GstarCAD Standard includes the function of 2D plane drawing. GstarCAD Professional adds 3D and dynamical block functions on the base of Standard version; Academic version includes all the functions, but there are watermarks on printings and the size of drawings are limited.

If you uses standard version to open your drawing which contains some 3D entities such as region, 3D solid, this condition will happen; If you use professional version, such condition will disappear.

Yes. There are more than 200,000 software installations in around 100 countries and regions, in order to help users design with GstarCAD more conveniently, we are preparing for more and more local versions. It contains Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Hebrew and others. You can download it in the website if this local version has been released.

.dwg is the default drawing format of GstarCAD; at present, GstarCAD is compatible with ever version of .dwg and .dxf files from 2.5 to 2010, it is means GstarCAD is compatible from AutoCAD 2.5 to AutoCAD 2012. If you are using AutoCAD 2013, you have to exchange the file with GstarCAD and save it as earlier .dwg version before 2010. By the way, GstarCAD will be compatible with AutoCAD 2013 soon.

GstarCAD Professional supports the creation, editing and displaying of dynamic blocks, GstarCAD Standard can display dynamic blocks properly, but it cannot edit dynamic blocks.

The free Trial period of GstarCAD is ONE month. During the free Trial period, all the functions are not limited; some functions of the software will be limited once the Trial Period expires. Therefore, please notice the hint of Trial Version on the title bar; the drawings will not be saved once free charge period expires. Even if you have bought GstarCAD Network version, in case the expiration prompts while software starts, please check the connection between server to avoid the situation that the drawings cannot be saved.

If your Activation mode is Dongle, the software will work properly on another PC. If the Activation mode is Flexnet, you have to return the Flexnet license before changing your PC and generate a request for activation file on the new computer, and contact GstarCAD to generate the activation response file, after activates it again, the software will be used properly on the new PC.

There's no limitation for using after buying it; and according to the issues that users submitted; 4 or 5 patch versions will be released during the year for the software improvement. Users can update to these patch versions freely. Regularly, you will be charged, if you want to update to a higher version.

Open the "Tools>Options>Files" panel, there is an option of "Automatic Save File Location", the option records the path of current auto saved files. Users can change to other folders. Please make sure that the folder is writable first.

".bak" files are backup copies of .dwg drawings. The .bak files will help users to recover drawings once accident happens, such as blackout or system crash. You can uncheck the box of "create backup when save" which is in the panel of "Tools>Options>Open and Save". You can also type MAKEBAK command, and input 0 or off to close this function.

To realize the preview of drawings, you need allow GstarCAD to save a thumbnail; this option can be set in the "Tools>Options>Open and Save" panel.

There's no fixed standard value for the time of auto save, users can set it according to the power of the office, and the stabilization of PC system etc. Generally speaking, 30 minutes will be comfortable for most of the users.

After the accidents, you can use "Start>Drawing Utilities>Drawing Recovery Manager" to open the auto saved files for recovering. If the recovery manager didn't start up properly, you will find the .sv$ file with same name under the auto save folder, change its extended name to ".dwg" to open it. Or, if the auto save file was not generated, you can find the .bak file with same name under the saving folder; change its extended name to ".dwg" to open it.

You can set password when you save a file in GstarCAD. The method is following: In "Save Drawing As" dialog box, press "Tools" button then choose "security options". In "security options" dialog you can set password for your file.

You can create PDF file using "export" command or "publish" command. Another method is printing PDF by PDF virtual printer.

You can control the visibility of status bar in view>display>status bar; Ctrl+9 controls the visibility of command line

From GstarCAD 2011, the Ribbon interface was added as the default interface, but the classic interface is still popular as well, so GstarCAD provides a convenient way to switch between them.

Way 1: Find "Style" at upper-right corner to select "Classic interface" in the menu. You can also select the interface style in it.

Way 2: Type the WS command, and input 3 for Classic interface, or input 1 for Ribbon interface.

Same to other CAD software, GstarCAD can switch drawings by shortcut of Crl+Tab. GstarCAD has a more convenient mode: file tab bar. The names of drawings are displayed on the tabs; you can switch quickly and precisely by click the file names.

If the icons at toolbar are too small for you, you can use big icons, type OP command to open the "Configuration" dialog box; check "Use Big Icon at Toolbar" in the "Display" panel.

Use "tbconfig" command to select the toolbars which you need in the dialog box.

Reduce the quantity of application programs running together with Windows, and the quantity of opening drawings in GstarCAD. Use "Purge" to erase useless drawing datum in DWG drawing. Reduce snap items or not snap if not necessary.

Select "Tools/Option" or input "Config" or "Op" in command line to open "Configuration" dialogue box, in "drafting" and "selection" option card you can set the size of pickbox and snap aperture.

It is because the display resolution of arc is too low, you can set the value in Tools>Options>Display. You also can use system variable "viewres" to control the display resolution of arc and circle.

The main reason is system variable "attmode" value is 0. Input "attmode" in command line then change the parameter from 0 to 1. The function of system variable "attmode":

Turn the display of attributes on or off (visible or invisible), or maintains their active assigned state. Range: 0 (All attributes invisible), 1 (Normal-based on setting as defined for the individual attribute), 2 (All attributes visible)

Default: 1

If you set the system variable "dimassoc" as 0, you will meet this situation. In GstarCAD, system variable "dimassoc" supports 0,1 and 2

0
Create exploded dimensions. There is no association between the various elements of the dimension. The lines, arcs, arrowheads, and text of a dimension are drawn as separate objects.

1
Create non-associative dimension objects. The elements of the dimension are formed into a single object. If one of the definition points of the dimension moves, the dimension is updated.

2
Create associative dimension objects. The elements of the dimension are formed into a single object, and one or more definition points of the dimension are coupled with association points on geometric objects. If the association point on the geometric object moves, the dimension location, orientation, and value are updated.

GstarCAD provides two ways to open files, one is visible "Open" dialog box, and the other one is to type the file path in the command line. Type "FILEDIA" in the command line, if its value is set as 0, the "Open" dialog box will never pop out; if its value is set as 1, the "Open" dialog box will pop out after the OPEN command was input.

GstarCAD provides two modes of hatching, when system variable fill is set as 1, hatched entities are visible; when system variable fill is set as 0, and hatched entities are invisible.

Besides, when hatched entities are too many, and exceed the default maximum of MAXHATCHDENSITY of GstarCAD, some of hatched entities are not visible. The entities will be displayed after revise the variable and open the drawing again.

GstarCAD utilizes the system variable PICKADD to control the selection mode, when PICKADD＝0, only the latest picked entity (or entities) will be selected; when PICKADD＝1, the newly picked entity (or entities) will be added to existed selection set. There's another way to set the variable: open properties box (Ctrl+1), then click the button to switch the status of PICKADD.

Execute the OPTIONS (OP) command to open "Configuration" dialog box, then click the "Reset" button of the "Profile" panel to restore the initial settings of GstarCAD.

The middle mouse button has two working modes, the variable MBUTTONPAN can be switched in the two different working modes. When MBUTTONPAN＝0, the Snap setting menu will pop out when middle mouse button is clicked; when MBUTTONPAN＝1, panning will be realized when middle mouse button is held.

The default axises of X\Y\Z of crosshair are different color in GstarCAD; the length of it is 5% of the drawing window. If you want to adjust the color or size of the crosshair, what you need to do is just to find the "Display" panel in the "Configuration" dialog box.

To distinguish between the external references and other drawings, GstarCAD fades the external references, so the external references are displayed as gray. Users can modify the system variable XDWGFADECTL to adjust the display of the external references. Because this is a long command, you can take the advantage of dynamic input function of GstarCAD; open the dynamic input at status bar and type XD in the drawing window, you will see the related commands, you can select command with your mouse.

GstarCAD provides two modes of reference editing, one is to edit it in-place; the other is to open and edit the original drawing. The value of system variable XREFEDITMODE can control the editing mode of references, when XREFEDITMODE=2, the external reference entities can be edited at current viewing window.

You can change Z coordinate in Express Pop-menu in GstarCAD. You can select all objects and then change the Z coordinate to uniform value, such as 0. It is better to find out the reason why the Z coordinate is not 0 to avoid the same situation again.

You can use command GROUP and GROUPEXPLODE to create group and explode group. You also can use toolbar shortcut button.

Hatch patterns of GstarCAD are saved in the catalogue of GstarCAD -- Professional\Patterns. You can directly paste the edited or copied hatch definitions into icad.pat files, or save one or more hatch patterns as independent *.pat files and put it under the "Patterns" catalog. It is suggested not to paste whole acad.pat into icad.pat. The new version CAD software has stored plenty of hatch patterns. Please pay attention when you save a file as independent *.pat file, the name of the file should be the same as the hatch name defined in the file.

Line width can be displayed by pressing the button "LWT" in Status Bar.

Select "Tools/Customize/Edit Program Parameter" in pop-menu, Open dialog box and you can select command in the list, then input an alias to add alias. You also can edit the icad.pgp directly by Notepad inside Windows.

If you want add .shx files, you can copy them to the folder -- GstarCAD Professional\Fonts. Please don't copy the whole font file of other software to GstarCAD randomly; it is better only to copy useful font files. If you want add .ttf (truetype) files, you can copy them to "Fonts" folder of Windows.

The font files between the CAD software may be different. If font files are the same completely, then the text size should be the same. Even if font files of the same name between the different CAD software may be not the same completely. You can testify if they are the same files according to byte quantity and creating date.

Most of the designers are used to confirm or repeat the last one command by right-click, it is more efficient. GstarCAD provides very detailed options for right-click button: input OP command to open "Options" dialog box, click the "Right-click Customization" button in "User Preferences", then the dialog box of "Right-click Customization" will pop out, you can set all the functions in this dialog box.

The default texts editing is WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) mode in GstarCAD, which means that it'll keep the original status of texts when editing them. But, it is not convenient to view or edit the vertical or slant texts. If the system variable MTEXTFIXED is set as 2, texts will be rotated to horizontal direction if it is vertical or slant and the size will become bigger if it's too small. Users also can set this variable in multiple-line text settings. Open Multiple Line Text then click the right button and select the "Editor Settings", uncheck "Always Display as WYSIWYG".

You can set some layers as "Not Plot" in layer manager; the entities on the layers cannot be printed out. If similar situation appeared, please check if the layer was set as "Not Plot".

GstarCAD controls the color and lineweight of the drawings' output by Plot style table. If the drawing is designed in multiple colors, you just need to set the output color as black when print it. GstarCAD provides some preset Plot style tables, if you need to print the drawings in monochrome; you just need to select monochrome.ctb then click the Edit button to adjust lineweight. If you want your drawings to use the same printing setting, you can save the CTB file. Notice: Plot style table only controls the indexed color, if your drawings used true color; it is not controlled by Plot style table. If you want the true color can be printed according to the Plot style table, just click the "Advanced" button in the "Print" panel and check the "Use the transform from the true colour".

Yes, GstarCAD supports AutoLisp, Vlisp, ADS (SDS), VBA, ARX (GRX) for your own applications. If your Lisp, ADS, VBA, ARX applications are based on IntelliCAD or AutoCAD, most of the Lisp applications can be migrated to GstarCAD directly with just a little or no modification. VBA applications can be migrated to GstarCAD with just a little modification. ADS, ARX applications can be porting to GRX.

Execute "appload"(AP) command, and then you can load LISP application such as .lsp, .fas, .vlx file. If you want load it automatically when GstarCAD startup, select the loaded lisp in "History record file" panel and then press "Add to Auto-load" button to add it to" Start group list", you also can add related sentence in "icadautoload.lsp".

ARX programs which are based on AutoCAD platform cannot run on GstarCAD directly, GRX is for GstarCAD, GRX has high compatibility with ARX, usually, and it can be used on GstarCAD platform after just a little modification.

In the design center of GstarCAD you can display layers, block, text style, dimension style of the opened drawing; you also can modify, and delete related parameter such as text style. Furthermore in GstarCAD design center you can drag blocks to tool palettes or create new tool palettes, you also can browse and insert raster image files

Two main operation systems are supported by GstarCAD MC – Android and iOS.

GstarCAD MC is mainly designed for viewing drawings, it can read .dwg, .dxf and OCF files, but cannot save drawings. GstarCAD MC Pro can read .dwg, .dxf and OCF files; and it has a lot of extended functions for communicate and design on site.

Use the function of GstarCAD – "Start>Export OCF file".

OCF format is developed by Gstarsoft; it is a kind of drawings' format for smartphones and tablets. The advancements of OCF are its high security and low consumption to hardware system resources.

Yes, when free of charge period expires, the saving function is restricted by GstarCAD, the other functions are still working.

It is easy to transmit a drawing via iTunes:

1. Connect your IOS device to a PC with a USB cable.
2. Open iTunes and switch the page of the device, choose the application in the menu.
3. Find GstarCAD MC PRO in file sharing section and click "Add" button. Then, the drawings or fonts will be added into local drawing page system.
4. Furthermore, GstarCAD MC also supports to download attachments from webpages. You can put your drawings in your Email attachments or network disk to open it by GstarCAD MC. The latest version can open the web attachments directly. What you need to do is to right-click the attachment in an Email or a webpage, and to select "Open it by GstarCAD MC".