[cad-linux] FWD: Eighth release of PythonCAD

phrostie <pfrostie@xxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 26 Jun 2003 03:25:04 -0700 (PDT)

found this on linuxtoday.com

Eighth release of PythonCAD
I'd like to announce the eighth development release of PythonCAD, a CAD package
for open-source software users. As the name implies, PythonCAD is written
entirely in Python. The goal of this project is to create a fully scriptable
drafting program that will match and eventually exceed features found in
commercial CAD software. PythonCAD is released under the GNU Public License
(GPL). 

PythonCAD requires Python 2.2. The interface is GTK 2.0 based, and uses the
PyGTK module for interfacing to GTK. The design of PythonCAD is built around
the idea of separating the interface from the back end as much as possible. By
doing this, it is hoped that both GNOME and KDE interfaces can be added to
PythonCAD through usage of the appropriate Python module. Addition of other
interfaces will depend on the availability of a Python module for that
particular interface and developer interest and action. 

The eighth release features improved preference controls. There is now a
unified preference dialog box for setting drawing preferences, and more
optional settings are now possible. Setting the background color of the drawing
window is now available, and many dimension entity settings have been added,
such as dimension bar color, dimension endpoint marker size, and dimension text
color. The new preference dialog also allows for the setting of leader line
arrow sizes and font color. Another new feature in this release is a tool for
drawing polygons. The polygons can have any number of sides from three on up. 

A number of internal code improvements are included in this release as well.
The intersection code has been reworked again to return entity intersections as
tuples containing float values. This release also has the beginnings of the
rework of internal storage and handling of the user preferences and options.
This work will continue for the next several releases at least. There are the
usual assortment of bug fixes, documentation additions, and code improvements
as well. 

The new preference dialog does have a display bug when showing the font
selection widget. I haven't figured out what is wrong, but opted to make the
release with the bug present. A simple workaround is to select another option
to modify so the font display widget gets removed, then reselect the option
with the font display widget. This workaround will usually make the widget
display itself properly. The next release should have this bug removed. 

The mailing list for the development and use of PythonCAD is available. Visit
the following page for information about subscribing and viewing the mailing
list archive: 

http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythoncad 

I'd like to again publicly acknowledge and thank the developers and maintainers
of PyChecker for the work they've done in developing this most useful tool.
PyChecker is an effective tool for identifying errors in Python code, and I've
been using it more and more. PyChecker gets a big recommendation from me and so
I say thank you to the people who make it available. 

http://pychecker.sourceforge.net/ 

Visit the PythonCAD web site for more information about what PythonCAD does and
aims to be: 

http://www.pythoncad.org/ 

Come and join me in developing PythonCAD into a world class drafting program! 

Art Haas

=====
phrostie
Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of DOS
and danced the skies on Linux silvered wings.
http://pfrostie.freeservers.com/cad-tastrafy/
//www.freelists.org/webpage/cad-linux

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