CADENCE	Vdraft	unpublished

Review commissioned by CADENCE magazine. Here is the full text of the review (as submitted to CADENCE). Read it and judge the potential impact on AutoCAD sales, and why CADENCE was afraid to publish it.

Trial Run: Vdraft

It was bound to happen. For years, designers and engineers have begged for a 2-D, fully-functional, low-cost Computer Aided Design system. And they wanted complete AutoCAD file compatibility. That means no file translation. Well, many of them now have the chance to get their wish.

Virtual Drafter, or Vdraft as it is usually called, is refreshingly simple, versatile and affordable. It runs .dwg and .dxf files (AutoCAD Release 12, currently) natively and its user-interface is object-oriented. It is Windows 95 and Windows NT compatible.

In addition to ".dwg" and ".dxf" file formats, Vdraft can also open ".bak" files -- AutoCAD's backup of a .dwg file and ."vbk" files -- Vdraft's backup file -- without renaming any file extensions to ".dwg". You can load and save drawings that were created with very early versions of AutoCAD, from version 2.5 through R12. The "open file" dialog box previews drawings, blocks and external references. Your current blocks and external references are completely usable in Vdraft. In fact, you can drag and drop drawings and externally referenced drawings from Windows Explorer into Vdraft and work with them at the same time. Paper space in Vdraft works exactly like it does in AutoCAD.

Vdraft deals successfully with linetypes, even if you have created your own in AutoCAD and desire to use Vdraft to edit the drawing. If you load an AutoCAD-generated drawing that has custom fonts, Vdraft doesn't duplicate custom fonts automatically, but gives you a chance to choose a suitable replacement font.

New Approach?

Vdraft takes a new approach in working with AutoCAD drawings, but still lets you work much like you do in AutoCAD. If you like to type, Vdraft lets you enter commands in AutoCAD syntax. The space bar still ends and repeats commands. Layers are still called layers, blocks are still known as blocks, and so forth.

So what's different? There's less you have to know to use Vdraft. For example, giving the CHPROP command brings up a single dialog box that is also brought up with the CHANGE, DDCHPROP, DDMODIFY, PEDIT and other commands. The reason? Vdraft uses an object-oriented user interface.

You can't digitize drawings with Vdraft. Nor can you use Lisp routines, ADS or ASE. You can still create custom applications however, using Visual Basic, Visual C++ and Delphi. In addition, you can write scripts with the help of an on-screen dialog box.

Vdraft's manuals make it clear that the program supports 3-D drafting, but not solids modeling -- at least not at this time. Also, you can't yet read or write AutoCAD R13 drawing files unless you have saved them in AutoCAD with the SAVEASR12 command. There are also a few other AutoCAD commands that you won't find in Vdraft. One feature that I missed the most was a tangent function. However, after speaking with Vdraft personnel, I learned that the ever-useful tangent function will appear soon, in a future version. If you are an AutoCAD user, Vdraft's tutorial for AutoCAD users will help you get used to Vdraft's similar, yet different approach to CAD.

Vdraft supports bi-directional OLE (now called Active X). If you want to insert a line of text into a drawing, highlight the text in your word processor, copy it (ctrl-c), switch to Vdraft and paste it (ctrl-v). Then drag it into place. The current font, size and orientation settings will be used. Likewise, you can copy and paste a drawing or a portion thereof to other Windows-based applications.

Vdraft is also MAPI compliant, meaning that by selecting the "send" option from the "File" pull-down menu, you can send the current drawing as an attachment via Email.

One of my favorite features is Vdraft's modal and non-modal dialog boxes. Look in the lower left corner of Figure 3. You'll see a pushpin icon. If you want the dialog box to stay on the screen after you hit a button to execute its functions, click the pushpin. The pushpin icon will then appear to be pinning the dialog box to the face of the drawing.

Vdraft's UNDO command is accompanied by a dialog box that lists the commands you can undo. This eliminates guessing how many steps to undo or redo.

Multiple Document Interface

Vdraft (see Figure 1) includes MDI (Multiple Document Interface) support and lets you open over a hundred drawings at the same time. Its concurrent loading capability means you don't have to wait for one drawing to finish loading before you begin loading another. After loading 10 drawings with no appreciable slowdown, I made copies of the first 10, renamed and loaded them, bringing the number of loaded drawings to 20. The speed was still very acceptable.

Context Sensitive

Vdraft's user interface is context sensitive. You can click the right mouse button and a popup menu appears according to which command you're in (see Figure 2). I found this feature to be one of Vdraft's most effective time-savers. You can use this capability to end, begin or repeat a command. You can use it to manually enter information, cancel, undo or redo a command. Since this feature is object oriented, its content changes according to the command you are in.

Customizing Vdraft

The easiest way to customize Vdraft is with scripts. Scripts use the same syntax as the commands you'll find in the undo/redo list. One way to write a script is to perform the commands you wish to include in the script and then copy and paste the command list from the undo/redo list, assign a name, and save your new script. You can define new popup menus and attach scripts to them if you wish. Scripts also allow for embedded comments.

If you need more sophistication in your custom applications, you'll find Vdraft's automation interfaces to be straightforward whether you're writing routines using Visual Basic, Visual C++ or Delphi. Pre-written examples are included in the Customization and Programmers Guide and on CD-ROM or diskette.

Internet and Intranet Tools

Vdraft's Internet (and Intranet) tools assist you in sharing your drawings with anyone who is running Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer with the appropriate plug-ins from SoftSource, Inc. DWG/DXF and SVF plug-ins are available via download from SoftSource's site on the World Wide Web.

If you encounter a .dwg, .dxf or .svf drawing on the Web, you can use the DWG/DXF plug-in to view it in vector format within your Web browser. When you zoom in on the drawing from inside your Web browser, the graphics don't degrade, but stay sharp and clear. You can zoom and pan, hide and display layers. You can copy and paste graphics from the web right into Vdraft. The SVF plug-in allows you add hyperlinks and text annotations to your objects in your drawing. When you pass the mouse over a hyperlink, the annotations are displayed. When you click on the hyperlink, you are taken to that URL (Universal Resource Locator) address on the Internet.

Conclusion

Vdraft is a versatile, object-oriented CAD system. I suggest that you check it out if you're interested in expanding your design or drafting operation. it may fit your needs if you do 2-D (and some 3-D) design and drafting. The cost is right, it's compatible with AutoCAD drawings through R12, and it's fast to learn.

by Dale E. Evans