What’s new in AutoCAD 2015: Drafting and annotation enhancements

We covered about AutoCAD 2015 interface and system enhancements. Let’s continue to the last part: what are new in the drafting and annotations tools?

Lasso Selection

There are many ways to select objects in AutoCAD. We list 10 here. In AutoCAD 2015 we have one more: lasso selection.

To use lasso selection, you can hold the mouse button and drag it.

This selection tool is also have two modes: window and cross selection.

If you first drag it to the right, it will be window selection. Only object inside the selection area will be selected. The selection area color is blue.

Cross selection is activated when you drag it to the left. All objects inside the selection area and objects that touch the boundary will be selected. The selection area color is green.

If you want to turn it off, you can go to AutoCAD options, selection tab.

Annotation enhancements

MTEXT editor has some enhancements in this version. Not major, because we can do stacking and bullet and numbering before. They are more to refinements.

MTEXT enhancements

MTEXT editor has some small enhancements in AutoCAD 2015.

1. The auto stacking is now automatically created, not showing a dialog box anymore. If you want to change the appearance, it shows an icon near the text. You can click it for more options.
   
2. MTEXT editor now has auto bullet and numbering.
3. The text editor now has resizable corner. Previously we can only drag it down or to side. Now you can do both at once.
4. MTEXT editor now has Autocorrect caps lock.

This makes MTEXT more like popular word processing software. If you work with many text in your drawing, you may find them useful.

TEXTALIGN command

AutoCAD has new command: TEXTALIGN. It allows you to align several texts (single or multi line) quickly to a referenced text.

It has options for justification (left, right, middle, etc.) and spacing.

Geographic location

AutoCAD 2014 has the ability to use geographic location. But it was only for defining your project location. You can’t plot it.

Now in AutoCAD 2015, you can capture the image and embed it to your drawing. And you can’t plot it. This would be nice enhancements for surveyors and civil engineers.

What do you think?

There are not many new features in drafting and annotations. The lasso selection and TEXTALIGN are nice. But if you expect to see major changes you will be disappointed.

However, small changes can be better than major changes. If they are exactly what you need. So share with us. Do you like the enhancements?

About Edwin Prakoso

I work as a Solution Consultant in Datech Solutions, Tech Data Indonesia. I've been using AutoCAD since R14 and Revit since Revit Building 9. I occasionally write for AUGIWorld magazine and also active in Autodesk discussion forum.
I'm an Autodesk Certified Professional (ACP) for Revit Architecture and AutoCAD. I'm also a member of Autodesk Expert Elite, appreciation for individuals who give contribution to Autodesk community.
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