What's new in 0.3

This is what changed in BimCraft 0.3, compared with the earlier build Try ran (published on October 11, also under the number 0.3). That build added the Edit menu and the BimCraft tab in Settings; everything below is new since then.

New

• Drawings in 3D. Open a DWG or DXF and click 3D above the drawing, or press 33. Model space shows in 3D: lines and polylines at their heights, thickness as walls, 3D faces, polyface and polygon meshes, and blocks placed in 3D, nested and linked ones too. See See a DWG or DXF drawing in 3D.
• The 3D view has its own bar: Iso, Top, Bottom, Front, Back, Left, Right, Perspective and Extents. Layers you turn off disappear in 3D too.
• While in 3D, Properties lists the lines and faces shown, the drawing's size, what shows In the 2D view only and what is Not drawn yet.
• Section plane for IFC models. Click Section in the toolbar, or press XX, to cut the model from the Top, Front or Side. Drag the offset slider or type a distance, Flip to keep the other side, Off to finish. Clicking picks only what is left. See Cut an IFC model with a section plane.
• View cube. Both 3D views have a view cube in the bottom-right corner: click a face, edge or corner to look from that side, drag it to orbit, click the house for the starting view. In Settings, BimCraft, Corner indicator swaps it for an Axis icon or None. See BimCraft settings.
• Movable panels. The File panel on the left and the Properties and library panel on the right each have a grip with a ⋯ button. Dock them on the left, the right or the bottom, float them over the stage, or use Move all panels to a new window to put them on a second monitor. Reset layout in Settings puts them back. See Arrange the panels and use a second monitor.
• Cut-off project files open partly. A project or family file that was cut off while copying now opens as far as it goes, with an amber notice at the top of the card, a Recovered from this file section and a Not in the file list. Nothing is filled in. See Read a project or family file.

Improved

• BimCraft's own DWG reader. Drawings are read by a reader that is part of the app, so there is no extra download the first time you open a DWG or DXF, and drawings open faster. See What BimCraft reads from each format.
• Smaller offline copy. Save for offline no longer needs to store a separate DWG reader, so the saved copy is about half its old size. See Online and offline.
• DXF of every version. DXF files open whatever version saved them, R12 included, in the drawing view and when you make library items from a drawing.
• More of each drawing is drawn. Tables are drawn on model space and on the sheets. Arc dimensions are drawn. Objects the old reader dropped without a word, such as regions, lights and custom objects, are now counted under Not drawn yet.
• Library items from older drawings. In drawings saved as AutoCAD 2000 or 2004, dynamic blocks are listed under their real names, and attribute defaults are read, so they match the same drawing saved in a newer version. See Place equipment and furniture from the library.

Fixed

• In AutoCAD 2000 drawings, the last point of every polyline was lost, so two-point polylines vanished. They are drawn now.
• Multileader text in AutoCAD 2000 and 2004 drawings showed as garbage. It reads correctly, and the values in multileader blocks are drawn.
• Some hatch arcs were drawn as tiny arcs. They have their real size.
• Some line weights in Print view came out as "by layer". They use the weight saved in the drawing.
• The Properties panel of an ordinary IFC element showed a stray word "null". It is gone.
• A project file whose contents list fitted but whose data was cut off is now reported as incomplete instead of being read with empty data.

Files and compatibility

• Nothing changed in what BimCraft saves: edited IFC files download as before, and DWG, DXF and project files are never written.
• DWG files from AutoCAD 2000 to 2018 are the ones checked. R13 and R14 files are accepted too, but none were in the test set.
• The IFC engine and the 3D library are the same versions as in the earlier build.
• The panel layout and the corner indicator are settings of this browser, not part of any file.

Known gaps

• In a drawing's 3D view, solids, bodies, regions and surfaces stored as ACIS, and subdivision meshes, are counted under Not drawn yet, not shown.
• Text, attributes, multileaders, pictures and hatch patterns show in 2D only. Sheets stay 2D.
• You cannot pick objects in a drawing's 3D view, and the section plane works on IFC models only.
• One section plane at a time: no section box, and cut walls and slabs show hollow.
• A cut-off project file shows only the parts whose every byte is there. If even its list of contents was cut off, nothing opens. Opening a folder still uses the newest complete copy.
• Binary DXF files do not open. Save the drawing as ASCII DXF.
• There is one panels window, and panels move between windows only from the ⋯ menu.
• What is not built yet