AutoCAD: I Hate It.

[njineermike]

I've been struggling with the newest iteratrion of AutoCad Electrical lately. I feel you......

[paul0660]

autocad will go away, after a lot of oldtimers do.

[robcoe]

I'm an Autodesk Inventor guy. I managed to skip almost entirely over using AutoCAD, except for a project a couple years back using AutoCAD P&ID, which doesn't depend on drawing at all - you just click and drop valves, pipe segments, etc.

Well, now that's coming back to bite me. I've got a project to do now that has to be done in AutoCAD. Can't do it in Inventor, not no way, not no how. Inventor simply doesn't have the tool set to do it.

I'm getting a whole week's worth of learning packed into - so far - 40 hours (out of the past 48) of ****ing with this horrid piece of **** software. Things like isometric dimensions, that are just completely automatic in Inventor - those took me 36 hours to figure out how to do in AutoCAD.

Who the **** thought that it was a good idea to require someone to memorize 50 bajillion keyboard commands, none of which seem to be less than 5 characters? Every time I want to change the orientation of a dimension line, for instance, I actually have to type DIMEDIT, then hit enter, then click (yeah, you can click for this part, after entering a 7-character command!) to tell it what orientation I want, then pick two points to actually set the orientation.

Gah. I'm not saying I'll necessarily turn down gigs like this ... but I'll sure as **** bump my rate if I have to use AutoCAD again. **** this ****.

Is there anyone(aside from masochists) who actually likes Autocad?

[Peter.Steele]

Is there anyone(aside from masochists) who actually likes Autocad?

There's a guy that I work with that seems to like it quite well, but then he's also been working with it off and on since he was in high school, before the common availability of the mouse. When I started ranting about keyboard commands, he was like "well, you can customize the commands ..." He seemed a little embarrassed though, like he'd just realized how much time he'd invested in that horrible pile of crap.

Fortunately, I don't have to break out AutoCAD very often. I've got two more sheets to squeeze out over the next couple weekends, and after that it'll be a while before I have to do it again. I like Inventor SO much better. I actually LOVE Inventor. If I had to choose between my wife and Inventor ... Inventor doesn't do the dishes, but then neither does my wife. It'd be a tough pick.

[warthog1984]

Who the **** thought that it was a good idea to require someone to memorize 50 bajillion keyboard commands, none of which seem to be less than 5 characters? Every time I want to change the orientation of a dimension line, for instance, I actually have to type DIMEDIT, then hit enter, then click (yeah, you can click for this part, after entering a 7-character command!) to tell it what orientation I want, then pick two points to actually set the orientation.

You're doing it the hard way.

It's a little tricky to find where all the shortcuts are, but once you do doing each operation is pretty quick. For example: DIMEDIT can be done the way you do it, OR you can right-click, select properties, then simply change the orientation in the drop-down box and save it for future use if you like. Going through the "Dimensions" menu on the ribbon is another way.

Note: This only works for AutoCAD 2000 and later.

[Peter.Steele]

You're doing it the hard way.

It's a little tricky to find where all the shortcuts are, but once you do doing each operation is pretty quick. For example: DIMEDIT can be done the way you do it, OR you can right-click, select properties, then simply change the orientation in the drop-down box and save it for future use if you like. Going through the "Dimensions" menu on the ribbon is another way.

Note: This only works for AutoCAD 2000 and later.

Or as an alternative, you could just use Inventor, where dimensions are automatically aligned / isometric / linear / angular / radial / diameters depending on the orientation of the lines / points being dimensioned. If for some reason the software didn't pick the right one, you just right-click while you're creating the dimension and pick something else off the menu.

It's a lot easier. **** AutoCAD. And the isometric dimensions are actually isometric, without having to custom-draw all the extension lines and dimension arrows.