CAD COMPO

CAD-COMPO 2 is a plug-in software includes BPT-Pro2 and EXDXF-Pro2. BPT-Pro2 is software that adds a highly functional 2D-CAD program into Illustrator. EXDXF-Pro2 provides functionality to import CAD standard DXF files to Illustrator, and to export.

Pros: This application is a plug-into Adobe Illustrator. It contains two BPT-Pro2 provides 2D CAD program functionalities to the Illustrator. The second module EXDXF-Pro2 provides the capability to import/export modules. This provides the necessary link with applications, particularly that 2D CAD standard AutoCAD, via the drawing format standard DXF. Illustrator becomes a highly functional 2D-CAD program, equipped with 8 kinds and 17 different tools, all accessed through the Illustrator tool box with a convenient information palette. While the drawing tools of Illustrator are used these modules add specialized engineering 2D drawing needs into the basic package. Initial settings are done to set the measurement units, accuracy etc. For example shape, resolution, unit, unit decimal accuracy, font to be used for dimension values and shape, weight of dimension lines and the style of the pointers etc can be set. Specialized drawing tools that get added are arc tools (tangential lines, three points, center & two points etc.),fillet tools (addition, separate & replace types), angle and slant tools, object number tool, comment tool and a schedule tool that lets you add a BOM schedule. The information shows various useful information within a window, These include the X, Y co-ordinates of the cursor on the screen, length measurements etc. are provided. The length measurement actually measures the true length of an element taking all the segments into account. You can easily display the dimensions of objects. Whole set of dimensioning tools are available with the plug-in that include beside the straight dimensioning oblique dimensions, curved dimensions, radius/diameter dimensions etc.

Cons: To be really useful the compatibility with other CAD applications is important and that takes a lot of testing to establish. One should run benchmarks with samples from his own domain to test this out. The help manuals could have been more readable.

Overall a nice program, easy to use and extends functionality of an existing program. This is very good at 3 star level.

Adobe Illustrator "2D-CAD component plug-in" CAD-COMPO is a plug-in software includes "BPT-Pro2" and "EXDXF-Pro2" . BPT-Pro2 is a software to add a highly functional 2D-CAD program into Illustrator. "EXDXF-Pro2" provides that to import CAD standard DXF files to Illustrator, and to export Ai files to CAD. Illustrator becomes a highly functional 2D-CAD program, equipped with 8 kinds and 17 different tools, all accessed through the Illustrator tool box with a convenient information palette. You can easily display the dimensions of objects, to the object itself, and even groups of objects. To export and import to bridge Adobe Illustrator and the CAD. EXDXF-Pro2 provides you with the capability to import CAD standerd DXF files to Adobe Illustrator, and to export AI files to CAD allowing you to make your data compatible in both applications.