Product
AutoCAD Web
ACAD Web is Autodesk’s premiere web app, built with the intention of bolstering it’s flagship product (AutoCAD) with a cohesive cloud experience. AutoCAD is a deeply intricate and complex product with a code base that stretches over 30 years old– meaning its earliest customers have been mastering the interface and interactions for decades. This team took on the herculean effort of modernizing the code into one modernized base that could be shared across desktop, web, and mobile product offerings, without compromising the power or nuances of the original AutoCAD.
My role on this team was to design AutoCAD’s backbone features (Blocks, Plotting, Drafting Settings, Layouts) for a web environment while maintaining 1:1 parity with desktop functionality. Leveraging my background as an architect allowed me to connect with customers with a deep understanding of their workflows and needs.
Try it: web.autocad.com
Company: Autodesk
Role: Product Designer
Design Team: Scott Price, Rebecca Pariser (visual design), Jeff Lashins
Blocks
Figma and Sketch have symbols, AutoCAD has Blocks. They are the core repetitive components that comprise a drawing. Taking the first steps to make Blocks possible on the web meant prioritizing its numerous capabilities and to satisfy their extremely broad application among CAD users. Cross-platform capabilities needed to be considered so usage could be cohesive across web, mobile and desktop.
The first steps to a robust Blocks feature was just giving basic capabilities to read and edit blocks that already exist inside of a DWG. This might include creating a block definition, using the block within the drawing, editing blocks, searching for and counting blocks.
The broader idea to keep in mind is the management of a shared block library. Where are blocks stored for access by a team of people? How do team members contribute to this library and maintain it over time? How can we leverage content on the web?
Navigate: I want to see the block definitions that exist in my drawing.
Access details about specific block definitions (Name, Description, Reference Count)
Find blocks to insert into a drawing
Search blocks by keyword
Insert: I want to take a block from my block library and insert it into the drawing.
Drag and drop from palette into canvas
Have a cursor become block upon release
Insert a block from the “insert” button in the panel
Trigger this window from the INSERT command
View: I want to view and edit basic properties for a block that exist in my drawing.
Change layer and color of a block
View Attributes for the reference
Edit existing attributes
Hide attributes for a reference
Create: I want to create a new block from geometry on my canvas.
Use the BLOCK icon to launch the block command
Name block
Set an insertion point
Triggers Block Manager window upon completion
Layouts and Plotting
Model Space
Paper Space (Layouts)
Viewport Properties
Status Bar
Coming Soon
