Welcome to our preview of the next version of AutoCAD, Version 2006, due to ship March 22, 2005.  Continuing with the shortened release cycle, AutoCAD 2006 comes along exactly one year (to the day) after 2005 (which came one year after 2004).

File Format: We're happy to announce that the drawing file format did not change with this release.  The default file format is 2004 format and it has the ability to save back to a 2000 format file.  If history repeats itself, this will be the last release on the 2004 format.  After all there was 2000, 2000i, then 2002 on the 2000 format.  This time around its 2004, 2005, then 2006.  Our forecast (based purely on recently history) is that the next release will be called 2007, it will be released in March 2006, and will bring a change in the API and drawing file format.

Interface Changes
The initial appearance of the application is much like previous releases, with the drawing area splattered with all the options.  Some long time users find this annoying but it does have a purpose.  If new users didn't see these options they might never know they are there.  So as usual, long time users can simply click off these options to find the drawing area.  Some of these items include:
 

New Features Workshop:	This dialog (first introduced in 2005) has a one time prompt for which version you are upgrading from. You can choose many recent versions of AutoCAD or new customer. This allows the 'workshop' to customize its content to show only the relevant information.
Tool Palettes:	There are more tabs with more content.  The icons are multicolored.  These, along with toolbars can now be locked into position to avoid accidentally moving them.
Workspaces:	Now you can setup different toolbar, toolpalette, and menu scenarios and save them as a workspace.  You can create multiple workspaces for different workflows and change between them with this toolbar pulldown.

Heads Up Design? At first we thought the command line was broken, as typed commands weren't showing up there.  Then we found they were appearing in a small rectangle slightly down and to the right of the cursor.  This is a part of what Autodesk calls heads up design, the first threat to the existence of the command line?  Before long time users panic, the command line can be set back to normal with the [DYN] button or using the DYNPROMPT variable.  Also a new tab was added to the Drafting Settings to control this.

Its called Dynamic Input, its definitely different, but not all bad.  Here's a screen capture during the line command (cursorsize=100%).

Asyou can see, while dragging you can see the prompt at your crosshair, along with the drag distance and angle in fields.  Entering a distance results in a line at that distance in the current direction, similar to previous direct distance entry.  Pressing the tab key switches edit focus to the angle, where typing an angle locks that angle in and your able to drag a distance at that angle.

Its our opinion that the command line should continue to display keystrokes normally regardless of these settings.

AutoComplete: You can now type in the first few letters of a command then use the tab key to cycle through all matching command names, then press enter to initialize it.  Recently used commands can be accessed from a right-click flyout.

Display Transitions:  This new option is on by default and transitions your viewport display during zooms, and rotations.  For example after selecting a zoom window, the display gradually grows larger until it reaches the new zoom level.  The performance hit wasn't bad even on our 134mb topo drawing, but it does take 2-3 seconds longer to complete the display, regardless of the drawing size.  It can be controlled with the VTENABLE system variable.

Object Selection: First is object rollover, (like MicroStation) as your cursor passes over an object it is highlighted so you can see which object would be selected.  If an object is on a locked layer its not highlighted, instead a small lock icon appears above the cursor.  Second is shaded selection windows.  If you do a select window or crossing, a semi-transparent shade covers the area as you drag.  Controls for rollover in the Options dialog.

Object Creation
Dynamic Blocks: Notice how everything is dynamic in this release?
 

Visibility Options:	This allows multiple scenes (or appearances) to be stored in a single block definition.  This would allow top/front/side views of 3D objects, as well as differentsizes of objects (such as desks).  You could store multiple types of sinks in a single "sink" block.
Multiple Insertion Points:	You can define multiple insertion points to aid in placement and rotation of blocks.
Auto Align:	Blocks can be defined to automatically align themselves when snapping to geometry.  This could be very helpful in placement of doors, sinks, etc.

The initial downside we see, is that since they are stored as anonymous blocks.  Most existing block count and BOM add-ons will not recognize them.

Hatching:  You can now control the hatch origin to prevent bad results with low precision hatches, create separate hatches of multiple objects, and the extents of the area does not have to be inside the viewport.  In the properties dialog, the area of a hatch is displayed.  The area is also reported by the list command and can be obtained with the AREA command.  Hatchedit also has the ability to recreate the hatch boundary (and re-associate it) if it has been erased.

Rectangle: Improved with options.  Using area mode you can specify an area along with the length of one side.  A rotation option was finally added.  After picking the first point you can pick (or enter) a rotation angle, then drag the other corner while viewing the rotated rectangle.

Object Modification
Annotation:  The in-place editor now works on single line TEXT objects.  When an MTEXT object is edited, additional formatting options are now available such as numbered or bulleted lists.  Our test of numbered notes worked out well, behaving much like a good word processor.  Inserting or removing lines caused the numbered list to recalculate as expected.

Dimensions:  You can now change the linetypes within dimensions without having to explode it. During creation of dimensions you can assign fixed length extension lines. An arc dimension was finally added (DIMARC command), but unfortunately the label won't curve with the arc.  Jogs (zigzags) are now available for curves with large radii, and you can flip dimension arrows.

Basic Commands: Several improvements on these everyday tools.
 

Copy:	Provides an undo option within the command.
Stretch:	Allows multiple crossing selections.
Offset:	Allows multiple offsets by repeatedly picking (you can't tell it the number).  Also adds undo, erase source, current/source layer options.

Chamfer & Fillet also add undo options.

Join Command: Supports lines, open polylines, arcs, elliptical arcs, or open splines. This new command mimics pedit join functionality when used with line/arc geometry, nothing new there.  But it can be used to join collinear lines that should become a single line, and can join splines.  You can't join line/arc/polyline to splines, and you can't join text, mtext, etc.

Other Tools & Improvements
Quick Calculator: This new tool is for those that want an onscreen calculator with the ability to click numbers, do scientific functions, units conversions, etc.  Like properties, this new Quick Calculator dialog can be docked and set to auto-hide.

Extended Attribute Extraction: This has been improved with the ability to create a table (in the drawing) from the results.  The resulting table is linked to the specification so that changes in the drawing are reflected in the table.  For example adding additional symbols of a type counted in the table caused the count to increase.

Table Formulas:  You can now add basic formulas to tables allowing a light built-in spreadsheet effect.  Factors include addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, sum, average, and count.  Anything beyond that will have you heading back to Excel.  Pasting an Excel spreadsheet into the drawing as a table brings the formulas with it (if supported) but in our test the fields lost their font assignments.

Field Formatting: Many users were unable to use some of the functionality of fields because of the lack of formatting.  Now you can apply formatting factors for uses such as square feet and acres, etc.  You can append prefix and suffix strings to complete the task.  Very useful for area labels because the annotation updates as the area changes.

Drawing Recovery Manager: This tool enables you to easily retrieve backup (BAK) and autosave (SV$) files after AutoCAD crashes.  It appears automatically after a crash and eliminates the need to search folders for backup/autosave files.

Customize User Interface:  This dialog allows you to customize nearly every aspect of the under interface, including menus, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, etc.  Older partial menus can be loaded, but they are converted to larger .CUI files.  A partial menu of 105KB became a 612KB cui file (which is in XML format).  It looks like the old ACAD.PGP file can be finally retired.

Speed Test
With each release we're always curious about raw speed, items like the amount of time it takes to open a large drawing.  We did the comparison on a 134mb topographic map on a dual 2.8ghz, 1mb RAM.  The file took 26 seconds to load from a local drive on AutoCAD 2000, 17 seconds on AutoCAD 2004, and 12 seconds on AutoCAD 2006.  AutoCAD 2006 shaved an extra 5 seconds off the process.  One noticeable difference was the display viewport.  In previous version you could see the geometry developing as it was loading.  With 2006 the viewport remains blank until it instantly paints with the full contents.

Miscellaneous
Some of the little changes worth mentioning. 

• Express tools is now a checkbox option during install and remain unsupported.
• The legacy ability to configure Ctrl+C for cancel has been removed.
• You can now add scales to the scale list used in properties and other dialogs.

Summary
This is a favorable release and likely worth the upgrade cost if you use its new features.

Ships March 22, 2005. See http://www.autodesk.com or your local Autodesk dealer for details.