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Are you one of those cutting edge designers who waits with baited breath for the next release of AutoCAD? Have you been perusing all the blogs and tweets to get all the latest information on AutoCAD 2015? Well if you want to see AutoCAD 2015 "Lynn Allen" style - be sure to join me on Wednesday for my first AutoCAD 2015 presentation courtesy of Novedge!
Of course articles and videos to come...see you (virtually) there!
AutoCAD 2014 had some big features like improved Geolocation, improved point cloud support with ReCap and Design Feed. My favorite features by far are the lesser known, everyday productivity enhancements that add up to less tedium and faster designs. Cadalyst Magazine recently published my article on Eleven Efficiency Boosters for AutoCAD - if you're on AutoCAD 2014 I highly encourage you to take a look!
 Figure 1. The Layer list on the ribbon now extends the full height of the user's screen. |
The big, shiny new AutoCAD 2014 features may get all the attention, but you and I know that it's often the more subtle enhancements that turn out to be the most valuable. Remove just one step from a process you do all the time, and you'll notice an instant bump in productivity. In this edition of "Circles and Lines," I'll cover some of the less flashy, but still valuable new features inside AutoCAD 2014.
1. Draw arcs clockwise. For as long as I can remember, AutoCAD has preferred to draw arcs counterclockwise. That was the way of the world — and we all just dealt with it! In AutoCAD 2014, changing the direction of an arc is as easy as holding down the Control key.
2. Fillet an open polyline. Have you ever tried to fillet an open polyline to itself? It was impossible — until now! AutoCAD 2014 is more than happy to let you do this, the end result being a single closed polyline.
3. Nicely numbered layers. AutoCAD has also learned to count! You'll find that numbered layer names are now listed in their natural order, such as 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 21, and 25, as opposed to listing them as 1, 10, 2, 21, 25, 4, and 5. And if you're wondering whether there is a system variable to control this feature (for those of you who've already succumbed to AutoCAD's inability to count), I'm afraid not. Maybe that will come in the next release.
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