AutoCAD 2010

Yes, I'm way late on this, but in case you have been in a cave for the last week or so, Autodesk released their latest Advantage Packs for AutoCAD 2010, and several verticals last week. These Advantage Packs are available for subscription members only.

I'm going to cover the tools included in the Advantage Pack for AutoCAD 2010 below. The "Subscription" tab for the ribbon for this Advantage Pack is shown above. Keep reading for more....

Thanks to Tony Tanzillo for posting the information needed to disable the Infocenter. This was repeated by others such as Jimmy at JTBWorld, and Owen at Outside the Box. I even linked to it here also.

Anyway, we are rolling out some 2010 products and I thought it would be a good idea to perform this step as early as possible and per user (not per machine - since this is a per user setting now)... So why not put it in a windows startup script...? So I turned it loose on a set of test machines...

Starting with AutoCAD 2010, the old Portable License Utility (PLU) has been replaced by the License Transfer Utility (LTU). The old PLU essentially created a "license file" that you could move from one computer to another using a network, flash drive or any other method. If you bought a new computer for example, you could install AutoCAD on the new computer, and use the PLU to transfer the activation from the old machine to the new one.

The only problem with this is that the PLU failure rate was about 50%, and because you had to define the target machine when you exported, you could not re-import back onto the same machine.

So along comes the LTU. So what is the difference? The LTU copies your activation up to the Autodesk servers where it can sit until you are ready to import it. So far in my testing, it has not failed once. Of course you will need an internet connection on both machines, and you will need an Autodesk UserID and password. If you don't have one, you can create one.

Update 1 for AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010 has been released. You can download it here. The readme file can be found here.

Notes: This update is for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT only. It does not apply to and will not install on vertical products like Civil 3D, Map, etc. There are separate 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Today, I attended the first half of the Autodesk "Move Forward with 2010" event here in Houston. This event was put on by Total CAD Systems at the Reliant Center (next door to Reliant Stadium), and featured Autodesk Technical Evangelist, Lynn Allen, whose unique method of speaking is both informative and entertaining.

If you are running Norton 360 3.0 and AutoCAD 2010, chances are your OPEN and SAVE dialogs do not work, among other problems.
 
Here is an Autodesk KB article on the issue: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1104727
 
Here is a direct link to the fix from Symantec.

The AutoCAD 2010 system requirements say that IE7 or later is required. However, I created a 32-bit deployment for AutoCAD 2010, and unchecked the IE requirement box, then installed on a machine with IE6, and AutoCAD 2010 runs just fine.
 
I know, IE6 is pretty old, but some people still run other software that won't run on anything newer than IE6.
 

You can access the AutoCAD 2010 new features workshop here.
If you already have 2010 installed and you want to turn off the Infocenter for good, follow this link for instructions.
 

Get your free 30 day trial of AutoCAD 2010 here. If you can't manage the download, you can request a DVD here. Both 32 and 64 bit versions are available. You are free to install it on multiple computers, each with their own 30 day time limit.
Here is my initial review of AutoCAD 2010, from February 5.

AutoCAD 2010 is now shipping. Are you ready to install it? Will you wait? Are you still on 2006 or 2007? If you have not already voted on my poll, please do so.
So far, 40% of you say you will install 2010 as soon as you get it.