For AutoCAD users, the latest big news is that Autodesk has released their 2016 version of AutoCAD. Along with AutoCAD, you can also get the 2016 versions of AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Electrical, and AutoCAD Mechanical.
As with each release, there are features that you will love and some that you really don’t care about. However, which features are preferred vary per person and per discipline. I will try to give a basic description of some of the new/updated features of AutoCAD 2016.
Here goes:
- The command line has autocorrect for commands so you can just get close to the correct spelling and avoid the error message by typing a command that doesn’t exist.
- The Coordination Model feature allows you to attach Navisworks and BIM 360 Glue models to the AutoCAD file.
- 2016 has a new rendering engine – faster and better
- PDF features are improved including viewing/panning speed, hyperlink capabilities, and printing.
- Sheet Set Manager now supports PDFs.
- Layouts now support the drag ‘n drop capability to move/copy layouts to hidden locations of the menu by scrolling as you move along the tabs.
- Layout tabs can now be docked above the status bar or in line with it via the right-click menu.
- The ribbon is modified to allow you to control whether Ribbon galleries are displayed.
- Section objects have a new Slice type and can be set to represent a cutting plane, bounded area, or volumetric area.
- Section clouds now support section planes and can extract section lines, and support dynamic UCS.
- 3D Object Snap tabs has point cloud object snap modes.
- You can control the display of layers for objects in xref drawings that were not set to “Bylayer”.
- Dimensions can be automatically placed on the specified layer and the dimension options are displayed on the right-click menu and command line.
- Dimensions can be “seen” before placing them by selecting an object or objects and moving the cursor over it/them to see possible resulting dimensions.
- You can now wrap dimension text. (Request #8 on the AUGI wishlist)
- There are actually several improvements to dimensions.
- Revision clouds enable users to transform, add to, or delete revision clouds, as well as creating them from different types of objects like drawing notes. (Request #4 on the AUGI wishlist)
- Mtext has the ability to have a frame around the text. (Request #5 on the AUGI wishlist)
- System Variable Monitor allows you to more easily work with system variable.
- The Status bar can now wrap to 2 rows when all of the icons won’t fit on one line. This is probably a feature mostly used by trainers who change screen resolution for students to see information better on the big screen.
- There is now an object snap for the geometric center of a polygon or closed polyline. (Request #2 on the AUGI wishlist)
Another big item with this release is that it is supposedly the last release to be a perpetual license. After this, you will need to be on the subscription program to get new releases. This will be a big change for AutoCAD users in the future.
This is not a complete list of updates by any means. I encourage you to check out the 2016 version and see how much it can improve your productivity and capability.
Also, do not expect any real changes to made to AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD MEP other than the AutoCAD updates.
Applying Technology to Architecture 