Cadalyst - September 2008 - (Page 26)

cadalystlabsreview By Bill Fane AutoCAD 2009 The old standard ties on another new interface. W bs • La hen I launched my ﬁrst beta copy of AutoCAD 2009, I thought I must have downloaded the wrong ﬁle. It hardly looked like AutoCAD at all. The obvious difference is that the model space background color is not black, it’s slightly off white. Okay, maybe the difference that jumps out at most people is the new ribbon menu across the top, similar to the Microsoft Office 2007 ribbon menu (figure 1). Uh-oh, we’re doomed. I disliked the Office ribbon so much that after about three weeks I uninstalled Office 2007 and went back to Office 2003, using the free module from Microsoft that allowed Office 2003 to read and write Office 2007 files. The good news is that Autodesk has kept to its tradition of allowing users to manipulate and customize the user interface. Someone forgot to tell Microsoft that monitors are getting wider, not taller, so it makes little sense to co-opt such a large horizontal zone across the top of the screen. AutoCAD did get the message, and AutoCAD 2009 allows you to move its ribbon to the left side, the bottom, or the right side just as you could relocate the now-defunct dashboard. (Now, there was a short-lived interface; the dashboard was introduced in AutoCAD 2007, but it’s gone already.) Most panels of the ribbon include a fly-out menu at the bottom to display additional, less-frequently used commands within the same general category. You can easily lock individual fly-out menus so that they remain displayed all the time. The AutoCAD 2009 ribbon is actually a combination super toolbar and tool palette. It can be undocked and set to float freely as a toolbar. Like a tool palette, it can be set to have transparency and to auto-hide, reducing to a narrow strip until you move your cursor over it. You can set up the ribbon in this way even when it is docked so it displays only the panel titles and each panel pops down when you mouse over its title. This capability pretty much solves the screen real-estate issue, but you will need a pretty brisk computer and graphics card if you want to keep up. Each tab on the ribbon brings up one or more panels, and individual panels can be dragged off the ribbon to become separate toolbars. To paraphrase an old Frank Sinatra song, you can do it your way. The ribbon panels and the ribbon itself can be completely customized with the normal custom user interface functionality. If you really want to continue to do it your way, you can turn the ribbon off and the toolbars back on. In fact, the old DOS screen menu is still available for old diehards. You even can use all of the above in that you can have the new ribbon, the old menu bar, and the really old screen menu active at the same time. AutoCAD 2009 includes two distinctly different ribbons for the 2D and 3D workspaces, but it also has an AutoCAD Classic workspace. When you activate it, the ribbon disappears and the traditional toolbars and menu bar reappear. AutoCAD 2009 General-Purpose CAD Software This version: . . . . . Ease of use: . . . . . Features:. . . . . . . Installation: . . . . . Customization: . . . Interoperability: . . Third-party add-ons: Help: . . . . . . . . . Innovation: . . . . . Value: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A A A A+ A+ A A+ A B+ A 26 adalyst •C A+ Pros: Industry standard; ribbon menu can be turned off. Cons: Price. Price: $3,995 Autodesk 800.964.6432 www.autodesk.com Figure 1. AutoCAD 2009 sports a totally new interface, but you can also set it to run the old way. www.cadalyst.com cadalyst September 2008 http://www.autodesk.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - September 2008

Cadalyst - September 2008 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Tech Trends: Genie Out of the Bottle Cadalyst Labs Reviews: Big Tools for Big Jobs — Wide-Format Scanners and Printers Make Small Work of Large Projects Cadalyst Labs Reviews: AutoCAD 2009 — General-Purpose CAD Software Cadalyst Labs Reviews: AecBatchStylesEditor 2009 — CAD Standards Management Software for AEC Cad manager: Synchronize CAD Files over a Wide Area MCAD Modeling: Is 2D Drawing Doomed? Plm Strategies: More Bang for Your Truck Aec Insight: Works and Plays Well with Others Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry: VBA Hints for Customizing AutoCAD

Cadalyst - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.