Last Time I Introduced You My Initial Experiences With A Powerful Cad Software - By: Damian Chloe | - Last time I introduced you my initial experiences with a powerful CAD software - ZWCAD 2010 (http://www.zwcad.org/products_download_list.php?id=107). As I continued with my testing, I found more surprises that want to share with you. Let's continue looking at some of the advanced 2D and 3D design tools.
The bigger the design project, the more helpful I find ZWCAD's data management tools. Take Design Center and the Tool palettes, for example. Conveniently, they work together as visua ... Tags:dwg, dwg format, cad software, cad, software, design, AutoCAD, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d, 3D drawing, eTransmi, Toolpalettes, Design Center, publish,
A Friend Recently Entrusted Me To Test Zwcadtm 2010 For His Company. His Firm Is Looking To Buy Cad By: Damian Chloe | - A friend recently entrusted me to test ZWCADTM 2010 for his company. His firm is looking to buy CAD software, and so is considering ZWCAD. From his partners and from other people in the know, he had heard about ZWCAD, and so had acquainted himself with the software through Google and from www.zwcad.org. It is one thing to read positive comments; it is, however, another to subject the software to a series of technical tests by a professional - something that is necessary prior to making wise purc ... Tags:ZWCAD, ZWCAD 2010, text editor, dwg, dwg format, cad software, cad, software, design, AutoCAD, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d, 3D drawing
How Time Flies; The Year 2010 Is Already Here! I Browse Some Cad Software Websites As Usual, And I A By: Tenny Yan | - How time flies; the year 2010 is already here! I browse some CAD software websites as usual, and I am interested in a piece of important news: "ZWSOFT announces its fastest ZWCAD ever - ZWCAD 2010" (http://www.zwcad.org/news/press-room/2010112101707 AM7171.html). No doubt this is an exciting message for me, a devotee of CAD.
In browsing the ZWCAD 2010 Web site (http://www.zwcad.org/cad-software/whatsnew.html), I found one improvement that really impressed me: the editing of splines ... Tags:splinedit, spline, splframe, edit, ZWCAD 2010, cad, software, design, ZWCAD, AutoCAD, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d, 3D drawing
Shade Plot In Zwcad 2010 Beta By: Tenny Yan | - Absolutely, it's a great experience when you get the new version of a program, and then you come across an improvement for which you have been waiting for some time. In my case, it was a feature that I had asked the ZWCAD technical team to add: Shade Plot. I dare say that many of you might not know about this option in ZWCAD (http://www.zwcad.org/DownFile.asp?DownType=1&ID=20), because it's just a tiny item hidden in the context menu of viewport entities.
It's The End Of The Year, And It's Time For Software Companies To Show Off Their New Products. The M By: Jenny Wu | - It's the end of the year, and it's time for software companies to show off their new products. The most attractive one must have been Microsoft's recent release of Windows 7. Now in December, another one of the products that I focus on has also been released, ZWCAD 2010 Beta. I am looked forward to working with the newly released beta of ZWCAD 2010 (http://www.zwcad.org/) on the newly released operating system, Windows 7.
As A Long-time User Of Zwcad, I Always Longed For The Day When Zwcad Would Be Able To Export More Ra By: Jenny Wu | - As a long-time user of ZWCAD, I always longed for the day when ZWCAD would be able to export more raster file formats, such as TIFF, PNG, and JPEG. ZWCAD (http://www.zwcad.org/cad-software-download.html) is pretty good for my drafting purposes, except for the inconvenience of not being able to export drawings in raster formats.
This is actually a big inconvenience for those who use ZWCAD for GIS drawings (geographic information systems). I would have to use another program to conver ... Tags:ZWCAD, JPEG plotter, Raster image, GIS, ZWCAD 2009i, cad, system, software, design, zwcad, AutoCAD, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Actually, paper space has always been available in ZWCAD (http://www.zwcad.org/), but silently as a blank, black sheet -- somewhat different from AutoCAD. And users had no choice but to create viewports on their own. Now, ZWCAD (http://www.zwcad.o ... Tags:Paper space, cad, system, software, design, zwcad, AutoCAD, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Q: Zwcad's Drawing Functions Are So Good That They Fulfill Most Of My Drafting Needs. It Is A Pity, By: Jenny Wu | - Q: ZWCAD's drawing functions are so good that they fulfill most of my drafting needs. It is a pity, then, that it cannot create tables, as AutoCAD can. Tables are very important, because I need them to add project information to drawings. I don't care to create tables manually by drawing vertical and horizontal lines, because that is too time-consuming, and I find it difficult to position the text in each cell of the table. Is there a more convenient method available?
Tip: Find Zwcad's Missing Virtual Eps Plotter By: Jonathan Tang | - I recently received messages from several customers that indicated they could not find ZWCAD's Virtual EPS Plotter v1.0 in the Plotter/Printer name list of the Plot dialog box. (EPS is short for "encapsulated PostScript.") If you have the same problem, the solution below can help.
If your computer uses Windows XP, try the following method:
How Can I Run Zwcad Normally On Windows Vista? By: Jonathan Tang | - Some of my friends have recently installed the program of ZWCAD 2009. But later they told me that they did not enjoy the 30-day evaluation period or even could not start ZWCAD. I asked whether they were using a Windows Vista system. They said "Yes". In this case it is not a real problem of ZWCAD. With just some steps, you can make everything work.
Zwcad Tip: X And Y Ordinate Dimension In A Single Step By: Jenny Wu | - Q: Ordinate dimensions are essential elements of geographic drawings. Ordinate dimensions enable you to indicate positional information of objects and geometry. For my work, I almost always need to place x and y ordinates at the same time. Is this possible?
A: Fortunately, ZWCAD makes it possible to create new commands through the use of the LISP application interface. With the help of the following LISP routine, it is possible to place x and y ordinate dimensions in a single st ... Tags:ordinate dimensions, cad download, cad software, zwcad 2009, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Zwcad Tip: Bisecting Angles Easily By: Jenny Wu | - Q: I am a mechanical engineer and I frequently need to bisect angles in my drawings. I have used a number of different methods over the years. I am wondering if ZWCAD has an easier method than any of these ways I have bisectored angles in other CAD packages.
Method A: Using Construction Lines to Bisect Angles
This method is simple, but I have to trim away unwanted parts of the construction line:
Start the XLine command, or click the Construction Line icon.< ... Tags:bisect, angles, download, 2009, cad, software, design, zwcad, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Computing Areas In Zwcad By: Jenny Wu | - Computing areas is a function widely performed among the designers in the fields of AEC and manufacturing. Can the area computation functions of ZWCAD meet the requirements of these designers? The answer is definitely "Yes" and can be proved easily by the following examples.
1.Computing the Area of a Single Object
Areas can be found through three commands in ZWCAD: Area, List, and MassProp, Let's look at each of them.
Optimizing Zwcad 2009 Design Capabilities In Designing 3d Buildings By: T. M. Musa Zakaria | - I began using ZWCAD 2009 immediately after I downloaded it from the ZWCAD website in January. I found that ZWCAD 2009 has many accessible 3D utilities. Here are the ones I am using:
Solids
I used solids like boxes, spheres, and cylinders to draw walls, door frames and panels, window frames, panels, and glass. I modified boxes by slicing them with cylinders to create curved plane shapes.
How To Input The Special Symbol In Zwcad? By: Karl Lee | - As an engineer, sometime I need to input the special symbol such as '', '' and '' in the drawing when using ZWCAD, here are some helpful tips which I take. I hope they are helpful for you too.
1. Generally I launch character map in ZWCAD to input the special symbol (Mtext -> right click -> symbol -> other), but sometime we may not launch character map because the character map is not installed in the operation system. Please try to add the character map in you operati ... Tags:symbol, input, tip, cad, software, design, zwcad, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Exporting Raster Images From Zwcad By: Jonathan Tang | - There may be cases where you might need to export DWG drawings as raster images so that others can only view them, but not edit them. Formats like JPEG and TIFF are used in this case.
ZWCAD allows you to convert drawings to raster images easily enough with the Export command. We might not, however, find it sufficient when special settings are required. For instance, when you print drawings, we typically set the plot area, plot style, drawing orientation, and so on; these parameter ... Tags:export, raster, image, cad, software, design, zwcad, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Tool Palettes Improve Your Drawing Efficiency By: Jonathan Tang | - The new ZWCAD 2009 is an upgrade based on ZWCAD 2008i that has made great strides in a variety of areas. One of the most exciting is the brand new function called Tool Palettes.
Tool palettes contain tabs with content, such as predrawn shapes (blocks) and commands. The palettes offer an efficient way for organizing, sharing, and placing blocks, and using other tools.
ZWCAD 2009 comes with four palettes, and you can make your own. The defaults are the Modeling palette, the Modify ... Tags:tool, palettes, zwcad, 2009, cad, software, design, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Introducing Zwcad 2009 By: Owen Zi | - Have you ever looked for a cost-effective CAD program to help with your work? There's good news for you: the latest version of ZWCAD 2009 was released on January 5. If you're not familiar with ZWCAD, you can try it by going to http://www.zwcad.org/cad-software-download.html and downloading a free evaluation copy. We think your DWG designs will greatly benefit from ZWCAD 2009.
Easier Operations In Zwcad By: Owen Zi | - In ZWCAD 2009 Beta, many improvements, including enhanced commands (e.g. undo/redo) and new features (e.g. Filter and Multiple Grips Editing), enable you to operate this CAD platform more conveniently and more efficiently.
1: Undo/Redo
A history list is added to the Undo/Redo function in ZWCAD 2009 Beta, which allows you to review the actions you have done and helps you execute multiple redoes or undoes. In another word, it is more convenient for you to view the history l ... Tags:2009, beta, easier, operation, zwcad, cad, software, design, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Drawing Recovery In Zwcad By: Owen Zi | - Certain problems can cause ZWCAD to close unexpectedly, such as an operating system error, a hardware fault, or even a power failure. When these occur, ZWCAD has the ability to restore drawing files that were open before the crash. It saves open drawing files as DrawingFileName_recover.dwg when the program terminates unexpectedly, where DrawingFileName represents the file names of your drawings.
Script Recorder In Zwcad By: Owen Zi | - Have you ever used scripts in AutoCAD? Are you aware of the Script Recorder in ZWCAD? If you have tried writing scripts for AutoCAD, then you will appreciate the automated nature of ZWCAD's script recorder tool.
To see how useful scripts can be, we'll compare them to using blocks to create complex drawings quickly. Both significantly reduce the time it takes to perform repeated drafting of similar objects.
Making Good Use Of Zwcad: Saving And Viewing Slides In Zwcad By: Owen Zi | - When working with CAD, we may find we need to show drawings in the form of images. Other times, we may need to show how a drawing progressed over time, or we may need to create simple presentations directly inside the CAD software.
In these cases, slides may be of help. ZWCAD allows you to save and view slides of the screen.
Making Slides
Slides are made with the MSLIDE command, which saves screen images as SLD, WMF, or EMF files. The command captures ... Tags:save, view, slide, design, cad, software, zwcad, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Making Good Use Of Zwcad: Viewports In Paper Space By: Owen Zi | - Typically, drawings are arranged in paper space before plotting. How can you use the original drawing in model space without making too many modifications? Viewports can help.
Let's take an architectural design that's been drawn in model space, such as the floor plan of an apartment. To show the details clearly, some areas should be shown at different scales. The question then arises: Do we need to copy these portions elsewhere in model space and scale them respectively, or can we ... Tags:viewport, paper, space, design, cad, software, zwcad, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
How To Load Menu Files In Zwcad By: Owen Zi | - Designers use the Menu function frequently in ZWCAD, but different people have different requirements. The existing menu files and functions could not meet the needs of every user. In order to make their design work easier and faster, people would like to customize menus.
1. Use "MEUNLOAD" Command
In ZWCAD, you can use the MENULOAD command to load and unload menus. After executing this command you can find the "Load/unload Customizations" dialogue box pops up as follows. T ... Tags:menu, file, load, unload, cad, software, zwcad, autocad, progecad, bricscad, 2d, 3d
Let Your Drawing Respond Faster In Zwcad By: Owen Zi | - Processing speed of CAD software is one of the most concerned issues of every user. Fast speed can be achieved directly by either software or hardware upgrade. In case of ordinary PC configuration, how can we further raise the speed even without software update? Here are some tips:
1. If you frequently specify the color or linetype for certain entities instead of using Bylayer or Byblock features, data will increase dramatically in the drawing, and it will take more time to proces ... Tags:CAD, speed, ZWCAD, software
Zwcad 2008i - Unrivalled Cost / Performance Drafting Solutions By: Owen Zi | - The advanced technology of 3D software has demonstrated its power in designing complicated products for years. So you may ask Is there still a requirement for 2D technology in the plastic & rubber industry today? The answer is undoubtedly - Yes. 2D technology is still very important and necessary to a wide range of customers.
Prototype injection moulding design is a common task in plastic/rubber-based manufacturing. Injection moulding is a conventional mechanical design branc ... Tags:2D, 3D, ZWCAD, Plastic, Rubber, Industry, Compatibility, ZWCAD
Zwcad--a Powerful Yet Economical Cad Tool By: Owen Zi | - For those small firms or individual users, many moderately priced applications are enough to meet their needs and requirements. However, economical in this market does not equate to second-rate. Many of these design tools are capable of various tasks and types of work, whether they are destined to be a primary design tool or an economical adjunct to other application. Highly compatible with AutoCAD, ZWCAD is one of such powerful yet economical applications.
