Next version of RealCADD

2D CAD software for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Next version of RealCADD

Post by Eric Pousse »

Bonjour,

I want to have a big update for RealCADD v5.00.

Already the mouse position pallet will be modified as George request.

And I want more possibility for the arrows.
I think adding square or rectangle "arrows", diamonds and circles could be change to ellipses.

Other ideas for arrows?
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by debenriver »

Good evening!

I can (inevitably :D ) think of a few things.

Arrows These are two other arrows that are quite common. The top one is quite classy (I think)

Picture 3.jpg
Picture 3.jpg (1.76 KiB) Viewed 14080 times

Other things:-

Already in other posts

Make Library listing ordered alphabetically
Add dimensioning tool for Radius and Diameter. It would be nice if you could select to have R or D (or maybe Ø as well – or your choice of symbol) - or just the plain dimension.
Dedicated entry for Nudge amount (just a small box bottom left with the others?) Very simple direct entry.
Fix Align bug if possible

Text

Text still jumps about when you want to edit it - not as bad as it was at all, but still not easy, specially with tables and columns of text. It would be great if this could be further improved.

Improve formatting: specifically to be able to make one or more words in a block of text Bold and/or Underline, without the whole of the text block changing.

Make text a resizable object. So if you type a block of text and find that you want to change the width, you can do so by dragging one of its handles, just like any other object. So if, for example, you drag a block of text to be narrower, the overflow just flows on to another line. New lines (returns) and paragraphs (double returns) are respected. At the moment if your initial text entry was, say too wide, to make it narrower, you have to put in returns, take out old returns to move some text up, then add another return and so on.

As an example, both these things would make doing a block of Notes on a drawing much easier – it is nice if the word "Notes" can stand out in bold or underlined; and often notes are copied and pasted from one drawing to another - but the space for them is not always the same, or you want to make a small alteration which changes the line length .

Add styling. Pretty unimportant I guess, but it's common to have "UPPERCASE – lowercase – Title" styles which can make labelling quicker (using Title) – or if you've typed a lot of stuff with the Caps Lock down by mistake! (use lowercase to fix the bulk of it).

Add line spacing. Again not very important, but sometimes it is nice to be able to change line spacing (by points rather than just single or double).


Ellipses, elliptical arcs and rounded rectangles

When you flip an elliptical arc it changes to a polygon – could it stay as an ellipse? Circular arcs stay as arcs.

if you rotate an ellipse (oval) or elliptical arc, the ellipse changes to a polygon and the elliptical arc changes to a different arc rather than rotating – could it just stay the same, but rotated. Again circular arcs rotate OK

Could an elliptical arc have handles so you can drag it to change its proportions – with bounding rectangle and centre options like a circle/oval (ellipse)

Much the same happens with rounded rectangles – the corner radii change to polygons if you rotate or flip them about an axis – can they stay as simple radii.

With all these, you can change them to polygons when you want to do so, which is very useful. I wouldn't want to lose that ability and maybe that's why they change when rotated etc., in which case it's better to retain the ability to change them to polygons. But you can change a circle and a circular arc to a polygon OK and they can be rotated etc....

Splines. Could there be two types of spline - one as now where the spline passes through the nodes. And a second type where the nodes are controlling the shape of the spline but the spline doesn't necessarily pass through them. With the second type, it is really useful if the degree of tension from the nodes to the spline can be adjusted.

It's also useful to be able to flip between the two sorts. One way to do this is by way of an Unsmooth command, which basically turns the spline into a polygon – then two smooth commands – an ordinary smooth (spline attached to nodes) and a spline smooth (spline passes through nodes). The corollary of this of course is that you can turn a polygon into a spline ... Another way is to simply be able to switch smoothing modes without passing through he Unsmooth function – in which case you can't turn a polygon into a spline!

Regular polygons. Could these be more controllable. So with the shift key down a flat was vertical or horizontal (and for even sided ones, two flats). And could they be adjusted in the Edit pallet by Width across Flats – and Width across Points. Or just dx and dy for the whole polygon, which would deal better with odd-sided ones. An obvious use of regular polygons (hexagons anyway) is to draw nuts and bolts and it's not so easy at the moment. I realize that this will change the nature of a regular polygon to a multi-sided object like a square or rectangle.

Completely new things:-

Templates. I save a set of drawings pre-formatted how I want them for some of my most common set-ups. For me that is Page setup, Scale, Layers and Layer Layouts, where the tool pallets sit on the drawings and so on.

For example I commonly use A3, landscape, no margins, two layers (Plan at 1:10 and Detail at 1:2), drawing size one page (Height *1, Width *1), two Layer layouts (Plan and Detail), text size, tool windows all sat over to the right and so on. A design may well have over 100 such drawings, so it's nice not to have to keep setting it all up each time. And I have quite a few other similar setups for other scales, paper sizes and so on.

But my setups are scattered all over and often duplicated! It would be better to be able to make a set-up and save it as a Template – then they'd all be in the same place and easily accessible. I guess the File menu would gain an "Open template" option and the File >> Save as... would gain a "Template" option.

Walls. It might be useful to have a wall tool? You can usually specify the width between the two lines, whether you draw from their centre, left or right sides, type of joint (mitre or not) and whether they have end caps at start - end -both. Normal editing tools apply to join in other wall sections (perpendiculars, centres etc., cutting tool to take out bits and so on). They are basically a pair of parallel polygons, or connected parallel lines


That's a big list - but you did say you wanted to do a big update :mrgreen:

All the best and many thanks for a great program

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by Eric Pousse »

Merci George !

Fortunately I only asked for ideas for arrows... ;)

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by debenriver »

Well I did suggest a couple of arrows .... :D
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by Eric Pousse »

George,

The new dialog (in high resolution) to edit the arrows with some new possibilities :
Image

Examples :
Image

Questions / Responses :
Different arrows at the end and at the begin? YES
Arrows on polygons? YES
Arrows on splines? YES

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:19 pm
Location: Maine USA and Suffolk England
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Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by debenriver »

Wow Eric!

That's a pretty extensive collection of arrows.

I think it helps to broaden the scope of the program, which is really essential – I mean people use CAD for so many different things – me for example largely for boat construction plans, which tend to lean towards conventional engineering, so my arrows are usually rather conservative and straightlaced – though I'm sure I'll experiment with some new ones :D

And, more importantly, I can see how they will be in demand for more fluid design disciplines.

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by Eric Pousse »

I think that my step to go to V5.00 directly with a big update was too ambitious according with the time that I have (I have a real job to live...) and because I have to update iPocket Draw almost simultaneously.

For instant, the bugs reported have been fixed and the new features already done are :
- Line to polygon or spline conversion by choosing the number of segments
- Polygon to spline conversion
- Choice of arrows, dots and colors with menus instead of pallets
- For colors, menu with limited choice and possible call to standard selector (complete palette not limited to 256 colors)
- Arrows on polygons and splines
- Possibility of different arrows at both ends
- New type of arrow: square, rhombus and possibility of multiple arrows
- If scaling objects, option to assign or not arrows
- Direct editing of arrows of selected objects (like iPocket Draw)
- Improved drawing of arrows, if possible with polygon instead of lines only.
- Annotation tool with polygon instead of 2 lines (if 2 lines)
- Increase the number of hatches and textures available
- Hatchings with 2nd angle and clean deltas
- Optimization of textures
- If coordinates <0 (iPocket Draw files), the drawing is moved to x and y> 0

Perhaps that it would be a good thing to release RealCADD V4.90 like this, as beta version in a first time to see if all is good.

What do you think about that?

Thanks.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by debenriver »

It sounds like a pretty big update as it is, with a lot of new stuff to absorb, which is exciting.

For my ten cents worth, I would release it as a beta version for testing so any bugs can get ironed out and so on, before they get incorporated in a new version. I don't think that detracts from a new V. 5 – just helps to make it as smooth as possible.

Of course I would say that – I really enjoy having new features to explore and can't wait to get my hands on them :mrgreen:

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by Eric Pousse »

Enjoy to explore, George : RealCADD4.90b1

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
Posts: 696
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:19 pm
Location: Maine USA and Suffolk England
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Re: Next version of RealCADD

Post by debenriver »

Hi Eric

Love the new updates.

I like the new colour system and the primary colours on the main palette, with the full spectrum available - much better than the previous system I think.

And I really like all the new arrows, textures and the improved hatching system – all great. And I specially like being able to turn a line into a spline and choose the number of segments which I find I am using surprisingly often.

One thing I don't understand on your list is "Annotation tool with polygon instead of 2 lines (if 2 lines)" Can you explain please :D

And one snag :( I seem to lose all arrows on drawings created in earlier versions. They are still there if I open with 4.80 - but all disappear if I open with 4.90. I have the same arrow (15º – 6 pixels) in 4.90 as I was using previously.

New Mouse Position is great. New alphabetical Library is really great!

Don't know if I've missed anything new ...??

Cheers -- George
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