DesignCAD 3D Max 22.

1 Release Notes
December 2012

This update to DesignCAD offers the following improvements and fixes:

BasicCAD:
We have added some new Query/Change parameters to address missing functionality:

• Alias AW_CURVED &H0905 'R/W - b (0: false, 1: true) version 22.1 – indicates/sets the
ability to draw an arrow with a curved body.
• Alias D_EXTENSIONLENGTHFIXED &H0A22 'R/W - b (0: variable extension length, 1:
extension length fixed) version 22.1 – indicates/sets whether a dimension's extension
line uses a fixed length or variable length.
• Alias D_EXTENSIONGAP_LEN &H0A23 'R/W - f (sets/returns extension line length if
length is fixed, otherwise sets/returns extension line gap size) version 22.1
• Alias D_EXTENSIONOVERSHOOT &H0A24 'R/W - f (sets/returns the length of the
extension line overshoot) version 22.1
• Alias D_APPENDUNITSSUFFIX &H0A25 'R/W - b (0: units suffix not appended, 1: units
suffix auto-appended) version 22.1
• Alias SY_ORIGINAL_COLOR &H0E0F 'R/W – b (0: don't use original color; 1: use original
color) version 22.1 – implements BasicCAD support for the "use original color" option
for blocks in the Info Box.

The Type parameter of the DwgOut and DxfOut commands wasn't always giving the expected version.
This should now work correctly

OLE Automation
We have added the necessary definitions to allow saving drawings to DesignCAD version 20, 21, and 22.

General Fixes:
Fixed: The Mirror command was not correctly rotating blocks and symbols in 3D space.

Fixed: Gradient hatch patterns from externally referenced symbols or blocks were "multiplying" when
the drawing was saved, eventually resulting in a huge number of duplicate gradient hatch patterns.

Fixed: Solved an issue with the Info Box's "Area Info" crashing on a particular bit of hatching.

Fixed: Group Explode after Select All sometimes caused entities that were in Nested Groups to
disappear from the drawing.

Fixed: Using the Info Box to change Bounding Box values of wide-line entities did not work consistently.
Fixed: The Display Grid option flag was being saved with "Save as Default", but not read back in.

Fixed: Grid settings saved as default from the New File Wizard weren't "sticking".

Fixed: Section Trim sometimes caused a crash.

Fixed: Filleting a 3D polyline sometimes caused a crash.

Fixed: Zooming in on a curve with many, many points could cause a crash.

Fixed: Editing long text in the Info Box could sometimes cause a crash.

Fixed: Section Trim on arcs or circles was sometimes leaving very tiny arcs that could not then be
deleted via Section Trim.

Fixed: Sometimes AutoSave was only working intermittently.

Fixed: Section Trim sometimes would cut lines but not delete the cut section (for example, horizontal or
vertical lines at the edge of the selected section).

Fixed: Filleting multi-segment lines with fillet radius exactly equal to segment length would result in
"command failed".

Fixed: Filleting two arcs would often result in incorrect results.

Fixed: Using Shift-Tab in the Info Box when a dimension was selected would crash DesignCAD.

Fixed: Some operations in 3D mode would corrupt the surface normals of unrelated objects, causing
them to shade incorrectly until the drawing was saved and reloaded.

Fixed: In 3D shaded or hidden line mode, sometimes clicking directly on an object would select the
wrong object.

Fixed: In the Fillet command, if you selected "Keep original lines" and trimmed two arcs, the behavior
was incorrect, and inconsistent with the results of filleting two lines or a line and an arc.

Fixed: Solid Explode, while in Graphics Acceleration mode, would cause some entities to turn black,
requiring a Regen of the drawing screen.

Fixed: Some attributes that should be visible were not being shown.

Fixed: In 3D mode, the Rotate command when using the Y axis would sometimes rotate in the opposite
direction of the intended result.
DesignCAD 3D Max 22.0 Release Notes
May 2012

Thank you for purchasing or upgrading to DesignCAD 3D Max Version 22.0. This release of DesignCAD
offers the following new features, improvements and fixes:

New commands
File/Print Section – This new command allows you to specify a rectangular subsection of the drawing to
be printed; once the region is selected, the Print command opens, and only considers the area you
chose when calculating overall size, scale, and other print features.

Edit/Selection Edit/Convert/Double Line to Vector – This new command converts the selected double
line object(s) to normal vectors using the currently-active line style and line width. Note: This command
differs from the similar command Double Line to Wide Line, which converts the selected double lines to
wide lines of the same width as the original double lines.

Options/Layer Options – The Layer Options dialog has been redesigned to maximize the amount of
layer information displayed. It can be resized to show more layers and longer layer names; unwanted
columns can be hidden by right-clicking on the column headers. Right-clicking on the body of the layer
list provides a context menu which exposes commands that were formerly presented as buttons. New
capabilities have also been added, including: Show Highlighted Layers, Hide Highlighted Layers, Lock
Highlighted Layers, Unlock Highlighted Layers, Clear Highlighted Layer Colors, Clear Highlighted Layer
Linestyles, Clear Highlighted Layer Names and Clear All Layer Names. The Save as Default button now
saves the layer names along with the layer presets.
Note: Those who prefer the old Layer Options dialog will still be able to access it from the Layers tab of
the Options/Options command.
BasicCAD users: the new Layer Options dialog can be opened with the LayerOptions2 macro command.

New options
Options/Options/General –> Coordinate bar field width: This option lets you specify the width (in
pixels) of the coordinate bar’s numeric fields. This can be handy when you want to display more digits,
are displaying coordinates in feet and fractional inches or are using a large display font. The minimum
value is 48 pixels; the maximum will vary depending on the width of your display.

Options/Options/General –> Layers list additional width: This option lets you specify how much extra
width (in pixels) to add to the layer drop list in the Info Box and Layer Toolbox relative to the layer
control.

Command Enhancements
Print command: Printing multiple panels to PDF format now results in just one multipage PDF file.

Hatch, Hatch Line, Hatch Fill: A new Same As button in the Hatch dialog allows you to easily match the
style of the hatch being drawn to an existing hatch entity.
Several commands using “Selected only” checkboxes: For many commands, the last state of the
“Selected entities only” checkbox is remembered; each the next time you run that command with
something selected, the checkbox is checked or not depending on your last choice. If nothing is selected
the setting is ignored.

Import command: The Missing Xref warning dialog now offers options to skip some or all missing xrefs
when importing DWG files.

Export command: The export of paperspace layouts to DWG format has been improved.

Export command: DWG/DXF export now exports layer names longer than 32 characters.

Load Animation Template: There is now a Delete button to allow you delete an existing animation
template from the drawing.

Fillet command: A new algorithm has been implemented for filleting one arc against another; this
should result in less ambiguity when filleting arcs where multiple solutions are possible.

Arrow and Dimension commands: A new algorithm for drawing arrows with a line width has been
created. The result is an arrowhead that points where it should and ends in a sharp point.

Dimension Arc: The appearance of Dimension Arc extension lines has been improved.

Linear Dimensions: The gap has been reduced between the arrow “tail” and the dimension text when
the text and arrows are forced outside the extension lines.

Linear Dimensions: A snap point has been added to the left-side arrowhead; this enables lengthening or
shortening extension lines using that arrowhead in Point Select Mode.

Hidden Line Mode: An option was added to change the dash scale for hidden lines in Hidden Line Mode.

Section Trim: The Section Trim command now affects hatch objects. Previously hatch entities were
ignored by this command.

New File Wizard: There are now options to Ignore Shading Flags and Ignore View Data, just like were
already present in the Open dialog.

Surface Intersection: Previously this command only worked on grid objects. Now it also works on solids,
including planes.

Set View and Set View by Drawing Center: Several controls were added to make it easy to save, load
and delete “cameras” with preset viewing angles.

Repeat Last Command (F3) and Undo: DesignCAD no longer stores the various Zoom commands in the
F3 and Undo command buffers. This makes it easier to repeat drawing commands even if a Zoom In or
Zoom Out was necessary. All Zoom commands can still be undone separately using Zoom Previous.
Shading: We made some slight improvements to the antialiasing algorithm when using native Phong or
Gouraud shading.

Sweep: Previously, the original profile used to generate the sweep was left separate from the swept
object, with the assumption that you might want to re-use it for some other purpose. Now, the profile
becomes part of the swept solid. A new “Keep Original” option has been added to retain a copy of the
profile if you want to use that profile again.

Dashed Lines Display improvement : For dashed lines, DesignCAD now makes sure that there are no
empty gaps at the beginning or end of a line segment for line styles other than Solid.

Bug Fixes:
DWG/DXF export: A bug was fixed which caused an “invalid symbol table name” error if there was a
space at the beginning of the layer name or at position 32.

Animation export to AVI: A bug was fixed which prevented shaded (Phong or Gouraud) AVI animations
from being exported. A bug which could cause a crash when exporting long animations to AVI was also
fixed.

Fillet: A bug was fixed which prevented the Fillet command from filleting a corner with a radius exactly
equal to the length of the shortest filleted edge.

Rotate: A bug was fixed which prevented the Drag increment from being used when a click-and drag
operation was performed (i.e. depress the mouse button to set the first point, keep holding the mouse
button down as you drag, then release it at the end).

View settings: Several discrepancies were corrected between the operation of view tools in Model
space and Paper space.

Coordinate Bar: The ability to Cut, Copy and Paste in the coordinate bar’s numeric fields has been
restored.

Print Preview: A ruler display problem when previewing multiple tiles was corrected; previously the
ruler did not update to account for the overall length and height of the tile array.

Gradient Hatches: A bug that caused the number of gradient hatch definitions to multiply
unintentionally was corrected. For drawings that already have an excess of gradient hatch patterns,
those will have to be deleted manually; however, the new fix will prevent further unwanted proliferation
of gradient patterns.

Blocks: A bug was fixed which prevented the contents of blocks from mirroring properly.

BasicCAD:
Sweep: The <Sweep command has a new parameter:

<KeepOriginalProfile [kp] 0 = don’t keep, 1 = keep.

>Plane
{
<Color 0,255,0
<Layer 1
<LineStyle 7,1.0000,0.0000
<PointXYZ 0.1659,13.5168,0
<PointXYZ 6.2475,6.1125,0
<PointXYZ 1.0547,-2.6574,0
<PointXYZ 17.8402,-4.8667,0
<PointXYZ 23.0263,7.8308,0
<PointXYZ 16.0919,19.0531,0
<Type 2
}

>PointSelect
{
<PointXYZ 1.0546,-2.657,0
<Type 0
}

>Sweep
{
<PointXYZ -18.3809,-2.9346,0
<NCopy 12
<Angle 120
<Offset 0.0000
<Velocity 0.0000
<Axis 1
<KeepOriginalProfile 1
}

ConvertDoubleLineToVector: This new command requires no parameters; it converts the selected

<ConvertDoubleLineToVector
{
}