Between the Lines

Agile Customer Feedback Loop

Even though today is officially a day off for me, I am working to get all things ready for Autodesk University 2009 next week in Las Vegas.  I am at my downtown Salt Lake City office space at http://betaloftslc.com/ today.  There are a number of creative and smart people working here which makes it a fresh and intellectually stimulating environment. 

I was talking with a process and Agile software method expert Jeff Patton (http://www.agileproductdesign.com/)  who was sitting near me.  We had a great discussion on the topic of  User Experience “UX” and product design.  I have always wanted to know how Agile can be applied to product design, product development, and the user experience.

Having run Autodesk Beta programs for many years, the discussion steered into my favorite subject matter of customer involvement in the software development process.

My opinion is the customer should be involved from the concept and every point in between to the completion and shipping of the product which and then start over again to improve the next release of a product.  According to Jeff, I have always been an Agile process person without even being aware of it.

People that know me should be familiar with my quirky habit to come up with analogies. Sometimes the analogies are good ones, sometimes not so good.

 <Warning Shaan analogy coming…>
Think of the customer or end user being considered as a thread and must be involved consistently when sewing fabric along the entire length at regular intervals or the seam will not be strong or completed. The more threads in the stitch, the stronger and more successful the outcome (common sense required).  Requirements in a PRD & MRD can and will change between research and delivery to maintain the focus on  end user experience and the ever changing industries and market.

Never cut back on the required number of stitches, but you can adjust the fabric length. The key is to maintain and assure a quality product delivery with customers involved in the process so they get what they want and needed.

The same analogy can altered to be about laces on a shoe or football being vital to the quality of the product.

Bottom Line
Listen to & aim to delight the customers at every point of the process.

I like being a needle!
Shaan

AutoCAD Tip - Plot in Black and White ala Monochrome

So you want to take you multi-colored drawing and plot it in just black and white, but how?  This post is a direct result of a question I received from an attendee on the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour in October.

In AutoCAD when you go to the Plot command and enter the Plot dialog expand the Plot dialog.

 

Select the Monochrome plot style (ctb or stb). Now select Apply to the Layout and preview or Plot and you should should be good to go.

 

Cheers,
Shaan

Update 12-14-09: I was unaware that AutoCAD Architecture "ACA" did not contain the basic monochrome CTB plotstyle so I am posting it here on the post. Download Monochrome.

Update 12-15-09: There is a monochrome plot style in ACA just not too obvious. There is AIA Standard.ctb which happens to be monochrome.  Thanks Bill and Jeff.

AutoCAD 2009 Article - Much More to AutoCAD 2009 Than Meets the Eye

David Cohn published a new AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD LT 2009 article “Much More to AutoCAD 2009 Than Meets the Eye” in Desktop Engineering. It is a good and very well balanced article which points out there is more than the initial impression of the interface changes to AutoCAD 2009. David also wrote about the interface changes and that he preferred them, but you can customize and revert back to an older AutoCAD styled interface.

That is one of the strengths of AutoCAD in that you can customize it to your own needs and likes. We knew that if we were to develop the ribbon in AutoCAD that we would have to go above and beyond the ribbon in Microsoft's Office to make it customizable.

So with AutoCAD 2009 the tradition of make it your way and almost 3 ways to most anything continue to the delight of many.

Cheers,
Shaan

AUGIWorld Magazine September October 2008 Edition FREE and Available Now

The AUGIWorld magazine is just like AUGI membership, free and full of great benefits. The new issue is out and packed with wholesome goodness to assist you in your job using Autodesk products, These are fellow product users and volunteers for the most part creating this excellent magazine.

AUGIWorld magazine - September/October 2008 issue out now!

Thank you AUGI!

Cheers,
Shaan

Experience Building and Experience Manufacturing Magazine and Websites

Longtime CAD writer/press and quite the character Martyn Day alerted me on Facebook about one of his latest ventures.  The online site and magazine is Experience Building and Experience Manufacturing.

In addition to industry articles the site has live updated RSS feeds of some of the Autodesk blogs which is a bonus in my book. The site and magazine articles are refreshing new content, topics, and angles. I found some very well timed articles today that I had been researching so it was well worth the visit to the site. Give Martyn a click!

Next magazine editions are scheduled for September and October.

http://www.experiencebuilding.com/	http://www.experiencemanufacturing.com/

Well done Martyn!

Cheers,
Shaan

Great Example of AutoCAD and 3ds Max Used Together

Marcelo Eder Cunha an Architect from Brazil in a nice feature article in CGSociety describes his process for creating a architectural design for the cover of Ballistic Publishing’s ELEMENTAL3 “Homage to Sidonio Porto”.

Link to article from CGSociety

Parabéns a Marcelo!

Gold Mine of AutoCAD 2009 Resources

The AutoCAD User Assistance Team has published a  great deal of resources for customers to learn AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD LT 2009 documentation, features and techniques for all to benefit from.

• AutoCAD 2009 Tutorials
• AutoCAD 2009 Learning Resource Page
• AutoCAD LT 2009 Learning Resource Page
• AutoCAD 2009 New Features Workshop
• AutoCAD 2009 Documentation Page

Cheers,
Shaan

Matt Stein (aka Ribbon Man) on the AutoCAD 2009 Ribbon

Matt Stein is a senior product designer for the AutoCAD Team and was the key member of the AutoCAD 2009 User Interface “UI” redesign. Steve Johnson of Cadalyst Magazine (happy 25th anniversary by the way) is posting a two part interview with Matt on the what, where, and why of the new ribbon interface.

Although Steve is a wee bit set in his own past blogged opinions on the ribbon, he served up an unbiased line of questioning for Matt. Matt went in depth in the current part one of the article and it is a nice look inside the decision process and intentions of the ribbon.

Steve beat me to this as I had during the beta spoke with Matt about doing something along this line of under the hood of the ribbon and tips and tricks and making the leap. In the rush to take my sabbatical I left this on the back burner and luckily Steve had the same thought and has done a great job. Thanks Steve.

The cool thing about the ribbon is you can customize it more than the Microsoft Office 2007 ribbon and if you are not comfortable yet with the ribbon can change to the AutoCAD Classic Workspace to see a non ribbon AutoCAD 2009, but give the ribbon a chance as it will be a common Windows application UI for most applications and help unify Autodesk applications to look similar instead of dramatically different with each application. As with any Autodesk product if you want your input and be involved in helping to determine the future of Autodesk products, just sign up at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com and participate in projects, surveys, interviews, and betas.

The Ribbon Man, Part 1

Cheers,
Shaan
(today was my last day of sabbatical…)

 

If you like this post, please rate it a “beat” on the Novedge Pulse

 

Technorati Tags: AutoCAD 2009,AutoCAD,AutoCAD Ribbon,AutoCAD 2009 Ribbon,AutoCAD UI,UI,User Interface,Ribbon,XAML,Autodesk,Steve Johnson,Matt Stein,Product Design,User Interface Design,Cadalyst Magazine

AUGI HotNews - March 2008, No. 58 - AEC Edition Is Out!

Lots of great articles in this latest version and all for free just like AUGI membership and all the perks.

AUGI HotNews - March 15th, 2008

Some of the excellent articles:

The Price of "Free"
Studies have shown that people value what they pay for. But how do you reconcile that with the "free" nature of the Internet? Chris Lindner, AUGI President, ponders this in relation to AUGI.

Autodesk University 2008: Share Your Expertise

TIPniques: Design Review
Brian Benton reviews Autodesk's Design Review, a free, stand-alone product that can open, view, print, markup, and compare DWF files, and a lot more.

Your Toughest Users, Part 1
Every CAD manager must work with people. And sometimes, that's quite a challenge. Author Mark Kiker identifies some classic "troublesome" workers and offers advice on how to handle them.

AUGI CAD Camp - 2008 Events
The Spring/Summer AUGI CAD Camp schedule is set. Find out when this unique learning and networking event will come to your area.

AutoCAD 2008 Tips and Tricks by Lynn Allen

Local Flavor: Portland Revit User Group
Local Flavor interviews board members of the Portland Revit User Group. Here's what they do to engage local users and keep them coming back.

Autodesk Subscription Value

This blog article was submitted by Florida based AutoCAD user Brian Benton. Check out Brian's blog for more http://cadablog.blogspot.com/

How often do you (or the company you work for) update your AutoCAD software? How much does it cost? What are the benefits of upgrading? How difficult will it be for our users to upgrade?

These are but a few questions CAD Managers and IT Directors ask every March. Why? Because it is the time of year for the newness of spring, baseball, taxes (in the U.S. anyway) and the release of new Autodesk products! This year is no different. So, what are you going to do? If your company is considering upgrading to the latest release of design software from Autodesk, then may I suggest going with their subscription plan.

Let’s take a look at what it can offer you and your design team. In a nutshell, Autodesk subscription will provide a user with software updates, online training, web support and now even more (I’ll get into that later.) Don’t I get that without subscription? Not really. Without subscription you will pay full price for the software and then pay somebody else to train your users. If something goes wrong you will pay again to have it fixed. Where’s the fun in that?

The most obvious reason (and perhaps the most important) is that members of the subscription program will receive the latest updates to their subscribed software. Nice, real nice! Here’s how it works, again, in a nutshell. A user purchases a license of their favorite Autodesk product (AutoCAD, Civil3D, Revit, etc.) then purchases the subscription plan. During the length of that plan, if Autodesk releases a new release, then said user will receive it, at no additional cost. Since Autodesk has released a new version of most of their products every year since 2003, that has added up to huge savings for many users and companies. At the end of your subscription contract, just renew it. Of course the price of subscription is much lower than the price of the application, thus the savings. AND, if Autodesk decides to skip a year, you will still be saving. I suggest you take a look at Autodesk’s pricing to better understand this, but you will quickly see the financial benefits from subscription.

In the case that saving tons of cash were not reason enough to subscribe, Autodesk has added some additional carrots to sweeten the pot. Besides the automatic update of software, subscribers will also receive (I sound like a game show host-tell them what they’ve won Bob!!) direct one-on-one technical support from Autodesk (via web support); self paced e-learning lessons (to keep users up to date on the latest software); and extended licensing privileges.

All of these added benefits to subscription mean that you and your company will always have the latest software and the training needed to run it! If an issue pops up, just contact Autodesk via the web support. One more thing (as if cheaper, faster, and better wasn’t enough), Autodesk has added something to subscription available for the 2009 releases. Impression. Impression is a design document illustration software package. That’s a fancy way of saying that Impression will digitally render a drawing with the ability to make it look hand rendered. It was first released last year with great success. This year, Impression 2 will be available via a download to subscribers only!! For free! Anyone that is creating drawings and needs to better illustrate those drawings (better compared to 2D black and white prints) can, and should be using, use Impression. Go on and check it out before you buy, wait a minute, it’s free to subscribers!!

To wrap this up, Autodesk’s Subscription Program is a good deal. Users will get the latest software (at a better rate), free training, free tech support, free Impression, and even more. If you are looking at updating your Autodesk products, I suggest checking out their subscription plan before you buy.

AutoCAD Team Tip: Anatomy of an AutoCAD 2009 Tooltip

This AutoCAD Team Tip is from Randall "Randy" Young who is on the AutoCAD QA Team.

According to Wikipedia “The tooltip is a common graphical user interface element. It is used in conjunction with a cursor, usually a mouse pointer. The user hovers the cursor over an item, without clicking it, and a small box appears with supplementary information regarding the item being hovered over.”

AutoCAD has had tooltips for a long time, but very little ability to customize them. In the following article I will explain the new AutoCAD 2009 tooltips structure and explain how to make your own extended help tooltip.

Figure 1 - This is an example of the new command tooltips in AutoCAD 2009. (The content of the tooltip is derived from the CUI file, Name: Line, Description: Creates straight line segments, Command Display Name: LINE)

 

 

The new extended tooltips are a good way for cad managers to rollout new tools and information to users. These tooltips are displayed in the Ribbon, Menu Browser and on toolbars.

Figure 2 – This is an example of the new extended help tooltip that is displayed after hovering over the control for 2 seconds (by default 2 seconds and controlled in the Options dialog). The extended help tooltip content is stored in a .XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language; pronounced "zammel") file; the image is stored in any assigned directory and linked from the .XAML file.

 

The following procedure will help you create your own user extended tooltips. I will be using resources that ship in the 2009 release, but you can easily make your own by updating the file we create.

Step 1 – Creating the .XAML file that holds the tooltip information;

A. Create an empty file using Notepad (or your favorite editor), name it tooltips.xaml (you can save this file anywhere).

B. Copy and paste the following content into tooltips.xaml or Download tooltips.XAML.

<ResourceDictionary
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:src="clr-namespace:Autodesk.Windows;assembly=AdWindows">

<src:ProgressivePanel x:Key="MYEH_CMD_0001">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Background="White" TextAlignment="Left">
This is a picture of the bay, <Bold>wouldn't we all rather be here!</Bold>
</TextBlock>
<Image Source="C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2009\Sample\bay 6.jpg" Width="Auto" Height="Auto">
</Image>
</StackPanel>
</src:ProgressivePanel>

<src:ProgressivePanel x:Key="MYEH_CMD_0002">
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock Background="Yellow" TextAlignment="Left">
This is a same image from the
<Run Text=" VBA " Foreground="Red" FontStyle="Italic"/>  samples.
</TextBlock>
<Image Source="C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2009\Sample\VBA\2d Projected Polylines.jpg" Width="Auto" Height="Auto">
</Image>
</StackPanel>
</src:ProgressivePanel>
</ResourceDictionary>

Note: This XAML file is creating 2 custom tooltips using some images that ship with AutoCAD 2009.

Step 2 – Attaching the new extended tooltips to the command within AutoCAD;

A. Launch AutoCAD 2009

B. Type CUI in the command line to open the customized user interface

C. In the “Command List:” search for the command you want to attach the extended help to (for this example I am using “Line”) and select it.

Figure 3 – Is the CUI dialog with the new “nodes” that are used for the new tooltips. (Extended Help File is the one we need for this operation.)

D. Select the Edit Help File Node and click the ellipsis (…) button at the end of the row.

 

 

 

E. Navigate to the location of your tooltips.xaml file and select it and open.

Figure 4 – Is showing the list of extended help options that are located in the tooltips.xaml

Note: If you hover over it you will get a preview of the extended help tip.

F. Select the “MYEH_CMD_0001” and ok out of the Select Help ID dialog.

G. Apply and OK out of the CUI.

H. Now hover over the Line command in a toolbar, Ribbon, or Menu Browser.

Result: SHAZAM! You now have a new extended help tooltip.

Thank you Randy! Yes I do wish the tropical image was my view out my window.

Cheers,
Shaan

I Better Get Busy, I made the Autodesk.com Home page ;-)

I have been swamped with the Autodesk 2009 product line launches, the beta projects wrapping up on many of the products, took a week off and went hiking and shutterbugging in Southern Utah, and then I got sick. No time for any of that now that I have hit the big time with my blog being on the main page of Autodesk.com.

I have a few blog posts in draft I will finish up and get them online like the updated ShareNow utility from the Autodesk Labs. As you may have noticed I have been adding some guest articles and tips from fellow AutoCAD users to add more perspective and knowledge like the Layer Isolate tip from Michael Beall and I have a few more guest authors. If anyone else has tips and tricks to share with Between the Lines all you have to do is email me at shaan@autodesk.com.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD Rendering e-Book

Erhan Toker posted an 18 page detailed AutoCAD Rendering e-Book “Creating Render Materials in AutoCAD" from A to Z, for free on his Daily AutoCAD Blog. e-Book: Creating render materials in AutoCAD

Kudos and many thanks to both Erhan and Orhan for their excellent team in Turkey and all the knowledge they spread! The Daily AutoCAD blog is definitely a must subscribe RSS feed.

Round Two - More AutoCAD 2009, other Autodesk 2009 Product Links, and Autodesk World Press Day

I made it back from San Francisco for the Autodesk World Press Days but took 4 hours longer due to an engine not starting on the plane (commercial airline), then after an hour and a half of them working on it we took off headed for Salt Lake city only to circle for over an hour over the Western Utah desert while the Salt Lake City airport was closed due to heavy snow. While checking ion for the flight I was talking with a few people about my travel curse passed onto me by my former boss Shawn Gilmore. My travel curse has been fairly unique in many respects like North Korea firing misses over the China Sea while I was above, trapped in Queenstown New Zealand, luggage being lost and once right before meeting Autodesk founder John Walker in Switzerland, jets loss of fuel while over the Atlantic and an emergency landing in New York, computers stolen, police raid on a jet for a passenger smoking in the bathroom, several inches of snow in Tokyo before I landed and it does not snow there too often, stuck for 7 hours in custom while Brazilian customs agents went on strike, detained in Canada only to be told a few hours later "it must have been an American security database issue", Been in too many storm of the century examples like in Vancouver last year when it seemed the world and all trees were being rearranged and all power out and water contaminated, and many more unfortunately. People now ask me to email them before I travel to allow them to escape the region or avoid the same flights.

I had a few sessions and meetings yesterday. I had a good discussion with Ralph Grabowski, ran into Martyn Day for only a second but long enough to get his picture, attended a lunch presentation from an auto designer from China's NAC. On the way to the airport I shared a cab with a journalist and had a great discussion about the worlds eroding infrastructure such as bridges and utilities and how their continued lack of attention after construction will result in a poor future.

-

One thing I took away from the World Press Days that I was not really aware of was how critical NavisWorks was to the large projects  in the entire AEC Industry and BIM projects to save time, resources, and costs by showing a project in 4D where time is considered in the 3D project so you can plan project flow or all design data in 3D for collision detection and multi discipline coordination. NavisWorks was shown in most of the AEC presentations from large buildings and their piping or overall construction to the new span of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

Ok onto the links for 2009 and World Press Day Presentations:

Autodesk 2009 Product Links from Between the Lines by Shaan Hurley (me)

Some AutoCAD 2009 thoughts from Mistress of the Dorkness by Melanie (Stone) Perry

Introduction to the AutoCAD 2009 Ribbon from The CAD Geek by Donnie Gladfelter

AutoCAD 2009 - What's New... from CADit by John Benstead

The new AutoCAD 2009 Action Recorder for Valentines Day! from Lynn Allen's Blog by Lynn Allen

A Huge Weight is Lifted from Inside the System by Kyle Bernhardt

AutoCAD 2009… A closer look at the Action Recorder from Heidi Hewett's Blog by Heidi Hewitt

Autodesk Launches New Solutions for Building Information Modeling from BIM & BEAM by Nicolas Mangon

Streamlining Workflows in Utilities: Technology is No Longer the Excuse from Between the Poles by Geoff Zeiss

Autodesk World Press Days 2008 -- Day 2.75 from WorldCAD Access by Ralph Grabowski

Autodesk World Press Days 2008 -- Day 1.75 from WorldCAD Access by Ralph Grabowski

Autodesk World Press Days 2008 -- Day 1.5 from WorldCAD Access by Ralph Grabowski

Autodesk World Press Days 2008 -- Day 1 from WorldCAD Access by Ralph Grabowski

Autodesk Impression to be available to Subscription Customers from Victorian AutoCAD Users Group by Peter Godfrey

New Navigation Tools - Revit 2009 from Revit OpEd by Steve

AutoCAD Architecture 2009 from Knowing What You Don't Know About CAD by Mike Massey

Bloggers -- Kids in the Candy Store from CAD Insider by Roopinder Tara

Journalists and Bloggers-- Old School Meets New School from CAD Insider by Roopinder Tara

Automated Keynoting in Autodesk Revit from Breaking Down the Walls by Matt Dillon

AutoCAD 2009 - Action Recorder from Blog da CADKlein in Portuguese by Luciana Klein

Cheers,
Shaan

Nice WIRED Article on Jos Stam of the Autodesk Maya Team

The Software That Will Take Digital F/X to the Next Level of Awesome

By Michael Behar WIRED MAGAZINE: ISSUE 16.01

     If you are into computer generated graphics and effects like those in major motion pictures then this article about one of the special effects rocket scientists might interest you. Jos Stam has been working on Maya render modules like Nucleus. Jos explains he could do 7D instead of just 3D.

 

Technorati Tags: Maya, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk, Fx, Jos Stam, Toronto, Nucleus, 3D, WIRED, Movie Effects

"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

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?

AutoCAD Guru Jimmy Bergmark Interviewed by NOVEDGE the blog

Jimmy Bergmark is definitely an AutoCAD Guru. When I first met Jimmy online years ago I often wondered if he slept as I could email him at any time of the day and he would reply in about 30 minutes from Sweden. I envisioned he had some sort of email alarm that would awaken him.

I love one his quotes  "if AutoCAD hadn’t evolving in this good way I don’t think I still used it as much as I do"

Thanks for mentioning the http://myfeedback.autodesk.com where others can help shape the future of Autodesk products. It wont be much longer and we will be launching the MyFeedback Community 2.0.

Read the good interview of Jimmy by Franco Folini of NOVEDGE.

An Interview with Jimmy Bergmark, AutoCAD Guru

 

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD 2008 Excel, Tables, and Magic

I received an email from a person who was upset that each time he pasted his Microsoft Excel spreadsheet into an AutoCAD drawing and after he rotated the drawing and plotted (printed) it out, the spreadsheet in the drawing would plot out upside down. I called the person to get all the details and then provided the solutions to his problems and told him I would post something on the blog. This is just one of the pains of using Windows OLE object pasting. This is not just limited to causing pain for AutoCAD users but many other applications that use OLE objects although they have got better over the years there is still pain and much better methods.

Here are a few AutoCAD knowledge base solutions explaining OLE.

• Rotating OLE objects
• Microsoft® Excel OLE not updated when columns or rows added
• Some OLE objects do not plot
• XCLIP has no effect on OLE objects in external reference
• Importing Excel spreadsheet tables into AutoCAD®-based products
• Cannot open AutoCAD® objects linked or embedded in Microsoft® Word document

Most know or should know that you should only use the OLE when absolutely nothing else is available to accomplish it. For example never paste an image into a drawing, instead use IMAGE>INSERT. For Excel for a few AutoCAD releases you could always copy the Excel spreadsheet data, then in AutoCAD use Paste Special>as AutoCAD Object which results in a native AutoCAD Table object being created in the drawing and not the OLE. The Paste Special as AutoCAD Object even creates the Excel formulas for the cells and preserves most of the formatting. Now in AutoCAD 2008 the data linking is bi-directional so you can update whether the data in the AutoCAD Table and the Excel spreadsheet will update or when the Excel Spreadsheet is updated you will get a notification that the Tables needs to be updated and then it will do it for you. 

Imagine having a complicated spreadsheet you use for design such as calculating the thickness of parts or pounds of material required and calculated live in the drawing. You could even place an AutoCAD Field object in the Table cell which would allow you to link the Table cell data value to objects in the drawing and having that linked with a spreadsheet for others to use and all updated. You could total data based on objects in the drawing or perform design calculations. Pretty cool and useful stuff we used to manage manually and take a lot more time and cause more possibility for errors.

I was going to write a tutorial on this but found there are many excellent examples out there by fellow bloggers so I will just provide the links to those.

Give it a try and spread the knowledge to others.

• One excellent tutorial is on the CAD GEEK Blog by Donnie Gladfelter. Quickly Link Excel Tables to AutoCAD
• AutoCAD 2008 Screencast that includes detailed tutorials of tips including the new Tables functionality I mentioned AutoCAD 2008 Tips and Tricks
• Lynn Allen's Blog: Exporting those Cool AutoCAD Tables
• An AutoCAD (and Excel) Hip Tip on AutoFill
• Heidi Hewett's Blog: Tables in AutoCAD 2008
• Heidi Hewett's Blog: Table Datalinking in AutoCAD 2008
• JTB World Blog: How to link information from tables in AutoCAD
• Through the Interface: Embedding fields in an AutoCAD table using .NET

AutoCAD 2008 Productivity Study Report from Cambashi Published

There is more to performance and productivity than timing whether one command is .0002 or .00012 seconds long and that is productivity of tasks you perform using the software. Think about it for a minute, simple things right-click and or middle wheel functionality and how you could not work the same speed without them now as is the case for me when going back to play with AutoCAD R14 that has no middle wheel mouse functionality to double click zoom extents. There are many features in the past releases up to AutoCAD 2008 that streamlined the work flow and process to have a net increase in productivity ala do more in less.

The findings from independent and well respected industry research firm Cambashi:

• AutoCAD 2008 is significantly more productive. On average, architects using 2008 completed the exercise 26% faster than those using 2005.

• Training makes all the difference – AutoCAD 2008 users who invested time in a short period of training were substantially faster.

Download AutoCAD08_Productivity_White_Paper_Final.pdf

Schlitterbahn Waterpark and my Ramblings on Design

Saw this today on the travel channel while just relaxing and got hooked. They showed the South Padre Island Texas water park Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark (36 acres) and the water rides as well as behind the scenes. They also showed AutoCAD being used by the the company NBGS (Jeff and Gary Henry). The cable television program was 1 hour long and really was interesting not like a advertisement it was all about the rides, the design and stats.

The Schlitterbahn Boogie Bahn 2 sheet wave was amazing and said to be the largest manmade surf wave in the US and holds a competition of surfers each year. The sheet wave is a custom designed structure and uses technology from Autodesk Inventor using firm FlowRider by Wave Loch.There was also the Master Blaster which you ride in a inflatable raft vehicle down a large structure at almost 20 mph. They use an ingenious water jet system to propel you even uphill up to 50 feet.This is all tempting me to take a vacation down to South Padre as I just scheduled a sabbatical for this August and will be looking for fun distractions. I also saw that you don't have to stand in lines as most water feature lines are kept in the water to keep you cool. That sure would make for an awesome day but you may end up with pruned fingers and a sunburn.

DESIGN

You might be surprised to know many of the rides around the world such as water rides, roller coasters, ferris wheels, bungee towers, or other amusement and theme park ride and structures may have most likely been designed using Autodesk products such as AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Autodesk Inventor, Maya, etc. I have spoken with many designers over the past years including many designers that design coasters and waterparks around the world and use Autodesk products like AutoCAD. One of the worlds most famous and innovative coaster design firms (and featured an another TV channel I love to watch the Discovery Channel) is located here in Utah and designed one of the first roller coaster cork screw featuring rides. Although most old school coaster designers used string or wire to first model the features then a pencil, many today use software. There is also Water Technology of Beaver Dam Wisconsin (hi Joel)designing water parks with Autodesk products including the new Autodesk Impression. David Harrington a former Autodesk Users Group International "AUGI" Top DAUG and AUGI President worked on the design for the Disney MGM Studios Aerosmith themed coaster Rock 'n Roller Coaster in AutoCAD, see this in the Autodesk Freewheel Examples.

Check out the coaster and water park design related links

• Waterparks -Wikipedia
• Discovery Channel Build a Coaster
• The Ultimate Roller Coaster Contest--Physical Science/Mathematics
• Roller coasters - Wikipedia
• Dream Job: Roller Coaster Designer

This is not a marketing or sales advertisement, I am just a design junkie at heart, and appreciate and am passionate about design.

Many times I find myself missing being a full time mechanical designer like I was 10 years ago. There is nothing like designing a product and seeing it from conception to completion and functioning. I am so envious of Autodesk customers and the products they design and build every day in the world.

I may not always be an Autodesk employee, but I will always be a designer. - Shaan

Got a cool project or design that might spark a young person to choose a science or engineering career, please email me at shaan@autodesk.com. It is important to excite young people on how cool design and engineering careers are.

More AutoCAD Troubleshooting Guides for Download

Printing and Plotting Troubleshooting Guide This guide provides a collection of solutions that are useful for troubleshooting common printing and plotting issues that occur with Autodesk products.

Video Card Configuration Troubleshooting Guide You want to determine whether the stability issues your AutoCAD vertical product is experiencing are due to your system's video card or the drivers associated with it.

Configuration Troubleshooting Guide This guide offers troubleshooting advice for a successful configuration of Autodesk products.

On an unrelated matter: I am still on my fitness kick having been exercising regularly for 3 months and only 3 sodas in 3 months when I used to have 3 sodas before noon. This was all thanks to my best friends encouragement when we were in Costa Rica in February.

 

Technorati tags: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, AutoCAD Printing, AutoCAD Video Card, AutoCAD troubleshooting, Autodesk

AutoCAD 2008 DXF Reference - free download

A whopping 287 pages full of DXF Geek filled fun on the Autodesk DXF (Drawing eXchange Format) structure to allow the exchange of AutoCAD data with other products. I can almost hear the DXF geeks squealing outloud at the fun topics like "Persistent Inter-Object Reference Handles", "Arbitrary Axis Algorithm" and the ever popular "Group Codes". I hear some saying "but DXF files are larger and slower than the DWG", this is true of most any ASCII based file format compared to its binary sibling just look at XML or many other human readable formats compared to binary files. The nice part about a DXF file is that it allows exchange to other systems, programming, or data parsing all in a documented exchange format. DXF has been a good method for over 20 years now.

 

AutoCAD 2008 DXF v.u.22.1.01 PDF 1.80 MB
More documented DXF versions HERE

 

Technorati tags: Autodesk, DXF, AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, CAD, DWG

New AutoCAD Knowledge Base Documents Posted

Quite a few helpful AutoCAD Install and Deployment related Knowledge Base articles were just published. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for Knowledge Base articles at: What's RSS?

Best practices for network deployment creation
You would like to know what the best practices are for a successful Network Deployment.

Best practices for stand-alone installation
You experienced issues with your stand-alone installation, and you want to know what the best practices are in order to ensure a successful installation.

Stand-Alone Installation Troubleshooting Guide
This guide offers troubleshooting advice for a successful stand-alone installation of Autodesk products.

Installation Troubleshooting Guides
A successful installation of Autodesk products requires careful planning and execution.

Network Deployment Troubleshooting Guide
This guide offers troubleshooting advice for a successful network deployment of Autodesk products.

Questions and answers about Windows Vista and Autodesk products
You want to know more about Windows Vista and Autodesk products.

Updating the Windows operating system
You want to ensure that your Windows operating system is up-to-date, so that the Autodesk Licensing components can function properly.

Cannot obtain a product license
You are unable to obtain a license from the Autodesk Network License Manager to run your Autodesk product.

Cannot obtain a stand-alone license or activate the product
You are using a stand-alone version of an Autodesk product, but you are unable to obtain a license from the Autodesk servers in order to run the product.

Diagnostic test for client computer experiencing network licensing errors
You unable to obtain a license from the Autodesk Network License Manager server, and you want to perform diagnostics tests on the client computers.

Diagnostic test for server experiencing network licensing errors
You are unable to obtain a license from the Autodesk Network License Manager server, and you want to perform diagnostic tests on the server.

Enabling verbose logging for installation issues
You are experiencing problems with the installation of an Autodesk product, and you want to enable verbose logs in order to troubleshoot the issue or submit the log files to the Autodesk Product Support Team.

Firewalls and licensing issues
You received a licensing error, and you want to turn off your computer's firewall to determine whether it is blocking access to the server that issues licenses for this product.

Logging a Licensing Service Request with Autodesk
You have worked though the standard troubleshooting steps without resolving the issue you are experiencing, and you want to know how to log a Service Request with Autodesk or your reseller to resolve this issue.

Retrieving information about a client computer experiencing licensing issues
You want to gather more information from your Workstation exhibiting a licensing issue for diagnosis or submission to Autodesk.

Retrieving information about a server experiencing licensing issues
You want to gather more information from your server exhibiting a licensing issue for diagnosis or submission to Autodesk.

Retrieving installation error codes and information from standard log files
You are experiencing problems with the installation of an Autodesk product, and you want to gather more information in order to troubleshoot the issue or to submit the data to the Autodesk Product Support Team.

You can find other Autodesk product Knowledge Base RSS feeds or details by selecting the product from http://www.autodesk.com/support

Technorati tags: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, Autodesk, AutoCAD Network, Deployment, AutoCAD License, Autodesk Support, AutoCAD Support, RSS, AutoCAD Best Practices, AutoCAD Install, Windows, Windows Vista, AutoCAD Troubleshooting, Firewall

del.icio.us tags: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, Autodesk, AutoCAD Network, Deployment, AutoCAD License, Autodesk Support, AutoCAD Support, RSS, AutoCAD Best Practices, AutoCAD Install, Windows, Windows Vista, AutoCAD Troubleshooting, Firewall

AutoCAD 2008: Multiple Column Mtext Exercise

 

AutoCAD 2008 has a new Mtext feature to allow the creation and editing of multiple Mtext columns.

Files required for this exercise:
Floor_Plan.dwg
General Notes.doc

Create an MTEXT object in the lower right box of the drawing.

Copy and paste the text from the ”General Notes.doc” file to the MTEXT object.

Locate the Columns button in the Text Formatting toolbar (In-Place Editor) and select Dynamic Columns mode>manual height.
Click OK on the Mtext toolbar.

 
Change the text into two columns utilizing the grip at the bottom-center of the MTEXT object.

And there you have it, Multiple Text Columns now in AutoCAD.

Completed DWG with Multiple Column Mtext

Quick Video

Cheers,
Shaan

Technorati tags: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, Mtext, Autodesk, CAD

del.icio.us tags: AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2008, Mtext, Autodesk, CAD