Greetings Fellow CAD Holdouts!
I figured it wouldn't be fair to excoriate Revit without holding ACAD to the same standard, but since the software was basically perfected in 2014, I'm not really going to care about 99.9% of what they've done (so long as they don't break anything).
Before we get into it, I had something weird happen last week. I left on Thursday, and everything was working fine, only to come in Friday morning to find that ACAD 2024 had decided to shit itself - receiving a fatal error on launch. I tried rebooting, and it still didn't work. I turned in a trouble ticket to IT (my company doesn't allow any users to do anything to their computers - I can't even delete shortcuts from my desktop without IT's help).
They were like 'huh - that's weird' and asked me the standard IT questions - have you rebooted, do you have sufficient hard drive space, etc. - but couldn't actually figure out a solution. Googling it came up with the option of reinstalling - but my IT guy recommended just going ahead and upgrading to 2025 ACAD. Unfortunately their software installer kept face-planting, and I had work to do - so I pulled up a copy of Plant 3D 2022 that was on my machine for some reason - and after making some tweaks, it worked well enough to do what I needed to do.
I came in this week and 2025 ACAD still hadn't installed, so I kept on with 2022 Plant 3D. I should probably mention that my machine got Windows 11 on it recently - and while that didn't necessarily coincide with my 2024 ACAD issue, it's not impossible that the two are related (of course between Microsoft and Autodesk, there is probably plenty of blame to go around).
Fortunately an IT guy was able to get 2025 loaded today - and I was stunned to see that it successfully imported all of my settings, allowing me to jump right in and start working. Now I'm just waiting for them to figure out how to install 2025 ACAD Electrical - which is giving them fits for some reason.
But enough of all of that! What's new for 2025 ACAD?
I found a pretty comprehensive list on a site called 'TheCadMasters' (i.e. - a bunch of 'dinosaurs' and 'holdouts' that don't have jobs because Revit...).
They start off with (bum bum BUM!!!)
'UNLEASHING THE POWER OF AUTODESK AI'.
So, that's fucking stupid.
Next is 'Smart Blocks: Redefining Block Management' which seems to be some kind of automation tool (that is guaranteed not to work as advertised - but which does mention 'AI' again, per the new requirements for discussing anything technology related).
And if that's not awesome enough - we have on deck 'Markup Workflows Reimagined' which is great... I guess?
As we dig to the bottom of the barrel, we get 'Enhanced Visualization and Geographic Data Integration' which mentions an improvement to hatching (primarily the ability to define hatch regions manually instead of having to draw something first). I attempted to use it, but everything looked the same. Fortunately I found a video describing how it works - but it only seems to bring up the new options if you select 'hatch' from the ribbon (typing 'hatch' or putting it in the qat inexplicably just brings up the old hatch command) and since fuck the ribbon, I'll probably keep doing it the old... WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE?!?
Just for funsies, I decided to ask the Autodesk Assistant what the fuck the problem was - and after crafting my query a few different ways, it told me that changing HPDLGMODE from '2' (the default) to '1' would allow me to access the new hatch settings. It was wrong, of course - but setting it to '0' worked! I told it what I did, and it explained why what I did worked (seemingly ignoring the fact that it was wrong the first time).
I'm not taking back my previous statement regarding AI (especially since Autodesk could've just included a goddamned 'draw' button in the old hatch menu) but I'll acknowledge that it may have some use.
So, where the fuck were we?
'Extend Autocad With API's and 3rd Party Apps'
It's honestly stunning, and often overlooked just how powerful ACAD is as a piece of software. This made the wholesale Revitard dismissal of it that much more amusing. The sheer number of people customizing it and using it for purposes that I (as someone who basically just uses it as a drawing tool) can hardly conceive of, is overwhelming.
Obviously people have managed to dig in and force Revit to do things it was never originally intended to do - but I still hold that instead of buying a shitty piece of software and trying to patch it up and limp it along, Autodesk could've simply made their flagship piece of software into a BIM monster if that was the direction they wanted to take the industry.
'Leveraging AutoLISP for Automation'
This is another aspect of ACAD that I've never really taken the time to look into - but I might have to take our little AI buddy out for a spin and see if he can make some suggestions in case there are actually useful tools here.
'Comprehensive Activity Insights'
This goes into a lot having to do with logging/tracking changes, and other stuff that might have some use to some people, but honestly doesn't really interest me
'Tailored Functionality And Customization With AutoCAD Toolsets'
This goes into industry specific stuff - which, if I can ever get ACAD electrical on my machine (and it doesn't suck) I might do a rundown of.
'Seamless Collaboration And Connected Design Experience'
This list is steadily working their way in the direction of 'Bullshit Generation', and again - none of it really interests me - but hey, we've got another functional release of ACAD with one cool new feature (and the potential for Skynet), so I can't complain.
Unlike Revit, where I sincerely believe they have been reticent to make major improvements to it, as it would be a tacit admission that they've been charging thousands of dollars for a shitty piece of software (figuring it's easier and cheaper to simply indoctrinate a bunch of sad, shitty individuals and have them gaslight the rest of us) - ACAD just keeps doing what it does best - staying the fuck out of my way.
Which is what anyone who doesn't want to get knocked the fuck out needs to do.
Now - if you'll excuse me, I've got an AI to convince not to wipe out the human race (despite some pretty good arguments for the proposition).
As always, fuck this, fuck that, fuck the other thing... Etc. Etc.
-Skullfuck
(Next Time:???)
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