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As usual, Autodesk released new versions at the beginning of the year. And starts with AutoCAD. Enthusiast AutoCAD users always curious, what’s new in this version?
Let’s explore what’s new in AutoCAD 2020!
Trace
For years, AutoCAD is also available on the web and mobile platforms. It means mobile AutoCAD users dan open drawings and works as long as she has an internet connection. When you get back to your computer, you can continue to work on the AutoCAD desktop. You can do it by saving the file that you are working on on the web.
Because the file is saved on the cloud, you can share and work with other AutoCAD users for collaboration. In AutoCAD 2022, we have a new Trace feature. You can do a markup or review the drawing without interfering with the original drawing. On the Trace palette, you can see the markup, who made it, and when he made it.
It’s quite helpful for team collaboration. However, to enable this feature you need to save it on AutoCAD web & mobile. And you can only create Traces on AutoCAD web or AutoCAD mobile. You can’t do it on the AutoCAD desktop.
Share
In AutoCAD 2022, now you can share your drawing to AutoCAD web and mobile.
You can set if this drawing shared as read-only or your team members can edit it.
Your colleage who received the link can work on the drawing from AutoCAD web & mobile.
Count
We are familiar with BCOUNT or using Data Extraction to count elements, especially blocks. Because this new feature is OOTB, it means AutoCAD LT users now can count blocks quickly!
In version 2022, we can use Count to quickly count the number of blocks.
AutoCAD shows the number of blocks in the Count Palette. The interesting thing here is Count will give a warning when there are overlapping blocks. And it will not count the duplicate!
When I click the warning sign, I can see the details of the warning.
The other capability is we can insert the text field into the drawing.
Push to Autodesk Docs
This feature is already introduced in AutoCAD 2021 using an add-on, and now it becomes a standard feature in AutoCAD 2022.
If you want to know how it works, read about it here: Autodesk Docs Extension for AutoCAD.
Floating Windows
In AutoCAD 2021 or older, we can only see AutoCAD files within AutoCAD only. It is inconvenient if we need to open two files on a separate monitor. The workaround is to open two instances of AutoCAD and put each one on a separate monitor.
With floating windows allows you to tear AutoCAD window from the ribbon and float it. You can move it anywhere outside AutoCAD, event to the second monitor.
Video: What’s New in AutoCAD 2022?
To Sum Up
Share and Trace feature obviously useful for collaboration. Especially during this pandemic, we need tools that can help us to work anywhere. Push to Autodesk Docs is useful for you who collaborate using Autodesk Docs or BIM 360.
The Count feature is my favorite new feature, make it very easy to count blocks.
Floating windows can make working with multiple monitors more convenient.
But which one is your favorite?
Ah! Finally Floating windows arrive. Looking forward to 22 stable release, just a matter of time when our company upgrades.