Engineered Software's 2-d Drafting Tool Narrows the Gap Between Midrange and High-end Cad.
James K. Anders
Reviews CADD/
Following fast on the heels of Engineered Software's speedy PowerPC-native release of PowerCADD, version 2.0 adds support for publish-and-subscribe plus a variety of enhancements to existing features. PowerCADD 2.0 not only fortifies the program's position as one of the top 2-D production-drafting tools for the Mac but it also narrows the gap between PowerCADD's capabilities and those of high-end programs such as AutoCAD and Microstation V5 for Power Macintosh.
Better Late Than Never
The big news with PowerCADD 2.0 is its newly added support for Apple's publish-and-subscribe, a valuable feature for CAD users, who often need to share symbols and drawings. With publish-and-subscribe, for example, PowerCADD users can place a published symbol from a library into multiple PowerCADD documents and update all the placed symbols simply by editing the original.
Publish-and-subscribe is sure to boost the productivity of PowerCADD users, but there are a few issues that limit its functionality. Because published symbols and graphics placed in PowerCADD documents are in PICT format, you can't edit them or snap to individual points unless you convert them to objects. Once you do, you break the publish-and-subscribe link.
Another limitation is that there aren't any tools for managing the links among publishing and subscribing documents in a network environment. The result is that when you're about to change an original published symbol or graphic, you have no way of knowing which or how many documents have subscribed to the object nor can you selectively choose which documents are to be updated. This isn't a big problem for small design shops, where there are few users and documents, but in a large CAD environment, it can wreak havoc when users unwittingly change an original without knowing how that will affect a large number of subscribing documents.
Still, publish-and-subscribe is useful for basic sharing of elements among drawings, and it also comes in handy for publishing elements other than symbols and graphics, such as technical-drawing notes and titles.
In addition to publish-and-subscribe, PowerCADD 2.0 has several other noteworthy new features. Improved printing capabilities let you print only the contents of the current drawing window, print to fit the printer's current page size, and reorder the print sequence of pages. However, we wish there were a way to directly manipulate margins, as you can with the Print Preview function in Microsoft Word, for example.
PowerCADD's layering scheme has been improved with the addition of new layer attributes. You can now specify drawing scale, color, and locking for each individual layer. For a more convenient way to manipulate layers that doesn't require poking around in menus, you can buy the optional Professional Layer Management external ($59), which groups all the layer controls into an instantly accessible tool palette.
The Break tool has been enhanced with new functions and a new cursor. You can now create an opening in an object at any point along its perimeter by simply clicking and dragging, an improvement over the multistep process required by the previous version.
A long-standing strength of PowerDraw, PowerCADD's 680x0-based predecessor, and now a strength of PowerCADD is each program's extensible architecture. Support for plug-in externals, macros, and a programming interface vastly expands the capabilities of both versions.
Of all the externals, the well-designed WildTools ($189) bears special mention. It adds a customizable tool palette that has more than 100 powerful tools and utilities for professional drafters. The tools provide a broad range of features, including custom line styles, advanced dimensioning, isometric drawing tools, enhanced PostScript printing, parallel offsets, Bezier curves, advanced filleting, and many architecture-specific functions. The WildTools palette also helps minimize PowerCADD's palette clutter, which can quickly become a problem, especially for users of small monitors.
In fact, we'd like to see Engineered Software enhance and polish PowerCADD's interface along the lines of the WildTools external -- specifically by doing a better job of organizing palettes and by providing better-looking tool icons. It would also be nice to be able to use System 7.5's Drag Manager to drag and drop symbols into and out of libraries.
The Bottom Line
By adding publish-and-subscribe support to PowerCADD 2.0, Engineered Software has provided a basic way for users to share elements among documents as well as to update shared elements quickly and easily.
Also, for many users, PowerCADD's programmability and extensibility may make PowerCADD a better choice than high-end CAD programs. Unless you need to integrate 3-D models into your drawings -- in which case we recommend Microstation V5 for Power Macintosh -- PowerCADD is probably all you'll need for professional 2-D drafting and design.
PowerCADD 2.0
Rating: (4 out of 5 mice) Very Good
Price: $795 (list).
Pros: PowerPC-native speed. Support for publish-and-subscribe. Plug-in architecture.
Cons: Cluttered interface. Not Drag and Drop-aware.
An extensible architecture allows users to expand PowerCADD's capabilities by adding externals, such as the feature-rich WildTools palette, shown here at the right of the screen.
