Autocad R2009

R2009 Autocad.

In a nutshell as far as I can see, it has a few killer features:

1. The ability to have a permanently open layer dialog box. Only useful for some.

2. Click on something, and a properties box comes up. This is a bit disconcerting at first, but I predict some will just love this one. You can choose what properties will normally appear.

3. This is the absolute most wonderful item: Soldraw now does its thing on BLOCKS!(same with the section tool)

4. There are preview gadgets for drawing files and layouts, which in time may become a more useful feature, once we all get used to them.

5. The ribbon. I know I have raved on about going to keyboard entry, but my natural laziness has prompted me to use the ribbon. The reason is I have 2 screens and this really is a replacement for the Dashboard, which I have been using.

6. There are some 3D visualisation tools that may grow on me.

So there you go:
It looks prettier than R2008. Not a big consideration for some, but we spend 7-9 hours a day looking at it.....

It also allows me in my daily work to do a section on a set of solids, some of which might be a block, and have them appear....which would be worth the cost of the upgrade.