I am currently using DataCAD on a daily basis and have discovered several things that seem to eat up a lot of time. Here they are, and I hope an effort is made to include these features in DataCAD12.
PDFs - It would be very helpful if you could batch process a plot in to a single PDF file with MULTIPLE PAGES. For example if you batch plot an (1)Elevation, (2)Floor Plan, (3)Section, & (4)Details, you could create a single PDF with the 4 pages those in the order of the "Go-To-Views" (1,2,3 & 4). It would also be nice to have alternate file types supported for plotting to files (JPEG, GIF, etc.).
Snaps - I would LOVE TO HAVE AutoCAD SNAPS!! Eliminate the middle click (N), or make it a preference setting, and use AutoCAD sytle snaps. Where a yellow box appears when you are on the Endpoint, a triangle appears on a Midpoint, etc. This makes for much faster drawing!!
Mirroring Entities - I would like the mirror function to be de-bugged so that the text is alligned as it was prior to mirroring it. It is so time consuming to move all the little text around, flipping symbols so the are alligned correctly, re-centering text, etc. This whole idea brings me to my next wish, which I would think is a bit more challenging to program
XREFS - I would LOVE to be able to XREF a mirror of a set of plans. It is sometimes required of building departments for us to submit a whole new set of plans, even if it is just a flip, flop, reverse, or whatever you may call it. Because of the many steps in the submittal process, I find that we are still making changes (owner, plan check, general corrections, etc.) to the plans, and are doing so after having reversed them which means we have to go and make changes to both the original set of plans and the additional reveresed set of plans. If it was possible to XREF a mirror of the plans, it would make the corrections to both the original as well as the reverse. THIS WOULD HELP OUT IMMENSLY!!
Layers - A more structured, heirarchal layering system as mentioned previously in this forum. For example you would have a windows style of structure, main folder, sub-folders, more sub-folders, and then specific files. This could be used to have a main group of "1st Floor plan" containing the sub-layers "walls, windows/doors, room labels, text, etc". and so on for all the various sheets of the drawing.
Arrows - The moving of arrows, can we make it so that the arrow head moves with the leader?
Dimensions - Using the "Tick" marks for the dimensions, if you mirror the dimension, it sometimes reverses the tick mark too, this is annoying because you have to go back and mirror along the line to get the ticks to go all in the same direction. It would be nice to make these entities to be "smarter".
Memory ("group","entity", etc.) - It would be nice if the program could remember if you were altering entities, groups, areas, etc. and apply that to all the commands rather than making it command dependent. For example if you move a group a text (lets say 3 lines) and you choose "group" in the move command, and the you go and want to change the text of that whole group, that the program would remember that the last thing you altered was a "group". Because as it is set up now, you could move a "group", and then change the context of one "entity" of text, this is slightly annoying. It could be possible to make this a preference, and opposed to completely changing it.
Multi-Line Text - Can we get some multi-line text in this program? Its pretty annoying to move one line of text in a group of notes, and then add a line and have to move all the other text so it doesn't overlap.
Room Lables/Floor Plan tags - We use the "Room Label" function/macro to create floor plan notes on our drawings. For example we will have a #3 pointing to a kitchen sink, which will reference a bank of notes we have compiled and placed in a template. We rarely deviate from this bank of notes, and use the same numbers for the same things, plan after plan. I am proposing another idea. It would be nice if we could set up a similar bank of notes that were tied/linked to numbers inserted via the room lables funtion. I am saying that you use a rubberband window to determine where the text can fit on the drawing, and then you go about adding in your numbered lables. Then, for example when you add a 3 to the plans via the "room label" function it automatically references the bank of notes and insterts that numbered note to the rectangle you already determined. Then you could have the ability to move and reshape the rectangle so that it could fit into a custom/tighter area of the drawing. Having the ability to change text styles, spacings, etc would also be great. In addition to this, we will use a 5 note for a stove, but sometimes they are gas, sometimes they have an oven, etc. While the number may be the same, the note is different, so it would be nice to scroll through a short list of all the 5's that were set up in the bank of notes, and then insert the appropriate one. On top of this being able to edit the multi-line text would be swell. The thing is if we make changes to the plans and add a closet, there is a note corresponding to the shelves in the closet, so if we then add a 52 note to the plans, it would automatically update the bank of notes we created, say 2 weeks earlier. However, it would be necessary to have the ability to choose from multiple banks of notes, since there are different notes for the elevation than for the floor plan. It would also be nice if you could link symbols to the notes as well for the legend on the electrical plans, so that when you add a symbol for an outlet, it plops in the same symbol and the appropriate note into a predeternimed area (rectangle discussed earlier) A slightly complicated thing to program, but much time would be saved in the long run.
Overshoots - Having the ability to set the overshoots by layer instead of being "entity" dependent would be a huge help. Again, it is so time conusming to get all the layers off, and then change the overshoots to a bunch of entities, and the make sure they are turned off on another layer, it would be nice to have a toggle within the layer manager, then you could always draw with the overshoots off to ensure your lines are connected and then just have them plot out via a layer setting.
These are all suggestions that would help to save hours of time, and I hope that efforts can be made to incorporate them into a new version of DataCAD. If there are any questions about what I am getting at, please respond to this post and I will try to answer questions, or provide more information. This is not only true of myself, but our office as a whole. Thanks!
Please respond to the poll, the more interest there is these suggested features the more likely they will be considered in future versions!!
PDFs - It would be very helpful if you could batch process a plot in to a single PDF file with MULTIPLE PAGES. For example if you batch plot an (1)Elevation, (2)Floor Plan, (3)Section, & (4)Details, you could create a single PDF with the 4 pages those in the order of the "Go-To-Views" (1,2,3 & 4). It would also be nice to have alternate file types supported for plotting to files (JPEG, GIF, etc.).
Snaps - I would LOVE TO HAVE AutoCAD SNAPS!! Eliminate the middle click (N), or make it a preference setting, and use AutoCAD sytle snaps. Where a yellow box appears when you are on the Endpoint, a triangle appears on a Midpoint, etc. This makes for much faster drawing!!
Mirroring Entities - I would like the mirror function to be de-bugged so that the text is alligned as it was prior to mirroring it. It is so time consuming to move all the little text around, flipping symbols so the are alligned correctly, re-centering text, etc. This whole idea brings me to my next wish, which I would think is a bit more challenging to program
XREFS - I would LOVE to be able to XREF a mirror of a set of plans. It is sometimes required of building departments for us to submit a whole new set of plans, even if it is just a flip, flop, reverse, or whatever you may call it. Because of the many steps in the submittal process, I find that we are still making changes (owner, plan check, general corrections, etc.) to the plans, and are doing so after having reversed them which means we have to go and make changes to both the original set of plans and the additional reveresed set of plans. If it was possible to XREF a mirror of the plans, it would make the corrections to both the original as well as the reverse. THIS WOULD HELP OUT IMMENSLY!!
Layers - A more structured, heirarchal layering system as mentioned previously in this forum. For example you would have a windows style of structure, main folder, sub-folders, more sub-folders, and then specific files. This could be used to have a main group of "1st Floor plan" containing the sub-layers "walls, windows/doors, room labels, text, etc". and so on for all the various sheets of the drawing.
Arrows - The moving of arrows, can we make it so that the arrow head moves with the leader?
Dimensions - Using the "Tick" marks for the dimensions, if you mirror the dimension, it sometimes reverses the tick mark too, this is annoying because you have to go back and mirror along the line to get the ticks to go all in the same direction. It would be nice to make these entities to be "smarter".
Memory ("group","entity", etc.) - It would be nice if the program could remember if you were altering entities, groups, areas, etc. and apply that to all the commands rather than making it command dependent. For example if you move a group a text (lets say 3 lines) and you choose "group" in the move command, and the you go and want to change the text of that whole group, that the program would remember that the last thing you altered was a "group". Because as it is set up now, you could move a "group", and then change the context of one "entity" of text, this is slightly annoying. It could be possible to make this a preference, and opposed to completely changing it.
Multi-Line Text - Can we get some multi-line text in this program? Its pretty annoying to move one line of text in a group of notes, and then add a line and have to move all the other text so it doesn't overlap.
Room Lables/Floor Plan tags - We use the "Room Label" function/macro to create floor plan notes on our drawings. For example we will have a #3 pointing to a kitchen sink, which will reference a bank of notes we have compiled and placed in a template. We rarely deviate from this bank of notes, and use the same numbers for the same things, plan after plan. I am proposing another idea. It would be nice if we could set up a similar bank of notes that were tied/linked to numbers inserted via the room lables funtion. I am saying that you use a rubberband window to determine where the text can fit on the drawing, and then you go about adding in your numbered lables. Then, for example when you add a 3 to the plans via the "room label" function it automatically references the bank of notes and insterts that numbered note to the rectangle you already determined. Then you could have the ability to move and reshape the rectangle so that it could fit into a custom/tighter area of the drawing. Having the ability to change text styles, spacings, etc would also be great. In addition to this, we will use a 5 note for a stove, but sometimes they are gas, sometimes they have an oven, etc. While the number may be the same, the note is different, so it would be nice to scroll through a short list of all the 5's that were set up in the bank of notes, and then insert the appropriate one. On top of this being able to edit the multi-line text would be swell. The thing is if we make changes to the plans and add a closet, there is a note corresponding to the shelves in the closet, so if we then add a 52 note to the plans, it would automatically update the bank of notes we created, say 2 weeks earlier. However, it would be necessary to have the ability to choose from multiple banks of notes, since there are different notes for the elevation than for the floor plan. It would also be nice if you could link symbols to the notes as well for the legend on the electrical plans, so that when you add a symbol for an outlet, it plops in the same symbol and the appropriate note into a predeternimed area (rectangle discussed earlier) A slightly complicated thing to program, but much time would be saved in the long run.
Overshoots - Having the ability to set the overshoots by layer instead of being "entity" dependent would be a huge help. Again, it is so time conusming to get all the layers off, and then change the overshoots to a bunch of entities, and the make sure they are turned off on another layer, it would be nice to have a toggle within the layer manager, then you could always draw with the overshoots off to ensure your lines are connected and then just have them plot out via a layer setting.
These are all suggestions that would help to save hours of time, and I hope that efforts can be made to incorporate them into a new version of DataCAD. If there are any questions about what I am getting at, please respond to this post and I will try to answer questions, or provide more information. This is not only true of myself, but our office as a whole. Thanks!
Please respond to the poll, the more interest there is these suggested features the more likely they will be considered in future versions!!
I deselect the option to require the Control key for the Scroll Wheel to zoom, as well.