Nanosoft ships 3D DWG editor nanoCAD Pro 20

At about half the price of AutoCAD LT

 

Last week we heard of this year's release of parametric MCAD from TOP Systems in Russia. This week, it is Nanosoft's turn.

Nanosoft has two CAD systems, the lower-priced 2D-mostly DWG editor named nanoCAD Plus; version 20 shipped last month. The other is the higher-priced 2D/3D DWG editor named nanoCAD Pro; version 20 shipped this week.

I am biased towards it, because I've creating tutorial videos for the company, and so I know the software rather well. It offers a remarkable price-performance ration: for about half the price of AutoCAD LT, you get:

• Parametric 3D modeler with history
• Direct modeler and editor
• 2D and 3D constraints
• Import and display 3D point clouds and IFC files
• Import PDF files as underlays or as entities
• Uses DWG as its native file format

This for US$865, which includes three years maintenance. nanoCAD uses DWG technology from the Open Design Alliance, and the 3D modeling/parametrics kernel from C3D Labs.

For this year's release, here are some of the new and improved functions in nanoCAD Pro 20:

New:

3D constraints -- creates assemblies from parts

Direct modeling -- pushes and pulls faces to interactively alter models

Dynamic UCS -- automatically reorients the UCS for drawing on 3D faces

Drawing comparison -- shows differences between similar-looking drawings

Bounding prism -- clips 3D models for seeing inside buildings and mechanical designs

Script editor -- indents and color coding for editing and running LISP, VBA/ActiveX, DCL (dialog boxes), and JavaScript routines

Improved:

Dynamic input -- enters command options right at the cursor

Undo/Redo -- previews changes made by the Undo and Redo commands

For an illustrated list of new and changed features, see the What’s New page at nanocad.com/products/pro/updates/. 

Download a 30-day trial version from nanocad.com/products/pro/download/

 

 

Comments

[Bruce Marshall]

With nanocad pro 20 how do I transfer data into a google earth file

[Ralph Grabowski]

Google Earth reads GPX, KML, and KMZ (compressed) files, so you need to somehow convert the nanoCAD file to those formats.

See https://serc.carleton.edu/eyesinthesky2/week10/intro_importing_data.html

[Deny]

I've been using CADHOBBY IntelliCAD for my personal projects for a few months now, and I can say that it's one of the best CAD software for hobbyists. It's user-friendly, and the learning curve is not steep.