoCAD	10	30	36
LDraw	20	-72	60

A few standard values:

	LeoCAD units	LDraw units	Centimeters
Distance between two studs	10	20	0.8
Height of a plate	4	8	0.32
Height of a brick	12	24	0.96