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[soulvoid]

The team behind BoardCAD is proud to announce a new release of the BoardCAD software.

BoardCAD is a free, open source CAD-program for surfboards. With the release of version 1.0, modeling has become even easier than before. The new user interface lets the shaper design rocker, outline, and thickness of the board using 2D curves, while still having the possibility to directly edit the generated 3D surfaces as in previous releases. The result is a user-friendly system without any limitations on the design. BoardCAD can read files from Aps3000, Akushaper, Shape3D and Surfcad and exports to STEP, DXF, and STL. Since BoardCAD is written in Java it works on any platform like Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

Some new features:

    * Editing by rotating and extending/retracting tangents using hotkeys
    * Setting the control point to an exact position
    * Selecting and moving multiple points
    * Undo/Redo functionality
    * Configurable colors and line thickness
    * Conversion from a Bezier based board to a Nurbs based board

For an introduction see http://boardcad.org/....php/Getting_started

BoardCAD is available from the boardcad.org website. See install instructions at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to the beta testers. I hope you enjoy this new version and find it useful.

regards,

Håvard

[maxmercy]

Hey Havard,

What does "Editing by rotating and extending/retracting tangents using hotkeys" mean?  Are the tangents just the 'handles' to adjust the shape?

Sorry for the dumb question...

JSS

PS - Who is the author of the software?  Would they be interested in putting in an add-on for easier rail band shaping?  I have a system that would be very user friendly if the algorithm calculations could be done by software...

[soulvoid]

Hey Havard,

What does "Editing by rotating and extending/retracting tangents using hotkeys" mean?  Are the tangents just the 'handles' to adjust the shape?

Sorry for the dumb question...

JSS

PS - Who is the author of the software?  Would they be interested in putting in an add-on for easier rail band shaping?  I have a system that would be very user friendly if the algorithm calculations could be done by software...

Hi,

not dumb question at all. In the bezier based model, the tangent is the line coming out of a control point that you control by dragging the endpoint of this tangent. In addition you can rotate this tangent or extend and retract it using hotkeys (q,w rotates, e,r extends and retracts) which IMO offers better control, a feature I felt was missing in other board design software. This feature along with a bunch of others are described in the help/getting started on the boardcad.org website.

The software is developed by Ola Helenius, Jonas Hörnstein and Håvard Jakobsen. Fransisco Flores has also contributed. Note that there is no commercial interest behind this software, it's free and open source, community development. Others will hopefully join in and contribute.

We welcome all ideas, if you have any suggestions, contact me or any of the others. Please note though that we do have dayjobs/study and the development is done on our spare time, so don't hold your breath waiting for a particular feature.

regards,

Håvard

[Karl]

Another dumb question Harvaard

I've downloaded v1.0, but can't figure out how to open it?

I can open the web version ok

Karl

[soulvoid]

I've downloaded v1.0, but can't figure out how to open it?

If you have downloaded the boardcad.jar, a doubleclick should do.

[tomway]

Is anyone using BoardCAD on a mac with Leopard?

I'm all up to date with my java and java3d, but when I use the webstart generated logo on my desktop and click the 'allow access to my computer' button, a 'boardcad' header flashes up for a milisecond and then shuts down with no messages. Using the .jar gets a similar result. A 'boardcad.boardcad' header appears at the top of the screen and then disappears.

Any ideas anyone?

[soulvoid]

Is anyone using BoardCAD on a mac with Leopard?

I'm all up to date with my java and java3d, but when I use the webstart generated logo on my desktop and click the 'allow access to my computer' button, a 'boardcad' header flashes up for a milisecond and then shuts down with no messages. Using the .jar gets a similar result. A 'boardcad.boardcad' header appears at the top of the screen and then disappears.

Any ideas anyone?

I'm sorry I do not have access to a mac. Did you try the special mac version from the boardcad.org website? This should work and take care of downloading all you need. I know from some troubleshooting that some versions of OS X come with java3d v1.3 or something, you need to make sure that this one is not active if you run it from the .jar.  Same goes for java, you should have java runtimes 1.5 or 1.6 as the active java runtimes.  If you can set up java to run with a console window, there might be some helpful information there.

[tomway]

Hi Havard, Thanks for your reply and happy Christmas!

Yes, I tried the mac version. I'm not really java savvy so not sure what you mean by using a console window. I'm hopefully getting a new machine soon, so I'll try and do a clean install on that before the software is fiddled with too much. I've set priorities so that the latest versions of java and 3d are used, so don't think it's that.

Cheers!