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DATACAD LLC Software for AEC Professionals Since 1984 www.datacad.com 20 Tower Lane Avon, CT 06001 USA Sales (860) 677-4004 Main (800) 394-2231 Sales (860) 677-2610 Sales Fax info@datacad.com Technical Support (860) 677-2829 Technical Support (860) 677-2883 Technical Support Fax techsupport@datacad.com Free DataCAD Forum forum.datacad.com Fixes in 12.08.04 (Since 12.08.03): 1) If "Background" was on in the Section/Options dialog, hidden background lines were always drawn in the section result. They are now only drawn if "Background" is on and if "Draw Hidden" is also on in the Hide/Options menu. Fixes in 12.08.03 (Since 12.08.02): 1) Enabled support for covered polylines in the "Auto Hatch" option of the "3D Section" command. 2) You are now able to pick Smart Walls in the Dimension/Linear/Entity command. 3) The Dimension/Linear/AutoDim function will recognize the control lines of Smart Walls. 4) The Dimension/Linear/AutoDim function failed if it only passed through 2 lines. This has been corrected. 5) Corrected an error calculating the angle of rotation using Match/InclAngle or Match/ExclAngle. 6) Entering coordinates while using the "Gradians" angle type did not work properly. This has been corrected. 7) Repaired the functionality of the "Layer Toggle" command, which did not work correctly if you selected a Multi-Layout detail by clicking on it. 8) The "Lock Origin," "Lock Angle" and "Lock Scale" settings in the Entity Property Editor for associative hatch were not working properly. This has been corrected. 9) The "Swing Angle" for Smart Bi-Fold and Double Bi-Fold doors was setting the percent open rather than the angle. This has been corrected. 10) Corrected the "InclAngle" and "ExclAngle" commands in the "Measures" menu. 11) Added hourglass cursor to indicate that the program is working during the "Update" command in the "3D Section" menu. 12) Restored the ability to use [Ctrl] + [Left/Right Arrow] to switch between the last two active GoTo Views. 13) Using coordinate input to draw Smart walls while working in Relative Cartesian or Relative Polar would allow the creation of zero length walls. This has been corrected. 14) Corrected an error that would occur when inserting a SketchUp file if the option "Symbol Scale by Template=TRUE" was enabled in the configuration settings file. 15) Improved display of Excel files in the Insert/Excel command. Font size and the position of the text within the cells are now calculated more accurately. 16) The 3D Section tool now recognizes the status of "Draw Hidden" in the Hide/Options menu when the Section/Options setting "Background" is enabled. Hidden lines are be drawn using the "Hidden Color," "Hidden Style" and "Hidden Spac." settings in the Hide/Options menu, while background lines are be drawn using either "Original Colors" or a specified color, as defined in the Section/Options dialog. 17) If the first and last vertices of a closed polyline occupy the same coordinates, the duplicate point is discarded. Fixes in 12.08.02 (Since 12.08.01): 1) Attributes of nested symbols are no longer duplicated when the Symbol Editor is used to modify a symbol. Fixes in 12.08.01 (Since 12.08.00):
1) Importing a DWG file that contained a block (symbol) which had MText within it would result in an internal diagnostic fault error. This has been corrected.
2) Size and Aspect are no longer set to zero when entering the Text menu with Dynamic turned off.
3) Corrected the display of text that was entered with Dynamic off, and with Alignment set to Fit.
4) The "Fix Text" property was not properly applied to text within symbols if Explode were enabled when the symbol was inserted. This has been corrected. 5) Using the Clipboard to Copy and Paste an associative dimension with text that had been relocated would result in the pasted dimension text being placed at the original coordinates. This has been corrected.
6) Fixed a failure to recognize hyperlinks to GoTo Views if the drawing file contained a Multi-Layout detail with the same name as the linked GoTo View.
New features in version 12.08.00 (since 12.07.01):
1) The new DataCAD® TrueType® Font is included with this update. It is installed into your C:\Windows\Fonts\ folder, and may be used in DataCAD 12, and other Windows applications.
2) You may now apply the following 2D editing operations to smart walls: - Fillet and Chamfer (the first wall selected
determines the Type)
3) You may now use the following 2D menus to create smart walls: - Curves
4) The following smart wall-related improvements have been made: - Wall, Door, and Window Types are now listed
alphabetically after they are loaded.
5) MText and PText entities may now be saved in symbols.
6) Added export to SketchUp (SKP) format. Select File, Export, SketchUp.
The following DCADWIN.INI keys can be updated to set default Shadow options for SketchUp file export. The Keys (with default values) are:
[SketchUp]
7) The ability to fillet Arcs to Arcs and Lines to Arcs has been improved.
8) You may now use unit indicators to specify values you input via the command-line calculator. Previously, you were limited to using decimal values based on the current Scale Type. You can mix unit types and they must appear within square brackets.
For Example: [1' 2-3/4"] = 1 foot 2 and 3/4 inches
The following is an example of a mixed unit calculation: =([8' 10-3/16"] / 13) + [12cm]
The result (based on a scale type of Architectural) is 1 foot 0 and 29/32 inches.
Previously, you would have to enter the following equation to achieve the same calculation: = (8 + (10/12) + (3/16/12)) / 13 + (12 * 0.032808399)
9) Pak-N-Go provides the ability to take your current drawing and pack it up into a single file that includes all of its XREFs, Bitmaps, SHX Fonts, Pen Tables, Materials and Textures. The reverse operation allows extracting the archive either to a single directory or it will recreate the original folder structure.
DCADWIN.INI entries (accessible through interface as well): [PakNGo]
Menu structure: Make
Copies of Existing Files:
Destination:
10) Make Legible Option:
[PaletteFile]
11) Added a new "Anti-aliasing" option to the Settings dialog in the 3D Shader menu.
12) A new option named "Other Side" has been added to the 1 Line Trim command. This option 'flips' the outside to the other side of the trim-to line.
13) An updated DXF\DWG Color Map dialog now displays the name and RGB value of selected colors.
14) Added two news key in the [General] section of the DCADWIN.INI file:
[General] ; When the key is absent or set to FALSE
(default), the sub-menus of the Layers menu (OnOff, SetActive,
ActiveOnly, Lock, Rename, Erase, Delete, Export, ViewLayer) work the
same way that they always have, except that if you hold the [Ctrl] key
on the keyboard when entering them, the command line is disabled.
[General] ; Note: No Command Line in Layer Menus= must be set to TRUE in order for this key to work. ; When TRUE, the [PgUp] and [PgDn] keys on the
keyboard will scroll through the list of layers. [Shift] + [PgUp]/[PgDn]
may be used to Zoom.
15) Added a new section to the DCADWIN.INI file:
[MultiView Windows] Using 100 as a baseline value, the number can be adjusted to customize display of Multi-View Windows. For instance, if the image in your MVW's is too small, try using a number greater than 100 (like 110 or 120) in the above entry. If the MVW image is too large, use a smaller number (like 90 or 80).
16) Added the options "Ignore" and "Bind to Symbols" for XREFs on the SketchUp export dialog.
17) Added "Auto Extract 2D" and "Auto Extract 3D" options to the DXF\DWG tab of Tools\Program Preferences. When checked, the 2D and/or 3D information contained within Smart entities is automatically extracted to corresponding 2D and 3D layers during export to AutoCAD (DXF or DWG), SketchUp (SKP), or DataCAD 11 (AEC) format.
18) A new option named "Bind XREFs to Symbols" has been added to the "Enter Filename to Export" dialog for exporting to DXF\DWG. When enabled, DataCAD will automatically convert all XREFs to symbols in the exported DWG/DXF file without affecting the original drawing.
19) Binding XREFs to Symbols has a sub-option that can limit the operation to "Self-XREFs Only" when exporting to DXF\DWG. Other XREFs are exported as XREFs, and should be included with the host DWG file when sent to an AutoCAD user.
20) Added a new "Convert to XREF" option to the [Ctrl] + [Rt Click]\Symbol Tools context menu to convert symbols to XREFs. When selected, you are prompted to select a folder in which to save the drawing, and for a name.
21) Added the ability to convert a Symbol that was originally a Self-XREF back to a Self-XREF after import.
Note: DataCAD drawings may contain Self-XREFs. By definition, a drawing must exist on the hard drive in order to be able to reference itself. During export to DWG, if you convert a Self-XREF to a symbol, DataCAD adds an attribute to the symbol which it can later use during import to identify that symbol as having once been a Self-XREF.
When importing a DWG file, DataCAD will scan the database to determine whether or not the file contains any Symbols that were once Self-XREFs. What it does next depends upon what it finds.
If the drawing into which you are importing the DWG has already been saved, and DataCAD finds a Symbol that it recognizes as having once been a Self-XREF, that Symbol will automatically be converted back to a Self-XREF during import.
If you are importing the DWG into a new file that has not yet been saved, and DataCAD finds a Symbol that it recognizes as having once been a Self-XREF, you will be asked if you would like to save the file.
If you choose [Yes], DataCAD will prompt you to save the file. The import process will continue and the symbols will be converted back to Self-XREFs automatically.
If you choose [No], the import process will continue and the symbols will be imported as Symbols. Subsequently saving the drawing will enable the option to convert the Symbols back to Self-XREFs via the [Ctrl] + [RtClick]\Symbol Tools context menu.
22) When you launch the Symbol Editor the browse type (Folder, Template or Drawing) in the Symbol Browser is not changed. If the browse type was set to "Drawing" and the symbol does not contain any nested Symbols, the Symbol Browser will be blank. If you switch to another drawing, and that drawing contains no symbols, the Symbol Browser view would change to "Folder."
23) The Symbol Browser has a new option in the Browse (Folder,
Template, and Drawing) pull-down menu named "Remember in Drawing."
Note: If the saved folder or template file does not exist, the Symbol Browser will default to the last one used as specified in the [SymbolBrowser] section of the INI file:
SymbolFolder=C:\DataCAD 12\Symbols\Drawing\ TemplateFile=C:\DataCAD 12\Templates\Test.tpl
24) Enabled a new key in the [SymbolBrowser] section of DCADWIN.INI.
; When set to TRUE, a new "Symbol Scale" option, which corresponds with the Symbol Scale button on the Ins Symbol menu, will be visible in the Options pull-down menu of the Symbol Browser. This option is only enabled when browsing by Folder.
25) Enabled a new key in the [TemplateWindow] section of DCADWIN.INI. [TemplateWindow] ; When TRUE, a "Template.ini" file will be created in the same folder as the template file (*.tpl) which enables remembering the Symbol Scale status on a per-template basis.
Miscellaneous enhancements in version 12.08.00 (since 12.07.01):
1) Added Text Scale, Plot Scale, All Caps, and Arrows buttons to the MText and PText menus.
2) If Fix Text is on, MText and PText entities retain their line order when rotated more than 90°.
3) In the PText or MText dialog, [Ctrl] + [Enter] = [OK] and [Esc] = [Cancel].
4) In all other dialogs, [Enter] and Middle Mouse Button = [OK], [Esc] and Right Mouse Button = [Cancel].
5) The [Enter] key dismisses the Edit Fields dialog after typing the Item Name when saving a symbol.
6) Added Geometry\Tangents support for Polyline entities.
7) Added "Mask" to the Stretch selection menu.
8) Added PText, MText, Smart Walls, Doors and Windows to the list of options in the Mask\Entity menu.
9) Added "Material" to the 3D Change menu.
10) Added "Line 1 On/Off" and "Line 2 On/Off" to the Entity Properties Editor for associative dimensions.
11) Added "Outline On/Off," "Scale," "Angle," "Lock Origin," "Lock Angle," and "Lock Scale" to the Entity Properties Editor for polylines with associative hatching.
12) Added "Outline On\Off" to the Entity Properties Editor for Polylines with solid fills.
13) The Identify command includes the material assignment in the list of information returned.
14) XREF names are now case sensitive.
15) Added tooltips for the Mask menu to display the currently selected Entity, Color, Line Type and Weight.
16) Corrected field of view angles for list of camera Focal Lengths
in the 3D Views, Set Perspective menu. 35mm has been replaced with 18mm. 17) The Batch Plot dialogs may be resized horizontally.
18) Added a "Purge" button to the Wall Type, Door Type and Windows Type Managers, and to the Hatch Pattern and Line Type Managers that enables you to purge unused types from the file.
19) Creating a new material in the Material Assignments dialog will automatically launch the Edit Materials dialog.
20) Enhanced the 2D Change\Spacing command to work on symbol instances. Previously, only the 3D Change command worked. This command uses a base unit of 1/32", so to change the spacing to 1, use Change\Spacing\..1/32.
21) Added the following new key to the [General] section of the INI file: [General] Adding this key will set the default value of the AllCaps checkbox in the Symbol Attribute editor.
22) When translating files to and from DXF or DWG format, the file CHR2SHX.dat may be placed in the DataCAD 12\Fonts\ folder and used to scale the size of text.
23) When closing the Symbol Editor and choosing [Yes] to save changes you made to a symbol, layers within the symbol that had been turned off were discarded. This has been changed to turn off layers back on so that you do not lose information. To delete a layer from within a symbol, you must now explicitly choose the Delete Layer option in the Layer Manager (or in the Layers menu) while in the Symbol Editor.
Fixes in 12.08.00 (Since 12.07.01):
1) When creating stepped Smart walls with the condition that the length of the jog in the wall is equal to the width of the wall, DataCAD now correctly creates the intersection.
2) Points in DWG files were incorrectly imported as 2D lines with a zero length. This has been corrected.
3) Choosing Geometry\Tangents on an entity while in an Isometric view would result in an internal diagnostic fault error. This has been corrected.
4) After performing a 1-Line Trim by Entity, the trim-to line is now re-drawn in its original color.
5) Corrected the improper location of manually placed associative dimension text for an aligned dimension that had been drawn on an angle, and then mirrored about the X or Y axis.
6) Fixed a problem that caused the Geometry\Tangents menu to incorrectly use the Snap Angle setting from the Grids menu instead of from the TanDivs menu.
7) The Reports function of the Blocker macro failed to calculate the
correct Area Total and % of Total if you created three or more rooms.
8) Fixed a crash that would occur when using SetPersp if the HitherClip plane passed through a Solid, Pattern or Bitmap Fill.
9) The "Save As DataCAD 11 AEC" command was saving copies of MText entities to the same coordinates as the original entity. This has been corrected.
10) Fixed a bug related to Undoing and Redoing the accessing of GoTo Views.
11) Fixed an erroneous Dynamic Snap indication that occurred when hovering the cursor near points on a Self-XREF that was on a layer which was turned off.
12) Automatic crossing selection was not working properly if the cursor had been rotated to match a line that had an angle of 180° or greater. This has been corrected.
13) Fixed the failure of the Undo system to properly undo hatching if a keyboard macro interrupted the process.
14) Fixed a crash related to exploding certain symbols that contained attributes.
15) If you launch the Symbol Editor and save changes to the symbol
out to the hard drive without first loading the symbol into the active
drawing, the symbol field information would be lost. This has bee
corrected.
16) Restored proper display of the text box that is attached to the cursor during the Change\TextPos command for associative dimensions. The text box was not displayed if the chosen associative dimension had a different scale type than the current Lock Scale selection.
17) Restored the display of the initial Current Plot Scale to the Coordinates\Hints toolbar while performing a Multi-Layout\Layout.
18) The door swing for a Smart garage door was displayed even if "Include Swing" was un-checked on the Swing tab. This has been corrected.
19) DataCAD will no longer create the SymbolBrowserInfo.ini file if you browse a folder that doesn't contain any symbols.
20) Inclusion of Stops on Smart Doors at the Header and Jamb are tied to the inclusion of the Header or Jamb. If Include Header is off, but Include Stops is on, the Stops are only drawn on the Jambs, not on the Header.
21) The DXF\DWG Translator now supports import of AutoCAD control codes found within MText entities.
22) Corrected a problem with the Purge routine related to modified default smart entity types.
23) Corrected the display of the Symbol Reports dialog when Windows is set to use Large Fonts (120 DPI).
24) Fixed a crash that would occur after choosing File\Print twice then right clicking twice.
25) Fixed a crash that would occur when using [Ctrl] + [Tab] to switch between two drawings that were currently displaying Multi-Layout sheets.
26) Creating Text or Associative Dimensions, then inserting a symbol without exiting the Text or Dimension\Linear menu first would result in the Text or Dimension being grouped with the symbol. This has been corrected.
27) If a drawing contained a Clip Cube with IgnoreZ enabled, and some of the entities within the Clip Cube fell outside the Z-Min and Z-Max that would be used if IgnoreZ were off, when placing a Multi-Layout detail on a sheet, the incorrect extents would be used. This has been corrected.
28) Fixed a bug related to rotating associative dimension text.
29) If "Dynamic" was off in the "Text" menu, and "Alignment" was set to "Fit," text would be drawn from the starting point to Absolute Zero. This has been corrected.
New features in version 12.07.00 (Since version
12.06.00): New features in version 12.06.00 (Since version 12.05.00): 01. You can now export your drawings to AutoCAD R2004-2006 and R2007-2009 formats. Note: R2000, R2000i, and R2002 are all R15.x format. R2004, R2005, and R2006 are all R16.x format. R2007, R2008, and R2009 are all R17.x format. 02. The Add and Move Vertex functions have been updated to maintain the current pitch of 3D polygons and slabs, regardless of the current parallel view. 03. "Alignment" has been added to the identify command. 04. Identify, Set All on PText entity now sets the corresponding angle. New BETA features in version 12.06.00 (Since version 12.05.00): The Command-line Calculator now supports unit specifiers. Unit specifiers can be mixed and must appear within square brackets. For Example: [1' 2-3/4"] = 1 foot 2 and 3/4 inches (Architectural) [1.2.3.4] = 1 foot 2 and 3/4 inches (Architectural) [1.25'] = 1 and 1/4 feet (Decimal Feet) [1.25"] = 1 and 1/4 inches (Decimal Inches) [1-1/4"] = 1 and 1/4 inches (Fractional Inches) [1.1m] = 1.1 meters [1.1cm] = 1.1 centimeters [1.1mm] = 1.1 millimeters The following is an example of a mixed unit calculation: =([8' 10-3/16"] / 13) + [12cm] The result (based on a scale type of Architectural) is 1 foot 0 and 29/32 inches. You can enable the enhanced command-line calculator by adding the following entry to the [BETA] section of DCADWIN.INI. [BETA] New Calculator=TRUE BETA feature enhancements in 12.06.00 (since 12.05.00): 01. Pak-N-Go now extracts to the folder where the archive resides. 02. The following entries in the [SketchUp] section of DCADWIN.INI can be modified to suit your own preferences. [SketchUp] City=Avon (CT) Country=USA Latitude=41.8065 Longitude=-72.8418 TZOffset=-5 ; Time zone offset in hours. ShadowTimeMonth=6 ShadowTimeDate=21 ShadowTimeHour=12 ShadowTimeMin=0 DaylightSavings=FALSE ; If TRUE, the position of the sun will be adjusted to reflect daylight savings. DisplayShadows=TRUE ; If TRUE, SketchUp will cast shadows. Hide Edges=FALSE ; If TRUE, SketchUp will hide polygon edges. EdgesCastShadows=FALSE ; If TRUE, SketchUp will cast shadows from the edges of polygons. LaunchOnExport=FALSE ; If TRUE, DataCAD will automatically launch SketchUp after export. 03. The creation of components and groups has been optimized for SketchUp export. Fixes in version 12.06.00 (Since version 12.05.00): 01. An error that would prevent symbols within XREFs from being added to the drawing correctly when binding an XREF has been corrected. 02. Minor corrections to address cursor ghosting. 03. Classic wall did not inherit the current Pen Style setting. This has been corrected. 04. Minor correction to Edit Symbol Text Attributes dialog. 05. Quick Layout would crash if your drawing contained XREFs with Shader Lights and Show Lights was on. This has been corrected. 06. It was not possible to delete or move the last vertex of an open polyline. This has been corrected. 07. Minor correction to display of shader light indicator in XREFs. 08. Under certain circumstances, the dynamic display of the opening would fail to appear when adding an opening to a smart wall. This has been corrected. 09. An error related to selection highlighting in Measures, Area/Perimeter has been corrected. 10. With RoundIt on, DataCAD would correctly return the real value of the distance when using Measures, Point to Point. However, the rounded value would be placed after you selected To Drawing. This has been corrected. 11. The [End] and [Delete] keys would fail to interrupt the the Contour Search process. This has been corrected. 12. DataCAD would change the Z-Base and Z-Height value of a polyline to match the current Z-Base and Z-Height setting after you used either Polyline, Edit, Chamfer or Fillet. This has been corrected. 13. An error that would cause partial tori to exhibit invalid snapping points has been corrected. 14. An error that would cause DataCAD to create corresponding U$R files in the \Windows directory while editing a symbol has been corrected. 15. An error that would cause DataCAD to crash after undoing and then redoing a hatch using the boundary method has been corrected. 16. The Layer Manager dialog would not display correctly when using Large Fonts. This has been corrected. 17. An error that would cause DataCAD to exit the 2 or 3pt arc polyline creation method while panning or zooming has been corrected. 18. An error that would prevent multiple block attributes with the same name from importing correctly into a DataCAD drawing has been corrected. 19. The secondary division setting did not always apply to tori correctly. This has been corrected. BETA feature fixes in version 12.06.00 (Since version 12.05.00): 01. An error that would cause some of the contents of a Pak-N-Go archive to expand into the \DataCAD program folder when Recreate Folder Structure was enabled has been corrected. 02. DataCAD models now export to SketchUp at the correct real world scale. 03. DataCAD textures now export to SketchUp at the correct scale. 04. DataCAD models now cast shadows in SketchUp. New features in version 12.05.00 (Since version 12.04.01): 01. A new shortcut, [Shift] + Double-click, has been added to open XREFs directly. 02. PText is now recognized by the Change, Text, Match command. 03. New extended character codes have been added for SPB-Fill settings. 1027: Sets the current Solid Pattern Fill active 1028: Sets Bitmap Fill active if the currently specified file exists 04. A new option, Show X and Y has been added to the Grids menu. If toggled on, the drawing cursor will display an X and a Y indicating the orientation of the positive X and Y axis. 05. A new option, Show Zero, has been added to the Grids menu. If toggled on, the drawing cursor will display an arrow indicating the direction of zero degrees. Note: The Show Zero indicator only displays if the grid has been rotated, Tangents is enabled, or the Zero Angle has been redefined. 06. The Polyline, Void menu has been enhanced to allow the creation of "new" voids in addition to selecting existing polylines. 07. The Polyline, Edit routine has been enhanced to support voids. 08. It is now possible to display either icons only or icons with text in the Layer Manager. Note: To access this option, right-click below the icon menu. You can also double-click below the icon menu to change its position from left to right or vice versa. 09. A new key, Do Not Rotate Dimension Text, has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. If TRUE, DataCAD will automatically place dimensions that do not fit above the witness lines rather than rotate them to fit. 10. The Contour Properties dialog now includes Divisions and Stiffness. 11. The 2D and 3D Curves Properties dialogs now include Start Angle and End Angle. 12. In the Status Panel, locked layers now show as bold, italic, and red. 13. Smart Walls can now be selected for Angle, Match (and implied match). 14. Added pitch, slope, and grade to Identify and [Ctrl] + Right-click, Identify context menu (lines, 3D lines, polygons, slabs, and blocks). 15. The o2c Viewer now remembers its last view and lights on/off settings on a per-drawing basis when the following key in DCADWIN.INI is set to TRUE (the default is FALSE). [o2cViewer] Remember Last View=TRUE 16. If Shader, Show Lights is enabled, lights from XREFs will also display in the drawing. 17. Undo now functions while you place symbols and allows you to undo each instance one at a time instead of all at once. 18. When the cursor is rotated via Grid Angle or Tangents, Quadrant snapping is rotated accordingly. 19. The Select option in Measures, Area/Perimeter is now a toggle. New BETA Features in version 12.05.00 (Since version 12.04.01): You can enable the following features for testing purposes by setting the corresponding DCADWIN.INI key to TRUE in the [BETA] section. 01. Added export to SketchUp (SKP) format. Select File, Export, SketchUp. [BETA] SketchUp Export=TRUE 02. Pak-N-Go: [BETA] Pak-N-Go=TRUE File Pak-N-Go Create Use this option to archive the current drawing and related files into a single file. Extract Extract Contents Use this option to extract the contents of a Pak-N-Go archive into a directory you specify. Open... Use this option to extract the contents of a Pak-N-Go archive and open the parent drawing. Settings Access options for extracting Pak-N-Go archives. Extract Settings: - XREFs Make copies of existing externally-referenced files. - Bitmaps and Textures Make copies of existing externally-referenced bitmaps and bitmap textures. - SHX Fonts Make copies of existing SHX fonts. - Pen Tables Make copies of existing pen tables. - Materials Make copies of existing material files. Destination - Recreate Folder Structure Check this option to automatically recreate the original file/folder structure. Leave this option unchecked to specify a single directory for the extracted files. Fixes in version 12.05.00 (Since version 12.04.01): 01. The display of 'x' for locked layers in the Status Panel has been enhanced to XOR more legibly when the inverse color is similar to the background color. For example, the inverse color of Light Grey is Light Grey, so the 'x' would not appear if your locked layer color was Light Grey. 02. The conversion of HELV_LT.CHR to HELV_LT.SHX would fail. This has been corrected. 03. In some cases when copying smart walls, doors, and windows "up" or "down" in an elevation view to create additional stories, some of the openings were not created. This has been corrected. 04. More Contour Search tweaks. 05. Due to an error, DWG export would hang if your file contained ellipses. This has been corrected. 06. Corrections have been made to improve the handling of Hebrew text. 07. A nested symbol with the same name as the parent symbol would crash when edited. This has been corrected. 08. Symbol attributes that would import correctly via DWG in 12.03.00 would not in 12.04.01. This has been corrected. 09. It was not possible to move PText that had been previously copied, but moving the original would moves both. This has been corrected. 10. Identifying hatches or solid fills would cause the Scale Type to reset to Architectural. This has been corrected. 11. The identified angle of text was incorrect after it has been rotated with Fix Text off, then exploded. This has been corrected. 12. The identified angle of text was incorrect after it was placed as a symbol, then exploded. This has been corrected. 13. In some cases, zooming with the mouse wheel in a drawing that contained circular XREFs would cause the drawing to close unexpectedly. This has been corrected. 14. The scaling factor for a symbol was not updated properly after changing the plot scale via the Plotter menu. This has been corrected. 15. The interior lines of classic 3 and 4 line walls always had a z-height of 0. This has been corrected. 16. A specific DWF file creation that worked in DataCAD 11 did not work in DataCAD 12. This has been corrected. 17. PText would rotate in the wrong location after it had been copied. This has been corrected. 18. DataCAD's internal handling of Windows printer names has been updated to support similarly-named printers correctly. 19. Identify, Set All on Paragraph Text no longer affects the Stringline Text alignment setting. 20. If you copied an entity a specific distance and to a layer at the same time, the distance value would change. This has been corrected. 21. The message prompts for entering Smart Doors and Windows with Cut Wall off have been corrected. 22. Improvements have been made to copy/paste from Word and Excel to DataCAD. 23. If you edit a symbol from within a drawing with a clip cube, the clip cube will be disabled while you edit the symbol. 24. Editing a covered polyline using either the chamfer or fillet options would remove the cover. This has been corrected. 25. Non-associative hatching with the Dots pattern at a scale of 200 would not print. This has been corrected. 26. The following actions no longer cause all open drawings to be closed without being saved. a. Open another drawing while in the Plotter menu then go to the Plotter menu in the drawing you just opened. b. Select close All from the File pull-down menu, then answer No to save the current drawing. 27. An MSP Detail custom insertion point would not "stick" after rotating and placing detail. This has been corrected. 28. The Swing Type, 'Line' was not working for Smart Doors. This has been corrected. 29. When you render materials by color, DataCAD now updates the name of the Rendering Settings (DMF) file stored in your drawing immediately after loading a DMF file or saving the currently-loaded DMF file to a new name. In addition, the maximum length of the fully-qualified DMF file name has been increased from 80 to 255 characters. 30. In some cases, ellipses would fail to move by area. This has been corrected. 31. The display of text insertion points would cause DataCAD to crash when stretching an associative dimension. This has been corrected. 32. Identifying PText did not report correct weight. This has been corrected. 33. External icons now load faster (only applies when Use External Icons=TRUE). Fixes in version 12.04.01 (Since 12.04.00): 01. In rare circumstances, object snapping or dynamic snapping to the intersection of a line and an arc would cause the active drawing to close unexpectedly. This has been corrected. 02. Due to an error in the prior version, Identify, Set All did not work correctly with PText. This has been corrected. 03. The contour search function has been adjusted for improved reliability. 04. Due to an error, it was not possible to resize PText or MText after it had been moved. This has been corrected. 05. Due to an error, the position of PText was not correct after it was moved then later inserted as an XREF with an enlargement factor other than 1. This has been corrected. 06. XREF Layer highlight settings were not restored after you performed an erase then undo. This has been corrected. 07. Under some circumstances, the search aperture would display larger than normal when you [Alt] + [Tab]'ed between drawings. New features in version 12.04.00 (Since 12.03.00): 01. You can now midpoint snap to the edges of cones, truncated cones, spheres, and tori. 02. A new toggle, Dynamic Flip, has been added to the Insert Symbol menu. When this option is enabled, you can use the [Ctrl] key to flip the symbol vertically and/or the [Shift] key to flip the symbol horizontally ( instead of using an enlargement factor of -1 ). 03. Within the Layer Manager the [Tab] key now moves to and highlights the next layer name field and [Shift] + [Tab] moves to and highlights the previous layer name field. 04. The following hot keys can be used to add layers within the Layer Manager: [Ins] adds 1 layer before the currently highlighted layer or the first layer if none are highlighted. [+] adds 1 layer after the currently highlighted layer or the last layer if none are highlighted. [Shift] + [INS] prompts for the number of layers to add then adds them before the currently highlighted layer or thee first layer if none are highlighted. [Shift] + [+] prompts for the number of layers to add then adds them after the currently highlighted layer or the last layer if none are highlighted. 05. You can now bind ( i.e., convert ) XREFs to Symbols. Only the On layers will be included in the symbol definition. XClips are automatically converted to SClips. 06. Two new options, All and Selected have been added to the Free Trim, Begin menu. When All is active, you can select any line to trim between highlighted lines. When Selected is active, you can only select highlighted lines. 07. A new key has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI so you can customize the behavior of Implied Match. Shift For Implied Match=FALSE ; If TRUE, the [Shift] key must be used to invoke implied match. 08. A new key has been added to the [Toolbars] section of DCADWIN.INI so you can suppress the Macro Hint Toolbar. Suppress Macro Hint Toolbar=FALSE ; If TRUE, the Macro Hint Toolbar will not display when a keyboard macro has been invoked. 09. The Macro hint toolbar can now be docked and undocked. 10. Two new options, Add 90 1st and Add 90 Center have been added to the Mirror menu so you can rotate the mirror line about either the first point you picked or the midpoint between the first and second points you picked. 11. You can now undo chained entities one at a time instead of all at once. 12. You can now undo layer on / off operations one layer at a time. 13. For convenience, a new option Halve Distance has been added to Move, Copy, and Stretch menus. 14. The Identify command now displays the height between z-base and z-height. 15. When you create a new wall, door, or window type DataCAD now automatically sets it active as well. 16. A new option, Fix Text, has been added to the [Ctrl] + Right-click context menu so you can "normalize" text ( i.e., make readable from the bottom or right of the page ). 17. A new key has been added to the [DEBUG] section of DCADWIN.INI so you can optionally display insertion points for text. Draw Text Insertion Point=FALSE ; If TRUE, non-printing markers will appear at text insertion points. 18. The status of Fix Text now appears on the [Ctrl] + Right-click Context, Identify sub-menu ( only applies to text, symbols, and XREFs ). 19. A Fix Text option has been added to the Change, More... sub-menu. 20. An extended character code, 1026, has been added so you can clear the command stack via a keyboard macro. 21. The PText edit window now uses the Drawing Area font you specify on the Interface tab of Program Preferences. This font is also used in the Tools, Info ( Drawing Information ) dialog. 22. A new key has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI so you can customize the behavior of Implied Deselect. Shift For Implied Deselect=FALSE ; If TRUE, the [Shift] key must be used to deselect entities you've already selected. ; If FALSE, the [Shift] key can be used to disable Implied Deselect ( i.e., always select ). Fixes in version 12.04.00 (Since 12.03.00): 01. Corrections have been made to address multi-scale plotting detail highlight ghosting after deleting a detail. 02. A correction has been made so you can now delete a multi-scale plotting detail by picking it from the multi-layout window. 03. The Symbol Scale setting was not updated after you restored a GoTo View ( requires Plot Scale to be saved with GoTo View ). 04. An error that would prevent the dynamic snap indicator from displaying while rubber banding smart walls has been corrected. 05. In some cases, the global overshoot setting was not applied to entities within XREFs. This has been corrected. 06. Further adjustments have been made to improve the reliability of contour search. 07. Smart wall node indicators are no longer included in symbols. 08. Similar to two-line trim, one line trim now turns clean on at wall node. 09. In some cases, highlighted entities were not displayed using a dashed pen style. This has been corrected. 10. In some cases, the 3D rotate command would not apply the current x, y, or z angle relative to the current orientation of the entity being rotated. This has been corrected. 11. Due to an oversight, the current pen style was applied to SM3-based symbols when they were inserted into the drawing. This has been corrected. 12. When adding nodes to smart walls, the new node will be projected to the nearest smart wall within the search aperture only when Clean is on. 13. An error that would prevent symbols within smart entities from displaying within XREFs has been corrected. 14. An error that would cause text to be selected incorrectly when using the Spellchecker on MText has been corrected. 15. Smart entities were not included in drawing file previews. This has been corrected. 16. Smart walls were not cleaning when saved as symbols. This has been corrected. 17. Changes have been made to improve the handling of same-named symbol text attributes. 18. The number of voids has been restored to the Identify, Polyline results display. 19. Due to an oversight, the current pen style was applied to associative dimension text. This has been corrected. 20. A correction has been made to 3DS export. 21. The options No Sill, No Sash, and No Glass on the 2D Options tab of the Window Type Manager have been changed to Include Sill, Include Sash, and Include Glass respectively. 22. An error that would cause mirrored or rotated MText to move in the opposite direction has been corrected. 23. Multi-view Window tooltips were not sized properly. This has been corrected. 24. The angle property of MText and PText was not updated properly after rotation. This has been corrected. Existing MText and PText entities will be updated automatically. 25. The extents of reversed text was not calculated properly which could prevent you from selecting it. This has been corrected. 26. In some cases, text entities with Fix Text enabled would not transfer via DWG properly. This has been corrected. Note: Text within symbols or XREFs that have their Fix Text property enabled will not transfer via DWG. In other words, DWG does not support a Fix Text property on blocks or XREFs. 27. In some cases, drawing files that contained solid fills would close unexpectedly if you tried to pan, zoom, or scroll during a redraw. This has been corrected. New features in version 12.03.00 (Since 12.02.03): Edit Symbol is now accessible via the Symbol Browser context menu. The previous view type is now remembered in all but the o2c Insert dialog. A new option, Add 90, has been added to the 2D Mirror menu so you can rotate the current line of reflection by 90 degrees. The default Multi-view Window caption prefix as defined in DCADWIN.MSG line 4346 has been increased from 7 to 79 characters. The Paste command now displays DataCAD’s private Clipboard(s) if the Windows Clipboard is empty. Fixes in version 12.03.00 (Since 12.02.03): An error in 3D polygon area calculation has been corrected. An error related to XREFs with long pathnames has been corrected. Text entities that contained empty strings were automatically deleted which prevented the Scrive macro from functioning properly. This has been corrected. The line feed factor was not being applied correctly to TrueType Fonts with a non-zero angle. This has been corrected. An error that would cause DataCAD to crash when you saved a wall, door, or window type to a new path has been corrected. Undo now restores a polylines edge visibility. A Layer Search toggle has been added to the Curves, Polyline, Show / Hide menu. An error that would cause hatch pattern dots to draw at the drawing origin has been corrected. An error that would cause dots in Dotted and Dot-Dash line types to appear offset from the line has been corrected. An error that would prevent hyperlink hints from displaying in certain views has been corrected. TrueType font names were not transferred from DataCAD 10 drawings to DataCAD 12. This has been corrected. The texture origin assignment was not correct for non-ortho polygons. This has been corrected. The 2D and 3D glass representation for window types did not reflect the offset value for non-centered panes. This has been corrected. If NoGridInSelect=TRUE, Grid Snap will be inactive whenever the input line is active. In some cases, File I/O dialogs will not appear correctly when Old File Dialogs=FALSE in the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. You can set this value to TRUE to restore DataCAD’s File I/O dialogs to pre-12.02.00 status. The “Layer not found” message was not appearing when you typed a non-existent name in the Layer Menu input prompt. This has been corrected. In some cases, ellipses were unmovable. This has been corrected. In some cases, hatch would not move by area. This has been corrected. BMP icons were not automatically converted to PNG format unless Use External Icons=TRUE. This would prevent custom toolbar icons from displaying. This has been corrected. An INI setting, New FreeTrim=FALSE, has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. If TRUE, FreeTrim will only act on entities that are highlighted. Otherwise, DataCAD will trim any line segment you select between highlighted entities. Control points no longer appear “ballooned” in the Symbol Browser. In some cases materials would not appear correctly in the wall, door, and window type manager previews. This has been corrected. If toolbars are locked, double-clicking on a blank portion of an undocked menu no longer re-docks the menu. Window openings were not drawn when the window header was coincident with the top of a wall. This has been corrected. In some cases while in isometric view, object snapping to symbols in the Symbol Browser would not return the correct point. This has been corrected. An error that would cause DataCAD’s menu window to “flicker” when undocked has been corrected. An error that would prevent the oblique view icon in the Object Viewer toolbar from displaying has been corrected. New features in version 12.02.00 (Since version 12.01.00): A new option, View Isometric, has been added to the Symbol Browser Options pull-down menu. When selected, symbols being displayed from the current folder will appear in isometric view. Otherwise, symbols will appear in plan view. This setting is remembered on a per folder basis so 2D and 3D symbols can display accordingly. Note: 3D object snapping applies to symbols displayed in isometric view so you can set your insertion point based on this method. The 3D Cursor option has been added to the 3D Stretch menu so you can now use x, y, and z coordinates to define your stretch distance. The maximum Multi-scale Plotting Sheet name length has been increased from 8 to 80. A new option, Add 90, has been added to the 2D Move, Copy, and Rotate menus so you can change the current direction by 90 degrees while retaining the current distance. All Caps has been added as an option to the Edit Symbol Attribute dialog. Options have been added to the 3D Coordinate Identification menu to allow you to insert the results into your drawing. Note: This option is only available via the [?] keyboard interrupt. In addition to smart walls, doors, windows, and cutouts may now be selected via Tangents. Voids and Edit have been added to the SPB-Fill, Boundary menu. Performing a Save As via the wall, door, and window managers will automatically load the new style and set it as active. A new key, "Suppress Witness Line 1", has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. If FALSE, associative string line dimensions will include the first witness line. The default value is TRUE. A new section [Standard Toolbar] has been added to DCADWIN.INI. If any of the following keys are set to FALSE, the corresponding icon will not appear on the Standard Toolbar. STD_NewFile=, STD_OpenFile=, STD_Save=, STD_Print=, STD_SpellCheck=, STD_ClipboardSelect=, STD_Cut=, STD_Copy=, STD_Paste=, STD_Undo=, STD_Redo=, STD_InsertXRef=, STD_InsertBmp=, STD_HyperLink=, STD_Order=, or STD_Help=. The DataCAD File Open dialog now remembers its size and view type ( not including Tiles or Thumbnails ) in Windows 2000 and XP ( Vista provides this feature automatically ). Note: Detail view takes longer to display than List view. DataCAD now supports 32-bit PNG format icons ( 24-bit color + 8-bit opacity ) versus the previous 24-bit BMP format. Fixes in version 12.02.00 (Since version 12.01.00): Fixed width doors, windows, and cutouts must now be fully enclosed within the selection boundary in order to move them. The Closed option has been removed from the Torus properties dialog since this feature is not currently supported on Tori. An error that would cause the base of two smart walls to move to zero during an X, L, or T-intersection cleanup has been corrected. In some cases, smart walls would extend to infinity. Adjustments have been made to prevent this from occurring. Ellipse center points were always drawn at 0,0. This has been corrected. A problem with drawing smart doors or windows with Cut Wall turned off has been corrected. An error that would cause the Plane Snap function to display the resulting view upside down has been corrected. The previous path for saving bitmaps was not remembered. This has been corrected. The rubber band line has been restored in the Move, Drag routine. Errors that would cause text to display improperly ( or not at all ) have been corrected. The DCADWIN.INI setting Old Line Weights=TRUE was not working where a line weight of 2, 3, 4, etc. would display as 3, 5, 7, pixels and so on. This has been corrected. An issue related to Windows Vista that would cause a two pixel wide line to display only one pixel wide has been corrected. An error that would cause dashed circles within symbols and XREFs to display as solid has been corrected. Text boxes and object snapping were incorrect for text entities with an alignment other than bottom, left. This has been corrected. An error that would cause grouping to be lost via Copy, Paste has been corrected. Z Offset is no longer available when placing symbol with the 3D cursor. In some cases, the lighting buttons in the Object Viewer were not working. This has been corrected. It is no longer possible to create zero length smart entities. The Layer option has been removed from the Symbol Entities Properties dialog. FreeTrim would apply to lines that were not part of the current selection. This has been corrected. An error that would cause the reference angle for Direction/Distance input to be incorrect when placing a symbol has been corrected. An error that would allow solid fills to appear outside of the ClipCube has been corrected. New features in version 12.01.00 (Since version 12.00.00): 3DS ( 3D Studio ) has been added to the File, Export menu. The following improvements have been made to Object Snapping within non-ortho views: - You can now snap to the intersection of 3D lines and polygon edges using the 3D cursor. - You can now snap to the intersection of 3D lines and polygon edges using the 2D cursor. You can now select any line in a non-ortho view for Tangents. The following extended character codes have been added: 1024: Auto3D (Smart Walls) On 1025: Auto3D (Smart Walls) Off The following INI settings have been added to the [Printer] section of DCADWIN.INI: [Printer] Settings Auto Load=MySettings.dps ; Automatically load a specific Printer Settings File where MySettings.dps is the name of a previously saved ; Printer Settings File. The name may be fully-qualified or just the filename. If you do not specify a path, ; the path defined by PATH_PLOTTERSETTINGSPATH will be used. Clear Settings=FALSE ; If TRUE, the current printer settings will be removed from your drawing when you open it. You can now select entities for Boolean operations using Entity, Group, Area, or Fence and Mask. An Explode option has been added to the MText and PText context menus for conversion to stringline text. A Resize option has been added to the MText and PText context menus. The context menu in the Layer Manager has been expanded to include options that were previously accessible via the toolbar only. Hatch and fills are now applied immediately at the time you select or create the boundary. The Orphan Manager dialog can now be resized. A new option, Show / Hide has been added to the Polyline menu so you can toggle the edge visibility of polyline boundary segments. TIN modeller processing can now be interrupted using the [Delete] key. If TIN model creation will take more than five minutes, DataCAD will display a dialog with the estimated time required. Fixes in version 12.01.00 (Since version 12.00.00): During keyboard input, [Spacebar] [Spacebar] 1 [Spacebar] 2 was interpreted as 1'-2". It is now interpreted as 1/2" as it was in prior versions. Non-associative, stringline dimensions included duplicate witness lines between dimensions. This has been corrected. An error that would cause text characters to step in the z-direction has been corrected. A problem related to ellipses that contained invalid matrix data has been corrected. Errors related to printer settings have been corrected. The Z-Offset options in the Insert Symbol menu were not working. This has been corrected. An error related to angle normalization when using tangents has been corrected. Refinements have been made to the contour search function so that it will work more reliably. Nested symbols were not being read from DWG files. This has been corrected. Errors related to creating PDF files have been fixed. Invisible text attributes were not exported via DWG. This has been corrected. In some cases, invalid characters were added to text attribute values during export to DWG. This has been corrected. The prompt string for text attributes was replaced with the prompt default value during export to DWG. This has been corrected. An error in AECExtension.dll that would cause Windows Explorer to crash when deleting multiple drawing files has been corrected. Symbol Scale has been removed from the Paste menu. Symbol scale was not adjusting line spacing accordingly. This has been corrected. Autosave is now disabled during keyboard input. XREF lights were not being recognized by the Object Viewer. This has been corrected. The display of bold TrueType Fonts has been corrected. DataCAD 12.00.00 New Feature Highlights "Smart" Entities DataCAD 12 provides new "smart" wall, door, and window entities that contain routines and parameters that define their behaviour and interaction with other smart entities. When you draw two walls in a prior version of DataCAD, they don't know anything about each other until you explicitly tell the program to clean them together. In DataCAD 12, walls of the same type automatically clean to each other without you having to perform additional cleanup routines. The same automation applies to doors and windows as well. When you add a door or window to a wall, the wall automatically cuts itself to accommodate the opening. Further, when you move, copy, or delete a door or window, the wall automatically heals itself. These "smarts" eliminate most of the cleanup steps you had to perform in prior versions. A smart entity also knows what it is supposed to look like when viewed in plan or perspective. In plan, a door looks just like the 2D doors you are familiar with. However, when you switch to a 3D view, the door is automatically modeled complete with a jamb, casing, and trim. When you display your model in the object viewer, it is complete with rendered materials. SketchUp File Import DataCAD 12 adds direct support for SketchUp files. Now you can easily add models you've created in SketchUp to your DataCAD projects. You can open, insert, or externally reference SketchUp files. DataCAD 12 will automatically extract materials and bitmap textures from the SketchUp file and embed them into your DataCAD drawing. You can also convert SketchUp files to o2c format for raytraced visualization. Excel Spreadsheet Import You can insert Excel spreadsheets into your drawings. Object Snapping Enhancements DataCAD 12's object snapping mechanism has been completely re-written to provide faster response times in larger drawings and to eliminate previous limitations. It is now possible to snap between and within symbols and XREFs (including nests). You can also snap to polyline bulge centers and XClip boundaries. A new dynamic snap indicator displays available object snap locations in real-time. 3D Boolean Operations Add, Subtract, and Union operations. 3D Edit Planes Recall construction planes on a per-entity basis. Double-precision Display List DataCAD 12 includes a new option to enable a double-precision display when you need to work on projects that cover a large real-world area. This setting is applied on a per-drawing basis. Multi-line Text (a.k.a. MText) A new multi-line text (with support for TTF and SHX fonts) entity provides wrap-around text boundaries and the ability to uniquely format text within the same paragraph such as font, size, bold, italic, underline, overline, color, alignment, and line feed factor. Multi-line text is based on RTF (Rich Text Formatting) and is round-trip compatible with AutoCAD's MText. SHX Font Support DataCAD 12 provides native support for AutoCAD SHX fonts. Font Dialog Enhancements An enhanced Font Dialog allows you to save and load text styles. You can also access options such as All Caps, Plot Scale, and Line Factor options that were previously available in the main Text menu only. Entity Properties Editor It is now possible to access the properties of any entity simply by [Ctrl] + Right-clicking on the object. From here you can change settings and apply them immediately. A real-time 3D preview window allows you to see changes to three-dimensional entities. o2c Rendering Enhancements In addition to rendering by color or by layer, you can also assign material definitions on a per entity basis. Material definitions are now embedded in your drawing in a central location. So you can easily assign the same Brick material to multiple entities. New Symbol Tools A new addition to the context-sensitive Symbol Tools menu allow you to edit unexploded symbols on the fly. The changes you make can be saved to the current drawing only and/or to the hard disk, or to a new symbol definition. Symbols can now be clipped using rectangular or irregular shaped polyline boundaries. Ready2Render Symbols New 3D symbols added to DataCAD 12 include pre-assigned materials and textures so they are ready to render as soon as you add them to your model. In addition, we've updated many of the existing 3D symbols so they are "ready-to-render" as well. New Seamless Textures and Backgrounds DataCAD 12 includes more than 200 new seamless textures and dozens of background photos to add realism to your renderings. New Hatch Patterns More than 50 new hatch patterns have been added for interior and exterior materials. Dimension Enhancements You can now assign a unique scale type to any dimension allowing you to maintain multiple dimensioning formats within the same drawing. Fence Clip XREFs and Symbols can now be clipped using irregular shaped polyline boundaries. Pen Styles / Pen Widths Based on the Windows line type format, you can now apply scale-independent patterns to your DataCAD line types. These patterns are compatible with the Windows Metafile format and convert directly to Adobe PDF format. Now you can apply property lines to curves. New Toolbars Notate Toolbar Types Toolbar Plotting Enhancements Your current plotter and Quick Layout settings can now be saved to a file and loaded into other drawings. You can also assign unique pen tables to specific scales. So large-scale drawings and details can have thicker pens and small-scale drawings can have thinner pens. Unique pen tables can also be assigned to specific multi-scale plotting details. Multi-scale Plotting Enhancements You can now save your multi-scale plotting layouts to DWG format so your consultants can access them directly using AutoCAD. A new context menu provides quick access to MSP Detail operations. MSP Details can be selected directly from the layout window versus only from the menu. MSP Detail extents are highlighted when you hover your cursor over them. A tooltip displays the detail name. MSP Detail Make Current now sets the current Plot Scale to what the detail was saved at. MSP Detail names may now contain up to 80 characters. Multiple Private Clipbooks w/ Preview DataCAD 12 stores up to 10 private Clipbooks that contain the most recent data you copied from your drawing to the Windows Clipboard. Whenever you Paste, you can re-select any of your Clipbooks. A preview of each Clipbook's contents are shown when you highlight the item in the menu. Reference File Manager Enhancements XREF Highlight settings can now be assigned on a per-XREF and/or XREF Layer basis. The Reference File Manager dialog has been updated to allow drag-n-drop between the Loaded, Refresh, Reload, Bind, and Delete lists. You can also assign custom names to XREFs. The Inherit Current Highlight Setting option for Nested XREFs is now remembered on a per drawing versus global basis. Display Symbol Contents While Dragging The contents of symbols can now be displayed dynamically during placement and rotation. AEC File Import Select Layers, GoTo Views, MSP Sheets, Multi-view Windows Layer Import: New, Append, Overwrite Drawing Settings: Update Long GoTo View Names GoTo View names may now contain up to 80 characters. Long MSP Detail Names Multi-scale Plotting Detail names may now contain up to 80 characters. Access / Update GoTo Views via Layer Manager A GoTo View list pull-down menu has been added to the Layer Manager for quick access to layer on/off settings. Access Material Definitions via Layer Manager Materials can now be set on a per layer basis via the Layer Manager. XREF Highlighting Per Layer XREF Highlighting can now be set per XREF Layer basis. XREF Manager Drag-n-drop Items from the Reference Files list can be moved to either the Refresh, Reload, Bind, or Delete lists using a drag-n-drop method. Hyperlink Hints/Tooltips Hyperlink paths are now displayed when you hover the cursor over an entity that contains a hyperlink. Search Associative Hatch The Search Hatch setting in the Object Snap menu now applies to Associative Hatch. Implied Unselect Consistent with Windows standards, clicking on an entity after it has been selected will remove it from the current selection set. Trap Door to Dimension Change A trap door to Dimension, Change has been added to the Change menu. Smooth Curve Dragging Curves now display smoothly rather than segmented when you create them. Multiple Associative Dimension Scale Types. Independent from the global Scale Type setting, individual associative dimensions can display a unique unit type. Polyline Bulge Centers The radius point for polyline bulges is now displayed when Display, Curve Centers is enabled. Symbol Scale Just like Text Scale for notes and dimensions, you can now define symbols at their plotted size and enlarge them accordingly for a given drawing scale. Rotate Menu Enhancements Quick Rotate Rotate entities about the point you click as you select them without having to define a center of rotation each time. Absolute Rotate Rotate entities to an absolute angle about their center as you select them. Rotate by Center Rotate entities about their centers as you select them (Also works with Dynamic Rotation). Insert Symbol Current View (Dynamic) Insert symbols based on their world orientation relative to the current view. Angle Snap Divisions Increased To 720 The Angle Snap setting may now be set as small as 30 minutes, or 720 divisions of a circle. Previously, the smallest angle allowed was 10 degrees, or 36 divisions of a circle. MSP Detail Make Current Also Sets Plot Scale MSP Detail Make Current now sets the current Plot Scale to what the detail was saved at. Inherit Nested XREF Highlight On A Per Drawing Basis The Inherit Current Highlight Setting option for Nested XREFs is now remembered on a per drawing versus global basis. Select by Fill It is now possible to select filled entities from within their closed boundary in addition to their edges. 24x24 Interface Icons DataCAD 12 includes a set of 24x24 pixel interface icons for use on high-resolution displays. New Toolbars The Notate toolbar has been re-introduced to DataCAD 12 and takes advantage of new symbol options. Change Text Added Angle and Alignment to the Change, Text, menu. Paste Enhancements The Paste menu has been expanded to include Dynamic Rotate, Line Factor, Bind Materials, Symbol Scale, Max Lines, and Clipbooks. MSP Detail Highlighting and Context Menu MSP Details are now highlighted when you hover your cursor over them. [General] Detail Highlight=TRUE [Ctrl] + Right-clicking on any detail will open a context menu with the following options. Rename Update Make Current Rotate Pen Table XREF Alias It is now possible to assign a custom name to XREFs. Miscellaneous Enhancements Voids and Edit options have been added to the Boundary menu in Hatch. The maximum number of points for a selection fence has been increased from 36 to 100. A Draw Leader option has been added to the Dimension, Change, Text Position menu. Included and Excluded options have been added to the, Angle, Match menu. The All Black toggle in the Pen Table dialog is no longer a drawing variable, it is now stored as part of the Pen Table. Layer menus now remember the last page you were on. An option, Clip Cube Obey / Ignore has been added to the context menu for text entities. It is now possible to open multiple files with the same name at the same time. Hyperlinks to Internet URLs that are embedded within top-level symbol entities are now accessible via [Ctrl] + Right-click. New extended character code 1022 added for 3D Views, Isometric. More button added to Change menu for new DataCAD 12-specific attributes including Pen Style, Pen Style Spacing, and Material. Fix Text (including attribute text and dimension text) now applies to rotate and mirror operations. XClips and new SClips can now be rotated via the Rotate menu. New Object Snap method "Offset" and corresponding extended character codes 1018: Turns Offset On, 1019: Turns Offset Off, and 1020: Prompts for new Offset distance. SHX is now the native format for "stroke" fonts (Existing CHR's are automatically converted). Tools, Extract 2D/3D pull-down menu added for conversion of Smart Entities. Double-click Property Editor, Edit XREF, and Edit Symbol or [Ctrl] + Double-click. TTF equivalents of standard DataCAD fonts are now included. All program paths have been added to Program Preferences. Inherit Current Highlight Settings added to [Ctrl] + Right-click context menu. All Caps Linked option between Text and Change Text menus. [General] AllCaps Linked=TRUE. Stretch now applies to 3D Cylinders. Added Rotate option in MSP layout menu. Right-clicking on an XREF entry in the Reference File Manager now reveals a context menu with the following options. Select All Unselect All Invert Selection Repath Redefine Rename Minimize Names Copy Highlight Settings Paste Highlight Settings Nesting On Nesting Off INI Entries [General] Detail Highlight=TRUE ; If TRUE, a bounding box will be displayed when you hover your cursor over an MSP detail. Automatic Crossing Selection=FALSE ; If TRUE, area selection from right to left will imply crossing. Dynamic Snap=true Dynamic Snap Delay=50 ABNT=TRUE Double Click For Properties=TRUE Double Click For RFM=TRUE Double Click For Symbol Editor=FALSE Auto Extract 2D=TRUE Auto Extract 3D=FALSE SHX Conversion= [PATHS] PATH_XREFBASEPATH=Drawings\ PATH_WALLTYPES=Support Files\Wall Types\ PATH_DOORTYPES=Support Files\Door Types\ PATH_SMARTDOORSYMBOLPATH=Symbols\ PATH_WINDOWTYPES=Support Files\Window Types\ PATH_SMARTWINDOWSYMBOLPATH=Symbols\ PATH_TYPESBASEPATH=Support Files\ PATH_TXTSTYLES=Support Files\Text Styles\ PATH_O2CMATERIALBASEPATH=Materials\ PATH_O2CTEXTUREBASEPATH=Textures\ PATH_SKETCHUP=SketchUp\ PATH_EXCELFILES=Excel\ PATH_SYMBOLBASEPATH=Symbols\ PATH_CLIPBOARDFILES=Clipbooks\ PATH_PLOTTERSETTINGSPATH=Support Files\Plotter Settings\ PATH_SPELLCHECK=Support Files\Dictionaries\ [StatusArea] ButtonColors=TRUE ; If TRUE, Color Palette icon will be shown. DropDownColors=TRUE ; If TRUE, Colors drop-down list will be shown. ButtonLineTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Line Type menu icon will be shown. DropDownLineTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Line Type drop-down list will be shown. ButtonLayers=TRUE ; If TRUE, Layer Manager icon will be shown. DropDownLayers=TRUE ; If TRUE, Layers drop-down list will be shown. ButtonScales=TRUE ; If TRUE, Layer Search icon will be shown. DropDownScales=TRUE ; If TRUE, Display Scale drop-down list will be shown. ButtonGotoViews=TRUE ; If TRUE, GoTo View menu icon will be shown. DropDownGotoViews=TRUE ; If TRUE, GoTo View drop-down list will be shown. ButtonSelSets=TRUE ; If TRUE, Selection Sets menu icon will be shown. DropDownSelSets=TRUE ; If TRUE, Selection Sets drop-down list will be shown. DropDownInputModes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Input Mode drop-down list will be shown. ButtonWallTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Wall Type Manager icon will be shown. DropDownWallTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Wall Type drop-down list will be shown. MaxWallTypes= ; Number of lines displayed in the Wall Types drop-down list. ButtonDoorTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Door Type Manager icon will be shown. DropDownDoorTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Door Types drop-down list will be shown. MaxDoorTypes= ; Number of lines displayed in the Door Types drop-down list. ButtonWindowTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Window Type Manager icon will be shown. DropDownWindowTypes=TRUE ; If TRUE, Window Types drop-down list will be shown. MaxWindowTypes= ; Number of lines displayed in the Window Types drop-down list. [Purge] Materials(Automatic)=FALSE ; If TRUE, unused material definitions will automatically be removed upon exit, and save. Styles(Automatic)=FALSE ; If TRUE, unused wall, door, and window type definitions will automatically be removed upon exit, and save. Materials(Manual)=FALSE Styles(Manual)=FALSE [External Types] Walls=TRUE ; If TRUE, external Wall Type definitions will be displayed in manager. Doors=TRUE ; If TRUE, external Door Type definitions will be displayed in manager. Windows=TRUE ; If TRUE, external Window Type definitions will be displayed in manager. [SketchUp] FrontOverBack=TRUE ; If TRUE, material definition for "positive" side of polygon will be imported. ExtractTextures=TRUE ; If TRUE, bitmap textures will be extracted from model. OverwriteTextures=FALSE ; If TRUE, existing bitmap textures will be overwritten. ExtractedTexturePath=Textures\ ; Path to save extracted bitmap textures. [Clipboard] FileName= ; File Name prefix for private clip book files. ; If blank, prefix will be Computer Logon Username or if Username is blank then Machine Name. MaxClips=10 ; Minimum of 1, no maximum PenWidthFactor=10 ; Line weight to pen width conversion factor Ortho Snap divisions maximum increased from 36 to 720. [XREFs] Dynamic Snapping=TRUE [File Dialog] Preview Forced Save=FALSE ; If TRUE (and Preview=TRUE, the drawing preview bitmap will be updated after each forced file save. ; Otherwise, the drawing preview bitmap will only be updated when you exit and save your changes. [o2cViewer] Use Entity Material=TRUE ExtractTextures=TRUE ; If TRUE, bitmap textures will be extracted from model. OverwriteTextures=FALSE ; If TRUE, existing bitmap textures will be overwritten. ExtractedTexturePath=Textures\ ; Path to save extracted bitmap textures Fixes in version 12.00.00 (Since version 11.08.01): 01. Angle Normalization fix. 02. Entering either [<] or [*] in the Select Line Type input would cause an error. This has been corrected. 03. In some cases, using the scroll wheel between Print and Print Preview would cause an error. This has been corrected. 04. The Object Snap routine no longer recognizes points on entities that lie outside the clipping boundary. 05. Symbol Attribute Text enlargements were not transferred via DXF/DWG. This has been corrected. 06. In some cases, Symbol Attribute Text default values would revert to the attribute name after saving and re-opening the file. This has been corrected. 07. In some cases, the LOG file would not be deleted after opening a DXF/DWG file. This has been corrected. 08. The display of XClip boundaries was not updated automatically when you changed display scales. This has been corrected. 09. It is no longer possible to delete a locked layer via the Layer Manger unless you unlock the layer first. Fixes in version 11.08.01 (Since version 11.08.00): 01. The text line feed would advance based on the slant angle. This has been corrected. 02. All GoTo Views would inherit the current layer on/off settings when opening a DC5 file. This has been corrected. 03. Under some circumstances XClips with Ignore Z enabled would drop text. This has been corrected. 04. DWG files containing associative hatch entities with no boundary definition would cause DataCAD to crash during import. This has been corrected. New features in version 11.08.00 (Since version 11.07.00): Implied Match The Match option is now automatically implied when DataCAD prompts you to select a layer, color or angle. So you can simply click on an entity that resides on the layer you want, click on an entity that is the color you want, or click on an entity that has been drawn at the angle you want, without having to select the Match option first. Note: When DataCAD prompts you for an angle you can click on a 2D line, 3D line, text entity, symbol, or XREF to match its angle. You can also select a 2D arc to set the angle to match the tangent nearest the point you click on the arc. Infinity Clip A new option, Ignore Z, has been added to the Clip Cube and XClip menus. Enabling this option creates a Clip Cube with an infinite top and bottom. The status of this toggle is stored with GoTo Views and MSP details. New extended key codes have been added that allow you to explicitly set the status of the Ignore Z toggle. 1014 = Ignore Z On 1015 = Ignore Z Off XClips with Ignore Z enabled will export to DXF/DWG. Log File DataCAD now maintains a log file in the \Temporary Files folder for each drawing you open. DataCAD deletes the log file along with other temporary files when you exit your drawing normally. If you experience a crash and subsequently open and recover your drawing, the corresponding log file is moved to the \RECOVER_ARCHIVE folder. You can submit the log file to Technical Support for further analysis. Symbol Tools Menu A context-sensitive menu is now available when you [Ctrl] + Right-click on a symbol. Symbol Tools Open in Symbol Browser Send to Object Viewer Reload Replace Redefine Reset Insertion Z To Zero To Z-Base To Z-Height Explode To Current Layer To Insertion Layer To Original Layers Reports Edit Fields Edit Attributes Exploding Symbols The symbol explode command now provides you with three options. Current Layer (Explode symbol’s entities to current layer) Insertion Layer (Explode symbol’s entities to symbol’s insertion layer) Original Layers (Explode symbol’s entities to their original layers) Note: These options are remembered independently from the explode options available when you insert a symbol. Change Symbol’s Insertion Z You can now change the Z-Height of a symbol’s insertion point via the Change, Z-Base menu. Reload All versus Reload On The Reload All (Symbols) option now reloads all symbol definitions regardless of their corresponding layer on/off status. A new option, Reload On Layers Only, only reloads symbol definitions that reside on layers that are on. Fix Text Within Symbols Text and Symbol Text Attributes contained within Symbols now adhere to the Mirror, Fix Text toggle. Keep Groups A new toggle, Keep Groups, has been added to the Copy and Move, And Copy menus. If toggled on, the entities which have been copied or moved will retain their original grouping. Note: A new entry, Copy Keeps Groups=, has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI to control the default status of the Keep Groups toggle. If set to TRUE, Keep Groups will automatically reset to on. If set to FALSE, Keep Groups will automatically reset to off. If left blank, the Keep Groups toggle will retain its last status. Sticky One Line Trim by Entity A new entry, 1LineTrim By Entity=, has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI to control the behavior of the Entity toggle in 1LnTrim. If set to TRUE, Entity is automatically reset to on. If set to FALSE, Entity is automatically reset to off. If left blank, the Entity toggle will retain its last status. Note: New extended key codes have been added that allow you to explicitly set the status of the Entity toggle. 1016 = Entity On 1017 = Entity Off Sticky Contour Search The Contour Search option is now "sticky" in all menus where it appears. XREF Enhancements A new popup menu is available when you right-click on the list of XREFs in the Reference File Manager and provides the following options: Select All Unselect All A new option, Multiple, has been added to the Insert, XREF menu. Enabling this option allows you to insert multiple copies of the same XREF similar to inserting a symbol. Inserting an XREF or pasting Clipboard data using the By Center option has been changed as follows: a. Insertion point is based on X and Y extents only. Original Z extents are retained. b. A new Z-Offset menu is now available similar to inserting a symbol. A new option, XREFs Auto-Refresh on Regen=, has been added to the [XREFs] section of DCADWIN.INI. If TRUE, all XREFs will automatically Refresh when you regenerate the display list by pressing the [u] key. You can now suppress the loading of XREFs by holding the [Ctrl] key down when you select Open. An XREF you select in the Reference File Manager will now remain highlighted after you "Apply" your changes. Unlimited o2c Lights via XREFs A new option, Use Lights from XREFs has been added to the Rendering Settings dialog. When checked, o2c objects will contain lights from the current and referenced drawing files. o2c Ground Plane A new option Show Ground Plane has been added to the Rendering Settings dialog. When checked, o2c objects will automatically contain a ground plane. Dimension Bump/No Bump A new option DinStdNoBump=, has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI to control the behavior of dimension text that does not fit between the witness lines. If set to TRUE, dimension text is not “bumped”. If set to FALSE, dimension text that does not fit between the witness lines will be “bumped” to the opposite side of the dimension line when the DIN Standard Dimension Style is enabled. Hebrew Text Support DataCAD now supports Hebrew (right to left) TrueType fonts. 1 New Layer A new menu option, 1 New Layer, has been added to the Layer menu so you can add one new layer, name it, and make it active in one step. Hatch Lock You can now lock associative hatch origin, angle, and scale independently. These options are also accessible via Identify, Set All. Miscellaneous Enhancements 01. The first field of the Edit/Customize Symbol Attribute dialog box is now highlighted when the dialog is shown. You no longer need to select the first field in order to change it, you can just begin typing. 02. MSP detail menu labels now display the corresponding detail’s scale in the tooltip. 03. The complete layer name is now reported in the attention line for functions within the layer menu. 04. Tooltips for the Active Layer and Current Color dropdowns in the status panel now show the full name. 05. The selected entities to be changed when using Match in the Change menu are now highlighted and their count is reported. 06. Further refinements to the Surface Area and Volume calculations in the Identify menu. Specifically, all linear (line length, radius, perimeter, etc.) measurements are reported using the current drawing Scale Type. Only areas, volumes and surface areas are now reported using the Scale Type specified in the Area/Perim menu. Also, corrections to the Surface Area and Volume calculations for Slabs have been made. 07. A new option, 2 Points, has been added to the Tangents menu. Selecting this option allows you to enter 2 points to indicate the angle to rotate the cursor. 08. Many selection issues have been addressed. These include (but are not limited to) functions that require you to select a certain entity type (i.e. a polyline) but were not masking out disallowed entity types making it difficult to select the proper entity. 09. New options have been added to the [SymbolBrowser] section of DCADWIN.INI to set the maximum number of divisions the Symbol Browser will automatically create when you browse a folder for symbols. Previously, there was no practical limit for the number of symbols the Symbol Browser would automatically try to display. MaxAutoDivisionsX=3 ; Default is 3. Valid range is from 1 to 25. MaxAutoDivisionsY=15 ; Default is 15. Valid range is from 1 to 25. 10. Text Alignment options are now available when you insert a Stamp. 11. The [Page Up] and [Page Down] keys now scroll through the Mask, Entity options. 12. The Draw Leader option has been added to the Dimension, Linear, Change, Text Position menu. 13. The Identify command has been enhanced so you can cycle through coincident entities by clicking the mouse repeatedly. 14. An exclusive Layer Search toggle has been added to the Identify command. The default state of the toggle is always On. 15. You can now write a macro to select a custom color (16 to 255). Examples: [Change to Color 38] Hint=Change color to 38 A=^;^S7^S7^S8^38$^S0 [Change to Color Yellow] Hint=Change color to Yellow A=^;^S7^S7^S8^yellow$^S0 Note: If the color you specify is not found then the color will remain unchanged. 16. The destination layer is now displayed in the message bar when you use the Copy To Layer or Move To Layer option. Fixes in version 11.08.00 (Since version 11.07.00): 01. A Self-XREF would not update properly if you first erased it then restored it with the Undo command. This has been corrected. 02. A screen regeneration was required after repathing an orphaned XREF in order for it to appear in the drawing. This has been corrected. 03. Rotated dimensions should now mirror properly. 04. The surface area calculation for Slabs containing voids has been corrected. 05. The Perimeter and Area readout in the Edit function of the Polyline menu when Info is toggled on has been corrected. 06. An error in the Z coordinate of associative hatch has been corrected. 07. An error in the Symbol Browser display has been corrected. 08. An error that would cause o2c textures to "fracture" has been corrected. 09. An error related to Change/Match selection highlighting has been corrected. 10. An error related to WeldLine has been corrected. 11. An error related to the Dots dimension arrow style has been corrected. 12. An error related to the Draw Leader dimensioning option and stacked fractions has been corrected. 13. An error related to selection of a highlighted entity after zooming has been corrected. 14. An error related to dimension rounding has been corrected. 15. An error related to MSP detail ghosting has been corrected. 16. The initial column width settings in the Layer Manager have been adjusted. 17. An error related to ClipCubes and XClips improperly clipping fills has been corrected. 18. The Identify menu now displays a tooltip for layer and color. 19. The All Caps toggle is no longer visible in the Change, Text menu unless Contents has been selected. Further, the All Caps toggle in the Change, Text menu inherits the status of the All Caps toggle in the Text menu. 20. An error that would cause an XREF on an "off" layer to appear after turning nesting off via the Reference File Manager has been corrected. 21. An error related to XREF extents recalculation has been corrected. 22. Any changes you make in the printer setup dialog will now be immediately reflected in the current Quick Layout or Multi-layout view. You no longer have to exit and re-enter the Print/Plot menu to update the layout view. 23. If a template was displayed and you recalled a GoTo View using a hyperlink, the GoTo View would draw on top of the template. This has been corrected. 24. An error related to the Full Circle preset option in the Sphere menu has been corrected. New features in version 11.07.00 (Since version 11.06.00): 01. A marker (similar to a symbol insertion point) is now drawn at the insertion point of an XREF, only if it contains no visible entities (for example, if all of the layers within the XREF are off, or the layers that are on contain no entities). Note: You can [Ctrl] + Right-click on XREF markers to Identify them or access the Reference File Manager. 02. A new Re-path option has been added to the Reference File Manager so you can change the source path for multiple XREFs at once. 03. New options to control the precision of the Architectural scale type have been added to the Scale Type menu. If Architectural scale is selected, you may choose from the following precisions:
05. The Identify command now reports perimeter, surface area, and volume (where applicable) for polylines, polygons, slabs, spheres, cones, truncated cones, and tori. Note: You must set the unit and precision for Identify takeoffs via the Utility, Measures, Area/Per., Scale Type menu, not the Utility, Settings, Scale Type menu which is for drawing, editing, and dimensioning. 06. New check boxes for controlling the behavior of View-dependent Editing operations have been added to the Misc. tab of Program Preferences. If checked, DataCAD will invoke 2D editing commands when you're in an Ortho view, or 3D editing commands when you're in a parallel (non-Ortho) view. This behavior applies to left-hand menus, pull-down menus, and keyboard shortcuts (not keyboard macros). Note: If you want your keyboard macros to behave in concert with the view-dependent editing setting, you must prefix your key sequences with an exclamation mark ("!") as shown in the following example. A keyboard macro for 2D Stretch might be: S^;^F5^ This sequence forces you to the 2D Stretch menu, regardless of your current view projection. By changing the macro sequence to... S^!^;^F5^ ...you will invoke either the 2D or 3D stretch command based on your current view projection. Fixes in version 11.07.00 (Since version 11.06.00): 01. An error in the Section, 3D Knife function would cause DataCAD to crash when you placed the resulting geometry on the active layer. This has been corrected. 02. In some cases, material definitions with an un-initialized texture scale would cause DataCAD to crash when you launched the Object Viewer. This has been corrected. 03. In some cases, an error related to polylines would cause DataCAD to crash when you used the third-party HtchPref macro. This has been corrected. 04. You can add a new entry to the [o2cViewer] section of DCADWIN.INI if you are unable to create an o2c object from a model that contains a large number of polygons per material. MaxPolygonsPerMaterial=16380 ; Default is 16380. Set to a lower value if you are unable to create an o2c object from a model that contains a large number of polygons per material. 05. Bitmap textures marked "in-use" by the Object Viewer would prevent you from editing them in a paint program while DataCAD was running. This has been corrected. 06. In the Reference File Manager, the Layer list was not being cleared once an XREF had been selected for Reload/Refresh/Bind/Delete/Redefine. This has been corrected. 07. Multiple selection has been restored to the Layer list in the Reference File Manager. 08. Errant object snapping within XREFs and Symbols when intersection snapping is enabled has been corrected. New features in version 11.06.00 (Since version 11.05.02): 01. Added DXF/DWG read/import support for AutoCAD R2004/R2005 (version 16.x) format. Note: AutoCAD R2000/R2000i/R2002 are the same (version 15.x) format. 02. Symbol Text Attributes Using Databases You can now add values to symbol text attributes by selecting them from a Tab Delimited database. Overview: When you create a Symbol Text Attribute, you'll notice a new section "Database Linkage" for defining a database source to select values from. No Link Just like it sounds. This is the default setting. Lookup Field Specify a field within database records to choose a value from. Field Filled by Lookup Field value set by previous symbol attribute. Database Name: Choose Tab Delimited Text File (*.txt) for database source. Note: Only Tab Delimited databases with a TXT extension are currently supported. Most database and spreadsheet programs will save to a tab-delimited format. You will also find a new menu item, Refresh Fields From Database(s), located on the Symbol Browser Options menu which allows you to update the values contained in symbol text attributes you've inserted into the drawing to reflect the latest changes in your database(s). Notes on Databases: There are many ways to create a database. A database is... "A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval". You could create a spreadsheet (Client List.xls) where column A contains "First Name" and column B contains "Last Name". Each column represents a "Field" in the database. Each row represents a "Record" in the database. When you create a Symbol Text Attribute, you can use the Lookup Field option to tell DataCAD to display a drop-down list of First Names from your Client database. Then you can select the name when you insert a symbol that contains this text attribute. Since a symbol can contain an unlimited number of symbol text attributes, you could create the following six attributes... First Last Street City State Zip ...and save them as a symbol. Using the Field Filled by Lookup option, you can tell DataCAD to automatically populate the values of Last, Street, City, State, and Zip based on the First name you select. If you update the addresses in your client list database, you can then use the Refresh Fields from Database(s) option to update the values that appear in your drawing. 03. You can now use the Reference File Manager and the Orphans dialog to redefine multiple XREFs at once. 04. You can now launch the current highlight selection directly into the Object Viewer. 05. Added link to new DataCAD Forum to Help pull-down menu. Fixes in version 11.06.00 (Since version 11.05.02): 01. During DXF/DWG import/export, the degree symbol [°], typically [Alt] + 0127 in CHR fonts or [Alt] + 0176 in TTF fonts, is mapped accordingly. So if you map an SHX font to a TTF font, all of the [Alt] + 0127 characters will be mapped to [Alt] + 0176. 02. Using the Measures, Takeoffs menu on multiple polylines would only return the area and perimeter values for the first polyline. This has been corrected. 03. Crashing in HLR routine caused by covered polylines with equal z-base/z-height values has been corrected. 04. Non-resizable folder browser dialog fixed. 05. Cut/Fill calculation routine error corrected. 06. Problem with line type and hatch pattern definitions coming from older versions of DataCAD has been corrected. Fixes in version 11.05.02 (Since version 11.05.01): 01. An error that would cause the drawing window to refresh unnecessarily (once for each polyline entity) when exiting the Curves, Polyline, Edit menu has been corrected. New features in version 11.05.01 (Since version 11.05.00): 01. DataCAD XClips are now exported via DWG. Note: "Automatically Export Reference Files" must be enabled. Note: A new version of DXFDWG.DLL is installed with this update. 02. You can add the following entry to the [Toolbars] section of DCADWIN.INI to prevent toolbars from "stretching" when they are locked. This is useful if you like to dock the menu window toward the bottom of the application window. [Toolbars] Stretched=1 ; Default is 1. Set to 0 to disable toolbar "stretching". 03. A new ground plane option has been added to the Object Viewer. You can add the following entries to the [o2cViewer] section of DCADWIN.INI to control the ground plane's settings. [o2cViewer] GroundPlane=FALSE ; Default is FALSE. Set to TRUE to enable automatic ground plane creation. GroundPlaneEnlargeFactor=1.5 ; Default is a square with sides that are 1.5 times the greatest model x, y, or z extents. GroundPlaneAtBase=TRUE ; Default is TRUE. If TRUE, ground plane is created at the base of the model's extents. If FALSE, ground plane is created at specific height. GroundPlaneAtHeight=0 ; Default is 0. Elevation of ground plane in world units (1 unit = 1/32"). GroundPlaneMaterialFile=Materials\default.ini ; Specify the material file for the ground plane rendering settings. 04. You can add the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI so DataCAD will always display the Windows arrow cursor instead of the cross-hair cursor. This option is useful for creating online demos such as Viewlets when you don't want the cursor to change between the arrow and the cross-hair. [General] ShowWinArrowCursor=FALSE ; Default is FALSE. Set to TRUE to force display of Windows arrow cursor. 05. A new toolbar code, L=170, has been added for Edit Symbol Attribute. Fixes in version 11.05.01 (Since version 11.05.00): 01. A serious error that could cause drawing data corruption has been corrected. The error would typically corrupt embedded line type assignments. 02.The following sequence would cause DataCAD to close without prompting you to save changes. a. Use [Alt] + [q] shortcut to "Quit" b. Select Cancel c. Use [Alt] + [q] shortcut to "Quit" d. Right-click the mouse This has been corrected. 03. An error related to the Batch Plot, To File, Browse dialog has been corrected. 04. An error related to the display of superscripted values on the Information Toolbar has been corrected. 05. The Mask, Entity menu labels now read from DCADWIN.LBL versus DCADWIN.MSG. 06. All line types would import from DXF/DWG as Solid. This has been corrected. 07. Dimension, Change, Text Position did not show the full extents of stacked fractions when repositioning dimension text. This has been corrected. 08. It was not possible to set a reference point during Dimension, Change, Text Position as in previous versions. This capability has been restored. 09. The scroll wheel now zooms in Quick Layout and changes the plot scale in Multi-Layout. 10. Dimension, Change, Text Style, Text Size now defaults to the current Text Size setting versus the default text size of 6". 11. Display related fixes have been made to prevent "pixel dust" from occurring during drawing and editing operations. 12. Hatch related fixes have been made to prevent associative hatch pattern bleeds and drop-outs. 13. Creating a section with Permanent Arrows enabled would cause DataCAD to crash. This has been corrected. 14. An error in the display of polylines during editing operations has been corrected. 15. An error that would prevent FrameIt from building multiple boundaries simultaneously has been corrected. 16. An error in the display of multi-weight text has been corrected. 17. An error that would prevent the AEC_Model macro from cutting a wall on a layer other than the active layer when layer search was enabled has been corrected. 18. Shader lights would fail to render in the object viewer. This has been corrected. New features in version 11.05.00 (Since version 11.01.02): 01. Display Enhancements -- DataCAD's graphic pipeline has been enhanced for improved performance. The time required for Panning, Zooming, Dynamic Panning, and Scroll Wheel Zooming has been significantly reduced. In addition, the Perspective Walk Through, Pan View setting is recognized when you use either the scroll wheel or the dynamic panning method to walk forward or backward or step up, down, left, or right respectively. A new menu item, Scroll Dist., has been added to the Perspective, Walk Through, Options menu to set the walk and step distance when you use the mouse to navigate in a perspective view. The following DCADWIN.INI entries have been added to fine-tune DataCAD's display settings so you can take advantage of faster graphics hardware. [Display] Enhanced Bitmap=FALSE ; Default value is FALSE. If FALSE, DataCAD will take less time to resample bitmaps before they are displayed (lower quality). If TRUE, DataCAD will take more time to resample bitmaps before they are displayed (higher quality). Max Vectors=10000 ; Default value is 10000. Sets the number of vectors to display at once after recalculating the display (i.e., Regen). Max Entities=1000 ; Default value is 1000. Sets the number of entities to draw before checking for an interrupt such as Panning or Dynamic Panning. If you have a fast display adapter, you can increase this value to reduce flicker when you use Dynamic Panning (entities filled with either hatch patterns or bitmaps are excluded). [Display List] Min Arc Vectors=24 ; Default value is 24 segments. Sets the minimum number of vectors to draw for arcs, circles, and ellipses (symbols and XREFs excluded). The higher the value, the smoother arcs will display without requiring a regen. UseBoxOnScroll=TRUE ; Default value is TRUE. If TRUE, DataCAD will display extents boxes for text and other complex entities when you use Dynamic Panning. If FALSE, DataCAD will not substitute extents boxes for text and other complex entities when you use Dynamic Panning. [Printer] Enhanced Bitmap=TRUE ; Default value is TRUE. If TRUE, DataCAD will take longer to resample bitmaps before they are printed (higher quality). If FALSE, DataCAD will take less time to resample bitmaps before they are printed (lower quality). [Bitmaps] MinSize=0.001 MaxSize=100 ; Specify the minimum and maximum size in megabytes of bitmaps to store in memory. Increase the minimum size and decrease the maximum size if the amount of RAM you have available is limited (i.e. 256MB or less) and if your drawings contain either a lot of and/or large bitmaps. 02. Command Line Calculator Tokens -- You can use the following tokens with the Command Line Calculator.
The following tokens are not covered in the Reference Manual.
03. The orientation of the rubber band box for area selection now matches the angle of the cursor/grid. A "Rotate" toggle has been added to the Area selection menu so you can align the rubber band box to either the drawing window or the cursor/grid angle. 04. New toolbar codes have been added to control the Jamb In toggle for Door Swings. [JambIn On] V=1012 [JambIn Off] V=1013 05. An entry has been added to DCADWIN.INI to restore area and volume indicators generated by the Measures menu to pre-version 11 format. [General] Superscripted Areas and Volumes=FALSE 06. A new toggle, Locked, has been added to the Hatch Type menu so you can assign associative hatch patterns that are relative to their boundaries versus the drawing. 07. New extended character codes have been added so you can set the state of the Locked hatch toggle via a keyboard macro, toolbar icon, or alias. 0252 - Turn Hatch Type Locked On 0253 - Turn Hatch Type Locked Off 08. A new option, Hatch Origin, has been added to the Display menu. When toggled on, DataCAD will display the origin of associative hatch entities. Independently from the Hatch Origin display setting, DataCAD will show the origin of associative hatch entities when they are highlighted. 09. A Self-XREF option has been added to the Insert menu for your convenience. 10 A new built-in function number, L=179, has been added so you can insert a Self-XREF via a toolbar icon. 11. A new toggle, Open RFM, has been added to the Insert, XREF menu so that DataCAD will automatically launch the Reference File Manager after you insert an XREF. 12. It is now possible to change the radius of an arc using the Stretch command. 13. The Symbol Browser folder browser dialog is now resizable on Windows NT/2000/XP. Note: This feature is not available on Windows 95/98/ME. You can disable this feature by adding the following entry to the [SymbolBrowser] section of DCADWIN.INI. [SymbolBrowser] Resizable Folder Browser=FALSE ; Default value is TRUE. 14. A new option, Lock Toolbars, has been added to the View pull-down menu. If checked, all docked toolbars will be locked into their current position. Floating toolbars will remain undocked. The following section can be added to DCADWIN.INI if you'd like to customize which regions (i.e., Top, Bottom, Left, and Right) of the program interface will become fixed when Lock Toolbars is enabled. [Toolbars] Locked=0 ; Default value is 0. If set to a value of 1, all regions will lock/unlock. Top=2, Bottom=4, Left=8, 16=Right. If you only want the Top, Bottom, and Left regions to lock/unlock, set Locked to a value of 2+4+8 or 14. 15. It is now possible to generate reports based on symbol text attribute data. To generate a report based on symbol text attributes stored in your drawing, use the Extract Attributes option from the Symbol Browser Options menu. 16. DCAL for Delphi-based add-ons (.DMX files) are now supported. 17. File compression can be disabled by adding the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. This option may be useful if you are sharing drawing files with someone who is using DataCAD LT 11. [GENERAL] Compressed Drawing Files=FALSE ; Default value is TRUE. If FALSE, DataCAD will not compress drawings when you save them. 18. Added a scroll bar to the "Macros in Menu" list on the Macros tab of Program Preferences which allows you to see the entire path and name of macros in the list. Fixes in version 11.05.00 (Since version 11.01.02): 01. The Backup option has been corrected to restore the last reference point when you create a Horizontal 3D Polygon. 02. The order of the entities that comprise non-associative dimensions was changed in DataCAD 10. The order has been restored to match DataCAD 9 and prior versions so that when you press the comma key, you'll remove witness line 2 first. 03. In some cases, performing an undo after saving a symbol text attribute would cause the drawing to close unexpectedly. This has been corrected. 04. In some cases, repeatedly exploding a symbol and performing an undo immediately afterward would cause the drawing to close unexpectedly. This has been corrected. 05. In some cases, repeatedly adding and clearing entries from the Batch Plotting list would cause DataCAD to crash. This has been corrected. 06. DataCAD will not allow you to save your drawing to a path where the available disk space is less than the drawing swap file. Previously, if you attempted to save a file to a location such as a floppy disk with insufficient space, the drawing would close without issuing any error and your changes would be lost. 07. An error related to creating a selection fence with more than 36 points such that some of the points cross over each other has been corrected. 08. An error related to hatch patterns with names greater than eight characters has been corrected. 09. An error related to Layer Sets that would result in an internal diagnostic fault error has been corrected. 10. An error related to exporting partial ellipses to DWG format has been corrected. 11. An error related to Self-XREFs with Nesting enabled has been corrected. 12. Setting the Layout % to a value of zero would cause the drawing to close. This has been corrected. 13. Attempting to display a symbol in the Object Viewer from the Symbol Browser without the o2cPlayer.ocx control present would cause DataCAD to crash. This has been corrected. 14. A symbol assigned to "Draw Permanent Arrows" in the Section, Options menu was not remembered. This has been corrected. 15. An error that would cause an "Outermost" hatch to change to a "Normal" hatch when converted from DWG to AEC format has been corrected. 16. An error that would cause dimension component colors to round-trip from DataCAD to DWG to DataCAD incorrectly, has been corrected. 17. Text contained in an XREF that was enlarged, then bound would display the correct size but identify the original size. This has been corrected. 18. An error that would cause the origin of hatch contained within a symbol from a DWG file to shift when exploded has been corrected. 19. An error that would prevent the AEC Model macro form from displaying has been corrected. 20. The On Layers and All Layers menu options for exporting DXF, DWG, and DWF files have been separated so you can create a unique keyboard shortcut for each file type. 21. An error that would cause the Quick Layout function to display the effective plotting area incorrectly when accessed using the [Ctrl] + [P] shortcut has been corrected. 22. An error that would prevent DataCAD from saving a file to a folder with a name containing more than one period in Windows 98 has been corrected. 23. Plotting from the Preview window after plotting To File would cause DataCAD to plot To File rather than the printer you selected. This has been corrected. 24. An error that would cause a symbol to disappear when you tried to explode it on a locked layer has been corrected. 25. An error that would cause duplicate drawing attributes to occur when loading a layer set has been corrected. 26. When using the Layer Manager to rearrange layers in front of Layer 01, DataCAD would not save the new layer information to the auto-recovery file until a forced save was performed. As a result, the layers that were moved in front of Layer 01 would be lost if the auto-recovery file was opened prior to a forced save. 27. It is now possible to use the [+] character in a GoTo View name. 28. The Line Type manager failed to recognize the [/] character when specifying line spacing. For example, [..1/2] for half-inch spacing. This has been corrected. 29. Information Pasted into a drawing from the Clipboard was not appended to the active Selection Set when the Append option was enabled in the SelSets menu. This has been corrected. 30. Wall Style files (*.FWA) saved by the Frame-It macro would not load in DataCAD 11. This has been corrected. 31. The inability to enter a blank string in the Password menu would prevent you from removing password protection from your files. This has been corrected. 32. Clicking the Copy (or Cut) button after selecting information to Copy to the Clipboard would inadvertently toggle the InsertPnt button on. This has been corrected. 33. In files that contained two copies of the same XREF with different layer settings, you were unable to bind On Layers only in the second XREF after binding All Layers in the first XREF. This has been corrected. 34. Creating an isometric view in a drawing would cause the Layer Sets function to add a view named LYRUTIL each time it was used. This has been corrected. 35. Exploding a symbol that contained an ellipse would cause the drawing to close unexpectedly. This has been corrected. 36. Under some circumstances, it would not be possible to select a polyline edge for editing when it was coincident with a line. This has been corrected. 37. Under some circumstances, it would not be possible to select an associative hatch boundary edge while hatching when it was coincident with a line. This has been corrected. 38. Various display anomalies have been addressed. New features in version 11.01.02 (Since version 11.01.01): 01. In addition to using the scroll wheel to zoom in and out ([Ctrl] + Scroll Wheel by default), you can now use [Ctrl] + [Alt] + Left-click to pan the current view. 02. You can add the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI to reverse the zoom direction when using the scroll wheel. [General] Reverse Scroll Wheel Zoom=TRUE Fixes in version 11.01.02 (Since version 11.01.01): 01. An error that would cause DataCAD to crash at the time you snapped to a polyline node when defining the first point of an axis for a revolved surface has been corrected. 02. The Defaults option on the Interface tab of Program Preferences now restores the toolbar icon size to 16 after you restart DataCAD. 03. An error that would cause the Wall Style Save As command to update both the current and new wall style has been corrected. 04. The Item Name for a symbol would not appear in a symbol report if you used the undo command after saving the symbol. This has been corrected. 05. The GetSnap context menu now appears on the correct display when using dual monitors. 06. An error that would cause angular dimension filled arrow heads to distort when bounded by a ClipCube has been corrected. 07. The Fix Text option has been updated to work with the new text alignment options when you mirror text. 08. The Offset value was ignored when loading dimension styles. This has been corrected. 09. The GoTo View list in the Reference File Manager was also displaying MSP details. This has been corrected. 10. The prompt, "Select entity to match color," has been restored to Change, Color, Match. 11. An error that would cause an MSP view to be recalled versus the corresponding GoTo View when using the [Shift] + 1, 2, 3... hotkeys has been corrected. 12. An error that would cause the text size value to change after recalling a GoTo View when Text Scale was enabled has been corrected. 13. Hatch Pattern Files (.PAT) and Line Type Definition Files (.LIN) that contained a blank line feed at the end of the file would not convert to the new .DHP or .LTF format properly. This has been corrected. 14. Hebrew and other right-to-left fonts may not display properly when you import them via DXF/DWG. You can add the following entry to the [DXF_DWG] section of DCADWIN.INI so that DataCAD will ignore the backward flag applied to text. [DXF_DWG] BackwardTextFlag=FALSE 15. TrueType Fonts, Fills, and Bitmaps did not display in the plot preview when running DataCAD on Windows 98. As a result, it was not possible to save the plot preview image to PDF format. This has been corrected. New features in version 11.01.01 (Since version 11.01.00): 01. It is now possible to select XREFs using the Mask function. 02. It is now possible to exclude hatch pattern entities from the Global Overshoot setting. To do this, set the Do Hatch toggle in the Overshoot Menu. 03. It is now possible to set the default input mode by adding the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. [General] Default Input Mode=0 ; 0=Relative Polar ; 1=Absolute Polar ; 2=Relative Cartesian ; 3=Absolute Cartesian ; 4=Direction/Distance 04. It is now possible to disable the [Insert] hot key so that you don't inadvertently change the current input mode by adding the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. [General] Insert Key Disabled=TRUE 05. The Rounding feature has been added to the Engineering, Decimal Feet, and Inch/Fraction scale types. 06. It is now possible to adjust how closely the extents of your drawing fit to the edge of the drawing window by setting the Percent value in the Zoom menu. Note: This feature is only available when Free Zoom is enabled. 07. The display of line weights has been enhanced so that there is a 1:1 correspondence between the line weight setting and the number of rows of pixels used. Previously, a line weight of two would be represented by three rows of pixels and a line weight of three would be represented by five rows of pixels and so on. Note: This change effects the display of entities only, printed output remains the same. The previous method can be restored by adding the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. [General] Old Line Weights=TRUE Fixes in version 11.01.01 (Since version 11.01.00): 01. DataCAD would crash if you tried to identify an associative hatch entity on a locked layer that was created in a prior version. This problem has been corrected. 02. If the Scale Type was set to either Meters, Centimeters, or Millimeters, DataCAD would return the error "Points file units cannot be that small" when you tried to import surveyor data to create a TIN surface. This problem has been corrected. 03. An error that would cause the Layer Manager to no longer display an existing layer name after you tried to create a new layer with the same name has been corrected. 04. Wall styles that used either dotted, dashed, or dot-dash line types would create walls with solid line types instead. This problem has been corrected. 05. Access to Add-On help is now working correctly. 06. Multi-scale Plotting sheet extents would not fit correctly on newer displays with a resolution of 1440x900. A new Layout % option has been added to the Multi-layout, Layout Settings menu so you can work with wider displays. 07. The active layer was overwritten by the first layer in a layer set you imported. This problem has been corrected. 08. Under some circumstances, MSP details would not import correctly from a layer set. This problem has been corrected. 09. The message, "Automatic file save complete" now reads "Auto-recover file created." You must save the changes you've made when you close a drawing file. Auto-recover files are only used in the event you exit DataCAD abnormally. 10. You cannot measure the perimeter or area of an open polyline. 11. Under some circumstances, the previous stretch distance was not remembered correctly. This problem has been corrected. 12. Some AEC files would fail to open - giving a "File decompression error -3" or "File decompression error -5." This problem has been corrected. 13. TrueType fonts and fills on extremely large paper sizes would be clipped or not be displayed at all. This problem has been corrected. 14. TrueType fonts and fills on extremely large paper sizes would be clipped and/or display in the wrong location if 'Rotate at device' was enabled. This problem has been corrected. 15. Fixed a problem where points imported from a DWG file would display as small dots instead of the standard small square DataCAD markers. 16. Fixed a problem where files with associative hatch on locked layers created prior to version 11.01.00 would crash during file purge and close/save. 17. 'Aligned' or 'Fit' text stored in a symbol that was then inserted exploded, changed aspect when it was then moved. This problem has been corrected. 18. Fixed a problem where Identify/Set All did not distinguish between symbol attribute text and regular text for text alignment and justification parameters, causing current values to become invalid. 19. Fixed a problem where some drawing files saved in 11.01.00, then opened and saved in 11.00.03 or earlier versions, then re-opened in 11.01.00 would crash. 20. Loading DC5 files from certain prior versions of DataCAD caused very long load times. This problem has been corrected. 21. A change was made to correct disappearing text when printing clipped, rotated details, and with the media rotated at device option enabled. 22. A problem has been corrected where arc-based CHR text (such as HLV_TP) inserted with 'Mirrored' alignment would cause DataCAD to hang. 23. Fixed a problem where you could edit polylines on locked layers (which would not be allowed) and you would receive an Internal Diagnostic Fault 3 error from 77 when attempting to delete a vertex. 24. It would only be possible to create rectangular polyline boundaries in either the 3D Knife or Revolved Surface menus if rectangle was the method set in the curves, polyline menu. This has been corrected. 25. The DXF/DWG translator now imports splines by converting them to either polylines (if the control points are co-planar and parallel to the ortho plane) or 3D lines. You can restore the previous method where DataCAD converts spline entities to a point for round-tripping by adding the following entry to the [DEBUG] section of DCADWIN.INI. [DEBUG] DWGSplineAsPoint=FALSE ; Default value is FALSE. TRUE restores previous conversion method. 26. Corrections have been made to the DXF/DWG translator for improved conversion of hatch and MText entities. New features in version 11.01.00 (Since version 11.00.03): Classic-style Menu Window Classic Menu Window, Navigation Pad, Projection Pad, and Status Panel are available. To enable these classic-style elements, go to View, Toolbars. If you would also like to have the classic look of raised buttons, go to the Interface tab in Program Preferences and check Classic Buttons. Bitmap Orphans Manager A new bitmap orphans manager allows you to redefine paths for bitmaps you've already inserted into your drawing. Nested XREF (External Reference) Display Toggle A new option allows you to disable the display of nested external references at the time you insert an XREF. You can also toggle the display of nested external references on a per XREF basis via the Reference File Manager or the context-sensitive pop-up menu. The display of nested references can be disabled globally with the Display Nested XREFs option in the Nested XREFs section of the Misc. tab of Program Preferences. Duplicate XREFs Use Same Memory Space Multiple XREFs of the same file now use a single memory space. Used in combination with the Display Nested XREFs toggle, you can significantly reduce the amount of memory required to open your drawings that contain XREFs. Self-referencing XREFs Use Same Memory Space Multiple self-referencing XREFs now use the same memory space so DataCAD no longer creates a new swap file every time you reference a drawing into itself. Plot Scale Saved with GoTo Views A new option, Save with GoTo Views, has been added to the Current Plot Scale section of the Misc. tab of Program Preferences. This lets you save the current plot scale with a GoTo View when you create it. Global Line Overshoots You can now set the line overshoot value globally so that it applies to all entities equally. The global line overshoot is scale-independent and is defined as a real-world, plotted distance. You can access the Overshoots menu from the Line Type menu. Note: Overshoot must be toggled on in the Display menu in order to view/plot line overshoots. Contour Search Supports Line/Arc and Arc/Arc The contour search routine has been updated to handle line/arc and arc/arc conditions that were not supported previously. 2-Line Trim Supports Line/Arc and Arc/Arc The two line trim command has been updated to handle line/arc and arc/arc conditions that were not supported previously. Embedded Line Types Line Types (up to 255) are now stored in your drawing file. Now, you don't have to worry about providing custom line type definitions to your colleagues when you give them copies of your drawings. DataCAD 11.01.00 automatically converts your line type definitions from DCADWIN.LIN to individual .DLT files stored in \DataCAD\Support Files\Line Types. Line Type Creator Now, anything you draw can be converted into a new line type. The line type creator allows you to select entities in your drawing (up to 65,536) to define one segment of a custom line type. You can begin using your new line type immediately. Line Type Manager A line type manager has been added to the Line Type menu. Select Line Manage from the Line Type menu to access a dialog for loading or re-loading external line type definitions into your drawing. You can also set the End Correction and Default Spacing for embedded line type definitions. Note: The Factor option has been removed from the Line Type menu. The default spacing (or last spacing value entered on a per line type basis) is always used. The [q] and [Q] keyboard interrupts now recognize the default line type spacing setting in the line type definition. Now, the default line spacing for a given line type will automatically be set when you change the current line type using the [q] or [Q] keyboard interrupts. Previously, the default line type spacing was only set when you selected the current line type from the menu. Embedded Hatch Patterns (Optimized) Embedded hatch patterns have been optimized to require less memory. For example, in one test file that included four StoneCAD patterns applied to a lot of entities, the drawing file size was reduced from 17MB to 10MB. DataCAD 11.01.00 automatically converts your hatch pattern definitions from DCADWIN.PAT to individual .DHP files stored in \DataCAD\Support Files\Hatch Patterns. Hatch Pattern Manager A hatch pattern manager has been added to the Hatching menu. Select Manage from the Hatching menu to access a dialog for loading or re-loading external hatch pattern definitions into your drawing. You can also set the angle and scaling for embedded hatch pattern definitions. Note: By default, you cannot load a line type named “Solid,” “Dotted,” “Dashed,” or “Dot-Dash” into your drawing. These names are reserved for the internal hard-coded line type definitions. Lines 135 – 138 determine the reserved names for these line types. Notes: Line Type and Hatch Pattern Managers The top section of each dialog displays the definitions that are currently (or will be) loaded into the active drawing. This section is used to modify parameters. Clicking OK or Apply will load newly selected definitions and/or apply changes you’ve made. Once your changes have been applied, you can use the Save or Save As options to save your internal definitions to the hard drive. You can use the Reload option to overwrite an internal definition with an external one. The lower section of each dialog displays external definitions that you may load into the active drawing. You cannot make changes to external definitions in this section. You must first apply changes to internal definitions, then use the Save or Save As options to externalize your new settings. You can manually convert DataCAD line types (.LIN) to the new (.DLT) format or DataCAD hatch patterns (.PAT) to the new (.DHP) format. Use the Convert... option from the Line Type and Hatch Pattern managers. Launch External Application From Toolbar A new toolbar code has been added for launching external applications. You can now use the new "P" code to launch an external program (such as WordPad) from a DataCAD toolbar icon. To launch an external program from a DataCAD toolbar, use the following syntax. [Launch_WordPad] Hint=Launch WordPad Icon=WordPad_Icon P=c:\program files\windows nt\accessories\wordpad.exe If the external program supports command line parameters, you can include them as well. The following example launches WordPad and automatically opens my_document.txt. [Open_My_Document] Hint=Launch WordPad and open My_Document.txt Icon=My_Document_Icon P=c:\program files\windows nt\accessories\wordpad.exe c:\my_documents\my_document.txt Screen Calibration Using the Screen Calibration dialog, accessible from the Interface Settings tab of Program Preferences, you can measure the test pattern in either decimal inches or millimeters in order to adjust both the screen scaling and aspect ratio. Browse Symbols From Toolbar There is a new Toolbar Code for Symbol Browser You can now use the new "B" code to load a folder or template into the symbol browser via an icon. Use the following syntax in your toolbar (.DTB) file. To open a folder... [Browse_Folder] Hint=Browse for drawing notation symbols. Icon=Drawing_Symbols_Icon B=c:\program files\datacad\symbols\drawing\ or [Browse_Folder] Hint=Browse for drawing notation symbols. Icon=Drawing_Symbols_Icon B=symbols\drawing\ To open a template... [Open_Template] Hint=Open drawing notation template. Icon=Drawing_Template_Icon B=c:\program files\datacad\templates\drawing.tpl or [Open_Template] Hint=Open drawing notation template. Icon=Drawing_Template_Icon B=templates\drawing.tpl Note: The .tpl extension is required to open a template. Otherwise, DataCAD assumes you are browsing a folder. Enhanced Context-sensitive Menu An Identify section has been added to the context-sensitive ([Ctrl] + Right-click) menu for quick access to Identify Set and Set All options. XREF-related options have been grouped together in an XREF Tools fly-out menu that provides quick access to the following options. Other Enhancements 01. The SPB-Fills Settings dialog now shows the current layer color when the Fill Color is set to Entity instead of displaying the last fill color used. 02. A Clear option has been added to the Multi-View Window context-sensitive menu. 03. If you would like to adjust the number of colors to scroll through using the [k] and [K] key interrupts, add the following entry to the [PaletteFile] section of DCADWIN.INI. [PaletteFile] MaxColorsInKey=15 15 is the default. You can use any number from 1 to 255. 04. The Auto-recover Save interval is now set on a global basis instead of a per drawing basis. Go to the Misc. tab of Program Preferences to change the default value of 15 minutes. 05. If you would like to adjust the number of items to display in the status panel drop-down lists (Colors, Line Types, Layers, Scales, and GoTo Views), add the following entry to the [StatusArea] section of DCADWIN.INI. [StatusArea] MaxColors=15 MaxLineTypes=15 MaxLayers=15 MaxScales=15 MaxGotoViews=15 06. All of the drawing indicators (Reference Point, Object Snap Point, and Absolute Zero) may be selectively enabled via the Drawing Indicators section of the Misc. tab of Program Preferences. 07. DataCAD's built-in Dashed line type definition has been updated so that each segment begins and ends with a solid line. 08. You can add the following entry to the [PaletteFile] section of DCADWIN.INI so that DataCAD will always read your external RGB Color Palette files instead of the embedded one. [PaletteFile] Store In Drawing=FALSE 09. The current offset distance is now displayed on the attention toolbar when you perform a perpendicular offset. 10. You can now reset the drawing timer to zero from the Directory menu. 11. DataCAD now remembers the last DXF/DWG export format you selected instead of the default R14 DWG. 12. We added an Internal Menu Function Number (L=170) for Edit Symbol Attribute. 13. The layer name input field for saving hidden line removal images now supports long layer names. 14. DataCAD symbol paths now round-trip to/from DXF/DWG. Previously, due to an AutoCAD limitation, DataCAD would only export the symbol name to DXF/DWG format, not the fully-qualified path. (i.e., my_symbol.dsf instead of c:\program_files\datacad\symbols\my_symbols\my_symbol.dsf). Note: Symbols (a.k.a. Blocks) that are redefined or created in the DXF/DWG file will not include the fully-qualified symbol path. 15. The Purge Drawing dialog has been updated. The pull-down menus have been corrected; now, you can select empty layers and unused symbols, line types, and hatch patterns to be automatically purged from the drawing database. 16. New extended character codes. 0250 - Turn Offset Perpendicular On 0251 - Turn Offset Perpendicular Off 17. All of DataCAD's dialog boxes will now remember their size and position (if applicable). This includes support for multiple-monitor, extended desktops. If you wish to have all of your dialog boxes pop up in the center of your screen, you can add the following entry to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI. [General] CenterDialogBoxes=TRUE The default value is FALSE. 18. The Begin option has been removed from the hatch pattern menu. Hatch patterns and fills are now applied immediately to entities at the time you select them. You can restore the Begin option by adding the following entry to the [HatchPatterns] section of DCADWIN.INI [HatchPatterns] SingleClick=FALSE Fixes in version 11.01.00 (Since version 11.00.03): 01. Selecting the close document icon while DataCAD was still in the process of opening the file would cause an illegal operation. This problem has been corrected. 02. If you receive an error message when using a KIP plotter driver, please add the following entry to the [Printer] section of DCADWIN.INI. [Printer] Strong Printer Checks=FALSE 03. Associative hatch boundaries with less than three vertices would cause DataCAD to crash when accessing Quick Layout via the Print/Plot menu. This problem has been corrected. 04. Users without administrative privileges who launched the Object Viewer while using bitmap textures that required administrator privileges would cause DataCAD to crash. This problem has been corrected. 05. Selecting Edit Fields via the context-sensitive menu within the Symbol Browser would cause DataCAD to not respond in some circumstances. This problem has been corrected. 06. Creating a fence area selection with more than 36 points would result in an internal diagnostic fault in some circumstances. This problem has been corrected. 07. Opening a DC5 file from read-only media would cause an exception error in imagelib.dll. This problem has been corrected. 08. When the last entity added to the current layer was an orphaned XREF, using the [,] or [.] keys would cause the drawing to close. This problem has been corrected. 09. Using the Match function from within the Layers menu would cause an internal diagnostic fault. This problem has been corrected. 10. Redefining an orphaned XREF would cause DataCAD to crash. This problem has been corrected. 11. Moving a drawing that contained self-referencing XREFs to a directory other than the one it was created in would cause DataCAD to crash when re-opening the file. This problem has been corrected. 12. Trying to open a drawing that was in-use, and then selecting Cancel when prompted by DataCAD to open a copy would prevent you from being able to save the current drawing. This problem has been corrected. 13. Under some circumstances, DataCAD would crash if you tried to insert a self-referencing XREF into a drawing opened via a mapped network drive using a non-mapped (a.k.a. "browsed") network drive. This problem has been corrected. 14. Under some circumstances, DataCAD would crash when you tried to select a hatch pattern from the menu window. 15. Some third-party fonts would cause DataCAD to crash when selected in the Font dialog. This problem has been corrected. 16. Under some circumstances, copying a polyline would cause DataCAD to crash. This problem has been corrected. 17. Under some circumstances, entering a door swing using the Sliding door style with center point off would cause a floating point error. This problem has been corrected. 18. Under some circumstances, DataCAD 11 would not recognize the layer search setting for inserting door swings from prior version files. This problem has been corrected. 19. DataCAD would crash when switching back to the previously opened document if you tried to open an unsupported file type. This problem has been corrected. 20. Ghosting that would occur when you deleted a dimension with filled arrow heads has been corrected. 21. Under some circumstances, R2000 DWG files created by DataCAD would cause AutoCAD to issue a warning: "The last command created proxy entities...Missing Application: WipeOut..." upon File, Open. This problem has been corrected. 22. The surface area calculation of non-orthogonal 3D polygons was incorrect. This problem has been corrected. 23. Under some circumstances, DataCAD would not return you to the drawing if you selected Cancel from the Save As dialog. This problem has been corrected. 24. Opening a DXF/DWG file directly with a default drawing specified would cause DataCAD to draw the contents of the default drawing twice. You would then have to refresh the display to see the contents of the DXF/DWG file. This problem has been corrected. 25. Under some circumstances, dimension arrow heads were exported to DXF/DWG format at the wrong size. This problem has been corrected. 26. The pan view down icon is now disabled when the Layers, On/Off menu is active. 27. Errors in menu hints have been corrected. 28. DataCAD would not add/subtract the areas of multiple polylines when the first polyline selected included a void. This problem has been corrected. 29. Hard-coded labels have been externalized for translation purposes. 30. When using a scale type set to millimeter, dimension text values larger than 999mm no longer display a comma to separate 1,000's. 31. DataCAD would duplicate entities on the current layer when you tried to copy them to a locked layer. This problem has been corrected. 32. The To Drawing option would enter angle values in degrees, minutes, and seconds when the Angle Type was set to decimal degrees. This problem has been corrected. 33. The "Fit" alignment method did not apply to symbol attribute text properly. This problem has been corrected. 34. Self-referencing XREFs would not un-highlight after selecting them with the [Ctrl] + Right-click shortcut. This problem has been corrected. 35. DataCAD would create an inordinate amount of temporary files when you inserted multiple self-referencing XREFs. This problem has been corrected. 36. The display of text you entered was not updated immediately when using an alignment method other than left, bottom. This problem has been corrected. 37. Inserting multiple copies of a symbol exploded to it's original layers would cause the entities to belong to the same group. This problem has been corrected. 38. The line weights of entities contained within an XREF would increase proportionally to the XREFs enlargement factor. This problem has been corrected. 39. Errors related to using Hebrew CHR-based text have been corrected. 40. The Layer Sets function would create invalid layers corresponding to the off layers when saving just the on layers. This problem has been corrected. 41. Covered polylines with bulges would not render or explode to polygons correctly. This problem has been corrected. 42. Under some circumstances, it was not possible to set the XREF highlight line type spacing to match the referenced file. This problem has been corrected. 43. The characters used to indicate area and volume by the To Drawing function are determined by lines 4495, 4496, 4497, and 4498 in the DCADWIN.MSG file. 44. The Direction/Distance input mode would not work if the Coordinates/Hints toolbar was turned off. This problem has been corrected. 45. It is now possible to undo Move In Front, Behind, To Front, To Back and Swap operations. 46. It would take two undo levels to undo a rectangular polyline. This problem has been corrected. 47. Filled arrow heads on text arrows would not export to DXF/DWG format. This problem has been corrected. 48. The warning "This file contains orphaned XREFs" would not be displayed if a reference file was renamed or moved via Windows Explorer. 49. It was not possible to set a texture scaling value to less than 1000 when the Scale Type was set to Millimeters. This problem has been corrected. 50. Loading a pen table directly from a network file server to either a Windows NT, 2000, or XP workstation would take an inordinate amount of time. This problem has been corrected. 51. The Small Text setting did not apply to text contained within an unexploded symbol. This problem has been corrected. 52. In some cases, the [Ctrl] + [e] keyboard shortcut for clipboard select would not work after dismissing a dialog box. This problem has been corrected. 53. The DCADWIN.INI setting NoGridInSelect=FALSE would not re-enable the snap grid during selection and editing operations. This problem has been corrected. 54. DCAL macros were unable to call the polygons menu. This problem has been corrected. 55. The Small Text setting did not apply to symbol attribute text contained within an unexploded symbol. This problem has been corrected. 56. It was possible to use the [Ctrl] + [Tab] keyboard shortcut to change the active document window when a dialog box was active. This problem has been corrected. 57. Clicking in the symbol browser before you complete the current operation will now interrupt the current operation. 58. The Object Viewer's background color was not remembered. This problem has been corrected. 59. Under some circumstances, non-associative hatch patterns were drawn incorrectly. This problem has been corrected. 60. The command line calculator did not adhere to the Windows regional setting for the decimal separator. This problem has been corrected. 61. Metric values with more than four digits to the right of the decimal separator are no longer rounded to three digits when entered in an input field. 62. Surveyor data with decimal values of 13 or more significant digits would get rounded to a maximum of 12 significant digits when imported into DataCAD. The maximum number of significant digits supported by DataCAD is now 14. 63. Hatch, Pattern, and Bitmap fill settings are now remembered on a per drawing basis. 64. DXF/DWG files would not open via the Windows Open With... command. This problem has been corrected. 65. The Symbol Browser now refreshes automatically when you change the drawing area background color. 66. Spaces used in layer names within the first eight characters are no longer automatically converted to an underscore. 67. The two line trim command would appear to work on entities stored on a locked layer until you refreshed the display. This problem has been corrected. 68. Drawing a 3-point circle with a near-infinite radius would cause a significant pause. This problem has been corrected. 69. The drawing extents of associative dimensions were not calculated properly under some circumstances. This problem has been corrected. 70. The 'Update' option in the Sectioning tool was unable to find the original section cutline after a file save, and an illegible error message would be displayed. This problem has been corrected. 71. Fixed a problem where selecting a multi-scale plot sheet would cause an invalid floating point operation. This would occur when the sheet contained polylines with a bulge as the first vertex. 72. An error has been corrected in the file purge routine that would cause entities belonging to a selection set to lose their association with the selection set. 73. The Millimeter scale type has been corrected to not display a comma in linear dimension values greater than 1000. 74. If the last entity added to the current layer was an XREF, pressing the [,] or [.] key would cause the drawing to close. This problem has been corrected. 75. It was not possible to disable the Drop Mesh Drop Edge option. This problem has been corrected. 76. An exploded symbol's text would not retain its original alignment position. This problem has been corrected. 77. The object snapping point indicator did not reflect the correct point when using the 3D cursor. This problem has been corrected. 78. Under some circumstances, solid fills would "leak" out of boundaries that contained concave bulges. This problem has been corrected. 79. Performing an Undo after saving a symbol with a symbol text attribute would cause DataCAD to crash. This problem has been corrected. 80. Under some circumstances, the drawing extents would not calculate properly if a clip cube was active. This problem has been corrected. 81. An error related to the Polyline to Polygon feature of 3D Power Tools has been corrected. 82. The display of Templates is now fully supported by the Symbol Browser. 83. If you experience "jumping" toolbars because the font on the Context Toolbar's neutral state label is too large, you can add the following entry to the [Toolbars] section of DCADWIN.INI. [Toolbars] Point_size=10 This key sets the point size of the text used for the Context Toolbar's neutral state label, Status Bar pull-down menus, and SWOTHLUDFB text independently from your Windows pull-down menus. 84. The Cut Wall routine would cause DataCAD to crash when the [Enter] key was used to select the sides of the opening. This problem has been corrected. 85. Trying to install or update DataCAD while it was running would cause a fatal error. The installation program now determines if DataCAD is running and prompts you to close DataCAD before continuing. 86. Hatch patterns will now apply to 3D Blocks when you generate a section. 87. Setting a perspective view would sometimes cause an access violation in drawings that were created prior to version 11. New features in version 11.00.03 (Since version 11.00.02): 01. Z-Offset sub-options for inserting symbols are now toggles. So it is now possible, for example, to insert a symbol at the current Z-Base without having to reset the Z-Offset value. 02. It is no longer necessary to reselect Perpendicular Distance when setting a new distance value for a perpendicular offset. 03. A new XREF-related option, XClip, has been added to the [Ctrl] + Right-click context menu. 04. A Delete Empty option has been added to the Layer Manager. Fixes in version 11.00.03 (Since version 11.00.02): 01. An error that would cause a drawing to close unexpectedly when plotting associative hatch to a DesignJet plotter has been corrected. 02. A scenario that would cause DataCAD to create an inordinate number of temporary files when opening a file containing XREFs via a network path has been corrected. 03. An error that would cause a drawing to close unexpectedly when changing the position of dimension text has been corrected. 04. An error that would cause a drawing to close unexpectedly when inserting an XREF of a file with an empty active only layer has been corrected. 05. Polylines with voids did not fill properly. This problem has been corrected. 06. The file hyperlink for an XREF was not updated when its path was redefined. This problem has been corrected. 07. The DCADWIN.INI setting FixFilledCurves=TRUE was not recognized. This problem has been corrected. 08. The extents of a drawing with an XREF containing an empty on layer were not calculated correctly. This problem has been corrected. 09. The Layer Filter toggle was inadvertently enabled when opening a DC5 file that did not have the Layer Filter enabled. This problem has been corrected. 10. The insertion points of symbols, the center points of arcs and circles, and the control points of 3D entities were not rotated with the corresponding drawing entities when displaying a rotated plot. This problem has been corrected. 11. The snap grid was not automatically disabled when editing polyline voids. This problem has been corrected. 12. Stringline dimensions drawn consecutively can now be selected as a "Group". 13. The Attention bar now displays the name of either the current Printer or Fit To Printer, whichever is active. 14. Incorrect results or fatal errors would occur during view manipulation in DCAL macros. This problem has been corrected. 15. The 'Update' option in the Sectioning tool was unable to find the original section cutline after a file save, and an illegible error message would be displayed. This problem has been corrected. 16. Fixed a problem where some DCAL macros that create polygons and/or slabs (such as 3DTools' triangulation tool) would create polygons/slabs with all sides marked invisible. 17. Fixed a problem where selecting a multi-scale plot sheet would cause an invalid floating point operation. This would occur when the sheet contained polylines with a bulge as the first vertex. 18. Fixed a DCAL problem where the lyr_seton procedure for turning layers on/off did not work. 19. An error that would cause DataCAD to check for network messages an inordinate number of times resulting in a performance slowdown has been corrected. 20. "Cutting" data from the drawing to the clipboard when using an insertion point did not work. This problem has been corrected. 21. The logic for selecting menu buttons has been optimized to eliminate delays when clicking options in rapid succession. DataCAD 11.00.02 New Feature Highlights Double-precision Database DataCAD 11 uses double-precision floating point math to calculate and store values in the drawing database. Prior versions of DataCAD had an effective accuracy of ~7 decimal places. DataCAD 11 has an effective accuracy of ~14 decimal places. That means DataCAD 11 is now as accurate as AutoCAD® and you can work on much larger projects without running into rounding issues, especially when importing large drawings. Network Awareness DataCAD can query other instances of DataCAD running on a network to determine whether or not a file is “in-use.” Every time you open a drawing, DataCAD records the date, time, username, and workstation name in a corresponding user (.U$R) file. If you try to open a drawing file that is “in-use,” DataCAD will only allow you to open a copy of the file. Backup and Recovery We revamped DataCAD’s backup and recover process to be more reliable and less confusing. Whenever you exit a drawing abnormally, DataCAD will automatically try to recover the most recent version of your file without prompting you with unnecessary warnings and options. File Purge DataCAD files are automatically purged of any unused data each time you exit and save your drawing. In addition, a Purge dialog replaces the Layer Utility macro, allowing you to create new drawings based on a sub-set of an existing drawing. Compressed Drawing Files DataCAD 11 drawings are now stored in a compressed format making them roughly 1/5 the size of previous versions. Drawing Session Backups Drawing session backups is a new feature that allows you to configure DataCAD to automatically save up to 10 incrementally-named backup drawings. Session backups are only created each time you exit and save your drawing. Program Interface DataCAD 11 features an updated program interface that provides Windows 2000-style properties and support for Windows XP Themes and "Skins". You can position toolbars and menus where you want by tearing them off and docking them to the top, bottom, left, or right side of the application window. You can also place toolbars and menus outside of DataCAD to "float" on the desktop, allowing you to resize the drawing area without adversely affecting the user interface and to take advantage of dual monitor displays. In addition, all of the interface elements in DataCAD 11 will inherit the visual style of your current desktop theme. For more information about Windows XP Themes, go to http://www.themexp.org. Symbol Browser DataCAD 11 introduces an easier way to browse, select, and manage symbols. The new Symbol Browser allows you to rapidly find, place, customize, and manage symbols that you use in your drawings. Inserting a symbol into your drawing involves little more than selecting it from the Symbol Browser and dropping it where you want it. With just a few mouse clicks, you can open the appropriate folder, display the symbols in the browser, and select the ones you want to use into your drawing. If you developed custom templates with older versions of DataCAD, you can open them in the Symbol Browser, too. In effect, the Symbol Browser treats file folders as templates that contain collections of symbols. Symbol Reporting We've enhanced symbol reporting so you can run reports on all symbols in the drawing instead of just the symbols in the active template. A new dialog gives you access to report forms and displays an on-the-fly preview of the results. Symbol Fields It's now possible to assign an unlimited number of user-defined fields to symbols for enhanced reporting. You're no longer limited to the five default fields. Symbol Attributes Text attributes can be defined and added to symbols. This lets you use the same symbol multiple times, supplying a unique text string for each one. For example, you could use one desk symbol several times and label them “Jim’s desk,” “Nancy’s desk,” and “Bob’s desk.” Drop Symbols On Polygons A new option available for inserting symbols allows you to drop any item such as a tree directly on the surface of a polygon. TIN Surface Modeler A new TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) surface modeler provides a comprehensive array of three-dimensional site modeling tools. The TIN modeler can connect a random series of survey points (3D markers) with triangular polygons. Once the polygons are generated, you can calculate the surface area of TIN models, use the flip valley option to “flip” the valley between coincident polygon edges, or create roads, foundation cuts, etc. with the 3D Knife. The drop point option lets you place 3D markers on the surface of inclined polygons. You can create polyline contours from polygon site models. Drop Point You can place a three-dimensional marker on a polygon at an inclined point. Make Contours You can make a topological contour map based on a group of three-dimensional points or polygons. Ruled Surface Modeler A ruled surface function allows you to mesh polygon surfaces between polylines and contours. 3D Knife A three-dimensional knife allows you to interact with TIN surfaces to create roads, sidewalks, and foundation cuts. Sectioning Tool You can easily create two-dimensional sections from three-dimensional models using the new sectioning tool. Advanced options allow for automatically hatching and updating sections. You can also create hidden line sections. Straight, offset, and curved section paths are supported. Multi-View Windows All-new multi-view windows provide up to 10 tear-off, resizable windows you can use to store and display various views of your project. Expanded Bitmap Support The number of supported image formats has been increased to include BMP, JPG, GIF, TIF, TGA, PNG, PCX, EPS, and PCD files. Stereolithography You can export your DataCAD models to STL format for use with rapid prototyping machines including 3D printers. You can also import STL files into DataCAD from other programs. 3D Studio You can import 3DS files into your DataCAD drawings. WHIP! DataCAD 11 adds support for DWF format so you can view and distribute your drawings via the Internet. o2c Rendering We've enhanced the interface for assigning materials to o2c objects so you can control the origin, angle, and scale of any bitmap texture. In addition, you are no longer limited to 32,768 polygons per material. PDF Files w/ Layers Drawing layers can now be included when you create a PDF file directly from DataCAD. Note: Requires Adobe Reader version 6 to view layers. However, PDF files created by DataCAD 11 can be read by Adobe Reader versions 4 and 5. Context-sensitive Toolbar A user-definable, context-sensitive toolbar automatically changes to present related icons based on the menu you choose. A configuration dialog allows you to easily set which toolbar is related to a particular menu selection. Enhanced Keyboard Macros User-defined keyboard macro sequences can now include up to 1,024 commands and there is no limit to the number of characters you can use in the sequence. We've also added a special PAUSE character so you can tell the macro to wait until you do something such as click or type. Nested Aliases You can call a command line alias by name when you define a macro sequence so you can take advantage of existing aliases. Fixes in version 11.00.02 (Since version 10.05.02): 01. Drawing file previews would not display for drawing files that included a period in the name. This problem has been corrected. 02. Changing either the Div-X or Div-Y value for DropMesh would set both to the same value. This problem has been corrected. 03. The bounding box for dragging TrueType text would not display when the background color was set to white. This problem has been corrected. 04. Angular, radius, and diameter dimensions with filled arrow heads would not display correctly when contained within a clip cube. This problem has been corrected. 05. The preview image for JPEG files would not display when highlighted in the File I/O dialog. This problem has been corrected. 06. Curved walls created in DataCAD Plus using the Gen2D feature would not display correctly when opened in DataCAD. This problem has been corrected. 07. DataCAD files will now launch properly when you double-click on them via Windows Explorer, even if DataCAD is already running. 08. If you bound an XREF that was not inserted at absolute zero, and it contained dimension text that you placed manually, the dimension text would return to its original position relative to absolute zero. This problem has been corrected. 09. If you bound an XREF that you mirrored after you inserted it into your drawing, and it contained polylines and/or hatches, the polylines and/or hatches would flip. This problem has been corrected. Fixes in version 10.05.02 (Since version 10.05.01): 01. Fills applied to arcs, circles, ellipses and partial ellipses were automatically cleared upon re-opening a drawing due to a correction made in version 10.05.01 to automatically clear fills that were unknowingly applied to arcs, circles, ellipses and partial ellipses in 10.04.01 and prior 10.x versions. This problem has been corrected. 02. The color tables in the DXF/DWG Color Map dialog were not refreshed when switching between "DataCAD to DXF/DWG" and DXF/DWG to DataCAD". This problem has been corrected. Fixes in version 10.05.01 (Since version 10.05.00): 01. Arcs, circles, ellipses and partial ellipses that were unknowingly SPB-Fill'ed in DataCAD 10.04.01 and prior 10.x versions (before the feature was added) would appear filled when viewed in DataCAD 10.05.00. This problem has been corrected. 02. Dimension text would not appear on dimensions saved as symbols. This problem has been corrected. 03. The Replace, All option in the Template menu was not replacing all symbols in the drawing. This problem has been corrected. In addition, two new options have been added. AllOn replaces all symbols in "On" layers and ActvOnly replaces all symbols in the "Active" layer. 04. The reference point for dimension text would not get updated properly when stretching or moving dimension text. This problem has been corrected. 05. Layer attributes were being ignored when binding XREFs. This problem has been corrected. 06. A new entry can be added to the [General] section of the DCADWIN.INI file to prevent DataCAD from automatically disabling grid snap during selection and Window In. NoGridlnSelect=FALSE New Features in version 10.05.00 (Since version 10.04.01): 01. A new option, Filled, has been added to the Arrow and Dot dimension and text arrow styles. These new arrow styles also export via DXF/DWG. 02. Solid, Pattern, and Bitmap fills may now be applied to arcs, circles, ellipses and partial ellipses. 03. A new option, Styles has been added to the Dimension, Linear menu. You can save dimension settings to a dimension style file (.dimstyle) for future recall. Dimension style files can be called from either a keyboard macro, toolbar, or command line alias using any one of the following formats. by Name: ^my_dimstyle$ by Name and Extension: ^my_dimstyle.dimstyle$ by Fully Qualified Path: ^z:\datacad\sup\my_dimstyle.dimstyle$ Note to Windows 95 users regarding the .dimstyle file extension: You may need to enter the dimension style file name along with the extension (i.e. my_dimstyle.dimstyle) when saving a dimension style to prevent Windows 95 from truncating the extension to .dim. You can also modify line 4057 in the DCADWIN.MSG file to customize the extension used for dimension style files. 04. A (non-shadow casting) sunlight source has been added to the OpenGL shader to provide an infinite, parallel light source to ensure a model will render adequately regardless of viewing position. One of eight light source directions may be used. Top Left Top Top Right Right Bottom Right Bottom Bottom Left Left 05. The Tools, Generate TBL File menu has been renamed to DXF/DWG Color Map. When selected, a color mapping table (.TBL) corresponding to the active color palette (.RGB) is either generated on-the-fly if one doesn't already exist, or is automatically loaded if one already exists. The Update, Create, and Close options have been replaced with two options, OK and Cancel. OK saves any changes that have been made and closes the dialog, and Cancel discards any changes that have been made. If the Translate colors using color mapping table option is active during DXF/DWG export and a corresponding .TBL file does not exist, DataCAD will automatically map DataCAD's colors to the nearest color in the DXF/DWG palette. 06. Grid Snap is now automatically disabled during selection, and Window In. 07. You can now snap to the intersection of lines and ellipses. 08. The online help system (DCADWIN.HLP) has been replaced with a portable document file (DataCAD10_Manual.PDF). Accessing help from the pull-down menu or via the [CTRL] + [F1] shortcut now opens DataCAD10_Manual.PDF instead of DCADWIN.HLP. If you would prefer to access to the old help system, you can add the following entry to the [General] section of the DCADWIN.INI file. OldHelp=True 09. Two extended character codes have been added to set the status of filled text and dimension arrow heads. 0246 Filled Arrow Heads On 0247 Filled Arrow Heads Off 10. Two extended character codes have been added to either refresh or re-load XREFs. 0248 Refresh XREFs 0249 Re-load XREFs 11. Direct Distance Input -- It is now possible to enter distance values directly simply by typing the desired value. You no longer have to press the spacebar first to enter a distance. To enter a value that begins with a decimal point, type zero first (i.e. 0.6 for 6"). To enter a negative distance directly, you'll need to set the following DCADWIN.INI entry in the [General] section to False. MinusKeyTogglesOvershoot=False Fixes in version 10.05.00 (Since version 10.04.01): 01. Characters following a dash in layer names were being truncated during DXF/DWG import. This problem has been corrected. 02. The Z-axis of DXF/DWG blocks (symbols) were being set to a Z-base of zero during DXF/DWG import. This problem has been corrected. 03. The first character of a DXF/DWG block (symbol) name was being truncated during DXF/DWG import. This problem has been corrected. 04. XREF path names greater than 80 characters were being truncated upon DXF/DWG export. This limit has been increased to 160 characters. 05. Custom line types assigned by layer in a DXF/DWG file were importing as solid lines. This problem has been corrected. 06. An error would occur when trying to access a pen table that no longer existed. This problem has been corrected. 07. In dimensioning with ScaleTyp set to Inch/Fraction, dimensions less than 1 inch were being displayed with a leading zero. The leading zero is no longer displayed. 08. An error in TrueType Font identification has been corrected. 09. A correction has been made to the polygon triangulation routines. 10. PDF files would sometimes appear blank when a bitmap in the drawing was outside the plotting area even though the file would plot correctly and preview correctly. This problem has been corrected. 11. Opening a DataCAD drawing that was configured for an unavailable printer would cause an exception error on Windows XP. This problem has been corrected. 12. Changing dimension text using a TrueType font would ignore the selected font by reverting to the currently configured TrueType font. This problem has been corrected. 13. The XREF highlight spacing setting was not being retained when performing a Save As on a drawing that contained self-referencing XREFs. This problem has been corrected. 14. In certain cases (most notably in the FrameIt macro), polyline rubber-banding was dragging from the wrong point. This problem has been corrected. 15. A bug that would cause an access violation when importing DXF/DWG hatch boundaries containing splines has been corrected. 16. DXF/DWG leader entities now round-trip more completely. New Features in version 10.04.01 (Since version 10.04.00) 01. Two stamps have been added for User Logon Name and Computer Name. 02. A new option has been added to the redefine XREF routine for preserving layer settings. This is useful when an XREF'ed file has been renamed. 03. The message prompt for inserting text, when Text Scale is on and the program preference for PgUp/PgDn in Text Menu is set to change plot scale if Text Scale is on, has been expanded to be more useful. For example, the message line might display the following. This text will print 1/8" high at the current plot scale of 1/4" The Identify command will now return the corresponding message. This text will print 1/8" high at the current plot scale of 1/4" (real world size=6") 04. Dimension text and arrows now support custom colors. 05. Menu Separators added to Stamp menu to provide logical/visual separation between groups of different stamp 'types'. 06. DCAL support for plotting reinstated via new/updated function calls (this enhancement actually occurred in DataCAD 10.04 but was not mentioned in the release notes). Fixes in version 10.04.01 (Since version 10.04.00): 01. Selecting NoChange in the Display/BoxColor menu will now reset TextOff extents boxes to be drawn in their parent entity color. Previously, once a color had been assigned to text boxes, there was no way to reset it to the entity color. 02. Fixes related to renamed, orphaned XREFs that have been moved to new directories. 03. Fixes related to layer search toggle status. 04. Correction to installation routine to correct problem with updating the DCADWIN.MNU file properly for stamps. 05. Corrections related to object snapping to XREFs. 06. Drawing tangent arcs with "centerline" walls turned on was creating walls by "sides". This problem has been corrected. 07. The Layer Utility macro would always crash during layer load when trying to read DataCAD Plus database attributes. This problem has been corrected in LYRUTIL.DCX version 2.62 included with this update. 08. A problem of polylines and/or invisible hatch boundaries not displaying in spite of being contained within the Z extents of the current Clip Cube has been corrected. 09. Fixed a problem of crashes occurring when a drawing contained XREF's which had all layers toggled off. 10. Fixed an occasional problem of bitmaps previewing and plotting correctly, but disappearing in a PDF file when bitmaps are set to draw last in the PenTable. 11. Fatal diagnostic errors could result from 1) going into the ObjectViewer or Shader when there were TrueType fonts being displayed, and 2) doing an Undo. This problem has been corrected. 12. DCAL changes to fix problems reading, writing, and creating associative dimension entities. 13. Fixed a crash that could occur in some circumstances when entering right- or center-justified text with Dynamic off. 14. Fixed a problem where using the FixedRef option in the Settings menu, then turning it off, resulted in Absolute Cartesian and Absolute Polar coordinate entry to malfunction. New Features in version 10.04.00 (Since version 10.03.00) 01. A Curves submenu has been added to the Curves, Polyline menu. This helps you develop curved polylines using standard curve creation methods. 02. Two mutually exclusive options, Draw Marks and Draw Lines, have been added to the Multi-scale Plotting Layout menu. These mutually exclusive toggles control the appearance of the layout grid. 03. An Insertion Point option has been added to the Plotter, Multi-layout, Layout menu. Choosing this option prompts you to select or snap to a specific point within the drawing to use as the insertion point for the detail. 04. Change the "handle" to position a multi-scale plotting detail on-the-fly by using the arrow keys during layout. Upper Left Upper Middle Upper Right Left Middle Right Lower Left Lower Middle Lower Right 05. Two mutually exclusive toggles, CC Exts and Ent Exts, have been added to the Multi-scale Plotting, Layout menu. When you toggle on ClipCube Extents (CC Exts), the layout box will reflect the extents of the ClipCube (which may not correspond with the extents of the entities contained within it). If you toggle on Entity Extents (Ent Exts), the Layout box will reflect the extents of the entities (which may not correspond with the extents of the ClipCube surrounding them). 06. A new option, AutoCalc, has been added to the Multi-scale Plotting Layout menu. When this option is toggled on, DataCAD will automatically recalculate the extents of a detail before you place it on the sheet. If this option is toggled off, you may need to use the ReCalc option for the layout box to accurately represent the extents of the detail. 07. The Layout Divisions values may now be set independently for Quick Layout and Multi-scale Plotting Layout. 08. Recalculating the extents of drawing data takes less time. 09. A corresponding file hyperlink is now automatically added to an XREF upon insertion. 10. The drawing file size limit has been increased to 128MB. 11. The Layer Utility macro has been updated to support view names that contain spaces. 12. If you try to open a file that you already have open, DataCAD will now make that the active document window instead of just telling you "Drawing is already open". This applies to files you select from the Recent File List, File/Open dialog, or Hyperlink to file. 13. If you try to launch a DCAL macro with a read-only attribute, DataCAD will now attempt to clear the attribute and run the macro. However, if DataCAD is unable to clear the read-only attribute, you will be alerted accordingly and the macro will not run. 14. When you enable the option to display ClipCubes in the main drawing window, DataCAD will use the ClipCube extents when you perform a WindowIn, ReCalc. Otherwise, DataCAD will use the entity extents. 15. Manage an XREF by using [CTRL] + Right-click to display a popup menu; then, select Reference File Manager. Choosing this option after [CTRL] + Right-clicking on an XREF takes you directly to the Reference File Manager with the corresponding XREF highlighted. 16. The new option, Virtual, has been added to the Object Snap menu and applies only to Nearest, Intersection, and Perpendicular snapping methods. When this option is turned off, DataCAD's object snapping mechanism will only return points that lie on line segments passing through the current Miss Distance (a.k.a snap aperture) and will not return either intersections or perpendiculars that lie beyond the endpoints of these lines. The default value for Virtual Snapping is Off, including pre-10.04.00 drawings that are opened for the first time. Note: I you want the Virtual Snapping option default to be On when you open pre-10.04.00 drawings for the first time, you can add the following entry to the [General] section of the DCADWIN.INI file: Virtual Snapping=TRUE 17. Two extended character codes have been added to set the state of Virtual Snapping: 0244 Turns Virtual Snapping On 0245 Turns Virtual Snapping Off Fixes in version 10.03.00 (Since version 10.02.01): 01. Calculating XClip extents has been corrected to accurately represent the extents of the clipped geometry (i.e., not the extents of the clip cube boundary). 02. You can now change the preview object in the Viewer/Shader Color Map dialog. 03. In the DCADWIN.INI file, the FitTo Adjustment value is now applied when the New FitTo value is set to False. Previously, the FitTo Adjustment value would only be applied when the New FitTo value was set to True. 04. We corrected a bug that locked up the program when you attempt to define an XClip on a reference file that had either never had a clip cube defined or had an invalid clip cube defined. 05. Open polylines will no longer close when viewed in the o2c Player. New Features in version 10.03.00 (Since version 10.02.01) 01. o2c Viewer/Shader Color Map Dialog Enhancements The o2c Viewer/Shader Color Map dialog has been enhanced to provide direct access to the extended material and texture capabilities supported by the o2c format. Applying color to material/texture mapping in conjunction with the o2c Player, you can create high-quality, photo-realistic renderings from DataCAD models. These new options and elements have been added: Dynamic 3D material preview Diffuse color proportion Ambient proportion Reflective proportion Highlight size Opacity Refractive index Self-illuminate Render backface Smoothing Apply texture Texture masks object Mix texture with rendered color Apply texture as reflection map Background color Background image Matte, Glossy, and Glass presets Load and save individual material definitions Load and Save color to material assignments (Note: The o2c.ini file has been replaced with new .dmf file) 02. o2c Player Toolbar Interface Enhancements A toolbar interface has been added to the built-in o2c Player interface to make it more useful for architectural view manipulation and image processing. Icons on the toolbar provide direct access to the following options: Sunlight On/Off (shadow casting) Ambient #1 On/Off Ambient #2 On/Off Ambient #3 On/Off Lamps On/Off (shadow casting) Daytime/Nighttime View Toggle Perspective/Parallel View Rotate clockwise about the Z-axis Rotate counter-clockwise about the Z-axis Reduce the field of view Increase the field of view Plan Left Elevation Right Elevation Front Elevation Back Elevation Isometric Axonometric 03. o2c Lamps (user-defined lights) Shader lights are now written into the o2c Player. 04. o2c Export/Object Viewer Optimization The o2c export and object viewer routines have been optimized so that all entities of the same color (i.e., same material) are now converted as a single object with a single material definition. The result is much faster conversion times (i.e., 15 seconds vs. 15 minutes on a large TIN model) and much smaller file sizes (i.e., 1/3 the size on average). 05. New o2c Materials/Textures We added a small sampling of textures and 133 each of matte, glossy, and glass materials based on the Prizma palette. You can use these with the o2c color mapping feature. 06. Two INI settings have been added to set the proximity and angle values for the new o2c smoothing option. [o2cViewer] Smooth Distance=0 Smooth Angle=30 Smooth Distance determines how close adjacent polygons must be to be considered for smoothing. Smooth Angle sets the maximum angle for adjacent polygons to be considered for smoothing. 07. The OpenGL triangulation routine has been incorporated into all functions that require polygons with more than 4 sides to be triangulated prior to processing. OpenGL Shader Hidden Line Removal o2c Player o2c Export DXF/DWG Export Explode to polygons Explode to slabs As a result, polygons and slabs with voids are recognized properly when exploded. In addition, the o2c Player/Export routines now support TrueType Fonts and covered polylines. A related setting has been added to the [General] section of the DCADWIN.INI file. [General] CoplanarCheck=FALSE Setting this value to TRUE forces the vertices on polygons with more than 3 sides to be coplanar based on the first three non-collinear vertices. 08. A new toggle has been added to the Pen Table dialog - "Map fill colors to pen colors." Previously, solid fill colors were always mapped to pen colors, at times making it difficult to get desired results. This toggle lets you control whether this mapping takes place or not. With "Map fill colors to pen colors" toggled ON (the default), color mapping works as it always has and on-screen fill colors will be plotted in the color of the pen that screen color is assigned to. With it toggled OFF, the on-screen color of the fill will be used to plot the fill on paper (no color mapping will take place). The setting of this toggle is saved with the pen table file. 09. Polygon normals within triangulated slabs and covered polylines are now checked and "corrected" to point outward from the boundary and inward to the center of voids. 10. Polylines' entities may now be offset using the Geometry, Offset command. 11. The Layer Utility macro has been enhanced to remember long layer names and properly restore saved views and details that utilize them. Additionally, the input mode is now restored to match the source drawing. Compatibility for self-referencing files has also been added. 12. The Layer Utility macro now uses the path specified for layer files in the program preferences dialog. 13. The previous paths used for Pen Table Load/SaveAs and XREF Insert are now retained with entries in the DCADWIN.INI file. 14. A new Toggle Cover option has been added to the Curves, Polyline, Edit menu for adding or removing a top/bottom cover to/from an existing polyline. 15. An Explode to Points option has been added to the 3D Explode menu. 16. A new toggle, Snap2Div (Snap to Layout Divisions), has been added to the Plotter, Multi-layout, Layout Settings menu. When toggled on, detail placement is constrained to the sheet layout divisions. Fixes in version 10.03.00 (Since version 10.02.01): 01. DXF/DWG Translation The dxf/dwg translator has been corrected and enhanced to provide comprehensive support for metric-based drawings and to minimize the user-intervention required when round-tripping drawing files to and from AutoCAD. DXF/DWG Export: DataCAD will default to one of the following export unit types based on the current drawing scale type. You can override the default setting by selecting the corresponding radio button prior to export. Most importantly, you now can export drawings in either millimeters, centimeters, or meters. DataCAD Scale Type Export Unit DXF/DWG LUnit ------------------ ----------- ------------- Architectural Architectural Architectural Engineering Engineering Engineering Millimeters Millimeters Metric Centimeters Centimeters Metric Meters Meters Metric DXF/DWG Import: DataCAD will default to one of the following base unit values, depending on the DXF/DWG file LUnit value. You can override the default setting by selecting the desired unit value type from the drop-down combo box prior to import. Base Unit DXF/DWG LUnit DataCAD Scale Type --------- ------------- ------------------ 1 Inch Architectural Architectural 1 Foot Engineering Engineering 1 Millimeter Metric Millimeters 1 Centimeter N/A Centimeters 1 Meter N/A Meters If you use the same scale type that you did for export (from DataCAD) and import (from AutoCAD), the drawing should scale properly in DataCAD (i.e., round-trip). However, if the drawing originated from AutoCAD, the scale type is indeterminate. To compensate for drawings that do not scale as desired, we added an enlargement field. For example: If you select Centimeters as the import scale type and a line that should measure 100cm measures 10 cm, then you can set the enlargement field to 10. If the import scale type is set to meters and the drawing was originally exported from DataCAD in meters, a 1 meter long line will measure 1 meter. If the import scale type is set to Centimeters for the same drawing, that same line will measure 1 centimeter. If the import scale type is set to Millimeters for the same drawing, that same line will measure 1 millimeter. 02. We corrected a bug that made Fills and/or Bitmaps disappear from a Polyline constructed of only bulges when a Clipcube was used. 03. A fatal error in ViewLyr with Extents toggled off has been corrected. 04. The INI file entry PenFile was being ignored. This problem has been corrected. 05. A problem with drawings imported from DXF files in older versions of DataCAD has been fixed. These files would fail to open and give an error: "DataCAD Internal Diagnostics) Fault 19 Error From: 736" 06. A problem of Stamps appearing as keyword text such as '@PLTDATE' instead of the stamp value has been fixed. 07. We fixed a problem of drawing files previewing and plotting correctly, but creating a partially or completely blank PDF file when saved to PDF. (This problem would occur in drawings with orphaned bitmap files). 08. In some cases, drawings with multiple and/or large bitmaps would not display in the print preview. This problem has been corrected. 09. The FitTo factor calculation has been changed. In previous versions, this factor was obtained by using the ratios of the physical paper sizes involved. Now, this calculation is based upon the printable area of these paper sizes. This should yield more accurate results. 10. The new FitTo calculation has an additional setting in the INI file. In the [Printer] section is the entry: FitTo Adjustment=0 If you find that the new calculation is always off by 1 or 2 percent, you may enter an adjustment percentage in this entry. This can be any positive or negative whole number. 11. A new INI file entry has been added to the [Printer] section of the dcadwin.ini file: New FitTo=TRUE If this is set to FALSE, the old FitTo calculation will be used. 12. Extended characters beyond 128 now paste into drawings correctly. These corrections made to text file insertion and clipboard paste allow foreign language characters to read and display properly. 13. The last path used for Insert Symbol is now remembered. 14. New hatching logic in DataCAD 10 caused a situation where a 'floating point division by zero' error would occur when loading a drawing that contains entities hatched with an improperly defined custom associative hatch pattern created in DataCAD 9 or earlier. The problem has been corrected so that this error will not occur and the pattern should display as it did in DataCAD 9 and earlier. 15. The warning for circular XREFs has been changed to only appear once, listing the offending XREFs in a single message box. 16. A bug in 3D Mirror, Previous Line has been fixed. 17. A bug related to opening a self-referencing drawing that is opened from a directory other than the one it was originally saved to has been corrected. 18. A bug related to opening a file containing XREFs from a CD-ROM or other read-only media has been fixed. 19. Associative dimensions that use TrueType Fonts now explode correctly. In prior versions of DataCAD, the TrueType Font would revert to a CHR font. Fixes in version 10.02.01 (Since version 10.02.00): 01. Self-referencing XREFs (i.e. drawing A referenced into drawing A) are now supported. 02. A correction has been made to "Circular" XREFs to avoid the endless-loop swap file creation. 03. A new setting has been added to the [General] section of DCADWIN.INI: CapsLock=FALSE If this is set to TRUE, the AllCaps toggle operates like CapsLock instead of forcing all uppercase letters. 04. A correction has been made in the Pattern menu of Hatch so that selecting an 8 character pattern name does not truncate the last character of the name. 05. The DataCAD Color Picker now allows double-clicking to select a color and dismiss the dialog in one step. 06. Associative Hatch that is contained in an XREF that has been scaled or rotated will now bind with the proper scale and rotation. 07. When inserting stamps, a new option sets the inserted stamp display in AllCaps. This setting applies to each stamp as it is inserted. 08. User-definable stamp settings have been enabled within the DCADWIN.INI file to allow them to appear on the Insert, Stamp menu. A custom date, time, or "special" stamp may be defined. 09. DataCAD will now try to resolve invalid reference file paths by checking the current drawing file folder for valid references. If a valid reference file is found in the current drawing file folder, it will be used instead of the file designated in the original path. However, the original path will be retained. 10. Self-referencing XREFs are now automatically redefined to reflect the new drawing file name when a Save As is performed. 11. Nested XREFs will now bind properly in accordance with the On Only setting in the XREF Manager. 12. A problem with color names changing when a Layer Utility is performed has been corrected. 13. TrueType font settings for dimensions are now saved with the drawing file. 14. A problem with TrueType font settings being lost when switching to a CHR font has been corrected. New Features in version 10.02.00 (Since version 10.01.00): 01. User-defined line types now display and plot more smoothly on 2D curves (Arcs, Circles, Ellipses, Polylines). 02. The hatch Preview now displays the pattern as it will actually appear in the drawing given the current Hatch and Display scale. 03. A new PrevSize (Preview Size) button has been added to the Hatch menu. You can specify the size of the Preview Window in pixels (Valid range is 50 - 500). This button also appears in the line type menu. 04. A new toggle for Scl2View (Scale to View) has been added to the Hatch/ Pattern menu. If this is On, the previews will be drawn according to the current display scale. If it is Off, another button called DispScal (Display Scale) appears. DispScal allows you to specify the display scale for drawing that pattern in the preview window. This display scale is remembered on a pattern by pattern basis. 05. A new Send to ezMeeting option has been added to the View pull-down menu in the Print Preview dialog. It lets you launch the active preview as a PDF file. This is useful for launching multi-scale plotting sheets into an ezMeeting conference. 06. A new Stamp option has been added to the Insert menu. Choose from more than a dozen pre-formatted Date, Time, and File-related stamps to insert in your drawing. The examples in the Stamp selection menu are based on the current date, time, and file settings as they will appear in the drawing. The values are updated when the display is regenerated and when the drawing is printed. Since a Stamp is really an ordinary DataCAD text entity that contains a special formatting string, it has all the font, sizing, and style options of ordinary DataCAD text strings. Also, you can further customize how you want stamps to appear in your drawing by doing a change/text/content and adding text around the special strings. Stamp text can be used in XREFs and symbols. The values will update as well, making a Stamp even more flexible." An Expand stamps to values option has been added to the Copy to Clipboard section of the Misc tab and the Other section of the DXF/DWG tab of Program Preferences to determine the format of stamps when they are either copied to the clipboard or exported via DXF/DWG. When Expand stamps to values is unchecked the stamp will export in its raw token format (i.e. @PLTTIME). When Expand stamps to values is checked the stamp will export as it appears in DataCAD (i.e. 12:00 PM). 07. A new INI setting (ShowWinCursor=TRUE) activates the Windows system cross-hair cursor coincident with the DataCAD cursor. This is useful when using screen capture programs that record the movement of the Windows system cursor. [General] ShowWinCursor=TRUE Fixes in version 10.02.00 (Since version 10.01.00): 01. When re-locating existing MSP details, the details no longer shift nor appear at a smaller scale. 02. The previous view buffer ("P" key) is no longer cleared after an autosave. 03. The current plot scale is no longer overwritten by the distance readout in MSP Layout and the Text and Dimension Text Style menus. 04. The polyline boundary was not being displayed in Measures, Area Per. This problem has been corrected. 05. If the last Detail added in Multi-scale Plotting used a Clipcube, the Clipcube would be turned on in the drawing when it was loaded. This problem has been corrected. 06. Solid fills contained in XREFs and Symbols would not clip properly when a Clipcube was employed. This problem has been corrected. 07. The 1 Line Trim command was not undoable until you left the 1 Line Trim operation completely. This was corrected. 08. The Edge Only option would cause the OpenGL Shader to render incorrectly. This was corrected. 09. The Show Edge option would render polygon edges that should have been invisible. This was corrected. 10. The percent status would show more than 100% complete while importing or exporting DXF/DWG files. This was corrected. 11. Bitmaps and Fills contained within XREFs and Symbols will now print according to the "Print First/Print Last" setting in the Pen Table. New Features in version10.01.00 (Since version 10.00.00): 01. XREF Clipping Referenced files may now have unique clipping boundaries. 02. Batch Plot Scripting An enhanced scripting language allows larger firms to develop custom automated batch plotting routines. 03. Batch Plotting to PDF In addition to direct printing and plot files, drawings may now be batch plotted to Adobe Acrobat format directly from DataCAD. 04. The [Delete] and [Insert] keys now initiate layer delete and layer add respectively in the Layer Manager. 05. Enhanced Perspective Navigation Controls New hotkeys and MouseWheel controls have been added to automate perspective setup and navigation using video game-style controls. [PgUp] Walk Backward [PgDn] Walk Forward MouseWheel Walk Forward/Backward [Up Arrow] Walk Forward [Dn Arrow] Walk Backward [Right Arrow] Step Right [Left Arrow] Step Left [SHIFT] + [Up Arrow] Look Up [SHIFT] + [Dn Arrow] Look Down [SHIFT] + [Right Arrow] Turn Right [SHIFT] + [Left Arrow] Turn Left Use the walk-through hotkeys in any perspective view. A new WalkThru, Options menu allows you to customize the way you navigate. When FixFocal is toggled on you will always look at the same point in your model while navigating. When FixFocal is toggled off your focal point will move the same distance as your eye point while navigating. When FixFocal and FixDist are toggled on you will navigate spherically around a fixed focal point while navigating. It is not possible to turn off FixFocal and FixDist at the same time. Turning PanView on disables the walk through controls so you can pan and zoom your perspective view as if it were a two-dimensional drawing. Fixes in version 10.01.00 (Since version 10.00.00): 01. A problem with the AutoSave function that causes the loss of drawing settings such as pen table, printer configuration and similar settings has been fixed. 02. A problem with bitmaps not printing when using some printers most notably HP DeskJet 1120c and similar models has been fixed. 03. Multi-scale Plotting details created in a DataCAD 10 drawing that were subsequently edited or added in a prior version of DataCAD would cause DataCAD 10 to crash with a Floating Point Divide by Zero error while using the Multi- scale Plotting interface. This problem has been corrected. The error would manifest itself as a Floating Point Divide by Zero by following the these steps: a. Open/Create a drawing in DataCAD 10 that contains MSP details. b. Subsequently open the drawing in a previous version of DataCAD and either add new or modify existing MSP details. c. Open the drawing again in DataCAD 10 and attempt to access/display an MSP sheet that was created/modified in step b. 04. Editing operations performed on polygons or slabs with voids would cause the Undo/Redo function to crash the program under some circumstances. This problem has been corrected. 05. TrueType fonts created with outlines only (no fill) would preview and plot, but would not save to PDF. This problem has been corrected. 06. A problem with the display of highlighted (i.e. when using Identify) TrueType fonts with outlines only (no fill) has been corrected. 07. TrueType fonts and Metafile Fills with a black color setting (or a color setting equal to the DataCAD background color) are set to Color 1 when copied from a Windows application such as Word to DataCAD so that they will display in a color that is inverse to the DataCAD background color. TrueType font and Metafile fill colors other than black are compared to the first 15 DataCAD colors for an exact RGB color match and are mapped accordingly. 08. An access violation error related to re-sorting by any column other than Name in the Layer Manger has been fixed. 09. A problem with the display order of some dialogs such as the XREF Manager and Orphans has been corrected. 10. A problem with 2-bit (black and white) bitmaps shifting, primarily on Windows 2000, has been corrected. 11. Due to the Perspective Navigation enhancements (see enhancement #04) panned perspective views now shade correctly. 12. Exporting to RAY file format would cause DataCAD to crash. This problem has been corrected. 13. A list index out of bounds error related to TrueType fonts has been corrected. The error would manifest itself by performing the following steps: a. Open a drawing that uses "Font-A" on a computer that does not have "Font-A". b. Selecting FontName in the Text menu would produce a list index out of bounds error. When the last font used in a given drawing is not present on the current computer the font name will be set to the default font. 14. A problem related to calculating shadows on coincident planes in perspective views has been corrected. 15. A problem related to importing DXF/DWG files where the first entity of a hatch entity is a B-Spline has been corrected. DataCAD 10.00.00 New Feature Highlights 01. Program Launch DataCAD now launches sooner after double-clicking the program icon. 02. Layer Manager A new Layer Manager adds support for long layer names and allows you to view, arrange, sort, and change layer settings within the drawing. 03. TrueType Fonts In addition to single and multi-stroke, vector-based DataCAD .CHR fonts, DataCAD 10 adds support for Windows TrueType Fonts. TrueType Fonts can also be converted to 3D for use in architectural models. 04. Solid, Pattern, and Bitmap Fills In addition to vector-based DataCAD .PAT hatch patterns, DataCAD 10 adds support for Solid, Pattern, and Bitmap Fills. 05. Bitmap Import DataCAD 10 supports Windows bitmap (.BMP) and JPEG (.JPG) files which can be imported into DataCAD drawings. An unlimited number of Black and White, Greyscale, and 8 - 32-bit color images may be referenced. 06. o2c Object Viewer An o2c-based Object Viewer has been added to the View pull-down menu to provide real-time, dynamic, shaded 3D views of DataCAD models. 07. o2c / OpenGL Color Settings A new o2c Settings dialog determines how entity colors are rendered in the o2c Player and OpenGL shader. Options are provided for color, opacity, and reflection values. 08. eZ meeting DataCAD 10 adds direct support for eZ Meeting, a peer-to-peer Internet conferencing software for CADD drawings. From the View menu DataCAD users can launch the current view as either a 2D, 3D, or bitmap image into an eZ Meeting conference. 09. OpenGL(r) Shader Enhancements Several new enhancements to the DataCAD OpenGL Shader provide options for creating preliminary architectural views of 3D models. Shadow casting Custom edge color and thickness Overshoot Bitmap background image 10. Enlarge Command Enhancements New enlargement factor options have been added for calibrating imported bitmap and vector graphics to real-world scale. 11. Enhanced Polyline Menu The polyline menu incorporates new options which make the creation and editing of polyline boundaries easier. Note: The Polyline Macro is no longer included with DataCAD 10. 12. HyperLink Enhancements Using [CTRL] + Right-click to select an entity displays a new menu for creating and managing HyperLinks between drawing entities and GoTo Views, Internet URLs, and Programs. 13. Drawing Navigation Use new shortcuts, [CTRL] + Left Arrow and [CTRL] + Right Arrow toggle between the previous and current view respectively. 14. Hotspots One click access to Color, Layer Manager, Scale, line type, and Selection Set menus from the status panel. 15. Contour Search Automatically create a polyline boundary from entities that form a closed shape. 16. Color Palette / Color Mixer A new color picker and mixer have been added for selecting and editing DataCAD color palettes. 17. Wheel Mouse Support Pressing the [CTRL] key while moving the mouse wheel zooms the display in/out. An option in Program Preferences determines whether or not the [CTRL] key is required for zooming with the mouse wheel. The zoom factor is hard-coded to +/- 25%. 18. VRML Export DataCAD models can be exported to VRML 1.0 (Virtual Reality Markup Language). DataCAD 10.00.00 Miscellaneous Enhancements 01. The last Go to View selected remains highlighted in the Go to View Menu 02. Clicking in the Multi-View window now reads OUT the view vs. IN 03. The maximum number of icons per Toolbar has been extended from 50 to 100 04. Reference file names may now be redefined within the Reference File Manager 05. DXF/DWG Improvements with support for... Solid fills TrueType fonts MText Polylines with voids Complex hatch patters such as StoneCAD 06. Pen Table color picker now retains previously defined colors 07. Reference files may now contain a fully qualified pathname (Drive+Path+Filename) of up to 160 characters. This was previously limited to 80 characters. 08. The Preview checkbox status in File I/O dialogs is now retained between program sessions. If un-checked, drawing file preview bitmaps are not created automatically. 09. The Reference File Manager will now display a horizontal scroll bar when reference file names extend beyond the dialog window. 10. DataCAD will now prompt for a file save when a system shutdown message is received. 11. Reference files may now contain fully qualified pathnames [drive/path/filename] up to 160 characters long. 12. A new color translation table generator has been added for DXF/DWG file translation. 13. Hatching routines have been enhanced to support complex hatch patterns from manufacturers such as StoneCAD. 14. [CTRL] + V (Paste from Clipboard) now remembers the last layer setting used (Original Layers or Active Layer) 15. The maximum number of recognized Hatch Patterns has been increased from 128 to 256. 16. Nearpoint snapping in the Template Window will always use Z coordinate value from the symbol definition for its insertion point. 17. The 16 custom colors that can be defined using the Windows Color Picker from the Pen Table dialog are saved when DoCustomColors=TRUE in the [PaletteFile] section of the DCADWIN.INI file. 18. A new toggle, ShowIt, has been added to the Hatch, Boundary menu to enable the display of hatch boundaries during their creation. 19. The tooltips that display on layer menu names have been enhanced to show next to and aligned with the corresponding layer name. 20. A new option has been added to Program Preferences to adjust the background color and delay for the display of tooltips. 21. Due to popular demand, clicking on a Multi-View Window causes the view to be read from the Multi-View Window to the Drawing Window vs. the other way around. 22. A new setting has been added to Program Preferences to allow nested XREFs to retain their highlight settings when inserted into another drawing file vs. the current drawings XREF highlight setting. 23. DataCAD now uses the scale type setting from the DWG file upon import automatically. DWG DataCAD Scientific/Decimal Inch/Decimal Engineering Engineering Architectural Architectural Fractional Inch/Fraction 24. DataCAD now writes out the active Scale Type setting to the DWG file upon export automatically. DataCAD DWG Inch/Decimal Decimal Engineering Engineering Architectural Architectural Inch/Fraction Fractional Others Decimal 25. A Redefine option has been added to the Reference File Manager and Reference File Orphans dialogs allowing the user to redefine an XREF'd file that has been renamed. Redefined XREFs retain the previous XREFs position, scale, and rotation. 26. The Preview checkbox in File I/O dialogs is now remembered. 27. The Reference File Manager and Reference File Orphans dialogs will now display a horizontal scroll bar if the filename is too long to fit within the window. 28. Polylines can now have a closed top/bottom surface. 29. The DXF/DWG Import dialog now has local settings for Move to Origin and Use Color Table. 30. The DXF/DWG Export dialog now has local settings for Translate custom lines to continuous, Use color table, Decompose 3D entities to faces, Export XREFs automatically. 31. A Color Mapping Table generator is now available from the Tools, Generate TBL File pull-down menu to allow easier creation and customization of color mapping between DataCAD and DWG files. 32. New and enhanced options in 3D Explode command. - To Lines also converts TrueType fonts to lines - To Polygons also converts TrueType fonts and Polylines to polygons - To Slab also converts TrueType fonts and Polylines to slabs - TTF to Polyline converts TrueType fonts to Polylines 33. The Multi-scale Plotting Interface now supports sheet layouts at multiple resolutions and menu configurations. Existing drawings that include MSP Sheets must be opened on the computer where the layout display is correct (screen resolution and menu configuration) and saved before viewing/editing the MSP layouts on another computer. Fixes in version 10.00.00 (Since version 9.07.01): 01. Multiple instances of the same XREF will no longer have the same layer set when batch exported then opened in AutoCAD. 02. Highlighting in 1 Line Trim using Entity method has been corrected. 03. The Yes/No/Cancel dialog that prompts the user to save a drawing file upon exit now responds after the mouse is released vs. when the mouse is pressed allowing the user to cancel the selection by moving the cursor off the button prior to releasing the mouse button. 04. The importation speed of DWG files containing entities outside of the X-Y plane has been improved. 05. DataCAD will now prompt you to save your work if a system shutdown message is received. 06. A bug in Measures has been corrected when taking the following steps: Open a new drawing. In Settings/ScaleType, turn StackFrac on. Draw a line whose length has a fractional component. Select Measure\Line choose the line and click ToDrawing. Click Angle and set an angle other than 0. Place the text. The fractional component would not use the specified angle setting. 07. Degree symbols now transfer reliably via DXF/DWG. 08. When using the Move to Origin option during DWG import, most entities lying in an extruded plane would not import properly. This has been fixed. 09. Bi-directional support for associatively hatched circles, arcs and ellipses has been added to the DXF/DWG translator. 10. Ellipses that lie outside of the X-Y plane are imported as a symbol and are exported as a symbol via DXF/DWG/ 11. MText, and Text attributes that lie in an extruded plane import as symbols with the corresponding name "DC_CHARS_XXXXX" and are exported as Text. 12. Import of Associative Hatch using B-Spline with weights caused the translator to crash. This has been fixed. 13. Importing polylines via DWG would sometimes cause huge circles to show up. This has been fixed. 14. A fix has been implemented to address hatch patterns with small hatch matrix values that would hang the DWG translator. New Features in version 9.07.01 (Since version 9.07.00): 01. The Object Viewer window now remembers its last position and size. 02. The extended character code 0243 opens the Object Viewer. Fixes in version 9.07.01 (Since version 9.07.00): 01. Font previews restored. 02. OpenGL Shader once again works on quadric entities. New Features in version 9.07.00 (Since version 9.06.02): 01. DataCAD 9.07 adds direct support for eZ meeting, a peer-to-peer internet conferencing software for CADD drawings. From the View menu DataCAD users can launch the current view as either a 2D, 3D, or bitmap image into an eZ meeting conference. 02. An o2c-based Object Viewer has been added to the View pull-down menu to provide real-time, dynamic, shaded 3D views of DataCAD models. 03. A new context-sensitive popup menu has been added to facilitate the assignment of entities to GoTo Views, Internet URL's, and Files. The Hyperlink popup menu can be accessed by [CTRL] + Right-clicking on any entity. 04. Display of Hyperlinks. A Hyperlinks option has been added to the View pull-down menu to toggle on/off the highlighting of entities that contain either GoTo View, URL, or File hyperlinks. 05. New hotkeys, [CTRL] + Left Arrow and [CTRL] + Right Arrow toggle between the previous and current view respectively. Fixes in version 9.07.00 (Since version 9.06.02): 01. Multi-weight 2D curves (Arcs, Circles and Polylines) with a line type of Dotted, Dashed or Dot-Dash are now smoothed according to the ArcFactr setting in the Display menu. This works even if ClipCubes are used. 02. Associative dimensions will mirror correctly with FixText turned on. 03. Mirrored associative dimensions will now stretch correctly. 04. All extended character codes may now be input using [ALT] + 0(Code). Fixes in version 9.06.02 (Since version 9.06.01): 01. A new setting has been added to the DCADWIN.INI file to "fix" fonts with zero character width definitions. [General] FixFont=True The FixFont setting is off (or False) by default. Setting this value to true causes DataCAD to set zero character width definitions to the average of the character width definitions within a given font. Setting FixFont to True allows DataCAD to calculate the text extents of fonts with invalid character width definitions correctly. However, if these "invalid" fonts have been used to dimension drawings prior to setting FixFont to True, setting FixFont to True may cause some existing dimension text to rotate 90 degrees (i.e. perpendicular to the dimension line). Fixes in version 9.06.01 (Since version 9.06.00): 01. CHR fonts that contain zero length character width definitions are corrected. New Features in version 9.06.00 (Since version 9.05.00): 01. The DXF/DWG translator now imports and exports associative hatch. 02. The DXF/DWG translator can now export XREFs automatically. This is controlled by a new checkbox on the DXF/DWG tab of the Program Preferences dialog. 03. An "Isometric View" checkbox has been added to the Insert Symbol dialog. 04. o2c export has been added to the File/Export dropdown menu. The o2c viewer plug-in may be downloaded from http://www.o2c.de/englisch/index.html 05. o2c Object import has been added to the Insert dropdown menu. 06. Ortho mode may now be toggled on/off while in Tangents mode. 07. A new Command Line Alias feature has been added to supplement keyboard macros. What it does: The new Command Line Alias feature allows you to assign a keyboard macro to a single or multi-character shortcut. The "Alias" is the other name you give for the command you are calling. Why it's cool: Now you can have an unlimited number of shortcuts for multi key-stroke commands. AutoCAD users, and ex-Generic CADD users, et al can create familiar shortcuts they are used to. How it works: Press [Ctrl] + [Spacebar] You are prompted to enter an Alias Type one in. For example, cr for Circle by Radius Press [Enter] ----> The command is executed You can browse for Aliases by typing [?] and pressing [Enter]. You are then presented with a list to scroll through. Double click or press [Enter] to select and alias to execute. The number of lines shown in the list and its width can be adjusted in the [Alias] section of the DCADWIN.INI file. [Alias] Popup Width=300 Popup Lines=4 The Aliases are stored in a text file in your SUP folder called DCADWIN.DCA. Aliases use the same shorthand as custom keyboard macros. An item in the Alias file looks like this: [cr] comment=draw circle by radius alias=^;^S5^S1^ How to Make your own: Let's say you want to make an Alias called ep that will take you to Erase, Partial. Here's all you do: Press [Ctrl] + [Spacebar] Pick Settings. A dialog appears In the Alias field, type the shortcut you want: ep In the Comment field, type a hint: Erase Partial (line break) In the Sequence field, type the required keyboard sequence for the command: ^;^F7^F9^ Note that the format for a Command Line Alias is the same as a Keyboard Macro. You must separate each function with a carat [^]. Select Add to add the new Alias Select OK to exit. Your alias is now ready to use. Just press [CTRL] + [Spacebar], type ep and press [Enter] Fixes in version 9.06.00 (Since version 9.05.00): 01. The Previous View Buffer ('P' key) is no longer cleared after a forced save (Shift + f). 02. More "Invalid Floating Point Operation" errors with certain printer drivers have been eliminated. 03. PDF files are now generated with "Rounded" rather than "Mitered" corners. This alleviates the very "pointed" looking corners when using heavier line weights. 04. The following actions that would create a corrupt layer has been corrected: a. Start a new drawing b. Draw a 3Point Arc c. Use 1LineTrim to cut out the center portion of the arc d. Erase one of the remaining sides 05. Snapping to the endpoints of a partial ellipse has been corrected. 06. The On/Off status of layers within an XREF'd file was not being exported properly when written to a DWG file. This problem has been corrected. New Features in version 9.05.00 (Since version 9.04.00): 01. A Spell Checker has been added to the Tools pull-down menu. 02. The current input mode is now displayed on the Distance Readout line. 03. The .RAY file export function has been enhanced to include additional light sources: 1 Sunlight and 7 Spotlights. Fixes in version 9.05.00 (Since version 9.04.00): 01. An error in the PDF file generator has been corrected. 02. An error with Text shifting within an XREF that was bound has been corrected. 03. An additional vertex that was added when creating a Polyline with the rectangle method has been eliminated. 04. Selecting Tangents (Shift-B) would change the current rubber-banding point. This problem has been corrected. 05. The display of line type and Hatch Pattern previews are no longer affected by clip cubes. 06. Plotting speeds should be back to normal. 07. When using coordinate input (Relative Cart or Relative Polar) and reference points to create a horizontal slab or polygon, DataCAD would not use the selected reference point. This problem has been corrected. 08. DataCAD will no longer crash when attempting to place an exploded symbol on a locked layer. 09. The Reference Point function has been corrected. This problem was especially noticeable when using Reference Point within the Stretch function. 10. Selecting the Root directory of a network drive while browsing paths within the Preferences dialog would add an extra '\' to the path. This problem has been corrected. 11. Highlighted XREFs assigned to a zero width pen would still plot. This problem has been corrected. Fixes in version 9.04.00 (Since version 9.03.00): 01. Snapping within the Template window has been corrected. 02. A problem with Backup when entering a polyline has been corrected. 03. A line spacing problem when inserting XREFs has been corrected. For existing drawings with XREFs that have their line spacing appear incorrect, use Change/Spacing to set the XREF's line spacing to 1'-0" (metric users please use 304.8 mm). 04. An error whereby turning on DrwMarks within the Reference Point command would also turn on DrwMarks in the Settings menu has been corrected. 05. A fatal error in the Mirror commands has been fixed. 06. Display anomalies, with certain video card and operating system combinations has been fixed. New Features in version 9.03.00 (Since version 9.02.00): 01. A new input mode (Direction\Distance) has been added. To use this method, set the input mode to Direction\Distance by pressing the [Insert] key on your keyboard or selecting it from the Tools pull-down menu. Enter the first point, then move your cursor in the direction of the line you wish to draw. Press the space bar and enter the relative distance. To set a reference point while in Direction\Distance mode, you must also indicate the reference angle using the mouse. To enter a reference point while using Direction/Distance mode, press the [`] key, select a reference point using the mouse, then indicate the reference angle using the mouse and left-click to finish the operation. 02. An enhanced object snapping method has been added. Press and hold the [Shift] key on your keyboard, then click the middle mouse button to access the options "Get X," "Get Y," "Get Angle," "Get X + dist," "Get Y + dist," and "Get angle + angle." For detailed instructions on these new functions, visit the DataCAD Web site at www.datacad.com and select Technical Bulletins in the Support section. 03. Snapping to nested symbols has been enhanced to include endpoints and points in the nested level. 04. When enlarging an XREF, the line spacing is adjusted accordingly. 05. An option to display the boundary of a Clip Cube has been added. This setting is located on the Misc tab of the Program Preferences dialog box in the Tools pull-down menu. 06. A conversion utility for batch converting legacy 2D go-to-views to the current go-to-view format has been added. Access this function by pressing [Ctrl]+[F12] on your keyboard and selecting ConvTo3D. 07. Display List functionality has been further optimized when Max Acceleration is toggled on. 08. Rectangle option added in polyline creation (shows up in Hatch/Boundary, Area/Perim, Curves/Polyline, etc.). 09. PrevLine option added to Mirror commands. 10. An AllCaps option has been added to the Text menu. 11. FileI/O has been removed from the Text menu. To import a text file, select the Insert/Text File drop down menu. To export text to a file, select File/Export/TXT. 12. New Extended characters added: 0241 Turn Text AllCaps On 0242 Turn Text AllCaps Off 13. A new "AndCopy Toggles" option in Program Preferences has been added to the Misc. page. By un-checking "Remember On/Off Status", the AndCopy option in the Move, Rotate, Enlarge and Mirror menus will always be Off when the menu is entered. 14. New "Drag" option is now available in the Copy menu. 15. A toggle has been added for insertion point when Cutting\Copying information to the Windows Clipboard. If InsPoint is not used, DataCAD copies the information relative to Absolute Zero. If InsPoint is used, the user must specify a reference point after selecting Cut or Copy. 16. A new option now appears when placing objects from the Windows Clipboard via Paste or Paste Special. The new toggle ByCenter allows placement by the extents of the objects or by the insertion point mentioned in #15 above. 17. A new Match option has been added to the Selection Sets (SelSets) mask by color function. This new option allows you to pick an entity and use its color in the masking process. This method is handy for masking by a custom color. 18. XREFs that have been mirrored and/or rotated will now bind more visually correct. Fixes in version 9.03.00 (Since version 9.02.00): 01. Entity grouping is retained after erasing entities within the group. 02. A fatal error, which occurred when exiting a shaded image window and selecting "Back to DC5 (discard this image)", has been corrected. 03. The settings for Paper Orientation at Device in the DataCAD Printer\Plotter setup dialog are correctly represented by the layout box. 04. Clip Cube will no longer interfere with hatch pattern and line type previews. 05. Pressing F8 in the Settings menu no longer accesses a blank menu. 06. An "Error in file, translation aborted" message, which occurred when importing DXF\DWG files containing associative hatch, has been corrected. 07. Plot optimization enhancements have been added to reduce plot file sizes and to fix a problem with Plot Preview and/or plotting very large drawings with high vector counts. 08. The backup option in Horizontal Slab and Horizontal Polygon has been corrected to update the reference point (previous point) properly. 09. An access violation error related to having too many line type definitions has been corrected. 10. A correction was made to binding a nested XREF which was copied at the nested level. 11. A fatal error that occurred while attempting to clear certain selection sets has been corrected. Fixes in version 9.02.00 (Since version 9.01.00): 01. A Windows fatal error that occurred when entering the plotter menu and configuring HP DesignJet plotter drivers has been corrected. 02. The status of the "W" in SWOTHLUD is correctly reflected when using the Create pull-down menu to change from walls to lines. 03. An error associated with using LinkEnts on an inactive layer when the active layer is locked has been fixed. 04. Selecting To File from the Plotter menu, then Cancel no longer causes the cursor to disappear. 05. The Undo\Redo capability is no longer affected when you select Measure\Line, choose a line, and then begin a new function without properly exiting the Measures menu. 06. Using Stretch\Z-Dist\Z-Only on a 3-sided horizontal polygon to stretch one corner now works properly. 07. The Default.tbl Color Map Table has been adjusted for better translation of DataCAD colors to AutoCAD. 08. Using a comma instead of a period in the Windows control panel Regional Settings no longer prevents the creation of .pdf files. New Features in version 9.01.00 (Since version 9.00.00): 01. XREFs may now be enlarged at the time of insertion. 02. XREFs may now be rotated (by a specified angle or dynamically) at the time of insertion. 03. XREFs may now be highlighted individually in the RFM (Reference File Manager). 04. Previous View action (using the "P" key) can now be specified in the Program Preferences dialog to remember Free Zooms and/or Pans/Scrolls or not. 05. "Right click to Exit" the Shader window setting has been added to the Program Preferences dialog. 06. TxtScale entry from Dcadwin.ini has been added to the Preferences dialog. 07. A new setting has been added to the Dcadwin.ini file to allow changing the HyperView shortcut from Alt+Left-click to Alt+Shift+Left-click. Valid entries are (In the [General] section of the Dcadwin.ini file): HYPERVIEW=ALT (This is the default) HYPERVIEW=ALT+SHIFT (Changes it to Alt+Shift+Left-click) New Extended characters added: 0235 Turn Plot Preview On 0236 Turn Plot Preview Off 0237 Turn TxtScale On 0238 Turn TxtScale Off Fixes in version 9.01.00 (Since version 9.00.00): 01. The extents of an XREF are now always correct regardless of the state of the file being referenced in. 02. XREF snapping fixed. 03. Scaled (enlarged) XREFs will now Bind correctly. 04. The PenTable Load/Save dialog would occasionally be obscured by the PenTable dialog itself. This problem has been corrected. 05. PgUp/PgDn for scrolling in GoTo View menu fixed. 06. Corrected the segmentation of large radius, non-solid (dotted, dashed and dot- dashed) arcs when clip cubes are used. 07. Duplicate system attributes are deleted when a drawing is loaded. 08. LyrUtil of upper (9-15) selection set info fixed. 09. Plot Rotated at Device fixed. 10. A change was made to the PDF file generator to overcome a system limitation on very dense (i.e. with lots of hatch) files. DataCAD 9.00.00 New Feature Highlights 01. Multi-level Undo/Redo 02. External File Referencing (XREF's) 03. MDI (Multiple Document Interface) 04. Cut-Copy-Paste 05. Batch Plotting 06. OpenGL(r) Shader 07. HyperView Linking 08. WYSIWYG Print Preview 09. Export to Adobe(r) Acrobat(r) (.PDF) 10. Import/Export Windows(r) Metafile (.WMF) 11. Export to DC Render (.RAY) 12. Context Sensitive Toolbars 13. User-definable Macro Menu 14. New DCAL(r) Routines Enhancements: 01. Wall Style Manager 02. Import/Export DXF(tm)/DWG R2000 03. Drawing File Preview 04. Symbol File Preview 05. Hatch Pattern Preview 06. line type Preview 07. Font Preview 08. Expanded Pull-down Menus 09. Resizable File I/O Dialogs Minor Changes: 01. Enhanced object snapping within symbols 02. Enhanced Previous View function 03. New Directory Dialog 04. Updated File New Dialog 05. Updated Multi-view Windows 06. New Extended Character Codes 07. Updated DXF/DWG Import Dialog 08. BitBlt Implementation 09. Updated Program Preferences - Added path for RAY files - Added path for BMP files - Added folder browser to Pathnames tab - Added DC Render material assignments to Misc tab - Added Clipboard options to Misc tab - Added symbol preview options to Misc tab - Updated screenshot on Interface Settings tab - Added Move drawing to origin checkbox to DXF/DWG tab - Added Macros tab 10. Pro Pack enhanced with new extended character codes 11. Modifications to Drawing Session Clock 12. 2D GoTo Views replaced by 3D GoTo Views as GoTo Views Fixes in version 9.00.00 (Since version 8.52.00): 01. Display anomalies when using the Quick Shader when Windows is set to use Large Fonts have been corrected. 02. A bug where selecting DelSymb in an empty template window caused the template to malfunction has been corrected. 3. Pen width scaling anomalies when turning Check Plot on and off have been corrected. Fixes in version 8.53.00 (Since version 8.52.00): 01. A Windows fatal error that occurred when entering the plotter menu and configuring HP DesignJet plotter drivers has been corrected. 02. The scaling of pen widths when using the Check Plot feature is canceled when Check Plot is disabled. New Features in version 8.52.00 (Since version 8.50.00): 01. AutoCAD 2000 support, for both DXF/DWG Import/Export. 02. The Pen Table will be scaled accordingly when using a check plotter and a scaling value. 03. DataCAD Plus file read support. 04. Export to .ray (DC Render) format. Fixes in version 8.52.00 (Since version 8.50.07): 01. Using SaveAs to save a file to a floppy disk that does not have enough space, a warning message will now appear. 02. When exploding text in a perspective view it will no longer be deleted. 03. DXFing very small RevSurfs will no longer create Invalid Floating Point Operation errors. 04. The DXF/DWG Translator has been corrected to properly create R13 and R12 files. 05. Choosing Delete from the TxtStyle menu will only remove the text style selected and not the entire file. 06. The command line calculator has been corrected to accept the SQRT function. 07. Arc and Circle center points will now display correctly in ClipCubes. 08. Right-clicking the mouse when plotting will no longer crash DataCAD. Fixes in version 8.50.07 (Since version 8.50.06): 01. A memory leak that occurred when printing to certain printer drivers and using the driver's preview feature, has been corrected. Fixes in version 8.50.06 (Since version 8.50.05): 01. Invalid Floating Point errors, when printing to some HP printer drivers, have been fixed. Fixes in version 8.50.05 (Since version 8.50.04): 01. Polylines will now be created using the proper Z information. 02. Entities which have abnormally small or large Z-base or Z-heights will automatically be changed to 0, to correct Invalid Floating Point errors. 03. A problem when importing DXF or DWG files which had more than 99 duplicate layer names caused DataCAD to freeze and has been corrected. Fixes in version 8.50.04 (Since version 8.50.02): 01. A problem when exporting files to DXF/DWG that contained Associative Dimensions has been corrected. Fixes in version 8.50.02 (Since version 8.50.01): 1. A problem where pen assignments with the same widths were not using the percent density setting, has been corrected. 02. The 3DViews/Controls menu will now display the proper menu button names. Fixes in version 8.50.01 (Since version 8.50.00): 01. Symbols will now print using their line colors rather than their insertion color. 02. Setting a -0" Tolerance in the DimStyle menu will no longer produce an error message. 03. Template files can be named using long filenames and paths. 04. Launching external programs from a DCAL script has been fixed. 05. A problem when setting the Windows display to use Large or Custom fonts will now allow the drawing area to display correctly. 06. Importing DWG files which contain multiple polygons in a symbol reference will not cause the translator to hang. DataCAD 8.50.00 New Feature Highlights 01. All new, OpenDWG-based DXF/DWG translator supports importing and exporting files up through AutoCAD Release 14 file formats. It will convert custom line types used in your DataCAD file to AutoCAD format, so your drawings will display in AutoCAD just as they do in DataCAD. The new translator also maps entity colors using color table (*.TBL) files located in the DATACAD\SUP\ folder. The automatic conversion of custom line types and the translation of colors using the color table file can both be disabled with a new option on the DXF/DWG tab in Preferences/Options dialog box. Please note that when exporting to Release 12 format, all custom line types are translated to a continuous line definition while maintaining the original line style name, because AutoCAD 12 does not support custom line types. 02. Display performance has been increased by the addition of a software Display List. DataCAD 8.50 has faster refresh times, object snapping, entity selection, and panning and zooming. You can toggle Display List on or off on the Misc. tab of the Preferences/Options dialog box. 03. A new Digital Terrain Modeler (DTM) allows you to quickly model site plans by dropping a polygon mesh over survey data points or contour lines. Located in the 3D Polygons menu, this new feature has several options you can customize, allowing greater flexibility and creativity in producing realistic models and landscapes. 04. There are 1,500 new 3D symbols, including cars and trucks, outdoor lights, park benches, miscellaneous cityscape objects, kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, plumbing fixtures, and appliances. 05. Estimator for Windows v.6 is included on the DataCAD CD-ROM; it integrates with DataCAD and supports Quicken and QuickBooks formats. 06. DataCAD 8.50's new WinHelp 2000-based online help offers a dual-paned help window so you can view the Table of Contents simultaneously with topic information. Both the Reference Manual and online help have been restructured to reflect the way CAD users work. Fixes in version 8.50.00 (Since version 8.08.05): 01. Drawings correctly store printer selection. 02. Canceling File/Open when using the recent file list no longer fails. 03. Drawing display anomalies in Windows NT have been fixed. 04. Menu button highlight display anomalies in Windows 95 and Windows 98 have been fixed. 05. Pixels are no longer dropped at vector endpoints. 06. The automatic closure of horizontal slabs and polygons after the entry of the third point has been fixed. 07. The Tab order has been fixed in the Preferences/Options dialog box. 08. Problems with using the right mouse button to exit the current menu while the arrow cursor is positioned over a blank area of the menu have been fixed. 09. The graphic state of the layer search button in both the menu and the Status Area will correctly reflect the state of the toggle. 10. The Message Area is no longer erased after accessing the Preferences/Options dialog box. 11. Problems with the modification of dimension text in non-associative dimensions have been fixed for linear, radius and diameter dimensions. 12. The Check Plot, Use This Factor box will now use any whole number that is entered. 13. The ShowVals option under TxtStyle now displays all of the text style settings. 14. When opening the first file in a new DataCAD session, DataCAD will no longer load layers and then load the drawing to the screen; it will now load the file once. 15. Cursor ghosting that occurred when using the middle mouse button to input coordinates or when pressing [Esc] while inputting coordinates has been corrected. Fixes in version 8.08.05 (Since version 8.08.04): 01. A memory leak that occurred when printing to certain printer drivers and using the driver's preview feature, has been corrected. 02. Invalid Floating Point errors, when printing to some HP printer drivers, have been fixed. 03. Polylines will now be created using the proper Z information. 04. Entities which have abnormally small or large Z-base or Z-heights will automatically be changed to 0, to correct Invalid Floating Point errors. Fixes in version 8.08.04 (Since version 8.08.03): 01. A problem where pen assignments with the same widths not using thepercent density setting, has been corrected. 02. The 3DViews, Controls menu will now display the proper menu button names. Fixes in version 8.08.03 (Since version 8.08.02): 01. Symbols will now print using their line colors rather than their insertion color. 02. Setting a -0" Tolerance in the DimStyle menu will no longer produce an error message. Fixes in version 8.08.02 (Since version 8.08.01): 01. The DataCAD executable is now looking for the correct online help filename. 02. Template files can be named using long filenames and paths. 03. Launching external programs from a DCAL script has been fixed. Fixes in version 8.08.01 (Since version 8.08.00): 01. The first line drawn in a file will now print using the assigned values in the PenTable. Fixes in version 8.08.00 (Since version 8.07.00): 01. Drawings correctly store printer selection. 02. Canceling File/Open when using the recent file list no longer fails. 03. Drawing display anomalies in Windows NT have been fixed. 04. Menu button highlight display anomalies in Windows 95 and Windows 98 have been fixed. 05. Pixels are no longer dropped at vector endpoints. 06. The automatic closure of horizontal slabs and polygons after the entry of the third point has been fixed. 07. The Tab order has been fixed in the Preferences/Options dialog box. 8. Problems with using the right mouse button to exit the current menu while the arrow cursor is positioned over a blank area of the menu have been fixed. 09. The graphic state of the layer search button in both the menu and the Status Area will correctly reflect the state of the toggle. 10. The Message Area is no longer erased after accessing the Preferences/Options dialog box. 11. Problems with the modification of dimension text in non-associative dimensions have been fixed for linear, radius and diameter dimensions. 12. The Check Plot, Use This Factor box will now use any whole number that is entered. 13. The ShowVals option under TxtStyle now displays all of the text style settings. 14. When opening the first file in a new DataCAD session, DataCAD will no longer load layers and then load the drawing to the screen; it will now load the file once. 15. Cursor ghosting that occurred when using the middle mouse button to input coordinates or when pressing [Esc] while inputting coordinates has been corrected. New Features in version 8.07.00 (Since version 8.06.00): 01. New options in the Settings/ScaleTyp menu: a. DIN - This option presents dimensions in the form meters.centimeters with superscripted millimeters. b. AS1100 - This option presents dimensions in the form of millimeters with a space separating thousands, hundred thousands, millions and so on. Input is done in meters. c. StakFrac - This new option appears if the current scale type is Arch. When toggled on, fractions of an inch are displayed "stacked" rather than inline. NOTE: It was determined during the testing of this feature, that certain third-party fonts have improper character definitions which may cause the fraction to overwrite the non-fractional portion of the dimension. Should this occur, try using a different font. 02. The decimal separator for all displayed dimensions and numbers is now determined by the value of the Windows Decimal Separator. To set this value, choose Control Panel from the Start/Settings menu on your Windows desktop. Choose Regional Settings. On the Number tab, set the Decimal symbol value. 03. The scale type for area/perimeter calculations is now remembered independently from the current drawing scale type. 04. The new setting AreaPrec controls the number of digits of precision to be displayed for area calculations when the ScaleTyp option in the Area/Per menu is set to Decimal, Inch Decimal, Meters, Centimeter, Millimeter, DIN, or AS1100. 05. Mouse input has been enhanced as follows: Left Button Pick/Select Middle Button Object Snap [Shift] + Left Button Object Snap [Ctrl] + Left Button Reference Point [Ctrl] + [Shift] + Left Button Object Snap Reference Point [Ctrl] + Middle Button Object Snap Reference Point Fixes in version 8.07.00 (Since version 8.06.00): 01. An anomaly when using the [N] key to object snap when orthogonal snapping was enabled has been corrected. 02. In dimensioning with ScaleTyp set to Arch, dimensions less than 1 inch were being displayed with a leading zero. The leading zero is no longer displayed. 03. Correction of a bug in which dimensions would automatically rotate has been reversed (or put back the way that it was), per user requests. New Features in version 8.06.00 (Since version 8.05.02): 01. New Print Setup dialog box. All settings in this dialog are now stored within the drawing file. 02. A ToFile option has been added back to the Plotter menu. 03. The SetPens menu has been expanded. All 255 colors may now be assigned to any of 15 pens. All settings in this dialog are stored within the drawing. 04. The AllBlack option has been moved from the Plotter menu to the SetPens dialog. 05. A New option has been added to the File drop-down menu. 06. A Close option has been added to the File drop-down menu. 07. CAVWALL has been added to the General section of DCADWIN.INI. If true, insertion of doors and windows into cavity (4-line) walls trims the outer jamb lines to the cavity lines. 08. TXTSCALE has been added to the General section of DCADWIN.INI. If true, PgUp and PgDn change the current plotting scale in the Text and Dmension/ TxtStyle menus. 09. A recent file list has been added to the File drop-down menu. 10. The number of displayable symbol names for a single template has been increased from 100 to 500. 11. The maximum number of user-defined line styles supported in DCADWIN.LIN has been increased from 50 to 175. Fixes in version 8.06.00 (Since version 8.05.02): 01. Custom colors now plot correctly. 02. HLR/Options/Join now works correctly. 03. Several instances of cursor ghosting have been corrected. 04. The creation of Pocket and Overhead door styles when InWall and Cutout are off now works correctly. 05. An error associated with the Fonts path changing has been corrected. This is related to accessing mapped network drives. 06. Arcs now display correctly when dragging (the arc) in Dimension/Angular and 2Pt/3Pt arcs. 07. DataCAD no longer prompts to save the file when a fatal error has occurred. This allows you to recover the autosave (.ASV) file in the event of a fatal error. 08. The Template and Multi-View windows are no longer redrawn after the line type and Hatch Pattern preview window is closed. 09. AutoHgt toggle in Slabs and Blocks now works correctly. 10. The error that would allow symbol definitions to be purged when instances of those symbols were located on layers that were turned off has been corrected. 11. The DEFAULT.PIF file used by the DWG translator has been changed so it will not prompt you to shut down and re-boot in MS-DOS mode. Fixes in version 8.05.02 (Since version 8.05.01): 01. Arrow ghosting, which occurred at times during editing commands like Move and Stretch, has been corrected. 02. An error that caused DataCAD to misinterpret axes in predefined elevation views during some 3D editing commands has been corrected. 03. While accessing drawings from a non-mapped network drive, the directory path in the Open dialog box was sometimes incorrect. The error has been corrected so that the drawing directory is always displayed in the Open dialog box. New Features in version 8.05.01 (Since version 8.05.00): 01. An Interface Settings tab has been added to the Preferences, Options dialog box. This tab contains an interactive copy of the DataCAD screen; move your mouse cursor over the different areas of this screen to see Tool Tips. You can turn the toolbar on or off; change the font used on the menu buttons or the message prompts; move the Menu Window to the right side of the screen; or change the background color in the Drawing Window. Both the Navigation Pad and the Projection Pad will be displayed under the menu buttons if there is enough room. If the menu buttons require too much space for both pads to be displayed, only the Navigation Pad will be displayed. Projection options can still be accessed from the View pull-down menu on the Menu Bar. It is possible for the menu buttons to take up so much room that neither pad can be displayed, or even so that the menu buttons themselves are cut off at the top of the application window. Choose a smaller font if you'd like one or both pads to be displayed. 02. Additionally, the DCADWIN.INI file can be modified to adjust the spacing between buttons by changing the value (number of pixels) for the BTN_SPACING option. You can also add a line immediately below the BTN_SPACING option to adjust the width (number of pixels) of the menu buttons: BTN_WIDTH=x Substitute a positive or negative number for "x". A setting can also be added to the DCADWIN.INI file to adjust the template window width in pixels. Add the following lines to your DCADWIN.INI file: [Template Window] WIDTH=x Substitute a positive number for "x". 03. Bitmap preview windows for line types and hatch patterns have been added. 04. Menu buttons in the Menu Window now highlight as the mouse cursor passes over them. This has not yet been applied to the buttons in the multi-view windows. 05. You can now set the background color for Quick Shading. Click on the colored box on the Misc tab in the Preferences, Options dialog box. Choose a new color and click OK. This background color is independent from the background color for the Drawing Window (which can be set on the Interface Settings tab). Fixes in version 8.05.01 (Since version 8.05.00): 01. A Floating Point Error related to selection has been fixed. 02. A problem where text was being truncated to 12 characters instead of 255 when reading DXF files has been corrected. 03. Cursor ghosting has been corrected. 04. A correction has been made to the Density setting in the Pen Table to prevent incorrect densities when choosing custom colors. 05. Keyboard functions are now activated when you press the key down, instead of when you release the key. This will correct the slight delay you might experience when using the keyboard. 06. The DataCAD screen is now only refreshed when it has focus, or in other words when it is the foreground application. 07. When using [PgUp] or [PgDn] to window in on your drawing while FreeZoom is on, DataCAD cannot go beyond the largest and smallest defined scales; the program will now display a message informing you of this when appropriate. New Features in version 8.05.00 (Since version 8.04.00): 01. Adjust ambient light intensity in Quick Shader using the Intensity option. 02. New Percent Density and Map to Color options in the Pen Table of the Plotter menu allow you to print screened colors as well as gray scale. 03. Use the Save as Bitmap option in the Window menu to save the Drawing Window as a bitmap (.bmp) file. This option does not capture template windows, multi- view windows or any other part of the DataCAD screen. Fixes in version 8.05.00 (Since version 8.04.00): 01. A correction for color mapping when using Map to Color in the plotter Pen Table. 2. DCAL macros that extract polyline Z-base and Z-height information may return incorrect Z-base and Z-height values, even though this information is correct in the drawing database. Fixes in version 8.04.00 (Since version 8.00.00): 01. A correction for drawing octant arcs in text has been made. This anomaly could be observed when using the font ROMANS and adding the degrees symbol. The symbol would not draw correctly. This problem has been present since the support for octant arcs was added around version 4. DataCAD 8.00.00 New Feature Highlights 01. Multi-scale plotting has been expanded to include Update, MakeCurr, LyrTogl, and GoToView. Update updates the layer settings in the selected detail based on the current view in the Drawing Window. MakeCurr allows you to make any detail the current view in the Drawing Window. LyrTogl dynamically toggles layers on and off within a detail. GoToView takes you to the 3D GoToView menu where you can choose any view to save it as a detail. 02. Sheets (in the MltLyout menu) can now be renamed. 03. A Match function has been added to the color menus. Whenever you are prompted to select a color, you can choose Match and select any exiting entity to use that entity's color. 04. The DWG Translator has been enhanced to write associative dimensions and associative hatching without exploding either first. Associative dimensions are written as associative dimensions; associative hatching is written as a block. Fixes in version 8.00.00 (Since version 7.50.00): 01. The icon toolbar now resets itself properly when you choose NewDwg from the File I/O menu. 02. If Z-base and Z-height are equal, using clip cube results in the entity printing and displaying smoothly. 03. After manually placing an associative dimension, the text will correctly display when dimension is changed. 04. Icon toolbar operates correctly in a new drawing after scrolling through the icons and then using NewDwg. 05. [PgUp] and [PgDn] can be used to scroll through go-to-views. New features in version 7.50.00 (Since version 7.10.00): 01. Change/Undo - Undo the last change made to an entity, group, area, fence or Selection Set. 02. Layer/Match - Select layers by picking an entity on that drawing layer with your mouse. 03. Color/Adjust - Control the way any screen color is displayed by adjusting its RGB values. The color is dynamically updated on the screen as new values are entered. 04. Menu Scroll Forward/Back - Scroll forward and back through file listings in your menu with [PgUp] and [PgDn] on your keyboard. 05. Display/MltiView - Display a column of Multi-View Windows that show four saved views of your drawing, allowing you to quickly and easily switch between one view and another. The views can even be displayed as shaded images. You can turn the Multi-View Windows on and off through the Display/MltiView toggle or through the keyboard interrupt [Ctrl]+[w]. 06. DoorSwng & Windows - Enter a door or window by the rough opening (JambIn) or by the finished opening. 07. DoorSwng & Windows - Control the depth of jambs (MtchWall & JambDpth) such that they will either match the wall width or have a unique, independent value. 08. DoorSwng/DoorStyl - Two new door styles: pocket doors & overhead (garage) doors. 09. DoorSwng/Thicknss - Control the thickness of all doors, including bi-fold and sliding. 10. DoorSwng/Angle - Control the size of the opening for all door styles, with the exception of overhead doors. 11. DoorSwng/SwngStyl - Control the color of the door swing (MtchDoor & SwngColr) and how it is drawn (line, arc, or none). 12. LyrSrch status toggle - Easily change or check the LyrSrch status with the addition of the layer search toggle in the lower-left of your display next to the current display scale. 13. On-line Calculator - Automatically calculate equations any time you are prompted to enter a value. Fixes in version 7.50.00 (Since version 7.10.00): 01) Template/SaveSymb Crash - When you are saving a symbol, you are prompted to "Select reference point for symbol." If you go to the ObjSnap Menu using the [X] keyboard interrupt, then return to SaveSymb and enter the reference point, the program would generate a "Fatal Error 2101 Real Math Overflow". 02) WindowIn/Extents with ClipCube - When you perform a WindowIn/Extents and the ClipCube is on, the extents of the ClipCube displays to the extents of the drawing window. 03) Icon Toolbar malfunction - When selecting toolbar buttons after scrolling the toolbar to the right and using a keyboard interrupt, DataCAD would not perform the appropriate function for the next button selected. FEATURES ENABLED THROUGH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES: There are switches that, when set, affect the way DataCAD performs several different functions. Each can be set through the addition of a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Once the appropriate line has been added, each time you boot your computer the environment variable will be set and DataCAD will behave according to the following descriptions: 01. When the TxtScale toggle is on, text size can be set dynamically, according to its plotted size on the page based upon the current plot scale. With TxtScale on, you can use [PgUp] and [PgDn] to scale the text size while dragging the text cursor. You can disable dynamic plot scale in Text menu by means of the following environment variable: SET DC-TXTSCALE=n n may be set to TRUE or FALSE. Dimension text size is also set dynamically when the TxtScale toggle is on. Other dimension settings which are relative to the text size, such as arrow size, are also effected. This feature works in the same manner as the text size feature. 02. Mouse tracking speed may be adjusted by means of an environment variable. Setting this environment variable can compensate for the slow cursor experienced when you run DataCAD on a Windows 95 workstation. SET DC-MOUSE=n Where n is either 1,2,3 or 4 (1 is slowest, and 4 is fastest). For Windows 95 systems, a value of 4 is recommended. 03. For problems with DWG Translator, use the following environment variable: SET DCAD_ROOT=C:\DATACAD Substitute your DataCAD directory name when appropriate. 04. Architct/4LnWalls - You can set the drawing method for 4-line wall cutouts when using Windows, DoorSwng, and CutWall. When enabled through the following environment variable, the cutouts will be drawn with the ends of the inner and outer walls capped but with the cavity open. SET DC-CAVWALL=1 New features in version 7.10.00 (Since version 7.04.00): 01. The installation program now allows you to enter a destination pathname for DataCAD when performing an EXPRESS INSTALL. 02. LYRUTIL macro now has toggles to disable the saving of 3D GoToViews and/or Multi-scale plot details. 03. Crossing feature in Area and Fence selection is a toggle that you can enable after picking the first point of the selection box. When enabled, Crossing will select any entity that crosses the selection box, along with any entities fully within the box. This works in all editing commands with the exception of Stretch. 04. New EZ Tools(TM) macro that automatically generates elevation drawings of doors, windows, and cabinets with numerous styles and options. It also generates cabinet section drawings and exterior elevations with details of various roof styles. Documentation for this new feature is found in the on-line documentation for Add-On Packages. 05. New Palettes option in the Display menu allows you to load custom RGB and PAL files. Several sample RGB and PAL files have been included with DataCAD 7.10. They are installed in the \DATACAD\SUP directory. A sample drawing named 256CUBE.DC5 is installed in the \DATACAD\DWG\SAMPLES directory to illustrate the use of the 256 color palettes. 06. The display of arcs when using the ClipCube function has been improved. Clipped arcs are now displayed using the ArcFactor setting, rather than being displayed and plotted in a segmented fashion. 07. Dimension arrow color and weight are now separate settings from text arrow color and weight. Fixes in version 7.10.00 (Since 7.04.00): 01. Problems with erratic cursor after shelling out of DataCAD in Windows 95 environment have been fixed. 02. Problems with RoundUp in Dimension Rounding have been fixed. 03. For problems with DWG Translator, an environment variable has been added: SET DCAD_ROOT=C:\DATACAD Substitute your DataCAD pathname if appropriate. 04. A new version of the DWG translator is included that fixes several errors that occurred when writing and reading DWG files. 05. Fatal errors caused by stretching or moving slabs and polygons with voids after running the drawing through the LYRUTIL macro have been fixed. New features in version 7.04.00 (Since version 7.02.00): 01. LYRUTIL macro now has option for deletion of layer files. 02. AEC_MODL macro automatically creates voids in slabs for windows and doors. 03. Current drawing name is always displayed on screen in menu area. 04. Dimension text rounding option in DimStyl menu, rounds up, down, and performs bankers rounding. 05. Two new arrow styles in Text menu, Dot & Tick. 06. Text arrow and Dimension arrow share the same settings for arrowhead color and weight. 07. User defined line types are supported on 2D arcs, circles, beziers, b-splines, ellipses, and polylines. 08. Hither clip plane is displayed on cone of vision in SetPersp. 09. Ability to adjust mouse speed via environment variable: SET DC-MOUSE=n n may be set from 1 to 4, 1 is slowest, 4 is fastest. 10. Ability to disable dynamic plot scale (PageUp/PageDown) in Text menu via environment variable. SET DC-TXTSCALE=n n may be set to TRUE or FALSE. 11. 2 line and 3 line wall creation, by centers, no longer prompts for inside/outside of wall when highlight is off. 12. Pictograms are saved to current drawing directory. 13. FRAMEIT macro has been enhanced to allow adjustment of box headers. Fixes in version 7.04.00 (since version 7.02.00): 01. Layers containing polygons and/or slabs with voids will both save and load using LYRUTIL macro. 02. An error in automatic T-intersection cleanup (Clean toggle in Architct menu) that could cause database corruption has been corrected. 03. An error in the Remove function in DoorSwng, Window, CutWall that could cause database corruption has been corrected. 04. An error in the WeldWall function in Cleanup that could cause database corruption has been corrected. 05. Corrections have been made to both the VIEWMAST and LYRUTIL macros for the creation and saving of 3D GoToViews and Multi-layout Details. 06. 2D Polygons, created with RectAngl off, will be recognized as wall lines. New features in version 7.02.00 (Since version 7.01.00): 01. WallStyl function in the Architect menu allows saving, loading, and displaying of multi-line wall settings. 02. LIN2WALL macro to convert between the various multi-line wall types. 03. Dynamic toggles in 2D and 3D now operate independently. 04. MultiScale plotting now supports 256 sheets per drawing. 05. Line spacing has been added to the settings for 3 and 4 line walls. Fixes in version 7.02.00 (Since version 7.01.00): 01. The DCAD_AEC macro had uninitialized font names in the column grid and the room label features. This could cause a Fatal Error 2000 Stack Overflow when performing an L-intersection cleanup of two walls. 02. The Remove function in DoorSwng / Windows / CutWall, and the WeldWall function were leaving a ghost entity behind. Selecting one of these entities could cause Internal Diagnostic Fault 3. 03. DataCAD 7 was not properly initializing all wall settings in some drawings created in previous versions of DataCAD. This was causing Fatal Error 2136 when entering walls. 04. If a template was on when going into WallStyl / ShowVals, upon exiting the text screen the template was not displayed and the drawing area was distorted. Fixes in version 7.01.00 (Since version 7.00.00): 01. A bug in the Plotter / Print / SetSheet menu has been corrected. 02. A fatal error would occur when drawing walls and the following steps were taken: a. Enter first point of wall line. b. Release rubber-band line (right mouse button). c. Fatal error 03. Parallel lines drawn outside of the Walls function now behave as they did in prior versions. 04. SYMEXP macro no longer generates a fatal error. 05. Identify / SetAll now works properly for Associative Dimensions. 06. QwkLyout now functions as it did in prior versions with the return of Layout %, LyoutDiv and Extents to that function. 07. A bug with Mirrored Associative Dimensions has been corrected. 08. A bug in Template / SaveSym / AutoPath whereby a backslash was being omitted has been corrected. 09. The <Ctrl><F11> function key now toggles the Toolbar on & off. 10. A problem with the ClipIt undo buffer and LyrUtil macro has been corrected. 11. "Internal Stack Overflow -- Buffer Cleared" when attempting to enter the Dimension / Linear / Change / TextStyl / FontName menu has been corrected. UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES: 01. Text size can now be set dynamically when the TxtScale toggle is on. When TxtScale is turned on, text size is set according to its plotted size on the page based upon the current plot scale. With TxtScale on, you can use the [PgUp] and [PgDn] keys to scale the text size while dragging the text cursor. 02. Dimension text size can also be set dynamically when the TxtScale toggle is on. Other dimension settings which are relative to the text size, such as arrow size, are also affected. This feature works similarly to the text size feature. 03. Mouse speed may be adjusted by means of an environment variable. This is accomplished by adding the following statement to either your AUTOEXEC.BAT or RUNDCAD.BAT files: SET DC-MOUSE=N Where N is either 1,2,3 or 4 (1 being normal mouse operation and 4being 4 times as fast). DataCAD 7.00.00 New Feature Highlights: 01. Multi-scale plotting 02. Multi-line walls 03. DWG read and write 04. PrintAPlot Pro 05. File locking 06. Layer locking 07. Full screen capture via [Ctrl] [F10] 08. CSI formatted Template directories 09. Read-only symbol support 10. Estimator Link utility (Estimator sold separately) 11. Custom sized icons 12. New tutorial 13. 3D roof framing 14. Support for 50 line types 15. Template file binding to icons 16. Updated program defaults 17. Icons per Toolbar increased to 50 18. Enhanced Dimension menu to support TextScale and [PgUp], [PgDn] 19. Text menu enhanced to support [PgUp], [PgDn] scaling 20. Display of current path in "Search" menus New features and fixes in version 6.00.00 (Since version 5.02.00): 01. Icon Toolbar added. 02. RenderStar 2 eXtension-24 added. 03. Velocity removed. 04. FrameIt macro added. 05. Function FreeTrim added. 06. Layer Filter added. 07. Scaletype Metric corrected. 08. Additional corrections to DXF interpreter for 2D/3D line data. 09. User defined lines no longer have a "tail". 10. LyrUtil macro enhanced to save and retrieve 3D views. 11. Path names in template files corrected. 12. Error in ClipCube corrected. 13. Bug in the SetAll function of Identify when used on Hatching is corrected. 14. When entering coordinate data in Bearing Mode, the program would display a "Syntax Error" message although the data would be entered correctly. 15. Cones and Truncated Cones created with 36 divisions would not Hide, Shade or Explode (to polygons) correctly. The last facet would not be processed. 16. Dimensioning by Entity with associative off would not prompt for the distance before adding the dimension. 17. When configured for the DGIS graphics driver, DataCAD's display would not be legible if the CONFIG program had not been run first. 18. Writing a DXF file after an HLR had been performed would cause DataCAD to crash under certain circumstances. 19. All lines in a DXF file created by AutoCAD R12 would be interpreted by DataCAD as 3D-Lines. This has been changed so that lines that are parallel to the XY plane and have an extrusion distance associated with them are read into DataCAD as 2D-Lines. 20. Hatching multiple boundaries would cause the program to crash if the Hatch menu were not exited and re-entered (or the Clear button selected) between boundary specifications. 21. Hatching several times without leaving the Hatch menu would cause all hatching created in that session to be grouped together. 22. Identify would always report entities as having positive Z extents information. 23. When in the Layers/On Off menu, the Tab key would not advance the Active layer. 24. Measures/Takeoffs would flash the result on screen too quickly for anyone but Superman to read. 25. Various problems associated with AutoPath when saving symbols. 26. Reading in scale files would cause erroneous results. 27. Entering text with an aspect ratio of 0 would cause the software to bomb. 28. The Encapsulated Postscript plotter driver has been completely re-written. 29. The HPGL-2 plotter driver has been corrected for rotated plots. 30. Support for the Summagraphics MM series and Kurta III digitizers has been added. 31. The ability to add temporary reference marks has been added to the DoorSwng, Window and CutWall functions. 32. In all menus displaying file names, the first file name displayed would not always be the first alphabetically. 33. When identifying hatch entities, the Identify function would not update the current hatch settings correctly. 34. Navigation controls (panning, scrolling, zooming, etc.) were not being trapped properly while in Plotter/Layout. 35. Slabs/Polygons with voids were not being redrawn properly after they were stretched, a Regen would have to be performed. 36. A rather obscure bug in the Remove function of DoorSwng, Window and CutWall that would erase all the entities previously acted upon within the ClipIt macro. 37. Many corrections to the DCAL run-time system to correct bugs associated with PrintStr, InputAt and LblMsg. These corrections do not affect the compiler. 38. Several changes to improve cursor speed and response time. 39. Certain text fonts (those with arcs in their definition) would display incorrectly when viewed in anything but an ortho (plan) projection. 40. The navigation pad now works correctly when in the RoofIt macro. 41. The Forms function in the AEC_Modl and 3DStairs macros now works correctly. New Features in version 5.02.00 (Since version 4.06.00): Graphical User Interface
Improved DXF Translator
New Hidden Line Removal Options
Quick Shader
POF (Pixel Out File) Bitmap Output
Printing and Plotting
DOS Shell
Drawing Files
Associative Hatching
Drawing Functions
Display
Keyboard Shortcuts
Documentation
Included Add-Ons
Fixes in version 4.06.00 (Since version 4.00.00): 01. Several problems associated with the angle type Bearings have been corrected. 02. The text font ROMANS.CHR has been fixed. 03. There was a configuration problem associated with plotting if configured for a bus type mouse. 04. Copy/Rectangular Array/Angular had unpredictable results. 05. The CONFIGuration program was not saving the plotter baud rate 19,200. 06. The copy command would get stuck in an infinite loop under certain cases if LyrSrch was on. 07. When configured for a display list (software, not hardware), the status indicator (Display/Displist/Status) would occasionally show negative values. 08. The "Not ready error on drive XX" would not always display the correct drive letter. 09. Using keyboard input for non-associative stringline dimensions would give incorrect results. 10. The third point in Slabs/Inclined/4EdgTrap was being entered relative to the first point entered rather than the current reference point. 11. Occasionally, drawings created in DataCAD v3.6 would generate a "Fatal Error 2136" when loaded into v4.00. 12. Occasionally, drawings created in DataCAD v3.6 would generate a "Fatal Error 2100" when loaded into v4.00 and Enlarge/NewCenter/Invert was selected. 13. Appending to the active selection set did not work in Geometry/Offset. 14. Changing the grid angle would not work under some conditions. 15. Reading a DataCAD generated DXF file into another CAD system would generate an "Undefined Block" error message if the drawing contained associative dimension nested inside a symbol. 16. Dynamic rotation gave opposite results if using angle type Bearings. 17. If a drawing created in DataCAD v3.6 were set to angle type Bearings and loaded into v4.00, the North direction was incorrect. 18. LyrSrch was not functioning properly in Cleanup/WeldWall. 19. The center points of 2D curves and control points of associative dimensions would plot if turned on in the Display menu. 20. Linear dimensions did not add tic marks if a leader was added. 21. Area calculations of areas bounded by arc segments of very large radius gave only approximate results. 22. 1LnTrim has been changed to feature an Undo option instead of the previous Yes/No query. Features in version 4.00.00 (Since version 3.6e): 01. The option PrevCntr (previous center) has been add to the Enlarge and Rotate functions. 02. The function Match has been added to the 2D change menu. This allows changing to match a selected entity's attributes. 03. Change/Text/Contents has been enhanced to allow editing a line of text up to 132 characters in length by means of scrolling the command line. 04. The toggle TextScal has been added to the Settings and Text menus. This controls the scaling of text. If off, text is scaled in absolute world coordinates just as it has been since version 3.0. If on, text is scaled relative to the current plotting scale as selected in the plot menu. Those of you who have been using DataCAD since the days of version 2.0, will remember this as the way it was way back then. 05. TxtStyls has been added to the Text menu. This function allows the saving, loading and viewing of a "Rack" of text settings such as: a) Size b) Angle c) Weight d) Aspect ratio e) Line feed factor f) Font name g) Text scaling (either absolute world coordinates or relative to the current plotting scale) 06. The inputting of text has been enhanced by the addition of the toggle Dynamic in the text menu. When turned on, text can be entered just as before. When off, the text string is displayed on the command line before it is entered into the drawing. 07. Then menu File I/O has been added to the text menu. 08. TextFile has been renamed to FromFile and moved to the File I/O menu off the main Text menu. 09. To File has been added to the Text/File I/O menu. This allows selecting text entities from within a drawing file to export into a specified text file. 10. Template/Re-Load/All has been added to allow easier re-loading of all the symbols in a drawing file. 11. Hatch/Boundary has been added. This function allows hatching to any arbitrary polyline defined dynamically from within the Hatch menu. 12. The new toggle DimmPts has been added to the Display menu. This controls the displaying of an associative dimension's control points. 13. A Color option has been added to TextStyl and ArroStyl in the dimensioning menus. This allows assigning separate colors for these portions of a dimension. 14. The toggles Limits and Tolrance have been added to the DimStyle menu in DataCAD's dimensioning system. These allow the definition and addition of limits or tolerances to any of DataCAD's dimension types. These options also appear in the Dimension/Linear/Change menu to allow adding them to associative dimensions that already exist in a drawing. 15. 2 new angle styles have been added. Dec Deg (decimal degrees) and Grads (gradians) can be found in the Settings/AngleTyp menu. 16. The new keyboard interrupt "F" (shift f) has been added. This forces DataCAD to save the current drawing file just as SaveFile in the File I/O menu. 17. "Undo" has been added to the 2D Stretch menu. 18. The new toggle "Clkwise" has been added to the AngleTyp menu. Also, "StrtAngl" has been added to allow the user to enter a vector defining the angle "Zero" for the coordinate system currently in use. 19. "FreeHand" has been re-written to allow selection of the type of entities to be added, 2d-lines, 3d-lines or a polyline. 20. The function Division, in the Geometry menu, has been enhanced to allow division of arcs and circles. Also, division specified by number of and distance between divisions is now possible. 21. A "Critical Error Handler" has been written into DataCAD to deal with problems such as "Drive not ready" errors. 22. Undo Erase has been re-written so that the undone entities return to their original layers, not just the currently active layer. 23. WeldWall has been added to the Cleanup menu. 24. The function Remove has been added to the Doorswng, Windows and Cut Wall menus. This function allows removing a previously inserted door, window or wall cut and re-constructing the wall in which they were placed. 25. The option Angular has been added to the rectangular array menu. This allows creating a rectangular array at a user specified angle. 26. The toggle Array has been added to the copy menu. This allows creating a single dimensional array. 27. The toggle CrvCtrs has been added to the Display menu. This controls the displaying of center points for 2D curves. 28. The LyrSrch toggle has been added to the Angular, Radius and Diameter dimensioning menus. 29. Bezier and B-Spline curves may now be defined dynamically. 30. The option Select has been added to the Area/Perimeter menu. This allows easier measuring of a previously defined polyline. 31. The ability to Pan, Scroll, Scale and Refresh while entering text has been added. 32. Plotting has been changed to allow sending a plot to a file while a background plot is active. 33. The function key position of Yes and No may now be changed by specifying their numerical position on lines 1776 and 1777 of the file DCAD.MSG. 34. The new option Dynamic now appears in the Rotate menu. 35. Added support for 19.2k baud serial communications. 36. Added support for plotter output to LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3. 37. The new menu Configure has been added to the Plotter menu. This allows changing the plotter port parameters Port number, Baud rate, Parity and Data word size from within DataCAD. 38. The function New Path has been enhanced to display available sub-directories. 39. The Layout function, in the Plotter menu, may now be set to layout the extents of a drawing only, or the entire drawing in detail as before. Also, the new menu LyoutSet has been added to the plotter menu. Lyout Sz, LyoutDiv and Extents are found in this new menu. 40. The new toggle LayrOrdr has been added to the Display menu. This switch controls the order in which layers are redrawn. 41. The function SysPaths has been added to the directory menu. This displays the current DataCAD system path settings. 42. Template/Reports has been change to handle multiple pages of information correctly by means of scroll forward/backward options. 43. Geometry/Offset now operates on ellipses. 44. Several changes have been made to DXF transfer: a. All 15 of DataCAD's colors are written and read-in correctly. b. Text aspect ratio is now compensated to more closely approximate their scheme at the time of transfer. c. Text slant is now supported in both directions. d. An interactive write mode is now offered to allow specifying the line spacing to use for Dashed, Dotted and Dot-Dash line styles. e. Associative dimensions are now transferred in both directions without the need to explode them into lines and text. 45. A separate Enlargement menu has been added to the Enlarge menu. 46. Maximum drawing file size has been increased from 4Mb to 8Mb. 47. The version number of DataCAD may now be found in the directory menu. 48. An elapsed time counter has been added to the Plot function. 49. A 3D Cursor option now appears in the Measures/Pnt2Pnt function. 50. The Fence option has been added to 2D stretch. 51. DataCAD may now be run with a software display list. This increases the speed of redraws, pans, zooms and picking significantly. This option is selected in the all new CONFIG program. 52. Measures/TakeOffs has been enhanced to give vertical area. 53. Measures/Area/Perimeter has been enhanced to allow specifying the ScaleType to use for the output of the calculation. 54. The number of supported display devices has been increased from 30 to over 80. Fixes in version 4.00.00 (Since version 3.6e): 01. There was a bug associated with the LyrSearch option in DoorSwng, Windows and Cutout in the Achitect menu. If this were set to a layer that was later deleted, it may have caused a fatal error upon re-entry into the LyrSearch menu. 02. NewDwg in the FileI/O menu caused an error on certain machines, This problem has been corrected. 03. The Acres option in the Area/Perimeter measures menu gave incorrect results. 04. Turning on AndCopy in the 3D Mirror function and selecting by area would cause the program to seemingly hang. This loop could in fact be exited by pressing the End or Del key. 05. If a drawing created in 3.6 containing snap points were loaded, the snap points would not display. 06. A problem that only showed up when using an Nth Engine concerned the display list not being updated correctly when Doors and Windows were inserted with the CutWall option on. 07. Dimensioning Dots would occasionally be inserted in the wrong color. 08. 3DViews/SaveImage/ToLayerFile would sometimes give an erroneous message indicating the number of lines saved. If this layer file were then loaded into a new drawing, its layer name would become "INVALID". 09. The LayerSet toggle in the 2D GoToView menu did not function. 10. InclAngle/ExclAngle in the Measures menu would insert the wrong character, on the message line, for the degrees symbol. 11. The Add/Subtract Area/Perimeter toggles did not operate as would be expected. 12. There was a problem in the column grid portion of DCAD_AEC concerning certain numbering schemes. 13. Deleting a layer, that was part of a saved 3D view, would cause an error upon returning to that saved view. Fixes in version 3.6e (Manufactured after 03/10/89): 01. Correction to acres calculation in area/perimeter. 02. Dimensioning "dots" would occasionally plot in the improper color, This problem has been corrected. Fixes in version 3.6e (Manufactured after 11/01/88): 01. Correction to link between DataCAD and DataMERGE. 02. Area/Perimeter changed to use standard polyline interface. 03. Drawing of weighted 2d arcs, circles and ellipses changed to produce better continuity of thickness when plotted. 04. The drawing of windows with Cutout and InWall toggled off has been re-written to give results more similar to the insertion of windows with the aforementioned toggles turned on. 05. Three problems associated with DXF transfer have been corrected. The first deals with an extremely long text string. The second, arose from attempting to load a file containing symbols with an enlargement factor of zero. The third dealt with losing some info associated with associative dimensions. 06. The use of a default drawing under certain circumstances would cause the distance readout to lock at zero until the snap grid was toggled on and off. This problem has been corrected. Fixes in version 3.6e (Since version 3.6d): 01. Corrected erroneous distance string for vertical and horizontal dimensioning. Fixes in version 3.6d (Since version 3.6c): 01. Enhanced "Identify" to include "Set All" which has the effect of choosing all of the available selections once an entity has been identified. Also, "Identify" is now available via an interrupt key. "I" (shift i) will now invoke the "Identify" function from anywhere in the program. 02. A reported problem with drawing "Side" walls with the "Clean" option toggled on has been corrected. 03. The messages associated with the automatic save function have been moved from the error line to the distance readout line, as requested by many end users. 04. A reported problem of the placement of the text string of a vertical associative dimension when a leader has been added has been corrected. 05. The "LyrSrch" option has been added to "Cut Wall". This works just as the same option in "DoorSwng" and "Windows". It has also been changed to disallow searching a layer that is currently turned off. 06. Dimension/Angular has been enhanced to reset the previous arrow style upon exit. 07. A problem of not being able to add additional symbols to a drawing was reported by several users. This problem has been corrected. 08. A problem with the feature "DoFloat/SigDigits", found in the "ScaleType" menu, characterized by "garbage" in place of the normal distance readout, has been corrected. 09. An "Intersect" nearpoint-snap problem has been corrected. 10. Several reported problems in "DCAD_AEC" have been corrected. 11. An additional driver for the Calcomp 104x series plotters has been included. This driver has, in Beta testing, proven to cure plotter initialization problems that several sites had reported. Fixes in version 3.6c (Since version 3.6b): 01. Corrected drawing of "Dots" arrow style in dimensioning. 02. Added the ability to change the text location of associative dimensions in the Dimension/Linear/Change menu. 03. Several corrections made to DXF transfer. 04. A reported problem with plotting multi-weight text has been corrected. 05. The active selection set may now be toggled off by way of the keyboard interrupts Alt-1 thru Alt-8. 06. Walls that are joined, not at a corner, are now cleaned correctly. 07. LineAngl option added to the Measures menu. 08. Corrected NumSides in 2D Polygons menu. Fixes in version 3.6b (Since version 3.6a): 01. The new function "X Intsct" has been added to the Cleanup menu. This functions allows cross intersecting walls to be cleaned automatically. 02. Several bugs reported with the drawing of walls on the Nth Graphics Nth Engine display controller have been fixed. 03. An error in the plumbing section of the DataCAD AEC macro has been corrected. 04. Template/Enlarge is now a sub-menu. This allows the setting of just one of the enlargement directions or all at once. 05. Clearing of selection sets has sped up by a factor of 300%. This is most noticeable where temporary selection sets are used as an UNDO buffer, as in Move, Copy, Rotate, etc. 06. The additional toggle "RgnWarn" has been added to the DispList menu found under the Display menu when running the Nth Engine. This toggle controls whether DataCAD will issue warnings for screen manipulations that require a regeneration of the display list. 07. A bug reported with the OutHoriz toggle in linear dimensioning has been corrected. 08. The selection of certain 3D entities by area has been corrected. Changes in version 3.6a (Since version 3.5d): 1. Entity selection routines, (Entity, Group, Area), in the editing functions of DataCAD and DC-Modeler have been combined. This allows the use of "Fence" in DataCAD, and the use of "SelSets" in DC-Modeler. 2. The memory management of Templates has been completely re-written. By doing this, we have been able to dramatically decrease the loading time of templates into DataCAD. Also, this has the effect of not increasing drawing file size until a symbol is actually placed into the drawing. 3. DataCAD's hatching algorithms have been re-designed. This causes Hatch to work correctly if the pattern is rotated and/or if the hatch origin is re-located. 4. The new entity Polyline has been added. These can be created in the Curves menu. 5. EditSets menu has been further enhanced to allow switching between Add To and Del From without having to re-select the set that is being acted upon. 6. Line drawing speed for the cursor has been increased. This mainly effects our friends still using non-"AT Class" type computers. 7. Text/Textfile has been enhanced to allow specification of the file extension to search for. This allows this function to operate just like the rest of DataCAD, where a file name is being asked for. 8. The Layers menu has been completely re-engineered with the following additional functions: A. "All On" - This allows all layers to be turned on with one key press. B. "ActvOnly" - By selecting this function, all layers are turned off except the one selected, which becomes the active layer. C. "DelLayer" - This command completely removes a layer from the drawing database. D. "ViewLayr" - Allows selecting a layer, in the current drawing, and displaying only it on screen. This action is reversed when the screen is refreshed. E. "ViewFile" - This is similar to "ViewLayr", except that it displays a previously saved layer file. 9. Template/SaveSymb/AutoPth has been added. When this toggle is on, symbols are saved into a sub-directory whose name is associated with the parent template file. 10. Plotter drivers have been made external to the main program. This will have the net effect of increasing the number of plotters we support by allowing hardware manufacturers to write their own drivers for DataCAD. 11. Copy Dwg has been added back to the File I/O menu, due to popular demand. This command allows copying the current drawing, in it's current state, to another file and/or another disk drive. 12. Directry/SymFiles/PurgeSym has been added to allow purging unused symbols from your drawing without having to load a template file. 13. Plotting has been totally re-engineered. This should alleviate the problems previously associated with plotting. 14. The toggle DisSync has been added to the Settings menu. This new toggle, when on, causes DataCAD's distance readout to be synchronized with the current cursor rotation. 15. The toggle DynmRot has been added to the main Template menu. This toggle allows symbol rotation to be specified dynamically upon insertion. 16. Area/Perimeter calculations have been changed to allow adding or subtracting of perimeters and areas individually. 17. Move/Drag/MaxLines has been changed so that when set to 0, the extents box is always used. 18. Partial plotting may now be used if DataCAD is configured for only one COM port. 19. The toggle ShwAtrs has been added to the Display menu. This controlling the display of Visible Attributes that have been added thru a DCAL macro. 20. The variables in DXF Read/Write such as Scale, Auto/Intract are now remembered. 21. DataCAD is no longer forced back into an orthographic projection when exiting the Modeler. The current projection is preserved until an editing function requiring 2D input is selected. At that time, the view is automatically forced back to ortho. 22. New keyboard interrupts: a. " (double quote key) has been added. This allows specifying a symbol to insert even if there is no template currently active. b. Alt-9 restores the last Parallel projection. c. Alt-0 restores the last Orthographic projection. d. Uppercase (Shift) V goes to the 3D Viewer. 23. The user interface of Move/Drag has been re-designed to increase its utility. After selecting the entities to move, the user is prompted to enter the point to drag from. 24. 3dArc has been move from the Curves menu to the DCAD 3D/Entities menu. 25. The toggle SnglPen has been added to the Plotter menu. This allows more control over plotting by allowing the user to specify whether a single-pen or multi-pen plotter is being used. By specifying a single pen plotter when doing a color plot, the plotter is paused, and the user is prompted to install the appropriate pen when pen changes are encountered. 26. In Settings/ScaleTyp menu, the toggle "DoFloat" has been added. This toggle will show only if using one of the following scale types: a. Decimal b. InchDec c. Meters d. CentMtr e. MillMtr The purpose of this toggle is to allow setting the number of digits to display, to the right of the decimal point, for all of DataCAD's distance readouts. If the toggle is on, the distance readouts will operate just as they always have. If the toggle is turned off, the user is asked to enter the number of significant digits to display. This number must be in the range of 0 to 3. 27. The status line in Move, Copy and Stretch has been enhanced to show not only the distance being used, but the angle as well. 28. A line spacing enlargement factor has been added to Enlarge. This new feature allows the user to maintain the proper relationship of non-solid lines to the entity when the entity is enlarged. 29. Symbols may now be added to the drawing in either an orthographic or a parallel projection. This applies to both the Template menu, and keyboard entry of a symbol via the " keyboard interrupt. NOTE: Symbols may be exploded (NOT databased) ONLY in an orthographic projection. 30. In many of the 2D editing functions (move, copy, erase), entities may be SELECTED via Entity, Group, Area or Fence in any projection. Therefore, during the 2D Move command, once the two points defining the distance to move have been entered, the viewer may be called via the Shift-V keyboard interrupt, the drawing placed in a parallel, oblique, or perspective projection and the entities to move then selected. CHANGES AFFECTING DATACAD 3D ONLY 1. In Version 3.5, there is a difference in snapping between the 3D editing functions and the 2D editing functions. In Version 3.6, a difference still exists, but is instead between orthographic projections and all other projections. The result of this is that when editing in the 3D portions of the program, in an orthographic projection, all of the object snapping options apply such as intersect, n-points, etc. 2. The main 3D Views menu has been re-engineered and simplified. No longer are there four separate menus for the four separate types of projections. If you select a viewing function which requires a projection other than the current projection type, the screen will be refreshed automatically in the correct projection type for the selected function. 3. The new entity type Surface of Revolution has been added. This is entered in the Modeler 3D Entity/Rev Surf menu, by specifying a profile (Polyline) and an axis of revolution. 4. The result of Hidden Line Removal/SaveImag and 3D Views/SaveImag may now be directed to a layer file. 5. 3D GoToView now has the ability to turn layers on and off with saved views as in the 2D GoToView menu. 6. 3D Views/Perspective now allows the specification of a fixed cone of vision OR a "Camera Lens" focal length. 7. Hidden line removal now has a toggle *CropImg. If the *CropImg toggle is turned on and the image is being saved, then the resulting image is clipped to the limits of the screen. In this way, images which may be excessively large (particularly perspective) may be cropped to the shape of the screen prior to being saved to a layer or layer file. 8. Hidden line removal of interior perspective images has been enhanced to more correctly calculate these images. An additional step is now performed during pass 1 of hidden line removal to recalculate the vertices of polygons which pass through the hither clipping plane. 9. The function AddView has been added to many viewer menus as a convenience so that views may be saved without having to access the 3D GoTo View menu first. 10. DCAL macros now have nearly complete access to all of the three- dimensional functions, entities, and menus. DCAL programmers may now create macro programs which do operations similar to the DC-Modeler functions. 11. Included with the DC-Modeler is a macro named VIEWMAST. This macro contains the following viewing functions: a) An alternative user interface to the 3D saved view data manager. b) Addition view definition functions which augment the standard 3D Views function in DataCAD. c) AutoView - allows automatic cycling through a selected series of saved views. The cycle time and continuous toggles may be controlled. d) AutoHide - allows batch hidden-line-removal processing of saved views. Resulting images may be directed to the screen, separate layers or layer files. e) Slides - allows management of saved layer files (typically saved images) and the viewing of these images similar to the AutoView function. Slide shows may be saved to files, reloaded, played back, and edited. f) Fly Thru - allows the creation of a series of perspective views by defining a sequence of steps and then playing back the sequence. Fly thru views may then be added to the database for HLR batch processing via the AutoHide function. 12. The all important 3D Pause function has been enhanced. Changes in version 3.5d (Since version 3.5c): 01. Template/Enlarge corrected. 02. Corrected problem when: a. FastSym in ObjSnap was turned off. AND b. Drawing contained symbols that contained 2D arcs or circles. AND c. Nearpoint snapping was used. This sequence would have caused the aforementioned symbols to be undrawn, although no drawing data would be lost. 03. Reading DXF files that contain Polylines may have lost some "Z" information. This problem has been corrected. 04. Volume calculations, when using metric scales, have been corrected. 05. When entering text, with either center or right justification, has been changed. The first line of text is now justified to the insertion point. 06. Text line feeds now no longer use text slant. This means when entering multiple lines of text, it is no longer necessary to re-justify the text after entering it. CHANGES AFFECTING DATACAD 3D ONLY 1. Ortho ClipCubes are now correctly turned off when exiting DC-Modeler. Changes in version 3.5c (Since version 3.5b): 01. AddTo/DelFrom in EditSets now allows more creative and specific building of the user defined Selection Sets by the addition of the Mask function. This new function allows selection of entities not only by Entity/Shape/Area, but additionally by Entity-type, Color, Line type and Line weight. 02. The ability to abort plotting to a file has been added. This works just as it does in a normal plot. That is, by pressing the End or Del keys. 03. Mirroring of partially erased ellipses now works properly. 04. Speed of executing keyboard "Interrupts" increased. 05. The drawing of weighted text is now handled correctly. 06. Dimension/Linear/Explode now works properly with LyrSrch turned on. 07. Many plotting problems were reported in previous versions of DataCAD 3.5, these have been corrected. Most of these problems related to the plotting of Text and Symbols. 08. A line spacing enlargement factor has been added to Template/Enlarge. This new feature allows the user to maintain the proper relationship of non-solid lines to the symbol when the symbol is entered into the drawing with an enlargement factor other than 1. 09. Refresh speed of symbols that have not been rotated about the "X" or "Y" axis has been increased by up to 250 percent. 10. Saving symbols into template files has been corrected so as not to change "Z" information. 11. The ObjSnap menu has been enhanced to include: a) Fast3D - This toggle operates identically to the *QckSrch toggle in the 3D settings menu. If the toggle on, any circular 3D entity (3D arc, cylinder, cone, truncated cone, dome, torus) or contour curve may be selected ONLY by pointing to a center axis marker or control point. This speeds up the searching process significantly when there are many of these 3D entities in your drawing. BE CAREFUL: if the *Fast3D toggle is turned on, only the center axis markers or control points need be enclosed within the box when selecting entities by AREA. For example, in the case of a 3D arc, and if the *Fast3D toggle is turned on, the entire arc might lie outside of the box, but if the center marker is within the box, the arc WILL be selected. b) FastSym - This toggle, when on, allows snapping to the insertion point of a symbol only. This speeds up snapping in drawings that contain symbols dramatically. A number of changes have been made to speed up snapping to 3D entities, particularly while operating in the 2D menus. Snapping to a 3D entity in any 2D menu as well as any 3D menu is sensitive to the *QckSnap toggle found on the 3D Settings menu. Previously, this toggle affected only snapping while in a 3D menu. It now affects snapping to a 3D entity in ANY menu. In addition, if the *QckSnap toggle is turned on, previously you could only snap to the center axis markers of any 3D circular entity. Now you can snap to the end point of a curve, or the corners of a surface in addition to the center axis marker. In this way, it should be possible to leave the *QckSnap toggle on more frequently, since only in certain cases is it ordinarily desired to snap to the intermediate line segments of a circular entity. The time savings of having the *QckSnap toggle are significant. 12. At the main DataCAD screen, when the user is prompted for the drawing file name, a new option has been added. The "Default" option allows changing the name of the default drawing to use. 13. When the current angle style is set to either "Bearings" or "Compass", rotation angles entered in the 2D and 3D "Rotate" function are operated on in a clockwise direction. CHANGES AFFECTING DATACAD 3D ONLY 01. SLABS - The refresh of slabs which have their reference face parallel to the xy-plane while in an orthographic projection has been speeded up significantly. 02. CONTOUR CURVES - You may now enter contour curves by using the 3D cursor and 3D snapping mode. This allows creating three-dimensional meshes of contour curves much more easily. Remember, the contour curve is parameterized in three-dimensions, and can define a curve which "winds" through space. The control points need not be coplanar. 03. SETTINGS - You may now draw lines (walls and enter symbols) while in the 3D Settings menu and in an orthographic projection. 04. HIDDEN LINE REMOVAL - You may now select between hiding all layers which are on, only the active layer, or only the active selection set when using the HLR system. In this way, you need not turn layers on and off so frequently during the creation of a model which requires frequent checking with the HLR system. 05. POLYGON/SLAB PARTIAL - Polygon or Slab menu, Partial submenu, AddVertx or MovVertx submenus: In some of these menus, the keyboard interrupts were not accessible. This problem has been corrected. Keyboard interrupts are now accessible from all menus from within the Partial submenu. 06. GLOBE - Globe submenu: In DataCAD systems without the DC Modeler, an unrecoverable error would occur if you attempted to redefine the globe icon. This problem has been corrected. 07. PERSPECTIVE - Perspective menu, SetPersp submenu: If you had previously set up a perspective projection via the globe or WalkThru menu, then selected SetPersp and then Exit, your previous perspective view was not always restored correctly. This has been corrected. There is usually a distinct difference between selecting Exit or Reset is you have used the globe or the WalkThru menu since defining the last perspective view. 08. CONTOUR CURVES - When entering a contour curve in many parallel projections, stray square markers would appear on the screen. The curve would be entered correctly, but a refresh would be required to clean up the spurious markers. This problem has been corrected. 09. SAVING IMAGES - SavImag menu: After hidden line removal with the *SavImag toggle on, saving to the active layer, then saving to the active layer a second time would produce a Fatal Error 11. This problem has been corrected. 10. CLIPPING CUBES - A variety of problems associated with the definition and manipulation of clipping cubes have been reported. All of these have been corrected. Please note that EACH projection type has its own individual clipping cube associated with it. 11. ENTERING LINES - The message prompt in the main 3D Edit and 3DEntity menus when in Ortho mode read "... or enter 3D line." This was incorrect. You may enter 2D lines when in Ortho mode while in either of these two menus, not 3D lines. To enter 3D lines, select the 3D Line menu from the 3DEntity main menu. The messages have been corrected. Changes in version 3.6b (Since version 3.6a): 01. Built-in drawing file conversion disabled and replaced by the program "CONVERT.EXE" 02. The help macro (Alt H) corrected. Changes in version 3.5a (Since version 3.1b): 01. DataCAD now uses the virtual memory manager to allow up to 4Mb DCAD macros. 02. Menus re-organized more logically (hopefully). 03. Line/Shape/Area changed to Entity/Group/Area. 04. LyrSrch, ability to edit across layers, added. 05. Support for multiple text fonts added. 06. Expanded support for macros. 07. AndCopy added to Move, Rotate, Mirror and Enlarge. 08. Undo added to Move, Copy, Rotate, Mirror and Enlarge. 09. PrevDist added to Move, Copy and Stretch. 10. Unlink added to LinkEnts. 11. 8 user definable Selection Sets for use with editing functions. 12. Goodies renamed to Architct. 13. DataCAD symbols can now be nested five (5) levels deep. 14. Text aspect ratio now changes width, not height. 15. Identify enhanced to include: a. Entity type. b. Selection set membership. c. Font name. d. "Z Min/Z Max" for 3D entities. e. "Voids" identification. 16. LyrRfsh added to Layers menu to suppress layer redraw when turning layers on and off. 17. SaveLayr now allows saving any layer, not just the active layer. 18. Layer On/Off allows the active layer to be turned off. 19. Area/Per enhanced to calculate areas with curves. Also, the ability to add and subtract areas. Plus, display the Centroid of a specified area. 20. Dimensioning allows freer placement of text string. 21. ArcFactr added in Display to control precision of curves. 22. ShowIns added to Display to control drawing of symbol insertion points. 23. LyrSnap replaces LyrSrch in ObjSnap. Allows separate control of layer searching in editing and snapping functions. 24. Much greater compatibility with THEM in "DXF" file reading and writing. 25. Directory enhanced to include: a. Current drawing file name. b. Current drawing file size. c. Free disk space for drawing and virtual files. 26. Backgrnd plotting enhanced: a. FromFile allows selecting a previously created plot file to plot from. b. Auto works just as Backgrnd did in version 3.1. c. MultiPlt allows queuing up to 25 plot files to be plotted in sequence. 27. 3D Views accessible from the Plot menu. 28. Geometry menu added. 29. Offset function added to Geometry menu. 30. Support for multi-weight, non-solid straight lines added. 31. A "Hi_Lite" line type is now used throughout the program to identify entities that will be operated upon. 32. Partial erase of ellipses is now allowed. 33. Change/Text/Content corrected to work on multiple lines of text. 34. "Is this correct" added to 1LnTrim to help keep from trimming an entire drawing. 35. Message for distance to Move, Copy and Stretch added. 36. Multicolor instanced symbols now plot in their correct colors. 37. Square Feet/Acres toggle added to Area/Per. 38. Hatch moved to the Utility menu. 39. LinkLine renamed to LinkEnts and moved to the Edit menu. 40. Un-Link added to LinkEnts. 41. Divide, Intrsect and Tangents moved to the Geometry menu. 42. Quit now only available from the Utility menu. 43. DoorSwng and Windows menus re-arranged to group all on/off toggles together. 44. EditSets added to allow configuration of user definable "Selection Sets". 45. Move, Copy and Stretch now use a rubber band arrow when defining the distance to use. 46. WindowIn removed from the Edit menu. 47. LyrSwch in GoToView renamed to LayrSet. 48. Grids menu re-organized to put the most often used functions in the root menu. 49. Templates completely re-written. 50. Template/Forms renamed to Reports. 51. Template/Reports form files re-designed to use a more logical definition format. 52. Settings menu re-arranged to separate toggles from those functions that require input. 53. Settings/SrchHch move to Obj Snap menu. 54. FixdRef moved from Utility menu to the Settings menu. 55. Settings/EditStuf renamed to EditDefs. 56. Dmension/Linear/TextStyl/Auto toggle added to allow manual placement of text string. 57. Dimensioning may now have a separate font style. 58. Linear dimensioning now features dynamic placement of dimension line. 59. Macros moved to the Edit menu. 60. Plotter/PaperSiz displays the maximum effective plotting area for the sheet size selected. 61. Copy Dwg in File I/O renamed to Copy and now allows copying of any of the file types listed in File I/O. 62. The user is now alerted to the presence of an Autosave file for the selected drawing when entering DataCAD. At that point, the option is given to ignore the warning, or to rename the autosave file to a ".DC3" (drawing) file. 63. Nearpoint snap now works with Move/Drag as it does in the rest of the program. Changes in version 2.0d (Since version 2.0a): Added features: 01. The Calcomp 104x plotter driver is finished. To connect the Calcomp to your computer, use the cable that comes with the plotter to the DTE connector on the back of the plotter. The DIP switches on the back of the plotter should all be open (0), except number five which is closed (1). The setup parameters as the plotter comes out of the box are correct, so no keyboard setup needs to be done. For reference, the parameters are: Parity 0 Bits/char 8 Stop bit 1 Clock 0 int Interface 0 serial Baud 9600 Mode 0 PCI Term muting No Checksum Yes Isochronous No End of Msg 03 Direct Cntrl No Xon/Xoff No Sync Codes 1 Sync Code Value 02 02. Partial delete of arcs and circles is now supported. 03. Using the 'Change' function on the utility menu, you can now change the attributes (line type, line weight, color, spacing, z base and z height) of a line, shape, or area. Selecting an object (or series of objects) causes them to take on the current set of attributes. 04. The nearpoint feature now snaps to the center of arcs and circles. 05. Holding down shift and pressing the tab key now moves backward through the layers that are turned on. 06. 'q' moves forward through line types, 'Q' now moves backward through line types. 07. 'k' moves forward through colors, 'K' moves backward through colors. 08. 'x' or 'X' toggles the snap grid on and off. 09. The relative size of the paper in the plotter layout function can now be adjusted. The default is 20% of the screen size. It can be adjusted upward to make the layout larger on the screen to make more accurate layouts. In addition, line weights are no longer shown when in layout. All lines are shown with a weight of one while in layout. 10. The toggle 'Show Wgt' on the settings menu has been added to determine if line weights are shown. If it is off, lines that have weights will show only as single lines. 11. Text files can now be loaded onto the drawing, much like forms are placed in the drawing. The function 'TextFile' is on the text menu. Specify the file name to be loaded and then its location on the drawing. This allows you to load specs, schedules, etc. 12. Open arrows, closed arrows, and bridge arrows (with arcs on the end) have been added in arrows in the text menu. In addition, open and closed arrows now support varying aspect ratios. 13. The 'UserLins' toggle now appears in the line type menu as well as the settings menu. 14. Typing 'set dc-backup=off' at the MS-DOS level will turn the automatic file backup feature off. Therefore, '.bak' files will not be created. This speeds up the program when starting a drawing, but is more dangerous. Use this feature at your discretion. Typing 'set dc-backup=' at the MS-DOS level will turn this feature back on. 15. For those of you using the 19" (1024x1024) Artist version, there is now a choice between a large and small menu. The large menu is more readable but results in fewer pixels being available for the drawing. Other changes: 01. Scale up and scale down have been removed from the utility menu to make room for the change feature. They may still be used from the keyboard ('U' and 'D') or from the screen icons. 02. Setting a pen speed of zero in the plotter menu will cause DataCAD2 to NOT send any plotter speed information to the plotter. The default pen speed for the plotter will be used instead. This is especially useful with plotters that determine the pen speed by themselves (i.e. HP plotters). 03. The file 'volumes.txt' is no longer shipped with DataCAD2. Instead, path names of files can be set in DataCAD2 or in the configuration program. The default is to look in the current directory for all files. Note to users of versions prior to 2.0a: Versions 2.0a and above use a different drawing file format than earlier versions. You must convert your old files ('.drw') to the new format ('.cad') using the program CONVERT.EXE, which is supplied on diskette one. You must run this program for every old drawing file you wish to use with version 2.0. EOF |