What's new:

• Complete Native Rewrite: AddoBAR has been rebuilt from the ground up as a native C++ plugin (ObjectARX/BRX), replacing the previous .NET 8 architecture. No separate .NET runtime required. Faster load times, better stability, and a cleaner foundation across all platforms.
• Rebuilt Bar Schedule: A fast, dockable schedule panel with column sorting (ascending/descending, persisted to Excel), natural sort for marks and members, multi-select with Ctrl/Shift-click, colour-highlight mode linking grid rows to drawing entities, inline grid editing with smart Type/Diameter drop-downs and Enter-to-next-row navigation, and dimensions that round cleanly down to the nearest 5.
• Totals & Weight Tables: Mass and length totals aggregated by diameter with kg/m and total weight, paginated schedule sheets with block borders that split by row count, and a Schedule Diff tool that compares against a previous schedule with colour-coded add/remove/change detection and update-in-place.
• Publish Tab: Build layouts and batch-publish to PDF directly from the schedule palette. Numeric columns are written as real numbers in Excel exports for instant totals and sorting.
• Rebuilt Add Bar Dialog: Live bar preview with CAD-style dimensions and visible insertion point. Remembers your last bar style between sessions and pre-fills type and diameter from country/code defaults. CAD-style colour grid shape picker with hover highlight, and diameter list filtered by selected type.
• Bar Styles & Style Manager Rework: Each style now previews its own shape with its own default layer and dimension style. Completely reworked tag editor with add, edit, remove, reorder, copy, and multiplier tag support — all in a compact dialog with an embedded live preview.
• Tag Bar — Completely Rebuilt (AB_TagBar): Tags are now first-class AddoBAR entities with full Properties panel support, grip-editable leader and text positions, protection from accidental modification, and three modes: leader, text, and range. Configurable text height, auto-annotative behaviour, and property keyword prompting.
• Smarter Wizards: Retaining Wall wizard now has a live side-view preview that redraws as parameters change, save/load design configurations, country bar mapping for non-SANS setups, and UCS-aware bar placement. Area Zone / Slab wizard respects rotated UCS, includes diameter in mark grouping, and has clearer range-line placement.
• 30 Tools Ported: Survey & GPS (WGS84 conversion, survey levels, coordinate-to-table/drawing), KML import/export with redesigned dialog, block attribute export/update via Excel (bulk and folder-wide), point/CSV import, Borehole soil logs, Box Text, Text-to-MText, Strip Bar, ScaleXY, ZSet elevation tool, and more — all brought across from the .NET version.
• Modernised Interface: Unified dark theme with consistent look across every dialog. Rounded corners and branded title bars for a polished native feel. Pop-up dialogs reliably stay on top across all CAD hosts. AutoCAD and ZWCAD now look and behave like the BricsCAD version.
• Expanded Platform Support: AutoCAD 2027 added (alongside 2022–2026). ZWCAD 2025 and 2026. BricsCAD V22 through V26, now including Linux. One codebase, 24 build configurations, all platforms.
• Licensing Rework: Floating/network licences with background activation and deactivation. Key-only activation (name and email optional). Update notifications on load. Fixes for clock-skew and stale-state issues that could drop users into demo mode.
• Built-in Crash Reporting (Sentry): Automatic crash detection and reporting across all platforms so issues are caught and fixed faster. Includes symbol upload for all Release configurations.
• Self-Healing Menus: Detects a missing or stale ribbon/CUI menu and reloads it automatically on startup or after an upgrade.

Bug fixes:

• Grip Editing Data Corruption: Moving or stretching bars via grips no longer quietly mutates stored dimensions or creates false schedule conflicts. Grip lifecycle now uses generation-tracked cleanup with stale-pointer rejection.
• Linked-Bar Sync Restored: Changes now propagate between linked bars again. The sync path was dead since November 2025 — guarded on isUndoing() instead of undoRecording(), which blocked all non-undo changes.
• XREF Rebar Protection: A user-toggleable setting prevents rebar in externally referenced drawings from being accidentally modified.
• Match Properties — Bar Type/Grade: ab_Match and ab_MatchPS now correctly copy the bar type (grade prefix), not just dimensions.
• Dimension Rounding Consistency: Dimensions A–R now round DOWN to the nearest 5 in both the schedule grid and the Properties panel (OPM), eliminating mismatches between the two.
• Schedule Cell Edit Scoping: Editing a cell in the schedule now only affects the row's own entities, not the entire member+mark group. Prevents unintended bulk changes.
• Block Attribute Updates: Fixed to match by handle+tag only, preventing incorrect attribute writes when blocks share similar structures.
• AutoCAD Fatal Error on Exit: Fixed a crash during controller teardown by guarding CAD calls that are unsafe during shutdown.
• GlobalSettings Crash: Fixed a crash from a deleted Change-mark widget in the Global Settings dialog.
• Stepped Bar Dedup Key: Schedule rows for stepped bars now use a key that includes shape, type, and diameter — keeping zero-quantity conflict rows visible instead of incorrectly merging them.
• Text Fingerprint Hash: Text-field content is now hashed in the change fingerprint so same-length label/PSC edits correctly trigger a redraw.
• VDOT Angle on Mirror: Dot-view leader angles are now preserved through mirror operations and synced to display settings.
• Heap Corruption — mDims Growth: Fixed set_mDim growing the mDims row past nDims, which caused heap corruption on subsequent writes.
• Parallel Build Errors: Fixed PDB contention and Qt DLL lock conflicts when building with multiple MSBuild instances.
• Bar Count Recalculation: set_bCov now correctly recalculates bar count and flags the graphics as modified, fixing stale count displays.
• AB_TagBar Range Grip-Move Crash: Fixed a crash when grip-moving range-mode tags, plus jig slowness during tag placement.
• Licence-Key Crypto Crash Guard: Added an on_crash hook that discards crashes during licence-key cryptographic operations.
• AES Key Cleanup: AES keys are now wiped from memory after use in all Release configurations.

Performance improvements:

• Incremental Schedule Refresh (Up to 10× Faster): The schedule now refreshes only the member group that changed instead of rebuilding the entire grid. Combined with a cut-length cache, large drawings with thousands of bars see dramatically faster updates on every add, edit, delete, or undo.
• Faster Drawing Open (~9 Seconds Saved): Eliminated a redundant second regen pass when no bar drew blank on file open. The schedule scan is deferred to showEvent and collected once instead of multiple times.
• Text Format Cache: Cached text formatting results avoid repeated string-building work during redraws, making pan/zoom and regen operations snappier.
• Single-Pass Table Scan: Combined table scan operations into a single SelectAll() pass with one transaction (GetTableInfoAndRemove), reducing database round-trips.
• Member-Scoped Selection Highlighting: Selecting a member in the schedule now updates the grid instantly without excessive refreshes. Only the clicked row's bars are highlighted, not the entire mark group.
• Parallel Multi-Config Build Script: New build_all_configs.ps1 with parallel build support, automatic Sentry symbol upload, and deploy scripting — replacing the old sequential batch file.

What's new:

• UK 2020 Bar Conversion Command (AB_CONVERTUK2020): New command to convert all rebar entities in a drawing from BS 8666:2005 to BS 8666:2020. Prompts for a source DWG file, creates a copy with a _UK2020 suffix, and reports conversion results.
• Bar Mark Start Field: Added a "Bar Mark Start" input field to the Area Zone dialog with save and load persistence, giving users control over bar mark numbering.
• Force Straight Bars Option: Added a "Use straight bars only" checkbox to the Area Zone dialog. The setting persists to Area.xml and replaces previous hardcoded behavior.
• Z Leader Command: Added a Z Leader command to assist with annotating 3D rebar models.
• Document Reactor Re-enabled: Re-enabled automatic bar style reloading when switching between open documents. Includes proper cleanup on unload and null safety guards.
• Schedule Toggle Label Preservation: The schedule toggle command (ab_range) now preserves custom labels containing "none" instead of overwriting them with the default template.

Bug fixes:

• Stepped Range Orange Border: Fixed all bars in a stepped range showing the orange selection border simultaneously. Stepped ranges produce many schedule rows from a single CAD entity, so every row shared the same CAD ObjectId. All rows matched the stored selection ID and all received the orange border. Now uses a Mark|Member key that uniquely identifies each individual display row regardless of the underlying entity ID.
• GlobalSettings Save Behavior: Replaced per-keystroke saving with LostFocus-based saving to prevent excessive XML writes and unnecessary CAD regens. Also wired up missing save handlers for several checkboxes (InsertHeading, MergeMember, OnlySumWeights, Schedule0, WLOneTable, LogVerbose) and fixed a ComboBox race condition during repopulation.
• COM Bar Creation (DetCode): Bars created via COM were visible in CAD but could not be read back via SelectAll(). Fixed by initializing the DetCode property during bar creation in DrawBar() and DrawBarGlobal().
• Area Zone Bar Grouping Rewrite: Replaced GroupBarsSort/MakeGroups with a new SplitIntoLanesAndProcess approach using RegionIndex for correct lane separation and consistent step detection with 20% tolerance.
• Straight Bar Detection Fix: Fixed straight bar detection in Area Zone for UK and international rebar codes.
• 3D PlotAll Rendering for Range Bars: Fixed VSIDE/VTOP/VBOT range bars not rendering correctly along the range line when PlotAll was enabled. The rangeSolid was being saved after the pln2wrld transform instead of before it.
• rangeSolid Cache Invalidation: Fixed stale cached range bar geometry persisting after changes to cover values, bar diameter, bar style, flip mode, bar angle, and bar dimensions (A, B, C, etc.).
• BLDOUBLE Color Rendering: Fixed 12 locations where BLDOUBLE offset lines and centerlines used a raw color index instead of the display color that respects style and highlight settings.
• Template Load Crash (ACCESS_VIOLATION): Fixed a crash when opening templates containing rebar objects at CAD startup. Caused by partially initialized AcString members in abakBarStyle objects. Fixed with SEH protection and null checks in ShapeReader.
• Preview Cache Crash: Fixed a crash caused by sl_live being used before initialization in OnInitDialog. Added null checks and fallback defaults throughout the preview cache.
• PlotAll Hiding Bars with No Range Line: Fixed bars without a range line becoming invisible when PlotAll was ON. Now only hides the insertion bar when PlotAll is ON and a range line actually exists.
• Leader Text Rotation in Print Preview: Fixed incorrect text rotation when plotting from paper space with a rotated viewport UCS. Now detects plot context via AcGiContext::isPlotGeneration() and uses stored WCS rotation directly.
• Selection Jumping During Delete/Modify: Fixed the selected bar losing highlight after a grid refresh. Now stores the selected bar ID before refresh and restores it after, with re-entrancy guards.
• Sentry Error Fixes: Fixed a bug in LoadValidDiameters() where all type ranges shared the same diameter list reference. Added null safety and exception handling in SelectAll(), BarsToDisplay(), CreateRegion(), and SubtractRegion().
• ExplodedBarManager Crash: Fixed an index-out-of-range crash in SafeParseDimensions() when accessing the third element of a dimensions array.
• ShapeReader Cache State Issues: Removed early-return cache optimizations in SetCurrentCode() and SetCurrentRod() that caused stale state, inconsistent ShapeReader behavior, and step range leader grip bugs.
• Country Code Mismatch Fallback: ShapeReader now falls back to a prefix match when an exact code list match fails (for example, a bar using "BS 8666:2005" when the config differs). A warning is shown once per session.
• CUI Menu Reload Fix: Fixed CUI menu loading by adding a proper reload function.
• COM Memory Corruption and Leaks: Fixed memory corruption and memory leaks in the COM interface, and optimized palette operations to reduce lag.
• VDOT Text Position: Fixed dot-view leader text being positioned at the attachment point instead of the text endpoint.
• BricsCAD Style Loading: Fixed bar styles not loading on BricsCAD during rendering. The ensureDatabaseStylesLoaded() call was guarded by a _DBXAPP preprocessor define that excluded BricsCAD builds.
• Rendering State Mutation (sRngl): Fixed worldDraw permanently modifying the range line mode. Empty or coincident range points forced sRngl = 1 which persisted beyond the render call, corrupting entity state without write access. Now saves and restores the original value.
• Old Drawing Style Loading (ABAK_BSTYLE_CUR): Fixed old drawings failing to render when the active bar style exists only in ABAK_BSTYLE_CUR and not in the ABAK_BSTYLE dictionary. The migration path requires write access which fails during worldDraw/REGEN. Now pre-loads the style during the read-only style loading pass.
• Document Reactor Double-Close: Fixed a double-close bug in the document reactor where the named objects dictionary was closed both inside readAllDatabaseStyles() and by the caller. Switched to the self-contained no-arg version which manages its own object lifetime.

Performance improvements:

• DataGrid Row Virtualization (Schedule): Fixed two UpdateLayout() calls that silently defeated IsVirtualizingWhenGrouping. The first was in UpdateGridData - called after setting ItemsSource, it forced WPF to materialize all row containers synchronously on every Update button click and on every bar add/modify/delete event. The second was in SizeChanged - when new data caused the vertical scrollbar to appear, the width change triggered an unconditional UpdateLayout() that materialized all rows again. With both removed, only the ~15-20 visible rows are ever created regardless of schedule size.
• Faster Member Selection: Selecting a member in the schedule now updates the grid instantly. Rapidly clicking through multiple members no longer causes excessive refreshes.
• Reduced Redundant Renders: Removed 3 redundant render calls after ItemsSource is set, and combined table scan operations into a single SelectAll() pass with one transaction (GetTableInfoAndRemove).
• Render Cache and LOD Gating (AddoBAR-Object): Added level-of-detail gating and improved cache management for 3D rendering operations.
• Bar Preview Render Caching (AddoBAR-Object): Added caching for bar preview rendering in dialogs to reduce repeated render work.

What's new:

• Configurable Shape Column Width: Added a new "Shape column width (mm)" setting in Global Settings that appears when "Draw bars on schedule" is enabled, allowing precise control over the bar/shape drawing column width (default: 15mm).
• Improved Table Layout: Shape column now always appears as the last column (after Custom column if enabled), ensuring consistent table structure and proper width calculations.
• Enhanced Backward Compatibility: Existing configurations automatically upgrade from 20 to 21 column width values, preserving user settings while adding support for the new Shape column.

What's new:

• Improved Configuration Persistence: Resolved an issue where global settings (Country/Code) would reset to defaults after a restart.
• Fixed Block File Pathing: Corrected a bug where abbreviated UI paths were being saved instead of full system paths, ensuring blocks load reliably.
• Configurable Table Rotation: Added a new "Rotate merged column text 90 deg" option under Table Settings, allowing users to toggle between vertical and horizontal text.
• Enhanced Auto-Save: All Global Settings now automatically save to Config.xml upon modification for a more seamless user experience.

What's new:

• Added Sentry-based error monitoring.

What's new:

• Updated MatchBar to match Shapecode as well.
• If you experience any issues or need assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us at ruan@addosoft.co.

Before proceeding, please run the "C:\AddoSOFT\AddoBAR\AddoUpdater.exe" to complete the update process.

What's new:

• Major Release: After 100+ hours of development, AddoBAR 6.0.0 represents one of the most significant updates in the product's history 102 commits, 18,348+ lines added, and 70% code optimized for enterprise-grade performance and reliability.
• Enterprise-Grade Stability: Implemented 195+ error handlers across 35 files, eliminating 36 critical bugs including 9 crash-causing issues, 3 security vulnerabilities, and 7 data integrity problems.
• Performance Revolution: Achieved 35-50% faster overall performance through comprehensive optimization:
  • 15-20% faster drawing display and regeneration
  • 25-30% faster grip editing and object manipulation
  • 20-30% improvement on repeated style access and shape code lookups
  • Complete memory leak elimination
• C++ Performance Upgrade: Migrated ab_Match and ab_MatchPS commands to C++.
• Intelligent Text Collision Detection: Enhanced ab_centerText command now automatically detects and resolves text overlaps.
• Improved VDOT Range Positioning: Complete overhaul of text positioning for dot-view range lines.
• Comprehensive Platform Support: Validated across AutoCAD 2022-2026, BricsCAD V22-V26, and ZWCAD 2025-2026.
• Enhanced BOM Schedule System: Major improvements to Bill of Materials generation.
• Architecture Overhaul: Complete codebase modernization with 69% reduction in core code complexity.
• 100% Backward Compatible: All existing DWG files work seamlessly with zero breaking changes.
• This release establishes AddoBAR as a rock-solid, enterprise-grade solution. For detailed technical information, see our comprehensive release documentation.
• Questions or need assistance? Contact us at ruan@addosoft.co

What's new:

• Minor Changes and Improvements to Bar Rotation and Highlight Bar

What's new:

• After 9 months of development, this release delivers one of the most substantial updates to AddoBAR to date.
• Major core upgrade to support Canadian RSIC standards, including full implementation of 11-dimension bars.
• The internal structure of the barlist system has been updated. AddoBAR will automatically create a backup of your existing barlist.
• Improved the Multiple Range function — now more reliable and directly accessible via the Range Commands tool.
• Enhanced 3D visualization tools for smoother interaction and more accurate modeling.
• Significant memory optimizations and speed improvements throughout the platform.
• Completely redesigned Zoom to Window feature for more precise and intuitive viewport control.
• Numerous behind-the-scenes improvements to stability, compatibility, and overall user experience.
• If you experience any issues or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us at ruan@addosoft.co.

What's new:

• Please click here to Download and Reinstall from the website. This is to support the new Attribute master. and Reinstall from the website. This is to support the new Attribute master.
• Fixed Bug on Plotting Schedule Table not matching member Layout.
• The Free Version for 2025 now supports up to 25 entities, an increase from the previous limit of 10.
• ZWCAD 2025 Fully Supported.
• License Manager encryption updated in Version 5.25.04. Users on versions older than 5.25.04 must contact support at ruan@addosoft.co to have their license reset, or press the new reset button to request a reset.

What's new:

• Please click here to Download and Reinstall from the website. This is to support the new Attribute master.
• Resolved Ribbon Error for the Level Command.
• Enhanced Level Command to support angle adjustments.
• Improved Schedule Sorting to better handle sequences from "xxa" to "xxaa".
• Fixed Schedule Tables Default Settings to match the new default template.
• Added Ability to rename custom Column in Schedule. See Global Settings on pallet
• License Manager encryption updated in Version 5.25.04. Users on versions older than 5.25.04 must contact support at ruan@addosoft.co to have their license reset. Also added a Reset Button.

What's new:

• Added Attribute Master. Visit our Blog for more information and a tutorial at "blog.addosoft.co.za/attribute-master"
• License Manager encryption updated to support .NET 8.0.You will have to contact support at "ruan@addosoft.co" and then we will reset your license on our side.