Between the Lines

Vote for AU 2009 Sessions!

Hopefully you got your Autodesk University 2009 session proposals submitted by this last weekends deadline if not there is always next year. There were more proposals this year to review than for last years AU 2008.

Now is the time to go vote for the sessions you want for AU from the many submitted proposals. There are some really great proposals!

If you are considering attending AU 2009, please take a few minutes to vote for those sessions that you absolutely want to see. Your votes will help us select not only the best sessions, but will also give us some insight into the most popular ones to help us schedule them at the best times and locations.

How to Vote
To vote for sessions, go to the Autodesk University Session Selection page and log in using your AU Online username and password. If you do not have an AU Online account, it only takes 15 seconds to register as an AU Online member .

The voting deadline is Friday, May 8 at midnight PDT.

There are only 210 day until Autodesk University 2009 (5028 hours, 23 minutes ,35 seconds).

Autodesk University 2009 Class Proposals Deadline – One Week Left

The Autodesk University 2009 (http://au.autodesk.com/) class proposals submission deadline is end of the month April 30th, 2009, so you had better hurry. There is not only the benefit of getting exposure to your peers as a AU speaker but you get paid. Autodesk University 2009 will be held in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay December 1-4th 2009.

Autodesk University 2009 Call for Proposals

AU08 Shutterbugs - Valley of Fire

This is a 360 degree QuickTime/Flash Panoramic photo taken by Mark Banas at AU 2008. This is a group of us that gathered as the AU 2008 Shutterbugs. In the photo are Mark Banas, Chris Hall, Sean Twomey, and me, The location was Northeast of Las Vegas in the desert about 15 miles from the Valley of Fire (36°8'46"N, 114°51'36"W). We wanted to shoot a photo within Valley of Fire park but the sunset came too early as we were returning from the Hoover dam so we rushed up a hill near the road.

AU08 Shutterbugs - Valley of Fire

• More AU 2008 Shutterbug photos
• Autodesk University 2008 Flickr photo set

Yes we will be doing this fun gathering of Shutterbugs again for Autodesk University 2009. More specifics will be posted to this blog as we get closer to AU 2009 (#AU2009) planned for December 2009 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas Nevada. We will have a more formal agenda and I am working on some special VIP locations for shutterbugs.

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk University 2009 Call for Class Proposals

If you want to teach a class or lab session on any Autodesk product at Autodesk University 2009, now is your time to get your overview paper on your proposed class submitted.

Call for AU 2009 Proposals Open until April 30, 2009. Submit today!

Yes it is time to begin thinking about AU again and this year it will be held in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. This is the top multi industry design professional training and networking event! In addition to great classes and meeting top peers in your industry there is quite a bit of fun to balance out things out.There is a photo gallery from Autodesk University 2008 Flickr photo set to see some of the fun and photos of this large event.

I hope to see you at AU!
Shaan

My AU2008 Podcast on Shaping the Future of Autodesk Products

I knew I should have done the interview at Autodesk University earlier in the week after more sleep and before starting to lose my voice. Talk to Us! 

 

Guri Stark’s podcast was also just released “Keeping AutoCAD Fresh, Cool, and Relevant”

Cheers,
Shaan

2008 What a Year

I am in my final week of holiday vacation (all of Autodesk is) as well as the last Monday of the year 2008. What better time to reflect on the year. There were many highs and lows for 2008 in my life I thought I would mention a few.

The year was filled with travel to visit friends, Autodesk product user groups, and customers around the world including the countries of Brazil, China, Kuwait, Turkey, Kuwait, and UAE in addition to all over the North America. I now have a full passport and need to get new pages added or I will be left unable to travel Internationally. I really enjoy speaking with users of Autodesk software around the world and learning how they use the software and what they design.

Other highlights in no particular order:

• Getting milk and cookies in my room from the AU2008 Team.
• Meeting  celebrity Autodesk customers Jay Leno and Eddie Paul.
• Attended and presented at 3 Autodesk Universities this year China, Japan, and Las Vegas. This makes the total AU events I have attended 14.
• The First Blogger Social at AU2008 was a success and will be even bigger and better next year.
• Traveled with the Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture for a year including a visit with entertainer Jay Leno and then gave it to the real Matt Murphy at AU2008.
• Made so many new friends around the world.
• Presented at FOCUS Kuwait, and over 500 people attended. Thank you Binu!
• Presented in Istanbul, and while in Turkey I visited Cappadocia and experienced the wonderful food, people, and scenery. Thank you to my 3 Turkish friends Can, Orhan, and Erhan of the Daily AutoCAD Blog!
• Had a great time with members of AUGI Japan in Yokohama Japan and a spectacular trip to Kamakura with a traditional Japanese lunch included.
• Meeting the Techsmith Team who develop the two software tools I have used almost daily for 12 years.
• I continue to work with some of the smartest and most creative people in the design and visualization industry. This is not a suck up, it is absolutely true. My success is directly related to those that design, develop, test Autodesk software as well as the awesome customers that design amazing things using our software.
• 2008 was the 10th year anniversary of me working for Autodesk and since I left a mechanical design seat out there in the design world. I received my gold badge.
• Received the top hit count and visitors of any Autodesk blog, and many Autodesk web sites. This blog celebrated 5 years and had 312 posts this year and millions of readers by both web and RSS. Thank You!
• Got the additional Autodesk title of Platform Technology Evangelist which is a fancy title for a geek.
• There are so many design related blogs and the number of Autodesk product blogs continues to climb.
• My oldest son started college.

Lows of the year:

• In November I had a blast, literally when my gas fireplace malfunctioned and blew up with me in front of it.
• Rough personal start to 2008 but after many trips hiking in the deserts of Arizona and Utah got things all worked out. The desert and hiking is one of the most therapeutic environments to get a clear head and to think.
• I still have many photos to process and publish.

As I spend the remaining few days of 2008 on holiday, I am spending that priceless time relaxing with my family as well as some fun with the kids sledding on the large amount of snow we received here in Northern Utah.

  

Have a very happy and safe New Years,
Shaan

Autodesk University in Photos

In the Flickr AU 2008 photo pool there are now 383 photos. It could grow even more as people add their photos from AU to the pool. Flickr is free unless you want the Pro membership. So share your AU 2008 photos with others by adding yours to Flickr and the AU2008 Photo pool.

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk Shows Inventor Fusion at AU2008

Being from a mechanical background before coming to Autodesk, and having been an Autodesk Inventor user since before release 1, this was one of the coolest technologies I saw at Autodesk University 2008.  It was the Inventor Fusion technology from our Manufacturing division at Autodesk.

I was wandering the AU exhibit hall and saw Autodesk’s Kevin Schneider in an Autodesk Labs booth demoing something I had not seen before, so I stopped and watched. It had everyone’s eyes at the booth and in some cases jaws were dropped. It was very cool technology, exciting, and innovative. It permits the parametric modeling (history based) modeling available with Autodesk Inventor to work with the direct editing (history free) of Inventor Fusion. You are not locked into one methodology of parametric or direct editing for a project and can use either based on the tasks at hand and combine the design data, the proverbial best of both worlds.

The User Interface “UI” is new and showcases many new concepts based on customer research. The technology appeared to be presenting options based on the task and there appeared to be some predictive choices based on contextual next step/options for the selected feature. You could work all without using dialogs or the ribbon menu.

The demo of Inventor Fusion was very powerful and it will be exciting to see the industry and peoples reaction when a technology preview is available for download.

 

Check out the videos and details http://www.inventorfusion.com/

Cheers,
Shaan

Run AutoCAD on a Mac

It’s official, with the latest Mac laptops I have caught the Mac hardware envy bug. The only problem is I have a PC for now and no personal extra hardware budget available currently or I would be posting this via Apple hardware.  So with the deck stacked against my getting Apple hardware in the near future, I can only admire from afar, test one occasionally, and work with teams using Macs within Autodesk. I have also asked Santa for a Mac, but no official response from him or any elves. So Mac fans, I see what you have been buzzing about. I would really like to be a multi-OS user with the benefit of multiple platforms and running all on a stylish cutting edge designed hardware.

One common question on this blog, emails, and in person is “Will AutoCAD run on a Mac". The short answer is Yes.

Currently at Autodesk we have tested AutoCAD 2007, 2008, and 2009 on the Mac in Apple Bootcamp and virtualized solutions VMWare Fusion, and Parallels Desktop. AutoCAD is not officially supported on the Mac, but works just fine as have other Autodesk Windows based products like Revit and 3ds max. We have found a software activation issue but in all cases we have researched it is related to an external hard drive causing a conflict with the licensing. If you are having issues locking your activations, and are running an external hard drive, try booting up with the drive off or unplugged then add it back later and see if that resolves the issue.

We showed AutoCAD 2009 running on a Mac using VMWare Fusion last week at Autodesk University 2008 in the General Design booth. It caused a bit of a stir from people passing by as they are not used to seeing AutoCAD and a Mac in the same sentence although Autodesk does develop several popular native Mac based applications like Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, and others.

Apple Bootcamp runs AutoCAD much faster but there is a downside in that you have to boot to it. Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion can run AutoCAD on the OSX desktop in a window.

I spotted fellow Autodesk employees “deskers” like Tom Stoeckel using a Mac at Autodesk University 2008  a little over a week ago.

As for a official Autodesk support of virtualized AutoCAD or a native Mac based AutoCAD, only time will tell and ever journey begins with a small step forward. There has been a great deal of research and discussions about the Mac and AutoCAD, but it is no simple change or effort. Virtualized solutions offer about the same benefits with a lot less effort.

So yes, you can run AutoCAD on the Mac and get about the same or better performance depending on your stylish Apple hardware.

Update 12/17/08  The VMware Fusion Team noticed this blog post, and liked it.
Autodesk Loves VMware Fusion: AutoCAD on the Mac. I found their post the same way they found my blog post “Run AutoCAD on a Mac” using the Google Alerts feature.

Best Regards,
Shaan

AU Online Updated

I just noticed the new and updated AU Online is now live and appears to have the Autodesk University 2008 content including the recordings of the keynotes and some classes. All seems to be functioning <knock on wood> and there is quite a bit of content available after only just a couple days since AU ended. They were much faster than even me getting all my photos downloaded from my camera let alone published online.

Kudos to the AU Team for another great AU and the quick AU2008 content turnaround!

If you get a chance this week, check it out. http://au.autodesk.com 

Also check out the AU Blog BLAUG.

Autodesk University 2008 Reflections

Now with Autodesk University 2008 (AU2008) behind us and many of us now back home or back at work,  I thought I would link to some of the blog posts, photos, and videos from attendees. I still am going through the gigs of AU2008 photos and videos that I have not published yet.

A sampling of blog posts in no particular order:

• AU Daily AU 2008 Conference Coverage
• Autodesk University 2008 - The rest of the trip
• Autodesk University 2008: Digital Prototyping demo video
• Between the Lines: AU2008 Wednesday - AutoCAD Wish List
• Dave Graveline "Into Tomorrow" Interview from Autodesk University
• AU 2008-First Official Day Review
• Autodesk University: Opening Session
• CADDHELP: Into Tomorrow at AU2008
• VerySpatial » AVSP Roadshow - AU2008 Day 2
• David Fano, Craig Barbieri and Henry Goeke Win First 3D Autodesk ...
• Autodesk University 2008: Burt Rutan on innovation.
• AU2008 Day 2: Not So Live
• Sustainable Design Enrolls at Autodesk University
• Autodesk University 2008: Top DAUG, Top 10 Finalists
• Tampa Bay Autodesk User Group: Well AU2008 is over.
• AU2008 - Registration on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
• Scenes from Autodesk University 2008
• Revit: AU2008 is over
• News from AU2008 Subscription Breakfast
• IMAGINiT Connects You to AU2008 Via Your Desktop
• #AU2008
• Autodesk University 2008 - Las Vegas
• Autodesk University 2008 - Day Four
• Autodesk University 2008: Getting schooled.
• Autodesk University 2008: Cintiq + AliasStudio = rad.
• AU As It Is
• Autodesk University 2008: Gray Holland on "Industrial Design 101,"...
• Autodesk University 2008: Cabbages, pumpkins and crumpled paper ...
• blads blog: The excitement is building... AU2008 draws near...
• AU 2008 tweets for 2008-12-04 | The CAD Geek Blog
• Live from AU2008: Day 2: WOW -
• Beyond the Paper: ADR Subject Matter Classes @ AU2008
• AU2008 | CAD Panacea
• un-conference encore – au2008
• AU2008 - Tuesday Part 1
• AU2008 Tuesday Part 2
• Between the Lines: Autodesk University 2008 is Over
• Autodesk University 2008: Digital Prototyping demo video - taccato ...
• AU2008: Future Tech and the Next Inventor UI?
• CAD at the Venetian Resort
• Heidi Hewett's Blog: Scenes from Autodesk University 2008
• It is Alive in the Lab: Autodesk Research Microsoft Surface at ...
• » Dispatches from Autodesk University 2008: Day One Kenneth Wong ...
• Dispatches from Autodesk University 2008: Day Two
• News from the "Real World": Autodesk University 2008: The Lenovo W700
• Autodesk University 2008: Last Day!
• The Dirt: Dave Graveline "Into Tomorrow" Interview from Autodesk ...
• AU Design Slam and 3ds Max Video of How I Built the Bridge ...
• 3D Autodesk University Design Slam Contest
• { design@tive } information design » Blog Archive » Autodesk ...
• CAD News Daily - 4 December 2008 edition
• VerySpatial » Autodesk University ‘08 in photos
• Autodesk University 2008: AU 2008 First day
• Sharks, Robots and Cars: Just a Glimpse of Autodesk University ...
• In the Pipes: Autodesk University - Day 1
• CADman-Do: Greetings from Autodesk University
• Lazy Drafter » Autodesk University - Party & Design Slam
• CADptbr - Falando sobre\Talking about CAD + GIS + 3D ...por\by ...
• Crossing The Line with Civil 3D: AU 2008: Class Day 1
• Autodesk University : Autodesk University Blog (BLAUG)
• Sustainable Design Enrolls at Autodesk University | GreenerDesign
• Autodesk University 2008: Getting schooled, part 2.
• Through the Interface: The last night at AU
• Autodesk University 2008 is here!
• Autodesk University : Roundabout Reconstruction Using Corridor Models
• AEC Round Table w. Jay Bhatt and Jim Lynch
• 'Twas the Night Before AU
• CAD Insider: Carl Bass Takes On A Roomful of Journalists
• LT Unlimited: Live from AU!
• RobiNZ CAD Blog: 10 Tips for Autodesk University photographs
• Duct Duct Pipe: Autodesk University 2008 - Las Vegas
• Civil 3D Reminders: Action Recorder
• Do U Revit?: AU - Day 1
• CAD Panacea: AU 2008 - Day 3
• Meet up with us at AU 2008! | Because We Can
• Beyond the Silos: Autodesk University!
• Mechanically Thinking: Meeting Kean
• RedEye Produces the World's First Full-Scale Custom Chopper ...
• The Building Coder: Driving Revit from Outside
• Archin3D: AU 2008
• 2D or not 2D: AU 2008 UnConference
• AU2008 – Monday
• Between the Lines: AU2008 - Tuesday Part 1
• AU 2008: Autodesk University 2008 Opens
• AU Exhibit Hall Opening Night: Perceptive Pixel Multi-touch Wall
• AU 2008 Last Full Day of Classes
• Autodesk University 2008 is over with...
• AU 2008 – Thursday and Friday

Videos:

AU2008 Autodesk Labs Booth Touch Wall and Autodesk Mudbox

Autodesk AU2008 Design Slam

  

  

Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2008/

There is plenty more out there but I had to break off at some point. Lets all start plans now for AU2009!

Note: the new AU Online will launch today with AU2008 content!

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk University 2008 is Over

Autodesk University 2008 is now completed as a mass exodus to the airport begins for the thousands of tired attendees, Some are still recovering from the big AU party last night and the Autodesk University : AU Design Slam.

 

This was a great AU and now is the time to begin planning and preparing for AU 2009. As I understand it next week the class content, recorded classes, and keynotes will be on the AU Online site. I also have some more information, photos to upload, and tales to post about AU 2008 once I get back home. This afternoon a few AU attendees and myself are running to the Hoover Dam, the new Colorado River Bridge, then onto Valley of Fire for a sunset photo shoot. Tomorrow my plan is be driving back home and hopefully visiting Red Rock Canyon and Zion National Park on the way back to Northern Utah. This will be my first trip without my small green travel companion of the last year, the infamous Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture who has been given to the real Matt Murphy.

I had a great time and had a great time and met so many friends from around the world. I hope to see everyone again very soon or at least next year same time but different hotel as Autodesk University 2009 will be held December 1-4 2009 at the Mandalay Bay and any overflow hotel rooms will be in the Venetian.

I hope everyone has a safe trip home.

Photos are in the Flickr group for AU2008 and #AU2008

Happy trails to you, until we meet again,
Shaan

AU2008 Wednesday - AutoCAD Wish List

The following official 2008 AUGI AutoCAD Wish List was presented onstage by AUGI President Mark Kiker to Autodesk Vice President of the PSEB Platform Products Guri Stark at the AUGI Annual Meeting held at Autodesk University 2008.

 

AutoCAD Wish List from AUGI 

1. Convert PDF to DWG
2. Solid Hatch Opacity Setting
3. Design File Locking
4. Import PDF into DWG or DXF (DONE and in the AutoCAD Subscription Bonus Pack 2)
5. Lock Viewport scale While allowing panning
6. Send all Hatches to Back
7. Compare two drawings
8. Block Manager
9. Improve PLINE edit Tool
10. Freeze in All Viewports except current

AU2008 - Tuesday Part 2

Tuesday at AU2008 finished perfectly for me, with cookies and ice cold milk. I am not kidding I wimped out on staying out late last night and I returned to my room to find big cookies and ice cold milk awaiting me courtesy of the AU 2008 team.

In the afternoon the first Blogger Social was held and a success. Many Autodesk employees and company bloggers and most importantly customer bloggers showed up to meet face to face. Autodesk Senior Vice presidents were in attendance with Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer Chris Bradshaw and Senior Vice President, Platform Solutions and Emerging Business Amar Hanspal thanking the bloggers for all they do and confirming Autodesk does listen and react and wanted to make sure to extend more connections as “bloggers add credibility with most also sitting in design seats all week long”. I gave a few Flip cameras out and thanked Mr. AU Joseph Wurcher and Cheryl Romero and everyone for making the Blogger Social a reality. Blogging is a powerful medium and certainly not a person speaking into an empty room if done right and with knowledgeable and interesting information as well as comments interaction. I have run into a few people that had been pushed into blogging or jumped before thinking about it and they wondered why blogging, well no wonder they are lost sheep as you have to be passionate and committed in order to be successful at blogging and have readers. Blogging is like a television channel and you don't want to write a infomercial as people will tune out, treat it like a conversation and spread knowledge. Blogging is amazing on how it can be harnessed and subscribed to unlike older mediums like forums which are great but knowledge becomes lost in threads and many times not indexed by search engines or available by RSS. Blogging is a long term commitment like a newspaper column and not for everyone.  Besides, could I really make a topic varied post like this one in a forum without getting flamed <g>. ;-) BLOG ON!

One of the best stories of the night was when Tommie Richardson told me how she met up with another blogger via Twitter. It seems they had never met before but on Twitter realized they were in the same class. Social networking Technology is getting so advanced.

Next year I will make sure to get some stickers with blog names as it was difficult to place a name to blog but I did have many introduce themselves not by their names but “hi I am Lazy Drafter (Josh Jones)” or “Hi I am CAD Geek”. Industry veterans were everywhere like Roopinder Tara of both tenlinks.com and his blog CAD Insider. Autodesk bloggers http://blogs.autodesk.com were also there mingling like Scott Sheppard of Autodesk Labs blog It's Alive in the Lab. Before I forget make sure to stop by all their exhibits in the AU exhibition hall as they have super cool future stuff that not even I had seen like Inventor Fusion Technology, Project Newport, Augmented reality, the big touch wall with Autodesk software like Autodesk Mudbox and more. Kate of LT Unlimited was there as was Volker of Beyond the Paper
DWF Blog, Lee of Through the Interface, Kean of Inside the System and many more.

 

The evening ended with thousands of AU attendees at the exhibit hall. It was the largest exhibition hall of any AU I have ever attended. There were so many cool booths including AUGI, TechSmith, and James Wedding of Engineered Efficiency and civil3d.com who drew in a loud and large crowd with the video game Rock Band and competitions. What better than beer and video games to attract a loud crowd. By the way Rock Band and Guitar Hero are developed in Autodesk’s own 3ds max.

 

 

 

The big news, after many suggestions on how to retire the infamous Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture even in a blender or reshaping it, I decided to give it to the real Matt Murphy. Although I will miss my global travel sidekick, I know it will be in good hands and I don't need to check it into my luggage anymore. It was amazing how a piece of clay born at AU 2007 could end up with so many followers and visits around the world including appearing in a photo with celebrity Jay Leno.

Wednesday will be more great classes and industry keynotes. The general design keynote will be featuring Hollywood’s best kept secret Eddie Paul who as he says “dreams in AutoCAD”.

Hollywood Prop Maker Attacks Shark Design with AutoCAD 2009

Here are a few other links to posts from bloggers' attending AU 

AU 2008 – Day 1
By CAD Geek Donnie Gladfelter

Autodesk University - Day 1
By Lazy Drafter aka Josh Jones

Autodesk University 2008: Follow AUGIatAU on Twitter

AU 2008-First Official Day Review
By Beth Powel

Autodesk University 2008: And we're off.

Dispatches from Autodesk University 2008: Day One
By Kenneth Wong

Autodesk University ‘08 in photos
By Jesse

Autodesk University 2008 - Day Two
By CADDManager

see more photo and aggregated items from AU at:

Flickr group for AU2008 and #AU2008

Cheers,
Shaan

AU2008 - Tuesday Part 1

Today is barely half over and it has already been action packed with several thousand AU2008 attendees. This morning we had classes, the general keynote, and a lunch with 8000 other attendees. I have little time to blog right now due to my schedule, but I have been posting photos and Tweeting from Twitter.

I am now preparing for the Blogger Social which should be great for people to place a face to the name and make connections with other bloggers as well as Autodesk teams and management. One more thing, no PowerPoint presentations at this event since we know you will get your yearly allowance of PowerPoint this week.

I will be at the General Design booth tonight around 7PM when it opens. You can locate the General Design booth easily as it is just to the right as you enter the exhibition hall. We have a big salt water fish tank and a 3D printed shark design by General Design keynote speaker Eddie Paul.

Flickr group for AU2008 
My AU 2008 Flip camera videos are being posted on YouTube for 2D3D2D
Follow me on Twitter

   

Cheers,
Shaan

AU2008 - Monday

Today was the first day of Autodesk University 2008. Today was mostly Autodesk Develop Network sessions and customer sessions like the Autodesk Community Leadership Conference. It was a very busy day with more people arriving throughout the day. Tomorrow will be the first day of classes, the general session keynote “Design Innovation”, and the Blogger Social.

General Session Keynote: “Design Innovation”
Speakers: Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO and president; Tom Kelley, IDEO general manager; and Jeff Kowalski, Autodesk VP and CTO
Date / Time: Tuesday, December 2 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Location: Hall A, Level 2

 

Follow AU Tweets, Posts, Photos and videos #AU2008

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk University 2008 Begins

I have arrived at the Venetian in Las Vegas the site of the Autodesk University 2008 after driving all day and then hiking in the Valley of Fire. I met up with Dave Mitchell at the beautiful Valley of Fire about 50 miles Northeast of Las Vegas for the first of many outings on the Autodesk University Shutterbug Tour 2008. We had a great time and I even saved a large tarantula that was wandering on the highway. 

 

 

See photos from AU 2008 and Shutterbug Tours at Flickr group for AU2008.

Anyone is welcome to add AU2008 photos to the Flickr group as long as they are AU 2008 related. 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.

Later today today at the AU registration there was a long line of anxious attendees well before the event starts. Registration was lightening fast and we received some really nice bags with each on being unique as they contained recycled vinyl from past AU signs. I received a slick burgundy striped vinyl area, while Owen Wengerd received what appeared to be some expanded metal pattern.
 

I was also given a Flip compact video camera to capture and post videos at AU, I can’t wait to begin using this cool toy.

Once again AU attendees have been meeting up at a common location The La Scena as it is a free place to grab a chair and chat with other AU attendees. Tonight was a good crowd including Robert Bell, Alex Wood, Robert Grandmaison, Kal Houhou, Jon Rizzo, Mark Douglas, Owen Wengerd and more.

For a common AU 2008 hash tag for Twitter Tweets, blog post tags, and photo tags use #AU2008

After being up for almost 20 hours, it is time to call it a night.

Cheers,
Shaan

See Wayne Newton at Autodesk University 2008

OK not exactly see Wayne Newton aka Mr. Las Vegas, but just perhaps one more reason to attend Autodesk University 2008 granted it would be pretty low on the top 1000 reasons. When flying into Las Vegas on approach to land when you are really close to touching down, you may pass over a large house and horse stables, this is Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton’s house. I am not sure why he has located it at the end of a runway as I would imagine he could afford a more quiet location.

Here is a photo of Wayne's place when I was landing in Las Vegas this September.

I had the please of also flying over Valley of Fire, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and was able to see the new Colorado River Bridge under construction. I hope to get a chance to see the bridge while attending Autodesk University next week.
 

Hope to see you at AU! I will arrive Sunday and am driving there as I am just North in Utah.

Cheers,
Shaan

Photos from Autodesk University 2008

Just a quick blog post on where you will be able to find some photos from Autodesk University 2008 as well as the unofficial AU Shutterbug Tour. This will sever as a place to see AU2008 through the eyes of others as well as something for those unable to attend to see what is going on.

I have created a public Flickr group for AU2008 (http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2008/) just like the public group for AU 2007 last year.

Anyone is welcome to add AU2008 photos to the Flickr group as long as they are AU 2008 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.

My own AU 2008 photo collection will be located at:

Autodesk University 2008

Autodesk University 2008 Shutterbug Tour

I am pretty sure there will be a location on AU Online as well to share photos. Photos from AU2008 should begin to appear Saturday or Sunday.

I hope to see you at AU next week!
Shaan

Autodesk University 2008 Attendance Number

Currently the number is just North of 8900 planning to attend Autodesk University 2008 in just under 6 days. The number could grow or shrink but one thing is for sure, it is a lot of people. The current weather report for Las Vegas is showing a Winter Storm Alert for the next few days, so bring your coats to AU.

Cheers,
Shaan

For a common AU 2008 hash tag for Twitter Tweets, blog post tags, and photo tags use #AU2008

Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture and Autodesk University 2008

Only seven more days until Autodesk University 2008!

The Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture was created by a contestant in the clay contest “Shape the future” at the MyFeedback booth last year using an AUGIWorld magazine picture of Matt Murphy as a reference. This green clay head has been held, touched, and for photos with people. It was even 3D scanned and printed as well as posed with well known entertainer Jay Leno.

    
   

  

So now the Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture has traveled around the world, attended many user groups worldwide, but it is looking pretty well traveled. It is made of soft clay and quickly becoming just a blob with rocks and other debris embedded in it in addition to the airline security screeners being tired of having to inspect it in my luggage .

It needs to be retired at Autodesk University 2008, but how?

Post your comment to this post on how we can retire the clay head in a legal and dignified manner at AU 2008.

Cheers,
Shaan

Countdown to Autodesk University 2008

I created the above Flash based countdown to Autodesk University 2008 to remind and motivate me to get things ready.

Cheers,
Shaan

AU 2008 Primer Webcast Not Just for AU Newbies

Reminder: This is happening  today in about 2 hours.

Join Lynn Allen, Autodesk Technical Evangelist and a highly popular AU speaker, for AU 2008 Primer, a webcast preview of Autodesk University 2008.

Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008
Time: 11:00 a.m.–noon (Pacific Time) (-8 GMT)

Why attend? To get the most out of your time at the conference. AU 2008 offers so many activities, many of them brand-new, that investing a little time up front is a really smart move—even if you’re an AU veteran.

Last year nearly 1,000 AU registrants participated in a primer webcast; an overwhelming majority of them said they were glad they did.

• <Update 11/25/08> You can now view the recorded event.
  AU Primer with Lynn Allen and the AU team

Opportunity to Shape the Future of AutoCAD at Autodesk University!

The 3D functionality in AutoCAD has improved considerably over the past few releases and it continues to evolve… but not without your help! 

If you’re attending Autodesk University in Las Vegas next month, you have the rare opportunity to meet with members of the AutoCAD team and get a sneak peek at future 3D AutoCAD functionality and other features. Then you get to contribute your feedback to help shape the future of AutoCAD.

Register for this exciting opportunity today! 

We look forward to your valuable input!
The AutoCAD Product Design Team

Autodesk University 2008 Attention Bloggers!

I wanted to provide an update as well as call attention to those that were not aware of the Autodesk University 2008 Blogger Social.

What: Blogger Social for Autodesk product related bloggers attending Autodesk University 2008.

Why: This social will be a casual gathering for bloggers to meet with each other face to face IRL (In Real Life) as well as meet with many of the Autodesk product team members and some Autodesk executive management staff members. There will be about 300 in attendance, so it should be fun mingling and meeting people. Bloggers will also receive a special “blogger” ribbon for the AU badge. Think of it as cloud or true Peer to Peer networking on the human social level.

When: Tuesday, December 2, 4-5:30PM

Where: Autodesk University location in Venetian to be announced to signed up attendees soon.

How to Sign Up: Sign up for the First Blogger Social at AU

I hope to meet you at AU Blogger Social, please spread the word.

Best Regards,
Shaan