Alias isn’t just for creating monsters for games and movies. Alias Sketch has spread to the iPhone and iPad, and now is on AutoCAD. Alias Sketch for AutoCAD is a plugin that costs $500; when installed, it adds a tab to AutoCAD’s ribbon.
To use Alias Sketch in AutoCAD, you first open a viewport-like “canvas” in a layout. (If you wish, you can copy 2D and 3D models from AutoCAD’s model space. The model is turned into a 2D raster image.) Alias Sketch draws and manipulates raster lines like vector objects. Lines, text, and other raster objects are manipulated like splines.
Once the sketch is done, you can bring it into AutoCAD’s model space as an image underlay. You then trace over it using splines and surfaces to create a 3D model.
While working with AutoCAD 2011 beta for my books, I had noticed two new system variables for multitouch digitizers, named Digitizer and MaxTouch. When I asked about them, Autodesk confirmed that multitouch was built into AutoCAD but was not yet turned on.
