ACA 2015 Service Pack 2

[cad-pe]

The Autodesk Application Manager appeared on my screen let me know that the ACA 2015 Service Pack 2 Update was ready to download and install. The Application Manager worked well but took a little time to down load and install SP2. No problem with time. It was when I opened ACA 2015 with SP2 installed that I noticed that my complaints as well as others who complained that Autodesk personnel, managers and programs, didn't listen to their users.

Firstly, it appears that nothing was fixed. The dashed line still appears when moving or coping an object from the first picked point to the second pick point. 'Don't need that useless information. Secondly, the cross hairs still appear when erasing, but was fixed to hide when coping or moving.

I'm still using ACA 2014. There have been a number of Postd that have been made addressing these two (2) problems. I've been using AutoCAD since Release 9 and I've taught students at a private school, public community colleges, and at a university to use AutocAD. I use AutoCAD to make a living and Autodesk is reducing my production time and making it difficult for me to use ACA 2015. I use AutoCAD to produce construction documents for contractors to build structures. My clients tell me that my drawings are excellant.

When using AutoCAD I am expecting the cursor and other features to behave has they have in the past so am should not distracted with new features that I have no control to turn a new feature off using a SYSVAR.

Even though there a short comings with ACA 2015 I'm thankful that I can still use ACA 2014 that behave in a predictable fashion.

I pray that ACA 2016 will have the garbage fixed. ACA 2015 is a bust.

[David_W_Koch]

I do not see SP2 for ACA 2015 on the AKN Downloads page, but sometimes it takes a few days to show up there after notification of an update first appears in the product or in the Application Manager.  I have not yet been offered SP2 in the Application Manager.

The graphics on the "rubber-band line" were changed in 2015 (in the base AutoCAD product), but that line was there in 2014 (and earlier), just in a perhaps less graphically form.

In ACA 2015 SP1, if I start the ERASE command, I only see the pick box on screen (along with the cursor badge, but you can suppress that with the CURSORBADGE system variable by setting it to 2).

While I can see changes to the on-screen graphics having the potential to be initially unsettling, particularly for a long-time user (I started with Version 2.5), I do not believe this rises to the level of unusability.  Unfortunately, I could not find any setting that controls the graphics of the rubber-band line.

[cad-pe]

Service Pack 2 appears on the DOWNLOAD Web page as of the time of this writing.

You are right about the rubber-band freature. It's a feature of AutoCAD 2014, but it is passive in appearance. It's a continuous, solid line and not the bright colored dashed line. I like the passive color of the rubber-band line as it isn't a distraction while I'm using the drawing editor. I would like to be given control over the rubber-band line now as to it's appearance and not be forced to use something that Autodesk sees as being an improvement to them and not an improvement to me as long time user and supporter of AutoCAD products.

I've asked to have information sent to me about being a BETA tester to give Autodesk feedback about new feature developments, but I have no recollection about getting information about how get on their BETA test distribution list. Maybe if I'm a BETA tester it will give me an opputunity to evaluate AutoCAD features and provide Autodesk with the results of my evaluation that may prevent the release of unwanted garbage or at least offer a user to have the ability to use a new feature or turn a new feature off or have the abitly to modify a feature.

As a C# software developer, civil engineer, and long time AutoCAD drafter/designer, I know that the life cycle development of code can be challenging. I believe it to be that AutoCAD software code is made up of different generations of the C language, but Autodesk is still working to give its users highly developed software that will satisfy many different and varied user requiements. I would also like to believe that if I were a BETA tester that the Autodesk team would listen to my evlauation results and not continue to develop features or give the user control of what Autodesk staff thinks a user would like to improve drawing productivity when a software programmer is not using AutoCAD to produce drawings for a living, i.e. using AutoCAD to make a living.

[David_W_Koch]

Yes, I did see that showed up the next day (and I installed it).

If you go here:  https://beta.autodesk.com/ and sign in with your Autodesk ID, you can click on the About Me link in the Community Profiles area on the left side of the page, and indicate which programs you have an interest in beta testing.  (If you have never logged in there before, it may ask for that information automatically - I am not sure how it works with the current setup.)  Simply signing up is not a guarantee that you will be asked to participate, but not signing up is a guarantee that you will not.  😉

[cad-pe · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the Link to Beta testing sign-up.