What to Expect in the Next AutoCAD - Maybe

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Autodesk University) - Autodesks faced a dilemma Thursday morning. How do you show the users what to expect in future releases of AutoCAD and still have some wiggle room in case the features shown don't actually make it into the software? Autodesk's response was to precede the presentation with a legal message as to how what we were about to see may or may not be in the next release--or any release thereafter for that matter. However, you only had to look at the Windows title bar to see "Spago -Beta 2." Spago* is the Autodesk code for the next release of AutoCAD.

To tell us about "future" AutoCAD were AutoCAD product manager Abhi Singh, technical evangelist Lynn Allen and Ashok Gadangi, chief software architect for AutoCAD

Here are some highlights

• Dimensioning in model space. At one time, this was verboten. You had to dimension in paper space or stay after class. Now, it's have it your way. You enter a scale factor and model space will recognize it, too. Dimensions and other annotations will appear at the proper height. You can throw away your CadCARD, says product manager Abhi.
• The dashboard interface contains more 2D commands and can now be customized. You will also be able to customize the layer manager by removing or moving columns. New columns have been added to the Layer Manager that allow you to control layer color by viewport.
• Excel in AutoCAD. OLE not cutting it? "Future" AutoCAD will allow you to bring Excel spreadsheet data in as an AutoCAD object that's linked. Plotting problems with OLE objects will be eliminated. Associativity with Excel will be retained, so if data is changed in Excel, the AutoCAD object will be updated.
• Improved use of Word. Bringing in Word data will retain paragraph spacing and MTEXT can be that can be re-sized to fit in columns. Leader Lines. Look for multisegment leaders. Also, you'll be able to pick multiple leaders and have AutoCAD automatically line them up so they are all left justified.
• A promise of 64 bit and multi-core support "pretty soon." (A hardware vendor on the show floor was more specific. He said he would be very surprised if such support was not in the very next edition of AutoCAD)
• Ashok predicted chips aren't going to run faster, but will add more cores. However, he cautioned against expecting multicore to run applications considerably faster. Applications have to written as mutli-threaded applications. He indicated that Autodesk will be looking for ways to use idle cores.
• Real time rendering is a goal.
• "Future" AutoCAD will contain constraints, such as already found in parametiric software such as symmetric, tangent, parallel, etc.
• Expect macro recording. This has been on the wish lists for SO long (Hey, where's that "listening to customers?" we hear about all the time?)
• Drawing search and compare
• Optional "customer feedback." Some would call this spyware, as it transmits user input to to Autodesk. "If we see a lot of UNDOs, we know we may have a problem." Ostensibly to improve the software but I can see a lot of users turning this option off.

*Spago is one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants, so expect Postrio, Chinois, Lupo, Vert, etc.

Comments

[King TuT]

I thought that new release will allow layer orders so that it will be fixed layers that will appear even if you placed any items over them especially when HATCHING over the fixed layer.

[John Burrill]

dimensioning on the model would be nice, especially if you can pick a face instead of an edge. Still no driving dimensions, huh?

[John Burrill]

2007's hardware requirements kindof floored me when it came to 3D. Is anyone going to be able to make real-time rendering run on a desktop-or are they just talking about flections and fog, like they have in Halo?

[D Dearborn]

Imagine AutoCad and excel working together it only took about 20 years. The only significant improvement in any major Cad program will be total support for multiple cores and all the advantages the additional speed will bring. That will be a huge productivity increase for every user.

[toxicvoxil]

A classical case of too little too late. Just painting more spots on an old cashcow.

[Robert Price]

Do you mean to tell me that I should not be putting dimensions on my 3D models in Model Space? I've been doing that for the last 7 years.

But then I'm not supposed to be able to create 3D models in AutoCAD at least before 2007. One has to do that in Inventor.

[Donovan]

Ralph is right, Postrio is AutoCAD 2007.

http://www.hyperpics.com/cad/AutoCAD/history.asp

[Ralph Grabowski]

> "Real time rendering is a goal."

In a way, that's already in AutoCAD 2007 through the Realistic visual style.

>"Postrio"

It seems to me that Postrio has already been used.