powerdraft is one of the most powerful productivity enhancement tools for autocad for windows.

    seamlessly integrated into the autocad environment, your powerdraft driver offers significant improvements over existing driver technology.

    powerdraft is an extremely fast and reliable driver platform for autocad. proven 32-bit display list technology and an intimate knowledge of your elsa graphics adapter combine to provide an excellent solution for the most demanding autocad users.

    additionally, your powerdraft driver includes the powerful utilities magni- view, multiview and cockpit, each designed to accent the autocad drafting environment without inhibiting it. fully dynamic and integrated through elsa's smartfocus technology, each utility is fully transparent to autocad and available during any autocad command.

    elsa powerdraft hardware renderer

    for autocad 2000, there is the elsa hardware renderer, which is responsible for the graphics acceleration for the 3d views. the driver directly accesses the elsa opengl icd, and makes 100% use of the implemented autocad 2000 extensions. this results in more than twice the 3d graphics performance of the standard autocad driver.

    smartfocus

    elsa's smartfocus technology, which is used in all powerdraft windows, keeps you from having to switch the focus between driver windows and the autocad windows. after using a function in one of the driver windows, any keyboard entry or crosshair movement automatically makes autocad the active window again. you don't have to expressly click in a window to activate it, as is in the case with other drivers.

    magniview

    unique among “spy glass” devices, the magniview offers maximum functionality with a minimum size. elsa's smartfocus technology makes the magni- view completely modeless, allowing the magniview to update dynamically, tracking the autocad cursor to display a “zoomed in” view of the editing area. this magnified view can aid the drafter in picking autocad entities, including grips and other editing artifacts, or in finding special information within the drawing.

    multiview

    enclosed within the cockpit window, the multiview offers a configurable visual history of previous views. displaying a record of one to one hundred prior views, the multiview represents each view visually on a button face. this gives instant access to any previous view, and can be used to record and playback selected views consistently.

    cockpit

    a tool without equal, the cockpit offers dynamic zooming and panning of the current viewport with just a flick of the mouse, while being sized small enough to fit within the autocad scrolling area. shaped to resemble two joy sticks, adjusting your view is as easy as pick, drag and release. through elsa's smartfocus technology, the cockpit is completely transparent and fully dynamic, making it perfect for small adjustments to your view while editing. there is also a remote control option using the keyboard (refer to the help file).

    installation

    make sure that autocad is not running. in the root directory of your elsa synergy 2000 cd, you will find the program autorun.exe. start this program. choose the desired software installation, and click install. otherwise, or in the case of difficulty, please do the following:

    1 in windows on the start menu, click run.

    2 insert the product cd, and using browse..., go to the '[your cd drive, normally d] :\apps\powdraft' directory and start setup.exe from there.

    3 confirm by clicking ok, and follow the instructions.

    4 select the language to be used in the installation dialogs.

    setup finds your autocad by reading the association for the file extension dwg.

    you will have to modify the path accordingly, if you wish to set up powerdraft for a different autocad installation.

    we do not recommend that you use the autocad directory as the directory for the powerdraft installation.

    after elsa powerdraft is successfully installed, autocad will automatically use the powerdraft driver on startup. if you wish to switch between the original autocad driver and powerdraft, you will find a choice of the two drivers in the windows start menu, under the 'nvidia corporation' program group, and under powerdraft. you may toggle between them.

    if, for any reason, you uninstall powerdraft, ensure that the autocad driver is enabled!