GstarCAD 365

GstarCAD 2025 → What's new

Project Brief

1. Introduction

According to market and business demands, GstarCAD 2025 has integrated the GstarCAD 365 client module (hereinafter referred to as "Collaboration Design System"), offering users a comprehensive project management system suitable for both enterprise-level and project-level requirements. This collaboration design system seamlessly integrates two-dimensional and three-dimensional collaborative design.

2. Service Environment

The Collaborative Design System is now fully compatible with the GstarCAD 2025, supporting a 64-bit bilingual(Chinese and English)version. The system will be installed synchronously with the platform software, and users can manage its operational status in the "App Manager," including enable, hibernate or disable, to control the loading of functional modules. For the optimal experience, it is recommended to use the Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit operating system.

3. Sign and Log

You can use your GstarCAD 365 account to log in to the collaborative design system, which currently only supports public cloud services.

Enterprise administrators must assign the "GstarCAD 365 Standard" rights to your account in the "Rights Center - Allocation" of the "GstarCAD 365 Enterprise Management Center". Only after these rights have been assigned will you have the permission to log in to the collaborative design system on the platform client. If the corresponding terminal software rights are not allocated, you will not be able to log in to the platform client normally.

After assigning the appropriate rights to you, start the GstarCAD 2025. You can click on the "Collaboration" on the menubar or the "Collaboration" button in the Ribbon area of the client, or execute the command GCDPALETTES, which will pop up a login dialog. You can log in successfully using your GstarCAD 365 account.

After successful login, the collaborative design system will automatically start and pop up the "Collaborative Explorer" panel. This panel centrally displays the main functional points of the client, providing you with a convenient operational experience.

Collaboration Explorer

1. Right-Click Menu

(1) Open

Overview: By double-clicking the file name or selecting "Open" from the file's right-click menu, you can directly access files in DWG and IFC formats. For third-party files, the system will automatically utilize the locally set default program for opening them. In case no default opening method has been specified, the system will prompt you to select an appropriate application to handle these files.

(2) Lock

Overview: Lock this file. Once the file is locked, other users terminals will be unable to edit it and can only access it in read-only mode. This ensures the consistency and security of the file while preventing conflicts that may arise from multiple users editing simultaneously.

(3) Unlock

Overview: Here, two unlocking methods are provided—self-unlocking and forced unlocking. Self-unlocking allows the file's locker to unlock their file without the need for additional configuration permissions. However, when it is necessary to unlock a file locked by someone else, the administrator must set and grant the "forced unlocking" operation permission in the enterprise management center.

(4) Archive

Overview: Saving local modifications as collaborative records and uploading them to the server ensures a certain level of data security. Other users can also synchronize and see the latest collaborative records after pulling them in GstarCAD.

(5) Submit

Overview: The option "Submit" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree enables you to upload the most recent locally modified file to the server, resulting in the creation of a new version. The old version will be retained and can be accessed through the previous versions.

(6) Get the new version

Overview: Clicking "Get New Version" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to pull the latest version of the selected file from the server to your local machine. After obtaining the latest version, the original local file will be overwritten.

If there are unuploaded modifications locally when obtaining a new version and there is a conflict with the latest version on the server, the pull can still be successful. However, when opening the file locally, a conflict will be indicated, and one of two conflict resolution schemes will be applied.

(7) Export to local

Overview: Clicking "Export to local" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to export the latest version of that file to a local directory.

(8) Import Xref

Overview: Clicking "Import Xref" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to import files that the file references, but are not within the project, into the project.

(9) Synchronize annotations

Overview: Clicking "Synchronize annotations" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to pull the latest annotation files from the server to your local system, and also to upload the latest local annotation files to the server.

Local annotation files will automatically synchronize with the server when the drawing is saved, closed, a new version is submitted, or a new version is obtained, or they will be pulled from the server. However, if an exception occurs that causes the automatic synchronization or pulling of annotation files to fail, you can manually resolve synchronization issues by clicking the "Synchronize annotations". This feature ensures that even when the automatic synchronization mechanism encounters obstacles, users can easily restore the synchronization status of annotation files.

The saving mechanism for local annotation files: the system will automatically create an annotation folder in the same directory where the drawing is saved, where the corresponding annotation files are stored. Please note that changing the storage path of the annotation files or deleting the files may result in the loss of annotation data in the drawing.

(10) Delete

Overview: Clicking "Delete" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to delete the selected file.

(11) Rename

Overview: Clicking "rename" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to edit the name of the selected file in place. After editing, you can click on another blank area or press the Enter key to refresh the document name.

(12) Move to

Overview: Clicking "Move to" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree will pop up a dialog box for selecting a path, allowing you to move the selected file to the target folder.

(13) Previous versions

Overview: Clicking "Previous versions" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree will bring up the "History Versions" dialog box, where you can open or download a specific historical version of the file.

(14) Collaborative log

Overview: Viewing the collaborative records of a certain version ensures the security and consistency of the data.

(15) File properties

Overview: Clicking "File properties" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to view detailed information about the selected file, including the file name, modification time, uploader, current version, and file path, among other details.

2. Main Interface

The collaboration design panel is docked on the left side by default, and the related function menus are accessed through the right-click menu of files or folders, with some function buttons placed on the ribbon tabs.

The right-click menu function details are shown in the table below, some operations are only valid for specific file formats.

Note: The collaborative design panel supports multi-selecting files and folders on the directory tree using the Ctrl key or Shift key. After multi-selecting, the right-click menu options available include: Submit, Get the new version, and Delete.

The archiving supports the file format: .dwg

The lock/unlock supports the file format: .dwg

In our project, we can directly open files in .dwg and .ifc formats. After editing, saving will prompt to generate a .dwg file for subsequent collaborative design. For file formats that are not supported for opening, if the user has already configured a default opening program, the system will automatically call this third-party program to open the file. If the user has not yet configured a default opening method, the system will display a pop-up window, allowing the user to select an appropriate application to handle files of specific formats.

3. General Buttons

At the top of the panel, there are two general buttons provided.

(1) Refresh panel

Refresh the entire project panel. In scenarios where the panel fails to refresh automatically, users can use it to manually refresh the panel. After clicking to refresh, the directory tree structure below will synchronize with the server.

(2) Submit updates

Submit all updates in this project with one click. After clicking the button, it will automatically detect all files pending submission on the client side.

4. Set the Working Panel

You can switch to the current working project by selecting from the dropdown menu on the panel to switch projects.

5. Right-Click Menu on Folder

(1) New folder

Overview: Clicking "New folder" in the right-click menu of a folder in the directory tree allows you to create a new folder by entering a name for it.

(2) New drawing

Overview: Clicking "New drawing" in the right-click menu of a folder in the directory tree, after entering the name of the drawing file, a new drawing file will be created through a template (the default location for the CAD template path). After the file is created, it will not be automatically submitted to the server and must be submitted manually.

(3) Import to

Overview: Clicking "Import to" in the right-click menu of a folder in the directory tree, you can import selected local files into the project. After the files are imported, they will not be automatically submitted to the server and must be submitted manually. The client does not restrict the file formats that can be imported into the project, but some formats may not be submittable to the server.

(4) Import Xref

Overview: Clicking "Import Xref" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to import files that the file references, but are not within the project, into the project.

(5) Submit

Clicking "Submit" in the right-click menu of a folder in the directory tree allows you to upload all pending files under the selected folder node to the server, and a new version will be created. The old version will not be deleted and can be viewed in the previous versions.

(6) Get the new version

Overview: Clicking "Get the new version" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to pull the latest version of the selected file from the server to your local machine. After obtaining the latest version, the original local file will be overwritten.

Double-clicking on a tree node to open a drawing or right-clicking to open a drawing will automatically pull the latest version from the server to the local system before opening the drawing.

(7) Delete

Overview: Clicking "Delete" in the right-click menu of a folder in the directory tree will allow you to delete the selected folder and all the files it contains. This folder will also be synchronized and deleted on the server.

(8) Rename

Overview: Clicking "rename" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree allows you to edit the name of the selected file in place. After editing, you can click on another blank area or press the Enter key to refresh the document name.

(9) Move to

Overview: Clicking "Move to" in the right-click menu of a file in the directory tree will pop up a dialog box for selecting a path, allowing you to move the selected file to the target folder.

(10) Resolve conflicts

Overview: When there is a conflict between the local pending file version and the server file version, you will be alerted of the conflict when attempting to submit the file locally. You can use the "Resolve conflicts" to view and manually handle the conflict. By clicking the "Details", you can view detailed information about a specific conflict, including the path and name of the conflicting file, the type of conflict, and other relevant information.

6. Xref

(1) Attach Reference

Overview：Incorporate other DWG format drawings from the project directory tree into the current open DWG file.

(2) Delete Reference

Overview：Remove the reference files that are incorporated in the drawing.

(3) Import Xref

Overview：Import the local drawings that are used as underlay references into the project.

(4) Pull Reference

Overview：After submitting the local external reference files to the server, when using other clients or other users pull the base drawing files from the server and open them in the GstarCAD client, before opening the drawing, it will check whether the external reference files in the base drawing have been pulled to the local system. If the reference files have not been pulled, a dialog box will pop up to prompt the user.

(5) Display Settings

Overview：Once a reference is incorporated, you can set the display color for the referenced file, offering two options: "Keep original color" and "Other colors." This allows for a clear distinction between the content of the current drawing and the content of the referenced drawings.

(6) Update Xref

Overview: When there is an update to the referenced file, a message notification will be sent to users who are referencing this file, promptly alerting them to the change in the version of the referenced file.

7. Backtracking Feature to Designer

Overview: You can check the modifier of an entity object in the "Properties > Edit records > Last editor", which makes it convenient for problem location and enhances communication efficiency.

8. Cloud Note

Overview: Supports making annotations directly on the drawing, and also supports storing them in the cloud for viewing annotations on multiple devices. It supports switching between select annotation/cancel select modes, showing and hiding annotations, and supports various types of annotations such as text, leaders, images, and various graphic annotations. It also supports modifying annotation properties, switching between continuous annotation and single annotation modes, and managing annotations centrally in the cloud annotation manager.

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Original help · © Gstarsoft Co., Ltd.