Datasheet

Part I: AutoCAD 101

AutoCAD first hit the bricks in the early 1980s, around the same time as the

first IBM PCs. It was offered for a bewildering variety of operating systems,

including CP/M (ask your granddad about that one!), various flavors of Unix,

and even Apple’s Macintosh. By far the most popular of those early versions

was for MS-DOS (your dad can tell you about that one). In 1997, Autodesk

settled on Microsoft Windows as the sole operating system for AutoCAD, and

that was the case for the next 13 years. Then, in 2010, Autodesk released its

first non-Windows version for many years: AutoCAD for Mac. The last version

of AutoCAD to run on the Mac was Release 12, which appeared as long ago as

1992. It’s taken a while, but it looks like the Mac is back!

In this book, I cover only the Windows versions of AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD

LT 2012. AutoCAD For Mac is different enough — in both capabilities and

interface — from the Windows versions that I simply can’t cover it all here. If

you’re a Mac user with an interest in running AutoCAD, check out Mastering

AutoCAD For Mac by George Omura and Rick Graham (Sybex Publishing).

AutoCAD 2012 and AutoCAD LT 2012 are supported in the following Windows

flavors, including both 32- and 64-bit versions:

✓ Windows 7 and Windows Vista Home Premium

✓ Windows 7 Professional

✓ Windows 7 and Windows Vista Enterprise

✓ Windows 7 and Windows Vista Ultimate

✓ Windows Vista Business

✓ Windows XP Professional

✓ Windows XP Home (32-bit only)

Although not officially supported, AutoCAD 2012 (and AutoCAD LT 2012) can

also run in Windows XP Tablet 2005 Edition, and make use of the tablet func-

tionality included in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Trying to do production

drafting on a tablet isn’t a great idea because of limitations in the graphics

system, but I know it works, because I’m running it that way myself!

Because of AutoCAD’s MS-DOS heritage and its emphasis on efficiency for

production drafters, it’s not the easiest program to master, but it has gotten

easier and more consistent over the past decade or so. AutoCAD is pretty

well integrated into the Windows environment now, but you still bump into

some vestiges of its MS-DOS legacy — especially the command line (that

text area lurking at the bottom of the AutoCAD screen — see Chapter 2 for

details). But even the command line — oops! command window — is kinder

and gentler in AutoCAD 2012. This book guides you around the bumps and

minimizes the bruises.

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