ConceptDraw V, the next version of the professional diagramming software, is due to arrive in October. Preview versions of the product — which is Mac OS X compatible — are being used by beta testers.
ConceptDraw is an application for flowcharting, diagramming and illustrating business, technical or scientific information; it comes with a set of drawing tools and advanced shapes libraries. Version V will purportedly let you work with large and complex diagrams faster than before, thanks to a rebuild kernel that uses fewer resources and handles larger files.
Version V boasts a customizable interface that lets you arrange your own set of toolbars and define various parameters in floating dialogs. To assist users through the basic steps of creating a new document, there are several new “Wizards” based on existing task-specific templates.
All the pre-drawn shapes in the set of task-related libraries feature a user-defined behavior; you can set or change its parameters manually. Additionally, you can enter additional information about the shape in its Custom Properties and refer to it when it’s convenient.
When it comes to drawing tools, ConceptDraw V lets you select connected objects with a single mouse-click. A new text editor lets you assign several hyperlinks in the text within a single shape and use Subscripts and Superscripts. There are also new tools for defining custom styles for the shapes attributes, displaying bridges at the points where the connectors cross and creating shapes with rounded corners. Now you can use both indexed colors from a predefined palette or set a color directly by selecting their components.
Pricing hasn’t yet been announced.