PlanSwift v.12 Beta Release Notes (Invitation Only)

What’s New

• Tool methods on a ribbon tab. Select a section that belongs to a scripted tool (Grid Tool, Joist Tool, Beam Tool) and a tab named for the tool appears at the right of the ribbon, with a group called "Grid Tool Methods" (or "Joist Tool Methods") holding a button for each method. PlanSwift switches to it when you select the section and takes you back to the tab you were on when you click empty sheet. These buttons used to sit in the top-left corner of the sheet and cover the drawing. The right-click menu still offers the same methods.
• Method icons. In a method's Edit Property window, Script Options now has an Icon row. Choose an image (it is scaled to 32 x 32) and it shows on that method's ribbon button; Clear removes it. The Draw / Clear Grid, Draw / Clear / Split Joist/Rafters, Regenerate Totals, Add Double Joist and Beam Generate Totals methods come with icons.

Fixes

Grid Tool

• The drawn area no longer disappears while you choose the parallel line (Select Parallel Side).
• Deleting a Grid area now also deletes its grid lines and count points, whether you delete it from the canvas, the Pages panel or the Takeoff Summary. Undo (Ctrl+Z) brings all of it back in one step.
• Clear Grid clears the sheet at once. Before, the grid stayed on screen until you clicked the canvas.

Joist Tool, Beam Tool and Grid Tool

• Creating one of these items from a template no longer deletes the new item straight away. Its Properties window opens as it should.
• Draw Joist/Rafters is much faster. On a sample area of 22 joists it went from about 30 seconds to 1 to 3 seconds. Clear Joist/Rafters is faster too (from about 12 seconds to 3 to 8 seconds). The joists, labels and totals are the same as before.

Notes

• Icons on an existing install: PlanSwift keeps the tool definitions you already have, so the new method icons show on a fresh install or after the tool's type is re-imported. A method you give an icon yourself shows it right away.
• Keyboard stays on the canvas. After you click a method button, keys such as Delete and Esc still act on the section you selected.

New Features

• Export To Excel Template (Reports). Choose one of your own Excel templates and PlanSwift fills it with the report.
  • Put <begin data> in column A where the rows should start, and optionally <end data> on the last row you want used. Your formatting, formulas and other sheets are kept. If the data does not fit, it continues on the next sheet (which needs its own <begin data>). Excel must be installed.
• Search results in tabs. The Search Results panel now has a tab for each filter (Pages, Templates, Items, Commands) with its own result list and hit count.
• Search Results starts minimized on the right. In the default layout the panel sits on the right-hand side strip until you open it.
• Ribbon search box. It now has a Clear button and shows "Search" when empty. The term stays after you press Enter, and Commands is no longer in the filter list. Changing the filter clears the current search.
• Pinned jobs stay pinned. A job you pin in the PlanSwift menu under Recent keeps its pin when you open other jobs and after you restart. Pinned jobs are never pushed off the list.

Changes

• Legacy themes have been removed. The legacy themes were not DPI-aware and clipped buttons on high-resolution and multi-monitor screens. The Theme list now includes: Auto (Windows), Modern Light, and Modern Dark. If you had a Legacy theme selected, PlanSwift switches you to Auto (Windows).
• The Properties window is wider. It opens wide enough so that the whole toolbar above the Advanced view (including the Find box and the Show list) is visible.
• Job Properties is greyed out when no job is open (PlanSwift menu).

Fixes

Jobs and the Recent list

• With Auto open last job turned off, PlanSwift no longer reopens the last job when it starts.
• Copying a job to its own storage location (Local to Local) works again: Copy To and Move To now list every location, and the copy is named "<name> - Copy".
• The New Job and Add Pages wizard remembers your Convert options (DPI, colour depth, page naming, index text), your Blank Page entries and the last image folder.

Scale and takeoff

• Set Page Scale: Apply to all pages now scales every page, including pages you have not opened yet, and a manual scale replaces an Auto or Boost scale on both axes.
• Count items sized in feet (for example a 3' x 5' symbol) are drawn at their real size on a scaled sheet instead of as dots.
• Thick line items (Linear and Segment) no longer show a white gap or stray corner pieces where the line turns.
• Starting and stopping Record without clicking a point no longer leaves an empty "0.0" row in the Pages panel.

Properties and templates

• In Properties (Advanced), groups you collapsed stay collapsed when you open Edit properties or drag a variable into a formula.
• The formula editor's OK now updates the property's formula, and the file, folder and connection-string pickers keep what you chose.
• Templates you hide in the Templates module no longer appear in the template lists on the Home, Estimating and Templates tabs, and stay hidden after a restart.
• In Estimating, you can drag a part onto an assembly or takeoff item (the middle of its row) to make it a child, not only onto folders.

Search

• Page text search highlights every hit on the current page again, including on scanned TIFF sheets, and picking a result zooms to it even when Full Page is off.

Notes

• Moving one segment to another item: in Reassign Takeoff, tick Only Selected Sections. With it ticked only the sections you selected move; without it the whole takeoff item moves.
• Export To Excel Template opens Excel with your template visible. A workbook with macros gets Excel's normal security prompt. Text that starts with =, +, - or @ is written as plain text so Excel does not run it as a formula.

Scale and drawing

• Apply scale to all pages now applies everywhere. A manual scale replaces the scale on both axes of every page, and the Auto tab now scales pages you have not opened yet. Measurements are consistent from page to page.
• Count symbols are drawn at their real size. A symbol sized in feet, for example 5 ft by 3 ft, is converted through the page scale and resizes when you change the page scale.
• Thick lines no longer show gaps. Thick Linear and Segment lines now have solid corners at 90 degrees and at sharper angles, including lines drawn on the left or right side.

New Job and Add Pages

• The wizard remembers your choices. DPI, color depth, Convert PDF, page-name settings and the Index text option are kept for the next time you open New Job or Add Pages. So are the Blank Page width, height, DPI and scale, and the last image folder. They survive restarting PlanSwift.

Open Job and job properties

• Copy To now includes Local. Every storage location shows its icon, and a new Add Location icon sits beside them.
• Copying a job into the location it is already in names the copy "<job name> - Copy". If that name is taken, the next copy is "- Copy 2", and so on.
• Move To and Copy To are drop-down buttons. Delete is now in the Utility group, and a separator divides Properties from the folder tools.
• Moving a job to a location that already holds a different job in the same folder no longer fails. PlanSwift gives the job a free name, such as "Test (2)".
• New jobs get the standard job properties. Name can be edited, Folder is locked, and Description (text) and Notes (multi-line) appear in the Item group. Jobs you created earlier keep their current properties.

Side panels and recording

• Templates, Takeoff Summary and Pages remember the folders you collapsed. They no longer expand again when you click between panels, select an item or start a takeoff. While you search, everything opens so you can see the matches, and your collapsed folders return when you clear the search.
• The green record button in the Pages panel now starts recording. Recording starts on the page you are viewing instead of jumping to another page.
• The record buttons in Pages, Takeoff Summary and Templates update as soon as recording starts or stops, without clicking the panel.

Fixes

Takeoff Boost and Auto Scale

• Boost items read 0 after Auto Scale. Auto Scale set the page's scale but not its units (feet or metres), so new Boost items had no unit and showed a quantity of 0. Auto Scale now writes the units, as the ribbon's scale presets always did.
• Auto Takeoff results were not drawn until a click. The Pages panel and the Takeoff Summary showed the new items, but the plan stayed blank until you clicked it. The plan now redraws as soon as the run finishes.

Takeoff and Takeoff tools

• Record did nothing after a Takeoff Summary pick. The ribbon's Digitizer Record button (and its hotkey) only looked at what was selected on the plan. It now also uses the item picked in the Takeoff Summary, as PlanSwift 11 does.
• No Folder field when creating a takeoff item. The New Takeoff Item dialog is back to PlanSwift 11's Folder field. It lists the folders under Takeoff, accepts a new path such as Walls\Interior, and remembers the last folder you used in the job.
• Pasting into a new item was very slow on large jobs. 
• Paste into a new item is now also a single Undo step.
• Starter Pack parts showed a locked-content warning. An active PlanSwift subscription now opens the 11 PlanSwift Starter Packs. Third-party compiled content stays locked.

Other Changes

• Essential and Core Subscriptions can install packs. The pack's templates, lists, and layouts install. 
• Signed out or expired: parts stay locked, and the notice now says a PlanSwift subscription is needed.
• Fixed alongside: double-clicking a package while PlanSwift is running no longer opens the import wizard twice. The Templates panel no longer crashes when you switch its tab back and forth.
• The Notes panel's columns are now Name and Page (the page each note is on), as in PlanSwift 11. Before, the second column repeated the note's text. The note-text box below the list stays.

• Edits not showing: changing a note's text or text size in Properties now updates the note on the plan at once. The same fix covers Properties edits from the Pages and Parts panels.

Changes/Improvements

• Performance Improvements for large scale jobs, and batch operations like paste
• Plugin Starter Packs are now subscription based

New Features

64-Bit Processing

• PlanSwift 12 is built on 64-bit architecture which provides these benefits:
  • Faster performance, especially on large Jobs
  • Runs Takeoff BOOST™’s AI-Tools while allowing user to continue working on the Job
  • Reduces or eliminates crashes due to system or resource issues

Text Searching

• You can search across plans, assemblies, items, whatever, and the results are shown in a separate panel that makes navigating to where the text occurs a snap (literally, a click).

Takeoff BOOST™ is built-in

• All of Takeoff BOOST™'s AI tools - Auto Takeoff, Auto Count, Auto Scale, Auto Bookmark, and Reassign Takeoff - are installed with PlanSwift 12, with no separate system-tray icon, no separate download or updates

Changes

Updated, Modern User Interface

• Brings the tools you use most to the Home Tab so they are easier to get to
• Customize the layout however you like
• Use light, dark, or system mode

Smoother Installation

• No need for Administrator access to install PlanSwift 12 (each user on a machine will install PlanSwift individually).
  • If you are already using PlanSwift 10 or 11, PlanSwift 12 installs along side, it does not upgrade those versions. Once installed, just use the “Import Jobs and Templates” option in the PlanSwift (icon) menu to locate and import your older jobs.
•  Automated updates - just click a button and PlanSwift checks for and installs updates automatically.

Handles High Quality Images and Native PDFs Better

• Native higher resolution display increases Takeoff Boost’s accuracy
• Don’t bother converting your PDFs to TIFs - they’ll work fine in PlanSwift 12
• A larger scratch disk lets PlanSwift work with bigger, more complex jobs

High DPI/Hi-Res Monitor Support

• Now PlanSwift takes advantage of your high resolution monitors (4K) better.

Other Changes

• Signing in has moved. Sign in to PlanSwift 12 with your PlanSwift account from the title-bar Account Settings menu (top right-hand corner) — the separate "PlanSwift" ribbon tab from earlier builds is gone. If you are not signed in, you can still create, view, and print jobs; signing in unlocks full functionality, including takeoff, estimating, and Takeoff BOOST’s AI-powered tools.
• Manual activation has been retired. For security, PlanSwift 12 no longer supports entering an activation code while offline, you must sign in online to activate.
• Emailing a job is changing. PlanSwift 12 does not include the Email Project button for this beta. We're building a better way to share a job by email and will have more to share as it gets closer. For now, export the job and manually e-mail/share via a cloud drive.

Fixes

• The Zooming issue introduced in PlanSwift 11 - that caused some users to experience random zooming when viewing a Page - has been fixed.