AutoCAD Top Ten List

I’ve used AutoCAD for a long time and just like any long term relationship with an inanimate pile of 1’s and 0’s it is deep love/hate relationship.  Below is my list of the top 10 items that I love about AutoCAD.  Some of them refer to CAD in general and some are more geared towards the vertical applications and the new B.I.M. applications, but they all originated with my use of AutoCAD.

#10 – Vertical Applications
AutoCAD can be used to draw wiring diagrams, circuit boards, auto bodies, engines, buildings, foliage and just about anything else that you can imagine.  The vertical applications take AutoCAD and target it, using many of the items on this list, to specific industries.  Being in the residential housing industry we use ADT to design and create construction documents.  We also do a bit of site development and we use Civil 3D.  We are looking hard at the MEP packages as well.  I hope this trend continues expand to cover additional industries and to shrink to cover niche industries, like the residential housing industry that has very specific needs beyond the general needs of the architectural and construction industry as a whole.

#9 – Fields
Fields give us the ability to input information in one location and have it display in multiple locations.  Changing the source updates all other instances.  Fields also give us the ability to report via text the properties of graphically defined objects.

#8 – The 3rd dimension
Most designers, regardless of their field, form a mental image of their design before they put it on paper.  I’m willing to bet their mental image is not a 2d piece of paper.  The ability to take that 3D image out of your head and show it to someone else in the same format is very powerful indeed.

#7 – Multiple Undo
Design is very sloppy process.  This tool, yes it is a tool, allows a bit of freedom and fluidity to explore multiple design ideas without the need to save each and every iteration along the way.  Although I’m the first to admit that saving an occasional iteration is a great idea.

#6 – The powers of association
There’s no way to overstate the power of logically associating one object to another.  Associating some lines and text into a dimension object or a hatch object to its boundary objects is something we now take for granted.  The vertical applications are taking this to the next level.  For instance, in ADT door objects are associated to wall objects and door tag objects are associated to the doors.  Move a wall and the doors move with it, and because the doors moved the tags moved too.  Change the size of the door and the tag updates to show the new size and the wall adjusts to fit the modified door.  There are 3rd party packages that take this to the next level and associate framing members to the the walls and the doors and windows in them.  I do see a bit of danger if this idea is taken so far that the software tries to outsmart the designer running it.  Or maybe I’ve just watched The Terminator one to many times.

#5 – Style based objects
Style based objects are the ultimate tool for those designers that have a hard time making a final decision. 

"I know that I need a window here, but should it be a rectangular window or an archtop window, or maybe I should go for broke and make it an oval."

Style based objects make it extremely easy to put in a window of one style and change it to another.  Styles have been around for a while, even in straight AutoCAD.  Text and dimension styles have been bread and butter tools for CAD Managers and power users for many years.  I can’t imagine drawing without them.

#4 – Blocks
Blocks have been with us for so long that we don’t even think about how important they are to us.  Close your eyes and imagine working with AutoCAD without blocks.  No grouping of primitives into meaningful symbols, no symbols libraries, no mass updating of symbols, etc…  Did it send a shiver of dread up your spine?  It does mine.

#3 – Customization
Every industry, every company within an industry, and every individual within a company has their own procedures and workflow.  The ability to customize AutoCAD to fit into that workflow is invaluable.  Our company is currently looking at a variety of initiatives and we are realizing that our workflow will need to change to accommodate them.  It is very comforting to know that I can customize AutoCAD to fit into that workflow and not the other way around.

#2 – Ubiquity
If you are drafting then you are either using AutoCAD, have used AutoCAD, have to deal with AutoCAD drawings, or at the very least have heard of AutoCAD and compared your software to it.  One of the biggest challenges that I may have to deal with as a CAD Manager if we switch to a non-AutoCAD based software is training.  Right now I can place an add for drafters in the local paper and rest assured that 95% of the applicants already know base AutoCAD and I will not need to train them at that level.

#1 – Users
And the number one thing that I like about using AutoCAD.  Yep, it’s you.  I have met so many people and found that instant connection because we both work and fight with AutoCAD on a daily basis.  From local user groups, to regional and national gatherings like AUGI CAD Camps and Autodesk University, and to online communities like the Autodesk discussion groups, AUGI, and The Swamp, you can hardly swing a dead mouse around by its USB cord without hitting a fellow AutoCAD user in the head.

There’s my list, how does it compare to yours?

Next we’ll look at the top 10 items that I hate about AutoCAD.

 

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