AutoCAD Insider

AutoCAD for Mac Facecast on April 28

Join us for a first-ever "Facecast" with the AutoCAD for Mac product team on Thursday April 28 at 9am Pacific time (4pm GMT),  What's a Facecast, you ask? A live, streaming webcast and Q&A, where you can chat your questions and interact directly with the team -- hosted on the AutoCAD Facebook page.

 

Looking for Feedback Comparing AutoCAD Drawings

The AutoCAD research team would like to learn as much as possible about the work you do when comparing drawings in order to improve future versions of AutoCAD. The survey should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete, and there will be a lottery for participants for a $30 Amazon giftcard.
The link to the survey is here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/513364/Drawing-Compare

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Eunice.Chang@Autodesk.com

Applying Standards to Drawing Views in AutoCAD 2012

Standards play a role in almost every aspect of documentation, including the representation of drawing views. You can specify drafting standards for new drawing views using the Drafting Standard dialog box, which is accessible from the dialog box launcher in the lower right corner of the Drawing Views ribbon panel.

 
 
You can specify first angle and third angle projection methods, which support the ISO and ANSI standards. The thread style controls how Inventor thread features are represented in drawing views. The Shading/Preview controls enable you to specify the view quality for shaded view styles and the preview type. Changing the preview type from shaded to bounding box offers improved performance, particularly with larger models. 

 

In addition to the controls in the Drafting Standard dialog box, the Drawing View functionality leverages layers to organize and format geometry.

 

Updating Drawing Views in AutoCAD 2012

The 2D drawing views that you create on a layout are associated with the source 3D model. When you make changes to the source model, various alerts on the layout indicate that the drawing views are out of date. Red corner glyphs display around all the affected views and a bubble notification extends from the Drawing Views icon on the status bar.

 

You can easily update all the affected views by selecting a link on the bubble notification. If you want to limit the updates to selected views, you can use the View Update tool, available in the ribbon and right-click menu.

 

Editing Drawing Views in AutoCAD 2012

You can easily modify drawing views after they’ve been created.

Selecting a drawing view displays a single multifunctional grip at its center. When you pass the cursor over the grip, menu options enable you to stretch or rotate the view as well as break and repair alignment of orthographic projected views.

 

When you double-click on an existing view, the Drawing View Editor contextual ribbon tab is displayed. You can use it to change drawing view properties, such as the scale and view style. The changes are automatically applied to all views that were projected off of the selected view. Alternatively, when modifying a projected view, you can specify the scale or view style to be a value other than the default "From Parent". 

 

Each change is applied instantly unless you specify an option in the Edit panel of the Drawing View Editor which allows you to defer updates. Then you can make multiple changes within a single view computation (improving performance). If the selected view or any of its child views are out of date (for example if the source 3D model had been modified), they are automatically updated as part of the view editing process.

 

Edit Your AutoCAD Designs on the Go!

Given the advances in technology, it’s amazing that most on-site work (reviewing, measuring and editing drawings) is still a manual process. You bring the tape measure to the site, make notations on drawings, and then go back to your desk to update the AutoCAD DWG file. And if the design changes or something is not written down correctly, you have to go back to the site, and repeat the process.

With AutoCAD WS, you can easily make those edits directly to your DWG file while you are on site! Remove revision cycles, save time, and reduce errors! AutoCAD WS is not just for viewing files; it handles light editing, annotations, and co-editing sessions with your colleagues from your iPad, iPhone, and soon, your Android device.

Here are a few of the editing features you’ll find in the latest version of the mobile app:

Basic Shapes – Intuitive drawing tools enable you to create basic shapes such as circles, polylines, rectangles and revision clouds.

 

Snap Preview – For greater placement precision, the magnifying glass is offset from your finger, so you can see the screen and what you are selecting.

 

Copy and paste – Great for when you have repetitive design features. For example, a landscape designer can quickly copy and paste trees and bushes.

 

Brush tool – Replacing the previous brush tool, this allows you to make freehand markups.

And best of all, AutoCAD WS is fully integrated with AutoCAD 2012, so you can easily upload your designs to your account for mobile editing directly from your AutoCAD desktop software.

Interested in getting the mobile app onto your Android device? Register here to be the first to know when the download is available: http://autode.sk/acad_ws_android

 

Creating Drawing Views in AutoCAD 2012

The first step in model documentation with AutoCAD 2012 is to create a base view of your 3D model. It's easy! The new Base View tool creates a 2D view from the 3D solids and surfaces in modelspace. If there are no surfaces or solids in modelspace, you can select an Inventor model (ipt, iam, or ipn file).

 
 
The Base View tool automatically displays a scaled preview of the model at the cursor. As you place the base view on the drawing layout, you can specify options such as type, orientation, and scale.

 
 
A contextual ribbon tab displays relevant controls, which vary depending on the source of the model, AutoCAD's modelspace or Inventor.

 
 
If an Inventor model is the source for the base view, an additional panel is displayed in the Drawing View Creation ribbon tab, enabling you to further control the representation of the model.

 

If the Type option is set to Base and Projected, rather than Base Only, you can automatically create projected views after placing the base view. Simply drag the cursor to the desired location. AutoCAD automatically creates the appropriate view based on eight standard view projections: four orthographic and four isometric. You can continue adding projected views later using the Projected View tool.

 
 
Each view creates a new Drawing View object that includes a boundary similar to a viewport but doesn't print. An icon in the status bar tray indicates when a drawing contains drawing views. You can view and modify properties for a selected drawing view using the Properties palette or double-click on the drawing view to access a context-sensitive ribbon tab with relevant controls.

 

Model Documentation in AutoCAD 2012

Save time by automatically generating intelligent documentation for AutoCAD, Inventor, and other models. Drawing views, edge display, and location are instantly updated when an engineering change is made.

Access the model documentation tools from the Drawing Views panel of the Annotate ribbon tab.

 

Do you use Point Clouds?

Are you using Point Cloud data (from 3D laser scanners) in your projects? If so, the AutoCAD User Experience & Product Design Team would like your feedback.

Please participate in the research by submitting the Point Cloud Survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PointCloud

This Survey will be active until April 15, 2011.

They look forward to hearing from you!