Autodesk has quietly announced an important major update for the AutoCAD for Mac product line, which includes AutoCAD 2017 for Mac and AutoCAD LT 2017 for Mac.
New Touch Bar Support
Released back in November of 2016, this new mid-release update introduces Apple’s Touch Bar support for the latest and popular MacBook Pro laptops. This new support is found in version AutoCAD 2017.1.
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Autodesk has three major additional features for version 2017.1 which include the Touch Bar support, user interface enhancements and migrating settings functionality. Beta tester, Joshua Straume of architect Arthur D. Straume wrote, “After installing the AutoCAD for Mac update, I’ve used it for over 100 hours of work and recreational drafting with no issues or hiccups.”
Key Takeaways
Autodesk is now the second CAD software company to announce support for Apple’s Touch Bar technology. However, the approach they have taken to the Touch Bar options appears to be non-contextual and highly defaults and setup-based. Users will have access to turning on and off items like the grid, snaps, object snap tracking, and accessing the command line window. This is a very light-handed approach.
The new Autodesk support for the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar includes default support for 10 functions which can be dragged as a set to the Touch Bar interface. But, users can customize this arrangement by adding from a list of roughly half a dozen other controls to substitute in. Items like ISO plane, Object Snap Tracking, Grid On/Off, Dynamic UCS, Snap Mode, and Command Window are just some of the options for customizing the Touch Bar when running AutoCAD 2017.1 for Mac or the LT version on a MacBook Pro.
01 – Autodesk updates AutoCAD for Mac with Touch Bar support.
Additional UX/UI features include the new abilities to dock and undock the Layers palette and the Properties inspector. This will greatly help users who are using AutoCAD for Mac on two monitors and use them in a way where they put the drawing window on one screen and the palettes on another.
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The third and final big improvement in this dot point release are new enhancements to the settings dialog. Users can now seamlessly migrate their custom settings to future updates and no longer lose these upon doing so.
One of the strengths of AutoCAD for Mac has been its extreme customization capabilities. Users can add or remove items from both standard pulldown menus and the Tool Sets Palette.
To learn more about Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 for Mac and AutoCAD LT 2017 for Mac and the updates available visit here. For information on the AutoCAD for Mac product line visit here.
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