AutoCAD 2018 New Feature Summary

The following is an overview of the changes made to the AutoCAD 2018 Update, including the AutoCAD 2018 and AutoCAD 2017 Update releases.

AutoCAD 2018.1 Upgrade

The following is a summary of the primary improvements to the AutoCAD 2018 Update release.

Views and Viewports

You can now easily create, retrieve, and place model views together with automatically sized and scaled layout viewports onto the current layout. When selected, layout viewport objects display two additional grips, one for moving the viewport, and the other for setting the display scale from a list of commonly used scales.

Primary commands and system variables: MVIEW, NEWVIEW

3D Graphics Performance

The 3D graphics performance for the Wireframe, Realistic, and Shaded visual styles continues to increase depending on the content of the DWG files tested. For example, the median value for the frames-per-second performance in the six large benchmark models used increased by 37% in the AutoCAD 2018 Update as compared to AutoCAD 2018.

Primary commands and system variables: 3DORBIT, ZOOM, PAN, VSCURRENT

High resolution (4K) monitor support

Support for high resolution monitors continues to be improved in the AutoCAD 2018.1 Update. More than 200 dialog boxes and other User Interface elements have been updated to ensure a quality viewing experience on high-resolution (4K) displays. Examples include the Edit Layer State and Insert Table dialog boxes as well as the Visual LISP editor.

Cyber Security

Potential security exploits are continuously being researched, identified, and closed. Significant Autodesk engineering resources are invested in response to increased activity by cyber criminals and foreign intelligence services. Due to persistent and accelerating cyber security threats, the AutoCAD Security feature team strongly recommends that you install all AutoCAD-based product updates as they become available.

Xref Layer Property Enhancements

To provide more flexibility for controlling xref overrides, the Layer Settings dialog box, which is accessed from the Layer Properties Manager, includes new controls for managing Xref layer properties. When the option to retain overrides to xref layer properties is turned on with the VISRETAIN system variable, you can now specify which xref layer properties that you want to reload. The various layer property options are stored in the registry as specified by the new VISRETAINMODE system variable. The Layer Properties Manager also includes a new status icon to indicate when a layer associated with an xref includes overrides.

Primary commands and system variables: LAYER, VISRETAIN, VISRETAINMODE, XREFOVERRIDE

Have You Tried . . .

The Help home page now includes a new heading called Have You Tried. If you click the link under it, you'll see that the topic is organized into two sections:

• The first section provides an introduction to a useful product feature that you might not have tried yet. Included are short exercises that will get you started quickly with things you can use for immediate productivity.
• The second section, Updated Help Topics, lists the Help topics that we've recently updated or revised directly in response to your comments in Help and on the AutoCAD discussion forum.

You can also access the Have You Tried topic by clicking here: Have You Tried . . .

AutoCAD 2018 and 2017 Update

The following is a summary of the primary improvements to the AutoCAD 2018 and AutoCAD 2017 Update releases.

High Resolution (4K) Monitor Support

User interface elements such as the cursor, navigation bar, and UCS icon display correctly on high-resolution (4K) monitors. Most dialog boxes, palettes, and toolbars are correctly adjusted to the Windows setting for the display scale. For the best results use Windows 10 due to operation system limitations, and use a DX11-capable graphics card.

PDF Import

PDF files generated from AutoCAD drawings that contain SHX text store the text as geometric objects. You can use the PDFSHXTEXT command to convert the SHX geometry back into text, which now includes an option to use the best matching SHX font. The TXT2MTXT command has been enhanced with several improvements including the option to force uniform line spacing.

Primary commands: PDFIMPORT, PDFSHXTEXT, TXT2MTXT

Visual Experience

The improvements include the following:

• Hatch display and performance are enhanced.
• Anti-aliasing and high quality graphics settings for supported graphics cards can now be controlled independently from each other.
• Off-screen object selection works as expected in all cases.
• The orange rubber-band line that appears when you create and edit objects can now be set to any color from the Options dialog box, Display tab, Colors button.

Primary system variables: LINESMOOTHING, HQGEOM, SELECTIONOFFSCREEN, OPTIONS

External Reference Paths

The default path type for external references is now set to Relative. Two new path options are available: Select New Path, and Find and Replace. Additional capabilities include the following:

• When you fix the path for a missing external reference, you can now apply the same path for other missing reference files.
• When you save the host drawing in a new location, you are prompted to update the relative paths for the external references.
• The Change Path Type option in the External References palette now reflects the current path type when a single external reference is selected. The current path type is not accessible, which lets you know which path type is current.
• You can attach references with Relative Path type for unnamed files.

Primary command and system variable: EXTERNALREFERENCES, REFPATHTYPE

3D Graphics Performance

Additional performance improvements have been made when using 3DORBIT, and panning and zooming with the following 3D visual styles: Wireframe, Realistic, and Shaded. For best results, we recommend that you use a 64-bit machine and a compatible graphics card.

Primary commands: 3DORBIT, ZOOM, PAN, VSCURRENT

DWG Format Update

The DWG format has been updated to provide improvements in the efficiency of open and save operations, especially for drawings that contain many annotative objects and viewports. Additionally, 3D solid and surface creation now uses the newest geometric modeler (ASM), which provides improved security and stability.

Primary commands: OPEN, QSAVE, SAVEAS