Time has witnessed our evolutionary path
From a designer to program development
In October 2021, the first contact with a batch export file and parts count function macro, but the efficiency is very slow, so produced their own idea of writing a C#, after more than a month of learning to understand, in November 2021 produced the first version, only batch export STEP file function.
First iteration
Later, the second version was modified to support synchronous export of multiple formats, and added the function of replacing engineering drawing templates.
Second version optimization
In December 2021, the second version was modified on the basis of the original functions, and the quantity statistics and renaming were still under study, but due to the instability of the selected UI library, it was only updated twice and then abandoned.
Third version optimization
In January 2022, after abandoning the second version of the UI, trying to write in WPF, due to the unproficiency of WPF, many ideas can not be implemented, the version again chose to abandon.
Fourth version optimization
After the UI of WPF was abandoned, the bulk renaming and writing properties (part count) function was rewritten and implemented in winform.
Add part packaging function, add batch renaming function and add model sorting function on the basis of system built-in function
Fifth version optimization
In May 2022, the source code was reconstructed on the original basis, and the original process-oriented programming was all optimized to object-oriented programming, different functional modules used different form processing, and all tasks were processed by multithreading.
Sixth version optimization
In June 2022, the original external software was changed to an internal plug-in and renamed TicTools. Due to significant efficiency improvement, the optimization of TicToolBox version was temporarily stopped in October 2022. After more than 20 updates of the size of TicTools version, the overall dimensions were obtained successively, and redundant attributes were cleared. Single file rename, single file write properties, export BOOM table, single file export, set tolerances and other functions.
We’re still working on better ideas
In 2023, TicToolBox was launched in mainland China, but not much effort was initially put into its maintenance. Despite this, around 200 companies adopted the software. Based on user feedback, over ten updates and optimizations were made. Over the course of a year, the software gradually evolved from a specialized tool into a more widely applicable solution for most companies.
In February 2024, while debugging a machine, I suffered a severe injury that led to a seven-month hospitalization. Due to my physical disability, I was forced to temporarily halt the optimization and updates of TicToolBox and TicTools. During my hospital stay, I briefly took the opportunity to learn some English.
Starting in 2025, I transformed TicToolBox into a bilingual version (Chinese & English) and introduced more universal settings to make it accessible to all types of users. The optimization and improvement of TicToolBox and TicTools are still ongoing—to be continued…