About CADdirect 2022 and other CAD software

 

CADdirect 2022 is designed for anyone who wants a fast and efficient CAD program with all the power and versatility of standard programs such as AutoCAD by Autodesk, Inc., or MicroStation by Bentley Systems, Inc., at an affordable price. Using today’s advanced technology, CADdirect 2022 integrates the Microsoft Windows interface with a powerful CAD engine.

 

CADdirect 2022 provides unparalleled compatibility with AutoCAD, using most of the same file formats including those for drawings (.dwg files), commands, linetypes, hatch patterns, and text styles. You can also use AutoCAD menu files and run Autodesk AutoLISP programs. If you have written your own ADS (Autodesk  AutoCAD Development System) programs, simply recompile them to link with the CADdirect 2022 libraries. Many third-party ADS programs already support CADdirect 2022. If you have a program that is not already supported, ask your software vendor to provide an CADdirect 2022-compatible version of the program.

 

CADdirect 2022 is more compatible with the AutoCAD program than any other CAD product, delivers additional tools with advanced CAD features, and has a seamless Microsoft Windows integration. This powerful program provides a superb combination of features for CAD users like architects, engineers, and designers.

 

CADdirect 2022 incorporates standard features found in other CAD programs, along with features and capabilities you won’t find anywhere else. Its multiple-document inter-face (MDI) lets you open and work with several drawings at the same time. You can easily copy drawing entities between drawings. In addition, the powerful CADdirect 2022 Explorer lets you manage information and settings and quickly copy layers, linetypes, and other information between drawings.

 

Using AutoCAD legacy drawings

 

CADdirect 2022 fully supports AutoCAD legacy drawings. CADdirect 2022 reads and writes .dwg files in their native format without any loss of data, from AutoCAD 2007 back to Version 11, including AutoCAD LT®. Because CADdirect 2022 uses Autodesk DWGê format as its native file format, no translation is required.

 

CADdirect 2022 provides you with the appropriate tools for your experience level —whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced CAD user. If you are just starting out with CAD, you may want to use the beginner level, which provides toolbars containing the basic tools such as lines, arcs, and circles. As you become more experienced, you can move to the intermediate level and then to the advanced level, which gives you access to more than 300 commands through toolbars, menus, and keyboard entries. You can change the experience level in the Options dialog box on the Tools menu.

 

CADdirect 2022 supports three-dimensional wireframes and surfaces. Three-dimensional drawings can be displayed in wireframe, hidden-line view, and surface shading. Some versions of CADdirect 2022 also support creating and editing 3D solids; all versions display 3D solids, along with limited editing features.

 

Some versions of CADdirect 2022 support displaying and working with raster images in your drawings. However, CADdirect 2022 does not display images located inside of blocks and externally referenced drawings (xrefs). When drawing containing proxy entities is loaded into CADdirect 2022, a message displays indicating that some entities will not display, however, the entities reappear when you open the drawing later in AutoCAD.

It’s easy to customize CADdirect 2022. You can modify menus and toolbars, create custom menus, dialog boxes, command aliases, and scripts, and add custom programs written in any of several programming languages, including DRX (the program’s Autodesk® ARX-compatible language), LISP (the program’s Autodesk AutoLISP-compatible language), and SDS™ (Solutions Development System™, the program’s Autodesk ADS-compatible language). There is also Microsoft® Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

 

You can run existing Autodesk® AutoLISP applications in CADdirect 2022 with little or no modification. CADdirect 2022 uses the Appload command so you can easily load LISP programs. CADdirect 2022 reads files that contain dialog control language (DCL) statements as well, which makes CADdirect 2022 compatible with dialog boxes created for AutoCAD.

 

Using AutoCAD commands with CADdirect 2022

 

Because CADdirect 2022 supports hundreds of AutoCAD commands, you use the commands you already know. For example, to draw a circle, use the Circle command. To copy a circle, use the Copy command.

 

When you press Enter or the spacebar, you activate the command—just like in Auto-CAD. CADdirect 2022 accepts the special characters used by AutoCAD, such as point filters (for example, .xy), relative coordinates (the @ symbol), and the apostrophe (the ‘ prefix) for transparent commands. CADdirect 2022 function keys are also similar to those used in AutoCAD.

 

Because you do not need to learn a new set of commands, you are immediately productive with CADdirect 2022.