Screw You AutoCad

"Denver Is Stuck In The 90s" (denver80222)
02/22/2016 at 21:07 • Filed to: Denver does design school

For forcing me to make all this shit with polylines and command prompts. Its 2016, I shouldnt be using a program that reminds me of DOS. Its not 1987 anymore.

DISCUSSION (36)

bob and john > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:11

you kidding me? Autocad is friggen great.

shop-teacher > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:12

You shut your mouth about the command prompt! The command prompt rules!!

Why are you using polylines? I never use those.

Chariotoflove > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:12

Command line. How quaint. Why don’t you just pick up the mouse and talk to it?

Seriously, often ultra-expensive, powerful professional software packages run with horrible user interfaces.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > shop-teacher
02/22/2016 at 21:13

Because with what Im making I rarely need to explode my shapes. Polylines are just a bit easier

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Chariotoflove
02/22/2016 at 21:14

I just want a menu bar. Is that too much to ask? I dont wanna carry around a command dictionary

BKosher84 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:16

Fuck you command line is the best damn thing to happen to life.

#COMMANDLINE4LYFE

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:16

Pretty sure there is an architectural library but it costs $$$. We have a pretty complete civil library.

Gone > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:19

Command Prompt is faster anyways...

tromoly > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:20

There isn’t a library with all those components already in it?

I may be missing something, combining command-line inputs and the toolbar at the top none of that looks bad, just time-consuming.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > tromoly
02/22/2016 at 21:23

This is probably the most counter intuitive program I have ever used. And if there is a library, I wasnt told about it because it was an assignment to make all of that

The Opponaut formerly known as MattP123 > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:29

Set your background to white. Use variants of gray for different lineweights.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:43

There’s a lot to be said for the command line. My wife learned AutoCAD many years ago but can still draw much faster than I can because she is typing in commands directly instead of looking for icons to click. This is only possible because Autodesk has kept the commands consistent throughout the years.

Learn to use the command line. It's much more efficient.

RyanFrew > Chariotoflove
02/22/2016 at 21:51

Microsoft enterprise software consultant here - can confirm. TBH, though, there is usually a pretty good reason for the bad UI. Although the above does seem like a particularly egregious example.

Alfalfa > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 21:53

Meh. You need lots of manual input to get truly accurate drawings, anyway. It’s ten times faster than the damn buttons once you know the commands.

Chariotoflove > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 22:13

Apparently it is. But look at it this way, even when these packages have buttons or menu bars, the icons are incomprehensible hieroglyphs anyway. Our micro CT software is the same.

Chariotoflove > RyanFrew
02/22/2016 at 22:15

Well I think the best reason is it helps keep you employed, right? ;)

Sam > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 22:22

That’s why they have other, better programs to use, like Alias.

-this space for rent- > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 22:23

Learn to use the keyboard. Typing one letter is much faster than clicking through six levels of menus.

-this space for rent- > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 22:27

It took me about two weeks in high school figure out the shortcut is most likely the first letter of the thing I’m trying to draw. #rocketscience

tromoly > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 22:34

I used AutoCAD exclusively for about 5 years before teaching myself SolidWorks, ACAD can suck for some things but in general I’ve never really had an issue with purely 2D stuff. Then again I also TA’d a Freshman-level CAD class so got decent at explaining how to use the program, that probably helps as well.

I will say, my favorite part about AutoCAD is that all the snap-relations is found by typing OSNAP, always good for a laugh when explaining how to find that menu.

RyanFrew > Chariotoflove
02/22/2016 at 22:44

Lol. Well, if we made the UI better, there would be all sorts of different problems. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t kind of situation.

shop-teacher > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 22:59

You can just join regular lines. Or make them into a block.

shop-teacher > tromoly
02/22/2016 at 23:01

Yep. That’s always good for making kids giggle.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 23:02

Wow, and I thought the learning curve from Inventor to Creo was bad it has nothing on this.

shop-teacher > TheRealBicycleBuck
02/22/2016 at 23:02

Yep. I can bang away those commands fast enough that I’ve broken keyboards.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 23:47

What is the 2D nonsense? Come to the light side...

Kinja'd!!!

Seriously I can’t even think in 2D anymore. Looks like you are doing floor plans, though, so SolidWorks doesn’t really make any sense there.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Chariotoflove
02/22/2016 at 23:48

icons are incomprehensible hieroglyphs anyway

Let me guess, you’re using VGStudio MAX 2.2?

promoted by the color red > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/22/2016 at 23:58

Master the command line. It’s pretty intuitive as far as these things go. My coworker was a menu guy and I was a command line guy, and I was churning out work twice as fast as him.

TheHondaBro > Chariotoflove
02/23/2016 at 00:43

Hello computer!

wkiernan > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
02/23/2016 at 06:21

AutoCAD has a menu bar, but it’s not enabled by default in newer versions because they prefer that God-awful ribbon nonsense you see at the top of the screen.

I heard you think AutoCAD is boring ! Basically, you’re right, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The solution to this is, learn AutoLISP. It transforms AutoCAD from being another boring, opaque tool into something that’s even more fun than a K-car limo with leopard-skin curtains in the back.

Also, get more monitors.

TheRealBicycleBuck > tromoly
02/23/2016 at 07:19

Denver is a student learning how to build blocks.

Chariotoflove > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
02/23/2016 at 12:03

Nah, Scanco proprietary software that came with it.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Chariotoflove
02/23/2016 at 13:08

Hmm interesting. I haven’t heard of these guys, but I work in kind of a different field. We have a GE v|tom|x M240 micro-CT. It’s basically the size of lifted F150 and made for scanning things upwards of 16x16x16" We’ve put cylinder heads and DPF’s into it. I also put a failed clutch master cylinder from my old Hyundai in to see where it went bad (failed return spring).

Chariotoflove > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
02/23/2016 at 13:46

I work in biomedical research. Our microCT is designed to measure biomineralization in tissues such as bones and teeth. So my samples are usually mouse bones from genetically manipulated lines.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Chariotoflove
02/23/2016 at 13:49

Sounds more fun than what I do for the most part. Although we are contractors, so sometimes we get some rather bizarre and interesting things in. And that’s about all I can say without breaking a whole bunch of NDA’s.

Chariotoflove > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
02/23/2016 at 13:51

It’s more fun when the data is publishable. ;)