Between the Lines

AutoCAD Hot Issues & Knowledge Base Articles in RSS Feed

Do you want to know when new Knowledge Base articles are published or new hot issue solution for AutoCAD? You can use the RSS feed to get the list and link for the very latest published Knowledge Base articles. You may also notice I have this RSS feed's latest ten published articles on the right sidebar of this blog.

What's RSS? (http://www.autodesk.com/discussion-rss)

Link to the RSS feed

You can also view the web page for a list of the AutoCAD Hot Issues link

I got a new puppy

I got a new puppy this week. The puppy is a 6 week old male yellow labrador retriever. He and my 4 year old jack russel terrier are trying to decide what to think of each other.

We named him "Wyatt". It is odd but he appears to be a natural in the skill of whining at the door to be let outside and do his business. I have never seen a puppy that did not need this training and also had a few accidents, but this one might hopefully be the one in a million. I did get a reminder on how sharp puppy teeth are after he decided to use my bare foot as a chew toy.

Have a safe and fun weekend all.
Shaan

DWG TrueView & DWG TrueConvert

There is now an official Autodesk press release for both the DWG file viewer named DWG TrueView and the batch dwg converter named DWG TrueConvert. Both of these utilities are free.

The DWG TrueView is available now and a good internal solution for viewing DWG files while using DWF externally. The DWG TrueView can view with complete visual fidelity DWG files. I posted some specific details on DWG TrueView last week Link.

The DWG TrueConvert will be available in the next few weeks. It went through customer beta testing this summer and is nearing final release and download. It will be a stand alone application not requiring AutoCAD on the computer. DWG TrueConvert can convert DWG files from way back in AutoCAD version 2 to the latest AutoCAD formats or convert from the latest back to the AutoCAD R14 format.

I created 2 quick charts showing the great span of DWG file viewing and conversion.

DWG TrueView

DWG TrueConvert

A New AutoCAD Blog is Born - Welcome Heidi!

Heidi Hewett is a fellow team member of mine and has been responsible for many of the successful AutoCAD training materials and presentations such as  Autodesk University, AUGI CAD Camps, and the recent AutoCAD 2006 web casts. Now Heidi has a blog to provide more AutoCAD tips, tricks, and training on a blog.

Welcome to blogging Heidi!
AutoCAD Insider http://heidihewett.blogs.com/

Tip: Browser setting for opening new page in new window

Tired of an application launching a browser page in your currently opened browser window and forwarding you to another URL?

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.29
Tools->Internet Options->Advanced->Reuse windows for launching shortcuts - uncheck this option

Mozilla Firefox 1.07
Options>Advanced>Tabbed browsing>Open links for other applications in> check option for "A New Window" or a "New tab in most recent window"

AU Connect = Cool Concept of Social Networking before a large event

I received an email from Autodesk customer Donovan about this AU Connect and it got my curiosity peaked. So I decided to dive in and check it out before I got distracted by something else as I can sometimes be like a crow spotting shiny objects.

I have to admit it when I first received the email about AU Connect I was skeptical about what it was. AU is short for Autodesk University and the largest CAD event and will be in Orlando Florida the first week of December. The email about AU Connect was emailed to all current registered Autodesk University attendees. It is actually a hosted social networking solution being implemented for a large event by Leverage Software. The web site states you can browse your network of people and request introductions, schedule meetings, and share ideas with others. Quite interesting.

This might be a nice way to form groups of people instead of what usually occurs of not knowing who is attending and then on the fly getting a group together to chat or do something. With over 4000 people attending it would be nice to get more focused and manage activities and chats as well as meet new people. I have held a Geek Fest at AU events in the past but it is always a difficult thing to organize but perhaps this AU Connect might allow me to see who is attending, what their interests are and then setup a time for a get together. It also might help people network with people they might not have met otherwise. People tend to gravitate among those they already know at an event when in reality it is the perfect place to make new contacts and friends.

So I filled out my AU Connect profile.

Set my meeting preferences.

And then looked at the People Map showing people who matched my filter criteria.

One thing I found funny and accurate is fellow CAD freak, blogger, and friend Jimmy Bergmark of Sweden was listed as the closest match to my profile.

Now I will check the page frequently and schedule some get togethers for AU. Hopefully I will get more time discussing CAD, cool geek stuff, and have some fun with fellow AU'ers many new that I have not met in the past.

I hope to see you there and if so get on my people map!

Cheers,
Shaan

Free AutoCAD 2006 Dynamic Blocks Tutorial

Author Ellen Finkelstein has made available a free tutorial on the new AutoCAD 2006 Dynamic Blocks and source file direct from her latest book AutoCAD 2006 Bible. All that is required is free registration on her website. After you sign up, you will receive an e-mail where you can download the tutorial and the drawing.

Link to Offer

Cheers,
Shaan

Have free tutorials, tips, helpful blog or website links you wish to offer fellow AutoCAD users, send me an email and I might publish it here for the benefit of the thousands of daily readers.

New and Free DWG TrueView™ - view DWG files

DWG TrueView™ is now available for free from Autodesk.
http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview

Spread the word! You can view DWG files 100% just like AutoCAD can for free.

"Share AutoCAD® drawings easily and accurately among engineers and architects with DWG TrueView™. View and plot DWG and DXF™ files, and then publish them as DWF™ files for quick and easy review and markup in Autodesk® DWF™ Composer. And you’ll always get full drawing fidelity because the DWG viewer is built on the same viewing technology as AutoCAD® 2006 software."

Some of my own highlights:

• 100% RealDWG with visual fidelity
• It will view 2D and 3D DWG and DXF just like AutoCAD 2006
• Can read all DWG files from AutoCAD 2 to AutoCAD 2006 spanning 20+ years of files
• It will support custom objects like Autodesk Building Systems or Architectural Desktop. Since AutoCAD 2006 and DWG TrueView have the ADT Object Enablers included, it will view them just fine. It will also support other custom object enablers if they are installed.
• It supports layers, full plotting support and more with plot styles and drivers
• Publish to DWF. You could even Publish many DWG files to DWF.
• Familiar AutoCAD Publish, Plot and Layer dialogs and functionality.
• Uses support paths just like AutoCAD so you can path to your fonts etc.
• Supports the password protection
• Familiar interface even right-click menus
• 3D Orbit supported
• Shademode
• Layouts and Named Views
• Drawing preview in the file open or Windows Explorer just like AutoCAD

The download size is large at 100Mb but so is the functionality provided. It is available in English only right now but in the coming days/weeks there will be localized versions available.

This will be the first incarnation with some more updates coming in the future.

Did you know, Subscription Aware

In many of the Autodesk 2006 based products Autodesk Subscription customers can access e-Learning, web support, and product extensions, by simply clicking on the Help Menu. Need help, subscription customers can submit a web support request direct to an Autodesk support person.

Digitizer Problems with Latest Calcomp/GTCO Wintab driver 10.01

We have had some AutoCAD customer reports that the latest Wintab driver from GTCO Calcomp for digitizer/tablet is not allowing users to customize the tablet areas or buttons. This functionality did work in driver version 7.46.

Solution: Go back to using the version 7.46 driver or purchase an updated driver from www.vtablet.com

AUGI + BLOG = BLAUGI

I have to wonder if my blog promoting speeches to the AUGI board members had some effect or it was someone realizing the power of blogs. Whatever the reason I am excited to see the largest Autodesk user group "AUGI" with over 50,000 members blogging.

http://www.blaugi.com/

Welcome to blogging AUGI!
-Shaan

Did you miss today's AutoCAD 2006 Dynamic Blocks webcast?

Wow, over 350 attended the Dynamic Blocks presentation by Heidi Hewett today. It was a good session filled with information as well as Autodesk team members answering attendees questions during the presentation.

For those that were unable to attend it will be posted for everyone in the next few days at www.autodesk.com/autocad2006seeit.

Make sure to attend the AutoCAD Tables webcast this upcoming Thursday October 13th, 2005.

Working with Tables in AutoCAD 2006
Thursday, October 13, 2005 | 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT)
Learn how to create and edit AutoCAD tables from block attribute data, Excel spreadsheets, or from scratch, and discover the ease of performing common calculations in table cells or copying cell data between AutoCAD tables.

Read more about the upcoming web casts and how to login.
www.autodesk.com/AutoCAD2006SeeIt

Creating Dynamic Blocks in AutoCAD 2006 Webcast starting in 10 minutes

I mentioned recently in this blog the free webcasts for AutoCAD 2006. The Dynamic Blocks presentation with great tips and demonstrations live is starting in a few minutes. There will also be a AutoCAD 2006 Tables webcast on Thursday October 13th.

Creating Dynamic Blocks in AutoCAD 2006
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 | 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT)
Get the scoop on this powerful new Dynamic Block functionality! See how you can reduce the size of your block libraries, edit block instances with minimal effort, and help ensure standards compliance.

Working with Tables in AutoCAD 2006
Thursday, October 13, 2005 | 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT)
Learn how to create and edit AutoCAD tables from block attribute data, Excel spreadsheets, or from scratch, and discover the ease of performing common calculations in table cells or copying cell data between AutoCAD tables.

Read more about the upcoming web casts and how to login.
www.autodesk.com/AutoCAD2006SeeIt

Recent Customer Error Report "CER" Changes

On Monday October 3rd 2005 Autodesk launched a change with the shipping AutoCAD 2004, 2005 and 2006 Customer Error Reporting "CER". The CER dialog is displayed after you experience an unscheduled exit of the Autodesk application "crash" for many possible reasons. It does not contain personal information unless you enter it yourself and then it sends technical details of the crash event back to Autodesk where it can be analysed and researched. The change made was that we started alerting customers in the CER that they are using a product that has not been updated to the latest Service Pack level. It happens all to frequently that someone encounters a problems and contacts us about a problem when the issue was fixed in an already existing service pack. Most other applications send the crash reports to Microsoft. All Autodesk products have the CER built in to get the data sent to us so we can research and solve the issues in the Service Packs and next releases of the product. For example the recently released AutoCAD 2006 SP1 addressed many CER reported issues. Please be sure to send in the report and add your contact information and any known steps when you see the CER dialog. It is a perfect way to report a problem direct to Autodesk and get it researched by the actual product development teams.

More posts about the CER:
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2004/07/cer_reports_ple.html
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2003/11/your_customer_e.html

Cheers,
Shaan

Looking for an action packed job with Autodesk?

If you have experience with Autodesk products,  are a self starter, and like a fast paced exciting environment to work in, have I got a job opportunity for you. I have a position opening on my team for a Beta Coordinator. You get to work with every product and team in the company as well as work with the most amazing and creative customers from around the world. For more specifics please refer to the below listed Autodesk employment opportunity link. You also get pizza and beer "Beer Bust" on the first Friday of the month. :-)

Link

Autodesk Acquires Alias!

Just some breaking Autodesk news...

"Autodesk today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Alias, a privately held developer of 3D graphics technology, for $182 million in cash.  This acquisition will grow Autodesk’s expertise and offerings in the film and video, interactive games, media, Web, consumer products, industrial design, automotive, architecture and visualization markets. Autodesk anticipates that the transaction will close within the next four to six months"

www.autodesk.com/autodeskandalias

Press Release: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/Autodesk_Alias_Press_Release.pdf

Fact Sheet: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/Autodesk_Alias_Fact_Sheet.pdf

General FAQ: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/Autodesk_Alias_External_FAQ.pdf

AutoCAD Wish List by AUGI Top Ten Results for August 2005

The AUGI Wish list for AutoCAD is now three times a year adding up to a top 30 wish list items for the year. This change from a top 10 for the year to top 30 was described in a previous blog posting LINK. The recent voting in August 2005 has produced the first top ten for 2005 and the nominations for the next voting cycle has now started.

The August 2005 top ten AutoCAD wishlist items after AUGI member voting:

1.	Multiple Leaders - The ability to have multiple segments from one leader.  For example when you have more than one item being called out by a single note.
2.	Translucent / Transparent Layers - I think it would be nice to able to have a layer that contains a solid hatch over an image, and see through the hatch. Basically highlighting an area of an image. This would be great for presentation work.
3.	Spell Check Improvement - The ability to zoom to the misspelled window in your drawing from spell check.  This would help if the entire word is not shown, or not shown in context.
4.	3D Dynamic Blocks - Dynamic blocks with 3D Functionality
5.	Dynamic Linetype - A dynamic linetype with the ability to modify text that will be placed at reoccurring intervals.
6.	Better Tables - I want to be able to design a table, fonts, colors, number of columns, etc... and save it as a style.
7.	Manipulating Layouts - Ability to change the layout order simply dragging then and copying using drag + CRTL or SHIFT buttons, and rename then simply double-clicking their names, just like we do with ms excel sheets.
8.	Paragraph spacing in MTEXT - I would like to see more text formatting features in general (tab styles & alignments, etc.), but I would also like to set the "paragraph" line spacing (ex. to 1.5). Right now, it can only be set for all the lines.
9.	Easier way to add sheets to a sheet set - The ability to right click on a layout tab and add it to the current sheet set.
10.	Better dual monitor support. For more details on the results and items that did not make top 10 and their results see Brenda Richardson's AutoCAD Product Community wish list page. The nominations for the next voting cycle is now opened so get in there and submit your AutoCAD  wish list item.

We on the AutoCAD team are reading and researching these items. You could see them in a future release of AutoCAD due to their popularity after all AutoCAD requirements are driven by the customers. The AUGI wish list is a large part of this customer feedback as is the http://MyFeedback.autodesk.com for Autodesk beta and feedback projects.

Get involved in nominating your AutoCAD Wish List items and then voting. There are many benefits to AUGI membership such a networking with 55,000+ fellow Autodesk product users, nice and informative magazine, some training, and the membership is free so what do you have to lose.

Cheers,
Shaan