Between the Lines

Have a Safe and Happy New Year

I know in light of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Asia Pacific and the nightclub fire in Argentina it is extremely hard to celebrate anything in the same celebratory mood without a heavy heart.

I would like to wish all a very safe and happy New Years. I wish all of those in the disaster regions a speedy recovery and that everyone across the world pulls together to help in the recovery efforts. For those partaking in the champagne and spirits, please make sure to have a designated driver or take a taxi cab when headed home so you and others will be around for the new year. .

We must all look forward and make 2005 a great and prosperous year for all.

This is my last blog post for the year 2004.

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley

PS: I am not looking forward to having to get used to writing dates with the new year as it normally takes me about 3 months to get it straight. So if you get an email from me and I still refer to the year 2004, please forgive me in advance as I most likely mean 2005

Autodesk Civil 3D Blog

Angel Espinoza sent me an email that he has a blog on Civil 3D. There are a lot of tips and tricks for those using Autodesk Civil 3D.

Check it out. http://acecivil3d.blogspot.com/

AUGI CAD Camp Announced- Five Cities

AUGI's Regional Learning and Networking Events "CAD Camp"

Houston, Texas USA
Feb 8th, 2005 (registration open)

Lansing, Michigan USA
Feb 10th, 2005 (registration open)

Seattle, Washington USA
Feb 23rd, 2005  (registration opens 1/12/05)

Chicago, Illinois USA
Mar 1st, 2005  (registration opens 1/18/05)

Dallas, Texas USA
Mar 3rd, 2005  (registration opens 1/20/05)

To register go to http://www.cadcamp.com

The CAD Camp is almost like a miniature one day Autodesk University or more like a regional user group meeting with some classes. I attended and presented at the first one in Jacksonville Florida in November. They are a great opportunity to network with fellow Autodesk product users and gain some more training. I may attend some of them but am not sure at this time but Lynn Allen will be there.

Another Tsunami Relief Link

Cameron Scott of http://www.timberdesign.com mentioned another aid organization located in the UK that can be contributed to. The organization is Shelterbox.

Cameron says "Shelterbox is a fantastic initiative based in Cornwall, UK that sends out vital emergency aid to disaster zones around the world. This aid comes in the form of a 'shelterbox' that contains enough equipment to provide shelter, clean water and other essentials for ten people for up to six months. Shelterbox has already started shipping aid directly to the Asian earthquake zone. Please help by donating directly via their website at  http://www.shelterbox.org" You can also read more details on Shelterbox from Cameron's website http://www.timberdesign.com.

Lets all get as much aid as possible going as the Asia Pacific region really needs it badly.

Shaan

500th Post to this Blog!

This is my 500th post to this blog. You can use the catagory archives listed on the left side menu or the search option to find some helpful tips, tricks, announcements, and resources. With over 3000 visits a day to this blog, the blog has been an enjoyable diversion for me and a benefit to those who visit and hopefully some fun at times. The blog has had over 200,000 visits in a year and a half and the photo galleries are almost 500,000 now. I am looking forward to another 500 posts and hundreds of thousands of more visits.

• JTB World (Blog)
• Lynn Allen's Blog
• RobiNZ Blog
• Will render for food...
• The Architect's Desktop
• The Autodesk Informer blog
• The Mad Cadder
• Tracy Lincoln's Blog
• Between the Walls - ADT Blog
• "In The Machine" Autodesk Inventor Blog 
• Beside the Cursor by Richard Binning
• Beth's CAD Blog
• WorldCAD Access

If you have a tip, suggestion, helpful resource, event, or CAD blog url you would like to share with thousands of readers daily, please pass it on to me to publish and share with others.

Cheers,
Shaan

Asia Pacific Region Needs Help After Disaster

My heart absolutely goes out to those in the Asia Pacific region after the large 9.0 earthquake and following tsunami. My deepest sympathies to the victims, families and communities. There have been so many lost of lives and housing. It is a huge disaster and the news reports are almost too much to watch. Currently the reported number of lives lost is at 58,000.

Please join Autodesk in assisting in the recovery efforts as so many need your help.

If you would like to donate to the relief effort, these organizations are equipped to offer both immediate and long term assistance:
Australia: Care AUS, Red Cross UK: Care UK, Red Cross	USA: Care USA, Red Cross Global: UNICEF, Save the Children

For those looking for information on relatives or travelers in the region, you can look for people or news from some in the region in the Lonely Planet forums http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.cfm?catid=68

Tip/Trick: Multiple Columns of Mtext in AutoCAD 2005

I received a comment from a AutoCAD user that was using AutoCAD 2005 and wanted to have columns in Mtext. I showed a inventive method to accomplish this and control the columns and easily edit them individually. Simply create a AutoCAD Table object with no Header or Title and no border then placing the Mtext in the Table cells.

DWF of final MTEXT in columns Download Table-Mtext-Layout1.dwf
You can view this using the free Autodesk DWF Viewer from http://www.autodesk.com/dwf

Steps to create a Table style to be used to place the Mtext in.

Now create the Mtext in a Table cell

Editing the created Mtext in the Table cell

The Print preview of the completed Mtext in columns.

Cheers,
Shaan on holiday vacation until January 3rd.

PS: This is post 498 in this blog.
You can use the Search option on the left side menu to search the posts. I am now on my way to 300,000 visitors (not incl. photo galleries) in just a year and a half of blogging with 3000+ visitors per day. In the photo galleries I have got as high as 10,000+ visitors in a single day and they are now on their way to over half a million visitors.

Happy Holidays!

Autodesk is closed from December 24th 2004 until January 3rd 2005.  I am now going to try and enjoy a week off but may make a few blog posts as well as play Santa for my children.

Have a very safe and happy holidays and a great new year.

Shaan

Autodesk/Discreet Trial Software

AutoCAD® 2005 Streaming online trial or 30-Day Trial CD  Here

AutoCAD LT 2005 30-Day Trial  Here

AutoCAD® Revit® Series  Here

AutoCAD® Electrical 30-Day Trial  Here

Autodesk Inventor® 9 Test Drive CD  Here

Autodesk Map® 3D 2005 30-Day Trial  Here

Autodesk Streamline® 30-Day Trial  Here

3ds max®7 30-Day Trial Here

Autodesk DWF Composer 30-Day Trial Here

Autodesk University 2004 Course Handouts

The email to all Autodesk University 2004 attendees has been emailed with the password to the course handout content today. Now hopefully people will stop emailing me for the password. ;-)

From the email:
"Thank you for attending AU this year. Thanks largely to your participation -- and that of more than 4000 of your peers -- Autodesk University was once again a record-breaking success. Based on nearly 2000 onsite surveys, 95 percent of attendees plan to return next year and will recommend AU to colleagues.

East Coast Venue for Autodesk University 2005

Join us next year at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Florida, November 28 – December 1, 2005, for the 13th annual Autodesk University. Our goal will again be to provide you with the best possible training and networking for your time and budget.

Download Course Content

Class content presented at AU 2004 is now available at the AU website for you to download for reference and to share with your coworkers. Thanks to all the great instructors for making their class content available."

I hope to see you in Orlando next year for the largest, best selection and quality technical courses, and the most successful CAD event. There was another CAD vendor event last year in Orlando but it was far less than AU unless you like a smaller crowds, sales focused, and also classes taught by instructors playing videos instead of actual training like AU. In fact there were more people in the standing room areas around the 3000 seated at the AU 2004 Keynote speeches which exceeded the total attendance of the other CAD vendors event.

Cheers,
Shaan

Annual Holiday Starving Students Product Donation

For the past few years I have raided my office and asked fellow deskers that have ununsed Not for Resale copies of Autodesk products to give away in the holiday spirit. These are products I had left over. This is only for those that really need them like starving students or those out of work and really have no opportunity to purchase them. It is a way to make a difference in someones life and perhaps get them started or a boost.

I will provide those in the most need with one of the products listed below.

2- AutoCAD 2005 Not for Resale
1- AutoCAD 2005 Educational version Not for Resale
1- Autodesk Inventor 9 Not for Resale
1- Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2005 Not for Resale
2- Autodesk DWF Composer
1- Discreet 3ds Max 7 Not for Resale
1- Discreet 3ds Max 6 Not for Resale
1- Discreet Combustion 3 Not for Resale

Requirements: All I need is your email with the specific details of a student or someone in need of a product and the reasons and the product they would benefit from. Please also list your contact information including phone number and that of the person in need.

You must email me why you or someone you know would like to be considered for the give way. Only for those located in North or South America and the products are English only. There is no warranty or support for these donated products.

Email Address: shaan@autodesk.com
Email Subject line needs to be "Shaan's Between the Lines Holiday Product Donation Entry"

If selected, I will email you direct and post the story in this blog minus the persons name if requested. I will also need the shipping information for the person you are gifting the product to so that I may ship directly to them. I expect to award the products by 01/14/05.

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley
Autodesk, Inc.

CADD Manager Newsletter Vol. 04, No. 12

Mark Kiker has a nice CAD Manager related website http://www.caddmanager.com/ and newsletter. The newsletter contains many tips and tricks for those using AutoCAD. The current newsletter for December 2004 is now available at http://www.caddmanager.com/Newsletter/CADnewsletterV04-12.html. To subscribe, send an e-mail to subscribe@ctg-web.com.

Contents:
Autodesk University 2004
CAD Technology is not Turnkey - CAD Managers are needed!
ETransmit
New Zoom option in AutoCAD 2005 (Zoom to Object)
Does anyone know what enu means?

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD LISP Loading Utility

Jefferey Sanders of http://www.jefferypsanders.com/ has posted a nice LISP loading application for AutoCAD 2000 and up. It is a graphical LISP loading program and for those that do not like to use APPLOAD or other methods of loading LISP but want to pick from a graphical list, then this utility is for you.

Link to LoadLSP Utility web page

Cheers,
Shaan

Archidigm: AutoCAD 2005 Fields

Archidigm has posted an article on AutoCAD 2005 Fields and they had some great feedback on them. I am sure they will be happy to know we are listening to all of the constructive feedback for future development and enhancements.

Odin: If you are reading this send me an email shaan@autodesk.com or call me at 415 507 8432 to discuss. :-)

I have met a few of the people from Archidigm and they sure know their stuff to put it mildly. They do some impressive work and also write some great tutorials and coursework for AEC on many products.

Link to Article

Be Heard!

-Shaan

Desktop Search Tools

First there was the Google Desktop Search beta. I installed it and then after 2 weeks uninstalled it.

Now there is a new one from Microsoft named the MSN Toolbar Suite in beta.

I really like the MSN Toolbar Suite so far, but it will take 2 weeks to know for sure. I can search everything on my hard drive, email, and the web from one convenient location. I also have not noticed the web linking/mixing or caching encrypted data like the Google tool which concerned me.

I have read that Yahoo has a desktop search tool on target for January 2005.

Cheers,
Shaan

The CAD Industry Loses a Great Writer

I just got the news that MCAD writer Joe Greco has passed away. Joe wrote so many good MCAD reviews and articles. This is a huge loss to the CAD industry and he will be missed. He died of cardiac arrest and was only was only 41.

My sincere condolences go out to his friends and family.

AUGI Hot News: December 2004, No. 19

Check out the latest AUGI Hot News. Free membership is required.

Autodesk University, Revisited AU 2004 is just a memory now...but what a memory! AU traditions and new events combined to make this annual learning extravaganza a huge success. Read the recap.

AUGI Elections It's time to vote for four open positions on the AUGI Board of Directors. Cast your vote today!

Who's the 2005 Top DAUG? Read all about this year's competition. More participants than ever before competed for the title "Top DAUG of 2005."

Controlling Customization More great tips for getting (and staying) organized.

President's Letter Outgoing president Marv Muston wraps up 2004.

TIPniques Column Part 2 in the series on AutoCAD command prefixes. What they are and what they mean are discussed here.

Customization Corner Part 2 in the series on Menu Customizing.

LUG Nuggets "Report Card" from LUG Roundtable Breakfast at AU and more LUG news.

AutoCAD Quick Guide by Lee Ambrosius

Lee Ambrosius has made available a free AutoCAD Quick Guide and announced this in a post on his blog Beyond the UI.

" Quick Guides are great if you teach AutoCAD classes to new students.  One of the Quick Guides that I have is for many of the commonly used Command Aliases, Accelerated Keys (Keyboard Shortcuts), Coordinate System (Types of Point Entry), Drag 'n Droppable files, Object Snaps and Selection Methods."

Link to Lee's blog Beyond the UI and the Quick Guide

Autodesk University 2005 in Orlando Florida

You may have heard that Autodesk University 2005 will be held in Orlando Florida next year November 29th through December 2nd 2005 at Disney World. In my opinion this will be the largest and best CAD event ever held at the Disney location as I have attended others there. I am hoping to get some special things arranged since Disney is a large Autodesk customer and much of the park rides and facilities were designed using Autodesk software. I am also considering some contests later in the year for some theme park passes. The Beta Team may also do what was done this year and that is to provide a free all expenses paid trip to some who are active in the Autodesk feedback and beta programs.

I believe next years Autodesk University will be even larger than this years record 4500 attendee event. In fact I mentioned to someone attending the keynote presentation that the audience which numbered in the thousands left many standing on the edges of the room and that number of standing attendees was larger than most other CAD events get as their total attendee numbers.

I hope to see you in Orlando as it is definitely going to be a great time and more of the top notch classes and experts.

As far as Autodesk University 2004 and the class handouts for download goes, they have not been released yet to my knowledge. When they are available, all AU attendees will receive information by email on how to download them and the password. I mention this as I have received over 25 emails asking me for the password.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD Layer Filter and APP ID Purge Tool

Thanks to customer James Maeding and some developers in the Autodesk Developer Network team, I am posting this tool as a unsupported and open beta. Please review the readme text file.

The tool can be used to purge unwanted Layer Filters and unnecessary REG APP IDs in DWG files. This tool actually purges any APP ID that is not needed, just like the -PURGE command does in AutoCAD 2005. This tool works for AutoCAD 2000 up to AutoCAD 2005. 

Download PurgeIDS_120804.zip (1Mb)

Avatech / Vizdepot Rendering Challenge Results

The rendering results for the challenge held at AU last week have been posted to the Vizdepot. The renderings are outstanding and definitly worth a look.

A perfect example is the day one first place winner Ged Trias

Check out Beau Turner's blog post on the contest
http://rndr4food.blogspot.com/2004/12/rendering-challenge-final-results.html

Or these links to the winners on Vizdepot.com
Day One http://vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6275#post6275
Day Two http://vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1263
Day Three http://vizdepot.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1262

If you blog it, they will come

I imagine the AU news and photos had a lot to do with this, but in the past few days my blog readers went from a few thousand a day to many thousands per day and many emails. I have almost broke 500 posts now since starting this blog. You can search them using the search field on the left menu. It is so fulfilling to read the emailed comments about the blog as well as the amount of people that sought me out at AU. I still have a ton of posts left to detail out things I seen at AU and people I met like the guys from Brazil from http://www.drawex.com.

I hope to keep growing the blog and seeding other blogs and keeping a real mix here of items that you might find interesting, funny, and helpful. This was the first CAD blog I could found out there when I started back in 2003 and now there are quite a few which is awesome. It is shocking to me to see my blog in the top 10 results for many CAD related searches on Google, MSN, and Yahoo.

If you have suggestions, news items for announcement, job searches, please be sure to email them to me at shaan@autodesk.com and also spread the word.

Thank you,
Shaan

XRef Overlay and XRef Attach

http://www.cadforum.cz  always has some goods tips for Autodesk products. I wanted to point out a new one.

CAD Tip # 4155 http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/qaID.asp?tip=4155

"The difference between overlaying and attaching an xref is in cases with multiple levels (nesting) of xrefs (A.dwg references B.dwg, which references C.dwg). If you xref-attach C.dwg in B.dwg, and then attach B.dwg in A.dwg, you can see the C.dwg contents/entities in both B.dwg and A.dwg. But if you overlay C.dwg in B.dwg, you can see the C.dwg geometry in B.dwg, but not in A.dwg.

Simply - the overlaid xref displays only one level up in the hierarchy while attached xref appears in all levels up. Overlays also allow to create circular references."

Announcing the winner in the Test Drive and Usability sessions from AU 2004

The Autodesk Platform Technologies Div. product design and usability teams held some test drive and usability events while at AU 2004. There was a drawing for a brand new Canon digital camera for those that attended these sessions.

Prize: Canon PowerShot SD 20 Digital ELPH, Deluxe Kit with Case

The winner is:
Nina L. Junco
a-dec company
Newberg, Oregon

I used to work just down the street from a-dec in Newberg. Newberg is a beautiful place just Southwest of Portland.

Congratulations,
Shaan Hurley

Help spread the word of this blog on your site

You can use a HTML animated ticker to see the latest postings on this blog. Just use the below HTML on your page or any other place that allows HTML.

HTML code:

<a href="http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/"> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/BetweenTheLines.gif" height="67" width="200" style="border:0" alt="Between the Lines Blog"/></a>

This produces the following animated banner:

New Book "Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop" by Scott Onstott

Many edit their output after creating the CAD drawings and there is now a book on post CAD data processing in Photoshop from Scott Onstott. The book is titled "Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop".

Chris Yanchar mentioned the book on his ADT blog > Link

Layer Filter Removal Tool Available

Beyond the UI
Layer Filter Removal Tool now posted by Lee on his blog > Link

AutoCAD Dockable Container by Jorge Lopez

I ran into Jorge Lopez while at Autodesk University this year.  What a pleasant surprise as I had not seen him in a few years since he left Autodesk. Jorge is a programming wizard and was the original developer of the AutoCAD Dockable Container. Many people have used this tool in the development of their AutoCAD customization. Jorge has now launched a web site for this tool at www.jrl-e.com .

Description from Jorge's web site:
"This application is a tool for 3^rd party developers who are interested in developing UI applications for AutoCAD 2000-2005 without the need for C++ and ObjectARX. It provides a docking window that serves as a generic and programmable container of ActiveX controls. ActiveX controls can be created with a variety of tools such Visual Basic and Delphi. This enables easy creation of modeless UI applications using the language of your choice. AutoCAD can then be customized from your ActiveX control via the AutoCAD Automation Object Model."

AU 2004 Rendering Contest Winners

Beau Turner has announced the winners on his Will Render for Food Blog for the Avatech and Vizdepot sponsored rendering contest. I am sure the images should be posted soon somewhere as they were very impressive renderings.

http://rndr4food.blogspot.com/2004/12/rendering-challenge-final-results.html
You should also check out Beau's notes on AU 2004. http://rndr4food.blogspot.com/

Congratulations to all. If you want to see some awesome visualization check out http://www.Vizdepot.com.

Below is a photo of Beau, his wife and his energetic son Dylan at AU 2004.

Thanks for the "Will Render for Food" tee shirt, I will be wearing it proudly tomorrow to work.

Another AutoCAD Blog is Born - Richard Binning's >Beside the Cursor

I spoke with Richard Binning at AU last week in the AUGI Playpen area and he showed me his blog. I wanted to announce it right then and there on my blog but his blog may be moving soon to another URL. After more thinking about it I figured what the heck, announce the location he has now and then update it later if and when it moves.

Richard is a key AUGI DAUG from Jacksonville Florida and a very nice guy. Richard is not only involved with AUGI but also with the local AutoCAD users group "JAG" Jacksonville AutoCAD Group. You learn so much about a person from a blog such as Richard's astrological sign is Capricorn ;-).

Beside the Cursor Blog by Richard Binning
http://www.integr-8.com/besidethecursor/

Richard, Consider yourself "Shaan'd" This is what some blog owners have termed the result of having your blog announced on my blog and the large traffic hits as a result. There just seems to be so much excitement for more AutoCAD and Blog news. My opinion is that CAD users are technology early adopters in many cases and can never get enough resources or info from fellow CAD users.

-Shaan

More AU Photos

Autodesk University Photos online:
http://autodesk.blogs.com/photos/autodesk_university_2004_/

Lee Ambrosius
http://hyperpics.blogs.com/photos/au_2004

T5 Photos from DocB
http://photos.take-5.com/gallery/AU2004

Vizdepot
http://www.vizdepot.com/forums/show...p;threadid=1238

Will Render for Food AU 2004 images by Beau Turner
http://www.tripleddesign.com/photography/au2004/

More AU Articles & Press

AU 2004 Wrap Up from Lee Ambrosius of http://www.hyperpics.com and his blog "Beyond the UI".  http://hyperpics.blogs.com/beyond_the_ui/2004/12/i_survived_au_2.html

AU 2004 article by Adena Schutzberg of GIS Monitor
http://www.gismonitor.com/news/newsletter/archive/120204.php#Plenary

I actually met Adena at AU this year and took a picture of her and posted it in the AU 2004 photo album.

Some of the other press members I ran into at AU:
 
Ralph Grabowski of www.upfrontezine.com

Robert Green the CAD Mgr Guru of Cadalyst Magazine and consulting such as http://www.cad-manager.com/.

Roopinder Tara of www.tenlinks.com

Peter Sheerin

Embed a 2D or 3D DWF in a PowerPoint Presentation or Web Page!

Did you know you can already embed a DWF file in a web page or even PowerPoint? Well with the Autodesk View 5, you can even embed a 3D DWF in a PowerPoint or a web page. Imagine a 3D DWF embedded in your presentation to show off your 3D model.

Below is the view of MS PowerPoint with the DWF files embedded as ActiveX objects.

I recorded a short 1 minute video of my test PowerPoint slide shown using Camtasia from Techsmith. I then produced it as a Flash video for the best quality and lowest size. I created the 3D DWF in Autodesk Inventor 9 and there is now a 3D DWF export for ADT 2005 after installing the extension from the subscription website.

Go to the web page with the Flash player and video Click Here

Embedding Autodesk DWF Viewer in HTML Documents

Embedding Autodesk DWF Viewer in Microsoft Office Applications

Autodesk DWF http://www.autodesk.com/dwf

Cheers,
-Shaan