AutoCAD 2012 - What's missing?

AutoCAD 2012 was released this spring. Most of the talk is, understandably about the features that are new to the program. But, sometimes, we have to talk about the things that are now missing.

If you visit the Online Help for AutoCAD 2012, try doing a search for "deprecated". This should take you to the Command and System Variable History, which contains new and updated system commands and variables. However, if you scroll to the bottom of this page you'll see a list of "Deprecated Commands and System Variables."

Commands

• BLIPMODE (a temporary marker that shows where you've clicked)
• DSVIEWER (an aerial view window that shows where your view is zoomed in)

System Variables

• BLIPMODE
• MATERIALSPATH ("Specifies the path of the materials libraries.")
• MATSTATE ("Indicates whether the Materials Editor is open or closed.")
• SCREENBOXES (indicates the number of boxes in the screen menu, if it is open)
• SCREENMENU (legacy menu display interface)
• TRACEWID ("Sets the default trace width.")

Let's be honest, most people do not even use these anymore. I do have a running jab every year where I assure people that the SCREENMENU is still in AutoCAD (because no one uses it and it's demise has been rumored for many years).

However, this release... it really is gone.
Or, is it?
Over on the CADnauseam blog, Steve Johnson (and Jimmy Bergmark) points out that not all of these commands are *really* gone yet. Some of them are just turned off by default, and will likely be removed in future versions.
To turn back on (screen menu, ds viewer, blipmode or trace) use the REDEFINE command. After you have redefined the command, call up the applicable system variable and set it to "1" (default is 0).
If you are interested, read the comments section in the link above, they address customization and other changes.

(click image to enlarge)

This screenshot shows AutoCAD 2012 with the ScreenMenu on the right and the Aerial Viewer depicting my view of the drawing file (which happens to be my husband, Mike's sketch of the new native plantings he is currently installing in our back yard).


You might also want to check out Steve Johnson's post on 'putting things back to normal', so that your new release looks and acts a bit more like the older versions.