Between the Lines

A New Autodesk Blog - Plan-It Autodesk

Please welcome Gene Roe to the Autodesk blogosphere….

Plan-It Autodesk
http://plan-it-autodesk.typepad.com
A blog for and about "Project Planners"

 

AIPOD – Autodesk Inventor PodCast has been released.

www.jefersonstutz.com

My coworker Jeferson Stutz  from our São Paulo Brazil office has now jumped head first into Podcasting. The Autodesk Inventor Podcast will feature weekly news about the manufacturing market including AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical, Mechanical Desktop, AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Inventor Professional, Functional Design, Vault, ProductStream and Streamline.  This is the first CAD related Podcast in Latin America. CAD, technology, music and everything else between.

This AIPOD Podcast is available only in Portuguese (beautiful language). Perhaps later Jeferson will create a multi language download option. Jeferson is one sharp and energetic person and I cant wait to get back to Brazil to visit the Autodesk São Paulo office and perhaps go fishing with Jeferson.

Podcasting's essence is about creating audio content for an audience that wants to listen when they want, where they want, and how they want.

Beneath The Lines: What if I'm not on 2007?

Check out this post from Jason Hickey as he is spreading the word about the free stand alone and trusted  DWG TrueConvert tool which handles R14 to 2007 and back DWG™ file conversions.

“I quite often hear grousing from customers (and non-customers) regarding the file format change in 2007. They all say that Autodesk is forcing them to upgrade by throwing in this file format change, and to that I say "Hogwash" (hey, there's a southern term for you!)

So, what if you're stuck on R14 and your consultant is on the bleeding edge of technology? Ask the consultant to save the file down (and get grousing from that consultant, and embarrass yourself in the process?) Not anymore! I'd look into a program called DWG TrueConvert. You can download it FOR FREE (I know my customers love that word...) from Autodesk.”

For more of this post please see (Beneath The Lines: What if I'm not on 2007? )

AutoCAD 2007 Webcast Recordings Available

Best Practices for Rendering and Visualization with Heidi Hewitt
Watch the recorded webcast

Best Practices for Conceptual Design with Heidi Hewett
Watch the recorded webcast

Lynn Allen’s Tips & Tricks for Success
Watch the recorded webcast

 

(via Autodesk - AutoCAD - Webcasts)

How do you work with drawings?

Please take a moment for a short survey by Grant Rochelle on his Under the Hood Blog.

“Today I want to ask for your help. We're conducting research to help with future product direction and I am really interested to get your feedback on how you work with drawings today. I've designed a very short, 5 question survey to help me understand how 2D fits into your design process. The survey is completely anonymous and I promise faithfully that you will not get harassed by any kind of sales and marketing follow-up.

If you've got literally 1 minute to spare today, please click on the link below and complete the 5 questions”

Working With Drawings Survey

(via Under The Hood, http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/blog/grant/2006/05/how_do_you_work_with_drawings.php)

AutoCAD Comm Center - May 2006 Survey "You’re the AutoCAD Product Manager!”

AutoCAD Comm Center - May 2006 Survey

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/ADSKSurvey/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=4M0795L269630

Yes, Fish Surf in Western Australia

This image above is from my New Zealand and Australia photo gallery and shows a fish surfing. I took this photo today on Rottnest Island located West of Perth Australia in the Indian Ocean. I had a great time snorkeling and trekking around by myself. I was not aware until later I was completely surrounding by venom with the dugite snakes, stonefish, box jellies, red back and white tailed spiders, and deadly harpooning cone snails.

More images from Rottnest which was named that after the native quokkas were mistaken for rats so the island was rats nest.

I had an absolute great time with Steve Johnson yesterday running all over his part of Western Australia from North of Perth and the Aquarium of Western Australia down to Safety Bay South of Fremantle (Freo) and points in  between.. Thank you Steve. For those not aware Steve has been the author of the AutoCAD Bug Watch Column in Cadalyst Magazine for many years.

I am taking it easy tomorrow and perhaps just walking over to Kings Park. Tuesday I will be back in New Zealand for a day due to a flight lay over and then another long flight back home all totaled it will be about 21 hours on a plane in one day. What is odd is since I travel back over the international date line, I will be effectively extending (or time shifting) May 23rd beyond 24 hours.

Cheers,
Shaan

Speed Up 3D Shaded Models in AutoCAD 2007

Two possible performance increasing options:

1) Materials and Textures are on by default unlike AutoCAD 2006 which can greatly impact performance but also produce a higher quality view in 2007 features. You can turn these off at the Dashboard or go to the Performance Tuner 3DCONFIG. This method disables all Materials and Textures all the time.

2) (recommended Solution) To get the performance boost while still having Materials and Textures use the Dashboard option Performance Tuner or  3DCONFIG then move the degradation order for Materials and Textures to the top.

Cheers,
Shaan from Perth Australia this week

AutoCAD 2007 Webcast: Best Practices for Rendering and Visualization

Subject: Best Practices for Rendering and Visualization
Date: Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Time: 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT)
Duration: 1 hour

Heidi Hewett will show you how AutoCAD 2007 and the new Mental Ray rendering engine can produce some very high quality visualization output.

(http://www.adskhost.net/35248/index.php)

In Australia Now After a Stormy Departure from New Zealand

On this Monday, I departed the beautiful but isolated town of Queenstown New Zealand located on the South Island in the Southern Alps made famous by the Lord of the Rings movie. On the day of my departure a huge Antarctic storm blew in with very cold air, high winds, and snow. All flights were canceled and hundreds of stranded passengers opted for a 9 hour bus ride to Christchurch to possibly get a flight out. Even major motorway over a mountain pass was closed due to snow. I rolled the dice and held out hope a smaller propeller plane could make it in and get out. Well one small plane did make it and I got out although it was a very rough and white knuckle flight.

Yesterday I traveled from Sydney in the rain to the Blue Mountains. What a beautiful place even in the rain. Did I mention bad weather and weird things follow me when traveling? I had the great fortune to 4WD into the back areas of the Blue Mountains and see wild kangaroos, wallabies, cockatoos, and more. I also visited the Featherdale Wildlife park where I was for some reason beat up by a teenager gray kangaroo. I am not sure what sparked it but he would not let me leave the compound gate. He would rear back on his tail and kick me with his two large feet. Of course I was videotaping during the attack and will possibly post the video segment later when I get back home next week.

Well tomorrow I head for Perth to harass Steve Johnson, not really to harass but I just wanted to meet Steve after many years of email conversations. He dared me to come to Perth so I took up the challenge.

My New Zealand and Australia Trip Photo Gallery is being updated all the time.

New Zealand & Australia 2006

Vespa Beta 1 was released last week! The answer to which image was created by Vespa. It was the left one that was created in an early alpha version of Vespa and the right image was hand drawn. Most who guessed got it wrong which is a good sign for the suitability of the output even at the very early stages of the products development.

Design Masters Quiz event in Auckland New Zealand

I attended the Design Masters Quiz event tonight at the Aotea Center in Auckland New Zealand. It was a great event with a couple hundred in attendance. Several Autodesk products were demonstrated then random teams of attendees at tables answer questions on the demo as fast as they could for prizes.

I started the day in Wellington, ended in Auckland and then tomorrow in Queenstown. New photos were posted to my New Zealand trip photo gallery but below are a few from the Design Masters Quiz and a photo of Mike Burke in front of a pedestrian bridge he worked on for the Wellington New Zealand waterfront.

Now back to my regular scheduled working vacation and to get 4 hours of sleep. :-)

At Huka Falls New Zealand

It is 11:30 Sunday morning in New Zealand. I will be back in Auckland tonight after trekking all over and staking at lake Taupo last night. What a beautiful place. I will be posting some photos tonight.

I bet I am first to blog live from a Blackberry device while on the overlook at the brilliantly blue Huka Falls on New Zealand's North Island...

Cheers!

<update> I posted some new images to the New Zealand and Australia Gallery after my 800km trip this weekend with Robin Capper.

I spotted Robin Capper's post about the weekend and showing me as a major geek. ;-)
This is not your typical tourist

BTW: Lynn Allen decided to use me as her Cinco de Mayo poster child.

Off to Wellington tomorrow!

I am Now in New Zealand

I am headed today Saturday (a calendar day ahead of the US) to Lake Taupo and a few other locations with friend, blogger http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/, and Autodesk customer Robin Capper. I have posted a few photos from Auckland and Devonport to the New Zealand gallery but will post many more and some details on the trip Sunday as there has been quite a bunch happening on my trip as well as Autodesk. I will be back in Auckland Sunday and then Wellington on Monday and Tuesday and back Tuesday afternoon for the Design Masters Challenge in Auckland.

New Zealand & Australia 2006

Vespa Beta 1 is now available for those that are signed up. New Autodesk Product Beta Coming Soon, Codenamed Vespa »

Headed to NZ and AUS

I have now begun my 16 hour flight to Auckland New Zealand. I am quite sure I will have plenty reading, writing, laptop work and of couse eating while enroute. I will be down under until May 23rd visiting Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, Sydney, and Perth. This is a working vacation. Well I better turn off the Blackberry for awhile.

Cheers, Shaan

Tsunami Warning Issued for New Zealand

Oh great... I am leaving for New Zealand today and a possible tsunami in New Zealand. I do hope the tsunami pans out to be a dud and no damage or injuries anywhere. They are also warning for Hawaii, Tonga, and Fiji.

(via Tsunami Warning Issued for New Zealand - Yahoo! News, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060503/ap_on_re_au_an/tonga_earthquake_2)

SkyHigh Airlines, What?

I got a real laugh out of a satirical airline web site when I was searching for flight status for a flight I am taking to New Zealand and Australia.

I spotted this funny web site from the USA Today blog Today in the Sky By Ben Mutzabaugh in an article “SkyHigh Air follows through on promise of mediocre service”. The Today in the Sky blog is a great resource for airline industry info. The link to the web site is below and was created by ad agency company Wong Doody (yes that is their real name). I especially liked the Poulet-Ulator 1000 used in the Free-Range airfares using a chicken randomly pecking out a price or the 4 star vacation packages.

SkyHigh Airlines

Breathe Easy Ride by the American Lung Association

I wanted to pass along this quote and link from an email to me from Shawn Gilmour of Autodesk. Although Shawn did not ask for me to blog this, I felt it was a great cause.

“We are off to a good start for this year’s Breathe Easy Ride donation collection for the American Lung association.  We still have 1 month before the ride byTeam Autodesk.”

You can help by clicking here to make a donation.

Back at 0,0,0 (origin aka home) after Hawaii R&R

I spent much of last week on the beautiful main island of Hawaii on the Kahala cost North of Kona. I had the same feelings as many who visit Hawaii and that was consider looking for a job there and never leave but I came back and still work for Autodesk. ;-)

Some highlights:

* I got to ride a commercial self powered submarine similar to one I built (DS-48 Voyager II). Almost ten years back I performed the ASME external pressure design, NDT, and certification prior to coming to Autodesk of which I used Autodesk software in the design and fabrication drawings of the sub. The crew and company of  the vessel Atlantis in Kona Atlantis Adventures were awesome people and I would recommend a ride if you are in Kailua Kona or any other location they have submarines commercially operating.

* Got to snorkel with some tropical reef fish and green sea turtles. This was a blast even though while on one adventure I got caught in a rip current and had to cross a small bay and beach myself on some lava rocks causing a few cuts and urchin jabs.

* Visited a Kava bar and chilled out.

* Had a great 398 miles of driving around the island including a visit to Waipio and Hilo as well as the sunny Kona region. I prefer to not follow the crowds and make my own tourist plans and locations preferably off the beaten path and more of the real local flavor and people of places I visit.

* Got to take some photos with my Canon Rebel XT of nice sceneries, beaches, and flora.

* Found a locals only hidden beach location that was awesome and some locals were fishing and catching odd fish. I even was the person unhooking and releasing some of the fish including one that the locals said was poisonous but I being a former hard core salt water aquarist thought otherwise and survived.

* Got to test a rental cars limits and how it would do on non-paved rough lava roads. :-)

Check out my photos from the trip. I will be annotating them later tonight.

Hawaii 2006

This Wednesday,  May 3rd 2006 I leave for New Zealand and Australia for both work and play. Yes I feel like I am living on planes but meeting people all over the world and experiencing things off the beaten path is something I would not trade anything for.

Cheers,
Shaan

Scott Sheppard maintains the Beyond the Paper DWF blog

Scott has made his blog accessible through a variety of ways. It is now easier than ever to get information about DWF.

He has gone blog post syndication crazy.

Check it out

Autodesk 3ds Max 8 SP3 includes AutoCAD and Autodesk 2007 Product Support

Autodesk 3ds Max 8 SP3 includes all previous updates such as SP2 and critical fixes.

SP3 includes updates to compatibility and interoperability with the Autodesk® 2007 product releases including AutoCAD® 2007, Autodesk® Revit® Building, Autodesk® Revit® Structure, Autodesk® Inventor®, Autodesk® Architectural Desktop, Autodesk® Civil 3D®, and Autodesk® Vault 5 software products.

This 3ds Max 8 Service Pack can be applied to 3ds Max 8 English only. The install program will not install over a previous version. (Example: 3ds Max 7 or 3ds Max 7.5).

New Zealand - The Salesoft Autodesk "Building Ideas Roadshow” and My Travel Down Under

This would have been a fun ride with Salesoft! Maybe a reality show on a RV and showing cool Autodesk products. In any case I am excited to be in New Zealand later this week although I won't be on the bus but instead living on a plane for the most part.

My schedule May 3rd through the 23rd

•  Auckland NZ May Arrive and stay 4th-8th
•  Wellington NZ May Arrive and stay 8th-9th
•  Auckland NZ May Arrive and stay 9th Will be at the Design Masters Quiz
•  Queenstown NZ May 10th-14th
•  Sydney AUS May 14th-17th
•  Perth AUS May 17th-23th
•  Auckland NZ May 23th 5:30AM to 9:54PM then back to the states.

Want to meet me and chat while I am down there or perhaps a visit to your company?
Shaan's Down Under Trip Survey

-Shaan (adopted by Kiwis)

RobiNZ CAD Blog: Building Information Modelling takes off around New Zealand - The Salesoft Autodesk "Building Ideas Roadshow”.

Wellington has seen a 3,500 tonne building on a train but taking a Building Ideas Show on the road is an unusual solution for a problem posed by New Zealand’s geography and population distribution.
Faced with the challenge of presenting BIM Concepts and demonstrating the latest Autodesk AEC Applications throughout the land the team at Salesoft CAD Solutions have found a novel solution; take the Building Ideas Show on the road!

Date Town  Location
May 1 – Monday Hamilton Civic Plaza, Site E
May 2 – Tuesday Palmerston North Railway Reserve
May 3 – Wednesday Wellington Civic Square
May 4 – Thursday NelsonTrafalgar Centre
May 5 – Friday Christchurch Cathedral Square
May 6 – Saturday Christchurch Cathedral Square
May 7 – Sunday--
May 8 – Monday Dunedin Lower Octagon
May 9 – Tuesday Invercargill Don Street Car-park
May 10 – Wednesday Queenstown Copthorne Hotel

How can you find out more?
Watch for updates at: www.salesoft.co.nz