Overview

Get Started in CAD with DesignCAD

DesignCAD is a versatile and easy-to-use 2D CAD program. Access hundreds of 2D drafting and design tools through an intuitive interface to quickly and easily produce accurately scaled, precision designs! It's perfect for:

• Architectural Drawings - Draw professional-quality floorplans, elevations, and plot plans with ease
• Engineering Layouts - Double-precision accuracy allows the highest degree of tolerance and design control
• Shop Drawings - Entering specific values for dimensions, diameter and radius allows you to draw accurate mechanical parts.
• Home Projects - Create do-it-yourself landscaping designs and indoor/outdoor home improvements
• Other CAD Needs - Create electronic schematics, plats, mapping, flow charts and more

Easy to Use
DesignCAD offers simple operations, intuitive drawing tools and editing commands, and extensive online help to make it easy for you to quickly get started using CAD.

Fast, Powerful Commands
Drawing shortcuts, horizontal and vertical cursor mode, and cursor step size enable you to make faster and more accurate drawings. Shortcut keys and dynamic toolbars can make commonly used commands a snap - literally!

Full Featured 2D Drafting
You can draw virtually anything with DesignCAD's extensive text manipulation functions, dimensioning and annotation features. You have sophisticated editing features, advanced geometric construction capability, complete layer management and editing tools.

NEW AutoCAD® 2011 .DWG/.DXF Compatibility and more
Read and write AutoCAD® files through 2011 with support for AutoCAD® layouts, PaperSpace, layers, linestyles, views, and blocks in both DXF and DWG file formats. Plus work with files from many other popular CAD and graphic programs.

Extensible
Use the built-in BasicCAD scripting language, or OLE Automation, or both, to add new tools to the existing toolset.

Also Available - DesignCAD 3D MAX
Enter the world of 3D design with DesignCAD 3D MAX. This easy-to-use, versatile CAD tool that's perfect for novice designers, but powerful enough to create high-quality 2D/3D designs, rendered 3D models and animations. Learn More.

Features

Smart Menus
DesignCAD offers smart menus like those found in Microsoft Office®. Initially presented with a shortened list of available menu commands, to help reduce screen clutter, the menu can be expanded to show all items by clicking on the double arrows at the bottom of the menu. Great for learning, this option can be enabled or disabled depending on the user's preference.

Easy to Use 2D Drafting & Design
Intuitive yet sophisticated editing tools, advanced geometric construction capabilities, drawing short cut keys and complete layer management make 2D drafting a breeze.

• Usability Tools
• Workspace Tools
• Macros
• Image Tools
• Drawing Tools
• Editing and Measuring
• Dimension Tools
• Groups, Blocks, Symbols and more!

Associative Dimensions
Associative dimensions will automatically update as you change the size of the object they are associated with. For example, if a radial dimension is associated with a circle, when you change the radius of the circle using the Info Box, the associated radial dimension is automatically updated to match the new radius.

Layers
DesignCAD utilizes layers that can be independently switched on and off in order for users to have a better visibility of the drawing. For example, if one just needs to see the outline of the component, he or she can switch off other layers containing center lines, dimensions, etc.

DesignCAD can also lock layers, so that they are visible but not editable, in order to prevent accidental changes to the locked layer. Some features of objects, such as color or linestyle, can also be controlled on a per-layer basis, so for example objects drawn in a particular layer can automatically have a certain color and/or linestyle applied. DesignCAD allows users to switch these by-layer settings on or off at will, or allow the settings to change automatically as you switch to and from layers with color or linestyle presets.

Added Flexibility when Sharing Your Work

• Info Box - Roll out or more permanently open the info box to display the details of any selected object to help you speed through the design options, even if you're still learning
• User Notes - Add notes to any drawing
• Save for Sharing - When you save a drawing, all files referenced externally (textures, symbols, images) are saved to a subfolder with the host drawing's name.
• Paper Space Mode - Create a view frame and choose a specific scale or enter a custom view frame scale.
• Print Scale Options - Select from a standard set of print scale options or create your own.

AutoCAD® DWG/DXF Compatible
Read and write AutoCAD® files through 2011 and enjoy excellent compatibility with AutoCAD® layouts and PaperSpace, plus support for AutoCAD® layers, linestyles, views, and blocks in both DXF and DWG file formats.

DesignCAD imports DWG, DXF, WMF, HPGL and XYZ files and exports to DWG, DXF, WMF, HPGL, WPG and PDF.

DesignCAD also supports several image formats including .BMP, .TIF, .JPG, .TGA, .WMF, .PSD, .AWD, .EPS, .WPG, .TIF, .PCX, and .PNG

New AutoCAD 2011 Support
Work with the latest AutoCAD® files. Import/Export support for AutoCAD 2010 and 2011 .DWG and .DXF file formats has been added so users can collaborate with people using even the latest Autodesk® software versions. This includes compatibility with AutoCAD® layouts and PaperSpace, plus support for AutoCAD® layers, linestyles, views, and blocks. New DesignCAD 21 even offers limited support for Architectural Desktop (ADT) objects, which are now recognized and exploded to DesignCAD equivalents.

Improved Layers
DesignCAD 21 now offers support for long layer names, up to 256 characters.

Improved Paperspace
DesignCAD 21 is now able to use the same paperspace template more than once in a drawing.

Improved Dimensions
Dimension tools now have an "outside" text placement option similar to that in other CAD programs.

Usability Enhancements
New DesignCAD 21 offers enhancements to the management of default settings and custom workspaces to improve ease of use.

Screenshots

Requirements

PC Minimum:

Windows® XP, Vista or Windows 7
Pentium III class processor
Microsoft ® Windows XP 512 MB RAM, Microsoft ® Vista 1 GB RAM
110 MB of free hard disk space
256+ MB of swap space
Super VGA display 1024x768
High Color (16bit) graphics card
CD-ROM Drive
Mouse

Recommended:

2.0+ GHz Pentium 4 or better processor
2 GB RAM
1GB or more of free hard disk space on your primary system drive (C:)
3D Graphics accelerator card with TrueColor (32-bit) graphics capability
Wheel mouse
Internet Connection
Microsoft® Internet Explorer ^TM installation required for Internet activation.