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AutoCAD

Bug Watch: Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD 2006

14 Oct, 2005 By: Steve Johnson Cadalyst

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Autodesk introduces a handy set of fixes for many AutoCAD 2006 problems.

Autodesk has released its first, and probably only, Service Pack for AutoCAD 2006 and AutoCAD LT 2006. To download it, click here. As always, read the Read Me file first. What does the Service Pack put right? Autodesk lists 89 fixes in the following categories:

Actions That No Longer Cause Fatal Errors: 8 fixes

Problems Reported with the Customer Error Reporting Utility (i.e., problems that the CER utility used to report, not problems caused by that utility): fixes in 31 areas

ActiveX API: 3 fixes

Calculator: 2 fixes

Color: 1 fix

Data Extraction: 2 fixes

Dimensioning: 2 fixes

Dynamic Blocks: 2 fixes

Dynamic Input: 2 fixes

Hatching: 1 fix

Key Modifiers: 1 fix

Layers: 1 fix

Migration (an apparent euphemism for CUI problems): 7 fixes

Modify: 3 fixes

ObjectARX and ObjectDBX: 2 fixes

Object Linking and Embedding: 2 fixes

Object Snaps: 1 fix

Open: 1 fix

Options: 1 fix

Plot and Publish: 4 fixes

Profiles: 1 fix

Tables: 1 fix

Text: 8 fixes, including 5 specific to non-English AutoCADs

Tool Palette: 1 fix

Xrefs: 1 fix

The above list includes fixes for the Bug Watch items Maligned MLines, Scream Menu -- CUI Attacks!, CUIrruption, Reload of Rubbish and You Have No Right, plus Stretch Strain (see below).

Should you download and apply Service Pack 1 to your existing AutoCAD 2006? Yes, you probably should. If you're worried, watch this space for a few months, but Service Pack 1 certainly fixes many more problems than it introduces. Don't wait too long, though. You can probably expect AutoCAD 2007 to arrive by March 2006.

If you've been waiting for Service Pack 1 before introducing AutoCAD 2006, should you go ahead now? It depends. If you have an extensively customized AutoCAD environment, the continuing difficulties presented by CUI (see Bug Watch August 2005) may still put you off. This is particularly true for users of the AutoCAD-based vertical products, and SP1 is coming later for those than for vanilla AutoCAD. The brave new world of CUI is not going to go away, but by AutoCAD 2007 it should be closer to being fully baked.

Undefined Untruth (2006 and 2006 SP1)
In the CUI editor, you may find that trying to set up a workspace is somewhat trying. Part of that is due to poor interface design, but this bug is a contributing factor, too. If you have pull-down and toolbar menus defined in partial CUIs, they are incorrectly listed as "Undefined" when you are viewing or editing a workspace. The menu names are not listed, which makes it very difficult to know which menus are where or which ones are turned on or off. The menus aren't really undefined, and AutoCAD displays the menu names in the AutoCAD user interface itself. They even display correctly elsewhere in the CUI dialog box. The same bug applies to partial menus of both main and enterprise CUIs.
Workaround: None known.

Stretch Strain (2006)
If you perform a stretch that includes a circle, that circle could end up where it shouldn't be. If the circle is parallel to the WCS (world coordinate system), you won't have a problem. If the circle lies in any other plane, the displacement in WCS is applied to the object's non-WCS coordinate system, meaning that it is displaced to the wrong location.
Fix: Apply Service Pack 1.