There are two versions of the TriTools toolkit available. This feature list shows all tools that are in the initial release of TriTools, originally developed to work with VCADD3. During our involvement with IMSI in the development of Visual CADD 4, they asked us to add MultiLine, MultiBreak, the Bearing Tools and a couple of the Drawing Previews to VCADD4. Since they are now part of the program, these tools have been removed from the TriTools for Visual CADD 4 toolkit. 

Drawing Previews:

• Look at a Preview picture of .VCD files before loading. Here's a Screen Shot.
• Easily batch your archived Visual CADD files to include the file Preview.
• Edit Vector Font files from within a Visual CADD drawing. For example, you could modify the spacing of a character, create custom characters --even design a new font. A Screen Shot.

Modify Tools:

• Break Multiple lines. We offer three new break tools: MultiBreak (BM) will break lines to points or snap points, just like the Visual CADD Break command, but with multiple lines. FenceTrim (NT) lets you draw a "fence" around an entity and break objects to the fence. Here's a Screen Shot. BreakTo (BT) breaks one or several entities to two objects you pick as a cutting edge; neither the break lines or the cutting edges need to be perpendicular to each other (this is a limitation with Break in Visual CADD). Here's a Screen Shot.
• Quickly change Ortho Angle by typing a 2 letter command for OrthoMatch (OT) and picking an angle to match. The angle match can be a line, arc, text, dim, leader, symbol --even a reference frame. This is a nested command so you can change the angle "on the fly", even after you've started another command.
• Copy and Rotate an object(s) with one 2L command --no need to copy it and then pick it again to rotate it.
• Move and Rotate an object(s) with one 2L command --no need to move it and then pick it again to rotate it.
• JoinCorner (JC) lets you trim two lines to a common intersection with two mouse clicks. Lines can be crossing each other and extended beyond, or short of each other and not touching. Each line can be 90 degrees perpendicular or any other angle.

Line Tools:

• A full featured Multiline tool (as found in Generic CADD): draw up to 16 lines at once, each with separate settings for layer, color, linetype and linewidth. Save settings for each Multiline style and quickly call them up later. Here's a Screen Shot.
• A Bearing Distance (BD) tool that allows you to set up drawing coordinates beginning at any angle, and then enter distance and bearing based on those coordinates. Great for quickly developing site plans from survey information. Here's a Screen Shot.
• A Persistent Line (LI) tool, so that if you are working in Selection Tool or Continuous Line mode, you can draw any number of single lines and then return to your default tool with a Pen Up.
• A GCADD Line (LN) tool, so that if you are working in Selection Tool or Single Line mode, you can draw continuous lines as long as you want, and then return to your default tool with a Pen Up. It works exactly like the VCADD Continuous Line tool, with an important difference: you can "Undo" individual line segments with our tool after you've placed it --an undo in VCADD with Continuous Line erases the whole thing.
• A New Double Line (DN) tool that offers an alternate to VCADD. With ours you can "Undo" individual line segments after you've finished the command --an undo in VCADD with Double Line erases the whole thing. And the VCADD Double Line tool doesn't let you "Undo Vertex" - erase the last line segment(s) while drawing. Our double line does. The VCADD tool allows you to fill the double line and autofillet it --ours does not.

Dimension Tools:

• You can quickly dimension a floor plan or other drawing that uses Linear Dimensions with our All Line Dims (MM) tool. Draw a selection window around the plan and start the tool. You'll be prompted to place the first dim --the only decision to make is how far the dimline will be off the object. Once you mouse click to set the dim, the next dimline will automatically popup, waiting for placement. This will continue until all dims are placed around the plan.
• Persistent Dimensioning (DP) lets you quickly place individual or strings of dimensions and then return to your default tool with a PenUp or Escape. No need to double click in the toolbars to change between default tools.
• Bearing Label (BB) works like the All Line Dim tool described above. It is normally used with our Bearing Distance (BD) command, although it will work with any series of lines drawn in Visual CADD. Once you've finished drawing a site plan with BD, draw a selection window around the entire plan, and type BB. The first dimension will be attached to your cursor (showing both the distance and bearing), and you would then place it. Immediately the next dimension will attach to the cursor, aligned to the next line. This will continue until all Bearing Labels have been placed. For an example of what a Bearing Label might look like, look at this Screen Shot.
• In Visual CADD, when you select a dimension to edit, you can right click a Popup menu and choose the Dimension Line Move command to stretch a dimension. We provide a 2L command to quickly do the same thing.
• Toggle "Use Dim Layer" on and off with a 2L command so that you can quickly choose between putting dimensions on a specific layer or the current layer.

Text & Leader Tools:

• Type text right onto your screen with our RealText (RT) tool. No more bounding boxes --you can see what's happening in "real time". Also, if you select an existing text line and type RT, you can edit the text either onscreen or in a custom dialog box which takes up a lot less screen "real estate" than the Visual CADD text editor dialog. Here's a Screen Shot.
• Type leader text right onto your screen with our RealLeader (RL) tool. Works just the same as the VCADD Leader tool, except that text is displayed onscreen as you type. And select an existing leader, type RL, and edit the leader text either onscreen or in a custom dialog. Here's a Screen Shot. You can also assign a layer, color and linewidth to Real Leader.
• A Leader Flip (LF) tool lets you flip the text and shoulder of leaders you have already placed in the drawing.
• Justify text to left, center or right with a 2L command before placement.
• Toggle "Use Text Layer" on and off with a 2L command so that you can quickly choose between putting text on a specific layer or the current layer.

Offset Tools:

• Assign Leaders, Hatches, Fills, and Points to a specific layer, or Offset them from your current layer by any number you choose (within the 1024 layers available in Visual CADD).

Toggles:

• 2 Letter commands to toggle on and off the display of points, hatches, fills, linetypes and linewidths. Also toggle on and off the "Hidden Layer" message dialog that pops up whenever you open a drawing with hidden layers.
• 2 Letter commands to toggle on and off the display of each part of a dimension --extensions, arrows, text and dim lines. An added feature since they were introduced in VCGTools: you can now highlight an existing dimension and then call up these commands to change any part of the dimension.
• 2 Letter commands to toggle on and off the display of Running Snaps. Each snap can be turned on and off "on the fly".

File Editing Tools:

• Customize Visual CADD by editing ASCII files from right within the drawing window. 2L commands open cmdext.def, Alias.cmd, Vcadd3.ini and other files in an editor on top of your drawing. Once you've saved the changes, they immediately work --no need to close Visual CADD and restart it. We include our own editor that lets you open multiple ASCII files, cut and paste between them, search and replace --features not available in Notepad.

Help File: 

• A detailed Help file documenting each tool. There is a section on how to customize Visual CADD to fully use our tools --a primer on Custom Commands, how to change 2L shortcuts, and how to add any of our commands to your menus and toolbars.
  

Questions or comments? e-mail: sales@tritools.com