Project Draw 0.7.8 Now Available

In a previous release of Project Draw, we began the work of integrating Project Draw with Project Freewheel. This allows you to publish your designs as DWF files, manage them with Project Freewheel, and include them as shapes in Project Draw. You can use Project Freewheel to select a desired model or sheet, pan, zoom, or orbit to get the desired view of your design. You can use Project Draw to reference that design as a shape that is part of a larger workflow or any other diagram you create with Project Draw. It's a match made in heaven.

Project Draw 0.7.8 includes:

1. When working with your 2D designs as shapes in Project Draw using Project Freewheel, Project Draw allows your designs to have a transparent background and maintains the correct aspect ratio of your design as you resize the containing shape:
   
   
   
   Project Draw adds the proper "white space" to avoid distorting your design that would occur if it were stretched to fill the shape.

2. At Autodesk Labs Marketing Manager, Amanda Collins', urging, we've added some getting started pages for Project Draw. Though the select a shape and drag and drop interface is pretty easy to use, it never hurts to get people off on the right foot. This includes a list of what's changed and what's new in each release. For those of you keeping score at home:

   Date	Release	New or changed
   10/21/08	0.7.8	improved Project Freewheel integration, getting started pages, revamped file menu, improved DWF property control
   09/21/08	0.7.7	integrated the Autodesk consolidated login
   07/24/08	0.7.6	Project Freewheel integration, API Key Generation web site, Draw API samples
   06/26/08	0.7.5	deleteAllSessions API
   05/31/08	0.7.4	added API
   04/08/08	0.7.3.1	install cleanup. DWFx, help file, defect corrections
   04/03/08	0.7.3	DWFx, image links, connection pooling, Ctrl-s, help file, defect corrections
   03/06/08	0.7.2	no Google Gears for Firefox 3 Beta, easier color palette, alpha export to DWF, bug fixes)
   02/15/08	0.7.1	better Google Gears, international server locations, bug fixes, gallery submission link)
   01/30/08	0.7	Google Gears, multiple selections, color palette
   11/20/08	0.6.2	metric grid size, email dialog box size, email instructions, My Diagrams
   11/19/08	0.6.1	email drawings, better connectors
   11/08/07	0.6	rotational grid, IE popup blocker workaround, minimize properties pane
   10/31/07	0.5.2	file deletion fix
   10/26/07	0.5.1	login changes
   10/24/07	0.5	technology preview launch

   The team has been quite nimble.

3. The File menu has been updated to make working with DWF files easier to find. Thanks for the feedback that using the DWF ball as an icon was not the best choice.
   
   BEFORE:
   
   
   NOW in Project Draw 0.7.8:
   
   
   Feedback like this is exactly why we preview technologies on Labs.

4. Software engineer, David Falck, updated the Project Draw UI to allow easier ways to work with DWF files once you have included them in Project Draw.

   

   In addition, you can now see your design embedded in the shape as you manipulate it using Project Freewheel:

   

David Falck sent me a great graphic that summarizes what's in this release:

To take a test drive of Project Draw, see:

http://draw.labs.autodesk.com

Extending software as a service technology previews at a fast and furious pace is alive in the lab.