Between the Lines

White Paper: Best Practices for AutoCAD Migration

I have posted here the white paper "Best Practices for AutoCAD Migration" because a couple have had issues when downloading it from the Autodesk FTP server. This white paper covers many of the best practices to follow in order to make migrations much more easy.

Download cust_migr.pdf

Cheers,
-Shaan

Local AutoCAD Users Group Meeting Notice - San Francisco AutoCAD Users Group (SFAUG)

The next SFAUG meeting will take place on Monday, May 3rd and will be dedicated to AutoCAD. Shawn Gilmour from Autodesk will present the new release AutoCAD 2005.

Doorprizes

Time and place:
May 3rd, 6-8pm.
SFSU Downtown Center
425 Market Street, room 2601/2602

More Information on SFAUG see http://www.sfaug.org/

I will be there along with a few other Autodeskers to assist and answer any questions people may have. Please introduce yourself to me as I always enjoy meeting local users of Autodesk products and understanding how they use our products.

Don’t miss it.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Beta Opportunity for Autodesk Inventor

If you are interested in enrolling to be considered for the next autodesk Inventor eBeta, the enrollment is now posted.

From: http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm

Autodesk Inventor® Beta Opportunity
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 use your business email and
  information to participate.
• Please do not use free email accounts such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com as that can disqualify your participation in the beta program. 
• Failure to enter the below listed code exactly on the enrollment process may prevent your account from being approved.
  
  Enrollment Opened 04/28/04
  
  Click Here To Enroll

Code: CROSSFIRE
Posted
04/28/04

Are you aware that the Autodesk Inventor® Team now have their own blog?
http://autodesk.blogs.com/in_the_machine/

Paul Aubin ADT Author Stopped on By

The other day I was passing through the Autodesk Civic Center lobby and saw ADT power user, author, and trainer Paul Aubin standing there. I said "howdy" and then proceeded to show him around my office and the hardware lab and grab a bite to eat. He was here doing some training. It is always wise to keep our staff up to date on our products and usage from an outside expert since we dont all work in design offices.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Background Mask Tools for AutoCAD 2005 by Lee Ambrosius

Lee Ambrosius has written some tools to work with the new AutoCAD 2005 feature Background Masking and posted beta versions on his AutoCAD related blog "Beyond the UI". Lee is a wealth of information and tools for AutoCAD.

LInk to Lee's post with the download of the tools:http://hyperpics.blogs.com/beyond_the_ui/2004/04/background_mask_1.html

The tools:

-DIMMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for Dimensions from the command line

DIMMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for Dimensions from the command line. Standard colors are selected though the Color dialog box.

-DIMSTYLEMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for a Dimension Style from the command line

-MTEXTMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for Mtext from the command line

MTEXTMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for Mtext from the command line. Standard colors are selected though the Color dialog box.

Cheers,
-Shaan

New Autodesk Blog, In the Machine by the Autodesk Inventor Team

I would like to introduce and welcome the Inventor Team to the world of blogging. It was so easy to convince them of the value of blogging.

In The Machine Blog Link: http://autodesk.blogs.com/in_the_machine/

I am also working on other teams to start publishing tid bits of knowledge, tips and tricks, and product info to a blog. It is as easy as writing an email in an online mail program. The ability to immediately publish to an audience and it naturally spreads via aggregators and links around the world without any programming or red tape is powerful. It is like a view to the inside track with up to the minute fresh information in many cases. The blog also allows for some more personal contact with customers and fellow technology freaks. I cannot tell you how many emails I have received directly from this blog and the content but there have been many and some great friendships. It is also about benefiting the reader with tips and information they can use or were not aware of.

I just found out that many have started reading my blog on their Yahoo home pages as you can add a RSS feed on your Yahoo home page. Steven Papke of VizDepot.com was also going to add this blogs RSS feeds to his great Viz resource web site.

Cheers,
Shaan

Robin Capper's CAD Related Blog

From Robin: "Inspired by your Viz Gallery have started my own CAD Gallery containing a mix of old & new work + some CAD play stuff."

Robin also mentioned that Typepad may support DWF files and I will connect with them to see what can be done to expedite this. Imagine Blog hosted DWF galleries!

Check out this blog at: http://rcd.typepad.com/

If you know more CAD related blogs, please email me the links.

Cheers,
-Shaan

AutoCAD 2005 Updated Migration Tools Released

The Autodesk web site has now been updated with the updated AutoCAD Migration Tools. There is also a migration best practices document.

http://www.autodesk.com/migrationtools

Best Practices for AutoCAD Migration PDF (62 KB)

Menu and Toolbar Porter (re-written)
Import your menus, toolbar items, and keyboard shortcuts (accelerators) from previous versions of AutoCAD into AutoCAD 2005.

Autodesk Batch Drawing Converter (no real updates as the file format has not changed)
Convert any AutoCAD or AutoCAD-based drawing file to AutoCAD Release 14, AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2000i, AutoCAD 2002, AutoCAD 2004, and AutoCAD 2005 file formats.

Autodesk Customization Conversion Tools
Convert your customized menus, files, command aliases, and layer states, and script with greater ease.

Tools included

The following four tools are included in the Autodesk Customization Conversion Tools download:

1. AutoLISP Compatibility Analyzer details AutoCAD® 2004 and AutoCAD® 2005 compatibility issues found in AutoLISP and Menu LISP files. AutoLISP Compatibility Analyzer searches for known AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2005 compatibility issues. When an issue is found, an explanation of the compatibility issue and suggestions on how to correct it are provided.

2. Command Alias (PGP) Porter designed to help you bring your custom command aliases from previous versions of AutoCAD into AutoCAD 2004 or AutoCAD 2005. You can also use this tool to add, replace, or remove command aliases from any AutoCAD PGP file.

3. ScriptPro takes AutoCAD scripting to a new level with an easy-to-use interface, logging, reusable project files, enhanced scripting with new keywords and utilities, and robust error recovery. Using ScriptPro you can apply a set of commands to multiple drawings by simply specifying a script file and the list of drawings that you would like to apply the script to.

4. Layer State Converter allows you to convert between the layer states created by LMAN (one of the AutoCAD® Express Tools) and the saved layer states introduced in AutoCAD® 2000i software. To use Layer State Converter, type one of the following commands on the AutoCAD command line:

CONVERTLS - Converts AutoCAD layer states to LMAN layer states.
CONVERTLMAN - Converts LMAN layer states to AutoCAD layer states.

DotSoft ToolPac 8.0 for AutoCAD

Terry over at Dotsoft has done it once again with Toolpac 8.0 for AutoCAD. He has packed over 675 tools to increase productivity in AutoCAD into his new release of the popular ToolPac 8.0 for AutoCAD.

For more info see the ToolPac website:
http://www.dotsoft.com/toolpac.htm

Cheers,
-Shaan

Alireza Parsai of cadpanel.com and AutoCAD 2005 Table Tutorial

Tutorial on the new AutoCAD 2005 feature, Tables.
by Alireza Parsai of http://www.cadpanel.com/

Click the following link to view the tutorial
http://www.cadpanel.com/trainees/2005tables/040425tables2005.htm

Thanks Alireza for all of your great tutorials available on your web site and caddigest.com.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Ahhhh Found Brazil Products Locally

I was told about a store in Marin named The Marin Brazil Store. I was able to get my new favorite soda from Brazil and many other things I got hooked on during my recent trip to Brazil.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Digital Camera Megapixel Myth.. Is Higher Better, NO

Beyond Megapixels - Part I
By Joe Marney thetechlounge.com

This is a great article and the author promises more. He clearly explains why you should not be sucked in by the number of megapixels in digital cameras today. A 5 megapixel camera can be better than a new 8 megapixel camera.

I just purchased a Canon S1 which is 3.2MP but has an awesome optical zoom and built in image stabilizer to prevent those common blurred images because of moiving the camera when shooting. I had to get a new camera because my Canon S45 was with me on a recent kayaking trip and fell in seawater with me.
-Shaan

Now some quotes from the article to peak your interest.

"An 8 megapixel outputs a larger, higher resolution image than the 6 megapixel cameras and is therefore superior, right? Wrong."

"A photosite (one of the millions of receptors on a sensor that capture each pixel) on an APS sized sensor are larger than a photosite on a 2/3” sized sensor, and due to its larger size, it can capture light more easily. This light is digitized into the information that makes up your final image. Analogously, imagine 8 million 16oz cups versus 6 million 5-gallon buckets that are all filled with water. The water is then poured into two rectangular reservoirs measuring 300 feet by 150feet. While the area of water in the two reservoirs is equal, the water collected from the 5-gallon buckets is much, much deeper."

One of the artles reader's comments to the article adds more data:

"One of the things to take note, is alot of the current 8 Megapixels Pro-sumer cameras on the market right now (Canon Pro1, Sony 828, Olympus 8080[not sure], etc) Use the same Sony 5MP Sensor. The sensor itself is actually 5MP but produces an 8MP result. Furthermore the smaller sensor size on the pro-sumer cameras increase the noise, chromatic abberations and other things, it also kills the ability to create a shallow DOF. "

Go read the article - Link to Article

Cute Visitors Last Night

I had a family of possums wake me and my family up around 3AM this morning. There were three baby possums running around my yard. I went to take some photos and they turned out to be more curious than I was. I kept a sock on my hand to prevent my scent from being on the baby possums so that their mother would not reject them with human scent. I took a few photos then set them on their way to find their mother.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Autodesk DWF Composer Launches Today!

The Autodesk DWF Composer product website is www.autodesk.com/dwfcomposer.
You can purchase the product through Autodesk resellers or at http://www.autodesk.com/store for $99!
You can even upgrade the full Volo View 2 to Composer for $49.

See what Mark Douglas of MKM did with DWF and Hyperlinks Link to Article

Autodesk DWF Composer Overview

Improve the efficiency and speed of the entire design review process—review, markup, and revision—with Autodesk®DWF™ Composer. Built around the DWF™ (Design Web Format™) file format and developed specifically for engineering design data, DWF Composer helps you reduce costs, errors, and cycle times by keeping the whole process digital.

Facilitate team communication and increase productivity with easy-to-use DWF and DWG file viewing and printing, round-tripping of markups directly back into the AutoCAD® 2005 family of products, comprehensive redlining and annotation tools, complete sheet set organization, and powerful status-tracking capabilities.
Faster, More Efficient Collaboration and Review
By enabling team members to work with electronic sheet sets, Autodesk DWF Composer streamlines the review process. Even design professionals unfamiliar with CAD will find it easy to use the DWF Composer tools to review, mark up, and revise sheet sets and communicate changes to other members of the project team.

Review

Mark Up

Revise

Integrated Markups

Only Autodesk DWF Composer supports complete round-tripping of markups, annotations, and other changes into the AutoCAD 2005 family of software products. You never have to reenter information. The designer can then go through all the comments on the sheet set and incorporate changes or initiate another round of reviews. The DWF Composer markup capabilities combine with the navigation capabilities of AutoCAD 2005 to make tracking changes easy.

DWF for Design Data
DWF is the way to go for sharing design information, because the file size is smaller and faster to transmit than either native design file formats or widely known alternatives like PDF. DWF files can be as small as one-tenth the size of PDF files. And unlike JPG, TIF, or PDF, they retain the intelligent design data of the original drawing. The result? Members of your extended team see exactly what you intended.

DWG Viewing
You can use DWF Composer to review and mark up drawings, maps, and models in DWF or DWG files, because DWF Composer includes functionality for viewing and plotting DWG files. Since the DWG viewer is built on the same viewing technology as AutoCAD software, you are assured of full drawing fidelity. View and plot DWG files and then publish them as DWF files for quick and easy distribution and design review even by non-AutoCAD users.
Workflow and Productivity Tools

DWF Composer provides a variety of tools for an expedient and successful review process. Add, delete, and reorganize DWF files and sheets, including timelines, images, specifications, and other project information, to create discipline-specific sheet sets or archives. Change review status and quickly address open issues by selecting Question, For Review, or Done in the Markup Properties dialog box. Use markup tools to add comments to drawing sets electronically. The Markup Tab of the Drawing Set Navigator automatically records markups as you make them.

Below is an image of Doug Look the Autodesk DWF Composer Product Manager in a DWF Composer box.

Beta Opportunities Announcement

If you are interested in beta testing these products, make sure to use the code when enrolling on the second page. Also we require that you use a identifiable email account not one of the free ones like hotmail or yahoo.

Cheers,
-Shaan

From: http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AutoCAD® Mechanical & Mechanical Desktop 2005 Beta Opportunity
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.

Enrollment Opened 04/22/04
Click Here To Enroll

Code: PATHFINDER
Posted 04/22/04

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AutoCAD® Electrical 2005 Beta Opportunity
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.

Enrollment Opened 04/16/04
Click Here To Enroll

Code: Yukon
Posted 04/16/04

New Autodesk Viz Image Gallery

I have started some other image galleries including the Viz Image Gallery (http://autodesk.blogs.com/photos/viz_gallery/).

Please feel free to email me images you want to show off that used Autodesk Viz. I also need you to state in the email that you release the images for use by Autodesk and also what you want in the credits.

There is also an Architectural Desktop Gallery by Chis Yanchar coming soon.

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley
Technical Marketing Mgr / Beta Mgr.
PTD Group (AutoCAD and Viz)
Autodesk, Inc.

Autodesk Viz 2005 is released!

Read more on Chris Yanchar's blog Between the Walls about the new Viz Release.

Link to Article

I also posted a photo of Autodesk Viz 2005 Product Manager Michael Woodcox celebrating the launch and shipping of the product in my Daily Grind Photo Blog:

AutoCAD Electrical 2005 eBeta Enrollment Open

To enroll to be considered for this eBeta opportunity go to:
http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm then follow the instructions especially the code name.

Cheers,
-Shaan

DWFit Hyperlink Style!!

From Mark Douglas MKM & Associates

"MKM is excited about the power DWF will bring to its office. We look forward to the day when we can jetison PDF and use DWF exclusively for many great reasons. Here's just one....
Open the below DWF file in the free Autodesk DWF Viewer. It will open directly to a Plan sheet. Here you will see there are Detail bubbles. If you CTRL-Click the Detail bubble it will HYPERLINK you RIGHT to that detail Number on another Sheet. Using Autodesk DWF Composer has cut our Back check times in Half!! This was sooo easy with a little Lisp code and Robert/Myself's brain power. Plus has some cool AutoCAD tables in it."

Download DWF file

"LISP Used to link the detail bubbles to the hyperlinked details: Here is a explanation on what it does and how it works for our Company. We typically name our drawings. Job Number first then the Sheet name. So it looks like this.....040001S1. 040001S2..and so on. Well the code strips out the information from the DWGNAME variable and makes. 040001 & S1. Then takes the Number from the detail Bubble. Say S2. Then Puts them together. 040001S2. Then creates a hyperlink to the drawing. Using Misha's Convert Hyperlink to DWF then you're all set. here is the Code I use. It originated from some other code, then modified to fit our needs.

The Bottom part of the Code after the Hyperlink part is from Misha, A little too complicated for me. But works!!"

Download Edited LISP File

Autodesk VIZ 2005 is Lanched!

Autodesk Introduces Powerful Visualization Software That Takes Conceptual Design to the Next Level

Autodesk VIZ 2005 is for designers who need the power to realistically explore design concepts, communicate design intent, and easily share work with clients and prospects.

Read more in the press release.
Click Here

Successful Network Installation of AutoCAD in a Large Design Firm

New Whitepaper to be posted on http://www.autodesk.com/autocad in the next week or so.

A successful network installation of AutoCAD® 2004 and AutoCAD 2004–based software products depends not only on good planning, but also on sufficient testing of product functionality in a real-world business production environment. This white paper outlines considerations in successfully migrating from AutoCAD® 2000i to AutoCAD 2004 at Sasaki Associates, a large, multidisciplinary design firm with offices in Watertown, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, and about 160 CAD users companywide.

PDF White Paper Click Here

Perfect Paper Space, Part 1 by Lynn Allen - Cadalyst

"EVEN AFTER 12 YEARS, the most frequently requested articles are those on paper space. So, after many moons (and many pleas from readers), it's time to dust off these tips and update them to reflect the new features in AutoCAD 2005.

A great deal of confusion still surrounds paper space, as evidenced by the extremely large turnout at Autodesk University for the "Lost in Paper Space" class (perfectly taught by Dan Abbott). There are also many different theories regarding the proper route to perfect paper space. I'll attempt to present the pros and cons of all sides and let you decide what works best for you."

Link to the Entire Article on Cadalyst Magazines Web Site

AutoCAD 2005 Information by AutoCAD Bible Book Author Ellen Finkelstein

Check out the updated information from Ellen Finkelstein on AutoCAD 2005 at her website. Ellen is the author of the very popular AutoCAD Bible books.

Features Shown:

Tables

Fields

Sheet Sets

Command tool palettes

Layer groups and descriptions

Text background masks

Trimming hatches and hatching almost closed areas

Plotting in the background

ZOOM Object option

New COPY command default

http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autoCAD.html

Cheers,
-Shaan

Avatech Solutions - Autodesk Product eDemos

Check out the Avatech Solutions eDemo list.

Link to eDemos

Examples of the available eDemos which are web videos that play in the Windows Media Player:

AutoCAD 2005 Preview

A first look at the latest version of AutoCAD. Find out how new features and capabilities are going to help your bottom line in this exclusive new demonstration.

AutoCAD Electrical eDemo

See the benefits of AutoCAD Electrical in this demonstration by one of our technical experts. He'll show you the intelligent electrical controls design, the automation of the electrical controls design process, and how AutoCAD electrical is the fast, flexible, and easy solution to your Electrical design needs.

Building Systems Test Drive Webcast Recording

Avatech gets you on the road to success with this session to show you the best features of Building Systems . Before you get behind the wheel of Building Systems we’ll steer you through:

Best practices for a speedy implementation of new software

Tips and tricks of Building Systems

A sneak-peak of the workshop on the 30-day trial software

Revit Test Drive Webcast Recording

Avatech gets you on the road to success with this session to show you the best features of Revit . Before you get behind the wheel of Revit we’ll steer you through:

Best practices for a speedy implementation of new software

Tips and tricks of Revit

A sneak-peak of the workshop on the 30-day trial software

Inventor Test Drive Webcast Recording

Avatech gets you on the road to success with this session to show you the best features of Inventor. Before you get behind the wheel of Inventor we’ll steer you through:

Best practices for a speedy implementation of new software

Tips and tricks of Inventor

A sneak-peak of the workshop on the 30-day trial software

Revit Webcast Recording Available

If you’re not familiar with Autodesk Revit, this streaming presentation is the perfect opportunity to gain in-depth understanding of its many revolutionary features, including:

Parametric change technology—when you make a change anywhere in your building project, it’s

automatically updated everywhere

Fluid interaction with other Autodesk software

Immediate increase in productivity

Superior design and documentation capabilities

View Part 1 of the presentation
View Part 2 of the presentation
View Part 3 of the presentation

Give AutoCAD® 2005 a Try, For Free!

You can order a free AutoCAD® 2005 Trial CD-ROM or a run the fully operational online AutoCAD® 2005 streaming trial.

AutoCAD® 2005 30-Day Trial CD
(This offer is valid only in the United States and Canada. For countries outside the United States and Canada, contact your local Autodesk Authorized Reseller)
Link to Order Form

AutoCAD® 2005 Streaming Trial
(Stream a full version of AutoCAD® to your desktop for 30 consecutive days at no cost. Create, view, save, and plot your own files and fully experience exactly how AutoCAD software operates in your work environment.)
Link to Streaming Trial

Make sure to have a look at the documentation to see what some of the new features are.
Link to Features Documents

Comparing AutoCAD 2005 with Previous Releases PDF White Paper

Cheers,
-Shaan