The latest MicroSurvey 2013 and MapScenes 2013 products are powered by the new IntelliCAD 7 engine. Along with the many great new features (as documented in the MicroSurvey CAD 2013 Release Notes and MapScenes 2013 Release Notes articles) there are also some subtle differences that you'll notice when using IntelliCAD 7 compared to the older IntelliCAD 6.
This article outlines some of these subtle IntelliCAD 7 changes — which were made to make IntelliCAD-based products like MicroSurvey CAD and MapScenes Forensic CAD behave more consistently with other AutoCAD-based products like MicroSurvey inCAD, MicroSurvey embeddedCAD and others — to address changes that are often mistakingly reported as bugs.
| Product | Engine |
|---|---|
| MicroSurvey CAD 2010, MapScenes 2010, etc. | IntelliCAD 6.6 |
| MicroSurvey CAD 2013, MapScenes 2013, etc. | IntelliCAD 7.2 |
Note: Some interface changes in IntelliCAD 7 do have options to behave more like IntelliCAD 6; these are demonstrated in the MicroSurvey CAD 2013 Video Tips article.
Scrambled Display and/or Frequent Regen Notifications
While this is not a new feature, I include it here because it is a side-effect of the new OpenGL display engine which causes many issues for our users.
Please review this article for suggestions.
One-time Entity Snaps
IntelliCAD 6 (MSCAD 2010, MapScenes 2010, etc.):
Selecting a one-time snap mode will remain active until the current command ends, no matter how many points are selected.
IntelliCAD 7 (MSCAD 2013, MapScenes 2013, etc.):
Selecting a one-time snap mode will remain active only until the next point is selected, and it will then immediately revert back to the running-snaps even if the command continues to prompt for additional points.
This change improved consistency between IntelliCAD and AutoCAD.
Entity Snaps on Text
IntelliCAD 6 (MSCAD 2010, MapScenes 2010, etc.):
The Insertion Snap mode will activate at the insertion point of a text entity, and the Node Snap will never activate for a text entity.
IntelliCAD 7 (MSCAD 2013, MapScenes 2013, etc.):
A Text entity can have multiple reference coordinates, depending on how it is aligned. You can see this by selecting (with grips on) a center-justified or right-justified text to see its two grip points:
For left-justified text, there isn’t an alignment point, so the Insertion snap mode will snap to the text's insertion point and the node snap won't do anything (just like IntelliCAD 6).
For center-justified or right-justified text the Insertion snap mode will snap to the text's alignment point (ie, at the center or right of the text), and the Node snap will snap to the insertion point (ie, at the left of the text).
This change improved consistency between IntelliCAD and AutoCAD.
If you prefer the IntelliCAD 6 behaviour, you can set the OSNAPNODELEGACY system variable to ON (default OFF); this will make the NODE snap not respond to Text objects.
Entity Properties Toolbar Position
IntelliCAD 6 (MSCAD 2010, MapScenes 2010, etc.):
The Entity Properties Toolbar was docked, by default, between the drawing area and the command history. Similarly, other toolbars could also be docked in this location.
IntelliCAD 7 (MSCAD 2013, MapScenes 2013, etc.):
The Entity Properties Toolbar is now docked above the drawing area. Toolbars can no longer be docked between the drawing area and the command history.
Pan / Real-Time Pan
IntelliCAD 6 (MSCAD 2010, MapScenes 2010, etc.):
The Pan command (View | Pan) prompted at the command line to select various options or to pick two points on screen to define the distance to pan:
: '_PANLeft/Right/Up/Down/PGLeft/PGRight/PGUp/PGDown/<Pan base point>: (click a point)
Pan displacement point: (click a point)
The Real-Time Pan command (View | Real-Time Motion | Real-Time Pan) prompted at the command line to drag the mouse and it would stay in this mode until you press Escape or Enter to end the command:
: '_RTPAN
>>ENTER, Right click or Esc to complete...
IntelliCAD 7 (MSCAD 2013, MapScenes 2013, etc.):
The Real-Time Pan command has not changed, and the Pan command now functions exactly the same as the Real-Time Pan command.
This change improved consistency between IntelliCAD and AutoCAD.
Parallel / Offset
IntelliCAD 6 (MSCAD 2010, MapScenes 2010, etc.):
The _PARALLEL command (Modify | Parallel) is used for offsetting an existing entity to make a copy of it that is parallel to the existing one. It is equivalent to the _OFFSET command in AutoCAD and IntelliCAD 7.
IntelliCAD 7 (MSCAD 2013, MapScenes 2013, etc.):
The _OFFSET command (Modify | Basic Editing | Offset) is used for offsetting an existing entity to make a copy of it that is parallel to the existing one. It is equivalent to the _OFFSET command in AutoCAD and the _PARALLEL command in IntelliCAD 6.
The _PARALLEL command (Settings | Entity Snap | Parallel Snap) is a new entity snap mode for parallel snapping. This is a new feature in IntelliCAD 7, and it is equivalent to the _PARALLEL snap mode in AutoCAD.
These changes improved consistency between IntelliCAD and AutoCAD.
Brian Sloman
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