Improved components and new commands with GeoTools-CADPower V15.15 Update
Bengaluru, India
** CADPower V 15.15
CADPower is a general purpose productivity tool for .dwg CAD. Here is a roundup of new features added.
New command added: CP_JOINCOLLINEAR: (Menu: CADPower -> Miscellaneous -> CAD Procedures -> Join collinear lines & polylines):
The CP_JOINCOLLINEAR command is used to join collinear line segments and replace them with one single line.
Any extended data or object data contained in the line segments will be transferred to the new line created.
New command added: CP_SHAPEMANAGER (Menu: CADPower -> Miscellaneous -> CAD Procedures -> Shapes Manager):
The CP_SHAPEMANAGER command identifies geometric shapes, counts them and allows to replace one shape with another.
The program works with closed shapes like circles, ellipses, closed polylines and forms a count list of uniquely shaped & sized objects.
You can then replace one shape with another. The replaced shape also must be defined and available in the current drawing.
The CP_SHAPEMANAGER command recognizes standard geometrical shapes like:
– Equilateral_Triangle
– Isoceles_Triangle
– Scalene_Triangle
– Round
– Square
– Rectangle
– Irregular_quadrilateral
– Pentagon
– Irregular_5-sided_polygon
– Hexagon
– Irregular_6-sided_polygon
– Heptagon
– Irregular_7-sided_polygon
– Octagon
– Irregular_8-sided_polygon
– Nonagon
– Irregular_9-sided_polygon
– Decagon
– Irregular_10-sided_polygon
Additionally, some standard shapes used in the sheet-metal industry are also recognized. See list below:
– Obround
– Obround-Dimple
– Single-D
– Double-D
– Rectangle_with_corner
– Rectangle_with_corner_[dimple]
A simple tabular listing which helps in quickly analyzing how many an what type of these shapes exist in the current selection.
A dialog box appears at the end and allows one set of shapes to be replaced with another shape. The target shape must exist in the current selection.
This tool has been written for users from sheet metal, wood-working and related fabrication industries where designers routinely need to study design alternatives based on geometric shapes.
Enhancement: CP_CGRID: (Menu: CADPower -> Draw -> Geometry -> Construction Grid):
The CP_CGRID dialog box
Rectangular grid samples
Circular grid samples
The CP_CGRID command has been enhanced. It can now draw a circular grids also, either automatically to fill a circular area or interactively at picked point locations.
The other option provided by this command is to create automatic or manual rectangular grid lines.
Enhancement: CP_TILEPLACE: (Menu: CADPower -> BOM/BOQ Tools -> Place tiles / XY sized panels):
The CP_TILEPLACE command has been significantly enhanced. You now have options to specify the gap between the tiles along the direction of placement as well as across two rows of tiles.
You can also specify exactly the offset distance between tile joints in adjacent rows.
This enables designers to place tiles with aesthetically pleasing pattern as required and enables the CP_TILECOUNT command to count the tiles effectively.
This command is primarily useful for construction and space planning professionals who would want to fill an area with polygonal space with tiles, bricks or slabs.
New command added: CP_ELLIPSE2CL: (CADPower -> Conversion -> More Conversion-> Ellipse 2 Circles): The CP_ELLIPSE2CL command is used to convert ellipses into circles.
Ellipses are often created during several import and conversion procedures or when unequally scaled block are exploded.
It is not convenient to use ellipses in normal CAD work and converting them into circles is the best option.
This command provides several means to achieve this conversion. You can use the major axis, minor axis or an average of both axes as a basis to define the diameter of the resulting circle.
It is also possible to make this conversion happen if the two axes lengths are within a specified range expressed in percentage.
General fixes: BricsCAD V 15.1.14 released on December 10 fixes a bug that affects loading of CUI files.
This is also going to affect CADPower and GeoTools that runs on BricsCAD V 15.1.14 and above.
If you are using BricsCAD V 15.1.14 or above, you must use CADPower and GeoTools V 15.15 and above.
GeoTools & CADPower V 15.13 and earlier will still run on BricsCAD V 15.1.14 and later but the pull-down menus don’t appear.
Bug fixes: A number of checks and fixes have been applied to the code which was causing some crashes in using the CP_TILEPLACE command in CADPower for AutoCAD.
If any of you have encountered problems with CADPower for AutoCAD in recent versions, please download this update and give it a try.
** GeoTools V 15.15
GeoTools has also been updated to V 15.15 with a number of internal fixes and improvements.