It would make my life easier if they documented ALL changes, I guess, with the book they send out, instead of gathering random stuff from a hundred different places on the internet.... but I guess that'd be a big book!
We do all our annotation in paper space, so the addition of the annotative scaling tools is moot for us, but we all agree that it's a huge and powerfully awesome tool. I recommended installing 2008 and learning it asap to a couple subs that use model space for annotation.
I love that this release is chocked full of all the little fixes for small things that used to annoy the crap out of me before:
*Spell check has been significantly upgraded to include ZOOMING in to where the typo is! (BOOYAH BABY)
*Now, when using multiple layout tabs, all you have to do to rename it is double click on it... and to rearrange them.. just DRAG the tab where you want it to go! (one of my favorite additions)
*Addition of Sun & Sky Background for rendering (apperantly something brought in from their acquisition of 3dsmax) and photometric lighting... these are fluff for me, but hey, a little fluff now and then is all good.
*Changes/upgrades to material application and I spotted various additions to the Adv Render Pref pallet as well that I am going to love playing with (next shot I get to work on my office model, I guess) that I think are going to help me.. especially the shadow intensity controls.
*For those that use toolbars, the addition of the 2D Drafting / Annotation setup seems cool... more customized environments is only better. Personally I'm a keyboard freak and only use flyouts for block library, xref panel, properties, design center, and vis styles... always docked on left or right, minimized with minimal toolbars up top. I likes me clear space.. within reason but I think being able to switch between environments easily for those who haven't already set up custom environments could save a lot of frustration.
*oh man... I had almost forgot... LAYER CONTROL by VIEWPORT! (yeehaw!) You ever get redlines back from the engineer saying "show the rebar and concrete hatching here, but shade it in this detail... focus on the wall anchoring bars only" and you just stare and go "but but but..." and walk away thinking "AW CRAP" well now... BOOYAH you can create layer overriding color and linetype settings in individual viewports. They've also made it VERY clear which layers have overrides to flag you. When the layer manager is showing, any layer with a layer override (color or linetype, w/e) is highlighted in a light muted blue color to show. I was worried about getting a drawing full of overrides and not being able to work with it well, but I think they did a good job making it very clear and understandable.
*Multileaders and the dimension enhancements are very cool. I do love the dimension break for crossing lines... no matter how much you want to avoid it, a lot of times your dimensions simply MUST cross. I hate that, and for a dimension to remain associative, as I prefer, there's no way other than to have crossing, conflicting lines. Now it's solved. I've yet to work with the jogged dimension, but I'm hoping that a jogged dimension will display the ACCURATE value when dimensioning between two viewports... so if I have a drilled shaft that's 120' deep, I can show the last 10', and first 20' (or w/e) in seperate viewports, then dim between them and it be ACCURATE for a change, without having to override the dimension (cue screams and shrieks of horror)
*I think it's cool to be able to "fade" layers for visual purposes only. When you're working in model space and it's all getting so convoluted your eyes are crossing, you can now select what layers you're working with, and all others will (just visually only... not the layer itself) turn to a shaded gray color to make your focal layers stand out while you work. I don't know that I'll use it often, but I know when I do, it'll help. A lot of times you NEED those dense, heavy layers no to snap to, so turning layers off isn't an option all the time.
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I think I've gone on enough. One thing I have noticed though that I'm curious about is a change to the "hidden" style and how it displays... it now shows tangential lines I think. It's displaying about 5 lines along the length of a fillet on a steel C channel... I'm using the archaic -shademode (H) hidden style, not the new 3d hidden so I don't know why it would change... I may have forgotten to change a setting... I'll have to check...
I have to say though... I haven't found any bugs yet. Good signs!
