Between the Lines

Autodesk University 2003 Packing Day

Well, I am finally packing up for my Monday morning flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas and Autodesk University 2003.

I get to escape Thanksgiving turkey leftovers no matter how creative they were .

I am bringing:

• My cell phone of course.
  
• 3 computers (1 IBM laptop and 2 TabletPCs)
  
• My digital camera
  
• Potentially my digital camcorder
  
• More cables for every purpose than most space shuttles.
  
• 250Gig External USB/Firewire hard drive.
  
• Contest Giveaways including some full licenses of my favorite screen capture and video tutorial recording software from techsmith.com SnagIt 7 and Camtasia 2.
  
• Plenty of clothes both formal and casual. Formal is nice dress shirts and Dockers. No ties or tux here.
  
• Plenty of aspirin, eye drops, vitamin C & A, and a roll of tums.
  
• Special padded soles for my shoes as the 3/4 mile walk I do at least 8 times a day from the hotel room to the conference center can take a real toll on your feet.
  
• Spare change for the occasional slot machine.
  
• Plenty of business cards.
  
• and more....
  

There is wireless available in the conference area but remember to use some security to prevent someone from browsing and taking your data. You can use a free firewall such as Zonealarm to protect yourself.

Nightclub tips:

• Most do not start until very late such as midnight.
  
• You must be casually dressed as they will not let in people with tee shirts or sneakers so bring some casual leather dress shoes.
  
• The awesome Studio 54 is free for MGM Hotel guests and Tuesday night is the special EDEN night and I will be there from midnight on.
  
• Monday night is the only night you can get access to the exclusive nightclub House of Blues - The Foundation Room on the top of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
  
• The Rum Jungle is a fun spot for a good rum drink and an interesting environment.
  

I hope to see you at AU this year.

Cheers,
Shaan

Plot Style Trick for Dimensions

I have had the same dimension request a few times and even needed something similar when I was designing before coming to Autodesk in 1998. People ask for a different extension linetype then the dimension baseline. Every since AutoCAD 2000 this has been possible. I have shown this to a few in the public Autodesk discussion groups as well as at user group meetings. The way I used to do this in R14 and prior was by making all of my dimensions using the hidden linetype then using a LISP routine to place a continuous line over the baseline all to create a dimension with two separate linetypes.

The first step is to be using color based plot styles CTB.
Now go into the Dimension style dialog and change the color of the baseline and extension lines to separate colors. I selected green for the baseline and blue for the extension.

click image to see larger size

Now onto creating a plot style to plot the drawings dimensions with different linetypes.

Create a plot style and in this example I am going to plot them all to monochrome black but you could plot them all to a standard plot color meeting your standards.

Now I set all colors to plot as black and linetype bylayer except for the extension line color of blue to plot using a dashed linetype. Make sure you are not using this color elsewhere otherwise you may get other layers plotted dashed.

click image to see larger size

Now your drawing will look like the following image:

click image to see larger size

Now on the Page setup for the Layout, set the option to display plot styles and you will see what it will plot like.

click image to see larger size

All done.

While I know some would prefer this to be in the dimension style itself I wanted to show this is currently possible if you use plot styles. Perhaps we can rewrite the dimension styles in the future to accommodate this request.

I cannot wait for Autodesk University in 3 days as I am getting sick and tired of Thanksgiving leftover turkey...

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk University is only 3 days away!

I am starting packing as I fly out Monday to Las Vegas to attend AU. I am also trying to make some sense of my schedule as I have so many meetings, classes, events, and people to visit. It will be a great event as there are over 3000 customers planned to attend the week long event.

You can keep a tab on AU here in this blog and starting Monday the picture gallery will start to get some AU related photos.

You can find me in the evenings talking with customers in the Zuri Lounge (former Betty Boop Lounge) before heading off for fun evening events like rides on coasters and dancing. Tuesday night is the Eve night at Studio 54 and all MGM Grand guests get in for free and you have to see this to believe it. This is one of the late nights of dancing and fun.

Studio 54

The Zuri Lounge

A marked up map showing the Zuri Lounge

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
-Shaan

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Today is a holiday in the United States. It is Thanksgiving and most of us eat too much turkey, drink too much wine or beer causing us to watch football games and sleep today.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk University 2003 is next week.

I have been very busy preparing for Autodesk University next week and trying to figure out my schedule. If you would like to get together and chat about AutoCAD look me up as I will be all over the place including the AutoCAD booth, Autodesk subscription booth, Intel/Microsoft booth, and many classes. I will also be found many times meeting with people at the formerly named Betty Boop lounge in the MGM Grand main casino floor. This is the gathering spot for many of my 4th annual “geekfest” outings with many people for fun and discussions all throughout the week.

More details will be updated in this blog as I get more plans and my schedule formalized.

You can also also give me a call on my cell phone at AU at 415.328.6747 or email me at shaan@autodesk.com.

My AU Beta Page
Click Here

Hope to see you at AU,
-Shaan

Autodesk Subscription Customers Get Support

Many subscription customers have been migrated to the new subscription content site and others will get this when they renew. One of the great benefits available on this new site is the option to submit support issues direct to Autodesk support. You get the initial response to your issue in under 4 hours but there may be a little longer wait for the final resolution depending on the specific issue submitted.

You can enter your problem details into an online form:

You can even check the current status of filed reports:

This is indeed a great benefit to the Autodesk subscription program. If you are not a subscription customer yet you might look into this at www.autodesk.com/subscription

Cheers,
-Shaan

FYI: I use SnagIt to create the screen shots.

More info on the next TabletPC Operating System "Lonestar"

The following link has some really nice screen shots of the new OS for the TabletPC. I have used this myself and love the recognition improvements and the TIP.

http://kstati.com/tabula/posts/794.aspx

Great TabletPC blog and posting all of the latest from COMDEX 2003. http://www.kstati.com/default.aspx

See me at Autodesk University 2003 with my Tablets all running AutoCAD 2004. I will also be doing a small presentation with Microsoft at Autodesk University on the TabletPC. One of the devices I will have at AU is the Panasonic Toughbook 18. This Toughbook is exactly what its name implies and is a magnesium housed TabletPC. You can drop or throw this device with no ill effects. It is completly waterproof and even read the screen in full sun.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Microsoft Announces the Next Version of the Tablet PC Operating System Code Named "Lonestar"

Finally....the next TabletPC OS update code named Lonestar is announced publicly by Microsoft at COMDEX. It will be a free update in mid 2004 and has recognition changed and advanced and is really something to use.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/nov03/11-17LonestarPR.asp

"Key features of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2004 include the following:

Enhanced "ink to text" experience throughout Windows and in any Windows application, makes the pen a mainstream input device. Inserting text is easier with the new Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP), and word and case recognition is improved. Developers and users can even add "rules" for how handwriting should be recognized in certain text fields (e.g., e-mail messages, addresses, URLs).
Integration in Microsoft Office 2003 and Office OneNote 2003 offers enhanced productivity by allowing users to annotate anywhere in Microsoft® Office Word, Excel or PowerPoint® 2003, and send handwritten e-mail in Office Outlook® 2003. OneNote (TM) on the Tablet PC brings together ink, text and Web content in one application.
New capabilities enable developers to create powerful productivity applications. Developers can integrate pen and ink in Web-based line-of-business solutions. Companies such as FranklinCovey Co. and Corel Corp. are deeply integrating pen and ink in their applications. This support makes ink as natural to use as text or any other feature. "

I will post more indepth when I know what I can say without getting into trouble.
;-)

Cheers,
-Shaan

RSS Feed of this Blog

RSS What is it?
From Content Syndication with RSS By Ben Hammersley
Pub Date : March 2003
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html
"There are probably over one million RSS feeds published daily on the Internet, if you include all the webloggers, news sites, Slash sites, and custom channels from crazed content management systems. Add the RSS feeds made by ad hoc searches, collections of live data, and randomly generated MP3 streams, and we're suddenly talking about the sort of information overload that RSS feeds were initially designed to fix. What we need is a catalog, a collection where RSS feeds can be classified and searched, and where users can go to find the feeds on subjects close to their hearts. What we need are directories and their slightly more advanced brethren, the aggregators."

This blog has a RSS syndicated feed of all articles. You can use a RSS feed aggregator to read and see updates to this blog as well as several more out there.

The RSS feed of this site: http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/index.rdf
Another CAD related RSS feed: http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/_cp_rss.asp
A great RSS feed of a Microsoft employee: http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/rss.xml

Free RSS Feed Reader RSSBandit
http://www.rssbandit.org/ow.asp?RssBandit

RSS and newsgroup readers not free but more features:
NewzCrawler - web news aggregator, reader, browser and blog client
http://www.newzcrawler.com/

NewsGator
http://www.newsgator.com/default.aspx

A good RSS resource:
http://rss.lockergnome.com/

RSS News Feeds from AllHeadlineNews.com

PCWorld.com RSS Feeds
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/rss/0,00.asp

So give it a try. RSS is a great way to scan for news and information on the web fast like your own daily newspaper.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Tablet PC One Year Anniversary

The TabletPC is now 1 year old and some consider them a glimpse at the future of computing as they get more powerful and cheaper. The new machines called the second generation devices are just now hitting the market now are in some cases equally as powerful as current laptop and desktop systems. Microsoft also has some real surprises coming up for these devices and after COMDEX I will be able to discuss this a little further in detail.

I will be presenting with Microsoft at this years Autodesk University showing some of these new devices as well as carrying one around for live updating of this blog. I love these devices and where they are headed.

Inked handwriting "Inking" is cool and natural and you are starting to see this in mainstream ads and even now supported in the latest Microsoft Instant Messenger 6.1.

Here is a great article on the one year anniversary and 65 ways people are using the TabletPC. Click Here

Oh I forgot to mention AutoCAD 2004 is Windows XP TabletPC Edition tested and I run AutoCAD on my Toshiba TabletPC just fine.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Sad Day in Marin County, California and for all Fire Fighters

Memorial Page Link

Today right next to my office a very large gathering of police and fire fighters gathered to remember the Novato California fire fighter who was killed while fighting fires in Southern California. This was a very humbling and somber event for me. There was worldwide press, many dignitaries including the current California Governor Grey Davis and the Governor Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger and literally thousands of emergency crews from all over the world with their equipment and in full honor dress uniforms. Even George Lucas’s fire fighters from his ranch where Star Wars is produced and some filmed were in attendance. The memorial was held at the famous Frank Lloyd Wright designed Civic Center Auditorium.

Below are a few pictures from the event which is still going on. The most touching was the young boy under the extended fire truck ladders looking sad with a toy fire fighter hat on and a wagon.
It really is amazing to see everyone come together for this fallen hero.

You can click on the images to see a larger version.

-Shaan

Autodesk Web Sites From the Past!

Quotte interesting that there is a web archive organization (http://web.archive.org/) that archives the major websites now totalling over 11 billion pages. You can even search for text on their web site.

All autodesk archives: http://web.archive.org/web/*/autodesk.com

Or highlights:

Autodesk.com October 1996 Circa AutoCAD R13
Autodesk.com June 1997 Circa AutoCAD R14
Autodesk.com March 1999 Circa AutoCAD 2000
Autodesk.com July 2000 Circa AutoCAD 2000i
Autodesk.com June 2001 Circa AutoCAD 2002
And of course the current http://www.autodesk.com

Even my very own http://betaprograms.autodesk.com is partially archived on the site for example May 2000

Cheers,
-Shaan

AMD64 Machines Hitting Retail Stores

After doing some initial testing for the AMD64 and seeing some really amazing benchmarks I have began looking for one myself for my home office. There are rumors that Costco had one for $1200 but I have been unable to find that. This morning I found that even the mainstream retailer Sears is now selling them for around $1700 loaded. I will continue to look around and see if the Xmas season brings some lower pricing or hope that Santa brings me one.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk University 2003!

I will be posting to this blog live from AU in Las Vegas this year. I will also have some special surprises planned. More details will be posted as we get closer to AU.

For more information on Autodesk University http://www.autodesk.com/au

I hope to see you all there and hopefully meet you.

Cheers,
-Shaan

My Unofficial AU Page

In case you have not seen it, I have been keeping an unofficial Autodesk University page for a few years now.

Click Here

This years AU is going to be great! Perhaps we could take a ride on the new projectXsky...

Cheers,
-Shaan

AU 2003 Online Photo Gallery Link

I am creating an online photo gallery for Autodesk University this year.
Direct Link: http://autodesk.blogs.com/photos/autodesk_university_2003/

Cheers,
-Shaan

Viva Las Vegas!

I have now booked my air travel to Autodesk University. I fly in on Monday morning and fly out Friday late afternoon. I hope to see you there and meet you. I will be posting to this blog almost hourly at times with photos and details on the AU events and evening get togethers.

I will be providing more specific information on plans in the upcoming days and hopefully organizing some fun activities that you can join in on.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk® Express Viewer 4 Press Release

Click Here

With the latest version of Autodesk Express Viewer 4, customers can take advantage of the following enhancements:

Easier Navigation

The latest Express Viewer improves the navigation of multi-sheet drawing sets. New features include thumbnail images, an index list of the sheets and bookmarks to make it easier to find information in a clear and efficient structure. Hyperlinks can be utilized to further enrich any drawing by linking to related information in the drawing set or on the Internet.

Expanded Access to Design Data

Users can gain access to object properties published from the Interoperability and Productivity extension for Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004. For example, users can view details about all the doors in a specific drawing, including dimensions, material, manufacturer, and model number. Or, they can view detailed file information for all sheets in the DWF file—including who created the document, and when.

Advanced Markup Capabilities

Users can further enhance their workflow by distributing designs for review as DWF and viewing markups (created using Volo® View) with Autodesk Express Viewer. The design review process can be enhanced by comparing the original design with the markups and enabling all team members to easily review markups and annotations.

Customization Options

The combination of new flexibility and control over the interface via application settings as well as a powerful application programming interface (API), provide a means for users to customize the look and feel of the viewer to meet their own needs.

www.autodesk.com/dwf

Cheers,
-Shaan

This blog Between the Lines

This Between the Lines web log (blog) is currently available to all who know the URL or select the link on their subscription main page. Currently without any real promotion I have a loyal few hundred following which is great. In the future this blog may be only available to those on subscription.

Please feel free to spread the word on this blog and its direct URL of:
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/

If you have any feedback or topics you would like to see in here, please feel free to email me but to prevent the email drowning in my inbox please mention "blog feedback" in the email subsject line.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Your Customer Error Reports Are Very Important

Maybe you have seen the dialog that pops up most times when you crash AutoCAD 2004 (see images below). This is titled the AutoCAD Error Report and we call it the Customer Error Report (CER).

The report when sent contains:
* Operating System name and version
* Product name and version
* ARX applications that were loaded when the error occurred
* Active command when the error occurred

I hope that when you get one presented to you that you take the time to send it in and also make sure to add more information by selecting the Optional Data button. Please enter data such as your contact details and any known steps to reproduce the problem or any clues.

These reports have resulted in a very stable AutoCAD 2004 shipping product. Many of the AutoCAD 2004 CER submissions went into what we solved in AutoCAD 2004 Service Pack 1a.

Here is a Microsoft quote on error reporting:
"We've been amazed by the patterns revealed in the error reports that customers are sending us, About 20 percent of the bugs cause 80 percent of all errors, and -- this is stunning to me -- one percent of bugs cause half of all errors.
Steve Ballmer- Chief Executive of Microsoft”

It is easy to see that if you identify the most common problems and address those then you can significantly increase the customer experience and stability.

Just last week I called by phone the number one CER submitting company. Of course it is not a great award or position to be number one in this case but the customer did find out that over 75% of all CER report issues they submitted were addressed with the AutoCAD 2004 Service Pack 1a. The customer is now happy and rolling out the Service Pack to their users. Their CER reports were a factor in us finding tjhe problem and then we solved it.

In some cases we need sample drawings or steps so it is very important for you to communicate to all of your fellow AutoCAD 2004 users to add the optional data and details. I will continue to contact the customers that show up as high CER reports and see what we can do in order to solve the issues.

In the future we will have the persistent text fields so you are not required to fill out every field each and every time.

Thank you for submitting the reports and please keep it up so we can keep the problems down.

Sincerely,

Shaan Hurley
Autodesk, Inc.
Technical Marketing Mgr. & Beta Programs Mgr
Direct (415) 507-8432

Helpful Tip: I used SnagIt 7 from techsmith.com to create the screen grabs. This is a tool I use daily as a picture says a thousand words and I am not always good with words. ;-)

Feedback Comment on my Active Beta Site Quest

The following came from a reader down under in New Zealand
in response to my active beta site solicitation who correctly points out a great benefit to being a beta site as you get to learn quite a bit and look down the
road for your internal CAD plans.

"Not mentioned in your request for beta participation was the benefit that seeing a little bit into the future gives to the site. I’ve seen some comment that beta testing is “working for Autodesk for free’. Personally I have found it rewarding to get feedback from the team to my, hopefully not too stupid, comments but also can justify the time spent as we have saved the literally hundreds of hours work simply by knowing a little about what is coming. Thanks goes to our local dealer/developer – Salesoft CAD Solutions - who got us involved in the beta program and Autodesk for the opportunity.

For example: Due to changes in the corporate network we were about to reorganise all our filing/xref system (ADT 3.3 era) for projects. However, seeing the start of Project Navigator in the early alpha & beta ADT 2004’s enabled me to stop all that, wait a year for the release version, and move once only to a Project Navigator based filing system. If not a beta site we would have had no idea that the initial planned move would have been almost totally worthless within months of completion.

Secondly; we have just finished some custom code making extensive use of ADT property set data. About 1/3 of that effort/budget was initially planned to deal with getting a “useable database friendly export of that data from ADT” for other applications to access. Again, seeing the Ex1 beta early saved all that effort in return for a few hours trialling the Ex1 MapGuide/Mdb export features. Autodesk gets some testing & comments that hopefully helped; we get code way better than what we planned and save the wasted development time.

So although I have spent quite a lot of time in the last year or so “working for Autodesk free” we are way ahead, in real dollar terms, in the time/effort not wasted duplicating work your teams were doing anyway. Besides, above all, its fun J

Regards,
Robin Capper
I like the blog’s!"

Cadalyst buys Cadence magazine

http://www.cadalyst.com/news/

The two big CAD magazines have merged. Cadalyst has now purchased Cadence magazine.

Cheers,
-Shaan