AutoCAD 2012

Ok lads,

Whats you first impressions on AutoCAD 2012 ????

Not impressed !!!! aren't things supposed to get better ????

When your doing a task quickly i.e erasing things, it changes view, adds in various other commands etc.

It also crashes when closing drawings !!!

There are various other things that just happen.

Also removed some commands WHY ????? i.e "Trace"

Can add them back in but why do this ???

Just another Autocad that has been thrown out the door to make some money !!!!!

I've been running 2012 since a day after it hit my desk.

2012 will not open some of my drawings without reporting an AutoCAD Error yet the same drawings open perfectly fine in 2010. Even after Purge and Audit I still have a problem. Heck, I can even open them in 2007 with no problem.

I've had an issue with creating a new layers where it does not display objects on the new layer in the specified color.

I have also had my entire drawing screen disappear leaving only my viewports toolbar, the properties window and layer properties manager showing. How weird is that?

I'm not much impressed by what they did to the Array and Hatch commands either.

I'm a bit skeptical at the moment and I don't want to be. I really want to like 2012.

thanks for the info, we're currently in the process of upgrading several seats and i was wondering about the stability of 2011 and 2012, looks like we'll be skipping 2012 lol.

I've found no problems with 2012 really. It is as good as previous releases. In terms of new features it doesn't offer a whole lot more though.

You got to wonder why they get in such a hurry to roll out a new version. Anyone who's been around for a while remembers the nightmare that was release 13, did they learn nothing from that mistake? Or is the corporate memory a bit short? The users do not want to beta test for you Mr. Autodesk. You have staff and some volunteers for that. When you do stuff like this all you do is anger your customers and they go somewhere else. And unlike the R13 days, there are plenty of places to go now.

A couple of suggestions for the Autodesk folks. If you would stop naming releases the same as the calender year, it would take some of the pressure off. If you are late in the year getting 2013 out, it looks bad to the public. If you are late getting Release 27 out, who cares... IF it works when it gets there? Better release late and working than early and be all hosed up. Another suggestion...there are a whole bunch of us out here that only upgrade every 2-3 years anyway. Since I started supplying my own software here, i've skipped from 2004 to 2007 to 2010. I have no immediate plans to upgrade. I do plan to add another license, but to be perfectly honest, I'm looking really hard at Bricscad. The version I need is about $600. Much easier to swallow than $4000+ and the transition would be almost seamless. I used thier 30 day demo every day it was active, and unless something happens to change my mind, my additional seat will be Bricscad. You guys might want to look at pricing soon. Your competitors, whether you want to believe you have them or not, are hot on your heels.

I realize that Autocad is a very complex bit of programming. The vertical products even more so. I know that you are not going to catch every bug or problem that millions of users might find. In turn, Autodesk should realize that when folks lay down many thousands of dollars for a software package, they expect it to work. $4000 may be nothing to giant corporations with thousands of employees, but its a major investment for a 1 1/2 person shop like me.

I agree Jack

Interesting opinions. I've been using daily since v1.4f. One of my favourites (with screen and tablet menus) was Acad 13 DOS

There are some good features in 2012 especially the now useful 'select similar' and 'hide objects' functions. All done in LISP before, but nice now integrated into the shell Just my 2 cents.

Just come to using the ARRAY command and you no longer get the dialogue box !!!!

This makes life alot harder and you now have to get it right first time !!!!

No preview or anything !!!

Any answers on how to fix that one ???

You got to wonder why they get in such a hurry to roll out a new version.

Autodesk have locked themselves in to a 12 month update cycle in order to justify the subscription scheme. Most subscribers (myself included) would feel they weren't getting their moneys worth if there wasn't a new version each year.

Just come to using the ARRAY command and you no longer get the dialogue box !!!!

This makes life alot harder and you now have to get it right first time !!!!

No preview or anything !!!

Any answers on how to fix that one ???

Well, there is a preview and it's dynamic. You can see the array being created as you work - I don't think it's so bad and the fact that arrays are now associative is great. I do miss the dialogue but the new method gives you instant feedback.

Well to be honest I use Array quite alot and the dynamic display is ok for columns and row's but for polar Array it's useless and you have to decide on the number of objects you wish to create before you can actually see the dynamic preview then there's no going back.

As for rolling it out and seeing benifits every year, every year things are getting worse instead of better, commands don't work the way they used to far to many crashes, yes it looks good but doesn't do what it says on the tin. To be honest the best AutoCad they have produced for lack of problems is AutoCAD 2007 and this seems to be the most stable one, every year since then they move the goal posts and change the ways things are done instead of building/adding to what they have.

I have 2 young lads that are going to college completing the AutoCAD course and the tutorials they use are no longer valid for there training.

If AutoCAD 12 was as good as what you make out how come the internet is full with users complaining about something or another !!!!

Complete waste of money and time installing it - what benifits do you get out of paying your subscription for another year ????? NONE same program (but not as good) with same if not more errors. Would you buy a car if you can slide the roof open but couldn't open the windows and everytime you hit the brakes it would crash don't think so !!!!!

Well to be honest I use Array quite alot and the dynamic display is ok for columns and row's but for polar Array it's useless and you have to decide on the number of objects you wish to create before you can actually see the dynamic preview then there's no going back.

Well, that's not quite true. At the end of the Polar Array procedure, you are presented with a menu that allows any of the parameters to be modified.

If AutoCAD 12 was as good as what you make out how come the internet is full with users complaining about something or another !!!!

I'm not defending the Autodesk policy, I'm just giving you a reason for it. It's a commercial decision that they are trying to pass off as "user focussed". In my opinion, subscribers do not get fair value for money and AutoCAD does not need a 12 month update cycle. Personally, I haven't experienced any problems with 2012 but I don't doubt that many people have. And for what it's worth, the best/most stable version of AutoCAD was R14 but would I go back to it now? No - the productivity improvements in the latest versions of AutoCAD are excellent - there's a balance to be struck.

I have 2 young lads that are going to college completing the AutoCAD course and the tutorials they use are no longer valid for there training.

The college they are attending should update their lessons then. You can still do everything in 2012 that you could do in 2007 though remember, the interface might just be a bit different.

Complete waste of money and time installing it - what benifits do you get out of paying your subscription for another year ????? NONE same program (but not as good) with same if not more errors.

Simply cancel your subscription and don't upgrade it anymore then. Or use one of the many AutoCad clone programs out there.

Simply cancel your subscription and don't upgrade it anymore then. Or use one of the many AutoCad clone programs out there.

Personally I would have years ago but to keep up with other companies etc your forced to upgrade to these lame updates.

Personally I would have years ago but to keep up with other companies etc your forced to upgrade to these lame updates.

It's only really necessary to upgrade when the file format changes (if you are concerned about compatibility) and that only happens every 3-4 years. You could simply skip the other releases.

when we were on it we only loaded the new versions approximatly every 3 years. We tended to instal the 2nd version of the latest format to hope any bugs with the new format had gone.

We are now part of a big US company who evaluate new releases before we get them. That is why I am on 2008 but some in the organisation have been allowed 2011.

We binned our subscription this year and are sticking with 2010LT. Trouble is if we get any new starters they will now be on a different version to everyone else now. IT manager has asked me to evaluate some AutoCAD clones. I am just worried about losing the dynamic blocks and annotative text as a lot of the clones seem to be clones of 2005.

Ok, So here is a question for you guys. There is a lot of stink on 2012. Im using mechanical desktop 05. would I still be at an advantage to buy 2012LT. Thats what were looking at. Its at $1000 for 2 seats.

Im not sure what the difference is maybe you can help - We mainly do 2D drawings. Wiring schematics and quite a bit of recreating 2D views of Connectors and such.

what do you think? or is there another option?

Take a look at Bricscad. You get vba, autolisp, and 3d if you need it for just over half the price of LT. It looks and feels a lot like 2008. Some of the terminology is different, for instance "orbit" in autocad is "real time motion" in Bricscad, but it works the same. Its biggest drawback is the lack of dynamic blocks, but that is promised in an upcoming release. You can try it for free, minus vba support (royalties, you see).

I bought a copy a few months ago and like it so well that I doubt I will upgrade my Autodesk products. The output from Bricscad is completely compatible with 2010 and vice versa, and I have had no problems using it with any of my customers drawings.

i would just assume stick with the autoCAD format - are all the commands the same.

I guess my question is: is it CAD I have a student edition of 10 and I like that.

So I dont want to use a different platform.

Just come to using the ARRAY command and you no longer get the dialogue box !!!!

This makes life alot harder and you now have to get it right first time !!!!

No preview or anything !!!

Any answers on how to fix that one ???

Go here for a simple edit in the CUI to make associative array much better.

http://withoutanet.typepad.com/without_a_net/

Contextual Array Ribbon Tab Tip - Revisited October 28, 2011

2012 has been good to me so far, especially after the first fix and now the first service pack. Make sure you install the SP1.