Examples First a couple of examples of stuff done in DesignCAD 3D MAX. Click the picture to get a full size version. Windows XP, Vista, and 7 DesignCAD 3D MAX v. 20 is the latest development in the DesignCAD family, and it has been developed for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. DesignCAD 3D MAX has the latest Windows look and feel, and great emphasis has been placed on making the drawing area as large as possible by diminishing buttons and putting some of the most used toolbars into the scroll panels. And in DesignCAD 3D MAX you can draw with your mouse, digitizer, or just using your keyboard. Combined 2D and 3D DesignCAD 3D MAX ver. 20 contains all the same good features as DesignCAD ver. 20, but at the same time it is a further development from previous DesignCAD 3D MAX versions. For example you can start by drawing a floorplan in 2D, then go into 3D mode and with the Extrude feature raise the walls to the height you want and go on from there. Coordinate Bar View Toolbox Also you can save for example an isometric or perspective view to 2D format for illustration. You can have multiple drawing windows open at the same time, and so you can see your object from the front, from the side, from above and in perspective at the same time, and if you edit one window, naturally the other windows are edited at the same time. The many open windows are called DesignCAD tile, and you can of course decide for yourself, how many windows you want to have open at one time. Moreover, you can have multiple drawings open at the same time and, for example, copy and paste from one drawing to another. Select a cursor type Zoom Line Types In DesignCAD 3D MAX you can change line type as well as thickness with this toolbar, and whether the lines should be filled, is also selected here. Furthermore, you can attach color and line type to the individual layer and so change color and line type by switching layer. You can also create your own line styles and choose them from here. Drawing Tools Trim and Fillet Standard Solids Double Lines Point Select Mode You can also employ point select mode, where your drawing points (vector points) are shown and can be moved, resizing handles, where you can choose one or more objects and stretch them or push them together and preset point mode, where you set your points, before you draw. Dimensions Planes and Solids Arrays Manipulating Solids Text Apart from 2D text in arc or ballon, which you will also find in 2D mode, you can create text in 3-dimensional format. DesignCAD 3D MAX can utilize both Windows True Type fonts and Vector fonts. 2,000 Layers In DesignCAD there are 2,000 nameable layers. A layer is like a piece of see through plastic that you can draw on. You can turn off they individual layers, so you cannot see, what is drawn on it. You can also lock any individual layers, so they cannot be edited, and you can even put passwords on the layers, so only those who know the passwords can change the contents. Info box Texture Mapping Lighting Here you can set up to 8 light sources as directional, point light, or spot light.
Shading In DesignCAD 3D MAX you can even draw in shaded mode with graphic accelleration on in either Quick Flat or Gouraud (medium grade). Animation In DesignCAD 3D MAX you may create small cartoon films, where the contents your drawing move around, and DesignCAD 3D MAX also contains a Walk-Through feature. Import/Export With the membership the Open DWG Alliance you are given the option to import from and/or export to AutoCAD's own DWG format, DXF, even from the latest AutoCAD version, and exporting you can even choose which AutoCAD release, you want to export to from Rel. 2.5 and forward. And you can import/export from/to lots of other formats such as for example IGES, HPGL, WMF, etc. Scanner support and Bitmap to Vector conversion DesignCAD 3D MAX gives you an option to scan drawings as bitmaps directly into the program. Here you can convert the bitmap drawings to vector format, so you can edit them in DesignCAD.
As you can see from the toolbar above, it does not just contain the common Windows functions, such as New File, Open and Save, Print, Copy and Add, but also special functions such as Paperspace, Double line, Ortho line, Point Select Mode, Hidden Line Removal and Shading.
With the Coordinate Bar you can always see, where you are, and enter coordinates, when you draw.
Above please find the View Toolbox, which in 3D mode shows, from which angle and distance the various windows are shown. You can edit directly in the fields, so if you want to see something askew from the top you can ajust the angle, or you can choose between Top View, Side View, Front View, Perspective, Parallel or Isometric.
Here you can choose cursor type.
The zoom functions are just as powerful as in DesignCAD ver. 19, which you will appreciate by for example detailed mechanical drawings.
Line-, ortho line-, curve-, parallel line-, line perpendicular to-, point-, tangent-,
arc-, quarter circle-, half circle- and
the circle functions work the same way as in DesignCAD ver. 19, and same do
the trim and fillet functions, and a couple of 3D functions have been added.
DesignCAD 3D MAX contains these standard solids, but you can create any shape by creating planes from lines and solids from planes.
All these drawing functions can exploit special functions such as double line (only in 2D mode), which draws everything as a broad line with or without filler, ortho line, where everything is drawn either horizontally or vertically, and forced angle, where you can fix the angles that your cursor has to use. Above you can see the double line toolbar. If you check Autotrim, the ends are automatically trimmed nicely.
The dimensions can be used on both 2D and 3D objects, and apart from area calculation has DesignCAD 3D MAX can also calculate a surface area and volume of a solids.
With the plane functions you may create any 2-dimensional shape, and by combining multiple planes you can create solids.
The more sophisticated tools here make it possible to copy objects to one or more rows or into a circle, and the extrude functions gives you the option to, for example, raise the walls in a house or stretch a shape around into a spiral or a circle, as has been done with the goblet in the picture above.
Solids can also be combined or be subtracted from each other, so if you want a round hole through a cube, you just draw a cylinder through it and subtract it. DesignCAD 3D MAX even has as an advanced feature as an hammer command. On a surface you can choose the point, where the hammer must hit, and then how big a dent it should create and whether it should be round or pointed.
All object properties can be seen in the info box, where you also can edit, for example, color, material, scaling, line thickness etc.
In the info box it is also quite easy to move one or more objects from one layer to another.
Materials
Solids and planes can be assigned materials, for example aluminium, gold, marble, steel or whatever, and you can create your own materials on the basis of color, texture, and reflection.
You can even have transparent materials to illustrate glass or plastic, where you can grade the transparency.
In DesignCAD 3D MAX you can also use Texture Mapping.
If, for example, you have drawn a wall, you can put "true brick" on the surface from a bitmap file that you might have scanned or photographed with a digital camera.
You can also set up, which light sources to cast shadows and thereby create light and shadow effects on your objects, when you apply the shade feature.