AutoCAD Blog | Autodesk: AutoCAD 2021 is full of new features built for the way you work and automation to boost your productivity in the process. A subscription to AutoCAD including specialized toolsets gives you access to seven industry-specific toolsets, such as Architecture and Electrical, which can automate tasks and save you hours, even days, of valuable time. Check out our productivity studies to learn more.
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As someone who has recently been learning AutoCAD, it is really interesting to read about the new improvements that are coming to updated versions. One thing that I find super interesting about this article and AutoCAD as a whole, is that the new version for next year is not fully developed for mac yet. I recognize that the software is not originally on the mac, but I feel like if they want to release an article highlighting all the cool things their technology can do with a release date set for next week, I think they should be able and ready to release all of the versions on the same date. I understand that they want people to use their new software as soon as possible but they have a large audience of mac users so they shouldn’t have them wait in the darkness for their update. But I do look forward to seeing the updates
AutoCAD has and probably will continue to remain the gold standard for 2D drafting, partially due to its legacy and in part its workflow. AutoCAD 2021 rolls out several features that are going to help in larger companies, but for us the most important takeaway is two words: GOOGLE DRIVE. The ability to connect to a drive account is going to have major impacts on the way we process things in the Carnegie scenic office. We have constantly been debating whether to switch to google drive as our primary storage location for files, but are still bound to the clunky and often difficult server. Now that there is easy integration with google drive, something all students have unlimited access to, I would argue there is no reason NOT to switch now. I understand there are some limitations due to accounts getting lost, but we are already experimenting working on the drive during this pandemic. Why not just keep using it in the fall (assuming we are back...)? This would also encourage us to explore more features that we currently don't implement, such as using XRefs, version histories, and possibly sheet sets. I think there is a lot that we could use in AutoCAD 2021.
AutoCAD is really the workforce that can handle pretty much anything you throw at it. It has become the standard detailing software for a number of commercial scene shops because of its versatility. While my familiarity with AutoCAD is far off from a professional detailer, some of these new functions seem really useful and a good step for this program. The ability to compare different versions of the same drawing all from one tab is helpful during the technical design process to evaluate iterations of a unit. Blocks are probably one of the most important and powerful ways to convey information in the clearest way. The new blocks palette seems like it streamlines previewing and selecting blocks for your drawing. Finally, the AutoCAD web app is something that might be worth looking further into. The integration with google drive could really streamline check-in processes and share the current file of a drawing among a team of people.
Autodesk’s integration of the cloud into a lot of their software has been really great to see. I learned Fusion360 in one of my classes this year and the way it is integrated with the internet made it really easy to just submit a link on canvas of my completed project for class and access other files from the professor. This looks like it will make it much easier for collaboration with AutoCAD and I could see this being used a lot with School of Drama productions. Students will be able to directly drop their CAD files right into Google Drive for maybe their assistants to work on and keep a regularly updated file of their drafting going. I could also see how the Box integration would make it very much easier for the way we run productions because everything is strictly through Box. I am excited to see that Autodesk is really capitalizing on easy accessibility and cloud integration.
"It's funny, although I suppose unsurprising, that Autocad seems to look more and more like Vectorworks. I think it will be interesting what happens to CAD softwares over the next decade. There's a lot of technology that exists but isn't widely available yet that could really change things like CAD (and make it pretty wildly futuristic). As thing's like 3D scanning, Augemented Reality, and Machine Learning powered assistants become more and more pervasive, I think digital design and visualization is one of the industries most poised to really transform. I look forward to seeing how that changes.
I'm lucky enough to have access to AutoCad for free because of their educational licenses, so I'm honestly not sure off the top of my head if they're already in a subscription model or if that's something new they're doing with 2020. Either way, it makes me sad. The software as a subscription model that so many companies have gone to recently is so frustrating. "
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