AutoCADder

I admit, I like to experiment. So I was happy to test AutoCAD and other Autodesk software in the new Windows 7 operating system.

AutoCAD (and even more Inventor) is known to be rather touchy to the version of operating system and even to some OS service packs. You cannot simply upgrade your operating system and rely on that your AutoCAD version will keep to be compatible. It probably won't.

As our company plans to upgrade to Windows 7, the tests have to be done in any case. Better sooner than later to avoid any bad surprises. So I have used the German version of Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit) and the German versions of AutoCAD 2010, LT 2010, Architecture 2010, Map 3D 2010 and Inventor Professional 2010 (all in 64-bit versions).

The first potential problem could be the installation. But all installations of these applications went smoothly. Then I tested each of the applications in a series of typical functions. I have not tested the performance as I have installed it all on a new PC (HP Z400) so I had no comparison with Vista or WinXP on the same machine.

Here are the results:

• AutoCAD 2010: all worked fine, except not being able to open one password protected drawing
  
• AutoCAD LT 2010: the same as for AutoCAD 2010
  
• AutoCAD Architecture 2010: all worked fine
  
• AutoCAD Map 3D 2010: a sample drawing connected to a MDB database did not work (probably a MDB driver problem)
  
• Inventor 2010: all worked fine (Vault was not tested), except running Excel invoked from an iPart table; then I found an Autodesk fix for that
  

I have also tested AutoCAD 2009 and it worked also well. Autodesk will probably not support officially it but some older versions may also work well in Windows 7. And if not, you can always use the virtual WinXP compatibility box in Windows 7.

So if you have machines capable of running Windows 7 (preferably in the 64-bit version) - i.e. lower specs than for running Vista - and if your peripherals are supported in Windows Vista (Windows 7 use the same drivers), I recommend to switch to Windows 7. AutoCAD and Inventor are not any obstacle to do this.

Labels: 64-bit, AutoCAD 2010, compatibility, Inventor 2010, Windows 7

All Autodesk software of the 2010 family got a facelift. Subscription customers can now download their "Subscription Advantage Pack".

This extension adds several functions to your software. These functions differ from product to product. A small group of commands is added to AutoCAD 2010. Much larger set of functions is added to AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010, Inventor 2010 and Revit 2010. Architecture and Civil software gets an additional tool (a separate Windows application) - ImageModeler. This tool creates 3D CAD data from a set of photographs (previously sold separately).

Subscription Advantage Packs can be downloaded from the Subscription Center. It is worth to do so.

Labels: Subscription Advantage Pack

Project Cooper is a new Windows 2D CAD (or rather CADD - drafting) application by Autodesk. What is special about this application is that it is free.

Cooper is a simple sketching application which can be also controlled through Windows 7 touchscreen. It works with the DWG file format so you can use it as a sketching tool for your AutoCAD, Revit or Inventor projects.

Project Cooper is time bombed (30.4.2010) and is available only in some countries. Project Cooper extends the herd of free CAD tools by Autodesk (Dragonfly, Project Draw).

See Project Cooper

Labels: CAD, DWG, Freewheel, Project Cooper

Do you live within 1,000 miles of the San Francisco Bay Area? And do you have 5Mbps or greater internet bandwidth?

Most of us do not. But if you do, you can test drive the latest versions of AutoCAD 2010, Inventor 2010, Revit 2010 and Maya 2010 without installing. Autodesk now offers trial versions of some of its applications in a "hosted" mode - where clients access the applications in a "terminal", or "thin client" (or "no client") mode. In this mode, you will just use your internet browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox) and AutoCAD simply runs inside this browser.

As the datacenter (server) has to handle multiple resource-hungry CAD applications running at the same time and separate the concurrent users, there are some limitations to this mode of work. You cannot save or upload your drawings and you cannot save any customizations. But for trial versions this is acceptable.

Such configuration may develop in the future to a standard way of working with CAD. So it will be interesting to watch the development of this project.

More information about the "Application Trials Technology" project (codenamed "TWITCH") can be found on Autodesk Labs - Trials.

Labels: Autodesk Labs, trial, twitch

I didn't know that some subtle changes in the shape of the UCS icon tell so much information.

There is a nice overview of all possible shapes of the UCS icon on the CAD Forum blog:



Read more on The many shapes of AutoCAD UCS icons

Labels: AutoCAD, UCS

Autodesk has just released the first Service Pack - or "Update" how it is called now - for AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010. It fixes a quite unusual number of problems including some potentially serious ones, so install it ASAP.

The calculation bug seems to be fixed as well - see ill AutoCAD.

Don't try to install this SP on non-vanilla versions of AutoCAD (Mechanical, Civil...).

(via Between the Lines)

Labels: AutoCAD 2010, SP1, Update 1

The Budweiser blog refers about an updated Xanadu tool "TRANS" that translates drawing texts to another language.
The manual translation is quite standard, although more useful in most situations.
What I like much more is the automatic translation mode of this tool. It integrates AutoCAD with the online tool "Google Translate". This integration is a quick way to automatically translate large portion of drawing texts to another language. You should be able to use it with any language pair supported by Google Translate.

See:
Translate texts in AutoCAD drawings

Labels: AutoCAD, text, translation