FidoCadJ / News: Recent posts

Hi to all,
we have put online FidoCadJ 0.24.4.
For the moment, the jar archive is up-to-date and so is the MacOSX version. You will have to wait a little for the Windows installer, but you can still download the fidocadj.jar file and use it on Windows.

This version contains a complete reorganization of the source code. It is more portable and modular. Much of this work is directed towards the development of an Android app. We expect to release it this summer, so stay tuned!... read more

Hi to everyone,
today, FidoCadJ 0.24.3 is out. A lot of bugs have been corrected, so I hope this will be a quite stable version.
Here are the detailed list of changes from the previous version.

• You can navigate through search results in the library using the Return key and not just the arrow keys (by Mancuso Raffaele).
• Czech translation of the user interface (by Chemik582)
• Corrected bug #36 "A spline-bug with FidoCadJ 0.24"
• Corrected bug #45 "Color Print instead of Black and White print (or exported file)"
• Corrected bug #43 and #44 "Wrong component font when using a personally created component"
• The "Split non standard macros while saving" modal option has been replaced by an immediate menu item. It always works similarly to "save as..."
• The select library directory (elsewhere than on MacOSX) shows a list of libraries in the currently selected dir. Many thanks to
• Added "Select All" to the contextual popup menu (part of request #36).
• Corrected the undo bug #47.
• Deleted a nasty bug which in some cases produced very big temp directories, slowing down the startup and the overall use of FidoCadJ.
• Added the command line option "-k" to show the code of the current locale.
• Corrected a bug: when the grid pitch is changed, the results were not shown immediately.
• When zoom level is increased or decreased with the magnification tool, the place where the user clicks is centered (request #18).... read more

Dear all,
I uploaded the new stable version of FidoCadJ, the multiplatform graphical editor for electronics. For the moment, only the Java archive (jar) file and the MacOSX bundle have been updated. I hope the Win installer will be updated soon.
Here is what it has been done in version 0.24.2:

• Users can now create new library symbols and edit existing libraries.
• Standard and non standard libraries are identified by different icons.
• Macros can be split (select one, then right click and "split macro").
• Removed the "Show origin for macros" which is now useless.
• Macros can be moved through user defined libraries via drag and drop in the library tree.
• When running on Linux, the sun.java2d.opengl option is no longer activated.
• Corrected bug #41 ("Components' shapes disappear").
• Corrected bug #20 ("Negative zoom reading file from command line").
• Japanese translation of the user interface.
• When introducing text, a list of some UTF-8 characters (maths symbols, greek letters...) is now available and very easy to use.
• Corrected a bug with the standard font used for the text associated to elements.
• The "Split non standard macros while copy/pasting" modal option has been replaced by an immediate menu item.
• Rough centering of the drawing under the mouse pointer while doing a zoom.
• Corrected a bug concerning the library directory choice and the Cancel action while working on MacOSX.... read more

Dear all,
I just upgraded the last release candidate (FidoCadJ 0.24.1 theta) to the "stable" 0.24.1 version.
Here is a list of what it has been done in this version:

• Added a link to the Sourceforge project page in the About dialog (request #3531298).
• Now Java 1.5 is needed for compiling FidoCadJ.
• The standard libraries now are stdlib, ihram, elettrotecnica and pcb. Their elements will not be converted in primitives when the "split non standard symbols" option is active, UNLESS the "Strict compatibility with FidoCAD" mode is selected.
• The "Strict compatibility with FidoCAD" mode is more reliable and the options about the "FidoCadJ extensions" have been eliminated.
• More precise selection of very close elements without "name" and "value" tags.
• Popup menu accessible with right click in the selection mode (cut, copy, paste, rotate, mirror request #3409656). Unuseful menu items are disabled if nothing is selected.
• Open a file is now faster and requires less memory.
• Added a Dutch translation of the user interface.
• Added the -l option to the command line interface.
• It is now easier to come back from an editing mode, to a macro that was previously selected.
• Selected objects appear in green, with different shades depending on their original color.
• More precise rendering of the spline curves.
• User can add and remove points to splines and polygons.
• The FidoCadJ project updated to the new version of the SourceForge software.
• Diagonal shift of the selected element done during copy/paste is now done during paste and not during copy. The shift can be disabled by turning off an option.
• Check and eventually auto complete the extension when loading FidoCadJ files.
• Some information about graphical file export are now saved on exit.

Dear all,
the Files section of the FidoCadJ project here on Sourceforge is now organized as follows:

• The base folder contains the files for the FidoCadJ binary distributions (installers for several operating systems and the multiplatform jar file).

• The "manuals" subdirectory contains the FidoCadJ user manual, translated in several languages.

• The "misc" subdirectory contains various files related to FidoCadJ.... read more

Dear all,
a major upgrade of the FidoCadJ (a simple and intuitive editor for electronics), with a lot of bugfixes and new features. Check it out at:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/fidocadj/files/

Here is the list of changes:

• Added the support for italic text lines
• The lenght of the segment being entered is expressed also in millimeters.
• Slight adjustment of the arrow style when they are associated to lines.
• Added the new "curve" primitive (cubic spline).
• Spanish translation of the user interface (thanks to Gohan "sbcne").
• Bug #3484904 corrected.
• Layer names are saved, if nonstandard.
• The grid pitch is saved (bug #3468917).
• More accurate automatic test scripts.
• All language resource files for the user interface are encoded in UTF-8.
• Chinese translation of the user interface, by Miles Qin "qhg007".
• The maximum number of points in a polygon and in a curve has been increased to 256
• The control point coordinates are no longer shown while changing characteristics of a graphic element.
• Bugs #3522962 and #3522951 corrected on the export towards vector formats.
• IHRaM library updated to v. 3.1.
• Wrong file encoding has been corrected in some libraries.
• Feature request #3526600 accepted and implemented.... read more

Dear all,
version 0.23.5 of FidoCadJ is out.
A lot of bug fixes and an important new feature: almost all primitives can be associated to a "name" and a "value" text string, as it was done for macros.
Let us know what do you think about this release.

Regards

Hi guys,
version 0.23.2 of FidoCadJ is finally out. The last preliminary version seemed sufficiently stable to promote it to a stable release. Here are the new features:

• it is FASTER!
• version 0.23.2 shows interactively the length of PCB tracks and lines while they are being entered.
• internationalized libraries (italian and english).
• in selection mode, shift click and drag shows an interactive ruler. Hope it is useful for PCB people.

Voici quelque chose qui fera plaisir aux utilisateurs français de FidoCadJ.
Grâce à des remarques très bienvenues de la part de Geo Cherchetout, j'ai implementé un bon nombre de corrections sur le manuel français du logiciel. Maintenant, la nouvelle version devrait être nettement plus agréable à lire et aussi plus claire.
Comme toujours, je vous rappelle que je suis très ouvert à vos suggéstions pour améliorer FidoCadJ, ainsi que son manuel (quelqu'un a envie de traduire les bibliothèques du logiciel, par exemple ?)

I added a few days ago the files containing a new version of FidoCadJ: the 0.23.1. I added the interactive preview when introducing macros in a drawing.
I have a problem with my CVS client and I could not commit the new version of the source code. I hope anyway I can solve this problem in a few days.

Dear all FidoCadJ users,
I decided that the preliminary versions were sufficiently stable and thus I published a new official FidoCadJ version: 0.23.

The list of news is quite long. Here are a few:

• new dash styles, and arrows
• introduction of a strict FidoCad for Windows compatibility mode
• use of a finite width stroke for tracing schematics
• better integration with Windows systems
• redraw speed has been vastly improved
• Courier New instead of Courier is the new default font (like FidoCad for Windows)
• you can choose a font for text objects and macros
• grid redraw improved
• better selection of small objects at very high zoom
• you can split non standard macros when saving or copy/pasting
• better selection and redraw of macros when layer "circuit" is not shown
• the Edit menu now includes Mirror and Rotate items
• better undo/redo handling
• the library IHRaM 2.1 is not distributed along with FidoCadJ... read more

This is the debut of FidoCadJ on SourceForge. I hope that this software will be well received by the Open Source community.
Basically, FidoCadJ is a Java program which uses the FidoCad format for drawing electrical schematics as well as simple printed circuit boards. Those drawings can be easily embedded in a very compact text code in a Usenet message.
This feature has determined the spread of the FidoCad format on the italian Usenet community since mid '90, but until FidoCadJ, it was difficult to use it on a non-Windows system. FidoCadJ runs in every operating system on which a reasonably recent Java runtime environment is installed.
Feel free to use FidoCadJ, give hints on improvement, submit bugs tracking and discussing in the forum.
I am also searching for people who would like to participate to the coding, translate FidoCadJ to different languages or work on the standard symbol library.