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Technical Writer Ralph Grabowski Copy Editor Stephen Dunning

All brand names and product names mentioned This book is sold as is, without warranty of any in this book are trademarks or service marks kind, either express or implied, respecting the con- of their respective companies. Any omission tents of this book and any disks or programs that may or misuse (of any kind) of service marks or accompany it, including but not limited to implied trademarks should not be regarded as in- warranties for the book’s quality, performance, mer- tent to infringe on the property of others. chantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The publisher recognizes and respects all Neither the publisher, authors, staff, or distribu- marks used by companies, manufacturers, and tors shall be liable to the purchaser or any other developers as a means to distinguish their person or entity with respect to any liability, loss, products. or damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book. Table of Contents

1 — BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users...... 1

THE BRICSYS BENEFIT...... 2

The Cost of AutoCAD...... 2 The Business of Bricsys...... 3 Chapoo Project Management...... 4 BricsCAD is Not IntelliCAD...... 5

THE ADVANTAGE OF BRICSCAD ...... 6

Near-identical User Interface...... 6 More Commands and System Variables...... 7 3D Direct Modeling and Constraints...... 7 APIs and Customization...... 8 Examples of Add-ons...... 9 No-charge Developer Network...... 10 Support for Multiple Operating Systems...... 10 Lower Purchase and Maintenance Pricing...... 10 It Makes More than Cents...... 11 What is Missing from BricsCAD?...... 11 What’s Missing from AutoCAD...... 12 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS...... 13

Recommended Hardware...... 13 Supported Operating Systems...... 14 AutoCAD-BricsCAD Dictionary...... 15 What’s New in BricsCAD V13...... 16

2 — Comparing User Interfaces...... 25

Comparison of User Interfaces...... 26 Summary of User Interface Elements...... 28

VARIATIONS IN USER INTERFACE...... 29

‘:’ vs. ‘Type a Command’...... 29 Prompt Menu (BricsCAD Only)...... 30 Controlling the Prompt Menu...... 30 More Command Options...... 31 The Quad Cursor (BricsCAD Only)...... 31

AUTOCAD OPTIONS VS. BRICSCAD SETTINGS...... 33

A Brief Tour of the Settings Dialog Box...... 34 Opening and Closing Nodes...... 35 Accessing and Understanding Values...... 35 Realtime Search...... 36 Exporting Settings...... 37 SetVar Command...... 37

PROPERTIES AND PALETTES...... 38

Properties: AutoCAD’s Palette and BricsCAD’s Bar...... 38 Tool Palettes and Sheet Sets...... 40 About Sheet Sets...... 40

BETTER STATUS BAR AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS...... 43

Working Sets (BricsCAD Only)...... 43 More Selection Sets...... 44

AUTOCAD’S DESIGNCENTER VS. BRICSCAD’S DRAWING EXPLORER...... 46

iv BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Table of Contents v 3 — Compatibility of Drawing Elements...... 51

DWG 2012 COMPATIBILITY...... 53

Testing Entity Compatibility...... 53 Decoding the Legend...... 53 Summary of Problem Entities...... 54 Annotative Text and Dimension...... 54 Broken Dimension...... 55 Dynamic Block...... 55 Geographic Location...... 55 Helix...... 55 Inspection Dimension...... 55 Jogged Dimension...... 55 Layers...... 55 3D Meshes...... 55 Model Documentation ...... 56 MText...... 56 Multilines...... 56 Multiline Leader...... 57 Proxy...... 57 3D Surface...... 57 Table...... 58 Underlay...... 58 Viewport...... 58 Visual Style...... 58 Better DWG Support with Each Release...... 59

DWG 2012 OBJECT SUPPORT...... 60

2D Entities Supported...... 60 Geometric and Dimensional Constraints...... 62 Text Entities Supported...... 63 Dimension Entities Supported...... 64 Complex 2D Entities Supported...... 67 3D Entities Supported...... 71

COMPATIBILITY OF PROPERTIES...... 76

Layer Property Compatibility...... 76

iv BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Table of Contents v COMPATIBILITY OF STYLES...... 78

Detail and Section View Styles...... 78 Dimension Styles...... 79 Leader, QLeader, and Multiline Leader Styles...... 79 MText and Text Styles...... 81 Multiline Styles...... 83 Plot Styles...... 84 Table Styles...... 85 Visual Styles...... 86

4 — Customizing and Programming BricsCAD...... 89

Areas of Customization...... 90

AUTOCAD OPTIONS VS. BRICSCAD SETTINGS...... 91

System Variables...... 91 File Paths...... 92 Tutorial: How to Add AutoCAD Support Folders to BricsCAD...... 93 User Profiles...... 94 ...... 95

RoamingTutorial: Profiles How...... to Import AutoCAD Profiles into to BricsCAD 96 Tutorial: Making Hidden Folders Visible...... 97 Legalities: About Copying Files ...... 97

AUTOCAD CUI VS. BRICSCAD CUSTOMIZE...... 98

BricsCAD Menu Tree...... 99 Tutorial: How to Customize a Menu in BricsCAD...... 99 Useful Menu Tips...... 102 Tutorial: Importing Menus Files from AutoCAD...... 103 Tutorial: How to Create a New Menu Item...... 104 Macro Metacharacters...... 106 Menu Design Conventions...... 106 Diesel...... 106 Context Menus...... 106 Toolbars ...... 108 Keyboard Shortcuts ...... 110

vi BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Table of Contents vii Mouse Buttons and Double-click Actions...... 111 Double-Click Actions...... 111 Tablet Buttons and Menus...... 113 Aliases and Shell Commands...... 114 Tutorial: Loading AutoCAD’s PGP File into BricsCAD...... 114 Shell Commands...... 115

CUSTOMIZING TOOLS PALETTES...... 116

Tutorial: Adding Commands to the Tool Palettes Bar...... 116 Tutorial: How to Export AutoCAD Palettes to BricsCAD...... 119

OTHER AREAS OF CUSTOMIZATION...... 121

Fonts ...... 121 TrueType Fonts...... 121 SHX Fonts...... 121 PFB Fonts...... 121 Font Mapping...... 122 eTransmit...... 122 Linetypes and Hatch Patterns...... 123 Tutorial: How to Copy AutoCAD .lin and .pat Files to BricsCAD...... 123 Plot Styles...... 125 Plotter Manager...... 125

SUPPORTED FILES...... 126

PROGRAMMING CONSIDERATIONS...... 130

About BRX...... 131 About TX...... 132 About .Net (Windows Only)...... 132 Porting AutoLISP to LISP...... 133 APIs Supported by BricsCAD for Linux...... 133 Porting DCL to BricsCAD...... 134 Porting Diesel to BricsCAD...... 134 Porting VBA to BricsCAD (Windows Only)...... 134 Porting ADS to SDS...... 134 Porting COM to BricsCAD (Windows Only)...... 134 Loading Applications into BricsCAD...... 135 Units...... 135 Third-party Developer Support...... 136 BricsCAD V13 Automation Object Model...... 137 vi BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Table of Contents vii 5 — Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices...... 139

REASONS FOR USING MULTIPLE CAD SYSTEMS ...... 140

Cost...... 140 Country-Biased Pricing...... 141 Solutions to High License Fees...... 141 Compatibility...... 142 Capability...... 143

RUNNING BRICSCAD AND AUTOCAD IN ONE OFFICE...... 144

Dividing the Workflow Between AutoCAD and BricsCAD...... 144 Strategic Implementation...... 146

DUAL OS OFFICE...... 147

Solving the Problems of Porting Software to Linux...... 147 User Interface ...... 148 APIs...... 148 Benefits of Linux...... 149 Linux is Free...... 149 ...... 150

Linux isIs Hardware-EfficientMalware-free...... 150 Linux is Hardware-compatible...... 150 Linux Dual-boots...... 150 Drawbacks to Linux...... 151 Lack of identical software...... 151 Which Linux? ...... 151 Problematic Installers ...... 152 Competing GUIs ...... 153

viii BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Table of Contents ix Appendices

A — Command Name Cross-reference...... 155

Assembly Modeling Commands ...... 175 X-Commands...... 176

B — System Variable Cross-reference...... 179

C — Command Alias Cross-reference...... 205

D — Keystroke and Button Cross-reference ...... 217

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR THE DRAWING AREA...... 218

Function Keys...... 218 Shift Keys...... 221 Other Keys...... 221

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR COMMAND BAR & TEXT WINDOW...... 222

MOUSE AND TABLET BUTTONS...... 223

Mouse Buttons...... 223 Tablet Buttons...... 224 3D Walk-Fly Controls...... 226 AutoCAD...... 226 BricsCAD...... 226

viii BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Table of Contents ix

CHAPTER ONE

BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users

THIS BOOK IS DESIGNED to help you transition from AutoCAD® to BricsCAD. Here you’ll learn about to this similar CAD package, as well as about some of the transitional issues to watch out for. the benefits of using BricsCAD in place of AutoCAD. You’ll read about the advantages of switching - patibility, differences in the BricsCAD user interface and customization, and the operation of a The chapters in this book provide you with information on useful topics, such as DWG file com the two CAD systems, as well as system variable names, command aliases, shortcut keystrokes, dual-CAD design office. The appendices exhaustively cross-reference command names between and mouse button actions.

V13 and AutoCAD 2013, as well as the subtle differences found in the Linux version of BricsCAD. Now in its fifth edition, this book has been updated to include the new functions found in BricsCAD BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users is meant for you, if you are

ÐÐ an AutoCAD user considering the switch to BricsCAD ÐÐ a firm adding licenses of BricsCAD to complement your AutoCAD shop ÐÐ a company working with clients who use the other CAD package

Or perhaps you are simply wondering about the differences between the market leader, AutoCAD, and the aggressive up-and-comer, BricsCAD. Whatever the case, this book is meant for you.

Welcome! The Bricsys Benefit

Bricsys is small, compared to Autodesk where executives have grown the company into a two-

billion-dollar-a-year enterprise. But dealing with firms of enormous size carries some risk. THE COST OF AUTOCAD

Autodesk offers 120 software packages and bundles (at time of writing). AutoCAD itself comes in

available in many combinations with Autodesk’s other software, such as AutoCAD Revit Architecture more than twenty variations, such as LT and versions specific to architecture and so on; it is also Visualization Suite and AutoCAD Inventor Routed Systems Suite. It can be confusing for potential customers to determine which product or bundle to choose.

Given the large number of CAD programs dependent on one software company, deciding what to

purchase can be risky; software crucial to the operations of your company might not be crucial to on behalf of its shareholders, and so the software you buy today may not be available tomorrow. the profits of the company selling the software. Autodesk fine-tunes its products to maximize profits (For example, Autodesk in past years moved customers of its FMdesktop facilities management

- software to another company; halted development of its Constructware construction management ming software, StudioDesk architectural concept software, Mechanical Desktop AutoCAD-based software; and orphaned users of Generic CADD low cost CAD software, Actrix Technical diagram 3D mechanical design software, and Impressions post-design rendering software, among others.)

Once customers decide on which Autodesk software to license, pressure is applied to also purchase an annual support subscription. While subscription payments for AutoCAD continue to be optional, annual subscriptions are mandatory for other products. This drives up TCO (total cost of owner-

ship). To make it painful to stay off subscriptions, Autodesk first tripled the upgrade fee to 50% cost to update one copy of AutoCAD is $4,200, the same price as buying a new license. of the product’s list price, and now this year increased the upgrade fee to 100%. As of writing, the And Autodesk prices tend to be high. The $4,200 price tag of its foundation drafting package, Auto-

CAD, is some 4x to 10x more costly than most other office productivity software. Pricing AutoCAD company could make up to 10x more money when customers moved from AutoCAD to their 3D high is just the start: the company’s previous CEO famously boasted to financial analysts that her modeling software. The current CEO emphasizes his plan to increase income from customers through software bundles that command a higher price tag (typically $10,000) and subsequent higher subscription fees — in exchange for a lower cost of each software component making up the bundle.

Upon installing the software, customers must agree to onerous terms dictated by Autodesk in its software license. Many customers don’t bother reading EULAs (end user license agreements) because the text is hard to read. If they did, they might be shocked to learn that they are allowing Autodesk to send agents into their private homes and businesses to search for unauthorized cop-

2 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users ies. Worse, the EULA makes it illegal for customers to travel outside their country with Autodesk

This is meant to protect regional sales, but it is shortsighted because it blocks users from taking software residing on their computer; before getting on that airplane, you have to erase AutoCAD. part in today’s world of globalized business.

In years past, Autodesk was one of the most litigious of all CAD vendors, launching lawsuits against CAD competitors for reasons as trivial as using the color orange for a rectangle on product packag-

ing, or for using the generic DWG file extension in product naming. THE BUSINESS OF BRICSYS

In contrast to Autodesk, Bricsys makes choice easy by offering just one software package in three levels of capabilities:

BricsCAD Classic Budget-priced 2D CAD software with limited 3D capability BricsCAD Pro 3D solids modeling, 3D direct modeling, rendering, and all APIs BricsCAD Platinum 3D history-based parametric modeling, 3D constraints, and parametric parts library

That’s it.

BricsCAD Platinum is the full-featured version of BricsCAD: it has everything. The Pro version is almost identical, leaving out only the parametric-based 3D modeling and 3D constraints. The Classic version costs the least because it leaves out features for which Bricsys has to pay royalties to other software companies. This means that the Classic version excludes ACIS modeling and editing, and VBA, BRX, and .Net programming.

Function BricsCAD Classic BricsCAD Pro BricsCAD Platinum History-based 3D Modeling Viewing Viewing Modeling, editing, and viewing 3D Assemblies and BOMs Viewing Viewing Modeling, editing, and viewing ACIS 3D Solids Modeling Viewing Modeling, editing, and viewing Modeling, editing, and viewing Direct 3D Modeling Viewing Modeling, editing, and viewing Modeling, editing, and viewing Rendering ... Included Included Programming LISP, TX LISP, TX, BRX, VBA, and .Net LISP, TX, BRX, VBA, and .Net

Design Alliance. (When ODA renamed DwgDirect to “Teigha,” it also renamed the DRX API to “TX.”) To read and write DWG and DXF files, BricsCAD uses the highly compatible Teigha libraries from Open In summary, Bricsys doesn’t charge customers high prices, doesn’t impose mandatory subscriptions, and doesn’t sue its competitors. The terms in its license allow you to use the software in any country, and Bricsys does not threaten to send agents into your home.

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 3 Chapoo Project Management For managing drawing projects, Bricsys recommends Chapoo. This browser-based communica- tion, collaboration, and project management system does not require BricsCAD, so it works with

any office system. It is, nevertheless, integrated into BricsCAD through options in the File menu.

ChapooÐÐ Enjoy project Speed. Viewmanagement multi-megabyte offers drawings your firm in seconds, the following zooming benefits: in on details and examining annotations with fly-over text that lists time stamp and author. Chapoo supports 70+ file formats, like Excel, Visio, MS Project, and AutoCAD. ÐÐ Upload Files. Drag and drop files into the upload area of Chapoo, and you’re done. ÐÐ Share Files and Folders. Files can be shared through email, Facebook, or Twitter; folders are shared with other Chapoo users only. You have 1GB of online storage space to start with. ÐÐ Create Annotations. Drag a rectangle over the text or image to highlight, and then enter mark-ups in a few words or attach multiple text pages to the annotation. When you notify friends about it, Chapoo emails a link with direct access to the file with the annotations. ÐÐ Manage Compliance. Follow a continuous audit trail of the entire project process. Chapoo automatically maintains log files of project activities and participants. ÐÐ Enjoy a Single Access Point. You have a repository of all actions, documents, meetings, and participants in a single location. ÐÐ Have No Software to Install. Work with an ASP (application service provider) system. The software runs on central servers with guaranteed access 24/7; you only need an Internet connection and a supported Web browser.

There are two versions, the for-free Chapoo and the for-fee Chapoo Plus. Unlimited access is avail-

company size. Versions of Chapoo are being developed for Android and iOS. able to an unlimited number of participants through a yearly flat fee based on industry type and

name for one of its operating systems. For more information on Chapoo, see chapoo.com. Chapoo’s first name was “Vista,” which Bricsys changed to “Vondle” after Microsoft adopted the

4 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users BRICSCAD IS NOT INTELLICAD

Some readers may be familiar with the heritage of BricsCAD, and thus know that it was based originally on IntelliCAD. “Was” is the operative word here.

The earliest versions of BricsCAD were simply rebranded releases of IntelliCAD, an AutoCAD worka- like programmed by the IntelliCAD Technical Consortium. At the time, Bricsys sold the software primarily in northern Europe.

(A little history: In 1998, the ITC was created by Visio, now part of Microsoft, after deciding it no longer wanted to be in the CAD market. Visio had originally purchased something named “Proj- ect Phoenix” from SoftDesk, in the mid-1990s the largest AutoCAD third-party developer in the world. SoftDesk began coding Phoenix after executives worried that Autodesk might cut them off, as the software giant had done to another major third-party developer. When Autodesk purchased SoftDesk, the US Federal Trade Commission required that it spin off Phoenix. This was when Visio made the purchase and renamed it IntelliCAD, but then a few years later, it spun it off to the ITC. Today, the ITC continues to update IntelliCAD, while consortium members rebrand the software with additional features for resale in their regions.)

For several years, Bricsys wrote original code for BricsCAD, which it contributed to the ITC. This helped speed up improvements to IntelliCAD, but then Bricsys found that it was writing new code faster than ITC could integrate it for its members. Bricsys had to decide between “forking” the code (creating two versions, their own and an IntelliCAD-compatible one) or going their own way. With version 8 of BricsCAD, they chose the latter path.

- ing on replacing all of ITC’s code with brand-new code its own. As of BricsCAD V10, the software is Not a lot seemed to happen during BricsCAD V8 and V9; behind the scenes, Bricsys was concentrat

100%With releases Bricsys, V10 and andso the V11, About the number dialog box of featuresno longer in mentions BricsCAD IntelliCAD began to grow. or Visio. With Bricsys’ purchase of the programming division of Russian software company, LEDAS, functions in V12 and V13 grew dramatically.

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 5 The Advantage of BricsCAD

similar user interface, extra commands and system variables, support for operating systems other BricsCAD doesn’t just lack the negative aspects of AutoCAD; it has its advantages. These include a than Windows, built-in direct 3D modeling and editing, 3D constraints, a no-charge developer network, and much lower pricing.

NEAR-IDENTICAL USER INTERFACE

in its Legacy workspace — complete with toolbars, menu bar, command prompt, and palettes. (See When you launch BricsCAD for the first time, you will notice that it looks very much like AutoCAD

BricsCAD for sticking to toolbars and menus. the figure on the next page.) If you don’t care for AutoCAD’s ribbon interface, then you will love As amply illustrated by the appendices at the back of this book, BricsCAD uses the same names for many AutoCAD commands, system variables, and aliases. It even has the same keystroke shortcuts. Those that are missing are probably AutoCAD commands you weren’t using, such as those for database linkages or surface modeling.

The user interface of BricsCAD is available in English and 12 other languages. Chapter 2 describes the user interface in detail.

6 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users More Commands and System Variables

in addition, it has a number of useful ones that AutoCAD does not provide. AutoCAD boasts more than 1,300 commands and system variables. BricsCAD mimics many of them; For example, all object snaps in BricsCAD have their own command names, such as Intersection and Midpoint. BricsCAD has a larger number of ways of selecting objects than does AutoCAD, such as circular and external selection sets. There are commands for manipulating extended entity data (available in AutoCAD only through programming) and for editing 3D models directly (available in AutoCAD through an external program).

some settings are unavailable even through system variables. In contrast, BricsCAD summarized AutoCAD stores a number of user settings in locations that, unfortunately, can bedifficult to access; all system variables and options in a single dialog box accessed by the Settings command.

Bricsys adds a large number of useful variables to access and change settings. These are known as “preferences,” and include names like BkgColor for specifying the background color of the drawing area, and CmdLineFontName for setting the name of the font used by the command bar. To change the values of preferences, you enter their names at the command prompt, through the SetVar command, or in the Settings dialog box.

3D Direct Modeling and Constraints When it comes to 3D design, BricsCAD dramatically pulls ahead of AutoCAD in many areas. The Platinum edition can apply 3D constraints and infer design intent — in addition to 2D dimensional and geometric constraints. (The Classic and Pro editions can also apply 2D constraints, as do recent releases of AutoCAD.)

V13 adds assembly modeling, in which .dwg - archical structures to model assemblies of complex products. Also new is kinematic analysis for files of mechanical components are ordered in hier moving and rotating parts of models to view motion forwards and backwards in real time.

The Platinum and Pro editions build in direct modeling and editing. While these actions are possible in AutoCAD, Autodesk encourages users instead to use the bundled Inventor Fusion software. Unfortunately, when Fusion is running, AutoCAD is frozen.

LEDAS. Bricsys liked their software so much that they bought the retail arm, renaming it Bricsys (These 3D features are possible because of programmers at a Siberian software development firm, Technologies Russia.)

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 7 Finally, unique to BricsCAD is the Quad cursor, which is meant for direct modeling and editing of 3D and 2D objects. When you select a feature, such as a face or edge, it provides quick access to the four most likely commands needed to manipulate the feature.

APIs and Customization Bricsys is making it easier for third-party developers to adapt their AutoCAD add-ons to BricsCAD — just as Bricsys is working to make it easy for AutoCAD users to learn BricsCAD. For programmers, this is done through APIs, short for “application programming interfaces,” and BricsCAD supports almost the same list of APIs as does AutoCAD.

AutoCAD API Equivalent in BricsCAD Notes Action Recorder (*) Scripts, SCR AutoCAD’s Action Recorder scripts cannot be edited; scripts recorded by BricsCAD can be edited. ActiveX ActiveX In-place editing; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. ADS SDS ADS code ported from AutoCAD requires just a recompile using BRX headers; ADS/SDS are deprecated by Autodesk and Bricsys. ARX BRX or TX Ported ARX code requires just a recompile using new BRX headers; when used with TX (ex-DRX), ported ARX code must be rewritten. AutoLISP LISP Ported AutoLISP code runs as-is in BricsCAD; no changes needed, includes support for Vl, Vlr, Vla, and Vlax functions and encryption. COM COM Ported AutoCAD COM code runs as-is in BricsCAD; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. Diesel Diesel Ported Diesel code runs as-is in BricsCAD; no changes needed. DCL DCL Ported DCL code runs as-is in BricsCAD; no changes needed. CUI CUI Ported AutoCAD menu and toolbar macros work as-in in BricsCAD. .Net Teigha.NET BricsCAD provides Teigha.NET and extra BRX-managed wrappers; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. ... TX Teigha eXtensions (formerly DRX) from Open Design Alliance; not available in AutoCAD. ... VBA Current AutoCAD VBA code runs as-is in BricsCAD for Windows; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. VSTA ... VSTA is unavailable in BricsCAD.

Generally, BricsCAD provides a nearly identical subset of equivalent function names. In the case of non-compiled code, such as LISP and DCL, you just drop it into the BricsCAD environment. With compiled code, you recompile it using headers provided by Bricsys to registered developers.

TIP BricsCAD V13 is not binary compatible with V12 because (a) APIs have changed and (b) V13 is built using Microsoft’s Visual C 2010 instead of MSVC2005. To run on V13, most third-party applications must be rebuilt — except for scripts and LISP applications. In addition, Windows XP users must apply Service Pack 3 for MSVC2010 to run.

8 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Examples of Add-ons - cations in the areas of AEC, civil, data exchange, electrical, GIS, survey and mapping, general tools, Independent programmers have written dozens of add-ons that tailor BricsCAD for specific appli HVAC, mechanical, packaging, rendering, and structural design.

Here are a few examples:

3DM Export exports BricsCAD drawings in Rhinoceros 3DM format. CivilCAD provides surveying, road construction and design tools, water engineering features, land volume calculations and real-time 3D simulation.

Creating cross-sections with CivilCAD running on BricsCAD

CADprofi Electricaldesigns lighting systems, low-tension, power plant, alarm and other electrical installations. GeoBL creates topographic plans, and includes a library with topographic symbols. StrucPLUS provides a complete set of tools for preparing structural engineering drawings.

Steel detailing with StructPLUS

At time of writing, 282 applications were available for BricsCAD. For the current list, visit the company’s Applications eStore at www.bricsys.com/common/applications/applicationlist.jsp.

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 9 No-charge Developer Network Unlike most other CAD vendors, Bricsys does not charge third-party developers. (Au-

pay an annual membership, you do not pay for support, and you do not pay royalties on todesk charges an annual fee of $1,500 and up.) You do not pay a fee to join, you do not shipping products.

There is a simple reason why this support network is free. BricsCAD decided that to become a successful CAD company, they would encourage the development of many, many add-on applications — currently 700 — a number that includes those written privately. The company feels so strongly about third-party development that it has halted development of its own add-ons.

Bricsys now concentrates on two tasks:

• Improving BricsCAD • Improving APIs

between CAD software and programming languages/compilers.) When a third-party developer End users also benefit from APIs. (The application programming interface is the software link requests an addition to the API, the added code becomes a new feature in BricsCAD that endusers can employ.

SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE OPERATING SYSTEMS

Several years ago, Bricsys rewrote the BricsCAD code to make it independent of operating systems. The company offers versions of BricsCAD that run natively on Windows and Linux, and plans to release one for the OS X operating system. If you want to run BricsCAD on a Mac computer now, you can employ Bootcamp or Parallels.

- tions. AutoCAD runs on Windows and OS X, but the OS X version is missing a significant number of func LOWER PURCHASE AND MAINTENANCE PRICING

The most dramatic difference from AutoCAD is that BricsCAD Platinum is four times cheaper than

with BricsCAD Platinum for the price of just one with AutoCAD. AutoCAD, even with annual maintenance. To put it another way, you can outfit four workstations The list prices at time of writing are as follows:

List Price AutoCAD 1 AutoCAD LT 1 BricsCAD Platinum 2 BricsCAD Pro 2 BricsCAD Classic 2 License 3 $4,195 $1,200 ($899 Mac) $825 $575 $455 Upgrade 4 $4,195 $1,200 ($899 Mac) $185 $185 $185 Maintenance $450/year $195/year $160/year $160/year $160/year

1 USA pricing only; usually priced higher in other countries 2 International pricing (one price for all countries) 3 Single-use license; lower pricing available for multi-seat purchases and/or networked versions 4 Upgrade from any previous version

10 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users BricsCAD saves you even more when you switch operating systems from Windows to no-cost Linux (see Chapter 5).

See www.bricsys.com/estore for details on the pricing of BricsCAD products.

It Makes More than Cents

You could ask, “Are AutoCAD’s additional functions worth the $3,370 difference can get things like 3D mesh modeling with Rhino at $1,000, and then use a Rhino- in price?” For some users, the high price makes sense; other users might think, “I

you could model boat hulls in Rhino, and then draw the 2D details and annotations in BricsCAD. BricsCAD file converter ($95) — and still be two thousand dollars ahead.” For example, (Rhino is available from Robert McNeel & Associates at www.rhino3d.com/download.htm converter is sold at the Bricsys eStore.) ; the 3DM WHAT IS MISSING FROM BRICSCAD?

BricsCAD doesn’t have every feature found in AutoCAD. I’ve put together a list of the missing things.

AsAnnotation I update scaling this ebook overAutoPublish the years, I find the listCAD becoming standards shorter. HereDatabase it is as links of V13: Dynamic blocks* Markups Multline leaders Navigation wheel Quick properties Quick view thumbnails Point clouds View Cube 3D mesh modeling 3D surface modeling* 3D mouse support

*) BricsCAD cannot create these entities (dynamic blocks and surface models), but can edit them when drawings are opened from AutoCAD.

Chapter 3 provides complete details of which AutoCAD entities work in BricsCAD, which partly work, and which don’t work at all.

shows that they have near-equivalents in BricsCAD operating under other names: At first glance, more AutoCAD features appear to be missing from BricsCAD, but a second glance

AutoCAD Feature BricsCAD Equivalent Command Name(s) in BricsCAD Action Recorder Script recorder RecScript, StopScript DesignCenter Drawing Explorer Explorer eTransmit Email drawings Mail QLeader Leaders DimLeader Ribbon Toolbars and menus Toolbar, Customize VSTA VBA and .Net VBA, AppLoad Workspaces User profile manager ProfileManager

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 11 What’s Missing from AutoCAD BricsCAD offers 2D and 3D functions that are not found in AutoCAD. Many of them are summarized below:

ÐÐ 3D constraints ÐÐ Assemblies ÐÐ Inferring design intent ÐÐ Kinematic analysis (moving and rotating parts in real time) ÐÐ Interactive “Quad” cursor ÐÐ Object snaps as command names ÐÐ Circular, external, and other selection sets ÐÐ Manipulating extended entity data ÐÐ Directly editing 3D models (available in AutoCAD only through an external program). ÐÐ All system variables and options accessed by a single dialog box

ÐÐ Additional variables for changing settings, such as BkgColor (specifies background color) and CmdLineFont- Name (sets font for the command bar)

12 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users System Requirements

IT departments appreciate that BricsCAD has milder hardware and operating system requirements

thanÐÐ Design does firmsAutoCAD. can run This BricsCAD is significant on older tocomputers; them for it isthese necessary reasons: neither to employ high-end hardware nor to install the special display drivers AutoCAD requires. ÐÐ BricsCAD can access more RAM and CPU speed headroom on newer computers than can AutoCAD.

RECOMMENDED HARDWARE

newer releases of AutoCAD do not run on older CPUs lacking SSE2*. Autodesk and Bricsys recommend that your computer meet the following specifications. Note that

Hardware AutoCAD BricsCAD CPU 1.6GHz with SSE2* (XP) 1GHz or faster CPU 2.0GHz dual-core SSE2 (3D modeling) 3.0GHz with SSE2 (7)

Apple Mac Pro 4.1 or later; Mac mini 3.1 or later (4.1 recommended); MacBook Pro 5.1 or later (6.1 recommended); MacBook 5.1 or later (7.1 recommended) iMac 8.1 or later (11.1 recommended); MacBook Air 2.1 or later. Minimum RAM 2GB 256MB, plus RAM required by OS 3GB (OS X)

Recommended RAM 4GB or more 1GB 4GB (OS X)

Hard Disk Space 6GB for installation 250MB for program files + 1GB free space 3GB recommended (OS X)

Monitor Resolution 1024x768 minimum 1024x768 with true color (minimum) 1600x1050 recommended

1,280x800 minimum (OS X) 1600x1200 recommended (OS X)

Graphics Board 32-bit Any graphics board 128MB (minimum) workstation-class Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater for 3D Direct3D for 3D For supported brands, see For rendering with supported graphics baords, see www.autodesk.com/autocad-graphicscard www.redway3d.com/pages/GPUList.php

1600x1200 with truecolor (OS X) Pointing Device Mouse Mouse Apple or Microsoft mouse or trackpad (OS X)

*) SSE2 is short for “streaming SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) extension 2. It allows CPUs to speed up certain math functions and vector transformations used by CAD applications.

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 13 Supported Operating Systems Bricsys supports BricsCAD running on several dialects of Linux as well as on new and older releases of the Windows operating system. Autodesk has not announced a Linux version, and no longer supports Windows Vista. At time of writing, Autodesk had not announced support for Windows 8.

Autodesk has a version of AutoCAD for the Mac, but it is missing numerous commands and most APIs. For several years, Bricsys announced it would ship a Mac version, but has not done so yet.

Here are the operating system on which the CAD systems run:

AutoCAD 2013 BricsCAD V13 Windows XP with service pack 2 Windows XP with service pack 3 ... Windows Vista Windows Server 2003 SP2 Windows 7 Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 SP Windows Server 2008 SP2 Windows 8 (not yet announced) Windows 8 (not yet official)

Mac OS X v10.6.4 or later Mac (announced but not shipped)

... Ubuntu LTS Linux ... Fedora Linux ... OpenSuse Linux ... Linux other distributions

The Windows versions of AutoCAD requires Internet Explorer 7 or later for functions such as its

help system; BricsCAD does not.

I briefly tested both CAD systems on the developer release of Windows 8, and they seem to run well.

— — —

14 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users IN SUMMARY, BricsCAD operates much like AutoCAD — yet is much more economical. In the following chapters, we delve deeper into the themes sketched out by this chapter.

Just as you can try out AutoCAD free for 30 days, you can install and run the Platinum edition of BricsCAD for 30 days at no charge from www.bricsys.com — both the Linux and Windows ver-

sions. Only Microsoft’s VBA is disabled in the trial version. The size of the BricsCAD download file is 135MB, more than ten times smaller than AutoCAD’s 1.5GB download file.

AUTOCAD-BRICSCAD DICTIONARY

BricsCAD’s terms closely follow AutoCAD’s jargon, but there are a few differences.

AutoCAD Term BricsCAD Equivalent ADS SDS (Software development system) ARX BRX (BricsCAD runtime extension) TX (Teigha runtime extension) AutoLISP LISP DesignCenter Explorer Implied Intersection 3dIntersection Intersection 2dIntersection Object Entity Options Settings Osnap Esnap (entity snap) Palette Pane VisualStyle ShadeMode Workspace User profile manage Xdata EED (extended entity data)

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 15 WHAT’S NEW IN BRICSCAD V13

Bricsys adds major functions to new releases, and here is a summary of functions added to BricsCAD V13.1.7.

NEW FUNCTIONS

AutoComplete command displays command names matching the characters typed by users.

The AutoComplete popup lists all command names that begin with the letters entered

Chapoo is the new name for Vondle, and it uploads, shares, views, and annotates drawings and office documents. Related commands are ChapooOpen, ChapooAccount, ChapooLogon, ChapooLogoff, and ChapooHome. Multi-threaded display regeneration uses multiple processor cores. Related system variables are MtFlags and Max- Threads. Sheet sets are partially implemented in V13, and related commands are Sheetset for opening the sheet set palette; NewSheetset, for creating new sheet sets; OpenSheetset, for opening sheet sets; and SheetsetHide, for hiding the palette. Related system variables are SsFound, SsLocate, and SsmState.

BricsCAD V13 opens .dst files from AutoCAD

Worksets command loads named groups of drawings.

16 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 2D COMMANDS

Array command’s dialog box has new controls for creating arrays; the preview window shows the effect of changing parameters.

The Array dialog box’s Preview window updates as you change settings

AttRedef command redefines attributes; AttSync command synchronizes attributes after definitions are modified; BAttMan command’s dialog box edits nearly all aspects of attribute definitions.

The Block Attribute Manager edits all aspects of attributes

DragSnap system variable controls the snap behavior while dragging entities: 0 = dragged entities are displayed at the cursor location; 1 = dragged entities are displayed at the current snap location. Expression can be used with 2D constraints dimensions; CleanUnusedVariables command purges unused variables.

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 17 MLine command draws multiple parallel lines. The lines support snaps and grip-editing. The MlStyle command creates and edits multiline styles.

Multilines styles are defined in the Drawing Explorer

QLeader command draws leaders specified by options in a dialog box;DimReassociate command associates dimensions with entities.

All settings for “quick” leaders are in a single dialog box.

3D COMMANDS

Dynamic UCS aligns the UCS with the selected face of 3D solids; the UcsDetect system variable toggles dynamic UCS detection, as do the F6 key and the DUCS toggle on the status bar. DmMove and DmRotate direct modeling commands can use cylinders and other axial surfaces as rotation axes, and they can be applied to block references; DmRevolve and DmExtrude commands can be applied to the faces of solids; DmSelectEdges has faster selection of 3D solid edges.

18 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users In addition, the DmMove and DmRotate commands can be used to solve forward and inverse kinematic problems in real time. 3D constraints can be applied between sub-entities in blocks; constraints are maintained during operations of the Copy, CopyClip, PasteClip, Block, Insert, Explode, and WBlock commands. DmAngle3D chooses the axis of 3D angle constraints automatically or manually, and allows angles of more than 180 degrees. To perform assembly modeling, BmBrowser command toggles the mechanical browser; BmUpdate command updates the hierarchy of mechanical components; BmNew command creates mechanical components; BmInsert command inserts mechanical components into the drawing; BmForm command forms new mechanical components and then inserts them into the drawing; BmDissolve command dissolves mechanical components; BmMech command converts the current drawing into a mechanical component; BmUnmech command explodes the current mechanical component into a plain drawing; BmHardware command insert a standard hardware part as a mechanical component; BmHide and BmShow commands hide and show mechanical components; BmBom command inserts bills of materials (BOM) tables into the drawing; BmRemove command removes inserts of mechanical components from the drawing; and BmXConvert command converts all X-Hardware solids into mechanical components.

The Mechanical Browser palette reports on all mechanical components in the drawing.

VIEWPORTS AND PRINTING

AlignSpace command uses alignment points to adjust viewport angle, zoom factor, and pan position in model and paper space. BackgroundPlot system variable determines whether drawings are published in the background; /pl command line switch performs background publishing using DSD files. DispPaperMargins system variable toggles the display of the printable area. Hide command works in paper space; Hide Paperspace Objects option added to Print settings; Shade Plot property during printing overrides the visual styles of viewports; layouts with viewports showing different visual styles can be printed. MvSetup command creates new drawings with viewports in model and paper space. Plot style line-end caps and joints are shown in previews and plots; printing of transparent images can be fine tuned through the ImagePrinting.xml configuration file in the plotter configuration folder. Page setups can be imported from other drawings. TtFastText system variable prints TrueType fonts as text (instead as geometry) to PDF files so that text can be searched; also reduces PDF file size; also controlled by the Truetype Text setting in the PC3 file. (When TextFill is off, text is still printed as geometry.)

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 19 RENDERING Walkthrough navigation in perspective views uses the following mouse buttons and keystrokes:

Keystroke Command Meaning Alt + Left button RtWalk Walks forward, backwards, and sideways Alt + Middle button RtUpDown Moves up, down, and sideways Ctrl + Middle button RtLook Looks around (Shift+Right button displays snap menu) Ctrl + Home key ... Resets view direction to the horizontal Alt + Home key ... Moves target point to the center of the scene Alt + Plus key RtWalkSpeedFactor Increases walking speed Alt+Minus key RtWalkSpeedFactor Decreases walking speedmovement speed Ctrl + Plus key RtRotationSpeedFactor Increases rotation speed Ctrl+Minus key RtRotationSpeedFactor Decreases rotation speed

RedSdk rendering engine is upgraded version 3.1.0.4.

CUSTOMIZATION BricsCAD V13 is not binary-compatible with V12, because (a) APIs have changed and (b) V13 is built using Micosoft Visual C 2010 instead of MSVC2005. Most third-party applications will likey need to be rebuilt to run on V13 — except for scripts and LISP applications. As a result, Windows XP users must apply Service Pack 3. DockPriority system variable determines the priority of toolbar and palette docking areas; the new defaults are Top > Left > Right > Bottom. ToolPalettes and ToolPalettesClose commands open and close the new Tools palette; TpState system variable reports whther the palette is open.

Tools palette accesses commonly-used commands, hatch patterns, and blocks.

Toolbars have new combo boxes (droplists) for layer filters, layer states, and dimension styles; the width of all combo boxes can be adjusted. V13 is upgraded to Open Design Teigha v3.6 libraries.

20 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users SUMMARY OF NEW SYSTEM VARIABLES

AcisSaveAsMode specifies how to save solids in R12 .dwg format AnnoAllVisible toggles display of annotation objects not at the current scale factor AutoCompleteDelay specifies delay before autocomplete is displayed AutoCompleteMode determines which autocomplete features are enabled:

Bitcode Meaning 1 Enable autocomplete mode 2 Automatically append command names 4 Display suggestion list 8 Display icons associated with commands (not implemented) 16 Exclude names of system variables

BackgroundPlot toggles use of background plotting

ChapooLog toggles log file for recording Chapoo activity ChapooModified specifies action to take on locally-modified drawings:

Value Meaning 0 Do nothing 1 Prompt the user 2 Always update to new version 3 Always save locally under new name

ChapooServer reports address of Chapoo server ChapooTempFolder stores the name of the local Chapoo folder ChapooWebsite names the Chapoo Web site

DblClkEdit toggles double-click editing DefaultNewSheetTemplate names the .dwg or .dwt file as default template for new sheets DispPaperMargins toggles the display of paper space margins DragSnap controls snap behavior while dragging DwfVersion specifies export format of DWF files DxfTextAdjustAlignment specifies alignment for text imported from DXF files

ExpInsAlign aligns blocks with selected entity, when inserted from Drawing Explorer ExpInsAngle specifies default angle for blocks inserted from Drawing Explorer

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 21 ExpInsFixAngle specifies fixed rotation angle for blocks inserted from Drawing Explorer ExpInsFixScale specifies fixed scale factor for blocks inserted from Drawing Explorer ExpInsScale specifies default scale factor for blocks inserted from Drawing Explorer ExportPageSetup toggles use of the current page setup for exported DWF/x and PDF files ExportPaperSpace toggles exporting the current layout or all layouts

Frame determines if frames of attachments are visible:

Value Meaning 0 Hide frames 1 Display and plot frames 2 Display frames (do not plot them) 3 Use the setting of each frame

GripTips toggles the display of tooltips at grips

HandSeed specifies starting handle for new objects

IntersectionColor specifies the color of the intersections of 3D surfaces

MaxThreads specifies the maximum number of threads for redraw, regen, and loads MeshType toggles the type of meshes created, legacy or full-featured MtFlags controls multi-core redraws, loads, and regens

PictureExportScale specifies the scale factor for raster exports PlacesBarFolder1 specifies the folder for the first place in the Open dialog box PlacesBarFolder2 specifies the folder for the second place in the Open dialog box PlacesBarFolder3 specifies the folder for the third place in the Open dialog box PlacesBarFolder4 specifies the folder for the fourth place in the Open dialog box PublishAllSheets toggles the opening of the current drawing or all documents in the Publish list

QuadDisplay toggles display of the Quad cursor

R12SaveAccuracy specifies the number of segments for splines and ellipses saved in R12 format R12SaveDeviation specifies deviation for splines, ellipses RtRotationSpeedFactor specifies turning speed

22 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users RtWalkSpeedFactor specifies walking speed

ScreenBoxes specifies the number of items in the screen menu ShowLayerUsage toggles reporting of layer usage SsFound reports the path to the sheetset file associated with the open drawing SsLocate toggles the opening of sheetsets associated with the drawing being opened SsmStat reports if Sheetset Manager palette is open StepSize the size of steps in walk mode StepsPerSec specifies the number of steps per second in walk mode SuppressDataLossWarning toggles warnings about data loss when saving to older formats

ToolPalettePath stores path the Tools palette support files TpState reports whether the Tools palette is open

‘UcsDetect toggles the use the dynamic UCS UcsOrtho determines how orthographic UCSs are restored UcsView toggles saving the current UCS with named views UseRegistryValues reuses previous print settings WarningMessages toggles use of warning messages

www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?p=Bcad&l=en_US

1 BricsCAD for AutoCAD Users 23 24 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users CHAPTER TWO

Comparing User Interfaces

BRICSCAD LOOKS LIKE AutoCAD when its workspace is set to “AutoCAD Classic,” as illustrated on the next page.

values of system variables, and other settings. AutoCAD has more capability in CUI overall, while As in AutoCAD, BricsCAD defines aspects of its user interface through the content of CUI files, the BricsCAD provides more user control through its variables.

In this chapter, you learn about the similarities and differences between the user interfaces of the

twoÐÐ CommandCAD systems, line and specifically prompts in the following areas: ÐÐ Prompt menus (BricsCAD only) ÐÐ Quad cursor (BricsCAD only) ÐÐ AutoCAD Options vs BricsCAD Settings ÐÐ Properties palette ÐÐ Status bar ÐÐ Selection sets ÐÐ Working sets (BricsCAD only) ÐÐ Design Center vs Drawing Explorer ÐÐ Tool palettes and sheet sets COMPARISON OF USER INTERFACES Title bar Menu bar Toolbar

At right: BricsCAD V13 in Windows

Below: AutoCAD 2013 with Classic workspace

Prompt menu Tool Palettes

Properties bar

Drawing area

Crosshair cursor

Dynamic input

UCS icon Layout tabs

Command prompt Coordinates Text & dimension styles Status bar

26 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Title bar Menu bar Toolbar

Prompt menu Tool Palettes

Properties bar

Drawing area

Crosshair cursor

Dynamic input

UCS icon Layout tabs

Command prompt Coordinates Text & dimension styles Status bar

2 Comparing User Interfaces 27 SUMMARY OF USER INTERFACE ELEMENTS

The UI elements new to BricsCAD V13 are shown in blue; those discussed in this chapter are in boldface.

AutoCAD UI Element BricsCAD Equivalent Customizable user interface Customizable user interface Menu bar (turned off in default workspace) Menu bar Toolbars (turned off in default workspace) Toolbars Scroll bars Scroll bars Tooltips Tooltips Layout tabs Layout tabs Status bar Status bar Workspaces User Profile Manager Ribbon ... Rollover tooltips ... QuickView layouts and drawings ...... Working (drawing) sets

On the Drawing Screen Tri-color cursor Tri-color cursor UCS icon & dynamic UCS UCS icon & dynamic UCS Aperture & pickbox cursors Aperture & pickbox cursors Grips Grips Selection highlighting & previews Selection highlighting & previews AutoSnap markers & autotrack vectors AutoSnap markers & autotrack vectors Selection modes: 13 Selection modes: 18 Subentity selection Subentity selection Steering wheels ... Navigation cube ...... Quad cursor

Command Bar and Mouse Keyboard input Keyboard input AutoComplete AutoComplete Dynamic input Dynamic input Keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts Double-click actions Double-click actions Mouse buttons Mouse buttons Shortcut menus Shortcut menus ... Customizable command prompt ... Prompt (options) menus

Information Centers DesignCenter Drawing Explorer Properties palette Properties pane Tool palettes Tool palettes Sheet set manager Sheet sets InfoCenter ... Quick Access toolbar ... Quick Properties palettes ...... Prompts on status bar

28 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Variations in User Interface

AutoCAD and BricsCAD sport user interfaces that look similar to each other. They both have tool-

shows BricsCAD with dynamic input and autocomplete. bars, a menu bar, autocomplete and dynamic input, palettes, shortcut menus, and so on. The figure

AutoComplete (new to BricsCAD V13) at left, dynamic input at center, and prompt menu at right

There are, however, differences surrounding the prompt menu, command prompt, and some of the command options of which you should be aware.

‘:’ VS ‘TYPE A COMMAND’

As its command prompt, BricsCAD uses ‘:’ to indicate it is ready for you to enter a command. Older releases of AutoCAD used ‘Command:’, and now AutoCAD 2013 uses ‘Type a command’.

If you prefer the AutoCAD type of prompt, you can change it through the Settings dialog box. Search

for ‘prompt prefix’. Enter any text you like, even something silly.

After entering the new prompt text, it’ll appear in the command bar of BricsCAD.

Command prompt customization is not available in AutoCAD.

2 Comparing User Interfaces 29 PROMPT MENU (BRICSCAD ONLY)

One of BricsCAD’s user interface elements not found in AutoCAD is the prompt menu menu appears whenever a command contains options. It lets you operate BricsCAD even when the . This floating

along with the prompt menu to the right. As the Circle command progresses, the prompts change, command prompt area is turned off. The figure below shows the command line window (at left), and so does the content of this menu.

Left: The command bar in BricsCAD... Right: ...and the prompt menu displaying equivalent options.

the option names in the command bar. To cancel the command, press Esc or click Cancel. You can use the mouse to choose options from the prompt menu, or else use the keyboard to type In certain cases, the prompt menu does not appear, such as when BricsCAD prompts you to select objects, when a command displays a dialog box, or when the prompt menu is turned off.

Controlling the Prompt Menu

You can turn the prompt menu on or off, and decide on its location on the screen. In the Settings dialog box, enter “prompt menu” in the search field.

The Don’t Display and Display options toggle the display of the prompt menu, while the Corner- related options position the prompt menu in one of the four corners of the drawing area.

Or, you can just drag the menu to any convenient location, such as to a second monitor.

The Prompt Menu Flags option turns on the display of additional option names that are normally hidden in the prompt menu, and they are shown in italic text, like Tangent

in the figure below.

Left: Toggling hidden prompt menu items Right: Hidden items displayed in italicizes

30 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users More Command Options When I showed you the prompt menu, you may have noticed that BricsCAD’s Circle command contained more prompts than does AutoCAD’s equivalent. This is not uncommon in BricsCAD, which has commands with additional options that are useful to drafters, and yet are not found in AutoCAD.

The following table compares the wording of the Circle command’s prompts for both programs:

AutoCAD Option Wording BricsCAD Option Wording Notes Specify center point Center of circle Default option 2P 2Point 3P 3Point Ttr TanTanRad ... Arc Converts arcs into circles ... Multiple Draws multiple circles

BricsCAD’s prompt menu lists all of these options:

THE QUAD CURSOR (BRICSCAD ONLY)

Introduced with BricsCAD V12, the quad incorporates direct modeling and editing commands at the cursor. It was developed by Bricsys, and so is unique to BricsCAD.

This kind of multifunction cursor takes its cue from the current “heads-up” trend in computer interface design, which attempts to place in the drawing area as many useful commands as possible. While AutoCAD does not yet have such a cursor, its step-brother Inventor does, and I expect Autodesk to introduce the technology in a future release of AutoCAD.

By default, the quad cursor is turned off, and you see instead the standard tri-color crosshair cursor. To turn on the quad cursor, you click QUAD on status bar or press F12. Initially the quad cursor consists of a single button, which displays an icon of the last-used command.

The background color of the quad cursor reports the type of selected entity:

Background Color Entity or Subentity Pink Solid Green Face Cyan Edge Yellow Contour

2 Comparing User Interfaces 31 When you move the arrow cursor into the center button, the quad cursor expands by four more buttons. Three of the new buttons contain commands that are most commonly used with the selected entity.

The bottom button is always labeled More - ditional options: ; when you click it, it displays a dropdown menu of ad

Click an item on the dropdown menu to execute the command.

The Quad cursor was initially intended for working in 3D, but in BricsCAD V13, its functions were extended to 2D drafting.

32 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD Options vs BricsCAD Settings

In AutoCAD, the Options dialog box provides access to the values of many system variables — but not all of them. In BricsCAD, the equivalent is the Settings dialog box, a greatly expanded version that takes the concept to its logical conclusion: access to all variables. See Appendix B for the complete list.

Providing access to seven hundred system settings is a problem: how can a programmer design a dialog box that allows the user to access a setting easily? In Autodesk’s case, the dialog box is segregated into ten tabs and thirty auxiliary dialog boxes!

In contrast, Bricsys created a single dialog box to access all variables. To solve the problem of find ing one variable among 700, Bricsys created an interactive search box. You can start typing any to move to other instances of the text you entered. variable’s name, title, or description, and BricsCAD jumps to the first instance; click the arrow keys

2 Comparing User Interfaces 33 In addition, you can list the variables sorted into categories or in alphabetical order. (The two modes are illustrated below.) Click a button on the toolbar to determine the sort order.

Left: BricsCAD’s Settings dialog box in Categorized mode... Right: ...and in Alphabetic mode. A BRIEF TOUR OF THE SETTINGS DIALOG BOX

Because this dialog box is really important, and because this dialog box is designed so differently

the Settings command, entering AutoCAD’s Options alias, or using the menu, Settings | Settings. from Autodesk’s, I’ll give you a tour of its functions. You access the Settings dialog box by invoking When it opens, the Settings dialog box looks like this:

Toolbar Search field Node

Uneditable value

Editable values

Variable name

Help text

34 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Along the top of the dialog box is a toolbar, from which you access all of BricsCAD’s variables through

a varietySort ofby methods,categories as illustrated by thisGo tofigure. Drawing, Dimensioning or in alphabetical order or Program Options

Export variables and Enter name to search values to CSV file

ÐÐ Click one of the first two buttons to switch the variable sort order between alphabetical or by categories. ÐÐ Click one of the next three buttons to access the Drawing, Dimensioning, or Program Options sections. ÐÐ Enter text in the Search field, such as a name or description of the variable, and then click the arrow buttons to jump between all instances of the text.

I tend to use the Search field exclusively, and so I’ll detail how to make use of it. Opening and Closing Nodes To access variables, use the methods described above, or else click the + boxes to open individual sections. Click the - box to close sections. AutoCAD’s CUI uses a similar node system.

Click + to open node Click - to close node

Accessing and Understanding Values When a value is changed, it turns to boldface — a handy way of alerting you that change has taken place.

Boldface indicates value is changed Regular face indicates value is unchanged

Changes are made immediately — which is why there is no Apply or OK button.

The Settings dialog box segregates settings into three categories:

Drawing — settings applying to the drawing, and the the drawing process Dimension — settings specific to dimension variables Program Options — settings related to the user interface and how BricsCAD operates

2 Comparing User Interfaces 35 almost all settings. The only exceptions are those that are read-only, meaning that you cannot alter them. They are shown in gray text. You can use the Settings dialog box to change the values of The preview area at the bottom of the Settings dialog box uses font styles to indicate the type of variable:

Name in uppercase (indicates system variable)

No icon (indicates sysvar available in other CAD systems)

Above: Documenting a non-unique system variable. Below: Documenting a unique user preference.

Name in mixed case (indicates user preference)

Icon (indicates item unique to Bricscad)

ÐÐ System variable names are shown UPPERCASE. ÐÐ Preference variable names are shown in Mixed Case. ÐÐ Settings unique to BricsCAD sport an icon .

To exit the dialog box, click the x in the upper right corner.

Realtime Search

The realtime search field lets you directly access system variables by name. As you enter the first the left and right arrows to move back and forward through matching candidates. few letters, BricsCAD immediately jumps to the first name that matches them. You can then click

Notice that the color of the search field changes, reporting the status of the search term you entered:

Snow — two or more names match the search phrase. Lime — only one (or the last) name matches the search phrase. Tangerine — no names match the search phrase.

36 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Click the Find - tions turned on. button to narrow the search, although I find it’s best to leave all Find Where op

Exporting Settings Click the Export button to save the variable names and their values in CSV (comma separated

values) format, which can be imported into OpenOffice Calc or another spreadsheet program.

SetVar Command BricsCAD has the same SetVar command as AutoCAD, but you can also enter names of system variables directly at the ‘:’ prompt.

As of V12, you can enter the names of preference variables at the command prompt.

2 Comparing User Interfaces 37 Properties and Palettes

When AutoCAD’s user interface was organized around toolbars, users could glance at a “dashboard” of property settings, as illustrated below. In an instant, they could monitor the settings of the workspace, the current layer, the active text style, and so on — some ten properties in all.

AutoCAD’s “Classic” interface reporting the settings of nine properties.

With the redesign of AutoCAD’s user interface around the ribbon, seeing properties at a glance

has become more difficult. For example, the Home tab of the 3D Modeling ribbon reports just one user friendly. property, layers; some properties are “hidden” in droplists and other tabs, which is not terribly

AutoCAD’s “Drafting and Annotations” interface reporting just four properties at a glance

In contrast, BricsCAD maintains the dashboard-like experience of a Properties toolbar in its default

configuration.

New in V13 is the ability to resize controls, like the layer and color droplists

PROPERTIES: AUTOCAD’S PALETTE AND BRICSCAD’S BAR

Both CAD packages share a similar Properties palette, but BricsCAD calls its the “Property bar.” It operates just like the Properties palette in AutoCAD, but with one difference: BricsCAD often employs the Properties bar where AutoCAD instead uses a dialog box or a contextual ribbon.

For instance, click a hatch pattern in BricsCAD, and the Properties bar allows you to edit the param-

Edit dialog box or more recently, the Edit Hatch contextual ribbon. eters of the pattern; in older releases of AutoCAD, double-clicking the pattern displays the Hatch

38 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Properties command, or from the menu, Modify| Properties. It appears automatically when you double-click entities in drawings. You access the Properties bar in BricsCAD through the

Left: Properties palette in AutoCAD. Right: Properties bar in BricsCAD.

BricsCAD can assign double-click actions to entities, which display the Properties bar with the You can customize the Properties palette/bar neither in AutoCAD nor in BricsCAD. As in AutoCAD, parameters appropriate to the entity. See chapter 4.

2 Comparing User Interfaces 39 TOOL PALETTES AND SHEET SETS

AutoCAD since Release 2004 and 2005, respectively. The operate similarly in both AutoCAD and Tool palettes and sheet sets are new to BricsCAD V13; these user interface elements have been in BricsCAD, except that the Tools Palettes bar is customized differently, and the Sheetset Manager has fewer options in BricsCAD than in AutoCAD.

Left: Tool palette in AutoCAD Right: Tool Palette bar in BricsCAD See chapter 4 for tutorials on customizing the Tool Palettes bar.

TIP AutoCAD stores tool palette definitions in ATP files, short for “AutoCAD tool palettes.” BricsCAD stores them in BTP files, short for “BricsCAD tool palettes.” Both are XML-format files.

About Sheet Sets BricsCAD uses the same DST format as AutoCAD’s sheet sets, and so you can reuse them from

in BricsCAD. AutoCAD. The figures below show a sample sheet set in AutoCAD, and then the same one opened

40 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users The user interfaces for the sheetset manager are very different. AutoCAD uses a palette with large tooltips and additional dialog boxes. In BricsCAD, all sheetset data is displayed in a single interface by the Drawing Explorer. Both right-click menus and a small toolbar to create, edit, and publish sheetsets.

Above: AutoCAD’s sheetset manager is a palette Below: BricsCAD’s sheetset manager is part of Drawing Explorer

2 Comparing User Interfaces 41 To create and control sheet sets, enter the SheetSet command, click the Sheets tab, and then choose from among the buttons on the toolbar:

Left: Sheet set interface in AutoCAD Right: Sheet set interface in BricsCAD

From left to right, the button performs the following functions in BricsCAD:

ÐÐ Create a new sheetset using a wizard (NewSheetSet command) ÐÐ Open a DST file, which defines an existing sheetset (OpenSheetSet command) ÐÐ Print the selected drawing (Plot command) ÐÐ Publish the sheetset (Publish command) ÐÐ Bundle the sheetset for transmittal by email (eTransmit command) ÐÐ Create a sheetset selection set

- tions than AutoCAD. Missing from BricsCAD are sheet views and model views, as well as the options Understanding that V13 represents a first implementation of sheetsets, BricsCAD has fewer func listed below in the short-cut menus, such as renaming and importing layouts as sheets.

Left: Sheetset shortcut menu in AutoCAD Right: Sheetset shortcut menu in BricsCAD

I anticipate that future releases of BricsCAD will add sheetset functionality.

42 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Better Status Bar and Other Improvements

The status bar in BricsCAD reports not just the status of the drawing, but also the current names of the text and dimension styles. As in AutoCAD, you can right-click a toggle, such as the coordinates or GRID, to access additional options.

Prompt area X, y coordinates Drawing status and elevation Status bar Text, dimension style names options

To change a text or dimension style, right-click the current name, and then choose a different one from the shortcut menu. AutoCAD does not offer this function.

In BricsCAD, the status bar does double duty: when the command bar is turned off, prompts appear on the status bar. AutoCAD does not do this.

New on the status bar of BricsCAD V13 is the DUCS - ordinate systems in 3D models. toggle, for toggling dynamic user-defined co WORKING SETS (BRICSCAD ONLY)

simultaneously by selecting the name. AutoCAD does not offer this function, although some users New to V13 are working sets, which group drawings by a name; you then load two or more drawings simulate it through sheet sets. The Workset command is possible because Bricsys implemented

threaded file opening, which uses your computer’s multi-core CPU to perform two or more tasks at the same time; the command is necessary for BricsCAD V13’s new assembly feature. names are saved as a working set named “LastSession.” This lets you easily open all previous draw- BricsCAD creates one workset automatically. When you close the program, all open drawing files ings at once, the next time you start BricsCAD.

2 Comparing User Interfaces 43 When you start BricsCAD, the Create New Drawing dialog box includes Load Working Set as one of its options. After BricsCAD opens, you access other worksets by entering the Workset command, or else by choosing the File menu and then selecting Working Sets.

MORE SELECTION SETS

As in AutoCAD, you can use BricsCAD to assemble complex selection sets through entity locations (pick, Window, Crossing, and so on) and properties (color, linetype, and so on). Many options are the same, such as pressing Ctrl+A to select all objects in drawings.

44 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users The prompt menu illustrated below lists the names of all of the Select command’s options. Recall that AutoCAD’s Select command displays no options at all.

BricsCAD has additional selection modes missing from AutoCAD:

• Outside window — selects all entities fully outside of a rectangular window. • Outside polygon — selects all entities fully outside of an irregular polygon.

• Window circle — selects all entities fully within a circle. • Crossing circle — selects all entities within and crossing a circle; see figure above. • Outside circle — selects all entities fully outside of a circle.

BricsCAD uses colors (like AutoCAD) and icons (unlike AutoCAD) to report whether the selection set is crossing, window, or other.

BricsCAD uses icons and colors to report the style of windowed selections. Left: Making a windowed selection. Right: Making a crossing selection.

Like AutoCAD, BricsCAD provides sub-entity selection of 3D objects: faces, edges, and vertices.

2 Comparing User Interfaces 45 AutoCAD’s DesignCenter vs BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer

BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer is comparable to AutoCAD’s DesignCenter, but provides more information and greater control over drawing elements. Indeed, Drawing Explorer centralizes what in AutoCAD are many separate dialog boxes, such as layer management, UCS management, and management of external references. Autodesk appears to be copying BricsCAD by beginning to amalgamate commands that perform similar functions into one command, such as Attach.

Drawing Explorer handles the named entities listed in the table below. Those in blue are new to BricsCAD V13.

AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s DesignCenter Node Drawing Explorer Node AutoCAD Command (for functions not in DesignCenter) Blocks Blocks Blocks created with Block command ... Coordinate Systems (UCS) UcsMan ... Dependencies Dependencies checked by eTransmit command Dimstyles Dimension Styles Dim styles created with with DimStyle command Xrefs External References Xrefs attached with ExternalReferences command ... Images ExternalReferences Layers Layers Layers created with Layers command ... Layer States LayerStates ... Lights LightList Linetypes Linetypes ...... Materials Materials Layouts Page Setups .. ... PDF Underlays PDF underlays added with the PDFAttach command ... Section Planes Section plane properties set by SectionPlaneSettings ... Sheet Sets Sheet sets are controlled by SheetSet command Tablestyles Table Styles Table styles created with TableStyle command ... Text Styles Style ... Views View ... Visual Styles VsCurrent Detail View Styles ... Styles of 2D detail views made from 3D models Multileaders ... BricsCAD does not create multileaders, yet Section View Style ... Styles of 2D views made from 3D models

46 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users Explorer command or from the menu: Tools | Drawing Explorer. The Drawing Explorer is also displayed when you enter related commands, You access BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer through the such as Layer and Xref.

Above: AutoCAD’s Design Center.

Below: BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer.

2 Comparing User Interfaces 47 BricsCAD includes settings for modifying these named entities, something lacking in AutoCAD’s DesignCenter. For example, the Linetypes node lets you load additional linetypes:

... and the Dimension Styles node lets you modify the styles:

48 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users New in V13 is a redesign of the Drawing Explorer, which includes the ability to create and control sheet sets. (Sheet sets mimic the sets of paper drawings used to document large projects.) The Drawing section has been given its own tab (named “Folders”) , as have sheet sets (named “Sheets”).

Left: Drawing Explorer in V12 Right: Tabbed Drawing Explorer in V13

Drawing Explorer is more than a DesignCenter because it centrally gathers commands for inserting

replaces the equivalent of 16 AutoCAD’s palettes and dialog boxes. and controlling named entities. By my count, the unified interface of BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer

— — —

2 Comparing User Interfaces 49 THIS CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTED the (few) differences between the user interfaces of BricsCAD and

AutoCAD. The next chapter examines how both programs display and edit entities in drawing files.

50 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users CHAPTER THREE

Compatibility of Drawing Elements

BRICSCAD READS AND WRITES AutoCAD drawings very well, but not perfectly in some cases. This chapter details how how well BricsCAD reads entities, properties, and styles created by AutoCAD 2012, most of which BricsCAD correctly reads, creates, edits, and writes. We test with AutoCAD 2012 because BricsCAD did not handle 2013 at time of writing. proving better at newer releases and BricsCAD better with older ones: The two CAD programs handle the range of DWG and DXF files slightly differently, with AutoCAD BricsCAD V13 reads and writes DWG and DXF drawing files created by AutoCAD 2012 and older, all the way back to Release 12 (1993); to go back to Release 9 format (1987), you must save the drawings in DXF format. AutoCAD 2013 reads and write DWG and DXF files created by AutoCAD 2013 and older, going back to Release 14 in DWG format (1997); to go back to Release 12 format, you must save the drawings in DXF format. This chapter examines in detail how BricsCAD handles entities and properties, and they are segregated into the following categories.

Entities

ÐÐ 2D entities: arc, circle, ellipse and elliptical arc, hatch (patterned, solid filled, gradient filled, island, text detection), line, point and point modes, polyline (segment, arc, variable width, fit-curved, splined), ray and xline, solid (2D), spline (closed and open), and trace. ÐÐ Geometric and dimensional constraints ÐÐ Text entities: attribute definitions and references (with fields and multiline text), text and mtext, tables, field text, and tolerance ÐÐ Dimension entities: aligned, angular, arc length, diameter, broken, inspect, jogged, ordinate, radial, leader and multileaders ÐÐ Complex 2D entities: block reference and insertion (mirrored, unequal scale), dynamic block, MInsert block, geographic location, raster image (clipped), wipeout, light, mline, OleFrame, region, shape, underlays (DGN, DWF, and PDF), and viewports ÐÐ 3D entities: 3D face (visible and invisible edges), helix, 3D polyline , polyface mesh, proxy object, live section, body , sweep, box, cone, cylinder, pyramid, sphere, torus, wedge, subdivision mesh, extrusion, loft, revolve, and sweep

Properties

ÐÐ Properties: annotative, color (BYLAYER, BYBLOCK, ACI colors, True Colors, and color books), elevation, hyperlink, linetype and linetype scale , lineweight, material, plot style, shadow, thickness, and transparency ÐÐ Layers: status, name, on/off, freeze/thaw, lock/unlock, color, linetype, lineweight, transparency, plot style, plot, new viewport (VP), freeze new VP, VP freeze current VP, VP color, VP linetype, VP lineweight, VP transparency, VP plot style description

Styles

ÐÐ Dimension styles ÐÐ Leader and mleader styles ÐÐ Mtext and text styles ÐÐ Multiline styles ÐÐ Plot styles ÐÐ Table styles ÐÐ Visual styles ÐÐ Detail view and section view styles (new to AutoCAD 2013)

52 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 53 DWG 2012 Compatibility

BricsCAD displays all entities in drawings created by AutoCAD 2012. It does not, however, create or edit all of them. This chapter provides details on the entities and properties that work fully and

this chapter uses AutoCAD 2012 as the reference program.) those that don’t. (At time of writing, BricsCAD V13 could not read or write DWG 2013 files, and so TESTING ENTITY COMPATIBILITY

To test BricsCAD’s compatibility with AutoCAD entities, I employed the following procedure:

1. I drew each entity in AutoCAD 2012, and then saved it in a DWG file. 2. I opened the DWG file in BricsCAD V13. 3. I examined each entity for the following characteristics: ÐÐ Translation — does the entity appear in BricsCAD? ÐÐ Visual accuracy — does the entity look the same in BricsCAD as in AutoCAD? ÐÐ Editability — does BricsCAD edit the entity, and how? ÐÐ Constructability — does BricsCAD have a command for creating the entity?

4. I made screen grabs of each entity in AutoCAD and in BricsCAD to illustrate the similarities and differences between them. 5. I recorded the limitations I found, if any.

The results of these tests are presented on the following pages.

Decoding the Legend In this chapter, I mark how well BricsCAD supports each AutoCAD entity by means of a legend:

Entity Name read / create / edit

The words in the legend have the following meaning.

read — BricsCAD reads the entity from DWG files, and displays it correctly. create — BricsCAD creates the entity. edit — BricsCAD edits the entity.

- sCAD can read and display helixes, but it cannot create or edit them. For this reason, this chapter There are a few AutoCAD entities that BricsCAD does not handle 100% correctly. For example, Bric tags multilines with a version of the read-edit legend that looks like this:

Helix AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — *) The footnote details the limitation.

The dash ( — ) in “read / — / —” means that BricsCAD cannot edit or create helixes, and so the words

“create” and “edit” are missing from the legend. The asterisk provides additional information about

52 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 53 BricsCAD’s handling of the entity in the footnote.

SUMMARY OF PROBLEM ENTITIES

Here is a summary of the entities with which BricsCAD has problems:

TIP Any entity that BricsCAD can read, create, or edit, it can also write back to DWG files.

Annotative Text and Dimension BricsCAD does not support annotative text or dimensions.

Autodesk provides a way for annotative objects to be compatible with AutoCAD 2007 and earlier, because these releases do not support annotative scaling. I would assume this support would work in other DWG editors, such as BricsCAD, but it does not. When AutoCAD’s Maintain Visual Fidelity for Annotative Objects option (found in Options | Open and Save) is turned on or off, the following occurs during saving of drawings to older releases:

ÐÐ On — scaled representations of annotative objects are saved as anonymous blocks on new layers. The layers keep their original names, but are appended with a digit. ÐÐ Off — multiple representations appear.

I did not, however, see evidence of anonymous blocks or new layers when I opened converted DWG

files in BricsCAD. appear as non-annotative objects. They are scaled with the annotative scale factor in effect when When a DWG file containing annotatively-scaled objects is opened in BricsCAD, the annotations the drawing was last saved in AutoCAD. For example, if a drawing contains annotations scaled at 1:1 and 1:4, and if the 1:4 annotative scale is current when the drawing is saved, then the dimen-

sions will appear at the 1:4 size when opened in BricsCAD. See figure below.

Left: DWG file opened in BricsCAD with annotative scale set in AutoCAD to 1:1 Right: Same file opened in BricsCAD, but with annotative scale set to 1:4 in AutoCAD

When annotative dimensions are edited in BricsCAD, their annotative property is preserved when opened again in AutoCAD.

54 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 55 Broken Dimension BricsCAD displays broken dimensions made by AutoCAD’s DimBreak command, but cannot create or edit them.

Dynamic Block BricsCAD can display dynamic blocks made in AutoCAD’s Block Editor, but cannot create or edit them. BricsCAD can change the look of dynamic blocks through the Properties pane, but it cannot change them using custom grips.

Geographic Location BricsCAD can specify geographic locations with the GeographicLocation command, but it does not display, create, or edit the marker glyphs that mark the location and are used by AutoCAD.

Helix BricsCAD displays helixes created by AutoCAD’s Helix command, but cannot create them. They cannot be edited, except for moving, erasing, and modifying basic properties (color, linetype, and so on).

Inspection Dimension BricsCAD displays inspection dimensions made by AutoCAD’s DimInspect command, but cannot edit or create them.

Jogged Dimension BricsCAD displays and edits jogged dimensions made by AutoCAD’s DimJogged command, but cannot create them.

Layers BricsCAD can read, edit, and write layers and layer states, but cannot apply all the formatting Auto- per-viewport settings.

CADSee the can. complete Missing arelist filtersin the and“Compatibility the transparency of Styles” property. section Added near to the V13 end are of this chapter.

3D Meshes BricsCAD recognizes mesh objects created by AutoCAD’s commands like Mesh and MeshSmooth, but it cannot create or manipulate 3D meshes. The objects can be edited only using basic com-

and linetype. mands (such as Move, Copy, and Delete), and their basic properties can be modified, such as color Note that these are the “true” 3D mesh objects introduced recently to AutoCAD, and not the “old” meshes made from polyfaces. BricsCAD can create polyface meshes with commands like Ai_Box and Ai_Sphere.

54 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 55 Model Documentation BricsCAD only minimally supports model documentation created by AutoCAD’s ViewBase com-

enabler is needed. BricsCAD does not support AutoCAD 2012’s model documentation object enabler. mand. The bounding boxes are displayed, but each is filled with a message stating a missing object

MText BricsCAD can read, edit, and write mtext with the MText command, but cannot apply all the text formatting overrides that AutoCAD does. For instance, BricsCAD does not have columns and it cannot specify line spacing.

For the complete list, see the “Compatibility of Styles” section near the end of this chapter.

Multilines BricsCAD V13 now creates and edits multilines and multiline styles with the MLine and MlStyle commands. MlStyle opens the Drawing Explorer.

BricsCAD still lacks the MlEdit command, and so intersections cannot be edited. Multilines can be edited with grips and through the options of the Properties bar listed below:

ÐÐ Relocating vertices ÐÐ Specifying the multiline style (MlStyle command) ÐÐ Toggling between closed and open multilines ÐÐ Suppressing the start and/or end caps

56 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 57 BricsCAD uses the same format for .mln the Drawing Explorer’s Load from MLN File multiline style files as does AutoCAD, and so you can use button to copy these files from AutoCAD.

Multiline Leader BricsCAD cannot create multiline leaders, but it can display these leaders made in AutoCAD with the MLeader command. It can apply basic editing commands (such as Copy and Rotate) to the leaders, and can edit their basic properties, such as color and layer through the Properties pane.

edited, such as text, leader, and arrowheads. BricsCAD does not support multiline leader styles, and so mleader-specific properties cannot be New in BricsCAD V13 is the QLeader command and its ability to specify properties for leaders.

Proxy BricsCAD displays proxy objects, but cannot edit them, except for their basic properties (color, linetype, and so on). BricsCAD does not support object enablers, except for AutoCAD Architecture as provided by Open Design Alliance.

3D Surface BricsCAD recognizes surface objects created by AutoCAD’s surfacing commands, like SurfPatch and SurfBlend, but it cannot create surfaces. While BricsCAD has commands like Extrude and Revolve,

these work only with closed objects and so create 2D solids; open objects are needed to create surfacing.The surface In objects addition, brought BricsCAD in from lacks AutoCAD surface-specific cannot becommands, edited, except like Loft for andtheir Sweep. basic properties (color, linetype, and so on).

56 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 57 Table BricsCAD can read, edit, and write tables, but does not have the table and cell format options that AutoCAD has. For instance, it cannot place text at an angle in cells, and it cannot give cells double lines. For the complete list of BricsCAD’s table style abilities, see the “Compatibility of Styles” section near the end of this chapter.

Underlay BricsCAD does not load or display DGN and DWF underlays. It does, however, attach PDF and im-

age underlays, as well as externally-referenced drawing files. Viewport BricsCAD can create rectangular and polygonal viewports, but cannot invert ones that are clipped by the VpClip command. New in BricsCAD V13 is the ability to apply visual styles (shade plots) to individual viewports, as illustrated below:

Visual Style BricsCAD can read, edit, and create visual styles, but cannot apply all the properties that AutoCAD can. For instance, the properties of Occluded Edges and Intersection Edges are not yet implemented. As well, its list of default visual styles is different from AutoCAD’s. See the complete list in the “Compatibility of Styles” section near the end of this chapter.

58 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 59 BETTER DWG SUPPORT WITH EACH RELEASE

After the V10 edition of this ebook was written, Bricsys added support to V11 for the following entities:

ÐÐ Arc length dimensions ÐÐ Modification of dynamic blocks ÐÐ Fields ÐÐ Partial support for geographic locations ÐÐ Lights ÐÐ PDF underlays ÐÐ Subdivision surfaces

After the V11 edition of this ebook was written, Bricsys added support to V12 for the following entities:

ÐÐ Dimensional and geometric constraints ÐÐ Live sections ÐÐ Tables

Since the V12 edition of the ebook came out, Bricsys added support to V13 for the following entities:

ÐÐ Multilines ÐÐ Sheet sets ÐÐ Tool palettes

58 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 59 DWG 2012 Object Support

- ance. As ODA adds support for entities, Bricsys adds them to BricsCAD. To read, view, edit, and write DWG files, BricsCAD uses the Teigha library from Open Design Alli 2D ENTITIES SUPPORTED

BricsCAD accurately displays the following 2D entities created in AutoCAD 2012:

Arcs AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Arc

Circles AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Circle

Ellipses AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Ellipse

Elliptical arc

Hatches AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Patterned

Solid filled

Gradient filled

Islands

Text detection

60 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 61 Lines AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Line

Points AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit PdMode 0

PdMode 98

Polylines AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Segment

Arc

Variable width

Fit-curved

Splined

Rays AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Rays

60 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 61 Solids (2D) AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit 3-sided

4-sided

Splines AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Closed

Open

Traces AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Tracewid 50

Xlines AutoCAD BricsCAD Xline

GEOMETRIC AND DIMENSIONAL CONSTRAINTS

DimConstraint AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Dimensional constraint

GeomConstraint AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Geometric constraint

62 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 63 TEXT ENTITIES SUPPORTED

BricsCAD accurately displays the following text entities created in AutoCAD 2012. The exceptions are some formatting of mtext and tables, and annotative scaling, as detailed later in this chapter.

Attribute Defs AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Text

Attribute Refs AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Attribute reference

Multiline attribute

MText AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / create / partial edit Mtext

*) BricsCAD cannot create all aspects of mtext, such as columns. See the complete list in the “Compatibility of Styles” section at the end of this chapter.

Tables AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / create / partial edit Table, cells

*) BricsCAD cannot create all aspects of tables, such as cells with double lines. See the complete list in the “Compatibility of Styles” section at the end of this chapter.

62 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 63 Text AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Text

Field text

Tolerances AutoCAD * BricsCAD read / create / edit Tolerance

*) AutoCAD does not fully edit tolerance objects.

DIMENSION ENTITIES SUPPORTED

BricsCAD supports all aspects of AutoCAD’s dimension entities, except that it cannot create or edit broken, inspection, and jogged dimensions.

Aligned AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Aligned

Angular AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Angular

Arc Length AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — Arc length

*) BricsCAD displays arc lengths, but cannot create or edit them.

64 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 65 Diameter AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Diameter

DimBreak AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — Break

*) BricsCAD displays broken dimensions, but cannot create or edit them.

DimInspect AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — Inspect

*) BricsCAD displays inspection dimensions, but cannot create or edit them.

DimJogged AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / edit Jogged

*) BricsCAD displays and edits jogged dimensions, but cannot create them.

Ordinate AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit X ordinate

Y ordinate

64 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 65 Radial AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Radial

Leaders AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Leader

QLeaders * AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / create / edit QLeaders

*) The QLeader command is new to BricsCAD. QLeaders are, however, not distinct entities, strictly speaking.

Multileaders AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — MLeaders

*) BricsCAD can neither create nor edit mleaders, but can edit their basic properties bar (palette), such as color and layer; text and arrow heads cannot be edited. BricsCAD does not support multiline leader styles.

66 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 67 COMPLEX 2D ENTITIES SUPPORTED

Block Refs AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Insert

Dynamic

MInsert

Mirrored

Unequal Scale

Geographic AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / create / — Location not displayed

*) BricsCAD creates geographic positions, but does not display or edit geographic location markers.

66 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 67 Images AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Images

Clipped

Wipeouts

Lights AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Light

MLines AutoCAD BricsCAD* read / create / edit Mline

*) As of V13, BricsCAD creates multilines, and can specify multiline styles.

OleFrames AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit OleFrame

68 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 69 Regions AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Region

Shapes AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Shape

Underlays AutoCAD BricsCAD * partial read / create / edit *) BricsCAD does not display DGN or DWF underlays. DGN image from Axiom Conversion Services; DWF image from Residential Drafting Services. DGN

DWF

PDF *) Bricsys does not support multi-page PDF files.

68 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 69 Viewports AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / create / partial edit Viewport

Clipped

*) BricsCAD does not support inverting clipped viewports.

70 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 71 3D ENTITIES SUPPORTED

BricsCAD accurately displays the following 3D entities created in AutoCAD 2012:

3D Faces AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit 3D face

Invisible edge

Helixes AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — Helix

*) BricsCAD displays helixes, but cannot create them; helixes cannot be edited by Bricsys, except for moving, erasing, and modifying basic properties (color, linetype, and so on).

3D Polylines AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit 3D polyline

Polyface Meshes AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Mesh

70 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 71 Proxy Objects AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — Proxy

*) BricsCAD displays proxy objects, but cannot edit them, except for their basic properties (color, linetype, and so on). BricsCAD does not support object enablers, except for AutoCAD Architecture.

Sections AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / create / partial edit Live Section

*) BricsCAD V13 now handles jogged section planes when they are created in BricsCAD, but not when the drawing comes from AutoCAD.

3D Solids AutoCAD BricsCAD read / create / edit Body

72 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 73 Sweep

Box

Cone

Cylinder

Pyramid

72 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 73 Sphere

Torus

Wedge

Subdivisions AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — 3D mesh objects

*) BricsCAD recognizes mesh objects created by AutoCAD, but cannot create or manipulate 3D meshes. The objects can be edited using basic commands (such as Move, Copy, and Delete), and their basic properties can be modified, such as color and linetype. (Note that these are the “true” 3D mesh objects introduced recently to AutoCAD, and not the “old” meshes made from polyfaces like Ai_Box and Ai_Sphere.)

74 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 75

Surfaces AutoCAD BricsCAD * read / — / — Extrude

Loft

Revolve

Sweep

*) BricsCAD recognizes surface objects created by AutoCAD, but cannot create surfaces. The surface objects cannot be edited, except for their basic properties (color, linetype, and so on). BricsCAD’s Extrude and Revolve commands work only with closed objects, and so cannot create surfaces; BricsCAD does not have the Loft and Sweep commands.

74 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 75 Compatibility of Properties

settings: BricsCAD supports most of the properties found AutoCAD, including the BYLAYER and BYBLOCK

AutoCAD Property BricsCAD Property BricsCAD Supports... Annotative ... Color Color ...ACI colors and True Colors, but not color books Elevation Elevation Hyperlink Hyperlink Layer Layer ...all layer names, but not properties listed in the section below Linetype Linetype ...all AutoCAD linetypes, provided a .lin file is present Linetype scale Linetype Scale Lineweight Lineweight ...all lineweights Material Material Plot Style Plot Style ...all AutoCAD plot styles, provided a .stb file is present Shadow display ... Thickness Thickness Transparency ...

LAYER PROPERTY COMPATIBILITY

BricsCAD supports all of the basic properties of AutoCAD’s layering system. For instance, DWG

special characters. files can contain an unlimited number of layers, with names up to 255 characters long, including

- BricsCAD supports layer states, but not layer filters. Transparency and per-viewport settings are rectly, which AutoCAD does only indirectly. Added to V13 are the VP (short for “viewport”) Color, missing from BricsCAD; on the other hand, BricsCAD supports the Material property in layers di VP Linetype, VP Lineweight, and VP Plot Style properties.

AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Aliases Layer Layer la, ddlmodes, explayerst LayerState LayerState las

The figures below illustrate the differences between the layer properties in both CAD system:

Above: Layer properties in AutoCAD (paper space).

Below: Layer properties in BricsCAD (paper space).

76 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 77 The differences in layer properties are listed concisely by the following table:

AutoCAD Layer Property Equivalent BricsCAD Property BricsCAD supports... Status Current ... only two forms of status: current or not current Name Layer Name ... all AutoCAD forms of layer names On On/Off Freeze Freeze Lock Locked Color Color ... all AutoCAD colors, except ColorBooks Linetype Linetype ... AutoCAD linetypes, provided the .lin file is present Lineweight Lineweight Transparency ... Plot Style Plot Style ...AutoCAD plot styles, if .ctb or .stb files are present Plot Plot New VP Freeze New VP VP Freeze VP Freeze (Renamed from “VP Curr” in V12 VP Color VP Color VP Linetype VP Linetype VP Lineweight VP Lineweight VP Transparency ... VP Plot Style VP Plot Style Description Description

BricsCAD defines and controls layer states through its ubiquitous Drawing Explorer.

Left: Layer states dialog box in AutoCAD Right: Layer states in BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer

76 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 77 Compatibility of Styles

BricsCAD supports most of the styles found AutoCAD. Those shown in blue are new to BricsCAD V13.

AutoCAD Style BricsCAD Style BricsCAD supports... Detail view styles ... Dimension styles Dimension styles ...all aspects of dimension styles, except annotations Multiline styles Multiline styles ...all aspects of multilines, except editing intersections Multileader styles ...... displays multileaders, but cannot create or edit multileaders styles Plot styles Plot styles ...all aspects of plot styles Section view styles ... Table styles Table styles ...most aspects of table styles Text styles Text styles ...all aspects of text styles, except annotations Visual styles Visual styles ...many aspects of visual styles

The following sections describe styles in greater detail.

Detail and Section View Styles Detail and section views are new to AutoCAD Release 2013’s model documentation function, and so are not (yet) supported by BricsCAD.

is displayed in place of the 2D views: AutoCAD 2012’s model documentation does not display in BricsCAD; the following error message

(Model documentation is AutoCAD’s ability to make traditional 2D views — front, right, top, isometric, and so on — of 3D models, sourced either from Inventor or AutoCAD, or else imported from other CAD systems, such as Solidworks and Pro/Engineer.)

78 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 79 Dimension Styles BricsCAD supports all properties of AutoCAD’s dimension styles and variables, with the exception of annotative scaling and text direction.

AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Aliases DimStyle DimStyle d, ddim, dimsty, ds,dst, expdimstyles, setdim

In BricsCAD, the DimStyle command brings up the Drawing Explorer:

Left: AutoCAD’s DimStyle tabbed dialog box. Right: BricsCAD’s Drawing Explorer for dimensions styles

Leader, QLeader, and Multiline Leader Styles BricsCAD supports styles for leaders (drawn by the DimLeader command) through the DimStyle command, just like AutoCAD. BricsCAD V13 adds the QLeader command and its “styles” (properties, actually). BricsCAD cannot, however, create multiline leaders or mleader styles, but can display them from imported AutoCAD drawings and can edit mleaders minimally through the Properties bar.

AutoCAD Command Style Command In BricsCAD DimLeader DimStyle Yes QLeader QLeader Setting Yes, new to V13 MLeader MLeaderStyle No

78 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 79 Unlike many other styles in BricsCAD, the options for QLeader are in a dialog box accessed through the QLeader Settings command.

Left: AutoCAD’s QLeader command’s Settings dialog box. Right: BricsCAD’s QLeader command’s options.

BricsCAD supports nearly all of the QLeader options found in AutoCAD:

AutoCAD QLeader Option Equivalent BricsCAD Option Annotation options Annotation Type Type MText Options Multi-line Text Annotation Reuse Reuse

Leader Line & Arrow options Leader Line Leader Number of Points Maximum Number of Points Arrowhead Arrowhead Angle Constraints Angle Constraints

Attachment options Text on left side Text on left side Text on right side Text on right side Underline bottom line ...

80 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 81 MText and Text Styles BricsCAD supports all text style options with the exception of annotative scaling and layout ori- entation.

AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Aliases Style Style st, ddstyle, expstyle, expstyles, expfont MText MText mt, t

Above: AutoCAD’s Style dialog box.

Below: BricsCAD’s Explorer for text styles.

BricsCAD also supports style overrides through the MText command.

Above: AutoCAD’s mtext editing toolbar.

Below: BricsCAD’s mtext editing toolbar.

80 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 81 BricsCAD supports about half of AutoCAD’s mtext options:

AutoCAD Mtext Function BricsCAD Mtext Function Style Style Font Font Annotative ... Height Height Boldface Boldface Italicized Italicized Underline Underline Overline Overline Undo Undo Redo Redo Fractions Fractions Color Color Ruler Toggle ...

Dynamic Columns ... Static Columns ... Column Properties ... Text Justification Text Justification Paragraph Properties ... Paragraph Justification ... Line Spacing ... Bullets ... Field Text Field Text Case Conversion Case Conversion Special Characters Special Characters Obliquing Angle Obliquing Angle Tracking Tracking Width Factor Width Factor

Import Text ... Find and Replace ... (use the Find command) AutoCAPS ... Character Set ... Combine Paragraphs ... Remove Formatting ... Background Mask ... (use Properties bar) Editor Settings ... (use Settings command)

82 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 83 Multiline Styles

create multilines or their styles. With V13, BricsCAD creates multilines through the MLine command Previous to V13, BricsCAD supported only the display of multilines created in AutoCAD; it could not

and specifiesAutoCAD their Command styles throughBricsCAD the MlStyle Command command, whichBricsCAD brings Alias up the Drawing Explorer. MlStyle MlStyle ...

BricsCAD supports all properties found in AutoCAD’s multiline styles.

Above: AutoCAD’s multiline style editor

Above: BricsCAD’s multiline style editor in Drawing Explorer

82 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 83 Plot Styles BricsCAD supports both types of AutoCAD plot styles, creating and editing them with the Plot- Style and StylesManager commands. The PlotterManager command in BricsCAD creates plotter

do in AutoCAD. configurations, while the PageSetup command predefines page setups for plotting — just as they

AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Aliases PlotStyle PlotStyle ... StylesManager StylesManager ... PlotterManager PlotterManager ... PageSetup PageSetup ...

The properties supported in plot styles are identical in both CAD systems — color-based styles stored in .ctb stb toggling line-end caps and joints in previews and in plotted output. files; table-based styles stored in . files. V13 supports two new plot style options:

Left: Plot style properties in AutoCAD... Right: ...and in BricsCAD.

84 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 85 Table Styles Prior to V12, BricsCAD supported just the displaying of tables and the changing of styles, if the

incoming DWG file contained them. As of V12, BricsCAD creates and edit table styles with the calls up the Table Style section of the ubiquitous Drawing Explorer. TableStyle command — just as in AutoCAD; unlike AutoCAD, however, the TableStyle command

AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Aliases TableStyle TableStyle ...

Like AutoCAD, BricsCAD can format cells separately as titles, headers, and data. But BricsCAD does not support all the table properties handled by AutoCAD.

AutoCAD Table Property Equivalent BricsCAD Table Property General (Data) properties Table Direction Table Direction Fill Color Background Color Alignment Alignment Text Format ... Cell Margins Cell Margins Merge Cells ...

Text properties Style Style Height Height Color Color Angle ...

Borders properties Lineweight Lineweight Linetype ... Color Color Double Line ... Double Line Spacing ... Apply to Borders Cell Frame

84 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 85

Left: AutoCAD’s table properties edited through the Modify Table Styles dialog box. Right: BricsCAD’s table properties edited through the Drawing Explorer.

Visual Styles BricsCAD V12 extended the capabilities of its ShadeMode command to display 3D drawings in a variety of AutoCAD-like visual styles. V13 adds the ability to override viewports with visual styles during plotting.

AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Alias VsCurrent ShadeMode vscurrent VisualStyles VisualStyles ...

BricsCAD includes the following visual styles:

AutoCAD Visual Style Name BricsCAD Visual Style Name 2dwireframe 2dWireframe Wireframe 3dWirefreme Hidden Hidden Realistic Realistic Conceptual Conceptual Shaded Gouraud shaded with Edges gOuraud+edges ... Flat ... fLat+edges ... Modeling ... high Quality shades of Gray ... SKetchy ... X-ray ...

86 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 87 BricsCAD supports many of AutoCAD’s visual style properties, with the missing ones to be implemented eventually. In a few areas, it has more properties than does AutoCAD, as shown by the following table:

AutoCAD Visual Style Property Equivalent BricsCAD Visual Style Property Face Settings properties Face Style Face Style Lighting Quality Lighting Quality Color Color Monochrome Color Monochrome Color Opacity Opacity Material Display Material Display

Lighting properties Highlight Intensity (not yet implemented) Shadow Display Shadow Display

Environmental Settings properties Backgrounds Backgrounds

Edge Settings properties Show Show Color Color ... Width ... Crease Angle

Occluded Edges properties Show (not yet implemented) Color (not yet implemented) Linetype (not yet implemented)

Intersection Edges properties Show (not yet implemented) Color (not yet implemented) Linetype (not yet implemented)

Silhouette Edges properties Show Show ... Color Width Width

Edge Modifiers properties Extension Lines (not yet implemented) JItter (not yet implemented) Crease Angle (not yet implemented) Halo Gap% (not yet implemented)

86 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements 87 Custom visual styles cannot be exported or imported with either CAD package. BricsCAD’s Visual- Styles command opens Drawing Explorer for creating and editing visual styles:

Left: Visual Styles Manager in AutoCAD. Right: Drawing Explorer for editing visual styles in BricsCAD.

— — —

With each release, BricsCAD supports more DWG objects, tables, and properties, but at the same time, Autodesk adds more of these to each release of AutoCAD. It’s a bit of a race.

88 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 3 Compatibility of Drawing Elements PB CHAPTER FOUR

Customizing and Programming BricsCAD

WHEREAS MOST OF AutoCAD’s customization takes place with the Cui and Options commands, in BricsCAD it takes place in the equivalent Customize and Settings commands.

AutoCAD: customized through Cui and Options commands BricsCAD: customized through Customize (alias: cui) and Settings (alias: options) commands

This chapter provides an overview of customizing and programming BricsCAD. It emphasizes the differences from AutoCAD’s way of doing things.

ÐÐ For complete details on these topic, see our Customizing BricsCAD ebook, available from www.bricscad.com/ estore ÐÐ For detailed information on programming BricsCAD V13, refer to the online developer reference, available free at www.bricsys.com/bricscad/help/en_US/V13/DevRef/index.html. AREAS OF CUSTOMIZATION

Areas of customization new to BricsCAD V13 are shown in blue; customization discussed by this chapter are in boldface.

Area of Customization AutoCAD Command Equivalent BricsCAD Command Aliases ...1 Customize | Aliases Command bar Options Settings | Command Line Crosshair cursor Options Settings | Display Double-click actions Cui Customize | Mouse Dynamic input Options Settings | Dynamic Input File paths Options Settings | Files Fonts Style Style Grips Options Settings | Grips Hatch patterns ...1 ...1 Keyboard shortcuts Cui Customize | Keyboard Linetypes ...1 Explorer Menu bar Cui Customize | Menu Mouse buttons Cui Customize | Mouse Plot styles PlotStyle PlotStyle Quick Access toolbar Cui ...3 Quick Properties palettes Cui ...3 Ribbon Cui ...3 Rollover tooltips Cui ...3 Scripts Script, ActRecord Script Selection previews Options Settings | Selection Preview Shell commands ...1 Customize | Shell Commands Shortcut/Context menus Cui Customize | Menus Status bar Right-click, Diesel Right-click, Diesel System Variables SysVar, Options SysVar, Settings Tablet Cui Customize | Tablet Tool palettes ToolPalettes, Customize ToolPalettes Toolbars Cui Customize | Toolbars UCS icon Options Settings | User Coordinate System User profiles Options ProfileManager Workspaces Cui ...3

Notes: 1 Must be edited outside of AutoCAD or BricsCAD with a text editor such as Notepad. 2 Double-clicking entities opens the Properties palette (bar) in BricsCAD. 3 Not available in BricsCAD.

90 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 91 AutoCAD Options vs BricsCAD Settings

BricsCAD and AutoCAD provide extensive options for controlling your CAD drafting environment, from modifying the look of the user interface to specifying the names of project folders. Most set-

or the Windows registry. tings are stored in system variables, while others are stored in data files, environment variables, SYSTEM VARIABLES

AutoCAD’s primary interface for changing settings is the dialog box displayed by the Options command. It provides users access to many — but not all — system variables.

Left: AutoCAD’s Files tab Right: BricsCAD’s Files node The equivalent dialog box in BricsCAD is called up by the Settings command. In contrast to Au- toCAD, Settings provides access to all system variables. (Chapter 2 provides details on using this dialog box.) In addition to supporting most of AutoCAD's system variables, BricsCAD has additional variables it calls “preferences,” which operate exactly like system variables. Bricsys gave them a different name because they are unique to BricsCAD.

Both CAD programs employ the SetVar command for direct, command-line access to these variables:

AutoCAD: SetVar command accesses system variables only, not environment or registry variables BricsCAD: SetVar command accesses system and preference variables

Appendix B provides you with a comprehensive list comparing system variables and preferences in AutoCAD and BricsCAD.

90 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 91 FILE PATHS

Drawings made in AutoCAD and BricsCAD use many support files, such as fonts, profiles, and ex alternative paths to these folders. ternal references. These files are stored in a number of folders. Both CAD programs let you specify AutoCAD: specifies paths in the Files tab of the Options dialog box BricsCAD: specifies paths in the Program Options section of the Settings dialog box

\Support. But as Microsoft

In older, simpler times, support files were stored in a folder named throughout the hard drives of computers — and sometimes not even on the computer you are using. made Windows more complex, it required software makers to scatter support files in many folders - egories and so they stored these in related folders: The complexity stems from networking. Microsoft segregated support files into a number of cat Local files are stored on the computer you use; these are files specific to each user and each program, such as DWG drawing files and local customization files. LocalLow files are stored like Local files, but with a lower integrity level; used byeb W browsers when Win- dows protected mode is on. BricsCAD does not use the LocalLow folder. Common files are stored on the computer you use; these are files, such as font files and printer drivers, that are common to many programs. Temporary files are stored “anywhere,” locally or on the network; these files are created by CAD programs for the duration of the editing session, such as automatic backup files. Roaming files are stored on any computer; these also are files specific to you, such as customized linetype and hatch pattern files, but should be accessible from any networked computer. (See Roamable Profiles later in this chapter.) Network files are stored on the network and are accessible to everyone, such as blocks and template files.

In Windows, the folders are found in a hidden folder named “AppData” under C:\Users\login\, where “login” is the name by which you log into Windows. My login name is rhg, and so my Local, and Roaming folders are found under C:\Users\rhg\AppData.

Left: Local and Roaming support folders in Windows Right: Support folders in Linux

92 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 93 To maintain compatibility with Windows, BricsCAD for Linux uses similar folder names and structures, although without the Local and Roaming folders. All support folders are found in this path:

/home/ralphg/Bricsys/BricsCAD/V13/en_US/

Tutorial: How to Add AutoCAD Support Folders to BricsCAD If you wish, you can point BricsCAD’s support paths to some or all of AutoCAD’s folders. This is done through the Program Options section of the Settings dialog box:

1. Start BricsCAD, and then enter the Settings command. 2. In the Search field, entersupport file.

3. Notice that the Settings dialog box jumps to the Support File Search Path item.

4. Click the Browse button. Notice the Folders List dialog box.

5. In the Folders List dialog box, click Add Folder, and then click Browse. 6. In the Browse for Folder dialog box, navigate to the AutoCAD folder you wish to add, and then click OK.

92 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 93 7. Notice that the folder is added to the list. BricsCAD highlights the folder to indicate it is newly added.

8. Repeat the process to add the locations of other support folders, such as DWT drawing template files at C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013 - English\R19.0\enu\Template and most other support files atC:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013 - English\R19.0\enu\Support. 9. When done, click OK.

USER PROFILES

BricsCAD and AutoCAD both support user profiles that store your customization settings. After changing settings with the Options (in AutoCAD) or Settings (in BricsCAD) commands, you can save them to .arg

user profile files. You can make multiple profiles to customize the CAD programs for different users and for specific projects. /p switch to its desktop shortcut. (Right- click the shortcut icon on the desktop, and then choose Properties from the shortcut menu.) Edit You launch BricsCAD with a user profile by adding the the Target text like this:

"C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V13\bricscad.exe" /P

Replace with the .arg myprofile.arg:

"C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V13\bricscad.exe" /P myprofile.arg file name, such as

ProfilesAutoCAD are :made user profiles in different are created ways andfor accessedeach CAD through package: the Profiles tab of the Options dialog box. BricsCAD: user profiles are generated through a separate application,UserProfileManager.exe .

Start button, and then choosing All Programs | Bricsys | BricsCAD V13 | User Profile Manager, or You can run the UserProfileManager program externally to BricsCAD by clicking the Windows else access it from inside BricsCAD through the ProfileManger command.

94 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 95 Tutorial: How to Import AutoCAD Profiles into to BricsCAD

into BricsCAD. Follow these steps: Both programs use the same format for .arg files, and so you can import AutoCAD-generated profiles Firstly, export the .arg

1. In AutoCAD, enter file the from Options AutoCAD: command, and then click on the Profiles tab. (See figure above.)

2. Choose a profile from the list, and then clickExport . 3. Select the folder into which profile file should be saved. If you wish, change the file name. 4. Click Save. 5. Click OK to exit the dialog box.

Secondly, import the .arg

1. In BricsCAD, from the file Tools to BricsCAD:menu, choose User Profile Manager. (See figure above.)

2. In the User Profile Manager, clickImport . 3. Choose the .arg file exported from AutoCAD, and then clickOpen . 4. To apply the profile, clickSet Current. 5. Click OK to exit the program.

94 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 95 ROAMING PROFILES

BricsCAD and AutoCAD support roaming profiles

, which let you “roam” about the office and use the CAD software (customized with your settings) on any computer connected to the office network. a computer. Your settings are identified automatically by your login name, which you enter when you access

Not all CAD-related files are roamable; some remain local, such as DWG drawings and CUI files. version of Windows running on your computer. Roamable and nonroamable files are kept in different folders, whose names vary depending on the

TIP As of AutoCAD 2013, Autodesk does not support customers running their software on Windows Vista; Bricsys supports BricsCAD V13 on Vista.

As of writing this book, neither Bricsys nor Autodesk had announced support for Windows 8. However, I found that both programs run fine on the new operating system.

For Windows Vista and 7, files are stored in the following folders.Roaming

AutoCAD’s roamable files are in C:\Users\login\AppData\ \Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\ R19.0\enuÐÐ Data links ÐÐ Language packs ÐÐ Migration ÐÐ Plot styles (CTB, STB), plotter parameters (PMP), and plotter configurations (PC3) ÐÐ Support files (CUIX, FMP, LIN, MLN, MNL, PAT, PGP, PSF, UNT, and so on)

Local

AutoCAD’s nonroamable files are in C:\Users\login\AppData\ \Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\ R19.0\enuÐÐ Template files (DWT, DST, DGN) ÐÐ Web Services

Roaming

BricsCAD’sÐÐ Plot styles roamable (CTB, STB), files and are plotter in C:\Users\login\AppData\ configurations (PC3) \Bricsys\BricsCAD\V13\en_US ÐÐ Support files (CUI, FMP, LIN, PAT, PGP, PSF, UNT, and TXT)

Local

BricsCAD’sÐÐ Template nonroamable files (DWT) files are in C:\Users\login\AppData\ \Bricsys\BricsCAD\V13\en_US

TIP You can change the path to the local and roamable folders with the related system variables Local- RootPrefixand RoamableRootPrefix.

96 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 97 Tutorial: Making Hidden Folders Visible

by Windows. (There is no need to do this in Linux.) Here are some ways to access hidden folders: The local and roaming folders can be difficult to find, because, unfortunately, they are typically hidden ÐÐ Make all hidden folders visible through Start | Control Panel | Appearance and Personalization | Folder Op- tions, and then click the View tab. Under Advanced Settings, turn on Show Hidden Files and Folders.

(You can also access the dialog box through the Tools menu, if menus are turned on for Explorer.) ÐÐ Or, copy (Ctrl+C) the folder path from this book, and then paste it (Ctrl+V) into the address bar of Explorer. ÐÐ Or, create shortcuts on your computer’s desktop to the hidden folders: hold down Ctrl+Alt while dragging the folder name from Explorer onto the desktop.

LEGALITIES: ABOUT COPYING FILES

Autodesk permits the copying of support files, since the corporation understands that drawings are effectively disabled when DWG files are sent to clients without these crucial files. Support files that are coded in ASCII contain the following notice from Autodesk:

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both that copyright notice and the limited warranty and restricted rights notice below appear in all supporting documentation.

By copying files in whole, you include the notices that Autodesk asks you to preserve.

TRUETYPE FONTS There is one exception. Some TrueType fonts (.ttf files) are commercial products, and cannot be copied without payment to the copyright holder. The good news, however, is that all TrueType fonts provided with Windows and AutoCAD may be copied freely. If a drawing contains copyrighted TrueType fonts, you can often find ones that look similar but cost nothing.

96 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 97 AutoCAD Cui vs BricsCAD Customize

The BricsCAD command that is equivalent to AutoCAD’s Cui command is Customize. (To access it easily, you can enter the “cui” alias.) This command displays a dialog box that centralizes customization of the following BricsCAD user interface elements:

ÐÐ Menus ÐÐ Context menus (shortcut menus) ÐÐ Toolbars ÐÐ Keyboard shortcuts ÐÐ Mouse buttons ÐÐ Double-click actions ÐÐ Tablet overlay menus ÐÐ Tablet buttons ÐÐ Command Aliases ÐÐ Shell Commands

The process for customizing most of these elements is identical. This means that you can learn the system for one element, such as menus, and then handle any other one, such as context menus or toolbars. The BricsCAD method, however, differs from AutoCAD’s, and I show below an example of how to customize BricsCAD using menus.

Customize command, the Cui alias, or from the menu, Tools | Customize. Alternatively, right-click any toolbar and then select Customize. Notice You access the Customize dialog box through the the dialog box:

98 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 99 BRICSCAD MENU TREE

A couple of items to note:

Notice that red • container items, which are

dots prefix before some menu items. The dots indicate are examples of some containers: menu items that contain other items. For example, the File menu contains file-related items. Here • BRICSCAD container holds the names of the menu groups. The groups include Main menus (those menu items seen on the menu bar) and Context menus (also known as “shortcut menus,” which appear when you right- click entities). • Main Menus container holds the names of items appearing on the menu bar, such as File and Edit. • File container is the name of the first menu appearing along the menu bar. • Edit container is the name of the second menu on the menu bar

Container (File menu)

Menu item (Open… displays a dialog box)

Separator (------dashed line)

When you see a row of dashes that looks like “-----,” this indicates the position of separator bars, the gray lines that separate groups of menu items.

Tutorial: How to Customize a Menu in BricsCAD Menu tab. Here you add, edit, and remove items to and from menus. You customize menus in BricsCAD through the Customize dialog box’s To do so, right-click an existing menu item, and then choose an option from the shortcut menu that appears.

In this tutorial, you add the CloseAll command to the File menu, locating it just after the Close item. (The CloseAll command closes all open drawings.)

98 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 99 To change the menu, follow these steps:

1. To open the Customize dialog box, enter the Customize command. 2. When the dialog box appears, click the Menus tab.

The Main Menus node defines the structure of the currently-loaded menu. The names in the dialog box, like File, Edit, and so on, match the names on BricsCAD’s menu bar, illustrated below.

3. You open containers by clicking buttons. Click the next to the File container. This action reveals the items in the File dropdown menu; both are illustrated below.

Left: File menu container displayed by Customize dialog box Right: Menu items under the File dropdown menu

100 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 101 4. Move the cursor over the ----- (separator) item that’s located below Close. 5. Right-click (press the right mouse button). Notice the shortcut menu.

a. Open File container (Click the +)

b. Right-click separator (------) c. Choose Insert item from shortcut menu

6. From the shortcut menu, choose Insert Item. This action adds a new menu item above the currently-selected one, the separator line ------. 7. Notice that BricsCAD opens the Add Menu Item dialog box, which lists all commands available in BricsCAD. From this list, you can select an existing command — or create a new one.

a.Choose Select Available Tool option

Bricscad fills in command parameters automatically

b. Choose Close All

c. Click OK.

a. In the Add Menu Item dialog box, choose the Select Available Tool option. This allows you to select one of BricsCAD’s built-in commands. (The other option, Create New Tool, is for creating new command macros.) b. Under the list of Available Tools, open the File item, and then choose Close All. Notice that most of the parameters are filled in for you, such as Title, Help, and so on.

100 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 101 c. Click OK. Notice that the Close All command is added to the list under Close.

8. To ensure the new command is in place and actually works, follow these steps: a. Close the Customize dialog box by clicking OK. b. Choose the File menu. Notice that the Close All item has been added.

c. Click Close All. Does it work correctly? (It should prompt you to save all open drawings that have changed since being loaded.) USEFUL MENU TIPS

Not sure which commands can be added to menus? Peruse the list found under Available Tools in the Customize dialog box. It lists all the commands found in BricsCAD, sorted by menu order.

Want to create new commands? Use the Create New Tool option to add your own commands, which are constructed from other commands, LISP routines, macros, and Diesel instructions.

102 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 103 What’s the difference between “Insert” and “Append”? If you were to right-click the File container,

here’s how they differ: you would see “Append Item” on the shortcut menu. The names “Append” and “Insert” seem similar;

ÐÐ Append Item adds the new item at the end of the menu container. ÐÐ Insert Item adds the new item before the currently-selected item.

For the case of the CloseAll tutorial, using Append Item would have added the command to the end of the File menu, which leads to the extra step of moving CloseAll into position under Close.

Mangled the menu customization? Click the Revert to Defaults button found at the bottom of the Customize dialog box. Be careful, though, because it removes all prior customizations.

Tutorial: Importing Menus Files from AutoCAD

Follow1. Use these the Customize steps to command import menu to open files the Customizefrom AutoCAD: dialog box. 2. At the right end of Main Customization File field, click the button. 3. In the Choose a Customize File dialog box, click the Files of Type droplist. Notice the list of file types:

ÐÐ CUI — standard menu files used by AutoCAD since release 2007 and by BricsCAD since V8. ÐÐ MNU or MNS — legacy menu files used by AutoCAD and by AutoCAD LT prior to release 2007. ÐÐ ICM — IntelliCAD menu files used by BricsCAD prior to V8 and by IntelliCAD-based systems.

4. Choose a file type, select a file name, and then clickOK . Notice that the menu structure changes to match the newly-imported file.

Careful: not work, because AutoCAD macros can contain macro code and metacharacters not supported Although BricsCAD imports AutoCAD menu files effortlessly, menu picks sometimes do by BricsCAD.

102 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 103 Tutorial: How to Create a New Menu Item macros, which BricsCAD calls “tools.” In this tutorial, you create a tool that consists of two commands: one saves the current drawing, and the second opens the You add new “commands” through Print dialog box. I’ve named the macro “Save’n Print,” which looks like this:

^C^C_qsave;_plot

Here is how to create the command tool:

1. With the Customize command, open the Customize dialog box. (Alternatively, you can enter its alias, Cui.) 2. In the Menus tab’s File item, right-click Print, and then choose Insert Item from the shortcut menu.

3. Notice the Add New Item dialog box. Choose the Create New Tool option.

a.Choose Select Available Tool option

b. Choose File toolbox c. Fill in command parameters

d. Click OK.

4. Fill in the command parameters.

104 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 105 Use the table below as a guide.

Parameter Text that You Enter Notes Toolbox File Adds the new command to the File category of available tools. Title Save’n Print Specifies the name that appears in the File menu. Help Saves the drawing, and then Specifies the help text that appears on the status bar. starts the Plot command. Command ^C^C_qsave;_plot Specifies the macro that cancels the current command, saves the drawing, and then starts the Plot command. Image (leave blank) Specifies the icon, although none is required for menus.

5. Click OK to exit the Add Menu Item dialog box. Notice that the new tool is added to the File menu (in the left pane of the Customize dialog box), as well as to the list of Available Tools (in the right pane).

In addition, its parameters are shown in the Menu Item pane at the bottom of the dialog box. (Here, you can edit the parameters, just as with regular commands.)

6. Click OK to exit the Customize dialog box. 7. Test the new item by selecting Save’n Print from the File menu.

104 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 105 MACRO METACHARACTERS

Menu items execute macros, which can contain metacharacters. BricsCAD and AutoCAD use many of the same metacharacters. I’ve listed some of the most common ones here so that you can see they are indeed identical:

Metacharacter Meaning ^C Cancels the current command. ’ Executes the command transparently. _ Internationalizes the command. ; Executes Enter. \ Pauses the macro.

Menu Design Conventions BricsCAD and AutoCAD use many of the same conventions for designing menus. Two of them are summarized below:

& (ampersand) designates shortcut keystrokes for accessing menu items with the Alt key. ... (ellipsis) indicates the menu item will display a dialog box.

Diesel AutoCAD and BricsCAD can employ the same Diesel expressions in menu macros and LISP routines.

CONTEXT MENUS

BricsCAD calls shortcut menus “context menus,” because their content changes, depending on the context. Context menus are found in the Menus tab and below the Main Menus section.

on the right are the names of the shortcut menus included with AutoCAD. The screen grab shown below lists the names of context menus provided by default in BricsCAD;

106 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 107

Left: Shortcut (or “cursor”) menus provided by default with AutoCAD. Right: Context menus provided by default with BricsCAD.

As with menus, the list of items in each context container matches that of the shortcut menu. For instance, when you right-click a selected entity, BricsCAD displays the Edit context menu. Here is what it looks like:

Left: Defining the Entity Snap shortcut menu in the Customize dialog box of BricsCAD. Right: BricsCAD’s Entity Snap context menu.

106 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 107 To customize a context menu, you have same options as you saw with menus:

Left: Pane for customizing a context menu item in BricsCAD. Right: Shortcut menu for adding elements to context menus in BricsCAD. TOOLBARS

Toolbars are customized in the Toolbar tab of the Customize dialog box. The screen grabs (below) list the names of toolbars provided by default in both CAD systems.

Left: Toolbars provided by default with AutoCAD, although they are normally turned off. Right: Toolbars provided by default with BricsCAD.

108 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 109 - bars are turned off. In contrast, a selection of toolbars are turned on in BricsCAD. The visibility of AutoCAD’s toolbars is controlled by the current workspace; by default, all its tool The process for customizing toolbars is identical to that of customizing menus, with two exceptions:

ÐÐ Submenus of toolbars are called “fly outs.” ÐÐ Toolbars can contain “controls,” which menus cannot; control is another name for droplist.

held by the Standard toolbar. The figure below shows how the items in Customize’s Standard tree match the order of the buttons

Left: Content of the Standard tree in BricsCAD. Right: Icons of the Standard toolbar in BricsCAD.

can specify the initial location and visibility of toolbars. To do so, select a toolbar name, such as You can specify parameters for the toolbar itself and for each button. As in AutoCAD, BricsCAD Standard, and then edit the settings in the pane shown below:

108 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 109 To edit an individual button, select its name, and then check its properties:

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Keyboard shortcuts are customized in the Keyboard tab, as shown in the screen grab below. Brics- CAD has many of the same shortcuts as does AutoCAD. Appendix D contains a useful cross-reference of all keystroke shortcuts used by both programs.

choose an option from the context menu: You can add and remove shortcuts and their assigned actions. Right-click an existing one, and then

of shortcuts in the Key Inserting shortcuts follows the same steps as adding menu items. You can enter the following kinds ÐÐ CTRL keys field, highlighted in the figure below: ÐÐ SHIFT+CTRL keys ÐÐ Function keys ÐÐ SHIFT, CTRL, ALT, CTRL+ALT, SHIFT+ALT, SHIFT+ALT, and SHIFT+ALT+CTRL function keys

110 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 111 BricsCAD does not, unfortunately, warn you if a key combination is already in use.

MOUSE BUTTONS AND DOUBLE-CLICK ACTIONS

The actions of mouse buttons are customized in the Mouse tab, as are double-click actions. See

the figure below:

To access a menu with a mouse button, use the same macro construction as in AutoCAD, as highlighted below:

Double-Click Actions Double-click actions are customized in the Mouse tab. In V11 and earlier, double-clicking an entity caused the Properties pane to appear. This is still the case, but now you can change the action associated with the entity. For example, double-clicking a hatch pattern executes the HatchEdit command.

110 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 111 The lists of entities that can be double-clicked are nearly identical in BricsCAD and AutoCAD, as

it doesn’t have extruded surface and lofted surface entities, but the names appear in the list in case shown below. One difference, however, is that some entities are not native to BricsCAD; for instance, you import a drawing from AutoCAD that contains surfaces, extruded, lofted, or otherwise.

Double-click actions are customized by editing the Command

field, highlighted in the figure below.

As in AutoCAD, you can add and remove double-click actions. Right-click an existing one, and then choose an option from the context menu:

Menu Item” earlier in this chapter. Inserting a double-click action involves the same steps as adding a menu item; see “Creating a New

Left: Double-clickable objects in AutoCAD. Right: Entities for which double-click action can be assigned in BricsCAD.

112 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 113 TABLET BUTTONS AND MENUS

Tablet overlay menus and digitizer buttons can be customized in the Tablet tab, as illustrated below. The entries under Digitizer Buttons and Tablet Menus look empty because as of BricsCAD V11 no

tablet menu is loaded with the Default profile.

Left: Default items for digitizer buttons and tablet overlays in BricsCAD Right: Items after a partial CUI file for tablets is loaded in BricsCAD

www.bricsys. com/en_US/download/bcad/tool/Tablet.zip tablet.cui CUI files and drawings for tablet buttons and overlays can be downloaded from or tablet(acadLike)cui, then these two sections contain entries for tablet buttons and menus. The . Once you load a partial cui file, such as tablet overlay provided by Bricsys is illustrated below:

112 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 113 ALIASES AND SHELL COMMANDS

Command aliases are customized in the Aliases tab, as illustrated below. BricsCAD has many of the same aliases as does AutoCAD. Appendix C of this ebook contains a useful cross-reference of aliases used by both programs.

Unlike in AutoCAD, you can create and edit aliases inside BricsCAD. Click the Add or Edit button to see the Edit Alias dialog box illustrated above. BricsCAD uses the same format as does AutoCAD pgp

for defining aliases and shell commands, and both CAD packages store the definition in aacad.pgp . file. default.pgp. Keep the difference in mind when you copy acad.pgp to your BricsCAD There is a difference, however, between the names of the PGP files. In AutoCAD, it is the installation, because you need to rename the incoming one “default.pgp.” file; in BricsCAD,

Tutorial: Loading AutoCAD’s PGP File into BricsCAD

Here1. Use is howWindows to load Explorer the PGPto copy file the from acad.pgp AutoCAD filefrom into this BricsCAD: folder: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\R19.0\enu\Support

2. Rename it default.pgp. 3. Place the renamed file in this BricsCAD folder: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V13\en_US\Support

Remember to replace with your Windows login name.

It turns out that you cannot simply use the Customize dialog box’s Program Parameter File because it does not allow you to enter a different path. field,

114 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 115 Shell Commands Shell commands are customized in the Shell Commands tab, illustrated below:

Add — adds a new shell command; BricsCAD uses the same format AutoCAD:

114 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 115 Customizing Tools Palettes

from in AutoCAD. Here is the difference between the two CAD systems in how items are added to Tool palettes are new to BricsCAD V13. You can customize them, although the process is different palettes:

AutoCAD: you drag entities from the drawing into a palette, even for non-entity items, like LISP routines BricsCAD: you add entities from the Customize dialog box, as shown in the tutorial below

Both commands use a separate dialog box to create and change palette groups, and to export and

importAutoCAD palette: you definition access the files. Customize dialog box with the Customize command BricsCAD: you access the Customize dialog box by right-clicking a palette, and then choosing Add Tool

(There does not seem to be a command in BricsCAD for accessing the dialog box for manipulating palette groups. BricsCAD, unfortunately, has two dialog boxes named “Customize,” one for customizing the UI and the other for palette groups.)

TIPS AutoCAD stores palette definitions in ATP files, short for “AutoCAD tool palettes.” BricsCAD stores them in BTP files, short for “BricsCAD tool palettes.” Both are XML-format files.

Both CAD systems export and import palette definitions in XTP files, short for “Xmlool T Palette,” an XML- format file. This allows BricsCAD to read palettes from AutoCAD.

Tutorial: Adding Commands to the Tool Palettes Bar To add commands to the Tool Palettes bar in BricsCAD, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the palette to which you wish to add a “tool” (a.k.a command).

2. In the shortcut menu, choose Add Tool. Notice that the Customize dialog box appears.

116 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 117 3. Choose a command from the tree.

4. Right-click the command, and then choose Add to Current Toolpalette. Notice that the command and its icon are added to the end of the current palette.

5. Close the Customize dialog box by clicking the red X. 6. You can now customize the newly-added button in a variety of ways. To change the icon or the actions of the button, right-click the button, and then... ÐÐ To change the label, choose Rename and then enter text for a new label.

ÐÐ To change the icon, choose Specify Image and then select a raster image file for the new icon. You can use files in the following formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIF.

116 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 117 ÐÐ To change the action of the button, choose Properties and then change the properties in the dialog box, such as the name, icon, description (displayed by the tooltip), and the command (a macro written using the same syntax as for toolbars).

TIPS When the command draws an entity, such as Line or Text, then you can specify the properties of the entity in this dialog box. For instance, if you set the color to red, then clicking the button will automatically draw lines or text in red.

The trick in AutoCAD of right-click dragging entities from the drawing into the Tools palette does not work in BricsCAD.

ÐÐ To move (or copy) the button to another palette, choose Cut (or Copy) in this palette, switch to the other palette, and then right-click and choose Paste. ÐÐ To remove the button, choose Delete. ÐÐ To change the size of the icon, right-click a blank spot in the palette (not on an icon!)...

118 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 119 and then choose View Options. In the dialog box, drag the slider to change the size of all icons in the current palette or in all palettes.

The same shortcut menu lets you add a new blank palette, rename the current palette, or else delete it. The Customize Palettes option lets you create palette groups.

Tutorial: How to Export AutoCAD Palettes to BricsCAD BricsCAD and AutoCAD use the same .xtp

file format to export and import palettes. (XTP is short - for “xml tool palettes,” and is a file format based on XML, a self-documenting version of HTML that low these steps: is often used in data exchange situations.) To import palette files from AutoCAD to BricsCAD, fol 1. Start AutoCAD, and then enter the Customize command. 2. In the Customize dialog box, right-click the palette you wish to export. From the shortcut menu, choose Export.

118 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 119 3. In the Export Palettes dialog box, choose the folder in which to place the exported XTP file, and then click Save. (I use the Desktop, because it is easy to find!) 4. Switch to BricsCAD. 5. Right-click the Tools Palette bar, and then choose Customize Palettes. 6. In the Customize dialog box, right-click any palette, and then choose Import from the shortcut menu.

7. In the Import Palettes dialog box, choose the XTP file you exported from AutoCAD, and then clickOpen . Notice that it is added to the list of Palettes. 8. Click Close. Notice that the Tool Palettes bar now has a new tab named after the palette you imported. The icons will probably consist of ?, because the icon files are unavailable.

9. Click an icon; notice that the command (probably) works!

120 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 121 Other Areas of Customization

The Settings and Customize dialog boxes are not the only places to customize BricsCAD. Below is

and plot styles. a review of additional elements that can be modified, including fonts, linetypes, hatch patterns, FONTS

AutoCADÐÐ TrueType and (. ttfBricsCAD) fonts use the same types of font files: ÐÐ Compiled shape (.shx) fonts

This means BricsCAD can use all fonts displayed by any AutoCAD drawing.

TrueType Fonts \windows\fonts folder for use by all Windows programs. AutoCAD and BricsCAD both have access to the same source, and so in Windows controls TrueType fonts. All TTF files are stored in the Windows there is no need to copy .ttf

In Linux, TTF fonts are stored in the /usr/share/fonts/truetypefiles to any BricsCAD folder. folder.

SHX Fonts AutoCAD keeps its SHX fonts in the C:\program files\autodesk\autocad 2013\fonts folder. To use

C:\Program Files (x86)\Bricsys\BricsCAD V13\Fonts them with BricsCAD, you can copy the SHX files to the equivalent folder in Bricsys: In Linux, SHX fonts are stored in the /opt/bricsys/bricscad/fonts folder.

But AutoCAD also installs TTF versions of its SHX fonts in \windows\fonts folder because TrueType

fonts look much better than SHX fonts. You should use TrueType fonts in your drawings, instead old drawings. of SHX fonts. Autodesk continues to provide SHX font files simply to provide compatibility with If necessary, use the default.fmp

file to map SHX font names to TTF ones. PFB Fonts AutoCAD also supports the now-rarely-used PostScript .pfb font format, albeit indirectly through the Compile command, which converts PostScript fonts into SHX format.

It does not matter that BricsCAD does not work with PostScript fonts, because they appear in DWG

files as SHX fonts.

120 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 121 PostScript fonts are the default for Linux, but again this does not matter, since neither CAD package uses them directly.

Font Mapping BricsCAD and AutoCAD support font mapping, which becomes handy when a font is not displayed

in a drawing. This occurs most often when a DWG file is copied from one computer to another, and theÐÐ secondQuick’n dirty one method doesn’t reads have the all FontAlt of the systemsame font variable, files. which There specifies are two the ways name to of usethe fontfont to mapping: use when the correct one cannot be found. This one font is used for all missing fonts. AutoCAD specifiesarial.ttf , while BricsCAD uses simplex.shx. ÐÐ Comprehensive method uses the FontMap system variable, which specifies the name of a fmp. file. This file holds a list of font names mapped to alternative ones:

CAD System FontMap Default Folder AutoCAD acad.fmp C:\Users\login\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\R19.0\enu\Support BricsCAD Windows default.fmp C:\Users\login\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V13\en_US\Support BricsCAD Linux default.fmp home/login/Bricsys/BricsCAD/BricsCAD/V13/en_US/Support

The format of the FMP file is simple, and both CAD systems use the same format; just the content is ic-comp;complex.shx different.ic-complex;complex.shx To show you the format, here are the first few entries of the BricsCAD version of the file: ic-gdt;gdt.shx ic-ital;italic.shx ic-italc;italicc.shx

default.fmp, and then paste The Bricsys font name is listed first, followed by a semi-colon, and then the name of the substitute it into the folder used by Bricsys. font. If you need to, you can copy the file from AutoCAD, rename it to

eTransmit One way to ensure that Bricsys has all the fonts it needs is to use AutoCAD’s eTransmit command.

This command collects the DWG file, needed support files, all font files, and any attachments, and then places them into a folder or a ZIP file. click the Transmittal Setups button, click Modify, and then turn on the Include Fonts option. There is just one problem: by default, the option to include font files is turned off. To include fonts,

122 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 123 View Report button, and

If you want just a list of needed fonts and other support files, click the AutoCAD Drawing Standards File References: you get aMKMStd.dws list of required and missing files:

AutoCAD Font Map References: acad.fmp

AutoCAD Compiled Shape References: Fonts\txt.shx Fonts\romand.shx

The following files could not be located: @Arial Unicode MS.(shx,ttf) Textures\Mats\ PlotCfgs\Sample Floor Plan_Base.stb

LINETYPES AND HATCH PATTERNS

BricsCADÐÐ Simple andlinetypes AutoCAD — defined use theby lin. same files definitions for linetypes, as well as for hatch patterns: ÐÐ Complex linetypes — defined by lin. and .shx files ÐÐ Hatch patterns — defined by pat. files

This means that BricsCAD can use linetypes and hatch patterns that have been customized for AutoCAD.

Tutorial: How to Copy AutoCAD .lin and .pat Files to BricsCAD If you wish to reuse linetypes and hatch patterns from AutoCAD, then follow these steps:

1. Copy the .lin, .shx, and .pat files from their support folder: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\R19.0\enu\Support

2. ...to the BricsCAD support folder in Windows: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V13\en_US\Support

(In Linux, the BricsCAD support folder is home//Bricsys/BricsCAD/BricsCAD/V13/en_US/Support.) 3. Once copied, however, you have to rename the files, because BricsCAD uses different file names for default linetype and hatch pattern files. :

File Type AutoCAD Default Name BricsCAD Default Name Notes Linetypes acad.lin default.lin acadiso.lin iso.lin ISO-standard linetypes ltypeshp.shx ltypeshp.shx Shape files for complex linetypes Hatch patterns acad.pat default.pat acadiso.pat iso.pat ISO-standard hatch patterns

As1. anIn alternativeBricsCAD, enter to thecopying Linetype files, command you can to import open the AutoCAD Explorer window linetype at filesthe Linetypes into BricsCAD node. like this:

122 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 123 2. Click the New button to display the Load Linetypes dialog box.

3. Click File to access another .lin file, such asacad.lin . 4. Use the Look In droplist to navigate to C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013\R19.0\enu\ Support. Replace with your Windows login name.

5. Choose the .lin file you wish to open, and then clickOpen . The linetypes from AutoCAD are added to the current drawing.

Linetypes and hatch patterns are customized the same way by BricsCAD and AutoCAD, by editing the related .lin and .pat

As of V12 files with Notepad or another text editor. default.pat Type is set to , BricsCAD has a new way to handle custom hatch pattern files whose names differ from “Custom.” ; these are displayed by the Hatch Pattern Palette dialog box when hatch

124 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 125 PLOT STYLES

BricsCAD and AutoCAD support both color-based and style-based plot styles that allow entities

to look different when plotted. Recall that CTB files are for the older color-based plot style tables, whileTo create STB or files edit are plot for styles the newer in BricsCAD, style-based use theplot PlotStyle style tables. command. (Or choose Plotstyle Man- ager from the File CAD programs are identical: menu.) The figures below show that the style-based plot style tables of both

Left: AutoCAD’s STB table. Right: BricsCAD’s STB table.

acad.stb, while BricsCAD’s This means BricsCAD can use STB and CTB files created by AutoCAD — after you rename them. The default is default.stb. sole difference is the file name of the default: AutoCAD’s default name is

Plotter Manager

BricsCAD and AutoCAD both support PC3 plotter manager files, which allow users to customize plotterTo create options. and edit BricsCAD plotters can in BricsCAD, use PC3 files choose created Plotter in AutoCAD. Manager from the File menu, or enter the PlotterManager

command. The figures below show that the plotter configuration editors of both

124 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 125 printer in the Information tab, whereas AutoCAD does not. CAD programs are similar: one significant improvement is that Bricsys lets you choose the system

Left: BricsCAD’s plotter editor for a system printer. Right: AutoCAD’s plotter editor for DWF outpout.

Supported Files

In addition to DWG drawing files, BricsCAD and AutoCAD employ many additional files. The follow ing tables cross-reference by extension supported files between the two CAD packages.

126 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 127 AutoCAD File BricsCAD File Notes

Drawing Files .adt .adt Audit log files .bak .bak Backup drawing files .dwf .dwf Design Web format files .dwfx ... XPS compatible version of DWF files .dwg .dwg Drawing files .dws ... CAD standards files .dwt .dwt Drawing template files .dxb ... Binary drawing interchange files for CAD/camera .dxf .dxf Drawing interchange files, ASCII and binary .sv$ .sv$ Autosaved drawing files .xlg .xlg Xref log files .$$$ ... Emergency backup files .$ac ... Temporary files created by AutoCAD .$a ... Temporary files

Support Files .acb ... AutoCAD color book files .acl ... Autocorrect list files .arg .arg User profile files .atc .btc AutoCAD / BricsCAD tool catalog files .aws ... AutoCAD workspace files .blk ... Block template files .cfg .cfg Configuration files .chm chm Compiled HTML format help files .chx ... Standards check files .cui .cui Customize User Interface files .cuix ... Customization container files .cus .cus Custom dictionary files .dbq ... Database query files .dbt ... Database template files .dbx ... Database extension files .dct .dic Dictionary files .dsd ... Drawing set description files .dst .dst Sheet set data files .err ... Error log files .fdc ... Field catalog files .fmp .fmp Font mapping files .hdi ... Heidi device interface files ... .hlp Windows-format help files .htm, .html .htm, .html Hypertext markup language files ... .icm IntelliCAD menu files .ies ... Illumination distribution data files .ini ... Configuration (initialization) files .lin .lin Linetype definition files

126 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 127 AutoCAD File BricsCAD File Notes

.log .log Log files created by the LogFileOn command ... .lwi Base material files .mli ... Material library files for rendering .mln .mln Multiline style files .mnc ... Compiled menu files (deprecated as of AutoCAD 2006) .mnd ... Uncompiled menu files containing macros (deprecated) .mnl ... AutoLISP routines used by AutoCAD menus (deprecated) .mnr ... Menu resource files .mns .mns AutoCAD-generated menu source files (deprecated) .mnu .mnu Menu source files (deprecated as of AutoCAD 2006) .nfl ... Filter list files .pat .pat Hatch pattern definition files .ptw ... Publish to Web settings files .pwt ... Publish to Web template files .rml ... Redline markup files (obsolete) .shp ... Shape and font definition files .shx .shx Compiled shape and AutoCAD font files .slg ... Status log files .ttf .ttf Microsoft font files .txt .txt Text message files .udl ... Microsoft data link files .xml ... Extended markup language files .xmx ... External message files .xpg ... XML-format tool palette group files .xtp .xtp Tool palette exchange files

Plotting Support Files .ctb .ctb Color-table based plot parameter files .pc2 ... Plot configuration parameters files for AutoCAD 2000 (deprecated) .pc3 .pc3 Plot configuration parameters files since AutoCAD 2000i .pcp ... Plot configuration parameters files for AutoCAD R14 (deprecated) .plt .plt Plot files .pmp .pmp Plotter model configuration files .pss ... Plot stamp settings files .stb .stb Style-table based plot parameter files

Import-Export Files .3ds ... 3D Studio files .bmp .bmp Windows raster files (device-independent bitmap) .cdf .cdf Comma delimited files .dgn ... MicroStation V8 and V7 design files .dxe ... Data extraction files created by DataExtraction command .dxx ... DXF files created by AttExt command ... .ecw Enhanced Compression Wavelet files ... .emf Enhanced meta format files

128 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 129 AutoCAD File BricsCAD File Notes

.eps ... Encapsulated PostScript files .fax ... Fax raster plot files .fit ... FIT raster plot files .gif .gif CompuServe image files .jpg, .jpeg .jpg, .jpeg Joint photographic expert group files ... .jp2 JPEG 2000 files .kml ... Google Earth files (keyhole markup language) .kmx ... Compressed KML files .pcx .pcx Raster format files .pdf .pdf Portable document format files .png .png Portable Network Graphics raster files .sat .sat ACIS solid object files (short for “Save As Text”) files .sdf .sdf Space-delimited files .slb .slb Slide library files .sld .sld Slide files .stl ... Solid object stereo-lithography files ... .svg Scalable vector graphics .tga .tga Raster format (Targa) files .tif .tif Raster format (Tagged image file format) files .txt .txt Space delimited files .wmf .wmf Windows metaformat files .xls ... Excel spreadsheet files

API and Programming Files .actm ... Active macro source code files .arx .tx AutoCAD / Teiga runtime extension files ... .brx Bricsys runtime extension files .cpp .cpp ObjectARX source code files .dce .dce Dialog error log files .dcl .dcl Dialog control language descriptions of dialog boxes ... .drx Design runtime extension files .dll .dll Dynamic link libraries .dvb .dvb Visual Basic for Applications program files .fas ... AutoLISP fast load programs files .h .h ADS/SDS and ARX/BRX/TX function definition files .lib .lib ARX BRX/TX function library files .lsp .lsp AutoLISP/LISP program files ... .mcr Macro files .pgp .pgp Program parameters files (external commands and aliases) .rx ... Lists of ARX applications that load automatically .scr .scr Script files .unt .unt Unit definition files ... .vbi VBA project files prior to BricsCAD V8 .vlx ... Compiled Visual LISP files

128 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 129 Programming Considerations

By supporting almost the same list of programming languages and APIs as does AutoCAD, Bricsys makes it easy for you to transfer your AutoCAD add-ons to BricsCAD:

ÐÐ BricsCAD Classic for Windows works with LISP, DCL, Diesel, TX, COM, .NET, and SDS. ÐÐ BricsCAD Pro and Platinum for Windows adds VBA and BRX. You can program with C/C++, VB, VBA, and VB.NET. ÐÐ BricsCAD Classic for Linux works with LISP, DCL, Diesel, TX, and SDS. None of the Linux versions supports VL, VLA, VLAX, and VLR functions, because each depends on COM, which is Windows-specific. ÐÐ BricsCAD Pro and Platinum for Linux add BRX, which you can program with C/C++. Missing are functions closely tied to Windows, primarily in the AcUi/AdUI and OPM class categories.

When it comes to using programs written for AutoCAD, you can reuse .lsp AutoLISP routines, .dvb projects or VBA macros (in Windows only), and .dcl - tion. dialog control language files with no modifica For writing C and C++ applications, BricsCAD offers its BRX interface, which is code-compatible with AutoCAD’s ARX interface. BricsCAD supports SDS, which is compatible with AutoCAD’s ADS

interface; SDS is deprecated in both AutoCAD and BricsCAD. AutoCAD API Equivalent in BricsCAD Notes Action Recorder (*) Scripts, SCR AutoCAD’s Action Recorder scripts cannot be edited; scripts recorded by BricsCAD can be edited. ActiveX ActiveX In-place editing; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. ADS SDS ADS code ported from AutoCAD requires just a recompile using BRX headers; ADS/ SDS deprecated by Autodesk and Bricsys ARX BRX or TX Ported ARX code requires just a recompile using new BRX headers; when used with TX (ex-DRX), ported ARX code must be rewritten AutoLISP LISP Ported AutoLISP code runs as-is in BricsCAD; no changes needed, includes support for Vl, Vlr, Vla, and Vlax functions and encryption. COM COM Ported AutoCAD COM runs as-is in BricsCAD; no change needed; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. Diesel Diesel Ported Diesel code runs as-is in BricsCAD; no changes needed DCL DCL Ported DCL code runs as-is in BricsCAD; no changes needed CUI CUI Ported AutoCAD menu and toolbar macros work as-in in BricsCAD .Net Teigha.NET BricsCAD provides Teigha.NET and extra BRX-managed wrappers; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. ... TX Teigha eXtensions (renamed in V12) from Open Design Alliance; not available in AutoCAD. ... VBA Current AutoCAD VBA code runs as-is in BricsCAD for Windows VBA is deprecated in AutoCAD; not available in BricsCAD for Linux. VSTA ... VSTA is unavailable in BricsCAD.

Generally, BricsCAD provides a nearly identical subset of equivalent function names. In the case

recompile compiled code using headers provided by Bricsys. of non-compiled code, such as LISP and DCL, you just drop it into the BricsCAD environment. You

130 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 131 Detailed information is freely available from the Bricsys online developer reference at www.bricsys. com/bricscad/help/en_US/V13/DevRef/index.html. The following notes are adapted from this reference.

ABOUT BRX

maintain one set of source code for both CAD platforms. They are not, however, binary compat- BRX is 100% code compatible with ARX, AutoCAD’s C++ interface. This means that you need only

recompile the source code as follows: ible, so that modules compiled with ARX cannot be loaded into BricsCAD, and visa versa. You must ÐÐ AutoCAD: compile with ARX to run on AutoCAD ÐÐ BricsCAD: compile and link with BRX to run on BricsCAD

The necessary *.h, *.c, and *.tlb common with ARX. This list is not exhaustive: files are included in BRX SDK. BRX offers the following functions in ÐÐ Common basic functionality, such as AcRx, AcAp, AcCm, AcDb, AcEd, AcGe, AcGi, AcGs, and AcUt. ÐÐ Multiple document interface using AcApDocument, AcApDocumentIterator, AcApDocManager, and so on. ÐÐ Reactors like AcApDocManagerReactor, AcDbDatabaseReactor, and AcEditorReactor. ÐÐ Custom objects derived from AcDbObject, AcDbEntity, and so on. ÐÐ Transactions using AcDbTransactionManager, AcTransactionManager, and so on. ÐÐ Input point processing with AcEdInputPointManager and AcEdInputPointMonitor. ÐÐ MFC-based user interface extensions, such as AcUi and AdUi-based categories. ÐÐ COM interfaces callable from C++. ÐÐ Undocumented ARX functions, such as acdbSetDbmod, acedPostCommand, acedEvaluateLisp, ads_queue- expr, getCurrentPlotStyleName, and GetListOfPlotStyles. ÐÐ Load on demand for commands registered through the AcadAppInfo interface. ÐÐ Property palette inteface, OPM. ÐÐ B-modeler code compatible with A-modeler. ÐÐ Hidden Line and Brep APIs. ÐÐ Managed wrapper classes for .NET API.

The BRX API was developed by Bricsys, and so is available for BricsCAD exclusively. The API is supported on BricsCAD V8 (or higher) Pro and Platinum only, not on BricsCAD Classic or releases prior to V8. The higher the BricsCAD version, the more BRX functions are supported.

130 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 131 ABOUT TX

BricsCAD is based on the Teigha libraries from Open Design Alliance, and so TX modules compiled with the TX SDK (Teigha eXtension software development kit) can be loaded to run in BricsCAD. tx extension, which are DLLs that are loaded at runtime by BricsCAD. (Prior to V12, the modules where named .drx. These cannot be loaded into The TX SDK produces TX modules files with the .

V12TX classes, or later; methods, you must and recompile functions the seem source similar code to using those the in ARX.latest There TX SDK.) are, however, a number of differences:

ÐÐ TX SDK enforces smart pointers in client code. ÐÐ Constructing and destructing objects are different from ARX. ÐÐ Control flow of error handling is different in ARX and TX applications, because error handling is based on exceptions thrown by the Teigha libraries, for the most part, and these need to be caught by the client code. ÐÐ TX SDK contains a subset of ARX, and so functions such as AcEdJig, AcApDocument, AcApDocManager, AcEdInputPointMonitor, and AcUi are missing. ÐÐ Some basic operations are done differently from ARX, such as retrieving the active database instance or opening entities. ÐÐ There are some minor differences in the class hierarchy of objects.

For more on how to use TX with BricsCAD, refer to the online documentation at www.bricsys.com/ bricscad/help/en_US/V13/DevRef/source/TX_01.htm

ABOUT .NET (WINDOWS ONLY)

The BricsCAD .NET API exposes the CAD system’s functionality, and allows you to build managed code that runs under the .NET Common Language Runtime CLR. (.Net is not available on Linux or Classic versions of BricsCAD.)

BricsCAD supports .NET runtime version 2.0 (versions 2.0 through 3.5 use the same base runtime). The 32-bit version of .NET Framework v 2.0 Redistributable Package is available from Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d- 8edd-aab15c5e04f5, while the 64-bit version is here www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details. aspx?FamilyID=B44A0000-ACF8-4FA1-AFFB-40E78D788B00.

bricscad.exe.config

(At time of writing, .NET 4.0 was not supported officially by Bricsys, but a sample fileTo set with up samplea project .NET with 4.0-based Visual Studio, code create is available a class from library the using company.) the class library wizard under your preferred .NET language. There are two DLLs that need to be referenced: BrxMgd.dll and TD_Mgd.

132 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 133 dll. The optional TD_MgdBrp.dll handles the Brep APIs. These DLLs are located in the BricsCAD installation folder.

TIPS When referencing these DLLs, it is important to set the Copy Local property to False. All other DLLs such as referenced COM DLLs or satellite DLLs, can have their Copy Local property to true, or as needed by your project.

Samples projects are found in the \Bricsys\BricsCAD\API\dotNet folder.

PORTING AUTOLISP TO LISP

Most AutoLISP routines work directly in BricsCAD. Its LISP engine supports VL and VLA functions, and LISP reactors (except in the Linux version)

, as well as encrypted LISP; it does not support compiling to FAS (compiled LISP) files.

YouÐÐ BricsCAD’smay experience command the line following input can issues:vary slightly from AutoCAD’s. The solution is to verify the content of all (command) functions, or avoid using (command) altogether. ÐÐ BricsCAD does not implement a few AutoLISP functions. The solution is to rewrite the code, or to adapt external libraries.

APIS SUPPORTED BY BRICSCAD FOR LINUX

BricsCAD V12 for Linux supports the following APIs. (At time of writing, the Linux version had not been updated to V13.)

• All LISP functions, excluding VL, VLA, VLAX, and VLR functions, because they depend on COM, (common object model), which is Windows-only. • All DCL (dialog control language) functions. • All DIESEL functions. • All TX functions. • Many BRX functions, including basic CRT and MFC (Microsoft foundation classes) functions to facilitate the porting of Windows-based client code. For example, the MFC class CString is widely used in client code. By providing a similar code-compatible class on Linux BRX, Bricsys avoids the need to look for a new string class and replace it everywhere. BricsCAD for Linux does not support interfaces that are strongly tied to Windows; this list primarily consists of AcUi/AdUi and OPM class categories. • Many SDS (software development system) functions; excluded are a few functions that have Windows-specific types in their signature.

132 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 133 DOSLib works with BricsCAD Pro. It is a free library of LISP-callable functions not found in regular LISP. See en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/DOSLib.html.

Porting DCL to BricsCAD

see www.opendcl.com. DCL routines work directly in BricsCAD. OpenDCL is fully supported and available for BricsCAD;

Porting Diesel to BricsCAD Diesel routines work directly in BricsCAD.

PORTING VBA TO BRICSCAD (WINDOWS ONLY)

- AutoCAD and BricsCAD for Windows both use DVB files for VBA projects. Releases of BricsCAD sion tool at www.bricsys.com/common/vbaconversion. VBA is not available in BricsCAD for Linux. prior to V8 use VBI files, which can be converted to VBA for V8 and later. Refer to the VBA conver PORTING ADS TO SDS

ADS code requires only a recompile using the BRX headers.

Since ADS/SDS were developed nearly 20 years ago, Bricsys considers SDS deprecated, meaning developers should no longer use it. However, for backwards compatibility, Bricsys supports the old SDS interface. To run an IntelliCAD-style SDS module on BricsCAD, the code must be adapted as described at www.bricsys.com/bricscad/help/en_US/V13/DevRef/source/SDS_01.htm.

PORTING COM TO BRICSCAD (WINDOWS ONLY)

COM (Common Object Model) is available in Pro versions of BricsCAD, and is accessed through programming languages like VB, VBA, VB.NET, C, and C++.

Though BricsCAD’s object model is quite similar to AutoCAD’s, it is not identical. Nevertheless, most

element missing from the object model, the BricsCAD developer support team is open to creating VBx code written for AutoCAD should work directly under BricsCAD. When you find a required the functions you require.

134 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 135 BricsCAD does not support VSTA (Visual Studio Tools for Applications).

LOADING APPLICATIONS INTO BRICSCAD

BricsCAD and AutoCAD both use the AppLoad command to load applications.

Above: AutoCAD’s application loader. Below: BricsCAD’s application loader.

134 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 135 Units

default.unt, acad.unt. BricsCAD and AutoCAD share the same units conversion file, which is used by functions in LISP, SDS, and so on. BricsCAD calls its file while AutoCAD’s file name is THIRD-PARTY DEVELOPER SUPPORT

Bricsys notes that “There is day to day support for application developers who need assistance porting applications to BricsCAD, or simply require technical information about the porting process and the possibilities. The Bricsys development team has an extended section with dedicated developers for the different development environments (LISP, COM, ADS, ARX, .NET).”

Bricsys does not charge third-party developers, unlike CAD vendors. There is no fee to join, no annual membership, no charge for support, and no royalties on shipping products. Visit www.bricscad. com/en_INTL/home/developers.jsp for more information.

When third-party developers request an addition to the API, it becomes a new feature in BricsCAD that end-users can employ.

TIP The RecScript command (script recorder) in BricsCAD produces .scr files that can be edited, which makes it more useful than the Action Recorder in AutoCAD. Since the Action Recorder’s “scripts” cannot be edited, it is not really an API.

136 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 137 BricsCAD V13 Automation Object Model

136 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD 137 138 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 4 Customizing and Programming BricsCAD PB CHAPTER FIVE

Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices

SOME FIRMS OPERATE BRICSCAD exclusively, but others run a mix of BricsCAD and AutoCAD. This chapter explores some of the challenges in running a dual-CAD shop, and how to solve them. saving alternative to Windows or OS X. As well, we examine the benefits and drawbacks to running the Linux operating system as a cost Reasons for Using Multiple CAD Systems

include AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD and SolidWorks, and AutoCAD and BricsCAD. It has become common for design firms to license more than one brand of CAD package. Examples However, there is more work involved in running two different CAD systems than in just one. So - cally give these reasons: why would design firms cause themselves this otherwise-unnecessary grief? Dual-CAD firms typi ÐÐ Cost savings ÐÐ Compatibility ÐÐ Capability

COST

For some firms, the $4,200-cost of AutoCAD is expensive, and so the majority of seats run a lower- cost package, such as AutoCAD LT or BricsCAD. For instance, a 100-seat firm might have a 10/90 costs. The table illustrates the dramatic savings that are possible: split between AutoCAD and the lower-cost package, saving the firm over $300,000 in initial licensing

Number of Seats Initial Licensing Cost Savings 100 of AutoCAD 2013 $420,000 $ 0 10 of AutoCAD 2013 $ 42,000 $334,665 90 of BricsCAD Pro V13 $ 43,335 100 of BricsCAD Pro V13 $ 48,150 $371,850

(The actual licensing cost of a hundred seats is likely to be lower than indicated by the table, because

firms can get a better price from CAD vendors when negotiating bulk purchases. Bricsys starts by offeringI say “initial” a 10% licensing savings costs,on five because licenses, there which are is subsequentreflected by coststhe table.) associated with software, both optional:

ÐÐ Upgrade fees ÐÐ Annual maintenance or support fees. (These include semi-annual or annual upgrades at no extra cost.)

The annual cost for subscriptions to 100 licenses of CAD software is as follows:

Number of Seats Annual Subscription Price Cost Savings 100 of AutoCAD $45,000 $ 0 10 of AutoCAD $ 4,500 $ 26,100 90 of BricsCAD $ 14,400 100 of BricsCAD $ 16,000 $ 29,000

Again, the actual cost will be lower due to the savings from bulk purchases. I didn’t bother comparing upgrade fees, because Autodesk now charges full list price for AutoCAD upgrades: $4,200 to go from any earlier release of AutoCAD to the current one.

140 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 141 Country-Biased Pricing

might make as little as $300 a month. In my opinion, it is disturbing that major software companies The pricing situation is particularly acute for firms in developing countries, where starting architects charge more for their programs in these high-growth but low-income countries, thereby placing the software tools out of reach of many of their potential customers.

Ironically, these same software companies then complain about the high rate of piracy in developing countries — yet fail to see the connection.

Both companies charge different prices for different countries.

house of expensive CAD software licenses, yet they need to show large clients that they are running The non-democratic pricing model puts ethical design firms in a bind. They cannot afford a full a clean shop with no pirated software.

Solutions to High License Fees

For these firms, one solution is to license mostly lower-cost products, specifically AutoCAD LT, at half the price of AutoCAD LT. BricsCAD, and the like. Indeed, BricsCAD provides firms with a much more capable CAD package Another solution to saving money is to run the free Linux operating system on computers, instead of the pricier Windows. The catch is that the CAD vendor must have a version of his software that

runsLinux on is Linux.doubly Bricsys cost-effective, does; Autodesk because does it runs not. well on older, less powerful computers. Newer releases of Windows typically require new hardware, if only because the operating system no longer supports older device drivers or software. Windows 7 is particularly bad for this.

In summary, BricsCAD is triply cost-effective:

ÐÐ BricsCAD Pro is priced 8x less than AutoCAD, and 2x less than AutoCAD LT. ÐÐ BricsCAD can run on Linux, which is free. ÐÐ Linux can run on older computers.

140 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 141 COMPATIBILITY

prefer the lowest-cost system. But in the case of CAD, this may mean losing some compatibility Like all responsible, capitalistic corporations, design firms look to reduce their expenses, and so with the industry standard, AutoCAD. Thus, BricsCAD shops might employ a few AutoCAD seats.

Autodesk works hard to ensure AutoCAD stays ahead of the competition, whether through technology or through marketing. For instance, when in the mid-1990s IntelliCAD began threatening sales of the 10x more expensive AutoCAD, Autodesk launched a marketing campaign that was effective in warning customers away from the upstart. The marketing campaign claimed that AutoCAD LT

with the claim at the time was that it was not entirely accurate, for AutoCAD LT in those days could was the only low-priced CAD package that was 100% DWG-compatible with AutoCAD. The problem not deal with all the entities created by AutoCAD.

resources into adding all kinds of functions to AutoCAD, making it increasingly incompatible with The “100% Pure DWG” situation is more true today than ever before, as Autodesk puts its huge the clones.

For this reason, most design firms have at least one license of AutoCAD to handle drawings from clients that don’t reproduce correctly in IntelliCAD or BricsCAD. This is not unlike a firm saving de facto money by standardizing on the free Libre Office package, yet maintaining a license of Microsoft OfficeThe counterweight to ensure compatibility to Autodesk with is filesthe Opencreated Design by the Alliance. ODA standard was establishedin office software. originally to document the proprietary DWG format. The organization provides APIs to member organizations

its services by providing programming toolkits that mimic other aspects of AutoCAD, such as the to allow them to read and write DWG files. Since its founding in the late 1990s, ODA has expanded ARX programming interface and ADT object enabler.

The bad news is that the content - format itself of the DWG file changes every year as Autodesk adds more capabili ties and object types to AutoCAD. The qualified good news is that Autodesk freezes the for three years at a time. ODA and its Russian contract programmers do the hard work by figuring adding features to their CAD systems. out what’s inside DWG. This means that BricsCAD, IntelliCAD, and other firms can concentrate on While Autodesk licenses its own RealDWG API, some 1,200 member companies of ODA are not

keen on relying only on Autodesk for accessing DWG files.

142 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 143 CAPABILITY

As Autodesk barrels ahead adding features to AutoCAD, in just a few years the CAD program has gained 3D mesh modeling, 3D surface modeling, a materials makeover, parametric constraints, a direct modeling add-on — just to name a few.

The bad news is that I see no way that the clones can replicate all of AutoCAD’s functions in their entirety.

The good news is that there is no need to replicate AutoCAD completely. Three-D modeling in areas of meshes and surfaces is of little interest to heads-down drafters, the majority of whom produce 2D drawings. Even in hard core 3D CAD environments, such as Catia, the numbers indicate that

more than 50% of drawings are produced in 2D. (Catia, from Dassault Systemes, is high-end 3D modeling software used by aircraft and automotive firms, among others.) that end-users want in 2D drafting. (ITC is the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium, which hires the Indeed, ITC has officially given up trying to keep up, and instead plans to concentrate on features programmers to update IntelliCAD.) The software is then licensed to consortium members, who package the software for sale to end-users. Bricsys is no longer a member of ITC, and writes its own code. Both, however, rely on ODA.

Nevertheless, 3D cannot be ignored, and clones tradi- tionally have been weak in 3D. IntelliCAD and other clones have achieved what AutoCAD did more than a decade ago. The sole exception is BricsCAD, which is

takingÐÐ With giant V11, strides Bricsys addedin beefing a higher-priced up its 3D Platinum offerings. Edition that offered 3D history-based parametric modeling, known as X-Solids. It included a parametric parts library, called X-Hard- ware. ÐÐ With V12, Bricsys added 3D direct modeling and 2D constraints to all editions, with 3D constraints added to the Platinum Edition. ÐÐ With V13, Bricsys added assembly modeling for linking two or more 3D models using constraints, kinematic analysis for checking motion and interference between parts, and bills of materials. ÐÐ In future releases, it plans to add import and export for popular formats (such as Solidworks, Inventor, and IGES), exploded views, feature modeling, knowledge-based engineering, and more.

BricsCAD might become something like an AutoCAD- compatible version of Inventor, but for under $1,000.

142 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 143 Running BricsCAD and AutoCAD in One Office

- stand the differences between them. There are many differences, because the abilities of AutoCAD To run more than one CAD system in your office successfully, it is crucial to take the time to under and BricsCAD differ.

The AutoCAD Il- lustrated Quick Reference (Delmar Publishers), which lists all AutoCAD commands in alphabetical This ebook is your primary reference; you may find it helpful also to refer to my order, along with options and all the ways of launching each command. It is available for all versions of AutoCAD since Release 12.

You should also establish an in-house workflow to assign appropriate tasks to each CAD system, when BricsCAD cannot handle certain entities, you can xref drawings from AutoCAD. BricsCAD as described in the section following. When features are missing, find workarounds. For instance, can display nearly anything that AutoCAD can draw, but does not create or edit every entity type.

In brief, BricsCAD has the following capabilities:

Activity BricsCAD can... View ...display nearly all AutoCAD entity types, even if it cannot edit or create them Edit ...edit most AutoCAD entities, although sometimes only through the Properties pane Create ...create many AutoCAD entities, but fewer than it can edit

See chapter 3, “Drawing File Compatibility,” for the nitty gritty detail on each and every DWG object.

DIVIDING THE WORKFLOW BETWEEN AUTOCAD AND BRICSCAD

workflow

You probably are well acquainted with the in your office, the route that drawings take through the office — typically from the general to the specific. For instance, one of my clients has the1. followingReceive DWG workflow: drawing files from architects 2. Review the dimensions on received drawings for dimensional accuracy 3. Create overall elevation views of the building’s faces, and plan views of each floor 4. Draw up assembly drawings for fabricators 5. Make detail drawings of every item, and then generate bills of materials 6. Plot drawings on B- or C-size paper 7. Send completed paper drawing sets to clients and fabrication shops

144 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 145 As much as possible, work is done in BricsCAD, because it operates on the majority of workstations. The only work handled by AutoCAD are design functions BricsCAD is unable to complete.

This particular design firm took the time to determine the CAD features they employed in their those that work only in AutoCAD. office, and then created two lists: (a) features that work in both BricsCAD and AutoCAD and (b)

Here are the lists they created, along with brief notes on their usefulness to their workflow. These listsFirst, are the not usefulness exhaustive, of features but specific common to the to needs both ofCAD this systems: particular design firm.

Features that Work in BricsCAD and AutoCAD Level of Usefulness Template DWT files Very useful for speeding up initial drawing creation Field text Very useful for automating text Hyperlink command Very useful for linking to other drawings Geometric and dimensional constraints Very useful using dimensional constraints for sizing objects Sheet sets Very useful for organizing groups of drawings LISP / AutoLISP Useful for automating some routine drafting Explorer / DesignCenter, Tool Palettes Probably useful for sharing and accessing content CUI / Customization Useful in some aspects, such as combining commands

And here is the usefulness of functions found only in AutoCAD (not BricsCAD):

Features Specific to AutoCAD Level of Usefulness DimBreak, DimSpace, DimJoggedLine Very useful Data extraction, tables, and spreadsheets Very useful Mleaders, editing, styles Very useful for joining multiple leaders into one; and for lining up leaders neatly Overkill Useful for cleaning up drawings LayTrans command Useful for bulk editing layer names in incoming drawings Creating dynamic blocks Useful for creating complex linetypes Measure and Divide Useful for placing QDim dimensions QDim Useful when used with Measure Drawing Views Probably useful for generating 2D plans from 3D Check Standards commands, DWS files Too limited in scope to be useful Annotative scaling Not useful Active Recorder Useless

144 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 145 STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION

and AutoCAD, it pays to place one strategic employee in charge of CAD management and training While some employees may be keen to implement more efficient drafting methods on BricsCAD for everyone.

HereÐÐ Upgrade is a plan all thatLinux one and designWindows firm licenses arrived of BricsCAD at: to the latest version; decide on the split between the Pro and Platinum versions ÐÐ Introduce a few seats of Inventor for handling specific 3D constructions, as well as forms of automated drafting of which AutoCAD is incapable; Inventor licenses include AutoCAD free ÐÐ Determine the split between drafting tasks of which both AutoCAD and BricsCAD are capable, recognizing the limitations of BricsCAD ÐÐ As much as possible automate 2D drafting processes ÐÐ Create a steering group to ensure the new techniques are disseminated throughout the firm; ensure progress is made ÐÐ Consider hiring local trainers for specific topics; create a CAD programmer position ÐÐ Review the implementation in a year’s time

146 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 147 Dual OS Office

To further save money, some firms switch some of their workstations from Windows to Linux. of their annual IT budget. One firm told me that replacing Windows with the free Linux operating system saves them 10% AutoCAD is not available for Linux, but BricsCAD is. Bricsys is working hard to ensure that nearly all of the features in the Windows version operate properly in the Linux version.

SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF PORTING SOFTWARE TO LINUX

The part of the CAD system that deals with geometric objects is not the problem in porting. (Porting is the term used to describe the process of making a software program work correctly with another

interfaces and user interface elements. operating system.) The problems lie behind the scenes, specifically in the areas of programming

Even for a large, wealthy firm like Autodesk, porting CAD programs to other operating systems is Windows operating system. Microsoft deliberately made it easy for programmers to write soft- a difficult undertaking, because most of today’s CAD software is intimately intertwined with the

instance, a programming team at Autodesk took 18 months to rewrite AutoCAD for Mac and OS X, ware for WIndows, but at the cost of making it excruciatingly difficult to tear themselves away. For

interfaces for third-party programmers. and even then something like 30% of commands were left out of the initial release, as were most

146 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 147 Admittedly, a mere five years ago, no CAD programmer would have dreamed of writing code for Vectorworks, began on the Mac some twenty years ago, and since then developed their software anything other than Windows. Or perhaps for OS X. (A few CAD firms, such as Graphisoft and simultaneously for OS X and Windows. This foresight means no pain for them today!) Now, however, the plausible choices have quadrupled to include Android and iOS on portable devices, and Linux and OS X on desktop systems — in addition to Windows on desktop and portable devices.

User Interface

rewrote the user interface using wxWidgets (www.wxwidgets.org). This interface allows BricsCAD To fix the two problem areas, Bricsys undertook two significant programming projects. The first to look the same on Linux, OS X, Windows, and mobile operating systems.

“How should a ported program look?” This serious question faces software companies: should a CAD program look the same on all operating systems? If so, then current users feel comfortable switching. This is the approach Bricsys took, and so the Linux version looks the same as the Windows version.

Or should the CAD program look like the host operating system? If so, then new users feel comfortable starting with it. This is the approach Autodesk took with AutoCAD for Mac, which looks like a program written for OS X, very different from the Windows version.

APIs

something that no other CAD vendor attempted. (In the general computing world, there have been The second project was even more difficult, mimicking the Windows programming interface, efforts like those of Wine, VMware, and Win4Lin to help Windows programs run on Linux and OS X.) Programmers at Bricsys had to write the code for Linux that Microsoft normally provides for Windows.

Note that this problem affects only the parts of programming languages that depend greatly on the underlaying operating system, such as Visual LISP, .Net, and ARX or BRX. The OS problem does not affect customization internal to the CAD system, such as menu and toolbar macros, LISP routines, and scripts.

The end result ensures that add-ons written in Windows work in Linux. Here is a list of the APIs that Bricsys ported to BricsCAD for Linux:

All LISP functions, excluding VL, VLA, VLAX, and VLR functions, because they depend on Windows-only COM All DCL functions All DIESEL functions All TX functions All BRX functions, excluding interfaces that are strongly tied to Windows, such as AcUi/AdUi and OPM categories All SDS functions, excluding Windows-specific types

148 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 149 BENEFITS OF LINUX

include the following items. Running the Linux operating system on computers instead of Windows has several benefits. These

Linux is Free Linux is free, as are subsequent upgrades. While Windows is included “free” with every new computer (actually, you pay a hidden cost of about $20), upgrades are not free. Upgrading from older versions of Windows can costs $40 to $200 per computer, depending on current offers available.

Here is the annualized cost to upgrade OS licenses on 100 computers every three years, using the $70 upgrade price to Windows 8:

Windows OS Linux OS Savings $7,000 every third year $0 every year $7,000 per 3 years $2,333/year $0/year $2,333/year

Desktop Linux is now similar enough to regular Windows that many users cannot tell the difference, particularly those users who don’t care about the UX (user experience), but care primarily about

getting the work done. Indeed, CAD operators at one design firm subsequently asked the IT staff to install Linux on their home computers, after experiencing its benefits at work.

148 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 149 Linux is Hardware-Efficient than Windows. This means it can run CAD software faster on older hardware for more years than does Windows. Whereas Windows today can barely function on Linux runs more efficiently computers with “just” 1GB RAM, Linux has no problem with small amounts of memory. This is because Microsoft programmers were instructed by founder Bill Gates to assume computers have

infiniteIn contrast, memory Linux and was CPU based speeds, on Unix, which an theyoperating do not. system As a result, from Windowsthe 1970s, was which written was writteninefficiently. with

ultra-efficiency to run well on computers with very little memory and very slow CPUs. The ethos of efficiency has carried successfully into our current decade. Linux Is Malware-free Linux has fewer irritants than Windows. It does not suffer from malware attacks, such as viruses, since the number of Linux computers is too small for virus writers to bother with.

My favorite feature about Linux is that after updates are applied to Linux, I do not reboot the computer, as I must with Windows and OS X. I keep right on working. (Apple based OS X on Unix, and so I am surprised that OS X needs reboots following updates.)

Here’s a funny thing I have noticed: it is easier to get used to OS X when you are already familiar with Linux, than coming directly from Windows.

Linux is Hardware-compatible Linux runs on the same computers as Windows, unlike OS X, which is locked to Apple hardware.

buy all new hardware, and get used to different keyboard and trackpad interactions. To try out Linux, you can install it on an existing Windows computer; to try out OS X, you have to (A tip: If you have to get OS X, save some money by buying the Mac mini with the maximum amount

of RAM available, and then hook up your own monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I find the mini is more flexible than the MacBook.) Linux Dual-boots Linux has dual-booting built-in, unlike Windows. This means that one computer can run both Linux or Windows, through not simultaneously. When the computer starts, a Linux utility called “grub”

lets you choose between running Linux or Windows. All my notebook computers are dual-booting; on Windows, then I shut down the computer and start it with Windows. I usually run Linux, because it is more efficient. But when I need to use a program available only (OS X also includes a dual-boot facility, called BootCamp.)

150 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 151 The drawback to dual-boot is that it runs just one operating system at a time. If you wish to run two (or more) at the same time, then you can use a free virtual manager program, such as VmWare Player (www.vmware.com) and Oracle Virtual Box (www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/ virtualbox/downloads/index.html). These programs let you run, say, Linux in a window (or full screen) inside Windows, and even copy and paste between them.

DRAWBACKS TO LINUX

Linux never conquered the desktop the way it took over in all other areas of computing, such as Web servers, mainframe computers, smartphones, and embedded computing. Microsoft’s monopo- listic practices for many years were effective in locking out competitors, such as Apple and Linux.

Linux is confusing, because it can feel different from Windows, it has hundreds of versions and several graphical user interfaces from which to choose, and can sometimes have problems installing software.

Because it is different, it does not always have all the same software that Windows users are used to. Because there is so much choice in the number of versions of Linux, users can end up making no choice. And when software won’t install, you won’t use it.

Lack of identical software.

Much of the basic software you run on Windows is available on Linux, such as Libre Office, which runs identically on Linux, OS X, and Windows. If you use Microsoft Office on Windows, then you’ll browsers (Chrome, Firefox, and Opera), image processing (Picasa), music and video playback be running Libre Office on Linux. Other basics are also available in multi-OS versions, such as Web (VLC), and Skype.

the built-in screen grab software is much more sophisticated than the one for Windows or OS X. Linux comes with a ton of utilities; after all, it was written by geeks for themselves. For instance, But it cannot run AutoCAD and other powerhouse software found in Windows and OS X, such as

PhotoShop and InDesign -- except through a Windows emulator, such as Wine. I find that emulators software functions don’t operate.) are not efficient (runs the software slower) and not 100% compatible (some software and some I recommend using native software, and I would rather do without than run software in an emulator or in a virtual machine. In this case, BricsCAD for Linux becomes the obvious choice.

Which Linux? There are many more versions of Linux than there are of Windows. There is the source version written by Linius Torvald, after whom Linux is name. Then there are primary distributions, with names like Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, Red Hat, Mandriva, and Slackware.

150 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 151 For every primary distribution, there are dozens of variants. This page at Wikipedia lists the names of more than 100 distributions and variants: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions.

So, it can be hard — no, confusing — to choose one. (Here is a list of downloadable LiveCDs that contain Linux: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_live_CDs). In one way, it does not matter, since they

more similarly to OS X. all operate pretty much in roughly the same way; indeed, they work similarly to Windows and even Because they are free, you can download a bunch of them and try them out. Downloads are often iso format), which you burn to a CD, and then you can run Linux from the CD drive and/or install onto a computer. In this case, I recommend us- available as LiveCD format. You download the file (in . ing a virtual machine (VmWare or Virtual Box) to install a Linux distribution temporarily, unless

you have a computer whose hard drive you can wipe. (You can run Linux off a CD or USB stick, but thenAs for it me, runs I useslowly, Mint and Linux. you Itget is abased bad first on the impression!) most popular dialect of Linux, Ubuntu, and so it can use .deb includes all the extras that make starting out with Linux less painful, such as common applications, (Debian) installation files designed for Ubuntu. Better than just Ubuntu, however, Mint drivers, and codecs. www.linuxmint.com

Problematic Installers The biggest headache for new and medium-term Linux users is installing software. Many times,

installing software goes without a hitch; other times, it does not work well and is a major pain. The problem exists because Linux first expected users to install software through the command-line making installs easier. When you have hundreds of versions of Linux, you’re bound to end up with interface; later, a GUI was added, and then different distributions came up with different ways of dozens of installers. Someone once said in another context that more choice leads to less stress, but I disagree.

Major Linux vendors and software providers are fixing the problem in two ways: (a) through libraries built into the operating system. Windows-like installers, which operate nearly automatically; and (b) through OS X-like software Here is a list of the major distributions and the installer software they use:

Linux Distribution Package File Package Manager Debian GNU/Linux .deb dpkg Fedora Linux .rpm RPM OpenSUSE Linux .rpm RPM Turkish Pardus .pisi YALI All others .tgz tar

152 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 153 At its Web site, Bricsys lists the download files in the following formats:

which is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian, and so I download .deb If the variant you used is based on Debian, then you click the DEB file button. (I use Mint Linux, files.) Competing GUIs If you have hundreds of dialects of Linux, then you are going to have several user interfaces. That’s right: Linux offers easily replaceable graphical user interfaces. (This is also possible in Windows, but few have any desire to change Microsoft’s design.)

There used to be a big split over which interface to use with Linux: KDE or Gnome. (I prefer Gnome.) Today, there is also Unity, which is designed for the smaller screens of netbooks and portable devices.

— — —

152 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices 153 BricsCAD, along with the pros and cons of replacing Windows with the Linux operating system. This chapter provided you with practical advice on running a design firm with both AutoCAD and

154 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users 5 Operating Dual-CAD Design Offices PB APPENDIX A

Command Name Cross-reference

THIS APPENDIX LISTS the names of commands found in AutoCAD and BricsCAD. The list is sorted alphabetically by command name for both CAD packages, and shows the equivalent command name if there is no exact match. listed separately at the end of this appendix because these functions are not found in AutoCAD. Commands specific to the assemblies, parametric 3D solids, and X-Hardware in BricsCAD Platinum are ÐÐ Command names new to BricsCAD V13 are shown in blue ÐÐ 2011 , 2012 or 2013 indicates the command was new to AutoCAD 2011, 2012, or 2013

Not included are undocumented commands by either vendor, the names of hardwired aliases, nor deprecated commands. AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

About About AcisIn AcisIn AcisOut AcisOut ActBasepoint ... ActManager ... ActRecord ... In BricsCAD, use RecScript ActStop ... In BricsCAD, use RecScript ActUserInput ... ActUserMessage ... AdCenter / AdcClose ... In BricsCAD, use Explorer AdcNavigate ...... AddInMan The VBA COM Add-In Manager for BricsCAD 2011 AddSelected ... Adjust ... In BricsCAD, use ImageAdjust Ai_Box Ai_Box Ai_Cone Ai_Cone Ai_Dish Ai_Dish Ai_Dome Ai_Dome ... Ai_EdgeSurf In AutoCAD, use EdgeSurf Ai_Mesh ... In BricsCAD, use Mesh Ai_Pyramid Ai_Pyramid ... Ai_RevSurf In AutoCAD, use RevSurf ... Ai_RuleSurf In AutoCAD, use RuleSurf Ai_Sphere Ai_Sphere ... Ai_TabSurf In AutoCAD, use TabSurf Ai_Torus Ai_Torus Ai_Wedge Ai_Wedge Align Align ... AlignSpace In BricsCAD, aligns viewports AllPlay ... AmeConvert ... 2011 AnalysisCurvature ... 2011 AnalysisDraft ... 2011 AnalysisOptions ... 2011 AnalysisZebra ... AniPath ... AnnoReset ... AnnoUpdate ... Aperture Aperture ... Apparent In AutoCAD, use -Osnap Apparent AppLoad AppLoad 2012 AppAutoLoader ... Arc Arc Archive ... Area Area

156 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 157 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

Array / 2012 ArrayClose ... In BricsCAD, use Array 2013 ArrayClassic Array 2012 ArrayEdit ... 2012 ArrayPath / Polar /Rect ... In BricsCAD, use Array 2012 ArrayPolar ... In BricsCAD, use Array Arx ... In BricsCAD, use AppLoad Attach ... In BricsCAD, use ImageAttach, Xref, PdfAdjust AttachURL ... In BricsCAD, use Hyperlink AttDef AttDef AttDisp AttDisp AttEdit AttEdit AttExt AttExt AttIPedit ... AttRedef AttRedef AttSync AttSync Audit Audit ... AutoComplete AutoConstrain ... In BricsCAD, use the GcCoincident command’s AutoConstrain option AutoPublish ...

Base Base BAttMan BAttMan BEdit ... In BricsCAD, use Properties to edit dynamic blocks BESettings ... Dynamic blocks used in BricsCAD, but not created or edited BHatch BHatch Blipmode Blipmode 2012 Blend ... Block Block BlockIcon ... Required by AutoCAD for old drawings BmpOut BmpOut Boundary Boundary Box Box Break Break BRep ... Browser Browser

Cal Cal BricsCAD displays Windows Calculator Camera ...... Center In AutoCAD, use -Osnap Center Chamfer Chamfer ChamferEdge ... In BricsCAD, use DmChamfer Change Change CheckStandards ...

156 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 157 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

ChProp ChProp ChSpace ... Circle Circle 2012 ClassicGroup ... In BricsCAD, use Group ClassicImage ... In BricsCAD, use Image ClassicLayer ... In BricsCAD, use Layer ClassicXref ... In BricsCAD, use Xref CleanScreenOn ... CleanScreenOff ...... CleanUnusedVariables Clip Clip Close Close CloseAll CloseAll Color Color CommandLine CommandLine CommandLineHide CommandLineHide Compile ... Required by AutoCAD only for converting PostScript font files Cone Cone 2012 ContentExplorer / Close ... In BricsCAD, use Explorer ConstraintBar ConstraintBar ConstraintSettings ... Convert ... Required by AutoCAD for old AutoCAD drawings only ConvertCTB ConvertCTB ConvertOldLights ... Required by AutoCAD for old AutoCAD drawings only ConvertOldMaterials ... Required by AutoCAD for old AutoCAD drawings only ConvertPStyles ConvertPStyles 2011 ConvToNurbs ... ConvToSolid ... ConvToSurface ... Copy Copy CopyBase CopyBase CopyClip CopyClip ... CopyEData In BricsCAD, copies xdata between entities CopyHist CopyHist CopyLink ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD CopyToLayer ... CUI CUI Executes BricsCAD’s Customize command CuiExport ... CuiImport ... CuiLoad CuiLoad CuiUnload CuiUnload CustomerInvolvementProgram ... Customize Customize In AutoCAD, use CUI CutClip CutClip 2011 CvAdd ... 2011 CvRemove ... CvHide ... 2011 CvShow ...

158 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 159 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

2011 CvRebuild ... Cylinder Cylinder

DataExtraction ... In BricsCAD, use AttExt or TableExport DataLink ... DataLinkUpdate ... 2011 DcAligned DcAligned 2011 DcAngular DcAngular 2011 DcConvert DcConvert 2011 DcDiameter DcDiameter 2011 DcDisplay ... 2011 DcForm ... 2011 DcHorizontal DcHorizontal 2011 DcLinear DcLinear 2011 DcRadius DcRadius 2011 DcVertical DcVertical DbConnect / DbClose ... DbList DbList ... DdAttE In AutoCAD, use AttEdit ... DdEdit Renamed EditText in AutoCAD 2010 ... DdEModes BricsCAD displays Settings for entity creation ... DdFilter BricsCAD displays DdFilter selection menu ... DdGrips BricsCAD displays Settings for grips DdPtype DdPtype BricsCAD displays Settings for points ... DdSelect BricsCAD displays Settings for entity selection DSettings DSettings ... DdSetVar BricsCAD displays Settings dialog box ... DdSTrack BricsCAD displays Settings for snap tracking DdVPoint DdVPoint DdUcs DdUcs BricsCAD displays Explorer for named UCSs Delay Delay DelConstraint DelConstraint ... DelEData BricsCAD erases xdata from entities DetachURL ... In BricsCAD, use Hyperlink DgnAdjust ... DgnAttach ... 2012 -DgnBind ... DgnClip ... DgnImport ... DgnExport ... DgnLayers ... DgnMapping ... DimConstraint DimConstraint ... Dish BricsCAD draws 3D solid dishes Dist Dist DistantLight DistantLight

158 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 159 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

Divide Divide ... DmAngle3D BricsCAD applies 3D angle constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmChamfer In AutoCAD, use EditInFusion ... DmCoincident3D BricsCAD applies 3D coincident constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmConcentric3D BricsCAD applies 3D concentric constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmContraintsBar BricsCAD toggles the 3D Constraints bar ... DmDistance3D BricsCAD applies 3D distance constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmExtrude In AutoCAD, use EditInFusion ... DmFillet In AutoCAD, use EditInFusion ... DmMove In AutoCAD, use EditInFusion ... DmParallel3D 3D parallel constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmPerpendicular3D 3D perpendicular constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmPushpull In AutoCAD, use PushPull ... DmRadius3D 3D radius constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmRevolve In AutoCAD, use EditInFusion ... DmRotate In AutoCAD, use EditInFusion ... DmTangent3D 3D tangency constraint (Platinum edition only) ... Dm3dFix 3D fix constraint (Platinum edition only) ... DmUpdate Updates 3D model to satisfy constraints (Platinum edition only) ... Dome Draws 3D solid domes Donut Donut DownloadManager ... Dragmode Dragmode DrawingRecovery ... In BricsCAD, use Recover DrawingRecoveryHide ... DrawOrder DrawOrder ... DrawOrderByLayer Draw order controlled through layer names DSettings DSettings DView DView DwfAdjust ... DwfAttach ... DwfClip ... DwfFormat ... DwfLayers ...... DwgCodePage In AutoCAD, use DwgCodePage system variable DwgProps DwgProps DxbIn ... Required only for CAD\camera support DxfIn DxfIn DxfOut DxfOut

Dimensions

Dim Dim Dim1 Dim1 DimAligned DimAligned DimAngular DimAngular DimArc DimArc DimBreak ...

160 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 161 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

DimBaseline DimBaseline DimCenter DimCenter DimContinue DimContinue DimDiameter DimDiameter DimDisassociate DimDisassociate DimEdit DimEdit DimInspect ... DimJogged ... DimJogLine ...... DimLeader In AutoCAD, use Leader DimLinear DimLinear DimOrdinate DimOrdinate DimOverride DimOverride DimRadius DimRadius DimReassociate DimReassociate DimRegen DimRegen DimRotated DimRotated DimSpace ... DimStyle DimStyle DimTEdit DimTEdit

EAttEdit EAttEdit Edge ... EdgeSurf EdgeSurf ... EditEData Edits xdata 2012 EditInFusion ... In BricsCAD, use Dm... (direct editing) commands Elev Elev Ellipse Ellipse ... Endpoint In AutoCAD, use -Osnap Endpoint Erase Erase eTransmit eTransmit ExAcReload ... 2012 Exchange ... In BricsCAD, use www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/support ... ExpBlocks In AutoCAD, use AdCenter Explode Explode ... Explorer In AutoCAD, use AdCenter Export Export ExportDWF ... In BricsCAD, use DwfOut ExportDWFx ExportLayout ... ExportPDF ... In BricsCAD, use PdfOut ExportSettings ... -ExportToAutocad ... ExpUcs In BricsCAD, use Explorer’s UCS section Extend Extend ... Extension In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Extension

160 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 161 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

ExternalReferences / Close ... In BricsCAD, use Xref Extrude Extrude

2011 FbxExport ... 2011 FbxImport ... Field Field ... Files Displays Windows’ File Explorer Fill Fill Fillet Fillet 2011 FilletEdge ... In BricsCAD, use DmFillet Filter ... In BricsCAD, use DdFilter Find Find FlatShot FlatShot ... Flatten Flattens 3D objects with thickness Freespot ... In BricsCAD, use SpotLight Freeweb ... In BricsCAD, use WebLight

2011 GcCoincident GcCoincident 2011 GcColLinear GcColLinear 2011 GcConcentric GcConcentric 2011 GcEqual GcEqual 2011 GcFix GcFix 2011 GcHorizontal GcHorizontal 2011 GcParallel GcParallel 2011 GcPerpendicular GcPerpendicular 2011 GcSmooth GcSmooth 2011 GcSymmetric GcSymmetric 2011 GcTangent GcTangent 2011 GcVertical GcVertical GeographicLocation GeographicLocation GeomConstraint GeomConstraint GotoUrl ... In BricsCAD, use OnWeb Gradient Gradient 2011 GraphicsConfig ... GraphScr GraphScr Grid Grid Group Group 2012 GroupEdit ...

Handles Handles Inoperative in AutoCAD Hatch Hatch HatchEdit ... In BricsCAD, use Properties; supported in a future release of BricsCAD

162 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 163 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

2011 HatchGenerateBoundary ... 2011 HatchSetBoundary ... 2011 HatchSetOrigin ... 2011 HatchToBack HatchToBack Helix ... 2011 HideObjects ... Help Help Hide Hide In AutoCAD, use for wireframe mode only HidePalettes ... Hyperlink Hyperlink HyperlinkOptions HyperlinkOptions

Id Id 2012 IgesImport ... 2012 IgesExport ... -Image Image In BricsCAD, use Explorer for placing images ImageAdjust ImageAdjust In BricsCAD, use Properties for adjusting images ImageAttach ImageAttach ImageClip ImageClip ... ImageFrame In AutoCAD, use ImageFrame system variable ImageQuality ImageQuality Import Import Imprint ... In BricsCAD, use SolidEdit command’s Imprint option Insert Insert ... InsertAligned Inserts multiple and mirrored blocks ... Insertion In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Insertion InsertObj InsertObj Interfere Interfere Intersect Intersect 2011 IsolateObjects ...... Intersection In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Intersection Isoplane Isoplane

Join Join JpgOut ... JustifyText ...

LayCur ... LayDel ... Layer / LayerClose Layer In BricsCAD, use Explorer for layers. LayerP ... LayerPalette ... In BricsCAD, use Layer

162 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 163 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

LayerPMode ... LayerState LayerState In BricsCAD, use Explorer for layer states LayFrz LayFrz LayIso LayIso LayLck LayLck LayMch ... LayMCur LayMCur LayMrg ... LayOff LayOff LayOn LayOn -Layout Layout LayoutWizard ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD LayThw LayThw LayTrans ... LayULk LayULk LayUnIso LayUnIso LayVpi ... LayWalk ... Leader Leader Lengthen Lengthen ... LicEnterKey Enters BricsCAD license key ... LicProperties Displays license information Light Light LightList / LightListClose LightList In BricsCAD, use Explorer for lights Limits Limits Line Line Linetype Linetype In BricsCAD, use Explorer for linetypes List List LiveSection LiveSection Load Load Loft ... LogFileOn LogFileOn LogFileOff LogFileOff LtScale LtScale LWeight LWeight In BricsCAD, use Settings for lineweights

... Mail Attaches current drawing to new email message Markup / MarkupClose ... MassProp MassProp ... 2011 MatBrowserOpen / Close Materials In BricsCAD, use Explorer for browsing materials MatchCell ... MatchProp MatchProp ... 2011 MatEditorOpen / Close Materials In BricsCAD, use Explorer for editing materials MaterialAttach ... In BricsCAD, use Properties to assign materials MaterialMap ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD Measure Measure

164 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 165 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

MeasureGeom ... In BricsCAD, use Area, Dist, MassProp Menu Menu ... MenuLoad In AutoCAD, use CuiLoad ... MenuUnload In AutoCAD, use CuiUnload Mesh Mesh BricsCAD draws polyface meshes 2011 MeshCap ... 2011 MeshCollapse ... MeshCrease ... 2011 MeshExtrude ... 2011 MeshMerge ... MeshOptions ... MeshPrimitiveOptions ... MeshRefine ... MeshSmooth ... MeshSmoothLess ... MeshSmoothMore ... MeshSpin ... MeshSplit ... MeshUncrease ...... Midpoint In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Midpoint 2011 MigrateMaterials ... Required only for old AutoCAD drawings MInsert MInsert Mirror Mirror Mirror3d Mirror3d MLeader ... MLeaderAlign ... MLeaderCollect ... MLeaderEdit ... MLeaderStyle ... MlEdit ... MLine MLine MlStyle MLineStyle Model ... In BricsCAD, click Model tab Move Move ... MoveEData Moves xdata between entities MRedo ... In BricsCAD, use Redo multiple times MSlide MSlide MSpace MSpace MtEdit ... In BricsCAD, use Properties MText MText MtProp ... In BricsCAD, use Properties Multiple Multiple MView MView MvSetup MvSetup

164 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 165 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences N

2011 NavBar ... NavSMotion / NavSMotionClose ... NavSWheel ... NavVCube ... 2012 NCopy ...... Nearest In AutoCAD, use -Osnap Nearest NetLoad ... New New NewSheetset NewSheetset NewShot ... NewView ...... NewWiz In BricsCAD, begins new drawings with wizard ... Node In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Node ... None In AutoCAD, use -OSnap None

ObjectScale ... Offset Offset 2012 OffsetEdge ... OleConvert ... OleLinks OleLinks OleOpen OleOpen OleReset ... OleScale ... 2013 OnlineColNow ChapooHome 2013 OnlineDocs ChapooOpen 2013 OnlineOptions ... 2013 OnlineShare ... In BricsCAD, perform this function online with Chapoo 2013 OnlineSyncSettings ... 2013 OnlineUpload ChapooUpload ... OnWeb Opens Bricsys.com home page; in AutoCAD, use Browser Oops Oops Open Open OpenDwfMarkup ... 2013 OpenOnMobile ... OpenSheetset OpenSheetset Options Options Ortho Orthogonal -OSnap OSnap 2012 OverKill ...

PageSetup PageSetup Pan Pan

166 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 167 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

... Parallel In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Parallel Parameters / ParametersClose ... PartiaLoad ... -PartialOpen ... PasteAsHyperlink ... PasteBlock PasteBlock PasteClip PasteClip PasteOrig PasteOrig PasteSpec PasteSpec PcInWizard ... PdfAdjust ... PdfAttach PdfAttach PdfClip PdfClip PdfLayers PdfLayers ... PdfOptions Settings for PDF exports PEdit PEdit ... Perpendicular In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Perpendicular PFace PFace Plan Plan PlaneSurf ... PLine PLine Plot Plot In BricsCAD, operates like AutoCAD’s -Plot command PlotStamp ... In BricsCAD, use Print command’s Plot Stamp option PlotStyle PlotStyle PlotterManager PlotterManager PngOut ... Point Point 2011 PointCloud ... 2011 PointCloudAttach ... 2013 PointCloudClip ... 2013 PointCloudIntensityEdit ... 2011 PointCloudIndex ... PointLight PointLight Polygon Polygon PolySolid ... PressPull ... In BricsCAD, use DmPushpull Preview Preview ... Print In BricsCAD, operates like AutoCAD’s Plot command 2011 ProjectGeometry ... Properties Properties PropertiesClose PropertiesClose PSetupIn PSetupIn PSpace PSpace Publish ... PublishToWeb ... Purge Purge Pyramid Pyramid

166 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 167 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences Q

QDim ... QLeader QLeader QNew QNew ... QPrint Plots directly without dialog box QSave QSave QSelect ... In BricsCAD, click Quick Select button in Properties pane QText QText QuickCalc / QcClose ... In BricsCAD, use Calc ... Quadrant In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Quadrant .... Quick In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Quick QuickCui ... QuickProperties ... Quit Quit QvDrawing / QvDrawingClose ... In BricsCAD, use Window menu QvLayout / QvLayoutClose ... In BricsCAD, layout tabs

Ray Ray Recover Recover ... ReassocApp Reassociates apps with xdata RecoverAll ... In BricsCAD, use Recover ... RecScript Begins recording a script file Rectang Rectang Redefine Redefine Redo Redo Redraw Redraw RedrawAll RedrawAll RefClose RefClose RefEdit RefEdit RefSet RefSet Regen Regen RegenAll RegenAll RegenAuto RegenAuto Region Region Reinit Reinit Rename Rename In BricsCAD, use Explorer Render Render RenderCrop ... RenderEnvironment ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD RenderExposure ... 2013 RenderOnline ... -RenderOutputSize RenderPresets ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD RenderWin ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD ResetBlock ...

168 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 169 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

Resume Resume RevCloud RevCloud Reverse ... Revolve Revolve RevSurf RevSurf Ribbon / RibbonClose ... Rotate Rotate Rotate3D Rotate3D RPref / RPrefClose ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD RScript RScript ... RtLook In AutoCAD, use 3dFly ... RtPan In AutoCAD, use 3dPan ... RtRot In AutoCAD, use 3dOrbit ... RtRotX In AutoCAD, use 3dOrbit ... RtRotY In AutoCAD, use 3dOrbit ... RtRotZ In AutoCAD, use 3dOrbit ... RtUpDown In AutoCAD, use 3dSwivel ... RtWalk In AutoCAD, use 3dWalk ... RtZoom In AutoCAD, use 3dZoom RuleSurf RuleSurf

Save Save ... SaveAll Saves all open drawings SaveAs SaveAs ... SaveAsR12 Saves drawings in R12 DWG format SaveImg ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD; for now use Export or MSlide Scale Scale ScaleListEdit ScaleListEdit ScaleText ... Script Script ... Scrollbar Toggles scroll bars Section Section SectionPlane SectionPlane SectionPlaneJog ... SectionPlaneSettings SectionPlaneSettings In BricsCAD, use Explorer for section plane settings SectionPlaneToBlock SectionPlaneToBlock ... Security Determines whether VBA macros may run SecurityOptions SecurityOptions Seek ... In BricsCAD, visit sites such as tracepartsonline.com and grabcad.com Select Select 2011 SelectSimilar ... SelectURL ... In BricsCAD, use Hyperlink ... SelGrips In AutoCAD, use Ai_SelAll SequencePlay ... SetByLayer ... SetiDropHandler ...

168 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 169 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

... Settings Displays Settings dialog box ... SetUCS In AutoCAD, use UcsMan SetVar SetVar ... Shade In AutoCAD, use VsCurrent -ShadeMode ShadeMode Shape Shape Sheetset Sheetset SheetsetHide SheetsetHide Shell Shell ShowPalettes ... 2013 ShowRenderGallery ... SigValidate ...... Singleton In AutoCAD, use SDI system variable Sketch Sketch Slice Slice Snap Snap SolDraw ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD Solid Solid SolidEdit SolidEdit SolProf SolProf SolView ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD SpaceTrans ... Spell Spell Sphere Sphere Spline Spline SplinEdit ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD; in the meantime, use Properties SpotLight SpotLight Standards ...... Start Starts applications ... StatBar In AutoCAD, use StatBar system variable Status Status StlOut ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD ... StopScript Stops recording to script file Stretch Stretch Style Style In BricsCAD, use Explorer for styles StylesManager StylesManager Subtract Subtract SunProperties / Close SunProperties 2011 SurfBlend ... 2011 SurfExtend ... 2013 SurfExtractCurve ... 2011 SurfFillet ... 2011 SurfNetwork ... 2011 SurfOffset ... 2011 SurfSculpt ... 2011 SurfTrim ... 2011 SurfUntrim ... Sweep ...

170 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 171 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

SysWindows SysWindows

Table Table TablEdit TablEdit TableExport TableExport TableStyle TableStyle Tablet Tablet TabSurf TabSurf ... Tangent In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Tangent Text Text TextEdit .... In BricsCAD, use DdEdit TextScr TextScr TextToFront TextToFront Thicken ... In BricsCAD, use DmExtrude TifOut ... In BricsCAD, use Bmpout Time Time 2012 TimeLine ... TInsert ...... TipOfDay Displays tips for using BricsCAD Tolerance Tolerance -Toolbar Toolbar ToolPalettes ToolPalettes ToolPalettesClose ToolPalettesClose Torus Torus TpNavigate ... Transparency Transparency TraySettings ... TreeStat ... Trim Trim ... TxtExp Explodes text

U U Ucs Ucs UcsIcon UcsIcon UcsMan ... In BricsCAD, use SetUcs ULayers ... In BricsCAD, use Layer Undefine Undefine Undo Undo 2012 Ungroup ... In BricsCAD, use Group Union Union 2011 UnisolateObjects ... Units Units UpdateField UpdateField UpdateThumbsNow ...

170 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 171 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

... Url In AutoCAD, use Browser

VbaIde VbaIde VbaLoad VbaLoad VbaUnload VbaUnload VbaMan VbaMan VbaRun VbaRun VbaStmt ... View View In BricsCAD, use Explorer for views 2012 ViewBase XQuickDraw Available in BricsCAD Platinum only 2013 ViewComponent ... 2013 ViewDetail ... 2013 ViewDetailStyle ... 2012 ViewEdit ... In BricsCAD, use SolProf ViewPlay ... ViewPlotDetails ... 2012 ViewProj ... ViewRes ViewRes 2013 ViewSection 2013 ViewSectionStyle ... 2012 ViewSetProj ... 2012 ViewStd ... 2013 ViewSymbolSketch/Close ... 2012 ViewUpdate ... VisualStyles / VisualStylesClose VisualStyles In BricsCAD, use VisualStyles in Explorer VLisp ... In BricsCAD, use text editor and VL functions ... VmlOut Exports drawings in VML format VpClip VpClip VpLayer VpLayer VpMax ... VpMin ... VPoint VPoint VPorts VPorts VsCurrent ... In BricsCAD, use ShadeMode VSlide VSlide VsSave ... In BricsCAD, use VisualStyles in Explorer VTOptions ...

WalkFlySettings ... WBlock WBlock ... WCascade Cascades windows ... WClose Closes the current window ... WCloseAll Closes all windows WebLight WebLight

172 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 173 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

Wedge Wedge WelcomeScreen ... In BricsCAD, use NewWiz ... WhTile Tiles windows horizontally ... WiArrange Arranges iconized windows WhoHas ... WipeOut WipeOut WmfIn ... Supported in a future release of BricsCAD WmfOpts ... Supported in a future release of BricsCAD WmfOut WmfOut ... WorkSets WorkSpace ... In BricsCAD, use User Profiles in Settings WsSave ... In BricsCAD, use User Profiles in Settings WsSettings ... In BricsCAD, use User Profiles in Settings ... WvTile Tiles windows vertically

XAttach XAttach XBind ... To be supported in a future release of BricsCAD XClip XClip XEdges ... XLine XLine XOpen ... Xplode Xplode ... XRef Explorer for external references -XRef -XRef

Zoom Zoom

... 2dContext In AutoCAD, use a 2D template file ... 2dIntersection In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Intersection 3D 3D 3dAlign ... 3dArray 3dArray 3dClip ...... 3dContext In AutoCAD, use a 3D template file 3dCOrbit ... In BricsCAD, use RtRot 3dConfig ...... 3dConvert Converts ACIS to polyface meshes 3dDistance 3dDwf ... In BricsCAD, use 3D DWF option of Export command 2011 3dEditBar ... 3dFace 3dFace 3dFly RtLook

172 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 173 AutoCAD Command BricsCAD Command Notes on Differences

3dFOrbit ... In BricsCAD, use RtRot ... 3dIntersection In AutoCAD, use -OSnap Intersection 3dMesh 3dMesh 3dMove ... In BricsCAD, use Quad cursor’s Move option 3dOrbit ... In BricsCAD, use RtRot 3dOrbitCtr ... 2011 -3dOsnap ... 3dPan ... In BricsCAD, use RtPan 3dPoly 3dPoly 3dPrint ... 3dRotate ... In BricsCAD, use Quad cursor’s Rotate option 3dScale ... 3dsIn ... 3dSwivel RtUpDown 3dWalk RtWalk 3dZoom ... In BricsCAD, use RtZoom

174 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 175 Premium Modeling Commands The following commands are unique to BricsCAD, and so are not found in AutoCAD.

ASSEMBLY MODELING COMMANDS

MCAD assembly modeling is available in the Platinum version only. To model complex products, BricsCAD Platinum organizes .dwg can see examples of projects in the \Samples\Mechanical folder. files of mechanical components in hierarchical structures. You The Mechanical Browser palette browses the component hierarchy. To constrain parts in assemblies, apply 3D constraints between faces and edges of components. Standard X-hardware parts, such as screws, nuts, and bearings, can be used as mechanical components. The DmMove and DmRotate commands are used for realtime solving of forward and inverse kinematic problems. Bills of materials can be generated from the components used in drawings.

The following commands are available for assemblies:

Control Commands

BmBrowser toggles the visibility of the Mechanical Browser palette BmUpdate updates the hierarchy of mechanical components BmBom inserts a bill of materials (BOM) table into the drawing

Creation Commands

BmNew creates a new mechanical component as a new drawing BmInsert inserts an existing mechanical component into the drawing BmRemove removes inserts of mechanical components from the current drawing BmForm forms a new mechanical component and inserts it into the drawing BmDissolve dissolves mechanical components inserted into drawings BmMech converts the current drawing into a mechanical component BmUnmech converts mechanical components into plain drawings BmHardware inserts standard hardware parts as mechanical components BmHide hides mechanical components BmShow shows hidden mechanical components BmXConvert converts all X-Hardware solids present in the current drawing into mechanical components

Tripod drawing is an assembly drawing made with BricsCAD V13 Platinum, and can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Bricsys\BricsCAD V13\Samples\Mechanical\tripod

174 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 175 X-COMMANDS

X-Tools create and edit 3D solids parametrically.

Construction Commands

XBox creates 3D solid boxes XCone creates 3D solid cones XCylinder creates 3D solid cylinders XQuickDraw creates 2D geometry from selected solids for multi-view orthographic and isometric drawings XSphere creates 3D solid spheres XTorus creates 3D solid tori XWedge creates 3D solid wedges

Editing Commands

XArrayP creates polar arrays of solids by copying and rotating a selected solid about an axis XArrayR creates arrays of solids by copying a selected solid in a rectangular pattern XChamfer bevels edges of solids XcSolids displays a dialog box for the most-commonly used X-Solids solid creation and modification functions XCut cuts 3D solids using 2D profiles as cutting tools XExplode breaks down solids into faces or wireframe entities XExtract extracts copies of faces or edges of solids, or edges of regions, as separate entities XExtrude creates 3D solids by extruding 2D objects XFillet rounds edges of solids XIntersect creates solids by intersecting two or more solids XOffset creates new solids by offsetting all faces of selected solids at user-specified distances XPunch punches holes in 3D solids using 2D profiles as punching tools XPurge removes the editing data (history or CSG data) from selected solids XRetract separates solids by undoing the most recent Boolean operation applied to it XRetractAll explodes composite solids into their component primitives XRevolve creates 3D solids by revolving 2D entities XSection creates 2D regions of crosssections of solids through user-specified planes with the Section command XShell subtracts the interior from existing solids to create thin-walled solids XSlice slices solids with planes XSolidEdit edits all X-Solids: primitives, composites, primitive components of composites, and solid arrays XSubtract creates solids by subtracting one or more solids from other solids XSweep creates 3D solids by extruding 2D entities along paths XTrim trims 3D solids using 2D profiles XUnion creates solids by joining two or more solids

176 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 177 Display Commands

XcView displays a dialog box for X-Solids View, to pick, define or recall View and Viewport settings XcUcs displays a dialog box for X-Solids UCS, to pick, define or recall UCS settings XDia suppresses X-Solids dialog boxes, and forces command-line interpretation XList displays the CSG tree of selected X-Solids solids XViews gives command-line access to the Next and Previous entries in the list of views used XUcs defines new UCSs or restores saved UCSs

X-Hardware Commands

X-Hardware creates and edits 3D library parts parametrically.

XOptions opens the X-Hardware Setup dialog box XHardware repeats the last X-Hardware command XHardwareChange edits X-Hardware solids

XBar creates bars XBearing creates bearings XCrossRecessScrew creates cross recess screws XHexCapNut creates hex cap nuts XHexCastleNut creates hex castle nuts XHexFlangeNut creates hex flange nuts XHexHeadScrew creates hex head screws XHexNut creates hex nuts XHexSlottedNut creates hex slotted nuts XHexWasherNut creates hex washer nuts XKey creates keys XPem creates self-clinching PEM-brand fasteners XPin creates pins XPipe creates pipes XRing creates rings XRivet creates rivets XSetsSrew creates set screws XShape creates profiles XSlotRecessScrew creates slot recess screws XSocketHeadScrew creates socket head screws XSprocket creates sprockets XSquareNut creates square nuts XThread creates threads XWasher creates washers XWingNut creates wing nuts

Crosspiece drawing is an part drawing made with BricsCAD V13 Platinum, and can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\ Bricsys\BricsCAD V13\Samples\Mechanical\tripod

176 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference 177 178 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users A Command Name Cross-reference PB APPENDIX B

System Variable Cross-reference

THIS APPENDIX COMPARES the names and values of over one thousand documented variables found in AutoCAD and BricsCAD, listed in alphabetical order. The table uses the following notations:

ÐÐ System variables and preference names new to BricsCAD V13 are shown in blue ÐÐ BricsCAD variables unique to the Linux version are shown in red ÐÐ PREFS indicates the name is a preference variable in BricsCAD ÐÐ 2011 , 2012 or 2013 indicates the system variable was new to AutoCAD 2011, 2012, or 2013

Both CAD programs can change the values of variables, at least those that are not read-only. At the command line, enter the SetVar command, and then the name of the system or preference variable. For dialog boxes, use the following commands:

For AutoCAD system variables, enter the name in the SysVDlg command. For BricsCAD system and preference variables, enter the name in the search field of theSettings command.

In addition to AutoCAD-like system variables, BricsCAD employs preference variables, which are unique to BricsCAD and provide further access to the system. AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD A

AcadLspAsDoc 0 0 AcadLspAsDoc AcadPrefix c:\users\... C:\Users\... AcadPrefix AcadVer 18.2 18.0BricsCAD AcadVer AcisOutVer 70 70 AcisOutVer ...... (not used) AcisSaveAsMode Specifies how to save solids to R12 ActPath "" ... ActRecorderState 0 ... ActRecPath c:\users\...... ActUi 6 ... AeceipInProgress off ... AFlags 16 0 AFlags ... 1 AllowTabExternalMove PREFS Allows one tab to be moved to another spot ... 1 AllowTabMove PREFS Allows tabs to be moved horizontally ... 1 AllowTabSplit PREFS Allows tabs to be split AngBase 0 0 AngBase AngDir 0 0 AngDir AnnoAllVisible 1 On AnnoAllVisible AnnoAutoScale -4 ... 2013 AnnoMonitor -2 ... AnnotativeDwg 0 ... ApBox 0 0 ApBox Aperture 10 10 Aperture 2012 AppAutoLoad 14 ... AppFrameResources pack://application...... 2011 ApplyGlobalOpacities 0 ... Area 0 0 Area 2013 ArrayAssociativity 1 ... 2012 ArrayEditState 0 ... 2012 ArrayType 0 ... AttDia 0 0 AttDia AttIpe 0 ... AttMode 1 1 AttMode AttMulti 1 ...... 3 AttractionDistance PREFS Specifies grips attraction distance AttReq 1 1 AttReq AuditCtl 0 0 AuditCtl AUnits 0 0 AUnits AuPrec 0 0 AuPrec 2012 AutoCompleteDelay 0.3 0.3 AutoCompleteDelay 2012 AutoCompleteMode 15 15 AutoCompleteMode AutoDwfPublish 0 ... AutomaticPub 0 ...... 1 AutoMenuLoad Specifies which menu to load ... 1 AutosaveChecksOnlyFirstBitDbMod PREFS Checks first bit only of DbMod for autosave AutoSnap 63 63 AutoSnap

180 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

... 171 AutoTrackingVecColor PREFS Specifies color of the tracking vector ... (not used) AxisMode Toggles axis display ... (not used) AxisUnit Specifies axis units

BackgroundPlot 2 2 BackgroundPlot BackZ 0 0 BackZ BActionBarMode 1 ... BActionColor 7 ...... "" BaseFile Specifies default template path & file name BConStatusMode 0 ... BDependencyHighlight 1 ... BGripObjColor 141 ... BGripObjSize 8 ... BindType 0 0 BindType ... 256 BkgColor PREFS Specifies background color ... 256 BkgColorPs PREFS Specifies paper space background color BlipMode 0 0 Blipmode BlockEditLock 0 ... BlockEditor 0 ...... C:\Users\... BlocksPath PREFS Specifies path to blocks for Insert command BlockTestWindow 0 ... BParameterColor 170 ... BParameterFont simplex.shx ... BParameterSize 12 ... BpTextHorizontal 1 ... BtMarkDisplay 1 ... BvMode 0 ...

... 1 CacheLayout PREFS Toggles caching of layouts 2013 CacheMaxFiles 256 ... 2013 CacheMaxTotalFiles 1024 ... CalcInput 1 ... CameraDisplay 0 0 CameraDisplay CameraHeight 0 0 CameraHeight CAnnoScale 01:01:00 AM ... CAnnoScaleValue 1 ... CaptureThumbnails 1 ... CBarTransparency 50 ... CConstraintForm 0 ... CDate 20090722.2 20090722.15 CDate CDynDisplayMode 0 ... CeColor bylayer BYLAYER CeColor CeLtscale 1 1 CeLtScale

B System Variable Cross-reference 181 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

CeLtype bylayer BYLAYER CeLtype CeLweight -1 -1 CeLweight CenterMt 0 ... 2011 CeTransparency ByLayer ... ChamferA 0 0.5 ChamferA ChamferB 0 0.5 ChamferB ChamferC 0 1 ChamferC ChamferD 0 0 ChamferD ChamMode 0 0 ChamMode ... 0 ChapooLog Toggles log that records Chapoo activity ... 1 ChapooModified Action to take on local modified drawings ... www.mychapoo.com ChapooServer Reports address of Chapoo server ... C:\users\... ChapooTempFolder Stores name of local Chapoo folder ... www.chapoo.com ChapooWebsite Names the Chapoo Web site CipMode 0 ... CircleRad 0 0 CircleRad 2011 ClassicKeys 0 ... CLayer 0 0 CLayer CleanScreenState 0 ...... 7 ClipboardFormat PREFS Specifies default DWG format for Clipboard ... 1 CliState Reports visibility of command line 2013 CliPromptLines 10 ... 2013 CliPromptUpdate 0 ...... 0 CloseChecksOnlyFirstBitDbMod PREFS Does not save drawing if it was only viewed CMaterial bylayer "" CMaterial CmdActive 1 1 CmdActive CmdDia 1 1 CmdDia CmdEcho 1 1 CmdEcho CmdInputHistoryMax 20 ...... #f8f8f8 CmdLineEditBgColor PREFS Specifies command line background color ... #000000 CmdLineEditFgColor PREFS Specifies command line foreground color ... Courier New CmdLineFontName PREFS Specifies command line font name ... 10 CmdLineFontSize PREFS Specifies command line font size ... #ffffdd CmdLineListBgColor PREFS Specifies command line background color ... #000000 CmdLineListFgColor PREFS Specifies command line foreground color ... : CmdLnText Specifies prompt prefix CmdNames setvar Options CmdNames CMleaderStyle standard ... CMlJust 0 0 CmlJust CMlScale 1 1 CmlScale CMlStyle standard STANDARD CmlStyle ... 1 ColorX Specifies X axis color ... 3 ColorY Specifies Y axis color ... 5 ColorZ Specifies Z axis color ... 0 ComAcadCompatibility PREFS Checks registry for V8 appon compatibility Compass 0 0 Compass ... 0 ContinuousMotion PREFS Toggles continued motion after release

182 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

ConstraintBarDisplay 1 ... ConstraintBarMode 4095 ... 2011 ConstraintInfer 0 ... ConstraintNameFormat 2 ... ConstraintRelax 0 ... ConstraintSolveMode 1 ... 2012 ContentExplorerState 0 ... Coords 1 1 Coords CopyMode 0 0 CopyMode CPlotStyle bycolor ByColor CPlotStyle CProfile <> DEFAULT CProfile ... 1 CreateViewports Creates viewports in new layouts CrossingAreaColor 100 3 CrossingAreaColor CShadow casts and receives shadows ... CTab model Model CTab CTableStyle standard STANDARD CTableStyle ... 1 CtrlMouse Toggles meaning of mouse shortcuts 2011 CullingObj 1 ... 2011 CullingObjSelection 0 ... CursorSize 5 5 CursorSize CVPort 2 2 CvPort

DataLinkNotify 2 ... Date 2455035.85 2455035.63 Date DbcState 0 0 DbcState DblClkEdit on 1 DblClkEdit DbMod 5 0 DbMod DctCust c:\users\... "" DctCust DctMain enu en_US.dic DctMain ... 2 ddBetweenKnots PREFS Distance between knots on NURBS surfaces ... 0 ddFastMode PREFS Displays faster with more display errors ... 0 ddGridAspectRatio PREFS Specifies the grid aspect ratio ... 0 ddMaxFacetEdgeLength PREFS Specifies Maximum edge length of cell sides ... 1000 ddMaxNumGridLines PREFS Specifies max grid lines for subdivisions ... 15 ddNormalTol PREFS Specifies max deviation between normals ... 0 ddPointsPerEdge PREFS Specifies the number of points per edge ... 0 ddSurfaceTol PREFS Max distance between facet and true edge ... 1 ddUseFacetRes PREFS Toggles use of the FacetRed sysvar DefaultGizmo 0 ... DefaultIndex 0 ... DefaultlLghting 1 ... DefaultLightingType 1 ...... (none) DefaultNewSheetTemplate Names .dwg or .dwt as default template DeflPlStyle bycolor ByColor Deflplstyle DefPlStyle bycolor ByColor DefPstyle

B System Variable Cross-reference 183 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

DelObj 1 1 DelObj DemandLoad 3 3 DemandLoad DgnFrame 0 2 DgnFrame DgnImportMax 10000000 ... DgnMappingPath c:\users\...... DgnOsnap 1 1 DgnOsnap DiaStat 1 1 DiaStat 2011 Digitizer 0 ...... 0 DisplaySnapMarkerInAllViews PREFS Toggles snap markers in all viewports ... 1 DisplayTooltips PREFS Displays snap tooltips ... 1 DispPaperBkg Toggles paper space background ... 1 DispPaperMargins Displays paper space margins DispSilh 0 0 DispSilh Displays silhouette curves Distance 0 0 Distance DivMeshBoxHeight 3 ... DivMeshBoxLength 3 ... DivMeshBoxWidth 3 ... DivMeshConeAxis 8 ... DivMeshConeBase 3 ... DivMeshConeHeight 3 ... DivMeshCylAxis 8 ... DivMeshCylBase 3 ... DivMeshCylHeight 3 ... DivMeshPyrBase 3 ... DivMeshPyrHeight 3 ... DivMeshPyrLength 3 ... DivMeshSphereAxis 12 ... DivMeshSphereHeight 6 ... DivMeshTorusPath 8 ... DivMeshTorusSection 8 ... DivMeshWedgeBase 3 ... DivMeshWedgeHeight 3 ... DivMeshWedgeLength 4 ... DivMeshWedgeSlope 3 ... DivMeshWedgeWidth 3 ...... 1 DmAutoUpdate Toggles auto update of 3D constrained models ... 127 DmRecognize Determines which 3D constraints are applied ... 1 DockPriority Determines docking priority of toolbars DonutId 0.5 0.5 DonutId DonutOd 1 1 DonutOd DragMode 2 2 DragMode ... 1 DragOpen Inserts or opens dragged files DragP1 10 10 DragP1 DragP2 25 25 DragP2 ... Off DragSnap Controls snap behavior while dragging DragVs "" ... DrawingPath "C:\Users\..." DrawingPath

184 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

DrawOrderCtl 3 3 DrawOrderCtl DTextEd 2 ... DwfFrame 2 2 DwfFrame DwfOsnap 1 1 DwfOsnap ... 2 DwfVersion Specifies export format of DWF files DwgCheck 1 0 DwgCheck DwgCodepage ansi_1252 ANSI_1252 DwgCodepage DwgName drawing1.dwg Drawing1.dwg DwgName DwgPrefix c:\users\... C:\Users\... DwgPrefix DwgTitled 0 0 DwgTitled DxEval 12 12 DxEval ... 0 DxfTextAdjustAlignment Specifies text alignment for DXF imports DynConstraintDisplay 1 ... DynConstraintMode 1 ... DynDiGrip 31 31 DynDiGrip ... 142 DynDimColorHot Specifies dynamic dimension hot color ... 142 DynDimColorHover Specifies dynamic dimension hover color ... 1 DynDimDistance Specifies dynamic dimension distance ... 1 DynDimLineType Specifies dynamic dimension line type DynDiVis 1 1 DynDiVis 2012 DynInfoTips 1 ...... 65 DynInputTransparency PREFS Specifies dynamic input field transparency DynMode -3 2 DynMode DynPiCoords 0 ... DynPiFormat 0 ... DynPiVis 1 ... DynPrompt 1 ... DynTooltips 1 ...

Dimensions

DimADec 0 0 DimADec DimAlt off 0 DimAlt DimAltD 2 2 DimAltD DimAltF 25.4 25.4 DimAltF DimAltRnd 0 0 DimAltRnd DimAltTd 2 2 DimAltTd DimAltTz 0 0 DimAltTz DimAltU 2 2 DimAltU DimAltZ 0 0 DimAltZ DimAnno 0 ... DimAPost "" "" DimAPost DimArcSym 0 0 DimArcSym DimAssoc 2 2 DimAssoc DimASz 0.18 0.18 DimASz DimAtFit 3 3 DimAtFit DimAUnit 0 0 DimAUnit

B System Variable Cross-reference 185 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

DimAZin 0 0 DimAZin DimBlk "" "" DimBlk DimBlk1 "" "" DimBlk1 DimBlk2 "" "" DimBlk2 DimCen 0.09 0.09 DimCen DimClrD 0 0 DimClrD DimClrE 0 0 DimClrE DimClrT 0 0 DimClrT DimConstraintIcon 3 ... DimDec 4 4 DimDec DimDle 0 0 DimDle DimDli 0.38 0.38 DimDli DimDsep . . DimDsep DimExe 0.18 0.18 DimExe DimExo 0.06 0.06 DimExo DimFit 3 3 DimFit DimFrac 0 0 DimFrac DimFxl 1 1 DimFxl DimFxLon off 0 DimFxLon DimGap 0.09 0.09 DimGap DimJogAng 45 45 DimJogAng DimJust 0 0 DimJust DimLdrBlk "" "" DimLdrBlk DimLfac 1 1 DimLfac DimLim off 0 DimLim DimLtEx1 "" "" DimLtEx1 DimLtEx2 "" "" DimLtEx2 DimLtype "" "" DimLtype DimLUnit 2 2 DimLUnit DimLwD -2 -1 DimLwD DimLwE -2 -1 DimLwE DimPost "" "" DimPost DimRnd 0 0 DimRnd DimSah off 0 DimSah DimScale 1 1 DimScale DimSd1 off 0 DimSd1 DimSd2 off 0 DimSd2 DimSe1 off 0 DimSe1 DimSe2 off 0 DimSe2 DimSho on on DimSho DimSoxd off 0 DimSoxd DimStyle standard STANDARD DimStyle DimTad 0 0 DimTad DimTDec 4 4 DimTDec DimTFac 1 1 DimTFac DimTFill 0 0 DimTFill DimTFillClr 0 BYBLOCK DimTFillClr

186 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

DimTih on 1 DimTih DimTix off 0 DimTix DimTm 0 0 DimTm DimTMove 0 0 DimTMove DimTofl off 0 DimTofl DimToh on 1 DimToh DimTol off 0 DimTol DimTolj 1 1 DimTolj DimTp 0 0 DimTp DimTSz 0 0 DimTSz DimTVp 0 0 DimTVp DimTxSty standard STANDARD DimTxSty DimTxt 0.18 0.18 DimTxt DimTxtDirection off ... DimTzin 0 0 DimTZin DimUnit 2 2 DimUnit DimUpt off 0 DimUpt DimZin 0 0 DimZin

EdgeMode 0 0 EdgeMode Elevation 0 0 Elevation ... 0 EnableAttraction PREFS Enables grips attraction ... 1 EnableHyperlinkMenu PREFS Toggles hyperlink menu ... 0 EnableHyperlinkTooltip PREFS Toggles hyperlink tooltips EnterpriseMenu . ... 2011 ErHighlight 1 ... ErrNo 0 0 ErrNo Expert 0 0 Expert ... 0 ExpInsAlign Aligns blocks with selected entity ... 0 ExpInsAngle Default angle for inserted blocks ... 1 ExpInsFixAngle Fixed rotation angle for inserted blocks ... 1 ExpInsFixScale Fixed scale factor for inserted blocks ... 1 ExpInsScale Deafault scale factor for inserted blocks ExplMode 1 1 ExplMode ExportEplotFormat 2 ... ExportModelSpace 0 0 ExportModelSpace ExportPageSetup 0 0 ExportPageSetup ExportPaperSpace 0 0 ExportPaperSpace ExtMax -1e+20,-1e+20,-1e+20 -1e+20,-1e+20,-1e+20 ExtMax ExtMin 1e+20,1e+20,1e+20 1e+20,1e+20,1e+20 ExtMin ExtNames 1 1 ExtNames

FacetErDevNormal 40 ...

B System Variable Cross-reference 187 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

FacetErDevSurface 0 ... FacetErGridRatio 0 ... FacetErMaxEdgeLength 0 ... FacetErMaxGrid 4096 ... FacetErMeshType 0 ... FacetErMinUGrid 0 ... FacetErMinVGrid 0 ... FacetErPrimitiveMode 1 ... FacetErSmoothlev 1 ... FacetRatio 0 0 FacetRatio FacetRes 0.5 0.5 FacetRes 2011 FbxImportLog 1 ... FieldDisplay 1 1 FieldDisplay FieldEval 31 31 FieldEval FileDia 1 1 FileDia FilletRad 0 0 FilletRad 2011 FilletRad3d 1.0 ... FillMode 1 1 FillMode FontAlt simplex.shx simplex.shx FontAlt FontMap c:\users... default.fmp FontMap Frame 3 3 Frame 2012 FrameSelection 1 ... FrontZ 0 0 FrontZ FullOpen 1 1 FullOpen FullPlotPath 1 ...

GeoLatLongFormat 0 1 GeoLatLongFormat GeoMarkerVisibility 1 1 GeoMarkerVisibility GfAng 0 ... GfClr1 rgb:000,000,255 ... GfClr2 rgb:255,255,153 ... GfClrLum 1 ... GfClrState 1 ... GfName 1 ... GfShift 0 ... 2011 GlobalOpacity 0 ...... 2 GlSwapMode Sets swap mode for GL graphics ... 252 GridAxisColor Specifies color of grid’s axis lines GridDisplay 2 3 GridDisplay GridMajor 5 5 GridMajor ... 253 GridMajorColor Specifies color of major grid lines ... 254 GridMinorColor Specifies color of minor grid lines GridMode 0 0 GridMode 2011 GridStyle 0 1 GridStyle GridUnit 0.5000,0.5000 10,10,10 GridUnit

188 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

... 1 GridXyzTint Toggles coloring of x,y,z grid lines GripBlock 0 0 GripBlock GripColor 150 160 GripColor GripDynColor 140 140 GripDynColor GripHot 12 240 GripHot GripHover 11 150 GripHover 2011 GripMultifunctional 3 ... GripObjLimit 100 100 GripObjLimit Grips 1 1 Grips GripSize 5 5 GripSize GripSubobjMode 1 ... GripTips 1 1 GripTips 2012 GroupDisplayMode 2 ...... 0 GsDeviceType PREFS Specifies graphic system device GtAuto 1 ... GtDefault 0 ... GtLocation 1 ...

H HaloGap 0 0 HaloGap Handles 1 1 Handles ... 25 HandSeed Specifies starting handle for new objects 2011 HatchBoundSet 0 ... 2011 HatchType 0 ... 2011 HelpPrefix “C:\Program..." ... HidePrecision 0 0 HidePrecision HideText on 1 HideText HideXrefScales 1 ... Highlight 1 1 Highlight ... 142 HighlightColor Specifies highlight color ... 0 HighlightEffect Specifies color use for highlighting HpAng 0 0 HpAng 2011 HpAnnotative 0 ... HpAssoc 1 1 HpAssoc 2011 HpBackgroundColor "." ... HpBound 1 1 HpBound 2011 HpBoundRetain 0 ... 2011 HpColor "." ... 2011 HpDlgMode 2 ... HpDouble 0 0 HpDouble HpDrawOrder 3 3 HpDraworder HpGapTol 0 0 HpGapTol HpInherit 0 ... 2011 HpIslandDetection 1 ... 2011 HpIslandDetectionMode 1 ... 2011 HpLayer “Use Current” ... 2012 HpMaxArea 100 ...

B System Variable Cross-reference 189 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

HpMaxLines 1000000 ... HpName ansi31 ANSI31 HpName HpObjWarning 10000 10000 HpObjWarning HpOrigin 0.0000,0.0000 0,0 HpOrigin HpOriginMode 0 ... 2011 HpQuickPreview On ... 2012 HpQuickPreviewTimeout 2 ... HpScale 1 1 HpScale HpSeparate 0 0 HpSeparate HpSpace 1 1 HpSpace ... 0 HpStyle Determines hatching of islands 2011 HpTransparency "." ... HyperlinkBase . . HyperlinkBase

ImageFrame 1 1 ImageFrame ImageHlt 0 0 ImageHlt Impliedface 1 ... IndexCtl 0 0 IndexCtl InetLocation www.autodesk.com www.bricsys.com InetLocation InputHistoryMode 15 ... InsBase 0.0,0.0,0.0 0;0;0 InsBase InsName . . InsName InsUnits 1 1 InsUnits InsUnitsdefSource 1 1 InsUnitsdefSource InsUnitsdefTarget 1 1 InsUnitsdefTarget IntelligentUpdate 20 ... InterfereColor 1 "ByLayer" InterfereColor InterfereObjVs realistic "" InterfereObjVs InterfereVpVs 3d wireframe "" InterfereVpVs IntersectionColor 257 IntersectionColor IntersectionDisplay off 0 IntersectionDisplay ISaveBak 1 1 ISaveBak ISavePercent 50 50 ISavePercent Isolines 4 4 Isolines

LargeObjectSupport 0 ... LastAngle 0 0 LastAngle LastPoint 5.7,13.5,0.0 0;0;0 LastPoint LastPrompt lastangle : options LastPrompt Latitude 37.8 37.7950 Latitude LayerDlgMode 1 ... LayerEval 0 ... LayerEvalCtl 1 ...

190 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

LayerFilterAlert 2 ... LayerNotify 0 ... LayLockFadeCtl 50 ... 2012 LayoutCreateViewport 1 ... LayoutRegenCtl 2 2 LayoutRegenCtl LegacyCtrlPick 0 ... LensLength 50 50 LensLength ... 0 LicFlags Specifies if components are licensed ... "" (Read Only) LicKey Reports software license number ... 30 LightGlyphColor PREF Specifies color of light glyphs (icons) LightGlyphDisplay 1 1 LightGlyphDisplay LightingUnits 2 0 LightingUnits LightsInBlocks 1 ...... 1 LightWebGlyphColor PREF Specifies color of glyphs of web lights LimCheck 0 0 LimCheck LimMax 12.0000,9.0000 12;9 LimMax LimMin 0.0000,0.0000 0;0 LimMin LinearBrightness 0 ... LinearContrast 0 ...... 1 LispInit Preserves LISP functions beween sessions Locale enu enu Locale LocalRootPrefix c:\users\... c:\users\... LocalRootPrefix LockUi 0 ... LoftAng1 90 1.5708 LoftAng1 LoftAng2 90 1.5708 LoftAng2 LoftMag1 0 0 LoftMag1 LoftMag2 0 0 LoftMag2 LoftNormals 1 1 LoftNormals LoftParam 7 7 LoftParam LogExpBrightness 65 ... LogExpContrast 50 ... LogExpDaylight 2 ... LogExpMidtones 1 ... LogExpPhysicalScale 1500 ... LogFileMode 0 0 LogFileMode LogFileName c:\users\... "" LogFileName LogFilePath c:\users\... c:\users\... LogFilePath LogInName BricsCAD user LogInName Longitude -122.39 -122.3940 Longitude LtScale 1 1 LtScale LUnits 2 2 LUnits LuPrec 4 4 LuPrec LwDefault 211 25 LwDefault LwDisplay off 0 LwDisplay ... 0.55 LwDispScale Specifies lineweight display scale LwUnits 1 1 LwUnits

B System Variable Cross-reference 191 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD M

2011 MaxBrowserState 0 ... 2011 MaterialsPath "" ...... 0 MacroRec Reports that macro is being recorded MacroTrace 0 0 MacroTrace MaxActVp 64 64 MaxActVp MaxHatch 100000 100000 MaxHatch MaxSort 1000 1000 MaxSort 2011 MaxTouches 0 ...... 0 MaxThreads Specifies max threads for redraw, regen, loads MButtonPan 1 1 MButtonPan MeasureInit 0 1 MeasureInit Measurement 0 1 Measurement MenuBar 0 ... MenuCtl 1 1 MenuCtl MenuEcho 0 0 MenuEcho MenuName c:\users\... default MenuName MeshType 1 MeshType ... 1 MiddleClickClose PREF Closes tabs with middle-button click ... 732374555 MilliSecs Reports milliseconds since BricsCAD started 2011 MirrHatch 0 ... MirrText 0 0 MirrText MLeaderScale 1 ... ModeMacro "" "" ModeMacro MsOleScale 1 1 MsOleScale MsLtScale 1 ... MTextColumn 2 ... MTextEd internal Internal MTextEd MTextFixed 2 2 MTextFixed MTextToolbar 2 ...... 0 MtFlags Controls multi-core redraws, loads, regens MTJigString abc ... MyDocumentsPrefix c:\users\......

2011 NavBarDisplay 1 ... NavsWheelMode 2 ... NavsWheelOpacityBig 50 ... NavsWheelOpacityMini 50 ... NavsWheelSizeBig 1 ... NavsWheelSizeMini 1 ... NavVCubeDisplay 1 ... NavVCubeLocation 0 ... NavVCubeOpacity 50 ... NavVCubeOrient 1 ...

192 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

NavVCubeSize 4 ...... 4 NFileList Specifies length of recent file list NoMutt 0 0 NoMutt NorthDirection 0 0 NorthDirection

2011 ObjectIsolationMode 0 ... ObscuredColor 257 257 ObscuredColor ObscuredLtype 0 0 ObscuredLtype OffsetDist -1 1 OffsetDist ... 0 OffsetErase Determines if source entities are erased OffsetGapType 0 0 OffsetGapType OleFrame 2 2 OleFrame OleHide 0 0 OleHide OleQuality 3 3 OleQuality OleStartup 0 0 OleStartup 2013 OnlineDocMode 1 ... 2013 OnlineDocuments 1 ... 2013 OnlineSyncTime 5 ... OpenPartial 1 1 OpmState OrthoMode 0 0 OrthoMode OsMode 4133 4133 OsMode OsnapCoord 2 2 OsnapCoord OsnapHatch 0 ... OsnapZ 0 0 OsnapZ OsOptions 3 ...

PaletteOpaque 2 ...... 1 PanBuffer PREF Buffers pans PaperUpdate 0 0 PaperUpdate ParameterCopyMode 1 ... ParameterStatus 0 ...... 1 PdfEmbeddedTtf PREFS Embeds fonts in PDF output PdfFrame 1 1 PdfFrame ... 1 PdfLayersSetting PREFS Includes layers in PDF files ... 0 PdfLayoutsToExport PREFS Exports content of all layouts PdfOsnap 1 1 PdfOsnap ... 297 PdfPaperHeight PREFS Overrides paper height in PDF files ... 0 PdfPaperSizeOverride PREFS Overrides paper size in PDF files ... 210 PdfPaperWidth PREFS Overrides paper width in PDF files ... 0 PdfShxTextAsGeometry PREFS Exports SHX text as geometry ... 1 PdfSimpleGeomOptimization PREFS Optimizes geometry in PDF files ... 0 PdfTtfTextAsGeometry PREFS Exports TTF text as geometry ... 1 PdfUsePlotStyles PREFS Uses plot styles when plotting to PDF

B System Variable Cross-reference 193 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

... 1 PdfZoomToExtentsMode PREFS Zooms to extents mode in PDF files PdMode 0 0 PdMode PdSize 0 0 PdSize PeditAccept 0 0 PeditAccept PEllipse 0 0 PEllipse Perimeter 0 0 Perimeter Perspective 0 0 Perspective PerspectiveClip 5 ... PfacevMax 4 4 PFaceVMax PickAdd 1 1 PickAdd PickAuto 1 1 PickAuto PickBox 3 3 PickBox PickDrag 0 0 PickDrag PickFirst 1 1 PickFirst PickStyle 0 1 PickStyle ... 1 PictureExportScale PREFS Specifies scale factor for raster exports ... 0 PictureFolder1 PREFS Sets folder for storing raster images ... 1 PictureFolder2 PREFS Sets folder for storing raster images ... 3 PictureFolder3 PREFS Sets folder for storing raster images ... 5 PictureFolder4 PREFS Sets folder for storing raster images _PkSer "" "" _PkSer Platform varies varies Platform ... 0 PLineCache PREF Creates a cache of polyline vertices PlineConvertMode 0 ... PlineGen 0 0 PlineGen PlineType 2 2 PlineType PlineWid 0 0 PlineWid ... c:\users\... PlotCfgPath PREFS Specifies plotter configuration path ... "" PlotId Deprecated; included for compatibility PlotOffset 0 ...... c:\program files... PlotOutputPath PREFS Specifies path to plot output folder PlotRotMode 2 2 PlotRotMode 2011 PlotTransparencyMode 1 ...... c:\users\... PlotStylePath PREFS Specifies path to plot styles ... 0 Plotter Specifies path to plotter cfg folder PlQuiet 0 0 PlQuiet 2011 PointCloudAutoUpdate 1 ... 2013 PointCloudBoundary 1 ... 2013 PointCloudClipFrame 2 ... 2013 PointCloudPointMax 1500000 ... 2011 PointCloudDensity 15 ... 2011 PointCloudLock 0 ... 2011 PointCloudRtDensity 5 ... PolarAddAng . . PolarAddAng PolarAng 90 90 PolarAng PolarDist 0 0 PolarDist PolarMode 0 0 PolarMode

194 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

PolySides 4 4 PolySides Popups 1 1 Popups 2012 PreviewCreationTransparency 60 ...... 30 PreviewDelay PREF Delays subentity highlighting under cursor PreviewEffect 2 2 PreviewEffect 2011 PreviewFaceEffect 1 ... PreviewFilter 7 7 PreviewFilter ... 0 PreviewNestedEnts Toggles previewing of nested entities ... 7 PreviewSubEnts Determines subentities to highlight PreviewType 0 0 PreviewType ... 1 PreviewWndInOpenDlg PREFS Displays preview window in Open dialog box ... "." PrintFile Specifies alternative name for print files ... BricsCAD Product Reports the product name ... 1 ProgBar Toggles progress bar ... BricsCAD Program Reports the product name ProjectName . . ProjectName ... "" ProjectSearchPaths PREFS Specifies project names & search paths ProjMode 1 1 ProjMode 2012 PropObjLimit 25000 ... 2013 PropertyPreview 1 ... 2013 PropPrevTimeout 1 ...... 3 PromptMenu Toggles prompt menu ... 0 PromptMenuFlags PREFS Toggles hidden prompts ProxyGraphics 1 1 ProxyGraphics ProxyNotice 1 1 ProxyNotice ProxyShow 1 1 ProxyShow ProxyWebSearch 0 1 ProxyWebSearch PsLtScale 1 1 PsLtScale PsolHeight 4 80 PsolHeight PsolWidth 0.25 5 PsolWidth PsProlog . "" PsProlog PsQuality 75 75 PsQuality PStyleMode 1 1 PStyleMode PStylePolicy 1 1 PStylePolicy PsVpScale 0 0 PsVpScale PublishAllSheets 1 1 PublishAllSheets PublishCollate 1 ... PublishHatch 1 ... PUcsBase . . PUcsBase

QpLocation 0 ... QpMode 1 ... QaFlags 0 0 QaFlags QtextMode 0 0 QtextMode ... 1000 QuadHideDelay PREF Quad cursor display delay after mouse movement

B System Variable Cross-reference 195 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

... 1 QuadDisplay Toggles display of the Quad cursor ... 500 QuadShowDelay PREF Quad display delay after entity highlight ... 1 QuadToolTips PREF Toggles display of tooltips with Quad cursor QvDrawingPin 0 ... QvLayoutPin 0 ...

... (not used) R12SaveAccuracy Specifies segments for splines and ellipses ... (not used) R12SaveDeviation Specifies deviation for splines, ellipses RasterDpi 300 ... RasterPercent 20 ... RasterPreview 1 1 RasterPreview RasterThreshold 20 ...... 5 RealtimeSpeedup PREFS Skips messages during realtime pan ... 1 RealWorldScale Renders materials at real-world scale factor 2011 Rebuild2dCv 6 ... 2011 Rebuild2dDegree 3 ... 2011 Rebuild2dOption 1 ... 2011 RebuildDegreeU 3 ... 2011 RebuildDegreeV 3 ... 2011 RebuildOptions 1 ... 2011 RebuildU 6 ... 2011 RebuildV 6 ...... C:\Users\... RecentPath PREFS Specifies recently used path 2011 RecoveryAuto 0 ... RecoveryMode 2 ... RefEditName "" "" RefEditName ... 0 RefEditLockNotInWorkset PREFS Locks entities not being edited by RefEdit RegenMode 1 1 RegenMode RememberFolders 1 1 RememberFolders ... 0 Re_init Reloads the .pgp file RenderQuality 1 ... RenderUserLights 1 ...... 1 RenderUsingHardware PREF Toggles use of hardware for rendering ReportError 1 ...... 0 RevCloudArcStyle PREFS Specifies revision cloud arc style ... 0.38 RevCloudMaxArcLength PREFS Specifies revision cloud max arc length ... 0.38 RevCloudMinArcLength PREFS Specifies revision cloud min arc length RibbonContextSelect 1 ... RibbonContextSelLim 2500 ... RibbonDockedHeight 0 ... 2012 RibbonIconResize 1 ... RibbonSelectMode 1 ... RibbonState 1 ... Roamablerootprefix c:\users\... c:\users\... RoamableRootPrefix 2011 RolloverOpacity 0 ...

196 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

RolloverTips 1 ... RtDisplay 1 1 RtDisplay ... 1 RtRotationSpeedFactor PREFS Specifies turning speed ... 1 RtWalkSpeedFactor PREFS Specifies walking speed

... 1 SaveChangeToLayout PREFS Saves print changes to layout SaveFidelity 1 1 SaveFidelity SaveFile c:\users\... "" SaveFile SaveFilePath c:\users\... C:\Users\... SaveFilePath ... 1 SaveFormat PREFS Sets the DWG file format SaveName Drawing1.dwg "" SaveName ... 1 SaveRoundTrip Saves entities to preserve them SaveTime 10 0 SaveTime ScreenBoxes 0 26 ScreenBoxes ScreenMode 3 1 ScreenMode ScreenSize 1366.0,499.0 784.0;506.0 ScreenSize ... 256 ScrlHist Specifies number of lines saved in history ... 0 Sdi Toggles single-document interface SelectionAnnoDisplay 1 ... SelectionArea 1 1 SelectionArea SelectionAreaOpacity 25 25 SelectionAreaOpacity 2011 SelectionCycling 0 ... SelectionPreview 3 3 SelectionPreview 2013 SelectionPreviewLimit 2000 ... 2011 SelectSimilarMode 130 ... SetByLayerMode 127 ... ShadEdge 3 3 ShadEdge ShadeDif 70 70 ShadeDif ShadowPlaneLocation 0 ... ShortcutMenu 11 2 ShortcutMenu 2012 ShortcutMenuDration 250 ...... 0 ShowFullPathInTitle PREFS Displays full path in title bar ShowHist 1 ... ShowLayerUsage 0 0 ShowLayerUsage ShowmotionPin 1 ... 2012 ShowPageSetupForNewLayouts 0 ...... 1 ShowScrollButtons PREF Toggles display of scroll buttons ... 0 ShowTabCloseButton PREF Toggles display of Close button on tabs ... 0 ShowTabCloseButtonActive PREF Toggles display of Close button on active tab ... 1 ShowTabCloseButtonAll PREF Toggles display of Close button on all tabs ... 1 ShowTabControls PREF Toggles display of tabs ... 1 ShowWindowListButton PREF Toggles display of droplists ShpName "" "" ShpName SigWarn 1 ...... 0 SingletonMode PREFS Toggles multiple BricsCAD instances

B System Variable Cross-reference 197 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

SketchInc 0.1 0.1 SketchInc SkPoly 0 0 SkPoly 2011 SkTolerance 0.5 ... SkyStatus 0 SkyStatus SmoothMeshConvert 0 ... SmoothMeshGrid 3 ... SmoothMeshMaxFace 838300 ... SmoothMeshMaxLev 4 ... SnapAng 0 0 SnapAng SnapBase 0.0000,0.0000 0;0 SnapBase 2013 SnapGridLegacy 0 ... SnapIsoPair 0 0 SnapIsoPair ... 2 SnapMarkerColor PREFS Specifies snap marker color ... 6 SnapMarkerSize PREFS Specifies snap marker size ... 2 SnapMarkerThickness PREFS Specifies snap marker thickness SnapMode 0 0 SnapMode SnapStyl 0 0 SnapStyl SnapType 0 0 SnapType SnapUnit 0.5000,0.5000 0.5;0.5 SnapUnit SolidCheck 1 1 SolidCheck SolidHist 1 ... SortEnts 127 96 SortEnts 2011 SplDegree 3 ...... 0 spaAdjustMode PREF Smooths triangles ... 0 spaGridAspectRatio PREF Specifies aspect ratio of cell grids ... 0 spaGridMode PREF Specifies location of grids ... 0 spaMaxFacetEdgeLength PREF Specifies max length of a side of cell ... 512 spaMaxNumGridLines PREF Specifies max no. of grid lines in subdivisions ... 0 spaMinUGridLines PREF Specifies max no. of grid lines in u direction ... 0 spaMinVGridLines PREF Specifies max no. of grid lines in v direction ... 15 spaNormalTol PREF Specifies the normal tolerance ... -1 spaSurfaceTol PREF Specifies maximum surface tolerance ... 1 spaTriangMode PREF Specifies which mesh is triangulated ... 1 spaUseFacetRes PREF Toggles use of FacetRes sysvar SplFrame 0 0 SplFrame SplineSegs 8 8 SplineSegs SplineType 6 6 SplineType 2011 SplKnots 0 ... 2011 SplMethod 0 ... 2012 SplPeriodic 1 ...... c:\users\... SrchPath Specifies search paths for support files SsFound "" "" SsFound SsLocate 1 1 SsLocate SsmAutoOpen 1 ... SsmPollTime 60 ... SsmSheetStatus 2 ...... 0 SsmState Reports if Sheetset palette is open

198 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

StandardsViolation 2 ... Startup 0 0 Startup StatusBar 1 ... StepSize 6 6 StepSize StepsPerSec 2 2 StepsPerSec SubObjSelectionMode 0 ... SunStatus 0 ...... SuppressDataLossWarning Toggles warning saving to older formats 2011 SurfaceAssociativity 1 ... 2011 SurfaceAssociativityDrag 1 ... 2011 SurfaceAutoTrim 0 ... 2011 SurfaceModelingMode 0 ... SurfTab1 6 6 Surftab1 SurfTab2 6 6 Surftab2 SurfType 6 6 SurfType SurfU 6 6 SurfU SurfV 6 6 SurfV ... 0 SvgBlendedGradients PREF Toggles use of blended gradients ... ".png" SvgDefaultImageExtension PREF Specifies default file name extension ... 0 SvgGenericFontFamily PREF Specifies name of generic font family ... 0 SvgHiddenLineRemoving PREF Toggles hidden-line removal per viewport ... "" SvgImageBase PREF Specifies path to folder for saving SVG files ... "" SvgImageUrl PREF Specifies URL for locating SVG files ... 1 SvgLineWeightScale PREF Specifies pixel width of lineweights ... 768 SvgOutputHeight PREF Specifies height in points (72 points per inch) ... 1024 SvgOutputWidth PREF Specifies width in points ... 6 SvgPrecision PREF Specifies double-floating point precision SyscodePage ansi_1252 ANSI_1252 SysCodePage

... 25 TabControlHeight PREF Specifies height of document tab, in pixels TableIndicator 1 ... TableToolbar 2 ... TabMode 0 0 TabMode ... 0 TabsFixedWidth PREF Forces all tabs to have the same width Target 0.0,0.0,0.0 0.0;0.0;0.0 Target Taskbar 1 ... TbCustomize 1 ... 2012 TbShowShortcuts On ... TdCreate 2455034.61 2455035.58 TdCreate TdInDwg 1.24 1.16E-008 TdInDwg TduCreate 2455034.9 2455035.88 TduCreate TdUpdate 2455034.61 2455035.58 TdUpdate TdUsrTimer 1.24 1.16E-008 TdUsrTimer TduUpdate 2455034.9 2455035.88 TduUpdate ... c:\users\... TemplatePath PREFS Specifies path to templates folder

B System Variable Cross-reference 199 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

TempOverrides 1 ... TempPrefix c:\users\... "" TempPrefix ... 0 TextAngle Stores last-used angle for text TextEditor 0 ... TextEval 0 0 TextEval TextFill 1 1 TextFill TextOutputFileFormat 0 ... TextQlty 50 50 TextQlty TextSize 0.2 0.2 TextSize TextStyle standard STANDARD TextStyle ... C:/program... TextureMapPath Specifies path to texture map folders Thickness 0 0 Thickness 2013 ThumbSave 1 ... ThumbSize 1 ... TileMode 1 1 TileMode ... 1 TileModeLightSynch Synchronizes lighting in all viewports TimeZone -8000 -8000 TimeZone ToolTipMerge 0 ... Tooltips 1 1 Tooltips 2012 TooltipSize 0 ... 2012 TooltipTransparency 0 ... ToolPalettePath C:\Users\... C:\users\... ToolPalettePath ... 0 TpState Reports whether Tools palette is open TraceWid 0.05 0.05 TraceWid TrackPath 0 0 TrackPath 2011 TransparencyDisplay 1 ... TrayIcons 1 ... TrayNotify 1 ... TrayTimeout 0 ... TreeDepth 3020 3020 TreeDepth TreeMax 10000000 10000000 TreeMax TrimMode 1 1 TrimMode TSpaceFac 1 1 TSpaceFac TSpaceType 1 1 TSpaceType TStackAlign 1 2 TStackAlign TStackSize 70 70 TStackSize ... 1 TtfAsText

2012 Ucs2dDisplaySetting 1 ... 2012 Ucs3dParaDisplaySetting 1 ... 2012 Ucs3dPerpDisplaySetting 1 ... UcsAxisAng 90 90 UcsAxisAng UcsBase WORLD "" UcsBase UcsDetect 1 1 UcsDetect UcsFollow 0 0 UcsFollow

200 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

UcsIcon 3 3 UcsIcon ... 0 UcsIconPos Toggles non-origin UCS icon position UcsName "" "" UcsName UcsOrg 0.0,0.0,0.0 0;0;0 UcsOrg UcsOrtho 1 1 UcsOrtho 2012 UcsSelectMode 1 ... UcsView 1 1 UcsView UcsVp 1 1 UcsVp UcsXDir 1.0,0.0,0.0 1;0;0 UcsXDir UcsYDir 0.0,1.0,0.0 0;1;0 UcsYDir UndoCtl 53 1 UndoCtl UndoMarks 0 5 UndoMarks UnitMode 0 0 UnitMode UOsnap 1 ... UpdateThumbnail 15 ...... 1 UseOutputFolder PREFS Uses current folder or PlotOutputPath folder ... 0 UseRegistryValues PREFS Reuses previous print settings UserI1-5 0 0 UserI1-5 UserR1-5 0 0 UserR1-5 UserS1-5 "" "" UserS1-5 ... 0 UseRegistryValues PREFS Reuses previous print settings ... 0 UseStandardOpenFileDialog PREFS Displays additional folder in file dialog boxes

... Bricsys _VendorName Reports the vendor’s name ... "13.1.7 (UNICODE)" _VerNum Reports the version number ... 100.0.108 VersionCustomizableFiles PREFS Reports version number of CUI and PGP files ViewCtr 18.9,8.7,0.0 18.9,8.7,0.0 ViewCtr ViewDir 0.0,0.0,1.0 10.4;4.5;0.0 ViewDir ViewMode 0 0.0;0.0;1.0 ViewMode ViewSize 14.65 16 ViewSize 2013 ViewSketchMode 0 ... 2013 ViewUpdateAuto 1 ... ViewTwist 0 0 ViewTwist VisRetain 1 1 VisRetain 2012 VpControl 1 ... VpLayerOverrides 0 ... VpLayerOverridesMode 1 ... VpMaximizedState 0 ... VpRotateAssoc 1 1 VpRotateAssoc 2011 VsCurvatureHigh 1.0 ... 2011 VsCurvatureLow -1.0 ... 2011 VsCurvatureType 0 ... 2011 VsDraftangleHigh 3 ... 2011 VsDraftangleLow -3 ... 2011 VsZebraColor1 "Rgb:255,255,255" ...

B System Variable Cross-reference 201 AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

2011 VsZebraColor2 "Rgb:0,0,0" ... 2011 VsZebraDirection 90 ... 2011 VsZebraSize 45 ... 2011 VsZebraType 1 ... VsBackgrounds 1 ... VsEdgeColor byentity ... VsEdgeJitter -2 ... VsEdgeOverhang -6 ... VsEdges 1 ... VsEdgeSmooth 1 ... 2011 VsEdgeLEx -6 ... VsFaceColorMode 0 ... VsFaceHighlight -30 ... VsFaceOpacity -60 ... VsFaceStyle 0 ... VsHaloGap 0 ... VsHidePrecision 0 ... VsIntersectionColor "7 (white)" ... VsIntersectionEdges 0 ... VsIntersectionLtype 1 ... VsIsoOnTop 0 ... VsLightingQuality 1 ... VsMaterialMode 0 ... VsMax 119.3,59.5,0.0 1E+20,1E+20,1E+20 VsMax VsMin -81.3,-42.1,0.0 -1E+20,-1E+20,-1E+20 VsMin VsMonoColor "Rgb:255,255,255" ... VsObscuredColor "ByEntity" ... VsObscuredEdges 1 ... VsObscuredLype 1 ... 2011 VsOccludedColor "ByEntity" ... 2011 VsOccludedEdges 1 ... 2011 VsOccludedLtype 1 ... VsShadows 0 ... VsSilhEdges 0 ... VsSilhWidth 5 ... VtDuration 750 ... VtEnable 3 ... VtFps 7 ...

... 1 WarningMessages Toggles use of warning messages WhipArc 0 0 WhipArc WhipThread 1 3 WhipThread WindowAreaColor 150 5 WindowAreaColor 2013 WipeoutFrame 2 ... WmfBkgnd off 0 WmfBkGnd

202 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users AutoCAD AutoCAD’s BricsCAD’s BricsCAD Preference & System Variable Names Default Values Default Values System Variable Names Notes on Variables Unique to BricsCAD

WmfForegnd off 0 WmfForeGnd ... 2 WndlMain Reports window state, maximized or other ... 0 WndlScrl PREFS Toggles scroll bars ... 1 WndlStat Toggles status bar ... 1 WndlTabs PREFS Toggles layout and model tabs ... 0 WndlText Reports text window state ... 2162.0;202.0 WndPMain Reports top left window position ... 40.0;40.0 WndPText Reports top left text window ... 1160.0;760.0 WndSMain Reports main window size ... 1120.0;720.0 WndSText Reports text window size 12 WorkspaceLable 0 ...... 1 WorkspaceSecurity Enables macros WorldUcs 1 1 WorldUcs WorldView 1 1 Worldview WriteStat 1 1 WriteStat 11 WsAutosave 0 ... WsCurrent 2D drafting & annotation ...

XClipFrame 2 0 XClipFrame ... 1 XDia PLAT Toggles dlg box or cmd line for X-Solids XDwgFadeCtl 70 ... XEdit 1 1 XEdit XFadeCtl 50 50 XFadeCtl XLoadCtl 2 2 XLoadCtl XLoadPath c:\users\... C:\Users\... XLoadPath XRefCtl 0 0 XRefCtl XRefNotify 2 ... XRefType 0 ...

ZoomFactor 60 60 ZoomFactor ZoomWheel 0 ...

3dConversionMode 1 ... 3dDwfPrec 2 ... 2011 3dOsMode 11 ... 3dSelectionMode 1 ...

B System Variable Cross-reference 203 204 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users APPENDIX C

Command Alias Cross-reference

THIS APPENDIX COMPARES sorted alphabetically by command name. the command aliases defined by AutoCAD and BricsCAD. The list is ÐÐ Aliases added to BricsCAD V13 are shown in blue text. ÐÐ ICAD Indicates alias names included by Bricsys for compatibility with IntelliCAD. ÐÐ 2011 Indicates alias names added to AutoCAD 2011; no aliases were added to AutoCAD 2012 or 2013.

Both To CAD customize programs aliases can in AutoCAD, define new use thealiases Command and modify Aliases buttonexisting on ones:the ribbon’s Express Tool tab’s Tools panel. To customize aliases in BricsCAD, use the Customize command’s Aliases tab. AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Command

ActRecord arr ... -ActStop -ars ... ActStop ars ... ActUserInput aru ... -ActUserMessage -arm ... ActUserMessage arm ... AdCenter adc, content, dc, dcenter ... Align al al Align AllPlay aplay ... 2011 AnalysisCurvature curvatureanalysis ... 2011 AnalysisDraftAngle draftangleanalysis ... 2011 AnalysisZebra zebraanalysis ...... ap Aperture ... planviewint ICAD Apparent AppLoad ap ... Arc a a Arc Area aa aa Area -Array -ar ... Array ar ar Array -AttDef -att -at -AttDef AttDef att, ddattdef at, ddattdef AttDef ... ad AttDisp -AttEdit -ate, atte -AttEdit AttEdit ate, ddatte, ddattext -ate AttEdit AttExt ddattext -ax -AttExt ... ax, ddattext AttExt AttIpEdit ati ...

... backgrounds ICAD Background BAction ac ...... ba Base BClose bc ... BcParameter cparam ... BEdit be ...... bm Blipmode -Block -b -b -Block Block b, acadblockdialog, bmake, bmod b Block -Boundary -bo -bo -Boundary Boundary bo, bpoly bo, bpoly Boundary BParameter param ... Break br br Break

206 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 207 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias BricsCAD Alias BricsCAD Command

BSave bs ... BvState bvs ...

Camera cam ... Chamfer cha cha Chamfer Change -ch -ch Change CheckStandards chk ... Circle c c Circle -Color -col,-colour -col, -colour -Color Color col, colour, ddcolor, ddcolour col, colour, ddcolor, ddcolour, setcolor ICAD Color CommandLine cli ... ConstraintBar cbar ... ConstraintSettings csettings ... Copy co, cp co, cp Copy ... cl CopyLink ... cui Customize CTableStyle ct ... 2011 CvAdd insertcontrolpoint ... 2011 CvHide pointoff ... 2011 CvRebuild rebuild ... 2011 CvRemove removecontrolpoint ... 2011 CvShow pointon ... Cylinder cyl cyl Cylinder

DataExtraction dx ... DataLink dl ... DataLinkUpdate dlu ... DbConnect dbc ... DdEdit ed ed DdEdit DdGrips gr gr DdGrips ... se DdSelect DdVpoint vp vp, viewctl, setvpoint ICAD DdVpoint DelConstraint delcon ... Dist di di Dist Divide div div Divide Donut do, doughnut do, doughnut Donut DrawingRecovery drm ... DrawOrder dr dr DrawOrder DSettings ds, ddrmodes, se ddrmodes, rm DSettings DsViewer av ... DView dv dv DView ... dx DxfOut

206 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 207 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Command

Dimensions

... dimension Dim DimAligned dal, dimali dal, dimali DimAligned DimAngular dan, dimang dan, dimang DimAngular Dimarc dar ... DimBaseline dba, dimbase dba, dimbase DimBaseline DimCenter dce dce Dimcenter DimConstraint dcon ... DimContinue dco, dimcont dco, dimcont DimContinue DimDiameter ddi, dimdia ddi, dimdia DimDiameter DimDisassociate dda ... DimEdit ded, dimed ded, dimed DimEdit DimJogged jog, djo ... DimJogline djl ... DimLinear dli, dimlin, dimhorizontal, dli, dimlin, dimhorizontal, dimrotated, dimvertical DimLinear dimrotated, dimvertical DimOrdinate dor,dimord dor, dimord DimOrdinate DimOverride dov,dimover dov, dimover DimOverride DimRadius dra,dimrad dra, dimrad DimRadius DimReassociate dre ...... -dst -DimStyle DimStyle d, dst, dimsty, ddim d, ddim, dimsty, ds,dst, expdimstyles, setdim ICAD DimStyle DimTedit dimted dimted DimTedit

EditShot eshot ...... ate EAttEdit Ellipse el el Ellipse Erase e e, delete Erase ... xb ExpBlocks Explode x x Explode -Export -qpub ... Export exp exp, dwfout Export ExportDwf edwf ... ExportDwfx edwfx ... ExportPdf epdf ... -ExportToAutocad aectoacad ...... uc, dducs ExpUcs Extend ex ex Extend ExternalReferences er ... Extrude ext ext Extrude

208 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 209 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias BricsCAD Alias BricsCAD Command

Fillet f f Fillet Filter fi fi Filter FlatShot fshot ...

GeographicLocation geo, north, northdir geo GeographicLocation GeomConstraint gcon ... Gradient gd ...... g Grid -Group -g ... Group g ...

-Hatch -h -h, -bh -Hatch Hatch h, bh h, bh Hatch HatchEdit he he HatchEdit 2011 HatchToBack hb ... Hide hi hi Hide HidePalettes poff ...

I ... idpoint ICAD Id -Image -im ... Image im im, expimages ICAD Image ImageAdjust iad iad ImageAdjust ImageAttach iat iat ImageAttach ImageClip icl icl ImageClip Import imp imp Import -Insert -i -i -Insert Insert i, ddinsert, inserturl i, ddinsert Insert ... insal InsertAligned InsertObj io io InsertObj Interfere inf inf Interfere Intersect in in Intersect 2011 IsolateObjects isolate ...... is Isoplane

Join j ...

208 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 209 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Command

-Layer -la -la -Layer Layer la, ddlmodes la, ddlmodes, explayers ICAD Layer LayerState las, lman las LayerState ... setlayer ICAD LayMcur -Layout lo ... Leader lead le, lead Leader Lengthen len len, editlen ICAD Lengthen ... lighting Light ll LightList Line l l, 3dline Line -Linetype -lt, -ltype -lt -Linetype Linetype lt, ltype, ddltype lt, ddltype, expltypes ICAD Linetype List li, ls, showmat li, ls List Ltscale lts lts LtScale Lweight lw, lineweight ...

Markup msm ... 2011 MatBrowserOpen mat, rmat ... MatchProp ma, painter ma MatchProp MaterialMap setuv setuv MaterialMap Materials mat, rmat, finish mat, finish, rmat Materials Measure me ... MeasureGeom mea ... MeshCrease crease ... MeshRefine refine ... MeshSmooth smooth ... MeshSmoothLess less ... MeshSmoothMore more ... MeshSplit split ... MeshUncrease uncrease ... Mirror mi mi Mirror Mirror3d 3dmirror 3m, 3dmirror Mirror3d MLeader mld ... MLeaderAlign mla ... MLeaderCollect mlc ... MLeaderEdit mle ... MLeaderStyle mls ... MLine ml ... Move m m Move ... msnapshot ICAD MSlide MSpace ms ms MSpace

210 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 211 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias BricsCAD Alias BricsCAD Command

-MText -t ... MText mt, t mt, t MText MView mv mv MView

NavSMotion motion ... NavSMotionClose motioncls ... NavSWheel wheel ... NavVCube cube ... NewShot nshot ... NewView nview ...... ddnew NewWiz

Offset o o Offset ... undelete, unerase Oops Open openurl, dxfin op Open Options op, preferences cfg, config, prefs, preferences Options ... ortho, or Orthogonal -Osnap -os -os, esnap -OSnap Osnap os, ddosnap os, ddosnap, ddesnap, setesnap ICAD Osnap

-Pan -p ... Pan p p, -p Pan -Parameters -par ... Parameters par ... -PartialOpen partialopen ... PasteSpec pa pa PasteSpec PEdit pe pe, editpline ICAD PEdit PLine pl pl, polyline ICAD PLine Plot print, dwfout ... PlotStamp ddplotstamp ... Point po po Point 2011 PointCloud pc ... 2011 PointCloudAttach pcattach ... 2011 PointCloudIndex pcindex ... PointLight freepoint ... Polygon pol pol Polygon PolySolid psolid ... Preview pr,pre pre, ppreview ICAD Preview Properties props, ch, mo, ddchprop, ddmodify pr, props, ch, mo, ddchprop, ddmodify Properties

210 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 211 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Command

PropertiesClose prclose prc PropertiesClose PSpace ps ps PSpace PublishToWeb ptw ... -Purge -pu -pu -Purge Purge pu pu Purge Pyramid pyr pyr Pyramid

QLeader le ...... n QNew ... qt QText QuickCalc qc ... QuickCui qcui ... Quit exit exit Quit QvDrawing qvd ... QvDrawingClose qvdc ... QvLayout qvl ... QvLayoutClose qvlc

Rectang rec, rectangle rec, rect, rectangle Rectang Redraw r r Redraw RedrawAll ra ra RedrawAll Regen re re Regen RegenAll rea rea RegenAll Region reg reg Region ... ri Reinit -Rename -ren -ren -Rename Rename ren ren, ddrename Rename Render rr rr Render RenderCrop rc ... RenderEnvironment fog fog RenderEnvironment RenderPresets rp, rfileopt roptions RenderPresets RenderWin rw, rendscr rendscr RenderWin Revolve rev rev Revolve Ribbon dashboard ... RibbonClose dashboardclose ... Rotate ro ro Rotate ... 3r, 3drotate Rotate3d RPref rpr setrender RPref

212 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 213 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias BricsCAD Alias BricsCAD Command

Save saveurl sa Save SaveAs dxfout ... Scale sc sc Scale Script scr scr Script Section sec sec Section ... selgrip SelGrips SectionPlane splane ... SectionPlaneJog jogsection ... SectionPlaneToBlock generatesection ... SequencePlay splay ...... ucp, dducsp SetUcs SetVar set set SetVar ... sha Shade ShadeMode sha, shade vscurrent ShadeMode SheetSet ssm ssm SheetSet ShowPalettes pon ...... freehand ICAD Sketch Slice sl sl Slice Snap sn sn Snap Solid so so, plane ICAD Solid Spell sp sp Spell Spline spl spl Spline SplinEdit spe spe SplinEdit Standards sta ... Stretch s s Stretch ... font* -Style Style st, ddstyle st, ddstyle, expstyle, expstyles, expfonts ICAD Style Subtract su su Subtract ... sun SunProperties 2011 SurfBlend blendsrf ... 2011 SurfExtend extendsrf ... 2011 SurfFillet filletsrf ... 2011 SurfNetwork networksrf ... 2011 SurfOffset offsetsrf ... 2011 SurfPatch patch ... 2011 SurfSculpt createsolid ...

Table tb ... TableStyle ts ... Tablet ta ta Tablet ... -t -Text

212 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 213 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Alias(es) BricsCAD Command

Text dt, dtext tx Text TextEdit tedit ... Thickness th th Thickness TileMode ti, tm ...... ti Time Tolerance tol tol Tolerance Toolbar to ... ToolPalettes tp ... Torus tor tor Torus Trim tr tr Trim

Ucs dducs ... UcsMan uc, dducs, dducsp ... Union uni uni Union UnisolateObjects unhide, unisolate ... -Units -un -un -Units Units un, ddunits un, ddunits Units

... vba VbaIde -View -v -v -View View v, ddview v, ddview, expviews ICAD View ViewGo vgo ... ViewPlay vplay ... -VisualStyles -vsm ... VisualStyles vs, vsm ...... vl VpLayer VPoint -vp -vpoint, -viewpoint,viewpoint ICAD VPoint VPorts viewports vw, vport, viewports VPorts ... vs, vsnapshot ICAD VSlide VsCurrent vs ...

-WBlock -w ... WBlock w, acadwblockdialog w WBlock ... closeall WCloseAll Wedge we we Wedge ... wi WmfIn ... wo WmfOut

214 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 215 AutoCAD Command AutoCAD Alias BricsCAD Alias BricsCAD Command

XAttach xa xa XAttach -XBind -xb ... XBind xb -xb XBind XClip xc clip XClip XLine xl xl, inflineICAD XLine -XRef -xr -xr -Xref XRef xr xr, expxrefs ICAD Xref

Zoom z z Zoom

3dAlign 3al ... 3dArray 3a 3a, array3d 3dArray 3dFace 3f, 3f, face 3dFace ... mesh 3dMesh 3dMove 3m ... 3dOrbit 3do, orbit ... 3dPoly 3p 3p 3dPoly 3dPrint 3dp, 3dplot, rapidprototype ... 3dRotate 3r ... 3dScale 3s ... 3dWalk 3dnavigate, 3dw ...

214 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference 215 216 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users C Command Alias Cross-reference PB APPENDIX D

Keystroke and Button Cross-reference

THIS APPENDIX COMPARES - toCAD and BricsCAD. They are sorted into the following groups: the default shortcut keystrokes and buttons defined by Au Keyboard shortcuts for the drawing area ÐÐ Function keys ÐÐ Ctrl keys ÐÐ Shift keys ÐÐ Other keys

Keyboard shortcuts for the command bar and Text window ÐÐ Ctrl and Other keys

Mouse and tablet buttons ÐÐ Mouse buttons ÐÐ Tablet buttons ÐÐ 3D walk and fly controls

Keystrokes new to BricsCAD V13 are shown in blue.

To learn how to customize BricsCAD, see the Customizing BricsCAD ebook available for purchase from the www.Bricsys.com Web site. Keyboard Shortcuts for the Drawing Area

- CAD, use the Cui command’s Keyboard Shortcuts node. In BricsCAD, uses the Customize com- Both CAD programs let you define new shortcuts and buttons, and modify existing ones. In Auto mand’s Keyboard tab.

The following keystroke shortcuts operate in the drawing area:

FUNCTION KEYS

AutoCAD Keystroke BricsCAD AutoCAD Action Command(s) Shortcuts Command(s) BricsCAD Action

Displays the Help dialog box Help F1 Help Displays the Help dialog box Selects entire objects during subentity selection ... Shift+F1 ... Toggles between text and graphics windows TextScr F2 TextScr Toggles between Text and Graphics windows GraphScr GraphScr Selects vertex subobjects ... Shift+F2 CliState Toggles the command bar Toggles object snap mode -Osnap F3 OsMode Toggles object snap mode

Selects edge subobjects ... Shift+F3 StatBar Toggles the status bar Toggles 3D object snap mode 3dOsnap F4 Tablet T Toggles tablet mode

Selects face subobjects ... Shift+F4 ScrollBar Toggles the scroll bars Closes the current drawing Close Ctrl+F4 * WClose Closes the current drawing Closes all drawings, as well as AutoCAD Quit Alt+F4 * Quit Closes all drawings, and then closes BricsCAD Cycles through isoplanes Isoplane F5 Isoplane Cycles through isoplanes Selects solid history ... Shift+F5 ... Toggles dynamic UCS mode UcsDetect F6 UcsDetect Toggles dynamic UCS mode (formerly coordinate display toggle) Switches to the next drawing ... Ctrl+F6 * ... Switches to the next drawing Toggles display of the grid GridMode F7 Grid T Toggles the display of the grid Toggles orthogonal mode OrthoMode F8 Orthogonal T Toggles orthogonal mode

...... Shift+F8 VbaMan Displays VBA Manager dialog box Runs VBA macros VbaRun Alt+F8 VbaRun Displays Run BricsCAD VBA Macro dialog box Toggles snap mode SnapMode F9 Snap T Toggles snap mode Toggles polar tracking SnapType F10 SnapType Toggles polar tracking Toggles object snap tracking PolarMode F11 PolarMode Toggles object snap tracking

...... Shift+F11 AddInMan Displays the Add-in Manager dialog box Opens the VBA editor, not included with 2010-12 VbaIde Alt+F11 VBA Opens the Visual Basic Editor Toggles dynamic input DynMode F12 QuadDisplay Toggles the Quad cursor (cannot be redefined with Customize) ...... Ctrl_F12 ... Toggles subentity selection mode (cannot be redefined with Customize)

(*) This function is provided by Windows.

218 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 219 CTRL KEYS To operate Ctrl-key shortcuts, hold down the Ctrl key, and the press the associated character.

AutoCAD Shortcut BricsCAD AutoCAD Action Command(s) Keystrokes Command(s) BricsCAD Action Overrides LockUI ... Ctrl ...... Selects sub-objects Toggles Properties palette Properties Ctrl+1 Properties Toggles Properties bar PropertiesOff PropertiesOff Toggles DesignCenter palette AdCenter Ctrl+2 Explorer Displays Drawing Explorer AdcClose Toggles Tools palette ToolPalettes Ctrl+3 ...... ToolPalettesOff

Toggles Sheet Set Manager palette SheetSet Ctrl+4 ...... SheetSetHide Toggles dbConnect palette dbConnect Ctrl+6 ...... dbClose Toggles Markup Set Manager palette Markup Ctrl+7 ...... MarkupClose Toggles QuickCalc palette QuickCalc Ctrl+8 ...... QcClose Toggles Command Line palette CommandLine Ctrl+9 CommandLine Toggles command bar CommandLineHide CommandLineHide Toggles CleanScreen mode CleanScreenOn Ctrl+0 ... CleanScreenOff

Selects all non-frozen objects (ai_SelAll) * Ctrl+A SelGrips All Selects all non-frozen objects

Toggles group mode ** Ctrl+Shift+A ...... Toggles snap mode SnapMode Ctrl+B Snap T Toggles snap mode Copies selected objects to Clipboard CopyClip Ctrl+C CopyClip Copies selected objects to Clipboard

Copies selected objects with base point CopyBase Ctrl+Shift+C CopyBase Copies selected objects with base point Toggles dynamic UCS UcsDetect Ctrl+D ...... Switches to the next isoplane Isoplane Ctrl+E Isoplane Switches to next isoplane Toggles object snap mode OsMode Ctrl+F -Osnap T Toggles entity snap mode Toggles display of the grid GridMode Ctrl+G Grid T Toggles display of the grid Toggles pick style PickStyle Ctrl+H PickStyle Toggles pick style

Toggles display of open palettes HidePalettes Ctrl+Shift+H ...... Cycles through coordinate display modes Coords Ctrl+I Coords Cycles through coordinate display modes

Toggles constraint inference Ctrl+Shift+I ...... Ctrl+J ; Repeats the last command Displays the Hyperlink dialog box Hyperlink Ctrl+K Hyperlink Displays Hyperlink dialog box Toggles orthographic mode OrthoMode Ctrl+L Orthogonal T Toggles orthographic mode ... Ctrl+M ; Repeats the last command Displays the Select Template dialog box New Ctrl+N New Displays the New Drawing dialog box Displays the Select File dialog box Open Ctrl+O Open Displays the Open Drawing dialog box

218 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 219 AutoCAD Shortcut BricsCAD AutoCAD Action Command(s) Keystrokes Command(s) BricsCAD Action

Displays the Plot dialog box Plot Ctrl+P Print Displays the Print dialog box

Toggles the Quick Properties palette QuickProperties Ctrl+Shift+P OpmState Toggles the Properties bar Closes drawings and AutoCAD Quit Ctrl+Q Quit Closes drawings and BricsCAD Cycles through viewports ^V ** Ctrl+R ^V Cycles through viewports Saves the current drawing Qsave Ctrl+S QSave Saves the current drawing

Displays the Save Drawing As dialog box SaveAs Ctrl+Shift+S SaveAs Displays the Save Drawing As dialog box Toggles tablet mode Tablet Ctrl+T Tablet T Toggles tablet mode Toggles polar tracking SnapType Ctrl+U ...... Pastes objects from Clipboard PasteClip Ctrl+V PasteClip Pastes entities from Clipboard

Pastes objects from Clipboard as a block PasteBlock Ctrl+Shift+V PasteBlock Pastes entities from Clipboard as a block

...... Ctrl+Alt+V PasteSpec Displays the Paste Special dialog box Toggles selection cycling ... Ctrl+W ...... Cuts selected objects to Clipboard CutCut Ctrl+X CutClip Cuts selected entities to Clipboard. Redoes the last undo Redo Ctrl+Y Redo Redoes the last undo Undoes the last command U Ctrl+Z U Undoes the last command

Displays layout tab to the left of the current one Layout Set Ctrl+PageUp ... Displays layout tab to the right of the current one Layout Set Ctrl+PageDown ... Cancels current command Esc Ctrl+[ ^C Cancels current command Cancels current command Esc Ctrl+\ ^C Cancels current command

(*) AutoCAD uses an AutoLISP routine for this function. (**) AutoCAD uses an undocumented command for this function.

220 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 221 SHIFT KEYS

Shift keys are temporary overrides in AutoCAD that operate object snaps during commands. Shift key-combinations are not supported by BricsCAD.

AutoCAD Shortcut BricsCAD AutoCAD Action Command Keystrokes Command BricsCAD Action Toggles orthogonal mode Ortho Shift Orthographic Toggles orthogonal mode Toggles object snap mode OsMode Shift+A ...... Overrides object snap: Center -OSnap Cen Shift+C ...... Disables all snapping and tracking -OSnap Non Shift+D ...... Overrides object snap: Endpoint -Osnap End Shift+E ...... Disables all snapping and tracking Orthomode Shift+L ...... Osmode Snapmode Autosnap Overrides object snap: Midpoint -OSnap Mid Shift+M ...... Overrides object snap: Endpoint -OSnap End Shift+P ...... Toggles object snap tracking mode PolarMode Shift+Q ...... Enables object snap enforcement OsnapOverride Shift+S ...... Overrides object snap: Midpoint -OSnap Mid Shift+V ...... Toggles navigation wheel NavSWheel Shift+W ...... Toggles polar mode AutoSnap Shift+X ...... Toggles dynamic UCS mode UcsDetect Shift+Z ...... Overrides object snap: Center -OSnap Cen Shift+, ...... Enables object snap enforcement OsnapOverride Shift+; ...... Toggles polar mode AutoSnap Shift+...... Toggles object snap mode -OSnap Off Shift+’ ...... Toggles object snap tracking mode PolarMode Shift+] ...... Toggles dynamic UCS mode UcsDetect Shift+/ ......

OTHER KEYS

AutoCAD Shortcut BricsCAD AutoCAD Action Command Keystrokes Command BricsCAD Action Erases selected objects Erase Del Erase Erases selected objects ... PageUp Pan PgU Pans up ... PageDown Pan PgD Pans down ... Shift+Left Pan PgL Pans left ... Shift+Right Pan PgR Pans right ... Shift+Up Pan PgU Pans up ... Shift+Down Pan PgD Pans down

220 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 221 Keyboard Shortcuts for Command Bar & Text Window

The following keyboard shortcuts operate on text in the command bar and Text window.

AutoCAD Action Keystroke BricsCAD Action Executes the command or option Enter Executes the command or option or Spacebar Repeats the previous command Enter Repeats the previous command or Spacebar Cancels the command or option Esc Cancels the command or option Displays previous command Up Displays previous command Displays next command in command history Down Displays next command in command history Moves cursor to the left Left Moves cursor to the left Moves cursor to the right Right Moves cursor to the right Moves cursor to the start of the command line Home Moves cursor to the start of the command line Moves cursor to the end of the command line End Moves cursor to the end of the command line Toggles between insertion and overwrite mode Ins ... Deletes characters to the right of the cursor Del ... Deletes characters to the left of the cursor Backspace Deletes characters to the left of the cursor Selects all text in Text window Ctrl+A Selects all text in Text window Copies selected text to Clipboard Ctrl+C Copies selected text to Clipboard Pastes text from Clipboard to command prompt Ctrl+P Pastes text from Clipboard to command prompt Cuts text from command prompt to Clipboard Ctrl+X Cuts text from command prompt to Clipboard

As an alternative to these keystrokes, you can select text, right-click, and then choose an action from the shortcut menu.

222 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 223 Mouse and Tablet Buttons

The following tables compare the actions of mouse and tablet buttons in AutoCAD and BricsCAD.

MOUSE BUTTONS

Mouse Buttons and Double- click Actions nodes of its CUI command (Customize User Interface dialog box). AutoCAD lets you customize the definitions of mouse buttons in the BricsCAD lets you customizes mouse and double-click buttons in the Mouse tab of its Customize command (Customize dialog box).

AutoCAD Mouse Button BricsCAD Action Number Action Picks objects * 1 (left) Picks objects * Displays grips shortcut menu 2 (right) Repeats the last command Displays object snap shortcut menu 3 (center) Displays object snap shortcut menu Cancels the current command 4 ... Toggles snap mode 5 ... Toggles ortho mode 6 ... Toggles grid display 7 ... Changes the coordinate display 8 ... Switches to the next isoplane 9 ... Toggles tablet mode 10 ...

Zooms in real time * Wheel Zooms in real time * Edits selected object(s) Double-click 1 (left) Edits selected object(s) Displays object snap shortcut menu Shift+2 (right) Displays object snap shortcut menu Rotates viewpoint in 3D Shift+3 (center) ...

... Ctrl+1 (left) ... Displays object snap shortcut menu Ctrl+2 (right) Rotates viewpoint in 3D Swivels viewpoint in 3D Ctrl+3 (middle) ... Zooms viewpoint in 3D Ctrl+4 ...

(*) The action of the pick button (#1) and wheel cannot be customized.

222 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 223 TABLET BUTTONS

Tablet Buttons node of its Customize User Interface dialog box’s Legacy section. AutoCAD lets you customize the definitions of stylus and puck buttons in the BricsCAD lets you customize buttons in the Digitizer Buttons node of the Customize dialog box’s Tablet under Digitizer Buttons and Tablet Menus are empty, initially. The solution is to download partial tab. However, no tablet menu or partial CUI file is provided by BricsCAD, and so the entries www.bricsys.com/en_US/download/ bcad/tool/Tablet.zip. Once you load the tablet.cui or tablet(acadLike)cui - CUI files and drawings for tablet buttons and overlays from sCAD with the MenuLoad command, then these two sections contain entries for tablet buttons partial CUI files into Bric and menus.

Left: Tablet button definitions in AutoCAD’s CUI dialog box. Center: Default tablet definition in BricsCAD’s Customize dialog box. Right: Tablet definition in BricsCAD after loading “tablet(acadLike).cui.”

The following table lists the meaning of stylus and puck buttons used with tablets. Italicized text tablet(acadLike).cui is loaded into BricsCAD.

AutoCAD Actionindicates the actions after partialTablet ButtonCUI file BricsCAD Command BricsCAD Action Picks objects 1 ... Picks objects Displays grips shortcut menu 2 $p0=GRIPS $p0=* Displays grips shortcut menu Displays object snap shortcut menu 3 $p0=SNAP $p0=* Displays object snap shortcut menu Cancels the current command 4 ^c Cancels the current command Toggles snap mode 5 '_snap;_t Toggles snap mode Toggles ortho mode 6 '_orthogonal;_t Toggles ortho mode Toggles grid display 7 '_grid;_t Toggles grid display Changes the coordinate display 8 '_.COORDS $M=$(if,$(and,$(getvar, Changes the coordinate display COORDS),2),0,$(+,$(getvar,COORDS),1)) Switches to the next isoplane 9 '_isoplane;; Switches to the next isoplane Toggles tablet mode 10 '_tablet;_t Toggles tablet mode Displays object snap shortcut menu Shift+2 $p0=SNAP $p0=* Displays object snap shortcut menu

224 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 225 The tablet overlay provided by Bricsys is illustrated below.

224 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference 225 3D WALK-FLY CONTROLS

AutoCAD and BricsCAD use keystrokes and mouse buttons to control movement in 3D perspective -

mode, known also as “walk and fly.” The keys and buttons are so different between the CAD pack ages that they are presented separately here. You cannot customize walk and fly controls. AutoCAD

Function Enter walk or fly mode withKeystroke the 3dWalk and 3dFly commands.Alternative Keystroke Moves forward w Up-arrow Moves backward s Down-arrow Moves left a Left-arrow Moves right d Right-arrow Toggles between walk-fly mode f ... Exits walk-fly mode Esc Enter Displays dialog box of keystrokes Tab ...

BricsCAD Enter walk mode by setting the Perspective system variable to 1, and then entering the RtWalk command (new to BricsCAD V13).

Function Button or Key BricsCAD Command or System Variable Moves forward, backwards, left, or right Alt + Left button RtWalk Moves up, down, or sideways Alt + Middle button RtUpDown Looks around Ctrl + Middle button RtLook Resets view direction to the horizontal Ctrl + Home key ... Moves target point to the center of the scene Alt + Home key ... Increases walking speed Alt + Plus key RtWalkSpeedFactor Decreases walking speed Alt+Minus key RtWalkSpeedFactor Increases rotation speed Ctrl + Plus key RtRotationSpeedFactor Decreases rotation speed Ctrl+Minus key RtRotationSpeedFactor

226 BricsCAD V13 for AutoCAD Users D Keystroke and Button Cross-reference PB