Features

What version 0.1.5-beta does today, by area. Only what is already in the program is listed; what is missing is at the end, under Not there yet. Every command has its own page in the help and manual. Screenshots show the Spanish interface.

Files and compatibility

DWG: opens R14 to 2018 (AutoCAD 2018 to 2027 use this same format) and saves as R14, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2018.
DXF: opens R12 to 2018 and saves as R12, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2018.
The open document is the DWG itself: objects the program does not edit (3D solids, proxies, vertical-application objects) are kept on save.
.dwt templates (metric ISO and imperial included), recent files and a start page.
Several drawings open in tabs, with a clipboard between them.
Autosave, .bak copy, safe saving (never leaves a half-written file), AUDIT and RECOVER.
If a command hits an internal error, the operation is undone and the program stays open; if it cannot go on, it saves your drawings so you can recover them on the next start.
ETRANSMIT: a ZIP with the drawing and everything it needs (references, images, fonts, plot styles).

Interface

Ribbon workspace (collapsible) or Classic workspace with menus and toolbars.
Command line with autocomplete, history and clickable options. Every command has a Spanish name, an English global name (_LINE) and aliases; the English interface uses the English names.
Dockable palettes: Properties, Layers, Blocks, DesignCenter, External References and tool palettes.
Shortcut menu, double-click to edit each object type, and extended tooltips on every button.
Customisable ribbon, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and aliases.
Complete English and Spanish; more languages can be added without recompiling.

Classic workspace with the layer properties manager and layer states. — Classic workspace with the layer manager.

Drawing

Line, polyline, circle, arc, ellipse, spline, rectangle, polygon and point.
Construction lines and rays, multilines, revision clouds, wipeouts, donuts, 2D solids, regions and boundaries, divide and measure.
Pattern hatches, associative and editable; gradients of the nine usual types.
Isometric drafting (isoplanes and isocircles).

Pattern hatches, colour gradients, isocircles and construction lines. — Hatches, gradients and isometric.

Precision

Object snaps (endpoint, midpoint, centre, intersection, perpendicular, tangent, quadrant, extension…), also inside blocks.
Polar tracking and object snap tracking, ortho, grid and snap.
Dynamic input next to the cursor, and absolute, relative and polar coordinates.
2D user coordinate systems (UCS) and rotated plan view.

Object snap tracking with alignment paths and dynamic input. — Tracking and dynamic input.

Editing

Move, copy, rotate, scale, mirror, offset, array, trim, extend, fillet, chamfer, break, stretch, lengthen, align and explode.
Polyline and spline editing, duplicate removal (OVERKILL), groups, isolate and hide objects.
Editable grips (stretch, move, rotate, scale, mirror), also on dimensions, tables and dynamic blocks.
Properties palette for every 2D object, and match properties.
Undo and redo that store only what changed: fast and light on memory even with drawings of hundreds of thousands of entities.

Layers and properties

Layer manager with filters and layer states; per-viewport layer freezing.
Layer toolbar with on/off, freeze, lock and colour; fourteen layer commands.
Colours, linetypes, lineweights and transparency by layer or by object.

Text, dimensions and annotation

Single-line and multiline text with an editor; text styles with SHX and TrueType fonts.
Fields, find and replace, and spell checking in English and Spanish.
Linear, aligned, angular, radius, diameter, arc length and ordinate dimensions; continued, baseline and quick dimensions; jogged dimensions, tolerances and dimension breaks.
Associative and annotative dimensions, the 20 usual arrowheads, text and arrow fit, and alternate units.
Text, dimension and multileader styles; annotation scales.

Dimensions with a custom style, a centre linetype and TrueType text. — Dimension styles, linetypes and text.

Tables

Tables and table styles, cell, row and column editing, merged cells.
Formulas (sum, average, count) and cell references.
CSV import and export; block attribute extraction to a table or CSV.

Quantity table with computed totals and the cell panel. — Table with formulas.

Blocks and attributes

Create, insert and redefine blocks; write blocks to a file; insert drawings.
Attributes with manager, synchronisation and extraction.
Blocks palette with thumbnails, recent blocks and libraries; DesignCenter and tool palettes.
Bundled architecture and electrical symbol library.
Dynamic blocks: used with their parameters (visibility, flip, stretch, array…) and kept dynamic.
Block editor.

Blocks palette, DesignCenter with the architecture library and the attribute manager. — Blocks, DesignCenter and attributes.

External references, images and georeferencing

External references: attach, overlay, bind, unload, nested and clipped.
PDF underlays with their layers.
Tiled raster images (orthophotos over 1 GB) with clipping, adjustment and transparency.
Georeferenced images from world files and GeoTIFF.
Drawing coordinate system by EPSG code; SHP (with DBF), KML/KMZ and GeoJSON import and export.

Raster images, one of them clipped by a polygon. — Raster images with clipping.

Layouts and plotting

Create, copy, rename, reorder and delete layouts; layouts from templates.
Rectangular, polygonal or object-based viewports with scale and lock.
Page setup, CTB and STB plot style tables, and plot preview.
Vector PDF with layers or PDF/A-2b, SVG and PNG; Windows printers and CUPS on Linux.
PUBLISH: several sheets, from this and other drawings, to one PDF or one per sheet.

Layout with two viewports on the sheet. — Layout with viewports.

AutoLISP and automation

Built-in AutoLISP interpreter with about 200 functions: lists, strings, files, get*, command, entget/entmod/entmake, ssget with filters, and tables.
New commands with defun C:, loading with APPLOAD and trusted folders; automatic loading of acaddoc.lsp.
Command scripts (SCRIPT).

Help

Context-sensitive F1: the button, dialog or running command opens its page.
About 500 pages per language: user manual, general help, reference for every command, system variables and AutoLISP functions.
Index and full-text search.
PDF and HTML manual, also on this site.

Not there yet

Lince2D is a beta. Among the things still missing:

3D viewing: solids, surfaces and meshes in DWG files are kept but not yet displayed (in development).
3D modelling and rendering: outside the scope of Lince2D.
Authoring dynamic block parameters and actions (existing ones can be used).
DWF, DGN, spreadsheet links, sheet sets and AutoLISP DCL dialogs.
ECW and MrSID images (they can be converted to GeoTIFF first).
Languages other than English and Spanish.