Between the Lines

AutoCAD Comm. Center Survey Winner

Recently a survey went out through the AutoCAD Communication Center (US only). All participants who chose to be part of the Product Improvement Team were entered in a drawing for a Dell Precision Workstation.

The winner has been selected and it is: Patrick Leo Devine Jr. of Illinois.
Congratulations Patrick!

Thank you to all who participated in the survey. Please look for future surveys in the AutoCAD Communication Center.

If you have not completed the AutoCAD Hardware survey, please consider taking a minute to do so.The AutoCAD Team is researching what hardware is most commonly used. This data will help the team gauge what hardware is used when researching future AutoCAD release plans. This data will also assist in making sure our hardware testing lab is covering the most common hardware configurations used by our customers.

AutoCAD Hardware Survey

Cheers,
Shaan

Beta Blocker Winners from the AutoCAD 2006 Beta Program

We held a fun Dynamic Blocks contest with prizes during the AutoCAD 2006 (codename AutoCAD Rio) beta program. The contest name was "Beta Blocker".  We received some really cool and interesting submitted blocks during the beta. We have now announced the winners.

Best Dynamic Block
1. Mark Douglas  - "Post Tension"
Prize: Olympus camera

Mark's own explanation:
This Dynamic Block is a Structural Post Tension Tendon Dynamic Block. A post tension tendon is a steel cable that is embedded in the middle of concrete slabs. When AutoCAD 2006 was released most users went straight to their old legacy block libraries and started converting their 2000 old legacy blocks into 1 Dynamic block. I think it is great. But what happens once you convert those 2000 blocks and are left at a point where you have nothing else to convert to dynamic blocks? This is the time to start digging into your company LISP code. Yes, who thought Dynamic blocks would start cutting away on a companies LISP code. This one block alone has cut about 5 or 6 of the longest and error prone LISP code we have. When using LISP code its great for the initial instance of the block but once something changes the user has to manually re-run the LISP code again to generate all the correct information. This block uses NO LISP code and is totally user friendly. With this new dynamic block we’ve cut our time creating our foundation plans by more than 75% leaving us extra time to focus on other aspects of the project. This block also has a huge lookup table that has all our length conversions using the range function in the lookup tables.

2. Barry Ralphs - "DynBolt"
Prize: iRiver IFP-795 512MB MP3 player


3. Chris Wallis - "wally_table"
Prize: Rio Forge 256MB Sport MP3 player

Chris also submitted a very creative Clock Dynamic Block.

Best Story
1. Nicolas Menu - Boundary Block meeting Swiss Government Requirement
Prize: "iRiver IFP-799 1GB MP3 player

Nicolas's own explanation:
"When printing a situation at different scale and for different purpose you might encounter some problems. This is especially true if you have to stick to CAD standards, regarding the exact aspect (dimensions) your blocks should have once printed. All Swiss surveyors have to stick to very strict norms edicted by the government (swisstopo) and all architects are using the surveyors drawing for their projects.

We have a different library of blocks for the different scales. All goes well if the drawing you work with will be plotted at the scale you initially choose when importing the symbols into AutoCAD. But most of the time it is not the case. So it means exporting and then re-importing the symbols which is annoying even with LISP files... thought why not give a try to the Dynamic Blocks for that particular case! And here it is.
I made one boundary block as simple as possible which enable the user to select before printing which scale the block should display (got 6 different scales + 3 more option for high density boundary marks zone). A quick select will do the job for selecting the blocks and changing their lookup properties all at once doesn't take that long.

This way will helped reduced our library of blocks from 900 blocks to 100!"

2. Rick Moore - "joist_elev18"
Prize: iRiver IFP-795 512MB MP3 player

Rick's own explanation:
"This is a steel joist elevation block - previously we have drawn from these scratch, which is a very tedious process involving a lot of trimming, copying, and UCS changes. Now with this block we just insert, stretch to the desired length, then touch up the web placement and details around the joist seat. It doesn't matter what angle they will be placed at because of the alignment parameter and the linear constraints on the web array - no need to switch the UCS! I have created one of these for all of the K joists from 8" to 30" deep and added them to our standard block palettes, this one is the18k joist."


3. Les Vogel - "2006-Jack" Electrical Connector
Prize: Rio Forge 256MB Sport MP3 player

Most Complex Dynamic Block
Mark Douglas - "Shearwall"
Prize: Rio Forge 256MB Sport MP3 player

Mark's own explanation:
"This Dynamic block is a Structural Shear Wall Dynamic Block that has had many revisions due to the growing power of Dynamic Blocks. The Dynamic Block uses a combination of Visibility, Point, Lookup, and Linear parameters. There is a Total of 16 Parameters and 19 Actions. The block may look very intimidating at first but each parameter and action set is utilized to its fullest to perform to a users needs. When opening the Dynamic block in the Block editor it immediately shows that Dynamic blocks take time to learn and perfect. This block explains it all, the Dynamic blocks are almost too powerful at times but with many revisions it has been the most powerful one we have in our Dynamic Block library. There also is a Linear parameter in the Block Editor called S.W. Symbol Length that is stretched way down in the editor. This is designed this way so we don't have to use a Flip parameter. Since the Flip parameter re-justifies attributes when flipped we don't have to worry about modifying a block when the attributes are moved. This allows a user to stretch the block to the other side of the wall with ease."

Mark Douglas has become the undisputed king of Dynamic Blocks "Block Head" among customers using AutoCAD 2006. Mark even has a blog "In the Dynamic Interface".

We have been trying to provide as much rewards as we can for those that are very active in providing feedback during the AutoCAD beta programs.

Cheers,
Shaan

Updated AutoCAD Plot Utilities for AutoCAD 2006

Autodesk has created some unsupported free utilities that have been on the Autodesk support web pages for AutoCAD 2004. I have included below the updated AutoCAD 2006 versions of the tools.

CTB and STB Printing "TablePrint" (AutoCAD 2006 version)
This tool provides a way to export CTB and STB plot style tables to a comma delimited text file. The comma delimited text files can be imported into a spreadsheet program (e.g., Excel) and be printed or be compared with another. Or the text files can be printed out directly. By using this routine, you are accepting all the terms and conditions of the enclosed User Agreement. Download tableprint.zip

CTB to PCP Converter (AutoCAD 2006 version)
This tool provides a way to export a PCP file from a CTB plot style table. By using this routine, you are accepting all the terms and conditions of the enclosed User Agreement. Download ctb2pcp.zip

Update 4/29/05:
I received a question if these utilities and if they work for AutoCAD 2005 and 2004. Theese will work for AutoCAD 2005 as well as AutoCAD 2006. The AutoCAD 2004 versions are located at:

TablePrint for AutoCAD 2004
CTB to PCP for AutoCAD 2004

As for running the tools you extract them to your AutoCAD install directory which is c:\program files\AutoCAD 200x\ by default. These tools do not run from within AutoCAD. You can then run the exe from the Windows Explorer or create a shortcut to your desktop or Windows start menu. In the field for the plot style select your plot style which by default (due to Windows) is C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 200x\16.x\enu\Plot Styles.

Tableprint Dialog


CTB to PC3 Dialog

AutoCAD Productivity Study Recruitment for UK, Benelux and Nordic Countries

We are collecting the names of people in the UK, Benelux and Nordic countries who use either AutoCAD 2002 or AutoCAD 2006 and would like to participate in a productivity study.

If you are interested please complete the form below. Our research partners will recruit 20 participants from this list.

Sign up to be considered for this project at this LINK

New Autodesk DWF Viewer 6 and Autodesk DWF Composer 2 versions released

The free Autodesk DWF Viewer 6 was released last week to the web. It includes many performance improvements as well as some new features such as:

* New support for 2D and 3D DWF files published out of next generation Autodesk applications

* Print Preview -  Now users can easily select paper sizes and preview the sheet or view to be printed before sending a DWF to the printer.

For more information on the free Autodesk DWF Viewer http://www.autodesk.com/dwfviewer

The next release of Autodesk DWF Composer release 2 with the included DWG viewer was released today. There are many improvements and features. Some of the highlights are:
* New support for 2D and 3D DWF files published out of next generation Autodesk applications

* Now users can easily select paper sizes and preview the sheet or view to be printed before sending a DWF to the printer.

* Increased Support for Native Files

* The included Autodesk DWG Viewer adds support for DXF™ files; and an additional component, Autodesk Inventor® View, allows users to view and plot Autodesk Inventor files.

* DWF Composer’s mark up library has been expanded to include custom symbols, providing powerful new ways for customers to annotate and markup information in the office or out in the field. With this tool, customers can create their own catalogue of symbols from any source including any DWF file or raster images.

* A new snapshot tool allows users to capture any onscreen information and bring it into their DWF file, enabling any data to be brought into the DWF markup set regardless of the source.

* Improving the speed of reviews and the ability to identify the status of markups, customers now have the option to graphically assign colors to markups to indicate their status.  For example, when a user changes status of a markup to Done in the Navigator, the markup graphic in the DWF will be highlighted in yellow.

*Autodesk DWF Composer provides built-in DWF format measurement tools, enabling you to easily derive length, multiline length, and area of 2D and 3D DWF files. In this release, precision display means you can determine the number of significant digits displayed as well as the precision of the measurement.

*View and navigate DWF map books published from Autodesk Map® 3D 2006. DWF map books can include index sheets and hyperlinks to quickly navigate the map.

*Similar to how CAD users can round-trip their DWF file to AutoCAD 2005– and AutoCAD 2006–based products, Autodesk Revit Building 8 and Autodesk Revit Structure users can load DWF markups for fast, accurate revisions with Autodesk DWF Composer.

More information on Autodesk DWF Composer and the DWG Viewer http://www.autodesk.com/dwfcomposer

For more on the DWF format see http://www.autodesk.com/dwf

AutoCAD 2006 Offset Command Enhancement

In AutoCAD 2006 you can now Offset to a current layer. In the Offset command prompt there is a new option to set the offset to be on the current layer rather than the same layer as the entity being offset.

Command: OFFSET
Current settings: Erase source=No  Layer=Current  OFFSETGAPTYPE=0
Specify offset distance or [Through/Erase/Layer] <1.0000>:

An example of how this could be used. If you have one layer for interior walls and one for exterior walls. When you wanted to offset the interior wall for the exterior wall, you could have the exterior wall layer current and the offset line would be placed on that layer instead of the same interior wall layer.

More Autodesk Viz 2006 Information

Alexander Bicalho details more of the new Viz 2006 features on his blog "Life of an Origamy".

Link

Looking for AutoCAD customers in New Hampshire/Massachusetts for documentation discussions

We are looking for AutoCAD customers to participate in a development/documentation round table. The round table will be focused on the AutoCAD on-line help system and documentation. We’ll present who our organization is, a quick demo of our current on-line help system, and what our future plans are for documentation. Then we’ll open it up for a round table discussion which will entail a Q&A and any feedback on what works well for you currently and what improvements you’d like to see in the future.

Participating from AutoCAD is our Director of AutoCAD Software Development, the senior manager and technology manager from Technical Publications and AutoCAD technical writer.

The meetings will take please May 17th and 18th 2005 in the Manchester and Boston areas.

If you are interested please complete the following: Click here

Autodesk Viz 2006 is shipping

Autodesk is now shipping the latest Autodesk Viz 2006.

Some of the new features:
* Tool Palettes
* Improved Interoperability with Autodesk Design Software
* Sweep Modifier
* Content Browser
* Scene State
* Layer Manager
* Schematic View
* Radiosity Adaptive Subdivision
* Rendering Presets
* Autodesk 3D DWF Exporter
* Array Tool Preview
* Quick Align

Get the Autodesk Viz Preview Guide Here

Congratulations to the top AutoCAD 2006 Beta Site

Customer Lee Ambrosius was the top AutoCAD 2006 customer beta site and was awarded a top of the line Dell desktop computer system. The award was based on the number of defects, severity of defects, quality of the defects, and his activity in the beta program and private discussion forums.

The AutoCAD 2006 beta was comprised of almost 2000 customer beta sites from 64 countries. Lee was also the top beta site in the AutoCAD 2004 beta program and got his name in the AutoCAD 2004 Easter egg. We are awaiting someone to unseat Lee from this top activity beta site position, could it be you? It would require not sleeping but Jimmy Bergmark and Mark Douglas are right on Lee's heels.
;-)

The AutoCAD Beta Team also awarded not for resale full AutoCAD 2006 products to 40 of the other most active beta sites.

Congratulations Lee Ambrosius and all of our AutoCAD 2006 customer beta sites. You are integral to the quality and features of AutoCAD and it's future.

AutoCAD 2006 Commands and System Variables

Lee Ambrosius has updated the AutoCAD Command and System Variable maps. These maps are great for finding what is new, deleted, or changed since AutoCAD Release 12 to AutoCAD 2006.



Command Map AutoCAD R12 to 2006
System Variable Map AutoCAD R12 to 2006

Thank you Lee!

Looking for corrupted drawings

Autodesk has made great strides over the past few releases in the recovering and auditing of drawing files in AutoCAD, but we are looking for more research test cases. With more non-Autodesk DWG writing applications using reverse engineered libraries to write DWG files it has resulted in more problem drawings for our customers. There are also many other potential causes of these problem drawings such as network issues, hardware issues, customization, as well as editing and saving software applications defects.

We are looking for problem drawings that cannot be recovered in AutoCAD 2005/2006. We are looking to research these drawings to have test cases and incorporate the cases into the AutoCAD recovery and audit functions. There are some complicated methods employed in repairing a problem drawing. One method is to compare the data structure to known valid types and then if something is incorrect have some potential repair methods to repair the problem. The problem is when a data type or the file structure is missing data or is not correctly formatted. There is no automatic magic to reconstruct bad data. When we recover or repair data one of our requirements is the data and file integrity. It would not be good to just recover bad data as that could lead to other problems including drawing accuracy and stability. If we receive test case drawings we can build the types of found problems into AutoCAD recover cases to repair similar issues.

Please Zip the drawing file and email it to me with the subject line of "Problem Drawing". Please detail any known information on the drawing file such as last operations, application that saved it or edited it, and any other known history on the file.

Some recovery resources:
* Autodesk support document "Recover damaged drawing files"
* Great article from CVIS on prevention and recovery of AutoCAD data "After the Crash"

Shaan
shaan@autodesk.com

Yes I am in Florida and wore a tie

OK, I have been caught all dressed up with a tie and the proof posted. Lynn Allen posted a photo of me dressed up in a tie. She ran into me at a Autodesk training event for Autodesk resellers and training centers in Orlando Florida. She said she just had to get a photo of me dressed up. I am usually under dressed and wanted to be more formal but I ended up being about the only person in a crowd of over a thousand with a tie. At least I was not wearing my suit jacket that night.

It was a very eventful week. On Tuesday after arriving my mother board fried on my laptop for the third time. I am convinced this machine is possessed as the loaner machines are always fine. I only received my replacement laptop today. I also had a great dinner Wednesday Texas de Brazil a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant.

I ran into some fellow bloggers while here such as Beau Turner, Lynn Allen, Matt Dillon, Beth Powell, Angel Espinoza,  and Ryan Small. I also ran into many people I have known over the years such as Matt Murphy of AUGI and a awesome presenter at CAD Camp, JC Malitzke a great AU presenter and instructor, Jeferson Stutz an Autodesk Inventor expert and Autodesk employee from Brazil, and many many more. I have seen so many people and need to get some of my photos posted this weekend.

I return to the San Francisco Bay area tomorrow afternoon.

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk Subscription Webcasts on AutoCAD 2006

Autodesk Subscription customers can sign up for the following AutoCAD 2006 webcasts. These are a great way to learn the new AutoCAD release. Lynn Allen had a very successful webcast on Tuesday April 12th.

April 19th 2005- Taking a tour of AutoCAD 2006 hosted by Heidi Hewett

April 26th 2005- Migrating Menus and Customizing the AutoCAD User Interface hosted by Heidi Hewett

May 3rd 2005- Creating Dynamic Blocks hosted by Heidi Hewet

May 10th 2005- Working with Tables hosted by Heidi Hewett

Nice surprises

I was traveling all last week in Eastern Canada. When I returned to my office today I found I had a big box of homemade cookies and a new thick AutoCAD 2006 Users Guide.

Author Ellen Finkelstien has for the past 3 years sent me a box of cookies after the release of a new version of AutoCAD. This tradition has even caught on by others. I had a challenge for an AutoCAD solution last year and when I gave the solution I got about 20 pounds of cookies shipped to me. I always end up sharing them with the AutoCAD Team. Thank you Ellen.
Now if we could ship a new release every month I could get cookies every month. ;-)

I also received the new AutoCAD 2006 Users Guide. I ordered this large book using the card in the shipping AutoCAD 2006 box. There is a card in the box that provides directions on ordering a printed book for free. It only took a few days for the book to arrive.

Tomorrow morning it is back onto a plane to head to Orlando Florida. I am contemplating listing my home address as a United Airlines flight number...

A tip and photo on how to make your Canadian boss happy. He loves some of the Canadian candy bars like the Caramilk, Crispy Crunch, Aero bars, and the Smarties. You cannot find these in the US. So I brought some back for him.

Cheers,
Shaan

Want to join Autodesk?

Autodesk is looking for an expert in process plant design to fill the role of software product manager. The product manager will be in charge of the definition and delivery of software solutions to the process plant design market. He or she must have the ability to research and identify market opportunities, quantify them, develop business cases, conduct competitive analysis, create revenue and pricing models, set channel and sales strategy, write a business plan and execute against it.

The ideal candidate will have extensive knowledge of the work flows involved in designing process plants. Additionally, knowledge of how projects are conceived, planned, approved, and executed is highly valuable. Strong entrepreneurial spirit and an MBA, or equivalent, are high desirable.

Relocation to San Rafael California is required.

Click this link to apply online

Autodesk "AOTC" Courseware Updated

I just got a heads up on some new AOTC training content coming out soon including the AutoCAD 2006 content. AOTC is the Autodesk training group that provides training content to trainers and customers. If you have received training from your local Autodesk resellers or Autodesk Training Center "ATC", chances are the training was based on AOTC training content. The training content is developed by experts in the products from within Autodesk as well as outside experts.

AOTC bullet points:

All-New AutoCAD Content

• AutoCAD courseware for 2006 has been completely overhauled.  We have all-new content – exercises, explanations, you name it.
• This year, a full training series is in production -  Essentials, Intermediate, & Advanced, as well as the Update and “Transitioning from AutoCAD 2002” titles.
• Exercises are available onscreen now, as well as in the manuals.

More Added Value

• Product Trial CDs are now included standard for most AOTC titles at no extra cost.
• The books are now in an industry-standard 8.5” x 11” size, and wire-bound so they lay flat on the desk.

Where to find AOTC?

• Customers can purchase AOTC on the e-Store, at www.autodesk.com/aotc
• Partners in the Americas can purchase AOTC at The Source website resource.
• Partners in EMEA can purchase AOTC at the Autodeskstore website resource.

Satellite Image option from Google

I have been hooked on the http://maps.google.com/ since it was launched a few months ago. Now you even have the option to get satellite images in addition to the very nice maps.

Google Map

Google Map with satellite image showing my office as well as the famous Marin Civic Center by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

You can even pan and zoom satellite images from around the world. This technology was formerly by Keyhole Corp. and cost $29.95 but Google aquired them 6 months ago and it is now free.

New CAD Blog "In the Dynamic Interface"

Mark Douglas has just started a blog and is an AutoCAD customer. He has some initial posts dealing with examples of how to use the new AutoCAD 2006 Dynamic Blocks. Mark is also a huge DWF fan.

http://mdouglas.blogs.com/in_the_dynamic_interface/

Cheers,
Shaan

Printed Documentation With AutoCAD 2006

In addition to the included "AutoCAD 2006 Getting Started Guide" in the AutoCAD 2006 shipping product is a card. The card offers a selection of printed guide books where you can request one free for each license you purchased.

The four offered books:

AutoCAD Customization Guide
AutoCAD Network Administration Guide
AutoCAD ActiveX & VBA Developer's Guide
AutoCAD User's Guide'

You can also request the one printed guide per license on the web at http://www.autodeskbookrequest.com

All the content from the guides are also included in the AutoCAD 2006 Help.