DOTSOFT.

COM AutoCAD 2005 Preview

Introduction AutoCAD 2005 Preview (02-17-04) Welcome to our preview of the next version of AutoCAD, Version 2005, due to ship on March 22nd, 2004. Our first observation is the apparent shortening of time between releases. AutoCAD 2005 comes along exactly one year and 5 days after 2004. Historically new releases were roughly 18 months apart. File Format: We're happy to announce that the drawing file format did not change with this release. The default file format is 2004 format and it has the ability to save back to a 2000 format file. Object Creation/Editing Tables: Long on the wishlist for AutoCAD has been the ability to create tables inside the drawing. They have finally been implemented and they did a good job.

Blocks: An interesting feature is the ability to insert blocks into a cell. You can scale (or autosize) & rotate, but you can't have text and an block in a single cell. Editing: A good collection of editing tools are available for after a table has been created. You can simply double click in a table cell to begin editing it in place. Included are tools to change cell alignment, borders, match cells, insert/delete rows/cols, size cols/rows equally, merge cells, etc. Grip editing of table features works well, with abilities like column sizing, etc. You can also establish table styles for consistent appearance in tables. To gain access to the full palette of editing tools, your right click must be set to the 'Shortcut Menus in Drawing Area', bad news for those who still prefer their right mouse button to be the older behavior like the enter key. Export: You can export the contents of a table to a CSV (comma separated values) file with the TABLEEXPORT

command. But there is no table import command. Reverse Tables created in 2005 are proxy objects when opened in previous releases. We were able to explode compatibility: them. In 2004 the geometry became lines & mtext, while in 2000 the lines disappeared and the annotation became text objects. Paste from When using the PASTESPEC command, the Product Entities option now creates a table. If you are Excel: using Windows XP with the latest Microsoft Office, this does a much better job than previous releases but its still not perfect and there is no link to automatically update. On Windows 2000/Office 2000 the results are usable but bear little resemblance to the spreadsheet as all formatting is lost.
Regardless of your system, the best spreadsheet transfer is XL2CAD.

Fields: This interesting addition allows you to create annotations that change. Useful for dates, file names, sheet numbers, etc. Can be embedded in mtext, tables, attributes, etc. Automatically upgrade on regenerations and when you save. Easy to distinguish from standard annotations. Manually update with right click or UPDATEFIELD command.

One of the most useful examples of the fields (as shown in the dialog) is the ability to link properties of objects (such as areas, lengths, etc) to fields. Draworder: After its initial release in R14, the Draworder facility is finally reaching maturity. Assigned order is now static, when you edit an object it temporary comes to the foreground, but returns to its proper place afterwards. For programmers, an API for Draworder is now available.

A new TEXTTOFRONT command simplifies drawing order, and the BHATCH command now provides options including the ability to automatically send the hatching behind the boundary. Hatch Improvements: The ability to trim hatches has been added, a natural extension to the TRIM command. Also, you can now hatch an area that is not perfectly closed, a new fuzz factor option allows successful hatches for gap tolerance. Mtext Improvements: You can now add a background mask on mtext (and dimensions) to hide geometry that would normally pass through it (making it unreadable). Its tied to the object, moves with it, and grows or shrinks with the annotation.

Mtext also has been improved with additional symbols for items like centerline, delta, flow lines, ohm, property line, etc. General Management Sheet Set Manager: A new way to manage complex multi sheet projects. Overview: Organize multiple drawing files into a single sheet set. Tree View: Organize your sheets into logical branches depending on the category it fits into. Details: When you click on a sheet in the tree (or list) you can see numerous details from the file, or a preview bitmap. Title Sheet: Easily create a title sheet with a linked table representing the sheets in the set. Linked: When you renumber sheets, references in the sheet are automatically corrected.

Display Control Layer Improvements: New layer dialog with tree view for filters (old) and groups (new). You can create subgroups and add/remove layer from any group. You can also enter/edit lengthy descriptions for layers. Not quite the layer tree people were asking for.

Maximize Viewports: While in a paper space layout, you can now quickly maximize a viewport to work on the model. After picking the button, the contents of the viewport maximizes the screen, you no longer need to switch to model. You can quickly switch to other viewports with arrow buttons and return to the normal layout by clicking the button again. User Interface Toolpalette Improvements: First introduced in 2004, has been enhanced. Tools by Example: Drag and drop an object (such as text, inserts, dimensions, etc) from the drawing onto the tool palette and create a ready to use tool. The properties (such as layer) of the dragged object determine the default properties for the newly created object. Right clicking on the tool lets you easily change the default properties.

Drawings in Taskbar: Long wished for, implemented in a Microsoft Office fashion with separate buttons on the taskbar. Its on by default and can be controlled with the TASKBAR command. For those who prefer a tab strip like the layout tab implementation, try the free DwgStrip.

Plotting Redesigned Dialog: Shown expanded below. The tabbed dialog introduced in 2000 is gone. The right 1/3 of the dialog can be hidden to simplify its appearance.

Background Plotting: Beneficial for extremely large plot jobs, you can now turn on a toggle to plot in the background while you continue to work on the drawing. Help Facility New Features Workshop: A nice help facility for upgraders. Browse through the new features and get visual briefs on how the functionality works. Several topics contain step-by-step tutorials.

Miscellaneous Some of the little changes worth mentioning. REVCLOUD calligraphy is back. Edittime Express Tool has been implemented. Zoom to selected objects. Relative paths can be used in images. Copy command now defaults to multiple. New MTP (midpoint between two points) osnap. Purge Registered Applications (command line version only). Control Pre-2004 NOD osnap behavior with the OSNAPNODELEGACY variable. Summary Ships on March 22, 2004. See http://www.autodesk.com or your local Autodesk dealer for details.