Can't Execute Critical Functions

Do you have a question you want to ask an existing QCAD user about QCAD and what you can do with it? Do you want to know if a particular feature exists? This is the place to ask.

Moderator: andrew

Forum rules

Always indicate your operating system and QCAD version.

Attach drawing files and screenshots.

Post one question per topic.

Post Reply
Dayvid
Newbie Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:30 am

Can't Execute Critical Functions

Post by Dayvid » Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:42 am

Hi,

First, let me say that I am having some significant problems interacting with this forum. Several times, I have been typing and all of a sudden I am back at the login screen, and my post has evaporated. If you get several chopped up versions of this, that may be why. Anyway, on to the topic.

My son put me onto QCAD, and I installed it a couple of months ago. I am still learning it, but in general, I am pretty impressed with it. It is a little irritating that some functions behave differently during the trial period after launching the program than they do ten minutes or so into the session after that dialog pops up saying that the trial period has expired. I'm not bothered by the functions that are not there until one purchases the product, but by the ones that behave differently in the two cases. This means that until the purchase is made, one has to be aware of which state they are in, or they (at least I) make mistakes by expecting one thing and getting something else. But never mind that for now. That all goes away (I presume) once the full version is purchased.

I must say that the program is quite comprehensive for the small license fee that is asked. The reason that I have not jumped at that and spent the modest charge and made the purchase yet, despite liking the program, is that I and my son have both been completely unsuccessful at executing two critical functions, and without them, the program is nearly worthless to me. I have been able to make nothing happen regarding line weights, and I have not been able to print at all using any of the options provided. It is my understanding that those tools are supposed to work fully during the trial, but my experimenting says that they don't do anything in either trial or the limited version. Without line weights and printing, I will need to find something else.

The line weight thing puzzles me quite a bit. Everything else for the line attributes works fine. I can create any color, choose from a variety of styles, put them on whatever level, tie the attributes to the level or not, and so forth. But nothing I have tried with the weight seems to have any effect. I need to toggle on "screen-based linesypes" for styles to display properly, but that has no impact on line weights. I have found nothing in the help or on the forum that deals with this issue, so I am pretty well stumped.

Similarly, the print functions have been completely unresponsive to us. I have been trying to experiment with different possibilities to figure out how I get a hard copy of a drawing, and the only route that I have found is a workaround using the bitmap export, which is cumbersome and produces a lower quality product than I hope the printout does. Once again, I have found no relevant topics in help or on the forum. The bitmap export contains all one uniform line weight, regardless of the line weights selected, so it does not solve that issue.

Then today, I attempted to do some further testing and experimenting, and I had a frustrating discovery. The splash screen says that I have launched the program 100 times, and that trial mode is no longer available to me. It would have been nice to know that before it actually happened. At this point, I cannot even recreate the problems that I was having so that I can ask appropriate questions. I am fully reliant on my memory to describe the maladies. Had I known that I was nearing the end of the trial, I would have taken more decisive action and not experimented on my own so long. But such is the case now.

Can you salvage me as a potential customer at this point?

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4935
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Can't Execute Critical Functions

Post by Husky » Thu Jan 11, 2018 5:37 am

Hi Dayvid - welcome to the QCAD Forum,

I'm sorry to hear that you had trouble with the QCAD Forum - I'm sure the Admin will have a closer look at that. Thanks for the report!

May I ask you which QCAD Version you are actualy using? The CE or still the Trial?
How did you adjust the line weight? It should be set within the layer attributes. You did it on that way?

Of course the CE Version has limitation compared to the Pro Version but nonetheless you are able to adjust line weights and print them properly.
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

User avatar
andrew
Site Admin
Posts: 9037
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:07 am

Re: Can't Execute Critical Functions

Post by andrew » Thu Jan 11, 2018 11:52 am

Dayvid wrote:First, let me say that I am having some significant problems interacting with this forum. Several times, I have been typing and all of a sudden I am back at the login screen, and my post has evaporated. If you get several chopped up versions of this, that may be why. Anyway, on to the topic.
Please make sure that you log on to qcad.org/rsforum (not ribbonsoft.com/rsforum). Phpbb seems to have problems sometimes running on multiple domains.
Dayvid wrote:It is a little irritating that some functions behave differently during the trial period after launching the program than they do ten minutes or so into the session after that dialog pops up saying that the trial period has expired.
The idea would be to restart at that point. Indeed, newer versions force you to restart after 15min.
Dayvid wrote:That all goes away (I presume) once the full version is purchased.
Yes.
Dayvid wrote:I have been able to make nothing happen regarding line weights
Please attach your drawing file. Perhaps your drawing unit is off, perhaps your paper settings.
Dayvid wrote:and I have not been able to print at all using any of the options provided.
Most likely your paper settings are off. Please follow our step by step printing tutorial at:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=3317
If you can't sort it, again: please attach your drawing file.
Dayvid wrote:Then today, I attempted to do some further testing and experimenting, and I had a frustrating discovery. The splash screen says that I have launched the program 100 times, and that trial mode is no longer available to me.
Please see message sent via private message.

Dayvid
Newbie Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:30 am

Re: Can't Execute Critical Functions

Post by Dayvid » Wed Jan 31, 2018 9:02 pm

Husky wrote:
Hi Dayvid - welcome to the QCAD Forum,
Thanks, Husky, for the reply. I apologize for the delay. I have been busy with other obligations and have not been on the forum since my post. I also expected to be notified by email when anybody responded to my post, but apparently that was a false expectation. I decided to pop on this morning and see if anything had happened.
Husky wrote:
May I ask you which QCAD Version you are actualy using? The CE or still the Trial?
The version from the help menu is 3.16.7.0 (3.16.7). I am not sure what CE means, but I have not paid for the product yet, so I would guess that the answer is the Trial. Oh, wait! I just noticed in big bold letters at the top of the About splash it says “QCAD Professional Trial”.
Husky wrote:
How did you adjust the line weight? It should be set within the layer attributes. You did it on that way?
I believe what you describe is the method I used, although that is no longer available to me since my trial expired, so I cannot validate that. I can also get to control of line weight through [View] [Property Editor] (Key-in G,P). Curiously, that was not available to me except during the first few minutes of each session before the trial expired, but now it is. (???) In any case, both options have a dialog with drop-down lists for Layer, Color, Lineweight, Linetype, Linetype Scale (which may be relevant, but I have not found much info on what this setting does), Draw Order, and Handle. Except for the Lineweight, the first four seem to function exactly as I would expect, but that fourth attribute seems totally unresponsive. I can change the setting in the drop-down, and that is saved, but it does not seem to have any impact on the way the line itself looks. The line weight value is retained, but no matter what I have tried, the line always looks the same. As I said in my original post, I found that it is necessary to toggle on [View] [Screen-based Linetypes] to actually see the line type displayed, but I have found no similar function for the line weight.

Dayvid
Newbie Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:30 am

Re: Can't Execute Critical Functions

Post by Dayvid » Wed Jan 31, 2018 9:30 pm

Please make sure that you log on to qcad.org/rsforum (not ribbonsoft.com/rsforum). Phpbb seems to have problems sometimes running on multiple domains.

Done as requested. That's where I was.

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4935
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Can't Execute Critical Functions

Post by Husky » Wed Jan 31, 2018 9:46 pm

Hi Dayvid,
Dayvid wrote:I can change the setting in the drop-down, and that is saved, but it does not seem to have any impact on the way the line itself looks. The line weight value is retained, but no matter what I have tried, the line always looks the same. As I said in my original post, I found that it is necessary to toggle on [View] [Screen-based Linetypes] to actually see the line type displayed, but I have found no similar function for the line weight.
This feature has nothing to do with the used QCAD Version. It works on CE, Trial and Pro.

I will attache a drawing which shows two lines with different Lineweights. The attributes are given within the layer. To see the difference between Screen based Linetypes on/off play around with that tool (shortcut NL) and you should see something like this.
Husky-2018.01.31-04.png
Husky-2018.01.31-04.png (901 Bytes) Viewed 9302 times
Husky-2018.01.31-03.png
Husky-2018.01.31-03.png (905 Bytes) Viewed 9302 times
Lineweight test.dxf
(25.06 KiB) Downloaded 513 times
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

Post Reply

Return to “Pre-sales Questions”