cadcraft/docs/gaps.md

Where CADCraft falls short of AutoCAD

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Change: minor (object snap tracking, Extension, Parallel and Apparent Intersection landed, #379: top-10 row 3 and U1 narrowed) · Target: Autodesk AutoCAD 2027

Every known shortfall, one row each, ranked within each section by user impact. This is the work list: agents pick from here (top of a section first), and remove or update a row in the same PR that closes it. Numbers and weights live in target-app-parity.md; hours are Opus 5.5 agent-hours, calibrated as explained there. "Est." means a judgement from the cited evidence. Rows marked [alpha blocker] are what fails the alpha gate; do them first.

Top 10 across everything

#	Gap	Why it ranks here	Est.	Doc
1	[alpha blocker] Saving drops whatever we don't model (Unknown entities, IMAGE, layer states, block descriptions, true colours, MULTILEADER written as LEADER+MTEXT, groups, named views/UCS, foreign xdata)	Opening a colleague's DWG and saving it silently deletes content: the one thing a CAD user can't forgive	15–25	file formats
2	[alpha blocker] No real-file test corpus and no check in AutoCAD	All 36 file tests are synthetic; nobody has verified a CADCraft DWG/DXF opens cleanly in AutoCAD	10–15 + human	file formats
3	Tracking leftovers (object snap tracking, Extension, Parallel and Apparent Intersection landed, #379): polar angles relative to the last segment, PolarSnap, temporary tracking point	Small now; ranks lower at the next review	3–5	ui
4	[alpha blocker] DWG always saves as R2000; DXF only R2000 ASCII; no code pages	Can't exchange at 2018 format; pre-2007 CJK/Cyrillic files are garbled	10–15	file formats
5	[alpha blocker] Stubbed prompt options in SPLINE, MTEXT, MLEADER	Scripts and muscle memory hit "not available yet" in the most-used commands	15–25	features
6	Ellipse and spline geometry is tessellated (intersections, offsets, closest points; polyline offset ignores bulges)	Coordinates are subtly wrong; offsets of ellipses come out as polylines	30–50	geometry
7	[alpha blocker] No xrefs, block editor, dynamic blocks or groups	Most production drawings use them	80–120	features
8	No autosave, crash recovery, AUDIT or RECOVER	Work is lost if anything goes wrong; damaged files can't be repaired	10–15	features
9	Dynamic input lacks grip input; no TK; grip options ignored (FROM, M2P/MTP, point filters, * and <a landed, #392)	Precision entry at the cursor is how AutoCAD is taught today	12–20	ui
10	No CI runs the Rust tests on pull requests (cargo fmt on main is fixed)	open PRs land without a gate; regressions go unseen	2–3	stability

Features

#	Gap	Evidence	User impact	Est.
F1	[alpha blocker] Prompt options print "not available yet": SPLINE Method, Knots, Object, Tangency, toLerance; MTEXT Height/Justify/Line spacing/Rotation/Style/Width/Columns; MLEADER options (TRIM/EXTEND, PLINE arc mode and Length, XLINE done (#397); OFFSET, ROTATE and FILLET options done earlier)	cmd/draw.rs (SplineM), modify2.rs:594,783,806	High: the commands people use most	15–25
F2	[alpha blocker] No xrefs (XATTACH, XREF palette, REFEDIT, BIND, XCLIP, overlay, paths); DXF xref blocks read with an empty path	dxf_read.rs:923	High: multi-file projects	30–45
F3	[alpha blocker] (block editor and REFEDIT; dynamic-block authoring is beta) No block editor (BEDIT) or dynamic blocks (parameters, actions, visibility, lookup); dynamic blocks from other files lose their behaviour	issue #185 offers help	High: standard libraries are dynamic	50–75
F4	No autosave (SAVETIME), crash recovery files, AUDIT, RECOVER, drawing recovery manager	no SAVETIME anywhere	High: lost work	10–15
F5	Arrays are not associative: no ARRAYEDIT; ARRAY/ARRAYRECT/ARRAYPOLAR edit the array in an option loop, then create plain copies (ASsociative, Levels, polar ROWs and grip editing print "not available yet")	cmd/array.rs	Medium-high	8–12
F6	FILLET/CHAMFER/JOIN/LENGTHEN/EXTEND don't handle ellipses and splines; FILLET Trim/Multiple and polyline segment pairs; CHAMFER Angle/Method	geometry-parity	Medium	10–15
F7	Dimensions: no DIMSTYLE manager dialog; 43 of ~80 DIMSTYLE variables (DIMTOFL, DIMATFIT, DIMTMOVE, DIMLTYPE, DIMLWD, DIMFXL, DIMTOLJ, DIMALTU …); no smart DIM; no DIMJOGGED, DIMJOGLINE, DIMBREAK, oblique DIMEDIT, inspection; QDIM continuous only (SETVAR DIM* now become style overrides, #129)	doc/src/tables.rs:223-266, annotate.rs:64,364	High for detailers	25–35
F8	No TOLERANCE (GD&T feature control frames)	menu "Dimension > Tolerance..." uncovered	Medium (mechanical)	4–6
F9	MTEXT editor is a dialog box, not in place; no columns, bullets, numbering, tabs, indents; no fields (FIELD, UPDATEFIELD); no spell check (SPELL)	ui-egui/dialogs.rs:188-240	Medium-high	30–45
F10	MLEADER: options ignored, no block content, no MLEADEREDIT/ALIGN/COLLECT; MLEADERSTYLE has 5 fields	annotate.rs:1195-1230, tables.rs:417	Medium	10–15
F11	Tables: no cell styles, formulas, data links, table breaking	cmd/table.rs	Medium	10–15
F12	Annotative scaling: the flag is stored, nothing scales; no scale list, no "Annotative Object Scale" commands	4 uncovered menu items	Medium-high in layouts	10–15
F13	Hatch: 23 patterns (AutoCAD ~85; ours must stay original); gradients render as a flat colour; associativity not updated when the boundary moves; origin always 0,0; island style always normal; no gap tolerance, separate hatches, hatch dialog, MPolygon	doc/src/library.rs, render/lib.rs:430-437, cmd/hatch.rs:198,201	Medium	15–25
F14	[alpha blocker] Plot styles (CTB/STB) not applied; no plot preview, plotter devices, PUBLISH/batch plot; Print opens no plot dialog (#160, PR #200)	palettes.rs:666	High for sheet output	25–35
F15	Viewports: no polygonal, object or clipped viewports; no viewport scale control in the UI	menu items uncovered	Medium	6–10
F16	Groups (GROUP, GROUPEDIT, PICKSTYLE) missing; ACAD_GROUP written empty	dxf_write.rs	Medium	4–6
F17	Attributes: BATTMAN lists only; no ATTSYNC, EATTEXT, global ATTEDIT	blocks.rs:300	Medium	6–10
F18	Layer bugs: edits change geometry on locked layers (#87, PR #196); delete/purge removes layers used by blocks (#72, PR #189); rename misses paper space and blocks (#75, PR #191); linetype rename breaks assignments (#74, PR #195); rejected freeze changes colour (#71, PR #188)	issues	High (correctness)	3–5 (PRs open)
F19	MATCHPROP has no interactive picker or settings dialog; DRAWORDER front/back only; OVERKILL exact duplicates only	props.rs:333, modify.rs:1258	Medium	5–8
F20	OPTIONS/Preferences dialog missing (#23) (UNITS has a dialog since #38)	—	Medium	6–10
F21	MLINE is two polylines (no MLINE entity, MLSTYLE); REGION makes polylines (no region entity); HELIX is a polyline	draw2.rs:116,123, hatch.rs:267	Medium-low	8–12
F22	Inquiry: MASSPROP approximate; COUNT counts model-space inserts only; no QuickCalc palette (CAL is an evaluator); no DWG Compare	utility.rs:203,310-352, inquiry.rs:305	Low-medium	15–25
F23	No Sheet Set Manager, eTransmit, Share, Traces, Markup Import, Activity Insights	menu items uncovered	Low-medium (team workflows)	40–70
F24	No 3D: UCS, 3D views, orbit, solids, surfaces, meshes, sections, visual styles, materials, lights, rendering (150 menu items)	parity-checklist	Medium (3D users)	300–450
F25	Constraint solver: no DOF report, Smooth not G2, no ellipse/spline/block geometry, no inference while drawing; DCANGULAR can succeed unsatisfied (#73, PR #190)	geometry-parity	Low-medium	20–30

UI/UX

Detail and evidence: ui-parity.md.

#	Gap	User impact	Est.
U1	Tracking leftovers: polar angles relative to the last segment (POLARMODE 1), PolarSnap, temporary tracking point (TT), Extension from ellipse and spline ends, the tracking options in Drafting Settings (object snap tracking, Extension, Parallel and Apparent Intersection landed in #379)	Medium	3–5
U2	Dynamic input: grip dimensional input, lock icons, DYNPROMPT options menu (pointer boxes with Tab and relative entry landed in #60)	Medium	3–5
U3	[alpha blocker] TK (temporary tracking, comes with object snap tracking, U1). FROM, M2P/MTP, .x/.y/.xy point filters, the * WCS prefix and the angle override <a landed at every point prompt (#392)	High	1–2
U4	Tab snap cycling offers the closest snap of each mode, not every candidate; the snap menu has no Temporary track point (comes with U1). Typed snap overrides (END, MID … NON), the Shift/Ctrl+right-click snap menu and Tab cycling landed (#393)	Low	1–2
U5	Hot-grip options (Base point, Copy, Undo, Reference) are shown but ignored; multiple hot grips; multifunctional grip menus (Add/Remove Vertex, Convert to Arc)	Medium-high	6–10
U6	Selection keywords W, C, WP, CP, F, BOX, AU, SI, M, G; lasso (press-drag windows landed in #63); selection cycling; SELECTSIMILAR; ISOLATEOBJECTS/HIDEOBJECTS	Medium-high	6–10
U7	Right-click context menus (canvas, selection, command, command line, palettes, tabs)	Medium-high	6–10
U8	Snaps missing on some objects: MID on circles/ellipses/splines; NOD on dimension points; INS on ATTDEF/MLEADER; TAN on ellipses/splines; GCEN on splines	Medium	4–6
U9	Polar: additional angles, relative to last segment, PolarSnap; isometric snap/grid and ISODRAFT (dead toggle)	Medium	4–6
U10	UNDO Mark/Back/BEgin/End/Auto; SETVAR coverage (~60 of ~1,000 variables)	Medium	6–10
U11	Zoom Realtime and Dynamic, ZOOMFACTOR; named views (VIEW); tiled model viewports	Medium	6–8
U12	Workspaces, navigation bar, CUI customisation, alias editor, ViewCube drag (#7)	Low-medium	15–25
U13	Window controls misaligned on macOS (#161); .dxf from Finder fails to open (#158)	Medium	2–4

File formats

Detail: file-format-parity.md.

#	Gap	User impact	Est.
FF1	[alpha blocker] Round-trip what we don't model: keep Unknown entities and objects, foreign xdata, extension dictionaries; write IMAGE (with IMAGEDEF), VIEW/UCS/VPORT tables, groups, layer states, block descriptions, true colours (#201, #204, #208, #209, #213, #223); WIPEOUT and gradients done (#147, #162)	High	12–20
FF2	[alpha blocker] Native MULTILEADER objects (read and write)	High	6–10
FF3	[alpha blocker] Write DXF 2004–2018 and binary DXF; save DWG at a chosen version (2018 default) instead of always R2000; SAVEAS version choice (PR #198 adds DWG to the dialog)	High	8–12
FF4	Code pages ($DWGCODEPAGE, ANSI_932/936/949/950/125x) when reading pre-2007 files	Medium-high (Asia, Eastern Europe)	3–5
FF5	[alpha blocker] Real-file corpus (storytold/cadcraft-corpus), open → save → reopen tests, black-box check in AutoCAD	High	10–15 + human
FF6	[alpha blocker] DWG throughput: a 10 MB DWG took ~2 min to fail (#57)	High for real projects	6–10
FF7	*D dimension blocks duplicate on re-save; handles regenerate every save	Medium	3–5
FF8	SHX fonts (shape and big fonts) not read	Medium-high (text metrics differ)	8–12
FF9	Templates (DWT), user .lin/.pat files, .ctb/.stb, .pc3, .pgp	Medium	20–30
FF10	PDF: text as real fonts, layers (OCG), multi-sheet; PDF import and underlays; raster image attach	Medium	30–50
FF11	DWF/DWFx, DGN, WMF, EPS, ACIS/STL and other exchange formats	Low-medium	50–100
FF12	DWG in the web build	Medium	6–10
FF13	R12 binary DXF, pre-R13 DWG	Low	10–20

Hardware

Detail: hardware-parity.md.

#	Gap	Est.
H1	3Dconnexion SpaceMouse (needs the device and 3D views)	6–10 + human
H2	Multi-monitor: floating palettes on other screens, per-monitor DPI (PR #110 for Windows 11 DPI)	4–6
H3	Plotters and system printers (PC3 devices) beyond PDF files	6–10
H4	Pen tablets / digitizer (TABLET)	3–5 + human
H5	Screen magnifier tracking (#39, PR #187)	1–2

Localization

Detail: localization-parity.md.

#	Gap	Est.
L1	Catalog covers the UI (936 rows, #36) but not engine diagnostics, CLI/MCP replies or command history	4–6
L2	AutoCAD for Mac's 7 other languages (zh-Hans, es, fr, ja, de, ko, it) plus pt, hi, ar, id, vi from the standard's list	40–60 + native review
L3	Complex-script shaping (Arabic, Devanagari) and bidi/RTL in drawing text and UI	30–45
L4	IME fixes on every platform (PRs #110–#119); vertical text styles	6–10

Stability

#	Gap	Evidence	Est.
S1	No CI runs cargo xtask ci on pull requests (only packaging lint and release builds)	.github/workflows/	2–3
S2	cargo fmt --check fails on main fixed on main (8fceaaf)	—	0
S3	47 open PRs, many community bug fixes awaiting review	gh pr list	10–20
S4	Open correctness issues: extents union far-apart geometry (#166), lines not visible mid-command (#44, PR #56), browser save/plot deliver nothing (#133, #134), closing a tab switches drawings (#76, PR #192)	issues	6–10
S5	No smoke test of every command through the UI (PR #42 proposes one)	—	6–10
S6	No property-based or fuzz tests for geometry; hostile-input tests cover parsing only	geometry-parity	4–6

Platforms

#	Gap	Est.
P1	Web build: File > Open does nothing (#55, PR #199), saves don't download (#133, PR #193), plot shows raw PDF bytes (#134), no DWG	6–10
P2	Windows and Linux get little runtime testing; Linux Mint mouse delay (#25); Windows magnifier (#39)	6–10
P3	macOS file associations: opening .dxf from Finder fails (#158)	1–2

Ecosystem and automation

#	Gap	Est.
E1	AutoLISP interpreter (safe subset first: defun, command, entget/entmod, selection sets, getpoint …), APPLOAD, acad.lsp startup	60–100
E2	SCRIPT command reading .scr files (scripts run today through CLI/MCP/control only)	1–2
E3	Express Tools equivalents (TXT2MTXT, BREAKLINE, BURST, NCOPY exists, SUPERHATCH, Move/Copy/Rotate)	30–50
E4	Plug-in API (owner decision: Rust/WASM plug-ins rather than ObjectARX/.NET)	30–50
E5	CUI customisation and alias (.pgp) editor	15–25

AI features

#	Gap	Est.
A1	Smart Blocks equivalents (placement suggestions, replace, detect and convert, search), using local open models	25–50 + model licensing
A2	An in-app assistant (AutoCAD has Autodesk Assistant); CADCraft's MCP server already lets any agent drive it	10–20
A3	Markup Assist (import markups from PDFs/images)	10–20

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-11	minor	Object snap tracking, Extension, Parallel and true Apparent Intersection landed (#379): top-10 row 3 and U1 narrowed to the leftovers
2026-10-10	minor	Merged main: closed or narrowed rows for the Ukrainian catalog, UNITS dialog, shortcut display, dynamic input pointer boxes, press-drag windows, SETVAR DIM*, WIPEOUT and gradients, fmt
2026-10-10	minor	Alpha blockers marked (rows failing the core-workflow gate)
2026-10-10	major	First gaps list: ranked top 10 and every known shortfall by dimension, with evidence and estimates