Last updates on 05-06-2025 05-06-2025 06-06-2025

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AlfaCAD was conceived as a simple, universal program for creating technical 2D drawings. However, "universal" does not mean "almighty". It is a Swiss Army knife rather than a box full of tools most of which are a secret to the user and probably will never be used. Despite the limited working area of the screen, AlfaCAD allows you to move freely throughout the drawing and its presentation or edition through zooming in and out and - what is quite unique - auto-panning. Zooming out allows you to see more of the drawing. Zooming in allows you to see details but on a smaller part of the drawing. However, individual parts of the drawing can also be viewed without changing the scale, or at least not frequent change. It consists in panning the image of the drawing and is similar to watching it through the viewfinder of the camera changing its position in relation to the object. The auto-panning procedure was recognized by the program's author as an important element of the user interface. Panning of the drawing is related to the movement of the pointer in the program. Successive portions of the drawing are displayed when the cursor reaches the boundary of the drawing's display field.

AlfaCAD's interface is different from that of most CADs. The idea came from such premises:

• The monitor, especially of our notebook, is small compared to a traditional drawing board. Small, which means that either we are doomed to look at the drawing on a small scale, or to see the details of the drawing only seeing a fragment of the entire sheet. While editing the drawing, we have to change the scale of the presentation many times, move the sheet to see the detail we are working on. Most CADs offer access to many functions in the form of icons scattered around the drawing window, thus limiting the presentation area even more. As a result, we work by looking at a small fragment of the drawing and when we want to introduce an element that goes beyond the presented fragment, we have to change the scale, which usually leads to a loss of control over the details, because usually each element is introduced in relation to other elements. AlfaCAD offers an interface that takes up no screen space for buttons and icons. The drawing panning function minimizes the need to change the scale of the presentation.
• All functions are available from the hierarchical menu, and the selection of functions consists either in selecting a function from the menu with the cursor, represented by an icon, or in a one-character shortcut directly from the keyboard.
• The program has an extensive system of keyboard shortcuts allowing for quick selection of functions. So-called "sticking keys" are commonly used.
  
• When the pointer touches the edge of the drawing window while viewing a drawing, and in fact a drawing fragment, also when performing any editing operation, the entire drawing is automatically shifted by a certain distance, showing the next part of the drawing. The distance can be dynamically adjusted as needed, eliminating the need to use most drawing presentation functions.
• All dialog boxes are large and the amount of information on the screen has been reduced to a minimum.
• The interface is scalable, which means that the size of the menu font, the size of dialog boxes, and therefore the readability of details, is modifiable in virtually any range, using a single function.
• The most important premise is the simplicity of both the interface and the entire program, which works on any computer, new or "old", with a small screen or large or with multiple screens, the appetite for RAM is very moderate without compromising size or complexity of the drawings.
• A simple graphical interface does not impose any hardware requirements related to the graphics card and its drivers.
• Although the program is dedicated to creating engineering drawings in every field of technology by both professionals and enthusiasts, it has recently been equipped with functions for static and dynamic analysis of steel and wooden structures. Reinforced concrete structures can also be solved, however functions supporting the dimensioning of reinforced concrete cross sections are still in preparation.
• AlfaCAD is a multi-document program, which means that it is possible to edit several or even a dozen drawings alternately when all of them reside in the program's memory and elements can be moved between drawings.
  
• The program has implemented "drag-and-drop" functions for drawings.
  
• The plug-in interface allows for adding user-developed plug-ins to the program, based on the included header files. The interface is programmed in C/C++.

AlfaCAD is a program made available for free, in order to support the engineering community and engineering enthusiasts, as well as the programming community, because the entire source code of the program is made available on github so that anyone who wants can benefit from my work. I work systematically to clean the code from unnecessary garbage that has accumulated throughout the period of development, changes, trials and any changes and extensions in the program also result in an update of the available source code.

This simple website contains only links to the program in its various versions and PDF files with articles describing the program's functions, especially those not described in the basic guide included in the installation package, because the range of functions is systematically expanding.

The program is being created in 4 languages: English, Polish, Ukrainian and Spanish, because these are the languages ​​that I can use to a greater or lesser extent, although not always without the support of an online translator, so probably the vocabulary used is not always chosen correctly.

The ZIP file of the "Last night’s build" should be extracted in the folder where AlfaCAD is installed, overwriting existing files. This also applies to folders contained in the ZIP file.

In Linux, make sure that the executable files overwritten from the ZIP file have the executable attribute.

Updating from the ZIP file is not necessary, because the AlfaCAD program has procedures for updating the package when the program starts, if a newer version is detected on the server. The update consists of downloading the ZIP file, unpacking it in the main program folder and changing the attributes of the executable files if necessary.

Before you install AlfaCAD ->
AlfaCAD version 2.7 installation packages: Windows 05-06-2025, AlfaCAD version 2.7 installation packages: Linux 05-06-2025 (please upgrade Qt6 to version 6.8+, better entire system, prior the installation) AlfaCAD version 3.0 beta installation packages: MacOS (x64) 06-06-2025	Windows system (x86 - 32bit):	Windows system (x64 - 64bit) recommended for Windows users	Linux system (x64 - 64bit) recommended for everyone	MacOS (x64)	MacOS (a64 )
	Cloud link	Cloud link	Cloud link	Cloud link	Cloud link
English version					soon...
Polish version					soon...
Ukrainian version					soon...
Spanish version					soon...
Last night's build:   Windows 05-06-2025 Linux 05-06-2025 (please upgrade Qt6 to version 6.8+, better entire system, prior the upgrade)	The "last night build" files do not need to be copied if the complete program is being installed and the ZIP file is dated the same day as the installation package. If the ZIP file date is more recent, the existing files can be overwritten with the files contained in the compressed ZIP file (including any subdirectories), or you can accept the program update after it has been launched, after which the update will be performed automatically (this is the preferred method). The program checks for updates every 7 days. To force immediate checking for updates, you can delete the file "last_upgd_date.dat" from the AlfaCAD home folder.This is a temporary solution that will be changed in the future.
English version supplement (ZIP)				not yet...	not yet...
Polish version supplement (ZIP)				not yet...	not yet...
Ukrainian version supplement (ZIP)				not yet...	not yet...
Spanish version supplement (ZIP)				not yet...	not yet...
Additional resources
TTF fonts for Linux (ZIP)
Photo-realistic patterns and objects
English version (ZIP)
Polish version (ZIP)
Ukrainian version (ZIP)
Spanish version (ZIP)

Enjoy AlfaCAD

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