cadcraft/docs/localization-parity.md

Localization parity

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-30 · Change: minor (Bosnian added; previously: catalog row counts and English-fallback counts re-measured for all fifteen catalogs; previously minor: the command line enables the OS IME and handles composition/commit, so single-line TEXT edits accept CJK input; previously: Brazilian Portuguese row updated and terminology reviewed; previously: Swedish catalog completed with the 95 strings added since; previously: Swedish catalog added: complete catalog, menu headings, native-speaker terminology review; previously: complete current Korean catalog with Hangul font coverage) · Target: Autodesk AutoCAD 2027 for Mac (26.0)

How far CADCraft's interface and drawing text are from AutoCAD's languages. Summarised in ROADMAP.md; work items in gaps.md.

What the target ships

Measured from the installed AutoCAD 2027 for Mac bundle by listing only (folder names, nothing read): Contents/Resources has Base.lproj (English), de, es, fr, it, ja, ko and zh_CN localizations, and Resources/Support has matching @de@ … @zh_CN@ folders. That is 8 interface languages on the Mac. AutoCAD for Windows also has language packs for Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Czech and Hungarian (Autodesk's published language-pack list, not measured here). AutoCAD's spell checker ships about 20 dictionaries (*.dct names in Resources/Support).

Drawing text in AutoCAD: TrueType and SHX big fonts (CJK), Unicode \U+ escapes, complex-script shaping and right-to-left text through TrueType, vertical SHX text styles.

What CADCraft has

• A display-time string catalog (crates/ui-egui/src/i18n/, landed with #36): a TSV per language (context, English source, translation, @plural rows), Edit → Interface Language with Auto (system language), live switching, a saved choice, and tests for coverage, placeholders and plurals (localization.md). The eighteen non-English catalogs have between 1,026 (Russian) and 1,471 rows (Swedish; Ukrainian, the reference, has 1,414), counted 2026-11-07 on main 486d558a7 (rows without comment lines, @plural rows included), covering menus, command labels, tool groups and tooltips, the Start page, tabs, status controls, object snaps, drafting prompts, property labels and dialogs. Engine diagnostics, CLI/MCP responses and command history stay English, and uncatalogued text falls back to English. For scale: about 1,160 unique capitalised string literals exist in crates/engine and crates/ui-egui (grep, 2026-10-10).
• Drawing text: TrueType/OpenType/.ttc through skrifa with per-character font fallback and FONTALT, so CJK characters render (#173). Pre-2007 DXF text is written in the file's code page, with \U+ escapes for characters outside it, so non-ASCII survives in R2000 files (#169). Lines with right-to-left text get the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm and OpenType shaping with harfrust (Arabic, Persian and Urdu joining, lam-alef, ZWNJ, marks; Hebrew), in TEXT and MTEXT including wrapping (#287). Left-to-right lines are still placed one glyph per code point: no shaping for Devanagari and other Indic scripts, and no vertical text. SHX fonts are not read; our stroke font stands in, and wide East Asian characters in it fill the square cells a big font would give them (#861).
• Text input: egui/winit IME. The command line — which collects single-line TEXT edits and other prompt text — now enables the operating system IME while a prompt asks for text and shows composition (pre-edit) text until it is committed, so Chinese, Japanese and Korean input works there (#1761); egui's own text fields handle IME themselves. The upstream IME fixes (macOS Korean, emoji picker, Windows caret placement, X11 and Wayland) were proposed as PRs #110–#119, which were closed in favour of the consolidated, still open PR #668, so CJK input is not yet reliable on every platform.

Languages

Every UI percentage is measured from the catalogs (0 rows for every language without a catalog file). Hours are estimated: about 3–5 h per language for an Opus 5.5 agent to translate the ~1,300 catalog rows and fix layout, plus native review by a human; extending the catalog to the remaining English-only strings (engine diagnostics, uncatalogued text) is about 4–6 h, counted once in the first row.

Language	Code	UI strings translated	Dialogs / tooltips / help	Script support	Native review	Status	Estimate to full
English	en	source (100%)	100% (help is a command reference, not AutoCAD-sized help)	Latin: yes	n/a	full	—
Simplified Chinese	zh-Hans	1,337 catalog rows; 84 strings fall back to English	partial	CJK glyphs render via the CJK interface fonts loaded in every language (#861); IME fixes pending (#668); no vertical text	contributed by @mayloglog (#684); no native review recorded	partial	2–4 h + native review
Spanish	es	1,243 catalog rows; 115 strings fall back to English	dialogs and tooltips yes	Latin: yes	contributed by @PedroGuille (#610) and extended by @diegozpy (#680); no native review recorded	partial	1–2 h
Hindi	hi	0 (0%)	0%	Devanagari: no shaping	no	none	3–5 h + 15–25 h shaping (shared with Arabic)
Arabic	ar	1,229 catalog rows; 124 strings fall back to English	partial	Drawing text shaped and laid out right to left (#287); interface fonts for Arabic on Linux, Windows and macOS; the UI is not mirrored (reading labels right to left is open PR #996)	contributed by @hasan-sdaif (#798); no native review recorded	partial	1–2 h + 15–25 h RTL UI
French	fr	1,004 catalog rows; 296 strings fall back to English	partial	Latin: yes	contributed by @pechnikov2026-star (#624); no native review yet	partial	2–4 h
Russian	ru	1,005 catalog rows; 295 strings fall back to English	partial	Cyrillic: yes (bundled egui fonts)	contributed by @pechnikov2026-star (#624); no native review yet	partial	2–4 h
Portuguese (Brazil)	pt-BR	1,243 catalog rows; 112 strings added since fall back to English (covered the reference catalog and every marked UI literal when it landed)	dialogs and tooltips yes; command reference searchable in Portuguese	Latin: yes (bundled egui fonts; accented letters tested)	catalog by @WladmirJunior, completed with AI assistance by @RicSchonfelder; terminology reviewed by a native speaker (@ffishman)	complete when it landed; 112 strings added since fall back to English	line-by-line proofreading + shared English-only UI work
Indonesian	id	0 (0%)	0%	Latin: yes	no	none	3–5 h
Japanese	ja	0 (0%)	0%	CJK glyphs render; IME pending; no vertical text	no	none	4–6 h
German	de	1,031 catalog rows; 284 strings fall back to English	dialogs and tooltips yes; command reference searchable in German	Latin: yes (bundled egui fonts cover ä ö ü Ä Ö Ü ß; long strings will need layout checks)	no native review	partial	1–2 h
Greek	el	1,330 catalog rows; 34 strings fall back to English	Menus, dialogs, tooltips, drawing prompts, command labels and contextual headings; English fallback for uncatalogued UI	Greek script; bundled egui glyph check added	Original AI-assisted translation by @Camthalion77, independent native review pending	complete when it landed; 34 strings added since fall back to English	native proofreading and platform layout review
Korean	ko	1,235 catalog rows; 124 strings fall back to English	dialogs, tooltips, Options and translated command-reference labels	UI requires catalog-covering installed or optional craft-fonts Hang/Kore face; English fallback without one; IME fixes still pending	original AI-assisted translation; independent native proofreading pending	complete when it landed; 124 strings added since fall back to English	native review + platform layout/IME validation
Vietnamese	vi	1,460 catalog rows (2026-11-07); English-fallback count not measured	catalog shipped; dialog and tooltip coverage not audited	Latin with stacked diacritics: renders per code point, untested	original translations by @2ez4gcx (AI-assisted); no native review recorded	partial	1–2 h + native review
Georgian	ka	1,458 catalog rows (2026-11-07); written to cover the union of the existing catalogs	menus, dialogs and tooltips	Georgian script: drawn with the craft-fonts Geor face, none in a build without craft-fonts	original clean-room translation by the CADCraft contributors; no native review recorded	partial	native review
Ukrainian	uk	989 catalog rows (≈ 100% of the catalog; ≈ 80% of all UI strings, estimated: engine diagnostics and uncatalogued text stay English)	dialogs and tooltips yes; command reference searchable in Ukrainian	Cyrillic: yes (bundled egui fonts)	translated by a contributor; no second review	partial	2–4 h
Czech	cs	1,202 catalog rows; reference catalog and marked UI literals covered	dialogs and tooltips yes; contextual menu headings; command reference searchable in Czech	Latin: yes (bundled egui proportional and monospace fonts; Czech letters and quotes tested)	AI-assisted by @Losminek; independent review pass; not yet proofread by a native speaker	complete current catalog; English-only interface gaps remain	native review + shared English-only UI work
Swedish	sv	1,330 catalog rows; reference catalog, marked UI literals and menu headings covered (no gaps reported)	dialogs and tooltips yes; contextual menu headings; command reference searchable in Swedish	Latin: yes (bundled egui proportional and monospace fonts; å ä ö é and Swedish quotes tested)	AI-assisted (Claude Code) by @holmbom; terminology and the running app reviewed by a native speaker	complete current catalog; English-only interface gaps remain	line-by-line proofreading + shared English-only UI work
Italian	it	1,227 catalog rows; reference catalog and marked UI literals covered	dialogs and tooltips yes; contextual menu headings (Visualizza / Vista, Edita / Modifica); command reference searchable in Italian	Latin: yes (bundled egui fonts; accented letters tested)	AI-assisted by Emanuele Bottelli (Claude), written from the English strings with Italian desktop-CAD vocabulary; no native proofreading pass yet	complete current catalog; English-only interface gaps remain	native review + shared English-only UI work
Hungarian	hu	1,326 catalog rows; reference catalog, marked UI literals and menu headings covered (no gaps reported)	dialogs and tooltips yes; contextual menu headings; command reference searchable in Hungarian	Latin: yes (bundled egui proportional and monospace fonts; ő ű Ő Ű and the other accented letters tested)	translated by @Skaywalker from the English strings; independent native proofreading pending	complete current catalog; English-only interface gaps remain	native proofreading + shared English-only UI work
Turkish	tr	1,330 catalog rows; reference catalog, marked UI literals and menu headings covered (no gaps reported)	dialogs and tooltips yes; contextual menu headings (Ölçülendirme / Ölçü); command reference searchable in Turkish	Latin: yes (bundled egui proportional and monospace fonts; Ç Ğ İ Ö Ş Ü ç ğ ı ö ş ü tested)	AI-assisted by @ogzhnklvz, written from the English strings with Turkish desktop-CAD vocabulary; the running app reviewed by a native speaker	complete current catalog; English-only interface gaps remain	line-by-line proofreading + shared English-only UI work
Bosnian	bs	1,442 catalog rows; reference catalog and marked UI literals covered	dialogs and tooltips yes	Latin: yes (bundled egui fonts)	AI-assisted; independent native proofreading pending	complete current catalog; English-only interface gaps remain	native proofreading + shared English-only UI work

Other languages shipped: Ukrainian, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Czech, Russian, French, Italian, Korean, Swedish, Hungarian, Turkish, Bosnian, Georgian and Vietnamese. The per-language cells above keep the counts of the dated audit that wrote them (2026-10-24 or earlier, as stated); only the row totals in "What CADCraft has" and the Vietnamese and Georgian rows are from 2026-11-07, and the English-fallback counts have not been re-measured since 2026-10-24. Czech, Swedish, Hungarian, Brazilian Portuguese and Bosnian (1,442 rows, AI-assisted, not yet native-reviewed) cover the reference catalog and every marked UI literal; engine diagnostics and uncatalogued text remain English. AutoCAD for Mac ships 7 non-English languages (zh-Hans, es, fr, ja, de, ko, it); of those, CADCraft now ships German and Korean, and additionally Ukrainian, which AutoCAD for Mac doesn't ship.

Total to put the languages at full: about 62–102 Opus 5.5 hours, summed from the table's estimates (catalog extension 4–6 h, three languages not started (hi, id, ja) 10–16 h, closing the gaps of the lagging catalogs 15–30 h, complex-script shaping and RTL 30–45 h), plus native-speaker review for each language, which needs humans. Translations parallelise fully once the catalog exists.

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-11-07	minor	Inventory reconciled with main 486d558a7: 18 non-English catalogs (Georgian and Vietnamese rows added; Vietnamese no longer listed as not started), row totals re-counted; per-language cells and fallback counts keep their earlier dates
2026-10-30	minor	Bosnian (bs, Latin, Ijekavian) added: 1,442 rows, one/few/other plurals, bs-* locales; AI-assisted, native proofreading pending
2026-10-24	minor	Re-audit against main 41d9b5e95: catalog row counts and English-fallback counts re-measured for all fifteen catalogs (main 41d9b5e95)
2026-10-22	minor	Command line IME: enabled while a prompt collects text, composition shown but not saved, commit inserted once; single-line TEXT edits accept CJK input (#1761)
2026-10-19	minor	Brazilian Portuguese: row brought up to date (it still read 0%); native-speaker terminology pass on 69 rows (Bind as Integrar, prompt keywords and SPDX kept in English, Thaw Layer, Snap type, Revolve fixed; snap, viewport, grip, offset, layer on/off and multiline wording made consistent with Brazilian usage)
2026-10-15	minor	Greek (el) catalog: 1,330 rows, context/plural/locale/font tests; review pending
2026-10-14	minor	Swedish completed: 95 rows for strings added since (Hatch and Gradient dialog, Block Editor, REFEDIT, multileader editing, Options selection settings, MTEXT editor, recent files); 1,330 rows, every key of the Ukrainian reference catalog
2026-10-18	minor	Turkish added: 1,330 rows (the existing catalog union), single count form, four menu headings, prompt keywords kept in English; locale/preferences/menu/live-switch/dialog/font tests; no gaps in the marked UI literals; AI-assisted, the running app reviewed by a native speaker
2026-10-13	minor	Hungarian added: 1,326 rows, a single count form, menu headings, locale/preferences/menu/font/render tests; no gaps in the marked UI literals; native proofreading pending
2026-10-13	minor	Swedish added: 1,235 rows, one/other plurals, menu headings, locale/preferences/menu/font/render tests; no gaps in the marked UI literals; terminology and the running app reviewed by a native speaker
2026-10-13	minor	Korean added: full 1,235-row existing catalog union, single count form, locale/persistence/live-switch tests, and validated Hangul UI fonts; native review and platform verification pending
2026-10-12	minor	Italian added: 1,227 rows, one/other plurals, two menu headings, locale/preference/plural/font tests; AI-assisted, native proofreading pending
2026-10-12	minor	Brazilian Portuguese catalog completed by @RicSchonfelder: 238 rows added (1,231 total), now covering the reference catalog and every marked UI literal, gaps 0; bundled-font glyph test for the catalog's accented letters
2026-10-11	minor	Czech added: 1,202 rows, one/few/other plurals, locale/preferences/menu/font/render tests; independent review pass; native proofreading pending
2026-10-11	minor	German catalog landed: de preference and catalog, per-language plural rules; non-English languages 1 → 2; total hours 60–100 → 55–95
2026-10-10	minor	Right-to-left drawing text: bidi and Arabic-script shaping in TEXT and MTEXT (#287)
2026-10-10	minor	Ukrainian catalog landed on main (#36): catalog infrastructure exists, Ukrainian partial; total hours 70–110 → 60–100
2026-10-10	major	First localization measurement against AutoCAD 2027 for Mac's bundle localizations