StreamCAD

It’s been too long, but we’re finally here: StreamCAD is running beautifully on both Windows and Mac! Today is the day for the release candidate!

I’ve run into a small problem with my threading model. Under certain conditions, inputs wouldn’t work. The latest build fixed that, so you can expect a new beta soon.

As this software started out as a Windows program it used to draw the rectangle the “windows way” (using a device context). This didn’t work on macs and probably not on future linux version either. The remedy was to use OpenGL methods instead. Performance on my first generation Mac Mini was excellent so I didn’t think more about it. It turns out that some ms windows drivers are way pickier and on some PC’s, performance was terrible. I’ve restored the old method to the windows platform, this will be fixed in the next beta release.

DWG is probably the most common format for drawing transfers. StreamCAD will never be a success if it doesn’t reliably handle DWG files. But does that mean that it have to be native?

I think of DWG as a very hostile format. Over the last couple of releases, Autodesk has been encrypting the format. A “trusted DWG” is identified by the string “Autodesk” inside the file. Marking it such might be a trademark violation for anyone by Autodesk.

Many design decisions inside DWG was made in the 1980’s. Some things really need to be changed, e.g. the weak link between title block attributes and their definitions. 

There’s a number of problems with managing DWG natively. The most important is that it’s tied into a programming interface called ARX. ARX is a powerful API, but it’s more than twelve years old and the goal is to create something better. ARX applications are heavily tied to Microsoft Windows, which would basically mean that most applications would never run on Mac OS X or Linux.

My goal is to do the following:

1. If possible, use translation.
2. Otherwise, go to dual mode. In dual mode, I have a native drawing that acts as a front for the DWG. 

In dual mode, objects that StreamCAD doesn’t understand are drawn directly from the DWG. All data is stored into the DWG.

When you find a bug, you’re welcome to report it as a comment to this entry. I’ll then post it as a separate post. Let me know if you want to be anonymous or to get credit for finding the bug.

Thanks!

Henrik

After closing the last document, you’re unable to create new ones or close the application.

Cause: StreamCAD is multithread application, with “message post boxes” that handle requests to a drawing. Originally, there was a single postbox that managed all documents but this was replaced by a per document postbox. The only problem: closing the last document means no more postboxes … 

The text command isn’t directly user friendly

I can’t believe that a set of users has used this command for four years without a single complaint. It’s awful. 

The property window fails to clean up old entries.

When deselecting an object, the edit windows where still there, though hidden by the fact that the property window shrunk.

The purpose of this blog is to have an open forum where StreamCAD can be discussed. I’ll post questions about future directions and lists of bugs.