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… by Noel H. Browning

General CADD Products will release their updated Windows software, called General CADD Pro, in October, 2002.
Jim Faliveno, Carl Ransdell, and Matt Brown have toiled for years recreating this important technology.
Serious design/drafting program users should be delighted that Jim, Matt, and Carl have just released beta 1.0.43b of the new General CADD Pro 2D program and beta testers really like the way the program is developing. Conscience effort was made to retain the superior program interface and restrict Windows features to those that the latest Microsoft operating systems do more efficiently.

Beta testers state that: "GCP is more like Generic 6.1.5 than the latest versions of AutoCAD LT or Visual CADD. It has the batch file and macro functions and the program even loads archived Generic GCD's with little editing required. The excellent Generic style Side Menu and Custom Side Menus have been retained".

It astonishes that after abandoning production of Generic, late in 1996, Autodesk has still not incorporated many of Generic CADD's more advanced features into their AutoCAD flagship program. True Flood Fills rather than the solid hatch, Vector Text Character Percentage and Proportional/Mono Spacing, Component Blocks as true Objects, and the simple, most important, Mnemonic Two-letter Native Command Structure. Today's AutoCAD does not even provide direct support for Quadric or Bézier curved lines, just collections of non-uniform rational B-spline entities from the early days of pen plotter CAD.

Batch File Macro Language improvements.

TrueType fonts may be converted to native filled vector fonts.

Text Editor is included plus a new Quick Edit command.

Vector Font Creation Utility improved.

Imports GCD, DWG, DXF, AI, WMF, EMF, TXT, and HPGL files.

Exports JPG, BMP, TIF, & PNG Bitmap files.
Exports the AutoCAD DWG & DXF vector file formats.

Printing utility allows simple, direct use of the Adobe Acrobat PDF Distiller program.

Generic CADD Macros, Fonts, Hatches, & Components are fully supported.

Unlimited number of Components may be placed in drawings.

Number of layers increased from 256 to 1024.

Additional line types added for GCD, DWG, and ISO file compatibility.

Device and World line types include a total of 60 patterns.

Custom line types may be added by the user.

Drawing file size has been greatly reduced using self-compression.

Cursor rotation can be matched to the ortho angle.

Menus all include the, easy to learn, 2-Letter mnemonic native commands.

Send bug reports from the program directly to the developers by e-mail.

Contact on-line support directly from within the program.

Windows GUI Clipboard Commands, selected icon buttons, and Pull-down Menus aid new users.

Command Button Pallets can be relocated, hidden, or displayed.

Side menu & custom side menus can be hidden to increase screen space.

Scroll mouse input devices support menu and list picks

Zoom in and out with a mouse scroll wheel.

Visual scaling and rotation of components may be done on the fly.

Optional thumbnail image selector used for loading drawings and placing components.

Well known author Ralph Grabowski is writing an online General CADD Pro shareware E-book based on his popular
Generic CADD books. Several chapters are now available on his Web site at www.upfrontezine.com.

If you depend upon Generic CADD, you will feel right at home working in GCP. Others well grounded in the traditional craft of hand drafting can become productive after just a few days of use. General CADD Pro restores the promise of efficient, cost effective, computer generated, precise drawings. The GCP demo is now available so it's time for Generic CADD Users and Developers to download their very own copy.

MORE

1. The General CADD Pro program itself.
2. An on screen manual in HTML format. There will be no printed manual with the version 1.0 release.
3. One USB Security Device which may be moved from PC to Laptop providing single user support
for copies installed on multiple systems.
4. Internet BBS and on-line technical support.
5. Interim bug fix downloads limited to "show stopper" errors discovered in the programming.

What is the Annual Software Maintenance Agreement (ASMA) suggested retail price?
The ASMA agreement will cost $149.00 US$ per year.

One ASMA agreement includes upgrades for up to 2 licenses (seats) per company.

Additional licenses in excess of 2 will require additional ASMA charges per the schedule below:

3 to 5 licenses $99.00 per license

6 to 10 licenses $75.00 per license

11 or more licenses $50.00 per license

What additionally is included in the ASMA support service?
1. Timely, just as soon as fixed, bug patch downloads.
2. Unlimited Internet technical support.
3. A revised & complete HTML Help manual for download.

4. The omitted Generic CADD features, Component Attributes and Digitizer Support,
have been added, as priorities, to the wish list for future updates

A site license price schedule has not been determined at this time.

File: GCPv1_review.rtf Draft: 10/02/02

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