Between the Lines

Busy Season...

Things have been so very busy lately I am not sure when I can get some sleep in.

• It is the beginning season for many major Autodesk product betas over at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com so make sure you are signed up and your profile is up to date.
• The MyFeedback community 2.0 is in progress and hopefully launched before Autodesk University in November...
• I have a presentation and meetings in San Francisco  in 2 weeks to a well respected Civil Engineering group.
• I have a CAD Camp presentation in Sao Paulo Brazil around the second week in November. I need to get my presentation translated into Brazilian Portuguese and try and muster up speaking some Portuguese. I really love Brazil, the people, the adventure, and the Portuguese language as it is the most beautiful language I have ever heard spoken in all of my global travels. I would also like to take a few days to go back to the Amazon to relax and chase jungle wildlife with my camera.
• I have Autodesk University to prepare for and have a booth #900 so be sure to stop by as we will be celebrating the 25th year anniversary of Autodesk and I will have much of my memorabilia with me.
• Speaking of the 25th Anniversary of Autodesk and memorabilia, I still have a ton to scan and photograph and post as well as archive.
• I have perhaps thousands of photos to sort and post to my Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/) someday soon.
• I need to get rid of the creepy crawly critters I am using as subjects of photos in my home office right now. There are scorpions and tarantulas I picked up from a recent reptile show. I have crickets to feed them but the crickets are driving me absolute mad with their loud chirping all the time. I am sure it sounds funny on the phone speaking with me during a phone conference with crickets in the background. I will be donating these to a local collector as 2 of the scorpions are from Egypt and not to be played with as they have the same toxicity as a king cobra snake with a LD value of 50. They are living about 9 inches from my mouse right now. They just stare at me all day and I am sure thinking how much they would like to have one chance to hit me with their fat tails. I don't really like them either but scorpions are awesome to photograph under a ultra violet light as they glow a bright green with the dark blue hue of the light. You can see an example of a scorpion UV photo I took down by Arches National Park in Utah that has become very popular after I posted it to Flickr.

I am absolutely going stir crazy being so busy that I it is hard to get up to the Wasatch Mountains I can see from my house or get back down to Southern Utah which has drawn me in like a magnet. I was hoping to summit MT. Olympus this weekend to get the stress out and take my photo up there but mother nature with her snow and cold up there is dashing that plan for me. I guess I will be working catching up and hitting the gym.

 

Enough rambling for now.  I can be thankful I have my health, my children, and for being busy as opposed to nothing to do.

 

The Old Slide Rule!

OK many will not even get the play on the word especially if you are under 40 and I am not referring to the playground slide (slippery dip for the Aussies) rule of feet first fiercely enforced by many playground enforcement teams at elementary grade schools. In engineering many years ago before a calculator was under 20 pounds most engineers relied on their trusty slide rule as much as their pocket protectors. OK so I was joking about the pocket protectors, but every engineer was proud of their slide rule and could operate it pretty darn fast.

 

 

I just ran across a wikipedia article showing a slide rule (slipstick) and how to use them.

The scales on the front and back of a K&E 4081-3 slide rule.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster in Freewheel

Longtime AutoCAD user Robert Grandmaison has snapped, I think. I noticed on Robin Capper's blog RobiNZ CAD Blog the "The Flying Spaghetti Monster meets Freewheel". Pretty amusing but shows about anything 2D or 3D can be hosted in Autodesk Freewheel straight from AutoCAD and many other Autodesk products with nothing for anyone to install to view your files.

Cheers,
Shaan

Nice Task Logging Tool

I am always trying to keep a list of accomplishments and tasks and just ran across a great free one thanks to Lifehacker named QuickLogger. It simply logs a task and timestamps it in an excel spreadsheet. It can automatically rotate each week starting a new file so you have a continues archive. You could use it just to have a list for keeping track of what you do for later review or for use in year in review performance and accomplishment reports.

Now if it only had a To Do list option combined I would be set and not have to jump in and out of Outlook.

http://quicklogger.com/

Test Drive a Future Release of AutoCAD?/Research update

Several hundred customers have already signed up since I posted the initial announcement but we want even more customer feedback and input. If you have not signed up for this please do so now before September 28th, 2007 and there will be studies will be in October.

Click on the following link to sign up:
http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/adsksurvey/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=76M25l8
After signing up, you will receive an email with more information and instructions to attend an online Introduction Meeting.

Plan on spending the day (9am to 5pm) to meet the team and do some hands on sessions with the next release. Snacks and lunch will be provided.

Interested in attending the event? Here’s what we are looking for:

• Day to day users of the software
• Users not proficient in LISP or scripting
• Users configuring the interface for other users
• All levels – beginning to advanced

Seats are limited so please contact Shari Nemerovski to register for this exciting event where you can help shape the future of AutoCAD.

Shari Nemerovski
shari.nemerovski@autodesk.com
Customer Research and Events Coordinator

Participation and details are confidential and not to be discussed with anyone.

Sincerely,
AutoCAD Product Design and Usability Group

Catching Up After almost 2 weeks in San Rafael

I have been in San Rafael and San Francisco California for most of the past 2 weeks. I had many meetings and some management training to attend. I got to see a bunch of coworkers I have not seen in sometime as well which was a bonus. I also stayed with a good friend and spent the evenings talking, BBQ'ing, and seeing old places as I used to live in the Bay area. It was nice seeing the area and friends but the traffic is even worse...I even video taped one commute to later speed up to a Caffeine Commute (6x speed) to the Autodesk office like I have done in a video from back in 2004 "Have I Snapped? Updated 6-22-04".

I took quite a few photos in the Bay Area and some are getting quite the recognition. You are free to use the images personally. The sizes are large enough even for dual monitors or large screen background displays. I know quite a few have used my scorpion under UV light photo as a screen background or various Utah desert images.

            

Other popular photos used as desktop wallpapers.
      

More of S.Hurley's photos

 

I have a bunch of tasks and email to catch up on and some blog postings. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Just Released AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 and Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008 Service Pack 1

AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 Service Pack 1

Published date: 2007-09-13
ID: DL10095960

Applies to:
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2008

In a continuing effort to provide high-quality products, Autodesk has released AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 Service Pack 1. This Service Pack includes fixes incorporated in AutoCAD 2008 SP1 as well as specific AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 updates. You can install this Service Pack on any AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 installation. We recommend that all AutoCAD Map 3D
2008 customers download and install this Service Pack to ensure the highest quality experience when working with AutoCAD Map 3D 2008.

The Readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this service pack. It is strongly recommended that you read this entire document before you apply the service pack to your product. For your reference, you should save the Readme to your hard drive or print a copy.

 

Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008 Service Pack 1

Published date: 2007-09-14
ID: DL10095448

Applies to:
Autodesk® Inventor™ Professional 2008
Autodesk® Inventor™ Simulation Suite 2008
Autodesk® Inventor™ Routed Systems Suite 2008
Autodesk® Inventor™ Suite 2008
Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008

This service pack updates Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008 software.

This service pack will apply to all Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008 software languages.

Refer to the Readme for detailed information about this service pack and installation instructions

"AutoCAD 2008 Works Like Magic"

Nice article in Desktop Engineering on AutoCAD 2008 features including Annotation Scaling by David Cohn longtime well respected CAD Industry trainer, consultant, writer, and all around nice guy as well as being a camera fanatic like myself.

AutoCAD 2008 Works Like Magic
Annotation scaling leads the list of new features cheered by AutoCAD users.
by David Cohn

Autodesk University Unplugged (un-conference) is Alive

Message from AU master Joseph Wurcher on this great idea.

"Most of you may already know that this year, AU makes its first attempt at an un-conference – which we call AU Unplugged.  We strongly believe that attendees have much to share with the greater AU community and we encourage grass-root participation in AU by all AU attendees.  This year, we will provide the space to move some of those great hallway conversations into a class room and have more folks benefit from it. 

To learn more about AU Unplugged check out this posting.

"AU Unplugged!" is Ready!

Some of the topic that haven submitted:

• How does CAD Management differ with the size of a company
• Are you using AutoCAD Architecture (ADT) only as AutoCAD?
• BIM Visionaries Panel
• Let's Talk LT!
• Multiple Users and multiple modeling strategies in one project... "

In Northern California this Week and Next

I have been swamped this week while visiting my main office in San Rafael where I spent 8 years prior to escaping to Utah. ;-) I arrived here Tuesday and that evening saw perhaps the best concert ever in my life, and I have seen quite a few over the years. I saw the band Los Lonely Boys at the famous and historic Fillmore Theater in San Francisco. This San Antonio Texas based Tex-Mex band formed of 3 brothers is unbelievable... They are playing in Las Vegas this weekend and if there, they would be a must see for a great time with great talented musicians if you are in the area or hear they are coming to your town.

I head back to Utah on Friday then out to the Bonneville Salt Flats for the events of vehicles running at several hundred miles per hour across the flat dry salty lake bed. Should be a interesting, fun, dusty and a hot experience. On Monday I head back to Northern California for another week of training, meetings, and misc.

Cheers,
Shaan

Where Do I Get AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD Updates From?

Check out these links as hot fixes and updates such as Service Packs are announced at the following locations:

AutoCAD LT Updates
http://www.autodesk.com/autocadlt-updates

AutoCAD Updates
http://www.autodesk.com/autocad-updates

You can also subscribe to these Product Support updates by RSS

Product Support, Updates & Service Packs

The AutoCAD Product Design Team Wants/Needs Your Participation

The AutoCAD Product Design Team is working on new features for future releases of AutoCAD. One of our current projects focuses on improving the User Interface "UI". These improvements are designed to make you more productive and efficient.  However, to complete the project successfully, we need feedback from as many users as possible. Please help us achieve this goal!

This project is rather challenging and will require about 3 hours of your time.  Fortunately, the project can be done in segments, for example one hour a day for three days. Participants will attend a brief online Introduction Meeting, and then can complete the rest of the project online at their own schedule. Participants will be required to electronically sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Autodesk.

This project will start on September 14, 2007 and last through October 5, 2007.

Participation sign-up is now open!

Click on the following link to sign up:
Sign Up Link

After signing up, you will receive an email with more information and instructions to attend an online Introduction Meeting. 

Thank you for your time and interest in improving AutoCAD.
-The AutoCAD Product Design and Usability Team

AutoCAD Graphics Hardware Frequently Asked Questions

There are many questions with answers on this FAQ page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Some of the questions with answers:

1. What is Autodesk-certified graphics hardware?
2. Why should I use Autodesk-certified graphics hardware?
3. Will older versions of AutoCAD be certified with the graphics hardware listed on this site?
4. Where can I find out what has changed in the latest version of the AutoCAD Certified Hardware XML Database?
5. Should I download the latest version of the AutoCAD graphics hardware database?
6. What products does the AutoCAD graphics hardware certification cover?
7. How can I tell if my graphics hardware is Autodesk certified?
8. What do the icons stand for in the graphics hardware list?
9. Why is my graphics hardware not listed?
10. If my graphics hardware is listed but not Autodesk certified, can I still use it with AutoCAD?
11. What are my limitations if my graphics hardware has passed some of the graphics hardware tests but has failed others?
12. Why is graphics hardware designed for desktop / gaming applications not Certified?
13. How do I check to see if AutoCAD 2007 and AutoCAD 2008 is using hardware acceleration?
14. Can I set AutoCAD to use hardware acceleration manually if my graphics hardware is not listed?
15. How do I find my driver version?
16. My graphics hardware is listed but the driver version is different, what should I do?
17. How do I obtain the version of the graphics hardware driver that is listed in the graphics hardware list?
18. What information is needed to report a graphics hardware problem with listed graphics hardware?
19. My hardware is not listed and when I enable hardware acceleration manually, I have problems. What should I do
20. What graphics hardware and monitor configurations does Autodesk test with?
21. Why is there no OpenGL option in Windows Vista?
22. What is the difference between the certification for AutoCAD 2007 and 2008?
23. Do I need a different XML file for AutoCAD 2007 and 2008?
24. Why was my card certified for AutoCAD 2007 but now it fails for AutoCAD 2008?
25. Should I use OpenGL or Direct3D in AutoCAD 2008?

CAD Manager 2007 Survey for Robert Green

All CAD Managers please take a moment to complete the CAD Manager Survey for Cadalyst magazines CAD Management expert and nice guy. You have probably seen or met him at an event, read an article by him, or learned something from him at some point over the years and now you can assist him in his annual survey. 

 www.cad-manager.com/survey

Get Involved Shaping the Future of Autodesk Products and Get Off the Sidewalk

I often stumble across a report of something someone would like to improve in AutoCAD or Autodesk products posted in a forum or blog or even down in a nested comment. Perhaps it is venting, ranting, perhaps it is wishful thinking or an expectation that the members of the small Autodesk product teams can find these items and enact change. Please please please, if you find bugs or have wish list items you want to get acted on make sure to get them to the people that develop the product. If we do not know about it you are likely to not see it addressed in a future release of the product. If you get involved and report it you just may see it in a future release as well as quite possibly get a deeper understanding of the why it has been that way if it were intentional behavior.

This is similar to another peeve of mine and that is some that publish bug lists on their blogs, articles, email newsletters etc. don't report the bugs to the software vendor. Where's the benefit of that withholding or delay to fellow users of that software? It makes for more pain as some will compile this list over time and later publish. It can be a missed opportunity for the software vendor to fix the issue or even know about the issue for research.

For Autodesk Software:

Report bugs and product comments and suggestions to the actual product teams: Product Feedback or if you are a Autodesk Subscription customer, log the product support issues online.

Nominate Wish List Items: http://www.augi.com membership is free and it is made up of fellow Autodesk product users. There is an AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor wish list and you can nominate and vote on wish list items which are provided to Autodesk by AUGI. The voting helps know the priority of items.

Below is my reply to a comment on another blog responding to a person I know very well and respect Matt Stachoni. Matt posted a lengthy commentary about what he would like changed in AutoCAD yet he posted this on a non Autodesk site in a comment to a blog post but luckily I spotted it. I have been trying to get Matt involved in beta testing, test drives, and usability and other customer feedback projects for years and I am aware he is busy but he had the time to post a lengthy comment in one little corner of the Internet, right? ;-)

"Autodesk is always listening and trying to improve. Some things irk us as well. It is important to mention some things just appear different or clear and easy from the outside looking in but that may not always be the case as I have seen both sides as I have been a customer and AutoCAD Team member.

I am shocked that Matt and Ralph could only come up with these lists as there are so many things that could be changed and implemented better or different for a 25 year young product that is used in so many ways. Some items can also take time as well in addition to planning and customer feedback loops to make sure that we are on track and what they asked for.

In my opinion it is all about trying to accommodate everyone and but realizing it is difficult to hit the bulls eye 100% of the time or satisfy everyone all of the time, but you must keep trying.

So you realize we have many more years of product improvement. We constantly crawl the blogs, forums, emails, surveys, user events, etc and other customer feedback locations to stumble upon feedback but please make sure to get your feedback to Autodesk so we don't miss it. So be sure to get involved in the process and not just yell from the sidewalk while the parade passes.

AUGI membership is free and made up of fellow product users and allows and encourages you to nominate your own pet peeves and vote on changes to AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor.

OK now go nominate some items as well as get involved in actively shaping the future of Autodesk products! :-)

http://www.augi.com & http://myfeedback.autodesk.com"

Not sure if this is a new saying but I wrote it at the moment and it made perfect sense to me.

Get involved in the process, not just yell from the sidewalk while the parade passes.

Cheers,
Shaan

Another New CAD Blog: CADing and Coding

Mohamed Haris has started a blog on AutoCAD customization. Mohamed is a draughtsman/draftsman in U.A.E.

Welcome Mohamed to CADblogging!

 

http://cadingandcoding.blogspot.com/

Is Winter Coming Already?

I live in Northern Utah and tonight after weeks of temperatures in the 90-105 degrees Fahrenheit range and lows above 70 degrees Fahrenheit tonight it is dropping fast with a cold front moving into the region. If this is a season change from Summer to Fall or early Winter, it certainly announced itself loudly with a series of dangerous microbursts and rumored tornado sightings. I had to fish my garbage cans out of the street dodging tree branches and dust. And sadly I lost power depraving me from the Intent for a few minutes... They placed an extended alert for the next hour when another ridge is expected to hit us.

-Shaan

Annotation Scaling Webcast

http://heidihewett.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/09/annotation-scal.html

"You still have time to register for the FREE Annotation Scaling webcast this morning! Don't miss out on your chance to learn the ins and outs of the new annotation scaling functionality in AutoCAD 2008."