Software Companions - Gerber Viewers and Converters

ViewCompanion Premium Version 12 Updates

The latest update will always include all previous fixes and improvements

ViewCompanion Premium
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Version 12.33
April 8, 2020
Critical Update
This update solves a critical error related to reading and saving of text annotations.
 Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
Solved issues:
Issue Description
128764-bit ViewCompanion could sometimes fail to load previously saved text annotations.
ViewCompanion 32-bit version could not load text elements saved with 64-bit edition.
This error was introduced in version 12.32.
1286Extra lines that should not be displayed in HPGL/2 file from customer.
1277Some Chinese characters in a PDF file where not displayed correctly.


Version 12.32
March 24, 2020
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
Use 12.33
News:
  • You can now add SVG files as markup using the insert markup picture function.
  • Added support for Intergraph Type 2 raster format.
Solved issues:
Issue Description
1282DWF files from customer opened with wrong extents.
1281HPGL/2 exporter did always convert arcs to polylines. The exporter will now always write arcs (AA) to the HPGL/2 file.
1280Several filled rectangles in a PLT file should not have been drawn at all, since they should be rendered using a merge control code that would make them invisible.
1279A Gerber file was not detected as Gerber format and failed to convert.
1276A grayscale raster image become black only if a PDF was opened as vector format.
1275Some arcs in a Gerber file where drawn as full circle instead of arcs with a very small span angle.
1273Clear Raster Area did clear wrong area if the file was rotated.
1271Text was missing in CGM files from customer.


Version 12.30
February 23, 2020
Feature Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
News:
  • You can now add symbols from SVG files by using the symbol library manager.
  • Added an option to overwrite files for batch and command line conversion. If this option is disabled ViewCompanion will now create incremented file names, for example: filename(1).pdf, filename(2).pdf and so on. This option is by default disabled.
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1269After conversion from PLT to PLT some of the text got poor quality.
1268Drawing content in HPGL/2 file was incorrectly covered by black filled rectangles.
1265Missing raster images in PLT file from customer.
1263Hatched areas missing in PDF file.
1259PDF to CAD: Converted DXF file failed to open in AutoCAD due to invalid characters in layer name ("<").
1251Chinese text was not searchable in PDF files converted from DWF files.
Converting to DWF Raster format could sometimes create blank files.
Fixed an error that could cause symbols to disappear after the entity property dialog was closed with OK.


Version 12.23
December 11, 2019
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
Solved issues:
Issue Description
1243 Missing filled areas in DWF file from customer.
1242 Some text was far outside the paper area when the PDF file was opened as vector format.
1241 Some of the text in an output DWF file got wrong rotation if the original file was rotated before conversion.
1240 An DWF file from customer failed to open.
1237 Warning and error messages could sometimes be written to STDERR during command line conversion.
1234 A CATPart file was incorrectly identified as Edmics TG4.
1227An Intergraph TG4 raster file had wrong rotation.

Version 12.21
October 27, 2019
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1226Viewing and converting Office documents could fail if LibreOffice 6.2.7 was installed.
1225Converting a file to DWF format could cause application to close.

Version 12.20
October 12, 2019
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
News:
  • Complex PDF files with a lot of vector graphic should now load and display faster.
  • Switching between documents with many pages is now faster.
  • Added an option for disabling hidden text in DWF files.
  • Added an option for converting DWF named views to PDF bookmarks.
  • DWF viewports with measurement scale is now included when converting to PDF.
  • If you convert a DWF to PDF, a bookmark for each page in the DWF will be added, and the named views as child to these (if this option is enabled).
  • Black theme will now be default if you run Windows 10 with dark mode activated.
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1222Gerber file caused exception error.
1221A CREO file was incorrectly being identified as HPGL/2 format.
1216Opening a PLT file would fail if it was open for read/write in another application.
1214DWF file was loaded with wrong extents.
Some GUI elements did not have proper style if Black theme was selected.
Only named views for first page in a DWF was loaded.

Version 12.12
August 2, 2019
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
News:
  • Added horizontal scrollbar for TextExtract dialog.
  • Added option to extract images as PNG files when creating DXF files.
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1210DXF exporter did support only up to 64 characters in a layer name.
1208PDF file caused exception error during reading.
1206Raster images were displaced on all 4 pages in a PLT file.
1204Adding markup to PDF and saving to new PDF caused markup to be displaced.
>Fixed a problem with precision in pen table files.
The INSUNIT header variable is now correctly set to 4 for metric output.
Status bar "extra tools" will now be visible on smaller monitors (e.g.: 1280x1024).

Version 12.10
June 30, 2019
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
News:
  • Added "select text for copy" function. Drag a rectangle to mark all text that will be copied to clipboard.
  • CTRL+left mouse button now creates a copy of a selected markup element.
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1202A PLT file wit 32-bit PNG image was converted to black only due to loss of transparency channel (PLT to PLT).
1201PDF to CAD: Line cap styles and line join styles were wrong after conversion to DWF.
1200PDF to CAD: Some text was not clipped correctly.
1199PDF to CAD: Some 1-bit images were not rotated correctly after conversion to DWF.
1198PDF to CAD: Most of the content was missing.
1193PDF to PDF command line conversion with rotation had no effect.
1192A parasolid x_t file was incorrectly identified as a DXF file.
1191PDF to CAD: An image had wrong scale and missing transparency after conversion to DWF.
1190Text search couldn't find any text in PDF file from customer.
1188Added support for markup picture loaded from URL (XML).

Version 12.01
May 16, 2019
Maintenance Update 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
News:
  • Create markup option from measurement report dialog is now available in all editions.
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1186Printing or converting from command line could on some systems give an error message saying the software "Attempted an unsupported operation".
1183A DWF file with filled areas that should have been outlined.
1182A DWF file was displayed with a white margin at top of drawing that should not have been there.

Version 12.00
May 2, 2019
Major Revision 		Downloads
32-bit
64-bit
News:
  • New flat styled GUI with additional application themes, including Microsoft ® Office White, Colorful and Black. You can find pictures of all the available themes here.
  • Added PDF Optimize tool.
  • Added deskew by selecting a two-point line in the image file.
  • You can now save reports in Excel Workbook format (XLSX) from markup list, measurement summary and measurement result dialogs.
  • Added support for viewing and converting Intergraph Raster files (CIT, COT, RGB and TG4).
  • Added 4 new status bar buttons with the following functions:
    • Displaying certificate information for digitally signed PDF files.
    • Toggle visibility of PDF annotations on or off.
    • Option to use mouse wheel for zoom and pan operations.
    • Option to use mouse wheel for scroll operations.
      The last two buttons will toggle the state of the other button when it's activated.
General Changes:
  • Added JBIG and JPEG2000 to the list of supported PDF compression methods.
  • PDF file is now always loaded as monochrome image during compare independent of other settings.
  • Added Close All Except This option to the tab context menu.
  • Now always use version 1.6 for converted PDF files.
  • Added support for UTF8 and UTF16 Unicode text files.
  • Dimensions for the active page is now displayed in the status bar.
  • Removed many obsolete options from the different setting dialogs.
  • Added new option for default mouse action. The option is initially set to none.
Markup Changes:
  • Added a new separate multi line arrow tool. Two-point arrow type is no longer an option, but a separate tool.
  • Element type name can now be turned off in markup list.
  • Added lock all markup elements option (Markup tools->drop down).
  • Added editing for counter elements. You can now move or delete an existing counter node.
  • Added insert node for counter elements.
  • Vector layer states are now stored in the markup file, if save currently displayed portion is enabled.
  • Measurement Path text is now by default placed above line.
  • You may now delete any markup layer, if there more than one layer defined and if the layer currently has no elements.
  • Added new options to Markup XML Barcode definition: imagerotation, barcodeincludetext and barcodelabel.
  • Added additional counter types: checkmark, outlined circle and cross.
  • Added area height, negative measurement, ID and include volume text options to measurement area element. There is now a new markup property panel where you can set these values, in addition to category and name, while drawing.
  • Added a new predefined shape element type. Currently two predefined shapes are available: Accepted and Rejected. You can configure the size of the inserted shape. You can also add these shapes using Markup XML.
  • Revision cloud is now always be outlined by default, independent of current fill style.
Solved issues:
IssueDescription
1180PDF to CAD (DWF): A raster image was placed outside drawing area and flipped.
1179Converted CGM files had too low resolution, the resolution has been increased to 1000 DPI.
1177Added support for hidden text in DWF files.
1176CGM file with Group4 tiled raster image caused exception error during conversion.
1174Converted DXF files now correctly sets MEASUREMENT value to metric if saved as metric.
1173Splitting a PDF file using config file into two separate TIFF files with PAGESIZE set, generated wrong images.
1172Changed layer states for a viewed PDF will be now be applied to saved PDF file.
1170A Solidworks SLDASM file was incorrectly detected as PDF format.
1167If you have a PDF file with invalid extents (larger than 14400 units) that cannot be opened correctly by Acrobat, you can now fix this file by just using save as to PDF.
1166PDF to CAD (DWF): 24-bit images with soft mask transparency is now converted to 32-bit (RGBA) images.
1165A PDF file caused exception error.
1164CGM with text elements at wrong location.
1163Adding markup to a file PDF from customer caused all markup elements to be displaced due to a transformation matrix error.
1158A DWF file opened with wrong extents.
1157A DWF file with Hebrew text converted to PDF as ??? due to a codepage error.
1156A DWF file caused exception error in 32-bit due to excessive memory usage.
1155DWF file caused exception error during loading.
1154PDF to CAD - some of the text elements where not clipped correctly.
1153PDF to CAD: Extent of exported file were too large due to clipping error.
1152Print fit to page didn't work if displayed area or region was selected.
1151PDF to DWF: 24-bit images with soft mask transparency is now converted to 32-bit (RGBA) images.
1150CGM file caused exception error during loading.
1149PDF to CAD: Extent of exported file were too large due to clipping error.
1146Several DWF files from customer failed to open.
1143A PDF file caused crash during loading.
Element lock will now correctly disable all functions that change element properties.
Maximum arc size for revision cloud could not be changed (markup advanced option).
Inserting or Removing points from measurement element will now always update markup list.
Save As Dialogs: If you enter only a file name without extension, an extension will now be added.
Save compare result of multipage pdf files always used page 0 instead of the current page.
Compare save result will now include any markup added to background file.
Counters did sometimes become invisible at certain scale factors.
Fill color was not used for hatch lines if the shape was filled using a hatch pattern.
Saving an open Office file (for example Word) to PDF, generated an empty PDF file.
Updates for Previous Version:
Version 11