I've been working with AutoCAD for Mac in it's current iteration longer than just about anyone (except of course for Maxim) so I have seen the growth of the product to date. I've been quite vocal with Autodesk from the beginning (and technically before, as I had been contacting them directly for a Mac version for a few years prior to the first version) so I have seen how their attitude has changed on the product and the focus on it and away from it.
Yes, I believe when the first product came out it was a bit rushed, missng huge features like sheet sets. A year later a better version came out, then another update 8 months after. The time between 2013 and 2014 was over a year, I think for 2 main reasons: 2013 was extremely rushed to be released with the Windows side, and the decision to switch back to it's own schedule put the subsequent release of Mac 2014 back, and a bit of a shake up at Autodesk.
For the past 4 years of using the product and seeing it grow, my excitment and satisfaction with having a version of AutoCAD specifically for the Mac has been tempered with the glaring ommisions of features and tools. I've been extremely disappointed with lack of a dynamic block editor, with no work around for many of my favorite express commands. Do I think this update was a good one? Moderately. If they had only released this as a service pack, everyone would have cried that they were abbandoning the line since there hadn't been a full release in over a year. Am I overwhelmed by the new features? Not exactly. Retina Support is wonderful and I'm sure took a long time, recreating higher res versions of the numerous buttons, toolbars, visors, dialog boxes, and then the entire drawing canvas. I'm sure that took a lot of work.
To me, this release was a reassurance that yes, we are still working on the product and yes, we still want to include more tools and features. We are not going anywhere. I sort of see AutoCAD for Mac as a ship. Up until now the ship has been listing, leaning. This releae is them trying to right the ship, get it back in shape and ready to move forward (working with retina, fixing some bugs, etc) Now that the ship is semi-upright, hopefully they can finish plugging the mssing feature holes (like dynamic blocks) and start moving forward. It's an overly optimistic sentiment, but it's better than looking at the situation in an overly negative light when I have no control over it. I'd rather try to make what I have work (as annoying as it is) and tell Autodesk in a semi-constructive way exactly what I want in the future.
