Between the Lines

AU 2008

Autodesk University 2008 was just announced to be in Las Vegas! Woohoo!

AU 2007 - Hall D Level 2

Dinner and entertainment beginning at 6:30 tonight and supposed to be a 80s theme. I am headed there now but have little voice left. I am also without any 80s style clothing unless I wear my spandex rocker pants (just kidding).

For those concerned about the well being of the green clay Matt Murphy head, after it sat prominently in a seat in the CAD Management expert panel in front of those in attendance, I placed it in a safe place to rest.

Hope to see you there tonight,
Shaan

AU 2007 Autodesk Myfeedback Clay Sculpture winners

I want to thank everyone who stopped by the MyFeedback booth and created a clay sculpture. We have now selected the top 3 for prizes. Winners can find me or email myfeedback@autodesk.com to arrange for getting the prizes. Crystal Pearson from Seattle already picked up her brand new Apple iTouch for wining top prize.

1st AutoCAD R9 box (iPod Touch)
2nd shark (iPod Nano)
3rd Toucan (choice of book or shirt)

Crowd/Cult award The Matt Murphy Head of clay. This sculpture was created using an AUGIWorld magazine picture as a reference. This green clay head has been held, touched, and for photos with people. It was even 3D scanned. People just love this head and of course Matt Murphy. The person who created this Matt Murphy head did not even know Matt and will win their choice of a prize and knowing their creation is loved by people around the world and will remain forever in photos and deep in the AU memories and therapy sessions. I have had some recommend me to take this clay head to Brazil with me next week.

I also really liked the sculpture of a person kneeling in front of a toilet.

Cheers
Shaan

AU 2007 - AUGI TOP DAUG Winner

The winner this year was Michael Coffman. I gave him a pair of original AutoCAD R14 flip flop sandals and his photo with the Matt Murphy clay head.

Photos will be posted soon to the AU 2007 photo gallery.

Shaan

AU 2007 - in CAD Mgr. Class

I am currently in Robert Green's CAD Management tips and tricks class. Currently Robert has a great talk about how to be able to be lazy and make things easy for training such as using Camtasia by TechSmith to create nice video tutorials.

At 3:30 I am on the CAD Mgr. Town Hall panel part 2 with Yoshi Honda.

Both of these sessions are on the 5th floor in Palazzo - O-P.

Cheers,
Shaan

AU 2007 - Thursday

Yesterday (Wednesday) was an action packed day and fun. I have posted many new pictures in my AU 2007 Flickr Gallery. You can see that many are flocking to see and get their picture with the famous Matt Murphy clay head sculpture and it is beginning to get a really wild following. I heard a rumor there was an all night vigil around the sculpture the other night....

I am headed back down to the Autodesk MyFeedback Booth in a few minutes as the exhibit hall will be open from 11 until 2 for the last time. The Autodesk MyFeedback Team will be judging the clay creations and awarding awesome prizes today like an Apple iTouch and more to those winning at 12 noon at booth 900. we showed the new Autodesk MyFeedback Community 2.0 yesterday in our booth and received great feedback on it. Look for this new updated site for all Autodesk Products to be available for testing very soon for members of the Autodesk MyFeedback site http://myfeedback.autodesk.com.

Did anyone get Lynn's message on their hotel phone messages? At first I thought Lynn was being held captive in a steel box in the basement of the casino due to the audio quality but soon realized she was just alerting AU attendees to the days events. ;-)

Don't miss tonight's entertainment night and wear some 80s era clothing. I wish I had known before coming to AU but unfortunately I have no 1980s era clothes like the good old parachute pants. I plan to head out late for fun tonight for those willing to come along. I am also considering a photo trek to Red Rock Canyon which is less than 20 minutes away.

Autodesk University Sad Note
The longtime expected tradition of seeing the band Dr. Ruth with Pete Kelsey of Autodesk at AU is not happening this year. Please make sure if you are a Pete Kelsey and his Bands fans to make this well known that you want them back next year to play AU.  To me the Dr. Ruth band is a part of AU just as important as the Beer Bust event to me.

Cheers,
Shaan

AU 2007 - Wednesday

AU 2007 exhibit Hall opens in 20 minutes, see you there. I will be at the Autodesk MyFeedback booth number 900.

Cheers,
Shaan

Free Camtasia Studio and SnagIt Older Releases

Thanks to the heads up from my Perth Australian friend Steve Johnson for alerting me to this news item from Amit's Digital Inspiration blog posting. I did not even know even though TechSmith has a booth almost directly across from the Autodesk MyFeedback booth at Autodesk University 2007. I just have not got a break to run over and say hi to Betsy and the creators of SnagIt and Camtasia which I have used daily for years for producing screen captures or video recordings to communicate ideas, processes, create documents and even most of the screen images over the years in this blog.

http://www.labnol.org/software/download/download-camtasia-studio-free/1829/
http://www.labnol.org/software/download/free-download-snagit-with-serial-number/1841/

These are fairly old versions but great tools for free and the newer releases are even better. TechSmith used Camtasia and recorded a Screencast from New Zealander "kiwi" CAD Blogger Robin Capper who is attending Autodesk University this week as well.

Cheers,
Shaan

AU 2007 Wednesday

I made it through the first AUGI Beer Bust that I made it back to my room by midbight and able to be at breakfast by 7. The exhibit hall was awesome and packed and I will be posting some photos this morning. There were some great stories about my old Autodesk memorabilia.

More later, Shaan

AU 2007 - Tuesday Afternoon..Photos, Certification Guide, and R14 Flip Flops

I attended the Morning AU Welcome with presentations from Lynn Allen, Carl Bass Autodesk CEO, Jonathan Knowles Director of Cool Things at Autodesk, and Jeff Kowalski Autodesk CTO. There was some really cool things shown and it all culminated with a grand finale of showing of future ideas and concepts live such as Metropolis which was shown live like Google Earth for the Deign World on 20 High Definition screens powered by 40 HD projectors in a full 360 degrees around the audience of over 7500 people. This high definition bliss was all produced by a Tablet PC controlling 20 high end screaming HP PCs live and drilling right down to the query of where a certain type of tree was in a city and a BIM model. I posted some photos from the event although lighting has been difficult. I also posted some of the photos I took yesterday when I snuck behind the scenes and watched Metropolis for the first time with my jaw wide open as Brian Mathews said "what do you think" I don't think I could say anything for a minute as I was speechless. So many things were racing through my mind seeing all that live spatial metaverse/multiverse rich an juicy design data on the 360 degree high def screens even including the question of "I wonder if I could sneak in late at night and play Halo on this system".

Perhaps it was coincidence but when I visited this computer area they called "The Hive" and I attempted to check my BlackBerry 8800 for email it started to freak out and I can no longer use it except to answer phone calls. Coincidence or not perhaps the multiple gigabit wireless connections from the 20 high end PCs freaked out my poor defenseless BlackBerry.

In preparing to transport some of my Autodesk 25 year anniversary artifacts to my booth for display I noticed that I have one extra pair of vintage and unused AutoCAD R14 flip flop sandals. Sure I could auction them on eBay and retire on a small island with a beer (ok not really) but I figure I can give them to wither the winner of this years AUGI Top DOG AutoCAD competition, the longest AutoCAD user in attendance with proof, or a person that is current active Autodesk MyFeedback participant and willing to wear them in a pair of shorts at the beer bust and the rest of the week and spread the word about Autodesk MyFeedback and give hugs to those who ask. Still have not decided on which flip flop giveaway criteria but I will. I should also mention the bonus is these flip flop sandals leave the words "AutoCAD" "R14" imprint in the sand when you walk. These excellent R14 Flip Flops will be on display at booth 900 along with Weapons of Mass Construction aka modeling clay for a fun challenge named "What's Created in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" but this is a G rated Challenge folks (speaking directly to Melanie's husband Mike Perry). I also have 2 brand spanking new AutoCAD 2008 Certification Study Guides to give Away among other nice freebies.

I wanted to thank Robin Capper a New Zealand Kiwi blogger, a friend, and nice guy. He came up to me after the presentation and he read one of my greatest losses this year was when all my luggage was stolen by a so-called Costa Rican policeman. Sure I lost camera gear and a ton of clothes and goodies but my New Zealand All Blacks jersey from Kiwi Mike Burke was in there. Robin gave me a replacement from New Zealand.

I finally got to meet a few people in person that I have not met such as Autodesk PR Paul Davis.

 

The AU Photo Gallery is at http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2007/ please feel free to join the free Flickr and share your AU 2007 photos with others. Subscribe to photos from the Autodesk University 2007 pool – Latest | geoFeed | KML

I guess I could go on and on but that will have to wait as I need to get down and set up the Autodesk MyFeedback Booth as it will be opening after the AUGI Meeting tonight for the annual Beer Bust.

Cheers,
Shaan

Rise and Shine, AU Tuesday

I am heading down to the Welcome General Session in hall D level 2 at 8:00 AM which should be very exciting and I will doing more video interviews for the AU website. There are only 7500 seats and over 9,000 attendees perhaps even breaking 10,000 so those wishing to attend should try to arrive early. 

I have started to post a few photos to the Autodesk University 2007 photo group which anyone with a free Flickr can also do. After the Welcome session will be some classes and labs then the lunch "Birds of a Feather". After lunch I will be at the "Designing the Future - A technology Preview of Design Visualization, then more classes, and I have to setup my booth to prepare for the opening of exhibit hall and beer bust after the AUGI annual meeting. Last night I had dinner with Melanie and her husband Mike Perry and group of other AUGI members as well as Assis and Luciana from Brazil. I was late to the Meet and Greet and many showed but were scattered. If I did not get around to your table, please feel free to stop by booth 900 and verbally scold me.

Melanie's post about her Monday: http://mistressofthedorkness.blogspot.com/2007/11/getting-off-to-good-start-at-au.html 

 

So many things to Do, So many People, So little Time.

Live from Autodesk University, Streaming Video of 6 Sessions

Sign up now if you are not able to attend Autodesk University in person to see one of the 6 sessions being streamed live.

• GD111-2 Getting Up to Speed on AutoCAD® 2008
• MA201-3P Using Design Accelerators in Autodesk® Inventor™
• AB210-2P Sustainable Design Systems Based on Revit® Architecture
• PM304-1 The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
• CM311-3P CAD Manager’s Training and Standards Guide
• CV400-1 Three Sheets to the Wind

Sign up Here

More details at The AU Blog http://au.autodesk.com/blogs/view/Live_From_Sign_now/

AU 2007 - WOW

I just emerged from a secret place for some behind the scenes photos and interviews. I have been told I could be possibly tasered "DTMB" if I post some of the photos before the main presontation occurs Tuesday morning at 8AM. All I can say is you won't believe what you will see all performed live and not recorded... Another important detail is that there are only 7500 seats and over 9000 in attendance, so be early as standing is not allowed in the ailes..

Cheers, Shaan

AU 2007: .Monday Morning

I am heading down to breakfast and then with my cameras in tow to the registration for AU 2007. I registered lastnight after I was told it was open and the process was fast and simple. You simply enter your name on one of the kiosk machines, then proceed to pick up your badge.

I am also going to go get some behind the scenes photos. I also must prepare for my booth 900 that will open tomorrow night with cool stuff and giveaways. Tonight my team has a meet and greet for people to place a name with a face before the official AU kickoff. This Meet and Greet will be in La Scena loung at 6:30PM.

Looking at the weather forcast today whch may be the only sunny day this week, I may take a group out to the Valley of Fire or Red Rocks for sunset photos today that occurs at 4:30PM. If interested please email or call me by 3PM. Both of these places are amazing and glow red when the light is right. They are both also within minutes of Las Vegas and I have room for 5 in my truck.

Believe it or not I was in bed asleep at 8 lastnight.

Cheers, Shaan Shaan@autodesk.com Cell 415 328 6747

Viva Las Vegas

I have arrived at the Venetian Hotel and Casino for this weeks Autodesk University 2007. Already I have ran into many familiar faces just checking in like Stan Goodell, Sandra Lurins, Beth Powell, Jon Rizzo, Alex wood, and  more. I need to go grab a bite to eat but want something healthy tonight before the long week.

Cheers,
Shaan

The Wave and Escalante Saturday, Vegas Sunday

I had a great hike today into The Wave famous sandstone formation located in the Paria Wilderness area (entrance by permit only) and then a dive into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument region with the Grosvenor Arch in Southern Utah. I have had enough of dirt roads. There was no wind or snow but it sure was cold in the morning.

I am tired and soar and need to get some rest before packing up and heading of to Las Vegas and Autodesk University 2007 this week.

Brrr, See you at AU

I made it to the Utah/Arizona border for my long and cold hike today to the famous wave sandstone formation in the Paria Wilderness region. Nobody told me it was 30mph winds and 23 degrees without a windchill and also that it snows in this part of high desert. Luckily I am well prepared and will be on the trail in about 45 minutes for a very long day and hopefully some nice photographs and memories..

Cheers, Shaan (Sent from my trackberry aka crackberry)

On The Road Again, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Brazil, Peru

Already this month (November 2007) I have logged 2400 miles in my truck traveling around the American Southwest and I am going to add more miles to my November tally. Today I leave for Kanab Utah in Southern Utah which I will be using as my base for my solo hike into the Paria Wilderness area Coyote Butte North and visiting the famous wave sandstone structure again and during the hike crossing into Arizona. It can be a hard hike at times especially the deep stand which feels like you have hiked 5 miles for each you do in the sand. Sunday I will be headed for Las Vegas and Autodesk University 2007. After a Week at Autodesk University I then take a flight to São Paulo Brazil for the AUGI CAD Camp Brasil - São Paulo. After a few days in São Paulo I will then take a week of hiking in Iquitos Peru near the mouth of the Amazon river and some jungle exploration.

Tally for this round of 3 weeks of travel:

• 798 miles by vehicle
• 17,048 miles by air
• 100 miles by boat
• 50 miles at least by foot

AU and my current travel Links:

• AU 2007 Meet and Greet with the Autodesk MyFeedback Team
• Autodesk MyFeedback Team Booth 900 at AU 2007
• Autodesk University 2007 Photo Sharing Group on Flickr
• Autodesk University 2007 Photo RSS Feed
  Peruvian Jungle Town Rush Hour and Packing
• Convite para o AUGI CAD Camp Brasil - São Paulo
• Pecha Kucha ペチャクチャ at Autodesk University 2007
• Autodesk University 2007 Extreme Adventure Track
• Autodesk University 2007 Primer Download
• AU Sneak Peak into the Future of AutoCAD!

The Wave located in Paria Wilderness on Coyote Butte North (my photos from July).





The Wave Hike

Map of hikes and photo treks I will be taking around Las Vegas which are Valley of Fire and Red Rocks Canyon. I also think it would be neat for a small 4 person group of AU Attendees to take a helicopter ride around Vegas, the area, and perhaps the Grand Canyon for photos as that is a fairly short ride in a helicopter and there are many that do this almost on the hour. I took a copter ride in Switzerland up over the Alps and the famous North face of the Eigerhorn and that was soo very cool.

  

 

I hope we can meet up along my travels and please make sure to bookmark this blog or RSS feed for live blogging and photos from the travels including at Autodesk University 2007.

Shaan Hurley

Worldwide MyFeedback Community Mgr. & PSEB Technical Mgr.
Autodesk, Inc.

Direct 415 507-8432
Mobile 415 328-6747

Email: shaan@autodesk.com

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/

 

Technorati Tags: Travel, Autodesk, Autodesk University, Autodesk University 2007, Peru, Iquitos Peru, Brazil, Brasil, AUGIbr, AUGI, AUGI CAD Camp Brasil São Paulo, São Paulo, The Wave, Paria Wilderness, Kanab Utah, Las Vegas, Coyote Butte, Hike, Photograophy, American SouthWest, Flickr, Autodesk MyFeedback, Shaan Hurley

Autodesk University 2007 Photo RSS Feed

More information on the free Flickr group for people to share Autodesk University 2007 photos as people can subscribe to the RSS feed of images, geoFeed, or  Google KML feed.

Autodesk University Group details

Flickr Group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2007/

This Flickr Group is for sharing photos taken during the Autodesk University 2007 held in Las Vegas November 27th to the 31st 2007. Please tag your photos with "Autodesk University 2007" and if possible geotag them on a map. Also describe who is in the photo and please keep them PG rated. ;-)

Subscribe to photos from the Autodesk University 2007 pool – Latest | geoFeed | KML

If attending Autodesk University 2007 please consider joining and sharing your photos with the group. This will allow you to have a free photo storage location and share your photos with others attending AU.

Basic Flickr is free but if you want a Pro account some really cool features, backups, no ads, and completely unlimited uploads it is a small $24.95 a year.  What is Flickr http://www.flickr.com/tour/

See you at AU and Flickr
Shaan
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/

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

 

Technorati Tags: AU, AU 2007, Autodesk University 2007, Photos, RSS, geoFEED, KML, Flickr

Happy Thanksgiving

There is a long story behind this gobbler creation but in short it was created back in 2002 by me and my team in a team building contest. It was made from homemade playdough from a recipe. It was once soft and each team member after completing a task had to place a feather in it's little bare butt hence my name for it "The Bare Butt Turkey". It has since hardened to the density of granite.

 

 

 

My travel adventure starts tomorrow with The Wave solo hike, Autodesk University in Vegas, then Brazil and Peru and I still have a million things to do before but have to stop and go eat some real turkey.

Cheers,
Shaan

AUGI CAD Camp Brasil - São Paulo

Para informações mais completas sobre todas as vantagens em ser um dos participantes do AUGI CAD Camp Brasil - São Paulo, a ser realizado no próximo dia 06 de Dezembro, acesse: Link

Atenciosamente,
Shaan

MapGuide Open Source 2.0 Beta Coming Up

The Autodesk MapGuide Team has posted an invitation on OSGeo website to join the beta testing of the pre-release MapGuide Studio Open Source product. If you are wondering what Autodesk MapGuide is, it is a GIS application and you can find more specifics at: http://www.autodesk.com/mapguide and http://mapguide.osgeo.org/. "MapGuide can be deployed on Linux or Windows, supports Apache and IIS web servers, and offers extensive PHP, .NET, Java, and JavaScript APIs for application development. MapGuide Open Source is licensed under the LGPL."

If you are interested in taking a look, providing feedback, and getting involved in this Open Source product please read the invitation at http://mapguide.osgeo.org/AutodeskMapGuideStudioBetaforMGOS2.0.html

Regards,
Shaan

Lee, Welcome to the Dark Side

Please play the follow free midi music on your computer during this blog posting to set the mood as it should play in your browser: Imperial March (from http://moviethemes.net)

Of course I am joking about the Dark Side reference as we like to think of ourselves nothing more than a cute, friendly, smart, dog loving, customer loving, innovating, beer busting, furry green or blue fuzz ball of a group. I wanted to mention that top beta site customer for years, AUGI Top Gun, Command Reference map current owner, recent documentation contractor for Autodesk, AUGI writer contributor, and all around nice guy will be now working for Autodesk. Lee Ambrosius will be on the User Assistance Team in PSEB which does many things including the AutoCAD documentation. Lee's prior personal company was HyperPics and his Beyond the UI blog. Lee will be at Autodesk University next week, so make sure to give him a good hard time as he is now a salaried full time Autodesk employee.

Welcome aboard Lee!
Shaan

Congratulations to Wisconsin DOT

Another large organization is moving to AutoCAD based products specifically Civil 3D from another software package. This is a nice one as it is another Department of Transportation "DOT" and one CAD company typically has held many of the DOT in the United States, but that hold is now disappearing. We have seen many of these large migrations over the recent past even the worlds best known coffee retailer moved to AutoCAD, major retailers, and several others that made the switch to Autodesk Products. The one thing I hear all the time is "oh that company or government entity is a <name CAD here> shop" when in reality there are not really many pure one CAD application shops in large government or multi-office design or manufacturing customers as it really depends on the discipline and industry as their they could have one group using on CAD and another for another discipline.

Cheers,
Shaan

Wisconsin DOT moves to Civil 3D! by Sanjay Asnani of the Civil 3D Team

Autodesk Product Manager Update

The Autodesk Product Manager utility has been updated to work with the most recent Autodesk products. The Autodesk Product Manager is a nice hidden gem to determine what products and versions you have and can even scan your network. This optional tool you can install from AutoCAD product installation menu or the DVD like the current AutoCAD 2008. Many times it is perfect for people, IT, or CAD Managers that don't know what is being used and their versions in their company and that is where this tool shines.

And now a secret tip, the BIN file is actually an XML file so you could actually add other products or tools to search for if you know how they are defined in the registry.

 

 

 

Updated BIN file for Autodesk Product Manager Utility