HexaCAD - A Complete CAD Software

HexaCAD is an open architecture CAD software, equipped with all common drafting and editing tools, suitable for any drafting / designing / modelling or customization work. GUI of HexaCAD is designed in such a way that all drafting / editing tools are clearly visible and easily accessible to user

Many Tools have flyout's which allow easy access to other similar commands. HexaCAD has command line interface similar to AutoCAD. To make command selection more easier, every hotkey character in the command option is highlighted with red color as shown below

COMMAND:Circle>Diameter/ 3 Points/ T-T-R/Center Point:

HexaCAD is a true unit transparant software. It allows user to work in mm, cm, m, km, ft or inch. Due to its internal unit conversion mechanism, it is possible to draw a 12 inch or 1 ft line while drawing in MM units.

Zoom and Pan are one of the most commonly needed commands. In HexaCAD these two commands are transparant. In other packages to enable dynamic zoom and pan, one has to click on the respective icons. In HexaCAD, in-between any operation, user can press left mouse button to zoom in and out or press right mouse button to pan left and right. We have seen users getting addicted to this simple functionality and regret the absence of the same in other CAD Engines.

HexaCAD has a dynamic distance feature which shows distance between the last clicked point and current cursor position in polar (distance-angle) or cartesian format, while drawing any entity With the availability of different object snaps on the right click of mouse user can switch between snaps without having to terminate the drawing command.

Apart from this HexaCAD also supports

Multiple document interface - (One can open more than 1 drawing at a time on screen), Connectivity to multiple external databases through ODBC, 3D in wireframe as well as solid form. 3D Mesh Editer Walkthrough, Time based animation - Animator, AVI Generator, Text to speech converter - for creating interactive demo Powerfull script for customization. Script syntax is very simple and no great programming skills are required to write Script, Macro Recorder, Controlled Single object picker when more than one elements are below cursor, Filter for element selection, And Many more...

HexaCAD gives user friendly and advanced interface for management of Line Styles, Multiline Styles, Dimension Styles, Layer Management and Text Styles. With support for true color, zoom from 10 micrometers to more than 100000 kms with consistent speed, true curvature (circles never become a polygon when zoomed in), new entities like Bezier Curves, objects, fractals, Text with data fields, innovative layout printing, HexaCAD is definitely ahead of others in its slot.

Go Top

Compatibility with other softwares and easy transition into HexaCAD

Giving users a platform for smooth and easy transition from their present CAD software to HexaCAD topped our priority list. It required us to maintain the same flow of user interaction with the software as found in some of the major industry players like AutoCAD and Microstation. HexaCAD has a command line interface and most of the commands are same as that of AutoCAD. Moreover it provides an Alias Manager through which the user can define his own set of shortcuts for the commands. 'C' can be set as the shortcut key for "copy" command or "circle" command as the user wants it to be. HexaCAD can also be operated with mouse. All commands to be given on command line are also available on the right click of the mouse. Thus HexaCAD provides easy keyboard as well as mouse operability to suit users from AutoCAD as well as Microstation background. Reuse of existing drawings is a common practice in CAD. HexaCAD can open and save files with dxf and dwg extension.There are very few CAD softwares which read and write PROXY_ENTITIES from dwg or dxf. HexaCAD is one of them

Go Top

Rule Based Objects

Geometry of any real-life objects can be drawn in a CAD software and it can also be used repeatedly by saving it as a block with attributes. However as in real-life, can it bear definite relationships with other objects? Take a simple example of water boiler. Here water pipe as well as electrical wire needs to be connected to boiler. Other end of pipe goes to tap, whereas the other end of electrical wire goes into supply. The two ends are not interchangable, that is pipe and wire has certain behavioural rules which needs to be followed. In HexaCAD it is possible to depict this relationships using objects. Object is defined as Properties + Geometry (2D as well as 3D and may changed based on certain properties) + Relationship with other objects

Advantages of Rule Based Objects (Object Oriented CAD)

Use of objects has several advantages. For example with pipe and valve as objects the drawing time reduces manifolds because user simply needs to select valve and drop it on pipe and slide it to desired position. The valve cuts the pipe and places itself accurately. In this process we save several intermidiate steps like breaking of pipe, deleting the small piece as well as save time in accuretly adjusting valve on pipe, Moreover there is no scope for any mistake on users part. Similarly when the valve is deleted, pipe joins back automatically. User can also take out reports of the number of valves having specific property value or simply count total valves quite easily.

Go Top

Customization

HexaCAD implements Object Oriented CAD (Rule Based Object) through HexaCAD Development Script and its database support. Creation or modification of objects with its intelligence or behavior is kept completely external to the core CAD engine. HexaCAD gives an extensive set of functions to the end users to program the behavior of their objects. An object is associated with properties. By defining properties and its possible values in a database and writing a script for generating geometry and for defining its behavior, user can create and use object maintaining certain constraints. User can also add new toolbar or menu to the HexaCAD. HexaCAD Development Script has many functions with which user can create new objects, create interactive demos, Automate repetative steps to ease work, call and communicate with external programs, create dialog resources and many more.

Here is a sample toolbar of plant engineering objects.