Wednesday, August 26, 2009

LT2010 added features overview

The big feature additions for LT2010 users are as follows:
  • Update #1 is out: it's safe to install and use LT2010 now.
  • The Ribbon is here to stay: yep, the new screen menu introduced with LT2009 is here to stay. You can turn it off and go to the old style with the Classic Workspace, but to encourage you to stay with the 'new' some newer features just cannot be reached any other way. And if you really go old-school and make right-click mouse button set to be only, you lose another 30% of the program.
  • QAT: A god spot to drop some of your most freuqent commands here in this quick access toolbar. Problem is most of us power users have more than a handful and there is just not enough room.
  • Update and Synchronize Attributes: watch the youtube video HERE.
  • edit the boundary of a non-associative hatch object: yes, now instead of erasing the old hatch pattern that is too short/small for the new area and re-hatching, you simply click on it, grab it by it's grips, and stretch it to fit the new outline.
  • Creating non-rectangular viewports in LT: a feature that finally works without crashing my system. Give it a try. You can even create viewports with 'holes'.
  • Layer Pulldown menu improvements:
  • ALIGN command: Finally here from full AutoCAD, align/scale/rotate all in one command. For an intoduction, click HERE.
  • REVERSE command: Ever draw a a line, assign it a custom linetype that includes letters or numbers, and find the display is upside down? No more, use this command to Reverse the line's direction.
  • MEASUREGEOM command: Distance, Radius, Angle, Area and Volume all rolled into one command, a great tool to report on objects you select.
  • Edit Xrefs in place: Ye, without opening the Xref file as it's own drawing file. Be careful with this if you tend to save down to a lower version, this command defaults to the current DWG format.
  • XOPEN command is here: Open an Xref file in a separate window simply by picking an entity in that Xref.
  • Clip External References: Trim around an Xref when you don't really want to display the whole drawing. Nothing is deleted, think of it as a smoke-and-mirrors type visual trick.
  • Added Measuring tools:
  • BATTMAN command: nope, not the caped crusade. Edit attributes settings inside blocks without exploding or redefining or editng the blocks. Properties settings (color etc.), text style and more.
  • Enhanced Attribute Editor: The better attribute editor, with more features and settings.
  • BEDIT command improvements: More from full AutoCAD. Best tool for creating Dynmic Blocks.
  • Dimensions improvements: Great new tools added. More later.
  • MLeader improvements: Simpler to create custom blocks to include with this excellent replacement to the tired LEADER and QLEADER commands.
  • LT on-screen feedback features: Ye, more pop-ups, tooltips, and cursor-location information. Old dogs will find these cumbersome, Noobs will be overwhelmed, true CAD users will appreciate the level of information being imparted.
  • Spline conversion and Spline reshaping is improved.
  • EXPORT and PLOT to PDF and DWF: You can PLOT to both DWF and PDF, and you can Export. Plotting gives you the ultimate control for 2D output, exporting is for those needing to export models.
  • Fading objects: DWFADJUST, PDFADJUST, DGNADJUST and ADJUST commands let you fade imported files without affecting the content.
  • PDF output and underlays: exporting explored.
  • PDF Tools: Export features to be explored.
  • PURGE command additions: finally you can delete empty text objects, zero length geometry and more. Dive in.

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