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Enhanced 3D Capabilities for Design.
EVERY NEW RELEASE of software often has one central theme that grabs the headlines. In AutoCAD 2006, for example, it was dynamic -dynamic input and dynamic blocks. In AutoCAD 2005, it was sheet sets. In AutoCAD 2004, tool palettes. Release 13 gave us -okay, let's not go there.
The headline-grabber for AutoCAD 2007 can be summed up in one word, 3D (or is that two words?). Before you roll your eyes and think "Here goes that 3D thing again. I don't need 3D," bear with me for a moment. It's true that a small minority of design and drafting tasks, such as schematic diagrams and flow charts, will never need 3D. On the other hand, pretty much everything else in the world is 3D and could benefit from being designed and drawn in 3D.
I know, you tried to use 3D in AutoCAD but gave up v because it was so awkward and obtuse. Legend has it that when 3D modeling was first introduced to AutoCAD, the designers deliberately made it a little awkward to use. The intent was to pique user interest in 3D, then switch them to the smoother vertical applications such as Mechanical Desktop and Inventor or Architectural Desktop and Revit.
If true, that strategy may have backfired because many users assumed that all 3D was awkward and obtuse, so they stuck with 2D. Well, that is the big change in AutoCAD 2007. The fundamentals of 3D have not changed, but the interface certainly has. AutoCAD 3D now is a pleasure to use.
Two Kinds of AutoCAD
If you've been wondering what those workspaces from AutoCAD 2006 are all about, here is your answer. When users start AutoCAD 2007, it asks if they want to work in the 3D Modeling workspace or the AutoCAD Classic one.
When the 3D Modeling workspace is selected, AutoCAD starts up in the mode shown in figure 1. Don't be alarmed just because it looks different. It's still AutoCAD at heart. All Autodesk has done is set up a perspective viewing space, fiddled with the colors a bit and grouped all the 3D create, modify, display and render commands together in the new Dashboard menu. Users aren't required to use the...