Compare the features of AutoCAD® 2010, AutoCAD® 2009, and AutoCAD® 2008.
Compare AutoCAD Release Versions Design Exploration Features
Feature AutoCAD 2010 AutoCAD 2009 AutoCAD 2008 Solid Primitives Standard 3D shapes (box, wedge, cone, cylinder, sphere, pyramid, torus) that have solid properties such as mass, volume, center of gravity, and moments of inertia.
• • • Interference Checking Check for areas of interference within a set of 3D solid or surface models. You can compare two sets of objects or check all 3D solids and surfaces in a drawing.
• • • Pyramid Solid Enables the creation of a solid pyramid with up to 32 sides that tapers to a point or to a planar face.
• • • Helix Enables the creation of a 2D spiral or a 3D spring by specifying the top and base radii, height, and turns.
• • • Sweeps and Lofts Enables the creation of a 3D solid or surface by sweeping a profile along a path or lofting between a set of profiles.
• • • Dynamic User Coordinate System (UCS) Enables you to temporarily and automatically align the XY plane of the UCS with a plane on a solid model while creating objects.
• • • Section Planes/Cuts Enables the viewing of interior details of 3D objects by specifying a temporary cutting plane through solids, surfaces, meshes, or regions.
• • • Flatshot Enables the creation of a flattened, 2D representation of the current view of a 3D model.
• • • Animation Paths Enables the creation of an animation based on a camera view by linking the camera and its target to a point or a path.
• • • Walk and Fly Tools Enables walk-through simulations of a 3D model.
• • • SteeringWheels Provide intuitive navigation around and through a 3D model.
• • ViewCube Provides a persistent, clickable, and draggable interface to switch between standard and isometric views of a 3D model.
• • 3D Gizmos Enable moving, rotating, or scaling of selected objects along a 3D axis or plane.
• • • Sub-Object Selection Enables selection of vertices, edges, or planes within a 3D object.
• • • Mesh Primitives Standard 3D shapes (box, wedge, cone, cylinder, sphere, pyramid, torus) defined with vertices, edges, and faces that use polygonal representation.
• Mesh Conversion Enables the conversion of existing solid, surface, and legacy mesh objects to the enhanced mesh object.
• Mesh Smoothing Enables the creation of smooth 3D mesh objects by increasing the density of the facets defining the mesh.
• Mesh Editing Enables the selection and editing of mesh subobjects to modify the overall shape of the mesh.
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Documention Features
Feature AutoCAD 2010 AutoCAD 2009 AutoCAD 2008 New Features Workshop Provides an introduction to functionality new to the past three releases of AutoCAD.
• • • Workspaces Define and restore task-based workspaces for easy access to relevant tools.
• • • Ribbon Provides easy access to AutoCAD tools through a collection of tabs and panels.
• • Quick Access Toolbar Provides easy access to commonly used tools such as New, Open, Save, Plot, Undo, and Redo.
• • Application Menu (previously called Menu Browser) Provides easy access to application tools to create, open, and publish a file as well as the ability to search for commands.
• • Tool Palettes Provide an efficient method for organizing, sharing, and placing blocks, hatches, and other tools.
• • • Color Selection Provides easy access to the Select Color dialog box directly from the Layer drop-down list.
• • • Sheet Sets Enables viewing, managing, and publishing of a coordinated set of drawings from a central location.
• • • Annotation Scaling Automates the process of scaling annotations so that they plot or display at the correct size on the paper.
• • • Find and Replace Enables the finding and replacement of text within a drawing, selected objects, or current space/layout based on specified search options and text types.
• • • Spell Checker Identifies spelling errors as text is typed into the text editor as well as on demand, including the ability to zoom into misspelled text.
• • • Multiline Text (MTEXT) Creates multiple lines of text in a single object with the ability to format columns, tabs, and lists.
• • • Multileaders Enables the creation of a single leader object with multiple leader lines.
• • • Dimensioning Provides more control over the creation, placement, and editing of dimensions.
• • • Block Attributes Support multiple lines of text in a single attribute definition.
• • • Tables Provide increased flexibility and control, including the ability to create a new table from a data link or from object data.
• • • Data Extraction Enables the extraction and display of object properties such as the layer and length of a line.
• • • Data Linking with Microsoft Excel® Enables an AutoCAD table to be linked to data in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
• • • Hatch Enables easy identification of boundary gaps and grip editing of nonassociative hatch objects.
• • • Spline Edit Enables quick conversion from a spline object to a polyline object.
• • • Pline Edit Enables the selection of a spline object and automatic conversion to a polyline object.
• • • Reverse Tool (Lines, Polylines, Splines, Helixes) Reverses the direction of lines, polylines, splines, and helixes.
• Purge Enables quick purging of zero-length geometry and empty text objects.
• • • Layers Enable more control over the display of layer properties for different viewports and facilitate standards compliance with layer reconciliation.
• • • Views Apply shot properties, including transitions and motion to named views.
• • • Cameras Enable the defining of named views based on camera properties such as location, target, and field of view.
• • • Viewports Provides simplified controls for viewport annotation scaling.
• • • Layouts Provides visual alternative for finding and selecting layouts.
• • • Blocks Enable block geometry to be defined by geometric and dimensional constraints as well as a block properties table.
• • • Area Tool Provides visual feedback and additional measurement options for determining the area within a specified boundary.
• • • Distance Tool Provides additional measurement options, including the calculation of cumulative distance.
• • • Geometry Measurement Tools Provides multiple measurement options, including distance, radius, angle, area, and volume in a single tool.
• Geometric Constraints Establish and maintain geometric relationships between objects, key points on objects, or between an object and the coordinate system.
• Dimensional Constraints Control the size and proportions of a design.
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Communication Features
Customization Features
Feature AutoCAD 2010 AutoCAD 2009 AutoCAD 2008 Initial Drawing Setup Customizes the AutoCAD environment based on user input. Customized options include drawing templates, content search, partner search, and workspaces.
• Action Recorder Enables the recording and playback of common drawing operations to automate repetative tasks.
• • CUIx File Format Offers improved performance when customizing AutoCAD in the CUI editor.
• Online License Transfer Enables the transfer of stand-alone licenses between computers.
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