nanoCAD 3.0: auto-select commands and configure the right mouse button

We continue to cover the innovations of nanoCAD 3.0 - the Russian CAD platform, the release of which is scheduled for June 15, 2011. We talked about the new user manual and the new print . Let's continue with the story about the new function Auto-select commands and settings for the right mouse button.

nanoCAD has a classic CAD interface. This means that at the bottom of the screen you will find a command line through which commands are called up and their parameters are entered, numerous toolbars will be located on the sides of the working field, and the mouse is used for drawing. Over the 30 years of developing such an interface, a huge number of users have become accustomed to it, and drawing is carried out at the genetic level. And some of the functions that must be in a professional CAD solution include Auto-selection of commands and setting the operation of the right mouse button. Let's look at what it is and how it is implemented in nanoCAD.


Fig. 1. Auto-selection of commands on the nanoCAD command line

Auto-selection of commands (Fig. 1) is a very easy-to-use mechanism. As soon as you start typing certain characters on the keyboard, a temporary window appears with the names of commands in which the characters you entered appear above the command line. For example, if we enter the characters “li”, the commands LI MITS, LI NE, LI NETYPE and LI NM will appear in the window . Any new character will reduce the selection of possible commands.

Further, if you press the TAB button, nanoCAD will begin to iterate over the commands selected in the pop-up window and we just have to press the Enter key to start the command.

And at the last stage, it’s useful for us to configure the right mouse button (Fig. 2).


Fig. 2. Advanced settings of the operating modes of the right mouse button

If the right button of the manipulator works like Enter, the command will start instantly - just slightly move your finger on your hand and click on the mouse button. That is why Enter is often assigned to the right button. If we take into account that the same operation is used to confirm data (similar to the Ok button) and repeat the operations, it becomes clear why the right mouse button is very important.

But there is one exception: if you have selected an object, you probably want to do something with this object - copy, change its properties, move or select similar objects. And this is done through the context menu and the right mouse button. And here the setting that we introduced in the latest version of nanoCAD is important -Run the last command only if there are no objects in the selection .

If nanoCAD is configured as shown in Figure 2, and performance improves significantly!

The new version comes out on June 15th - if you are interested, mark the calendar and go to our website: www.nanocad.ru .