Change Log Release 2021

This log lists all relevant changes in the individual releases of CAD6industrie, CAD6studio, CAD6starter, and CAD6engine. Some of those do not apply to all editions.

Release 2021.2.11.30 (November 30, 2021)

•	An object selection via polygon, which was started directly with Extra > Identify > Identify Area, Polygon, only allowed a maximum of 8 points for the polygon. If the area selection was started by pressing the SHIFT key instead, up to 500 points were correctly accepted.

•	When calling up filters that were saved on the pinboard or in a collection, any information about text search and/or database search was not correctly restored.

•	When selecting objects for Modify > Edit > Edit Text / Attributes, objects in locked layers and pens were also taken into account by mistake.

•	If, from outside the respective dialog, a layer or a pen is selected within a collapsed folder, this entry is displayed, but without opening the folder completely.

•	The calculation of surface areas inadvertently returned a negative value in some cases with touching partial surfaces.

•	The procedure for opening several drawings at the same time has been rearranged to prevent problems due to simultaneous access to shared resources.

Release 2021.2.11.2 (November 2, 2021)

•	Folders in the layer and pen list can now be opened and closed using '+' / '-'. The respective state is permanently noted in the drawing. Above all, this makes it easier to work with large numbers of layers and/or pens.

•	The new "Copy to Clipboard" command in the "Edit Block" dialog allows to easily copy internal blocks from one drawing to another.

•	A new options allows to automatically resolve variables and statements in texts being copied to the clipboard. This and all other relevant options are now accessible by means of the Change Parameters (+ESC) command.

•	The Library > Databases > Add / Update Object Data command now also works with attributes in objects, drawing references, clippings, and mappings.

•	In the case of block line patterns, in addition to the line color, the line width can now also be passed on to the blocks.

•	When importing or inserting files with procedures, an error message occurred if procedures with the same name already existed.

•	When copying via the clipboard in layout mode, the page assignment was not adjusted correctly if only groups were copied.

•	The cycles and timeouts for communication between the program and the dongle server have been increased significantly in order to reduce the network load and to avoid errors in the event of a high data traffic due to many licenses that are active at the same time.

•	When using the postprocessor in CAD6industrie along with material feed, there could be undesired outlines at the clipping edges.

•	In the HP-GL/2-Import options, you can now also choose 1 mm as plotter unit. Together with the available scaling factor, for example, a plotter file (*.plt) can be imported that specifies all coordinates in 1/100 mm (e.g. Zünd cutting plotter).

•	CAD6starter can now also write older MKD and MKL file versions in order to enable cooperation with CAD6 editions that are no longer up-to-date.

•	There is no more separate product information PDF file. All relevant information is now available online at www.CAD6.com – always up to date. As a result, the installation data is more than 10 MB smaller than before.

Release 2021.1.8.10 (August 10, 2021)

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As an alternative to physical USB dongles, you can now also purchase a virtual CAD6dongle to distribute your licenses for CAD6studio and CAD6industrie over your local network. A virtual dongle works with the free Dongle Server software. That's especially useful in connection with remote or virtual servers that do not feature dedicated USB ports. Please note that a virtual CAD6dongle is only available for Release 2021.1 and later, and only for licenses with non-expired Support & Updates.

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The commands of the Dynamic Snapping Guide have been revised. They now offer the option to create lines and arcs instead of endless lines and circles, plus additional commands. In addition to snapping, Snapping Guide objects can now also be used as outline elements when creating or assembling curves and surfaces.

•	The new Draw > Surface / Curve > Contour Tracking Surface and Draw > Surface / Curve > Contour Tracking Curve commands offer a comfortable method to create surfaces and curves from existing objects' parts combined with specially created Snapping Guide objects.

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The new Trim > Surface / Curve > Split Along Surface command allows splitting a set of surfaces into two parts using another surface's outline as the cutting outline. By means of Trim > Surface / Curve > Split Along Curve plus Polyline, a set of surfaces is split into two parts along a curve temporarily closed by a polyline.

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Position numbers can now belong to one of 10 independent number ranges, allowing more flexibility. Creating position numbers has been simplified by better access to general attributes and a global "Position Number Options" dialog. When renumbering position numbers, you can choose which number ranges to include.

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The "Generate Parts List" dialog and the "Choose Parts List Attributes" dialog have been revised. The list of chosen attributes is now stored permanently and independent from external changes. When using position numbers, you can choose which number ranges to include. When creating a parts list with combined positions numbers, you can now also access local attributes of those position numbers. After a parts list has been successfully generated, a direct preview of its content can be displayed. If attribute texts contain the text delimiter, this is automatically converted.

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It is now possible to create Procedures for parts lists, either for the complete drawing or for a rectangular or polygonal section of the drawing. Since you can easily execute multiple or all parts list procedures at once, updating parts lists has become even easier. All kinds of procedures can now be saved individually in MKD files and imported from them again.

•	Procedures with rectangular or polygonal areas (such as block creation and bitmap export) can now also be manually moved and copied.

•	The "Object Choice" dialog now considers and highlights transmission by layer and pen for the property display. In addition, colors will now also be displayed as color spaces.

•	The new Layers > Display Flag 1/2/3/4 Only and Pens > Display Flag 1/2/3/4 Only commands simplify the use of those flags for handling different applications of the same drawing and switching between them.

•	In all block dialogs, you can now call the "Recently Used Blocks" dialog. It lists up to 100 blocks in chronological order with preview and a search option.

•	While placing a block from the Block Window, you can now use the Change Parameters (+ESC) command to temporarily change parameters such as scaling and rotation. Once you choose the same block again from the Block Window, the original saved parameters will be restored.

•	Instances, drawing references, and clipping surfaces now have an additional option that allows ignoring the visibility of their layers and pens. This is especially useful when importing third-party files.

•	The object information display at the crosshairs now also shows the number of point and outlines for objects such as curves and surfaces.

•	When using Modify > Move / Copy Objects > Multiple Copy, Object Division and Construct > Marking > Object Division of open objects such as polylines and arcs, the position of the ID point now determines at which end of the object the division shall start.

•	All settings of the commands for rounding, chamfering, correcting, and notching corners are now maintained permanently. In addition, you can now choose whether the properties of the object identified first shall be applied to all other involved objects.

•	When opening a drawing using CMYK and/or LAB colors without having valid color profiles loaded, a warning will be displayed.

•	The "Add to list" and "Create new file" buttons in the "Manage Collections" dialog did not work correctly, adding only a completely empty entry to the list.

•	When opening a drawing with tables that have to update their row number due to changed database contents, the number of row data sets was often not updated accordingly, so that rows at the end were neither identifiable nor changeable. Even updating the table did not always work in those cases.

•	The postprocessor in CAD6industrie now also supports local attributes, contour attributes, and point attributes in the relevant control texts. Further information can be found in the CAD6industrie CAM Manual in the chapter "Variables for Control Texts".

•	An error was corrected in the DXF/DWG export which resulted in clipped block instances often being not fully exported. In addition, clipped reference drawings are now supported for both export and import of DXF/DWG files.

•	When using a registered version to save a drawing initially created by a trial version, the file access limitations were not removed from the drawing file.

Release 2021.0.4.13 (April 13, 2021)

•	The Assemble Surface and Assemble Curve commands now offer an option to maintain the properties of the first identified object for the final result (instead of default layer and pen).

•	The Selection Filter from Object command now features additional "Object Type", "Library Name", and "Block Name" options for frequently used cases.

•	Extended objects created by plug-ins can now better control which of their parts shall be used for snapping, identification, and printing.

•	When editing an object type filter criterion in the Selection Filter dialog, the initialization of the list’s selection was partly out of place.

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Changes in the CAM part of CAD6industrie: New postprocessor "Excellon", revised postprocessor "Gerber RS-274X". Furthermore, a drawing and a CAM project file for printed circuit board (PCB) production are supplied. Editing multiple jobs for the postprocessor chain has been improved. After executing the "Save CAM Project As" command, the new file name will now immediately be applied.

•	The "Manage Attributes" dialog could cause a program crash when the exact same operation was tried to add to the list of operations again.

•	When opening very old drawing files, the conversion of old object versions from plug-ins (such as lettering, dimensions, text on path, etc.) did not always work and could cause scrambled text contents, error messages, or belated crashes.

•	By mistake, point identification always allowed to identify points of Construction Aid endless lines and beams, although that should only be possible with the appropriate options set.

•	On high-resolution displays (150% text scaling and more), the shortcut key display in menu items extended into the sub-menu arrow.

Release 2021.0.4.6 (April 6, 2021)

Release 2021.0.3.30 (March 30, 2021)

•	When pressing the special "Mute" key on notebooks and multimedia keyboards, a list of keyboard shortcuts was displayed.

•	CAD6starter now comes with the complete CAD6interface documentation, all sample codes, and tutorial files. Simply start extending the program by yourself with self-made plug-ins. No royalties!

Release 2021.0.3.23 (March 23, 2021)

•	Searching for Text now works in all kind of attribute values in all object types. In addition, you can now search in attribute names.

•	Saving a library containing standard attributes caused the program to go into an endless loop while making the library file unusable at the same time.

•	When using Assemble Surface and Assemble Curve with parts that contained Bézier curves, the program could crash in some rare cases.

•	When activated, the point display also displayed points from extended object whose display was explicitly disabled by the plug-in.

Release 2021.0.3.10 (March 10, 2021)

•	When updating, the setup program did not correctly remove the old MKLIST1 plug-in. As a result, an error initializing that outdated plug-in was reported each time the new version was started.

•	In specific situations, the program created empty BMP files in the Windows directory for temporary files without removing them afterwards.

Release 2021.0.3.9 (March 9, 2021)

•	The new Malz++Kassner CAD6team 10 and CAD6team 25 are the attractive 2D/3D CAD solutions for teams and whole companies. Use CAD6studio on up to 10 or CAD6industrie on up to 25 workplaces concurrently for a very attractive flat rental fee.

•	All kinds of objects (normal objects, clippings, mappings, references, extended objects) can now contain local attributes like only blocks, instances, and groups could before. Using local attributes, arbitrary textual data can be attached to those objects and retrieved.

•	In addition to the previous command for editing text and attributes, the new Modify > Edit > Local Attributes command enables you to add attributes to multiple objects simultaneously, as well as edit, rename, and delete them.

•	Graphical objects such as a line, circle, curve, and surface can now also contain Outline Attributes and Point Attributes which are specifically attached to an individual outline or point within an object, adding textual information to them.

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Automatic and Manual Backup have been revised. Above all, they now feature an option for Cloud-optimized saving in the background. This results in the backup file being created in a flash locally and then being transferred to its final destination in the background, allowing you to keep on working without interruption. This also works for a backup to slow servers and NAS system via local network or VPN.

•	In addition to an internal notebook, each drawing now also contains an internal collection, offering a way to store a variety of non-graphical information for later reference.

•	Dynamic Hatchings can now have their own, local fixed point and rotation. The new Hatching > Align Locally command helps to align hatchings to any given edge.

•	When creating extrusions, paths, and rotations in the 3D Plug-In, you can now set an initial 3D offset for the start point of each created part, pre-arranging them in 3D space without any further effort.

•	The 3D Plug-In now also supports the Export of 3MF Files. This format is very compact, allows the use of colors, and can be opened by many application including some standard applications in Windows. It has established itself as the de factor standard for producing parts by means of 3D printers.

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Changes in the CAM part of CAD6industrie: You can now define jobs for postprocessors in a chain. Export files can be combined with jobs, extra file names can be specified, a command line can be executed at the end of a job, and each job can contain a tool filter. The postprocessor chain, the jobs and the send parameters are now saved in the CAM project file together with the tool list. File injection allows the content of one NC file to be dynamically inserted into another while a postprocessor chain is being executed.

•	Warnings and Notifications from the application and it plug-ins are now maintained as long as the application is running and can be viewed and searched in their own dialog window.

•	The highlighting during a selection now also works for point selections. In addition, it is now possible to have all kinds of attributes (local, outline, and point) displayed at the cross-hairs.

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The powerful, open application programming interface CAD6interface is now also supported by CAD6starter, allowing you to create your own plug-ins for any edition of CAD6 including the free CAD6starter. Once you created a plug-in, you can pass it on to anybody and they can use it for free if they like!

•	For commercial use, we additionally offer the new CAD6engine, a custom runtime version of CAD6 with your branding and including your plug-ins, ready to be passed on and installed on any Windows machine. Please contact us for details!

•	When importing layers or pens from MKD files directly within the respective dialog, their screen and output properties were set to "identical" by mistake.

•	The dialog for editing the extrusion depth in the 3D Plug-In showed an unexpected behavior when working with a scale different from 1:1.

•	CAD6PDF now features an option to warn you if colors are used that are neither CMYK nor grayscale. This is important for creating safe templates for online printers and such.

•	The documentation of the application programming interface (API) CAD6interface and the manuals for CAD6studio and CAD6industrie are also available online.