Description:
ShortCAD is a free software for Pocket PC that reveals the simplicity of well known CAD products just onto the palm of your hand! ShortCAD brings basic concepts of drawing creation to your Windows Mobile system.
With ShortCAD you can create and edit 2D vector-graphic drawings and templates just as you do in well known CAD applications. ShortCAD drawings are usually saved as .shortCAD files, but you can also save them in .dxf format so you can export your drawings from PDA to other PC vector-graphic editors.
While your Pocket PC is small and slow, all of the "huge CAD" features of ShortCAD have been reworked to make them accessible and usable without mouse and keyboard.
You may ask why is ShortCAD. Here is an answer! ShortCAD is a pun on shortcut that means shorter route or smaller effort. Also it has a specific meaning: a file that contains only the location of another file in the computer. Gathering all meanings together will give you the answer: ShortCAD is a way to CAD and save hints and tips to your ideas with smallest effort while you are away from your workspace.
ShortCAD provides drawing by means of the following graphic entities:
- Straight lines.
- Poly-lines.
- Texts.
- Circles.
- Arcs.
- Ellipses and Elliptical arcs.
- Solids.
- Inserted Blocks.
- Traces.
Additional tools of ShortCAD allow to create the following drawing elements:
- Free lined figures.
- Rectangles.
- Chamfers.
ShortCAD allows modification drawing elements by means of:
- Moving.
- Scaling.
- Rotating.
- Changing line type, color, width, text style, layer and so on.
- Erasing.
- Setting insertion base point.
In idle state ShortCAD just displays a fragment of opened drawing and waits for a command from you. You can launch commands of ShortCAD by the following means:
- Selecting appropriate items in the Menu.
- Tapping appropriate icons in the Command Toolbar.
- Tapping appropriate icons in the Command Palette.
Each command of ShortCAD has it's own icon on the Command Palette.
Get the user guide here (876 KB).
Update Description:
v2009.07.12.1:
- The Ortho Mode is provided to make the specifying of coordinates convenient.
- In idle mode, you can pan the drawing view by stylus.
- You can create the Point objects and select a mode and size to render them on drawing.
- Change snaps, grid visibility and other settings with special assistance command bar without interrupting the currently executed command.
- Now you can align created text by its center, left side and right side.
- Also, ShortCAD does not clip the portions of drawing view exceed the limits, specified in the drawing settings.
v2009.04.26.1:
- Now ShortCAD provides explicit way to get the built-in helps.
- Now ShortCAD gives you a possibility to create and manage the Libraries of Drawing Symbols.
- Donut object was introduced to ShortCAD.
- Getting help at any moment. Now ShortCAD provides explicit way to get the built-in helps through menus.
- Executing a command of ShortCAD, you can invoke the Context help which explains how to use the Command. Just tap the menu [Options]->[This is...].
- As well, the help is available when you have launched a dialog of ShortCAD.
- The traditional way of invoking help is still available.
- Now ShortCAD gives you a possibility to create and manage the Libraries of Drawing Symbols. You can Save your drawings to a Library and then you can insert the Symbols. ShortCAD gives you a way to Edit the Symbols as well.
- You can keep many, thematic Library Catalogues each of them can store many Symbol Libraries. ShortCAD gives efficient way to Browse the Libraries, Rename or Delete Symbols.
- Now ShortCAD gives you a possibility to create “Donut” objects. A corresponding button appeared in Command Palette.
v2009.02.07.1:
- Now ShortCAD provides Undoing / Redoing of the last performed command.
- The command Match Properties has been improved. Now, if user selects a text to change it's properties, ShortCAD switches to Enter Text Dialog to give an opportunity of changing the text definitions: contents, text style, height, rotation, width factor and the oblique angle.
- The Recent toolbar behavior was optimized.
- Now ShorCAD consumes the RAM much more efficient and optimal way: many references on a font from different text styles will be served with the same instance of the font loaded into the RAM.
- As a result of the mentioned optimization of RAM consumption ShortCAD makes your mobile device capable of loading of very complex and heavy Asian fonts consisting of many thousand of letters and symbols. Use the Asian fonts available below. Even though the fonts take dozens of megabytes, your device can render them since only those glyphs are loaded into the RAM, which are referred from your drawing.
- Now it's possible to cancel any changes made in the dialog Manage Layers.
- Bug fixed: When user removed a layer, referred by an existing block, the drawing was lost right upon saving the drawing changes (when closing the drawing or performing commands Save and Save Drawing as).
- Bug fixed: When inserting a drawing as a block, loaded from a file, those layers were not moved into the target drawing from the block, which were not referred by any drawing element.
- Bug fixed: Selection of black solids was not rendered properly when the drawing background was set to white.
- Bug fixed: Weight of the drawing elements was rendered on the screen. Now the element weights are rendered only in case of printing from the PC version of ShortCAD.
- Bug fixed: Dots in the line types were not visible when rendering the arcs, circles and ellipses.
