revision cloud

[Anonymous]

Learned from a book on AutoCAD 2012 that you can change a circle/polyline to a revision cloud (something I have often wished to do, but wasn't aware of). However the directions were for basic AutoCAD. I have AutoCAD Architecture. The book says the revision cloud is on the Draw tab pulldown. Draw tab in Architecture doesn't have a pulldown. And the revision cloud is located on the Annotation tab. The next direction is after clicking on Revision Cloud icon to right click and get a choice of commands, one of which is Options. The Revision Cloud icon in AutoCAD Architecture doesn't have Options listed when you right click. Hmmm. So the only way to get this is to type "revcloud" in the command line to start the command the old way. Who forgot this? I also queried the HELP menu about this, and they give the directions as outlined in the book. Shouldn't the help menu in AutoCAD Architecture be for that program? I have often found the help search not very helpful. Is this a problem for anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Yes I too have found HELP not super useful.  When one finally navigates to the topic the answers or direction given usually have no context. 

[David_W_Koch]

1.  For better or worse, the Help in ACA consists of the AutoCAD Help, with ACA Help added to it.  The ACA interface has been customized to streamline the use of ACA, and, as such, does not contain all of the same tools on the ribbon (or are organized differently).  You have to be aware of the section in the Help from which a particular article is located, and make allowance for AutoCAD articles that describe interface features not present in ACA.  I am not defending the situation, just saying that is how it is.  I would also be very surprised at this point to find Autodesk expending the effort to create and maintain a Help for ACA that corresponds to the way the ACA.cuix file deals with AutoCAD-based commands.  (This has been a sore point for users since I have been using ACA/ADT - ADT 2).

2.  ACA/ADT developed a revision cloud function prior to the REVCLOUD command being added to AutoCAD.  Since the ACA version works with layer keying, the ACA interface continues to use the ACA version.  As you discovered, you still have access to the REVCLOUD command, but it is not featured in the ACA.cuix interface, as you are being directed toward the ACA version.