Autodesk augments its venerable CAD application with AI.
AutoCAD 2024 has introduced machine learning capabilities that should help productivity by saving time on common tasks. This machine learning will be available throughout the AutoCAD product line, which consists of the flagship AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT and the new AutoCAD on the Web.
Autodesk gives the AI enhancements prominence in its announcement. In fact, besides the AI enhancements in AutoCAD 2024, there is little else.
Smarter Block Finding and Placement
Finding all the blocks in a file to replace, such as all ¼ in.-20 screws in an assembly or all the office chairs in an office layout, used to be a tedious exercise when a drawing was populated with a lot of blocks. AutoCAD 2024 offers some assistance when it comes to replacing blocks by suggesting blocks that are similar to what you have picked or have recently placed.
Wish: Could the number of blocks that are similar or recently placed be shown? That would provide somewhat of a verification of the blocks that will be replaced. The images of the blocks in the “select a block” dialog box lack detail and any information other than the block name, so one can’t be sure the correct blocks have been found.
The insertion of a block also gets a little help as AutoCAD 2024 is able to place a block in a manner similar to block that was recently placed. It appears that you can show AutoCAD a previous block as you are inserting it and the software will place the next block in the same relative position to similar geometry.
Let’s say you have placed a block representing a chair near a desk. When inserting another chair, AutoCAD will automatically position the chair in the same way as you move it close to another desk. As you move the block, the desk is highlighted, and the position, rotation and scale of the block are adjusted in keeping with the previous block. You can click if AutoCAD has guessed correctly or use the Ctrl key to have it make other suggestions. Simply move the cursor away if you don’t want to put the chair in the suggested location. To temporarily turn off AutoCAD suggested placement, use the Shift + W or Shift + while inserting or moving the block.
Markup Assist Improved
Markup Assist was introduced in AutoCAD 2023. In AutoCAD 2024, it got smarter.
To use it, you must have TRACEBACK on and Markup Assist on in the Trace setting toolbar.
AutoCAD will now be more helpful in recognizing written notes on marked-up drawings. In the example above, it has recognized the strike-through over the wrong word and is about to replace it with a handwritten word that it recognizes as “Heritage.”
To update existing text, click on a text markup. You will see Update Existing Text as a new option in the Markup Assist dialog box along with “Insert as Mtext” and “Insert as Mleader.” Both were available in the last release. AutoCAD 2024 adds “Use Update Existing Text” to replace or amend existing text in the drawing with text from an imported markup.
To update existing text, click the highlighted border of a text markup. From the Markup Assist dialog box, select Update Existing Text, and select the text you want to replace. You can append the text to the existing text, too.
AutoCAD 2024 is capable of recognizing a strike-through and the text underneath it and will replace the crossed-out text with the selected text.
To deemphasize markups that have already been taken care of, you can click on “Fade Markup” in the “Markup Assist” dialog box. Should you fade a markup only to discover that the issue was not completely resolved, you can “unfade” it from the same dialog box.
If you need to select all the objects within a markup, you can click on the dashed blue box around the markup and all of the objects inside it will be selected.
AutoCAD 2024 can even recognize text that corresponds to AutoCAD commands, such as move, copy, remove and delete (both recognized as Erase).
While it may seem that the markup assistance may be of minor value for a few markups, it may be valuable when you need to consider a drawing that is heavily marked up and has a familiarity and rhythm established. Either way, it is very cool to see graphical software recognize text, and even better to have it recognize text as commands. So, for the sake of novelty, give this a shot. At the very least, you can tell the family you used AI today. They will be proud of you.
Activity Insights
Activity Insights is one of few non-AI enhancements in AutoCAD 2024. Should you be working in a collaborative environment, Activity Insights will show you who has accessed your drawing and when. Activity Insights also keeps a record of who has inserted the drawing as a reference and when they were shared.
Performance enhancements are a bit underwhelming in the 2024 release. One of them is an installation that takes half the time.
Wish: Might the next version of AutoCAD not require a restart after it is installed?
