Spotlight Search Support

feature request -- not sure how easy -- but given the move to X Code this one might be practical and reasonably painless

The ability to have PowerCADD drawing text content indexed by Apple Spotlight search engine.

Right now we have to use the comments field (or an automator action to set comments) to add important date or search criteria. For example, drawing title blocks typically contain important info on the project name, project number, and key dates and descriptions of when a drawing was issued. For example I might need to find all my drawings that were 'issued for construction' or 'issued for tender' on project 'x' ; content which appears in the drawing titleblock as matter of standard drawing practice in virtually every office I've seen drawings from.

A little thing that could be helpful; until then we do have a work around that's pretty easy

Control Click to Remove a GuideLine

Feature Overview

While there are quick ways to remove all guidelines from a drawing or turn them on or off, there's no short cut to removing a single guideline from a drawing.

Feature Description:

Currently, removing a single guideline from a drawing requires dragging it onto the ruler. While this is a very easy task, it does require a lot of mouse movement, particularly on large monitors. It's also somewhat disruptive to the workflow in that it requires we remove our attention from the object at hand to drag things onto the ruler. Given we can currently control+click on an item to bring up a contextual menu to object attributes, why not also have the ability to control+click on a guideline to remove it. Since one of the underlying reasons behind contextual menu's is to make the drawing process more efficient by reducing mouse movement in and out of palettes and menu's, this seems like a logical extension to the process.

We realize it's a little thing - but it just seems like it's the little things that make life easier

Cast your vote using the link below
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Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Cropping Referenced Drawings

Feature Overview

The ability to crop and un-crop Referenced drawings similar to how we can currently crop and un-crop Placed items.

Feature Description:

Even though Referenced drawings span multiple layers, they are in essence treated as a single entity in that they can be selected and rotated, scaled, bound, etc, all from the References menu. If we can see the References bounding box, it would be helpful to treat that bounding box the same as we do with Placed items; cropping and un-cropping the referenced content; all layers associated with the referenced item would be affected.

Cast your vote using the link below
Click here to vote (must Log in to vote).

Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Drawing Preview when Editing Groups

Feature Overview

An application level preference to enable/disable seeing a preview of the drawing when in Edit Groups mode (Edit menu -> Edit Groups).

Feature Description:

Currently when editing a group, all other drawing data is hidden and only the group is displayed. However, when editing groups, it's often important to see other drawing data for reference. The preview, if enabled, could be a reduced opacity version (i.e. dimmed) of the layers that were visible when the Edit Groups command was chosen from the Edit menu.

Example: If the user needs to rotate one element in a group relative to some other general drawing reference point, it's important to see that contextual data from the main drawing.

Current model requires users to either:

1. Guess where the other drawing data is when editing the group. This can result in having to edit the group multiple times to get things right
or
2. Copy data from the general drawing, then choose Edit Menu > Edit Groups, then Paste the general drawing data for reference. After completing the Edit Group operation the pasted reference objects need to be deleted

The problems are fairly apparent with both models. Option (1) in particular may get even more cumbersome if Edit All Layers is OFF and the object needing to be copied is on a different layer, or if the object needing to be copied is part of different group or symbol.

The ability to enable/disable preview when editing groups would speed up the drawing editing / production cycle. An application level preference seems reasonable since it's presumed most users would want this feature 'on or off' ( much like Hide Reshape Fills is a logical Preference choice for general application behavior across all drawings).

We think the new feature in PowerCADD 7, which displays static text Editing Group in the Layers Window during an Edit Group operation is a significant first step and we think being able to choose to see (or not see) a drawing preview that is faded (reduced opacity) would be a welcome feature and logical next step.

Cast your vote using the link below
Don't see the voting link? Log in to vote.

Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Improved Previews for Bitmap Effects

Feature Overview

The preview presented when using the Apply Bitmap Effects... menu item is too small (note, it's acknowledged this is an Apple limitation since the menu item calls Apple's QuickTime). An improved preview where the entire drawing window acts as the preview would provide better visual feedback.

Feature Description:

Any QuickTime or similar effect should be previewed in the main drawing window. The dialog box for the QuickTime effect should also be moveable. The current model makes it difficult to get predictable results.

Cast your vote using the link below
Don't see the voting link? Log in to vote.

Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Optional Tool Settings Append as Sheet

Feature Overview

When pressing Option and clicking on a tool with two dots, the Optional Tool Settings dialog should append as a sheet to the associated tool palette.

Feature Description:

Currently, tools with optional settings (two dots in their icon), pressing Option and clicking on a tool opens a new floating window. In the case of PowerCADD Tools, those windows float and can be moved around. In the case of WildTOOLs, those windows don't float (a long standing HIGs^? violation and pet peeve) and are stuck to the center of the screen area.

The proposed feature for tools with optional settings; their settings should open as sheet appended to the tool palette instead of a floating dialog.

Why

The user already knows where the tool palette is; it's my work flow anchor for production. I've had to move my mouse around just to press option and click on the tool to open the dialog. I then have to go through more mousing around to get to the dialog to either move the dialog (in the case of PowerCADD tools) and enter the data.

It would more convenient if the optional settings just appended to the Tools Palette as a sheet. It would behave in principle just like the see-through / auto-fade settings work now for floating windows or the primary tool palette. In case you missed it, here is how you can adjust the auto-fade settings in PowerCADD 7: Control+Click on any tool palette and choose Palette Settings... from the contextual menu to see this sheet append to the selected tool palette:

Having all the user interface elements grouped together around the tool palette would be more efficient for production and provide a smoother user interface. While it's possible to assign a key command to a tool which includes the Option key to force the dialog, having it all associated with the tool palette as a sheet just seems like a nice logical extension of the Mac OS^? X interface.

Special Note: If the optional settings were appended to the tool palettes, it would also mean that WildTOOLs would follow the same standard (or at least one would hope so), thereby unsticking their optional tool settings from the center of the screen and making for a more fluid and consistent work flow.

Cast your vote using the link below
Don't see the voting link? Log in to vote.

Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Wish List: PowerCADD 9 ACAD Translator

Some of the items here are carry overs from our PowerCADD v8 translator wish list. Some items are new.

Feel free to cast a vote or post a comment (must be registered and logged in).

If an item was carried over from PowerCADD v8 we've left the poll question and topic the same so we didn't loose any votes!

XML Database Support

Feature Overview:
Write the user defined database attributes assigned in PowerCADD as an external XML^? resource file for the current suite of database file options.

Feature Description:

XML is at the core of numerous aspects of Mac OS^? X and various internet technologies. In it's simplest definition, an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file is a cross platform, smart , text file which formats data which can be more readily used by other applications. XML support would make the entire database process more seamless and set the stage for future interopability of the user defined PowerCADD database attributes. Two common examples of similar implementations include:

• Apple iLife'04: XML allows the database for items such as playlists defined in iTunes to be read in iPhoto. Chapter marks in iMovie can be used/read by iDvd, etc.
• Apple's Addressbook application publishes it's contents in XML allowing the data to be read and repurposed by various third party authors. There are several examples of third party applications which take advantage of the XML format of Addressbook including iWork and YouControl. There are other third party applications which read the Addressbook XML formated data for printing address labels and envelopes.

PowerCADD currently provides several methods for users to assign database attributes to objects (see our two related links here and here for additional information on the currently available methods).

In the current scheme, the database attributes are assigned to objects within PowerCADD and are saved with the core PowerCADD drawing. in order to extract the database attributes, users must perform a Save As... and select the appropriate report option which results in a text file saved to disk. The text file can then be manually integrated into various third party applications for additional value added analysis. However, changes made to the drawing require saving a new report and reimporting that file. The cycle can become cumbersome and tends to slow down the work flow.

Maintaining a proprietary drawing object database is important for the core PowerCADD drawing objects and that should not change with support for XML. However, opening up the user defined database attributes as defined using Object text, Symbol Tags, Set Data, Export Data would make the data more usable without compromising the proprietary drawing file database/format.

The basic methodology for this feature request is:

1. A unique XML file is written to disk when a user assigns a database tag using any of the existing methods.
2. The XML file is live linked to the drawing database: that is, if the user makes a change to the drawing (for example deleting a symbol), the appropriate XML file is updated when the PowerCADD drawing file is saved.
3. The user could then link to the XML file saved to disk in their database application of choice which would reflect the last saved state of the XML File^?

Support for XML should not compromise the internal, proprietary, PowerCADD drawing database. However, making the user defined database tags from Symbol Tags, Object Text, Export Data and Set Data accessible via XML would help stream line the work flow. Using an open, cross platform standard, also helps set the stage for future database development.

Click Here to Cast your Vote on this PowerCADD 8 Wish List Item
Don't see the voting link? Log in to vote.

Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

arc by chord niggly issue

this is an old and ongoing niggly thing

when I'm drawing Arc by Chord, I can't press TAB to activate the Edit Window and specify the chord length.

Why not? I can use Tab for direct entry of the length and angle but not the chord length which arguably the most important part.

I think it compromises the effectiveness of the tool.

PowerCADD 8: ACAD Translator: Black on Black hidden objects

Issue: Black Hole: When writing a DWG^? from PCD8, objects with a black pen color in PCD8 seem to disappear against the black background of ACAD's model space.

Affects:

• PowerCADD 8.0.0, ACAD Translator External
• Priority: High
• This issue has been reported to Engineered Software

Description

Saving a PowerCADD 8 drawing a dwg will result in objects with a black pen color in PCD8 to render as black when opened in ACAD model space. If the ACAD user has a model space background of black, the objects will seem to 'disappear into a black hole'. When the ACAD users switches to Paper Space, all the objects will be there because paper space layouts use a white background. By default, all PCD8 dwg files open into a paper space layout in ACAD so the content will appear correct; the ACAD user will have to switch to model space to see the problem.

Here is a screen shot of a simple example created in PowerCADD 8 and saved as dwg. When opened in ACAD, paper space, all the objects (two, one black one yellow) are visible.

Here is how the same content looks when the ACAD user switches to model space. We have selected both objects for illustration, note the select handle bars immediately above the yellow line appear to be selecting 'nothing'. That 'nothing' is the black line shown in paper space above.

Work Around

If your drawing does not contain Advanced Text blocks (new and specific to PCD8), the fastest work around is to open the file in PowerCADD 7 and write/save the dwg file from there. If your PCD8 drawing contains advanced text blocks (for example from a previous inbound translation), then opening and saving in PowerCADD 7 will not work as Advanced Text from PCD8 is rendered as PDF^? in PCD7, and PDF content is not written when saving as dwg.

If you drawing contains Advanced Text then consider some of these possible work around solutions. Prior to attempting any work around operations make sure to perform a Save As... and work on a copy of your original drawing file.

Getting around the problem involves changing objects in PCD8 with a black pen color attribute to something other than black. The fastest way to do that is using Edit menu → Select Special... feature or the new PCD8 Magic Wand tool (reference your PCD8 printed or PDF manual for details). That allows you to globally select all objects with a pen color of black and change them to something else. Please make sure you have turned Edit All Layers : ON from the Layers Window to speed up that process.

The down side to using Select Special is it will not look in side of Groups or Symbols. In those cases you can assign a Layer Color Attribute to those layers containing Groups or Symbols to change their pen color attributes. (see comment below for clarification of this deletion)

Please remember, when writing a DWG file, all layers (whether turned on or off) are included in the translated file. If you do not want to include hidden layers, and they contain black objects which might be confusing to the ACAD user, delete those layers in your copy of the original drawing prior to saving as dwg.

Other solutions in ACAD may exist but are beyond the scope of this article. For example, an ACAD user could select the black objects while they are visible in paper space and change them to another contrasting color like yellow.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: ACAD Translator: Layer Color Attributes don't stick

Issue: Layer Color Attributes assigned in PowerCADD 8 (PCD8) don't stick when opened in ACAD.

Affects:

• PowerCADD 8.0.0, ACAD Translator External
• Priority: Medium
• This issue has been reported to Engineered Software

Description

When writing a dwg file from PCD8, Layer Color Attribute settings assigned in PCD8 are not assigned by default when the file is opened in ACAD (the objects do retain the assigned layer color). In PowerCADD 7 (PCD7), Layer Color Attribute settings were/are correctly assigned when the dwg file is opened in ACAD.

To see the incorrect condition, do this:

1. Assign a Layer Color Attribute in PCD8. An example is pictured below.



2. Write (save) as dwg.
3. Open the dwg from (2) in ACAD.
4. Results: The objects retain their correct color attributes but the layer in ACAD does not have the correct layer color attribute assigned. The screen shot below illustrates the results:

To see the correct condition, do this:

1. Assign a Layer Color Attribute in PCD7 (or open the same file created in PCD8).
2. Write (save) as dwg.
3. Open the dwg from (2) in ACAD.
4. Results: The objects retain their correct color attributes and the layer in ACAD has the correct layer color attribute assigned. The screen shot below illustrates the results:

Work Around

There is no work around directly in PowerCADD 8 other than turning off the layer color attribute and performing a select all on the layer and changing the object color attributes; a potentially destructive technique if we accidentally save over the original file.. If the PCD8 file doesn't contain Advanced Text blocks then the file can be opened in PowerCADD v7 and the dwg file can be saved from there. The alternative is to re-assign the correct layer color attribute setting in ACAD.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: ACAD Translator: Rotated Arcs

Issue: Sometimes when translating a dwg file arcs are rotated out of position

Affects:

• PowerCADD 8.0.0, ACAD Translator External
• Priority: High
• This issue has been reported to Engineered Software

Description

When reading a DWG^? file, in some cases (but not all) arcs are rendered correctly in the Tranlator Preview window but are rotated incorrectly when opened in PCD8. The two screen shots below show the condition of the correct preview, and the incorrect result -- note that not all arcs are affected. The DWG file used to create this example is attached below for additional testing if necessary.

Work Around

There is no direct work around to correct the problem during the translation process. Obviously after the file has been opened in PCD8 the arcs can be rotated to their correct position and snapped into place. Another alternative would be to convert the arcs to polygons in ACAD prior to opening the file in PCD8 but this is less than elegant. We understand from conversations with EngSW this issue is on the list of items to be addressed in a rolling update to PCD8 and the ACAD Translator XTNL.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

Attachment	Size
DOWNLOAD 04.dwg_.zip	167.98 KB

PowerCADD 8: ACAD Translator: mis-assigned fonts

Issue: The font specified in the ACAD Translator → Text Settings dialog for Editable fonts is not what is assigned when the file is opened in PowerCADD 8.

Affects

• PowerCADD v8.0.0, ACAD Translator External
• Priority: High
• This item has been reported to Engineered Software

Description

When translating a DWG^? or DXF^? file, you can specify which font is used in the resulting PCD8 drawing as an editable font. However the font specified is ignored and all text appears as Helvetica.

To see the condition, do this:

1. Drag and drop a DWG file onto the PCD8 application icon (or use any means you like to open the file in PCD8).
2. In the Translator Settings dialog, click the Text button to display the Text Settings dialog as pictured here:



3. Choose the Editable radio button and specify a font from the pop up list (Arial Black in our example shown above.
4. Press Ok and complete the translation process. The file will open in PCD8, each piece of text will be a new Advanced Text block.
5. Double click any of the text blocks to open the Advanced Text Edit Window.
6. In the Advanced Text Edit Window, open the Fonts window.
7. As pictured below, the selected text is described as being Helvetica Regular rather the specified font Arial Black.



Work Around

The easiest work around is, after translating the file and opening it in PCD8, choose Text Menu → Replace Font to change Helvetica to your font of choice. For more on working with Replace Font see this related article on our site which applies to PowerCADD 7.0.5 or newer and PowerCADD 8.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: ACAD Translator: status of font popup menu

Issue: The status of the font selection popup menu in the Text Settings of the translator external is confusing.

Affects:

• PowerCADD 8.0.0, ACAD Translator External
• Priority: Low
• This issue has been reported to Engineered Software

Description

There is a minor cosmetic issue regarding the Font Popup menu when selecting between Editabel and Visually Accurate radio buttons in the Text Settings dialog.

When the Visually Accurate radio button is selected, PowerCADD 8's ACAD Translator automatically converts all fonts to polygon outlines. As such, the status of the Font Popup menu should be dimmed (unavailable) since any selection made in that menu is irrelevant.

When the Editable radio button is selected, the Font Popup menu should be enabled. Currently it is enabled all the time which is incorrect as selections made in this menu only apply when the Editable radio button is selected.

This illustration shows the incorrect status. If Visually Accurate (blue) is selected, the menu (red) should be dimmed.

Work Around

This is a cosmetic issue and no work around is required. Simply realize the status of the menu is incorrect as described above.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: Submit Diagnostic Report Typo

Issue: Typo in the Submit Diagnostic Report... dialog.

Affects:

• PowerCADD 8.0.0
• Priority: Low
• This issue has been reported to Engineered Software

Description

When choosing Help menu → Submit Diagnostic Report..., the static text in the dialog currently reads:

• Please enter your name and telephone number so can contact you if necessary.

It should read:

• Please enter your name and telephone number so we can contact you if necessary.

Work Around

No work around is required, this is a cosmetic issue.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: Text Attributes Window displays incorrect font

Issue: After translating a DWG^? or DXF^? file, the Text Attributes Floating Window always displays the selected text block as being Geneva when in fact it is some other font.

Affects

• PowerCADD 8.0.0
• Priority: Low
• This item as been reported to Engineered Software

Description

After translating a DWG or DXF file, and choosing Editable Text in the Text Settings dialog, the text blocks in the new PCD8 drawing are always described as Geneva when in fact their font is something else.

To recreate the condition:

1. Translate a DWG file and choose Editable in the Text Settings dialog and choose any font other than Geneva from the pop up list.
2. Choose Windows menu → Text Attributes.
3. Select any Advanced Text Block.
4. Observe; as pictured below, the selected text block is described as being Geneva when in fact it is not.

Work Around

There is no known work around to what is essentially a cosmetic condition. When editing the text block in the Advanced Text Edit Window the Fonts panel will render the correct font and you may still change it to whatever you like.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8 ACAD Translator: What's different when saving

What's different between the PowerCADD v7 and v8 translator when I'm saving my PowerCADD 8 drawings as .dwg or .dxf files?

Requirements:

• PowerCADD version 8.0.0 or newer
• ACAD Translator External must be loaded

Background

With the release of PowerCADD 8 (PCD8) there were some changes to options available when saving PowerCADD drawings as ACAD dwg or dxf files. We'll cover the basics of what's different here. If you previously used PowerCADD v7 (PCD7), you may want to keep a copy of that version hanging around if some of the following translation options were critical to your work flow. If you cannot open (read) or save (write) dwg or dxf files, choose PowerCADD menu → Preferences → Loader and make sure ACAD Translator is checked at the top of the list as pictured here:

Remember: If your PCD8 drawings uses Advanced Text, those objects will become PDF^? objects when opened in PCD7. PDF objects do not translate (are omitted) when saving drawings as dxf or dwg.

What's Different
The following optional settings dialog from (PCD7) is no longer available when saving dwg or dxf files from PCD8. Here's a summary of the changes:

• Versions: The versions you save back to have changed.
• Line Weights to Colors has been deleted. You can no longer map your PowerCADD line weights to specific ACAD pen color numbers.
• Visible Layers Only has been deleted. In PCD8 all visible and hidden layers are saved.
• Use Line Weights has been deleted. You can no longer convert line weights to poly-lines when saving a drawing.
• Write Arrows has been deleted. In PCD8 arrow attributes are always written when saving the dwg or dxf file. When the file is opened in AutoCAD, the arrow heads are polygons which are separate from the line. For example, a line in PowerCADD with arrow heads at both ends would be three objects in AutoCAD. A line and two polygons representing the arrow heads.
• Write Guidelines has been deleted. In PCD8 guideline are never written when saving the dwg or dxf file.
• Font has been deleted. You can no longer specify which font is used when saving the dwg or dxf file.

Screen shot of Save As, Optional Settings, dialog from PowerCADD 7

Here's an example of the new dialog that appears in PCD8 when you press Options. Note you can now specify versions as far back as ACAD 2000. If a format is shown as a range, for example 2000-2002, it simply means that all versions of ACAD in that range support the same file format. For example, if you save as drawing as version 2002 it can be opened by ACAD2000.

What versions of ACAD does PCD8 support when saving? Well, as you can see from the pop-up menu below, it's release 2000 through release 2007. The same holds true for the versions PCD8 can open.

Please review the translator section of the PCD8 manual for additional information on working with reference files and fonts when reading dwg files. There are significant improvements to automatically binding x-refs when reading dwg files and some new changes to font management.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

Ability to automatically lock and unlock objects

Feature Overview

It would be great if PCD^? remembered which items were previously locked and prompted me to lock them again after completing an operation.

Feature Description:

Currently, when performing a select all, and the selection set contains locked items, I get a prompt allowing me to Unlock items. This makes perfect sense, for example I may be selecting all the content to perform a move by drag operation and adjust the layout of my drawing. Great -- makes sense but after I perform my operation I don't know which objects I had previously locked, which was likely done for good reason, and now I have to manually go back and try to recall what they were and lock them again. This operation is time consuming and can be confusing since in a large object count drawing I may well not recall which items I had locked.

Feature Request:
After completing my operation (e.g. moving all the objects) , I should be prompted for something like "would like me to relock previously locked items". Put another way, it would be great if PCD remembered which items were previously locked and prompted me to lock them again after my operation.

Given I get a prompt to unlock items, that seems to be a flag at the object level. If that flag/status can be remembered then it seems possible to know the items should also be locked again. Of course this is all subject to my inability to program squat

Import Tabbed Text Files as a Table

Feature Overview

Ability to import a tabbed delimited text files and have PowerCADD create a table. The resulting table would be editable like tables created with the Table Tool are now.

Feature Description:

A tabbed text file refers to a text file which is generic in nature where items are separated by tab's and carriage returns and saved in a plain text format which may be opened in a variety of applications - a PowerCADD symbol report is an example of a Tabbed text file, sometimes referred to as a tab delimited text file.

We'd like some mechanism to import a tabbed text file back into PowerCADD is important to routine work flow. The imported tabbed text file would be a table (vs. a text block with Indents and tab's).

For example: when a symbol report is saved, it cannot be imported back into PowerCADD in an editable format. Rather it must be opened in another application (Excel, AppleWorks, FileMaker, etc) and brought back into PCadd using Place (e.g. Placed PDF^?) to retain formatting. If the table is pasted in then all formatting is lost.

If PowerCADD could import the tabbed text file as a table, simple editing could be done directly in PowerCADD.

Cast your vote using the link below
Don't see the voting link? Log in to vote.

Poll Choices are:

• Very Important Feature: you think the feature is a big deal and has a big impact to your workflow
• Important Feature: not critical to your workflow but something you'd find useful or would explore more deeply if it was there
• Not an Important Feature: this feature wouldn't impact your workflow at all and you're not interested or don't see value in exploring it

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

PowerDWG 8 Wish List

A subset to the PowerCADD 8 Wish List
To keep things organized, we've collected our PowerDWG v8 Translator wish list items together as a subset to our main PowerCADD 8 wish list.

PowerCADD8:Help Menu: Submit Trouble Shooting Report

New feature in PowerCADD 8: Submit Trouble Shooting Report

Question: When I choose Submit Trouble Shooting Report I'm prompted for access to my keychain; why and what should I do?

Requirements

• PowerCADD version 8 (8.0.0 or newer recommended)
• Mac OS^? X (Leopard version 10.5.2 or newer recommended)

Background

This new feature has been added to help assist both you and Engineered Software when trying to trouble shoot a technical support problem. Basic information about your PowerCADD 8 drawing and some general hardware and system information is sent to make it easier for technical support staff to understand your particular circumstances. Here is an example of what's sent taken from an empty untitled drawing; your actual content will vary:

Current System Settings:

CPU Type: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7600 @ 2.33GHz
Number of Processors: 2
OS System Version: 10.5.2
System Memory: 3072 MB
Display Size: 1920 x 1200

Current PowerCADD Information:

PowerCADD Version: 8.0.0
PowerCADD Build Number: HC14
Current Exterenals Loaded:
Loader , ACAD Translator , Arc Functions , Attach , Bitmap Utils , Blend Objects , BlossomingCursor , Cleanup Drawing , Convert Outlines , Custom Tool Palettes , Date Time Stamp , Dimension Window , Fence Cut , Gradient Fill , Graphics Export , Guide Grid , Layer Window , MacPaint Reader , Magic Wand , Mechanical Tools , Move Object , Move Points , Move Window , Multi Trim , Notations , Object Text , Objects Along Path , Pan Tool , Place , Postscript Translator , Read HPGL^? , Reference Files , Replace Symbol , Select Adjoining , Select Special , Selection Filter , Set Symbol Fields , Smart Layers , Snap Window , Status Window , Survey Dimensions , Symbol Data , Symbol Palette , Symbol Report , Wall Tools

Drawing Information:

Drawings Open: 1

Individual Drawing Information:

Untitled - 2
Drawing Size: 0 KB
Number of Layers: 1
Number of Objects: 0

Clipboard^?
Drawing Size: 0 KB
Number of Layers: 1
Number of Objects: 0

Unsent Crash Logs:

Recently Used Items:

Items Used Time Since Used (sec)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Close 751.119
Selection 751.619
Close 1108.67
Paste 1119.92
Text 1121.17

Additional Comments:

What To Do

Submitting the trouble ticket is as straight forward as filling in the form field and pressing submit:

1. Choose Help menu → Submit Trouble Shooting Ticket
2. The Submit Diagonistic Reportdialog appears as pictured here:



3. Fill in the required fields and press Submit.

It's at this stage that the majority of users will see the prompt to access your Mac OS X Keychain. When you pressed Submit PCD8 wanted to use the Mac OS X to send an email message. In order to send the message it needs access to the send email information that is typically saved in your Mac OS X Keychain. Typically you'll see a prompt similar to this (we've expanded the Show Detail tab for illustration here). You can safely press Allow and PCD8 will send the email message to Engineered Software technical support staff.

Remember, if you are dealing with an international distributor (or private consultant) who provides separate technical support, the trouble ticket is going to Engineered Software - not your international distributor. It's worth contacting your international distributor prior to using this feature as they may have a different procedure they prefer you use. At a minimum, it can be helpful to simply access the Submit Trouble Shooting Ticket menu and copy the content that appears in the top most (first) field so you can email that directly to your preferred technical support contact.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

Using PowerCADD and WildTools to add a Guideline

How do I add a Guideline that matches a object already in my drawing?

Requirements

• PowerCADD version 7, or 8 (8.1.2 or newer recommended)
• Mac OS^? X (Leopard or Snow Leopard)
• WildTools version 8 or 9 (version 9 recommended

Background:

Guidelines are non-printing construction lines that aid in placing, creating, or aligning objects in your drawing. While PowerCADD has numerous options for working with Guidelines including choosing from various options in Layout menu → Guidelines, WildTools also has tools which allow you to create a guideline in your drawing. In this article we'll outline the steps to use the WildTools Offset Line Tool and Surface Snapping to create a guideline that matches the angle of an existing object in your drawing. We also recommend your review this related caddpower.com article on how to perform the same task by dragging a Guideline off of a drawing ruler.

What To Do:

To use WildTools to insert a guideline into your drawing which matches the angle of an existing object, do this:

1. Press Option and click on the WildTools Offset Line Tool. The following dialog box will appear:
   
2. Set your dialog box preferences as shown above. Specifically set the offset to Interactive (the bold arrow type symbol) and check the Place Guidelines box
3. Click OK. You'll be returned to the drawing window and the cursor will change to a Target Cursor
4. Place the Target Cursor over the object in the drawing you want the guideline to match (e.g. a Line)
5. Start to drag away from that object. Note you'll see a guideline appear; now we need to snap that guideline back onto the object
6. Press the S key (to invoke Surface Snapping) and drag your cursor back onto the object in (4) above.
7. Observe: A red snap indicator appears to confirm you are snapping to the surface of the object.
8. While continuing to press the S key, release the mouse button
9. Result: a new guideline is inserted into the drawing which is precisely snapped to the surface of your source object

Note that this technique may used to create a guideline that matches the angle of any line or surface of an object such as the face of a polygon, rectangle or rotated rectangle.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: Overview of what's new or changed

What's New in PowerCADD™ version 8 (PCD8)

Release date: March 2008
Operating System: Mac OS^? X (OS X Leopard v10.5.2 or newer recommended)
Hardware: Apple Computer Intel based Mac Hardware

While an extensive list of changes for PowerCADD v8 with detailed descriptions would be helpful to many it would simply be too time consuming to write all in one go. So, we decided a general list might be helpful as a quick overview for many of our visitors. We have related articles in our PowerCADD User: PowerCADD 8 section of our website and as time permits we'll be adding additional content there addressing new features, techniques, known issues, and feature requests for PowerCADD 9. We haven't described everything in detail here but, for now, here's our take on things to get the ball rolling.

Introduction:

Intel Only:

Bill Stanley, President of Engineered Software (EngSW), posted an open letter to customers on December 21, 2007 , giving everyone a heads up that PowerCADD v8 was going to run on Intel only Macs. We applaud that decision both for it's intent to keep customers informed so they could plan for hardware changes, and to keep their development cycle efficient and predictable. After all, Apple made it clear Intel was their engine of choice and trying to serve two masters (PowerPC and Intel) serves neither the developer nor the end user. Going Intel only with PowerCADD v8 made it possible to get some massive performance improvements today, and lays the ground work to take advantage of things Apple might do with further hardware and software enhancements in the future. Overall it's a win - win for both the customer and developer.

Given the Intel only decision for PowerCADD v8, EngSW did their customers another service by realizing there will be offices running on a mix of PowerPC and Intel based Mac hardware. With that in mind they have kept the file format the same between PowerCADD v7 and v8. Simply put, you don't have to perform a translation or Save As... operation to work with a PowerCADD v8 file in v7, or vice versa. When considering many offices still run mixed hardware we tip our hat to EngSW for their customer service consideration. The only minor hiccup occurs with the new Advanced Text feature of PowerCADD 8; Advanced Text from PowerCADD 8 is rendered as a PDF^? image when opened in PowerCADD 7. The content looks correct but you can't edit it which doesn't seem unreasonable when considering the significant change that Advanced Text brings to the table.

Performance:

PowerCADD v8 is fast -- really fast! There's no question EngSW dedicated a lot of resources (read: time and money) to give PowerCADD v8 major performance enhancements by tapping into OpenGL and other advanced features of Apple's 64 bit Mac OS X Leopard operating system. In fact, EngSW has provided two methods of rendering your content to screen to help you go from fast to turbo fast in a single click (we'll cover the details of those two viewing modes in detail later).

The degree of performance increase will depend on a few different factors including the speed and number of processors you chose when purchasing hardware. The amount of RAM^? installed continues to be important to helping overall system performance and our old rule of thumb still applies; take whatever Apple ships standard with a system and double it (that doubling rule may not be applicable for some models of laptops in which case max. it out). The speed of the graphics processor (video card) and amount of VRAM^? it has will also have a direct impact on the degree of performance increase you'll see in PowerCADD 8. With Apple moving more tasks to the video boards your choice is becoming more important when trying to maximize performance with PowerCADD 8 and many of Apple's Pro Applications including Aperture or Final Cut Pro. Point being you get what you pay for so take the time to plan your hardware purchases accordingly.

General:

When we examine the new features and general improvements to old features there some that just don't fit nicely into the Tools or Menu categories we'll list later. Here are some thoughts on those changes, and what we think is a reasonably comprehensive list, in no particular order:

Improved Items:

Global Attributes: While the basic method of using Global Attributes hasn't changed, there have been improvements to how items are added to menus to try and prevent their lists from becoming too long. If you were having problem or frustrations with Global Attributes in the past you may want to take another at them in PCD8.

Stationery: This likely is a big change that will affect long time users, and it's a change that is for the better (see our related article here for details). In previous versions of PowerCADD you created a new drawing, added any elements, styles, or attributes, then performed a Save As... → Stationery. That worked for a lot of years as EngSW was actually ahead of Apple in that context. However, with the introduction of Mac OS X Apple changed the rules a bit and the old PowerCADD Stationery model was looking long in the tooth. The new Stationery model is elegantly simple; put any drawing into the PowerCADD Application folder → Stationery folder which contains those items you'd like to use for every drawing. Remember, stationery (or templates if you prefer) drawings can include attributes, styles, objects like title blocks, drawing scale and layers. The next time you choose File^? menu → New, you'll see a new dialog presenting your list of stationery files to choose from. If you prefer to keep your stationery (template) files on a remote server or someplace else on your hard drive, no problem -- simply make an Alias of the file in the aforementioned Stationery Folder. We see this new Stationery model as a leap forward and is very consistent with other applications such as Apple's Pages, Keynote, and Numbers which provide a list of templates to choose from when starting a new drawing. Overall it appears to be an excellent change and we look forward to seeing how it might progress.

The number of changes, general and otherwise, is extensive so here's a basic running list of items. Don't forget you can check the PowerCADD PDF or Printed manual and look for the 'new' icon which flags these items (and possibly more).

List of General changes:

1. Change Export Data external has been deleted.
2. Change Status Window has been deleted, it's basic features described here have been deleted or moved to new locations. Nudge and Selected Number of Objects Display Field has moved to the new drawing window Toolbar. Layer Name of selected object has been moved to the Edit Window. Go To Layer is available as a contextual menu now and in PCD7. Zoom Percentage Field and it's Zoom Icons are deleted and not replaced but all oyher methods of zooming are still available. Scale Field and Pop-up is deleted and not replaced; scale is still adjusted from the Layout menu → Drawing Setup → Units dialog.
3. Behavior change: A contextual menu no longer appears when you Control + Clicking on a bitmap.
4. New Edit Window: Number of fields it displays can be changed. Displays the layer name a selected object is on.
5. New Toolbar in main drawing window.
6. New Overview Window with integrated Toolbar and significantly improved performance including support for mouse wheel zooming.
7. Improved dwg drawing translator. Improved X-ref^? imports, fonts, one click translation of all paper space layout content, improved preview and navigation interface. All translated drawings open in users specified custom stationery (when custom stationery has been added to Stationery folder) as described earlier.
8. Improved interface in Layers Window for creating and renaming sheet setups.
9. Improved behavior in Layers Window when assigning Layer Color Attributes (related link).
10. Improved method of handling Layer Color Attributes. Color attribute settings are now saved with the object. Assigning a Layer Color Attribute will temporarily over ride the object color attribute for as long as the Layer Color Attribute box is checked. Turning off Layer Color Attributes will revert the object to it's original color.
11. Change in drawing translator external: The old feature to Map Line Weights to Color when writing a dwg or dxf file has been removed. The old feature to Map Colors to Line Weights when reading a dwg or dxf file has been removed.
12. Change in drawing translator external: The old feature to Save Visible Layers Only when writing a dwg or dxf file has been removed.
13. New drawing translator external: You can now specify your own custom stationery pad when reading a dxf or dwg file.

List of Tool changes:

1. Improved Fence Cut: now supports Layers when used in conjunction with the Paste Special menu item
2. New Advanced Text: OS Level spelling and grammar checker. Multiple text options including kerning, ligatures, superscript, and subscript. Now supports Tables (replaced old Table Tool)
3. Changed Table Tool: Deleted and replaced with Advanced Text Tool. Formatted tables can be copied/pasted from Excel.
4. Improved Parallel Line: Can save multiple offsets.
5. Improved Parallel Offset: Can save multiple offsets.
6. Improved Eye Droopper: Optional settings for which attributes it should pickup and apply.
7. New Sticky Notes: Leave non-printing yellow sticky type post-it notes in a drawing.
8. New Move Points: New tool to dynamically move selected vertices in a drawing by dragging or press Tab to specify an offset distance and/or direction.
9. New Single and Multi Trim: Both tools allow Guidelines to be a specified trim or extend target.
10. New Move Tool: Automatically selects objects you click on for a move by drag operation. Hovering the tool over a default snap location will automatically select that snap point as the handle to start the move from. Old method from all previous versions of PowerDraw and PowerCADD still exist to perform a move by drag operation.
11. New Objects On Line: Distribute objects in the Clipboard^? or from a Symbol Library along a linear path. User definable optional settings for points and offset behavior.
12. New Objects On Path: Distribute objects in the Clipboard or from a Symbol Library along any contiguous path defined by a single object. User definable optional settings for points and offset behavior.
13. New Magic Wand: Optional setting to specify object attributes to be used to discriminate which objects in the drawing are selected. Click on an object in the drawing and all objects with the specified attributes are selected.
14. Changed Arc Trim: Now a stand alone tool for trimming and extending arcs. This feature was integrated with the Trim/Extend tool in PCD7. Logic/behavior of the tool is improved.
15. Changed Trim/Extend: Now works on lines only. Improved logic/behavior for finding intersections to trim/extend. Improved interface in optional settings dialog.
16. New Attach: Optional settings to specify what type of object is created when the tool is applied. Click and drag between objects in the drawing to attach them.
17. Improved Leader Line: Improved behavior to change justification of text when reshaping a leader line left or right.

List of Menu item changes:

1. Change File Menu → Save As... → Symbol Report: Now moved to File menu → Export...
2. Change File Menu → Save As... → Data Report: Now moved to File menu → Export...
3. Change File Menu → Save As... → Objects Notes Report: Now moved to File menu → Export...
4. Change File Menu → Save As... → Stationery: Deleted and replaced with new Stationery folder as described earlier in this article. See our related article here for details.
5. New Print Dialog: New options for flatting files with Layer Attributes > Transparency^? settings applied. This was also added in a free update to PCD7.0.6, please see this related article for details.
6. Improved Lock/Unlock: Warning dialog appears when the selected objects contain locked items. Now you can choose to permanently unlock, or temporarily unlock items. If you choose to temporarily unlock objects, affected objects are automatically locked again when the operation is complete.
7. New Edit Menu → Scale...: Now supports scaling line weights
8. New Edit Menu → Paste Special...: Now supports scaling line weights and supports layers when using the Fence Cut tool.
9. Improved Help menu: Ability to search for menu items by name in OS X Leopard only.
10. New Help menu → Safe Mode Instructions: Steps on how to restart PowerCADD in safe mode to assist in troubleshooting problems.
11. New Help menu → Reset PowerCADD: Resets PowerCADD settings to assist in troubleshooting problems.
12. New Help menu → Submit Troubleshooting Report: Submits an email and drawing report to Engineered Software to assist technical support in troubleshooting problems.
13. Change View Menu → Hide Text: Now reads Greek text. Text that is greeked now displays as a grey box, in previous versions choosing Hide Text would physically shut off all text in the drawing which was confusing.
14. New View Menu → High Performance/Print Preview: Allows you to change the display modes of PowerCADD. This feature is also an icon in the new drawing window Toolbar.
15. Change Preferences: Attach convert to polygons: This preferences is deleted and replaced with optional settings for the Attach menu item
16. New Tool menu → Attach...: Allows you to specify the type of object created (Group, Bezier, Polygon) and to specify the distance between objects the command should automatically bridge.
17. Change View menu → Hide Hatches: If hatches are hidden, assigning a hatch to a new object will now automatically toggle the display to show all hatches. Previously, assigning a new hatch would then automatically hide it which was confusing.
18. New Preferences → View → Adjust Handle Size: Slider to adjust the size of edit handle bars displayed when objects are selected or in reshape mode.
19. New Preferences → Commands → Multiple Commands: You can now assign multiple steps to a single command key.
20. New Preferences → Loader → PowerCADD: There is now a default set of externals for the default set of PowerCADD features.
21. New Preferences → Tools → Mouse Wheel Options: Settings to customize the acceleration of the scroll wheel and whether it should be used for zooming in/out or scrolling left/right.
22. Changed and New Tool menu → Polygon → multiple submenu items: When reshaping or editing polygons, menu items previously located in Edit menu > Reshape have been moved. You can now perform a Fillet, Open, or Close simply by selecting the polygon (in previous versions you had to be in polygon / reshape mode to perform those operations).
23. New Arrange menu → Rotate by Centers: Allows multiple selected objects to be rotated a specified amount about their individual center points. The Arrange menu → Rotoate... menu item will rotate all selected objects about a common center point.
24. New Print Dialog → Save Settings for Standard: Check the box to have all your PowerCADD custom print settings such Fit to Page and other items remembered between printing sessions.
25. New Arrange menu → Hatch Settings → Rotate Hatch: After applying a linear hatch pattern to an object you can adjust the patterns rotation angle assigned to that object. Subsequently, a new custom hatch pattern can be made from the custom rotated hatch.
26. New File menu → Recent Items → Clear Selected...: Choose that new menu item to manually select items to be deleted from the Open Recent Items submenu.
27. New Text menu → Replace Font...: This was also added to PowerCADD 7.0.5 and is described in detail in this article on our site.

Well, that's about all we can think of for now. It's a pretty substantial list of changes. In many cases, what appears to be a simple item in the list above is often a major step forward when you consider the implications to the drawing and design work flow! Have fun!

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Managing Editor, caddpower.com.

Hatch Pattern Stacking Order

Description

The object stacking order of hatch pattern has been changed from previous versions.

Requirements

PowerCADD 8.0.0 or more recent

Old object stacking order (top to bottom):

• Hatched Pattern (top most object)
• Object Line Weight and Pen Pattern (middle object)
• Fill Pattern (bottom most object)

This old stacking order resulted in hatch patterns that covered up the object's line weight.

New object stacking order (top to bottom):

• Object Line Weight and Pen Pattern (top most object)
• Hatched Pattern (middle object)
• Fill Pattern (bottom most object)

This new stacking order results in the objects outline (perimeter line weight) correctly covering the hatched items and creates a cleaner edge to the hatched object. Note: See known issues for additional information regarding hard clipping of hatch patterns.

Demo Movie
Click here to watch a demo movie (28MB) which illustrates the concepts described above (click here for movie help).

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Managing Editor, caddpower.com.

Layer Window and Layer Color Attributes Display

Description

The method of displaying a Layer Color Attribute in the Layer Window has been changed.

Requirements

PowerCADD 8.0.0 or more recent

Previous versions of PowerCADD: When a Layer Color Attribute was assigned, the display of the Layer Name in the Layer Window was changed to display in the specified layer color. This made the names of layers difficult to read for some layer color settings.

The Change: When a Layer Color Attribute is assigned, the color of the Layer Status Bullet is changed to display in the specified layer color. The name of the layer is not change; it's still displayed as black, easy to read, text.

[inline:beta8layercolorstatus.jpg]

Notes:

• There is no visible change in the color of the Layer Status Bullet when a Layer Color Attribute of black is specified.
• There is a new Preferences setting (pictured below) that allows you to toggle the display so the Layer Name also changes color (i.e. so it works like PowerCADD 7). When Show Layer Color In Name is checked on, the Layers Window changes as pictured below and to the right. When it's unchecked the Layers Window appears as shown earlier in this article.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Managing Editor, caddpower.com.

PowerCADD 8: Rotate Hatches

New to PowerCADD 8 is the Rotate Hatches... menu item.

Requirements

• PowerCADD version 8 (8.0.0 or newer recommended)
• Mac OS^? X (Leopard version 10.5.2 or newer recommended)

Background

Among the various other Hatch Settings features in PowerCADD for adjusting line weight, scale, and other hatch attributes is the new ability to rotate a hatch pattern. In previous versions custom hatch patterns were often created to specify the same pattern, but at different rotation angles. Each new custom hatch pattern (one for each rotation angle) took up an additional space in the Hatch Palette. Over time, finding the correct pattern took longer than desired. Well, no more, now you can rotate any hatch pattern with one easy operation.

What To Do

To rotate a hatch in PowerCADD 8, do this:

1. Select the object with the hatch pattern assigned.
2. Choose Attr menu → Hatch Settings → Rotate....
3. The Rotation Angle dialog will appear.
4. Enter the desired angle and press Ok.
5. The hatch pattern is rotated to the specified angle.

If you change your mind and want the hatch pattern returned to it's original angle simply reapply the original hatch pattern from the palette. Of course Undo also if you change your mind too. However, reapplying the original hatch pattern works at any time as opposed to being restricted by the number of steps you've specified in Undo Options or if you have perhaps quit PCD8 and are opening the same file again in a different session.

Demo Movie
Click here to watch a demo movie (17MB) which illustrates the concepts described above (click here for movie help).

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

PowerCADD 8: Working with Stationery Drawings

Question:

What's changed in PCD8 with respect to how I work with stationery pad drawings (template drawings)? I've never used stationery pad drawings before, how do I get started?

Requirements

• PowerCADD version 8 (8.0.0 or newer recommended)
• Mac OS^? X (Leopard version 10.5.2 or newer recommended)

Background

In versions of PowerCADD prior to 8, you needed to choose File^? menu → Save As and save your drawing as a special Stationery Pad drawing. This model worked very well for over 20 years, but with changes Apple started to make in Mac OS X, it was time for a face lift. That means things have a changed a bit for long time users of PCD, but it's a change for the better Please reference the PCD8 printed or PDF^? manual for important information about working with Stationery.

What To Do

This section starts, oddly enough, at the beginning. We cover a few key points which are important for veteran and novice PCD users. We then cover information important to new or novice users, specifically what types of things you can put in your stationery pad drawing and how to save a new one in PCD8. Finally, we'll cover how veteran PCD users can reuse their existing stationery pad drawings in PCD8, and how to work with that content if it's on a network volume. For good measure we wrap things up with steps on how you can use Apple's standard Mac OS X feature set to create stationery files. Let's get started.

Key points to remember when working with Stationery in PCD8 are:

1. To use a file as Stationery in PCD8 you do not need to perform a File menu → Save AS (which was the case in previous versions)
2. Any item you'd like to use as Stationery needs to be in the Applications folder → PowerCADD 8 Application folder → Stationery folder
3. The items you put in the Stationery folder may be any type of file that PCD8 can open. This includes a typical PowerCADD drawing file, a PowerCADD Library, or any other file type it can Import or Open including *.jpg and other file types.
4. Opening a Stationery drawing always be opening a copy of the file. Your original (master) stationery file is never affected.
5. Items added to the Stationery folder are available immediately. It is not necessary to Quit and relaunch PCD for the changes to take effect.
6. If you have only one custom stationery drawing in the Stationery folder, that custom file will open each time you choose File menu → New. If you have more than one custom stationery in the Stationery folder you can choose which one to use from the New Document dialog.
7. You can adjust the sort order of items in the list by clicking on the column names. For example, to see your items displayed based on file size, click the Size column title.
8. Alias's are supported for files in the Stationery folder. PowerCADD ignores alias's of the Stationery folder, and alias's or real folders nested inside the Stationery folder

Example of multiple stationery items in the PowerCADD 8 New Document dialog.
Alias's to original files have a file size of zero and have a custom icon.

Working with PowerCADD 8 Stationery for the first time.

While there are no hard and fast rules as to what type of content should go in your Stationery drawings, here are few suggestions for the types of objects you could include. In this example we'll start from an empty, factory default, drawing, and we'll assume you have not added any items to the PowerCADD 8 Application folder → Stationery folder. A good rule of thumb to remember is: If it's something you use in every drawing on a regular basis, it's a likely candidate to be included in a stationery drawing. There's no limit to how many stationery drawings you can have so you can create them for different types of draw conditions.

To make a custom stationery drawing for the first time:

1. Choose File menu → New and a standard 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper opens.
2. Choose File menu → Page Setup to specify your preferred sheet size and orientation.
3. Choose Layout menu → Drawing Setup and specify your drawing settings including:
• Units (metric, or imperial)
• Scale
• Snap settings including preset snap angles.
• Any other drawing level settings.
4. Choose Attr menu → Lines... to specify your standard drawing line weights. Repeat that process for Attr menu → Arrows..., Attr menu → Dashes..., and any other standard attributes you like to use on a regular basis.
5. Choose Window menu → Layers Window and create any standard drawings layers you normally work with. For example, you may want to setup a Title Block layer to contain your standard drawing title block content.
6. Use the standard drawing tools to create objects you have in every drawing. For example, you might draw your title block content, including standard place holder text.
7. Choose Attr menu → Styles → New to create custom styles. Custom Styles are an efficient way to apply multiple object attributes (e.g. pen color, line weight, and dash pattern) using a single menu item. That single menu item may also be a custom key command.
8. When you've setup your preferred drawing, choose File menu → Save. The standard Save As... dialog opens.
9. Navigate to your Applications folder → PowerCADD 8 Application folder → Stationery folder and press Save.

Location of the new PowerCADD 8 Stationery folder

Using your new custom stationery to begin drawings is easy:

1. File menu → New, the New Document dialog opens listing all your custom stationery as pictured here:

2. Double click on the custom stationery you created earlier.
3. A copy of that file opens and you may begin drawing.

Remember: In order to see the New Document dialog you must have two or more custom stationery drawings in the Stationery folder. If you have only one custom stationery drawing in there, then that file is used every time you choose File menu → New.

You no doubt noticed a special file at the top of the list named Blank. That file is the factory default file that is always available to you and it cannot be removed from the list. If you need to create another custom stationery drawing you could start from that blank file, or start from one of your own custom ones.

To change a custom stationery drawing:
There may be times when it's necessary to go back and make a change to one of your custom stationery drawings. The process is simple:

1. Open the custom stationery drawing to be changed. You can do this by choosing File menu → New or by opening the PowerCADD Application folder → Stationery folder and double clicking on the file in the Finder.
2. Make the desired changes and choose File menu &rarr: Save.
3. Navigate to the PowerCADD Application folder → Stationery folder
4. To replace the old stationery with the new one, keep the same file name. Press Replace in the warning dialog to overwrite the old file
5. To keep the old stationery and add a new variation simply give the file a different name and press Save. The new and old stationery will both appear in the New Document dialog.

Using Stationery drawings from earlier versions of PowerCADD

If you're a veteran PCD users you no doubt have numerous stationery drawings which have saved you time and money over the years. No worries, you can reuse those in PCD8 and it's as easy as opening the file and choosing Save. The key point to remember is your legacy PCD stationery files were saved in a special format and that format is no longer required. That means you have two choices -- we recommend option two below.

Option 1: Move your legacy stationery drawings:

1. Locate your legacy PCD stationery drawings.
2. Move (or Copy) them into the Applications folder → PowerCADD 8 Application folder → Stationery folder.
3. The files will appear in the New Document dialog when choosing File menu → New.

We're not recommending this option simply because it maintains the old stationery pad drawing format. One of the problem is, in Mac OS X, the legacy PCD stationery drawings don't appear with custom icons and it gets confusing to distinguish them from regular documents. Because of that confusion we recommend option 2 below which requires a few extra steps but sets you up for the future. We believe it's more efficient to do this type of housekeeping sooner rather than later!

Option 2: Open your legacy stationery and Save them into the Stationery folder:

1. Open your legacy PCD stationery drawings in PCD8
2. Choose File menu → Save. Since this file has never been saved the Save As... process is automatically invoked by Mac OS X.
3. Navigate to the Applications folder → PowerCADD 8 Application folder → Stationery folder and press Save
4. Repeat this process for each legacy PCD stationery drawing. Hint: you could open all your legacy stationery files at the same time (provided you have sufficient memory) and simply

Remember that Mac OS X will always default to the folder you last used when performing a Save As... operation. As such we recommend converting all the legacy stationery pads at the same time (or in logical groups) to take advantage of that OS X level feature and make efficient use of your time.

Working with stationery on a network or external volume

Not all PCD users are alike -- thank goodness Some of keep all their files on a single internal hard drive, some use a combination of internal and external hard drives, and still others use a combination of local and networked volumes to store drawings. Stationery drawings are no different and depending on your particular filing needs it may be necessary to use one or all of the above choices to keep things organized. Fortunately there is a simple technique that works for all of those conditions - alias's.

If you want to keep the original stationery drawings in a location other than the PowerCADD Stationery folder, do this:

1. Open the folder containing the PCD file to be used as stationery. This folder might be on an external hard drive, on a network server volume, or simply in a folder someplace on your local internal hard drive.
2. Open the Applications folder → PowerCADD Application folder → Stationery folder and adjust the window positions so you can see them both on the screen (this makes life easier but isn't essential).
3. Press Command + Option as you drag the files from the folder noted in (1) to the folder noted in (2). This will automatically create an alias.
4. You can perform that operation for each file or you may select multiple files at the same time. The results are an alias to the file with same name as the original but the icon contains a small arrow. Here's an example of what an alias icon might look like:

Caution: For files stored on a network volume, remember that multiple users might have the ability to replace a file. If the original stationery file stored on the server is replaced with a new file of the same name, everyone will see the new file the next time it's chosen from the New Document dialog. Network administrators who want to have tight control over that content may want to consider modifying the read/write access privileges to either the specific stationery file, or to the entire volume users are connected to when making their alias's to the stationery file.

Mac OS X System support for stationery

We'll wrap up this article with a discussion on a standard Mac OS X feature that exists for handling stationery. While the internal model that PCD uses for stationery makes a whole of sense, we're including this discussion primarily for completeness as there might be a case where it helps you work around a particular situation in your office for managing stationery for any of your applications.

To create use any type of drawing as a stationery drawing, do this:

1. Save a file from your application of choice.
2. Select that file in the Finder and choose File menu → Get Info.
3. Check the box that reads Stationery Pad and close the Get Info window. We've shown an example in the screen shot below.
4. Every time you open the file modified in (3) you get a copy of that file to begin working on.

While most applications these days provide some internal method of creating stationery or template files, you might come across one that doesn't and the above trick is the work around.

So there you have it. Working with stationery in PowerCADD v8 has changed a little bit but overall it's a well integrated system that supports your new or legacy stationery drawings.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

Attribute Styles

Bill Stanley, President of Engineered Software , posted a sneak peak publicly of the new Object Attributes Window in the soon to be released update for PowerCADD 7. Here's our take on things.

The new feature refers to Styles, specifically creating new Attribute Styles. Styles is a time saving feature allowing you to save specific attribute setting combinations as an Attribute Style. These Attribute Styles can then be applied by selecting them from Attribute menu > Styles or from a Contextual Menu when you Control+Click on an object.

Choosing Attribute menu > Styles > New... (a new menu command) brings up a new Attribute Style dialog. The new, Styles, feature appears to support saving various object attributes including Opacity^? (new!) among many other attribute options. You be the judge of just what all these neat new features can bring to your work flow!

[inline:AttrStyles-1.jpg]

We're looking forward to talking more about the new features of PowerCADD 7 as soon as the product is available.

caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Attributes Window

Bill Stanley, President of Engineered Software , posted a sneak peak publicly of the new Object Attributes Window in the soon to be released update for PowerCADD 7. Here's our take on things.

The Attributes Window (Window menu > Attributes) is a floating window which allows you to change the drawing attributes of specific tools or all tools available in the Tool palette quickly and easily. You may also use the Attributes Window to change the characteristics of existing objects just as you do using the Attribute menu. If you're a veteran PowerCADD or PowerDRAW user, think of this as the old Defaults Window on steroids.

Examine the diagram carefully; from the look of the new Attributes Window it appears we have some existing new features in store for PowerCADD 7!

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Layer Opacity

Bill Stanley, President of Engineered Software , posted a sneak peak publicly of the new Layer Opacity^? Attribute in the soon to be released update for PowerCADD 7. Read the rest of this article to get our take on things.

The new feature refers to Layer Attributes, and specifically being able to globally adjust the opacity of a layer. Layer Opacity allows you to specify to what degree information is hidden or revealed below the layer. For example, a layer opacity of 100% hides all information below the layer. A layer set to 10% opacity would appear almost transparent, allowing you to see through to objects below. Adjusting layer opacity affects the Pen and Fill opacity of all objects on a layer, as compared to adjusting an objects Pen or Fill opacity attributes separately using the Attributes window. It may be helpful to consider Layer Opacity as Global to everything on a layer, and cumulative with respect object opacity attributes.

To adjust the Opacity Attribute of a specific Layer (or selected Layers), do this:

1. open the Layers Window by choosing Window menu > Layers Window (or press the L)
2. click on a layer name in the layer list
3. double click the layer name or click Edit
4. the Layer Attributes dialog appears as shown below
5. drag the opacity slider left or right to change the layers opacity or enter a value in the Layer Opacity field
6. click OK to see the results

Keep in mind the effects of adjusting opacity at the object and layer levels are going to be combined as shown below. It's also important to remember that when a layer status is set to dimmed (it may be on, off or dimmed) the layer is rendered as transparent and that effect will be combined as well. In this example all the circles have a pen opacity of 100% (solid) and a fill opacity as noted. The horizontal line is on the bottom most layer and all opacity settings are 100% (solid). Observe how the circles show more or less of the line as the opacity settings are combined.

[inline:LayerOpacityDiagramD.JPG.jpg]

As you can see, Layer Opacity can be a great way to globally change all the opacity attributes of objects on the same layer, and it can be combined with other opacity attributes to create a variety of effects. Just how important will Layer Opacity be in your work flow? Well, consider things like existing verses proposed conditions of a building or site plan. Perhaps a demolition plan. Perhaps you need to illustrate another consultants imported layers for context while emphasizing your particular component of the work. The usefulness of Layer Opacity exceeds just illustration work; have fun and experiment!

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

PowerDWG Translator

Bill Stanley, President of Engineered Software , posted a sneak peak publicly of the new PowerDWG Translator in the soon to be released update for PowerCADD 7. Here's our take on things.

Part 1: File^? formats
Yes! PowerDWG will read AutoCAD DWG release 10 through release 2006 file formats.

While we can't discuss the particulars of the translation process until the product is released, suffice to say part 1 is some pretty big news that will be welcome by many long time PowerCADD users.

Part 2: Improved Translator interface
If a picture is really worth a thousand words then the new DWG Incoming Settings dialog is War and Piece condensed into a single window!

Remember the old way? Well, as James Caan said in Mickey Blue Eyes "Fuhgeddaboutit" (forget about it) No more guess work thanks to an improved interface that includes a live preview! Every change made in the Incoming Settings dialog is updated in the Preview Pane and the suggested drawing scale and page size update too! Here's a general breakdown of the new interface:

We can't wait to talk more about this new suite of features; these should be a time and money saver.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Scale Hatch Patterns

Bill Stanley, President of Engineered Software , posted a sneak peak publicly of the new ability to Scale Hatch Patterns in the soon to be released update for PowerCADD 7. Read the rest of this article to get our take on things.

There is a new Hatch Settings submenu in the Attributes menu! Among the new options available for Hatch Settings is the ability to specify a scale factor ( Hatch Settings > Scale... ) to enlarge or reduce the size of a hatch pattern! Look closely folks, because while the new feature sneak peak deals specifically with Scale... there are some other new items in the menu that warrant careful consideration which we're not at liberty to openly discuss.

[inline:H1.jpg]


What does this mean? Well, it's a pretty big deal really. Remember that hatch patterns in PowerCADD 6 and PowerCADD 7 are associative and behave much like fill patterns in that they reflow when objects are resized or reshaped. In PowerCADD 6, a hatch pattern had to be converted to objects (hardened) before it could be rescaled, thereby breaking the association with the source object. With Hatch Settings > Scale... the pattern can be rescaled so it can be tweaked to suit a particular drawing scale, and still maintain it's association with the source object.


[inline:Hatches2.jpg]


No more having to play around trying to get the hatch scale right! Just draw the object, hatch it, and choose Hatch Settings > Scale... to make it larger or smaller. That has to be a productivity increase and time/money saver for anyone who deals with hatches in their drawings. Don't forget, hatches also translate via DWG^? and DXF^? and with the associative nature of hatches and other features you have to wonder if they might supplant fill patterns for a lot of users. Particularly those who need to maximize DWG compatibility but still want all the benefits of Macintosh fill patterns.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

P.S.: Did you notice the New Hatch menu item has an arrow which represents a new submenu too. Makes a person wonder just what's behind that curtain! |:)

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank!

A Few Interface Basics

Topic

Sometimes we just can't get around to writing a whole article addressing a particular topic. However, we often toss together quick demonstration movies to help folks out. This article has some demonstration movies and slide shows for various bits related some of the basics of the PowerCADD Interface... they're not perfect but until we get around to dotting the i's and crossing the t's, these will have to suffice

Requirements

Minimum: PowerCADD v6, Mac OS^? 9 or OS X (movies illustrate PowerCADD 6 interface in Mac OS X)
Recommended: PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X
Need Movie Help?

Tangent Snapping [290KB]: This movie shows how Tangent Snapping works. Simply press the T key before starting the drawing process. Remember to watch the Snap Indicator Window at the top of the screen and look for the red dot on the circle -- this confirms Tangent Snapping is enabled.

Snap Indicator Window Settings [275KB]: Press the Control Key and click on the Snap Indicator Window to change it's font preferences.

Drawing Setup / Size Dialog [250KB]: You should review the PowerCADD Manual for a complete description of all the features of the Drawing Setup / Size settings but this quick flick shows you some of the neat features like the drawing preview, zooming and setting sheet sizes.

Page Setup Demonstration [1.1MB]: A quick review on how preform a page setup and choose a sheet size -- in this case up to 200 x 200 inches!

Layer Attributes (300KB downnload) Layer Attributes can be assigned to multiple selected layers. In this demo movie, we pressed the Command key as we clicked on each layer as it allowed us to select layers at random (i.e. the layers were not all in the same order)

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Arrow Heads on Rounded Rectangles

Question

When I draw a Round Rectangle in PowerCADD on the X, Y axis it looks correct. However, when I rotate the Round Rectangle it now renders to screen with arrow heads. Why did this happen and how do I fix it?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Background

It is possible to assign an arrow style to a Round Rectangle after it's drawn. You can also assign arrow attributes to the Round Rectangle Tool itself. The same rules hold true for Rotated Rectangles and other PowerCADD objects.

Round Rectangles typically do not render to screen with arrow styles. There is, however, a unique condition that occurs when a Round Rectangles is rotated -- it becomes a Polygon. The Polygon is composed of numerous vertices which follow the shape of the original Round Rectangle. Like all closed polygons, there is a start point and an end point which are in the same X, Y position (obviously required to close the shape).

How could this happen?

There are two typical situations which can cause this condition. First, the Round Rectangle was accidentally assigned an arrow attribute after it was created. This might happen by using the PowerCADD Eye Dropper Tool, or WildTOOLs Needle Tool and you accidentally clicked on the Round Rectangle in the drawing. Another common situation is the object may have been accidentally selected as part of other objects to which the arrow style needed to be applied. Second, arrow attributes could have been assigned to the Round Rectangle Tool before drawing. In either case, you will not see the problem when a Round Rectangle is drawn on the X,Y axis since, when on axis, it is not described with the start and end points like a Polygon.

What to do

The fix is easy and there are two choices:

1. Select the Round Rectangle object that was rotated and exhibits the problem (which is now a Polygon) and assign an Arrow pattern of none.
2. Double click on the Round Rectangle Tool in the Tool Palette (this will deselect all objects) and make sure the tool is assigned an arrow style of none.

We've prepared this quick demonstration movie (1.7MB download) which shows many of the various conditions and the fixes. In this demonstration movie we are pressing the Control key and clicking on the objects or tool palette to assign attributes but you can also use the Default Window, Attributes Window or Attributes menu. In the end, it comes down to PowerCADD showing you exactly what attributes were assigned for the type of object created. (need movie help?)

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Bitmaps and Highlight Selection

Question

Should bitmaps be treated as a special condition when Highlight Selection (Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View > Highlight Selection) is enabled?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Discussion

A special condition doesn't seem necessary since the there are only a few conditions where a bitmap alone would want to be selected and the behavior now seems predictable when Highlight Selection is Enabled. Note that while the specific points below mention bitmaps, the same condition is true for PICT^? or PDF^? objects -- they all react in the same, consistent, fashion as noted here.

In looking at whether a special case exists for treating bitmaps uniquely when Highlight Selection is Enabled, it seems to a good start point is to evaluate how bitmaps are treated now in various common drawing conditions. A few of those conditions are discussed below.

multiple selections: A related article on this site describes that multiple selections (a bitmap plus an object( above it) behave correctly in that objects on layers above the bitmap will render to screen when selected. There is a nuance where objects on the same layer as the bitmap become obscured -- however for drawing management reasons large bitmaps are typically always on their own layer so this seems to be a non-issue in that context.

move by drag: These articles (here and here ) describe how to make the selected bitmap( transparent in that condition without turning off Highlight Selection.

resize: bitmaps becomes transparent during a drag to resize operation. This presumes PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View > Transparent Drawing is enabled which seems like a reasonable presumption since we can't have a discussion of Transparency^? of bitmaps or any object if those preferences are disabled.

crop: bitmaps becomes transparent during a crop operation

deleting: clearly not an issue for transparency -- select the item and delete it.

apply bitmap effect: (choose Tool menu > Apply Bitmap Effect...) Transparency when selected doesn't seem important in this condition since only the bitmap is selected for the effect and the preview is specific to the QuickTime window, not the entire drawing window. After applying the QT Effect the item is rendered to screen normally when deselected

applying bitmap transition tools: (Bitmap Effect Tool and Bitmap Transformation Tool) Transparency of the selected bitmap might be important if the 4 sided polygon it's being mapped to is above it. However it seems more likely the polygon being mapped to is either adjacent it or can be easily moved for this single condition

Print Selection: This is a bit of an odd one. Selecting only a bitmap to define the region to be printed (for example for Selected Object/Fit to Page) will obscure other data above it which will in fact be printed. One could argue it's not consistent with a WYSIWYG^? printing environment but this seems like a case where having a unique print region layer (with a rectangle or 2 snap points) fixes the condition and has other management benefits.

Consistency: This might be an issue as being a case for a special condition. A filled object (e.g. rectangle solid red) does not obscure data when selected and Highlight Selection is enabled. Then again, the rectangle can be edited (e.g. to change fill pattern or color) so one needs to see it in context. Since bitmaps become transparent when edited as described in other points above perhaps things are consistent in that context and the need for a special condition isn't necessary after all.

Other conditions may apply that aren't described above but it seems those are the majority of conditions which seem to work even if Highlight Selection is enabled.

The other part of the question

For the sake of discussion, let's presume a case can be made to treat bitmaps as a special condition. How should the bitmap be treated if not as described above?

Some immediate thoughts are:

Make the bitmap transparent: This already seems to be happening now but the bitmap could automatically be rendered as transparent when selected and Highlight Selection preference is enabled. The down side to this might be a significant performance hit since that transparent preview needs to be 'built' before it can be rendered to screen. In light of the fact many users now are running Mac OS X and PowerCADD 6 on legacy machines, this may not be a practical solution. In PowerCADD 7 running in OS X on newer hardware might not be adversly affected.

Show only a bounding box: When a bitmap is selected, a bounding box could be shown instead of the content of the bitmap. This solution has the potential of being very fast with respect to performance and could benefit users on new and legacy hardware. Further, it seems this could be an application level preference which is not directly related to Highlight Selection. That is, the preference would be a View preference which could allows users to always render selected bitmaps as 'bounding boxes only' (verses showing transparent content). This might have more merit that attempting to link things with the current Highlight Selection Preference. Clearly, if this feature were enabled, then one needs to go back and consider the implications of what happens when bitmaps are cropped or resized --a condition where a full verses bounding box only preview is essential to performing the task.

Low Rez Preview: Rather than a simple empty bounding box (which is potentially scary for a user to see) a low resolution preview might be the other model to consider. When a bitmap is selected, rather the rendering a high quality preview (currently the case), a low resolution - pixelated - preview may be faster to render. Of course this is also a potentially scary notion for many users since they click on an item and it changes on screen and they may think it's potentially destructive. Still, it might be worth considering - look at Apple's iPhoto for example which generates pixelated previews which become sharper after scrolling or loading has completed.

Similar to Hide Dimensions/Hatches/Text: (PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View // or // View menu > Hide Text / Hide Hatch / Hide Dimensions). The existing feature to hide Text, Dimensions and Hatching is currently in place to help tweak performance. Given this precedent, is the concept of a "Hide Bitmap" which would still render the bounding box (or some other mode of visual feedback) when selected any different? It seems they are all related at a conceptual level as they hide information from the user which is intended to help improve performance.

Summary

Based on the current behavior of bitmaps when Highlight Selection is enabled, there does not appear to be a case for treating them as special under those conditions. However, for general performance reasons, having a user preference which allows bitmaps to be displayed as transparent (currently the case) or as bounding box only or low resolution preview may be a direction worth pursing which would benefit system and application performance in general for every user rather than only those users who work with Highlight Selection enabled. Give we already have the ability to Hide Hatch/Text/Dimensions perhaps a logical precedent has been set and users would be comfortable (not surprised or shocked) with the idea of a 'hidden bitmap' which somehow shows only an outline.

Ultimately it comes down to clarity of communication with the user. The current model is very communicative and clear -- essentially not broken or lack of a better description. Still, there's always room for improvement and discussion is the only way to test ideas.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Dragging or Selecting Bitmaps Obscures Data

Question

When I drag or select a bitmap, it obscures all other data in my drawing. This is true even when the bitmap is on the bottom most layer of the layer stack. How do we correct the problem?

Requirements:

PowerCADD v6.0.8 and Mac OS^? 10.3.2
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS 10.4.4 recommended

Background

This related article in our Answer Archives : Preview When Dragging Objects : may also contain helpful information

To allow users to optimize their work environment, PowerCADD has several application level preferences allowing you to fine tune performance, particularly with respect to working with Quartz in Mac OS X.

What to Do

There are three options to address the screen redraw condition being described

Option 1: read this related article in our Answer Archives: Preview When Dragging Objects

Option 2: Adjust the Transparent Drawing Preference:

1. Choose PowerCADD menu → Preferences... → View Tab → Use Transparent Drawing settings
2. when Transparent Drawing = ON (checked), bitmaps render semi transparent and all data is visible when dragging
3. When Transparent Drawing = OFF (unchecked), bitmaps render 100% opaque (solid) and all data is obscured when dragging with the exception of the selected object

If you prefer to work with Transparent Drawing = OFF, then Option 1 may well contain the better solution.

Option 3: Highlight Selection Preference:

When Highlight Selection is turned on (checked), a selected bitmap will obscure all other data even when that bitmap is the bottom most object or on the on the bottom most layer. Disabling Highlight Selection corrects the condition, do this:

1. Choose PowerCADD menu → Preferences...
2. Click the View tab
3. Uncheck Highlight Selection
4. Result: When a bitmap is selected it will no longer obscure other data in the drawing above it

Note, if Highlight Selection = On (checked), and the bitmap is on the bottom most layer, selecting multiple objects which include the bitmap will still render all objects. That is, objects above the bitmap will be highlighted (grayed out) thereby allowing all objects to be seen. Objects on the same layer but on top of the bitmap will be obscured when they're all selected which is somewhat of an anomaly but may not be an issue as large bitmaps are typically always on their own layer for drawing management purposes.

The combination of preference settings noted above become important as they interact with each other during drag and selection operations. If you work with large bitmaps in drawings, looking carefully at how each combination works together will be important to find the best fit for your particular work flow. Don't forget to read the article described in Option 1 for additional information.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Drawing with a Touch Pad Feels Jumpy

Question

When I use the touch pad on my PowerBook to draw in PowerCADD the cursor feels jumpy and imprecise. This makes it very difficult or almost impossible to use snapping effectively, perform simple drag to move operations, or navigate using the interactive Pan Tool. How to do fix the problem?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther or Mac OS 9
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Background

The nature of drawing with a computer requires fine control in tracking the position of the mouse and cursor to achieve smooth and accurate results. Tracking accuracy with external mice or a tablet and stylus will typically provide better accuracy and improve the feel of drawing in any application. However, there are times when using the trackpad on a laptop is necessary.

Ignore Accidental Trackpad Input (a System Level Preference) is often checked ON to avoid those frustrating moments when the trackpad is accidentally touched during a typing or scrolling operation in traditional word processing or general use applications. The accidental touches cause significant frustration as the cursor moves or jumps to a new insertion point without the user recognizing what happened. However, PowerCADD (and other drawing applications) don't see those minor touches of the trackpad as accidental. Rather, the minor mouse movements are important nuances to how a drawing applications provides important visual feedback and is critical to the feel of the drawing process.

What to do

The fix for improving the tracking and feel of drawing with a trackpad is simple:

1. Choose Apple Menu > System Preferences > Mouse & Keyboard > Trackpad
2. Uncheck Ignore Accidental Trackpad Input (unchecked = Off)
3. Choose System Preferences > Quit System Preferences

Now, when you return to PowerCADD, the cursor should feel much smoother and more responsive.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

How do Key Commands Work

Question

I have key commands assigned to specific Line Weights, Dash Patterns and Arrow Styles. How does PowerCADD assign key commands to Line Weights and other object attributes?

Requirements

PowerCADD any version (version 7.0 or newer recommended)

Background

For a complete description on how to assign your own Custom Key commands to any PowerCADD menu item or tool, please reference the PowerCADD manual.

PowerCADD allows you to assign your own key commands to any tool or menu item in the application (PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Commands Tab), including Line Weights, Dash Patterns, Colors, and Arrow Styles, and so on. A printed list of these key commands is saved in the PowerCADD Key Defaults file (User Directory/Library/Preferences/PowerCADD/PowerCADD Key Defaults) that may be opened and printed for general reference.

Note: The PowerCADD Key Defaults is created when you add your first custom key command. If you never add your own custom commands, then the PowerCADD Key Defaults will not be created. In that case, for a complete listing of the default key commands reference the PowerCADD user manual.

Assigning a key command to a Line Weight, Arrow Style, Dash Pattern, or Colors actually assigns the key command to a unique position in the menu, not the actual value itself. For example, assigning the key command Shift + 1 to the 0.25 point Line Weight (Attr menu > Lines > 0.25 point) actually assign the key command to the first position of the Line Weight sub-menu.

But wait! You may have noticed, if you usually work in millimetres, the PowerCADD Key Defaults file lists your Line Weight key commands by numeric value (e.g. .18, .25, .35, etc). If the Line Weight key command were actually assigned by Position, shouldn't they read Line 1, Line 2, etc.?

In this case it's important to remember PowerCADD is putting a polite, user friendly, face on the database which actually makes up the Key Command lookup table. Since PowerCADD permits multiple Line Weights (and other object attributes) in a single drawing, and those Line Weights can be in any order with any unit (mm, inches, points), assigning values by name would quickly create an database list which would become impractical to manage.

What's Happening?

Behind every menu item name is a number. The text displayed in the PowerCADD Key Defaults file is all just a fascade for the database. To see physical proof of this, do this:

1. create two new, untitled drawings
2. in drawing one, adjust the Line Weight attributes to be in mm (millimetres)
3. in drawing two, leave the Line Weight attributes in points
4. with drawing two active, assign a key command to the 0.25 point line weight (first position in the Line submenu)
5. draw a line in drawing two and use the key command assigned in (4)
6. note the object is assigned a line weight of 0.25 point (first line weight position)
7. make drawing one active and draw a line
8. use the key command assigned in (4)
9. note the object is assigned the mm line weight value specified in the first position for that drawing

The same rules applies for Dash Patterns, Colors, Arrow Styles and other object attributes.

How does this work?

The entire menu structure could be likened to a cascading waterfall. For example, in OS^? X, to navigate to the First Line weight in the Attribute menu the waterfall, from highest level to lowest level, would look like (apologies to the programmers reading this - we realize the summary here is quite general in it's description) :

-application "PowerCADD" or any app. and this isn't even the top of the waterfall
---menu bar 1
-----menu title "Attr" (9) {Attr menu is the 9th position over counting the Apple menu}
--------menu "Attr" (1)
----------menu item "Line" (1) {First item in the Attr menu}
------------menu "Line" (1)
--------------menu item "0.25 point" (1) {1st item in the Line submenu}
--------------menu item "1 point" (2) {2nd item in the Line submenu}
--------------repeats for each item in the list

The same basic structure holds true for dash patterns, arrows, etc.

The Key Command is assigned to the specific part of the waterfall - whatever is in that position is what the Key Command goes and gets.

Imagine how complex the path would become if it was called by name - there would be a unique name for every possible size for each of the three units (points,mm,inches) - scary stuff!

Having said that - there can be times when it's advantgeous to call items by menu name instead of number. For example some items change position in the menus when an external is or isn't loaded. But that's starting to get a bit carried away.

We hoped that help lay the foundation for a more complete understanding as to some of the nuances with assigning key commands to Line Weights and other object attributes.

caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Keeping Everyone on the Same Page

Question

What are my options for keeping everyone in my office on the same page with respect to using the same line weights, colors, layers, etc.?

Requirements

PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? X ( OS 10.4.4 recommended)

Background

PowerCADD 6 used Stationery Pads as the primary method for keeping everyone on the same page. In PowerCADD 7, Engineered Software introduced a new feature, Global Attributes which can also be used (note: Stationery Pads still exist in PowerCADD 6)

The distinction between Global Attributes and Stationery Pads for keeping folks on the same page is distinct.

The Differences

Global Attributes (accessed by choosing PowerCADD menu > Preferences... > General tab > Global Attributes check box )allows you to create common attribute menu items for Line weights, Pen and Fill Color, Fill Patterns, hatch patterns, Dashes, Arrows and Attribute Styles. The settings are saved in a dedicated default file named Default Table which is stored in user directory > Library > Preferences > PowerCADD folder > Default Table file.

It would be possible for a user to seed the Default Table file, put that on a server, and let others copy that file to their location to see the same attributes.

If everybody does not have the Default Table then they will NOT all see the same menu choices for the above note attributes.

That could be an issue so proceed carefully to really understand what Global Attributes is doing before going whole hog. It's a great feature -- just move carefully is my advice

What Global Attributes doesn't do is allow you to setup standard Layers, Sheet Setups, source objects like Title Blocks, Drawing scales, etc. -- that's where Stationery Pads still have their place as they can contain custom Attributes and all the other items listed above. In the case of a single Stationery used in an office, it could be saved on a server and PowerCADD can be told to grab that file on launch. In the case of multiple stationery pads, an alias to that folder on a server can be used locally to link to the various files. Both of those methods can, in some circumstances, make it easier to keep multiple people on the same page.

The PowerCADD 7 manual has several pages on Global Attributes and it's worth reviewing that and playing with it at the same time to see the implications. I recommend starting with a single custom attribute (something obvious like a huge fat line weight or custom fill pattern) first to see how that works then build up from there.

There is no right or wrong answer with respect to which to use -- Global Attributes or Stationery Pads. Each have strengths and weakness. Best advice it to experiment and see what works best for your particular conditions.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Maximum Number of Layers

Question

Is there a maximum number of layers I can have in my PowerCADD drawings?

Requirements

Any version of PowerCADD and Mac OS^? (PowerCADD 7 or newer recommended, Mac OS X 10.4.3 or newer recommended)

Background

PowerCADD (and it's predecessor PowerDRAW) allow you create multiple layers in a single drawing (think of them as sheets of mylar or acetate for those of us old enough to remember manual overlay drafting).

In practical terms, there is no limit to the number of layers you can have in a drawing. Just how many are too many or too few layers is a matter of personal organization preference and the type of drawing one does.

In physical terms - sure, there is a limit. According to Engineered Software (authors of PowerCADD) that limit is 32,000 layers. Now, that's a lot of layers and we've been unwilling to take the time to try and physically test that limit.

Suffice to say that maximum of 32,000 layers , even if empty, would create a pretty darn large and incredibly slow drawing in terms of performance. We're also not sure how many monitors would be required to navigate that type of layer structure.

What to do

Take a common sense approach and create as many layers as necessary to organize your work for maximum flexibility. It's unlikely you'll ever hit that 32,000 layer limit - at least we hope you never hit it !

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Methods of Panning/Scrolling :: PowerCADD

Question

How can I pan or scroll in the drawing window?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Discussion

Panning or Scrolling in a drawing window is the other side of the general drawing navigation coin (zooming in or out being the flip side of that coin). Here, in no particular order, are the methods available for panning (or scrolling) in a PowerCADD drawing (please reference the PDF^? or printed manuals for specific, step by step, instructions on using these methods):

(1) Pan Tool:
In the first row of the tool palette, choose the Pan Tool then press and drag in the drawing window to 'move the paper' so you can see the desired area. This has been a Mac OS standard for decades and is available in various drawing applications.

(2) Interactive Pan:
Similar to the Pan Tool only it goes to the next logical level! With any drawing tool selected, simply press the Space Bar. The cursor will change to the 'grab hand' - press and drag to pan - release the Space Bar and you're drawing tool is still active - how cool is that!

(3) Scroll Arrows:
Click on a scroll arrow will move you up, down, left or right one line depending on which arrow you press (again, this is a Mac OS standard but it's so common sense it's too easy to miss, especially for new users or Windows / AutoCad converts). Of course there are some creative twists that make this feature even more useful. If you'd like to tweak performance, choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View and specify a smaller or larger number in the Line Scroll field. The Mac OS typically allows users to put scroll arrows at the top or grouped together at only the bottom - however - did you know you can also specify 'double scroll arrows' at both the top/bottom/left/right of the drawing window? That's right - here's a screen shot of how they look. The amount of mousing around this saves is significant!

(4) Scroll Up/Down/Left/Right
You can assign custom key commands which perform the same task as clicking on an up/down/left/right scroll arrow. Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Commands > Miscellaneous and assign a key command to Scroll Up, Scroll Down, Scroll Left or Scroll Right.

5) Scroll Bars
Press and drag on a scroll bar (vertical or horizontal) to reveal a different portion of the drawing area. Again this is a Mac OS standard which can be customized in PowerCADD to help you optimize performance for your particular hardware configuration. Choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > View and specify a smaller or larger number in the Page Scroll field. (see previous image)

(6) Area Between Scroll Bars and Scroll Arrows
Here is yet another Mac OS golden oldie method of navigation. If you click in the grey area between a scroll bar and a scroll arrow, you will advance height or width of the drawing window. This can be a great way to surf around a drawing, one drawing window 'tile' at a time. Think of this as moving 'one page' at a time where a page is defined as what you can see in the drawing window (remember, the drawing window can be any size and this feature will behave consistently with respect to that size).

[inline:Scroll02.jpg]

(7) Page Up/Down/Left/Right arrows
There are key commands which are also available to move one drawing window at time in the direction specified by the arrow. This has the same effect as clicking in the grey area between scroll bars and scroll arrows described earlier. The default key commands assigned are Shift + [the arrow key] where [the arrow key] is left, right, up or down as shown on the keyboard. Like all other PowerCADD key commands, you may also assign your own custom values by choosing PowerCADD menu > Preferences > Commands > Miscellaneous and choosing Page Up, Page Down, Page Left or Page Right.

(8 ) Auto Scroll
When dragging to draw or move an object, the screen will automatically scroll when your mouse collides with an invisible barrier on all sides of the drawing window. If you are having a difficult time getting this feature to work correctly, choose PowerCADD menu > Preferences > General and uncheck the box next to Drag and Drop Enabled. There is a fine line between wanting to drag and drop information out of the drawing window and wanting to enable auto scroll and early versions of PowerCADD v6 had a smaller 'sweet spot'. We recommend making sure you have the latest version of PowerCADD v6 to ensure the drag and drop verses auto scroll interface is working correctly.

(9) Overview Window
Press and drag on the red zoom rectangle in the Overview Window to move it. As the red zoom rectangle moves the main drawing window is updated.

In addition to the zooming techniques described in our related article and panning/scrolling, Sheet Setups (Layout menu > Sheets) and Saved Views (View menu > Views and View menu > Store Views) are also excellent means of further optimizing your drawing navigation. We hope that's helpful and gives you a few ideas on how you can navigate your drawings quickly and easily. Remember, there isn't any single method that will work for every drawing situation so practice them all and before you know it they'll become second nature.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

New Quick Pan Feature

New Feature in 7.0.2

The ability to Pan has been improved in PowerCADD v7.02 with the addition Quick Pan.

Requirements

PowerCADD v7.0.2 or newer

Background

PowerCADD v7.0.2 builds on the previous Pan tool to now allow for Quick Pan. In effect, Quick Pan temporarily disables or modified the redraw the following items to screen:

• Hatch Patterns
• Opacity^? effects
• Shadows
• Text is Greeked (turned to gray boxes)

What To Do

There are two methods to enable Quick Pan which we'll describe here.

Option 1: Selecting the Pan Tool.
To enable Quick Pan do this:

1. Choose the Pan tool from the Tool Palette
2. Press Option as you drag the Pan icon on the screen
3. Observe: some items are not rendered to screen as you pan through the drawing but all primary drawing objects are there for navigation context
4. Release Option to restore the screen redraw to it's normal state

Option 2: Interactive Pan when another tool is selected
To enable Quick Pan do this:

1. With any drawing tool selected, press Option + Space Bar
2. The Pan tool is temporarily activated.
3. Drag the mouse to pan in the drawing
4. Observe: some items are not rendered to screen as you pan through the drawing but all primary drawing objects are there for navigation context
5. Release Option to restore the screen redraw to it's normal state and your previous tool selection is restored

What we'd like to see:
We'd like to see this same Quick Pan technology applied to all the various methods of Panning and Scrolling available in PowerCADD as described in the manual and in this article on our website.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Opacity verses Transparency

Question

With the introduction of PowerCADD 7, Engineered Software has introduced a new opacity feature which allows us to independently adjust pen, fill and layer opacity . Well, what is it and how does that compare to transparency?

Requirements

PowerCADD version 7.0 or newer and Mac OS^? X (v 10.4.4 or newer recommended)

Background

If you're already familiar with other applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign, or if you've used Apple's Pages or Keynote applications, then you may already be familiar with the concept of opacity. However, the feature is new to PowerCADD 7 so let's begin with two simple definitions which lay the foundation for understanding the principles of opacity in PowerCADD 7

Opacity^?: The condition of lacking transparency or translucence. We cannot see through objects which are 100% opaque.

Transparency^?: The condition of being transparent or see through. An object which is 100% transparent is invisible.

In simple terms, transparency is the result of changing an objects opacity.

What does this mean?

In all versions of PowerCADD, prior to version 7, objects had two states. 100% opaque (we could not see through them) or 0% opaque (they were totally transparent). Think of a circle with a solid fill pattern. It obscured everything below it; the fill pattern was opaque. If that same circle had a fill pattern of Nil, we could see all objects below it; the fill pattern was invisible.

So, why is the new opacity feature in PowerCADD 7 referred to as opacity and not transparency?
In physical terms, we adjust opacity thereby determining to what degree information is hidden or revealed below. For example, an opacity of 100% hides all information below an object or layer . An opacity of 10% would appear almost totally transparent, allowing you to see through to objects below. In the example shown below, we adjusted the objects fill opacity from 100% (solid) to 0% (invisible); notice how we see more of the line below as the circles fill pattern becomes more transparent.





Why do the objects appear to fade to white?
In the above examples, the objects appear to fade to white because the background (in this case the PowerCADD drawing page) is white. However, if the objects below the transparent objects are colored, then the color tint will be different. Here's a simple example where the same solid blue fill object with a 40% or 20% fill opacity is overlaid on different colors and patterns. When compared to the white or black background on the far left, adjusting the objects opacity does not specifically fade to white. Rather, the color is a mix between the foreground (transparent) objects and background (opaque) objects.

While it's easy to confuse transparency and opacity, they are essentially opposite sides of the same coin. We change opacity to make something more see through, in effect making something more or less transparent. Put another way, adjusting opacity is like fading in or out. We fade in to solid, we fade out to invisible by adjusting an objects opacity.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Preference File Locations :: PowerCADD7

Question

Where are all the preference files stored for PowerCADD and WIldTools in Mac OS^? X?

Requirements

PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger or newer recommended

Background

Because Mac OS X is a multi-user operating system, application preferences are unique to each user not specific to the core operating system. In Mac OS 9, application preferences were part of the core operating system folder (assuming multi-user mode was not used).

There is one core set of PowerCADD preferences which holds both the PowerCADD and WIldTOOLs application level preferences.

When trouble shooting possible problems, it can often be helpful Quit PowerCADD and remove the PowerCADD Defaults file or remove the com.engsw.PowerCADD.plist file from their current locations to the desktop. The next time you launch PowerCADD new files are created with clean factory defaults. If the problem goes away, you can trash the old files you removed.

The PowerCADD Preferences folder, located at User/Library/Preferences/PowerCADD, contains the following folders and files the first time PowerCADD launches. If you are upgrading from PowerCADD 6 and used Mac OS X your folder may contain additional custom items from PowerCADD 6.

• Custom Tool Palettes folder: Your personal Custom Tool palettes.
• DWG^? Templates folder: Your personal Line Weight to Color or Color to Line Weight templates saved when using the PowerDWG Translator.
• Gradient Templates folder: Your personal Gradient Templates you save using the Gradient Tool
• Data Templates file: Your personal Database Templates you save using the Set Data command.
• Default Tables file: Your personal Global Attribute values.
• PowerCADD 7 Defaults file: Settings related to general application level defaults such as tool palette and floating window positions.
• PowerCADD 7 Key Commands file: contains internal information used by PowerCADD to allow key command shortcuts.
• Custom Color Palettes file: Your personal PowerCADD color palette information
• Custom.Dict file: any words you add using the PowerCADD spell checker.
• PowerCADD Key Defaults file: Your personal key commands. If you do not assign any custom key commands this file is not created.

What To Do

Your PowerCADD Preferences are stored in this path:
Startup Disk/Users/UsersHomeFolder/Library folder/Preferences folder /PowerCADD folder/. The PowerCADD folder will contain all the application level preferences, custom color palettes, etc, for PowerCADD and WIldTools as described earlier.

There is a second file stored in this location:
StartupDisk/User/UsersHomeFolder/Library/Preferences/com.engsw.PowerCADD7.plist. This file stores a variety of application level preferences such as layer names used for the Layer Tools function.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Preview when dragging objects

Question:

How can I see a preview of objects I'm moving when dragging them in PowerCADD v6?

Requirements:

Mac OS^? X 10.2.x and PowerCADD v6.0.4
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS 10.4.4 recommended

Background

Prior to version 6 of PowerCADD (and Mac OS X), you could press the Option key when dragging to move objects. With the Option key pressed you saw a preview of all the selected objects. When the Option key wasn't pressed you saw only a dimmed bounding box defining the extents of the objects selected.

With the introduction of Mac OS X and PowerCADD v6, pressing the Option key when dragging an object will now duplicate the selected object(.

When you have multiple objects selected in PCadd v6 and you begin a drag to move operation, the object you immediately moused down on will be previewed and a dimmed bounding box defining the extents of the remaining selected objects is displayed.

Note:in PowerCADD v6 you also have a preference allowing you to enable or disable High Quality Drags. Typically, High Quality Drags is disabled (unchecked as shown in this screen shot) to help increase application performance by simplifying the image redrawn to screen when moving objects.

What to do

If you'd like to see a preview of all selected objects when performing a move by dragging operation, press the Control Key. When the Control key is pressed, all objects are previewed. When the Control key is released, only the object you immediately pressed the mouse button down upon will be previewed.

This demo movie (296KB download) shows the differences when we did this: (need movie help?)

1. selected all the items to be moved
2. pressed the mouse button down on one of the selected objects and started to drag
3. notice the move cursor appears and only the object we moused down upon is previewed as we drag. All other objects are described by a dimmed rectangle defining the extents of the selected objects.
4. observe that pressing the cmd>Control Key as we drag the item causes all selected objects to be previewed as we perform our move by dragging operation

A special note regarding bitmaps:
If the selection set contains a bitmap then there are two important nuances to remember:

1. If a bitmap is part of the selection set and you mouse down on the bitmap to drag and move objects, then all objects are obscured by the bitmap. This is normal behavior. Simply press the Control key as described above and all objects will be previewed in the correct order.
2. If a bitmap is part of a select set and you mouse down on an object other than the bitmap to drag and move objects then only the selected object is previewed as described earlier. Simply press the cmd>Control key and all objects, including the bitmap, will be previewed in the correct order.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Show Location and Grid Snap Settings

Question

How can Show Location and Grid Snap settings assist me in my drawing and design process?

Requirements

PowerCADD v6 and Mac OS^? X Panther
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.4) or newer recommended

Background

There are a wide range of conditions where Show Location and Grid Snap Settings can make the creation of accurate geometry quick and easy. The PowerCADD manual (Printed or PDF^?) has excellent descriptions of these core features and should be referenced for additional information. This article will provide some general information to spark your imagination and give you a sense of how the information might help speed up your drawing process.

Show Location: can be useful as it tells you where you are on the drawing page. This information can be useful for measuring distances without using drawing or dimension tools or to help create geometry in a particular location. (see Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Show tab > Location check box)

Grid Snap Settings: are useful as the set the incremental value by which an object's size will increase when it's drawn, resized or reshaped. To be of value, Grid Snap must be turned on. Note, we ALWAYS recommend having Grid Snap turned on when drawing, this is just one of the many reasons. (see Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Snap tab > Grid check box). This becomes particularly valuable when you need to create fast, accurate, design layout diagrams. For example, if you are drawing a floor plan or elevation to a scale of 1/2"=1'-0" , setting a grid snap value of 3" means objects are be snapped in 3" increments when drawn. Drawing a line, for example, would see it's length increase from 3" to 6" to 9", etc., as the mouse is dragged to define the objects length.

What To Do

In the following example we demonstrate how you could use the Show Location (when set to Delta X, Delta Y) and Grid Snapping can be used to draw a line which starts from the corner of a building and ends at a particular delta X,Y location. Grid Snapping allows us to draw the object simply by reading the values in the Edit Window and Show Location indicator. Please note, we are using this example for illustration purposes only of how the techniques might be applied together. If you are wanting to draw objects a specific offset distance, there are other techniques including using Offset Snapping discussed in this section of our website which are likely more efficient.

Demo Movie (500KB download) (need movie help?) As you watch the above demonstration movie, please pay particular attention to the following:

1. Show Location: We turn this on using the Drawing Setup settings and click on it to toggle between display states. Notice when we begin the drawing operation how the Edit Window and Show Location both tell us where we are in space and the objects size (in this case line length)
2. Snap Window: We have opened the snap window (top left) which provides visual feedback as to the current object snap state. Notice as we mouse over the Vertex snap is automatic. We could have also forced an End snap by pressing E on the keyboard
3. Drawing Setup Grid Snap: note we have set the grid snap to 3". As we draw, notice the Edit Window shows the object length jumping in 3" increments. Setting the value to 1" would jump object dimensions in 1" increments. For illustration we've shown a drawing setup scale of 1/2" =1'-0"
4. Visual Feedback: notice as we draw the Show Location zeroed the Delta X, Delta Y when we started to draw. Notice it displays the values on the fly as we drag the mouse to draw. We can simply read the values in the Show Status location and release the mouse when we have reached the desired location

This is one way - there are easier ways to achieve a similar effect but this should give you a sense on how the Grid Snap Settings and Show Location can provide important visual feedback and assist in data entry.

Demo Movie (180KB download) to start drawing a line from a specified delta x, delta y offset. (need movie help?) In this example we did this:

1. turned on show status as per pervious example
2. clicked the mouse at the corner of the building (notice delta x, delta y were zeroed in the show status field, bottom left of screen)
3. we positioned the mouse on screen where delta x, delta y were at the desired spot and clicked the mouse
4. we choose the Continuous Line tool
5. notice were we put the curser - far away from the spot we clicked in step (3)
6. we mouse down and drag to start to draw - the line automatically started from the x,y location specified in step (3)

Since the Continuous Line tool starts drawing from the last place we clicked (the last mouse down location), setting the start point was as simple as reading the values in the Show Location indicator and clicking the mouse (again, an Offset Snap is likely the better choice for this type of operation but it does allows us to demonstrate the Continuous Line tool which is rare).

We hope that helps provide you with a few options on how to Show Location might be useful. We also suggest you experiment with the different Show Location states. For example how setting Show Location to length and angle could be used, in conjunction with Object Snapping, to accurately measure distances in a drawing without drawing objects. We also suggest you try different Grid Snap settings to see just what a huge time saver they can be in creating modular geometry --this feature alone is a valuable timesaver once you understand the implications!

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Simulate Thin Lines :: PowerCADD

Question

My coworker doesn't like the Simulate Thin Lines feature and I do. Is there any way to have my Simulate Thin Lines setting override someone else's when I open their drawing?

Requirements:

PowerCADD v6 or PowerCADD v7
PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? 10.4.4 recommended

Background

The short answer to the question is No. The same answer would also apply to any setting that is part of Drawing Setup and here's why.

With the introduction of PowerCADD 6, Engineered Software introduced the Simulate Thin Lines feature to take advantage of how Quartz graphics in Mac OS X can render objects to screen. That feature is still there in PowerCADD 7 (for specifics about this feature review your PowerCADD user manual).

It's important to remember Preferences and Drawing Setup settings are fundamentally different in where they are stored and how they affect a drawing. Understanding the fundamental differences between the two tells us why the simple No answer to the question is what it is:

Preferences:

Settings assigned in PowerCADD menu > Preferences... are saved at the application level and are stored locally with a specific Mac OS X user ID on your computer (User/Library/Preferences/PowerCADD/PowerCADD 7 Defaults). Those settings are applied to every drawing opened under that Mac OS X user ID.

Drawing Setup:

Settings assigned in Layout menu > Drawing Setup... are saved at the drawing file level. These values are retained when the file is opened by anyone else, on any computer or under any Mac OS X user ID.

What To Do

In this particular set of circumstances, the Simulate Thin Lines option is a Drawing Setup setting in both PowerCADD 6 and PowerCADD 7. As such, there is no way to automatically replace your Simulate Thin Lines setting with someone else's.

For example: If you coworker opens a drawing and changes Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Show tab > Simulate Thin Lines to Off and Saves the drawing. Then the next time you open that same drawing, the settings are remembered. You will physically have to turn Simulate Thin Lines back On again if that's how you like to work.

The only work around we can offer is chatting amongst yourselves, and agreeing on a standard. Hopefully understanding why the situation is the way it is will be of some help. Aside from using Applescript and GUI^? scripting tools to automate the process (which we don't think is practical), unless Engineered Software physically moves the Simulate Thin Lines settings from Drawing Setup to Preferences there's no way to automatically change that settings once a drawing is saved.

Hint: There have been some big improvements with respect to the saving of Window positions being OS X user ID smart in PowerCADD 7 that are worth exploring in the manual.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak

Switching between Open Drawings

Question

Is there a shortcut I can use to switch between the drawings I have open in PowerCADD?

Requirements

PowerCADD v7 and Mac OS^? X Tiger or newer recommended

Background

PowerCADD let's you switch between open drawings by choosing a drawing from the Window menu. However, there is an even easier way!

Mac OS X has s