6 Ways We Improved Protocase Designer (Release 4.6)

While there are several different ways to work with us to have enclosures, panels or parts custom-manufactured, many of our customers rely on our free CAD software – Protocase Designer. Because Protocase Designer offers dozens of templates for enclosures, panels and brackets, each customizable by material, size, color and more, it allows our customers to easily and quickly achieve their design goals by designing exactly what they need – while getting instant quotes along the way and ordering when they’re ready. Protocase Designer is an important tool for our customers, and so we’re always striving to make the software as useful as it can possibly be.

Over the past several months, our team of developers have been working hard to incorporate customer feedback into version 4.6 of Protocase Designer to ensure the experience is smooth, stable and speedy!

6 Ways We’ve Upgraded and Improved the Protocase Designer Experience for You:

1. We streamlined the user interface with new icons and made it compatible with 4K monitors and high-resolution monitors. This interface also offers additional help and tool tips – we’re with you every step of the way to offer help when you need it. I would also like to mention our Wiki is always there to help with extra instructions and tutorials.

2. We have added a new feature called the Lock function for better control while editing objects. This improvement is a direct result of customer feedback – we heard from customers who were frustrated that they couldn’t fix objects, such as cutouts, fasteners, and graphics, to make sure they didn’t get moved once they were placed. Now, you can lock any object in the Face Editor to prevent it from being moved, edited or deleted in any way (unless it’s unlocked).

3. You now have the ability to upload your own fonts into Protocase Designer. Until now, you were limited to the fonts available in Protocase Designer. Now you can upload your own fonts, which is particularly useful if your company has its own set of brand guidelines that you need to adhere to – or if you’re partial to a particular font. Besides being able to import your own fonts, you can now choose several new options in the font library: Archer, Bank Gothic, Britannic Bold, Gunblade, Pirulen, Segoe Print, Sui Generis Free and more.

4. You can now now import Scalable Vector Graphics files into Protocase Designer to use in your design. Before, you could attach vector graphics to your design, but Protocase Designer was unable to display them (only bitmap files could be displayed). Now, you can import Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG) files into Protocase Designer – and actually see them on your design in the software.

5. You also now have the ability to export Protocase Designer files as IGES files. Many customers have been asking for the ability to export their Protocase Designer assembly (.pda) as an IGES file. Being able to import into your preferred CAD is particularly useful for archiving your project and performing checks.

          Note: Exporting as an IGES is a beta feature, which is currently compatible with most CAD. It will be compatible with the upcoming SolidWorks 2018 as well.

6. We have also added new powdercoat paint & silkscreen colors to Protocase Designer. To make sure the Protocase Designer experience aligns with the experience for all other Protocase customers as closely as possible, we’ve updated the powdercoat and silkscreen color offerings to match what we stock. Now, you can use several new stocked powdercoat colors in your Protocase Designer project, including Desert Tan, Wine Red, Signal Yellow and more, as well as Pantone 201C, Epoxy Ink for silkscreen ink.

To start enjoying all of these new features and improvements, download Protocase Designer 4.6. I’m really proud of this software, and that it enables our customers to complete their projects even faster and more easily. Since everything in the software is all template based, you can get customizing an enclosure, panel or bracket in minutes, as opposed to hours.

As always, we always welcome your feedback – if you have any features or improvements you’d like to share with the Protocase Designer team or if there are any tutorials you would like to see, please email info@protocasedesigner.com.