Release 11    October 1990

General -- R11

The new TILEMODE system variable can be used to enable paper space, where Viewports are entities that display views into "model space" rather than being simple partitions of the display graphics area. The paper space mechanism adds the following capabilities to AutoCAD:

• Multiple views of the model can be plotted in a single plot operation, complete with additional production drafting graphics, such as sheet outlines, title blocks, annotation text, etc.
• Viewport-specific layer visibility.

Network support features

• A new file-locking system prevents more than one AutoCAD session from accessing the same file when it would be possible to corrupt data or crash one or more AutoCAD sessions as a result.
• Network server authorization allows the installation of a single copy of AutoCAD on a network server. The number of users specified at the time of purchase can execute AutoCAD on the network server. The maximum number of concurrent users can be increased through the purchase of a larger license count, for which an authorization code for the larger limit is issued. This "floating license" does not apply to versions of AutoCAD using workstation authorization codes or hardware locks.
• A pair of new system environment variables named -ACADPLCMD and ACADPPCMD, in conjunction with the "AUTOSPOOL" default plot filename, now allows the -AutoCAD PLOT and PRPLOT commands to invoke plot-spooling programs.

A personalization step has been added to the installation. This step allows two lines of ASCII text to be added to the executable program file. This text is displayed in the Main menu banner (or the equivalent) when AutoCAD is invoked. The labels for the strings are "Licensed to:" and "Obtained from:". You can't change these strings after installation is complete.

Dimensioning enhancements include:

• Dimstyle symbol table allows the saving, retrieval, modification and the retention of the variable settings for individual Dimension entities.
• Ordinate dimensions can now be input with AutoCAD.
• Different portions of a dimension entity can now be assigned different colors. The colors are controlled by the DIMCLRD, DIMCLRE and DIMCLRT variables.
• Dimension text can now be moved and edited with the TEDIT subcommand.
• Linear dimensions can now be specified with an oblique (non- perpendicular) angle between the dimension and extension lines.
• Dimension subcommands can now be abbreviated to the minimum number of characters to uniquely identify the subcommand.
• The allowable dimension text gap for linear dimensions to determine the position of the dimension line and arrows inside or outside the extension lines can now be configured with the DIMGAP variable. The clipping of the angular dimension arc against the dimension text box also relies on this value.
• DIMBLK, DIMBLK1, and DIMBLK2 are now supported for all dimension types, not just linear dimensions.
• The DIMSCALE variable can now be set to 0.0. This allows you to enter dimensions into model space and to scale dimension text and arrowheads so that they take on their specified size in paper space rather than model space. This is usually what will be wanted when plotting from paper space.
• Radial and Diameter dimensions now place their text, arrowheads and dimension lines in a more flexible (and reasonable) manner.
• Angular dimensions can now be acquired with 3 points as well as by selecting two line segments.
• Tolerance text size can now be scaled relative to the basic dimension text size.
• Null responses now terminate all dimension subcommands, except where noted in the prompt text and documentation.

The new Drawing File Recovery mechanism scans and recovers valid data from damaged drawing databases. There is also an AUDIT facility that scans drawing databases for invalid or damaged fields. The AUDIT facility can be invoked at any time in the editor and can be configured to run automatically after certain operations.

External reference drawings can now be dynamically attached to a drawing with the XREF command. This allows you to work with other AutoCAD drawings without adding them permanently to your drawing and without altering their contents.

The ACAD environment variable can now include multiple directories to specify a search path for library or support files.

The Advanced Modeling Extension (AME) provides the solid modeling capability of AutoSolid from within AutoCAD. Solid entity creation and basic editing features are provided in the standard package, while advanced features for some platforms can be purchased at additional cost.

The following enhancements have been made to the AUI dialog box mechanism:

• A line editor was added for use with all dialog box text string fields.
• Text strings can now be longer then their dialog box field via horizontal scrolling.
• Scroll bars are used for inspecting lists.
• All dialog boxes that deal with lists now have more than 5 fields, ranging from 10 to 15 items at a time.
• The arrow cursor is now visible when you point to the AUI menu bar and its pull-down menus.

";" characters now denote comments in .pat, .lin and .shp files.

Abbreviations and aliases can now be defined for AutoCAD commands in the acad.pgp file.

Eight new text alignment options have been added, so now any combination of Top/Middle/Baseline/Bottom and Left/Center/Right is supported.

File search and specification dialog boxes are now optionally available for all filename prompts in the AutoCAD drawing editor.

A new command named DDEDIT was added to allow the dialog box line editor to be used on Text and Attdef entities.

The Help file can now be arranged to display text appropriate to a command subprompt context, as well as for an entire command.

Symbol name and filename listings, both on the text screen and in dialog boxes, can now be sorted in all appropriate AutoCAD operations.

A wild-card matching facility has been implemented for searching and listing symbol names in all appropriate AutoCAD operations.

Fractional numeric input is now accepted wherever a real number is permitted, and can have any denominator (not just powers of 2). In addition, decimal feet (6.2') is valid input when Engineering and Architectural units are in effect.

Points can now be entered via 3D spherical and cylindrical coordinates.

Polar, spherical, and cylindrical coordinates can be either relative or absolute.

Angle values can now be specified in radians and grads by adding the proper suffix, even if the current angular units setting is degrees.

The new UNITMODE system variable lets you instruct AutoCAD to display fractional, feet-and-inches, and Surveyor's units in the same format as is expected for input.

Whenever AutoCAD asks for a filename of a particular type, you can include a file type in your response as long as it's the correct type.

Most system variables can now be changed by simply entering their names; there's no need to type SETVAR first.

The DDEMODES (Entity creation) dialog box now lets you select a new text style.

The TRIM and EXTEND commands now have Undo options.

The new ZOOM Vmax command zooms to the limits of the virtual screen.

The standard menu file supplied with AutoCAD was substantially enhanced.

Parallel I/O ports can be specified during configuration for plotter and printer plotter devices.

Handles are now automatically assigned and supported on entities contained within block definitions.

The SHADE command was added as a limited shading facility on 256- color display devices and as a quick hidden line removal visualization facility for display devices that display 16 or fewer colors.

OSNAP now fully operates on Circles, Arcs, and Polyline arc segments within uniformly scaled Block References.

There are two new plot optimization settings which specify that overlapping vectors should be eliminated or merged in plot operations.

Plots can now be rotated 180 and 270 degrees in addition to 0 and 90 degrees. 3D (nonplan) views can now be rotated.

The following enhancements have been made to the IGES translator:

• Support of paper space and Viewport entity constructs as Drawing and View entities, respectively.
• Viewport-specific entity visibility.
• External drawing references.
• New AutoCAD dimension constructs: ordinate dimensions, and new styles of radial and diameter dimensions
• IGESOUT translates Polyface mesh entities into corresponding 3D Face, 3D Line, and 3D Point entities.
• Support of other AutoCAD drawing file changes and enhancements.

A Polyface polygon mesh entity was added, with the corresponding PFACE command, to allow the addition of arbitrary combinations of face entities that share vertices. This allows the storage of such faces in a more compact form than the corresponding set of 3D Face entities.

8-bit and extended 16-bit font support has been added for international versions of AutoCAD.

The Shape file format has been extended to allow support for Asian language translation, where the 16-bit font introduced in Release 10 was not sufficient.

The AutoCAD Development System (ADS) was added, providing a compiled language programming interface to AutoCAD on most platforms. It was supplied with Release 10 for OS/2 only, and has been significantly enhanced for Release 11.

The extended entity data (Xdata) facility was added, providing a means to attach data to entities, via DXF, AutoLISP and ADS, and group the data by "registered application" (regapp) names.

The ADI (Autodesk Device Interface) Version 4.1 upgrade was provided primarily to facilitate optimal usage of display drivers when using the paper space facility in AutoCAD. Other enhancements and bug fixes were also made.