CadWare TechCustom CAD application development
CoreCAD.NET / For developersFor software teams

Familiar .NET code,
deep extension points.

CoreCAD.NET is a WinForms control and a set of typed APIs. Hosting it takes a few lines; extending it uses the same mechanisms the built-in commands use.

.NET 4.8Windows x64 · WinForms control
C#typed APIs with IntelliSense
25.xgeneration follows Eyeshot 2025
EN · ITuser interface languages
Extension points

Your code uses the same mechanisms as the built-in commands.

Commands

Interactive commands with snaps and preview; facade methods callable by name from the command line.

Features

Your own parametric features, 2D or 3D: regeneration, editable history, suppression, patterns, variables and face/edge references.

Data

Custom data on entities and documents, saved in the drawing and propagated on copy and split.

Rules

Public events: validate, adjust or veto adds, edits, transforms, imports and more.

Selection & UI

Selection-filter rules, context menus during commands and grip edits, your own panels.

Scripting

Expose host functions to macros; add automation commands through satellite assemblies.

The building blocks

The main types a developer meets — every one documented with IntelliSense XML comments.

The CAD control
The control you place on a form: viewport(s), document, settings and the central event publisher.
The command facade
One method per command, also callable by name from a command line.
Interactive commands
A sequence of typed inputs (points, picks, values) with prompts, options and live preview.
Grip editing
Per-entity editors expose grips and context-menu actions on selected objects.
Undo / redo
Every change as an undoable action; compound transactions group many actions into one user step.
Snaps & selection
Object snaps and tracking; selection by window, polygon, type, layer or custom rule.
Constraints & parametrics
2D constraint solving and the parametric feature framework with history.
Sheets & exchange
Paper-space sheets with projected views, PDF output, and CAD file exchange.
Quality & delivery

Professional delivery, predictable upgrades.

A library at the centre of your product must be easy to deploy, to support and to upgrade. Every CoreCAD.NET release is produced by the same scripted pipeline, and its version number tells you at a glance what kind of change it brings.

25.2.1

Generation
Follows the Eyeshot generation the libraries are built on: 25 = Eyeshot 2025. It changes only when the product moves to a new Eyeshot.
Release
New capabilities. Any breaking change is flagged in the release notes.
Fix
Corrections and refinements: no new API and no breaking changes.

Lockstep set

All CadWare libraries of a release share one version and ship together; a runtime guard warns if a mixed set is deployed.

Signed & protected

Assemblies, satellites and installer are Authenticode-signed with SHA-256 and timestamped; code is obfuscated against reverse engineering.

Supportable

Side-by-side installs per version; symbols archived for every release so that field stack traces can be decoded.

Stable contracts

The automation contract is versioned and only grows by addition; every user-visible change gets a changelog entry.

Developer experience

Productive from the first day.

Samples written from the point of view of an external developer, IntelliSense documentation on every public member, and developer guides for the key extension surfaces.

Sample applications

A separate Visual Studio solution that references the libraries exactly as your project will.

  • 2DInitialise, embed the viewport, run commands
  • 2DSnaps, offset, trim, extend, fillet, chamfer
  • 2DMove, rotate, mirror, scale, arrays
  • 2DType filters and a live selection panel
  • 2DBlocks and on-disk libraries with previews
  • 2DDWG/DXF import and export round trip
  • 2DEvery public event, live
  • 2DWrite your own interactive command
  • 2DDocument metadata saved in the file
  • 2DPrint dialog and silent printing
  • 3DBox, cylinder, sphere, cone, orbit, zoom
  • 3DParametric extrude with drag editing
  • 3DFrom rectangle to parametric box
  • 3DSweep a profile along a rail
  • 3DUnion, difference, intersection
  • 3DAll work-plane commands
  • 3DFlange, engrave, perforation, section cut
  • AUTOTyped C# automation facade
  • AUTOHost end-user JavaScript macros
  • JSProgressive macro lessons, from shapes to assistants

IntelliSense

XML documentation files for CoreCAD, CoreModel and the UI layer: the public API documented member by member.

Events guide

How to observe, validate and veto changes, with order-of-fire tables for every event family.

Automation contract

The versioned command catalog: parameters, results, error codes and undo semantics.

Release notes

Release notes and a changelog with every version, listing each user-visible change.

BUILT TOGETHER ▸

Built together. Your developers work on CoreCAD.NET alongside ours, within a project agreement: we decide together who builds what, and CadWare provides the libraries, the full documentation and support.

Technical specifications

System requirements.

Operating systemWindows, 64-bit
Runtime.NET Framework 4.8 or later; host process must run as x64
Geometry kerneldevDept Eyeshot 2025 (2025.3.457) — licence not included, purchased from devDept
UI layer (optional)DevExpress WinForms 23.2 — only for DxUICoreCAD.NET; licence not included
MCP server.NET 8 runtime; an MCP-capable AI client
DevelopmentVisual Studio 2022 or 2026, C# (WinForms)
LanguagesEnglish (neutral) and Italian satellite resources
The complete list

Every hosting and delivery capability.

Open an area to read what it covers.

01Hosting, extensibility & automationWhat an application needs to build on the engine: a control to host, public events with veto and notification, custom data on entities and documents, its own commands and makers, undo and redo from code, document recovery, and a typed automation API.10 capabilities
  • Each document is a WinForms control configured when it is created, with a command facade that runs any of the 164 interactive commands from code or by name, and the engine logs through a logger the host supplies.
  • Public events before and after commands, grip edits, entity additions and deletions, transformations, modify operations, property changes, and undo and redo let the host veto an operation before it happens and follow what changed after it.
  • Applications attach their own data to any entity (an id, a text payload and links to external records), which follows the entity through modify and copy operations and undo, and key-value data to the document, both saved in the native file.
  • Applications add their own commands, registered by name at runtime or written as interactive makers with their own input steps and live preview, and can run any interactive command with some or all of its inputs supplied from code.
  • A maker can run inside the command in progress, which resumes at the step it had reached once the maker ends, Esc cancelling only the inner maker, and an event tells the host when the command underneath is current again.In the next release
  • Entity changes made through the engine are undoable, code can group several changes into one undo step that is rolled back as a whole if it is not committed, and the host can veto an undo or redo.
  • Multi-document applications get a registry of open documents, recent files, the session to reopen at the next start, and a recovery store that saves modified documents during an unattended Windows shutdown so they can be restored.
  • A typed .NET automation API draws, transforms, copies, deletes and queries entities by id, groups calls into one undo step and reaches every command of the automation catalogue by name, with stable error codes and with command names, parameters and results fixed by a versioned contract.
  • Entity properties bind to a standard PropertyGrid with localized captions and apply to the selection as one undo step, the host's own dialogs can answer the engine's text and number prompts, and the host renders and extends the engine's context menus.
  • Entity properties bind to a standard PropertyGrid with localized captions and a layer list the host can filter, and apply to the selection as one undo step, the host's own dialogs can answer the engine's text and number prompts, and the host renders and extends the engine's context menus.In the next release
02Requirements.NET Framework 4.8 on 64-bit Windows and Eyeshot 2025, with DevExpress 23.2 only for the user interface module and .NET 8 only for the MCP server.5 capabilities
  • The libraries run on .NET Framework 4.8 or later on 64-bit Windows as 64-bit code only, so a host built for AnyCPU must not prefer 32-bit, and the CAD view is a Windows Forms control.
  • Eyeshot 2025 is required in the exact build each release is compiled against, currently devDept.Eyeshot 2025.3.457, and every developer licenses it from devDept because it is not redistributed with the product.
  • Importing DWG, DXF and DWF files and exporting DWG, DXF and PDF need Eyeshot's DWG/DXF library at the same version as Eyeshot, with its native Open Design Alliance runtime and the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, which every developer obtains with their Eyeshot licence and deploys with the application because the package does not include them.
  • DevExpress WinForms 23.2, currently 23.2.15, is required and licensed separately only for the ready-made user interface module, while the 2D core, the 3D modeler, the automation layer, the macro engine and the MCP module do not depend on it.
  • The MCP server is supplied separately from the library installer and runs on the .NET 8 runtime, which no other part of the product needs.
03Package & versionsOne installer for the libraries, with signed and protected assemblies and IntelliSense documentation, and one version number shared by all of them.7 capabilities
  • Each release ships as a signed Windows installer that puts every version in its own folder with its own uninstall entry, checks for .NET Framework 4.8 and records the install location in the registry, so a new release can be tried side by side with the one in production.
  • The CadWare libraries in the package are protected against reverse engineering, and every CadWare file, satellite assemblies and installer included, is Authenticode-signed by CadWare so its origin can be verified.
  • The package includes IntelliSense XML documentation for the 2D core, the 3D modeler and the user interface library, release notes grouped by module, the full changelog, a prerequisites file and the open- source JavaScript engine the macro module needs.
  • The package includes IntelliSense XML documentation for every CadWare library, a release page to open in a browser with the release notes by module and the full changelog, searchable and filterable by module and type of change, a prerequisites file, which also covers the ODA runtime needed for DWG, DXF, DWF and PDF files, and the open-source JavaScript engine the macro module needs.In the next release
  • All CadWare assemblies of a release carry the same version number, read as generation.release.fix, whose first number names the Eyeshot generation the release is built for, 25 for Eyeshot 2025.
  • The libraries report their exact version, commit and build date at runtime and write them to the host's log at start-up, so a support request can name the exact build.
  • A deployment that mixes releases is visible in the file properties of the assemblies, and the MCP module logs a warning at start-up when the automation layer and the 2D core it runs on come from different builds.
04Languages & displaysUser interface in English and Italian, and layouts that scale correctly on high-resolution displays.4 capabilities
  • The user interface of the 2D core, the 3D modeler and the DevExpress interface is available in English and Italian, chosen from the application's UI culture with English as the fallback, and the Italian resources ship in the package as signed satellite assemblies.
  • Applications built on the DevExpress interface can follow the Windows display language or set the interface language in their configuration file, without changing how numbers and coordinates are typed.
  • On displays with Windows scaling above 100%, grips, snap markers, the pick box, the labels next to the cursor and the viewport's coordinate icon keep their physical size and proportions.
  • Built-in panels, dialogs, popups and the command line scale with the display instead of clipping their text at Windows scaling above 100%.
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Features and figures may change. Eyeshot is a product of devDept Software. DevExpress is a trademark of Developer Express Inc. AMD Radeon ProRender is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Claude is a product of Anthropic. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.