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WinFIG Changelog

What's new in WinFIG 2024.2

Mar 11, 2024
  • Fixed a bug: deleting multiple objects at once did not always work and could cause memory corruption. The bug came with release 2023.1. It is strongly recommended to update to the current version.

New in WinFIG 2024.1 (Feb 11, 2024)

  • Changes:
  • The export dialogue now automatically adds the option ‘-E latin1’ if files are saved with ISO 8859-1 encoding. This preserves non-ASCII characters such as Greek symbols.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Paper size was always set to A in PDF export

New in WinFIG 2023.2 (Nov 13, 2023)

  • Changes:
  • Added an option for exporting to bitmap files using LaTeX and GhostScript. With this you can have LaTeX formatted texts in images files (PNG, JPEG etc.) without setting up your own procedure of exporting via LaTeX and GhostScript. I think that is a great usability improvement. You also have several options for setting the output resolution to trade between file size and quality. LaTeX and GhostScript must be installed. The old bitmap export is still available in case LaTeX is not installed.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed crash when clicking on library entry while ‘Zoom at 100%’ is set to screen resolution (in Grid and metrics window)

New in WinFIG 2023.1 (Oct 12, 2023)

  • I upgraded to Qt 6. That required some changes to the code, particularly when opening external programs such as fig2dev, LaTeX, Ghostscript, PDF viewer. I believe I made all necessary changes, but please report if something doesn’t work.

New in WinFIG 7.8 (Jul 22, 2020)

  • Bug fixes:
  • A regression bug when defining custom grids was resolved.

New in WinFIG 7.7 (Mar 9, 2020)

  • Changes:
  • The export tool (fig2dev) was updated to the latest version 3.2.7b. Most notable is a better rendering of fill patterns in Postscript, but it contains many more bug fixes and small improvements. Thanks to Thomas Loimer for maintaining the Xfig / fig2dev package.
  • Various corrections and additions to the export dialog to reflect modified fig2dev command line switches.
  • Log error messages and warnings to console view when rendering LaTeX objects.
  • Updated Qt version to 5.14.0.
  • Bug fixes:
  • After opening the “export” or “file open” dialogs with Ctrl-Shortcuts, WinFIG behaved as if the Ctrl key was still permanently held down while drawing.
  • Wrong suffix in the file dialog when exporting to DXF

New in WinFIG 7.6 (Jul 12, 2019)

  • Changes:
  • Allow users to customize their keyboard shortcuts in the ‘Preferences’ dialog.
  • A new option for setting the scaling factor of the user interface. This is helpful if you are using a 4k monitor and the user interface is too small. This option actually sets the QT_SCALE_FACTOR variable that is also mentioned in the FAQs.
  • Updated Qt version to 5.12.0.
  • The Mac OS version now comes as a DMG file.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Remember magnification that was set in the ‘Export dialog’ for subsequent exports and also store it in the FIG file.

New in WinFIG 7.5 (Jun 23, 2018)

  • Changes:
  • New menu item Help->Check for updates.
  • Copy only depth attribute into toolbar when selecting a picture object. This prevents setting the line width to zero.
  • On OS X the keyfile is stored under ~/.config/andreas-schmidt instead of inside the app bundle. Users only need to import the Keyfile once and don’t have to do that with every new release.
  • WinFIG is now compiled for 64bit. That means, the installation folder changes from “c:Program Files (x86)” to “c:Program Files”.
  • The Windows version comes with Qt 5.11.1.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Undo/redo of text LaTeX flag did not work.
  • The page settings (size, orientation) in the export dialog were not initialized from the current settings of the drawing.
  • Activating the auto-arrow function was without effect and immediately turned off if no object was being selected. A regression from a fix in release 7.2.

New in WinFIG 7.4 (Aug 28, 2017)

  • Changes:
  • Some people asked why LaTeX formatted texts are not rendered appropriateley when exporting to PDF or PostScript. The reason is simply that no LaTeX formatting is applied when exporting directly to these formats. That is only done when using the pstex or pdftex export. There was an option in pstex/pdftex exports for creating a complete document (“export both parts and create a PS/PDF document”), but probably that was not so easy to find. So, I removed that and added a simple check box to the PDF/PS/EPS export with the name “Use LaTeX for rendering LaTeX formatted texts”. That one uses the pstex or pdftex toolchain with all required steps. When that option is used, the other options for PDF or PS are disabled, because the TeX envelope document determines the characteristics of the document. Set the documentclass, packages or whatever LaTeX specifics you need there.
  • A new option in PDF/PS/EPS export to open the exported document for viewing (“Open in PDF/PS viewer).
  • The Windows version comes with Qt 5.9.1
  • Bug fixes:
  • Setting the background color for exported files did not work.

New in WinFIG 7.3 (Aug 17, 2017)

  • Changes:
  • I updated the export tool (fig2dev) to the latest version 3.2.6a, which now includes dxf, pict2e and TikZ export. I also created an updated version of fig2dev.pdf from the linux manual page. It may be helpful for looking up details about the various switches that can be used for the export formats. I also synched a number of code changes particularly to the PostScript export. Please report any problems that you encounter when exporting files.
  • The Export dialog contains pages for the new formats.
  • Increased size of undo queue from 300 to 10000 actions.

New in WinFIG 7.2 (May 17, 2017)

  • Bug fixes:
  • A wrong escaping of slashes added one slash too much when saving a file, i.e. instead of \ it wrote \ to the file.

New in WinFIG 7.1 (Apr 11, 2017)

  • Changes:
  • WinFIG can now show isometric grids as in Xfig. The magnet mode for snapping to the grid works with it too.
  • Moved the “edit” button that opens a dialog for text and picture objects from the upper toolbar to their property toolbars on the right side.
  • Added a preferences option to choose between ISO 8859-1 (Latin1) and UTF-8 encoding. ISO 8859-1 is recommended as long as the export does not support UTF-8. Compatibility with Xfig requires ISO 8859-1 too.
  • Added button “Load from file…” to Registration dialog.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fixed inaccurate snapping to grid. There was sometimes an inaccuracy of 1 pixel.
  • Snap to grid is now using the vertices without line width. The “Metrics” dialog has an option for using the old snapping behavior (using line width and arrows).
  • If magnet mode is active, circles/ellipses are snapped to the grid with their center when the object is grabbed at the center. Old behaviour was to snap using the outline as if the object was grabbed at the outline, which made it difficult to align circles/ellipses with their center to the grid.

New in WinFIG 7.0 (Mar 16, 2017)

  • Changes:
  • The “Library” window was completeley reworked and allows adding add and organizing clips. The location is now under c:Users\AppDataRoamingWinFIGLibraries for Windows. OS X and Linux users please check the dialog for the location setting. The location can be changed there. Please copy your existing clips to there.
  • WinFIG licenses are now eligible for two years of free updates. You may renew your license at a reduced fare.
  • The Windows version comes with Qt 5.8.0
  • Bug fixes:
  • Snapping vertices to the grid did not work correctly
  • some minor bug fixes

New in WinFIG 6.2 (May 31, 2016)

  • Bug fixes:
  • Fix a crash when changing arrow type to “none” while no object is selected.
  • The installer did not create a start menu item.

New in WinFIG 6.1 (Apr 28, 2016)

  • Changes:
  • The styles for “dash dotted” lines are now available.
  • The Windows version comes with Qt 5.5.1.
  • Bug fixes:
  • PostScript export: The line cap style is set to “round” for dotted ellipses, but was not reset to “flat” afterwards, which caused round caps on dashed ellipses, when they followed dotted ellipses.

New in WinFIG 6.0 (Aug 4, 2015)

  • Changes:
  • new zoom function for zooming to selection. It works via toolbar or shortcut key “.” . Shift+. reverts to the previous zoom.
  • keep drawing centered while zooming in or out
  • drag window content around with right-click as an alternative to using the scrollbars.
  • Runs on Windows XP (beta 2 did not)
  • Bug fixes:
  • snap to vertex did not happen when moving points

New in WinFIG 6.0 Beta 2 (Jul 23, 2015)

  • Bug fixes:
  • WinFIG could crash when reading a Polyline that was connecting via Smart Link to another object. It happened when that Polyline had consecutive Points with identical coordinates.
  • WinFIG was not correctly comparing the paper definition when reading a file, resulting in B1 being read as B10.
  • escaping \ to \\ like in Xfig
  • encoding ASCII 128..255 with octal sequence like in Xfig
  • the “size…” button did not open the dialog in “Add/Delete arrow head”

New in WinFIG 6.0 Beta 1 (Dec 22, 2014)

  • Changes:
  • WinFIG can now run scripts written in JavaScript. That is reallly a powerful feature, because rawings can now be created programmatically. See the documented examples in the Scripts folder. I will add more documentation and a schema definition later.
  • WinFIG can now read and write files with UTF-8 (Unicode) encoding enabling it to save files to paths named with special characters. Right now that is an incomplete feature, because the file export via fig2dev is still lacking Unicode capabilities. It works on Linux and Mac, but the Windows needs code changes, which I will do later.
  • A new preferences page for adding paths to the PATH variable. That’s particularly useful if GhostScript or latex commands cannot be found by WinFIG. There is a useful default value for the Mac version. Windows and Linux users can leave the field empty in most cases.
  • fig2dev now contains the latest changes from patchlevel 3.2.5e
  • The Mac version is now an app bundle and does not need XCode or the Qt framework. The installation is now straightforward by just unpacking the ZIP archive, which contains all dependencies.
  • Updated to use the Qt 5.4.0
  • Bug fixes:
  • Some minor bug fixes.

New in WinFIG 5.04 (Aug 8, 2014)

  • Changes:
  • The Mac OS version was compiled for Qt 5.3.1 and requires an update of the Qt installation. The Windows version still comes with Qt 5.2.1 and the Linux version runs with whatever version 5.x.x is installed.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Objects disappeared when trying to move objects while grid was off and magnet on. This was due to a wrong calculation of coordinates, which moved the object out of the visible area.

New in WinFIG 5.03 (May 26, 2014)

  • Changes:
  • Added font sizes 6 and 7 to the font size dropdown box.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Arrow dimensions were set to invalid values if line width is 0. That could also lead to rare crashes due to dividing by zero.

New in WinFIG 5.02 (May 12, 2014)

  • Changes:
  • WinFIG now comes with Qt 5.2.1 included. Mac users will have to update their Qt installation (see requirements page). Linux users can probably go on using the Qt version that they already have installed or update to 5.2.1.
  • Bug fixes:
  • WinFIG was crashing when creating a compound object, opening that compound for editing and then calling undo to dispose the compound.
  • When using the registration dialog for entering the registration details, the program reported “ok”, but actually required a restart to internally update the registration state and remove the limitation on saving objects.

New in WinFIG 5.01 (Sep 17, 2013)

  • WinFIG now comes with Qt 5.1.1
  • Bug fixes:
  • WinFIG did not always determine the GhostScript installation location. WinFIG now always queries both the 32bit and the 64bit registry for finding the GhostScript entries. So it finds 32 and 64 bit GhostScript on 32 or 64bit Windows installat

New in WinFIG 5.0 (Sep 17, 2013)

  • Changes:
  • WinFIG is now using Qt 5. It may be necessary for Linux users to upgrade their Qt version.
  • The user can can define custom grids.
  • The default widget style is now “Fusion” for all platforms. Fusion is the new platform independent Qt theme. I think it looks fairly nice and reduces the overhead of making dialog layouts fit for different themes.
  • Several dialog layout cleanups and redesigns.
  • WinFIG no longer asssumes 32bit GhostScript installations. It also looks for the 64bit version (gswin64c.exe).
  • Anti-Aliasing turned off for grid lines. Anti-aliasing can make grid lines look thicker, which just doesn’t help the purpose.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Export dialog: the radio button “Export All / Only Active” got disabled when switching the format to Gerber, but never enabled again.
  • Export dialog: The input under “Postscript file to be overlaid” was ignored.
  • LaTeX preview did not work when WinFIG was started via double clicking a FIG file.
  • Constrained Moves with CTRL or Alt keys did not work since version 4.0.
  • The program could crash when editing object or figure comments.
  • LaTeX rendering on Linux quit working after opening the preferences dialog. The configuration for the Ghostscript command was cleared after leaving the dialog.

New in WinFIG 4.9 (Mar 9, 2012)

  • Changes:
  • I added one more snapping mode in addition to snapping to grid. Now you can also snap to vertices. Both modes can be combined. There may be even more modes in the future.
  • The canvas color can be changed.
  • Bug fixes:
  • The tip of an arrow extended a little bit over the end point of the line. The effect was increasing with the zoom factor.
  • When magnet was on, the selection frame would be invisibly aligned to the grid before selecting objects.Objects could therefore be outside the frame when the frame was very close to them.

New in WinFIG 4.62 (Dec 6, 2010)

  • I changed the command line for calling LaTeX, which is used for rendering LaTeX formatted text objects. The old command did not work in all environments, perhaps due to directory access rights issues. The old command was:
  • latex -quiet -job-name OUTFILE INFILE
  • The new command is:
  • latex -quiet -output-directory TEMPDIR -job-name OUTFILE TEMPDIR/INFILE
  • The output directory for the temporary files is now explicitly set and the preferences dialog allows setting either the system default temp directory or any other directory. The system default on Windows is: c:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp
  • ...where "user" is the login name. Most users will not have to change anything here, but it gives you better control in case of problems. Note that "job-name" in the above command is the name of the output file, but without path. The effective full path is TEMPDIR/OUTFILE.