Autodesk AutoCAD AutoCAD - 2013 Preview Guide

AutoCAD® 2013 Preview Guide

With powerful tools for design aggregation, AutoCAD® 2013 software helps connect and streamline your design and documentation workflows. Import and aggregate models from almost any format, and quickly create detailed design layouts and drawing views that automatically update when the source model changes. Save time with an enhanced and more effortless user interface and a customizable command line display. Synchronize your drawings with Autodesk® 360 technology to access your designs from almost anywhere. You can find and install hundreds of different Autodesk screened AutoCAD companion apps from a single destination, extending the power of your software more easily than ever before.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. 2

User Interaction .................................................................................................................... 3

Welcome Screen ................................................................................................................................. 3

AutoCAD Help ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Command Line Enhancements ............................................................................................................ 5

In-Canvas Property Preview ................................................................................................................ 8

Array Enhancements ........................................................................................................................... 9

Layout and Model Viewports ............................................................................................................ 11

Quick View Drawings ........................................................................................................................ 12

Hatch Editor ...................................................................................................................................... 13

Raster Images ................................................................................................................................... 13

External References .......................................................................................................................... 13

Snap Behavior ................................................................................................................................... 14

Explore ................................................................................................................................ 14

Point Cloud Support .......................................................................................................................... 14

PressPull ........................................................................................................................................... 19

Surface Curve Extraction ................................................................................................................... 20

Import Inventor Files ........................................................................................................................ 21

Document ........................................................................................................................... 21

Model Documentation ...................................................................................................................... 21

Text and Leaders ............................................................................................................................... 31

Wipeout ............................................................................................................................................ 32

Polylines ........................................................................................................................................... 32

Offset Preview .................................................................................................................................. 33

Connect ............................................................................................................................... 33

Autodesk 360 Connectivity ............................................................................................................... 33

Stay Connected ................................................................................................................................. 39

Content Explorer ............................................................................................................................... 39

Language Packs ................................................................................................................................. 40

Drawing File Format .......................................................................................................................... 40

Customization ..................................................................................................................... 41

Double-click Actions.......................................................................................................................... 41

Autodesk Exchange Apps .................................................................................................................. 41

User Interaction

Welcome Screen

A Welcome Screen is automatically displayed when you launch AutoCAD 2013. It provides easy access to drawings, learning tools, and online content.

In the Work panel of the Welcome Screen, you can create new drawings as well as open your existing drawings and sample files. A Recent Files list provides easy access to your most recently used drawings.

The Learn panel offers an overview of functionality new to AutoCAD 2013, provides links to videos to help you get started in AutoCAD 2013, and includes additional online learning resources.

In the Extend panel, you can easily download apps from Autodesk® Exchange Apps and connect to Autodesk 360 and AutoCAD social media resources, including Facebook and Twitter.

You can choose not to display the Welcome screen during startup using a control in the lower left corner. It will still be accessible from the Help menu.

AutoCAD Help

The online Help system for AutoCAD has been significantly restructured to provide faster, search-based results. You can access the AutoCAD Help system from the Help icon on the InfoCenter. The Online help window is displayed by default.

If you are offline or if you have disabled online content from the System tab of the Options dialog box, Online Help will not be displayed.

Instead, Offline Help is made available as an optional download.

Command Line Enhancements

The command line interface has been modernized in AutoCAD 2013 to include color, transparency, and increased flexibility for displaying history and accessing recent commands. You can dock the command line at the top or bottom of the AutoCAD window or let it float to maximize the drawing area.

The undocked command line is displayed in a single row that floats above the AutoCAD window. It includes a semi-transparent prompt history, enabling you to display up to 50 lines of history without affecting the drawing area. A new tool on the command line provides easy access to the number of lines of prompt history, as well as Autocomplete, Transparency, and Options controls.

You can press the F2 key or the flyout at the right end of the floating command line to display additional lines of command history.

Pressing Ctrl F2 displays the history window.

When the command line is undocked, you can snap it to the edge of the AutoCAD window or a docked palette by moving it near the edge. When you resize or move the AutoCAD window or docked palette, the command line moves accordingly to maintain its position relative to the edge. If you undock the adjacent palette, the command line automatically snaps to the next palette or AutoCAD window.

You can dock the command line at the top or bottom of the AutoCAD window by clicking and holding on the dragging area at the left end of the command line while you move it. If you want to place the

command line on the edge of a frame without snapping, simply press the Ctrl key while moving it. Whether the command line is floating or docked, a command icon helps identify the command line and indicates when AutoCAD is awaiting a command. You can click on the command icon to quickly view and launch the most recently used commands.

When a command is active, the command name is always displayed on the command line. Clickable options, displayed in blue, offer easy access to options within the active command.

Additional enhancements to the command line interface in AutoCAD 2013 provide more consistent behavior for line breaking when responding to different types of input: Enter, space bar, and pick point. The command line window (including the F2 window) now supports only monospaced fonts. You can set the command line font from the Display tab of the Options dialog box .

New interface elements provide more flexibility and control over the color of the command line. You can access them using the Colors tool on the Display tab of the Options dialog box.

In-Canvas Property Preview

In AutoCAD 2013 you can dynamically preview changes to object properties before applying them. For example, if you select objects and then use the Properties palette to change the color, the selected objects dynamically change color as you pass the cursor over each color in the list or within the Select Color dialog box.

Object transparency is also dynamically applied as you change the transparency.

You can control the property preview behavior using the Property Preview option on the Selection tab of the Options dialog.

Array Enhancements

Enhanced array functionality in AutoCAD 2013 helps you create objects in a pattern faster and easier than ever before.

After you select objects for a rectangular array, they are immediately displayed in a three-row-by-fourcolumn grid. When creating a polar array, the selected objects are displayed immediately after you specify a center point, in a full circular pattern of six. After selecting objects and a path for a path array, the objects are immediately displayed evenly along the entire length of the path. For each type of array—rectangular, polar, and path—multifunctional grips on the array objects enable you to dynamically edit relevant properties. You can use the Ctrl key to cycle through grips with multiple options. In addition to using multifunctional grips, you can modify array values in the contextual ribbon tabs as well as at the command line.

Path arrays offer more flexibility and control in AutoCAD 2013 when using the measure method. It is easier to specify the orientation of the arrayed objects relative to the path using the Tangent Direction option during creation.

The item count toggle allows the count to be based on the spacing and curve length (to fill the path), or you can explicitly control the count. As you increase or decrease spacing the item, the number of items automatically decreases or increases to fit on the specified path. Similarly, when the path length changes, the number of items automatically increases or decreases to fill the path.

When the item count toggle is off, an additional grip at the end of the array provides dynamic editing of the item count and total item spacing to array along a portion of the path curve.

Layout and Model Viewports

The viewports panel on the ribbon is renamed to be specific to Model Viewports or Layout Viewports. Model Viewports are accessible from the View ribbon tab and are relevant when creating viewports in model space. Standard model space viewport configurations are easily accessible from a drop-down menu.

Layout Viewports are accessible from the Layout ribbon tab and are relevant when creating viewports on a layout.

Quick View Drawings

Bold texts and colorful borders in the Quick View Drawings thumbnails help emphasize the current active view.

Hatch Editor

AutoCAD 2013 is enhanced to make editing multiple hatch objects faster and easier. The contextual Hatch Editor ribbon tab is automatically displayed even when you select more than one hatch object. Similarly, when using the command line version of the hatch editor (-HATCHEDIT), you can now select multiple hatch objects for simultaneous editing.

Raster Images

The bitonal resampling algorithm has been updated to improve the display quality of a wide range of supported images.

External References

External Reference functionality has been updated. Now you can edit the Saved Path directly in the External References palette and the Found path is displayed as read-only.

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