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I started to use AutoCAD in circa 1997. I learned with AutoCAD R14 that time. 17 years later, certainly we see many new features has been added to AutoCAD.
Autodesk releases new version on annual basis now. The latest version is AutoCAD 2015. There’s always new features and enhancements in each release. Many of those new features can help you to be more productive. Unfortunately, many AutoCAD users don’t want to learn the new features. Many of us feel too busy to try implementing the new features. It can interrupt our current work and sometimes it requires us to change our workflow. Sometimes we just hate the new features.
It’s common to see how veteran AutoCAD users try to change AutoCAD to looks and feels like older version.
It’s true that not everyone find the new features are useful. But you need to know it before you decided not to use it. Or even hate it. I gave one day “what’s new in AutoCAD” workshop several times. Many AutoCAD users in my country don’t even know about the new features. They always find some new features can help in such classes.
Knowing new features is not only will help you when you use the feature. But it will help you to avoid confusion. I often see AutoCAD users think it’s an error or a bug, but it’s actually a new feature or changes in system variables.
Let’s try to spend some time to explore new features in AutoCAD. And not just in the latest version. Try to check them in the last several releases if you skip them.
AutoCAD what’s new resources
You can find new features listed in AutoCAD help file. But I recommend you to use these resources to learn about the new features.
Lynn Allen’s tips and tricks booklet
Lynn Allen published AutoCAD tips and tricks booklet for each AutoCAD release for years. It’s the most popular resource to learn the new features for years. If you want to find the booklet for older release, R K McSwain listed them from AutoCAD 2005 to current in CAD Panacea here.
Our AutoCAD what’s new for veteran users
We also listed new key features added to AutoCAD here. I listed new features that frequently asked by AutoCAD users from several last releases.
Discuss the topic
Now let’s discuss about the topic.
What is your first AutoCAD version? And what version are you using now?
Do you find new features that you find useful, since the first time you use AutoCAD? How do you find that the new features help you? And do you find new features that you don’t like?
How do you learn about the new features? Do you always learn new features in new releases?
Do you have a regular in-house training in your company? Does your reseller provide it for you?
Hi All!
If Window 94 remained a mystery to me for a long time (…), thanks to Window 98 that eventualy gave me the opportunity to start and understand how these things (computers) were thinking!! Meanwhile a good old friend of mine, a naval architect, started to learn using AutoCad (14?) and what he already did amazed me!
It took me a while thought before being able to join two lines (you know. these ortho mode & object snap things!…) but after hours and hours of patient investigationgs (tutorials, well…) I got somewhere!
To cut the story short, one day while conceiving & drawing the ‘GA’ of a yacht I realised that 2D was of great help but that something was still missing. So I slowly started investigating the 3D world offered by AutoCad (2012).
In this process I came to the conclusions that 1) 3D was very useful (if not a must) to better visualize your work (and figure out inevitable discrepancies) and 2) it’s not more time consuming to materialize your thoughts directly in 3D rather than 2D!!…
I also learned that a drastic precision .was a necessity, no approximation allowed (as a moto, 2 lines join on one contact point and one only)!!!
Should I add that I use AutoCad mainly as a hobby but would’t mind to test my skills in the real word!!
Nice WE to All!!
I’ve used AutoCAD since version 2.15 in about 1985. I found it on an IBM AT the engineering firm I worked for had just bought. they didn’t know they had it. So, I took the time to learn it and convinced the owners to quit leasing the use of some civil engineering program and paying for file storage fees. That was in the DOS days, no extend/trim, no undo/redo, no xrefs, etc.
i like autocad.
I actually need free autocad sofware because I am a Student
Tarnue,
You can get education license for free by registering here: http://www.autodesk.com/education/home
I think that AutoCAD is all things to all people, and it can do a heck of a lot. However, not every one uses all of it. I know that I do not use it all. I think may be 5% of its capabilities and I do not think that I am not alone. My field of mechanical building systems is a very large field and for the mega projects, the usage factor will be than 5%, but I think that there is more users outside of the mega projects. The residential housing market uses AutoCAD as does commercial building developers. Architects are getting more into 3d because of the visual aspect of their business, but the drawings that are used to build from are all 2d at a printed scale of 1/8″ = 1′-0″ and 1/4″=1′-0″. Mechanical, Electrical and Fire Sprinkler cad people don’t use dimensioning as much as they use annotation to note sizes and identify system components. The productive ones will use a snap setting of 1″ or 25 mm and ignore all the snap override settings of endpoint, midpoint, etc. because every thing is on the snap and the computer systems are so fast, you can zoom in and zoom out seamlessly. Mechanical components are generally graphic entities of nominal sizes shown relative to building components with a tolerance of plus or minus 6″. Users who do not set the precision setting to 0 for both metric and imperial don’t know what they are doing. They are using AutoCAD as hand trowel where all they really need is a shovel. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of AutoCAD and you can do amazing things with it. For instance. Have you seen the AutoCAD sample drawing of the solar system where you can find and read the plaque the Americans left on the moon? Now, do you honestly believe that kind of precision is necessary 100% of the time. It can be a microscope when needed, but it can also be a close look with the naked eye. It depends on how you use. it.
I started pre release 9 and we upgraded all the way up to 2004 (less R11). We were (and I still am) doing plumbing and hvac systems for buildings. We looked at the AutoCAD Mechanical when it come out but it looked very inefficient compared to what we were doing.
For instance, they had 12 different blocks for the same diffuser for the various different standard ways you could view a floor plan.
We did find that each version became faster and not just because of the faster computers that were coming out. Our office system (menu driven), used standard AutoCAD “core commands” that never really changed, only expanded upon with added features which we could easily integrate into our system. Model Space – Layout Space (paperspace was a dirty word at that time) was not an issue as we doing almost the same thing with layer management. We didn’t do 3D and none of our clients did 3D. I never really had the opportunity to work with anything over 2004. We worked for Architects and even though some did not upgrade, some others would and being current was an edge over engineering firms that did not upgrade. New features like associative dimensioning didn’t do anything for us as we didn’t dimension so much as annotate duct sizes and equipment. It is still the same today except for Revit.
We did use digitizers with a 3 button puck but we all but phased the out when software for showing the tablet menu on monitor came along and you did not have to constantly look up and down to do things.
You have to remember, a shovel is still a shovel, plain steel or silver plated, and both can still dig the same hole.
I don’t think shovel is a good comparison to AutoCAD :)
But I agree, not everyone need to use the new features. AutoCAD is a general CAD software, some features are useful for some but not for other users.
However, I still encourage people to learn new features. If it helps, use it. If it doesn’t, at least you can avoid “problems”.
I see many people think parametric constraints and annotation scaling as a “bug”. But we know they’re not.
I started with AutoCAD release 9, prior to that I used an old main frame driven CADD system called MEDUSA by PRIME Computer. Wikipedia has a good write up on PRIME and Medusa if anyone is interested, Ford even used Medusa in the 1980’s for car body design and finite element analysis.
When we started using AutoCAD R9, we had to convert all of our Medusa drawings to AutoCAD. There was a company at the time that would take the files (which we had backed up on big reels of tape) and convert them to DXF. I wrote LISP routines and Script files to batch process the drawings at night to convert them to DWG files. The routines would also do a lot of other cleanup to the files to meet our standards.
I am a mechanical/structural designer at a nuclear power plant and I am also the AutoCAD go to person. I have done all of our customizations and I do all of the installations.
So now we are using 2014. I have seen a lot of changes since R9 especially with 3D and solid modeling.
A lot of changes in the area of customization (.MNU files vs .CUI files).
Anyone out there ever use the tablet menu with the 4 button pucks? Those were fun :-)
Circa 80 I was still in kindergarten! It’s good to have you here Don.
How about writing some tips to our readers? People will surely love to know your experience.
Using Acad since 1988, although not regularly until 1998 (Version 2.61, if my memory serves me), came on 4-51/4″ floppy disks – Low density (360K bytes each). Pre-GUI – required that you had to read and type. I still have the disks for some reason. I do enjoy using the current versions much more – I now work mainly with Civil 3D.
Hi everyone,
I started working with Autocad in its version 12, still in DOS. At that time I was still in the college of architecture.
The next version I used was 14, already in the windows, at that time I was working in a project office.
After that, I jumped to version 2002.
Since then I have tried to follow each new version, but skipped one or other.
I usually customize my CAD and do not always have time to redo any customization in the new version.
The last version I customized was the 2009. From there I used the plain version.
One of the new features I liked the most was the dynamic block and the one I never used was the annotative.
Thanks!
Hi everyone,
I started working with Autocad in its version 12, still in DOS. At that time I was still in the college of architecture.
The next version I used was 14, already in the windows, at that time I was working in a project office.
After that, I jumped to version 2002.
Since then I have tried to follow each new version, but skipped one or other.
I usually customize my CAD and do not always have time to redo any customization in the new version.
The last version I customized was the 2009. From there I used the plain version.
One of the new features I liked the most was the dynamic block and the one I never used was the annotative.