If you use Autodesk Inventor, then odds are that you at least occasionally have a need for AutoCAD as well. And much like Inventor, the AutoCAD development team has been listening to you about what new features and enhancements you need most. They have delivered on several of these in 2017 – let’s take a look:
PDF Import
This was one of the top requests from customers, following the print to PDF functionality introduced nearly a decade ago and the PDF underlay capability included with AutoCAD 2010. With the PDF import inside the 2017 release, you can import geometry, TrueType text, or raster images into the current drawing as AutoCAD objects. You have options during import to choose which types of objects to import, how layer assignments should be handled, and various post-processing options for the geometry.
Smart Centerlines/Center Marks
A great productivity enhancement, centerlines and center marks can now be created associatively to the arcs, circles, line, or polyline segments they reference. If you move any of the objects around, the centerlines and center marks will move along with them.
Share Design View
Just like the online design review capability introduced with Inventor 2017, AutoCAD now has built-in functionality to easily share drawings via A360. Once uploaded, you can share that design view with stakeholders inside or outside the company where they can view it without any plug-ins—or even having to sign in.
Autodesk Desktop App
The Autodesk Desktop App is a new companion application that comes with many of the Autodesk 2017 products. It automatically notifies you of any updates or security patches and can install them right from the app. There’s also links to new learning content for all of your products currently under subscription.
Want more?
This is just a sampling of what the AutoCAD team delivered this year. Head on over to the AutoCAD blog for a series of articles containing details on all they key new features.
