We’re excited to announce the availability of HighDesign R5, the fifth major release of our design software.
HighDesign R5 marks a turning point: after a deep internal redesign, the new features integrate processes and tools typical of Building Information Modeling processes into a traditional CAD environment. The project structure now includes specialized sheet types with dedicated features and options: drafting sheets, details and layouts help organize the complexity of a design project. The new Project Browser panel gives you quick access to view, edit and sort all the items in the project.
This new structure is designed for flexibility, so you decide how best to organize your project. In detail, these are the sheet types available in HighDesign R5:
- Drafting sheet: the basic space where you design your project. You can work at scale, which is the native approach in HighDesign, or at 1:1 as in other CAD programs. Drafting sheets can be overlayered with full or half transparency, or you can work on a single, isolated sheet.
- Detail sheet: a specialized sheet that is used to draw technical details. You create a detail sheet from a Callout on a drafting sheet. The part of drawing enclosed in the callout appears on the detail sheet as an underlay with variable opacity. Use the underlay as a base for further, more detailed drawing.
- Layout: a sheet with page size, frame border and alignment grids that can display viewports. A Viewport is a “window” that displays a rectangular portion of the drawing. Use layouts to publish your completed project.
Another big feature are Graphic Styles and Building Element Types. In a typical CAD software, a project includes hundreds of custom objects: most of the time, texts and dimensions are standardized, but the project elements are custom-designed graphical items which at best can be re-used as blocks. In a BIM project the opposite is true: most objects are standardized by common types, with very few exceptions of custom items. This approach is obviously more efficient and friendly for both your time and the overall costs.
HighDesign R5 helps you organize the project in an efficient way by encouraging the use of styles and types, so that every item belongs to a super-class with common properties, but leaving to you the freedom to design unstyled objects when you want. We strongly believe that efficiency should never come at the expense of creativity!
This release is also the first with full support for Windows. You can now use HighDesign on Windows 10 64-bit and share the project files with the Mac version with seamless integration.
HighDesign R5 comes in three editions, LT, Standard and Pro for drafting, CAD drafting and architectural design applications. Prices for new, permanent license are US$ 99.00 for LT, US$ 229.00 for Standard and $360.00 for Pro. You can find more information about new items, features and tools, and download a free trial at http://www.ilexsoft.com/highdesign/.
