The 39-year-old CAD program gets a nip and tuck.

That a 39-year-old mostly 2D CAD program still rules, still stays current and relevant to millions of users, and shows no sign of abating is a modern-day marvel in our very dynamic tech world. Autodesk does it with AutoCAD. One might argue that the improvements in the recently released AutoCAD 2022 are merely incremental and minor. Nevertheless, Autodesk succeeds at keeping AutoCAD—if not modern—from looking
it’s age.
And so, the venerable old CAD program, with the boost of a few new features, continues to stave off many a challenger, all of which are no more of a threat than cubs are to a lion.
Several of the enhancements qualify as the modernization of a desktop application to a cloud/web strategy. They include the AutoCAD web and mobile apps, and Trace and Share features, which allow for online collaboration.

Other enhancements, like the new Count feature that will automatically count blocks and geometry, support straight-up productivity.
You can now share and mark up DWG files in the web and mobile apps with AutoCAD 2022. The AutoCAD web app will now upload drawing templates and plot styles, connect to files stored in Autodesk Docs and Autodesk Drive as well as in your own cloud storage, be it Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Box or Dropbox.





Upgrading to the new version of AutoCAD should be easier to install than ever. You can continue to work with your old AutoCAD while the new version is installing itself. Autodesk says the graphics performance has been improved and the new opening screen lets you access recent drawings.

While AutoCAD may be considered a generic CAD tool—and is still used that way in many organizations—the company has made several concessions to specific industries in which it is used with specialized toolsets for mechanical, electrical, and architecture that automated industry-specific tasks and provide libraries with a total of 750,000 parts, symbols and features.
Mac Equality?
Apple AutoCAD for the Mac and AutoCAD LT for the Mac have been both updated to 2022 versions. This is the first time that Windows and iOS versions of AutoCAD have been released simultaneously. Although some of the features of the Mac version are unique, AutoCAD for the Mac still seems to be catching up to the Windows version with this round of enhancements.

AutoCAD for the Mac: Block libraries now let users display recently used blocks in the Block Library tab. Drawings and file folders stored locally or in the cloud can be inserted as a block. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)




You can connect to popular cloud storage services with AutoCAD 2022 for the Mac just as you can with AutoCAD for Windows.
How Much?
AutoCAD 2022 is a free upgrade if you are on the subscription plan. New users can purchase AutoCAD from Autodesk for $1,775 per year.