What was new in DataCAD 12?

Where to find the new feature
Helpful hints

Far be it from us to presume your design intentions, but we couldn't help ourselves. With DataCAD 12's Smart Entities, you can draw walls, doors, and windows the way you always have and get 2D cleanup and 3D modeling for free!

What exactly is a "smart" entity? A smart entity is a drawing element such as a wall, door, or window that contains routines and parameters that define how it behaves and interacts 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.

Of course, we really can't predict all of your intentions or accommodate every potential condition. So when necessary, you can still draft with plain ol' lines and arcs. You can also convert smart entities to simple entities. Since DataCAD's standard entities co-exist with smart entities, you can utilize both methods.

What can I do with smart entities that I can't do with traditional entities?

Smart entities enable you to make changes more easily.

When you change the width of a wall, all of its intersections update automatically.
You can change a door from double to bi-fold without having to remove it first then redraw it.
You can copy a window from one wall to another.

Smart Wall and Door (Plan, Isometric and Rendered Views)


Wall Type Manager


Door Type Manager


Window Type Manager


Search and Replace Dialog


Architect Menu "Classic" versus "Smart"

Press [a] for "Architect" and toggle on Auto 3D
You can use the [=] (equals sign) to switch between drawing walls and lines

DataCAD 12 provides direct support for SketchUp files. Now you can easily add models you've created in SketchUp to your DataCAD projects. When you insert or externally reference SketchUp files, DataCAD 12 automatically extracts materials and bitmap textures from the SketchUp file and embeds them into your DataCAD drawing. You can also convert SketchUp files to o2c format for raytraced visualization.


Insert SketchUp Dialog and o2c Preview

Select SketchUp from the Insert pull-down menu and choose the SketchUp file you want to add to your drawing.

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.

New Dynamic Snap Indicator and Snap Tips

The real-time display of object snapping points is automatic based upon your object snap settings.
You can customize settings for the Dynamic Snap Indicator via the Dynamic Snapping section on the Interface tab in Program Preferences.

Advanced 3D editing functions enable you to combine primitive solids to make complex forms. Intersect two cylinders to create a vaulted ceiling or subtract a wedge-shaped slab from an extruded profile to create a mitered picture frame. If you can visualize the basic shapes that make up the whole, you can use 3D Boolean operations to create the result you need.

Select Boolean 3D from the Create pull-down menu.

Recall construction planes on a per-entity basis.

[Ctrl] + Right-click on an entity and select Get Construction Plane from the context menu.

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DataCAD 12 includes a new option to enable a double-precision display list when you need to work on projects that cover a large real-world area.

You can enable a double-precision display list on a per drawing basis via Utility, Display, Display List, Double.

A new multi-line text entity (with support for TTF and SHX) 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.


MText Editor Dialog


PText Editor Dialog

Select MText from the Text menu.
You can use PText instead of MText if you only require single-font paragraph text.

DataCAD 12 provides native support for AutoCAD SHX fonts.

Your existing CHR fonts are automatically converted to SHX format when you run DataCAD 12.

An enhanced Font Dialog enables 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.

Font Dialog

Select Font... from the Text menu.
Use the Copy/Paste icons in the Text Styles section to transfer settings from one style to another.

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.


Entity Properties Editor and o2c Preview

[Ctrl] + Right-click on an entity and select Properties from the context menu.
You can also Double-click on an entity to display its properties. Check the Entity Property Editor option in the Double Click section of the Misc tab in Program Preferences.

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 material to multiple entities.

Edit Material(s) Dialog


Material Assignment Dialog


Rendering Settings Dialog

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.


Insert Symbol DataCAD 11 versus DataCAD 12 and Symbol Tools context menu

Toggle Fix Text on to force text to read from the bottom or right of the drawing window.
Toggle Current View on in a 3D view to orient your symbol to world coordinates rather than orthogonal to the screen.
Toggle Symbol Scale on to enlarge your symbol based on the current plot scale similar to Text Scale.
Toggle Dynamic Flip on to use hot keys to orient your symbol before you insert it. Press [Ctrl] to mirror about the y-axis, press [Shift] to mirror about the x-axis, and press [Ctrl] + [Shift] to mirror about the x and y-axis.
Set Max. Lines to [0] zero to display all entities while dragging your symbol. Set Max. Lines to [1] to display only a bounding box (faster).
Explode-related Options
Toggle Active Layer on to explode the contents of your symbol to the active layer.
Toggle Orig. Layers on to explode the contents of your symbol to their original layers.
Toggle Bind Material on to bind layer materials to corresponding entities.
Toggle Keep Groups on to maintain original entity groupings.

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 Classic Furniture Symbols

DataCAD 12 includes more than 200 new seamless textures and dozens of background photos to add realism to your renderings.

New Seamless High-resolution Textures

DataCAD 12 includes more than 50 new hatch patterns.

You can now assign a unique scale type to any dimension allowing you to maintain multiple dimensioning formats within the same drawing.

Toggle Lock Scale on and select your desired scale type in the Dimension, Linear menu.

XREFs and Symbols can now be clipped using irregular shaped polyline boundaries.


Before / After Clip

[Ctrl] + Right-click on an XRef and select XRef Tools, XClip.
[Ctrl] + Right-click on a symbol and select Symbol Tools, SClip.

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 Pen Styles

Select Pen Style from the Line Type menu.

Notate Toolbar


Types Toolbar


Rendering Toolbar

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.

MSP Detail Context Menu

You can now convert your multi-scale plotting layouts to layers in your drawing for export to DWG 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.

Go to Print, Multi-layout, Sheet, Bind One, and select an existing sheet to bind to a new layer in your drawing.

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 Manger Dialog

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.

Added Change, Text, Angle and Change, Text, Alignment.