Between the Lines

Autodesk Beta Programs - What is it, and How Does it Work

Last week Autodesk hosted some of the Autodesk Expert Elite group members in our sunny San Francisco office. This  group of customers are top nominated participants (Expert Elite Nomination Form) in their product assistance to their peers in the Autodesk discussion forums. Scott Sheppard presented to the group on Autodesk Labs and Autodesk Beta and promised to follow up on the topics in blog posts.  Scott is posting a blog post on Autodesk Labs (Autodesk Labs versus Beta: Experts Elite Presentation), and I am posting on Autodesk Beta. Beta has long been a passion and responsibility of mine, and is once again a responsibility of mine along with my other Office of the CTO role responsibilities. I was even a Autodesk beta participant for several years as a customer before joining Autodesk.

Autodesk Beta or the Autodesk Feedback Community is pre-release testing community for most every Autodesk product from desktop to mobile and cloud applications. Autodesk Feedback Community is where people can get involved in testing the pre-release products and provide feedback and help us identify the defects before final release. The more people test pre-release betas on different hardware and software configurations as well as test unique workflows to expose issues and feedback, the better the product will be when we ship it.

The Autodesk Feedback Community is also home to some of the future research projects where the product teams can speak confidentially under a non-disclosure with a group of users on possible concepts and ideas to solve user needs and work flows. The members of the community are even used by some teams to recruit for customer visits and in person gunslingers of early versions of software.

Autodesk is rare among large software companies in respect to beta testing engagement and involving it as a vital process across all our products. We could use beta for pre-release marketing activities, but instead we use it to better understand how our products are used, where defects are, and our developers, QA and management personally engage our customers as extended members of our product teams. We want to be as close to the customer as possible to fully understand their needs. After all we are not designing and developing the products for ourselves, but you our customers.

If you want to make a difference in the Autodesk software you use, the Autodesk Feedback Community is the place to be heard & have the potential to affect the software before it is released.

Issues Logging into Autodesk Feedback Beta Community

Last week we updated the Autodesk Feedback Community where over 50,000 people participate in Autodesk Beta, pre-release projects, and some future research projects with customers. In the minor update, it required a few people to delete their temporary website browser cache. I am not certain why this occurred, and am investigating it and to see if we can prevent from occurring in the future. If you were affected below is the solution and I do apologize for the pain.

Symptom: You may see the login screen overlaid on the main home screen.

Solution: Delete your browser cache to remove the cached version of the old web page. Some browsers cache a web page to gain better performance the next time they load the website in the browser, but when the website changes it can cause weirdness to occur as the old and new website components mix.

When I seen this on one machine in Internet Explorer 9, I went to Internet Options > Delete Browsing History

 

How to delete browser cache in other browsers:

Chrome
Delete your cache and other browser data

Firefox
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-clear-firefox-cache

Good article on clearing browser cache:
How to Clear Your Browser's Cache (with screenshots) - wikiHow

Autodesk Feedback Community Maintenance April 15th 2013

The Autodesk Feedback Community will be upgraded on Monday April 15th at 1PM PDT. Expected downtime will be an hour or two. The Autodesk Feedback Community is where most Autodesk pre-release alpha, beta, and some future research projects are managed with a community of over 50,000 people worldwide.

I worked on the Autodesk Beta Programs team and managed it for many years until 2010 but am back to owning the management portion of Autodesk Beta and the Autodesk Feedback Community as well as my Office of the CTO and Autodesk Labs responsibilities. What can I say, I love to stay busy and help connect customers to our product teams so we can all create the best possible products to use.

I am always open to your suggestions and comments on how we can continue to improve your experience with the goal to improve Autodesk products  based on real user feedback and bug reporting before we ship them.We have some big plans in the works for this year before the next heavy alpha/beta testing season.

Best Regards,
Shaan

Get Involved in Autodesk Future Products & Technologies

For those that love to participate in providing early feedback that helps shape the future of Autodesk products and technologies, there are several great options to get involved. You don’t have to be on the bleeding edge or the top Autodesk product user in the universe as all skill and experience levels are encouraged and needed.

Both Autodesk Labs and Autodesk Feedback Community are now managed under the Autodesk Office of the CTO. Both of these valuable future product and technological incubators are vital to Autodesk and of course benefit our customers.

Autodesk Labs

Autodesk Labs is where several Autodesk teams post research and future technologies to get feedback on them. The technology previews are not products yet, but are early concepts. The goal is to find what technology previews are useful or need improvement from those that people have little interest for. Several current Autodesk products like Autodesk Inventor Fusion, Autodesk Revit LT, and Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler have successfully graduated from Autodesk Labs to be come real Autodesk products.
Go to: http://labs.autodesk.com/

Autodesk Feedback Community

Autodesk Feedback community is the center of the Autodesk product universe for future versions. This is where you can sign up to be a part of the early discussions in product futures, early alpha and beta versions of the Autodesk software you use or wish to use. The goal is to get early user feedback on the new releases and of course send in bug reports to improve the products before the new releases are released to the general public.
Go to: http://beta.autodesk.com/

Autodesk User Research & Product Usability

Autodesk User Research is where you sign up to participate in in studies on how Autodesk products and technologies are used. Things like workflow where the product team or product design may want to know how a conceptual or current feature is discovered and used are studied remote, at events, or in person visits.

Get involved and help shape future Autodesk products and technologies today.

Cheers,
Shaan

Do You Want Early Access to Autodesk Products?

If you want early access and input on Autodesk products and technologies there are a couple of great and free methods.

If you want to get early access and participate in the feedback process of a beta program for existing products such as AutoCAD, Revit, Autodesk Inventor, 3ds Max, Maya etc. then you should definitely get involved in the Autodesk Customer Feedback Programs https://beta.autodesk.com/.

If you want to test and provide feedback on early technology previews like the new Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac and PC or Project Vasari then Autodesk Labs is the place.

Both of these programs rely on your feedback and active participation so go ahead get involved and help shape the future of Autodesk products and technologies to be the best tools for you.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD for Mac 2011 Update Beta for OS X Lion

As I mentioned recently Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) - Hear Me Roar on App Compatibility , the just released Apple Mac OS X Lion and AutoCAD for Mac 2011 were not completely compatible, just yet. 

If you use AutoCAD for Mac 2011 and want to test and provide feedback on the beta of the update sign up for consideration at this specific link.

-Shaan

Join the Beta Testing for AutoCAD Ironman

Over 30,000 members of the Autodesk Feedback Community played a key role in the development and Beta testing of Autodesk’s product lines, and Autodesk is issuing an open invitation for additional customers to join and participate in the testing and shaping of future products.

Autodesk welcomes customers on multiple platforms to participate in the Customer Feedback Program. Customers may register for our ongoing AutoCAD Beta programs, which feature AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP as well as AutoCAD Mechanical. Members must agree to terms of a non-disclosure agreement to participate. 

When are you going to join the Autodesk Feedback Community?

Sign Up Here

AutoCAD Ironman

The next release of AutoCAD is in development & codenamed "Ironman".  More details on getting involved in the pre-release beta program soon.

All Autodesk beta programs are run from http://beta.autodesk.com.

Cheers,
Shaan

Hadrian Beta 2 Live!

“Just what is Hadrian Shaan”

I knew you would ask that question first. Hadrian was a Roman Emperor born in Rome in the year 76 AD and led a very interesting life with his architecture interests. Hadrian is also a pub in N. England which would carry on the teams beer themed codename series. Now they need a Shocktop or Obsidian beer codename or better yet the beer with the label that resembes the AutoCAD Plant 3D man Peter Quinn.

 

 

 

OK, Hadrian the codename for the next release of AutoCAD Plant 3D which does about everything you need for process and plant design built on the powerful AutoCAD platform. Hadrian Beta 2 is available for download https://beta.autodesk.com.

Check out Ursula’s Blog  “In the Pipes” as well as the AutoCAD Plant Exchange Community site

“Plant 3D 2011 is codenamed “Hadrian”, so I spent a bit of my free time in London seeking out a statue of Hadrian.  Here is one of Hadrian & me in the British Museum. .”

Cheers,
Shaan

SnagIt for the Apple Mac! Come and Get It!

One of my day to day software tools I could not live without and have used over 12 years is SnagIt from Techsmith in Michigan. Now they have a Mac version of Snagit in beta and available to all.

Snagit Mac Page

Recently they released Camtasia on the Mac a native application for recording screen and and application recording of video content.

Now I can use either my Macbook or Windows PC and have both of my favorite tools on both.

Camtasia Go is available for purchase now from www.techsmith.com/camtasia

Snagit for Mac beta is ready now! Download Here

I can even screen capture my AutoCAD 2010 in a VMWare on my Macbook desktop in crystal view..

I have become friends with the team over the years and absolutely love their products as it allows me to capture images for documentation, CAD Standards, Tech Support, Blogging and more as a picture tells a thousand words and crosses language barriers. I also wanted to congratulate the Techsmith team on their 10 year anniversary with Camtasia. We gave some Camtasia seats away recently at Autodesk University 2009 in Hide & Geek fun events over Twitter.

Cheers
Shaan

Project Cooper - Give it a New Name

Project Cooper is not the final name just a project name while the product is still in development phases. What do you think it should be called?  Help us give Project Cooper a permanent name!  Take this short, multiple-choice survey.  Should take less than 2 minutes, and we appreciate your input.

The SurveyMonkey survey link is live at:  Click Here to take survey

Have you tried Project Cooper with Win 7, or even XP?  If the answer is no then give it a try or mention it to someone that needs a super simple precision design tool. Be sure to email labs.cooper@autodesk.com with any comments you might have.

New Autodesk Beta Website

New and exciting changes have been introduced to Autodesk’s Beta Program where we invite customers to test and provide feedback on pre—release product so that we ship the highest quality of product possible.

The Autodesk MyFeedback Beta platform was retired by May 31st, 2009 at which  point the new Autodesk Community officially came to life at http://beta.autodesk.com.

Autodesk beta participation has grown considerably since we started our online beta communities in 1999.  I joined Autodesk in 1998 on the Beta Team back when we still shipped CD and printed guides. I had been an Autodesk customer and involved in multiple Autodesk betas. I knew I could make a difference for customers and loved a good challenge. We went from a small email lists and doing a couple products to well over 30,000 participants in over 140 countries using over 60 Autodesk products. It is time to upsize again to a new Autodesk Beta Community.

Make sure to sign up for the new Autodesk Feedback Community site before the busy beta release season in the fall. The sign up takes only a few minutes to enter the information about your Autodesk product use and hardware you intend to use to test the pre-release beta software. We need you to provide the critical customer feedback which is vital to shape the future of all Autodesk products.

http://beta.autodesk.com –> New User Signup

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk MyFeedback Portal and Forums Closing May 30th 2009

Our current MyFeedback platform used for running Autodesk product betas has grown way beyond its originally designed structure and we are looking to introduce you to a new Autodesk Feedback Community over the next few month. We are also reorganizing the management of Autodesk betas. Beta projects will be managed individually on this new community by each of the four Autodesk Divisions.

We will be retiring MyFeedback on May 30th 2009. We will be moving future betas to our new Autodesk Feedback Community server.

Q&A
Q: Where is this new Autodesk Feedback Community?
A: The new Autodesk Feedback Community is located at http://beta.autodesk.com . You can sign up at http://beta.autodesk.com/signup now.

Q: Will my account be automatically migrated to the new Autodesk Feedback Community?
A: No, you will need to sign up on this new Autodesk Feedback Community at http://beta.autodesk.com/signup

Q: Will I need to sign up again or can I use my old MyFeedback login?
A: With this new Community you will need to sign up for a new account.

Q: What does this mean for non-beta related forums?
A: The new Autodesk Feedback Community will only support active beta projects. There will not be futures or miscellaneous discussion forums hosted.

Q: What will happen with existing forum posts, will they be available after May 30th?
A: The server will be offline and access to content and posts will be unavailable. You can keep a local archive on your machine by following the instructions

Q: Will there be NNTP access in the new Autodesk Feedback Community?
A: Yes, in the beta projects in this new community you will have the choice of HTTP:, SMTP email, and NNTP to participate in the discussion forums.

Want to archive discussion newsgroup content offline?
Many people choose a NNTP newsreader because you can use them to download newsgroup content and work with it while you aren’t connected to the Internet. You can download the forum posts to your Outlook Express or Windows Mail in Vista, and FreeAgent  for later review.

NDA Reminder
All content from the MyFeedback website and discussion forums are considered confidential and not to be disclosed or publicly published.

Remember May 30th 2009 MyFeedback will be redirected to http://beta.autodesk.com and you will need to sign up to continue Autodesk beta testing of products at http://beta.autodesk.com.

We appreciate your past participation and hope you will join the new Autodesk Feedback Community. Things will be different but give it some time to adjust to all the changes. After signing up and your account is approved on the new Autodesk Community you will receive an email. You will then be able to login and see if there are any beta projects you would like to be considered for. You may also receive an email invitation to a specific beta asked on your profile. Most Autodesk beta projects start in the Fall so some may not get into a new beta for a few months.

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley

Get Certified with the 2010 Beta Exams for AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit Architecture, and AutoCAD Civil 3D

The Autodesk Professional Certification program is pleased to announce the release of the 2010 beta exams for AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit Architecture, and AutoCAD Civil 3D.

• Gain a competitive edge by getting 2010 Certified (you must take both the associate and professional level exams in a specific product if you are not a 2009 certified professional However if you are a 2009 Certified Professional you only need to take and pass the 2010 associate exam.)
• Customer cost $25 per test by using the consumer shopping cart.

The beta period is open for a 2 week period for each exam,ending on May 20 & 22^nd, depending on which exam.  We encourage you to take advantage of this period so that you can update any existing certification or earn your first certification at a low cost. 

Why do we beta test our exams?

Whenever a new exam is created, the exam items need to be calibrated and tried out within a testing situation. In order to do this, exams are made available in a Beta format.   After the items are tested within the Beta setting, each item is analyzed statistically and reanalyzed for technical accuracy, appropriateness, and readability.

What customers should expect when participating in Beta testing?

• The exam may contain small errors (this beta is to catch and correct these any errors.)
• Exam questions may or may not be the same ones that appear on the final exam (this is why your feedback is important.)
• Scoring may not be immediate, but will most often take place 6 weeks after taking the exam (score reports will only be delivered directly to the test takers.)
• You will be asked to provide feedback on a short survey at the end of the test (thank you in advance.)
• Test takers will be notified via email when their score is ready so valid email addresses are important.
• You have the chance to provide feedback via a survey at the end of the test to help influence a better test.

How can you participate?

1. Purchase a 2010 exam using the consumer shopping cart at http://autodesk.starttest.com. Be sure to download exam objectives to help you better prepare for the exam.
2. Contact an Autodesk Certification Center near you by using the locator at www.autodesk.com/certification. Be sure to contact the Training Center to confirm they are participating and to schedule your beta exam.
3. Make sure sure to take the exam by May 20 or May 22 (to be valid for 2010 certification status.)

Beta Program Information

May 5 – May 20 

• AutoCAD 2010 Associate
• AutoCAD 2010 Professional
• Inventor 2010 Associate
• Inventor 2010 Professional

May 7 – May 22

• Revit Architecture 2010 Associate
• Revit Architecture 2010 Prof (imperial)
• Revit Architecture 2010 (metric)
• Civil 3D 2010 Associate
• Civil 3D 2010 Professional (imperial)
• Civil 3D 2010 Professional (metric)

Access to Training Guides and Exam Objectives

If you have any questions about the Beta testing program, contact certification@autodesk.com.

Best of luck in your certification challenge!
Shaan

Windows 7 Beta Availability - Now

For those brave souls that like to test pre-release beta versions of an Operating System the opportunity to test the next Windows release Windows 7 is available to the public from Microsoft’s TechNet site. Be aware with tens of thousands downloading at once the speed could be very slow. also be aware there are risks to beta testing and more so with an Operating System than an application. I would strongly suggest not upgrading your current system and instead use a dual boot to another drive or partition as a safety measure.

The Windows 7 Beta Download aka Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program

• Windows 7 Beta Videos
• Windows 7 Beta: Frequently Asked Questions
• How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista

Update 01/11/09: I know many are curious how AutoCAD or if AutoCAD installs and runs on the next OS from Microsoft. The simple unofficial answer is it does in my limited testing.

There is no official support or completed testing from Autodesk yet but in my limited testing AutoCAD 2009 appears to work very well on the next Windows OS, Microsoft Windows 7 Beta version.

 

 

Once the Operating System completes beta stages Autodesk will address the support of the new Operating System. While we are working closely with Microsoft as one of our partners and also looking at and testing Windows 7. It is important to keep in mind it is a pre-release beta and a moving target.

Cheers,
Shaan

Microsoft Vista Service Pack 2 is Coming

The second Service Pack for Microsoft Windows Vista has been in the works and is now entering preview beta testing and expected to be released in the first half of 2009. The first Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) addressed a wide variety of complaints and pain people were reporting with the initial release of Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) is doing the same by increasing performance, security, and stability. I like Windows Vista personally and would not go back to Windows XP. 

You can now download Vista SP2 Beta through the Customer Preview Program (CPP).

On the Autodesk Platform Team we are testing both the upcoming Windows Vista SP2 and the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 with our products to make sure nothing surprises us or our customers.

Cheers,
Shaan

AutoCAD Plant 3D ~ Groovy Piping?

OK so it is not shipping just yet, but if you are a bleeding edge piping designer then this is for you. You can be considered for the alpha and beta testing phases of the product starting now. Stella is the codename in the beer themes for the Plant group following Guinness and others. Did you know Stella is also Latin for star? At least for me I still immediately think “STELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" from the movie 'A Streetcar Named Desire .stella.wav

Follow Ursula’s posted details including a groovy screen capture showing Stella at work. Groovy AutoCAD Plant 3D "Stella" Alpha 1

Cheers,
Shaan

Technorati Tags: Autodesk,AutoCAD,CAD,Design,AutoCAD Plant 3D,PIping,3D,Process Plant,Process Piping,Plant

Long Live AutoCAD!

Autodesk also has many other top notch products that I get to work with and have the luxury in my position to work with all Autodesk product teams. It always amazes me at the level of expertise of people around the Autodesk family and the products they produce.

I received an email recently by someone that was told by someone that Autodesk was planning to stop AutoCAD development. This pops up from time to time and is usually the result of someone starting the rumor for their own benefit. This rumor is simply not true and there are no plans I am aware of. The next time someone tries to pass this rumor on tell them "you're full of rubish". The AutoCAD Team is still going full steam and planning releases many years into the future and certainly AutoCAD will be around for many many years as millions rely on AutoCAD daily for both 2D and 3D designs.

We have the height of our pre-release beta season going on keeping me from getting any sleep or a clean email inbox. It is better to be busy, than not. If you are intersted in helping shape the future of Autodesk products please sign up at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com

Cheers,
Shaan

For those on the Windows Vista Bleeding Edge, Public Preview of Vista Service Pack 1

The Public Preview of the Release candidates for Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 is now publicly available.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC Public Availability Program

 

 

Please note Autodesk is internally testing for compatibility with products at this time and no official support or result statements will be made until the upcoming service packs for Windows Vista are released in the final form.

Initial results from some using the Release Candidate say the performance is greatly improved and optimized CPU usage among other noted items. Pretty interesting deployment method using a script to edit the registry to flag your system on the next Windows Update to get the Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate.

Regards,
Shaan

MapGuide Open Source 2.0 Beta Coming Up

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

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

Regards,
Shaan

Autodesk Design Review 2009 Beta 1

Volker has just announced that the future release of Autodesk Design Review code named "Colorado Project" is now open for beta testing. They are looking for your active participation and feedback on this pre-release product and features hosted on the Autodesk MyFeedback Community. See Volker's blog post for all the specific details.

Autodesk Design Review 2009 Beta 1 Live Now

 

Please Get Involved and Help Shape the Future of Autodesk Products

Get Involved Shaping the Future of Autodesk Products and Get Off the Sidewalk

I often stumble across a report of something someone would like to improve in AutoCAD or Autodesk products posted in a forum or blog or even down in a nested comment. Perhaps it is venting, ranting, perhaps it is wishful thinking or an expectation that the members of the small Autodesk product teams can find these items and enact change. Please please please, if you find bugs or have wish list items you want to get acted on make sure to get them to the people that develop the product. If we do not know about it you are likely to not see it addressed in a future release of the product. If you get involved and report it you just may see it in a future release as well as quite possibly get a deeper understanding of the why it has been that way if it were intentional behavior.

This is similar to another peeve of mine and that is some that publish bug lists on their blogs, articles, email newsletters etc. don't report the bugs to the software vendor. Where's the benefit of that withholding or delay to fellow users of that software? It makes for more pain as some will compile this list over time and later publish. It can be a missed opportunity for the software vendor to fix the issue or even know about the issue for research.

For Autodesk Software:

Report bugs and product comments and suggestions to the actual product teams: Product Feedback or if you are a Autodesk Subscription customer, log the product support issues online.

Nominate Wish List Items: http://www.augi.com membership is free and it is made up of fellow Autodesk product users. There is an AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor wish list and you can nominate and vote on wish list items which are provided to Autodesk by AUGI. The voting helps know the priority of items.

Below is my reply to a comment on another blog responding to a person I know very well and respect Matt Stachoni. Matt posted a lengthy commentary about what he would like changed in AutoCAD yet he posted this on a non Autodesk site in a comment to a blog post but luckily I spotted it. I have been trying to get Matt involved in beta testing, test drives, and usability and other customer feedback projects for years and I am aware he is busy but he had the time to post a lengthy comment in one little corner of the Internet, right? ;-)

"Autodesk is always listening and trying to improve. Some things irk us as well. It is important to mention some things just appear different or clear and easy from the outside looking in but that may not always be the case as I have seen both sides as I have been a customer and AutoCAD Team member.

I am shocked that Matt and Ralph could only come up with these lists as there are so many things that could be changed and implemented better or different for a 25 year young product that is used in so many ways. Some items can also take time as well in addition to planning and customer feedback loops to make sure that we are on track and what they asked for.

In my opinion it is all about trying to accommodate everyone and but realizing it is difficult to hit the bulls eye 100% of the time or satisfy everyone all of the time, but you must keep trying.

So you realize we have many more years of product improvement. We constantly crawl the blogs, forums, emails, surveys, user events, etc and other customer feedback locations to stumble upon feedback but please make sure to get your feedback to Autodesk so we don't miss it. So be sure to get involved in the process and not just yell from the sidewalk while the parade passes.

AUGI membership is free and made up of fellow product users and allows and encourages you to nominate your own pet peeves and vote on changes to AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor.

OK now go nominate some items as well as get involved in actively shaping the future of Autodesk products! :-)

http://www.augi.com & http://myfeedback.autodesk.com"

Not sure if this is a new saying but I wrote it at the moment and it made perfect sense to me.

Get involved in the process, not just yell from the sidewalk while the parade passes.

Cheers,
Shaan

Are You in Denver Colorado and use AutoCAD?

There will be a cool event to test and provide feedback on possible future AutoCAD features in Denver. Read more details on Heidi's blog announcement Request for participants in Denver!

AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Service Pack 1 Beta

We have now released for testing the AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Service Pack 1. This Service Pack was created as a direct result of detailed information from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility or who reported issues to Autodesk support or MyFeedback. Please continue to provide feedback and send the CER reports.

If you would like to test this Service Pack sign up at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com and in the Sign Up form select AutoCAD yes to beta and feedback projects and of course use your real name and email to participate. If you are already a member of MyFeedback there is no need to re-register just make sure your profile is up to date.

If you would prefer to not beta test this Service Pack you can wait until the final release is announced in the future.

Service Pack 1 Beta 1 is for the following Autodesk products running on all supported operating systems and languages.

32-bit Product Service Pack

• AutoCAD 2008
• AutoCAD LT 2008
• AutoCAD Revit^® Architecture Suite 2008 ¹
• AutoCAD Revit^® Structure Suite 2008 ¹

64-bit Product Service Pack

• AutoCAD 2008
• AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite 2008 ¹
• AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite 2008 ¹

¹ Apply the patch only if the installation contains AutoCAD 2008

Windows Live Betas

There is a new beta version of the free tool I use to manage and post articles to this blog with Live Writer "Wave Writer". There has been some new features such as inline spell checking, offline post management, link glossary, tighter blogging platform integration as well as new User Interface "UI" enhancements.

Windows Live Writer Beta http://writer.live.com/

There is also Microsoft Instant Messenger 8.5 Beta and Live Mail versions available as beta.

• Microsoft Instant Messenger 8.5 Beta
• Windows Live Mail Beta 

Beta is pre-released products in testing for the purpose of receiving feedback and testing so if you are no comfortable with this then wait for the final released version.

Cheers,
Shaan

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Beta, Windows Live, Live Writer, IM, Live Mail, Live Messenger, Blogging