ATP244

What’s new in AutoCAD 2010

Segment 3

Date: April 20, 2009

Instructor: Kenneth Leary

Level: All Levels
Category: AutoCAD 2010

Web: www.AUGI.com

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In the first segment we covered Parametric modeling which entails Geometric and Dimensional
constraints. In the second Segment we covered dynamic block enhancements. In our third and final
segment we’re going to cover the rest of the enhancements to existing commands that were added to
AutoCAD 2010. These are the changes that are often referred to as the Fit and Finish features.

Drawing File Format

AutoCAD 2010 uses a new Drawing file format that offers better save times, especially when saving
files with larger amounts of annotative objects. Another new feature of the new drawing format is the
object size limits have been increased; in older formats no single object in a drawing could be larger
than 256 MB. With the new format in AutoCAD 2010, the object size limit has been increased to at least
4 GB. Since these large objects cannot be saved into old formats a new compatibility option has been
added to the Open and Save tab of the Options dialog box.

When the box is selected, or if you type LARGEOBJECTSUPPORT at the command prompt, the object
size limits from previous versions will be used instead of the new 2010 format limits.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick access toolbar

has received a few
upgrades. Now when
you right click over the
toolbar you have some
new options available.

You can remove the

Quick Access toolbar,
add a separator between
some of the commands, Customize the Toolbar and move the location of the toolbar below the Ribbon.

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Ribbon Improvements

AutoCAD ruined, I mean changed, the popular Dashboard palette and created the Ribbon in the 2009
version. The idea was to match the new menu configuration used by Microsoft Office 2007. One of the
results of this change was the loss of some of the
functionality that the Dashboard contained.
AutoCAD 2010 returns the Dashboard
functionality and adds some more new features.

Vertical Layout - the Ribbon can now be

detached or using the proper terminology,
undocked from its original location and rotated to
a vertical layout, much like the Tool Pallets and
the old Dashboard. Also similar to the Tool Pallet,
the ribbon can be docked on the left or right side
of the drawing area and minimized until you
mouse over the minimized palette to expand it.

The Tabs will also be displayed along the side of

the menu palette.

When in the vertical position, the individual panel

will now expand horizontally when selected.
Widening the panel the button will automatically
align to fit the new area.

Sticky Panels – Panels can now be removed from the Ribbon and dragged into the drawing area.
These panels are referred to as Sticky panels. When you switch from one tab to another in the panel
the sticky panel will stay on screen. When you
mouse over the panel, menu bars appear in the
sides. Selecting the Toggle Orientation button
changes the panel from expanding down to
expanding to the left or right.

Selecting the top button returns the Panel to its

proper location on the ribbon.

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PDF Support
After many requests from users AutoCAD will now offer support for PDF files. Adobe PDF files can
now be underlayed similar to DWF files. When you attach or modify a PDF file, a context sensitive tab
opens on the Ribbon.

From this tab you can modify the appearance and display of the underlay, clipping boundary and edit
the layers in the PDF. You can also snap to points on the PDF, which is also a new feature available
with DWF files. The PDFFRAME setting can also change the frame settings independent of the image
frame settings.

PDF output has also been greatly enhanced; now the file output will have a resolution of 600 DPI,
which will improve the quality of the files without making them unmanageable.

Reference files

Reference files have several new features that will

greatly expand their capabilities and improve their
functionality.

On the Menu Ribbon select the Insert tab to view the

Reference panel.

Reference Fading – This is a great new feature if

you’re warned about it before the first time you open
a drawing with reference files in 2010. Reference
fading works just like locked layer fading, by fading
the entire reference file.

This is controlled by the XDWGFADECTL system

variable. The values range from 99 to –99, the
higher the number the more faded the reference file
becomes. The number 0 or any value with a
negative number is not faded. The reason that the negative number is possible is because it can be
used as a placeholder. For example, if you want to set the transparency to 60% faded you would enter
the value of 60 and if you temporarily disable it set the value to –60. You can enable it again by
removing the “-“ symbol and go straight back to your old setting.

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Reference Frames – The FRAME command turns
the display of frames on and off for all external
references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF, and
DGN underlays.

Frames can be set for individual reference types.

The IMAGEFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME,
DGNFRAME, and XCLIPFRAME settings control
the behavior of frames for each of those reference
types. The FRAME command will override those
individual settings. From the drop down menu
you can select the option of Hiding the frames,
Displaying and plotting the frames or Displaying
the frames but not plotting them. The WIPEOUT
command frames are not controlled by this
command.

Reference clipping – It’s much easier to modify a

reference clip boundary. Grips now allow you to
select the boundary and pick the grip and move it to
the new location.

There is also an arrow grip, which will invert the

clip when selected.

Hatch Editing

Editing hatch patterns can be very difficult. The

HATCHEDIT command can offer some powerful
modifying tools but it has to be an associative hatch
with a defined boundary. In AutoCAD 2010, you
can select a hatch entity which is not associative
and without a boundary and modify it with grips.
On the midpoint between each grip point is an
additional grip with a rectangular shape. Selecting
the middle grip will allow you to add a new vertex,
once you select and activate the middle grip you
can add the new point to the hatch limits or select the CTRL key and add an arc to the hatch boundary.

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Purge

The purge command has a new feature that

will help remove the headaches that many
AutoCAD users face when trying to clean up
a drawing. It’s not unusual to have some
text style or layer that doesn’t want to go
away, even when you know it’s not being
used.

This is often caused by line definitions with

zero length or text, which contains only a
space. Now the Purge command will delete
zero length geometry (lines, arcs, polylines,
etc.) in a drawing. It also deletes mtext and
text that contains only spaces (no text).

It is important to note that PURGE will not

remove zero-length geometry or empty text
and mtext objects in blocks or locked layers.

Reverse

The REVERSE command gives you the ability to reverse the direction of lines, polylines, and splines.
Simply select the object(s) to reverse. Changing the direction of these lines gives you the ability to
control the display of special linetypes.

The PEDIT command has also

been updated to include a Reverse
option. Using the Reverse option
has the same results as using the
REVERSE command.

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Dimensions

Dimensions have received some additional

new tools in AutoCAD 2010, which greatly
improve their flexibility when displaying text.

Once a dimension has been placed there are

new settings that can be changed with the
properties command. Text can now be
rotated independently from the dimension line
or flipped to read from left to right or right to
left. Text can also now be located
underneath the dimension line.

There is also a sub-units setting which can be included in the

dimension style definition. As a part of the Zero suppression pane
on the Primary units tab, you can define a smaller unit if the primary
unit setting is not met. For example, if the primary unit is feet, it will
display inches if the measurement is under a foot, or display
centimeters if the dimension is under a meter.

Multileaders
Multileaders now have improved functionality when they are edited. Text in multileaders now functions
more like an mtext entity, new leader grips allow you to resize the text the same way you would resize
mtext. You can add formatting, justification, bullets and numbering, etc., just like mtext object. You
also have the ability to add columns to the leader text.

Another new feature is the ability to add a vertical attachment to

the leader line. This will allow you to attach to the top or bottom
of the leader text. You can specify if the attachment has an
overline or underline is has a simple attachment with no landing.

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Spline edit

Editing Splines has also been given a few new features.

Now when you select a spline, or type SPLINEDIT at the
command line, and it will give you two new options.

You can either use the new Reverse option or you can
convert it to a polyline. When converting to a polyline it will
prompt you to specify a number for the precision. The
acceptable number range is between 1 and 99, the larger
the number the more precise the conversion. The default
value is 10.

The PLINECONVERTMODE system variable determines the method used to create the polylines. A
setting of 1 will create the polyline with arcs and a setting of 0 will create the polyline using line
segments.

Viewport Rotate

In previous versions, when a viewport is rotated the view inside the viewport would not rotate or change
it’s orientation with the viewport. In AutoCAD 2010, the
VPROTATEASSOC variable allows the view to rotate with the
viewport.

When VPROTATEASSOC is
set to the default setting of 1,
the view will rotate to maintain
its orientation relevant to the
viewport. When it’s set to 0, the
view will not rotate even though
the viewport itself does.

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Conclusion
Hopefully this course has helped explain some of the new features available in AutoCAD 2010. There’s
still more new features that we haven’t covered, so take your time and look around the program. The
new features are also covered in the help menu under the “New features workshop”.

Remember that this material is only a portion of the class, support is always available online in the
private course forum. I encourage you to visit the course forum and ask any questions that you may
have about this segment or simply join in the discussion. The ATP Mantra is: the only stupid question is
the one you don’t ask. Thanks again for attending this course!