CADDManager on October 5th, 2009

I recently installed (actually reinstalled) AutoCAD 2010.  It was a painless process, but the Initial Setup asked some questions along the way.  The install did not take very long, even though I did a Full Install.  I recommend that you do that.  At least for yourself.  That way you get everything that you want and some stuff you may not think you need.  If you do the Full Install, then you can go through all the “stuff” it installs and see what is in there.  A “Typical” install may leave things out that you might want to use or review.  One thing left out in a Typical install are the tutorials.  You may want to see what they have to offer.

“Welcome to AutoCAD 2010” is the greeting you will get along with a few questions in the setup.

Welcome-to-ACAD2010-1

This screen asks what industry you are working in.  It will them configure your interface and tools to use the most common items for that industry.  Being Architectural, I selected that.  If you are uncertain what you will get the click on “Other”.  No matter what you choose, you can open any toolbar or palette once AutoCAD is running.

By identifying your industry, Initial Setup (the Autodesk developers) can determine which default drawing template might be the one that best fits your needs. Along with defining the default drawing template, the industry you choose is also used to:

Identify partner products. Partner products are developed by third-party developers; they extend the base functionality of your product and add specific functionality that is related to your industry.

For more information about partner products, see http://partnerproducts.autodesk.com/.

I am not sure how this info gets back to third party developers, but it does let Autodesk know what industry you are in as a user.

Control Autodesk Seek results. Autodesk Seek is a content search site that contains symbols, specifications, and other design-related content that might be placed into a drawing or bid package. The specified industry filters the information that is found based on the content that is best related to you.

For more information about Autodesk Seek, see http://seek.autodesk.com/.

The information gathered by Autodesk from your answers to the Initial Setup is used to configure several different features and to help guide the future direction of the program. The following features are customized with Initial Setup:

  • The default drawing template (DWT) file used to create new drawings.
  • The industry that best relates to you to use for filtering search results on Autodesk Seek.
  • Which task-based tools to display in a workspace.

Autodesk clearly states: No information is shared with Autodesk about the choices you make unless you participate in the Customer Involvement Program (CIP). For information about the Customer Involvement Program,  see my post or go to the Autodesk site on the CIP.

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