Please, Please, PLEASE...

-- Build crash recovery (similar to autocad's) into VCP. It is very demoralizing to have VCP crash on me and take 5 to 45 minutes of work down with it.

-- Allow multiple instances of VCP to run, and run in SEPARATE memory space so that if one drawing crashes, it doesn't burn the whole house down.

-- Make VCP's post-crash log a bit more useful so that when restarting the session, the last-files-open get found. Sometimes, after going through numerous files to find something containing needed information, it is difficult to get back to it or keep track of multiple files that blow up because the app spontaneously blows up over translating a line that it has some history line linked to it.

-- Make garbage collection more efficient. I shouldn't have to restart the app to recover 200MB of unreleased RAM. Part of the problem is that i am opening 39MB files that consume some 400MB of RAM when in use a bit. If i close said file, that RAM should be released back to the system as if when the app was first opened -- or so i think. Restarting ditches most of the sluggishness that makes menus delay 2 to 4 seconds.

-- Make a purge function. Part of my crashes seem to happen when some unresolved gunk on a layer won't go away. It infuriates me that some vestiges of a deleted part won't go away, and deleting the layer just moves the unresolved links to another layer. If they are counted in a layer, then i want to see them, and if i can see them, then i want to delete them, and if i can delete them, i want to intentionally purge them via a button, and if i can do that, it should not come back from the dead.

-- External references: if these exist in VCP, i would imagine that most of my RAM-related issues would go away so long as the RAM consumed under an x-ref regime is released after focus on a portion of the model in the X-ref window is out of sight.

-- Make the flick of the smaller viewports stop occurring when in zoom or pan the main, larger window.

-- Fix the endpoint control point stay on its parent's end now matter how deep the zoom goes -- as long as it is not some spline, then the endpoints (to me) should not float off or dance about aside of the line, causing me to zoom out to get a positive selection

-- Make the file content more like discrete databases content so that when a file is saved, ONLY that which was touched or modified is saved, ignoring anything that was subject to zooming or panning or the like. Right now, it behaves as a word processing or similar programs in that a typical crashing app throws away ANYthing in the session that was touched whereas a database itself will ONLY lose the unsaved rows, not the entire session (i'm talking about fields entries, not the forms designing stage). Stated another way, a real database "commits" changes as soon as the user LEAVES that field. Other features of audit trails and security functions are used for undoing detected screwups or sabotage. If necessary, VCP should have some multiple brains of sorts so that JUST what is being touched (not the entire file) is in an area of addresses that blow up tidily, without tossing or corrupting a file. This probably would help make a thing of the past where prior good files simply refuse to open. If VCP could poke and probe around and find the "good" non-destabilized or non-corrupted/trashy parts of a file, it could draw suspicion circles on what it thinks are damaged areas, allowing the user to salvage what is found to be worth keeping. Yes, back-up, back-up, back-up is the order that isn't followed, but backups shouldn't have to be done multiple times per hour except on THE MOST critical of work, in which case a user is probably using some RAID gear and virtualization and multiple live hot-backups. Most users won't be that well-off. I am not.

-- Make the tools optionally "fadable" instead of just binary on/off. Sometimes, quick work is enhanced when the most-used tools can be predictive and fade when a worked-on portion of the drawing starts to get close to tools. Since (for now) my tools don't "stick" to the canvas edge if the app is resized, it would be useful to have an alternative way of getting them out of the way on resizes of the app, or when multiple viewports are invoked. Shortcuts are nice, but they are only single-key shortcuts, and that can be tricky when the assigned key is assigned out of availability rather than intuitively-set keys.

-- Before VCP crashes, it should have a user-friendly snapshot of EXACTLY what the user did that instigated the crash. Sometimes, for me, it's simply when i try to translate or even just select some piece of geometry that was previously turned of or hidden. A second or third click or selection is not always required -- a first click sometimes is all it takes.

-- Make grouping STOP adding to the entity count of grouped lines or curves.

-- Make copying and pasting or translating a grouped object NOT double or multiply the entity count of lines and curves

-- Make it clearly possible and doable to with confidence restore a group to individual lines/curves without ghost duplicates being generated.

-- Make go away the disappearance of data when an undo cannot get back to the present.

-- Multi-user, live, simultaneous edits in a file. Right now, this appears to be something that AutoDesk and many others cannot wrap their heads around or simply don't want to be bothered with. Imagine it like two artists shaping a sculpture together as if reading each other's minds. So, with a database-based CAD application, each user can work on a common file simultaneously. SQLite could be a way to do it. Someone would initially construct the project's basic constraints and then every user on the project could "reserve" areas of the drawing and have rights of way to only that space. Anything they need as references would be manager-granted access to reference files, visible only on a need to know or similar basis so that each designer can concentrate on his/her segments of work. This could be useful if a time-sensitive project needs all the hands on it that can be mustered, but junior or non-privileged workers cannot see or discuss what they do not know about....

Having said all of that, i still cannot personally imagine using another product. I LOVE using VCP, and maybe someday, i'll have a need or a tantalization to use Shark, but, i really want to see VCP stabilize so i can evangelize it more.