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Autocad 2015

The newest release of AutoCAD, codenamed "Longbow" was released March 27, 2014.

 

This is the 29th version of AutoCAD.

Previous AutoCAD  version AutoCAD 2014 followed by AutoCAD 2016

 

New and/or enhanced functions

New and/or enhanced functions

File format

The DWG file format is the same as in AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD 2014: "AutoCAD 2013 Drawing". The DXF file format is also the same.

New Tab

Quickly open new and existing drawings. Access recent documents and the Learn and Create area with access to useful learning resources. With create the last template used is the new default for new drawings until changed. There are also a notification column informing about certain things like hardware acceleration, trial period and more.

Layouts

Last among the layout tabs there is a '+'-icon that can be used to create a new layout. Unfortunately it is no longer possible to drag-and-drop a layout while holding down CTRL to create a copy of it.

Hold the mouse over a layout tab and a tooltip show the name (useful when using long names for layouts) and the preview image shows the content of the layout.

If there are more layouts than there is place to show an icon with two arrows is added and when clicked on it shows a list of all layouts. Unfortunately there is no tooltip or preview image when holding the mouse over a layout tab name in the list.

The layout sheet has an updated look and "Paper background" is a new interface element that can have the color changed on in OPTIONS>Design>Colors.

Line Smoothing

The LINESMOOTHING System Variable specifies whether anti-aliasing is turned on or off. Currently, the system variable applies to 2D objects in 2D wireframe visual styles. This makes lines look smoother especially when drawn at an angle. This setting is also available in the Graphics Performance dialog box available in OPTIONS>System.

Visual Feedback

When moving objects the objects in the original position are displayed with a faded deletion effect. For consistency this should also apply to rotating and scaling of objects but it does not.

The COMPLEXLTPREVIEW System Variable controls whether a preview of the complex linetype is displayed during interactive operations like draw, move, copy or rotate.

Color, linetype and lineweight is shown for lines and polylines when they are drawn.

File Selection Dialog box enhanced

Now if columns are added or changed order of they stay the next time for example the Open Select File dialog box is opened.

Ribbon Galleries

Galleries are available for blocks, dimensions, mleaders, text, tables and table cells making it easy to preview, select and use them.

View Ribbon

UCS icon, View Cube, Navigation Bar and Layout Tabs are new tools on the View Ribbon tab.

BIM 360 Ribbon

This ribbon is new with the tools Glue and Clash Pinpoint.

Cursor

The crosshair inside the pick box has been removed making it easier to see objects behind.

Contextual feedback is added as a badge next to the cursor or crosshair.

 The inspection badge is displayed using inquiry commands like Angle, Area, Distance, ID, List, Radius and Volume.

The rotation badges are displayed when specifying the rotation angle. The badge indicates the rotation direction.

Copy badge.

Move badge.

Scale badge.

Zoom badge.

Erase/Delete badge. 

Error badge. Shows for example when Trim is used and you get "Does not intersect with the cutting edge."

Lasso Selection

Click the cursor in an empty area and hold down the button while moving the cursor activates the lasso selection. Dot it clockwise for crossing selection and in the other direction for window selection. For rectangular selection click, release, move cursor and click. "Allow press and drag for Lasso" checkbox is available in OPTIONS>Selection.

When using lasso selection, you can press Spacebar to cycle between the Window, Crossing, and Fence object selection modes.

Selection Effects

Moving the cursor over objects makes them look thicker and also lighter or darker depending on the background color.

When hardware acceleration is used selected objects gets another color as well as look thicker to make it easier to see what is selected.

"Visual Effect Settings" dialog box in OPTIONS>Selection has been updated. The separate settings for line and face highlighting has been removed as there should be no need for it with the improved graphic and performance added.

Command Preview

A preview of the action for certain commands is now available. "Command Preview" checkbox is new in OPTIONS>Selection. Trim, Extend, Lengthen, Break, MatchProp, Fillet, Chamfer and Offset commands are affected.

Model Space Viewports

The active viewport is more clearly indicated by a bright blue boundary.

Resize viewports by dragging the vertical or horizontal boundary lines or the intersection line of the viewports.

Click the '+' icon on a viewport boundary and drag to create and size a new viewport. While dragging a boundary hold down the Ctrl key to split the viewport in two. Join or remove a viewport by dragging a boundary to the edge.

Mtext Enhancements

The editor background is now transparent if hardware acceleration is on.

A corner resizer is added at bottom right of the editor and the width can be changed using the right edge.

Auto Bullets and Numbering has been added and is enabled by default.

Begin a line with . , ) > } ] or a number or letter followed by any of these characters and a space or tab and a bullet or numbered list is created. When created an action icon shows, click it to access options. Press backspace after pressing space or tab removes automatic bullets and numbering.

Caps Lock

Automatically AutoCAD is changing text entered like sTART to Start. Typical when you have Caps Lock turned on and forget about it.

TEXTALLCAPS is a new system variable that controls automatic correction for MTEXT and TEXT/DTEXT when CAPS LOCK is active. TEXTAUTOCORRECTCAPS system variable controls whether or not Caps Lock is automatically turned off for Multiline text and Text.

Subscript and superscript text

In the Text Editor ribbon there are two new buttons available so it's easy to change highlighted text to subscript or superscript.

Autostack

Autostacking has been simplified. Entering numbers with a forward slash like 1/2 automatically stacks it and shows it as a fraction. There is quick access to change between diagonal and horizontal stacking or unstack the characters. More options are available through the Stack Properties. MTEXTAUTOSTACK system variable controls autostacking for the MTEXT command.

Paragraph Tabs

Tooltips are now available on the tab tool and a new Modify button has been added to the Paragraph dialog box so you can modify existing values of existing tabs.

Match Properties

On the Text Editor ribbon tab and toolbar there is a Match Properties tool that makes it easy to apply properties to text.

Text Align

The TEXTALIGN command aligns text easily with the option to distribute the text evenly or with a specified spacing.

Dimension Enhancements

Improved functionality when it comes to create dimensions. Existing dimension extension lines are ignored while snapping to avoid problem to snap to geometry nearby. In Options dialog box on Drafting tab there is a setting for "Ignore dimension extension lines". DIMCONTINUEMODE system variable makes AutoCAD to inherit the layer and dimension style of the dimension being continued or used as a base line.

Polyline Enhancements

Makes it possible to fillet polyline arc segments and with the Ctrl key while creating a polyline arc you can determine the direction it should be drawn.

Isometric Drafting

ISODRAFT command is a new command that is available on the status bar with the options Orthographic/isoplane Left/isoplane Top/isoplane Right. Select from the menu or click the icon to disable or enable isometric drafting.

Lengthen

Lengthen command remembers last option used.
Select an object to measure or [DElta/Percent/Total/DYnamic] <Total>:

Tolerance Object

The Geometric Tolerance dialog box is opened when double clicking on a tolerance object. Before the quick properties was opened.

Layer Sort

Natural ordered sort is available for all layer lists. To change to the old ASCII sort set SORTORDER system variable to 0. 

DGN Data

Orphaned DGN data can be purged using "Automatically purge orphaned data" in the  PURGE dialog box or "Orphaned data" keyword using -PURGE command.

Button Images

CUI now supports PNG (Portable Network Graphics) images a supported file format for button images.

Geographic Location

It's possible to set the geographic location from a map using the Set Location tool on the Insert ribbon tab. It's possible to capture and plot map data. And many other useful enhacements.

Reality Capture

Better performance and more flexibility has been added when working with point cloud files.

Autodesk Translation Framework

Autodesk Translation Framework (AFT) is used when importing model data from formats like CATIA, Pro Engineer, SolidWorks, Parasolid, JT, NX, STEP, Rhino, and IGES/IGS. Meshes and curves as well as object colors and layers can be supported when using the IGESIMPORT command. AFT is also used by the EXPORT and IGESEXPORT commands.

Design Feed

With the Design Feed palette you can add messages and images to a drawing and share with colleagues, clients and consultants through Autodesk 360.

eTransmit, Archive and DWG Convert has now the option to remove Design Feed.

Hardware Acceleration

There is a new Performance and Visual Tuner and Graphics Performance dialog box where hardware or software display rendering modes can be set.

Dark Color Scheme

The dark theme is now even darker. By default the dark color scheme is activated. It can be changed to Light within OPTIONS>Display or using the COLORTHEME system variable set to 1 for the light theme. The good thing with the dark theme is that the contrast against a dark drawing space is smaller and can reduce eye strain.

Application Manager

Available as a desktop tool through a new icon on the Windows system tray. This tool helps you stay current with the latest updates of all Autodesk application and suites including service packs, hot fixes and so on.

Performance Reporting

On the Performance ribbon tab you can analyze and troubleshoot performance problems and submit the report to Autodesk.

Help

For some commands in the help there is a Find option that either visually shows where the command is located or shows a tooltip that helps you located where it is within AutoCAD.

Workspaces

The workspaces dropdown in the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) is by default disabled. In the status bar it is possible to access the workspaces. The Classic workspace is no longer available.

Deployment/setup

How to change license type from Standalone to Network?

1. Open you system registry editor (Go to Start > Search > type regedit and hit Enter key)

2. Locate the key below and change Type value to 1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\AutoCAD\R20.0\ACAD-E001\AdLM
ACAD_2015_licenseChange

3. Create client license file, LICPATH.lic file, in Notepad.
e.g.
SERVER yourServerNemeHere 000000000000
USE_SERVER

Note: change yourServerNemeHere to your actual network license server name.

4. Place LICPATH.lic file in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2015\ folder
Note: Make sure that the LICPATH.lic file doesn't have hidden .txt extension.

5. Start AutoACAD 2015

API and more for Programmers

Use either Visual Studio 2010, 2012 or 2013 for .NET development but 2010 will have limitations as .NET Framework 4.5 is not supported.

.NET applications should target Framework 4.5 but can in some cases work with an older version.

Major version number incremented to R20.0 from R19.1.

VBA

VBA 7.1 is the version of VBA.

Available as a separate download here.

AutoLISP

What's New in .NET ObjectARX for AutoCAD 2015.

You must build ObjectARX plug-ins using the C++ compiler that ships with Visual Studio 2012 (update 4). 

AutoCAD 2015 System requirements

As always with system requirements these are minimal requirements for AutoCAD to run. For professional usage you surely want to have much better hardware.

FlexNet version 11.12 for Autodesk Network License Manager
Supported operating systems for the license manager are:
Windows Server 32-bit: Microsoft Windows 2008 Server, SP1 or later
Windows Server 64-bit: Windows 2012 Server, Windows 2008 Server R2, SP1 or later, Windows 2008 Server, SP2 or later
Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit SP1 or later
Windows 8 or 8.1, 32- or 64-bit
More details here as well as Linux System Requirements and Mac System Requirements.

AutoCAD 2015 System Requirements

Description Requirement
Operating system •Microsoft® Windows® 8/8.1
•Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 Pro
•Microsoft Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise
•Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
•Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
•Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
•Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU Type For 32-bit AutoCAD 2015:
•32-bit Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ Dual Core, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
For 64-bit AutoCAD 2015:
•AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology
•AMD Opteron™ with SSE2 technology
•Intel® Xeon® with Intel EM64T support with SSE2 •technology
Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support with SSE2 technology
Network •Deployment via Deployment Wizard.
•The license server and all workstations that will run applications dependent on network licensing must run TCP/IP protocol.
•Either Microsoft® or Novell TCP/IP protocol stacks are acceptable. Primary login on workstations may be Netware or Windows.
•In addition to operating systems supported for the application, the license server will run on the Windows Server® 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows 2008 R2 Server editions, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2003 R2 Server editions.
•Citrix® XenApp™ 6.5 FP1
Memory 2 GB (8 GB recommended)
Display resolution 1024x768 (1600x1050 or higher recommended) with True Color
Display Card Windows display adapter capable of 1024x768 with True Color capabilities. DirectX® 9 or DirectX 11 compliant card recommended but not required.
Disk Space Installation 6.0 GB
Pointing Device MS-Mouse compliant device
Digitizer  WINTAB support
Plotter/Printer Same as AutoCAD 2013-2014 — system printer and HDI support
Media Download and Installation from DVD
Browser Windows Internet Explorer® 9.0 (or later)
Side-by-side Install Supported
ToolClips Media Player Adobe® Flash® Player v10 or up
.NET Framework .NET Framework Version 4.5
Additional requirements for large datasets, point clouds, and 3D modeling CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology; Intel or AMD Dual Core processor, 2.0 GHz or higher
Memory: 8 GB RAM or greater
Disk Space: 6 GB free hard disk available, not including installation requirements
Display Card: 1280x1024 True Color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Direct3D®-capable workstation class graphics card.

 

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