GstarCAD Professional

Precise drawing

By catching the important points, entering coordinates with the keyboard, controlling the cursor position using grid snap or object snap tracks, you can create precise technical drawings quickly, easily and without errors.

Immediate response

When drawing, modeling or making changes in drafts, you will receive immediate feedback from the program. If you move the cursor, you will see the desired result before confirming or exiting the command.

Associative dimensions

Annotate dimensions and shapes based on the dimension (linear, aligned, radial, angle, coordinates, arc length, etc.). If you change the design, the dimensions adjust automatically.

Binding references

Underlay a drawing via an external DWG, DWF, DGN, PDF or raster image. After calibrating the insertion point and size, you can also adjust the transparency. Then continue drawing and dimensioning.

Faster changes

Create different variants. Functions for copying, stretching or mirroring individually selected objects, through window selection or cross selection make it very easy.

3D design

GstarCAD is mainly 2D. However you can also creates remarkable 3D designs. It is a “bonus” for the more sophisticated 2D functionality of the Professional version.

3D modeling

Create 3D models with combination of solids. By joining, subtracting, and intersecting materials, you can get new shapes. The solid analysis provides information about the center of gravity, volume, or moment of inertia.

3D orbit

Interactive display of models and the ability to set different visual representations (wireframe, realistic,…) gives you control over the 3D design. It can also serve as a tool for presentations.

Dynamic input

You no longer have to constantly check the command line. Concentrate on the cursor area also when typing on the keyboard. The AutoComplete function also provides you with a list of suitable commands.

“Magnifier” tool

Ideal function for working with large and densely drawn drawings. You no longer need to zoom in and drag the drawing all over the screen to draw a line from point A to point B.

User interface

Customize the appearance and content of the menu, group commands in the tabs, drop-down list, toolbar. Create the whole working sets for different types of tasks.

Workspace

Use the modern ribbon interface (related commands clearly summarized in tabs and groups) but if you are more familiar with older AutoCAD version then switch to GstarCAD “Classic”.

Integrated API

Are you developing an application for AutoCAD? With an API integrated in GstarCAD (LISP, VBA, .NET, GRX – similar to ARX / AutoCAD Runtime eXtension for applications written in C or C ++), your migration will not be difficult.

Layer manager

It’s like drawing with tracing paper. Draw on individual layers for each industry in a single construction project. Your drawings will be clear, organized and easy to read.

DWG format

Open drawings directly from colleagues who designed AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. Complete your part in GstarCAD. Save the drawing and send it back. No import or export. Pure teamwork.

Norms and standards

Create DWT drawing templates with the required plot style tables, dimension style, line types, hatch patterns, scales, and title blocks. Save time with every new drawing.

Section plane command

The SECTIONPLANE command creates a section plane through 3D objects and saves the selected section plane as a 2D or 3D block. You can move the section object dynamically in a 3D model / surface. You can use the active section to analyze a model by moving the section object through the object.

New arrangement options

Allows you to make copies of objects arranged in RECTANGULAR, POLAR, or PATH patterns. The new arrangement object is a whole (dynamic block). It can be dynamically adjusted by the number of objects, distance and other related parameters via ribbon panel and multifunctional handles.

DWG conversion

The DWGCONVERT command converts one or a batch of drawing files to an older or current DWG version. The newly created file can overwrite the original file and it can also be compressed into a self-extracting EXE file or a ZIP file to facilitate the batch format conversion of the entire project drawing.

Improved crop command

The new command CLIP cuts the selected objects such as blocks, external references, images, viewports and documents (PDF or DGN) to a specified boundary. It can be used to replace XCLIP, IMAGECLIP, VPCLIP, PDFCLIP, DGNCLIP commands.

Command hatching to the back

To avoid a fill pattern blocking text, labels or other graphics in the current drawing, you can move the display order of all fill patterns backwards with the HATCHTOBACK command.

Add selected

The ADDSELECTED command creates a new object of the same type and with the same general properties as a selected object, but with different geometric values.

MULTIPLE

The MULTIPLE command repeatedly executes a command without the need to press the Enter key or the spacebar.

Auto Layer

The AUTOLAYER command enables you to adapt and predefine the associated layer of the command in order to optimize the design process.

Command preview

Shows exactly how the objects will look like after use of TRIM, EXTEND, and HATCH commands.

Command line

Now you can use the RIBBONCLOSE and RIBBON commands to show / hide the ribbon. When you type a command in the Command window, a list of the appropriate commands and variables is displayed for easy recognition, selection, and auto-completion.

View the plot styles

The Page Setup Manager for Layout now supports the Show Plot Styles option. You can assign different plot style tables to each layout in your drawing. Plot styles offer a lot of flexibility because you can use them to override other object properties or to turn off overrides as needed.

Free scale

The FREESCALE command allows you to scale an object or a group of objects without restrictions using three methods: Non-Uniform, Rectangular, and Free. The following objects: line, circle, arc, ellipse, polyline and point can be freely scaled.

Geometric center

A new Geometric Center Snap option has been added to improve the snap centers of any type of polygonal object.

M2LVPORT

The M2LVPORT command creates a viewport in layout space by specifying an area in model space. And then he calculates the size of the viewport according to the set ratio and places the viewport in the layout area. You can quickly create and set a viewport of your drawing.

Attribute increment

The ATTINC command helps to specify the block attribute with incremental numbers and to change the attribute value of the attribute block according to the sort value.

Area table

The AREATABLE command automatically dimensions and calculates the area of a closed object and exports the result to a table in the drawing area.

Redefine the block

Now the Design Center offers a quick way to update block instances. If you redefine a block, you can overwrite any block instance without changing the block name, while maintaining the original block position. If you just copy a newer version of a block into your active drawing, the block is not updated, but the active drawing’s block definition. When a block is redefined it is not necessary to delete, clean or copy.

Spell check

Mtext now supports spell checking. You can determine whether the spell check should be activated or not. If you enter the wrong word, a red line will appear under the text. You can also easily correct a word by choosing an alternative word from the list of suggestions or by typing a word in the Suggestions box.

Workspace

The new WORKSPACE command creates, edits and saves workspaces and sets a workspace as the current workspace. You can adapt the ribbon or classic workspace to the requirements of the interface environment.

Change of selection

With the new SELECTIONCYCLING system variable, you can select overlapping or matching objects in the current drawing as well as set additional options for selecting objects.

Path entry for drawing comparison

In the command line, after running the Drawing Compare (CMP) command, you can conveniently enter the old, new, and compared drawing file path.

Settings for hidden messages

In the Options dialog box, on the “User Settings” tab, there is a new option “Settings for hidden messages”, which controls the display of previously hidden messages. After a message has been hidden, it can be viewed and reactivated.

MOVEBAK

The new MOVEBAK system variable changes the destination folder for drawing backup files (BAK). If you specify a folder, the BAK file of the drawing is also saved in this folder each time it is saved.

Import layouts as plans

You can now “import” additional drawing layouts into your sheet set file using Sheet Set Manager.

System variables related to hatching

Some system variables related to hatching have been implemented: HPANNOTATIVE, HPISLANDDETECTION, HPMAXAREAS, HPORIGINSTOREASDEFAULT, HPQUICKPREVTIMEOUT, HPLASTPATTERN, HPLAYER, HPLINETYPE, HPPICKMODE and HPRELATIVEPS.

Right click + drag method

With the right click + drag method, you can select an object, then hold down the right mouse button and drag it to another location, then release the right mouse button and paste various options such as move, copy as a block from the pop-up context menu.

Create shape definition

The new MKSHAPE command creates a shape definition based on the selected objects. Shapes are used to quickly display relatively simple geometry. The size of a shape is limited to 2200 bytes of data. If you create a shape that exceeds this limit, MKSHAPE creates complex geometric shapes to form a single shape.

Viewport scale

The new VPSCALE command returns the real scale of the current viewport of a selected layout viewport from the command line.

Symmetric Draw

No matter it is AEC or MFG industry, there are many symmetric drawing shapes. The usual way to make a symmetric shape is to draw the first half of the shape and then get another symmetric half by copy or mirror. In GstarCAD, it is possible to directly draw symmetrical shapes with Symmetric Draw tool. When drawing the first half you get another half automatically. The default symmetry axis is X-axis, but user can specify Y-axis or any line in the drawing as symmetry axis reference. Users can easily switch on/off this tool by clicking the Symmetric Draw button on the status bar. By the way, Symmetric Draw tool supports all the drawing commands of GstarCAD.

Autolayer

Predefine the association between object type and the layer that should be drawn in a drawing. System automatically switches the current layer while drawing the graph, and draws the graphic to the set layer. If the specified layer does not exist, the system will automatically create this layer based on the settings

Region Scale

You can select a region of a drawing to be cut and copied to a new location.
Menu: Express tools>Modify>Region Scale
Command Entry: _REGSCALE
Command line prompts as follow:
Specify left up corner point for full-page proof: Select a region from left up to right down corner. Specify the position to copy: Specify any place you want to copy to the selected region. Select the object to Trim or shift-select to Extend or [Edge/Fence/Crossing/Project]:
Select objects to trim or press Enter to finish the operation.Input zoom scaling, the block and text will zoom together : Press Enter to finish the operation.

Attribute Increment

This command can increase block attribute value that contains a number or letter. When ATTINC command is on, as long as the drawing is not closed, when copying, inserting and deleting a block attribute in the drawing, the property number or letter can be updated automatically.

Graphic Compare

As we know the drawing compare function in GstarCAD can be used to compare similar drawings containing nearly number of drawn objects to each other, especially to compare different versions of revision drawings.

Menu: Express tools>Drawing Tools>Graphic Compare Command Entry: OCMP

Drawing compare can make comparisons between two similar drawings (old DWG and New DWG) and generate them as separate files. After pressing COMPARE button within CompareDwg dialog box, the program will generate and open _old and _new.dwg files, where you can see the differences between drawings.

Drawing Compare can find out differences (drawn objects) and show the result with different colors, e.g. if a line is modified, removed or newly drawn, it will be displayed in different colors.

Update Dimension

Updates any other dimension(s) to the current dimension style you want to apply.

Menu: Express>Dimension>Update Dimension Command Entry: DIMUPDATE

Command line prompts as follow:

–Select a dimension for standard: Select a dimension as a base.

–Select a dimension, ensure update the dimension style: Select dimension(s) to be updated.

Area Table

AREATABLE command automatically dimension and count the area of anenclosed object and export the result to a table in the current drawing area.

Menu: Express>Dimension>AreaTable

Command Entry: AREATABLE

The enclosed area or object can be marked with a number or area symbol, and the area table data can be generated at the same time. The area data can be exported to a text or table file. The values in the table can be changed automatically when the number or area size is changed.

AutoXLS Table Tools

Imports, modify and update a CAD table made in Excel spreadsheet to GstarCAD.

Create Table: Menu: Express tools>AutoXlsTable>Create Table Command Entry:_CAOT_AUTOXLSTABLE_CREATE

Operation steps:

1. In the AutoXLSTable pull-down menu, click Create Table.
2. Create an Excel spreadsheet or open an existing Excel spreadsheet in Excel.
3. Click Finish button in the AutoXlsTable pull-down menu in Excel.
4. Specify insertion point in GstarCAD.

QRcode(pioneer)

A QR code (quick response code) is a type of bar code that is used to provide easy access to information through a mobile device like smart phone or tablet. Comparing with barcode, QR Code can storage more information and is widely applied in many fields, for example; product anti-fake, advertising push, web links, data download, commodity transaction, Positioning/navigation, electronic documents, business card exchange, etc. Take advantage of QR Code to make text and block attributes from your drawing scannable using any mobile phone or tablet with a camera. All you need is one of many available QR code reader applications for your device