AutoCADder

Autodesk has recently taken two interesting legal steps trying to protect their IP (and business...). And it seems that both steps can be quite successful.

1) The license agreement for the ObjectARX library (a component for software developers neccessary to make ARX applications for the AutoCAD product family) now explicitly excludes using ObjectARX for developing add-on applications for AutoCAD LT (and DWG TrueView). This is what most LT application developers has done before. Now (AutoCAD LT 2007 and on) Autodesk can lead legal actions against such developers. This will probably mean the end of larger add-on applications for AutoCAD LT.
See ObjectARX license

2) Autodesk has applied for a trade mark on the "DWG" name (AutoCAD drawing file extension). Evan Yares (OpenDWG/Open Design Alliance) reports on this step (I don't share his often paranoic insights of the Autodesk world). Trademarking DWG will probably make end (or tougher life) to the "would-be" DWG-compatible applications and libraries trying to reverse-engineer the Autodesk proprietary DWG file format.
See Autodesk trademarks

CAD Forum publishes an interesting tip on plotting DWG files to PDF without AutoCAD. It is based on using the newly released Autodesk DWG TrueView 2007 viewer which includes also PDF "printer", and of course also the DWF...
So if you do not use AutoCAD and you need to convert a DWG drawing to PDF (or DWF), just download and start DWG TrueView (www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview).
See How to convert a DWG file to PDF without AutoCAD?

As of today, almost all CAD applications of the new 2007-family are released - at least in the main languages. If you are on subscription you have probably already received your AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD LT 2007, AutoCAD Mechanical 2007, AutoCAD Electrical 2007, Architectural Desktop 2007, Autodesk Map 3D 2007, Inventor 11, Revit Building 9, Productstream 5, VIZ 2007.

I have been surprised that the official release dates (important if your subscription contract is just expiring) are very hard to find out.

Despite the fact that the new versions contain lots of very interesting new functions and function enhancements (or are much faster - e.g. Map) it is to be noted that some functionality is also left out compared to previous versions. I am talking about the 3DSOUT and Landscape in AutoCAD 2007 or the DTM/Civil functions in Map 3D 2007. If you depend on these functions, be careful when upgrading...

Another interesting information - Autodesk plans to deliver DGN plugin for AutoCAD 2007 (probably as en extension to subscription customers), so you don't need to wait for AutoCAD 2008.