Familiar Interface, Commands & Icons - No Learning Curve
ActCAD is easy to learn and use. ActCAD incorporates a user interface, commands, icons and shortcuts similar to that used by the most popular (but much more expensive) CAD programs. The HELP feature will assist you in learning ActCAD commands. The TIP OF THE DAY provides helpful information when ActCAD starts. All commands and tools are easily accessible.
Ribbon Interface
ActCAD supports both Classic Menu Style interface as well as modern Ribbon style interface. The tabs are organized in a systematic manner for each command group. It is easy to find the commands on ribbons with mouse clicks rather than length drop down menus. Command prompt will work as usual with all shortcuts and aliases. ActCAD interface can be easily customized using cui file or interactive editor. There are many improvements to this module in ActCAD 2022.
Auto Complete of Commands
ActCAD has thousands of commands, functions and system variable in-built in it. Remembering all these commands and variables is very difficult. The autocomplete options is very useful for standard users to show the commands and variables starting the letters typed in command prompt. After that you can directly select a required command from the list. For advanced users, there is an option to disable this autocomplete dialog.
64bit multi-core support
All new version of ActCAD with 64bit installer. 64bit versions are capable of utilizing multiple cores and multiple threads of your CPU. Operations will be faster by 30% in 64bit software especially in large drawings.
Hatch
The Hatch command in ActCAD is used to fill patterns inside an enclosed area. The patterns are hatched, gradient, and solid fill.
The gradient patterns are defined as a smooth transition between two colors.
There are several hatch patterns available in ActCAD. We can choose the desired pattern from the list of the patterns according to the requirements.
Sheet Set Manager
Using sheet sets is the most basic way that you are just taking drawing files and organizing them in proper order, so they can be easily retrieved when working through the project in ActCAD.
Arc Aligned Text
ActCAD has ARCTEXT command to create and edit curved text in your drawing. You can apply many text and alignment styles in this dialog. You can double click on existing ARCTEXT and change its parent arc apart from editing other parameters. A text preview is provided on the dialog to see the text before actual placement into drawing.
Associative ARRAY
ActCAD has all new associative array dialog with all familiar options for rectangular and circular patterns. This dialog support both 2D & 3D arrays. Array orientation, Array grips and new Array Ribbons option are also Available in ActCAD.
POLYSOLID
Polysolid is very important feature useful in 3D modeling. It is very much similar to Polyline, but it creates a continuous 3D solid. You can select a profile and sweep it along a line, arc, polyline or circle. You can keep on selecting points to continue the 3D solid profile.
Attributes
ActCAD has introduced all new attribute commands like ATTOUTXL, ATTINXL, and ATTINC to export the attributes from drawing to CSV file and import back to the CAD file after doing the changes in excel file with a single click
XREF Manager
XREF Manger is very useful to manage external references used in a drawing. You can attach or detach references to drawing using this dialog. XREFs are powerful means to link drawings without adding up the size. Also they maintain associativity between linked drawings. You can view the XREFs either as normal list or ladder structure.
DGN Underlay
DGN files can be either opened directly in ActCAD or inserted as underlays. All the options are similar to PDF underlay and associativity will be maintained with original DGN file.
PDF Underlay
PDF underlay tool allows you to insert PDF files into current drawing. There is a provision to select a page to be inserted into drawing. Scale of inserted PDF can be changed as needed in all x, y and z directions. Rotation is also possible. PDF underlay is useful to draw some content with reference pdf contents. Link with original PDF will be maintained by ActCAD.
DWF Underlay
DWF is a Design Web Format file used to easily communicate drawings with others. They are light weight and easy to share with others without having complete drawing information. If you need to take any reference from DWF files, you can attach them to any drawing using DWF underlay option. Similar to above two formats it will maintain associativity with original file.
Datalinks
Linking a spreadsheet to an ActCAD table allows changes made to the spreadsheet to update in the ActCAD table. You can also write changes made to the ActCAD table back to the spreadsheet. If you already formed a link, the link is available from the drop-down list for reuse.
Geolocation
Geographic location information is assigned to a drawing file by capturing a portion of the Bing online map to an object known as a map image and embedding it to the drawing area. Map Aerial, Map Road and Map Hybrid visualization supported. With useful contextual Ribbons and menu.
ActCAD Text Cases
In ActCAD you can edit text with different options. There is a provision to change the text into different case by using JUSTIFY, TEXTFIT, CHANGECASE, TOGGLECASE, UPPERCASE, LOWERCASE, SENTENSE CASE commands.
Text Styles
ActCAD supports standard dwg text styles. You can edit existing text styles and create any number of new styles. You can browse all available text styles in ActCAD Explorer. Easy to apply text styles to all drawing annotations including dimensions with one edit. Copy styles from one drawing to another simply by dragging & dropping in ActCAD explorer.
Annotative Objects
Annotative objects are useful to get different sizes of entities like text, hatch, dimensions , tolerances, blocks etc. in multiple viewports. You can define many annotative scales for these objects and call one of them in layout/viewport. This will ensure correct display of scales in viewports irrespective of their scales.
Numerous RGB Color Values
ActCAD has about 562 RGB colors defined it in to apply to your drawing entities like text, lines, hatch, solids etc. This will increase the compatibility with drawings created in other software. More RGB values are useful for attractive presentation drawings.
Create & Edit Tables
ActCAD you can create and edit tables very easily. There is a provision to import an external CSV to table and to export CAD table data to an external CSV file. This table is fully compatible with tables in other CAD software. You can perform many operations like insert/delete rows, insert/delete columns, merge cells, un-merge cells etc. You can change cell Background and Text Colors. Apart from these, many controls added to each cell like lock, unlock, format etc.All new Ribbon menu is available for the table in ActCAD
3D Models based on ACIS Kernel for 100% compatibility
ActCAD uses ACIS 3D Kernel from 3D Spatial. The 3D data is fully compatible with dwg and dxf data without any loss.
LayWalk
ActCAD LAYWALK, is a command that allows us to handle Layers very nicely. It opens a dialog where we can see all the layers listed. The objects on the highlighted layers will be shown on the screen.Use this command to review the objects on each layer and to purge unreferenced layers.
FIELD Dialog
ActCAD support many fields in drawing such as author, file name, date, project etc. The new Field dialog is very useful to manage your drawing fields at one place. You can call the defined fields in drawing annotations and in title block to maintain value associativity. Also fields are very useful to link drawing attributes to external PDM software like SAP, teamcenter etc. Same field can be used at multiple locations in a drawing and they all will update if value is changed in field dialog.
Localization & Internationalization
ActCAD comes with about 17 International languages viz., English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Turkish etc. You can change your preferred language in Tools > Options > Display tab > change language.
ActCAD Explorer
ActCAD explorer is advanced tool to explore layers, blocks, line-types, dimension styles, text styles and many more at one place. You can copy the styles from one drawing to another simply by dragging and dropping them. Inserting new items, deletion, editing etc. are all possible in this dialog.
2D & 3D PDF Export
From ActCAD you can export both 2D & 3D PDF files from active drawing. It has options like Layer support, orientation, resolution, embedding fonts and many more. The 3D PDF file can be viewed in free Adobe Acrobat Reader with many 3D options.
Printing & Plotting
ActCAD has a very powerful Print & Plot dialog with all popular options. It has all features like .ctb, .stb, page size, resolutions, pc3 file saving etc.
Software Customization
ActCAD supports customization using AUTO-LISP, DCL, .NET (VB/C#/VC++), IRX, TX, SDS and COM automation. A separate developer tool kit is available for download on request. Complete Developer Help is included in ActCAD for your reference and Customization.
Importing your UI customization files
ActCAD has all new customize dialog in 2022 in which you can load your custom menus, aliases, cui files, tool bars etc. These settings will remain in ActCAD as long as you reset your profile.
ActCAD Converter
ActCAD Drawings Converter works outside ActCAD to convert a bunch of dwg/dxf/dgn files from one format to another. This converter support all file versions from R2 to 2018. This conversion process is much faster compared to above tool and offers many additional functions.
Raster to Vector Converter
In ActCAD, you can convert any raster image into vector dxf file and edit the entities just like a normal CAD drawing.. All you have to do is to select the raster image and click Open. ActCAD will convert the file to DXF. It will launch the converted drawing to ActCAD and fit it to graphics window. After that you can save the drawing to any of the supported dwg or dxf or any other file formats.
Block Library
ActCAD Block Library has over 5000 symbols in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Architectural, Structural domains, etc. Add your own symbols also to Library.
Units Converter
While working on design projects, you may have to convert some engineering units frequently. ActCAD has a ready tool inside add-on menu for easy unit conversions for all common engineering units.
Drawings Audit in Batch Mode (Interactive Mode)
ActCAD has a special tool to audit & fix any internal errors in your dwg/dxf files in batch mode. Select the location of input folder and start the process. ActCAD will open each drawing and do database audit and automatically fix any internal errors and save the drawing to output folder. The process will repeat in a loop to avoid all manual operations during the conversion process. Just relax and observe the conversion process.
Extract Block Attributes
This is another useful utility in ActCAD to extract all Block Attributes to an external Excel file with one button click. No need to select any complex templates and remember the syntax like regular data extraction tool. The attributes as in attributes editor will be copied to excel file in same sequence for ready use in other applications like SAP, BOM tables etc.
Import CSV Points
Many times users have point cloud data stored in Excel/csv files. ActCAD has a provision to directly import all these points with one button click as geometric points to working drawing at correct 3D locations. You may have to adjust your point styles option to view the imported points inside your graphics window.
Change Numeric Text Values
Sometimes in drawings, you may have to modify a series of number text with some modifications like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division etc. Manually editing each text will take lot of time. ActCAD has an in-built program to modify your texts in drawing in batch mode. You can set the operation and parameter before starting the change. This feature not only save your time but increase the accuracy and eliminate any human errors.
Capture CAD Points to CSV File
This program is just opposite to above tool. You can click a series of points inside your drawing (like hole coordinates, road levels, block locations etc.) and their coordinates will be captured to external csv file. You can continue the selections as long as you need and program will continue to capture the points. In order to correlate the points data, ActCAD will add a serial number to each point inside the drawing and same numbers will be maintained in csv file.
P & ID Label Text Creator
ActCAD has a tool to create P&ID label text in standard format by asking few values from the user. You can orient the text at any angle as per pipe lines with few clicks.
PCD Import
ActCAD has powerful 3d point cloud import options for .pcd files. You can select Point Cloud Data Import option in Addon menu/ribbon and select desired file to import. You can import almost 1 lakh points at a time in ActCAD.
Open PDF drawing & Edit Entities
In ActCAD, you can open any existing vector PDF file directly and edit the entities just like a normal CAD drawing. All you have to do is to select the PDF file and click OK. ActCAD will convert the file to DXF at same location of original pdf and with same name. It will launch the converted drawing to ActCAD and fit it to graphics window. After that you can save the drawing to any of the supported dwg or dxf or any other file formats.
Hole Table
ActCAD Holetable creates a data of the circles present in the drawing into the table format. You can also export the table from drawing to CSV file.
Check for Updates
At ActCAD software development and quality checking is a regular process. We make improvements to our existing codes and also implement some bug fixes based on users feedback. We release maintenance patches regularly to keep the technology up-to-date in your computer. All you have to do is click on Check for Updates command to automatically download most latest version of your license software from our server and update. No need of any manual intervention during this update process.
AEC Entities
Walls, windows, doors, stairs, roofs, slabs, floors, steel sections etc. are available as commands. Additional BIM tabs available in Tool Paletters apart from regular options.