Life after/beyond PowerCadd?

[lava]

We are flexible with the development and open to feature requests

Can you work to integrate external tools such as WildTools?

[Andrea_S]

Can you work to integrate external tools such as WildTools?

HighDesign does not currently support plugins, but we can consider it for the future. I guess plugins such as Wild Tools are tightly integrated with the structure of PC and interact with it in a way that would require at least a partial rewrite of the plugin.

[EduardoJB]

Andrea, I uploaded the trial version of HighDesign and if it works with the M1 chip and will work with Monterey, I could buy it EVEN if I keep an older Mac with Mojave in it. HighDesign is not, of course, remotely as complete and versatile as PC (and PC is a very, very, very strong habit to beat) but it could work for me for simpler projects carrying only one machine. I’ve downloaded other trial versions of other programs and they are so clunky I would never use them. So, if you do some magic integrating some of the features of PC, it could be viable, if nothing else happens with PC. But, one way or another, we’ll need you to keep us posted.

[S. Shubin]

HighDesign is not, of course, remotely as complete and versatile as PC

No doubt there are a ton of tools in PC/WT
Great for getting up and going with in short order
Wonderful set of apps
I loved working with them

But I've been playing with HighDesign for about 6 months on and off
Seems like I started to make some decent progress around 3 weeks
And then little more over time
I haven't spent a lot of time with it.

I surely wouldn't demean HighDesign

SYMBOLS

I would say that HighDesign takes a different approach.
Out of the box, HighDesign does not have some of the pretty trees and plants
But honestly, it's been so long that I used PC/WT that I can't remember if the best of plants in PC were made or bought as a library

HD has gradients, so I would guess you can make some half decent looking trees or what not
But I haven't played with the gradient tool/dialog yet

There are numerous things under the SYMBOLS tool.

TO GET TO THE HEART OF MANY TOOLS - it takes a DOUBLE CLICK on the tool

I wanted to make a symbol of a toilet like an American Standard or Toto
I downloaded DWG's from TOTO
Opened one in formZ which has always been good to me on importing and exporting DXF's & DWG's
Then used formZ to export as DWG
Brought that into HighDesign and it turned out looking even better than what was in formZ
A whole lot smoother looking curves in the HighDesign display

In HD, I saved the DWG import as a symbol
HD's symbols dialog is great. It has angle & mirroring and it will scale according to what you have set on the SHEET, LAYOUT, or VIEWPORT

BELOW ARE SCREEN SAVES OUT OF formZ & HighDesign
The top one is formZ
The bottom picture is screen save out to HighDesign
I exported out of formZ and imported into HighDesign and it looks better in HighDesign
The outside oval of the bowl is much smoother in HighDesign

formZ DWG import.png (253.64 KiB) Viewed 15864 times

HighDesign DWG import.png (177.98 KiB) Viewed 15864 times

[S. Shubin]

THERE IS A BIT TO HighDesign

An example of this are the DESIGN tools

Here are some screen shots or various setting you can make using the DOOR tool

HighDesign Door Tool 1.png (290.44 KiB) Viewed 15865 times

HighDesign Door Tool 2.png (358.65 KiB) Viewed 15865 times

HighDesign Door Tool 3.png (262.78 KiB) Viewed 15865 times

[S. Shubin]

LINEAR HATCHES, TILED PATTERNS, TEXTURES

There are TEXTURES and TILED PATTERNS in addition to the LINEAR HATCHES

TEXTURES use bit map images
TILED PATTERNS uses vector tools
LINEAR HATCHES uses lines and dashed lines in various combination and angles

HighDesign Hatches 1.png (372.24 KiB) Viewed 15867 times

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[S. Shubin]

There's a load of things that I could show about HighDesign
But that probably is best done over in the HighDesign forum
Maybe I'll do that
Hopefully that forum will allow me to display GIF's like the Onshape forum does

Mind you, I have a bit to learn about HD
But from what I've learned about it after some rather casual use, I'd say it's pretty good
Not perfect - but pretty good

[S. Shubin]

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HIghDesign Symbols 2.png (440.96 KiB) Viewed 15870 times

[EduardoJB]

I don’t care much for symbols, trees, etc. I don’t really consider those as “tools”. But I’ll keep trying the app while the trial lasts in the limited time I have. I guess I can find answers in the program forum. I didn’t mean that HighDesign was incapable, jut not as much as PC. Still, I very much wish PC could move forward and exist in the future. So, with some type of arrangement between HD and PC maybe?

[S. Shubin]

I don’t care much for symbols, trees, etc. I don’t really consider those as “tools”

The program is certainly more than the symbol tool. A WHOLE LOT MORE.

But a person should know that HighDesign’s symbol tool is just that - a TOOL

The symbol TOOL is very well implemented. IT IS DEFINITELY MORE THAN CLICK AND PASTE. It has precision rotation, auto scaling if one wants, independent numeric resizing along each of the two axes, mirroring along both axes, a collapsible directory, and easy to do creation or import of/for new symbols.

I was amazed at how well HD brought in a Toto DWG that I used to very easily add to my symbols. The DWG had VERY smooth curves.

I could use any of the tools to draw a new symbol - and then easily convert that to a symbol. Or I can easily bring in a DWG or DXF.

I will say this. That there is room for improvement on such as the bezier tool. Although I was able to quickly draw nice bezier curves, and easily adjust the curves —— on the other hand, adding or subtracting points, was not working the way it should. I will be contacting ILEXSOFT about this.

There are features I like about HD such as SHEETS, DETAILS, LAYOUTS and VIEWPORTS. This is actually a nice way of working - my opinion. It’s very easy and fast to create numerous viewports - each with their own scale on one layout. And then when I change the associated sheet, the viewport automatically updates

It also has LAYERS and VIEWS

It has different display modes. Low resolution, High resolution, and Hairline. When your drawing gets busy, or where you need to clearly see if two lines are meeting, HAIRLINE is a nice mode to work in. There is a button to switch between modes in the lower right.

When drawing, establishing a start point, at a distance and angle from another point, or at certain coordinates, is easy.

I think HD is viable for many. You can make some very nice looking plans. And the program is definitely improving. They did adopt M1 very fast. And they are already working with Todd’s translator info.

But Eduardo, you should stay with PC/WT for as long as you can. It works for you. There is no need for you to change now.

The only thing I would think about, is at a price of $400 max for the PRO version of HD, it might be something for a person to consider buying, in order to get familiar with it over time. Because If a person did have to make a switch all of a sudden, trying to learn ANY program overnight is not the best way to go about it.

Again, I have no ties to HD other than being a user that paid full price for his copy of the program. But I use HD because I like it. And I encourage others so that it has a healthy following, and hence, not fall off the face of the earth.

For those interested - here is a little more

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