AutoCAD 2022—Everything Old Is New Again

AutoCAD 2022 lets you have floating window. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

That a 39-year-old mostly 2D CAD program still rules, still stays current and relevant to millions of users, and shows no sign of abating is a modern-day marvel in our very dynamic tech world. Autodesk does it with AutoCAD. One might argue that the improvements in the recently released AutoCAD 2022 are merely incremental and minor. Nevertheless, Autodesk succeeds at keeping AutoCAD—if not modern—from looking it's age.

And so, the venerable old CAD program, with the boost of a few new features, continues to stave off many a challenger, all of which are no more of a threat than cubs are to a lion.

Several of the enhancements qualify as the modernization of a desktop application to a cloud/web strategy. They include the AutoCAD web and mobile apps, and Trace and Share features, which allow for online collaboration.

AutoCAD 2022’s Trace is a markup and review tool. Markups alter the existing drawing. Trace also allows comments and feedback in a separate window. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

Other enhancements, like the new Count feature that will automatically count blocks and geometry, support straight-up productivity.

You can now share and mark up DWG files in the web and mobile apps with AutoCAD 2022. The AutoCAD web app will now upload drawing templates and plot styles, connect to files stored in Autodesk Docs and Autodesk Drive as well as in your own cloud storage, be it Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Box or Dropbox.

A new AutoCAD feature, Share, will give others access to your drawing with a link. Using the AutoCAD web app, others can see your drawing. You can limit their access with a “view-only” level or allow them to edit the file.

It may seem as if Autodesk is making a mountain out of a molehill, but if you dread having to tally objects for a cut list or a bill of materials, you will thank AutoCAD 2022’s new Count feature. The count can be exported to a table that is dynamically updated as the drawing changes.

The ability to push to publish CAD drawing sheets as PDFs directly from AutoCAD to Autodesk Docs instead of having to first save PDFs and upload them to AutoCAD Docs in a browser should have been available all along—but we’re glad it has arrived.

Floating Window lets you view and edit multiple drawings on one screen in a single AutoCAD session and is bound to be AutoCAD 2022’s biggest productivity enhancer.

Autodesk adds support for the most popular cloud storage services. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

Upgrading to the new version of AutoCAD should be easier to install than ever. You can continue to work with your old AutoCAD while the new version is installing itself. Autodesk says the graphics performance has been improved and the new opening screen lets you access recent drawings.

The Mechanical Toolset is one of several industry-specific toolsets available with AutoCAD 2022. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

While AutoCAD may be considered a generic CAD tool—and is still used that way in many organizations—the company has made several concessions to specific industries in which it is used with specialized toolsets for mechanical, electrical, and architecture that automated industry-specific tasks and provide libraries with a total of 750,000 parts, symbols and features.

Mac Equality?

Apple AutoCAD for the Mac and AutoCAD LT for the Mac have been both updated to 2022 versions. This is the first time that Windows and iOS versions of AutoCAD have been released simultaneously. Although some of the features of the Mac version are unique, AutoCAD for the Mac still seems to be catching up to the Windows version with this round of enhancements.

AutoCAD for the Mac: Block libraries now let users display recently used blocks in the Block Library tab. Drawings and file folders stored locally or in the cloud can be inserted as a block. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

AutoCAD for the Mac: The Blocks palette can display the blocks as a list sorted by name and type. You can now rename blocks during insertion—even if a name duplicates a block name already in your drawing. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

AutoCAD for the Mac: New command EXPORTLAYOUT makes a snapshot of the current layout in the model space of a new drawing, including objects outside the boundaries of “paper.” (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

AutoCAD for the Mac: You can add, edit and remove shortcut key commands in the new Shortcuts tab of the Customize dialog box. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

AutoCAD for the Mac: See a list of recent commands with the Recent Input menu, which also supplies recently used coordinates. The INPUTHISTORYMODE command lets you control user input history. (Picture courtesy of Autodesk.)

You can connect to popular cloud storage services with AutoCAD 2022 for the Mac just as you can with AutoCAD for Windows.

How Much?

AutoCAD 2022 is a free upgrade if you are on the subscription plan. New users can purchase AutoCAD from Autodesk for $1,775 per year.