Between the Lines

Be Remarkable, Get Certified for Autodesk 2010 products

Certified Associate and Certified Professional exams now available for newest versions of AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit Architecture, and  AutoCAD Civil 3D Software. Show your fellow employees, employers, and prospective employers proof of your skills and knowledge as well to strengthen your resume when searching for a new job.

Autodesk will also offer free certification for the second year in a row at Autodesk University, as well as a preparation lab, offering assessment and practice tests and a study room with study materials. Autodesk University is the premier event for Autodesk users with thousands of attendees and the top notch classes in Autodesk products plus some fun in Las Vegas.

There are over 100,000 certified individuals including some who got the special free offer last year at Autodesk University.

Certification Program Flyer

Certification Exam guides are available.

• AutoCAD® 2010
• AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010
• Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2010
• Autodesk® Inventor® 2010

Updated July 30th, 2009

50% discount on the assessment tests

• You can begin preparing for the exams now – An assessment test is a great place to start!
• Use the promo code below (not cases sensitive)
  • RemarkAutoCAD
  • RemarkInventor
  • RemarkCivil3D
  • RemarkRevit

This offer is valid from Aug 1st through 31st 2009.

Go to www.autodesk.starttest.com

The assessment test gives immediate feedback on strengths and weaknesses

For more information on Autodesk Certification for 2010, please visit: http://www.autodesk.com/be-remarkable or http://www.autodesk.com/certification.

AU! Also there may be another free opportunity for those attending Autodesk University 2009 in Las Vegas to get their certifications for free like at AU 2008.

Autodesk Assistance Program Expands to Europe and Beyond

“In these uncertain economic times, many companies have had to let good people go. If you were one of them, you might be wondering how to advance your career in this challenging global job market.”

After rolling out the program for those displaced workers architecture, design, engineering, and manufacturing in North America Autodesk is expanding the program.

The program will first be rolled out in Northern Europe then remaining Europe then onto Mexico and Brazil over the next few months.

 

What assistance includes is:

• Free Software License*: Student licenses of 17 Autodesk® products, including AutoCAD®, Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Inventor® Professional, and/or AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software.  
• Free Online Training: On-demand training available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with Subscription eLearning, Autodesk University online, and Books.
• Reduced-Cost Classroom Training: Over 70 Autodesk Authorized Value Added Resellers and Autodesk Training Center (ATC®) partners are offering classroom training at their training facilities for free or for a significantly reduced fee. (Offerings will vary, please check with your local reseller or ATC to get details)
• Certification: Certification preparation and exams available at discounted rates.

Seize the opportunity now. Don’t just survive, thrive!

For more information about the Autodesk Assistance Program, please contact your local reseller, contact Autodesk directly at assistance@autodesk.com or visit www.autodesk.com/assistanceprogram.

Press Release Autodesk Assistance Program Expands to Europe

I personally have had many good friends be let go in many industries including Autodesk itself. In recent months some have had more luck in finding a replacement position so lets all hope this trend continues. If you have positions you are trying to hire for please send me an email and I would be happy to post it to the many readers of this blog. Please email me with the subject line of “09 Jobs”.

Some great job seeking advice was blogged by recently unemployed and again hired.Donnie Gladfelter aka The CADGeek

Job Hunting Tips From The CAD Geek

I wish everyone and business a speedy recovery and increasing busy workload.

Shaan

AutoCAD Architecture 2010 Key Feature Series from AUGI

In reading through my AUGI Hotnews emails after returning from a lengthy vacation, I noticed a great article series for AutoCAD Architecture 2010 features. It was written by Tharakesh Ananthakrishnan of OMNIX International Dubai who is a very knowledgeable Autodesk Authorized Instructor that I had met while presenting in Kuwait last October at the Kuwait FOCUS Users Group meeting (Amazing event by FOCUS Kuwait Users Group Meeting). Tharakesh was also the first Autodesk Certified Professional in the Middle East. I hope to get back to Kuwait and UAE really soon as the people and experience was top notch in addition to some really mind blowing construction projects using AutoCAD Architecture.

If you are looking for a nice overview of AutoCAD Architecture 2010, then this three part series is definitely worth reading to get up to speed.

You may need to register for a FREE Autodesk User Group International “AUGI” membership. With AUGI at almost 100,000 members I am pretty sure most of the readers here are already members with all the great resources offered by AUGI membership.

• AutoCAD Architecture 2010: Key Features, Part 1 – May 2009
• AutoCAD Architecture 2010: Key Features, Part 2 – June 2009
• AutoCAD Architecture 2010: Key Features, Part 3 - July 2009

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD .NET Developer's Guide Posted Online

The AutoCAD .NET Developer's Guide is now posted and available free online.

Many have requested this and I was told it was a top request by members of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) last year. The Autodesk User Assistance Team worked and to produce this and it was authored by none other than AutoCAD guru Lee Ambrosius. This is a free extensive online guide.

Contents are thorough and help anyone wanting to venture into the .NET API in AutoCAD to develop customization and automation. The .NET API for AutoCAD is in addition to APIs such as AutoLISP, ObjectARX. .NET is for both 32-bit and 64-bit where the Visual Basic for Applications was only designed for 32-bit. If you are seriously interested in automating AutoCAD tasks or building a custom tailored AutoCAD application you should look into the AutoCAD .NET API detailed in this guide.

AutoCAD .NET Developer's Guide

• Introduction
• Getting Started with Microsoft Visual Studio
• Basics of the AutoCAD .NET API
• Control the AutoCAD Environment
• Create and Edit AutoCAD Entities
• Dimensions and Tolerances
• Work in Three-Dimensional Space
• Define Layouts and Plot
• Use Events
• Develop Applications with VB.NET and C#
• VBA/VB to VB.NET and C# Comparison
• VBA to VB.NET and C# Comparison
• AutoCAD .NET Developer's Guide

Cheers,
Shaan

What I Did This Summer

As some may be aware I have been on sabbatical (aka vacation) for the past 6 weeks. A sabbatical is to refresh employees and have them come back with a renewed energy and creativity and earned for every 4 years working at Autodesk. It may sound silly but the 6 weeks actually went by very fast. I mainly had a “staycation” sticking around my house but did get away for some fishing, hiking, and a trip to Yellowstone National Park.

Below are just a few of my photos from my sabbatical with many more to process and post to my Flickr Photo Gallery.

    

Now it is time to get back in the saddle and get to work.

Cheers,
Shaan

Ask the AutoCAD Experts Guillermo Melantoni and Shaan Hurley on the AutoCAD Exchange

Yes AutoCAD masters (aka AutoCAD Ninjas) Guillerm Melantoni and myself will be taking and answering your questions this week on the AutoCAD Exchange. The AutoCAD Exchange is free with  simple signup. The benefits of AutoCAD Exchange are networking with fellow AutoCAD users, learning, and laughing.

AutoCAD Exchange: http://autocad.autodesk.com

Guillerm Melantoni and Shaan Hurley ‘s Blogs:
Between the Lines - Shaan Hurley
What a Mesh! - Guillermo Melantoni

Twitter:
Shaan Hurley @mrcadman

Ask The Experts your AutoCAD question  
Have a question?

Ask Experts: Guillerm Melantoni and Shaan Hurley July 27th - July 31st

AutoCAD Exchange Ask the Expert

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, and 3ds Max Supported on Apple Boot Camp

Autodesk has formally announced that we are officially supported Apple Boot Camp for Mac users for some 2010 products. Autodesk has tested and customers have been using many products on Apple Boot Camp for some time but now there is official product support for this environment. The support is currently for English language products. We have a growing Mac user community and are working to better support them by producing Mac-Compatible as well as Boot Camp-Supported products.

Autodesk Expands Support for Mac Users
www.autodesk.com/mac

Here is the currently list of supported products:

• AutoCAD® 2010
• Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2010
• Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2010
• AutoCAD® Inventor® Professional Suite 2010
• AutoCAD® Inventor™ Suite 2010
• Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2010
• Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2010
• Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2010

Apple® Boot Camp Support for AutoCAD® 2010

Apple® Boot Camp Support for Autodesk® 3ds Max®

Apple® Boot Camp Support for Autodesk® Inventor®

Apple® Boot Camp Support for Autodesk® Revit® Products

I am returning from vacation next week and really excited so be prepared for a flurry of activity.

Cheers,
Shaan (both Windows and a Mac user)

TeknoChronicles of Z Does BIM

The TeknoChronicles of Z Episode 7 “Sweatin' the Details” is now available on the AutoCAD Exchange.

“Uh oh. The zipper on TJ's TeknoTard is stuck. But Z is more focused on designing cool skyboxes for a new stadium. So of course, he's implemented a BIM process with Autodesk Revit at the core, and he's using AutoCAD to extend the power of BIM. Good for the stadium design. Bad for TJ. “

 

http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=humor

Another great feature of the AutoCAD Exchange is the Ask an Expert where you can ask questions to the weeks expert.

July 13 – 17th the featured AutoCAD Expert on AutoCAD Exchange the Expert will be Robert Bell.  Robert will be taking your AutoCAD questions.

AutoCAD Adware Details

Tom Stoeckel of Autodesk Product Support has detailed on the Without a Net blog a bogus AutoCAD ObjectARX application causing some problems for a few Chinese AutoCAD users. Malicious code writers are nothing new but just be cautious about the ObjectARX applications you download or use as well as most anything you download or install on your computers.

AutoCAD Adware Trojan

Experiment with Rendered Lighting in AutoCAD 2010

I have been experimenting with rendering on AutoCAD 2010 lately as it can be fun creating eye candy and thought I would share one experiment result.

In this experiment  I created a faux Las Vegas utra lounge design in 3D with AutoCAD 2010. For my custom light pipe floor lamps I created some vertical tubes made of plastic with a translucent helical orange plastic tube along the length then a base, lamp shade and a light illuminating from the top.  I was also kicking around the idea of the lamp shades shaped like mushrooms just to be even more Las Vegas or Alice in Wonder’ish.

 

Note: When rendering an intensely lit scene in presentation quality, it can raise the office temperature with your computer working hard to calculate all the lighting. ;-)

 

What was an interesting result to me was the spiral reflection patterns on the marble floor.

 

As Matt Murphy would say “wicked cool”.

Cheers,
Shaan