cadcraft/docs/roadmap.md

# CADCraft roadmap detail

> **Last reviewed:** 2026-10-24 · **Last updated:** 2026-10-24 · **Change:** minor (re-audit against main 41d9b5e95: alpha-gate evidence, CI gate, beta checklist states, open-PR and catalog counts; percentages and hours not re-scored; previously: re-audit against main e707ab4d: alpha-gate evidence, beta checklist states and milestone notes; percentages and hours not re-scored) · **Target:** Autodesk AutoCAD 2027

Forward-looking plan: milestones with status, the current focus, and what comes next with
estimates. The summary is [ROADMAP.md](../ROADMAP.md); the work items behind every line are in
[gaps.md](gaps.md); numbers come from [target-app-parity.md](target-app-parity.md). Hours are
Opus 5.5 agent-hours.

## Current focus

1. **Gate and land.** (`cargo fmt` on main is fixed, and `ci.yml` runs `cargo xtask ci` on every
   pull request since #1987.) Review and land the 450 open PRs (2026-10-24), most of them community bug fixes
   (S3). ≈ 15–25 h.
2. **Stop losing data on save** (FF1, FF2, FF7) and save DWG/DXF at a chosen version (FF3).
   ≈ 30–45 h.
3. **A real-file corpus** and a check of our output in AutoCAD (FF5, needs the owner).
4. ~~**Precision input:** object snap tracking, extension/parallel snaps, FROM/M2P/TK, typed snap
   overrides, editable dynamic input (U1–U4).~~ Done (#379, #393, #441, #60, #519); U4 and the grip and selection leftovers (U5, U6) remain.
5. ~~**Unstub the prompt options** of the most-used commands (F1).~~ Done (#397, #408, #547, #558, #559); the stubs left are listed in F1.
6. ~~**Autosave, recovery, AUDIT, RECOVER** (F4).~~ Done on the desktop (#406, #416); F4 lists the web-build leftovers.
7. **The rest of the alpha gate:** ~~block editor and REFEDIT, xref attach (F2, F3), and plot styles
   with a plot dialog and preview (F14)~~ landed (#824, #818, #525, #410, #160, #186); left: dynamic-block authoring, XCLIP, editing an xref in place (F2, F3), and printing beyond files (F14, H3). ≈ 50–80 h.

Items 2 and 7 are the open [alpha gate](#alpha-gate) rows.

## Alpha gate

The core workflows a typical AutoCAD professional does every day (craftrules progress-docs
standard). CADCraft is **pre-alpha** because four of the five fail the gate; the failing rows are
the alpha checklist. Main platform: macOS.

| Core workflow | Works end to end? | Evidence | Hours to pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draw and modify precisely with object snaps and tracking | **partial, blocking** | Running snaps, polar, ortho, coordinate entry, object snap tracking, extension, parallel and apparent snaps (#379), FROM/M2P/TK and typed snap overrides, TRIM/EXTEND, OFFSET and ROTATE options (#397) work; ellipse/spline intersections approximate; a few prompt options still print "not available yet" ([ui-parity.md](ui-parity.md), [gaps.md](gaps.md) U4, F1) | 35–50 |
| Dimension and annotate | partial, not blocking | All core DIM types, associativity, DIMSTYLE variables (43 of ~80), TEXT/MTEXT, MLEADER (with MLEADEREDIT/ALIGN/COLLECT, #816), tables and the in-place MTEXT editor (#792) work; no DIMSTYLE dialog, MLEADER styles thin, no fields (F7, F9, F10). A drafter can dimension a sheet end to end | 0 for the gate (beta work) |
| Use blocks (insert library blocks, edit them, attributes, xrefs) | **partial, blocking** | Static BLOCK/INSERT/attributes, ATTSYNC, BATTMAN editing, xrefs (#525), the Block Editor (BEDIT/BSAVE/BCLOSE: every reference updates), REFEDIT (#818: a block reference is edited in place) and dynamic block references (visibility, distances, stretch and move actions, lookups, grips; #838–#883) work; no XCLIP, an xref can't be edited in place, no dynamic-block authoring (F2, F3) | 35–55 |
| Layers, layouts and plotting a sheet | **partial, blocking** | Layers, layouts, viewports, page setups, PDF output, plot styles (CTB/STB, #410), the Plot dialog (#160), Plot Preview and PUBLISH (#186) and plotter devices (#564) work; printers only via PDF/PNG/SVG files (F14, H3) | 15–25 |
| Save DWG that AutoCAD opens without loss, and reopen others' DWGs | **no** | DXF keeps what we don't model (#528) and writes native MULTILEADERs (#459, not yet tested through DWG); through DWG, acadrust drops custom-class entities and objects and some foreign data (ACIS data of solids is kept, #781; damaged DWGs open partially, #859); never checked in AutoCAD; no real-file tests; a 10 MB DWG failed after ~2 min (#57) (FF1–FF6) | 40–60 + owner (real-file corpus, AutoCAD check) |
| **To alpha** | | | **≈ 125–190** |

Ready for real work is ≈ 38%, also under the ~40% alpha bar; closing the gate rows lifts it past
40%.

## Beta checklist

Beta means: close to feature complete for mainstream 2D work, opens and saves DWG reliably,
remaining gaps are known bugs and edge features (≈ 75% ready for real work).

| Item | State | Est. |
|---|---|---|
| DWG/DXF: nothing lost on save; MULTILEADER native; version choice; code pages; real-file corpus green; verified in AutoCAD | partial (DXF lossless #528, MULTILEADER #459, version choice #421, code pages #505 landed; corpus and AutoCAD check not started) | 50–75 |
| 2D geometry exact for ellipses and splines; polyline offset correct; relative tolerances | not started | 50–80 |
| Precision input at AutoCAD level (tracking, dynamic input, overrides, point modifiers, grips, selection keywords, context menus) | partial | 90–140 |
| Every Draw/Modify prompt option works; associative arrays | partial | 40–60 |
| Annotation depth: DIMSTYLE manager and variables, missing DIM commands, in-place MTEXT, fields, MLEADER editing, annotative scaling, tables | partial | 90–130 |
| Xrefs, block editor, dynamic blocks, groups, attribute tools | partial (xrefs, Block Editor, REFEDIT, groups, attribute tools and dynamic block references landed; authoring, XCLIP and in-place xref editing not started) | 90–135 |
| Plot styles, plot preview, PUBLISH, non-rectangular viewports | partial | 30–45 |
| Autosave, recovery, AUDIT/RECOVER, Options dialog, templates, SHX, user `.lin`/`.pat` | partial | 40–60 |
| AutoLISP core subset and SCRIPT | done (AutoLISP #758, SCRIPT #693); Visual LISP, DCL and reactors to come | 30–50 |
| Catalog plus AutoCAD for Mac's languages | partial (fifteen catalogs shipped, six of AutoCAD for Mac's seven other languages; Japanese and the catalog extension not started) | 30–45 |
| Stability: CI gate, issue backlog, command smoke sweep, geometry fuzzing | partial | 30–50 |
| Platforms: web open/save, Windows/Linux runtime checks; performance at 1M entities and large DWG | partial | 20–35 |
| **Total to beta** | | **≈ 600–930** |

About 70% of this parallelises across 4–6 agents (one per row), so elapsed time is roughly
150–250 hours.

## Milestones

Status re-scored on 2026-10-10 by depth, not presence (the 2026-10-07 percentages, reported by the
agents that built each milestone, are in the progress log of [ROADMAP.md](../ROADMAP.md)).

| # | Milestone | Status | Remaining (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| M0 | Skeleton and vertical slice: workspace, AutoCAD-style UI, command line, draw/modify basics, DXF, CLI, MCP, web | done | — |
| M1 | Drafting core: every 2D Draw command and option, dynamic input, object snap tracking, snap overrides | ≈ 55% (percentage from 2026-10-10 and not re-scored: tracking, dynamic input and overrides have landed since) | 35–55 |
| M2 | Modify: grips, PEDIT, SPLINEDIT, LENGTHEN, BLEND, ALIGN, associative arrays, trim/extend for all curves, MATCHPROP UI | ≈ 50% | 45–70 |
| M3 | Layers and properties | ≈ 70% (open layer bugs #71–#75, #87) | 10–15 |
| M4 | Annotation: DIM*, DIMSTYLE manager, MLEADER, in-place MTEXT, fields, tables, annotative scaling, SHX | ≈ 40% | 90–130 |
| M5 | Hatch and blocks: hatch depth, block editor, dynamic blocks, xrefs, groups, attributes | ≈ 30% | 105–160 |
| M6 | Layouts and plotting: viewports, page setups, plot styles, preview, PUBLISH | ≈ 35% | 35–50 |
| M7 | Files: DWG/DXF fidelity and versions, RECOVER/AUDIT, templates, autosave, ETRANSMIT, underlays | ≈ 30% | 170–280 (incl. other formats) |
| M8 | Inquiry and utilities, OPTIONS, customisation | ≈ 25% | 45–70 |
| M9 | Parametric | ≈ 50% | 20–30 |
| M10 | Performance: 1M entities at 60 fps, large DWG loads | ≈ 60% (internal numbers only) | 20–40 |
| M11 | 3D: UCS, orbit, visual styles, solids, surfaces, meshes, sections, rendering | ≈ 2% | 300–450 |
| M12 | Automation: AutoLISP, SCRIPT, action recorder, sheet sets, Express Tools | ≈ 15% (percentage from 2026-10-10 and not re-scored; MCP, CLI, control channel, AutoLISP core #855 and SCRIPT #693 done) | 130–220 |
| M13 | 1.0 polish: preferences, workspaces, localisation, accessibility, signed packages, docs | ≈ 15% (signed packages for every platform exist; themes done; string catalog with fifteen languages, live language switching, #36; percentage from 2026-10-10 and not re-scored) | 110–170 |
| — | Geometry precision (cross-cutting, see [geometry-parity.md](geometry-parity.md)) | ≈ 40% | 70–110 |
| — | AI features | ≈ 0% in-app | 40–80 |
| | **Remaining to full parity** | | **≈ 1,300–2,100** |

Milestone rows overlap a little with the cross-cutting rows; the total is the dimension sum in
[target-app-parity.md](target-app-parity.md), not the column sum.

## After beta

3D foundations (UCS, 3D views, orbit, then solids per `plan/adr/0001`), sheet sets, the full
AutoLISP surface, AI features with openly licensed local models, and every remaining language.

## Revision history

| Date | Change | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-24 | minor | Re-audit against main 41d9b5e95: alpha-gate evidence, CI gate (#1987), beta-checklist states, open-PR and catalog counts re-checked against main 41d9b5e95; percentages and hours not re-scored |
| 2026-10-13 | minor | Re-audit against main e707ab4d: alpha-gate evidence for drafting, annotation, blocks and DWG rows; beta-checklist states for DWG/DXF, blocks and languages; current-focus items 4–7; milestone notes M1, M12, M13; percentages and hours not re-scored |
| 2026-10-12 | minor | Block Editor for static blocks landed: "Use blocks" evidence updated; status and hours unchanged (REFEDIT and dynamic blocks remain) |
| 2026-10-11 | minor | Alpha-gate evidence refreshed for merged work (#459, #525, #528, #160, #186, #564); statuses and hours unchanged |
| 2026-10-10 | minor | Merged main: fmt fixed, Ukrainian catalog noted in M13, ready for real work 38% |
| 2026-10-10 | minor | Alpha gate added (5 core workflows, 4 failing); stage pre-alpha |
| 2026-10-10 | major | Created from the old ROADMAP's milestone table and current focus; milestones re-scored by depth; beta checklist added |