Although service packs already exist for many AutoCAD 2016 verticals like Civil 3D; Autodesk released service pack 1 for “vanilla” AutoCAD this week. Whilst I recommend always paying attention to new service pack releases, this service pack is especially important for a few reasons.
Reason 1: The Service Pack Fixes Things
The basic function of service packs is to fix bugs (or what my optimist self likes to call “undocumented features”) that users like you have reported to Autodesk. The best way to let Autodesk know of the problems you’re having with the software? Always submit the CER report whenever AutoCAD crashes. The development teams at Autodesk use that information to identify and fix bugs in the software and thus make service packs even more beneficial for all.
Reason 2: Service Pack 1 adds Support for Windows 10
Anyone looking to upgrade (or has already upgraded) to Windows 10 will want to install this service pack immediately. Autodesk always develops their software to work with the latest operating system version being shipped to customers. Since Windows 10 was still in beta when AutoCAD 2016 was released this spring, support for Microsoft’s latest operating system is only available WITH service pack 1 installed. Without AutoCAD 2016 Service Pack 1 installed, Autodesk only supports Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 with AutoCAD 2016.
Reason 3: The “Vanilla” AutoCAD Service Pack now applies to AutoCAD Verticals
As mentioned at the start of this post, Autodesk has already released service packs for many of the vertical flavors of AutoCAD. This is important to note since users of vertical flavors of AutoCAD such as AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD Civil 3D have long been trained to ignore service packs for vanilla AutoCAD. In the past, service packs for vertical flavors of AutoCAD always followed the service pack release for vanilla AutoCAD. This was because the service packs for vertical flavors of AutoCAD always included fixes for both AutoCAD and the vertical flavor like AutoCAD Architecture or AutoCAD Civil 3D.
With AutoCAD 2016 the acad.exe application is shared among all versions of AutoCAD you have installed on your machine. This is a very good thing for a long list of reasons, but it also now means to keep AutoCAD Civil 3D up-to-date, you will have to install two service packs. The Civil 3D service pack PLUS the vanilla AutoCAD Service Pack.
[button link=”http://autode.sk/1JHAYJ0″ type=”big” newwindow=”yes”] Download AutoCAD 2016 Service Pack 1[/button]
(via Autodesk Knowledge Network: http://autode.sk/1JHAYJ0)
