The other, following instructions more literally, did not use the cursor to select the command-line window and simply typed commands, as instructed. One of them must have used the cursor to choose the command-line window before typing commands and then left the cursor pointing to the command line. The z value is being entered at this point, but the carriage return key has not been pressed to finish the entry.Īs it happened, while working with this new version of AutoCAD, two graduate students were attempting to learn the program. (The cursor cannot be used to change focus to a previously entered value because the boxes with the values move around the screen with the cursor.)įigure 1 - An AutoCAD 2006 document window (lower left portion only) showing the dynamic input feature at work. It is far from obivous for most users, though. (The backspace key normally permits a user to backspace through the entire coordinate sequence in the command line window.) Of course, there is a way to retreat to any prior value - using the shift-tab key combination to retreat one-at-a-time through prior entries that's a common key combination and easy to guess - at least for geeks. If x and y values have been entered and the user is typing a z-value, there seems to be no way to change the x or y entries. Since each of the coordinates is in its own box, the backspace key does not treat the coordinates as a single text string and will not push the cursor back beyond the first number of the current entry so it seems not to be possible to change a coordinate other than the one being typed. When typing x, y, and z values (e.g., 2.3, 4.5, 6.7, as shown in Figure 1), each coordinate appears in its own box adjacent to the cursor, in sequence, not in the command line window. However, the coordinates appear only in "boxes" beside the cursor and not in the command line window. Thus, when one types a command that has follow-on coordinates (any command to create a new object, for all practical purposes), the command itself (line or polyline, for instance) appears both in the command line window and in a space adjacent to the cursor.
(To be fair, the default setting will not apply if the install process correctly picks up the settings for a prior version of AutoCAD being used on the same computer.) Dynamic input moves the area that displays keyboard data entry from the command line to a space in the drawing window adjacent to the cursor unless the user carefully keeps the cursor in the command-line window.
Unfortunately, the default setting on startup is toggled on, and I did not realize how to turn it off for a time. It can be toggled on and off so it is not a fatal problem. To be specific about the user interface change I found so disturbing, it is something called dynamic input. Fortunately, it is possible to adjust the interface so that it is more like the previous one. The user interface has changed somewhat, and one particular change is, in my view, truly terrible. Those things having been said, I have relatively little to say about AutoCAD 2006. Finally, as many readers will recall, AutoCAD 2006 was given to CSA by Autodesk.
Among other things, that means that I will investigate a small subset of the features of the program - the ones I use and the new ones I hope will add to the program's utility.
It is the program with which I have made all the models I have used so I am not only familiar with it, I am committed to it. (AutoCAD 2007 has been introduced already, despite the calendar.) AutoCAD is a program I have used for so long that I rarely use the menus, preferring to type at the command line. Finally, there is the question of being impartial, regardless of influences such as familiarity with the program, legacy data, and price concessions from the producers, all of which have little or nothing to do with the utility of the software.Īll those factors figure in this review of the penultimate version of AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2006.
In addition, using a program over time encourages users to operate in familiar, comfortable ways that may or may not be most in tune with new directions chosen by the software designers. Changes are fewer and more subtle, and they are often changes that impact a very small portion of those who use the program. Product reviews become progressively more difficult to write as the products under review mature.