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HUGE changes for AutoCAD 2007... HUGE!


Hazdaz
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http://www.bazzacad.com/index.html?http://www.bazzacad.com/blog/2006/02/3ds-max-meet-autocad2007.html

 

If the items listed on that site are true, this is an even bigger change to AutoCAD than back when it went from DOS to Windows.

 

I actually don't see how some of those changes will happen, without MAJOR changes to AutoCAD's workflow/archtecture.

 

And in a way, I almost want to say... "Why bother?"

 

AutoDesk already sells a very good high-end modeller - Inventor. Supposedly this new version of AutoCAD uses the Inventor engine, but why bother with the 2 programs? Should have just combined the 2 into one program.

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My biggest questions:

 

If ACAD2007 is supposedly using the Inventor engine... WHY have both programs? Inventor is already powerful enough to go up against most any CAD package out there (short of ones like CATIA or Unigraphics).

 

Even with all these new features, ACAD2007 still seems less powerful than Inventor (in some areas)... so why have both?

 

Does ACAD now (finally) have a history/parts tree?

 

In a way, I want to say "AWESOME!" concerning these new features... yet in another way, I want to say "too little, too late." Some of the stuff I was reading in the link I posted, have been around in other CAD packages for many years now.

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looking forward to these changes! i used solidworks for a while a few years back for product design and it was brilliant for ease of use and editablity of models. About time AutoCAD caught up!

 

If 2007 uses the engine of Inventor does anyone know if the tesselation of geometry wil be improved when imported into viz / max, would be a great benefit i think with the more common use of displacement etc.

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Oh noooo! We're all going to lose our jobs to drafters! :eek:

 

JK of course.

 

actually in all honesty as our office is moving into BIM and getting our drafters more into the 3d realm. Our jobs as the in house visualization guys would move more towards being "finishers" The cad monkeys crank our models that we add all the details lighting, textures, and skills that make visualization what it is.

 

Only hard part would be training the monkeys to build models that can be seamlessly integrated into renderings, IE optimized modeling. Hopefully if 2007 is that great maybe those from a drafting background will be able to experience a little of the rendering end and learn to appreciate what it takes to make a good 3d model.

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Just a comment I heard the other day about Mental Ray..

 

I was having a meeting with our Cad suppliers the other day, and I asked what the new 2007 was like, and one of them mentioned the inclusion of the MR extension.. and his collegues all looked at him, like he wasn't supposed say anything.. and then he shut up quick..!

 

Sure its not a massive secret, but don't think they are making it general knowledge yet..

 

Andy

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The inclusion of MR is very strange in my book. Not a bad thing really, but honestly MR is far from my favorite renderer. Ofcourse here comes a big question concerning that... how do you texture an object.

 

AutoCAD's old texturing tools were archaic to say the least - to the point that it wouldn't be worth it in the slightest bit to try rendering something in the program.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I don't have 2007 (yet?) but I have some general remarks to the questions you posed:

 

Inventor and AutoCAD serve two completely different purposes. And VIZ/3ds max yet another. I don't see any merger being beneficial to these programs.

 

Inventor is about parametric and constraint-modeling, in a hierarchic history tree.

 

AutoCAD is not like that at all. It is mainly a drawing application, with finally some better 3D modeling and even better rendering. AutoCAD tries to be partly SketchUp, partly Inventor and even partly VIZ (VIZ Render). But most of these features don't fit in the regular AutoCAD interface, so it has to be turned around untill the program is hardly recognizable.

 

And VIZ Render/VIZ/3ds max are dedicated visualization applications, with an interface that doen't suit CAD drawing.

 

I think Autodesk should spend their efforts on seamless transitions between these applications.

 

What if they could produce a common data structure (DWG-based or not, I don't really care) that you can use without loss of data in any of these applications. You use VIZ to define materials and lighting, you can work further in AutoCAD to finish the drawings and you can load the data in Inventor to work with the parametric 3D model.

 

A merger doesn't seem to improve any of the applications as such.

 

(Now where would Revit fit into this?)

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