ZWCAD >>> FAQ - Tecnical Questions

How time flies; the year 2010 is already here! I browse some CAD software websites as usual, and I am interested in a piece of important news: "ZWSOFT announces its fastest ZWCAD ever - ZWCAD 2010". No doubt this is an exciting message for me, a devotee of CAD.

In browsing the ZWCAD 2010 Web site, I found one improvement that really impressed me: the editing of splines. Splines are used in many applications, especially in the GIS (mapping) industry. For example, we can draw the contour lines on topographic maps in CAD with splines. Compared to ZWCAD 2009i, the SplineEdit command is greatly improved; in particular, the command’s Fit Data option is an improvement.

One of my best friends works at a geological survey design institute. He tells me that he uses the Spline command frequently to draw geographic contours, and that the spline editor improvements in ZWCAD 2010 will make his job more efficient. During our conversation, he shared with me his experiences of editing spline with grips.

When he selects a spline in ZWCAD 2010, grips are now displayed on the fit points. He can use the grips to modify the location of the fit points, which modifies the flow of the spline.

After purging the fit data and changing the location of control points, the grips are displayed on control points instead. (When the spline’s control frame is turned on, then grips are displayed on both the control points and the fit points.)

The grips allow him to modify the fit points. He can delete, move, and add points to change the spline’s accuracy. Additionally, he can change the tolerance of the spline; when the tolerance is lower, the spline moves closer to the fit points.

From my friend’s introduction, I quickly grasped the improvements to spline editing in ZWCAD 2010. Meanwhile, I am looking through the other improvements in this version.

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Absolutely, it’s a great experience when you get the new version of a program, and then you come across an improvement for which you have been waiting for some time. In my case, it was a feature that I had asked the ZWCAD technical team to add: Shade Plot. I dare say that many of you might not know about this option in ZWCAD, because it's just a tiny item hidden in the context menu of viewport entities.

As designers, we are always needing to communicate our ideas with others. For instance, we need to show the model in perspective and in realistic display modes to production line workers. If you wanted to generate a plot of the model using different display modes in earlier releases of ZWCAD, you had no choice but to admit your inability with good grace. Not being able to assign plot properties to viewports meant you had to print each display mode on a separate sheet of paper. Now, however, you can plot multiple modes on one sheet of paper by using viewports.

To control the plotted appearance of your model, you can now assign hidden and wireframe properties to viewports. To set the Hidden Plot property, follow these steps:

Switch to paper space.
Left-click a viewport to select it.
Right-click, and then select Shade plot > Hidden from the context menu.
Select one of the two options, Hidden or Wireframe, to force the viewport to plot using a specific shade mode, regardless of the current display.
Repeat for the other viewports.

If you want to plot the model in rendered mode, you can redirect the output of the Render command to a file, such as BMP, TIF, JPG, or PNG, and then print the image using another application.

I suggest you try this plotshade mode yourself. As the famous advertisement says, just do it!

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ZWCAD 2010 Beta is now available, and after I tested its new and improved features, one new function in particular attracted my attention immediately: the new in-place text editor. I found it was useful in improving my work efficiency, such as when adjusting text. The “in-place” part of the name means “what you see is what you get;” it allows you to create and modify text in real-time.

I’d like to share with you some useful pointers in using this new function so that you can see how it might benefit you. The first and mostly important feature is that the position of the text in the editor matches the actual position of the text in drawing area.

While you are editing the text, you are able to zoom in to see the text more clearly. This means that you no longer need to adjust the text or paragraph again and again. (In the old editor, you needed to close it to see the resulting text; if it was wrong, you had to return to editor to adjust it.) Now everything can be done at once, saving you time and making you more efficient.

Another point is that the new editor has additional features for adjusting text and paragraphs, such as Justification, Line Spacing, Tracking, and Width Factor; these were not found in the old editor. If you modify only small amounts of text, then you might be able to tell how useful these are; if, however, you modifying large paragraphs of text, I believe you will realize that this will help a lot.

My description may not be easy to understand if you do not have ZWCAD 2010 Beta, so let’s imagine that it is similar to Microsoft Word. For example, you are able to set the Justification to Middle, and when you type the characters are distributed from the middle position to the two sides.

I think the in-place editor is the landmark feature of the new ZWCAD 2010, and that the right words to describe it are “high efficiency,” “precision,” and “fast.”

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It’s the end of the year, and it’s time for software companies to show off their new products. The most attractive one must have been Microsoft’s recent release of Windows 7. Now in December, another one of the products that I focus on has also been released, ZWCAD 2010 Beta.

When I heard the news of ZWCAD 2010 Beta, I was curious about it, and so I immediately downloaded and installed it. I tend to experiment new software without any help from ZWSOFT or Microsoft, because I have to evaluate them and then decide for myself whether or not to update the programs.

After few days’ evaluation, the results surprised me. ZWSOFT is fully compatible with Windows 7, even with the dongle driver. (In the past, you needed to install an additional dongle driver for the 64-bit version of Windows Vista; now everything goes smoothly without any additional patches.) All ZWCAD functions work in Windows 7. Moreover, I found that the improvements to ZWCAD 2010 mean it works faster and smoother than the previous version.

ZWCAD users can now avail themselves of the many features unique to Windows 7 and the improvements to ZWCAD to get their work done faster, and to better manage their work flow, files, and archives. There is one interesting thing that I found in the new ZWCAD and Windows 7: neither of them have as many new features as their previous versions. Despite this, the improvements make me feel more comfortable with the software, and the speed enhancements are obvious. Perhaps this is the fashion for this year.

In closing, I have some tips that I would like to share with other ZWCAD users who run their computers on Windows 7:

When you install ZWCAD on Windows 7, you might see a warning message about whether this application should be trusted, just as in Vista. But you are safe to continue. The warning appears, you know, until they pay Microsoft to test the software.
You must install ZWCAD as Administrator, as well as when you start ZWCAD for the first time. This is due to some data being generated and stored in the registry. To do so, right-click the ZWCAD icon, and then choose Run as Administrator from the shortcut menu.
ZWCAD 2010 supports both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7. No additional drivers or packages need to be installed.

It’s great working in ZWCAD 2010 on Windows 7. As the New Year approaches, now is the time to experiment with something new.

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