Monday, April 12, 2010

AutoCAD 2011 - Drawing Tool Changes

100329_2011
  1. Parametric Constraints
  2. Geometric Constraints
  3. Dimensional Constraints
  4. Transparency
  5. Hatches and Gradients
  6. Polylines
  7. Splines
  8. External References
  9. Scale Lists
  10. Missing SHX and Font Files
  11. Text Alignment in Linetypes


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Parametric, Geometric and Dimensional Constraints
I've always been huge fan of geometric and dimensional constraints, not through the usual route of having worked on highly parametric mechanical drafting software Inventor, Pro-Engineer, Mechanical Desktop et al, but simply from the amount of drawing tidy I've done in the passed.

Ooh, I wish it had been available back then, especially with the additional functionality of the inferred geometric constraint tool. Damn that's cool.

Autodesk is making a medium sized whoop about the added functionality to the parameters tools, particularly the filters, however, I'm still to be impressed.

Hatches and Gradients
You have to be happy with new Hatch ribbon, I love the background fill, I love the scaling options. I know the grip editing features have not really been changed since 2010 but I like it so much I'm going to mention it again.

But now for the gripes, firstly I always launch the hatch dialog from the command line, h [ret] used to be all I needed, now I need to do h [ret] t [ret], if i wanted command line options I was happy to simply -h [ret]. Also, another boo hoo, why does my hatch [ret] select [ret] last [ret] not work but hatch [ret] select [ret] previous [ret] does?

MIRRHATCH system variable is fine, I guess.

Polyines
Although most of the new polyline edit tools are great additions, AutoCAD simply isn't as good as Microstation, and even with the additional tools it only makes the user want more. Clicking on an arc segment to stretch is great but it only leaves you wanting more control especially with sizing and tangent conditions. (And yes I know I could be using geometric constraints to alleviate these issues, but I'm lazy)

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