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Coutts Design Introduces a Floor Plan Sketching Application and a DXF Viewer and for Palm OS Handhelds Gives Palm owners powerful new tools for creating and viewing drawings Contents: 2. Introduction 3. Features BOSTON, MA, January 21, 2004 – Coutts Design Inc, a publisher of innovative design software, announced today the release of two new applications: ZiPCAD™|View and ZiPCAD™|Plans. An upgrade of its popular CAD application for Palm OS handhelds, ZiPCAD™|Pro, is also available.
ZiPCAD™|View is a powerful new DXF viewer, capable of loading and viewing large technical drawings. It also has measurement tools for length and area calculations. Users can carry several scale drawings on their Palm OS Handheld, view drawings and lift measurements right off the drawing. View also supports SD Cards, so complete drawing archives can be carried on the handheld and accessed quickly. "View is a response to user requests from industrial engineers, project managers, technicians, and other professionals than need to carry drawings in the field, but don't want to be burdened with large drawing sets" — commented Richard Coutts, President and CEO of Coutts Design Inc.
ZiPCAD™|Plans is an powerful new sketching application that allows users to quickly and accurately draw floor plans and other technical drawings. Architects, engineers, contractors, archeologists, geologists, designers and other professionals often need to draw field conditions. These are generally drawn by hand in the field, and then drawn again in CAD offsite. With Plans, users can CAD these drawings directly in the field and download them into their desktop CAD workstation via the DXF file format. Eliminating the duplication of effort results in faster as-built drawings that are often more accurate than those traditionally generated. In addition, powerful CAD editing tools allow drawing modifications right on the handheld, allowing professionals to make design alterations right on their handheld.
ZiPCAD™|Pro 2.2 is the latest release of Coutts Design's flagship product. There are many new enhancements including
“Our products continue to be designed in response to user feedback and requests. The new features of Pro and the introduction of View and Plans are direct results of listening to user's suggestions and comments,” says Richard.
ZiPCAD™|View is US$29.95 and ZiPCAD™|Plans is US$49.95. All ZipCAD software can be purchased at www.zipcad.com. Additional information, including a trial version, FAQ and manual is also available at the site. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Coutts Design Inc (formerly 123-D Software Inc) develops, publishes, and markets innovative design software for design professionals. More information is available at www.zipcad.com. Contact: Richard Coutts President, Coutts Design Inc (617) 868-2940
As-Builts can be drawn quickly and accurately.
Handheld CAD applications have a great potential as a time and cost saving devices for design and construction professionals because they allow users to draft in places where a desktop CAD station is not practical or convenient, such as in the field or on the go. As-Build Documentation When renovating, very often existing drawings a structure are inadequate or non-existent, requiring the design professional to measure the site and create a new set of drawings, commonly referred to as As-Builts. Typically, As-Builts are sketched and annotated at the site and then entered into a CAD workstation offsite. This process is time consuming, requiring the site be drawn twice: once by hand and again by CAD. Further complications arise if inconsistencies in the sketch are detected when entering the drawing into CAD, often requiring a subsequent site visit. Many professionals employ a laptop to set up a temporary CAD workstation at the site to eliminate the need for sketching by hand. However, the workstation must be relocated several times throughout the site as measuring progresses. With a handheld CAD application, the professional can easily move about the site, while remaining mobile enough to assist with other aspects of the task. In cases where the professional is working alone, it is relatively easy to document an entire site with only the handheld and a tape measure. Existing Drawing Verification / Modification Often designers, builders, and building maintenance professionals need to take existing drawings into the field to verify them against the existing building and to annotate the drawings. This is general done by carrying hard-copy prints, which can be 24"x36" or bigger. It can be quite cumbersome for the professional, especially if there are several buildings they must review. In addition, the drawings must be scaled with a ruler, which can limit accuracy. With ZiPCAD™ several drawings may be stored directly on the device. In addition, tools, such as linear dimension and area calculation add powerful capabilities over simple paper copies.
Schematic designs can be worked on virtually anywhere. Schematic Design Handheld CAD systems have great potential for doing schematic design, as well. Their pen-based interface is more intuitive and sketch-like than mouse-based CAD workstations. Because drawings can be worked on virtually anywhere, the design professional needn’t be tied to his or her desktop computer.
Popup menus and key pads allow for quick entries. ZiPCAD™ has all of the most frequently used features CAD professionals have come to rely on in their desktop CAD programs. The most commonly accessed tools are subdivided into four categories: Draw tools, Select tools, View tools, and Build tools. Each category is accessible from one of the four corresponding toolbar buttons on the lower-left corner of the screen. Pressing a toolbar button activates a popup menu. A graphics icon and tool name accompanies each tool to minimize the learning curve. The icon of the currently active tool is displayed in the toolbar. A text prompt guides the user through each step of a tool with prompts such as “Tap the first pt,” “Edit first pt’s (x,y) or tap second pt,” etc. Context sensitive values, such as the current point’s (x,y) coordinate are displayed in the lower right corner of the screen. The user edits these values with ZiPCAD™ popup keypads.
Toolbar tools. Additional features are accessed by the pull-down menus. The user specifies entity points by tapping their location in the drawing area. ZiPCAD™ was design to be handheld-friendly by not requiring the stylus to be dragged across the screen, which can cause permanent scratching.
The new Walls & Gaps Tool draws floor plans quickly and accurately. Additional features, available through pull-down menus, include common Edit tools (Infinite Undo/Redo, Duplicate, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete), Layers, Line Types (solid, dotted, dashed, dot-dashed), Colors (16 custom colors), Snap Preferences (Endpoint, Midpoint, Perpendicular, Intersection, Snap-to-angle, Circle/ellipse quadrant), Custom Shortcuts, and General Preferences (Metric/English units, Polar/Cartesian coordinates, Keypad preferences, etc.). Drawings can be downloaded to a desktop CAD application via the DXF format during a HotSync operation.
Drawing can be imported/exported to a desktop CAD workstation. ZiPCAD™ was designed to allow professionals to draw quickly and accurately. The most commonly used tools are located at the bottom of the toolbar popups, while double-tapping a toolbar button will recall the popup’s previously active tool. Shortcut keys allow the user to invoke tools by writing a single character. For example, to trigger the Line tool, simply stroke an “L” in the Graffiti area. Similarly, menu features are triggered with a single character preceded by a “/”. Layers, saved views, line property matching, and several techniques for navigating the drawing minimize drafting time. While every tool is intuitive to use, some have powerful features that may be non-obvious to the user. When such features a present, a small “i” button is displayed in the lower-right portion of the screen. Tapping the “i” button displays an informational tip for the user.
Founded in 1997 by Richard Coutts, Coutts Design Inc develops design software for both design professionals and children, providing software tools that allow individuals to draw and model while being simple and fun to use. Coutts Design’s first product, 3D Creation Station, is licensed and distributed by eGames, Inc (www.egames.com). It is a three-dimensional modeling application for children. ZiPCAD™ will run on any Palm OS handheld running Palm OS version 3.1 or higher and HotSynced to a PC running Windows 98/Me/2000/NT/XP. 95% of Palm OS handhelds in distribution today run version 3.1 or higher, including brands made by Handspring, Sony, and Palm.
Additional information is available at our website: www.zipcad.com. The high-resolution images suitable for publishing are available at www.zipcad.com/pressimages.html. The manual, which explains features of ZiPCAD™ in detail, is available in PDF format at http://www.zipcad.com/manual.html.
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