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User Interface
Toolpalette Improvements: First introduced in 2004,
has been enhanced.
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Now you may have multiple pallets.
Tools by Example:
Drag and drop an object (such as text, inserts, dimensions,
etc) from the drawing onto the tool palette and create
a ready to use tool. The properties (such as layer)
of the dragged object determine the default properties
for the newly created object. Right clicking on the
tool lets you easily change the default properties.
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Drawings in Taskbar: Long wished for, implemented
in a Microsoft Office fashion with separate buttons on the
taskbar. Its on by default and can be controlled with the
TASKBAR command
Custom menu bar tab: Pulldown menu bar now will allow
the places of menu's to be changed with a simple up/down button.
Sheet Sets
AutoCAD users need to create, manage, and share drawing file
information related to a project. Organizations using AutoCAD
and AutoCAD-based products may have hundreds or even thousands
of drawing files for a specific project, each having multiple
layouts depicting different views or scales of project data.
Most organizations manage sheet sets using a file and folder
structure on local disk drives and network servers. This manual
method is labor intensive and susceptible to error. AutoCAD
2005 enables you to go beyond single drawing productivity
by providing new tools that make it easier to manage entire
sets of related drawings or sheet sets.
Sheet Set Manager
Using the Sheet Set Manager, you can manage sheets,
views, and models in a sheet set. It displays all drawing
sheets and sheet subsets to help you better organize, plot,
and link information in your drawings. You can see who currently
has drawings open for editing and which drawings are available.
Mtext Enhancements:
Background mask added to the mtext command. No
long do you have to mask text with an express tool. Now the
mtext commnad will do it for you. The special charector list
has been expanded too. Charactors like omega, not equal, delta
are now listed along with degree, Plus\minus.
Creating Tables (Finally)
You can define table styles that contain multiple
columns and rows, including title and header rows. Tabs in
the New and Modify Table Style dialog boxes enable you to
apply different cell and border properties to data cells,
column headings, and title headings. Border properties include
grid visibility, lineweight, and color. Cell properties include
text style, text height, text color, fill color, and alignment.
You can specify the table direction, up or down, and you can
specify horizontal or vertical table margins.
Some things you can do with them.
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Blocks
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An interesting feature is the ability to
insert blocks into a cell. You can scale (or autosize)
& rotate, but you can't have text and an block in a single
cell. |
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Editing
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A good collection of editing tools are available
for after a table has been created. You can simply double
click in a table cell to begin editing it in place. Included
are tools to change cell alignment, borders, match cells,
insert/delete rows/cols, size cols/rows equally, merge
cells, etc. Grip editing of table features works well,
with abilities like column sizing, etc. You can also establish
table styles for consistent appearance in tables. |
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Export
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You can export the contents of a table to
a CSV (comma separated values) file with the TABLEEXPORT
command. But there is no table import command. |
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Reverse compatibility:
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Tables created in 2005 are proxy objects
when opened in previous releases. We were able to explode
them. In 2004 the geometry became lines & mtext, while
in 2000 the lines disappeared and the annotation became
text objects. |
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Paste from Excel:
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When using the PASTESPEC command, the Product
Entities option now creates a table. If you are using
Windows XP with the latest Microsoft Office, this does
a much better job than previous releases but its still
not perfect and there is no link to automatically update.
On Windows 2000/Office 2000 the results are usable but
bear little resemblance to the spreadsheet as all formatting
is lost. |
Layer Improvements: New layer dialog with tree view
for filters (old) and groups (new). You can create subgroups
and add/remove layer from any group. You can also enter/edit
lengthy descriptions for layers. Not quite the layer tree
people were asking for.
Maximize Viewports: While in a paper space layout,
you can now quickly maximize a viewport to work on the model.
After picking the button, the contents of the viewport maximizes
the screen, you no longer need to switch to model. You can
quickly switch to other viewports with arrow buttons and return
to the normal layout by clicking the button again.
Background Plotting: Plots take up little time to
free up your computer. You no longer have to wait until the
plot is sent to the plotter.
Other commands to be noted are.
Hatch Objects may now be trimmed.
Hatches do not have to be totally inclosed a fuzz factor
has been added. (Think Pedit join)
Draw order has been fixed
A new programing language has been added .NET is just
started to get supported.
Copy Multiple has been added
A new snap Mid between 2 points has been added.
Match props has added supported objects.
Numerous changes to eTransmit.
New Plot dialog. Well maybe not new as much as
reworked.
New Markup tools Redliner
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