Musa CAD 0.5.0

The AutoCAD conventions release: the ribbon laid out as AutoCAD’s, every edit command starting at Select objects: with the full keyword set, lassos and click-click boxes, the inquiry commands with their totals and blocks, the drawing units and purge dialogs, a one-click download of the DWG converter, and the draw and modify commands brought to AutoCAD’s prompts option for option: arcs, circles, polylines with arc segments, offsets, fillets and chamfers, moves and copies, rotations and scales with live bands.

Linux, macOS and Windows. The Linux AppImage, the Flatpak bundle and the macOS disk image shipped with the tag; the Windows installer was added after verification on real Windows hardware. It is built from main a few commits past the tag, which adds two Windows-only build fixes: the command dispatcher had grown past MSVC’s block-nesting limit, so the tagged source did not compile there, and the portable number-parsing fallback needed the MSVC spelling of the locale API. Everything else is the tagged source.

If you are coming from v0.4.0, the native format moved from v35 to v36 (the linetype-scale modes, the insertion unit, the drawing’s times and properties): v0.4.0 files open unchanged, files saved by v0.5.0 need v0.5.0 or newer.

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The ribbon, laid out as AutoCAD’s

The Drafting & Annotation tabs (Home, Insert, Annotate, Parametric, View, Manage, Output) with AutoCAD’s panels, groupings and shapes: large tools with stacked small ones, the methods under the labels (Circle’s six, Arc’s eleven, the dimension kinds, Zoom, Named Views, Viewport Configuration), slide-outs behind the panel titles, dialog launchers, and the file operations in the application menu on the Musa mark. A large split button runs its command from the icon and opens its menu from the label; a small one keeps the chevron at its right. The Properties panel gains colour, linetype and lineweight controls that edit the selection or set what new objects are drawn with. Tools Musa CAD does not have yet stand in AutoCAD’s place as disabled buttons whose tooltips say so (issues #70 to #78 track them).

Selection, as AutoCAD does it (#46)

Every edit command now starts at Select objects: when nothing is selected (MOVE, COPY, MIRROR, ROTATE, SCALE, ALIGN, ARRAY, ERASE, EXPLODE, STRETCH, MATCHPROP’s destinations, LIST, MASSPROP, ISOLATEOBJECTS, SELECT) and gathers picks, windows, crossings and lassos until Enter or right-click, with the keywords Window, Crossing, BOX, ALL, Fence, WPolygon, CPolygon, Group, Last, Previous, Add, Remove, Multiple, Undo, AUto and SIngle, and AutoCAD’s “N found” echoes. Shift + click takes a selected object out (PICKADD), an empty click starts a click-click box (PICKAUTO), press-and-drag draws a lasso with Space cycling window, crossing and fence (PICKDRAG), the box or lasso tints blue or green and highlights what it would select (SELECTIONPREVIEW), a pick over several objects offers the list (SELECTIONCYCLING, Ctrl+W), and Ctrl+A selects all. New commands: SELECT, SELECTSIMILAR, QSELECT and FILTER (the Quick Select dialog), ISOLATEOBJECTS / HIDEOBJECTS / UNISOLATEOBJECTS, and the selection system variables (PICKBOX, PICKFIRST, PICKADD, PICKAUTO, PICKDRAG, HIGHLIGHT, SELECTIONPREVIEW, SELECTIONCYCLING). The idle right-click menu carries Repeat, Recent Input, Clipboard, Isolate, Erase, Select Similar, Quick Select, Deselect All, Undo / Redo and Properties.

ERASE, OOPS, groups and PURGE (#53)

ERASE gathers a set (a pre-selection goes at once) and OOPS brings the last erased set back without undoing later work. TRIM and EXTEND make every pick its own undo step and offer Undo. MATCHPROP’s destinations are a Select objects: step (a window applies to everything it catches), with AutoCAD’s full Property Settings list. GROUP ? lists the groups, -GROUP has ?, Order, Add, Remove, Explode, REName, Selectable and Create, GROUPEDIT edits by pick or name, Ctrl+H toggles group selection and PICKSTYLE takes 0 to 3. PURGE is a dialog (categories, names, Confirm each item, zero-length geometry, empty text objects) and -PURGE asks the type, the names with wild cards and Verify each name.

Inquiry (#63)

AREA asks Specify first corner point or [Object/Add area/Subtract area] <Object>:, measures picked points with [Arc/Length/Undo] and [Arc/Length/Undo/Total] <Total> (arcs tangent to the last segment or through a Second pt), keeps Add and Subtract running totals, and reports an open object as if closed plus its length. DIST has [Multiple points] and the full readout; ID reports Z; LIST takes a Select objects: set and prints AutoCAD’s block per object. New: MEASUREGEOM (Distance, Radius, Angle, ARea, Volume, Quick, Mode), MASSPROP, TIME (the creation, last-saved and total editing times are kept in the drawing), STATUS, CAL and QUICKCALC (a calculator palette with a number pad, scientific functions, unit conversion and paste to the command line), and DWGPROPS (General, Summary, Statistics, Custom), saved with the drawing.

Units and linetype scales (#67)

UNITS is the Drawing Units dialog (length and angle types and precisions, clockwise, the insertion scale, a sample output, Direction Control); -UNITS prints AutoCAD’s numbered format tables and asks Enter choice, 1 to 5 <2>: and the fraction denominator; INSUNITS is kept with the drawing. LTSCALE shows the current value and says Regenerating model.; CELTSCALE sets the linetype scale new objects take; PSLTSCALE scales linetypes seen through layout viewports by the viewport scale; MSLTSCALE is recorded.

Drawing and modifying, prompt for prompt (#34, #35, #36, #37, #39, #47, #49, #50, #52)

ARC gains every construction method with Continue and Ctrl for the other direction; CIRCLE gains 3P, 2P, Ttr and TTT with the tangent circles solved against lines, circles, arcs and polylines; PLINE gains its Arc mode with every sub-option; RECTANG gains Area, Dimensions and Rotation with the values remembered; POLYGON remembers its settings; XLINE gains Offset and Reference. OFFSET has Through, Erase, Layer, Multiple and Undo; MOVE and COPY have Displacement, mOde, Array, Undo and Exit with one undo step per copy; FILLET and CHAMFER select the objects first with Undo, Polyline, Radius or Distance, Angle, Trim, mEthod and Multiple, and Shift for a sharp corner; MIRROR keeps text readable (MIRRTEXT); BREAK takes @ and BREAKATPOINT asks its point; ALIGN handles one, two and three pairs. Direct distance entry works at every point prompt, LINE has Close and Continue, and ROTATE and SCALE preview the whole selection live with their Reference options worded as AutoCAD’s. VPORTS tiles the model window; VPLAYER freezes layers per viewport; EATTEDIT and BATTMAN edit attributes in dialogs.

The DWG converter, downloaded for you

DWG Setup can fetch the free ODA File Converter into Musa CAD’s own data directory, after you accept its terms, and set it up; “Remove downloaded” deletes it. Linux, Windows and macOS builds are supported; the Flatpak downloads too and runs it through the portal under Wayland.

Fixed

• FILLET and CHAMFER rebuilt the trimmed objects without their properties.
• A pick at CIRCLE’s diameter prompt was doubled.
• The ribbon under-collapsed a wide window, cutting the last panels off.