#Rel 12 Front End
6 messages in this thread
I would also be interested in hearing a `little' about this. Also, any
other new & improved features of 12! At least, when can we expect to see
an announcement of features/shipping date…
-Mike.
Mike – You won't see a list of features or a ship date until it's very near
shipping. During the QA/beta test phase, features sometimes get kicked out
if they don't work well or are incomplete and require more work than we
have time or people to devote to them… and we don't like to annoy people
by promising something that then turns out not to be in the package.
Besides, *R11* isn't even out for the Mac, Windows, HP/UX, or SGI yet…
Duff – This puts us Systems Support people into something of a pickle. (At
least for me anyways.) CAD operators are DEMANDING some sort of drawing
management system for AutoCAD. (We have 30 networked CAD workstations)
The cost to purchase a 'front end' that provides minimal management
functionality will run us $450.00 per workstation which translates into a
cost of $13,500. Not to mention the time and effort to install it and get
it running. Management of course would like to find a less expensive
solution. (Some are even questioning whether we have a problem.) While
pondering this, someone 'hears' that Autodesk might have just what we are
looking for in the next release.
Question…
Do we wait?
Ron Warris
Colt Engineering Corporation
Ron – Well, what do *you* mean by a "drawing management system"? Everyone
seems to have their own definition. What I can tell you about R12 is that
the Main Menu is gone, and that you'll be able to use file dialog boxes to
scan through your directories and choose from the available drawing files
rather than having to type the full path/name of the drawing each time. But
that's probably not all you're looking for, right? If you want something
that tracks revisions, or attaches some sort of descriptive name to the
drawing files, or … , then I don't think we're planning anything like
that for inclusion in/with R12.
Duff-
As you happend to mention it, let me fill you in on one of my pet
peeves about file open dialogue boxes that I've seen all around (Acad,
Windows, Mac).
I HATE NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE MORE INFO THAN SIMPLY THE FILE NAME!
(Yes, I'm shouting!)
Don't forget to allow an option to show all the other file attributes, such
as date, time, and perhaps even the read only flag. I think that this should
hold true for *any* dialogue box, not just the first one, though always as
an option, of course.
Peter – Yup, that'd probably be nice… but in most cases, we're using the
standard file dialogs provided by the various GUI systems. Most of them
seem to reserve this kind of stuff for their File Manager (which, of
course, you can get to while running something else).