I recall the media day at an Autodesk University a few years ago, when I asked why AutoCAD still does not support EMF [enhanced metafile format]. It is still stuck at the WMF stage introduced with the earliest Windows versions of the software. The product manager of the time heard me, instructed his staff to include EMF; it never happened.
In all of my books and ebooks, I annotate AutoCAD screen grabs with Visio 98. In a few cases, simple figures are all-Visio, such as the elements of an AutoCAD dimension.
I use Visio, because it makes it really easy to add and, more importantly, edit annotations (aka "leaders") through its intelligent objects and its clean results.
Despite all that Autodesk has thrown into AutoCAD for technical publishing, they still fall short of the standard that Visio set more than a decade ago -- in terms of how trivial Visio makes it for me to get quality output.
Here's a fer-instance: I can change the size of a sheet [of paper] in Visio just by holding down the Ctrl key and dragging the edges. (The sheet size determines the area the figure takes up in a technical publishing package, like InDesign.)
Another fer-instance. When I copy'n paste the Visio graphic into InDesign, the vector image is faithfully inserted -- linewidths and all. AutoCAD 2011 still can't transmit full object data through the Clipboard, as illustrated below.
In all of my books and ebooks, I annotate AutoCAD screen grabs with Visio 98. In a few cases, simple figures are all-Visio, such as the elements of an AutoCAD dimension.
I use Visio, because it makes it really easy to add and, more importantly, edit annotations (aka "leaders") through its intelligent objects and its clean results.
Despite all that Autodesk has thrown into AutoCAD for technical publishing, they still fall short of the standard that Visio set more than a decade ago -- in terms of how trivial Visio makes it for me to get quality output.
Here's a fer-instance: I can change the size of a sheet [of paper] in Visio just by holding down the Ctrl key and dragging the edges. (The sheet size determines the area the figure takes up in a technical publishing package, like InDesign.)
Another fer-instance. When I copy'n paste the Visio graphic into InDesign, the vector image is faithfully inserted -- linewidths and all. AutoCAD 2011 still can't transmit full object data through the Clipboard, as illustrated below.
Left: Visio preserves linewidths when pasted into InDesign
Right: AutoCAD does not.
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