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HighDesign R5 Release Notes
USER INTERFACE
- Updated all interface elements for clarity and consistency
- Added support for themes in macOS 10.14 Mojave
- Renamed “Project Properties” as “Project Settings” to avoid confusion with element properties
- Renamed the “Drawing Manager” as “Resource Manager”
- Reorganized the main menu bar: in HighDesign Standard and Pro the “Organize” menu is replaced by “Project”; all the items pertaining the project, such as Project Settings, Resource Manager, Groups, Symbols, Layers and Sheets are now in the Project menu
- Main tool bar: tools methods are now also available on a popup window
- Main tool bar: reorganized some tools for consistency.
- Zoom, Pan and Zoom to Fit commands can now be displayed on a dock anchored to the margins of the drawing area
- Properties Bar: added a button that opens the tool inspector as appropriate by current tool or selection
- Properties Bar: the Layers menu provides more options
- Added more help messages for drawing and editing tools
- Tool Inspector: each tool that has advanced settings now opens its own independent Settings panel
- The Tool Inspector now informs whether the displayed settings are defaults or selected instance settings
- Side Bar: panels can now be dragged off as floating panels and on again, reordered, closed by contextual click
- The Side Bar can be collapsed on the side. When collapsed, the panels open as docked pop-up windows.
- The main contextual menu can be opened over elements by holding down the Alt (Option) key
- The contextual menus of drawing tools now open as classic list menus and close automatically when the cursor exits the menu
- The Color palette for lines and fills is now larger
PROJECT
- Revised the structure of the project: made a clearer distinction between application preferences and project settings; Improved the access to project resources
- Redesigned the object hierarchy: “Object”, “Element” and “Building Element”. Also, object types are now called “Classes” and internal sub-types are “Families” (e.g. basic or compound wall)
- [PRO] Added new sheet types Detail and Layout, in addition to Drafting Sheet (referred to as “Sheets” in previous versions)
- [PRO] Detail Sheets have an optional underlay that displays the original drawing enclosed by the associated callout
- [PRO] Layouts are sheets used for publishing and can display drawing objects, viewports and title blocks.
- [PRO] Completely redesigned the Project Information panel of Project Settings. The new panel include properties for client, project location, project phase and status, and more.
- Added ability to export and import layer sets as .xml files
OBJECT INFO
- Completely redesigned: Object Info now features collapsible, thematic panes
- When no object is selected, Object Info displays information of the current sheet
- Enhanced geometric editing: rectangles can be deformed and many other enhancements
- Added Information pane to display and edit non-graphical information associated to the selected object instance
SKETCH & DRAFTING
- Improved the visual feedback of snaps
- Snap to Grid and Snap to objects have a better integration with each other: clicks intercepted by objects are no longer hijacked by grid nodes
- Length input now accepts “+” and “-” increment values: e.g. while drawing a line, pushing L and entering “+20” adds a value of 20 to the current length.
- Improved the visual feedback of the relative center command (insertion point at distance)
- Fixed double lines
- Rectangles can now display diagonals as an option
- Symbols: added Attributes to attach editable labels to symbols
- Full support for verbal drawing scales (e.g. 1“ = 1'-0”)
- Improved the Drawing Scale dialog with more options
- New Drawing View mode (under the View menu) “Wireframe by layer”
DOCUMENTATION
- Improved text padding
- Auto-fit is now a property of the text instance: text blocks with auto-fit now automatically adapt their size to the contents
- Added mid-point handles to text blocks.
- [PRO] New Tag annotation method: tags automatically display information associated with certain element types. Hatches, Symbols and all building elements support tags.
- Detail Area (previously “Print Area”): revised the appearance; becomes a Callout when associated to a Detail
- [PRO] Callouts are detail areas linked to a detail sheet. It is possible to navigate back and forth between a Callout and its Detail Sheet.
- [PRO] Viewports are windows that display a part of a drawing in a layout
- [PRO] Title Blocks are special symbols with attributes that can be inserted on a layout
- Redesigned color filters now can be applied to print, publish to PDF and layout viewports
DESIGN
- Walls: Improved support for the “Joints” option
- Walls: leading side and Invert sides are now instance options, and as such can be found in Object Info
- Windows/Doors: improved input of rough and nominal widths
- Windows/Doors: redesigned the Reveal and added Slanted and Splayed reveals
- Windows/Doors: redesigned the Frame Dimensions section with more control over sizes and offsets
- Doors: added glass panel type
- Windows/Doors: added control over interior and exterior casing and casing sizes
STYLES & TYPES
- Redesigned Styles; added Building Element Types, a special style for building elements;
- Styles and types are now completely integrated into the project
- Styles and types are accessible from any tool settings panel and define the instance settings
- Right-click a tool icon on the main toolbar to quickly open the Style Chooser
- New Styles & Types pane in Resource Manager. Styles and types can be saved in a custom library.
- Building Element Types include information such as Tag and Description. These data can be displayed by Tag annotations
- New command Create Building Element Types that will automatically extract and create types in the current project
IMPORT, EXPORT & PUBLISHING
- Supports DXF & DWG® 2018/2019
- Redesigned the way drawings and sheets are exported to DXF/DWG
- DXF/DWG: added support for Block Attributes, Layouts and Viewports
- Improved Publish to PDF
- Print adds the ability to scale the drawing by a fixed percent amount