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Release Notes

Introduction 

The release notes provide brief and high-level descriptions of the new features of HaloCAD. Before installing HaloCAD, it is recommended to read the release notes to understand any current limitations or bugs that may apply to this version of the software.

Product Description

HaloCAD acts as the guardian of your CAD files by automatically protecting them with Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) labels whenever they leave your secure IT perimeter. As a plug-in for CAD applications, HaloCAD offers access to MPIP-protected files, including label handling and privilege enforcement. CAD users will not notice any differences in the handling of CAD files because protection takes place in the background. By seamlessly attaching MPIP labels to the CAD files while they are being created, it provides end-to-end security for those files.

System Requirements

The following system requirements table specifies the minimum and recommended technical specifications, such as software and network resources, necessary to run the product.

Components

Details

Supported Operating Systems

Windows 10, Windows 11, or above with updates installed.

Supported file types

  1. File types supported for Save and Open: .dwg, .dxf, .dws, .dwt, .iges, .igs, .wmf, .sat and .dgn(v7)

  2. File types supported for Export: .dwf, .dwfx, .dwfx (other format) .stl, .dgn(v8), .eps, .dxx, .pdf, .bmp, .png, .jpg, and .tif

  3. Import files types: .step, .stp, and .ste

Supporting application

To view the encrypted PDF files, install the latest version of Acrobat Reader DC / Acrobat DC.

Requirements

Supported Autodesk applications for HaloCAD Add-ons 

You are reading the current version of the release notes; however, if you are searching for a previous version, refer to the release notes for that version.

CAD applications

HaloCAD Add-ons

  1. AutoCAD 2023, 2024, 2025

  2. AutoCAD Electrical/Mechanical/MEP/Civil 3D/Plant 3D: 2023, 2024, 2025

2.1, 2.2

  1. AutoCAD 2022, 2023, 2024

  2. AutoCAD Electrical/Mechanical/MEP/Civil 3D/Plant 3D: 2022, 2023, 2024

2.0

  1. AutoCAD 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

  2. AutoCAD Electrical/Mechanical/MEP/Civil 3D/Plant 3D: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

1.8

Autodesk applications and HaloCAD Add-on

Prerequisites

The following preparatory steps or conditions must be met before installing the product.

The add-on requires the registration of an application with Microsoft Entra ID, an Office 365 subscription, and access to recommended URLs. For additional information, please refer to the Technical Reference Manual.

Code Quality and Security

Secude focuses on software quality and security. This is accomplished by adhering to and exceeding best practices in development, testing, and quality control. Secude has chosen SonarQube as the first building block for building and implementing a robust continuous code quality assurance (QA). SonarQube is a platform for statical code analysis for continuous inspection of code quality. It performs automatic reviews of code to detect bugs, code smells, unit test coverage, and security issues in 29 programming languages.

SonarQube is utilized throughout the development process at Secude and only the highest marks are accepted for a product to be released. It helps to regulate code quality from the beginning of development, find and repair issues promptly, and improve overall software stability.

Each build report can be found under its relevant version heading in this release notes.

Reliability Rating 

  • A = 0 Bugs

  • B = at least 1 Minor Bug

  • C = at least 1 Major Bug

  • D = at least 1 Critical Bug

  • E = at least 1 Blocker Bug

Security Rating

  • A = 0 Vulnerabilities

  • B = at least 1 Minor Vulnerability

  • C = at least 1 Major Vulnerability

  • D = at least 1 Critical Vulnerability

  • E = at least 1 Blocker Vulnerability

Security Review Rating 

The Security Review Rating is a letter grade based on the percentage of Reviewed (Fixed or Safe) Security Hotspots.

  • A = >= 80%

  • B = >= 70% and <80%

  • C = >= 50% and <70%

  • D = >= 30% and <50%

  • E = < 30%

Maintainability Rating 

A=0-0.05, B=0.06-0.1, C=0.11-0.20, D=0.21-0.5, E=0.51-1

The Maintainability Rating scale can be alternately stated by saying that if the outstanding remediation cost is:

  • <=5% of the time that has already gone into the application, the rating is A

  • between 6 to 10% the rating is a B

  • between 11 to 20% the rating is a C

  • between 21 to 50% the rating is a D

  • anything over 50% is an E

Build 2.2

New Features

This section lists the new features in the current release.

Implemented a new feature that allows users to configure and display watermark text on DWG files as custom metadata using the HaloSHARE application. By default, the watermark text appears diagonally across the file when opened in the AutoCAD application. To view the custom properties (metadata), click the AutoCAD logo > Drawing Utilities > Drawing Properties > click on the Custom tab. HCADACD-568

Improvements

This section lists the improvements in the current release.

  1. As of the previous release, watermark text was displayed horizontally by default, despite the label being configured to display the watermark diagonally. However, from this release, watermark text will be shown diagonally, as configured.

  2. The least restrictive permission among the linked source files is determined and applied to the destination file. HCADACD-605

  3. Support has been added for masking or allowing clear text visibility of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the MIP SDK logs using the registry key mipallowpii. HCADACD-561

Fixed Issues

This section lists the fixed issues in the current release.

Fixed an issue that caused an unprotected image file to be saved when exporting a protected file using the Render option. HCADACD-563

Known Issues

This section lists the known issues in the current release.

  1. Reader: Intermittently, the AutoCAD application will crash when you open a protected file with an unauthorized user account via a recent document list. HCADACD-333

  2. When attempting to import the protected DGN file into the drawing file, the error message "You have selected an unsupported DGN file." will appear. HCADACD-486

  3. Even if the user cache already exists after installation, the Microsoft sign-in dialog will still appear when you close and restart the AutoCAD application. HCADACD-473

  4. If a protected file is opened from Recent documents or using the Open option in the start window, a pop-up message from AutoCAD will be displayed as "Drawing file is not valid" and the file will not open when Startup is set as 2 and Startmode is set as 0 or 1. HCADACD-534

Quality Gate Report

Please see the table below for a list of SonarQube's key parameters for this version. Refer to the "Code Quality and Security" section for more information on rating definitions.

Metric

Value

Coverage

85.6%

Maintainability Rating

A

Reliability Rating

A

Security Hotspots Reviewed

A

Security Rating

A

Quality Gate report

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