nanoCAD 3.5: December 5, 2011 release

Recently, we announced the release of version 3.2 for season ticket holders and after 1 month we plan to release version 3.5 ... Why?

If there is no marketing husk, the new version is actually version 3.2 (plus additional improvements - see under the cut) and an open programming interface (API) that will allow you to independently develop applications for nanoCAD. The second is the key in this version: now nanoCAD is a free open source platform for developing CAD applications. A unique phenomenon in the global CAD community - now you can develop your application on the basis of free nanoCAD, use it for your own purposes and it will be absolutely legal.

A little more about all this plus a questionnaire for CAD users (we would like to know which CAD applications you are currently working with) under the cut.

Technical development

At the moment, the nanoCAD 3.0 user license base is 76 thousand jobs, and the software utilization rate has increased more than 4 times over the past year. Massiveness leads to the fact that a huge number of requests begin to pour in from all sides with suggestions for optimization, bug fixes (we’ll fix it with pleasure), and non-standard hardware configurations ... In the last year, we focused not on developing new functionality, but on setting up an existing one - good current basic functionality is enough for the development of 2D drawings. Therefore, we have included in the new version:

• Computer graphics adapter testing system: it starts automatically at the first start of the program and analyzes both the hardware and the current drivers used. And according to the results of the analysis, it automatically configures nanoCAD for maximum performance. Plus, you can run the new VPERFTEST command, which displays the test results on the screen and allows you to save information about the video subsystem as a separate file.
• The heights of the newly created MTEXT and TEXT are now tied to the layout scale. By default, when setting SPDS (1: 100), the height will be equal to 250 units; when setting ESKD (1: 1) height - 2.5 units. And if you create a node in a scale, for example, 1:10, then the default height will be 25 - a significant acceleration of work.
  
• 2D design optimization:
  
  • The Auto-pan option has been added in the Insert External Link dialog, when turned on, it automatically zooms and pans the inserted link to display it in full screen;
  • Added output to the command line of the list of named views available in the document - VIEW command with the [?] option;
  • corrected the logic of adding / removing objects when choosing - now as in the usual CAD;
  • temporary ON / OFF of the ORTO mode by pressing and holding SHIFT;
  • new Layout command (Drawing \ Point \ Layout) to distribute the block along the object;
  • new UCS panel for controlling the user coordinate system, etc.
    
  • etc.

In general, there are a lot of small changes, even compared to 3.2 - and if you compare the new version with the previous free one, then in nanoCAD 3.5 over half a year more than 300 improvements and corrections have been made; Fixed and improved more than 50 teams and their options. Basically, everything is focused on faster and more optimized drawing.

But fixing bugs is not the most important thing in 3.5. Much more interesting from our point of view is that now under nanoCAD any developer can develop their applications.

Open software interface

Generally speaking, it was possible to develop your own small applications earlier - we had the COM API open (the documentation is in the folder in which the program is installed:% nanocad% \ help \ api). But COM does not provide all the features that are very wide in nanoCAD.

With the release of version 3.5, we open the nanoCAD developers club, whose members will have access to the following types of APIs:

• NrxGate is a classic C ++ API designed to create and migrate C ++ applications.
• Multi CAD API is a unique C ++ API designed for writing cross-platform CAD applications.
• .NET API is a modern API designed for developing .NET applications.

The API structure is close to the API of other CAD platforms, so if you have already developed an application, then you can easily port it to our platform. And in order to make this work easier - we are going to organize and support the community of developers of nanoCAD. The same community will contribute to the further development of the API - development is not yet completed. Follow carefully the announcements of our club!

How could you help now?

Before launching the new version, we would like to receive additional information from CAD users: what additional applications do you use for CAD? who is the developer?

We are not interested in idle curiosity - there is a big chance that you will find your favorite application in the near future on the nanoCAD platform! Try to contact application developers and recommend paying attention to the new free nanoCAD platform, API compatible with existing CAD platforms. Or tell us about the applications to us - we will contact the developers :-)

In order to tell about the applications, please fill out the Google profile .

We are waiting for you on December 5th on our website www.nanocad.ru .