What's New in Stardraw Design 7.4

Stardraw Design 7.4 keeps getting better. Since the summer of 2025 we've shipped a steady stream of new capabilities and enhancements — from richer printing and PDF handling to smarter imports, more powerful reporting and dozens of everyday productivity wins. Here are the highlights, all delivered automatically through Software Updates.
See Full Changelog

Printing & PDF Output

New colour printing controls: a redesigned Print dialog now lets you output any drawing in full Colour, Grayscale (using 256 shades of gray) or Monochrome (black or white only) — giving you precise control over how your drawings appear on paper or in PDF.
Reliable transparency on every printer: objects that use transparency now print correctly across all physical printers and PDF writers, including Adobe and Microsoft Print to PDF.
Sharper, faster PDF output: improved quality and performance when printing to PDF, cleaner image edges, and reliable output even when a drawing name contains a dot.
True WYSIWYG Print Preview: Print Preview now accurately reflects your Minimum Printed Line Width setting, so what you see is what you print. Line-width handling has also been refined to respect local number formats around the world.

Import & Interoperability

Greatly improved "Import PDF as New Project": a major overhaul resolves known import errors, delivers faster and more complete results, and adds better handling of images, fonts, text layout and clipping. It now also understands PDFs produced by Bluebeam and Vectorworks, and can open password-protected PDF files.
Open DXF files straight from Windows: right-click any .DXF file in Windows Explorer and choose Open with > Stardraw Design 7 to open it directly.
Leaner, faster drawings from CAD imports: smarter conversion of Splines when importing DWG and DXF files produces much smaller file sizes and noticeably more responsive drawing, editing and zooming.

SVG Export & Reporting

Dimensions in SVG and reports: Dimension objects are now included when you export to SVG and when drawings are rendered inside your reports.
Truer drawing reproduction: line breaks within text and line styles that include arrowheads are now faithfully honoured when exporting to SVG or viewing drawings in the Reports View.
Instant report refresh: in the Report Viewer, Refresh now re-renders the drawings embedded in a report, so any change you make in a drawing is reflected in the report immediately.
Upgraded reporting engine: the reporting engine has been updated (ActiveReports JS v6.0.3) for improved handling of dynamic SVG images when printing and exporting to PDF.

Licensing, Installation & Evaluation

Release a license remotely: when every license on your account is in use, you can now release a license from another computer yourself and take it to the machine you're working on — no more waiting for a colleague to sign out.
Try Modules & Utilities on demand: evaluate Modules and Utilities that aren't part of your current license, even while running under a licensed installation, so you can explore the full power of the product before you buy.
New "Repair" install option: the updated installer adds a Repair option when you choose to Modify the Stardraw Design 7.4 installation from Windows Settings > Apps.
Helpful Demo-mode reminders: clearer prompts when you Save or Print in expired Demo mode help you avoid working for long periods without taking a license for the session.

Everyday Productivity

Smoother Available Symbols Palette: a single click now selects an entire row, you can drag from any cell to place a product symbol, and overall behaviour is steadier — no accidental symbols or jumping views when you work quickly.
Smarter Cable Labels tool: the tool now remembers your last-used label settings as you move between drawings, and supports middle-button drag/pan while you work.
Auto Labels that follow you: your Auto Labels settings now sync across every computer you sign in to with the same credentials — set them once and they're ready everywhere.
Paste drawings as vectors: improved Enhanced Metafile clipboard support means you can copy from a drawing and paste into other applications, such as Microsoft Word, as crisp, scalable vector objects.
Faster Cables View editing: pasting values into Feather cells in the Cables View now takes effect immediately, with no extra keypress required.
Filters fully respected: when a filter is applied in the Products View, Copy, Paste, Export and Fill Down now operate only on the visible rows and columns, exactly as you'd expect.

Already running Stardraw Design 7.4? You'll receive all of these improvements automatically — just choose Install Updates when you see the notice on startup. Still on Stardraw Design 7.3? Download Stardraw Design 7.4 now