Stykz 1.0 Release Candidate 4 is Now Available!

I'm happy to finally be able to announce that Stykz 1.0 Release Candidate 4 is now available for download at the main Stykz site. This is the LAST version of Stykz to be released before the official 1.0 release, which I intend to put out before the end of the year (hopefully on or just after Christmas).

This version contains a number of features, a long list of bug fixes, improved performance in a number of areas, and the GIF animations are compatible with just about every app that we've tested (Mac and Windows)! The list of fixes/changes are long, but here are the highlights:

• Fixed issue with documents not opening properly under Snow Leopard.


• Added new Welcome Center which lets you open a recent document, open a blank doc, get help, link to tutorials, etc.


• Reworked the architecture for manipulating figures to make it as accurate as possible - there should be no more rotate/scale issues.


• Made polyfills more "intelligent"; if you add a node to a figure where the "parent" and "child" of the node you added is part of a polyfill, the new node you added becomes part of the polyfill.


• Added support for directly opening .styk and .stk files.


• Added ability to lock a figure so that it you can't modify it in any way.


• Added automatic saving and automatic backup


• Modified interface of the Properties palette so that mixed selections would show as mixed and not as just the value of the first selected object in a group. Fields with mixed selections display as empty; checkboxes show a dash (Mac) or filled-in square (Win); color swatches show a diagonal slash through them.


• Added decimal precision for width, angle, and length (and you can set how to display the precision in Preferences).

You can see the complete list of everything done for this release by going to the Release Notes page on the Stykz web site.

Two things to be aware of though:

1. Since a number of issues prior to RC4 were related to corrupted preferences, RC4 will automatically reset the preferences to the "factory" settings, so you'll need to go to the Preferences dialog and re-set them the way you want them.


2. Similarly, there were some issues with upgrading older .stykz documents properly, so all pre-RC4 .stykz files will need to be run through another conversion to work properly with RC4.

This release has gone through a LOT of testing, including having a small group of dedicated testers on the Stykz forums working with builds and reporting issues, so although no software is bug-free, this one should hopefully have a lot fewer bugs than previous versions. Of course, please use the feedback mechanism to let me know know of any issues you find.

Hope you enjoy RC4, and I look forward to getting 1.0 out the door in the coming weeks.

The Stykz Development Team