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
Program looks pretty sweet… some very cool features I had wished to see in APS/AKU. I really appreciate the free tools to work with as well!!!
Questions (possibly dumb):
If I open a .brd file in BC (just to view- no changes), will it modify the original file in any way?
If I modify it in BC, save it as a .brd, then HULA the file (this machine still uses APS) would that increase the chance of issues when cutting or corruption of the file?
I tried upgrading my version of Java through software update. Didn’t make any difference. All of Sun’s (Java) links seem to point back to Apple as well.
Opening a file in BoardCAD will not in any way affect the content of the file. BoardCAD loads Akushaper format but saves in the older Aps3000 format, you don’t need to ‘hula’. While I cannot guarantee that the files are 100% compatible, we’ve made an effort to make sure the files work with Aps3000, AkuShaper and Shape3D. Backing up your files is as always a good idea.
We’re using Java 6 for some of the features in BoardCAD. For some reason Apple is quite slow in updating Java for Mac OS X. A developer preview is available from http://developer.apple.com/java/download/ (you need to register) or use the http://landonf.bikemonkey.org/static/soylatte/ port. Unfortunately I don’t have a Mac so I’m unable to test this, however we’ve had several beta testers use BoardCAD with an earlier pre-release of the Apple developer solution. I hope that Apple will release Java 6 soon so it will run seamless, if not we need to find another solution. Stripping some features and making a specific Mac version to make it run with the Java version that comes with OS X is one solution.
works on my dual intel imac at home… not on my macbook pro 1.83… same java. different graphics cards. mac and java are at loggerheads with updates while mac is working on thier own java replacement to come in future… you need to play with your java preferences after you download from apple developer site the beta java updates… some older macs you just wont get it to go… great program. almost finished have trouble with mac/java printing too… oh well lucky i have vmware and a couple old windows crapboxes to use too…
have had to play with my java preferences each beta release on my macs as its not easy to stop mac updating your java back to thier reccomendations
Looks like Apple once again is abandoning support for their own hardware thats still in use by plenty of folks. The first Intel Macs where 32 bit machines and most of them are less than 2 years old.
