My experience of ADT 2004 aka Exeter. ADT 2004 is definitely something that I will recommend. It's just plain great!
In no particular order:
New or enhanced functions.
ADT 2004 User Interface is really improved and simplified to the better.
Direct manipulation is really improved and makes it so intuitive to work with ADT.
The palettes are really useful. Tool palette, property palette and others.
The Drawing Management system. Good for for large, multi-person, multi-discipline projects.
Ability to tag across xrefs.
Ability to assign property set data to an object that may be repeated in many places. This also supports the new 'location' property that will allow you to assign that door a number that combines with the level and room id.
Ability to schedule an external drawing.
Ability to have walls cleanup across xrefs for situations where you want interior walls to cleanup with your exterior shell walls.
Ability to have objects that are told to be spanning multiple levels either display their full height or clipped to the display range.
Structural Members have new grip editing and in-place dimension editing. You can add multiple trim planes by just clicking a + trigger grip and rotate, offset in all directions and there is also set a temporary working plane so that you do not need to mess around with the UCS. There are no automatic cleanups between structural members however.
The Viz Render is included in ADT 2004.
Grips have been greatly enhanced in Architectural Desktop 2004. Simply hover over the grip for a short time and read the tip to know what to do.
AEC dimension now for:
- Dimension AutoCAD linework (lines, polylines, arcs, and circles)
- Dimension Grids
- Dimension objects across xrefs
- Grips to edit extension lines and text, move dimension chains.
- Override text and linework.
- Object override no longer automatically applied when applying overrides.
- Improved visual feedback when creating and editing
Still missing. Wish list for the next time.
Live sections that works for all kind of objects. Not only AEC objects. Useful when working with other disciplines.
The list box for the folder/file structure of constructs/views/sheets in the project navigator should be resizable in height.
Quick select should support a drop down list of existing styles (wall, door, etc.).
Resizable dialog box: Multi_View Block Definition Properties. The list with View Blocks should be the one that can be wider since the block names often can be descriptive and long.
Resizable dialog box: Style Manager>Material Definition Properties>Display Properties is resizable but on the tab Other there are dropdowns that should be nice to have resizable since some names are so long.
Existing bugs.
Export functions messes with the geometry within viewports. This is because UCS is not set to WCS. The Export process uses Wblock to create the temporary drawing file that is exploded. This alters some of the geometry of the drawing objects when the UCS is not world.
If you close all your drawings down and then exit ADT then you will hit problems with the location of properties and designcenter palette and others. Always close ADT with one drawing open is the solution.
When inserting a Structural Column, while having a userdefined UCS active, the rotation angle corresponds to the UCS World.
In the Autodesk Content Browser I've tried to add a website that had ? in the address. This was not allowed. As a workaround I could drag and drop the site from Internet Explorer into the Content Browser but I was not able to edit the properties due to the question character.
Export to AutoCAD don't respect clipped xrefs. (Fixed in 2005)
Several other bugs that are not fixed.
Removed and no hope to get back.
Save as R14 is removed.
Info
ADT 2004 can NOT be installed side-by-side with ADT 2.
It can run side-by-side with ADT 2i, ADT 3 & ADT 3.3
Updates and Service Packs.
- Hotfix - Autodesk 2004 OE
- Selecting multiline text that uses TrueType® fonts slows performance
- AutoCAD Sometimes Fails During Use of 3D Orbit
- Update to increase selection performance
- Update to resolve "comando desconocido" message (Spanish)
- Update to resolve "comando sconosciuto" message (Italian)
- Updated mlt.dlt to remove undesired redness in VIZ Render files
- Update to resolve "commande inconnue" message (French)
- Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004 Service Pack 2
- Autodesk Network Installation Wizard Patch
- Updated FileLinkps.dll to improve file linking to VIZ Render
- Fatal Error When Accessing Help From the Express Tools System Variable (SYSVDLG)
- Updated UserData.dll File to Resolve Configuration Path Error
- Apostrophe Fix for Content Browser catalogs
- Supplementary documentation for editing mass elements
- Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004 NIW Support Path Patch
- Update to Resolve Publish to Web Issue
- Unicon.reg File: Application Error Resolution
- Update to Resolve Error when Updating Autodesk Product Through Communication Center
- Script Error with Registration and Authorization for Login Names with Accented or Double-Byte Character
Links
Supplementary documentation for editing mass elements
http://support.autodesk.com/getdoc.asp?id=DL404063
Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004 Service Pack 1
Support Save As other than 2004 now.
http://support.autodesk.com/getdoc.asp?id=DL404065