This months AutoCAD plugin of the month from the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) is the Layer Reporter which includes the plugin as well as the source code. You can export the report of layer properties to a web page, MHT and more.
This Layer Reporter plugin works with AutoCAD 2007 and later based applications .
Layer Reporter for AutoCAD This plugin can be used to generate a report of the layers used within an AutoCAD drawing. Make sure to review the ReadMe.txt file for details on how to install and use the plugin.
This Layer Reporter plugin was written by ADN member Terry Dotson, from DotSoft (http://www.dotsoft.com).
For the first time in 12 years I had to miss a day of AU and sessions, the AUGI meeting, a team dinner, photos, and of course the AUGI Beer Bust event. I awoke yesterday morning with a a bloody nose & ear, dizzy, and massive migraine. I was at the doctors for much of the day as I was diagnosed with dehydration and a bad sinus infection. I spent yesterday after returning from the doctor in bed on prescription antibiotics and headache medicine. I would have preferred to be at AU.
Below is a photo from Tuesday evening taken of the audience preparing to watch the private screening of the movie “Avatar” all decked out in 3D Glasses. I was blown away by the is movie in 3D as were most attendees. It was a serious 3D visual experience! I cannot wait until the movie is released publicly on December 16th. My jaw was literally dropped for the entire time and perhaps that is how I got so dehydrated.
I will be at the AutoCAD booth half of today and giving away goodies and playing “Hide & Geek”. At 5PM I will get my head shaved as promised for charity. Then the evening concludes with the Autodesk University 2009 party. I want to thank everyone who donated goodies to give away such as Techsmith with 10 seats of Camtasia which shares the common bind with AutoCAD as both products were launched in Las Vegas at Comdex events just different years as Camtasia just turned 10 and AutoCAD turned 27.
I want to sincerely thank my guardian angel Heidi for teaching my class at 5PM last night. All she asked for was my handout and PowerPoint and she did it. I guess this was karma and payback for when I taught an AU class back in 2000 in San Francisco with 5 minutes notice due to a sick presenter.
I have created a public Flickr group for AU2009 for sharing photos.(http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2009/) just like the previous public groups for AU 2008 and AU 2007. Flickr is free. Anyone is welcome to add AU2009 photos to the Flickr group as long as they are AU 2009 related and G rated only. You can get a free Flickr account if you wish to share photos with others or even keep them private if you prefer. It is even better if you can geotag your photos with their locations which Flickr allows you to do or if you have a GPS software to do this. Also I have my own Flick Photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/.
At the AUGI Annual Meeting the AutoCAD Top Ten Wish List was given from AUGI President Mark Kiker to Guri Stark VP, AutoCAD & Platform Solutions.
5. Fillet 3D Polylines The ability to fillet 3D Polylines Submitted By: Thien Nguyen
6. Control Mirroring of Text in Blocks Ability to control whether text/attributes are mirrored in blocks when the block is mirrored. Submitted By: Florian Stuckenberg
7. Create and Zip Complete Drawing Package The ability to create and zip a drawing package that includes multiple formats of same drawing (PDF, DWF) using eTransmit Submitted By: Neil Foden
9. Attributes Always Horizontal The ability to set an attribute relative to UCS regardless of the rotation of the block. Submitted By: Gunnar Jansson
10. Enable Renaming of Anonymous Blocks The ability to rename anonymous blocks in the properties dialog or quick properties dialog. Submitted By: David Henry
I am not one of those who believe the world is going to end in December 21, 2012. Some base their predictions of a doomsday event on the ancient Aztec and Mayan calendar sun stone such as the new movie 2010, and some on the web such as http://www.viewzone.com/endtime.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon. Personally I think it will be another non-event like the Y2k worries and I am comforted to know NASA feels the same about the topic.
The only event I can predict currently will be that Autodesk University 2009 will begin next week in Las Vegas.
Recently I had to get some stress and energy out on a Saturday night and decided to create a DWG of the calendar using Autodesk AutoCAD 2010. Originally I was using it as a good way to show how performance of AutoCAD 2010 hatching was improved. I stated with some rough geometry available on the web and then I developed the AutoCAD 2010 DWG file.
I am providing the AutoCAD 2010 DWG of the Sun Stone for those who want a copy for fun. I also posted the DWF on Autodesk Freewheel so you can view without installing AutoCAD or a DWF file viewer. View Here
I provided the simple version of my DWG with only two colors. If you come up with a great color scheme or 3D version for the Sun Stone email me an image. shaan@autodesk.com
OK so it is not a native Mac version of AutoCAD, but pretty close.
The new version of Parallels Desktop 5 for the Mac OSX has a new crystal view mode. This crystal view mode blurs the lines between Windows and Mac on your desktop as it shows none of the Windows OS UI. Parallels 5 also feels much faster than previous versions in my unscientific testing. Apple Bootcamp is still faster performance overall because it is running Windows natively, but you also must boot to Windows on your Mac with Bootcamp.
The sweet spot with Parallels Desktop is that I can run AutoCAD 2010 and other Windows applications on my Macbook Pro and still use my Finder or other Mac applications at the same time. In my case I had installed Parallels 5 on my Macbook Pro running OSX Snow Leopard and then installed AutoCAD 2010 on Microsoft Windows 7 running in the Parallels virtualized environment.
The AutoCAD Product Design Team would like to invite you to a series of special events during Autodesk University this year!
On Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd, the AutoCAD Product Design Team will be hosting special customer Discussion Forum sessions, as well as traditional annual “What is New in AutoCAD?- AutoCAD Sneak Peek & Test Drive” event. Please see below for more information and the sign up link. We hope you will be able to join us for one of them if you are planning to attend AU this year!
Discussion Forum: “Synergies and Advancements in Drafting and Modeling for AutoCAD"
In this focus group, participants will get a chance to talk about their needs for existing and new 2D drafting features and 3D modeling tools.
Designers will show some potential directions and share their ideas on new and advanced tools (e.g. Join/Fillets/ blend enhancements), new 2D geometry object types (e.g. “uber” unified 2D curve objects - Spline/Line/Pline/Arc - all in one), as well as 3D modeling tools (e.g. Space deformation tools/Bend/Twist etc).
Participants will get a chance to preview and provide feedback on 2D drafting and modeling tools including direct manipulation and modeling techniques.
Who Should Participate? AutoCAD users who currently work in 2D and are interested in advanced drafting; designers who are looking into moving to 3D modeling, and users of 3D features in AutoCAD and other applications – including surface modeling in Rhino, 3DS Max, and Maya.
Event: “What is New in AutoCAD? - AutoCAD Sneak Peek & Test Drive” Description:
In this session, participants will work individually on computers to "test drive" the new and exciting features in the upcoming AutoCAD release. This is an opportunity to learn about and provide feedback on the newest features, components, and user interface enhancements. Product designers and usability specialists will be available to answer your questions and discuss the features.
Who Should Participate? Intermediate or advanced AutoCAD users who use AutoCAD at least 20 hours a week for drafting, design, or modeling work.
All events will take place in the conference area in the Mandalay Bay hotel. Participants will receive a gift for their time.
How Do I Sign Up? To sign up, fill out this brief survey: Please indicate which sessions you are available to attend. You will be confirmed for at most one discussion forum and one test drive. The confirmation will include specific location, and an NDA will be required for all who attend. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions, email to: melissa.dawe@autodesk.com or elena.fadeeva@autodesk.com
Space is limited so sign up today! Please fill out the survey by Monday, November 16. We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!
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.
Here is a interesting project in the works in the labs, Alias Sketch for AutoCAD 2010. This is an AutoCAD add-on application for sketching and experimenting with creative concepts in AutoCAD. You may be aware of the great Autodesk SketchBook Pro product for both Mac and PC as well as the new SketchBook Mobile for the iPhone. which I have and love.
Now there is some work on an add-on to AutoCAD to add some of the Sketch features currently named “Alias Sketch for AutoCAD 2010”.
Illustrate with Alias Sketch
Use intuitive pen-based painting and drawing tools such as pencils, markers, and brushes to create and adapt raster images in AutoCAD paper space.
The Alias Sketch Workspace
The Alias Sketch workspace is comprised of a single tabs on the AutoCAD ribbon. Marking menus, tool palettes, color editors, and browsers provide access to all the features you need to create illustrations in paper space.
Use intuitive pen-based painting and drawing tools such as pencils, markers, and brushes to create and adapt raster images in AutoCAD paper space.
Layer and transformation features extend your power to explore and fine-tune your ideas. Display 3D objects as layers in an Alias Sketch raster image to trace or to provide rich composition possibilities.
Draw Freehand Illustrations
Create Concept Variations
Create Compositions with 3D Models
Trace 3D Models
Create Concept Walls
Annotate
Just a glimpse of the possible future with AutoCAD. If you are into Industrial Design, then I would recommend the Autodesk University 2009 90 minute class ID218-1 Taking 2D Beyond Documentation Description: Will explores creative methods that utilize Alias® Illustration functionality with AutoCAD® to extend documentation beyond technical drawings. Speaker: Paul Lebovitz Product Architect Autodesk
So if you use Photoshop® with AutoCAD®, this is the class for you!
Video: Subscription Advantage Pack ”See how easy it is to get exclusive benefits that provide early access to new product enhancements only for Subscription customers”
I love these tools, many have been requested by AUGI members and some have been seen in other Autodesk products such as the Create Selected which is also in AutoCAD Architecture. It is like a match properties to create a new object instead of just matching two objects. Also for many having the ability to send all text to the front and all hatches to the back is a huge TimeSaver. What you see in the Subscription Advantage Packs will be included in the future releases of the product so think of it as a sneak peek at some future functionality. There are many other Autodesk products with Subscription Advantage Packs now available so check out the Subscription Center. Some in other countries might have to wait a few weeks.
Have you ever double clicked on the Application Menu icon in the upper left expecting the menu to rollout, only to see the application close?
This is more common now that the application menu icon is a little bigger “Big Red A” in AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD 2010 as well as other Autodesk products. I did this once while on the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour.
Make sure to take your time when selecting the application menu icon and not get impatient and click it again causing a double click event and close the application. Patience is a virtue.
The official supported products for the new Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System announced today. I have been running most Autodesk products without a problem for many months now. There was also a new Project Cooper released.
Industry-Leading Design, Engineering and Entertainment Software to Be Compatible with Latest Windows Operating System
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, has announced support for Windows 7. Effective today, Autodesk will support customers using nine products including AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD LT 2010 and the Autodesk Inventor 2010 family of software, on Windows 7.
"Windows 7 was designed with the customer in mind," said Mark Relph, senior director for Windows Product Management at Microsoft Corp. "We are pleased to have the support of Autodesk to offer our mutual customers an easy way to do the things they want on a PC."
"Autodesk is committed to delivering software that meets and exceeds our customers' functionality requirements, while providing them the broadest possible choice of operating systems," said Chris Bradshaw, Autodesk chief marketing officer. "Autodesk and Microsoft share a goal of making the tasks our customers perform every day easier and faster. We look forward to extending support for Windows 7 across our portfolio so all our customers can benefit from the improvements in this robust new operating system."
Windows 7 offers many powerful new features and functionality that will benefit Autodesk customers, including full support for 64-bit computing, Windows search and improved performance. Multi-touch support has also become a core capability of Windows 7, and Autodesk is developing new software to take advantage of this technology. At the Windows 7 media launch event, Autodesk will demonstrate Project Cooper, a preview of new technology for simple drawing and drafting that has been engineered to take advantage of the multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7. The Autodesk Project Cooper Technology Preview is now available for free download at http://www.autodesk.com/projectcooper. “
Hide and isolate objects: A top AUGI request, AutoCAD users now have the ability to turn on and off objects regardless of layer. Because of this key timesaver, you no longer need to track down objects across many layers in order to hide information that isn’t relevant while you update a drawing. And you can quickly show or hide the objects again as needed.
Select Similar: Another top AUGI request, now you can save time selecting objects with similar properties (such as same layer or linetype, blocks or xrefs with same names, etc.).
Create Selected: With this new tool, you can quickly create a new object to your drawing based on the properties of another selected object, by matching the object type and properties.
Hatch to back: Another key AUGI request, this new capability makes it easier for you to select all hatches in a drawing, then send them to the back of the drawing, streamlining the process of working with hatches.
It should be a great event with Lynn Allen and myself showing AutoCAD based products and their new power as well as their interoperability with other Autodesk products. AutoCAD is not only a general purpose Swiss army knife of 2D but is also powerful in 3D which means AutoCAD is a 5D (2D +3D) CAD system! ;-)
We might even get blessed with the talent of DJ Robbie Rob aka Rob Cohee show up at the Boston event. Check out Rob’s latest work to highlight the new Subscription Advantage Pack for Autodesk Inventor 2010.
DJ Robbie Rob mixxes up a little ditty demonstrating the features and benefits of the Autodesk Inventor 2010 Subscription Advantage Pack. Key enhancements for our subscription customers include DWG... “
I have something special planned for this weeks events especially on Thursday the 22nd in Washington DC.
It has been a busy week of events for the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour. We started the week in Columbus Ohio, Montreal Quebec, and then snowy cold Edmonton Alberta. Next week I will be in Boston and Washington DC and hope to see you there.
While spending so much time in an airport or staring at the back of a airplane seat is not exciting, it is all worth it to meet customers and hearing what they like and don't like about our products. I was wearing a pink shirt in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month at the events as was colleague Lynn Allen.
AutoCAD Tip: Want to Move, Copy, and Scale multiple objects in AutoCAD? Try the AutoCAD Express Tool command MOCORO.
Odds & Ends
Some of the taste bud highlights from last weeks tour was the famous Graeters Ice Cream in Columbus and Molson’s Rickards Red Draft in Canada. I also replenished my stash of Canadian candies such as the Nestle Smarties and Aero bars.
Delta Airlines now has speedy WiFi on most flights! I love Delta.
Has anyone else noticed since the baggage fees started on airlines the dramatic rise in the size of bags being attempted to be carried onboard with passengers causing delays in flight departures?
If I were in airline marketing, I would see that any person identified as a frequent flier from another airline would get special attention on my airline's flights. I would make it my business to know who the passengers were on each flight and give a heads up to the flight crew. Opportunity walks and talks.
I have now been asked twice if I was the guy from the Dos Equis beer commercial. Must be my grey beard. I don't really look like this guy other than the gray hair and I am certainly not “the most interesting guy in the world”. It is odd as this is the third time I have been confused with a beer character.
The first was from a bottle of Rogue ale that was brought to AU 2006 by a customer to show me the likeness of me and the image on the bottle. At that AU I found the real doppelganger for that beer image, it was AutoCAD Plant 3D team’s own Peter Quinn. Then there was that time I was confused with former Budweiser beer commercial star Spuds MacKenzie but that's another long story I will save until a later date.
Had a great week with Lynn Allen, Heather, Lisa, many Autodesk partners, and hundreds of customers last week on the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour. We were in Orlando, Atlanta, and San Diego. I met a great amount of customers from single person design firms to some major cruise lines and movie studios using Autodesk products and looking to learn more. I covered a wide array of Autodesk products in the AutoCAD Family including AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD Architecture 2010, AutoCAD MEP 2010, AutoCAD Mechanical 2010, AutoCAD Plant 3D, and some future cool things like the upcoming Alias Sketch for AutoCAD.
The travel schedule was a little tight with the three events one after the other but we made it.
Sign up to attend the free events. Lynn Allen and myself will be winging around the North American continent in October.
The ending of the funny series started in March 2009 was so unexpected. Finally get to see TJ out of his blue latex suit.
“The TeknoChronicles of Z - Episode 10: Z End of Z Road Venturing out of his TeknoCave, Z is on a final mission to learn the true identity of Dome City's greatest villain. Will he finally uncover the truth about his bosses, his projects, and his use of AutoCAD to save the Fate of Humanity? Or is this the end of the road for our friend Z?”
Occasionally I will do a crazy file to beat an AutoCAD feature into submission or exercise boundary test cases and get rid of some energy. I had a little too much energy and fun last night. In this case it was Polylines and hatches. I finished this AutoCAD drawing at 4AM and not a single crash or performance hit.. Hatches are definitely improved in AutoCAD 2010 based products.
I obtained the rough geometry from a postscript file that was generated from an actual Aztec sunstone photo. I might as well have re-drawn from scratch as I had to edit all the geometry and then had to do all the hatching. I don't think I could have done this with any other product either illustration or CAD and so efficiently. I could also take this and make a 3D drawing and use the AutoCAD 2010 Feature to Print 3D to a physical object. Looks pretty cool to me. The original is a carving into a stone but, my version I did it as an inlaid wood style sculpture. When I really got into the geometry I was amazed at the complex geometry and creativity of this Aztec piece all while having a function of determining and tracking dates in Mexico and Central America.
“Xiuhpohualliis the Aztec year (xiuhitl) count (pohualli). One solar year consists of 360 named days and 5 nameless (nemontemi). The year was broken into 18 periods of twenty days each, sometimes compared to the Julian month”.
Apparently the Aztecs have been to the Autodesk University and over indulged in the AUGI Beer Bust.
Just doing final packing and preparation for the start of the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour. I will be traveling to warm Orlando Florida tomorrow and presenting there on Tuesday.
I am preparing for the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour next week kicking off in Orlando Florida along with Lynn Allen. This will be a nice weather change from the snow we got in Utah yesterday although the day prior was 90 degrees. We went from Summer to winter in under 12 hours.
In preparing I am also sharpening up my Autodesk product skills as I will be working and showing multiple AutoCAD based products during the event as well as other items. I did a fun design from my past, a 3D Heat Exchanger Tube Bundle in AutoCAD 2010.
Now back to my locked up dark cage to concentrate on preparing for the tour without being distracted.
My attention span is similar to Dug the Dog featured on the Disney/Pixar movie Up. “Hi there, my name is Dug... SQUIRRELL!”
Now you can run AutoCAD and other Autodesk software on a Mac and be officially supported by Autodesk for both Apple Bootcamp and the Parallels virtualized machine software.
“SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), a leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, and Parallels, a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software, announced that they have signed an agreement to make Parallels Desktop for Mac Autodesk's preferred Mac virtualization software.
Autodesk will now support use of AutoCAD software, AutoCAD LT software, Autodesk Inventor Professional software, Autodesk 3ds Max software, Autodesk 3ds Max Design software and the Autodesk Revit software platform for building information modeling (BIM) on Mac OS X via Parallels Desktop. Autodesk added official support for these products on the Mac via Boot Camp earlier this year.”
With the impending public release and launch of Microsoft’s latest Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 I have been receiving many emails about it and AutoCAD 2010 support. The Windows 7 Release To Manufacturing “RTM” build was made available for download to Microsoft partners and MSDN members, but the official public date for launch is October 22, 2009. We have been testing AutoCAD 2010 on Windows 7 and will release an official product support statement after the official public launch and testing has been completed.
I have been testing AutoCAD on Windows 7 since the early betas of Windows 7 without any major issues other than faster performance and increased stability.
Things are looking good so far, what is your experience? Any AutoCAD 2010 issues specific to Windows 7?
Autodesk is the leading cross discipline and industry software company covering a wide range from architecture to visualization including plant design. We released the AutoCAD P&ID a few years back, and now we have released our AutoCAD Plant 3D. I am of course referring to process plants such as oil, gas, power, food processing, and chemical plants, not plants in the sense of a garden. Those that know me may know I come from a piping and process equipment background and have designed many pressure vessels, heat exchangers, and routed piping in my days so AutoCAD Plant 3D is an exiting milestone to me. They also had the coolest tee-shirts given away at Autodesk University 2008.
Congratulations to Mark, Keshav, Peter, Ursula, Abel,Jeffrey,Damian, AJ, Partha, Katy, Bryan, and the many others who made this AutoCAD Plant 3D product a reality.
From the press release: “Built on the familiar AutoCAD platform, AutoCAD Plant 3D features specification-driven design and standard parts catalogs to help streamline the placement of piping, equipment, and support structures. Also included in the product is integrated AutoCAD P&ID functionality and quick generation of isometric and orthographic drawings. The new product joins AutoCAD, AutoCAD P&ID, and Autodesk Navisworks software products in a line-up of Autodesk products built specifically for the plant design and engineering industry. “
Sign up to attend the free events. Lynn Allen and myself will be winging around the North American continent in October.
I will be covering the AutoCAD Family of products such as AutoCAD Mechanical and AutoCAD Architecture with features and tips as well as a discussion on the possible future technology and trends. I have a bunch of content to fit in a 90 minute presentation making for a fun challenge. No fancy bus or stage roadies on this tour but should be fun.
I will also be lining up some customer and user group visits while on the tour so contact me if you want to meetup.
“Take a Journey through the AutoCAD Family of Products Shaan Hurley, Platform Technology Evangelist”
The Autodesk Labs is now posting free AutoCAD plugins and the code for those wanting to learn more on AutoCAD customization. In Kean’s first plugin of the month it is OffsetInXref, This AutoCAD plugin allows you to offset geometry contained in external references without first having to explode them. I will be talking about some of these examples during the See the Difference with AutoCAD 2010 Tour in October.
You can also learn more customization for AutoCAD from Kean’s posts and the available learning path for novice programmers. I truly believe that just by reading Kean’s blog you gain intelligence and higher IQ points. I also believe reading Kean’s writing can help you realize how poor you are at writing in comparison to his top writing, grammar, and punctuation skills.
Coming in October: Clipboard Manager for AutoCAD.
So if there is some plugin and code example you are looking for, just ask on Kean’s blog Through the Interface or email labs.plugins@autodesk.com with feedback or requests for enhancements.
Thank you Kean, the ADN (Autodesk Developer Network) and the Autodesk Labs Team!
My friend and coworker Guillermo Melantoni wrote a great blog post in June on modifying your AutoCAD UI colors. I have now saved a profile and workspace with these great colors. In Guillermo's post the settings to change in the Options dialog are listed and only take a minute to setup and then save a profile for using in the future.
A cool “cloud” project is available for testing from the fine folks in the Autodesk Labs. If you located within 1000 miles of San Francisco and have a high speed connection you can now trial Autodesk products such as:
The reason for the proximity to San Francisco and high speed Internet is to make sure you get the best possible experience and performance as we are testing this technology..
“Project Twitch! This project is testing remote delivery of our applications over the Internet. The goal of project Twitch is to enable you to test and try the latest versions of AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, and Maya without having to install or download the applications. These applications run remotely on our servers and are delivered to you over the Internet. You will use them in the same way that you would if they were on installed on your system.”
I have now been asked twice if I was the guy from the 
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