Stardraw.com unveils the latest version of their design/documentation software for AV systems integrators. SD7.3 will be available for download from the Stardraw.com website in June.

One of the most significant enhancements is a move to a new, 64-bit platform to enable handling of the largest of projects. The new 64-bit architecture is able to manage huge and multiple imported DWG files better than ever before, as well as other resource-intensive non-native data formats including PDF, DXF and image files (PNG, JPG etc.)

Another popular enhancement is the new Feathering feature, sometimes called ‘Continuations’ or ‘Fly-offs,’ which provides a graphical representation to indicate where a cable has come from and is going to, in the event that it spans separate drawings or is noncontiguous in the same drawing. Crucially, it consolidates the two cable objects into one ‘physical’ cable in the cable schedule to ensure that they aren’t double-counted in the project.

Stardraw Design 7.3 also adds the ability to import from an Excel spreadsheet. This is another highly anticipated feature as it enables users to add products into a project directly from a spreadsheet or they can, for example, export an equipment list into Excel and then populate the products it contains with attribute values, e.g. to assign IP addresses of products after commissioning in the field. The list can then be imported back into Stardraw to update the project file with these new attributes — a huge time-saver.

You can check out Stardraw here.