By Dennis Collin
It’s now officially summertime here in the UK, although the current gloomy weather would tell us otherwise. It is also that time when a new version of AutoCAD is available to download and install from our Autodesk Access App or Online Account. This post will highlight many of the new features listed.
SAME 2018 ‘DWG’ FORMAT!
The inevitable questions are what new features do I get with this new release, and will it help me save time and become more efficient? AutoCAD 2024 retains a similar look to its previous look, but there are a few little tweaks in places, more on that later. The current DWG format remains at the 2018 version which will be welcome by many offices who just need to view AutoCAD drawings. It is also possible to save back to R14 DWG or R12 DXF if required.
Included in AutoCAD’s new features list is the Activity Insights palette. Activity Insights provides an understanding of the past actions that you or other users have performed on your drawings.
Activity Insights tracks events whenever a drawing file is accessed and edited in AutoCAD. It can also track some events outside AutoCAD such as a file rename or copy operation within Windows Explorer. When a drawing is opened, past events performed in the drawing are read from the Activity Insights database and displayed chronologically in the Activity Insights palette. At the same time, events are being written to the database as you work in the drawing, which keeps the contents of the palette current.
NB: These events are logged even when the Activity Insights palette is closed. With the events being displayed the next time the palette opens.
The new smart block functionality can offer placement suggestions based on where you've placed that block before in the drawing.
The block placement engine learns how the existing block instances are placed in your drawing to infer the next placement of the same block. As you insert a block, the engine gives placement suggestions close to a similar geometry where you've placed that block before.
For example, if you've already placed a plumbing fixture block close to a wall corner, then when inserting another instance of that same block, AutoCAD automatically positions the object as you move it close to a similar corner. As you move the block, the walls highlight, and the position, rotation, and scale of the chair block are adjusted to match the previous block instance. If this is not desired, it is possible to change options via the Ctrl key to switch to other suggestions or move the cursor away from the target area to ignore the current suggestion. To temporarily turn off suggestions when placing a block, use the ‘Shift+W’ or ‘Shift+[‘ shortcuts while inserting or moving your block.
In addition to placement there is also a new smart block replacement facility which will replace specified block references by selecting from a palette of suggested similar blocks.
When selecting block references to replace, AutoCAD scans users block history and suggests similar blocks for you to select from. If it cannot find a suitable replacement a tip will advise adding additional content to the block palette.
AutoCAD 2023 introduced Import and Markup Assist, which use machine learning to identify markups and provide a way to view and insert drawing revisions with less manual effort. This release improves Markup Assist that make it easier to bring markups into your drawing.
Note: To use Markup Assist, ensure that TRACEBACK is enabled, and Markup Assist is also on. users can toggle between Trace Front and Trace Back in the Trace Settings toolbar. While TRACEBACK is enabled, users can toggle Markup Assist on or off.
Once a text markup is selected, some options appear including new Update Existing Text option in the Markup Assist dialog box alongside the previous Insert as Mtext and Insert as Mleader, options present in 2023. Use Update Existing Text to replace or amend existing text within the drawing with text from an imported markup.
The Trace environment is also improved and now includes the new COPYFROMTRACE command and new settings controls on the toolbar. The COPYFROMTRACE command allows users to copy objects from a trace into the drawing. There are also new settings in the settings menu for transparencies for both the trace and the markup.
There are also improvements in how AutoCAD interacts with Autodesk Docs, with improved support and performance when viewing large files. An improved performance with Desktop Connector and opening drawings from the Cloud.
The Start tab is also improved in this release including new options to sort and search recent drawings and Improved navigation for drawings stored on Autodesk Docs. The recent drawings list uses smaller thumbnails to allow for more drawings to display. You can now sort and search the recent drawings in both the grid and list views.
A new file tab menu replaces the older ‘overflow’ pop-out menu. It also provides the ability to switch between drawings, create or open a drawing as well as many other commonly used functions.
AutoCAD 2024 also has a new layout tab menu which allows users to switch between layouts, import a layout from a template as well as publish options.
Other improvement includes speed improvements in performance with the Count and Blocks palettes. A new PDFSHX system variable when this is set. AutoCAD store text objects that use SHX fonts as hidden element when the drawing is exported to a PDF. This makes the text searchable and selectable in the PDF file.
There are also performance improvements in both the 2D and 3D graphics engines, in terms of handling raster images, wipeout elements, layout switching, stability and support for large coordinate systems.
In summary there are quite a few enhancements, to existing commands, like the previous 2023 release I would say it is more a refinement of AutoCAD’s robust existing command set than anything too revolutionary. However, there are certainly enough new or enhanced features which will make many routine tasks easier to warrant deploying and using the new AutoCAD version. Over the coming weeks I will investigate and post about these features in more detail as well as other products within the AEC collection.
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