Dimension 8.3-1 Major Release

September 23rd 2026 / 8.3-1.2

For more information about the enhancements, read the indented documentation or click on the link below the corresponding enhancement.

Major Enhancements

• New PDF Engine – Dimension’s PDF rendering has been rebuilt on a new engine, delivering improved rendering performance and compatibility with newer PDF versions.
• Multi-page PDF Splitting – Multi-page PDF documents can now be split into individual drawing files, for any newly imported documents and for all New projects.
  • Multi-page PDF Splitting
• Automatic Page Naming – PDF pages are now named automatically, for both whole and split multi-page PDFs when scanned into a project.
  • Each page is read for its sheet number and name, taken from the title block or from the PDF’s bookmarks, and they become the page description shown in the drawing list and drawing tree. A page whose sheet number and name can’t be read is described by its page number followed by the name of the document it came from, for example “012 CHANNELSIDE CDs”.
  • Pages are named whether or not the drawing was split, so a drawing left whole arrives with its pages named too. The naming is done once, here, and stored with the project – opening the drawing later doesn’t repeat the work.
  • Note: Drawings that are already in a project are left as they are. This naming applies to drawings as they are added.
• Scale Auto-detection – PDF pages with no scale set are analyzed automatically, and the detected scales are offered as suggestions in the Scale dialog.
  • Detected Scales
• Enhanced Pattern Search – Pattern Search has been reworked for substantially improved performance and accuracy.
  • Pattern Search Overview

Enhancements

• Remember Pattern Search settings as preferences
• Extension formula enhancement: allow use of arbitrary SegmentLenX in formulas
  • SegmentLen<N>:
  • The total of the distance from point N to point N+1 for all measurements assigned to the item. Any segment can be referenced: SegmentLen1 is the distance from point 1 to point 2, SegmentLen2 the distance from point 2 to point 3, and so on. A segment beyond the last point of a measurement contributes nothing to the total.
• Drawing window content now live-scrolls when using scroll bars
• New “Sort by Filepath” button in the drawing list heading toggles between keeping each document’s pages together and sorting by sheet name
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  • Drawings are listed in file path order. That keeps the pages of a document that was split into single pages together and in page order, under the folder they were written to, and a rule is drawn across the list where one document’s run of pages ends.
  • The sort button in the control heading (its tooltip reads “Sort by Filepath”) switches between that order and description order. Pressed in, the list is in file path order. Pressed out, it is sorted by drawing description, which is the quicker way to find a sheet by name. The group rules are drawn in file path order only – sorted by description, a document’s pages are no longer a single run for a rule to mark the end of. The setting is remembered from one session to the next.
• Drawing list and tree tooltips now identify the drawing’s file, with the path shortened to start at the project folder
  • Hold the mouse over a row to see the drawing’s description and, beneath it, the file the drawing came from. This tells two rows apart when their sheet numbers and names are too long for the width of the control.
• Settings dialog now shows all tabs, eliminating the need for scrolling
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• All grids in Dimension now allow column header drag/drop to reorder columns
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• All grids in Dimension now live-update content while resizing column headers
• New COM API: ProjectCreateDefault() to invoke the default New Project wizard in Dimension

Fixes

• Fix for crashes when loading problematic PDFs or drawings with unrecognized elements
• Fix intermittent crash on Dimension exit
• Fix to eliminate several second delay after closing any WebView popup content
• Fix to honor server time interval specified between update notification popups
• Fix for Bird’s Eye view locking application in certain cases
• Fix for Pattern Search Start/Resume button remaining disabled in certain cases
• Fix for crashes when opening a multi-page file without a project