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Changelog (Version history) ​

Track new features, bug fixes and breaking changes across DVDAddin releases.

2.8.3 (Current — 2026-08-19) ​

Fixes Duration syncing between MS Project and Excel.

🐛 Bug fixes ​

  • Duration drifted when moving a schedule between Excel and MS Project. On Export XML (P6/MSP) the Finish date of each leaf task is now forced to match the Duration column before the file is written, so MS Project no longer recalculates the duration when it opens the file. The other direction — Import XML (P6/MSP) — still converts durations using an 8-hour working day, as before.

2.8.2 (2026-07-06) ​

A smarter construction diary, an upgraded Read PDF, tidier windows and two important licensing fixes.

✨ New features ​

📔 Construction diary ​

  • Optional "Rest days" column (non-working days) in the New Diary command: list the days on which each task is not worked, joining several days with + (for example 23/11/2021+25/11/2021). The diary automatically drops the task content on exactly those days. Leave it empty = the task runs continuously, as before.
  • Pick Rest Days command (arrow menu under the New Diary button): select a cell in the Rest days column → the calendar appears → click one day, or hold Ctrl to pick several → they are filled into the cell in the correct format. Reopen it and the days already entered are pre-ticked so you can edit them.

📐 Read PDF ​

  • Fill colour for closed shapes (rectangle, ellipse, cloud…) with adjustable transparency from 10% to 100%.
  • Fill for Text / Note boxes, font change, and no border (choose line width 0).

🖱 Windows get out of the way while you pick a range ​

The 8 windows that have a range-pick button (Diary, Send Email, Batch print, Merge to Word, Export Category, Quick Input, Two-range trace, Auto group) move out of sight when you click ⤴ and come back once you have picked — they no longer cover the worksheet.

🪟 Tidier interface ​

  • The sheet list (Send Email) and the column list (Gantt Setup → Hide/Show columns) show about 10 rows at most with a scroll bar, instead of stretching the window past the edge of the screen.
  • The Navigation bar collapses into a small arrow at the edge of the screen; click the arrow to open it again.
  • The Text and Number and Bulk find / replace windows are narrower.

🖨 Batch print ​

  • "Do not print empty picture areas" option: an area that has a dvdPic formula but no picture has its row hidden while printing / exporting to PDF, and shown again afterwards.

🐛 Bug fixes ​

  • Excel froze and then quit when you clicked New Diary — the cause was writing cell by cell through COM for every day; the whole table is now written in one go, many times faster. It also blocks absurd date ranges (> 10 years) caused by a date cell being read incorrectly.
  • Excel quit when you clicked the range-pick button and then OK on modal windows — hiding and showing the window created a nested dispatcher frame; the window is now moved off-screen instead of hidden.
  • Translate reported HTTP 400 "temperature must be in the range [0.0, 2.0]" on machines whose regional format is Vietnamese — 0.5 was read as 5; every numeric setting is now read with the invariant culture. This affected Translate, OCR and AI Chat alike.
  • PRO accounts still saw the purchase window even when signed in correctly — fixed on both the add-in side and the server side.
  • STANDARD accounts activated before 01/07/2026 now keep the full set of PRO features until the license expires (a lifetime license keeps them forever).

2.8.1 (2026-07-02) ​

Schedule over a custom range, P6 – MS Project XML import/export, smart picture insertion.

✨ New features ​

  • Schedule (custom range) — a single window: From date / To date (default today → +3 months), chart scale (Month/Week/Day), column width, the column where drawing starts. It draws a real Gantt for exactly that range, with Summary rows (parent WBS) and an option to clip tasks to fit neatly inside the range.
  • Gantt Chart — merges 3 dialogs (Scale / Column width / Pick column) into one window; auto-draw keeps the scale you chose.
  • Import XML / Export XML — handles both P6 (PMXML) and MS Project (MSPDI); Summary rows leave the code blank the way P6 does; critical tasks are highlighted for you.
  • Smart picture insertion (Preferences → Graphics) — 4 fit modes: Fit cell / Keep original size / Fit column width (row height stretches to match) / Fit inside cell (keeps the aspect ratio, centred, never overflows the cell). Applies to Pictures, Insert by Name and Move/Resize.

🐛 Bug fixes ​

  • Excel quit unexpectedly when printing to PDF (Microsoft Print to PDF) on sheets with many pictures — fixed for good.
  • The dvdExplain / dvdExplainE functions returned empty — fixed, and safe while printing.
  • Sign-in reported "Access denied" when writing license.dat on some machines — a fallback storage mechanism was added.
  • Error 403 when fetching the price list because of clock skew on the machine — the clock is now synchronised automatically.
  • Find & Replace: the total was counted twice; Batch print: merged rows were squashed.

2.8.0 (2026-06-14) ​

A finished interface and experience: an Acrobat-style PDF markup set, the Assign Level command, a tooltip review across the whole ribbon, full light/dark theme coverage, ESC to stop a command, batch print rewritten.

✨ New features ​

🖍 PDF annotation (Read PDF) like Acrobat DC ​

  • Markup drawing tools: freehand, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse; cloud and polygon cloud outlines; self-closing polyline; Callout with a pointer arrow.
  • Type text directly on the page, double-click to edit; drag the handle to resize the text box; 6-way alignment; change the font size / arrow size / cloud size; choose a line width of 1–10.
  • Viewing: the toolbar becomes icon-based; zoom at the mouse pointer; hold the middle mouse button to auto-scroll; drag with the left button to move the page; the window maximises itself when it opens.
  • Save / Save As also apply to the PDF file that is open (annotations are written into the file).

📑 PDF Manager ​

  • Copy / paste pages between documents — Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V and the right-click menu.
  • A complete right-click menu: rotate / delete / split pages / insert a blank page.
  • Export pages as images in PNG / JPG / TIFF at 200 dpi.
  • Drag and drop images to make new PDF pages.

🔢 Assign Level command (new) ​

  • Assign the Level by DESCRIPTION (AI) or by cell BACKGROUND COLOUR (pick from a sample palette) — replacing the earlier AI auto-detect level button.

➕ Insert Rows / Insert Columns ​

  • Insert Rows and Insert Columns merged into a single 2-tab window.

💡 Tooltip review across the whole ribbon ​

  • Reviewed and filled in the tooltips for every command on the ribbon — new users can see exactly what each command is for.

🎨 Full light / dark theme coverage ​

  • The remaining windows moved to WPF and follow the light/dark theme: Sync Pro Connect, Admin, Formula Trace, 1D/2D/rebar cutting preview, Export Category.
  • Every message and confirmation box follows the theme, with clear ✓ / ⚠ / ✖ icons.
  • The PDF Manager and Navigation right-click menus follow the dark theme.
  • Tabs, buttons and combo boxes share the same hover effect.

⛔ ESC stops the running command ​

  • Hold ESC to stop the command that is running (30 heavy commands: AutoFit merged, delete rows, Batch Print…) — Excel no longer feels frozen.

🤖 Add / remove AI models yourself ​

  • Add or remove an AI model for each provider (Gemini / OpenAI / Groq / NVIDIA) right inside Preferences — when a provider releases a new model you can use it immediately.

⌨️ Upgraded keyboard shortcuts ​

  • Assign a key to any ribbon command (10 slots), and clear the default keys.
  • A new standard key set (F3, F6, F8, Shift+F1, Alt+X/C/S…), with group keytips D1–D7 in order.

🔗 Join Text / Join Merged ​

  • They use the separator character set in Preferences.

🖨 Batch print — a major upgrade ​

  • No more phantom strikethrough on formula cells in the exported PDF.
  • AutoFit merged rewritten: measured accurately by Excel itself (every font, every DPI), covering non-merged cells as well, with no more excess or missing row height.
  • dvdPic pictures: several pictures on the same sheet no longer delete one another on export.
  • The File and Print windows close automatically after you click Export PDF / Print.

🧪 TCVN test plan ​

  • TCVN database rebuilt from the reference file (53 materials / 239 criteria, with the correct sampling standards).
  • The Manage DB window gained check boxes for picking materials directly plus a Generate Sheet button.
  • The generated sheet AutoFits row heights by itself.

🌐 Bilingual + Navigation + About ​

  • Complete English–Vietnamese bilingual support: PDF Manager, Read PDF, AI Construction Estimate, Export Category…
  • Navigation now renders correctly in the dark theme.
  • The About window gained an author contact card with a portrait photo.

🐛 Bug fixes ​

  • List Format (bullets / numbering / multilevel) — now applies to empty cells and formula cells, and skips hidden rows.
  • Encoding — fixed cells being wiped blank when run on a multi-cell range.
  • Fixed the Maps column being cut off in the Configure source ranges window (Quick Input).

2.7.9 (2026-06 — internal beta) ​

Automatic scheduling + refinements.

✨ New features ​

📈 A Gantt that lives with the data ​

  • Automatic Gantt redraw when the data changes (switched on together with Auto Calc).
  • An Auto Draw toggle to turn it on and off separately, plus lag protection (debounced, safe while you are typing).
  • Gantt Chart detects the header and the data by itself — no selection needed.
  • Faster Gantt drawing.

✂️ Rebar cutting ​

  • Merged the configuration template (sheet 01) and numbered the sheets 00–07.
  • Improved the 1D / 2D and rebar cutting algorithms, DXF export and preview.

🐛 Bug fixes ​

  • Fixed the missing ribbon icons.

2.7.8 (2026-05-27) ​

Split into a 2-tier Standard / Pro license + 9 new Pro features + 5 new Standard utilities.

✨ New features — Pro tier (9 advanced commands) ​

🧪 Quality management (Pro / flag QaQc) ​

  • Test Plan — generates the sheet "Bảng kế hoạch thí nghiệm vật liệu, sản phẩm, cấu kiện chính cho dự án" (project test plan for the main materials, products and components) from a selection containing material names. The output has the 7 columns used in the industry: No. / Material / Test criterion / Test standard / Sampling standard / Sample spec / Notes – Frequency.
  • TCVN database with 100 materials × 599 criteria compiled from:
    • The standard test plan (53 materials).
    • QCVN 16:2023/BXD (national technical regulation on construction products and goods) + 12 appendices.
    • The "Chỉ tiêu lấy mẫu của 56 vật liệu xây dựng" (sampling criteria for 56 construction materials) set.
  • Custom database + backup: add or edit your own materials → saved to %APPDATA%\DVDAddin\TCVN-Custom.json (survives a reinstall). Backup + Restore let you move the data between machines.
  • Import from Excel — reads a 7-column .xlsx file (compatible with both layouts, with or without a padding column A) → merges into the database; an existing material gains the new criteria, a new material creates a custom entry. There is a preview before you commit.

💰 Smart estimating (Pro / flag QuoteAi) ​

  • AI Construction Estimate — builds a construction estimate automatically from the BoQ. The AI suggests a norm code for rows that are missing one, looks up the norms in TT10/2019 and ĐM1776, computes materials + labour + machinery × quantity, and applies overhead/profit. You enter your own Gemini/ChatGPT/Cerebras API key.

📊 Advanced scheduling (Pro / flag SchedulePro) ​

  • AI Gantt Builder — generates a Gantt outline from the Bill of Quantities with AI: detects dependencies, estimates durations from the norms, and groups summary levels.
  • EVM Report — Earned Value Management: PV / EV / AC / CV / SV / CPI / SPI / EAC plus an S-curve chart (Planned vs Earned vs Actual).
  • 3-Week Lookahead — generates a look-ahead grid sheet (This week / Next week / The week after) for the weekly meeting with the site management team.
  • Baseline + Compare — captures a snapshot of the original plan so that you can later compare "current vs baseline" and track schedule slippage. Up to 3 baselines are supported.
  • Variance Dashboard — a summary table of the Planned vs Actual delta for every task, with conditional formatting (🟢 early / ⚪ on time / 🟡 slightly late / 🔴 badly late).
  • Weekly snapshot + Trend — captures the schedule state every week (% complete / SPI / CPI / critical path) → combined into a trend chart for the board report.
  • Schedule Recovery — when the schedule slips → proposes Crash / Fast-track / Re-sequence / Scope cut options with their cost/risk trade-offs.

✨ New features — Standard tier (5 productivity utilities) ​

  • Bulk Find / Replace — a modeless dialog more powerful than Ctrl+H: full .NET regex support, several rules running together, multiple sheets, save/load reusable JSON recipes.
  • Smart Data Cleaning — a wizard that cleans up data imported from a partner's file: trim whitespace, NBSP/zero-width space, blank rows, hidden rows, duplicates, standardise the date format, strip number formatting, leading apostrophe. Preview before Apply.
  • Quick Input — an autocomplete popup while you type in a cell, fed by the source ranges registered in the workbook (stored in a CustomXMLPart that travels with the file). Multi-column populate when the source has several columns (pick an item → fill across, e.g. Code + Name + Unit).
  • Explain formula (Coach) — the AI explains an Excel formula step by step for beginners, along with suggestions for optimising the formula.
  • DVD Chat — a team AI chat workspace built right into the Excel side pane, letting you share context with colleagues through the workspace.

🔒 License + UX ​

  • 2-tier license split: Standard (the basic plan) and Pro (Standard + the 9 advanced commands above).
  • Grandfather plan: users who bought before 01/07/2026 get a free Pro upgrade until their current license expires.
  • A 🔒 lock icon on the commands that need activation — click it and a dialog explains how to buy / renew / upgrade, with a detailed comparison of the two plans.
  • State-aware UpgradeDialog: it tells two situations apart — "a Standard user clicks a Pro feature" (upgrade) vs "an expired/unactivated user clicks a paid feature" (buy/activate). It shows the matching tier tiles and features.
  • The 30-day trial gets full Pro: the 🔒 is still shown to make users aware of the Pro tier; when the trial ends the account moves to Standard.
  • Pro pricing from the server — the whole price list is read from the Cloudflare worker, not hard-coded in the client. Changing a price only needs wrangler deploy and clients update themselves.

🛠 Improvements + fixes ​

  • Admin console supports choosing STANDARD / PRO when creating a license — type 1/2 or the full name.
  • Library filenames normalised to ASCII: Dinh Muc TT10.2019.xlsx, Dinh Muc 1776.xlsx, Ke hoach thi nghiem.xlsx (avoiding conflicts between PowerShell scripts and Vietnamese characters). NormLoader still falls back to the old names for existing installations.
  • Gate removed from Create Title and Explain → they are now FREE (no license needed).
  • Fixed clipped content in the PurchaseDialog amber box "new prices will apply" — the dialog height is now 760px, enough to show the delta line as well.
  • Fixed the UpgradeDialog banner so that it no longer wrongly says "Pro plan only" for a Standard feature when the license has expired.
  • Fixed TCVN database dedup — duplicate criteria within the same material are merged (664 → 599 criteria, 26 materials cleaned up).
  • Security: the server validates the edition on both admin endpoints (POST /admin/licenses + POST /admin/signup-requests/:id/approve) — accepting both STANDARD and PRO and rejecting an invalid edition at the API layer instead of with a DB CHECK.

💸 2-tier pricing ​

Current — through 31/12/2026 ​

ConfigurationStandardPro
1 year × 1 PC500.000 đ890.000 đ
Lifetime × 1 PC1.500.000 đ2.690.000 đ
1 year × 3 PCs1.350.000 đ2.400.000 đ
1 year × 5 PCs2.200.000 đ3.920.000 đ
Lifetime × 3 PCs4.050.000 đ7.260.000 đ
Lifetime × 5 PCs6.600.000 đ11.840.000 đ

⚠️ From 01/01/2027 — only the Standard price rises (1 year 690.000 đ, lifetime 1.990.000 đ). Pro keeps its price to encourage upgrades.

📚 Documentation ​

2.7.7 (2026-05-15) ​

The first stable release after the full C#/.NET 8 rewrite.

✨ New features ​

  • Bilingual UI: toggle VI ↔ EN with the Switch Language button on the ribbon.
  • AI Assistant: built-in AI chat + AI Explain / Grammarly / Solver.
  • AI Translate: Gemini / ChatGPT / Groq / Cerebras with prompts tuned for construction (starter bar, lean concrete, ...).
  • Construction Diary: a construction diary workflow following Nghị định 06/2021/NĐ-CP (Decree 06/2021 on construction quality management).
  • Cutting Optimizer: 3 algorithms (First-Fit / Best-Fit / Genetic Algorithm) for rebar cutting.
  • Connect Server: team data sync through the Cloudflare backend.
  • Auto Click: record + replay a mouse/keyboard sequence.
  • Transcribe Audio: speech-to-text via Gemini Vision.
  • OCR: image / PDF scan → text via Gemini.
  • License button hoisted: out of the About dropdown → 1 click instead of 2.

🐛 Bug fixes (compared with the earlier 2.7.x beta) ​

  • Fixed the License dialog showing (in 7 day(s)) for a lifetime license (wrong JWT expiry fallback).
  • Fixed the Gemini KeyNotFoundException when the SAFETY filter blocks the output (robust JSON parsing).
  • Fixed Batch Print merging the PDF in the wrong order (alphabetical sort instead of iteration order).
  • Fixed BiText.Pick splitting in the wrong place when the text itself contains "/" (Gantt checkbox, Translate dialog warning).
  • Fixed Unprotect Sheet reporting "No sheet protection found" when the base64 salt contains "/" (the [^/>] regex was too strict).
  • Fixed Setup not installing .NET 8 automatically when the user is sent setup.exe only (ISSetupLocation 0 → 2).
  • Fixed Translate dialog keyboard input leaking into the Excel cell (modeless STA thread).
  • Fixed ComboBox typeahead matching the prefix only (IsTextSearchEnabled) → substring filter.
  • Fixed license deactivation not clearing signing_salts on the server → re-activation failed with 403.
  • Fixed admin-console.bat not showing the error body returned by the server (PS ErrorDetails parsing).

🔒 Security ​

  • New license system: JWT RS256 + HMAC + clock-rollback anchor (hardening package 5).
  • Per-install signing salt: HKDF-derived HMAC keys (package 4).
  • OFFLINE_GRACE_DAYS = 1 (down from 14 — tightening).

📚 Documentation ​

  • Fully bilingual documentation site: https://dvdaddin.dvdpm.net/
  • 35 detailed command + workflow pages.
  • 4 UDF function reference pages.
  • 290 reference stubs auto-generated from RibbonLang.json.

💸 Pricing ​

Term1 PC3 PCs5 PCs10 PCs
1 year500.000 đ1.350.000 đ2.200.000 đ4.325.000 đ
2 years830.000 đ2.240.000 đ3.650.000 đ7.180.000 đ
3 years1.150.000 đ3.100.000 đ5.060.000 đ9.950.000 đ
Lifetime1.500.000 đ4.050.000 đ6.600.000 đ12.980.000 đ

⚠️ From 01/01/2027 the new prices apply (about a 38% increase). Buy before that date to get the current price.

2.7.6 (2026-04 — internal beta) ​

  • Setup installer built with InstallShield 2021 (instead of MSI-only).
  • Major Upgrade removes the previous version automatically (Attributes=257).
  • Excel-running guard (blocks the install while Excel is open).

2.7.0 — 2.7.5 (2026-Q1 — internal beta) ​

  • Phase 5 — full migration to C# / .NET 8 / Excel-DNA.
  • VBA .xlam dropped completely.
  • Bilingual UI infrastructure (LocalizationManager).
  • Modeless WPF dialogs (own STA thread).

2.x (Legacy, 2018-2024 — VBA .xlam) ​

  • The original version, written in VBA and distributed as DVDAddin.xlam.
  • Core features: Google translation, numbering, cell merging, a basic Gantt chart.
  • Offline license (registry key).
  • Unsupported since 2025 — we recommend migrating to 2.7.7.

Roadmap (plan) ​

2.8.x (Q3/2026) ​

  • Advanced resource calendar for the Gantt: shift work, holidays for multiple countries.
  • Plan vs Actual Gantt: two stacked bars for comparison.
  • More languages: Indonesian, Thai, Khmer (requested by the South-East Asian market).
  • Excel UDF caching layer: avoid re-calling the API when the referenced cells have not changed.
  • Workflow templates: pre-configured workflow packs (acceptance, cost estimate, schedule) — one click sets up the full template.

2.9.x (Q4/2026) ​

  • Power Query integration: the DVDAddin server as a data source.
  • Mobile companion app (iOS/Android): take a site photo → upload and tag it automatically → sync back into Excel.
  • Voice command (offline whisper): "Hey DVD, total this column" → the AI sums and formats it.

3.0 (2027) ​

  • Open source backend: self-hostable Cloudflare Workers code.
  • Plugin system: third-party developers can write extensions for DVDAddin.
  • Marketplace: the community shares templates / formulas / workflows.
  • Cross-platform: experiments with Excel for Mac / Excel on the web (Office.js — challenging).

Community suggestions ​

Vote for new features on GitHub Discussions: github.com/dangdvd/DVDAddin/discussions.

Current top requests:

  1. ⭐⭐⭐ Bash export (export Excel to a Markdown / HTML report).
  2. ⭐⭐⭐ MS Project import/export.
  3. ⭐⭐ An AI agent in "standby" mode (a background watcher that analyses the workbook).
  4. ⭐⭐ Inventory tracking module (material store).
  5. ⭐ Direct integration with Autodesk Construction Cloud / Revit cloud.

Report a bug / Feature request ​

Released under DVDAddin License.

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