Between the Lines

Gas Prices in the Bay Area are Soaring...

The photo was taken while I was filling up in Marin County near Novato.

$2.32 Regular Unleaded
$2.43 Regular Plus Unleaded
$2.53 Premium Unleaded

-Shaan

Enthusiasts call Web feed "RSS" next big thing

Read the Article.

This blog also has a RSS feed you can use your RSS feed aggregator to read. Find out more about my RSS feed and how to use it Here.

Cheers,
-Shaan

What's up with blogging, and why should you care?

What's up with blogging, and why should you care?
By Dan Farber of ZDNet

This is a pretty interesting take on blogging and its future.

Quotes:

"Are blog tools and the art of blogging revolutionary? No, but they are clearly superior to antecedent tools for online expression. "

"In the "classic" sense, however, blogging is more personality than application driven. Outing cites personality as the most important attribute of a blogs, followed by insight, humor, serendipity, a narrow focus and great writing. He suggests that local newspapers, for example, could improve their online city guides by cranking up "the trendiness meter" with more edgy, raw, opinionated blogger talk.

Edgy and subjective are in opposition to the more staid, objective leanings of traditional journalism or the needs of corporate communications. It's a culture clash that will require some compromises on both ends of the spectrum."

This article also mentions my fellow blogging geek friend from Microsoft Robert Scoble.
"Microsoft's most well known blogger, Robert Scoble, is a technical evangelist for Longhorn, the next version of Windows. His popular blog is not vetted by Microsoft's guardians of the faith, but he admits to consulting occasionally with public relations to make sure he isn't leaking non-disclosure information. "

Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005 Tip: Ignoring Hatch objects with running Object snaps from Lee of Hyperics.com

Ignoring Hatch objects when using running Object snaps
http://www.hyperpics.com/tipsandtricks/cad/osnaphatch.htm

Cheers,
-Shaan

Any Los Angeles AutoCAD 2002 Users want to Participate in Productivity Studies?

Dates: March 15th-19th
Length:
Mon-Wed 9:00-4:30, Lunch 1:00-2:30
or
Wed-Fri 9:00-4:30, Lunch 1:00-2:30
Location:

El Segundo, CA

Info:
Autodesk is looking for a group of experienced AutoCAD 2002 users to participate in a productivity study that will focus on moving from your current software to a new version of AutoCAD. The study is being funded by Autodesk but will be performed by a team from the UC Berkeley School of Architecture. The location of the study will be determined by interest however we are targeting the Los Angeles area.

The study will require approximately 30 hours of time from each participant. This will include a day of training in the use of the new version of AutoCAD. The basic study group will be a team of three people, working through a standard set of industry tasks during the course of a day. In addition to the training, each participant will receive a Not For Resale (NFR) copy of an Autodesk product*, and the chance to interact directly with the study team and the AutoCAD Product Management group. The results of the study will be published by the UCB team, and will be incorporated into an Autodesk white paper.

Please pass this invite on to any interested colleagues.

Please contact Traci Van Patten (traci.van.patten@autodesk.com) if you are interested in participating.

My New HP Tablet PC TC1100 & AutoCAD 2005

I now have a new Tablet PC the HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 . This is a real nice unit. I took it home last night and had to beg to get it back from my 2 year old daughter. I am using AutoCAD 2005 on this unit and intend to use this as my primary road machine when out of the office for customer visits and presentations. I am even taking it deep into the Amazon with a special HP case and a GSM cellular data card so I can be online anytime even in the Amazon Jungle. With many of the new features in AutoCAD 2005 and even AutoCAD 2004 with the Tool Palette extension it makes AutoCAD far more easy to use on the Tablet PC. AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2005 is already Tablet PC Logo compliant. My daughter was even running AutoCAD 2005 (see image below) on this unit and she loved playing with the grips and stretching objects as well as the revision cloud.

Two year old Katelyn with AutoCAD 2005 on the HP Tablet PC TC1100

I will write more on the subject of the Tablet PC and AutoCAD together as well as the upcoming Brazil trip.

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005 Article: Collaboration's New Age

Collaboration's New Age
By Peter Coffee

"Instead of marking up a drawing and sending it to someone else as either a paper document or a flat image file, an AutoCAD 2005 user will be able to annotate the drawing electronically and transmit those annotations to whoever needs to act on them. The person receiving that input will be able to call up the original drawing, see how those comments relate to it and check to see if they're still relevant to the current version of that drawing."

Read the entire eWeek article
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005 Article: "Improved workflow for drafting, design pros"

"Improved workflow for drafting, design pros
BY P. ANGELINA
AUTODESK Inc has unveiled the latest version of its AutoCAD software for 2D drafting and design, and basic 3D visualisation.

AutoCAD 2005 has been enhanced to allow customers to better manage and publish sheet sets (drawings), and communicate project information for mark-up and review, said Autodesk design solutions division product management manager Shawn Gilmour. " cont...

Read the full online article:
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

828 Tips and Tricks Currently from cadforum.cz

This is an awesome resource to bookmark for Tips and Tricks for all Autodesk Products especially AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor. They are also very knowledgable and helpful people located in the Czech Republic.

The Link from CAD Studio's CadForum.cz:
http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/default.asp?tab=2

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2004 Tip from Lee of Hyperpics.com

Saving AutoCAD 2004 drawings back down to R14 format
http://www.hyperpics.com/tipsandtricks/cad/dwgconvertor.htm

Customizing the Status Bar at the Bottom of AutoCAD 2004 & uphttp://www.hyperpics.com/tipsandtricks/cad/customize_statusbar.htm

Cheers,
-Shaan

See Shaan Eaten by Piranhas in the Amazon Jungle Live on this Blog Next Month!

So many people have said I am crazy for wanting to do this trip to the Amazon Jungle, but I laugh as it has always been a dream of mine. Nothing like the humid, hot jungle with a fishing line and of course my new rugged’ized by way of a special case HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 with a GSM cell phone connection via a PCMCIA card to live update this blog with photos, sounds and video as well as random jungle ramblings and observations. Yes, the Amazon jungle is covered almost completely by GSM cell phone coverage now. I will be testing live GSM/GPRS connection to the web this while there and becoming the Ultimate Road Warrior with a TabletPC! Yes I am a geek.

Those expecting to see a live video feed of me attacked by piranhas will be sadly dissapointed as I will be eating them instead.

I am learning the important Brazilian Portuguese sayings before my trip in a few weeks to Brazil and my vacation in the Amazon Jungle.

"ei, você poderia tirar uma foto minha com as piranhas devorando minhas pernas, por favor?"
In English
"Hey, could you take my picture while the piranhas eat my legs, please?"

Autodesk to Acquire MechSoft Technology to Advance its Strategy of Delivering Engineering Capabilities to the Design Department

Wow, Autodesk just announced the purchase of Mechsoft. For those that are not aware, Mechsoft is a pretty comprehensive suite of Mechanical Design tools for AutoCAD based products and Inventor.

More than 50 calculators and design wizards (e.g. bolted joint, shaft generation, gear, cam and spring wizards) that provide critical engineering information during the product development process, resulting in huge savings in manual calculations and lookups for each and every component;

A drag-and-drop content library consisting of more than 1.5 million parts representing all prominent international standards; and

A built-in mechanical engineering handbook that provides instant access to reference materials that design engineers use daily.

Autodesk Inventor and MechSoft: Pioneering 1944 Hiller Helicopter Recreated

Charles Bliss is a lead engineer on a project charged with modeling the historic XH44 (eXperimental Hiller 1944) helicopter on loan to the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, Calif. The XH44 was the pioneering helicopter for Hiller Aviation, and they wanted a permanent replica at the Hiller Aviation Museum; however, the plans no longer existed. With only archived photos and limited access to the historical helicopter, the project was extremely challenging.

By combining Autodesk Inventor® Series software with MechSoft technology, the Bliss team was able to model the airframe. Generating models of the mechanical components, which were inside inaccessible housings, posed a bigger challenge. To overcome this hurdle, they entered known data into MechSoft wizards, which in turn automatically created the gears, bearings, and shafts. Because it allowed them to change the design variables and quickly see the corresponding changes to the components, the team could very rapidly determine which gears could handle the load and would fit the casings.

"With MechSoft and Inventor, it couldn't be simpler. Knowing the loads and speeds, MechSoft can find the parts that work. It frees me up to think about my designs and worry less about whether a component is going to fail," said Bliss. "Instead of poring through catalogs and doing calculations, I just tell MechSoft what I need the parts to do and it finds them for me, presenting me with all the choices that fall within the range I specify. It puts all the handbooks I need inside Inventor, which removes the guesswork."

Read More Here

More on Mechsoft

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk is Looking for AutoCAD Tips, Submit Yours

Autodesk is compiling a list of Tips and Tricks for AutoCAD. Submit yours. Any AutoCAD release is appreciated and will be published very soon perhaps in the AutoCAD Communication Center.

Link to Online Submission Form

Cheers,
-Shaan

New Autodesk Blog! Between the Walls by Chris Yanchar of the ADT Team

Fellow Desker Chris Yanchar of the Architectural Desktop team now has a blog. I forced him into this fun side-work project as I know he is perfect for the task and does not sleep just like me.

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_walls/

Make sure to bookmark his blog.

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005: A First Look by Greg Corke, AEC Magazine

An article by Greg Corke of AEC Magazine was released as a select article on caddigest.com on AutoCAD 2005.

From the articles conclusion:

"The introduction of Sheet Sets is by far the most important and far reaching of the new features in AutoCAD 2005."

"I think the introduction of new Tables functionality speaks for itself. It’s remarkable that there haven’t been tools to deal with this problem before, but from what I’ve seen the addition is sure to please many users."

"There is no doubt in my mind that DWF is a powerful format, much more intelligent than PDF, and this year should be an interesting one in helping to shape the future for publishing formats."

Read the Article

Steven Papke's Vizdepot.com Posts AutoCAD and ADT 2005 Articles

Check out what Steven likes about the upcoming releases.

http://www.vizdepot.com/showarticle.php?s=&threadid=164

Cheers,
-Shaan

Cadalyst Magazine - Autodesk previews Architectural Desktop 2005, Building Services 2005

Cadalyst magazine article on Architectural Desktop 2005 and Building Services 2005

http://www.cadalyst.com/cadalyst/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=86182

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005 Sheet Set Description and Exercises and Features from Ellen Finkelstein

Ellen Finkelstein has posted a list of AutoCAD 2005 features and more coming soon as well as new books:
Click Here

She has also posted a Sheet Set Description and Exercises. Of course you must have the AutoCAD 2005 to go through the exercises.
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

HOT NEWS! AutoCAD 2005 Beta and ADT 2005 Beta Available to all Autodesk Subscription Customers

If you are a current Autodesk subscription customer, you can now get the AutoCAD 2005 and ADT 2005 Beta releases by download. Keep in mind this is not the final released products, but beta releases.

Go login to your Autodesk Subscription website to get the details and instructions. Make sure to read the installation instructions and documentation carefully and also have a broadband connection to download.

Cheers
-Shaan

Another AutoCAD 2005 Link

http://www.morateknikutveckling.se

We have not had any problems at all with the new version, this was the
easiest transition so far. And we have been around for more than 20 years...
It loads as quick as an old DOS release!

Keep up the good work!

regards,

Ola Wallgren
president,
Mora Teknikutveckling AB

Thank you Ola.
-Shaan

Product Activation Information Site is Now Live

Autodesk has now gone live with a product activation website.
http://www.autodesk.com/activation.

Some who have heard the announcement that like the customers outside of North America for years that AutoCAD 2005 will include the product activation in North America as well. The activation is not the old Cdilla technology and is very transparent and well received during beta testing and other products. You can also still install per the license agreement at home and work for your standalone installation.

Unfortunately, some with ulterior motives have tried to stir the pot with incorrect information or unsubstantiated rumors before the product has even been released. Product activation has been used in discreet 3ds studio Max, Revit, and all trial and student versions of AutoCAD for a few years. The technology has been improved and made as transparant as possible to not inconvenience our customers. Many other companies use the same technology like the latest released products from Adobe, Macromedia, and Symantec and many many more. Many other CAD software packages use similar product locking including Bentley, Solidworks, PTC, and many others. While the reason for implementing this into North America is not that others do it, we do understand concerns and have attempted to provide a wealth of product activation information to alleviate any concerns.

There is a link to submit feedback and questions on the activation web site (http://www.autodesk.com/activation).

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley

Autodesk Redraws Drafting Software

Good article on the new release of AutoCAD 2005 and DWF Composer.

Autodesk Redraws Drafting Software
By David Becker
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5160338.html

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005 Article from Cadalyst Magazine

Cadalyst magazine wrote brief article on the upcoming AutoCAD 2005.
Link

Cheers,
-Shaan

February 2004 AUGI HotNews Articles

New AUGI Hotnews

Link to New February 2004 Customization Article by Lee Ambrosius of hyperpics.com

Covers The following:
Blocks and Templates
Scripts
Aliases
Toolbars (Part of Menu file)
Pulldowns/Pop Ups (Part of Menu file)
Design Center
Tool Palettes

More on Object Selection by Chris Lindner
Link

Cheers,
-Shaan

Cadalyst Article - Autodesk DWF Composer aims at Acrobat

Cadalyst Magazine posted a short article on the upcoming Autodesk product DWF Composer.
Link

I would not actually call title it aiming at Acrobat, but rather using a more appropriate format for CAD design drawings. DWF it of course. Tastes better, less filling .

You can also register to be considered as a beta tester for this upcoming product.
Link

Cheers,
-Shaan