There’s a lot of ground to cover with the AutoCAD 2013 release. In total, there are seventeen new features over the 2012 edition. There are two aspects of this release that I believe are most relevant to IT departments and procurement teams. In this first post, I talk about the Cloud, and how it’s going to change how you work.
Enter Cloud Services
One of the biggest impacts this release will have on IT is the extension and enhancement of AutoCAD via cloud services. Autodesk 360 is a cloud-based platform for storage, collaboration and a host of other great services that was announced at Autodesk University in November of last year.
What’s relevant with the launch of AutoCAD 2013 is the ability to easily connect to your Autodesk 360 account from within the client via the InfoCenter toolbar. Storage and collaboration (file sharing) are the obvious feature benefits. What makes this really special is the new ability to have clients/partners view design files in a web browser. Additionally, App availability for iOS and other value-add tools makes this offering even more compelling.
Beyond these features, there are subsciption-based cloud services that provide cloud computing power for rendering, optimization, energy analysis, structural analysis and green-building studio. All of this will change how you think about the infrastructure necessary to deploy and support your AutoCAD users.
So from an IT standpoint – there’s a lot more to think about when it comes to deploying AutoCAD 2013 – from how you can leverage the cloud, to thinking through support for mobile devices and tablets.
My recommendation: For more in-depth information on all the feature enhancements, visit Autodesk’s website. They have short videos on the new features. If you’d like to try it first, you can download a free 30-day trial.
If you do want a quick overview of the differences between versions here are a quick release comparison matrix and the product brochure.
In my next post, I focus on subscription licensing and why this has become a much more compelling business solution with this release.
Contact your account manager or ask your question in the comment section below, and our Autodesk team will respond to you as quickly as they can.
About Bryan Rusche
Bryan is Softchoice's Manager, Solutions Marketing. Bryan brings over a decade of product management, product marketing and technical sales to his role.
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