HighDesign LT at Mac App Store analyse

HighDesign LT is a powerful, beautiful and easy-to-use CAD software for Mac, available for both Apple Silicon and x86 architectures.

HighDesign LT is the light-weight, precise, affordable CAD software for your drafting needs. Easily create, edit and document drawings with the full set of drafting tools and editing functions, all with a modern, effective user interface.

Use the professional-grade drafting tools, save time and clicks with the handy editing functions and apply color gradients, hatches and textures for compelling presentations.

Optimized for the latest processors and designed to take advantage of core macOS technologies, HighDesign LT is fast, accurate and intuitive at the same time, so you can become productive right away.

HighDesign supports both US and metric unit systems, as well as angular and area units, and provides architectural and engineering drawing scales.

The User Interface is designed to be responsive and fit different screen sizes and configurations, maximizing the use of space and focusing on the project. Support for retina displays, the sidebar and input bar, the properties Inspector, light and dark themes, and many customization options allow the software to adjust to the users context and preferences.

The Radial Menu brings together all the relevant tools and functions in one, convenient visual menu. The tools are presented where they are needed according to the current context, allowing the user to stay focused on the drawing.

Drawing Tools:
• Construction objects: datum points and guides.
• Lines from start-point and midpoint, multiple lines, double lines.
• Poly-line tool with line segments and arcs by three points or by center, and automatic tangent alignments.
• Rectangles and parametric Regular Polygons tool.
• Parametric vector Hatches and Patterns with the ability to open polygonal and circular islands inside the hatched region, Color gradient Fills and textures.
• Circles and Arcs by center, diameter, three points, tangent, Ellipses and Arcs of Ellipses.
• Curves: Freehand with automatic smoothing; Bezier Path with mirrored, asymmetric or disconnected control points; Spline; Revision Cloud.
• Texts tool with support for multiple styles and writing directions.
• Smart Annotations that automatically extract the information from parametric objects.
• Linear, multiple, radial, angular, ordinate and elevation dimensions.
• Parametric Symbols with multiple views and the ability to extend the custom libraries.
• Panning and Zoom tool with support for gestures.
• Measure tool.

Editing Functions:
• Transformations: Move, Duplicate, Linear and Polar Multiply, Rotate and Rotate by Angle, Mirror and Mirror a Copy, Stretch, Scale.
• Linear Editing: Mark Intersection, Join, Extend, Split, Trim, Divide in Parts, Break.
• Modifications: Fillet and Chamfer, Offset, Extrude, Explode, Convert Into Poly-line, Apply Hatch, Calculate Area and Center of Mass, Fit Texts.

Design Features:
• Easy project management with groups, unlimited layers and resources like symbols, line types, hatches and vector patterns.
• Advanced selection and search functions.
• Snap to grid, objects, intersections, right angle, tangent and smart alignments that automatically recognise perpendicular and parallel directions and intersections between two alignments.
• Color fills and gradients with varying colours and transparency for all closed shapes.
• Rich library of symbols, line types, color palettes, hatches, patterns and textures.

Printing, Publishing, Import and Export:
• Advanced Print functions.
• HighDesign LT imports and exports AutoCAD® DWG/DXF model-space drawings from version R12 to 2018/2020.
• Ability to copy, open, embed and export images as JPEG, PNG with alpha channel, GIF and TIFF.
• Import & Export support for Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ASE) files.