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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