CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

5 February 2009

Product News

Autodesk Takes 3D Design and Documentation to Next Level with AutoCAD 2010

Autodesk, Inc. has announced the release of AutoCAD 2010 software. Autodesk also announced the 2010 AutoCAD family of discipline-specific software and AutoCAD LT 2010 software for professional drafting and detailing. The latest release of AutoCAD introduces new capabilities to help users tackle their most challenging design problems, including free-form design tools, parametric drawing and enhanced PDF support, a top request from Autodesk User Group International (AUGI) members.

"For years I've relied on AutoCAD to increase efficiency throughout our company, and each new release brings features that help us work that much faster," said Jay Miller, principal and CAD manager at BHB Consulting Engineers. "Some of the ingenious new features in AutoCAD 2010, like Parametric drawing tools and PDF enhancements, offer real time savings and help make my job easier."

AutoCAD 2010 provides even more power and innovation to help users document, communicate, explore and customize design ideas. With new free-form design tools, users can more easily explore ideas in 3D models to create almost any shape they can imagine. New PDF import and underlay and enhanced publishing features can improve two-way communication with the extended design team. In addition, the introduction of constraint-based parametric drawing tools enables users to define persistent relationships between objects, accelerating crucial design revision workflows. AutoCAD 2010 now also supports 3D printing, which makes it easy to produce physical 3D models and physical prototypes by connecting to on-demand 3D printing services or personal 3D printers.

"Providing customers with the powerful 3D design tools that enable them to stretch the limits of their creativity was our priority for the 2010 release of AutoCAD," said Guri Stark, vice president, AutoCAD and Platform Products Business Unit. "To the AutoCAD software portfolio we've added highly requested features from customers, like enhanced capabilities with the PDF file format in AutoCAD, and new 2D commands for AutoCAD LT. Taken together, the new version of AutoCAD provides the power and flexibility our customers have been demanding to take their documentation and design further."

Industry Solutions for the AutoCAD 2010 Family of Products

The updated AutoCAD 2010 software portfolio includes the following industry-specific applications built on the AutoCAD platform:

AutoCAD Architecture 2010 software brings a variety of feature enhancements designed to help improve overall workflow, usability and interoperability including a new, more streamlined user interface that offers optimized desktop organization, a larger drawing window and quicker access to tools and commands.

AutoCAD Civil 2010 adds a variety of feature enhancements that help civil engineering technicians, drafters, and surveyors complete projects faster including a streamlined user interface, a more complete field to finish surveying workflow, and roadway intersection modeling.

AutoCAD Electrical 2010 is purpose-built to accelerate the creation of electrical control systems. Now with a streamlined design environment and the new "one-line" circuit symbol library, it can increase the productivity of control engineers even more. Enhancements to the powerful Circuit Builder tool enable designers to analyze the energy efficiency of circuits and make "green" engineering decisions. AutoCAD Map 3D 2010 software is a leading engineering solution for creating and managing spatial data.

AutoCAD Map 3D 2010 includes new survey functionality, enhanced data analysis capabilities, and a new workflow framework.

AutoCAD Mechanical 2010 enables mechanical designers and drafters to simplify complex mechanical design work and produce consistent results on the shop floor. Now with even more intelligent drafting features for automating common design tasks, it offers significant productivity gains and saves countless hours of design time. New features include a streamlined design environment and bills of material enhancements.

AutoCAD MEP 2010 software provides a variety of new features providing mechanical, electrical, and plumbing professionals with improved ease of use, richer design content and better construction documentation.

Enhancements include more improved performance capabilities, the availability of new sloped piping tools and content enhancements offering more piping options, and the ability to more easily create block-based MvParts from solids and mass elements. AutoCAD P&ID 2010 enables users to create, modify and manage piping and instrumentation diagrams. AutoCAD P&ID 2010 now includes an enhanced user interface, curved schematic lines, and project setup enhancements.

The latest release of AutoCAD LT 2010, professional 2D drafting and detailing software, incorporates PDF input and output enhancements, additional 2D drafting commands for viewing and editing drawings, and 2D drafting tools from AutoCAD to help increase productivity, including the ALIGN, Xref and Block Attribute commands.

Autodesk Design Review 2010 software is also available as a free* download to users of any Autodesk product including the AutoCAD 2010 family of products.

With tools to review, mark up, and measure documents, Design Review enables team members to participate in an all-digital design review process. The latest release makes the review process seamless, with updates that support viewing and markup of PDF files.

Availability

Product availability varies by country. Details and purchasing options will be accessible beginning March 24, 2009, at http://www.autodesk.com/autocad.

*Free products are subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of the software.

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