Who's afraid of 2006?

You shouldn't be.
I have used it for a while and found it easy to continue using it as if I was using 2005.
The
new features workshops do a great job of introducing the changes. Many of the new
features
will quickly become things you rely on.

My customizations continued to work.

While I have chosen to continue to use the command line, many will like the new dynamic
input features which allow you to enter commands and read prompts at the cursor location.

The biggest change of thinking will be adjusting to the powerful new dynamic blocks
feature.

If any of you have questions about 2006 or customizing it, I'd be glad to try to answer.

Regards,
Doug

 

Looking forward to it myself. I'll have to stick with
the command line, having a real hard time re-training
my brain to not look for it.

Dynamic blocks look to be very powerful, but haven't
had any time to actually put them to use. I do have
plenty of ideas on how I might use them.

 

Have you been given clearance from Autodesk to write about it? If so, I'd
be interested to know if tool palettes are organized more like the menu
structure of old. In other words, can they be controlled in part by the CAD
Manager and in part by the end user, or is it more of an either-or setup?
Also, does the new CUI allow for all the functionality that menus did
before, i.e. partial menu loading, internal lisp and diesel calls,
accelerator keys, etc?

- Jason

 

Dynamic blocks, will they turn into proxy objects when opened in earlier
versions?

 

What version of C++ compiler is required for .arx programming?

 

I believe they just revert to 'dumb' blocks in earlier version...

 

Hi Doug,

For how long you are been using it?

 

The act like normal blocks but will make the round trip unless you
refedit them. 2006 has a special command, "bedit" for making changes
to dynamic blocks and adding the dynamic features to those blocks.
Refedit breaks the links, whether the refedit is done in 2006 or 2005.

 

Randy,
Wish I could answer that one but have not yet done C++ work with any
version of ACAD. Sorry. Someone else will certainly answer you.
Regards,
Doug

 

Since early January.

 

Hi Jason,

Yes. There are many well designed blocks that come with ACAD 2006.
I plan on using my own custom ones for cabinet elevations at first.

Regards,
Doug

 

okay.... well I am waiting to re-sign the subscription program to move upstairs...

hope, the SSM is now much better... and also the publish from there... will allow a selection of number of sheets to be plotted.

and more controllable FIELD objects....

LE.

 

The same version as for AutoCAD 2005.

 

Jason,
Not sure I can answer all those questions but:

CUI allows for partial menu loading, internal lisp, diesel, shortcuts, accelerator keys.
It does not control ACAD.PGP AFAIK. Those customizations are separate and
available under Tools -> Customization -> ACAD.PGP.

A new feature, called workspaces, which works with the CUI, can be used to
reorganize the menus and toolbars for specific tasks. When you get ACAD installed
you should first:
1) export the default profile so you can return to it if you corrupt it.
2) save the default workspace and make a copy of it for safekeeping if you corrupt that.
3) Then have fun.

I couldn't see any mnu or mns files so assume that they are incorporated into cui files.
The debate about which one to change will be moot.
No longer will those files be edited with a word processor. the CUI command does
it all.

The CUI is very graphical and user friendly. I believe that it is intended to allow every
drafter to be able to do customizations without much training. It does take a little
orientation however. That's why my suggestions above should be followed. I did goof
up somehow and needed to re-install my ACAD copy (which took only about 15
minutes to fix - went and had coffee).

The sofware is pretty stable (more so than 2005) but that is subjective. If things do
blow up, you'll really appreciate the drawing recovery manager. No longer will you have
to search for those autosave files.

 

Hi Luis,
I must admit I am not aware of any changes with regard to SSM (there might be. I'm just
not aware of it.) In the 3 months I've used it, I haven't used the SSM once. When using
plain ACAD, I prefer my customizations so far. My system is to do all the drawings. In
a single sheets file, I arrange all my titleblocks and have a single layout with a single
viewport
for each sheet. Then I xref all the drawings in to the sheets file and can move the
drawings back
and forth until the fit well and make sense. Then I title them and key them and number
the sheets
and run a program to make sure that all the keys are properly numbered and
cross-referenced.
To plot, I just select all the layouts and pick publish.

Old habits die hard.

I did have a chance to experiment with 2005's SSM during the past year. What did you not
like?
Give me a starting point and would be glad to test for you.

I am using the Project Navigator in ADT 2006 but did not have a chance to test the unique
features
of 2006. Specifically its abilities to configure and enforce project standards.
Lots of new features there.

selection of number of sheets to be plotted.

 

http://jtbworld.blogspot.com/2005/03/autocad-2006-sheet-set-manager.html

--
Best Regards, Jimmy Bergmark
CAD and Database Developer Manager at www.pharmadule-emtunga.com
Blog: http://jtbworld.blogspot.com
JTB FlexReport (FLEXnet / FLEXlm report tool) -
www.jtbworld.com/jtbflexreport
SmartPurger (Purges automatically) - www.jtbworld.com/?/smartpurger.htm
or download some freeware at www.jtbworld.com
More on AutoCAD 2005 and 2006
www.jtbworld.com/autocad2005.htm
www.jtbworld.com/autocad2006.htm

 

Hi Doug,
while I've often said in the past that "they will have to pry the command
line out of my dead cold hands", I'm wondering if I really need it at all.
99% of my command execution is with command aliases and frankly, I don't
even look at the command line most of the time. I would assume that keyboard
aliases would work as they have in the past regardless of whether the
command line is showing or not?
Dave
DDP

 

I've hidden the command line as default for my users and some of them didn't
even notice that it was gone, even after months of working in AutoCAD 2006.

--
Best Regards, Jimmy Bergmark
CAD and Database Developer Manager at www.pharmadule-emtunga.com
Blog: http://jtbworld.blogspot.com
JTB FlexReport (FLEXnet / FLEXlm report tool) -
www.jtbworld.com/jtbflexreport
SmartPurger (Purges automatically) - www.jtbworld.com/?/smartpurger.htm
or download some freeware at www.jtbworld.com
More on AutoCAD 2005 and 2006
www.jtbworld.com/autocad2005.htm
www.jtbworld.com/autocad2006.htm

 

Thanks Jimmy. Was wondering what that "!" mark was for.

 

I believe that if you want bring in an existing mnu, you just menuload and
autocad will create a cui file of the same name in the same directory and
you work with that from then on...