New Bonus Tool for AutoCAD 2007 Based Products available!

[avdesign]

Heck, why don't they just stop making a profit and give out the software for free too?

That'd be fun.... But even with all the tongue and cheek aside. This is a good tool for 07 but for the litany of users that haven't upgraded yet for what ever reason, there is a tool that is similar, free and fun... Keep the options open to everybody..

[Richard.Kent]

Right click on the tabs to see the difference between this and the taskbar.

[BrenBren]

I am noticing an unexpected behavior after running the publish command; the tabs no longer work. They are still there, but you can no longer select them to change drawings.

Can someone else confirm this behavior?

[rkmcswain]

So... you want them to develop something for an old version of the software? Heck, why don't they just stop making a profit and give out the software for free too?

Are you being serious or sarcastic?

Compiling the same source code for 2004-2006 would take a few minutes at the most.

It isn't like someone is asking for MDI support to be added to R14.

[jpaulsen]

Question about "bonus tools" in general.

Will bonus tools be included in the next release of AutoCAD? Will they be part of core AutoCAD or Express Tools? Or will they always be a separate program that needs to be loaded?

I loaded the program and here are a few comments:

• New tabs should appear on the right. This is the expected behavior based on the the behavior of layout tabs and the Windows task bar.
• It would be nice if you could change the order of the tabs. This would be a bonus.
• The font looks a little cheesy but is acceptable.

Overall I really like the functionality and I think many users at my company will agree.

[jpaulsen]

Brenda,

I confirmed that behavior.

I had 12 drawings open so I could see how the program works with more tabs than could fit across the screen. The additional drawings are shown in a drop-down list.

Four of those drawings were in a sheet set. I published those four drawings. Once I published them I could no longer make them active by selecting the tabs. I even forced those drawings to show in the drop-down list and was not able to make them active from the list either.

I noticed something that may help the programmers. When you try to select one of those four tabs the status bar disappears and displays either "Yes No", "Yes", "No" or nothing. I got one of those messages for each of the four drawings.

[BrenBren]

I am also getting tabs that say dcclpdata.dwg, they are not selectable, and the drawings that I have selected (from the drop down box) are no longer showing up on the tabs. I can select them, edit them, but then they are no longer showing up. They are still open, as verified from the window menu, but they are not on the tabs.

[shaan.hurley]

We all wish porting was a few minute operation but it is definitely not. The application and platform APIs change and a build environment and compile and testing involved is a large job involving in some cases a different Visual Studio setup and DLL versioning. Most internal developers have only the current release build environment setup. It is almost like trying to run last years model of a car in the car assembly line producing a new year models production line as there are many differences.

Regards,
Shaan

Are you being serious or sarcastic?

Compiling the same source code for 2004-2006 would take a few minutes at the most.

It isn't like someone is asking for MDI support to be added to R14.

[rkmcswain]

We all wish porting was a few minute operation but it is definitely not. The application and platform APIs change and a build environment and compile and testing involved is a large job involving in some cases a different Visual Studio setup and DLL versioning. Most internal developers have only the current release build environment setup. It is almost like trying to run last years model of a car in the car assembly line producing a new year models production line as there are many differences.

Thanks for the insight.

I wonder then, how it's possible for 3rd party developers to easily create tools (some FREE) that work in current and earlier versions?

http://www.caelink.com/drawing_tabs.htm
http://www.dotsoft.com/freestuff.htm (DWGSTRIP.EXE)
http://www.cadwerx.net/ (DocBar)
http://www.caddzone.com/acadxtabs/index.htm

Thanks

[Dave Lewis]

Eric
Without completely reading all the posts I am going to throw in my 2 cents on this offering. While I applaud the efforts of an express tool because its been WAY too long since new express tools came out I must say that you have to offer something that no one else is doing. Thats one of the things that made the express tools great was that they were better and more polished then anything else out there. There is plenty of offerings for this sort of utility. I have tried them all and the only comment I have ever gotten from my users is that they want what docbar can do where it has thumbnails. What we would do is make it a floating window over the command line. On a 19" LCD the command line only really uses up about the left half of the screen. The right half was perfect for docbar. I say perfect because after it went to payware we could no longer use it legally. If the development team can now start doing express tools again then just look to the AUGI wish list for ideas. Personally I want a dynamic linetype program. Last item what about 2006? We just paid Autodesk an obscene amount of money and can legally use any product or version we want. We like 2006 level products so we are using them until we have the need to upgrade. Where is the 2006 version?