Archi 5.4 beta

[Phil Beauvoir]

Hi folks,

Archi 5.4 Beta 1 is available for testing if you'd like to try it.

Archi 5.4 fixes a number of issues, builds upon the latest version of Eclipse (4.32), and adds a few new features. You can read about these in the Change Log.

Archi is built on the Eclipse framework which has a 3-monthly release cycle. With each new Archi build we try to use the latest version of Eclipse in order to fix underlying bugs and regressions in the framework. Unfortunately, some versions of Eclipse contain other problems and can't be used. It's taken until Eclipse 4.32 (June 2024 release) to get to a version that should hopefully be stable. We are now ready to target Eclipse 4.32 in Archi 5.4. This build should fix a number of issues, especially on Mac and Linux.

Support for more key bindings (shortcut keys) has been added to this version of Archi. You can now assign shortcut keys to entries in the palette (a long-standing feature request).

Please download Archi 5.4 Beta at the Archi Beta Page.

Phil

[romuald]

Thanks

[Phil Beauvoir]

Archi 5.4 Beta 2 is now available.

Cheers,

Phil

[Xiaoqi]

nice to know, will try then

[Phil Beauvoir]

And...

Archi 5.4 Beta 3 is now available.

(A few more internal Eclipse bugs fixed)

Cheers,

Phil

[Phil Beauvoir]

Archi 5.4 Beta 4 is now available.

Some more optimisations and fixes. Final build will be available in a week or so.

Cheers,

Phil

[Phil Beauvoir]

Archi 5.4 Beta 5 is now available.

Some more optimisations and fixes (I keep keep finding things that makes things better    )

Final build will be available in a week or so.

Cheers,

Phil

[Phil Beauvoir]

Archi 5.4 Beta 6 is now available.

Some more optimisations and fixes... 

Cheers,

Phil

[Phil Beauvoir]

Hi all, Archi 5.4 Beta 7 is now available.

This build has a useful new feature - adjust font heights between platforms.

In Archi, if you set the font for an object on Mac and then open the model on Windows or Linux the font appears bigger. Conversely, if you set the font for an object on Windows or Linux and open the model on Mac the font appears smaller. This is due to different DPI (dots per inch) on each platform. Mac uses 72 DPI, Linux 96 DPI, and Windows uses 96 DPI (or more depending on scaling).

Archi 5.4 Beta 7 now compensates for this difference by adjusting the displayed font height depending on whether the font was applied when working on the model on Mac or on Windows or Linux. With this build of Archi, font heights should now look the same on all platforms. (Note, there may be a slight difference in some cases due to rounding errors.)

If, for any reason, this causes undesired behaviour you can turn this feature off in Archi's Preferences, under General, Other, "Adjust font height for each platform".

Cheers,

Phil

[Xiaoqi]

Wow, looks very useful feature to let font adjustment flexible, will upgrade and test, thanks Phil.

[Phil Beauvoir]

Hi all, Archi 5.4 Beta 8 is now available.

This build changes the implementation of cross-platform font scaling that we introduced in Beta 7. We found some cases where it didn't work so we've taken a different approach.

Here's the revised description of this feature:

If you set the label font for an object or connection in a diagram on Mac and then open the diagram on Windows or Linux the font appears bigger. Conversely, if you set the font for an object on Windows or Linux and open the model on Mac the font appears smaller. This is due to different DPI (dots per inch) on each platform. Mac uses 72 DPI, Linux 96 DPI, and Windows uses 96 DPI or more depending on display scaling.

Archi 5.4 Beta 8 on Mac now includes a new option in "Appearance -> Fonts", "Scale fonts for diagram objects and connections on Mac". If you enable this option all fonts on Mac are scaled up so they appear the same as when viewed on Windows and Linux. The default setting is off so this is opt-in. It only affects Mac users who are also opening their models on Windows or Linux. Windows and Linux users don't need to do anything (this preference is present only on the Mac version).

Here's how to enable this option on Mac:

1. On the Mac version of Archi open Archi's Preferences ("Settings" in later macOS versions).
2. Go to the "Appearance -> Fonts" page and check the setting "Scale fonts for diagram objects and connections on Mac" on.
3. If you select "Diagram objects and connections" in the table you'll see that selecting this option automatically switches the default font from "Lucida Grande 12" to "Lucida Grande 9" and vice-versa to compensate for the new scaling. After changing this option, you can manually set a different default font by clicking the "Edit..." button.

When this setting is turned on all existing fonts that you've set manually will now appear bigger than before on Mac, so you may need to set these instances to a smaller font size as required. But once this is done, fonts will appear the same size when viewing diagrams across platforms.

Cheers,

Phil