CADtools

CADtools

CadTools, free3Dand surfaceutility for AutoCad(and ZWCAD 2018-2021)

Design your civil work in real 3D with this handy tool!

Latest update: 2020-12-11Build 744
Cadtools 2021
Cadtools 11
MyCADtools is a Gold Partner product that offers approximately 70 utilities for SOLIDWORKS and SOLIDWORKS PDM. All these tools have the same objectives: Adapt the CAD tool to your organisation and your work methods, Reduce time lost due to managing CAD data in favour of design and innovation. Mechanical Engineering Design and Analysis of Electronic Systems Operated by Scott Lee, PE, Cadtools LLC is an engineering service company that focuses on the Mechanical Design and Analysis of Electronic, Electro-mechanical and Electro-optical systems. Core Areas of Expertise include.
CadTools (ToolBox) is developed for Civil Engineers using AutoCAD. There are a number of great software on the market supporting the design process of roads, rails etc. For minor design work CadTools can be very useful,  it contains more than50 commandsmostly in real 3D to support your work.
By combining separate commands through the work process you can achieve almost anything you want.When I developed the commands I certainly had some situations in mind but every command can be used in a variety of situations not onlyin civil work design.
With CadTools you can create your own surface models based on objects in the drawing or import triangles from DWG (other civil software). You can create profiles and cross-sections of multiple surfaces, calculate volumes and plot contours.
It's easy and fun creating real 3D models with CadTools commands, some of these commands can only be found in software that you have to pay money for.
 I work as a civil designer at one of Sweden's leading consulting companies.My main tool for civil design is Bentley InRoads/RailTrack, one of the best software I've seen. Sometimes you need something less complicated so I started developing CadTools while traveling to work by train.
 After more than five years and thousands of hours of developing this software now is a powerful tool way beyond my first intentions.Honestly I can't be without it,hope you will feel the same.

CadTools is an out of process software and supports AutoCAD versions: 2001-2021. (vanilla and verticals i.e. Civil 3D). It also supports ZWCAD+ (2014-2015 and 2018-2021)


Major Commands in CadTools are listed below. CadTools has a complete helpfile with images of command results.
Text
 Insert or remove characters to single line text.
Align text to UCS and scale it.
Align Text to Left.
Send selected text to Excel
Line Aligned Text
Capitalize/Uncapitalize text

Lines
Area calculation of polylines based on color or layer. Results can be exported to Excel
Export polyline coordinates to Excel
Length calculate of polylines based on color or layer. Results can be exported to Excel
Reverse polyline
Point section and offset from polyline
Draw slopemarks from polylines
Offset 3DPolylines
Create cylinders (pipes) from polylines/lines.
Profile 3DPolyline
 Create road signs and markings
 Level out 3Dpolyline
 Transverse 3D lines between 3D Polylines (3D Slope signs)
Join 3D Polylines
 Draw Slope Arrows for 3Dpolylines (Ditch bottom slope direction)
 Stationing Polyline
Line Aligned Text
 Edit Polyline Elevation and slope (In table)
Create 3D alignment from plan and profile
Best fit, 3D-polyline regression.
Simplify command for 3D-polylines
 Set polyline elevation by nearest text, fixes contours with no elevation but text!
Lines/Polylines to EPANET INP-file
 Layers
All layers on
 All layers off but selected
All layers off but current
Layer off by object
Xref layer freeze by single object
Move to layer by object
 Set current layer by object
 Delete layer

Draw
Draw polylines, circles and blocks from coordinates. Paste from Excel to CadTools
 Surface
 Generate longitudinal features (ditch bottom, surface interception) with cut/fill tick marks. 
 Import Triangulated Surface from Graphic (from other software)
 Triangle Volume and color cut/fill areas in plan.
Triangulate objects (create surface models)
Drape surface with objects and lines
Pick and annotate elevation from surface
 Create wireframe surface
 Cut & Fill areas in cross-sections
 Create Surface Profiles
 Create Surface Cross Section
 View Surface Slope and Direction
View Perimeter for flat (or any slope interval) Surface Areas
Pick and annotate Slope vector from surface
Constrained triangulation (breaklines)
 Surface Contours
Trickle, traces the path of a drop of water down a selected surface.
Volume by Elevation, triangle volumes at intervals
 Trickle All, evaluate surface water paths.

Convert
 Convert 3DPolylines to 2Dpolylines
 Convert 3DFaces to 3Dpolylines
 Convert arc to 3Dpolyline
 Create coordinate grid
 Place sloped text
 Convert Circle to 3Dpolyline

Xref
Open Xref by Object
 Detach Xref by Object
Save/Load Xref-settings to/from file
Block
Edit block attribute text
Annotate block elevation
Drainage network evaluation, evaluation of block (manholes) and Lines (pipes). Result in Excel
 Export block information to Excel (coordinates, attribute values)
Hatch
Export Hatch area to Excel
Miscellaneous
Vehicle Turning Simulation (Vehicle Tracking)
Drafting
Annotate Profiles/Cross sections
Vehicle Turning Simulation (Swept path analysis). Configure vehicles of your own and do analysis in the drawing. Much faster design than using turning templates.

Create surface cross-sections as 2D or 3D. Display crossing reference lines

 Surface Contours


 View Surface slope and direction.
 Easily detect flat areas.
 Perimeter of areas with userdefined slopes.

 Create real 3D cut and fill by applying end-conditions to 3Dpolylines.
 Very simple and powerful step by step process.



 Create Give Way


 Create Chevrons

Limitations:
CadTools does not work with AutoCadLT.Some features are limited for unregistered users.

Windows Vista users!Problems running CadTools? Probably it's Vista's UAC dabbling, try to launch CadTools as an Administrator. Simply find the shortcut for CadTools, right click on it then in the Compatibility tab select the option that say: Run this program as an Administrator.

If you are using Bricscad you will find the Vehicle Turning in BricsTurn. The Vehicle Turning is also available as a freeware for Microstation V8. MSTurn 
Downloads
Download (MSI-file,ca 7,2 Mb), Last updated 2020-12-11Build 744
Alternative download (ca 13,5 Mb Zip-file containing complete installation and update plus reference manual)
Update for CadTools (ca 3,8 Mb), Last updated 2020-12-11 Build 744
Download update only. If you already installed CadTools and only need the update, use this link.
Additional downloads
Reference Manual English (ca 2,6 Mb) (PDF document, printed documentation 112 pages, updated 2014-06-20)
Reference Manual Italian (Translated by Gennaro Bellaiuto)
Video Samples (Collection of video demonstrations)
Default Vehicle library (metric) Vehicle samples in metric units
Default Vehicle library (imperial, 2013-05-13) Vehicle samples in imperial units
Portable version of  Build 736
CadToolsPortable (ca 33 Mb) Run CadTools from a USB stick (Virtualized)


CadTools Forum
Online discussion site for CadTools.
How much should I donate? There is no right answer to that, the result is always the same no matter how much or little you donate.
Received donations are used for payingServer, Domain and Software fees.

Please note that donation notifications are sent to me from PayPal by email and I manually send you a registration email as soon as possible.
Generally I respond same day.If you haven't received a responding email in a couple of days, check your spam filter or post a message to me in CadTools forum.
lars.karlsson@glamsen.se
Latest update (2020-12-11Build 744)
CadTools internal SpreadSheet had problems with copying. Copy All worked but not Copy Selected. This is now fixed.
Latest update (2020-12-03Build 743)
The preview window in 'Create Longitudinal Features' didn't show up.

Latest update (2020-11-24Build 742)
Exporting to spreadsheet with setting 'Excel is not installed on this computer' did not showed CadTools internal SpreadSheet. 
Latest update (2020-11-06Build 741)
Added support for ZWCAD 2021
Latest update (2020-10-27Build 740)
Fixed a delivery bug in previous update, I missed to exclude test code.
Cadtools 2021Latest update (2020-10-26Build 739)
Extended 'Draw from Coordinates' with 'Multiple Block insert' type and Layer overrides for type 'Text at Point'

Latest update (2020-11-24Build 742)
Exporting to spreadsheet with setting 'Excel is not installed on this computer' did not showed CadTools internal SpreadSheet. 
Latest update (2020-11-06Build 741)
Added support for ZWCAD 2021
Latest update (2020-10-27Build 740)
Fixed a delivery bug in previous update, I missed to exclude test code.
Cadtools 2021Latest update (2020-10-26Build 739)
Extended 'Draw from Coordinates' with 'Multiple Block insert' type and Layer overrides for type 'Text at Point'
Cadtools 11
Revision History

View Surface slope and direction. Easily detect flat areas. Perimeter of areas with userdefined slopes.	Create real 3D cut and fill by applying end-conditions to 3Dpolylines. Very simple and powerful step by step process.
Create Give Way	Create Chevrons