Emailing Exports

File › Send by Email sends an export, or the drawing itself, by email instead of saving it. Choose what to send from its menu:

Menu item	Sends
Drawing…	The drawing as it is now, as a `.piq` file, changes not saved yet included. Your own file isn't touched.
Export…	Any format of File › Export › Export…: DXF, CF2, DDES3, G-code, HP-GL, PDF, EPS, PostScript, Illustrator, SVG, LightBurn, SVG for Glowforge and xTool, PNG, JPEG or WebP
Export with Post-Processor…	A post-processor's output
Export to Cape Pack…, Export to TOPS Pro…	The pack for pallet software
Report…	A report, as CSV, an Excel workbook, an OpenDocument spreadsheet, a web page, a PDF, a Word document, an OpenDocument text, Markdown, JSON or text
Export Proof (HTML)…	An HTML proof of the 3D page
Export Proof Images…, Export Proof Video…	Proof pictures and video
AR Proof for iPhone and iPad…	A USDZ that folds up life-size in AR Quick Look
Export 3D PDF…	The 3D page on a PDF page, in 3D in Adobe Acrobat and Reader
Export 3D Model…	The 3D page as glTF, OBJ, STL, COLLADA, PRC or USDZ

The export runs just as it does from its own menu: the same questions and options, in the same order. Where it would ask where to save the file, it doesn't: the file is written to a temporary folder instead, named as the export would suggest. If the export offers several file types (Export… and Export 3D Model…, say), a small dialog asks for the file's name and type instead, and the export's options dialog says Email rather than Export. Cancel any question and nothing is sent.

Then the message goes one of two ways, as File › Send by Email › Email Settings… says:

ParametrIQ sends it for me (the usual way): you write the message in ParametrIQ, and it sends it for you, with replies to you. See Sent by ParametrIQ.
Open it in my mail program: the message opens in your mail program, for you to address and send from your own address. See Your mail program.

Your mail program

With Open it in my mail program chosen in Email Settings…, or Open in My Mail Program clicked in the message ParametrIQ shows, the message opens in your mail program with the file attached, ready for you to address and send. Nothing is sent without you: you can change the subject and text, add people, or close it.

Windows: the mail program set up for email on Windows (Outlook, Thunderbird, eM Client …), through Simple MAPI. Some mail programs, such as the new Outlook and the Windows Mail app, don't take messages from other programs this way: see If no mail program opens.
macOS: Mail. The first time, macOS asks whether ParametrIQ may control Mail: allow it.
Linux: the desktop's mail program (Thunderbird, Evolution, KMail …), through xdg-email.

The subject is the drawing's name and the file's format (Box 0201 – PDF). The text says the drawing, what it was exported as, its sizes (its L, W and D, inside or outside, if it has them), its classification, and each file with its size:

Drawing: Box 0201
Exported as: PDF Files
Sizes: 400 × 300 × 250 mm (inside)
Classification: Corrugated · FEFCO 0201

Attached:
  Box 0201.pdf (182 KB)

Sent from ParametrIQ CAD.

Several files

Everything the export writes is attached: a DXF and the pictures beside it, say. More than ten files, or files in a folder (a video's PNG frames), are sent as one ZIP.

Large files

Many mail servers refuse messages bigger than about 20–25 MB, and attachments grow by a third on the way. Files over 20 MB in all are said so before the message is made, and you can choose not to send them. To share something bigger, save it and use a file-sharing service.

If no mail program opens

If no mail program takes the message, the file is shown in its folder (selected, in Explorer and the Finder) and a new message opens with the subject and text but without the file: email addresses can't carry attachments. Drag the file into the message, or attach it from the folder shown. The messages panel says where it is.

Sent by ParametrIQ

With ParametrIQ sends it for me chosen in Email Settings… (the usual way), Send by Email shows the message to write in ParametrIQ: To and Cc (several addresses separated by commas), the subject and text (suggested as above), and the files with their sizes. From and Replies to say how it goes: ParametrIQ sends it from its own address, noreply@ParametriQ.co.uk, as your name via ParametrIQ, and replies come to the email address of your ParametrIQ account. There is nothing to set up, and no password to give.

Button
Send	ParametrIQ sends the message; it arrives within a few minutes. The messages panel says whom it went to, and the addresses are offered next time.
Open in My Mail Program	The message, as you have written it, opens in your mail program instead, to send from your own address (see Your mail program).
Cancel	Nothing is sent.

Sending through ParametrIQ needs:

a licence that can be used on this computer (active or on trial), which ParametrIQ's server checks each time;
an internet connection;
files of 25 MB at most in all, ten at most (more are sent as one ZIP, as above), to 20 addresses at most (To and Cc together). Programs and scripts can't be sent.

If one of these isn't met (you're offline, say, or the files are too big), you are told why and offered your mail program instead. If an address isn't one, or there is no subject, you are told, and the message is shown again to put right. Each licence can send a limited number of messages an hour and a day; when it has sent them, try again later or use your mail program. The files are deleted from ParametrIQ's server once the message has been sent.

The temporary files

The files are written to a folder of their own in PiQ Email, in your temporary folder (on Windows, %TEMP%\PiQ Email). They are kept while your mail program may still need them: until ParametrIQ closes once the message has been handed to a Windows mail program or sent, and otherwise for a day. Older ones are removed the next time you email something.

Licence

Emailing an export is exporting: like File › Export › Export, it needs a licence that can be used on this computer, and Drawing… needs one that allows saving. Without one, you are told why, and nothing is written or sent. See Activating ParametrIQ. Sending through ParametrIQ checks the licence again on its server.