AcadXTabs Development Log

Here you can find late-breaking news, information and announcements concerning AcadXTabs and the CADD PowerToy Collection. We post all information relating to issues and bugs that come to our attention, along with fixes, workarounds, general notes, tips and tricks, etc.

AcadXTabs users are encouraged to visit this page regularly to get up-to-date information about bugs, along with workarounds and news about updates and how to get them.

12/18/09: Major Product Update

A major update of AcadXTabs is scheduled to be released within the next few days. For this reason, we have delayed fulfillment of orders placed on or after 12/10/09.

If you have ordered a new license or upgrade on or after 12/10/09, your order will be delayed until the product update is released, to ensure you receive the most recent update incorporating fixes for all defects reported to date. We apologize for any inconvenience, this delay will ultimately spare you from having to redeploy a product update. We anticipate all outstanding orders to fulfilled on or before 12/20/09.

10/28/09: Customization Mode

AcadXTabs fails to recognize when AutoCAD is in 'customization mode'. In customization mode (e.g., the CUI dialog is visible), AutoCAD does not permit the use of commands or switching to another open document.

While in customization mode, AcadXTabs fails to recognize that document switching is disabled, and attempts to activate a document when its tab is clicked (which fails). It then erroneously shows the clicked tab's associated document as being the active document. AcadXTabs also erroneously allows you to select actions from document tab context menus and the Documents dropdown, most of which cannot be performed while in customization mode. The error is harmless and the erroneous displayed state of the document tabs is corrected as soon as you exit customization mode and switch to another document.

A fix for this defect has been integrated into the current code base, and will be included in the upcoming maintenance update.

10/20/09: Error on new AutoCAD deployment

On a new AutoCAD installation that has not yet been started for the first time, AcadXTabs will generate an error when it is loaded (the error is non-fatal and only affects AcadXTabs, which does not appear and is unusable). This error occurs because AutoCAD has not yet created the recent files entry in the registry, which AcadXTabs erroneously assumes exists. The conditions that trigger this error are rare, and usually occur only in new deployments of AutoCAD with bundled extensions such as AcadXTabs, that load the first time AutoCAD is started, automatically or on request.

A fix for this defect has been integrated into the current code base, and will be included in the upcoming maintenance update.

10/19/09: AutoCAD crashes when a layout is renamed

Thanks to the AcadXTabs user that promptly alerted us to this issue, we were able to quickly reproduce and address it.

Renaming a Layout that has not been activated at least once during the current editing session will cause AutoCAD to crash. This can also happen when using the the SheetSet Manager's Rename Sheets function on sheets in drawings that are currently open in the AutoCAD editor, as well as other tools and scripts that rename layouts in open documents (such as the Project Navigator in AutoCAD Architecture and ABS).

A fix for this defect has already been integrated into the current code base, and will be included in the maintenance update that is to be released in the coming days. All users are strongly urged to install this update.

In the interim, you can avoid this issue by activating a layout at least once before renaming it, and by avoiding the use of the SheetSet Manager to rename sheets/layouts in open documents (you can still use the SSM to rename sheets in documents that are not open).

10/15/09: Slow AutoCAD Startup Issue

Several users have noticed marginally-slower AutoCAD startup times after installing AcadXTabs 2010. We have identified the cause and have already integrated a fix for it in the current code base, and will be included in the next maintenance update.

The cause of slower AutoCAD startup time is related to 'slow' network folders in the 'Open From Recent Folder' menu on the All Documents drop down. Currently, AcadXTabs populates this menu at startup, and hence, 'slow' network folders in this list can result in noticeable delays. In the next maintenance update, the 'Open From Recent Folders' submenu will not be populated until the first time it is accessed, preventing delays at startup.

10/14/09: New Features

AcadXTabs 2010 just keeps getting better. New features added recently include Color-coded tabs, Tab close buttons, Drag-and-drop Save, and user-configurable Tab double-click actions.

Color-coded Tabs:

As can be seen in this screenshot, we've added a little eye candy to AcadXTabs. In this case the eye candy serves a functional purpose. Document tabs can now be configured to appear shaded in one of two colors (red or green), depending on the associated document's saved/unsaved state. When color-coded tabs are enabled, tabs of all non-active documents are shaded red when the associated document has unsaved changes, or green otherwise. This feature can be disabled if the default AutoCAD color theme-compatible appearance is desired.

Tab Close Buttons:

Also shown in the same screenshot are document tab close buttons, that close the associated document when clicked. Tab close buttons are optional. They can be configured to appear on all tabs; appear only on the active document's tab (like IE7); or can be disabled entirely.

Tab close buttons are also color-coded, and change color depending on the associated document's saved state. When an open document has unsaved changes, the close button on the document's tab is red. When there are no unsaved changes, the tab close button is green.

Document tab close buttons are a quick, efficient way to close an open document, because they can close documents without activating them (provided the document has no unsaved changes and no active command). If a document tab close button is clicked and the associated document has unsaved changes or has a command in progress, only then is the document is activated.

Tab Double-click Actions:

Each document's tab can be double-clicked to both activate the associated document and perform a predefined action. Actions can include any AutoCAD menu macro, or one of several predefined actions like save or close. When using the predefined save or close actions, a document is saved or closed when its tab is double-clicked. The double-click action can be specified on the AcadXTabs Tab of AutoCAD's Options dialog. The default double-click action is to simply save the associated document if it has unsaved changes.

Drag-and-Drop Save:

How easy is saving a copy of an open document with AcadXTabs?

Simply hold down the CTRL key, and drag any open document's tab to a Windows folder or the Windows desktop, and drop it!  When you drag a document's tab to a folder, the associated drawing file is saved to the destination folder. Doing that is equivalent to using AutoCAD's SAVE command to save a copy of an open document, where the open document's source file and saved state remain unchanged.

All new features outlined above are currently undergoing beta testing, and will be rolled into an upcoming product update, tentatively scheduled to be released in December '09.

10/08/09: New Additions to The CADD PowerToy Collection

We're about to announce several new additions to the CADD PowerToy Collection: AutoCAD ClipBook, Control Explorer for WinForms, and AutoCAD SheetSet Explorer.

AutoCAD ClipBook is a fully OLE-enabled clipboard manager for AutoCAD, that stores and keeps handy, AutoCAD objects that you place on the Windows clipboard, as well as AutoCAD objects that are dragged from any open AutoCAD document. AutoCAD Clipbook is similar to the Office Clipboard found in Microsoft Office, but offers greater functionality and ease of use.

AutoCAD ClipBook goes above and beyond the typical garden-variety clipboard ring utility, with advanced features like full-support for OLE drag-and drop, both from and to open AutoCAD documents, including dynamic display of objects as they are being dragged over an AutoCAD document. You can select objects in any open AutoCAD document and simply drag and drop them onto the AutoCAD ClipBook, where they remain, ready for insertion back into any AutoCAD drawing.

Inserting objects from the ClipBook into an open AutoCAD document is as simple as dragging them from the ClipBook, and dropping them into the open AutoCAD document. Objects stored in AutoCAD ClipBook appear with graphic thumbnails⁽¹⁾. When objects from the ClipBook are dragged over an open AutoCAD document, AutoCAD behaves as if you had dragged the objects from another open AutoCAD document, and displays a dynamic preview or 'ghost' of the objects as they're being dragged.

ClipBook items can also be saved directly to disk as complete .DWG files.

⁽¹⁾ Due to inherent limitations and defects in AutoCAD's clipboard support for images, valid images are not always made available by AutoCAD when it places objects on the Windows clipboard.

Control Explorer for WinForms, Visual Tree Explorer for WPF, and AutoCAD SheetSet Explorer are useful utilities for AutoCAD .NET programmers and Microsoft.NET programmer. More information on these tools will be made available soon.