Recently in interiorCAD 3.5 Category

Today, we released interiorCAD 3.5.1 which fixes a couple of bugs in interiorCAD 3.5:

• Units were shrinking on successive editing operations when using overall dimensions
• Cosmetic fixes in front design dialog
• Various fixes & enhancements in part layout
• Fixed localization issue in drawer front frame dialog

If you're a registered interiorCAD user, download your copy here.

Jonathan Pickup calls interiorCAD 3.5 a big leap forward (and we haven't bribed him into saying so :-)

If you are looking for interiorCAD training, Jonathan offers on-line training for both VectorWorks and interiorCAD.

We've made it!

interiorCAD 3.5 is finally shipping.

interiorCAD 3.5 is not only a mere compatibility update with VectorWorks 12.5, it features an impressive array of new features, too:

* Unit plug-in objects (instead of symbols) - double-clickable, 3D-reshapable und editable via the object-info palette - Including tools for insertion in both 2D & 3D views
* New, substantially improved functional hardware selection dialogs
* Visualization of material used in every dialog
* Windows XP look & feel of all dialogs
* Bifold doors
* New lists outputting whole units and work instructions for each part
* More information on unit (# of doors, materials used etc.) in quotes
* Re-structured libraries

Of course, it's a free update for all existing interiorCAD users. If you're a registered interiorCAD user, download your copy here.

While not as spectacular as the change from cabinet symbols to plug-in objects, the new grouped drillings for adjustable shelfs are a much-requested new feature in interiorCAD, resulting in 3 different options for the placement of adjustable shelfs:

• Single borings with absolute placement
• Group borings
• 32mm grid borings

To enable group borings, click on the icon marked in the screenshot and adjust the amount of additional borings to your likings:

Here's some feedback on interiorCAD 3.5b2 we received today:

"I am loving the changes in 3.5. First of all, the speed improvements on Core Duo Mac-most operations are at the ideal speed of "as fast as I am typing." Second, the default PIO status of units opens a world of organizational possibilities, as well as really speeding up editing. Third, the full interiorCAD Resource Browser for hardware selection is much clearer."

Gytis Simaitis, Pierhead Associates, New York

If you are an interiorCAD 3.0 user and want to help beta-testing, let us know at interiorcad@extragroup.de (Note: You will need to run VW 12.5 on either MacOS or Windows to beta-test interiorCAD 3.5).

In the current rCAD 3.5 beta, undo and redo will show a weird behaviour under certain circumstances. While extragroup already located the problem and is working very hard to iron it out, we currently recommend to switch off the 2D representatiom of units.
To do so, visit the main dialog of the unit editor. Switch to the tab »2D plan« and untick the option »Generate 2D component for 2D plan view«.

It's even possible to save this setting as default setting for newly created units. Simply click on the floppy disc symbol and check the option »As Default«:

Previous versions of interiorCAD did not only store functional hardware assigned to a unit by ID, but also saved settings like drilling distances and diameters. This behaviour guarantees that interiorCAD documents are as portable as possible with no dependencies on external files.

This behaviour had one disadvantage: If you installed an interiorCAD update or patch to the functional hardware database, running a part layout on existing units did not show the improvements - because it was still using the old technical specifications stored with the unit.

With interiorCAD 3.5, a unit no longer stores technical specifications of functional hardware but refers to the external functional hardware database instead. If settings in the database of functional hardware change, the changes will immediately take effect when running a part layout.

If you want to force an existing unit created with pre interiorCAD 3.5 versions to use the new settings, you need to reassign the hardware first. From the unit designer's main dialog, click on the button »Fittings...« and delete the hardware in question. Then reassign it again and rerun the part layout.

In interiorCAD 3.0 a new Import Resources... menu command was introduced by extragroup. Contents can easily be added by creating a subfolder in ./Libraries/xg/ and placing a VectorWorks drawing in it.

In interiorCAD 3.5 we have introduced a second folder hierarchy. Thus libraries can be organized more conveniently. Instead of having three folders like »Handles Haefele«, »Handles Hettich« and »Handles Wuerth«, it is now possible to create one folder called »Handles« and create subfolders called »Haefele«, »Hettich« and »Wuerth«:

The folder »Handles« then will appear in a popup in the resource browser, and the leftmost list will show the subfolders:

We released interiorCAD 3.5 beta 1 today for limited public beta testing.

Anybody interested should contact us at interiorcad@extragroup.de (Note: You will need to run VW 12.5 on either MacOS or Windows to beta-test interiorCAD 3.5).

In order to have a more transparent custom NC tools configuration, interiorCAD 3.5 requires that every NC template refers to its own, unique NC tools file instead of supplying a default NC tools file - the latter causing quite some grief for both customer & support figuring out what tools file was used.

VectorWOP customers are asked to port their CAM template file as follows:

• Copy your template file from interiorCAD 3.0 to 3.5 (as found in the folder »XG Resources/NC Export/«)
  
• Open the file in a text editor. If it does not yet contain a reference to a tools file (WERKZEUGE:...), copy over the file »XG Resourcen/NC WerkzeugNr.txt« from interiorCAD 3.0 to »XG Resourcen/NC Export/Tools/MyTools.txt« of your interiorCAD 3.5 installation.
• Now referring to this tools file is simple. Just add the line WERKZEUGE:MyTools.txt at the beginning of your template file.
  
• MyTools.txt needs to be located in the folder »XG Resources/NC Export/Tools/«. Other paths are not supported.
  
• If you have any problems, please ask interiorCAD support to help you out with upgrading the template.
  

interiorCAD 3.5 now creates unit plug-in objects instead of mere symbols. Users are able to edit these unit plug-in objects via the "Object Info" palette or by double-clicking the unit. Plus, unit plug-in objects can be reshaped by using the "3D Reshape" command.

Of course, existing unit symbol libraries can still be edited with interiorCAD 3.5 (and converted to plug-in objects, if needed).

interiorCAD 3.5 fully supports MacOS on Intel and MacOS on PowerPC. All plug-ins are delivered as Universal Binaries.

On Windows XP, interiorCAD 3.5 takes advantage of Windows XP themes.

As the interiorCAD NC output always is based on workpieces, it will fail if there are no workpieces at all. There are two ways to get workpieces:

• Creating a workpiece manually, applying borings and grouping them together
• Creating an automated part layout based on a unit

To make the latter one more straightforward, we will move the part layout command from the menu »interiorCAD« to the menu »Shop« in interiorCAD 3.5.

interiorCAD 3.5 beta-testing is about to start. Anybody interested should contact us at interiorcad@extragroup.de (Note: You will need to run VW 12.5 on either MacOS or Windows to beta-test interiorCAD 3.5).

interiorCAD 3.5 is not only a mere compatibility update with VectorWorks 12.5, it features an impressive array of new features, too:

• Unit plug-in objects (instead of symbols) - double-clickable, 3D-reshapable und editable via the object-info palette - Including tools for insertion in both 2D & 3D views
• New, substantially improved functional hardware selection dialogs
• Visualization of material used in every dialog
• Windows XP look & feel of all dialogs
• Bifold doors
• New lists outputting whole units and work instructions for each part
• More information on unit (# of doors, materials used etc.) in quotes

Of course, it will be a free update for all existing interiorCAD users.

Watch this space for more details on interiorCAD 3.5!