Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!mejac!gryphon!pnet02!rstiles From: rstiles@pnet02.cts.com (Rick Stiles) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Draw Package Information Request Message-ID: <6135@gryphon.CTS.COM> Date: 1 Sep 88 02:20:37 GMT Sender: root@gryphon.CTS.COM Organization: People-Net [pnet02], Redondo Beach, CA. Lines: 133 In article <14706@pnet02.amiga/usenet> dml@loral.UUCP (Dave Lewis) writes: >In article <6006@gryphon.CTS.COM> rstiles@pnet02.cts.com (Rick Stiles) writes: >>XCAD and I can tell you that XCAD is by far the BEST CAD program for the >>Amiga and equals or surpasses Autocad in 2D features. By comparison Aegis >>Draw is.... >> >And I repeat, what does X-CAD do that Aegis Draw + doesn't? Faster drawing is >not enough. As always if its good for you, then fine. But if you ever have the time, visit a friend or your friendly local dealer and play with XCAD a little. I think you will enjoy the surprise of playing with a very powerful CAD system. If you ever played with MEDUSA on a Prime super-mini then you will find XCAD very easy and familiar to use. Ok, lets see about features: Graphical & Keyboard entry of Entity position Rectangular coordinates Absolute, Relative Polar coordinates Absolute, Relative Incremental coordinates Incremental Radius Incremental Angle Grid Snapping GRIDON, GRIDOFF Free-Hand Locations Orthogonal Locks X, Y, XY, LOCKOFF Arrays Reference location Change and automatic UNIT conversion. mm,cm,m,km,in,ft,ml Point-on-entity locations END - snap to the end-point or vertice of an entity ORG - snap to origin point of an entity MID - snap to the mid-point of an entity NEAR - snap to the nearest point of an entity INTOF - snap to the intersection of two entities. Intersection could be any combination of cpoints, lines, strings, polygons, arcs, ellipses etc. There are about 20 more and you can use any combination of these to define your points. Also you can zoom in/out, generate, include/exclude entities *while* you are defining your points and so on... Verify entity, Measure Angle, Measure Area, Measure Distance. Edit commands: Break (Intersection, Against), Trim (Intersection, Against Length), Stretch, Delete, Exclude, Include, Move (Copy, to ActiveLayer, to ActiveDepth), Rotate (Copy, Angle, Ntimes, no text rotate), Scale (Copy, no text scale, no dimension scale), Mirror (Copy, no text mirror), Stretch Window.... All entity position command can be used for point id. Inter-Family Relationships, Family Immediate Parents Equals Children All Viewports within a sheet. Makes real size projects for A-E size plotters easy. Multiple viewports at *any* unit sizes are allowed. User defined xhatch/patterns/fonts. Fonts can be outlined, filled, patternfilled, colorfilled, slant, proportional, uniform, left/center/right justify, angled, aligned and so on..... All or any of the above. Associative dimensioning. Dimensioning - Horizontal, vertical, linear, point, angular, diametric, radial line terminators user-definable, leaders, precision, prefix, suffix, decimal, imperial, fractions, fixed, fonts, aligned ....... options too numerous to list. You get the picture. Numerous zoom and pan options, a user menu design interface, scripts, and journal files. Intersection cleanup, and chamfer are easy and accurate. Entity TYPES: CPOINT, LINE, STRING, CIRCLE, ARC, FILLET, ELLIPSE, SPLINE, POLYGON, XHATCH, TEXT, TNODE, DIMENSION, SYMBOL Line Automatic polygon closing Automatic continuation of line command Variable thickness, style, hardfont, softfont, depth, layer, length Perpendicular, Angle, Tangential, Parallel, Rectangle Arc Draw arc with variable Hardfont (style/thickness), Softfont (options too many to list) Draw arc (options:) Parallel, specify radius, specify start angle, specify end angle.............. ............... I think am taking too much net bandwidth so I'll ended here saying that they support graphics tablets, and since it all comes down to you "are as good as your output" , XCAD has rasterizers for Laserjets at 300dpi Xerox, Epsons, G500 thermal transfer printer, Kyocera laser (I guess a European printer), HPGL, Houston Inst, and Roland plotters or you can use any of the preference printer drivers. All in all a program that is worth getting an Amiga for. From what I hear *RUMOR MODE ON* it will even get a face lift with 3D support, a macro language, a drop of the dongle and who knows what else. *RUMOR MODE OFF* I use Xcad for schematic capture, PCB design, floor plan layout for my wife and I have also did the blue prints of a plastic case for a IBM PC manufacturer add on. With *all* CAD programs you can get work done. It makes a difference if you can do it in an hour or in 3 days. High productivity is first on my list. For example, I started looking for a CAD program because I wanted to design a PCB. (For those reading all these, Pro-Net and Pro-Board may serve your needs better if all you want is schematic capture and PCB layout *and* you have $1000 to spend.) It took 3 weeks to do it with Aegis draw+ and a not so accurate output, about 3 weeks and a lot of hair pulling with Dynamic CAD, and only *2.5* days with XCAD and a *VERY ACCURATE* output in that. XCAD allowed me to define my pads and eventually my 16/14/28 and 24 dip symbols at a small enough grid that Draw+ and Dynamic CAD couldn't handle. The keyboard/graphic command interface increases productivity tenfold. Time to learn the CAD programs is *not* included. I don't know but after writing this message I came out with the feeling that there is *no* comparison between Draw+ and XCAD. Its like comparing Generic CAD with AutoCAD. Disclaimer: I have no connection with Taurus, I'm just a satisfied customer. =================================================================== "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" Mr. Spoc Star Trek - The OLD generation =================================================================== UUCP: {ames!elroy, }!gryphon!pnet02!rstiles INET: rstiles@pnet02.cts.com