Topic: AutoCAD 2009

[BazzaCAD]

Are you using Vista or the Zune desktop theme on XP?

No this all runs & looks like this in standard XP, no special themes.

[KewlToyZ]

Thanks for your detailed responses sir!
I truly appreciate your time and efforts to give us some feedback!
I realize this is an RC candidate.
But just looking at the interface changes it looks like they went for eye candy and unfamiliarity over fixing the open failures of 2008 still pending for me on the subscription center.
I don't need more resource hungry interfaces, I need libraries, managment tools, and algortihms fixed and I know I'm not alone in this.

Reference Manager needs to be a full implementation in the interface, or at least let me copy and paste paths and file names for quick fixes in pathing structures. Currently it just sits as dead space to haunt me with the added labor of writing around those failures.
Also currently Reference Manager crashes 80% of the time it really is necessary!
Hell even API updates that let me set all references to Attached or Overlay without trying to come up with some halfway hacked approach to do it.
The XREF management needs more refinement, the AEC libraries need a ton opf refinement for legacy 2005-2009 libraries to read properly.
Tables need fixed for block handling...
I got a huge list of major API flaws, and I doubt they are getting the attention they needed with so much attention on short eye candy sales hooplah.

[Mark]

Thanks for your detailed responses sir!
I truly appreciate your time and efforts to give us some feedback!

You can say that again!

[SDETERS]

I see many updates to interface with new ribbon.  Some nice some  so not so nice.

What I would like to know did Autodesk do anything with the program to be able to take full advantage of the Dual and or Quad Core cpu's that most people are using these days?  What about running on Windows xp64? 

Thanks

[MP]

My first reaction when I saw the new interface was a real estate related scenario --

"Damn, we can't sell this house, it's just like all the others. It'll never move."

<Horshack>

"I know! I know!"

"Put up new drapes!"

Subtitle: Structurally speaking I'm guessing there's no great improvements, acknowledging my cynicism up front.

[Krushert]

Have they done anything with the PDF plotting driver?  100% of my work is plotted to PDFs and 2008's PDF qualtity blows hard.  I have to agree with Josh.  If they want thier money they have to help us out with the final product (AKA white paper). 

No nothing new with the PDF driver
Stick with AcroPlot.
They thought you'd prefer having DGN7 export or DWFx (so that all your Vista users wouldn't have to download DR)

It has got nothing to do with me. 
PDFs is what my clients want, PDFs is what the Code Enforcement want.  PDFs is what the contractors want.  and others firms that I have talk to have seen an increase with usage of Pdfs.  MY fancy new scanners scans to PDFs,  PDFs to the world are what DWGs are to the CAD world.

The project that I am working on has crews coming in from all over the U.S.  and Canada to work it.  My PDFs are going to head offices in New York, Texas, Canada (it is all one big state  ) and Washington State and then back to the crews here Portland Maine.   

It is Ironic that Autodesk has not learn from itself being king of the hill.  I have hard time with AcroPlot becuase of managing of third party apps.

[Josh Nieman]

I'm convinced that Autodesk does not have enough "field" or "real world experienced" programmers/testers/advisors... all their upgrades, changes, revisions, additions have absolutely nothing to do with actually creating documents better, but rather is all about improving what stays in the office.  It's all about visualization, drawing it faster/better, or the UI... it's all the stuff that stays IN the computer! 

I should NOT have to make an INACCURATE or BOTCHED model, to FOOL Autocad into displaying it correctly upon plot.  I should be able to have my structural model drawn ACCURATELY, with all appropriate shapes, features, hardware, etc, to be able to see clearances, fits, etc, and then a HIDDEN view should be HIDDEN!  NOT showing a hundred tangential lines that NO drafter would ever CONSIDER showing!  Who draws the extents of a fillet?!  NO ONE!!  That's DRAFTING-FREAKING-101, people!!  I learned that when I was 15 freakin' years old!!!  So if I am showing a rounded plate in profile, rather than plan, I have to make sure that it's SQUARE, for example, to ensure no unneeded lines are displayed.

I have to create an IMPROPER MODEL that is -WRONG- just to make sure the printout is RIGHT!  THAT'S DISGUSTING!

And it's been like this as long as I can remember and still remains.  Their new Visual Styles are EVEN WORSE!  They ignore all STB/CTB settings, COMPLETELY!!  WHAT THE #*$( IS THAT ALL ABOUT!?>!?>!??!

grrrr

[Josh Nieman]

I'm sorry, that was a rather one sided vent... I should really offer the benefits of their 'features'


...it looks purdy on screen... sometimes...

[deegeecees]

I should NOT have to make an INACCURATE or BOTCHED model, to FOOL Autocad into displaying it correctly upon plot.  I should be able to have my structural model drawn ACCURATELY, with all appropriate shapes, features, hardware, etc, to be able to see clearances, fits, etc, and...

Maybe you should look into ProE.

[Josh Nieman]

That's one major platform I've not had any experience with.  I doubt it'll work well in an AEC/structural/civil environment, though.  Seems that ProE is more of a mechanical/machine design tool?  Not sure... just know that is where I see it more commonly mentioned.

Besides, Autocad is awesome, and no software will EVER be 100% satisfactory when a user gets as intimately acquainted with it as most of us are with our products.  This is just one of the big ones that ticks me off.

[deegeecees]

Yes ProE is more mechanically oriented, but I was just making a point. There are some extremely good modeling apps out there, and ProE is one of them. You don't have to trick it to show the model properly.

[Krushert]

........
I'm shuddering at the thought of another pig with lipstick for twice the ram of the current 2 GB.

So true
 

[BazzaCAD]

I have hard time with AcroPlot becuase of managing of third party apps.

Do you mean the 3rd. party apps. are keeping AcroPlot from running properly?
I know what you mean. When AcroPlot launches it starts up in the last profile Acad was in.
So what we do is create a .bat file that launches Acad with a non production profile with the apps. unloaded & a script to exit Acad.
Then it launches AcroPlot after that, so AcroPlot uses the new profile.
Then a short-cut to the .bat file is placed on everyones desktop.

It looks something like this:
BAT

Code: [Select]

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2008\acad.exe" /p "\\server\path\AcroPlot.arg" /b "\\server\path\quit.scr"
"C:\Program Files\AcroPlot\AcroPlot.exe"
SCR

Code: [Select]

quit y

[KewlToyZ]

I see many updates to interface with new ribbon.  Some nice some  so not so nice.

What I would like to know did Autodesk do anything with the program to be able to take full advantage of the Dual and or Quad Core cpu's that most people are using these days?  What about running on Windows xp64? 

Thanks

Now that is the million dollar question.
Default shaders, rendering engines, XREF analysis & management, Audits, anything AutoCAD should really start to have some life with more floating points in everything!

[KewlToyZ]

I have hard time with AcroPlot becuase of managing of third party apps.

Do you mean the 3rd. party apps. are keeping AcroPlot from running properly?
I know what you mean. When AcroPlot launches it starts up in the last profile Acad was in.
So what we do is create a .bat file that launches Acad with a non production profile with the apps. unloaded & a script to exit Acad.
Then it launches AcroPlot after that, so AcroPlot uses the new profile.
Then a short-cut to the .bat file is placed on everyones desktop.

It looks something like this:
BAT

Code: [Select]

"C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2008\acad.exe" /p "\\server\path\AcroPlot.arg" /b "\\server\path\quit.scr"
"C:\Program Files\AcroPlot\AcroPlot.exe"
SCR

Code: [Select]

quit y

Baza, I have to seriously try that, MEP is such a pig, if I can make a default ACAD profile that can still handle all the AEC garbage and load quicker, I am all for it.
What really gets on my nerves is that PDF structuring is so haphazard lately.
We need 2-3 platforms to plot them from at times....