Between the Lines

cadforum.cz Adds More!

I received an email announcement from my Czech CAD friend Vladimir Michl about the more free offerings on his excellent website that has literally thousands of Autodesk product tips and tricks many unique to his Autodesk product cleverness at finding new ways to do something or get around something.  Now he has publicly shared blocks for AutoCAD, Inventor, and Revit as well as discussion forums. Vladimir is also the brains behind the famous Budweiser benchmark drawing which shows just how compatible a software is at reading DWG content and perhaps that needs to be updated with more new AutoCAD objects soon.

Here is to another 10 years and more for Vladimir and his team and their excellent contributions to the CAD world!

Now there is just one important tip missing on cadforum.cz and that is how a motivated person can get involved and active in helping shape the future of Autodesk products by working with the actual teams during betas and feedback projects at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com

Cheers,
Shaan

CAD Forum (www.cadforum.cz) Available in English, German, and Czech.

Over the last 10 years, the CADforum.cz web site has grown up from a small local Czech CAD support site to an international CAD portal visited daily by thousands of professionals from all over the world. This web site is available in Czech, English and German.

CAD Forum offers lots of free web services but the main feature is the large database of thousands of tips and tricks for AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, Civil 3D and other CAD applications by Autodesk. This CAD tips database has already answered more than 10 million queries posted by its visitors. The Czech version of CAD Forum now contains over 4,000 searchable tips and tricks (1,370 tips in English) - and new tips are added almost daily.

Two new services were now added to the CAD Forum portal - an extensive library of CAD blocks and a discussion forum.

The "CAD blocks catalog" section contains over 1,300 categorized 2D and 3D blocks and symbols in DWG (AutoCAD), RFA (Revit family) and IPT (Inventor part) formats. Blocks can be dragged directly from the web to the running CAD application with the help of the i-Drop technology. Users can easily upload their own useful blocks and help to grow this library of publicly shared CAD blocks.

The new "CAD Discussion" section builds on the popularity of the Czech-version discussion forum with more than 40,000 posts. Questions not fully answered by the Tips and Tricks database can be discussed here.

"It is the 'free' nature of the services which contributes most to the popularity of our web site. In the published tips we are trying to solve the most burning issues we recognize from our CAD customers and help them to use their CAD software efficiently" says Vladimir Michl, editor of CAD Forum.

Among other features offered by CAD Forum there is also a Download section with hundreds of CAD utilities and update patches, CAD glossary, online unit converter, CAD programming samples, CAD web links, content syndication and a project hosting service.

The CADforum.cz web site is operated by the top Czech Autodesk Value Added Reseller and Developer - XANADU a.s. (www.xanadu.cz)

Autodesk University 2007 Draft Class List

Check out the details from Joseph on the draft list of classes and the PowerTracks for Autodesk University 2007. It wont be long and the best design software event will be here with thousands descending upon Vegas in November 2007.

• AU 2007 Preliminary Schedule
  
• AU 2007 PowerTrack

The Venetian Hotel and Casino is currently expanding to meet the demand as we over ran the hotel last year.  I like to think the only reason for the $100 million project addition of another 4000 rooms and more than 150,000 square feet of new meeting and convention space was due to AU and my Blue Man group performance. ;-)

 

 

 

 

Autodesk University 2006 Photo Archive on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/sets/72157600091994787/ I still need to annotate the photos since moving them from typepad to Flickr.

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk Impression Makes Another Great Impression

I have been involved with the team that developed Autodesk Impression and have had a ton of fun with the product and love hearing from the customers about how much easier and fun it makes their work. So now Cadalyst's Ron LaFon has wrote a detailed review of Autodesk Impression and looks like he too has become a fan of the product. I also read recently of a review for Photoshop that actually at one point recommended using Autodesk Impression for  architectural renderings after all isn't Photoshop for photos.

Turn your 2D DWG and DWF files into attractive renderings

A few highlights from the review:

"Autodesk Impression is both easy to use and understand. It offers the ability to save files in popular graphics formats and print your images easily"

Autodesk Impression is moving at light speed and has a private group of customers discussing with the team on the future releases and you too can register for this at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com. For those already with a  MyFeedback account just make sure you have selected Autodesk Impression in your profile as well as yes to beta or feedback projects.

Personally my opinion on Impressions benefit is the fact that unlike some other products trying to accomplish a rendering in a design process  as a out of the loop extra disconnected process, Impression fits into the design process by accommodating the files DWG and DWF and  changes without having to redo the entire file. For example if the design changes (they always do) you can simply update the Impression file by reading the latest DWG file or applying the saved style, but if you did this in another product you would have to go through the exporting a new postscript file and setting up all the rendering or if using manual methods like markers you have to plot a new file and start over from scratch making. What is a few minute process in Autodesk Impression can be a few hours or days in other product or process to get the same output and time is money.

Here are some real examples of Autodesk Impression by customer Ged Trias who has mastered the product and been very active in helping guide Autodesk in the future of the product by providing feedback.

Another Autodesk Impression customer making great use of Impression is Lisa Town.

And an excellent example from Howard Munsell.

Check out the Autodesk Impression Online Community

Cheers and make a lasting Impression!
Shaan

Autodesk's Doug Look and the Multi-Touch Wall Prototype

Autodesk Labs member Doug Look shows the state of the art prototype of the Multi-Touch Wall. The video is now posted on YouTube. It is a nice video except the old Autodesk music and no talking or explaining what is being done in the video. :-(

 So is this the future for working with some types of data?

AutoCAD Export Layout to Model Space Tool Preview Released for Download - AutoCAD レイアウト - モデル変換ツール(プレビュー版)

The alpha of the Export Layout to Model Space tool has now graduated from an alpha to a preview version in both English and Japanese.

The AutoCAD/LT 2008 Export Layout to Model Space preview tool provides the capability to take a snapshot of a drawing layout to create a ready-to-use model space drawing. With the capability to export layout objects to model space, customers who have limited their use of layouts in order to exchange drawings with other CAD systems will be able to fully realize the benefits of AutoCAD 2008 annotation scaling, layers per viewport, and other enhanced layout features.

Export a Layout (Paper Space)

To a Model Space DWG file.

Please read the posted readme file for installation instructions and additional information.

To provide feedback on this tool, please email us at export.layout.preview@autodesk.com.

Note: The Export Layout to Model Space preview tool will expire on September 23, 2009.

Download:

Update: This functionality is now built into AutoCAD and AutoCAD based products 2009 and newer.

このツールにより AutoCADのレイアウトをモデル 空間に転写した新規DWGファイルを作成できます。

AutoCAD レイアウト - モデル変換ツール(プレビュー版)を使えば、レイアウトに作成した図面のスナップ ショットを取り、モデル空間に転写した新規の DWG ファイルを作成することができます。レイアウトの機能を持たない他社の CAD にレイアウト図面のデータを効率的に渡すことができます。他社 CAD とのデータ交換の制限から、レイアウトを使用しなかったユーザも、この機能を使うことでレイアウトに関連する便利な機能や AutoCAD 2008 の注釈尺度、ビューポートごとの画層設定などの新機能を効果的に活用することができます。
AutoCAD レイアウト - モデル変換ツールの詳細は Readme ファイルをご覧ください。

Update: This functionality is now built into AutoCAD and AutoCAD based products 2008 and newer.

Jason Pratt's YouTube'd Tutorial on AutoCAD Layouts and Publish

New YouTube video: How to use Layouts and Publish in AutoCAD
2 parts.

Actually despite Jason's reservations his voice was not all that bad although you could tell he was in a empty office. I liked that he did not have a mono toned boring tutorial voice and it did not at all seem canned or over prepared  as it was a freestyle demo for fun and benefit of others.

The only content remark I would mention is that I noticed is Jason did not show you can hide (default) the Layout tabs and now with AutoCAD 2008 even reorder them and rename them as you would a Excel spreadsheet tab (wicked cool).

Keep those tutorials coming Jason and others feel free to join in and share a tutorial with others. I did post on YouTube the When Stupid Tourists Attack" Kangaroo video with that awful background music sung by Scott Sheppard of the blog http://labs.blogs.com/.

Cheers,
Shaan

Your Wish is Our COMMAND - AUGI Top Ten June 2007 Voting Results

Thanks to the hard work of Brenda Richardson as the AUGI AutoCAD Wish List Manager and all the other volunteers helping and those that submitted nominations as well as voted we have a June 2007 AUIGI AutoCAD Wish List Final Top Ten.

A few comments are some of the the items are partially already there but perhaps not to the level of the nominator such as multi-processor (multi-threaded) support as some of AutoCAD's features already take advantage of them and there are work-arounds for Fading Xref layers by locking them with the command LAYISO and LAYLOCKFADECTL system variable in AutoCAD 2008. We on the AutoCAD Team will be reviewing these items and seeing what we can accomplish and also provide an update at Autodesk University when AUGI officially presents the Wish List typically to the Autodesk Vice President of the division.

Announcement Link www.augi.com/wishlists/autocad

Checkout the AUGI website and remember membership is free and join tens of thousands of fellow Autodesk product users from around the world for free training, product communities, and discussions in multiple languages. Also check out the AUGI Blog BLAUGI.

< drum roll > Here is the Top Ten.

1	Insert PDF Files The ability to insert a PDF file in a drawings, similar to inserting a TIFF or JPG file. Submitted By:  Steve Goodmansen
2	Support for Multiple Processors AutoCAD to support multiple processors/multiple core processors. Submitted By:  Dana Bicknell
3	Stretch / Extend Hatch Objects  The ability to stretch/extend non associative hatch objects.  Submitted By:  Chris Cortes
4	Clipboard for AutoCAD The ability to have multiple cut and pastes when editing a drawing.  Submitted By:  Joe Poston
5	Rotating a Viewport Rotates the View in the Viewport  The ability to rotate a rectangular viewport and have the view of the objects rotate with the viewport. Submitted By:  Bill N
6	Fade intensity of XREFS Ability to fade the intensity of XREFS. Submitted By:  Mike Spelts
7	Update Shared Tool Palettes Improvements to shared tool palettes to make it easier to have company standards on tool palettes. Submitted By:  Steven Hill
8	Close a Polyline via the Fillet Command The ability to close a polyline by using the fillet command. Submitted By:  Jeremy Noftle
9	Layer Property to Contain Draw Order The ability to set draw order precedence via a layer property. Submitted By:  Phil Tingley
10	Easier Table Editing General improvements to table editing. Submitted By:  Stephen Collier

< / drum roll >

AutoCAD Wish List

• Submit a Wish
• View Current Wish List
• Wish List Forums
• How it Works
• Wish List Feedback
• Wish List Manager

Past Wish List Voting Results

• August 2005 Voting Results
• February 2006 Voting Results
• June 2006 Voting Results
• October 2006 Voting Results
• February 2007 Voting Results
• June 2007 Voting Results

The links to the main wish lists:

• AutoCAD www.augi.com/wishlists/autocad
• Inventor www.augi.com/wishlists/inventor

Active Product Communities

• AutoCAD
• AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) / AutoCAD MEP (AMEP)
• Autodesk Revit

 

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Service Pack 1 Beta

We have now released for testing the AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Service Pack 1. This Service Pack was created as a direct result of detailed information from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility or who reported issues to Autodesk support or MyFeedback. Please continue to provide feedback and send the CER reports.

If you would like to test this Service Pack sign up at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com and in the Sign Up form select AutoCAD yes to beta and feedback projects and of course use your real name and email to participate. If you are already a member of MyFeedback there is no need to re-register just make sure your profile is up to date.

If you would prefer to not beta test this Service Pack you can wait until the final release is announced in the future.

Service Pack 1 Beta 1 is for the following Autodesk products running on all supported operating systems and languages.

32-bit Product Service Pack

• AutoCAD 2008
• AutoCAD LT 2008
• AutoCAD Revit^® Architecture Suite 2008 ¹
• AutoCAD Revit^® Structure Suite 2008 ¹

64-bit Product Service Pack

• AutoCAD 2008
• AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite 2008 ¹
• AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite 2008 ¹

¹ Apply the patch only if the installation contains AutoCAD 2008

Steel Beach bash?

Shawn Hendriks aka 3D Roadie posted that Autodesk Media and Entertainment is holding a User Group after party event while at Siggraph 2007 this year. Access to the cool party is by invitation only and can be acquired by details from Steel Beach. I grabbed an invite as I might just attend the event to talk with beta customers and also see Shawn "herding cats".

Link to get invitation

Monday August 6th
Autodesk User Group Meeting San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina
Marriott Hall 1-6
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM Registration
6:30 PM – 8:45 PM User Group Meeting
Sponsored by: Dell, Nvidia and Intel

Autodesk After Party!
9:00 PM - 1:00 am
STEEL BEACH
USS Midway San Diego Navy Pier 910 North Harbor Drive

 

 

• By invitation only – Must be 21 with identification.
• You must attend the Autodesk User Group to receive your ticket to the after party.
• Party co-sponsored by: CafeFX, The Syndicate, and cebas

Woohoo!

-Shaan

Nice Geek Tips

From the How to Geek

Add Copy To / Move To on Windows Vista Right-Click Menu
Nice option to have in the right-click menu in Windows Vista.

 

From Lifehacker

Create a custom logon message in Vista

Nice tip so you can for instance enter a message to display when booting on who the computer belongs to in case of loss or theft or perhaps a evil warning to display when computer is booting.

More Autodesk History Courtesy of Autodesk Founder John Walker

Autodesk founder John Walker has been busy digging through old slides and photos and scanning them to preserve the history of Autodesk and AutoCAD. It is always a delight to see what he has scanned and posted recently on his website www.fourmilab.ch in the Autodesk File "Autofile".

• Autodesk, Inc. IPO Road Show Slides: 1985  aka "road show" "dog and pony show"
  
  
  

• Underwater Archaeology with AutoCAD The Wreck of HMS Pandora 1984 Expedition
  
  

This is the 25th Anniversary of Autodesk in 2007.

Thank you John!

Shaan Simpson'ized

I have to post a Simpson'ized image of myself at http://www.simpsonsmovie.com to correct the scary image posted by a fellow blogger of me. Scott will surely pay for his attempt at humor.

Jing Project

Jing is a screen capture utility released for feedback by my friends at TechSmith who develop Camtasia and SnagIt. Robin Capper wrote a nice over view of Jing Share a screen capture in a Jing . Jing is available for both Mac and PC platforms.

The Autodesk University Blog

Joseph (Mr. AU) Wurcher has a new Autodesk University focused blog location.
Link

Did you know there are only 130 days (187,200 minutes) until AU 2007?

15th Annual Autodesk University
November 27-30, 2007
The Venetian Resort Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.A.

Registration for AU 2007 should start in the near future.

Back from the Hot Desert Hike

I have some posts I will be making over the next few days. It was an amazing yet scary week in the high desert and I will detail more very soon. I did make it to the world famous natural sandstone wave on the Utah Arizona border although it was 114 degrees with no shade or water available and miles of rock climbing and boiling sand.

I took some photos of Zion National Park yesterday on the long drive home as it was smoky due to a bad wildfire burning. The highlight of the day was the wild buffalo to the East of the park and the cow that has been adopted by the buffalo as one of their own.

I am posting images to my Flickr account and many more over the weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/

            

 

Have a great weekend! I will be catching up on my email, work, blog posts, photos, Autodesk history project, and getting some well deserved sleep. ;-)

Shaan

Mixed Bag: A few days off and other items.

• I am taking a few days off this week for another Southwest desert photo trek and refresh the mind and expel the accumulation of stress. I plan on heading in a few hours down to the Arizona Utah border area to hike into the Coyote Buttes region which I luckily just got a permit for as they only allow 20 people a day into this protected region to protect it. I hope to photograph the Paria Canyon, the Paw, the Wave, Cobra Arch, Buckskin slot canyons and more in all their brilliant red and remote glory. I also plan to hike into Zion National Park and the Grand Staircase of Escalante. If I have time and the remaining energy I want to hike to the Angels Landing which can be quite a stamina and endurance test.  Along the way I have my survival gear and even a black light to locate some scorpions to photograph at night as they glow brightly at night when using a black light. I also plan to photograph some of the local pit viper species if possible and when only safe enough like the Western Pigmy, Desert Massasauga, Great Basin, as well as perhaps the deadly Mojave. My only concerns are the remote regions combined with the heat well in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the potential danger of thunderstorms when in a slot canyon. I will take all possible safety precautions as it would be stupid to be unprepared or take any unnecessary risks.
• I did have a cool brush with fame moment this weekend. I was eating dinner with my wife and realized we were sitting next to Dee Brown of the Utah Jazz. We left him alone to eat without bothering him but one person did have the nerve to interrupt his dinner for a photo.
• I have abandoned my favorite RSS reader FeedDemon for another, the Google RSS Reader. Is it just me or is Google taking over the world?
• Have an AutoCAD or Autodesk product tip to share or perhaps other tips? I have over 15,000 daily readers and would like to find some co authors on the blog to increase the tips and tricks.
• I just received the luggage that I thought I would never see again after it failed to show up on my arrival in Switzerland a few weeks ago. It was shipped to em by Federal express but I am not sure who to thank for the miracle just yet. Having given up any hope after several weeks of it missing I virtually replaced everything that was in the luggage already.

• I just heard about the quakes in Japan. I do hope all my friends, coworkers and their families are ok there.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2008 New Features Guide Feedback Request

The AutoCAD Team would like to get your feedback on the AutoCAD 2008 New Features Guide documentation. This is a simple simple online survey that can take less than one minute but will help us make decisions based on your feedback regarding the New Features Guide that was included in the AutoCAD 2008 box and as a PDF on the DVD located at \Docs\acad_nfg.pdf.

AutoCAD 2008 New Features Guide Online Survey

The New Features Guide introduces you to what's new in AutoCAD 2008 and if you have not taken a look, please take a moment and check it out as there is some very helpful information and exercises contained in it.

For those that have not tried AutoCAD 2008, see AutoCAD 2008 Features in Action

Or you can download AutoCAD 2008 for free here: 30-Day AutoCAD 2008 Trial Download

Happy Friday the 13th,
Shaan

Autodesk Project Showroom- 3D Web Based Visualization is Live on Autodesk Labs

A new Autodesk Labs project named "Autodesk Project Showroom" has just gone live and is  3D web based design visualization with more possibilities in the future for this Autodesk technology project.

Autodesk Project Showroom Information Page: http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/showroom/

You can see Scott's announcement on this project at http://labs.autodesk.com/blogs/its_alive_in_the_lab/view/project-showroo/.

An example project http://showroom.dwfit.com Go ahead drag a few new items to this example project of a bathroom and see the results as well as change the view by orbiting or zooming.

 

It can also track costs of changes or other data based on the objects and changes. 

Looks like Freewheel is expanding the possibilities of design information on the web without the need to install software or use a specific single operating system. Imagine sending someone to configure a project by simply sending them an URL and not worrying about most compatibility issues  as this is about as easy as it can get just like viewing a 2D or 3D DWF in Freewheel.

Autodesk Project Showroom Feedback Email: Labs.Showroom@autodesk.com

Cheers,
Shaan

Português Autodesk Users Group International "AUGI" Forums

AUGI Portuguese Forums are a strong component of AUGI Portuguese Community. The AUGI Portuguese Forums now have several sub-forums:

Português - Cafezinho sem CAD Um local para conviver descontraidamente sem ter de falar sobre CAD.

Português - AutoCAD / AutoCAD LT Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre o AutoCAD e o AutoCAD LT.

Português - AutoCAD Architecture (anteriormente ADT) / AutoCAD MEP (anteriormente   ABS) Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre AutoCAD Architecture (anteriormente ADT) e AutoCAD MEP (anteriormente ABS).

Português - Civil 3D / LDT / Map 3D Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre Civil 3D, Land Desktop e Map 3D.

Português - MapGuide / MapGuide Enterprise/ Raster Design Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre MapGuide, MapGuide Enterprise e Raster Design.

Português - Electrical / Inventor / Mechanical Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical, Mechanical Desktop e AutoCAD Electrical.

Português - Revit Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre o Revit.

Português - Computação Gráfica Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre computação gráfica - 3ds Max, Maya, Viz, Impression e Renderização.

Português - Customização / Programação Para tirar dúvidas, trocar ideias, dicas... sobre customização / programação - AutoLISP, VBA, ARX, Dot Net API, etc.

Ads on Parking Lot Stripes? Am I the last to notice?

I thought something looked different about the parking lot when parking to drop off some packages this afternoon, but I was in a hurry and did not look closer. Upon return to my vehicle I looked closer and was shocked that the parking lot lines that were once yellow in this lot were now white and not only that they were now ads for Nationwide Car Insurance with the slogan "life comes at you fast". They appeared to be some sort of permanent sticker/decal placed over the original painted parking lot lines. Since the new decals do not exactly match the variances of the original striping, they appear a little sloppy to me personally. I would imagine the owner of the parking lot gets paid for this ad space otherwise it would be clearly vandalism with the suspect well identified.

What next, logos on tree trunks or flower leaves, bricks with logos, telephone wires draped with advertising flags, toilet seat lids, etc. ? I guess conceivably ads will be placed anywhere we look and can be somewhat practical.

A few bits and pieces

I have been so very busy with traveling and work projects that I have had very little time for much else. Here are a few things I have not mentioned over the past month.

• You can see my images from this last weekend’s photo trek of 860 miles in 26 hours and all are mapped as I use PhotoTrackr GPS  from GiSTEQ when shooting photos. Almost half of the trip was on rough dirt roads. http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/ . My truck ended up with a 5mm film of bug parts and juices and that was powdered with red dust.  I also was surrounded by large bush fires one being over 500 square miles and growing unfortunately but it did make for very colorful sunsets and sunrises. I am returning to the Southern Utah deserts for more photo trekking as there is so much to see and some of the most beautiful colors in the world. Sorry for the large carbon footprint.
        

 

• You can select much larger sizes (over 1600 x 1200) of my images on Flickr and some make great desktop background wallpapers.
      
  
• My luggage lost during a flight to Switzerland has yet to be found...
  
• Last month I sat on a long flight next to a senator for a European country and learned a great deal on many topics including the persons recent trip to a location in Cuba. It was definitely a great conversation and also educated me on the EU and challenges.
  
• Stories came from Switzerland. Michael Beall the AutoCAD Trainer Guy emailed me while I was in Switzerland and explained this interesting origin of the word "story" as it referrers commonly to the height of a building.
  "You'll see painted on the sides of the buildings throughout the country, specifically in Lucerne, elaborate storybook scenes.  The scenes are painted at each level of the building ... which is where we get the term 'story' to define how tall a building is."
  
• I am adding more Autodesk history images to my online photo sets such as ones sent to me from David Harrington and Patrick Emin If you have some old or cool images dealing with Autodesk or AutoCAD please email me. Remember it is the 25th year anniversary of Autodesk in 2007. Have Old Autodesk Photos, Trivia, Stories, Memorabilia, Get My iPod Nano!
    
  
• My team is working on the second generation of the Autodesk  MyFeedback website community and it is planned to launch August or September and will be awesome. We have some of the best web developers working hard on this project which will make the site much more easy to navigate, multi-language, and more features. We plan to provide the best community for product feedback, beta testing, usability, and other projects for customers around the world to shape the future of the Autodesk products they use. More updates in the near future on this update to the existing http://myfeedback.autodesk.com.
  
• Autodesk Trivia: Did you know that Autodesk had projects and working prototypes for an online auction system before eBay? 
  
• Autodesk Trivia: Did you know Autodesk had the first hypertext web browser even before Mosaic and one employee was credited with the term "hypertext"?
  
• Autodesk Trivia: Did you know that AutoCAD was the very first native 86 (C based) CAD application for the PC back in 1982/83?
  
• Autodesk Trivia: Did you know that contrary to some misstated rumors the first AutoCAD 86 code was not the code from another product? AutoCAD 86 was written in C language but Autodesk did have a very limited assembly language based product they purchased.
  
• Autodesk Trivia: Did you know that Autodesk was named for a real software product named Autodesk? Due to the sudden success of AutoCAD the Autodesk product was discontinued.
  

Team Autodesk West

Co-worker Grant Rochelle sent me an email message on a great cause to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I would love to join but will only be able to make a donation due to not being a road bike rider and definitely not at their level although seeing my old stomping grounds of Oregon again would be nice especially when helping a great cause. I bet my boss who is a riding junkie might be interested in joining.

Who’s Team Autodesk West?

Grant Rochelle	Garin Gardiner	Loren Jahraus
Eamon O’Gorman	Brian Roepke	Par Svensson
Ed Martin	Katherine Martin	Roopinder Tara
Brad Goettemoeller	Colmbine Quillen

What are we doing?

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is dedicated to ending the devastating effects of MS but they can't do it without our help. So, Team Autodesk West will be making its debut August 4th and 5th at the Oregon MS150 Bike Tour. Kitted out in custom Autodesk bike jerseys 11 of us will be hitting the highways west of Portland in support of Multiple Sclerosis.

How can you help? Use the link and:

1. JOIN THE TEAM!

2. MAKE A DONATION to your favorite rider or direct to Team Autodesk

Click here to view the team page for Autodesk
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?team_id=72381&pg=team&fr_id=2510&s_tafId=3571

AutoCAD 2008 Wins Bronze Readers Choice from Scientific Computing

AutoCAD 2008 earned the bronze award from Scientific Computing’s Reader’s Choice for the Engineering category announced for July 2007. A sincere thank you to the readers of Scientific Computing for selecting AutoCAD 2008.

Engineering Readers' Choice – Bronze Award: AutoCAD Autodesk, Inc.

7/7/07 Is Here, Time for a PhotoTrek

The lucky date is here and many are making a real buzz about it and perhaps tens of thousands of weddings or more. I hope wherever you are or what you are doing you have a good safe time.

Me, well I got me a slick new new Canon digital SLR EOS 30D camera body last night to celebrate another image of mine making a widely distributed magazine. I am taking a walkabout or driveabout down to Southern Utah to test out the new camera on some of the world famous brilliant and downright hot red rock canyon lands, slot canyons, and ancient indian petroglyphs and focusing on the San Rafael Swell region south of Green River. I might also stop by Capital reef, Island in the Sky, and Goblin Valley. I have my map, Trackberry aka Blackberry 8800, GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr GPS, cameras, a bottle of water and a tank of gas and am ready for all the dirt road traveling and hiking.

Cheers,
Shaan

Friday Whine - Lost Luggage and Rude Reboot

I have just a few things grinding on me this Friday and so a vent might do me some good as well as serve as a warning to others with lost luggage or about forced reboot concerns.

Has anyone seen my luggage?

I am still missing my lugged that disappeared during a trip to Switzerland 2 weeks ago. I have filed all the required forms and endured many hours on hold with the 3 airlines involved and still nothing. What makes this complex is that airlines have an agreement that the last airline in a flight are responsible for any lost luggage even if another airline lost it during the trip. In my case British Airways (sub-carrier SUN-AIR of Scandinavia) was the last airline in this musical chairs of luggage responsibility. I am 99% sure it was United Airlines that lost my luggage as they last scanned it in Washington DC although it was originally checked by Delta Airlines in Salt Lake and United's baggage team even called the gate to see if I would be on the flight to Brussels so they for sure had the luggage and most likely misplaced it on hold there. It made for a rather painful trip of shopping instead of working or relaxing as I arrived in Switzerland with only the clothes I was wearing and my laptop and camera bag. I kept buying only the minimum of clothes and items in hopes my luggage would show up like I was being told. The process of trying to get your baggage actually looked for is frustrating as it seems like nobody really wants to make an effort and instead point you to a bunch of regulations and forms on the web that you must print then snail mail to them to start the process.

I have been told there is a central place where all lost luggage that is found goes (at least if has not been stolen or dropped from the sky), and if they don't locate the owner there the misplaced luggage goes to auction for people to rummage through.

Tip: Try and carry on everything you will need at a very minimum for the business or pleasure trip and do not let it out of your sight.

Maybe on the lucky 7/7/7 date tomorrow the lost luggage fairy will deliver my baggage as I just want  it back. I should write a travel guide after learning many of the lessons the hard way even the theft of a laptop while traveling...UGH!

Adobe Reboot Now Rudeness

This morning I was working along happily and got an alert in the system tray that Adobe had updates to the new CS3 I installed recently and I thought great and selected to download them. About a minute later while writing some emails and working in other applications I got a rude warning alert that my system will be rebooted in 30 seconds. Apparently the update won't allow you to reboot when you can and instead boots you out whether you want to or not. Grrr.

 

OK, I fell better now after the Friday Whining. :-)