AutoCAD Tips & Tutorials

AutoCAD 2010 new features

AutoCAD 2010 is one of the most exciting releases in years. It offers new features across the board, so that almost everyone will find something valuable.

Initial setup

When you launch AutoCAD for the first time, you see a wizard that asks you some questions about how you use AutoCAD. The result is that AutoCAD sets itself up to better suit your needs. For example, if you indicate that you use AutoCAD for architecture, you'll get architectural units. You can change these settings at any time, of course.

Conclusion: Initial setup is useful for beginners, to help them with some basic setup options.

Menu Browser becomes Application Button and menu

In an update to the ribbon, the menu browser is gone. Instead, when you click the red A (now called the Application Button), the Application menu appears with only file-related commands.

Still need the menu? Set the MENUBAR system variable to 1 to get the old menu bar at the top. Remember that you can customize your user interface with the CUI command, so you can always add toolbars to the ribbon interface. Of course, you can customize the ribbon itself.

Conclusion: Some people will be upset about this, but setting MENUBAR to 1 is a simple solution.

Better PURGE

People have been writing AutoLISP routines for years to get rid of zero-length lines and empty text objects that occasionally populate a drawing and increase its size. Now the PURGE command does this for you.

Conclusion: It's always nice when AutoCAD incorporates processes that everyone needs. Remember that these objects are invisible, so it's a good practice to purge them even if you don't think you have any.

Parametric constraints

The new parametric constraints come in two flavors:

• Geometric constraints control the geometric relationships between objects, or between objects and the coordinate system. For example, you can force objects to be parallel, perpendicular, colinear, coincident, concentric, horizontal, vertical, and more. By using geometric constraints, you add intelligence to your drawing and reduce the possibility for errors. Moreover, when editing, as you modify one object, other objects change automatically to uphold the constraint.
• Dimensional constraints control dimensions. You can add linear, aligned, radial, and diameter constraints. Then you can use the new Parameters Manager palette to change objects. For example, you can change the length of a line by changing its constraint value in the Parameters Manager. Even better, you can create equations that control relationships. If one line's linear parameter is named length1, you can set a second line to be 2*length1. Then, when you change the length of length1, the second line's length automatically changes. Two dimensional constraint types, annotational and dynamic, determine whether the constraints look like regular dimensions and are plotted, or not.

Conclusion: Parameters will change the way you draw in 2D. It will dramatically improve accuracy and save editing time. The use of parameters will become part of best practices for drawing in AutoCAD.

Dynamic block improvements

Parametric constraints also work in dynamic blocks. This feature substantially enhances the value of dynamic blocks. You add the constraints within the Block Editor. Also, you can now test dynamic blocks in the editor, so you don't have to close the editor, test the block, and return to make modifications.

Conclusion: Dynamic blocks, already very powerful, are now even more so. The ability to test them in the Block Editor is a welcome addition.

New REVERSE command

Sometimes you define a complex linetype and apply it to a line or polyline, then realize that it's backward. The REVERSE command lets you reverse the direction of lines, polylines, splines, and helixes.

Conclusion: In the right situation, this can be a time-saver.

New MEASUREGEOM command

The new MEASUREGEOM command combines measurements for distance, radius, angle, area, and volume into options of one command. The Area option can measure curved spaces.

Conclusion: I wanted the ID command here, too, but that didn't happen. The new command makes it easier to measure geometry, without having to remember so many separate commands.

Dimension enhancements

You can turn dimensions into dimensional constraints. You can edit the properties of individual multileader segments and use grips to resize leader text. MLeader styles give you more control over leader connections; for example, you can control vertical attachment. You can scale a block multileader and access text styles from within the Multileader Style dialog box. You can place dimension text below the dimension line. You can control how sub-units (such as inches if you're working in feet or millimeters if you're working in centimeters) display.

Conclusion: These are features that make creating dimensions and multileaders easier. Turning dimensions into constraints will be very useful.

Hatch improvements

Sometimes, you're trying to hatch what you think is a closed area, but get an error because the area is not really closed. It can be hard to find these gaps. Now, when the BHATCH command can't find a closed boundary, it shows you where the error is. The process of finding boundaries has been improved as well. Finally, you can grip-edit non-associative hatches to adjust them to new boundaries.

Conclusion: Finding the location of gaps is a real frustration reducer. I didn't think that grip-editing of non-associative hatches was a big deal, but recently a blogger mentioned that this was one of his favorite new features.

Underlay and clipping improvements

You can now underlay PDF files. New commands, ADJUST, ATTACH, and CLIP, now let you work on any type of underlay.

Conclusion: The ability to underlay PDF is a big deal, because so many images are stored in that format. The new commands integrate how you deal with underlays.

3D printing

You can now output to STL format, the format used by 3D printers. If you're not familiar with 3D printing, prepare to be amazed. You can go to http://www.zcorp.com, Z Corporation's Web site, and click Watch Video - Introducing the ZPrinter 650, to see a marketing video of one 3D printer.

In addition, Autodesk has arranged relationships with two 3D printing service bureaus, so you can output your drawings to them. When the model is printed, the bureau ships it to you.

Conclusion: 3D printing is a sci-fi lover's dream; it's so futuristic. Yet it's been around for a few years. 3D printing is still pretty expensive, but it's very exciting. It reminds me of the Replicator on Star Trek!

PDF output

That's right, you can now output drawings as PDF files. You can even control certain features, like layer visibility.

Conclusion: This will make many users very happy. It's been a user request for years.

New mesh solids

Mesh solids are made up of tessellated files -- basically faces bounded by edges. Because you can individually move, scale, stretch, and rotate the faces, edges, and vertices, you can create organic models that are much more fluid and interesting than the smooth solids of previous releases. You can also smooth the models to round them. You can convert meshes to smooth solids and vice versa.

The source for mesh modeling is advanced modeling programs like 3D Studio Max and Maya.

Conclusion: Meshes are a major overhaul for 3D modeling and make AutoCAD a much more capable modeler.

Sheet set enhancements

You can create a sheet list table for subsets and individual sheets. It's easier to specify which sheets are or are not published.

Conclusion: Again, I thought these features were minor, but sheet set users are very happy about them.

Custom contextual ribbon tab states

You can create ribbon tab states that control the display of tabs and panels based on the active command or the type of object selected. Even without customization, some ribbon tabs are contextual. For example, if you select a bitmap (raster) image, an Image tab appears with tools related to editing images.

Conclusion: The contextual tabs make the ribbon more user-friendly.

Easier 3D editing

AutoCAD has a new 3D Scale tool, called a gizmo. There are now 3 gizmos: Move, Rotate, and Scale. The Move gizmo has longer axes. You can easily switch among the gizmos and choose which appears when you click on an editable object. New sub-object filters make it easier to select faces, edges, and vertices. You can use the UNION, SUBTRACT, and INTERFERE commands on surfaces. REVSURF, EDGESURF, TABSURF, and RULESURF create meshes by default, rather than the older smooth surfaces and solids.

Conclusion: Put together, these changes make 3D editing much easier.

Minor new features

There are many minor new features. Here are some of them. Maybe one is a big deal for you:

• The Action Recorder has been enhanced with a new Action Macro Manager and the ability to create base points at specific locations in a macro
• The Quick Access toolbar's right-click menu lets you more easily customize that toolbar
• AutoCAD 2010 uses a new file format. If you work with more than one release or collaborate with others, this can be an issue.
• When a drawing is opened with an unresolved xref, AutoCAD tries to find the missing file
• When you find and replace text, there's a Zoom button to zoom in to the text object.
• Multi-line objects can now be 256K, up from 32K.

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