Products · Product
AutoCAD
Raised as a usability problem by 17 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2011–2025), in 18 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Must keep switching hands between typed commands and mouseUnreviewed
20112026- Must release the mouse to type commands or press F-keys for snaps, which is annoying2021-11-29
- Must constantly type commands and switch hands between keyboard and mouse2019-04-22
- Keyboard entry is second class, forcing mouse use and extra clicks for commands2015-01-16
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 21 complaints
- Icon-only menus are hard for beginners to understand until learned through daily use2025-12-09
- Feels slow and heavy to use, with little improvement between versions2023-06-14
- Interface and drawing method feel unintuitive to a new user2022-09-17
- 3D work is very slow even on high-end hardware2022-09-16
- Must press Enter after each command and wait for a slow autocomplete menu to render2021-11-29
- Must release the mouse to type commands or press F-keys for snaps, which is annoying2021-11-29
- Erasing a line leaves gaps, forcing users to type REDRAW and wait2021-10-26
- Drawing a line requires moving to a toolbar button or typing a command2021-06-07
- CAD software UI is hostile to users, poor quality and negative return on investment2021-06-07
- Design priests abuse users with hard-to-use direct manipulation interfaces2021-01-29
- Ribbon poorly organised for a complex program, making it terrible to use2019-10-26
- Hard to learn; father found it awful, took a week of practice2019-07-03
- Must constantly type commands and switch hands between keyboard and mouse2019-04-22
- Can't draw a closed two-sided polyline, forcing an extra vertex to make a D shape2018-11-15
- Users must semi-manually repair files because saving doesn't reliably work2018-05-09
- Buggy user interaction made the web version unusable, forcing a return to desktop2018-05-09
- Hands must move off home row; mixed CLI and GUI design is awkward2016-11-30
- Constraint interface is extremely nonintuitive, hard to understand how to use2015-08-16
- Keyboard entry is second class, forcing mouse use and extra clicks for commands2015-01-16
- Hybrid menu and command interface has a steep learning curve for new users2011-10-25
- Software is still clunky to use and its GUI needs improvement2011-01-19