Autodesk AutoCAD 2007 Here�s a quick look at what AutoCAD 2007 software can do for

you.
It�s What Your Ideas Have Been Waiting For From conceptual design through drafting
and detailing, AutoCAD 2007 is all you need to create, visualize, document, and
share your ideas.
AutoCAD 2007 combines the familiar AutoCAD commands and user interface that you
already know with an updated design environment, giving you the power to shape and
explore your ideas like never before.
Conceptual Design An updated conceptual design environment makes the creation,
editing, and navigation of solids and surfaces simple and intuitive.
With all the tools in one place, turning your thoughts into designs comes easily.
Improved navigation tools enable designers to directly interact with their models
during creation and editing, making design alternative exploration more productive.
Visualizations Tools No matter where you are in the project lifecycle, AutoCAD 2007
enables you to convey your vision of the design with powerful visualization tools
like walk-through animations, and realistic rendering.
New animation tools mean you can expose any flaws early in the design
process�before they can become problematic.
Documentation At some point your design has to be built, and AutoCAD 2007 enables
you to quickly and easily turn your design models into a set of construction
documents that clearly and accurately depicts what is to be built.
Sectioning and flattening tools enable you to work directly from the design model
to create sections and elevations that can then be incorporated into your drawings.
By eliminating the need to re-create model information for the design document
package, you�ll save time and money, and avoid any errors that might occur during
manual re-creation.
Sharing AutoCAD 2007 expands the already powerful tools for sharing�like exporting
current DWG files to older versions of DWG and exporting and importing DWF files
with redline and markup information�as well as improves the ability to import and
work with a DWF file as a drawing underlay.
Plus, AutoCAD 2007 now has the ability to publish drawing files as in Adobe PDF
format.

File Format :
As we expected, AutoCAD 2007 brings a change to the DWG file format, setting back
DWG compatibles yet again.
Fortunately Autodesk listened to the demands of users, and included adequate
backwards compatibility AutoCAD 2007 can save as 2004, 2000, and even R14 drawings
as well as dxf.
In the options dialog you can set the default save format to any of these as well.
For the first time, the WBLOCK and REFEDIT commands honor this setting!

Open Speed :
A quick test of file open speed.
We created a dwg file with 1,000,000 rectangles (4-point closed polylines) then
saved it in each version so its opening its native format.
As you can see, while the file size significantly decreased in 2004, it slightly
increased in 2007.
This likely contributed somewhat to the additional 2 seconds load time.
The most impressive thing we see from this table is how fast 2000 was able to
crunch a file that was 3x larger.

3D Enhancements :
Some might say that 2007 is for the mechanical designers and architectural
visualists who didn't move to Inventor/Revit, because the 3D enhancements make up
the vast majority of the new release.
Since our focus has always been on production drafting, we have chosen not to spend
time evaluating this, instead we recommend this review if your interested in 3D.
Our idea of 3D improvements would have been adding arcs and linetype support to
3DPOLYs.

Xref Enhancements :
The XREF dialog is now a floating toolpalette with more functionality.
Its now used to manage attached drawings, images and dwf underlays.

DWF Enhancements :
Autodesk has pushed DWF forward since its introduction and each AutoCAD release
seems to bring DWF enhancements.
In 2007 you can now DWFATTACH a DWF an an underlay.
Much like an xref, you can specify insertion point, scale, rotation, etc.

- DWFADJUST changes properties such as fade & contrast.

- DWFCLIP limits the visible area, like image/xref clipping.
- DWFFRAME controls a selectable frame like images.
- DWFOSNAP allows you control snapping to DWF geometry.
- You can plot it with your own geometry, but you can't explode it.

PDF Plotting :
There is now a PDF plot driver available in the Plot dialog, allowing basic
plotting to PDF files.
However we expect most people who need to create PDF files also need to create them
from spreadsheets and word processors, etc.
Therefore we still recommend the Adobe Acrobat application.

API Specification :
As expected, the ARX specification changed. This (like it did with 2004) will
cause most sophisticated add-on software to require more significant reworking.
As usual, most lisp routines will continue to run with little or no changes.
Expect a delay from some add-on developers who don't act quickly.
Also don't expect your old versions of add-ons to run in 2007. There no
improvements to Visual Lisp and the VBA environment.
Instead all the progress is in the .NET and ObjectARX arenas.

Where's the DGN Import ?

Reports from AU2005 indicated this release might have the ability to import/export
DGN files.
Apparently this highly useful functionality didn't make it!

Summary :
Our opinion is that unless you are really into 3D solids modeling, this may be one
to skip.