ABViewer 9.1 Beta

ABViewer 9.1 Beta

CADSoftTools is pleased to announce the release of ABViewer 9.1 Beta.

ABViewer 9.1 Beta is available for download at the following links:

32-bit: English German French Russian

64-bit: English German French Russian

Here is a list of new features that were included into ABViewer 9.1 Beta:

  • Export to DWG format
  • Command Line
    • Selection of a command option by the mouse
    • Support of LISP functions
  • Built-in LISP debugger
  • Access to entities via XML interface

The Command Line

You can enter commands by using the keyboard. Commands and command options are displayed in a dockable and resizable dialog box called the command line dialog box. To show the command line dialog, click the Command line button on the ribbon (Advanced tab -> Lisp).

The implementation of the command line in ABViewer has some advantages which are described further. To execute commands, press Space or Enter. If a command has options, a command prompt will be displayed. To specify the option, select it by the mouse and enter the value using the keyboard or click on a point on the screen.

The command line in ABViewer contains the following features:

1) Selection of a command option either by entering the letters capitalized in the needed option or by using a pointing device to click on it.

2) Auto completion of commands. Type the first letters of the command and you will see the full command name.

3) Auto translation of commands to the selected language.

4) Support of English commands in non-English versions of ABViewer.

5) A possibility to create command aliases and command sets.

A command alias is an abbreviated command name. For example, instead of entering "polyline" to execute the POLYLINE command, you can enter “pline”. Command aliases are defined in the commandex.txt file that is located in the ABViewer directory.

A command set allows grouping similar commands. Command sets are defined in the commandex.txt file that is located in the ABViewer directory.

Examples:

   zoom=[zoomIn/zoomOut/zoomUndo/Rectzooming/Fittowindow].
   Background=[BlackBackground/CustomBackground/ChangeBackgroundColor]

Enter the command set name into the command line ("zoom", for example) and you will see the commands stored in this set at the Command prompt.

6) A possibility to "lock" values of command options (works when Dynamic Input is off).

Example:

  1. Start to draw a line. Specify the first point of a line by a left click on the screen.
  2. Click on the Angle option at the Command prompt.
  3. Enter "45" into the command line and press Spacebar. The Angle value will be "locked".
  4. To "unlock" the Angle value, press Spacebar again.

7) The Undo command.

8) Support of more than 50 LISP functions, including the recursive functions and functions that pass a function as an argument.

Examples:

  1. Type the command: (load "c:\Users\{UserName}\Documents\ABViewer 9.1 beta\Demos\Lisp\functiongraph.lsp"). Press Enter.
  2. Type the command: (draw-graph -10 10 0.5 square). Press Enter.
  3. Type the command: (draw-graph -10 10 0.5 sin). Press Enter.
  4. Type the command: (draw-graph -10 10 0.5 cos). Press Enter.
  5. Type the command: (draw-graph -10 10 0.5 atan). Press Enter.
  6. Type the command: (draw-graph 0 10 0.5 sqrt). Press Enter.
  7. Type the command: (draw-graph -10 -0.2 0.2 rational). Press Enter.

9) The possibility to define your own functions (if you are familiar with LISP).

Example:

Type the command: (load "c:\Users\{UserName}\Documents\ABViewer 9.1 beta\Demos\Lisp\sqr.lsp").
Press Enter. The sqr function will be added.

Built-in LISP Debugger

Now you can debug a LISP program in ABViewer with a built-in LISP debugger. To run the debugger, click the Lisp Debugger button on the ribbon (Advanced tab -> Lisp).

The built-in LISP debugger provides the essential functionality to expose the details of your program's operation. Press [F9] to run a program, [Esc] to pause and [Ctrl+F2] to stop it. You can also toggle breakpoints and execute a program step-by-step by pressing [F8].

XML Interface

ABViewer 9.1 Beta allows you to access the drawing's structure by using XML interface. The distributive contains a demo application that communicates with ABViewer by using DDE technology. To run the application, click the Run DDE Demo button on the ribbon (Advanced tab -> Lisp).

The demo shows how to add, modify and delete the specified entities and also how to get the drawing's structure in XML format. To perform a particular action, you need to select the input XML from the list and click Run to process it.

Note: The XML strings in this demo need to be processed in the following order: Add.xml, Apply.xml, Delete.xml.

Add.xml adds new entities to a current drawing.
Apply.xml selects an entity by handle and changes its properties.
Delete.xml deletes entities with the specified handles.
Get.xml gets a structure of the current drawing in XML format.

We will be glad to answer all of your questions concerning technical capabilities, improvements and license options. We truly appreciate any feedback on this question.

Thank you very much for dealing with our company and for your time!

With best wishes,
CADSoftTools Team
SoftGold Ltd.