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Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
THE REVISION CLOUD TOOL
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
Can you join two polygons /circles to create one shape? Can you clip one polygon by putting one in front of another one to create a different polygon? I’m still looking for that tool? Is there any manual/reference book available? Like I said, I might install HD in a new portable M1 machine but still keep PC until there’s no salvation 
on another machine.
on another machine.Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
You can cut and join things but it is absolutely not as easy as PC/WT
No doubt there could be improvement in this area
It would be nice if Alfred got in touch with these folks
They already said that even though it was not currently set up for plug-ins, that they could possibly go that route
Anyway, with some effort, I got this pattern to flow through the two different shapes
But don't ask me to show grout between the pavers. LOL
Sorry for the low resolution on the one screen grab
This forum won't let me load pics much bigger than 390K
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Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
So I thought I would look more into this issue of joining different shapes together in HighDesign
Here’s what I found out after some experimentation
Seems like there are certain tools you can use where you don’t need to join things together to create a hatched, textured, or patterned AREA (at least sometimes that’s the case). In other words, as long as these various types of lines, create an enclosed boundary, then you’ll be able to hatch or pattern or texture the area enclosed by those lines
So here’s what I did. I used the polyline tool and with that you can create straight lines and arcs — one of them being a tangent arc. Then I also used the spline tool. And the regular line tool. But I converted the spline and the regular line to a polyline. There’s a tool for converting to polyline in that top toolbar that runs horizontal under the name of the file. So once I did that, even though these different polylines were not actually joined together, they did form an enclosed area. I selected the 3 polylines, and then up in that horizontal tool bar, I used the APPLY HATCH tool
But — in the first example I gave of the fan patterned pavers within the circle and rectangle, well there was actually two different applications of a hatch. One for the circle and one for the rectangle. Once I applied the hatch to the center of the circle, and then applied the hatch to the rectangle, then I positioned the hatch of the rectangle with a handle that you’ll see once you click on the hatch. You can drag that hatch handle around to where it lines up with some other adjacent hatch
And like directly above, I found another situation where I had to use two instances of the hatch pattern on a kind of guitar shape
By the way, you can apply a simple fill where ever you have a hatch or pattern. In the previous post with the red pavers, there was a pattern for the fan shaped layout of the pavers. But it was a fill that gave the red color to those pavers
Now a while back I emailed ILEXSOFT about patterns. It was a different issue. But they said that they were going to be making some improvements to patterns. So I hope to see that on the next update. I’m hoping that will improve on what I’m talking about in this post also
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Here’s what I found out after some experimentation
Seems like there are certain tools you can use where you don’t need to join things together to create a hatched, textured, or patterned AREA (at least sometimes that’s the case). In other words, as long as these various types of lines, create an enclosed boundary, then you’ll be able to hatch or pattern or texture the area enclosed by those lines
So here’s what I did. I used the polyline tool and with that you can create straight lines and arcs — one of them being a tangent arc. Then I also used the spline tool. And the regular line tool. But I converted the spline and the regular line to a polyline. There’s a tool for converting to polyline in that top toolbar that runs horizontal under the name of the file. So once I did that, even though these different polylines were not actually joined together, they did form an enclosed area. I selected the 3 polylines, and then up in that horizontal tool bar, I used the APPLY HATCH tool
But — in the first example I gave of the fan patterned pavers within the circle and rectangle, well there was actually two different applications of a hatch. One for the circle and one for the rectangle. Once I applied the hatch to the center of the circle, and then applied the hatch to the rectangle, then I positioned the hatch of the rectangle with a handle that you’ll see once you click on the hatch. You can drag that hatch handle around to where it lines up with some other adjacent hatch
And like directly above, I found another situation where I had to use two instances of the hatch pattern on a kind of guitar shape
By the way, you can apply a simple fill where ever you have a hatch or pattern. In the previous post with the red pavers, there was a pattern for the fan shaped layout of the pavers. But it was a fill that gave the red color to those pavers
Now a while back I emailed ILEXSOFT about patterns. It was a different issue. But they said that they were going to be making some improvements to patterns. So I hope to see that on the next update. I’m hoping that will improve on what I’m talking about in this post also
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Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
Yes, that’s how I did it before PC could do it with just one command. The clipping ability is more difficult, though. These tools are important for me and many programs have it. I wonder how difficult it would be for HD to create them.
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
I played some more with shapes in HighDesign.
The picture below —— all those shapes you see with the red hatch, I was able to do those in one fell swoop. One step to hatch. I went through most all of the general purpose vector tools, and that is why there are a number of like shapes.
The two shapes you see that have no hatch —— well the cloud, you’re just not gonna be able to fill that with any hatch, pattern, texture or fill. But I don’t see that as anything big because it’s a revision cloud and that usually has nothing inside of it other than text and part of your drawing. So that tool fulfills its purpose in the proper manner
The partial rectangle and arc — you have to use a workaround. The workaround takes seven (7) seconds. You will end up with a polyline perimeter with a single hatch inside. The tools to do this are — Explode & Apply Hatch
In HighDesign, the tools I’m not crazy about are the split, trim, and break tools. I think PowerCADD and Wildtools has a more intuitive implementation of these type tools. But, I’ve been playing with HighDesign’s version and little by little, I’m getting used to them.
I went back and looked at the GIGANTIC TOOLSET of PC/WT, and it leaves me wanting to figure out how I can get those programs to run on my 64-bit system and do it in a convenient way
Absolutely no doubt that PC/WT is the pinnacle of 2D drafting/graphics.
It really is a crying shame that that toolset — or at least part of that toolset (meaning WT) is not being brought over to 64 bit. But everybody’s getting older — so what are you gonna do
.
The picture below —— all those shapes you see with the red hatch, I was able to do those in one fell swoop. One step to hatch. I went through most all of the general purpose vector tools, and that is why there are a number of like shapes.
The two shapes you see that have no hatch —— well the cloud, you’re just not gonna be able to fill that with any hatch, pattern, texture or fill. But I don’t see that as anything big because it’s a revision cloud and that usually has nothing inside of it other than text and part of your drawing. So that tool fulfills its purpose in the proper manner
The partial rectangle and arc — you have to use a workaround. The workaround takes seven (7) seconds. You will end up with a polyline perimeter with a single hatch inside. The tools to do this are — Explode & Apply Hatch
In HighDesign, the tools I’m not crazy about are the split, trim, and break tools. I think PowerCADD and Wildtools has a more intuitive implementation of these type tools. But, I’ve been playing with HighDesign’s version and little by little, I’m getting used to them.
I went back and looked at the GIGANTIC TOOLSET of PC/WT, and it leaves me wanting to figure out how I can get those programs to run on my 64-bit system and do it in a convenient way
Absolutely no doubt that PC/WT is the pinnacle of 2D drafting/graphics.
It really is a crying shame that that toolset — or at least part of that toolset (meaning WT) is not being brought over to 64 bit. But everybody’s getting older — so what are you gonna do
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Joe Mattei
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Fri May 31, 2019 12:19 pm
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
I'm glad people are pursuing alternatives like HighDesign. Whatever works for you... but I bet quite a few of us are not that far from retirement... And personally, I'll not be spending time learning another CAD program to take to retirement with me. And I won't be trying to use nutty workarounds. I'd rather spend time with my grandchildren. So, I will keep plugging along with my obsolete CAD and my obsolete large format printer until the time I take the shingle down and toss all of the obsolete technology into the dumpster. I will look back and appreciate what PC has given me over the years! Thank you Stanley family and Alfred too! It has been a good run. I have no regrets going with Apple and PowerCadd. I would do it again.
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
Joe, I somewhat agree… the real pity is seeing it all go to waste. This is why I suggested that the future of PowerCADD was not within the existing users but in attracting new users. Even if I buy another program, and none that I’ve tried so far gets nowhere near PC, I will still keep PC in another machine with an older OS until I, or that arrangement dies.
But, let’s hope that a solution to keep it alive (PC, not necessarily me) with the newer technology appears somewhere. It’s sort of unbelievable that no company would be interested in moving it forward.
But, let’s hope that a solution to keep it alive (PC, not necessarily me) with the newer technology appears somewhere. It’s sort of unbelievable that no company would be interested in moving it forward.
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BaughbLabs
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2019 6:48 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
Can you post a link to the HD Forum?
Thanks
Thanks
Re: Life after/beyond PowerCadd?
Amen.Joe Mattei wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:49 pmI'm glad people are pursuing alternatives like HighDesign. Whatever works for you... but I bet quite a few of us are not that far from retirement... And personally, I'll not be spending time learning another CAD program to take to retirement with me. And I won't be trying to use nutty workarounds. I'd rather spend time with my grandchildren. So, I will keep plugging along with my obsolete CAD and my obsolete large format printer until the time I take the shingle down and toss all of the obsolete technology into the dumpster. I will look back and appreciate what PC has given me over the years! Thank you Stanley family and Alfred too! It has been a good run. I have no regrets going with Apple and PowerCadd. I would do it again.
I think we're the last generation who learned technical drawing by hand and then made the transition to computers. So, so much of what Alfred has done makes computer drawing intuitive for those whose mental approach was formed when they used pencils to draw.
Current drafting mentality is much more database-oriented than graphic-oriented, and folks seem to see value in parametrics, perhaps folks whose experience with real-world construction is limited, who don't understand that drawings are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Virtual reality is amazing, but it has very little to do with Real-reality.
I am sad to see the development of PowerCADD suspended, but, while it is not perfect (and I do have a list of improvements I would love to see) it is as good as I need it to be.
I have yet to see a single post from someone who identifies a specific must-have feature in the next generation of hard/software from Apple. Not a single one.