Recently, I updated my AutoCAD from 2014 edition to 2017. Although there were other great versions in between 2014 and 2017 I decided to skip them for many reasons. But, with 2017 I was amazed.

It’s not that I use the most of AutoCAD. I don’t know yet how it performs in rendering (I think that Autodesk changed the rendering machine in a previous version) and it is something that I will find out. It is that the new version is polished and it comes with some upgrades that every drafter would appreciate.

First of all, the pdf import support. Yes, I know everyone somewhere sometime tried to import a pdf file that was exported from a vector file. And, although it let you snap on points it didn’t let you use all the geometry but only to have it on your drawing. This has changed. Now with the newer version all the geometry is revealed and it can be changed. It is like you are importing a dwg file. The texts are recognized, the geometries and the layers too. (Have in mind that this can be achieved if and only if a pdf was created from vector file. If this was created from a raster one, then you ‘ll have to use other tools like raster design.)

Secondly, there is a new tool that allows you to create center lines and center marks. It can be found at the annotative ribbon. The centerline tool creates lines at the center of two linetypes (polyline, line) and it remains associated with the selected lines and polylines. The center mark tool creates a center mark at the center of a selected circle (arc or polygonal arc.) and if you modify the objects, the centerlines and center marks are updated.

Finally, I realized that there is an option that allows you to configure the graphics hardware acceleration. I think that this feature came on a version prior to 2017. It allows you to determine detail of the 3Ds and how they will appear.

Bonus: If you want to turn off the annoying START tab that appears every time you are using the program you just have to type STARTMODE and then from value <1> just type 0. The start tab should be disappeared.