Between the Lines

HVAC Content Extension for Autodesk Building Systems 2004 Subscription Customers

There’s no doubt about it: content is key to the design of building systems. Autodesk® Building Systems 2004 contains extensive libraries of intelligent 2D and 3D mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection content. And now the HVAC Content Extension—a modular extension to Autodesk Building Systems—gives you additional content, so you can spend more time designing and less time creating parts.

New content includes
Thirty percent more duct fitting content
Significant coverage of ASHRAE duct fittings
Ten percent more mechanical MvParts
U.S. metric 3D plumbing content based on GSA (General Services Administration) guidelines

Need even more content? Autodesk Building Systems provides comprehensive tools to edit content or create custom intelligent block or parametric content in a matter of minutes.

Plus you have quick, easy access to manufacturers’ predrawn content over the Internet with built-in i-drop® technology. Simply insert content from manufacturers’ websites directly into your drawing with drag-and-drop i-drop functionality.

For more information, visit the product center.

Happy Halloween!

Below is a photo of me and fellow desker Mikhail "Misha" Belilovskiy and his funny ballerina costume. We had a Halloween party and costume contest.

The AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palette Extension & Palette Groups

You can now with the Tool Palette Extension create and manage and even switch palette groups easier than ever.

In the below image you see the Customize dialog you get after installing the extension then right-click on the Tool Palette and select "customize".

You can switch the current palette groups as simple as right-click menu on the Tool Palette as seen in the below image.

Below is a closer view of the Customize dialog where you can create, rename and export palettes and groups.

Are you aware you can even switch multiple Tool Palettes without the Tool Palette extension?
It is not as nice and easy as having the extension but here are the details:

Thanks to my fellow deskers Misha and Elango for this great explanation .

You can set the sysvar using setvar command or directly typing *_TOOLPALETTEPATH
in the command line. You must create your Tool Pallete files in separate directories for this method.

Programmatically, you can set the tool palette path in the following ways:

1. Using VBASTMT command and entering the following VBA statement:
AcadApplication.Preferences.Files.ToolPalettePath = "c:\temp\Palettes"

2. Using VBA macro:

Sub test()
Dim objPref As AcadPreferencesFiles
Set objPref = AcadApplication.Preferences.Files
objPref.ToolPalettePath = "c:\temp\palettes"
End Sub

2. Using Lisp as below:
(vl-load-com)
(vla-put-ToolPalettePath (vla-get-Files (vla-get-preferences (vlax-get-acad-object))) "c:\temp\Palettes" )

Please note that switching may be slow because it saves the current
palette and reloads the new palettes.

The extension is definitly the way to go!

Cheers,
-Shaan

New Interoperability and Productivity Extension for Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004 Subscription Customers

Just got the information from fellow desker Julian Gonzalez:

Continuing to provide value to ADT subscription customers, we are pleased to announce the availability of the new Interoperability and Productivity Extension for Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004.

Productivity and smooth sharing of design data are crucial for today’s fast-track building projects. With the Interoperability and Productivity Extension for Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004, you get just what the name says: tools that improve interoperability and productivity for more speed and accuracy, plus smoother communication and exchange of design data. Benefits include

Increased productivity through process and workflow enhancements—with Batch Refresh (update sections and elevations in a single step) and Isolate Objects (call out selected objects for easier viewing and modification)

Enhanced interoperability with other applications—with Import LandXML (import LandXML data directly into your drawing rather than re-creating it from scratch), Publish to Autodesk MapGuide® software (deliver information to owners and facilities managers in DWG format), and Export Property Data (export non-graphical information, to applications such as Microsoft® Access, for uses such as cost estimation)

Improved communication with the entire project team—with Publish to DWF™ (convert DWG files to Design Web Format™ files to share intelligent design data with extended team members who don’t have Autodesk Architectural Desktop)

You can check out some great AVI’s of the features in action by visiting Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

More on Microsoft Windows Longhorn

Here is a great site with Windows Longhorn information and screen captures. Paul thurrott is also writing a complete review of Longhorn to be posted soon. There was a lot of ooohs and ahhhs at the PDC today at some of the features. Lets hope this operating system is developed like fine wine and done slow with lots of feedback and attention to detail. This is a promising start and it is not due to be released until 2005-2006. A complete public beta will be sure to flesh out a ton of good feedback and bug squashing.

Click Here

Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Cheeers,
-Shaan

Microsoft Unwraps 'Longhorn' Operating System

Well get ready for the tons of press releases and news on the next oprtaing system. In fact Microsoft will be making this beta available for everyone and no non disclosure agreement required which means beta cusomters will be able to discuss it publicly. At the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) this week there are tons of reports about Longhorn and other operating systems and tools on the horizon. Longhorn is a huge evolution in the operating system and is scheduled to be released in 2006. I will discuss more of what I know when I am able but I was in Redmond 2 weeks ago.

An article on the Longhorn presentation by Bill Gates:
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

Notice to My Readers on Earth

There are solar flares predicted for the next few days here on Earth
with the potential to affect radio and power companies and other things.
On the bright side (no pun intended) the aurora may be seen lower
in the hemisphere due to the massive size of the two sun spots causing
the solar flares.

Check out a current link showing some great images.
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

64 bit Computers & AutoCAD

The 64 bit computers are coming. It will take awhile before we see any native 64 bit applications but they will come. It may take time like the transition from 16 bit to 32 bit but remember all of the changes in applications and the things they allowed us to do? This is a perfect example of evolution not revolution.

We have had 64 bit since the mid nineties remember the Sun SPARC? The operating systems are not there yet although there was NT 4 in a 64 bit awhile back but the new operating systems are progressing and some are in beta. Not even apple running on a 64 bit CPU is native 64 bit. Windows XP can run on the 64 bit CPU and there are versions in beta as native 64 bit expected late next year.

I have run AutoCAD on both the Intel and AMD 64 bit machines and what I have seen is some great progress. While AutoCAD is 32 bit native it is not built for the 64 bit CPU. In one case I saw significant performance increases on the AMD Opteron and even AutoCAD 2004 installed in under one minute on a 1.6 GHz AMD 64 bit and that is the fastest of any single or dual CPU machine I have ever seen. The speed is fast. PC World has reported AutoCAD using the AUGI benchmarks as 44% faster but Autodesk has not confirmed this but we are looking at it.

I have received questions from customers asking when is there going to be a 64 bit version of AutoCAD? The answer is simple, and like most other major changes in software architecture and hardware, when there is an enough demand. There also needs to be a true released 64 bit compiler available which there is not currently. AutoCAD for many years already has used the 64 bit floating point precision and operations on the 32 bit CPU. There are limitations to the floating point on the CPU that you can see when offsetting small geometry at a extreme distance from the 0,0 origin like 10E6+. The problem is when you get so far from the origin in the drawing and since there are only so many numbers you can use on either side of the decimal then the floating point will round making some very small features round to a zero which cannot be calculated as anything divided by zero equals zero. You can prevent this by moving the geometry closer in the drawing to 0,0 then offset and then move back to the extreme location. Mapping and Civil users work in this extreme area due to the reference points they must use for locating their property and other data such as most California coordinates are based from a single reference off of the Pacific coast. We are researching extending to 80bit floating point for operations thus extending precision and extend the distance from the origin in which you can work without the floating point rounding causing unpredictable results.

I will post more on this subject as details are released and systems become more available. Currently industry analysts are predicting 18 months before we start seeing the native 64 bit applications in the market in any volume.

Here are some interesting articles on the 64 bit and AutoCAD.

Cadalyst is saying the AMD 64 bit is ther fastest AutoCAD benchmarks ever seen at Cadalyst labs.
First Looks: @Xi MTower 64 AMD Opteron-based system Click Here

"tore through AutoCAD tasks, finishing the test about 25 seconds faster
than the average of the 3-GHz P4 systems. That's noteworthy because AutoCAD
is one of only two PC World tests in which the 800-MHz bus seemed to boost
newer 3-GHz P4 systems compared with 3.06-GHz P4 boxes."
Click Here

64-Bit Takes Off
"Systems with the FX-51 showed pronounced improvements in some of our more CPU-intensive tests, particularly AutoCAD, where they were about 44 percent faster, on average, than the P4 unit."
Click Here
Click Here

AMD chart for workstation comparison Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

Newspapers Around the World

On the web site link below, you can read the worlds newspapers daily front page. It is very informative and interesting to see what is going on aorund the world. For example today in Sydney Australia, you will no longer be able to shower at the famious Bondi beach afterswimming or surfing in an effort to conserve water usage. I hope you find this as intersting as I do.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk Express Viewer 4 is now Live!

You can click on the image to see a larger sized screen capture of Autodesk Express Viewer 4.

To download this new DWF viewer Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

Great New DWF Article from Lynn Allen

Why You Need DWF

Click Here for this great article by fellow desker and friend Lynn Allen.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Great New Article on the new Tool Palette Extension

AutoCAD: The Tool Palettes Extension - Extending the AutoCAD Interface

Nice tutorial on the new extension by well known AutoCAD author of the AutoCAD Bible Ellen Finkelstein and she is also a great cookie baker .
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

DWF-it!

I have received some great feedback from Autodesk customers
after they tried the DWF format at my recommendation. I thought
I might share the raw comments used with their permission of
course and perhaps you might give it a try as well. What do you
have to lose besides getting the smaller files, faster loading times,
and smaller viewer with DWF than with the other format?

As an exclusive to this blog, you may be interested to know
that the new Autodesk Express Viewer 4 I posted in this blog
about, with all of the nice new features such as thumbnails is
planned to be released to the world between this Friday and
the end of the month. Keep a watch on the web page for the
release announcement then download and become a believer
in DWF like many others around the world.
http://www.autodesk.com/expressviewer

Believe it or not, I was once a PDF fanatic and actually assisted
many customers including large ones like the US Navy convert
their design documents to large E size format PDFs but now I
have also converted and see the benefit of using the right tool
for the job. In the case of design drawings whether they be AutoCAD,
MicroStation, or others DWF is it. There is the new DWFWriter 2
driver in beta that allows you to print DWF files from virtually any
Windows application. I posted the information on this new
DWFWriter 2 beta on Wednesday, October 15, 2003.

"Thought you might like to hear this.
I put together a small project (only 15 plans) for our IT staff laying
out a new networking loop with drop points and racks. I provide the
first set of preliminary plans in PDF. I just provided the 90%'s in DWF
and he loved the speed and ease of use of Autodesk Express Viewer
over Acrobat. He plans on re-imaging most of the PC's here soon and
wants to make sure everyone has this installed so they can view DWF's,
which my intranet site is filled with.
Thanks, I think the thumbnails alone will make the people here a
happier bunch." Don Wilson Airport Planning and Facilities Sacramento, California

"All right, Shaan, I'm a believer now.
We sent DWF files out to one of ourhomebuilders after directing him
to download the ExpressViewer. He's a complete believer now. Loves
being able to control the layers, etc.
I'm in!" James Wedding, P.E. Jones & Boyd, Inc. Dallas, TX

"I've got a bunch of new converts here as well.
After using PDF for a lot of the electronic signatures on files we decided
to try putting these on the web for general accessibility. We ran into a
problem right away with the plotting of the files to scale and the fact that
some of the files took as long as 20 minutes to plot to our Hp 5000 printer
(even got extra ram to no avail). After converting the files to DWF and
placing them on our intranet and setting the viewer to install automatically,
I’m having a hard time to get anyone to use the Adobe view to view the
signatures on the files. They now want to get the viewer (or AutoCAD ) to
use electronic signatures. Thanks for all the extra work, I should have kept
my big mouth shut about DWF .....BG" Shawn Romkey P.Geo Noranda Mining

Do you have a conversion story you want to share? Send me an email with the subject line of "DWF Believer" so that I can spot the email in my constantly growing email inbox.

Cheers,
-Shaan
shaan@autodesk.com

AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palette Extension

A few customers have emailed me about some confusion with hatches and this new Tool Palette extension.

If your AutoCAD system variable Pickstyle variable is set to 2 or 3, along with the associative hatch or gradient it selects its boundary. That multiple selection prevents dragging those objects into a tool palette because we do not allow dragging mutliple objects to a palette; only a single one. The solution is to set Pickstyle to 1 or 0, or use a non-assoctaive hatch or gradient.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Shaan's Travel Tip

I was on the road last week in Seattle visiting customers and also attending some meetings at the Microsoft Redmond campus. I stumbled across a great travel tip after forgetting to pack my toothpaste in my bag. I found that you can easily brush your teeth with the breath mints named Altoids.
I am not kidding. Simply take two Altoids and chew them with some water in your mouth, then brush away the plaque and bad breath. Sounds odd but I am a resourceful person on the road and it really worked.

Cheers,
-Shaan

New AutoCAD 2004 Extension Releasing Today October 16th 2004

You are hearing it here first.

There will be a new AutoCAD extension releasing today for AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2004 based products. The press release will be later today as well as the download available on the Autodesk subscription center. This is a very nice productivity extension.

The Tool Palettes Extension enhances tool palette functionality and adds new fonts and text symbols such as centerline and plate.

With the Tool Palettes Extension, you can create tools from drawing objects and images in your drawing.

You can also create tools that execute commands.
Place your common and favorite LISP utilities on the Tool palette. You can create a tool by dragging objects from your drawing onto a tool palette. You can then use the new tool to create objects with the same properties as the object you dragged onto the tool palette. You can create a tool on a tool palette that executes a single command or a string of commands.
Organize Tool Palettes

You can create a tool by dragging any of the following onto your tool palette:

Geometric objects such as lines, circles, and polylines
Dimensions
Hatches
Gradient fills
Blocks
Xrefs
Raster images

You can organize tool palettes into groups and specify which group of tool palettes is displayed.

Are there any specific topics you would like to see discussed or explained in this blog? How about something about Autodesk? Just email me at shaan@autodesk.com with the email subject line of "blog suggestion" and I will see what I can do.

Cheers,
-Shaan (on the road in Seattle today)

DWFWriter 2 Beta Now Available

In the image below I printed DWF files from a non Autodesk CAD application as well as even the almost 10 year old AutoCAD R12 for Windows. I have printed from many non Autodesk applications. The DWF format is a very nice and much smaller file than an Adobe PDF which is appropriate for your Word documents, not your design data. There is a free viewer that is a small download and loads very fast. All you need to do is enroll for the DWFwriter 2 beta at:
http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm
or wait for the final release. It is a very nice tool and installs as a standard Windows system printer driver so you can virtually print a DWF from any Windows based application.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Update: DWF Writer 2 is available now from: http://www.autodesk.com/dwfwriter

Do you have some suggestions for AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT

I am on the team that develops AutoCAD, the viewers and many other products. If you have a suggestion for us to look into, please email me.

Email me at shaan@autodesk.com

In the subject line of the email, please mention "Blog - AutoCAD Wish List".

Include the following:

Your Name:
Company:
Phone Number:
Email:
Web URL if any:
About what you do:
Location:

What problem you are trying to solve or your wish list item:

Please describe in detail what you would expect and why:

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley
Autodesk, Inc.

Beta 1 Enrollment Announcement for the new DWFWriter Windows System Driver

Autodesk DWFwriter 2 Beta

Print to DWF directly from your design applications. Enrollment is currently underway for the Autodesk DWFwriter Beta program. This Windows system printer driver allows you to publish DWF files from a variety of design applications, including Bentley Microstation, Graphisoft ArchiCAD, PTC Pro/E, Solidworks and ESRI ArcGIS. In addition, this printer driver can be used to publish DWF files from Autodesk applications that do not include built-in publishing to DWF, such as Revit, MapGuide and CaiCE.

If you are interested in participating in this Beta program, please fill out the registration page with your contact information. All participants who are accepted into the program will be contacted via email with instructions on how to download a Beta version once it becomes available.

Please enter "DWFW" where the form asks for you beta code.
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

New AutoCAD 2004 Extension Coming

The new AutoCAD Extension is named "The Tool Palettes Extension".

It is a real productivity enhancing extension. It should be available by download to Autodesk subscription customers in a very short time. You will be able to include multiple new types of content onto your AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palettes such as LISP routines, images, xrefs all with preset properties.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Tablet PCs

I am really impressed with the TabletPC and have been using a Toshiba Portege 3500 for almost a year. They are now recently rivaling the power and performance of a Notebook laptop all in a smaller package with a pen to write with. I use AutoCAD 2004 which is Windows XP TabletPC version logo compliant as well as other applications like the free Autodesk Express Viewer and Volo View 3. I also have enjoyed using the latest OneNote 2003 from Microsoft to be able to congregate data and notes as well as even audio and web page content easily. It is amazing to be able to later search all of your meeting notes instead of looking for which paper tablet you may have written your notes in the past on. The voice recognition is rather amazing and can even keep up with me in an Instant Messaging chat session. The text recognition with the pen stylus is even recognizing my handwriting that others on my team tell me they cannot read.

I may be presenting with Microsoft at Autodesk University this year in December. There are exciting futures for these devices and I am aware of a few that already use them in the field for design and reading their drawing sets as well as mark up of as-builts. There is even a sample ARX with AutoCAD 2004 that allows you to see the possibilities of text recognition, inking and AutoCAD 2004 by default supports the handedness abilities so your hand does not rest on the tablet screen over the menu pull downs and changes based on your hand settings.

If you have anything you would like to see discussed or answered in this blog, please feel free to email me at shaan@autodesk.com. Please be sure to include “blog feedback” in the email subject line.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Great AutoCAD 2004 Reference

AutoCAD customer Lee Ambrosius of Hyperpics created a great PDF document for Quick Tips on AutoCAD 2004.

Items covered:
􀂃 Keyboard Shortcuts
􀂃 Drag 'n Drop
􀂃 Command Shortcuts (or Aliases)
􀂃 Object Selection Methods
􀂃 Object Snaps
􀂃 Coordinate System

Click Here (requires the free Adobe Acrobat reader from adobe.com)

Cheers,
-Shaan