What shipped, release by release.

NullCad 2.0 is a major release. It delivers two major features, annotations and auto-stringing for pro users, and a bunch of QOL improvements across the app for everyone.

Alongside them, field evidence comes back from Fieldbook straight into the document, labels attach to the geometry they describe, polylines carry true arcs, and a rendering and save overhaul keeps very large documents feeling small.

Note on Compatibility:

2.0 introduces a new document format. NullCad 2.0 opens every file saved by earlier versions, but files saved with 2.0 cannot be opened by NullCad 1.0 — update all machines that share documents at the same time.

Annotations

The first release of the annotation system. Annotations are point-anchored notes that live in the document — photos, comments and editable properties, drawn as an overlay with their own selection and properties panel, and saved with the file like any other object. The search notes, the photo of the peg, the comment about the fence: they now sit in the model at the position they describe, not in a folder beside it.

Every annotation object can carry a full comment history for discussion by multiple surveyors.

Authoring annotations is a Pro feature; viewing, editing, commenting and importing them stays free for everyone, so a document annotated by one licence is never opaque to the rest of the office.

Fieldbook import

The other half of the annotation story: import a .ncfield bundle captured in Fieldbook and the day’s evidence lands in the document, either as raw data or as annotations that map one-to-one with the Fieldbook record. Photos arrive at the fix they were taken at, notes keep their tags, and everything sits beside the boundary model it belongs to.

The auto-stringer

Also out of development: coded survey points can now be strung quickly and efficiently using the new auto-string tool providing a full field to finish workflow. Code suffixes and dialect support handle the way your field crews actually code, a live preview shows the strings as you adjust the rules, and re-running the stringer replaces its earlier result instead of stacking a second copy on top. Plugins get the same power through a string_points API.

Auto-stringing is a Pro feature.

Labels that follow their geometry

Labels are now first-class text objects attached to geometry that auto update as the data evolves — move the line and the label moves and updates with it, so a late edit no longer means a hunt for the stale text it left behind.

Labels can also be attached to one object and receive their data from another, vastly improving plan drafting workflows.

Arc segments in polylines

Polylines carry true arc segments — DXF-style bulges, with an arc mode in the drawing tool and bulge editing afterwards — so drawing that traverse line in a busy drawing is now simple.

3D polylines

Line geometry takes a per-vertex elevation, so a string can carry its heights with it rather than flattening them away at import. This also improves TIN breaklines and Surface contours export in full 3D like you would expect.

Point markers

Layers can put a glyph on their points, sized in paper millimetres — the mark stays the same size on the sheet whatever the draw scale.

A faster canvas

The rendering engine has had an overhaul to introduce cached frames. This means, by default, the canvas is not redrawing everything every frame, only when a change has occurred. This means you can have the entire cadastre of Tasmania imported and rendering in your document and still run at or above 60fps.

In addition, viewport composition, snapping, labels, custom linetypes, undo and TIN editing all stopped doing work that scaled with document size.

Faster saves, and the new format

Saving got the same treatment: buffered writes, compact JSON and chunked operation history make large documents dramatically faster to save. This is the file-format change behind the compatibility note above — the speed comes from the new archive layout.

Improvements & fixes

• ArcGIS REST, XYZ tile and WMTS basemap servers are supported alongside WMS
• DXF import and export now offer proper options dialogs
• Import and export surface their errors instead of swallowing them, and exported CSV is shielded against spreadsheet formula injection
• A visual indicator shows which snap modes are active, and a user-settable cap keeps snapping responsive in dense drawings
• Move and Rotate show construction geometry while you drag; Rotate takes a configurable base angle
• Text objects take an optional maximum line width, and text hit-testing matches the glyphs actually drawn
• Bug reports and feature requests can be sent from inside NullCad, and the welcome screen can check for updates (opt-in)
• The console wraps long lines and can dock as a bottom panel
• First run asks you to accept the licence agreement

NullCad 1.0 is the first public release. It is the culmination of 12 month of work getting the app to a point where the core toolset is feature complete.

Grid or Ground

All data remains in the projection it is imported at, no need to constantly wonder what projection your in. Nullcad dynamically scales distances based on a document wide scale factor setting. All inputs use this CSF to keep your data in a single projection. No more accidentally exporting your boundary model in ground.

Phased workflow

Search plans, the boundary model, reinstatement and drafting live in one file, each phase with its own camera and status. Scanned plans and imagery drop into the Setup phase like a desk, stay embedded in the project, and sit beside the geometry they describe while the model is built from them.

Audit friendly

Every edit is an operation appended to a log that saves with the document. Deleted geometry is tombstoned, not removed, so the history of a figure survives the figure — and checking what has happened to a point since import is as easy as selecting it.

Data + Evidence

Keep your data organised, and keep your evidence with your data. Everything can be layed out spatially, from plans, to field photos and comments. All in one place. Need to come back to it in 6 months? Nullcad makes it easy to get back up to speed.

Drafting

Sheets and viewports behave as any other geometry. All the drafting tools you need to make beautiful plans. And if you prefer to Draft in another application, Nullcad has great DXF support for transfering your data.

Also in 1.0

• Traverse entry from bearings and distances, with the combined scale factor applied as you go
• The comparison tool: field measurement against plan, as a first-class object in the viewport
• Shapefile, DXF, GeoJSON and CSV import and export
• TIN surfaces with breaklines and contours
• The .ncweb web viewer bundle for Fieldbook
• Lua plugins, codelists and WMS basemaps with Pro