Between the Lines

AutoCAD 2006 Training Posted to Subscription Website

Autodesk Subscription customers who want to get up to speed quickly on AutoCAD 2006 will find these recently released courses of interest:

Dynamic Input = Learn how to use Dynamic Input Interface for Heads-Up design

Workspaces = Learn about workspaces and how to use them based on current tasks

Customizing Toolbars and the Keyboard = Learn how to use, create and manage the customize user interface (CUI) command

Dynamic Blocks = Learn about dynamic blocks, the block editor environment and the actions needed to create them

Block Attribute Extraction = Learn how to create and edit attribute for additional usage

These courses are available exclusively to Autodesk Subscription customers. To access them, sign in to the Subscription Center: http://www.autodesk.com/subscriptionlogin

AutoCAD Customer Hardware Research

The AutoCAD Team is researching what hardware is most commonly used. Please take a few minutes to add your hardware. This data will help the team gauge what hardware is used when researching future AutoCAD release plans. This data will also assist in making sure our hardware testing lab is covering the most common hardware configurations used by our customers.

Survey Link

AutoCAD Survey

In case you did not notice, in the AutoCAD 2004/2005 Communication Center, there is a link to a survey to get your feedback to the AutoCAD Team. This data helps us as we plan and design future releases. There is also the option to get involved with future feedback projects. The survey will only be live until April 21st, 2005.

Get involved and help shape the future of AutoCAD. You the customers are the ultimate designers of AutoCAD by providing us the feedback and input on what you need to make your job using AutoCAD easier.

Link to Survey

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 Research Project in the Denver Area

AutoCAD 2006 Research Project in the Denver Area

We are looking for AutoCAD users to participate in a research project for AutoCAD 2006. If you choose to participate in this research project, you will be asked to perform various tasks in AutoCAD while researchers observe and record your process for performing the tasks. The session will last about 90 minutes and you will be compensated $60. The sessions will take place either at the University of Colorado, Denver campus or at the Autodesk office located at the Denver Tech. Center. We will work with you to schedule the most convenient time and location.

Link to Enroll

AUGI AutoCAD Product Community

Autodesk User Group International AUGI has announced a new AutoCAD Product Community with tips and tricks, gallery, and links.

AUGI has free training courses, tips and tricks, fellow product users to network with and learn from, great publications and so much more. So what are you waiting for, AUGI membership is free.

Shaan

Check out the latest AUGI World Magazine for AutoCAD 2006 information

Lee Ambrosius pointed out in his blog posting that the latest AUGI World Magazine has a bunch of in-depth AutoCAD 2006 articles.

"The latest issue of AUGI World is starting to hit the streets.  This issue covers AutoCAD 2006 and some of the main features in the release.

There are 4 articles in total that cover the new release.
What's New in AutoCAD 2006?
A Closer Look at the Custom User Interface (CUI)
Dynamic Blocks, A New Tool in the Toolbox
Quick Calculator (QuickCalc)

There are many other great articles in the issue, too.

The publication can be viewed online in PDF format:
Low Resolution (4.4 MB)
High Resolution (29.3 MB)

You need to be a member of AUGI to read the article, but membership is free."

Try out AutoCAD 2006 now on the web

The AutoCAD 2006 Streaming Trial is live! It streams AutoCAD 2006 (English) down to your machine where you can run it for 30 days. It will be slower in performance compared to a local machine installation from a CD. It is a good way to check out AutoCAD 2006 before many get their boxes of AutoCAD 2006 or to evaluate the new release.

Link to Online Trial

Streaming Trial
Stream a trial version of AutoCAD® 2006 directly to your computer desktop for 30 consecutive days at no cost. With this fully functional version of the software, you can create, view, save, and plot your own AutoCAD drawings. After the 30-day trial, you can decide if you want to purchase the full version of the product.

About the Streaming Trial
The streaming trial enables you to see how AutoCAD 2006 software operates in your particular work environment, and how you can benefit from new features such as Dynamic Blocks, Dynamic Input, and enhancements to hatching.

The AutoCAD 2006 streaming trial allows you to run a full-featured version of AutoCAD by downloading five to ten percent of the application's core components at any given time.

When you use a feature that was not included in the initial download, the required components are streamed on demand and cached on the computer.  As a result, the more the application is used, the faster its performance. 
Note: Because of the nature of streaming technology, the performance of the AutoCAD 2006 streaming trial is not as fast as trial CD software that is loaded directly onto a computer. If you live outside of the United States, you should request a Trial CD instead of a streaming trial to minimize performance issues.

There is a FAQ and new Users Guide available on the Streaming Trial page.

Have fun and give it a try.
Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 is now shipping to customers

Just a quick post to let everyone know that AutoCAD 2006 is now shipping to customers. This is for US English versions shipping in the Americas.

Cheers,
Shaan

Stability, Feedback and Listening is what it is all about

Just a few things about the AutoCAD 2006 beta program and helping to shape the future of AutoCAD.

The beta program is where customers sign up at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com to test unreleased software. The beta projects typically have over 1000 customer sites involved in the testing from around the world. In fact in the AutoCAD 2006 beta program there were customers from 64 separate countries not including the press, resellers, or ADN members. The main goals are to listen to what the customers would like and how we are doing as we keep adding the new features and changes based on their feedback. The other important goal is to make sure defects are reported and addressed. In fact during the AutoCAD 2006 beta program the product was so stable we had to implement a temporary command "CRASHACAD" so we could test the Customer Error Reporting mechanism in AutoCAD.  With the beta program for AutoCAD 2006 wrapping up, we are now starting to hold AutoCAD futures projects.

Get Involved, Be Heard, and help shape the future of Autodesk products.

Cheers,
Shaan

.NET and AutoCAD 2006

Fernando Malard has posted an interview with AutoCAD developer Albert Szilvasy. The interviews topic is AutoCAD 2006 and the .NET API. The interview is posted on Fernando's blog ObjectARX for Dummies on his ObjectARX for Dummies blog.

AutoCAD 2006 - Interview with Albert Szilvasy (Autodesk)

AutoCAD LT 2006 Packaging Behind the Scenes

The new Autodesk products will begin shipping soon. I was sent a behind the scenes video showing AutoCAD LT 2006 being packaged and shipped from the Fremont California operations. There are so many employees behind the scenes that are integral to the success of Autodesk products. I will start showing more of these behind the scenes in future posts. Credit goes to Tom Banks of the Fremont operations and the entire Autodesk US operations teams.

Link to Video

Cheers,
-Shaan

DWF Team Scores with Jonathan Knowles

After several years at Adobe Systems as the Technology Strategist and Worldwide Evangelist for Adobe’s enterprise business unit, the organization responsible for PDF, Acrobat, and Adobe’s LiveCycle enterprise server solutions, Jonathan Knowles has accepted the position of Director of Worldwide Market Development for DWF at Autodesk.

Jonathan returns to Autodesk having been in product management and evangelism here 5 years ago.

I asked Jonathan what brought him back to Autodesk.

“Creating, launching, and communicating Adobe’s Intelligent Document Platform was great. PDF is the ideal solution for traditional publishing; newspapers, magazines, brochures, bank statements, credit card and phone bills, direct printed mail, etc.”

“I’ve missed working with the people that design, build, manage and work with the things Autodesk customers do; skyscrapers, homes, aircraft engines, terrain models, cinematic simulated environments. For these projects, only DWF will do.”

Welcome back Jonathan!

-Shaan

What's New in AutoCAD 2006 by Lee Ambrosius

Autodesk customer and AutoCAD guru Lee Ambrosius has published to the web his draft version of what's new in AutoCAD 2006. Definitely worth a look.

Link to What's New in AutoCAD 2006

Lee has a blog as well: http://hyperpics.blogs.com/beyond_the_ui/ in addition to his web site http://www.hyperpics.com.

Cheers,
Shaan

Latest DWF Frequently Asked Questions "FAQ"

Scott Sheppard (scott.sheppard@autodesk.com) a DWF Technical Evangelist for the Autodesk Collaboration Services division has updated the DWF FAQ. There is allot of great DWF information contained in this document.

Some highlights of the 35 page DWF FAQ  - Version 1.5 March 17th 2005:

* What is Design Web Format (DWF)?
* Is DWF an “open” file format?
* Why is Autodesk investing in DWF? What is Autodesk’s strategy? Why free?
* Who is using DWF? What are they doing with it?
* How does DWF compare to PDF? When should each format be used?
* Is DWF a secure format?
* How does DWF compare to the security of paper?
* DWF Precision
* What Autodesk software publishes DWF files?
* What is the Autodesk DWF Writer?
* How do I create 3D DWF files?
* What is the difference between native file formats like DWG and IPT and DWF?
* What are the benefits of using Autodesk DWF Viewer?
* Does the release of AutoCAD 2006 mean everyone needs a new Autodesk DWF Viewer?
*What's new with the upcoming release (Autodesk DWF Viewer 6)?
* Can I give Autodesk DWF Viewer to others?
* What is Autodesk DWF Composer?
* Autodesk DWF Composer comes with a DWG Viewer. What is it for?
* Can I send DWF files to a commercial reprographer for printing?
* How do I embed a DWF file in an HTML page?
* How do I embed a DWF file in a Microsoft Office document?
* How do I avoid problems with missing fonts and font embedding issues?
* As a developer/programmer, can I create or view DWF files from my application?
* Can I use scripts with the viewer to find areas in my DWF easier?
* What can the DWF toolkit be used for?

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/DWF-FAQ.pdf (348KB)

More information on DWF:
http://www.autodesk.com/dwf

Discussion Forums
Web: http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=114
Newsreader: news://discussion.autodesk.com/autodesk.dwf

You may ask "why is this document a PDF" the answer is quite simple. PDF was designed for text documents such as this one. If this document was a design drawing then the best format would be the DWF fomat. The DWF format is the best for lightweight, visual fidelity, ability be displayed on a web page, and other electronic design drawing benefits that DWF provides over PDF.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 Tip: How to get the old Mtext fixed editor back

AutoCAD 2006 has a 100% WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Multiline Text "Mtext" editing. Just in case you need the older AutoCAD 2002 Mtext editor in AutoCAD 2006 for some specific reason, you can use the following:

To get the old MTEXT editor in AutoCAD 2006
MTEXTED = OLDEDITOR
MTEXTFIXED = 1

This being said the new Mtext Editor is really nice and there should be little to no need to revert back to the old Mtext editor.

Editing Mtext using the old fixed Mtext editor.

Editing Mtext using the new "WYSIWYG" Mtext editor. You edit the text in place and as it appears in the drawing.

To get the default new Mtext after making the above changes:
MTEXTED = "Internal"
MTEXTFIXED = 0

AutoCAD 2006 Tip: None Osnap

Q: Need to toggle off OSNAP, POLAR & OTRACK to get the equivalent of the old "None" osnap override from R14 and earlier?

A: In AutoCAD 2006, we've added a temporary override to disable all snapping and object tracking.  Shift + D (or Shift + L for the left-handers).

AutoCAD 2006 Tip: Changes to coordinate entry in Dynamic Input

Q:  In AutoCAD 2006 I used the Move command to relocate an object from the current location to the coordinate of 0,0 for the second point.  It keeps coming back as @0,0 to the command line and the object is not moved.   Is there something I am missing?

A: This is because in AutoCAD 2006 Dynamic Input defaults to relative coordinates instead of absolute. The "@" is automatic now in AutoCAD 2006. So when entering Move 0,0 it is telling AutoCAD move the object 0,0 units from the current location which is no move at all. If you do not want to work in the relative coordinates, you can either change the format to absolute coordinates (DYNPICOORDS=1) or type #0,0 to force an absolute coordinate entry.

AutoCAD 2006 Tip: Dynamic Block

Q: What happens to the dynamic blocks if you have to save your work back to a previous version?

A: If you save back to a prior release you will get the last current set view of the block in the prior release, but it will not be dynamic. The block will  become an anonymous block and  therefore you cannot use Refedit to edit it in the prior release.

New Discussion Groups for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2006

A few new discussion groups have opened for some of the upcomoing new products. The discussion groups are a great place to get peer to peer support on your products from fellow users.

AutoCAD 2006

Web browser: http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=149
Newsreader: news://discussion.autodesk.com/autodesk.autocad.2006

AutoCAD LT 2006

Web browser: http://discussion.autodesk.com/forum.jspa?forumID=150
Newsreader: news://discussion.autodesk.com/autodesk.autocadlt.2006

Autodesk announces the new 2006 products

There is a flurry of press releases from Autodesk today. The new products are coming!

Autodesk Releases Major Updates to Entire Product Portfolio
PR Newswire

"Autodesk Inc. today announced new versions of its software portfolio, including more than 25 products that help its customers create, manage and share digital assets most effectively, to compete and win. These products provide best-in-class solutions for 2D design, basic conceptual design to advanced 3D modeling, animation, visualization, data management and collaboration. With across-the-board focus on productivity improvements, the latest suite of products and solutions enable customers in the manufacturing, building, infrastructure and media and entertainment industries to turn ideas into reality faster than ever before."

"AutoCAD 2006: 20th Release of Industry Standard Underscores Legacy of Relentless Innovation"

20th Version of Autodesk's Market-Leading Software, AutoCAD 2006, Enables Design Professionals to Bring Ideas to Reality Faster than Ever Before
PR Newswire

"AutoCAD 2006 is the latest in a series of releases that focused on solving significant customer challenges associated with a certain set of user issues. The new software focuses on minimizing the tedious tasks associated with everyday drafting and includes features such as:

• Dynamic input, which gives customers the power of the command line at the graphics cursor, allowing them to focus on the design. Dynamic input displays dimensional information during geometry creation and makes it easy to edit.
• Dynamic blocks, which allow access to multiple variations on a single block. Dynamic blocks dramatically reduce cumbersome block libraries and make it easy to modify block geometry during and after insertion for faster design changes.
• Data Extraction Wizard, which automatically creates tables such as schedules, bills of material and price estimates. Users can sort and filter block information quickly and easily and combine it with their company's standard table styles, for accurate tables of data.
• Annotation enhancements, which include easier text placement, improved hatching and enhanced table functions that perform common math expressions in and across cells, rows and columns.
• One-click migration of customized files from earlier releases of the software to AutoCAD 2006."

"Architects and Building Engineers Realize Their Ideas Faster Using the Next Generation of Autodesk Software Purpose-Built for the Building Industry
PR Newswire

"With the immediate availability of a suite of updated products -- Autodesk® Revit® Building 8, Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2006, Autodesk® Building Systems 2006, and Autodesk® AutoCAD® Revit® Series 8 -- architects and building engineers can create, manage and share design information more effectively, all of which contribute to increased profitability, reduced risk and minimized inefficiencies in building design, construction and management."

Civil Engineers and GIS Professionals Realize Their Ideas to Compete and Win, Using the Next Generation of Autodesk's Market-Leading Infrastructure Software
PR Newswire

"With the immediate availability of Autodesk® Civil 3D(TM) 2006, Autodesk Map® 3D 2006, Autodesk® Land Desktop 2006, Autodesk® Survey 2006 and Autodesk® Raster Design 2006 software products, Autodesk is simplifying and streamlining the creation, management and sharing of spatial information, enabling customers to make the most of their data and realize their design ideas faster."

Industry Professionals Realize Their Ideas Faster by Sharing Complex Design Documents Using the Next Generation of Autodesk Software
PR Newswire

"Autodesk DWF Composer provides full 3D and 2D markup, measure, viewing and revision capabilities. DWF Composer now:

• Supports measure and markup of 3D DWF files published by most premier design applications, including Autodesk Inventor®, Autodesk® Revit® and Autodesk ® Civil 3D(TM) software
• Supports MapBooks published by Autodesk Map® 3D 2006 Supports DXF(TM) functionality and all major raster images including multisheet TIFF, CALS and JPG.
• Includes latest DWG file support and viewing of Autodesk Inventor files
• Offers new custom symbols within the DWF Composer markup library, providing new ways for customers to annotate
• Provides a powerful, new snapshot tool that enables users to capture any onscreen information and bring it into the DWF file, creating a single file that contains all project-related information.
• Extends markup integration beyond the AutoCAD family of products to also include Autodesk® Revit® Building 8 and Autodesk® Revit® Structure."

Manufacturers Realize Their Ideas With the Next Generation of Autodesk's Market-Leading 3D Design and PLM Software
PR Newswire

• "Autodesk Inventor Series 10 includes new components of Functional Design -- Design Accelerator and Feature Generator -- that help existing users improve design efficiency, and new users transition to 3D more easily. In addition, Inventor Studio provides state-of-the-art rendering and animation capabilities for quickly creating photorealistic designs.
• Autodesk Inventor Professional 10 provides all of the benefits of Autodesk Inventor Series, plus specialized design capabilities to create routed systems with tube and pipe or wire and cable. Customers can now create deflection animations of their finite element analysis (FEA) models.
• AutoCAD Mechanical 2006, purpose-built for mechanical engineers, now allows users to document 3D Inventor assemblies as well as 3D parts. It also includes new workflow enhancements that allow customers to manage hidden lines more quickly and intuitively.
• AutoCAD Electrical 2006, specifically developed for electrical engineers and control systems designers, now provides direct integration with Autodesk Vault and includes new data migration tools that allow customers to easily convert legacy AutoCAD or other electrical design applications into intelligent AutoCAD Electrical designs."

What's New in AutoCAD 2006

What's New in AutoCAD 2006

Boost your everyday productivity with these new features:

Dynamic blocks give you more drafting control and flexibility over your current blocks, allowing greater manipulation while dramatically reducing the size of block libraries.

Improved annotation and composition features help streamline the creation, placement, and editing of textual and table information and greatly enhance hatching capabilities.

The enhanced user interface puts the power of the command line at the graphics cursor, where you can enter dimensional and command option information as you work and get immediate feedback.

Migration tools streamline the migration process, so you can upgrade easily while preserving customization of toolbars and menus.
AutoCAD 2006 Features and Benefits

Read more about the full range of new AutoCAD® 2006 features, as well as the benefits they provide.
AutoCAD 2006 Features and Benefits (pdf - 469 Kb)

Compare Your Current AutoCAD with AutoCAD 2006
Wonder what's been added to AutoCAD software since your last upgrade? See the AutoCAD Release Comparison Matrix for a side-by-side comparison.
AutoCAD Release Comparison Matrix (pdf - 123 Kb)

See http://www.autodesk.com/autocad

New Logo and autodesk.com look

Have a look at http://www.autodesk.com.

The Autodesk logo is back to a capital "A".  I showed the change initially last weekend in a blog post when the signs were changed "Signs of change". There is also a bunch of changes to the website including the addition of new products information.

Cheers,
Shaan

New banner image

Did you notice? I just updated my Between the Lines blog banner image. Nice to have a fresh banner once in awhile. The other Autodesk blogs are doing the same.

Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 Poll

AutoCAD® 2006 will be released this month!
Which feature do you think you'll use the most?

Seamless migration
Your customized toolbars and menus migrate automatically when you upgrade.

Heads-up design
Dynamic input and pointer input allows you to work without using the command line.

Annotation
Improved hatch area and positioning.

Block data
Automatically create tables from block attributes.

Dynamic blocks
Simplify block management and insertion with flexible in-process design.

Complete the online poll to let us know. Link to Poll

ICC (International CAD Council)

ICC (International CAD Council)  http://www.icclinks.com

Formed by Brian Myers of the Gateway Autodesk User Group in St Louis, Missouri and Tom Sutton of the New Jersey Autodesk User Group.

"We recruit outside CAD experts to share their ideas with the CAD using public by writing for our newsletter. We created ICCLinks ( http://www.icclinks.com/ ), a website with soon to be over 1,000 CAD and Design links to make information learning and exchange easier. We have plans for on-line learning/education as well as other programs to aid those wanting to learn design and how to leverage technology to create those designs."

They even have link list for AutoCAD blogs: http://www.icclinks.com/blogs.htm

I wish Brian and Tom all the best.

Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 - 3D DWF

AutoCAD 2006 will include a technology preview of 3D DWF publishing as an option when you are installing AutoCAD 2006.

3D DWF files can be viewed in the free Autodesk DWF Viewer.

3D DWF publishing was included in Autodesk Inventor 9.  Both Architectural Desktop 2005  and Autodesk Building Systems 2005 have an extension available to Autodesk subscription customers. There will be more announcements of 3D DWF publishing support in other products in the near future.

A link to a quick video (without audio) showing the creation of a 3D DWF from within the upcoming AutoCAD 2006. The video does not do the results justice due the video compression with limited color and resolution.

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/ACAD2006-3DDWF.wmv

Details:
Using the AutoCAD sample drawing: Welding Fixture Model.dwg
Command: 3DDWFPUBLISH
The resulting 3D DWF is only 469KB

Video Contest Winner Beau Turner

I held a fun contest for the best AutoCAD or Autodesk Viz video tutorials in January. Beau Turner has won hands down with his 4 submitted videos on Autodesk Viz 2005. Betsy Weber of Techsmith offered some prizes in this contest as their software Camasia was used.

You must use the Windows Media Player and also enable your speakers for the audio. The videos are very creative and informative. Look out Hollywood! :-)

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/vid/DirectorsCut_BeginnerGuideToAutodeskViz_F.avi
Description: Autodesk VIZ 2005 Beginner Guide To Autodesk Viz (funny).
Created By: Beau Turner

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/vid/BeginnerGuideToAutodeskViz_F.avi
Description: Autodesk VIZ 2005 Beginners Guide to Autodesk VIZ Directors Cut/Behind the Scenes.
Created By: Beau Turner

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/vid/RemoveMaterialAssignments_F.avi
Description: Autodesk VIZ 2005 Removing Material Assignments using Maxscript Listener.
Created By: Beau Turner

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/vid/AutomaticMaterialPropagation_F.avi
Description: Autodesk VIZ 2005 Automatic Material Propagation feature.
Created By: Beau Turner

Beau has a great blog as well: Will Render For Food

If anyone else has any AutoCAD or Autodesk Viz tutorials they would like posted, please email me at shaan@autodesk.com Perhaps I will award some prizes for the best submissions based on creativity and the tutorial content value. Perhaps once AutoCAD 2006 is shipping you could create some tutorials showing the new features and how to use them. Please try to keep the submitted videos under 10MB and in the Windows .wmv format.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 Beta Customers

We have now released the many AutoCAD 2006 beta customers to publicly discuss the upcoming AutoCAD 2006.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation and congratulations to all who participated in the AutoCAD 2006 "Rio" Beta Program.  Your efforts have contributed greatly to the quality and functionality of the product.

New Serbian language CAD blog

Slobodan emailed to tell me that he now has a CAD blog. This CAD Blog is in the Serbian language. More CAD blogs being born each day.

Welcome Slobodan!

http://slazic.blogspot.com/

AutoCAD 2006 Drawing Recovery Manager

Mark Kiker has posted about the new AutoCAD 2006 recovery feature.
"The new Drawing Recovery Manager enables you to retrieve backup files (BAK) or even your automatically saved versions of your DWG files without having to manually search through folders and rename file extensions."

http://caddmanager.com/blog/2005/03/autocad-2006-and-recovering-drawings.html

AutoCAD 2006 - Coming soon to a desktop near you

It is really nice to see the amount of interest in what is being said by the blogging beta customers in their own words. Those released to blog were told they could post their opinions good or bad, but everything has been very positive so far. I got over 6000 hits and at times there were over 500 user visits an hour on this blog and that was all by noon yesterday alone. Obviously many are interested in what is being said and details of the next release.

I cannot wait until AutoCAD 2006 is shipping and more people get to try AutoCAD 2006 for themselves.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2006 Latest Blogging Links

My posts:
AutoCAD 2006 is coming - you heard it first here
AutoCAD 2006 Blogging & Be Heard
What does Lynn Allen say about AutoCAD 2006?
AutoCAD 2006 - Dynamic Blocks and Display Enhancements
More AutoCAD 2006 info from blogs
Richard Binning- AutoCAD 2006 Heads Up Design
Robin Capper's 3 blog posts on AutoCAD 2006

Lee Ambrosius
Its loose... AutoCAD 2006 is coming your way
"If you couldn’t find a reason to upgrade to AutoCAD 2005, you will want to take a close look at AutoCAD 2006.  There are just so many enhancements across the board they every user can benefit from this release."

Jimmy Bergmark
AutoCAD 2006 is soon to be released
"There are plenty of nice things in this version. Don't be afraid that you don't see the command line. You can show and hide it by pressing CTRL+9. And do you know what? I actually like having it hidden. The improved heads up design makes it possible."

Matt Dillon:
AutoCAD 2006 - (Yes, 2006) - A Couple of my Favorite Things
"With the new "Dynamic" mode of input, you can literally do away with the command line!"
"With the new block editor you can take an existing block definition and supercharge it, or create new more flexible blocks. "

Scott Durkee:
CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD 2006 Coming Soon
"Hmm... What will CAD Managers want to know about most? Installation/Migration Improvements? Mtext and Table Improvements? Oh yeah, how about Dynamic Blocks - those are really cool. They definitely need to know about the new Custom User Interface (CUI) file. Decisions, decisions."

Ellen Finkelstein:
Sneak Preview of AutoCAD® 2006!
"Everything is dynamic in 2006. Do you have large block libraries? You're going to love the new dynamic blocks. The main idea is that you can create one block with many possibilities. So you can create one block to replace many, reducing your block library size significantly."
"You can now easily add numbered and bulleted lists, just like in your word processor. If you need to add an item in the middle of a numbered list, the remaining items renumber themselves automatically."

Richard Binning:
AutoCAD 2006 is just around the corner...Sneak peak!
"I've just been given the go-ahead to share some of the cool new features of the soon to be released AutoCAD 2006. Privately known as "Rio", AutoCAD 2006 has some of the best and most productive features ever to be released by autodesk."

Robin Capper:
AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ What NO COMMAND LINE? ~ Dynamic input & Heads Up Design
"For the vast majority of the time I have found no need to display it – Heads up, you win!"
AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ Customisation, Display and Selection Changes
"There are some significant changes to the user interface in AutoCAD 2006."
"There is a nice calculator built into AutoCAD 2006."
AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ Dynamic Blocks
"Dynamic Blocks are a major new feature in AutoCAD 2006. Simply put they are AutoCAD blocks that respond to user manipulation by altering graphics, shape or form. How they change is controlled by parameters built into the block using a suite of new tools."
AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ Dimension Arc
"You can now dimension the length of an arc."

Beth Powell
AutoCAD 2006! 
"In recent years, the new releases have failed to excite me as much. The 2004 release was a big deal because the interface changed entirely with the tool palettes. The 2005 release made me sigh with some boredom. I have been using the 2006 beta version for a couple of weeks now and must confess that it's exciting again!"

Robin Capper's 3 blog posts on AutoCAD 2006

AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ What NO COMMAND LINE? ~ Dynamic input & Heads Up Design
"For the vast majority of the time I have found no need to display it – Heads up, you win!"

AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ Customisation, Display and Selection Changes
"There are some significant changes to the user interface in AutoCAD 2006."
"There is a nice calculator built into AutoCAD 2006. "

AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ Dynamic Blocks
"Dynamic Blocks are a major new feature in AutoCAD 2006. Simply put they are AutoCAD blocks that respond to user manipulation by altering graphics, shape or form. How they change is controlled by parameters built into the block using a suite of new tools."

AutoCAD 2006 Preview ~ Dimension Arc
"You can now dimension the length of an arc."

Signs of change

I drove down to my Autodesk San Rafael California office today on a nice warm Sunday afternoon and I saw something that was definitely new. A new logo on all of the building signs as well as the address signs on the road. I really like the change!

Out with the old...

And in with the new...

New releases, new logos whats next.

Shaan

Richard Binning- AutoCAD 2006 Heads Up Design

http://www.integr-8.com/besidethecursor/Richard Binning of Autodesk Users Group International "AUGI" is one of over a thousand AutoCAD 2006 beta customers. Richard has some nice things to say in his own words about portions of the new Heads Up Design features in AutoCAD 2006.

"I've just been given the go-ahead to share some of the cool new features of the soon to be released AutoCAD 2006. Privately known as "Rio", AutoCAD 2006 has some of the best and most productive features ever to be released by autodesk."
http://www.integr-8.com/besidethecursor/2005/03/autocad-2006-is-just-around.html

Autodesk has granted special releases to the active blogging beta customers with no strings attached. These bloogering beta customers can post on the upcoming release of AutoCAD code named "AutoCAD Rio" and what they thought of it. We felt fellow customers and AutoCAD users would like to hear what fellow AutoCAD users had to say from their perspective, the good and the bad. Most have been using the pre-release beta products since early last fall in 2004.

You too can get involved in future beta programs of feedback opportun