The queen of AutoCAD tips and tricks, Lynn Allen, has been on the road for three weeks straight sharing a whirlwind of invaluable techniques for getting more from Autodesk’s flagship product.

Luckily for us, Lynn’s last stop on her tour was the Metro DC area where she presented “AutoCAD Tips and Tricks” for govies! Yay!

Key new enhancements to Navisworks 2015 will enable the construction professional to generate takeoffs of both 2D and 3D objects in Quantification, for the development of cost estimates and bill of materials. New settings in Autodesk Rendering improve performance with creating photorealistic images.

Select 2D and 3D Views from an Integrated Project Browser

AutoCAD 2015 is here! To help you navigate the new and exciting features of the new release, Donnie Gladfelter (aka The CAD Geek) runs through some of the top reasons to choose AutoCAD 2015.

One-Click Product Updates

Trying to figure out which of the two plots on your desk is the most up-to-date version of a plan sheet is never much fun. Of course, even if you know which plot is the latest, you’ll still need to know where it’s saved to make any updates to it. By including information such as when a drawing was plotted and where it was saved in the margins of your sheets, plot stamps can help you avoid time consuming dilemmas like these.

You'll most likely find yourself creating or modifying some number of AutoCAD Civil 3D Styles throughout the course of a project. Although dragging-and-dropping styles between drawings has always been an option, it hasn't been without its shortcomings.

One of our favorite tools for conceptual civil/infrastructure design exploration is undoubtedly Autodesk InfraWorks (formerly Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler). Using Road Styles in tandem with the built-in proposals feature, it’s incredibly easy to explore the differences between several typical sections or even alignment options. Although typical sections are easily created as Road Styles within Autodesk InfraWorks, nowhere does the software provide an option to set daylight slopes. So how does Autodesk InfraWorks determine the slopes used to tie back into your existing ground surface?

From grading to storm and sanitary sewer design, AutoCAD Civil 3D Surfaces serve as a foundation for nearly all aspects of a typical civil engineering project. Given the far reaching impact of AutoCAD Civil 3D Surfaces, it's important to keep your data as lean as possible as not to negatively effect your projects performance. There are several ways to accomplish this including the best practice of limiting the total number of surfaces contained within any one drawing.