Cadalyst - January 2008 - (Page 25)

cadlabsreview Vdraft, short for Virtual Drafter, is a CAD system for AutoCAD and DXF Drawings. also been streamlined since Cadalyst’s last review. Vdraft is short for Virtual Drafter, and it’s a 2D drafting application that is compatible with numerous AutoCAD DWG file formats. Vdraft is highly customizable but simple enough in operation to make it a good tool for teaching CAD drafting. The system requirements for Vdraft are relatively modest, with the application running well on PCs with Windows 95 through Windows XP. You’ll find an array of capable tools designed for 2D, including a sketch mode called Sketch Freehand for making fast sketches of an idea before actually committing it to a drawing. You can view or edit multiple drawings simultaneously and cut or copy and paste elements between drawings. Vdraft’s hyperlink support is compatible with AutoCAD hyperlinks, so you can hold down the Shift key, move the cursor over a drawing object to view the hyperlink information, and click to load the Web page. Vdraft reads AutoCAD DWG and DXF files and can export DWG, DXF, HPGL, and SVF files. No symbol libraries are included with the application, but the supported file formats provide opportunities to use a wide array of available symbol libraries. Worth noting is the spiral-bound manual that ships with Vdraft. It offers an abundance of information about the product and also contains a number of useful appendices. For shops that are primarily AutoCADcentric, a quick reference to sup- ported AutoCAD commands show where they are located in Vdraft. For those involved in academic pursuits, SoftSource offers low sitelicensing fees, as well as a grant program for institutions that make a commitment to Vdraft in their CAD drafting curricula. Site-licensing fees provide one copy of the software and documentation. The licensing contract allows the institution the right to copy the software and its documentation for educational purposes only. Institutions that would prefer to purchase copies of the user manuals and software can do so at a very low cost per copy. Vdraft is priced at $250, toward the lower end of price scale compared with other applications in this review. SoftSource also offers a product called CADview for viewing and printing AutoCAD drawings. CADview can temporarily turn layers on and off and calculate measurements. An AutoCAD/DXF plug-in gives users the power to view and print AutoCAD drawings in Netscape or Internet Explorer. Users can zoom in on drawing details, turn layers on and off, and print the current view or entire drawing inside the Internet browser. SoftSource also offers a simple vector format (SVF) plug-in as a simple solution for access to SVF drawings from a Web browser. For additional information or to download a trial version of Vdraft, please visit the company’s Web site at www.softsource.com. The trial version of Vdraft is time-limited to 30 days. c Ron LaFon, a contributing editor for Cadalyst, is a writer, editor, and a computer graphics and electronic publishing specialist from Atlanta, Georgia. He is a principal at 3Bear Productions in Atlanta. www.cadalyst.com | cadalyst | January 2008 25 http://www.cvis.com/go/c67 http://www.softsource.com http://www.cvis.com/go/c67 http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - January 2008

Cadalyst - January 2008 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Chasing the Dolphins CAD that Won’t Break the Bank AliasStudio 2008 — Design and Visualization Software VectorWorks 2008 — CAD/BIM Authoring Software Dell Precision M4300 — Mobile Workstation What’s in Store for 2008? Low- or No-Cost CAD Goliath Reinvented Doin’ the DEED Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes The Return of Hot Tip Harry

Cadalyst - January 2008

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