HighDesign Changelog

What's new in HighDesign 2024.1.0 (2340)

Feb 2, 2024

Up to 2X speed improvements
Updated user interface
Table tool with Excel support
Schedules with interactive editing
Improved architectural tools
New baseline dimensions
Better DXF/DWG compatibility
Expanded documentation

New in HighDesign 2023.1.1 (2184) (Mar 14, 2023)

Boolean Operations:
Combine two polygons together with one click: select the polygons and choose one of the available formulas from Union, Subtract, Intersection and Exclusion.
With these new tools, you can join together hatches, polylines, rectangles and polygons for even greater freedom and efficiency.
The Home window in HighDesign R7.1 with recent documents, teplates, examples, recovered files.
Home Window:
This window is the new central hub for creating new documents, browsing and loading recent projects, loading templates, and more.
What's more, the Home window provides access to the recovered files that are found in the recovery folder and the What's New page.
Export as Image:
This new window includes all the options and settings to export the project as an image file in one of the many supported formats.
The current view can be exported to one of the available file formats, such as the common Jpeg, PNG and Tiff, plus the newly supported TGA, HDR and WebP, with direct access to their compression options.
In addition to the file format options, this window also lets you define the size and resolution of the image (where supported), the background and the color filter.
The new Import DWG/DXF progress window.
Improved and Faster DXF/DWG Support:
Importing DXF/DWG files is now up to three times faster than before, more accurate and efficient. Texts and dimensions, layouts and viewports are now imported with greater accuracy. The original file settings are preserved as much as possible so as to allow a seamless integration with DWG-based products.
A new progress window shows the current import operation and allows the user to cancel it at any time.
Dozens of Enhancements and Quality Improvements:
Overall, HighDesign R7.1 includes more than 30 new features and improvements. A great deal of attention was devoted to the areas of drafting and user experience.
In Application Settings, it is now possible to define the default behavior and units of the Nudge command: you can now use any value in any of the supported units as the minimum nudging quantity for precise and controlled edits.
Snapping now features improved accuracy and flexibility, with a clearer distinction between the various snap and alignment points.
Performance and stability were also increased for a better overall experience.

New in HighDesign 2023.1 (2172) (Mar 12, 2023)

New in HighDesign 2022.2.0 (2086) (Oct 26, 2022)

New in HighDesign 2022.1.3 (2016) (Jun 16, 2022)

Bug Fixes:
Duplicating a layout no longer reverts the new layout's paper size to project defaults.
Fixed regression bug that prevented images with alpha channel (PNG, Tiff) to load properly.
Images with resolution lower than 72 DPI now render correctly.
Creating a new drafting sheet when the current sheet is a layout did not update the screen.
Undo/Redo commands applied to the Delete Sheet command did not work correctly.
Extend command now is more accurate at picking the intersection points closer to the click.
Search by pen-weight now works correctly in saved projects.
Lines returned by the Explode command applied to rectangles did not keep their parent rectangle's graphic properties.
Objects returned by the Trim command applied to polylines did not keep their parent polyline's graphic properties.
Dimension tick marks were not visible in viewports.
Edit commands did not properly update the values on Object Info.
Fixed editing of radial dimensions by the end point.
Fixed commands Rotate, Rotate by Angle, Mirror and Mirror a Copy applied to images.
The keyboard shortcuts for Pan and Zoom did not work when the icons where placed on the main toolbar.
Fixed Viewport styles.
Fixed Duplicate and Multiply commands when applied to elements with advanced settings.
Transfer To Sheet and Duplicate to Sheet commands did not properly rebuild the sheet bounds.
DWG/DXF Import: fixed the height of multi-line text boxes; fixed parsing of indented list items.
Changing the visibility or lock status of a layer via pop-up alerts did not update the Layers panel.
Editing the contents of a selected text object inside a group is now possible again.
Images: added safety checks to make sure the image is loaded correctly in saved documents.
The Paste Attributes command did not apply the correct attributes to composite elements like hatches.
The Convert Blocks command did not work correctly with DWG files whose file name contained non-ASCII characters.
PDF: texts could occasionally be clipped and wrapped to an incorrect width.
Ordinate dimensions now honour the label orientation setting.
Transfer to New Sheet did not create the destination sheet.
Object Info could occasionally show the “lock proportions” button when it was not needed.
Tool Settings Window: fixed width of the style popup so that it does not overlap with buttons.
Angular dimensions now honour label orientation settings and support custom label positions.
The command Project > Layers > Mask Other Layers did not work correctly.
[Mac] The Welcome window no longer opens on closing a document regardless of the preference set in the General tab.
Importing a DWG/DXF after exporting now sets the correct measurement units.
The Styles panel now updates correctly after selecting a style from the Styles popup.
When switching from a modified style to any other item in the list, the Styles panel now restores the correct colors.
The Project Browser now highlights the bounds of a sheet only when the Drawing Sheet display mode is not set to Hide Others.
Undo Duplicate, when applied to walls, did not remove all the walls involved in the operation.
Redo New Object did not connect walls and openings correctly.
New doors and windows no longer take the host wall's pen colour and size.
Walls: fixed bug that caused the wall to modify the global default stroke settings.
Walls: multi-wall nodes where two walls were parallel did not build correct joints.
Duplicated groups that contain walls now preserve the correct connections between the walls.
Duplicate works correctly when applied to walls.
Corrected the Duplicate command applied to doors and windows.
Linear Multiply did not work when applied to doors and windows.
Fixed Move and Duplicate commands applied to groups containing walls and openings.
Corrected a visual error that occurred randomly in the selection of windows.
Closed some memory leaks.
Activating the Y/H input field by pushing tab was not handled as “Height”.
Texts in rotated viewports now render correctly.
Viewport Settings Panel: when the viewport's base units are imperial, the scale menu did not open correctly and did not handle the scale notation mode button.
Rotated text label: fixed the auto-sizing of the input box.
Restored the command Fit Text Box to Contents.
Optimized and improved the behavior of popup menus.
Restored the ability to insert images by Paste, image drop and image file drop.
Better handling of errors generated by attempts to open a document without the required privileges.
Improved import of DWG/DXF Multileader entities.
Improved conversion of DWG/DXF layouts.
Fixed an error that would cause the Save command to fail silently when the file and the application support folder were on a NAS volume.
Updating a symbol now correctly updates its instances in the project.
Object Info: the Detail info panel no longer opens with the incorrect height.
Fixed appearance of pop-up windows (styles browser, pop-up panels, etc.).
Graphics: improved the appearance of objects when the high-resolution rendering is active.
Photogrammetry: fixed Select All command; improved rendering of perspective grids and measure lines.
Drawing Presentation: updated the default sizes for Instagram.
Fixed situation that could cause loss of the project data.
DWG/DXF: improved conversion of TABLE entities.
DWG/DXF: improved parsing of styled texts.
Printing isolated sheets did not work correctly.
Door frames are now printed with their correct thickness.
The Publish to PDF dialog now reports the layout numbers.
Project symbols with no associated file in the library can now be edited.
Fixed intersection points of rotated ellipses.
Fixed symbol styles.
Previews of graphic styles did not display correctly.
DWG/DXF: improved export of VIEWPORT entities and paper space objects.
Fixed visualization problem that could prevent vertical construction lines from displaying at certain zoom factors.
Fixed vertical alignment of multi-line labels in annotative tools.
Dimension styles were incorrectly marked as modified after reopening a file.
Editing tools can now be deactivated by clicking their icon in the Editing toolbar.
Windows: fixed user interface of the Print Preview window.
Print Preview: changing the printer or the page setup now correctly updates the calculated scale factor when the “Fit to on page” option is active.
Windows: addressed minor printing inconsistencies.
Windows: fixed viewports in PDF.
Windows: fixed rotated labels in PDF.
Publish to PDF: when the page size is set as “By Sheet”, the size of the pdf page is calculated on the paper size of the sheet if available, rather than calculating it on the contents.
Improved bound calculations of linear dimensions to include the entire label box.
Viewports: fixed the scale of represented hatches.
Windows PDF: fixed the size of text labels in viewports.
Fixed behaviour of Edit commands like Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. when an input field is currently active.
The Duplicate to Sheet command did not update group members correctly.
Fixed Duplicate Sheet when the sheet includes groups with walls and openings.
Hatches from exploded mirrored symbols were not placed at the correct coordinates.
Fixed Detail Area / Callout styles
Misc. fixes in Drawing Presentation window and image creation.
Photogrammetry: the Extend and Join commands now update the projection.
Photogrammetry: Select All objects by class now works properly.
The Resize Drawing by Measure did not apply to all the objects on the sheet.
Images of the current drawing created for export or drawing presentation now use the highest quality antialiasing.
Viewports: fixed clipping of objects when the view is rotated.
Fixed Explode command applied to mirrored symbols that include arcs and curves.
Doors & Windows: it is now possible to insert an opening exactly on the start or end point of a wall.
Drawing Presentation now checks the size of the image before starting the rendering.
Opening a tool settings window in a document no longer activates another open document with the same panel active.
Improved snapping to wall end points.
Fixed the joints of walls when the “Allow start joint” option is disabled.
Zooming with the mouse wheel now always includes 100% in either direction.
Printing a detail area no longer leaves traces of objects in the paper margins area.
DXF/DWG: groups with multiple levels of sub-groups are now exported correctly.
The Polygonal Selection method of the Selection tool did not show the selected items after the double click.

New in HighDesign 2021.0.2 (1872) (May 18, 2021)

New in HighDesign 2021.0.1 (1855) (Mar 25, 2021)

GENERAL:
NEW:
HighDesign is now a Universal binary app native for both Apple Silicon (M1 chips) and Intel x86 architectures.
Added support for macOS Big Sur.
New Migrate Custom Settings and Resources window.
Redesigned License Activation panel.
IMPROVED:
Overall speed improvements: file open is about 65% faster; file save 25% faster; redraw 40 to 60% faster depending on the kind of project and hardware; select, deselect and delete commands are more than 100x faster.
Project Browser: added shortcuts to transfer or duplicate the selected objects to the clicked sheet. Hold down the Command (Mac) or Control (Win) key to transfer; Alt to duplicate.
Project Browser: The highlighted bounds of a sheet or a selected object, activated by hovering the Project Browser and the Object Info respectively, are now much more visible.
The Purge command now includes images and external references.
Improved the appearance of popup menus.
Colour chooser buttons now show the colour with the alpha value.
Added a new contextual menu to the Layers panel that provides access to most commands on layers.
Layers listed on the Layers panel (floating or inside the Sidebar) can now be reordered by dragging.
NEW:
The Layer menu on the Properties bar now includes the commands Show All Layers and Hide Other Layers.
Main drawing tools bar: added button to resize the toolbar to one- or two-column layout.
Updated application and document icons.
IMPROVED:
DWG/DXF: improved conversion of hatches and added support for multiple-boundary hatch entities.
DWG/DXF: improved the conversion of entity colors.
DWG/DXF: improved import of Leader entities.
Hatch manager: improved navigation, preview and editing.
DRAFTING:
NEW:
Image Settings dialog: added a pop-up window to browse inserted and recently used images.
Arcs: added new method Arc by start point, end point and radius.
Added new automatic alignment to horizontal and vertical directions during the construction phase.
IMPROVED:
Snap to objects: selected objects take the precedence over other objects.
Switching to a different sheet now deselects any items on other sheets.
Objects on locked layers are now ignored by the Selection tool, so that any overlapped, non locked objects can be selected directly.
After the insertion of an image, the active tool switches automatically to Selection to avoid starting the insert process again on click.
The default style/type for the selected tool is now activated as soon as the tool is activated, regardless of the current status of the No Style switch.
Offset tool: restored the ability to connect the offset line with the previous lines.
Fillet and Chamfer commands can now be applied to rectangles and closed polygons, in addition to lines and polylines.
Gradients are now available in HighDesign for Windows.
The Extend tool now calculates the best intersection point with the reference object.
The Apply Hatch at Click method now works with polylines.
DESIGN:
NEW:
Compound Walls: it is now possible to set the leading side by the core structural component. Allowed positions are exterior, interior sides and middle of structural component.
Wall options in the Properties bar: added leading side menu.
Doors & Windows: added a pop-up menu on the Properties bar to define the insertion point.
Doors: added new double sliding door family.
Doors & Windows: added new Insert by Structural Width option
PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:
NEW:
New Manage Custom Sizes window, used to create and organize custom paper sizes with the ability to get dimensions and margins from the installed printer.
Dimensions now support custom precision settings. Enabled when the dimension units are not by project.
Viewport scale can now be set as “By Drawing” to match the source drawing's scale.
Viewports: added the option to use a detail area on the selected sheet to define the viewport.
The Print preview window on Windows allows the selection of the destination printer.
Detail Areas can now create a viewport directly from their option menu.
Annotations: added support for multiple leader lines. Use the new Add Leader and Remove Leader methods to edit an existing annotation.
IMPROVED:
Text Settings panel: replaced the sliders of Letter-spacing (Kerning) and Line spacing (Leading) with stepper controls. Improved the synchronisation with the selected object.
Multiple dimensions now support a “Continue” option: clicking an existing dimension allows to continue the sequence using that dimension as base item.
Detail Areas: restored the option to snap to paper sizes and added support for printer margins. The default mode now snaps to the paper size minus the margins. Hold the Ctrl key to snap to the full paper size.
Print: now an alert dialog warns the user when attempting to print on a large number of pages (100+).
Bug Fixes:
Duplicating a layout no longer reverts the new layout's paper size to project defaults.
Fixed regression bug that prevented images with alpha channel (PNG, Tiff) to load properly.
Images with resolution lower than 72 DPI now render correctly.
Creating a new drafting sheet when the current sheet is a layout did not update the screen.
Undo/Redo commands applied to the Delete Sheet command did not work correctly.
Extend command now is more accurate at picking the intersection points closer to the click.
Search by pen-weight now works correctly in saved projects.
Lines returned by the Explode command applied to rectangles did not keep their parent rectangle's graphic properties.
Objects returned by the Trim command applied to polylines did not keep their parent polyline's graphic properties.
Dimension tick marks were not visible in viewports.
Edit commands did not properly update the values on Object Info.
Fixed editing of radial dimensions by the end point.
Fixed commands Rotate, Rotate by Angle, Mirror and Mirror a Copy applied to images.
The keyboard shortcuts for Pan and Zoom did not work when the icons where placed on the main toolbar.
Fixed Viewport styles.
Fixed Duplicate and Multiply commands when applied to elements with advanced settings.
Transfer To Sheet and Duplicate to Sheet commands did not properly rebuild the sheet bounds.
DWG/DXF Import: fixed the height of multi-line text boxes; fixed parsing of indented list items.
Changing the visibility or lock status of a layer via pop-up alerts did not update the Layers panel.
Editing the contents of a selected text object inside a group is now possible again.
Images: added safety checks to make sure the image is loaded correctly in saved documents.
The Paste Attributes command did not apply the correct attributes to composite elements like hatches.
The Convert Blocks command did not work correctly with DWG files whose file name contained non-ASCII characters.
PDF: texts could occasionally be clipped and wrapped to an incorrect width.
Ordinate dimensions now honour the label orientation setting.
Transfer to New Sheet did not create the destination sheet.
Object Info could occasionally show the “lock proportions” button when it was not needed.
Tool Settings Window: fixed width of the style popup so that it does not overlap with buttons.
Angular dimensions now honour label orientation settings and support custom label positions.
The command Project > Layers > Mask Other Layers did not work correctly.
[Mac] The Welcome window no longer opens on closing a document regardless of the preference set in the General tab.
Importing a DWG/DXF after exporting now sets the correct measurement units.
The Styles panel now updates correctly after selecting a style from the Styles popup.
When switching from a modified style to any other item in the list, the Styles panel now restores the correct colors.
The Project Browser now highlights the bounds of a sheet only when the Drawing Sheet display mode is not set to Hide Others.
Undo Duplicate, when applied to walls, did not remove all the walls involved in the operation.
Redo New Object did not connect walls and openings correctly.
New doors and windows no longer take the host wall's pen colour and size.
Walls: fixed bug that caused the wall to modify the global default stroke settings.
Walls: multi-wall nodes where two walls were parallel did not build correct joints.
Duplicated groups that contain walls now preserve the correct connections between the walls.
Duplicate works correctly when applied to walls.
Corrected the Duplicate command applied to doors and windows.
Linear Multiply did not work when applied to doors and windows.
Fixed Move and Duplicate commands applied to groups containing walls and openings.
Corrected a visual error that occurred randomly in the selection of windows.
Closed some memory leaks.
Activating the Y/H input field by pushing tab was not handled as “Height”.
Texts in rotated viewports now render correctly.
Viewport Settings Panel: when the viewport's base units are imperial, the scale menu did not open correctly and did not handle the scale notation mode button.
Rotated text label: fixed the auto-sizing of the input box.
Restored the command Fit Text Box to Contents.
Optimized and improved the behavior of popup menus.
Restored the ability to insert images by Paste, image drop and image file drop.
Better handling of errors generated by attempts to open a document without the required privileges.
Improved import of DWG/DXF Multileader entities.
Improved conversion of DWG/DXF layouts.
Fixed an error that would cause the Save command to fail silently when the file and the application support folder were on a NAS volume.
Updating a symbol now correctly updates its instances in the project.
Object Info: the Detail info panel no longer opens with the incorrect height.
Fixed appearance of pop-up windows (styles browser, pop-up panels, etc.).
Graphics: improved the appearance of objects when the high-resolution rendering is active.
Photogrammetry: fixed Select All command; improved rendering of perspective grids and measure lines.
Drawing Presentation: updated the default sizes for Instagram.
Fixed situation that could cause loss of the project data.
DWG/DXF: improved conversion of TABLE entities.
DWG/DXF: improved parsing of styled texts.
Printing isolated sheets did not work correctly.
Door frames are now printed with their correct thickness.
The Publish to PDF dialog now reports the layout numbers.
Project symbols with no associated file in the library can now be edited.
Fixed intersection points of rotated ellipses.
Fixed symbol styles.
Previews of graphic styles did not display correctly.
DWG/DXF: improved export of VIEWPORT entities and paper space objects.
Fixed visualization problem that could prevent vertical construction lines from displaying at certain zoom factors.
Fixed vertical alignment of multi-line labels in annotative tools.
Dimension styles were incorrectly marked as modified after reopening a file.
Editing tools can now be deactivated by clicking their icon in the Editing toolbar.
Windows: fixed user interface of the Print Preview window.
Print Preview: changing the printer or the page setup now correctly updates the calculated scale factor when the “Fit to on page” option is active.
Windows: addressed minor printing inconsistencies.
Windows: fixed viewports in PDF.
Windows: fixed rotated labels in PDF.
Publish to PDF: when the page size is set as “By Sheet”, the size of the pdf page is calculated on the paper size of the sheet if available, rather than calculating it on the contents.
Improved bound calculations of linear dimensions to include the entire label box.
Viewports: fixed the scale of represented hatches.
Windows PDF: fixed the size of text labels in viewports.
Fixed behaviour of Edit commands like Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. when an input field is currently active.
The Duplicate to Sheet command did not update group members correctly.
Fixed Duplicate Sheet when the sheet includes groups with walls and openings.
Hatches from exploded mirrored symbols were not placed at the correct coordinates.
Fixed Detail Area / Callout styles
Misc. fixes in Drawing Presentation window and image creation.
Photogrammetry: the Extend and Join commands now update the projection.
Photogrammetry: Select All objects by class now works properly.
The Resize Drawing by Measure did not apply to all the objects on the sheet.
Images of the current drawing created for export or drawing presentation now use the highest quality antialiasing.
Viewports: fixed clipping of objects when the view is rotated.
Fixed Explode command applied to mirrored symbols that include arcs and curves.
Doors & Windows: it is now possible to insert an opening exactly on the start or end point of a wall.
Drawing Presentation now checks the size of the image before starting the rendering.
Opening a tool settings window in a document no longer activates another open document with the same panel active.
Improved snapping to wall end points.
Fixed the joints of walls when the “Allow start joint” option is disabled.
Zooming with the mouse wheel now always includes 100% in either direction.
Printing a detail area no longer leaves traces of objects in the paper margins area.
DXF/DWG: groups with multiple levels of sub-groups are now exported correctly.
The Polygonal Selection method of the Selection tool did not show the selected items after the double click.

New in HighDesign 2021.0.0 (1842) (Mar 6, 2021)

GENERAL:
NEW:
HighDesign is now a Universal binary app native for both Apple Silicon (M1 chips) and Intel x86 architectures.
Added support for macOS Big Sur.
New Migrate Custom Settings and Resources window.
Redesigned License Activation panel.
The Layer menu on the Properties bar now includes the commands Show All Layers and Hide Other Layers.
Main drawing tools bar: added button to resize the toolbar to one- or two-column layout.
Updated application and document icons.
IMPROVED:
Overall speed improvements: file open is about 65% faster; file save 25% faster; redraw 40 to 60% faster depending on the kind of project and hardware; select, deselect and delete commands are more than 100x faster.
Project Browser: added shortcuts to transfer or duplicate the selected objects to the clicked sheet. Hold down the Command (Mac) or Control (Win) key to transfer; Alt to duplicate.
Project Browser: The highlighted bounds of a sheet or a selected object, activated by hovering the Project Browser and the Object Info respectively, are now much more visible.
The Purge command now includes images and external references.
Improved the appearance of popup menus.
Colour chooser buttons now show the colour with the alpha value.
Added a new contextual menu to the Layers panel that provides access to most commands on layers.
Layers listed on the Layers panel (floating or inside the Sidebar) can now be reordered by dragging.
DWG/DXF: improved conversion of hatches and added support for multiple-boundary hatch entities.
DWG/DXF: improved the conversion of entity colors.
DWG/DXF: improved import of Leader entities.
Hatch manager: improved navigation, preview and editing.
DRAFTING:
NEW:
Image Settings dialog: added a pop-up window to browse inserted and recently used images.
Arcs: added new method Arc by start point, end point and radius.
Added new automatic alignment to horizontal and vertical directions during the construction phase.
IMPROVED:
Snap to objects: selected objects take the precedence over other objects.
Switching to a different sheet now deselects any items on other sheets.
Objects on locked layers are now ignored by the Selection tool, so that any overlapped, non locked objects can be selected directly.
After the insertion of an image, the active tool switches automatically to Selection to avoid starting the insert process again on click.
The default style/type for the selected tool is now activated as soon as the tool is activated, regardless of the current status of the No Style switch.
Offset tool: restored the ability to connect the offset line with the previous lines.
Fillet and Chamfer commands can now be applied to rectangles and closed polygons, in addition to lines and polylines.
Gradients are now available in HighDesign for Windows.
The Extend tool now calculates the best intersection point with the reference object.
The Apply Hatch at Click method now works with polylines.
DESIGN:
NEW:
Compound Walls: it is now possible to set the leading side by the core structural component. Allowed positions are exterior, interior sides and middle of structural component.
Wall options in the Properties bar: added leading side menu.
Doors & Windows: added a pop-up menu on the Properties bar to define the insertion point.
Doors: added new double sliding door family.
Doors & Windows: added new Insert by Structural Width option
PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:
NEW:
New Manage Custom Sizes window, used to create and organize custom paper sizes with the ability to get dimensions and margins from the installed printer.
Dimensions now support custom precision settings. Enabled when the dimension units are not by project.
Viewport scale can now be set as “By Drawing” to match the source drawing's scale.
Viewports: added the option to use a detail area on the selected sheet to define the viewport.
The Print preview window on Windows allows the selection of the destination printer.
Detail Areas can now create a viewport directly from their option menu.
Annotations: added support for multiple leader lines. Use the new Add Leader and Remove Leader methods to edit an existing annotation.
IMPROVED:
Text Settings panel: replaced the sliders of Letter-spacing (Kerning) and Line spacing (Leading) with stepper controls. Improved the synchronisation with the selected object.
Multiple dimensions now support a “Continue” option: clicking an existing dimension allows to continue the sequence using that dimension as base item.
Detail Areas: restored the option to snap to paper sizes and added support for printer margins. The default mode now snaps to the paper size minus the margins. Hold the Ctrl key to snap to the full paper size.
Print: now an alert dialog warns the user when attempting to print on a large number of pages (100+).
Bug Fixes:
Duplicating a layout no longer reverts the new layout's paper size to project defaults.
Fixed regression bug that prevented images with alpha channel (PNG, Tiff) to load properly.
Images with resolution lower than 72 DPI now render correctly.
Creating a new drafting sheet when the current sheet is a layout did not update the screen.
Undo/Redo commands applied to the Delete Sheet command did not work correctly.
Extend command now is more accurate at picking the intersection points closer to the click.
Search by pen-weight now works correctly in saved projects.
Lines returned by the Explode command applied to rectangles did not keep their parent rectangle's graphic properties.
Objects returned by the Trim command applied to polylines did not keep their parent polyline's graphic properties.
Dimension tick marks were not visible in viewports.
Edit commands did not properly update the values on Object Info.
Fixed editing of radial dimensions by the end point.
Fixed commands Rotate, Rotate by Angle, Mirror and Mirror a Copy applied to images.
The keyboard shortcuts for Pan and Zoom did not work when the icons where placed on the main toolbar.
Fixed Viewport styles.
Fixed Duplicate and Multiply commands when applied to elements with advanced settings.
Transfer To Sheet and Duplicate to Sheet commands did not properly rebuild the sheet bounds.
DWG/DXF Import: fixed the height of multi-line text boxes; fixed parsing of indented list items.
Changing the visibility or lock status of a layer via pop-up alerts did not update the Layers panel.
Editing the contents of a selected text object inside a group is now possible again.
Images: added safety checks to make sure the image is loaded correctly in saved documents.
The Paste Attributes command did not apply the correct attributes to composite elements like hatches.
The Convert Blocks command did not work correctly with DWG files whose file name contained non-ASCII characters.
PDF: texts could occasionally be clipped and wrapped to an incorrect width.
Ordinate dimensions now honour the label orientation setting.
Transfer to New Sheet did not create the destination sheet.
Object Info could occasionally show the “lock proportions” button when it was not needed.
Tool Settings Window: fixed width of the style popup so that it does not overlap with buttons.
Angular dimensions now honour label orientation settings and support custom label positions.
The command Project > Layers > Mask Other Layers did not work correctly.
[Mac] The Welcome window no longer opens on closing a document regardless of the preference set in the General tab.
Importing a DWG/DXF after exporting now sets the correct measurement units.
The Styles panel now updates correctly after selecting a style from the Styles popup.
When switching from a modified style to any other item in the list, the Styles panel now restores the correct colors.
The Project Browser now highlights the bounds of a sheet only when the Drawing Sheet display mode is not set to Hide Others.
Undo Duplicate, when applied to walls, did not remove all the walls involved in the operation.
Redo New Object did not connect walls and openings correctly.
New doors and windows no longer take the host wall's pen colour and size.
Walls: fixed bug that caused the wall to modify the global default stroke settings.
Walls: multi-wall nodes where two walls were parallel did not build correct joints.
Duplicated groups that contain walls now preserve the correct connections between the walls.
Duplicate works correctly when applied to walls.
Corrected the Duplicate command applied to doors and windows.
Linear Multiply did not work when applied to doors and windows.
Fixed Move and Duplicate commands applied to groups containing walls and openings.
Corrected a visual error that occurred randomly in the selection of windows.
Closed some memory leaks.
Activating the Y/H input field by pushing tab was not handled as “Height”.
Texts in rotated viewports now render correctly.
Viewport Settings Panel: when the viewport's base units are imperial, the scale menu did not open correctly and did not handle the scale notation mode button.
Rotated text label: fixed the auto-sizing of the input box.
Restored the command Fit Text Box to Contents.
Optimized and improved the behavior of popup menus.
Restored the ability to insert images by Paste, image drop and image file drop.
Better handling of errors generated by attempts to open a document without the required privileges.
Improved import of DWG/DXF Multileader entities.
Improved conversion of DWG/DXF layouts.
Fixed an error that would cause the Save command to fail silently when the file and the application support folder were on a NAS volume.
Updating a symbol now correctly updates its instances in the project.
Object Info: the Detail info panel no longer opens with the incorrect height.
Fixed appearance of pop-up windows (styles browser, pop-up panels, etc.).
Graphics: improved the appearance of objects when the high-resolution rendering is active.
Photogrammetry: fixed Select All command; improved rendering of perspective grids and measure lines.
Drawing Presentation: updated the default sizes for Instagram.
Fixed situation that could cause loss of the project data.
DWG/DXF: improved conversion of TABLE entities.
DWG/DXF: improved parsing of styled texts.
Printing isolated sheets did not work correctly.
Door frames are now printed with their correct thickness.
The Publish to PDF dialog now reports the layout numbers.
Project symbols with no associated file in the library can now be edited.
Fixed intersection points of rotated ellipses.
Fixed symbol styles.
Previews of graphic styles did not display correctly.
DWG/DXF: improved export of VIEWPORT entities and paper space objects.
Fixed visualization problem that could prevent vertical construction lines from displaying at certain zoom factors.
Fixed vertical alignment of multi-line labels in annotative tools.
Dimension styles were incorrectly marked as modified after reopening a file.
Editing tools can now be deactivated by clicking their icon in the Editing toolbar.
Windows: fixed user interface of the Print Preview window.
Print Preview: changing the printer or the page setup now correctly updates the calculated scale factor when the “Fit to on page” option is active.
Windows: addressed minor printing inconsistencies.
Windows: fixed viewports in PDF.
Windows: fixed rotated labels in PDF.
Publish to PDF: when the page size is set as “By Sheet”, the size of the pdf page is calculated on the paper size of the sheet if available, rather than calculating it on the contents.
Improved bound calculations of linear dimensions to include the entire label box.
Viewports: fixed the scale of represented hatches.
Windows PDF: fixed the size of text labels in viewports.
Fixed behaviour of Edit commands like Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. when an input field is currently active.
The Duplicate to Sheet command did not update group members correctly.
Fixed Duplicate Sheet when the sheet includes groups with walls and openings.
Hatches from exploded mirrored symbols were not placed at the correct coordinates.
Fixed Detail Area / Callout styles
Misc. fixes in Drawing Presentation window and image creation.
Photogrammetry: the Extend and Join commands now update the projection.
Photogrammetry: Select All objects by class now works properly.
The Resize Drawing by Measure did not apply to all the objects on he sheet.
Images of the current drawing created for export or drawing presentation now use the highest quality antialiasing.
Viewports: fixed clipping of objects when the view is rotated.
Fixed Explode command applied to mirrored symbols that include arcs and curves.
Doors & Windows: it is now possible to insert an opening exactly on the start or end point of a wall.
Drawing Presentation now checks the size of the image before starting the rendering.
Opening a tool settings window in a document no longer activates another open document with the same panel active.
Improved snapping to wall end points.
Fixed the joints of walls when the “Allow start joint” option is disabled.
Zooming with the mouse wheel now always includes 100% in either direction.
Printing a detail area no longer leaves traces of objects in the paper margins area.
DXF/DWG: groups with multiple levels of sub-groups are now exported correctly.
The Polygonal Selection method of the Selection tool did not show the selected items after the double click.

New in HighDesign 2020.1.0 (1715) (Jan 18, 2021)

New in HighDesign 2020.1.0 (1714) (Mar 17, 2020)

ew Features, Changes & Improvements
Dimensions: added new label position Top/Left so that the label is always placed above and to the left of the line (as per ISO 129).
Text: added box-sizing options: fixed size, fit height, fit content. When flexible height is active, the height of the box adjusts to the number of lines of text. This allows easier and quicker editing of text boxes. The auto-fit option has been merged into this new feature.
Text Style toolbar: added pop-up menu for the insertion of special characters.
Grid: added snap to grid subdivisions.
Symbols: added the ability to define custom insertion points.
Object Info now remembers the collapsed state of each panel.
Object Info: improved layout properties and info panels.
Detail sheet: viewports created from details now show the underlay on the layout.
Viewports: added Snap Inside option to allow snapping to the elements contained in the viewport.
Project Window: added the Insert Image icon to the main toolbar, in the Drafting group.
Images: internally redesigned the way images are handled. Image objects now contain a reference to the actual image that is stored as a project resource, thus making it possible to resize and rotate the image object without loss of quality, and making all modifications completely reversible at any time.
Image Inspector: removed the “Print Size” fields; added an Information button that shows information about the original image; added a “Restore Original Values” button that returns tha image object to the original dimensions and resolution.
Images can now display the border if set from the general stroke colour menu.
Revised the mechanism for handling auto-saved files recovered from disk. When recovery files are detected, the Welcome window includes an “Autosaved” tab with a list of the files. The files continue to be available for recovery for the duration of the current session, leaving time to the user to decide when to review them.
Welcome Window: the Quit button now requires two clicks to actually exit the application. This was implemented as a safety measure.
DXF/DWG now includes IMAGE entity support (import only).
The Point Coordinates panel in Object Info now provides transformation options for symbols and images: when editing a vertex coordinates, you can decide whether to stretch or move the object by that vertex.
The “cross” cursors are now larger on Mac.
The Bezier Path tool now supports click-drag to define the tangents of the current point.
Points of a Bezier paths can now be edited through a pop-up menu, which includes Add, Delete and Make Sharp/Smooth.
Improved the construction and editing of spline curves.
Improved accuracy of snap to grid nodes.
Fixes:
Snap to intersections no longer interferes with object snap when snapping objects placed above hatches or filled regions.
When deleting a sheet, the option to move its content to another sheet did not work.
Dimensions: label angle “Aligned, readable” is now set correctly.
Doors: the Axis line option was not saved.
Doors: swing angles, axis line and other construction items are drawn with hairline.
Text: right-to-left fonts now are aligned properly.
Text: the text direction setting is now correctly applied to selected text objects.
Text: the input box now resizes correctly and the text no longer scrolls upwards out of view.
Resizing the window now correctly updates the heights of sidebar panels.
Entering in full screen mode correctly updates the heights of sidebar panels.
Viewports: resizing a viewport no longer shifts the contained drawing.
Object info now updates the Name property of the current sheet after this has been edited.
Fixed German and French localizations of the Window and Door option panels.
Print preview now correctly adjusts to the user-defined print scale.
Changing scale to a detail sheet no longer shifts the drawn content apart from the underlay.
Crop Image: improved the visibility of the crop rectangle.
Photogrammetry: fixed minor glitche in the Setup panel.
Fixed situation where input fields could retain focus when disabled, leading to random crashes.
Copy and Paste of groups containing walls and openings now works correctly.
Fixed command Paste of groups containing symbols.
Fixed the rendering of the insulation layer in compound walls on retina displays.
Fixed the Explode Underlay command for detail sheets.
DXF/DWG import erroneously discarted some blocks.
The Layout Information panel in Object Info could stop allowing edits in certain conditions.
The Calendar popup in the Layot Object Info panel now uses the system theme colours.
The Open File dialog used to load images now lists an “All Supported Types” element so that all compatible image types can be seen in directory listings (Windows only).
The scroll wheel did not work properly on popup menus.
Fixed the alignment of icons and headings when the drawing tool bar is arranged on two columns.
Windows: under some conditions, DWG conversion would not start properly.
The Copy Attributes command now sets the proper tool method.
Splines: improved snap precision on the curve profile; restored the Cancel Last Point widget (the “X” icon“) and the popup menu to add or delete a control point.
Shortcuts panel: it is now possible to remove a keyboard shortcut from a menu item by setting an empty key.
Publish to PDF: drafting sheets are now exported in reverse order to match the page ordering of PDF documents.
The guided tour on Windows no longer hides the main window interface.

New in HighDesign 2019.2.1 (1678) (Dec 19, 2019)

Updated User Interface:
HighDesign R5 fully supports macOS Mojave and newer system themes and integrates with the light and dark interfaces in Windows 10.
Every interface element has been redesigned for clarity, effectiveness and OS integration, and many new icons have been added.
The Sidebar is now fully customizable: you can drag and arrange panes, mix floating palettes and sidebar panels, minimize the whole sidebar as a dock and access the panes via pop-overs. The Object Info pane was completely rewritten and now provides access to even more functions and utilities.
Tool methods can now be accessed via a popup menu. Advanced element tools now have their own Settings window.
Design tools like Walls, Columns, Doors and Windows are now separate tools in the Design section.
Project Hierarchy and Project Browser:
HighDesign Pro introduces Details and Layouts, new specialized sheet types used to add callout views and present the project with title blocks and viewports.
The brand new Project Browser of HighDesign R5 (Standard and Pro) displays the logical hierarchy of the project. It lists all the Drafting Sheets and, in the Pro edition, Details and Layouts. By using this panel you can quickly navigate, create and manage sheets to best organize your project.
The project settings, including defaults, units, scales, paper formats and project resources are more clearly accessible through menus and icons.
Layouts, Title Blocks and Viewports:
Presenting a project has never been smoother!
Layouts are now available in HighDesign Pro. Layouts are special sheets used to present the views of the project and add Title Blocks. You can create as many layout sheets as you need in your project and re-use recurring elements.
Title Blocks are descriptive preset formats for layouts and include information about the author or design firm, about the project, client and site location. The title block can also show information about the specific sheet like layout number or issue date.
Viewports are scaled representations of the project, acting as windows that show views of selected sheets or specific areas of sheets, and providing basic information about the views.
Callouts and Details:
HighDesign R5 Pro introduces Details, specialized drafting sheets used to add detailed views of the project.
By default, detail sheets are linked to a selected Callout of the project. The part of the project enclosed by the callout can be displayed as a transparent underlay that serves as a base for a more detailed view.
You can easily move between a callout and its associated Detail with a simple double-click. Once completed, detail sheets can be added to layouts through viewports.
Object Styles and Element Types:
HighDesign R5 Pro features a completely redesigned Object Styles system.
A Style is a named, predefined set of information, properties and behaviors that you can apply to graphic objects. Applied to architectural elements, styles gain information properties and become Building Element Types.
Styles and Types are an essential part of the BIM workflow. They allow a rational and effective organization of recurring project elements. The specifications defined by a style or type are applied to all the instances of that class in the project, so you can modify and update information of an entire class of elements in one, quick operation.
Redesigned, Powerful Object Info:
The new Object Info panel now provides access to even more functions for geometric modifications and offers fine control over shape and position of the selection.
The new organization in collapsible sections makes it easier to inspect the selected object. When no item is selected, the Object Info displays all the information and settings of the current Sheet or Layout.
In HighDesign Pro, the ID section allows you to associate textual information to complex elements and sheets.
Building Elements with Information:
The tools for building elements such as walls, columns and openings are now distinct, offer more advanced options and an accurate representation.
Doors and windows provide more control over reveal types, frame sizes and casing.
All building elements now include non-graphical information such as name, instance tag, description that can be displayed by tag annotations. These special annotations can also display the "tag" value from the instance's parent Type.

HighDesign Changelog

What's new in HighDesign 2024.1.0 (2340)

New in HighDesign 2023.1.1 (2184) (Mar 14, 2023)

New in HighDesign 2023.1 (2172) (Mar 12, 2023)

New in HighDesign 2022.2.0 (2086) (Oct 26, 2022)

New in HighDesign 2022.1.3 (2016) (Jun 16, 2022)

New in HighDesign 2021.0.2 (1872) (May 18, 2021)

New in HighDesign 2021.0.1 (1855) (Mar 25, 2021)

New in HighDesign 2021.0.0 (1842) (Mar 6, 2021)

New in HighDesign 2020.1.0 (1715) (Jan 18, 2021)

New in HighDesign 2020.1.0 (1714) (Mar 17, 2020)

New in HighDesign 2019.2.1 (1678) (Dec 19, 2019)

New in HighDesign 2019.2 (Dec 19, 2019)