Update And Version History

Watch the highlights of the various CAD4U(-XS) and CAMOD Updates in compact video movies.
Comfortable, fast, informative.

Enhancements in CAD4U(-XS) and CAMOD V.22.00:

The main target of the development work for V.22 was making the DXF/DWG drawing data exchange better and supporting 64-Bit operating environment.

Completely new Import DXF/DWG function (see video movie).

The function is considerably enhanced:

• All mappings of layer, colours and linestyles are now presented on one single dialog.
• The colour mapping now attempts to match the CAD4U/CAMOD colour to the DXF colour automatically.
• The colour mapping also allows lineweights to be mapped to colours, and the user can choose whether to use this mapping during DXF Import.
• There is a new option to control the calculation of snap points after importing.
  If switched OFF, this feature may save a lot of calculation time!
• "Extruded entities" are converted; this includes Arcs, Circles, Inserts, Lines, Polylines and Solids. This improves DXF and DWG imports and avoids mirrored display of extruded entities.
• In the DWG/DXF Import Options dialog the user is given a prompt if the CAD4U/CAMOD colours are close in RGB to the PAPER colour.
  This gives the user a chance to change the colours if they wish before continuing the import.
• During IMPORT the "anonymous block" flag is used to mark DXF blocks as "anonymous" (= DXF hatch and associative dimensioning records) to allow VIEW FILTER to be used to control the display and selection of these blocks.
• A new choice has been added to allow users to choose to ignore "anonymous blocks" when importing DWG/DXF, "anonymous blocks" are simply skipped should the user choose not to convert them.
• The library page is no longer presented at the completion of the import.
• LIBRARY / DWG EXPORT A new function which exports .DWG files (into DWG Version R.12).
• The new options "Invisible Layers not translated" and "All Layers translated" control the import of DXF/DWG entities assigned to an invisible layer.

There are now three options for how the Layer Table is updated during DWG/DXF Import:

1. Create a new table, use automatic colour mapping and use layer names from DXF layer table.
2. Overwriting the names of the present layer table.
3. Keeping the present CAD4U/CAMOD layer table entries. DXF colours and layer names will be lost.

There are new options for the Paperspace handling:

1. Only Modelspace, no Paperspace Data translated.
2. No Modelspace, only Paperspace Data translated.
3. Or to be prompted when importing a drawing. If the prompt option is chosen then when a drawing is imported the user will be asked whether to ignore Paperspace Data or translate only Paperspace Data.

New: VIEW FILTER (see video movie).
A new function intended to replace Speed Filter, VIEW FILTER, will filter records for selection as well as display, and individual entities including lines, arcs, circles and polylines can be chosen for filtering.

• All functions requiring selection use the VIEW FILTER settings.
• INSERTS and BLOCKS display overrides all other records. If INSERTS or BLOCKS display is on, all sub-records of the INSERTS or BLOCKS are displayed regardless of the other record filter options. This should make it easier to edit only inserts or blocks.
• The VIEW FILTER includes "Anonymous Block" filtering for drawings imported from DWG or DXF
• "Draw Filtered Records Gray" will draw filtered records in gray, except for Bitmap Inserts which are skipped.

64-Bit Version

CAD4U(-XS) and CAMOD V.22 are available as 64-Bit version now, optimized for the 64-Bit-Windows 7 operating system. A 64-Bit software may address more memory and works safer in the 64-Bit environment.
The 32-Bit versions of CAD4U(-XS) and CAMOD V.22 are still available for the 32-Bit versions of Windows XP, Vista and 7.

New: LIBRARY / MAINTENANCE / CHECK LIBRARY
This is a new function which can correct some possible problems with libraries:

1. Zero length inserts and blocks are replaced with a placeholder.
2. Missing inserts and blocks are replaced with a placeholder.
3. An integrity check can be run on inserts and blocks, and if mistakes are found they are corrected.
   Only if there are corrections, the inserts and blocks are written back to disk. The checks are on aspects such as impossible radii, out of range (infinite) coordinates etc. similar to the checks recent CAD4U/CAMOD versions do when filing or exporting.
4. Purge blocks. Similar to the previous Purge Blocks but quicker and deletes more blocks than before.

The user can select any combination of these and stop the operations with a provided "stop" button and at no risk to the library data.

Further Enhancements:

• FILE / PUBLISH
  New functions PUBLISH, PUBLISH ZOOMVIEW and PUBLISH SELECTION are intended to be used when the user wants to output to formats such as .PDF and .XPS.
  Drawings are rendered to a bitmap and then sent to the chosen printer output.
  This is especially helpful when bitmaps with transparency are used in a drawing.

• SETTINGS / TOOLBARS / LOAD RDF and SAVE RDF have been added to the LIBRARY toolbar.
• The VIEW Toolbar has been extended with the VIEW FILTER and COLOUR FILTER functions.
• The layer table can now be set to a different file from the wc_layer.lft previously used.
  If the user saves or loads a table in the SETTINGS / LAYER TABLE dialog or when importing DWG/DXF, then the layer table name will become the one the user selected.
  The new filename is saved in the settings file so it will be used for the next session.
  If there is no settings file or the user does not load or save to a new name, then wc_layer.lft will be used.
• The file name of the layer table is now displayed at the bottom of the LAYER PALETTE.

• FILE operation: The whole library box is highlighted and a small dot is drawn in the background colour to indicate the box position.

• Click on the library box for LOADING a drawing from an index page. This is faster than clicking onto a handle point, which is not really required while LOAD process.
  The INSERT feature still requires to click onto a handle point for INSERTING a drawing with the need for an exact 'magnetic' handle positioning.
• FILE / BACKUP / Load Backup
  Easy access to the first and secondary automatic backup files: the backup's page number, modified date & time, and length are included in displayed list of backups.

Enhancements exclusively in CAMOD V.22.00:

• DRAW / PLANE CLEAR HATCH
  The horizontal hatching lines now stop short of the border; the gap is 10% of the tool diameter. This change increases the quality of the milling result!
• FILE / CNC MILLING/CUTTING
  A LAYER NAME column has been added to the mapping lists of both of these functions.