In The News
Business News from Send2Press Newswire
Recent News Stories from PRnetwire >> News Article

Edited by Christopher Simmons, senior news editor

ALPHA SOFTWARE EXPRESS, LLC ANNOUNCES VERSION 1.2 OF ITS JAVA BASED SOFTWARE PRODUCT FOR GENERAL DESIGN WORK AND MANAGEMENT OF DRAWINGS

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - Jan. 8, 2003 /Send2Press Newswire/ -- Express Designer(TM) is an inexpensive software package created to satisfy the more limited needs of many amateur and professional designers - from model builders to architects. It provides a 2D graphics alternative to the high priced CAD and drawing products at one end of the spectrum, and the low priced, often free paint products at the other end.

It does not include the many complicated, platform specific tools available in products like AutoCAD(R) , but does provide all the functionality many designers need at a tiny fraction of the price. It is available in 4 editions, starting at just $47! And, with Express Designer's more modest approach to design, it can be mastered on your own, in just a few minutes!

From a more technical perspective, Express Designer(TM) is 100% Java, so it will run on virtually any OS (MS Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, etc.). It requires only Java version 1.2.2, or above, which is freely available to anyone and runs well in a PC windows environment with just a 300Mhz processor and 64MB of memory.

Architecturally, Express Designer(TM) employs a combination of vector and raster methodologies to create and maintain its discrete objects, whether drawn or included. A complete drawing is often achieved by including custom developed (drawn) objects with pre-existing (gif or jpeg) images. The resulting combination can be saved as a file, printed, or exported to any of 3 image types (BMP, GIF or JPG). Any section of a drawing can also be exported independently then re-included as a new discrete image object.

Pre-existing images, like all objects, can be re-sized, flipped over, mirrored, turned, rotated or split into sections. Images can be static (saved within the main drawing) or dynamic (pulled in when the main drawing is loaded). All drawn objects can also be re-colored and some, like polygons, can be reshaped. Full font editing is also included for text objects.

Drawings and optional grids can be expressed independently in any scale (British, Metric, even astronomical). Saved drawings can be imported as part of other drawings with accurate scale conversions automatically performed as required. With the Standard Edition a saved file can also be imported as part of a single, complex object. These complex objects are named and numbered and can also include any 5 other attributes, such as weight, price, etc. Complex objects are maintained from a separate window and can be transferred, with a single click, to the main drawing as either static (saved within the main drawing) or dynamic (pulled in when the drawing is loaded). A tape measure, easy scale definition tool and a scale sensitive read-out box complete the group of scale related functions. v With the Professional Edition each drawing can also have password protected ownership. The drawing owner can then define other password protected users giving them access to the drawing through a set of privileges (known as tokens) assigned to each user.

Likewise, each object in the drawing can also have a specific owner and be assigned one or more of these privilege tokens to limit the actions a given user can take on any given object.

With the Enterprise Edition the product adds domain control. With domain control an administrator can control all user interaction within the domain by defining all its users, attributes, privilege tokens, etc. The administrator can also define certain policies and define repositories of drawings, known as vaults. Users in the domain can then check-out and check-in drawings from the vault if so qualified by the administrator.

URL: www.alphase.com

Source of news: Alpha Software Express, LLC