At first I was worried that Autodesk was just duplicating locations for commands again like when they introduced the Workspaces button on the Quick Access Toolbar… when it was already on the Status Bar? But I am happy to announce I see some true advantages here. So what are the In-Canvas Tools anyways? The New In-Canvas Viewport Controls is a new menu area (sort of speak) with commands that have been around for a while that enable you to change viewport settings, views, and visual styles… But it happens directly on the viewport canvas in Model space or within a Model Viewport in Layout. The thing I like the most is having access all the time without having to click through several Ribbon Tabs or have to Change Workspaces to access some commands.
Viewport Controls
As you can see what just the [+] (“plus sign” is if you have more than 1 Viewport OR a [-] Minus if only single Viewport) covers in a single character that can always be accessible no matter what menu you are in. And the other two Options next to it View Controls and Visual Style Controls offer same type of easy access to their related commands and options.
View Controls
Visual Style Controls
Controlling the display for the in-canvas viewport controls can be done inside the 3D Modeling tab of the Options dialog box, this includes controls for display and you can specify the color of the viewport control in the Drawing Window Colors dialog box, which is accessible from the Display tab of the Options dialog.
So is it “Just another location to an existing command?” Well… It kind of is… but with these duplications they are always available unlike before and they did a great job keeping the screen space used to a minimum.
Both Blocks and Groups are a collection of AutoCAD objects treated as a single object, so how do I determine when to use one over the other? The first thing you have to ask yourself is how you plan on using the objects. The main things to consider are; If you are going to need the set of objects to be (1) Used in multiple drawing (2) Include Attributes (3) Store it on a Tool Palette or Menu (4) Or be able to Search for the content, (like Content Explore… ). Then you want to use a BLOCK… If the set of objects are (1) Just for temporary use (2) Or if you need to have different variations on the set of objects (like similar design layouts…). Then you want to use a GROUP!
So what’s new with Object Groups…
Well Groups have been around since… well, AutoCADosaurus days; but the Groups were kind of underrated and hid deep in the menus like dust under the rug. But in AutoCAD 2012 Group functionality has been streamlined making it easier to use… and is now starring in the HOME Ribbon Tab on its comeback tour…
The Group tool replaces the traditional Object Grouping dialog box with a simple prompt to select objects. You have the option of providing a group name and description. The Ungroup tool ungroups the objects like Explode does for Blocks. You can use the Edit Group tool to add and remove objects or to rename the group. These tools are also available from the right-click menu when a group is selected.
A Group Selection toggle allows you to control whether objects are selected individually or as a group.
Tip: Shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A
Expanding the Group panel provides access to Group Manager dialog box as well as the Group Bound Box, which controls how groups are displayed. When enabled, AutoCAD displays a single grip and a bounding box around the group.
The Purge tool has been updated to support the purging of groups that contain no objects.
So what is the difference? Lots of things… The way they are Created, Stored and Used. But knowing this with help you decide on which is the best one to use and when!
If you haven’t noticed with decline in the economy, only the strongest Companies have been able to thrive in what little construction is going on. How would you define what is a strong company?
It’s simple; it’s the ones that are winning all the work! Yes, I believe the economy will recover in time, as it always has in the past, but can your business survive until the economy has recovered? I wanted to give you some insight into how the firms that are winning the projects are using innovative visualization and presentation tools to win the work. AND the best thing about it is… if you have purchased the Building Design Suite 2012 or Autodesk Design Suite 2012, you already have it sitting on your shelf behind you…It’s called Autodesk® Showcase®.
So, what is Showcase? Autodesk® Showcase® is a real-time 3D presentation and rendering software offers Industry Professionals the ability to quickly and easily create compelling imagery, movies, and real-time presentations from their CAD or BIM models allowing the presenter to show high-value, interactive design reviews, stunning marketing materials, and convincing sales pitches is as simple as a few clicks during the presentation. I encourage you to take a few minutes to just take a look at the video of this amazingly easy presentation tool to help you win more projects and showcase all of you firm’s design talents.
Video Demo
http://youtu.be/ioP0CVRJvUI
Brochure
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/autodesk_showcase_2012_brochure_en.pdf
Earlier this year, I was shocked to learn that Autodesk had removed the Classic Array Command completely in their initial 2012 release of AutoCAD. I thought they knew their AutoCAD customers better than that…? But, I am happy to report that they listened to your feedback and brought back the Classic Array functionality called ARRAYCLASSIC with the Service Pack 1 Release. So for those of you that spoke up, pat yourselves on the back, (perhaps you could show the Wall Street protesters how to get things done faster?) =)
But was it too late down the road? I was surprised that some customers told me that they went back to the prior release because of their workflow (for whatever reason… custom routines not working in the newer version.) Also, they never heard that the older version of the array command was back in 2012. And of course they wouldn’t have got the notification in AutoCAD if they are using an older version. Hint, it’s good to do some research or follow sites that cover your “tool of the trade” just to be on top of things and maybe pick up a few new things along the way.
So I have to conclude that “both sides” are at fault. Technology is growing exponentially, and has the capabilities of spiraling out of control faster than most of us can absorb it, and because of that, I also believe it is slightly being held back because of the human side of things. Anyhow, regardless of who is driving what, the last thing I hate to see is people going backwards. So, I am glad there is a fine line between, and they keep each other in check while moving forward… well at least until they get that EASY BUTTON working!!!
Here’s a link to the Service Packs.
AutoCAD 2012 SP1 http://bit.ly/qYEa3k
AutoCAD LT 2012 SP1 http://bit.ly/otx1KO
Today, I am going to point out how great the New Multifunctional Grips are… imagine a world where all you have to do to edit something is to hover your curser over it and it lists all of the relevant options that are available to you in accordance with “that grip”. You then simply pick from that list! I know… It’s like A la Carte of CAD! And in AutoCAD 2012, the power of multifunctional grips has been extended to more AutoCAD objects, including lines, plines, arcs, elliptical arcs, dimensions, and mleaders, as well as 3D faces, edges, and vertices. Here is a look at some of the relevant options that appear depending on what grip you hover over…
GRIP OPTIONS AND DISPLAYS IN AUTOCAD 2012
Using multifunctional grips with dynamic input turned on allows you to edit the object through the dimensional values. For example, when you choose the Lengthen option for a selected line, dynamic input dimensions for the total length and the incremental length are displayed. Use the Tab key to switch between all of the dynamic values. Similarly, elliptical arcs have been also been updated to support dynamic input at the quadrants and dynamically displays the distances from the center to the quadrants along the major and minor axes. When you click on the grip, you can edit the values. The arrow grips (grips that are displayed as triangular arrows) have also been added to some additional entities as well for quick editing beyond any prior release of AutoCAD or AutoCAD Vertical based Software. So when someone tells you to get a grip in AutoCAD 2012, you will gladly accept!!!
I wanted to make sure I post something (once in a while) to include all of our customers, so this one goes out to our LT users… For a long time now “Full Version AutoCAD Users” have had the luxury of taking advantage of the Sheet Set Manager. The Sheet Set Manager organizes, displays, and manages sheet sets, a named collection of drawing sheets. Each sheet in a sheet set is a layout in a drawing (DWG) file and has made it a lot easier to manage your projects when it comes to knowing what files belong to what projects and the structure of the folders with its handy Sheet Set Manager palette inside of AutoCAD LT. You can use sheet sets in a team that can involve network access, Internet collaboration, and email transmittal. The team can also include people who use software that does not include Sheet Set Manager, but there are some limitations. Remember when working as a team, each member should have network access to the sheet set data (DST) file and the drawing template (DWT) files associated with the sheet set. The SSM (Sheet Set Manager) also displays specific icons to indicate the status of the DST file and the individual Sheets themselves; to let the user know if the file is Available, Locked, or even Missing (or Found in an unexpected folder location). [See the Help file for the different displays and limitations.] But one of the biggest time savers that anybody could take advantage of is when it comes to plotting out the entire project. In the Sheet Set Manager, you can easily publish an entire sheet set, a subset of a sheet set, or a single sheet. And it is quicker to publish a sheet set in the Sheet Set Manager, rather than using the Publish dialog box. Yey! I hate plotting.
SSM Palette
So I guess if you are not ready to make the jump to full version of AutoCAD or its industry specific verticals? You should at least consider moving to the latest 2012 release… because AutoCAD LT 2012 is getting upgrades closer to AutoCAD… but it still has fewer calories.
Lynn and I demonstrate AutoCAD WS
Today I just thought I would tell you some of the highlights of today’s CADsoft Live event… “Make Your Ideas Happen” with Autodesk’s Lynn Allen, Technical Evangelist – AutoCAD 2012 After a brief introduction by Tim Duncan AIA, CADsoft President/CEO, Lynn was off and running. I liked the way she refered to the AutCAD users that still set their newer AutoCAD products back to the AutoCAD Classic mode as rebels. The rebels in the crowd proudly identified themselves. Lynn admitted to being a rebel herself at first, but now with the newer tools, the ribbon has won her over with additional tools in the Ribbon. For example, the new Associative Array command is much easier to control through the Ribbon. So, that is something to consider, especially since the old screen menu has finally been retired; you never know what will be next. I also got to do a live demonstration with Lynn on how the AutoCAD WS works and demonstrate how people in the office can see live updates from team in the field (at the Job Site) using their iPAD, Droid or other smart portable devices… and even comment “This is how you justify to your bosses that they need to buy you an iPAD.” (Everyone got way to excited and happy on that one… well maybe not the bosses.) But, they did see the huge value in it for walk-through’s and change orders at site. She also showed how companies were using the powerful visualization tools like 3ds Max Designs to gain community buy-in to a billion dollar roadway improvement in San Francisco. There were members of the community that Lynn referred to as McMansion owners, aka the Ritchie Riches’ of the area, that wanted to prevent the billion dollar roadway improvements from happening, because of the impact on their community. Once they were able to see what the improvement would look like along the whole stretch of roadway, they voted in favor of the project. After seeing the video, I can see why all of the Mc Mansions owners in the nearby community voted for it! She wrapped up the lecture with a very funny video of how the world is progressing and the importance of thinking outside of the box. After that, I did a quick trivia give-a-way with some nice hard bound designer books highlighting design projects completed with Autodesk solution and everyone got a copy Lynn’s Tips and Tricks for AutoCAD 2012. Whew!!! All that in less than two hours! So if you miss this year’s event with Lynn Allen… you might want to make plans to catch next years, as we do plan on having her back! And if you were able to attend, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
The Nudge Functionality
Moving objects in AutoCAD has always been a must and AutoCAD has always provided different ways to do this by using some type of editing command like Move or Stretch, or by using automated commands like Grip Editing… well Autodesk has now added one more new automated feature called Nudge. The New Nudge functionality is useful when you need to move one or more selected objects in an orthogonal direction. Simply select the objects (highlight) that you want to move and press Ctrl down and then hit the appropriate arrow key in the direction you want them to move. That’s it! However you may want to be able to control how far they get moved, so you need to understand the settings that control distance.
Snap mode affects the distance and direction in which the objects are nudged.
- Nudge objects with Snap mode turned off: Objects move two pixels at a time; movement is relative and orthogonal to the screen, regardless of the view direction or the UCS orientation. That means if you are zoomed in, it will move a shorter distance than if you were zoomed out. Not very accurate way to move objects, so I would recommend using the Snap turned ON method if this is important to you.
- Nudge objects with Snap mode turned on: Objects are moved in increments specified by the current snap spacing; movement is orthogonal to the X and Y axes of the current UCS and relative to the view direction.
So the next time you want to move something just give it a little Nudge.
I know that you have all heard that to can share and edit drawings on your Mobile device (iPOD, Android…) Using AutoCAD WS… But I just wanted to see how many have you actually checked it out? Why? Because I was one of them… I was stuck it the realm of “I’m just used to doing things the way I have always been doing them, and anything new was just… witchcraftary!” But mostly because I did not understand what it could do for me; Why? Because I never tried it… and even if I don’t need the tools it has to offer it’s just nice to know that they are and that they are at my disposal for free… So I tried it!
It’s kind of like calamari, lots of people love it; and lots have no desire for it… But how was I to know what all the hype was until I tried it? (…and know for a fact that it tastes like a rubber tire.) But the good was… I now knew what it was about and what it had to offer me. Well I’m here to tell you that AutoCAD WS is NOT a rubber tire… I just got a new phone (Droid) and it installed in minutes… let me create a login seconds and was able to view one of the sample drawings for me to test it out…( just in case all of the rest of my friends were still in AutoCAD File sharing and denial like I was).
Let me tell you it was very easy to use, easy to navigate, and even tried a few of their Drawing and Modifying tools, Panning and Zooming at my fingertips was amazing, and crystal clear as my monitor at work and I would say it was even fun. The only thing that I did not like about it, was that the help file was a little hard to read so I zoomed up on the text and it would not let you pan side to side so the need to work on that, at least for the Droid apps. (I tried it on two different types of droids, same on both.) But over all I think that it was very educational and I could see how it would be a MUST HAVE for anyone that goes out to the job site and then needs to reference the plans or relay actual drawing information back to their design team. I love AutoCAD WS! …Calamari, not so much!
… Another Great Added feature In AutoCAD 2012! In the new release, you can save time and maintain a set of relationships between arrayed objects from windows on the exterior of a building to columns or trusses in a bridge. In addition to Rectangular and Polar, the array command now has the capability to array along a selected path and have the objects maintain a dynamic association with the path object.
While creating the array in the new contextual ribbon; AutoCAD gives greater control and displays a preview and you can easily edit the array properties during creation or after using grips or the properties palette or right-click shortcut menus.
You can maintain the association of the array or relax the selection and edit each individual component, and even reset them back if you choose to do so.
With these new features in the AutoCAD 2012, the array will greatly improve your productivity!
Remember to keep checking our blogs, CADsoft emails on upcoming events or follow me on twitter, for more great new features in AutoCAD 2012…
2012, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, New Features, Tips & Tricks, User Interface | Isaac Harper | 
January 17, 2012 9:22 am | 
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