Hi. I'm pleased to announce the thirty-third development release of PythonCAD, a CAD package for open-source software users. As the name implies, PythonCAD is written entirely in Python. The goal of this project is to create a fully scriptable drafting program that will match and eventually exceed features found in commercial CAD software. PythonCAD is released under the GNU Public License (GPL).
PythonCAD requires Python 2.2 or newer. The interface is GTK 2.0 based, and uses the PyGTK module for interfacing to GTK. The design of PythonCAD is built around the idea of separating the interface from the back end as much as possible. By doing this, it is hoped that both GNOME and KDE interfaces can be added to PythonCAD through usage of the appropriate Python module. Addition of other PythonCAD interfaces will depend on the availability of a Python module for that particular interface and developer interest and action. The thirty-third release contains several major updates to the program. Drawing operations have been greatly sped up when entities are added to a drawing, modified, or deleted from a drawing. Users on older hardware or machines with slower video systems will notice this change immediately. A second large change in this release is the completion of separating the interface code from the core code by using the internal messaging system in place of object inheritance. The third big change in this release is the formatting of the interface text strings for internationalization, and a Spanish translation is now available for users to install. It is hoped that more translations appear in future releases. Additionally, a large number of smaller improvements, enhancements, and bug fixes are also present in this release. A mailing list for the development and use of PythonCAD is available. Visit the following page for information about subscribing and viewing the mailing list archive: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythoncad Visit the PythonCAD web site for more information about what PythonCAD does and aims to be: http://www.pythoncad.org/ Come and join me in developing PythonCAD into a world class drafting program! Art Haas -- Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. -Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822 -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
