AutoCAD news & features

It's that time of year again when I summarize the new features of the latest release and give you my opinion, as well. AutoCAD 2009 focuses on a new interface, but it includes other new features as well.

The ribbon

Am I writing about AutoCAD or Microsoft Office 2007? Forgive me for getting confused. AutoCAD 2009 has switched over to an Office 2007-like tabbed ribbon along the top for its default 2D Drafting & Annotation and 3D Modeling workspaces. You can customize the ribbon to your heart's content using the CUI command, and even make it vertical. Moreover, you can add old-style toolbars if you want. (I wish Office was so flexible.) Finally, if you really hate it, use the AutoCAD Classic workspace and make it go away -- you'll have the familiar menus and toolbars back again.

Here you see the default configuration of the ribbon, including the title bar above it.

Here you see the ribbon docked on the right side. Now it looks more like the old Dashboard of the previous 2 releases. Notice the small icons at the top -- those are the tabs. To do this, right-click an empty area of the ribbon and click Undock. Then you can drag it around and treat it like a palette, auto-hiding it and anchoring it to the left or right.

Conclusion: The ribbon has some great things going for it. I liked the Dashboard (which is now completely gone), especially for 3D work, because it put a lot of related commands together in one place, along with controls for adjusting settings. The ribbon does something similar. The Home tab is supposed to contain 80% of the commands you need for everyday work, but I still don't like the tab concept. By their very nature, tabs hide tools that I need to use. I've seen this in Office (I absolutely can't write my books in Word 2007 because of the poor controls for styles--but I'm digressing.)

The Quick Access toolbar

The only toolbar in the 2D Drafting & Annotation and 3D Modeling workspaces is the Quick Access toolbar. This is also a copy of the Office 2007 setup. You can customize the commands on this toolbar; right-click it and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

Tip: Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Toolbars>AutoCAD to see the entire list of toolbars and display those that you can't do without.

Conclusion: The Quick Access toolbar is necessary because its tools are no longer visible on the ribbon. These are basic tools like starting a new drawing, opening a drawing, plotting, undoing, and redoing. The Undo and Redo buttons no longer show their history, which is a loss.

The Menu Browser

Beneath the A is a complete menu. It's just organized vertically instead of horizontally and so it takes up less space. The menu itself hasn't changed much, so you can generally find the commands you need in their familiar location.

Conclusion: I like the menu browser. It's one more click to open it, but it fits the entire menu into the space of an "A." The search feature is also helpful.

Quick View

You can quickly switch between open drawings and even their layouts, using the thumbnails as a guide. The Quick View Drawings button is on the status bar; just click it to display the thumbnails. Then click the thumbnail to display the drawing or layout.

Conclusion: An easy way to switch between drawings, and even directly switch to the layout of your choice.

When you select an object, the Quick Properties window pops up, showing a few of the most important properties. Hover the cursor over the window and it expands slightly to show a few more properties. You can use the window as a quick Properties palette, to view or change properties. You can turn it off and customize which properties appear in it. You can even customize which objects display the QP window when selected, using the CUI command.

When you hover the cursor over an object without selecting it, the Rollover Properties window appears, which is a baby version of the Quick Properties window. This one is just for information; you can't change the properties.

Conclusion: Some people will find the Quick Properties window annoying, but I've grown to like it. The same goes for the Rollover Properties window. It might get in your way, but it can be helpful, too.

ShowMotion

ShowMotion is a new take on the old VSLIDE and script combination. You can create shots, which are views of your drawing. You can then play them back, to create a presentation that displays the various views of your drawing.

Shots can be still, cinematic, or motion path. A cinematic shot offers some preset motion choices such as panning and zooming in or out. A recorded walk lets you walk through a model by dragging.

Conclusion: This is a nice idea, but the transitions between shots are not smooth, as you can see by looking at the video. You can fade into a shot or cut to it, but it doesn't seem to matter. I also find the walking hard to control. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a movie director.

View Cube

The View Cube is a new way to quickly change your view in 3D models. You can just click on the view that you want, or you can click and drag the view cube to make finer adjustments. Do you remember the tripod and compass, which was the first interactive way to change your viewpoint? No one uses that any more, because you can't see your model as you use it. The View Cube replaces the tripod and compass, but is much easier to use.

Below the View Cube itself is a drop-down list that contains named views and saved UCS's, so you can quickly restore one. You can right-click and specify settings, set a "Home" view, and switch between parallel and perspective views.

Conclusion: This is one of my favorite features of AutoCAD 2009. Simple and easy to use.

SteeringWheel

Yes, that's one word. The SteeringWheel is a multi-function navigation device that follows your cursor. It's really a menu of navigation commands. It comes in various configurations, large and small, as well as variations -- full, view object, and tour building. Each wedge contains a different command:

Conclusion: I haven't found the SteeringWheel to be highly useful. I can access Zoom, Pan, and Orbit more easily using just the mouse and the rest of the tools I don't use very often. The mini-wheels are way too small for my eyes and I'd never remember which tool is where. I like the Rewind tool, though, and would like to see it on the status bar.

Action Recorder

Yes, you can now record actions and save them as macros. This is a long-requested feature. You can even add (afterwards) user prompts and messages. You can also edit the macros easily. You need to plan your macros carefully, to make sure that the drawing setup is the same that you'll have when you use the macro. For example, if you use a palette to give a command, will it be open when you play back the macro? Sometimes, using command-line commands works better, so that the results are reminiscent of scripts. That's because the macro recorder doesn't record what happens inside dialog boxes. But of course, you don't need to type out the exact commands and options when you record a macro, as you do with a script.

Here's a macro that changes the current layer to OBJ and creates a circle with a radius of 3.2. You'd need to make sure that you have that layer available when playing back the macro. Note that the macro records the absolute center that I specified. But because I can change that to a request for user input, I can use that macro to create a 3.2-radius circle on layer OBJ anywhere in my drawing.

Macros are saved as ACTM files (another Office-2007-like feature), so you can share them with others.

Conclusion: It will take some thinking to make macros useful, but they have lots of potential.

Layer Properties Manager palette

The Layer Properties Manager is now a palette rather than a dialog box. This means that you can leave it open, auto-hide it, and dock it. You can access it more easily and layer changes occur instantly. No clicking OK!

Conclusion: I love it! (OK, to come clean, this was a feature that I asked for, although I'm sure others did too.)

There are many more new features that I would consider to be minor, but one of these may just make your day:

Autodesk University 2007

AU is Autodesk's annual conference and it's huge. There were over 600 classes and labs, so there was something for everyone. More than 10,000 participants, instructors, and Autodesk employees came to the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I had never been to the Venetian; it's an amazing place, complete with an indoor Venetian town, covered with a sky-dome.

You can even take a ride in a gondola.

The General Session
AU always starts with a General Session, and it's always quite a show. They outdid themselves this year. Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO, hosted the event, complete with screens at the center and completely encircling the audience.

(Thanks for Melanie Perry for the 2 photos from the General Session.)

Carl Bass discussed four trends:

Digital Life: More and more, p people rely on digital data for amusement, commerce, communication, education, and socialization. There's a global digital infrastructure supporting this digital life.
Globalization: Globalization is providing cheap labor, outsourcing, and a global supply chain. Intense worldwide competition is the result.
Infrastructure Boom: The physical world needs to catch up with the digital one, requiring infrastructure construction, repair, and development. Emerging economies must build networks and support industrialization. Industrialized countries must invest heavily in their deteriorating roads and networks. The answer is to develop technology for building and sustaining the infrastructure.
Rising Energy Costs: The building boom, among other things, has led to rising energy costs. In addition, industrial activities have contributed to global climate change. Therefore, "green," that is, sustainable growth and develop is key.

How Autodesk Software Fits In
Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski used the 360-degree surrounding screens to provide a glimpse into the new technologies that Autodesk is developing that could provide a solution to the needs arising from the four trends. The show portrayed the development of a new library for a civic center in a city.

Maya (3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering software) was used to design a textured sculpture. The sculpture and other source designers were brought into Revit (architectural design software) to create a model of the building. Robot Millennium (structural engineering software) was used for structural support analysis. The data would be used by the MEP and civil engineering teams to see their design in context.

Then they dumped the data into Navisworks (3D design review software) for collision detection. Navisworks was also used to visualize the final project. Then, they used forthcoming software called Newport for design visualization of the building in context. The concept of building in context was key to the entire project

Then, they poured everything into another software product that showed everyone a real-time fly-through, from outer space down to the building site. A new product called Metropolis was mentioned for building digital 3D cities. The show flew through a detailed model of what seemed to be Washington, D.C., including going underground to look at utility lines (to highlight another new product, Autodesk Utility Design).

Another new product called Mudbox, manipulates models like clay. They showed some new freeform-design features of Revit, and new 3D features in Autodesk Impression, which creates advanced visual styles for architectural models.

The Real Stuff
Then the real point of it all, the classes, began. There were tracks for General Drafting and Design; Civil Engineering; Architecture and Building Design; Education and Training; Facilities Management; Geospatial; MEP Design and Engineering; Manufacturing; Structural Design and Engineering, and more. Classes were 1.5 or 3 hours long; labs, with computers for everyone, were 1.5 hours long.

I was a lab assistant in a lab on Customizing the User Interface. This photo shows half the lab.

I also taught my own class on visual styles in the AutoCAD 3D PowerTrack series. The official name of the class was “Looking Good with Visual Styles: Creating the Look You Want for Your 3D Models.” The 3D PowerTrack series included classes on 3D visualization and solid primitive conceptual design, sophisticated solid model design, editing 3D solids, creating 2D drawings from 3D solids, rendering, and more.

Time to Network
Networking is an important part of AU, and this one was no exception. There were discipline-specific luncheons, parties, and the times between classes. Often the only time when people in the CAD world who live far apart see each other is at AU. People came from 67 countries, according to Autodesk.

I'm the Senior Editor of Inside AutoCAD, a newsletter published by EliResearch. I had lunch with Mike Partenheimer (who writes the Civil Engineering column) and Darren Young (who writes the first AutoCAD article each issue) at Wolfgang Puck's Postrio restaurant at The Venetian.

Later, I met with the architecture writer for Inside AutoCAD, architect Lu Chin.

I also met with two AutoCAD notables that I've been corresponding with for years. Leonid Nemirovsky runs the well-known Better Than Nothing AutoLISP web site and has written and contributed AutoLISP routines for the DVD of my book, AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Bible. I was very glad to meet him for the first time at AU.

Another AutoCAD notable that I met was Melanie Perry. Melanie is active in AUGI, and writes the Mistress of the Dorkness blog, which focuses on AutoCAD and facilities management. Melanie has helped me update chapters of my book, and so I was glad to get to see her in person.

I also met Shaan Hurley at AU. Shaan is Technical Marketing Manager for the Platform Technologies Division which includes AutoCAD. He's also the Worldwide MyFeedback Program Manager for all Autodesk products and betas. Therefore, he's the master of the AutoCAD beta scene. Shaan and I have known each other, mostly through e-mail, but also at various AUs, for several years.

He always has a camera in his hand!

Time to Trade
The trade fair had over 130 booths of companies who exhibited or sponsored, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Océ, Intel, ATI, AUGI (Autodesk User Groups International), and many more. There was a lot to see and many new products — both software and hardware — to learn about. I'm hoping to win the HP workstation that HP was giving away!

Well Worth the Time
AU is always chock-full of useful knowledge and people. I met so many AutoCAD gurus. If you're looking to further your career in CAD, it's a great place to be. Next year's dates are December 2-5, 2008. By next summer, you'll be able to register at Autodesk's Web site.

Web Seminar on ""Essential Strategies for Upgrading to AutoCAD 2008" is a success

AutoCAD 2008 is here!

AutoCAD 2008, the latest version of AutoCAD, was sent out in March. As I've done for several years, I describe the new features so you can see if they'll be helpful to you. This year, the emphasis is solidly in the 2D arena.

The Dashboard, introduced in 2007 for the 3D environment, has been expanded to provide lots of 2D tools. In fact, the default workspace doesn't even show the Draw and Modify toolbars. That's a little unnerving, and you may want to display them again, but give the Dashboard a try. It's very useful for settings. Each section is called a control panel. Right-click the Dashboard and choose Control Panel to see a menu of all of them and choose the ones you want to see (or don't want to see). You can also customize the Dashboard using the CUI command. Here you see the default workspace with the Dashboard.

The new Dashboard tools go along with a new workspace, 2D Drafting & Annotation, which is the new default.

Conclusion: I use the Dashboard a lot. It doesn't work well to replace the Draw or Modify toolbars or drop-down lists that need to be horizontal, such as the Layer Control drop-down (especially if your layer names are long). But for almost everything else, it's great. If you customize it, you should be able to make it almost perfect.

Do you plot objects in multiple viewports at more than one scale? Do those objects contain text, dimensions, or other objects that you want to remain the same size throughout those viewports? If so, then annotation objects are for you. Annotation objects can include single- and multi-line text, dimensions, tolerances, leaders, the new multileaders, hatches, blocks, and attributes.

First, you give the object an annotative property. You either do that when you're creating the object (single-line text, tolerances, leaders, hatches, blocks, and attributes) or when you're creating a style for that object (multi-line text, dimensions, and multileaders). Then you assign each object one or more annotation scales. Finally, you create viewports at those annotation scales and the objects scale inversely, so they remain the size you specified.

Here you see two viewports at different scales. Notice how the dimension and leader text remains the same size.

Conclusion: This feature has a bit of a learning curve, but is very powerful. Many people have been adding dimensions and text in paper space, but that doesn't work for hatches or blocks.

If you sometimes want to emphasize an object in one viewport by changing its color, you can now do so easily using layer overrides. When you open the Layer Properties Manager from model space in a layout, the dialog box includes 4 new columns where you can set color, linetype, lineweight, and plot style for the active viewport.

Conclusion: Working with layers is easier. Customizing individual viewport views is now a simple task. Previously, you would have created a plot style to do this, or multiple layers to freeze and thaw in each viewport.

A new Paragraph dialog box lest you specify tabs, indents, alignment, spacing, line spacing and columns. You can create columned text. Spell checking doesn't require a misspelled or selected word and you have more control over where and what you check.

You can directly link to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet data. The data in the AutoCAD table changes when the Excel spreadsheet changes and vice versa.

You can extract all sorts of object data from any object. They categories of data you can extract are geometric, file-related, 3D, and property (color, layer, etc.). This is not only a table feature, because you can save the data to an external file (XLS, CSV, MDB, or TXT).

You can save cell styles and other formatting for borders and margins is more flexible. You can auto-fill incremental data like you can in Excel. You can wrap tables across multiple columnar sections to fit them into tight spaces.

Conclusion: The new data extraction and external linking features are very powerful. Much easier than the external database feature, if your data is in Excel.

You can break dimension or extension lines where they cross objects; if you move those other objects, the dimension adjusts accordingly. You can evenly space dimensions. You can dimension an arc past its endpoints. You can place the text for angular dimensions outside the angle. A new DIMJOGLINE command creates a job for linear dimensions when your sheet is too small to display the true length. Three's a new Inspection dimension that specifies quality requirements.

New multi-leaders that have more than one arrow (a requested item for a long time) are now a reality. You can create multi-leader styles to control them. You have lots of options; for example, you can place a circle, triangle, or box block at the end and use an attribute to create numbered balloon leaders.

Block attributes can have multiple lines of text and you can use a simplified Mtext Editor to format them.

You can attach V8 DGN (Microstation) drawings. You can create inverse clips of xrefs or blocks (showing everything outside an area as opposed to everything inside an area). You can also import DGN files and export to DGN format.

Yes, there are a few new 3D features. You can specify lights using real-world parameters, such as candela, lumen, or lux; also you can choose light colors such as fluorescent, incandescent, and more. You can do some fine-tuning to get more realistic results with texture maps.

The new RECOVERALL command lets you use the Recover feature to select not only a corrupted drawing but its xrefs.

The New InfoCenter incorporates the Communication Center. It includes RSS feeds (add my feed!) and a handy search box for Help.

New syllabus and test bank for AutoCAD instructors

Go to http://he-cda.wiley.com/WileyCDA/HigherEdTitle/productCd-0471788864.html. (Alternatively, go to www.wiley.com/college and do a search for AutoCAD).
On the right hand side of the book's title page is a box for instructors. Click on the link that says, "Go to the Instructor Companion Site."
You will be brought to a page that asks you to Login to your Wiley account. If you already have a Wiley instructor account, please login using your username and password. If you do not, click the "Please sign up" button.
A new page will appear. Enter your instructor type (training, high school, college).
You will then need to fill out all of your information--state, school, name, etc.
Once you fill out your information, the request is sent to your college or school sales representative, who needs to approve your access to the site. This process usually takes 24 hours. You will then be sent an email that lets you know that you are approved.
You will then be able to use your username and password to access the instructor materials. Follow the above instructions to access the page materials.

If you are a college instructor and would like to get in contact with your sales representative directly, go to www.wiley.com/college/rep to look up the contact information. You can also call or email your rep if you experience any difficulties.

Note that the reason for this process is to keep all instructor materials safely password protected. Since many of the Wiley sites contain materials that instructors use for testing purposes in the classroom, the publisher wants to make sure that students can't get access to these materials.

AutoCAD 2007 new features

As you may have heard, the emphasis is on 3D, although I'll describe the other new features at the end.

Along with the new 3D features comes a new 3D environment. You'll wonder if you're still in AutoCAD!

When you first open AutoCAD, you see a screen that lets you choose which workspace you want to use. The workspaces include AutoCAD Classic, the one you're familiar with, and 3D Modeling.