Free Apps
Besides ParametrIQ CAD, ParametrIQ makes small free apps for the jobs around a design. Each runs on CAD's own engine - its readers and writers, its library, its nesting and its die maker - so what an app gives you is what CAD would. Each is a separate program, and each is free.
| App | What it does |
|---|---|
| Viewer | Opens any drawing ParametrIQ reads, flat or folded in 3D; measures it and exports it. |
| Box Maker | Makes a box from a standard style at your sizes, and exports its dieline. |
| Sheet Yield Calculator | Works out how many blanks each sheet size takes, and what the sheets cost. |
| Die Estimator | Prices the steel-rule die a dieline needs, from your own rates. |
| Cut List Optimiser | Cuts lengths from stock with the least waste. |
| Batch Converter | Converts many drawing files at once, or each one put in a watched folder. |
| Mat and Frame Calculator | Works out a picture's mount and frame, prices it, and draws the mount for a mat cutter. |
| Pallet and Case Planner | Packs units into cases and cases onto a pallet, every way compared. |
| Spooler | Queues jobs for your machines and sends them, made into each machine's profile or format. |
| Box Strength | Works out how high a corrugated box stacks safely, every board compared. |
| True-Shape Nesting | Lays out parts of any shape on hides, remnants and sheets, kept clear of the flaws you mark. |
| Seam Planner | Lays carpet or sheet flooring in a room with the fewest seams or the least carpet. |
| Sign Quote | Prices cut vinyl from its artwork: vinyl, tape, cutting and weeding, at your own rates. |
The Machine Emulator and the Pack Designer are free too.
Getting them
Each app needs a ParametrIQ account and its own licence, which costs nothing.
- Sign up or sign in at parametriq.co.uk and open Account › Licenses.
- Under the app's name, click Get my free licence. The licence is listed with its Product key, which is emailed to you too. It covers every version.
- Click its Download button, and install the app.
- Start the app. Its splash screen shows while it checks the licence, then its licence window opens: enter your account's E-mail and Password (or tick I sign in with Google or Facebook) and the Product key, and click Activate.
As with ParametrIQ CAD, a licence can be activated on two computers at once; with both taken, the window lists them so you can remove one. The app checks the licence each time it starts and runs for up to seven days without reaching the licence server. The licence button at the top right of the window (your e-mail, or Not signed in) shows the licence's status; its Activate or change licence…, like Help › Licence…, opens the licence window, where you can also deactivate this computer.
What they share
- They look like CAD. Each has CAD's title bar: the app's name on the left, the licence button and the light and dark switch on the right. Under it, the menus: File has the app's own commands (also on the toolbar below the menus) and Exit; View chooses the Light theme or Dark theme and the interface's Spacing (compact, normal or spacious), kept for every free app; Help opens the app's help (F1), the licence, the terms of use and the website. Hold Alt to see the menus' access keys.
- Looking is free. Until the app is activated you can open, make and work things out; what makes a file (an export, a saved list) or measures a drawing asks for the licence first.
- Numbers are typed as in CAD. A box takes a number, a fraction or a mixed number, alone or with a unit: in a box
in mm,
3inis 76.2 and1 1/2inis 38.1. A box outlined in red holds something it doesn't take, and keeps its last good value. See Entering Values and Units. - Drawings drop in. The apps that open drawings open one dropped on their window, or named when the app is started.
- Lists save as spreadsheets. A list saved (yields, an estimate, a cut list, a quote, pallet loads, boards compared) is CSV, an Excel workbook (which Numbers and Google Sheets open too) or an OpenDocument spreadsheet (LibreOffice's), as you choose in the save dialog. In the workbook and the OpenDocument file the numbers stay numbers you can add up, and the headings are bold.
- Right-click for commands. A right-click on a drawing or picture offers what can be done with it there and the app's own commands (Export…, Save…); on a list beside buttons (the Spooler's queue and machines, the Batch Converter's files), what those buttons do.
- Three languages. Each app is in English, Spanish and Simplified Chinese, as your computer is set.