Suddenly, It’s 2011!

There’s been a new release of AutoCAD every spring since AutoCAD 2004 was
launched in 2003. That’s not much time for even an army of programmers to
deliver a compelling new feature set that’s going to convince all users that
they just have to upgrade. What seems to have been happening is a concentration
on particular areas in recent releases. For example, AutoCAD 2007
was a 3D release; the 3D modeling engine was made much easier to use, but
there was relatively little to please the 2D crowd. By contrast, AutoCAD 2008
was deemed to be “the drafter’s release” because of the number of enhancements
to 2D drawing capabilities — above all, the introduction of annotative
documentation objects. In AutoCAD 2009, the new interface got the lion’s
share of development (suddenly, it’s Office 2007!); major new features were
limited to some 3D navigation tools, the very useful Quick Properties tool,
and a palettized Layer Properties Manager. AutoCAD 2010 offered significant
enhancements to both 2D and 3D users, in parametric drafting tools, and
free-form mesh modeling.

AutoCAD 2011 again has presents for both the 2D and the 3D crowds, in the
new transparency object property, object visibility controls, and a new suite
of surface modeling tools. I introduce transparency in Chapter 6 and object
isolation in Chapter 10; you find out about network surfaces, blends, and G2
continuity in Chapter 22, and rendering with materials in Chapter 23. In the
meantime, here’s a short list of some of the other new features, along with
where you can go to find out more:

AutoCAD’s drawing screen: After a quarter-century of out-of-the-box
black backgrounds, Autodesk’s programmers decided to kick the program
into the 21st century by lightening up the drawing area, making
it more like Inventor and Revit, Autodesk’s newer 3D design programs.
AutoCAD 2010 appeared with an off-white drawing background, but the
program has now returned to the dark side — not black, but very dark
gray. And the old dot grid has been sidelined by a new graph paper-style
linear grid.

Navigation bar: Pan, Zoom, SteeringWheel, Orbit, and ShowMotion (the
last two not in AutoCAD LT) are removed from the status bar and relocated
to the new, floating Navigation bar. The ViewCube, near neighbor
to the Navigation bar, is now on screen even in the 2D Wireframe visual
style (it was formerly visible only in 3D visual styles). Since AutoCAD LT
has virtually no 3D capabilities, it doesn’t get the ViewCube. I introduce
the Navigation bar in Chapter 2, and cover its 2D tools in Chapter 12.
New Visual Styles: Visual styles let you quickly view 3D models with surfaces
and a minimal degree of rendering. AutoCAD 2011 comes with ten
visual styles; the four new ones include “Shades of Gray” and “X-Ray.”
Visual styles (which are not included in AutoCAD LT) are described in
Chapter 21.
Object visibility: This one is probably my favorite new feature. You no
longer have to turn an entire layer off in order to hide the display of one
particular object — you can now select the object you don’t want to see,
right-click, and choose Hide Objects. You can also isolate objects so
what you select is the only thing you see. I cover hiding, isolating, and
unisolating objects in Chapter 10.
New selection tools: Two new commands on the right-click menu offer
their assistance in selecting objects and drawing new ones. Select
Similar prompts you to select an object, and then displays all objects
with the same properties. Add Selected prompts you to pick an object;
AutoCAD then starts whatever command was used to create that object
and draws a new object using the source object’s properties. I describe
these new tools in Chapter 10.
Inferred constraints: A new status bar button toggles this feature off
and on. When enabled, parametric constraints are added to points you
pick using object snaps — or points to which object snaps are automatically
applied. For example, if you draw a series of lines using the LINE
command, and inferred constraints is enabled, the lines get coincident
constraints at their adjoining endpoints and behave exactly like a polyline.
I introduce you to parametrics in Chapter 19.
Hatches and gradients: The old Hatch and Gradient and Hatch Edit
dialog boxes are still there, but the new way of adding hatching to drawings
is by using the new Hatch Creation and Hatch Editing contextual
Ribbon tabs. Start the HATCH command, and as you pass your crosshairs
over drawing geometry, different enclosed areas will highlight and
a preview hatch pattern will appear. You just click to confirm the area
you want. I cover hatching in Chapter 15.
Polyline and spline editing: This might be my second favorite new
feature. Polylines and splines have become much easier to edit with the
addition of secondary grips at the midpoints of segments. Ctrl+Click
actions on the secondary grips let you add or remove vertices or change
line segments to arc segments.

3D Features: AutoCAD 2011 gains a new 3D Basics workspace that presents
a not-quite-so overwhelming panoply of buttons and lists as the
regular 3D Modeling workspace. New features include NURBS surfaces
and a vast material library. Perhaps best of all for the 3D crowd is the
addition of a set of 3D object snaps. (AutoCAD LT users . . . you know
the scoop by now.) In this edition of AutoCAD For Dummies, an entire
new section presents an introduction to viewing, creating, and editing
3D models in AutoCAD.