AutoCADder

Now, after a 3 month experience, I can express my feelings about the enhanced user interface in AutoCAD 2009 - the Ribbon. Almost all users I manage have similar experience (although there are some fans of the Ribbon in our office).

Simply I do not like it. It is not hatred but I still have not learned to live with it. I must admit it is much better than the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007. It is customizable, it can take up much less space it first of all it can be switched off. But I still cannot find commands that I was able to locate before with closed eyes, I miss the status information (colors, layers...) when I switch to another ribbon panel, the layer selectbox is squeezed too much, many commands need more clicks than before, etc. etc. I feel dumb and ape-ish. In short - with the Ribbon I am slower in using AutoCAD.

The only combination I can live with is the Ribbon with the old menubar (MENUBAR=1) but it makes little sense. Now I have noticed that also Inventor got the Ribbon interface. Well, this may be somewhat helpful for new users but I am sure it will hurt productivity of many existing users. The user interface is nicer, yes, and Autodesk marketing succeeded to "sell" this new feature as the main bait in AutoCAD 2009 - but all the other enhancements which are more useful for us users are somewhat hidden.

Autodesk may have different results of Ribbon usage derived from the CER data and other automatic reports of AutoCAD usage among customers. But there is IMHO a systematic error hidden in such statistics. The starting point is not the same. With the Ribbon as the default user interface, many users just keep the default setting and just do not bother or do not know that they can switch back to the classic menus.

Labels: AutoCAD 2009, ribbon

Autodesk has announced the new version of its flagship product - AutoCAD 2009. It is clear that Autodesk's main focus is on the development of its 3D applications like Inventor, Revit or Civil 3D. AutoCAD 2009 seems to be one of the minor upgrades although the visible changes are major.

AutoCAD 2009 is the version where the long and well known pull-down menus are no longer the primary user interface. The main UI component is now the Ribbon - the new Microsoft standard introduced in Office 2007. In AutoCAD terms, the Ribbon is generally a Dashboard in horizontal layout - but much more flexible (I like the dynamic extensible tooltips) and easily customizable through CUI. Good news for conservative users - it is possible to switch to the old pull-down menu system.

There are several new functions but most of the new functionality are polished functions from the older versions. The "bubble" functionality mentioned earlier is called "Quick properties". It can be a real time saver. The status bar now uses icons (instead of short texts) which makes more place for status bar tools. Another powerful new function is the "Action recorder" - a macro recorder for simple repetitive tasks. The Layer Manager dialog is now modeless - can stay displayed. There is new functionality for navigating drawings, layouts and views. Especially the visual drawing navigation seems to be very user-friendly.

The DGN file format support now comprises DGN V7 (older DGN format). The new XPS-based DWFx format is now on the same level as the old DWF format - so you can use it for publishing, markup underlay, etc. Remember that you need no viewer for DWFx files - they are supported natively in Windows Vista and Windows XP with .NET Framwork 3.5.

All new AutoCAD applications will use common navigation tools - the SteeringWheel (2D tool for interactive zoom/pan) and ViewCube (3D tool for orbiting and view setting).

On the system level, AutoCAD 2009 is now Vista-certified and there will be localized native 64-bit versions. The IPV6 LAN protocoll is now supported. Windows 2000 is no longer supported. DWG file format remains the same (DWG2007).

More information about AutoCAD 2009 on the Between the Lines blog.

Labels: AutoCAD 2009, ribbon