AutoCAD 2018: New Features Tested

By Justin Doughty

New 2018 .dwg file format

A new 2018 dwg file format is available, in testing this reduced file size for certain files, and overall improves opening and saving times. Also something to remember when sharing .dwg files with other users. 

PDF Import

PDF files generated from AutoCAD drawings that contain SHX text store the text as geometric objects. You can use the PDFSHXTEXT command to convert the SHX geometry back into text, this now has an option to use the best matching SHX font.

So where we used to have shx text converted into lots of polylines, we can now convert it to back to text.

External Reference Paths

The default path type for external references is now set to Relative. This can be changed with the new REFPATHTYPE system variable.

When you right click on an reference file that is not found, you get 2 new options, Select New Path and Find and Replace.

When you fix the path for a missing external reference, you can now apply the same path for other missing reference files.

You can now open unloaded reference files.

Graphical and Visual Improvements

As with most releases of AutoCAD there have been a number of graphical and visual improvements, with 4K monitor support and a performance increase. In testing this was most notable when navigating a 3D model, it was clearly smoother and faster.

For more details on these please see the Autodesk link below:

blogs.autodesk.com/autocad/autocad-2018