Tag Archives: User Reaction

AutoCAD 2009 – Putting things back to normal revisited

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I see Lynn Allen has written a post explaining how to restore the “classic” interface. I commend Lynn for doing this in response to the requests she’s been receiving. It must be pretty painful for some people at Autodesk to see their Technical Evangelist showing people how to turn off AutoCAD 2009’s Big New Feature, but it’s absolutely the right thing for her to do.

The worst thing Autodesk can do right now is go into denial mode, which has happened more than once in the past when users have reacted negatively to various things. This post from Lynn gives me hope that maybe we don’t have to go through that stage this time.

Anyway, if you want more detail about putting things back to normal, have a look at my earlier post on the subject.  I’ll add one more tip here that you might otherwise miss: if you want the old layer interface to be invoked by the Layer command rather than the new pallette, set the undocumented system variable LAYERDLGMODE to 0.

AutoCAD 2009 – The Reaction Part 2

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I won’t beat about the bush, AutoCAD 2009 is getting a pretty hostile reaction out there. Have a look at Autodesk’s AutoCAD 2009 newsgroup, for example. It’s true that many releases receive a hostile welcome, but this year it looks particularly bleak. Frankly, AutoCAD 2009 is taking a hammering.

I think it’s possible to gauge the general AutoCAD user reaction reasonably well by looking at what is said in places like this, but adjustments do need to be made. There are always some people who are resistant to any change, some who are habitually hostile to Autodesk, some who dislike parts of the new release without fully understanding them, and so on. The percentage of the comments you read that can be attributed to that kind of thing is open to debate, and there is always a point to be made that people tend to complain about things they don’t like and keep quiet about the things they do.

To try to take a more objective approach, I’ve added a poll to the right. This has exactly the same options as my earlier poll from before the release date where I asked for your speculation on how good the product was going to be. It will be interesting to see how that compares with your initial reactions to the shipping product. I’ll repeat this poll later in the life of the product to see if there is any change after people have had a chance to use AutoCAD 2009 over an extended period.

AutoCAD 2009 – The Reaction Part 1

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Some people have now received AutoCAD 2009, or at least downloaded it, which you can do (legally!) here, as long as you’re in the United States or Canada.

I’m closing the AutoCAD 2009 speculation poll. Other than a small blip on “Very bad”, the poll follows a typical bell curve nicely, with the peak very clearly on “OK”. I will poll on AutoCAD 2009 later, once you’ve had a chance to play with the new product.

What is the initial user reaction like? So far, not good. For example, have a look at Autodesk’s AutoCAD 2009 discussion group. I fully expected an initial adverse reaction to the new user interface, but it will be interesting to see if it persists once the shock of the new has worn off.