SYCODE Founder Publishes Book for CAD Software Developers

By DE Editors

SYCODE has released a book titled “OpenCAD – A Step by Step Guide to Developing a Professional CAD Application” that was written by Deelip Menezes, the company’s founder and CEO. The book showcases the technologies offered by the Open Design Alliance.

“I have been keeping a close eye on the ODA and its technologies for quite some time now,” says Menezes. “SYCODE is a Sustaining Member of the ODA and I have been writing about the issues surrounding the ODA on my blog at http://www.deelip.com. By means of this book, I am taking it a step further by emphasizing the fact that the ODA is not only about reverse engineering the DWG file format. They offer far more than that.”

The book is written as a short story describing the evolution of a CAD application called OpenCAD. The reader starts with an empty Visual C++ project. In each chapter, the reader adds features to OpenCAD, first making it a DWG reader, then a viewer, and finally an editor. The reader ends up with a professional CAD application complete with an AutoCAD-like command prompt and plug-in architecture, thereby giving it the ability to be extended by means of DRX plug-ins.

The book is divided into two sections. Section 1 deals with creating the basic OpenCAD application, wiring it up with ODA libraries, and adding features to make it a full-blown professional 3D DWG viewer. Section 2 deals with adding a command prompt, a plug-in architecture, and developing a DRX plug-in that converts it into a DWG editor. The book can also be used as a primer for developing DRX plug-ins because the plug-ins developed for OpenCAD also work with any DWGdirect-hosted application such as Bricscad V9.

The book comes with complete C++ source code. It is available as a paperback for $99 and a PDF eBook for $49.

For more information, visit OpenCAD.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.