No sooner was this article posted to the Web ( /0904lc/) in September when I received a phone call from Mark Fritts at Autodesk. Go FigureLate last year I wrote a Learning Curve column about Cal, the little-known calculator that is built into AutoCAD. Through the magic of cut-and-paste, figure 3 shows all three of the new selection indicators. Instead of being simple rectangular frames, they now appear as semitransparent rectangular blocks. The second visual aid is the shading of Window and Crossing selections. This virtually eliminates the problem of inadvertently selecting the wrong object in a crowded area of the drawing. The highlighting shows what would be selected if the user were to pick at that point. As a user moves the cursor around the screen hunting for objects to select, objects are highlighted as the cursor rolls over them-even though no object has been selected yet. Whenever an active command asks the user to select objects, Rollover Highlighting kicks in. These include rollover highlighting and tinted selection boxes. More Visual CuesAutoCAD 2006 adds several other visual cues to help users.
Someone needs to write a full article on its uses, features and customization. This is just a hint of the capabilities that Dynamic Input provides. Another significant point is that users can type in commands and responses even when the Command line is closed and DYN is off-they just can't see what's happening. Using AutoCAD is much more productive because I'm not always having to look down at the Command line.Ī new DYN button on the status bar turns Dynamic Input on and off on the fly. After about 11 seconds I was convinced that this was a good change. This was compounded by the fact that the Command line was turned off in the first demo I saw. I've been an active AutoCAD user since v2.14g in 1986, and I must admit I had an anxiety attack when I first saw Dynamic Input. Error messages and other information returned by the command display at the cursor. It's easy to become so engrossed in what's happening at the cursor that we forget to look down to see what AutoCAD is trying to tell us. Whenever a student has a problem, the instructor's reply is almost always, "Read the Command prompt!" Show Me the New Stuff I've taught AutoCAD to a great many students over the years. This works for polar as well as rectangular input. Press Enter or click the mouse button to accept the current values, and the command moves on. Press Tab key again and the focus shifts back to the x-coordinate window, which unlocks. When users input dynamic information, tabbing to the next window locks the current one. In this case, the entered value becomes locked in and only the value in the y-coordinate window changes. Type a value into the x window and then press Tab. The x-coordinate window is highlighted, indicating that it will accept direct keyboard input of a value. The coordinate values change dynamically as the cursor moves. In addition, the left window shows the current x coordinate while the right one shows the y coordinate. I started the Line command, so AutoCAD is asking for the first point.
This is dynamic-as the cursor moves, the input information trails along with it, changing as necessary. AutoCAD 2006's new Dynamic Input shows Command-line information at the cursor, so users dont have to keep looking down to see where they are.
As figure 1 shows, the new Dynamic Interface displays the Command prompt information, plus a bit more, right at the cursor.įigure 1.
The first change to the interface becomes obvious when a command is started. Don't panic: everything pretty much still works the same way and can even be set up to look like it used to, although you probably won't want to do that. Long live the Command line!Īt first glance, the most prominent changes in AutoCAD 2006 involve the appearance of the user interface. The time has come to acknowledge that the Command line is dead. The British have a traditional saying at the passing of a monarch: "The king is dead. AutoCAD 2006 30 Apr, 2005 By: Bill Fane Autodesk retires the Command line.