Newest Autodesk apps marching to the 64-bit beat.

By Jeff Yoders, Senior Associate Editor

Autodesk's latest releases of their design applications Revit Architecture 2010 and AutoCAD 2010 both come with extensive new features that completely transform the programs' user interfaces, allow more freeform and conceptual modeling, and increase their ease of use. The 2010 products also feature one-license, out-of-the-box compatibility with both 32- and 64-bit machines. This will give design firms even more reason to switch to 64-bit sooner.

Revit Architecture 2010: New ribbon interface

Revit Architecture 2010 introduces new features in the most significant redesign of the program since 2007. The most immediately apparent is the ribbon interface similar to the AutoCAD 2009 and Microsoft Office 2007 ribbons. Some longtime Revit users have been griping about the new user interface, but since the ribbon is now standardized on nearly every Autodesk product, I wouldn't expect it to go away anytime soon.

The Revit toolbar is made up of contextual icons that are grouped by task and change to show tools relevant to the task you're performing. The tools designers …