Introduction

Introduction

nanoCAD implements a very efficient, and easy to learn, classic-style CAD user interface. It offers a command set and UI elements appearance that will be familiar and comfortable to users of many other compatible CAD applications. The drawing space, command line, and position of the menu items and icons on the toolbars are readily recognizable. Any person with AutoCAD experience will feel at home using nanoCAD, right from the start.

nanoCAD uses the industry-standard DWG (*.dwg) file format natively. Drawings created or edited in nanoCAD can be used by almost any other popular CAD system, without conversion or data loss. If you can’t open a drawing from another system due to damage, or you want to audit an opened drawing for errors, or you need to reduce file size, nanoCAD provides Audit, Recover and Purge commands. Be assured you will not lose document data due to software or hardware failures thanks to nanoCAD’s autosaving and backup functions.

nanoCAD includes an extensive set of tools for creating and editing 2D/3D objects. There are often multiple drawing methods available for creating most of geometric elements. It’s well-thought-out object editing commands allow you to modify drawings with minimal mouse clicks. Reusable blocks and references to external drawings simplify and speed up the drawing process. Advanced dimensioning features enable you to create any kind of dimensions by several means.

nanoCAD has a powerful Excel-style table editor, with an extensive set of capabilities, including the ability to create tables containing cells with embedded macros and formulas.

Tool Palettes allow you quickly and easily use your favorite commands and blocks. Organizations that use their own set of blocks, hatches and scripts can now load and use them in one click.

You can import point clouds in drawing in five formats: Bin (TerraSolid), LAS (ASPRS), PTX (Leica), PTS (Leica) and PCD (Point Cloud). Powerful import dialog allows you to import only the required parts of clouds. You can create and modify sections and clips of loaded clouds, tune visualization parameters.

The nanoCAD scripting engine allows average users to automate everyday routine tasks. Users can write macros using Visual Basic Script, Java Script or any other scripting language supported by Microsoft Windows as well as built-in LISP.

nanoCAD has several types of APIs for building CAD applications on top of its core functionality. NRX is a C++ and .NET API very similar to AutoCAD’s ARX. It allows the translation of AutoCAD-based applications to nanoCAD with ease. It is an object-oriented, compact and robust programming interface. It is field proven, and has been used to create a large number of commercial CAD applications.

nanoCAD also features the MultiCAD API™ for C++ and .NET, a revolutionary development tool to create binary compatible applications for different CAD platforms. Applications developed with the MultiCAD API will be able to run not just in nanoCAD, but also in other compatible CAD systems—including AutoCAD.

nanoCAD’s plot settings dialog allow you to set multiple plot areas, and create multi-page plots. This can be especially useful for printing large drawings on printers with smaller output format. The Batch Plot command creates and prints drawing sets without requiring you to babysit the process. It is convenient when you need to print existing projects. It also supports outputting drawings to single or multi-sheet plot files.