piblaster
News

What has changed in piblaster.

New features and improvements in chronological order — most recent first.

  1. Improved

    Groups now rotate together with their contents

    If you combine several elements into an assembly, you can now rotate it like a single part. Previously only the frame turned while the contents stayed put.

    • Rotating by 90° includes every element inside the group, even nested ones.
    • Tag numbers and additional labels move along but stay horizontal, so they remain readable.
    • Hold Shift while rotating to turn counter-clockwise.
  2. Improved

    The viewport stays where you left it

    A few actions briefly jumped or flickered to a full-page view. Zoom level and viewport are now preserved in every case.

    • Applies to inserting a junction, “Declare as PID shape” and changing the tag font size.
    • Creating a new revision and importing additional pages no longer move the view either.
    • On multi-page diagrams the active page also stays selected.
  3. New

    Turn your own shapes into fully-fledged P&ID elements

    Special equipment without a standard symbol can now be drawn by hand and treated like any other part — including tag number and bill-of-materials entry.

    • “Declare as PID shape” turns a rectangle, a circle or an entire group into a tagged element (category C).
    • New junction point for T-branches, handled as an element in its own right with tags J1, J2, …
    • Drawing tools right in the toolbar: rectangle, ellipse, polygon, line without arrows and text box.
    • The rotate button now works in 90° steps instead of 45° steps.
  4. New

    A guided introduction tour to get started

    New users are walked through the entire workflow once — from the first shape to the finished bill of materials.

    • The tour explains one step at a time while the app stays fully usable: you work along instead of just watching.
    • A back link takes you to previous steps whenever you want to see something again.
    • You can repeat the tour at any time via the question mark at the top right of the project overview.
  5. Improved

    Protection against accidental changes

    Several small changes that together remove a lot of friction while drawing.

    • Inactive layers are locked automatically — the drawing frame can no longer be moved by accident.
    • Shapes are no longer combined into groups unasked when you drop them on top of each other. Inserting a valve into an existing line still works.
    • Formatting changes on a group — colour, line style, border — now apply to all contained elements.
    • The toolbar has been cleared of duplicate buttons.
  6. New

    Your own shape libraries, for you and your team

    Frequently used shapes no longer have to be redrawn every time. They live in a library in the left-hand panel — either private or shared across the company.

    • “My Lib” for your own shapes, “Team Lib” for everyone in the same team.
    • The plus sign in the library header stores the current selection directly — no dialogs in between.
    • Team administrators can create and rename libraries and remove entries.
    • On top of that we maintain standard libraries that are available in every account.
  7. New

    Labels can be positioned freely

    Tag numbers are no longer glued to the part. They are separate objects and can be dragged wherever there is room in the diagram.

    • A yellow handle on the tag number makes it easy to grab and move; existing projects are converted automatically when opened.
    • Besides the tag number you can display name, size and material on the part — each can be shown or hidden from the bill of materials.
    • A− and A+ in the toolbar change the font size of all tag numbers consistently.
    • Symbols with a fixed letter such as M, P, T or G keep their designation.
  8. Improved

    Bill of materials with coordinates and custom ordering

    Every part can be located on the printout, and you decide the order of the items yourself.

    • The drawing frame has an A–E × 1–5 coordinate grid, and the bill of materials names the matching field for each element.
    • Items can be sorted by drag and drop — the table on the sheet adopts the same order.
    • Nozzles appear indented below their parent part instead of as separate items.
    • The name can be edited directly in the details panel, and whether the bill of materials is open is remembered per user.

All of this is part of the current version.

No update required: piblaster runs in the browser, so you always work with the latest release.

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