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Member since 08/2003

150 posts categorized "Weblogs"

10 March 2008

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

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

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

Cheers,
Shaan

09 January 2008

FeedDemon RSS Reader, Now Free!

FeedDemon is an excellent and powerful full featured RSS Feed reading product and I was a paying customer but a few months ago got hooked on Google Reader. Now Nick Bradbury mentions they have gone free. I am switching back to FeedDemon due to it being a more powerful RSS Feed reader and managing your feeds not just because it is free. They also released a few other tools as free.

FREE Demon? Yes, FeedDemon is Now Free!

 

04 January 2008

2007 Stats for this Blog

I want to thank everyone for all the emails and visiting this blog. It has really grown from a geekish hobby to a full blown blog and started many other blogs in the process. I still feel the same passion for the blog and read about 300 feeds a day in my RSS feed reader which is something you could not do just browsing updated pages as the feed reader allows me to read the feeds a few times a day and scan for articles that interest me much like a newspaper as nobody really reads each article of the newspaper heck not many read newspapers today come to think of it.

2007 Stats (just this blog not photo galleries)
RSS: 25,946 average per day subscribers high point 43,278 RSS subscribers in one day.
Browsers HTML 473,060 absolute unique visitors from 177 countries.

1 year graph

Cheers,
Shaan

Continue reading "2007 Stats for this Blog" »

21 December 2007

Autodesk will be closed

Autodesk will be closed for the annual week of rest and the holidays from the 22nd of December until the 2nd of January. Contacting Autodesk employees during this time may be difficult as we spend time with our families and prepare for the new year.

     I sincerely appreciate everyone's feedback over the past years and look forward to an even better new year. Thank you for reading and replying to this blog as it has been a pleasure. I welcome any feedback or suggestions to improve or content ideas for the tens of thousands that read this blog daily. I have tried to keep the topics varied from Autodesk and AutoCAD to technology and photography as well to keep things fun and informative appealing to this wide and diverse audience.

     A blog is like a conversation and not really for press release type of text words and tone but a personal view and opinions. The personal expression and tone are what makes a blog really different from just a web page. If the tone or words don't sound like a someone really sitting down with you over a cup of coffee, then the personal feel is lost. If I get out of bounds or wander too much please let me know so I can adjust my course but know that with this blog you get the real me good bad or indifferent it is me along with my opinions, bias, my passion for design and Autodesk products as well as geek gadgets, and of coarse my warped sense of humor which sometimes does not translate into other languages too well.

I have some big and exciting plans for the new year 2008 and this blog.

Have a very happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and a safe and great New Years.

Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley
Autodesk, Inc.

03 December 2007

Big Name Coming to the CAD Blogosphere - David Harrington

David Harrington said he is finally taking the leap into CAD blogging at:

http://caddhelp.blogspot.com/

I have known David for many years. He works for a large Structural firm Walter P. Moore and has had some well known projects under his belt including the Phoenix Cardinals Stadium and the giant guitar in front of the Disney MGM Studios Aerosmith roller coaster. David has also been a AUGI Top DAUG, AUGI President, AUGI writer, and even had his drawings featured as samples in AutoCAD R14.

Please join me in welcoming David to CAD Blogging!

Shaan

28 November 2007

Free Camtasia Studio and SnagIt Older Releases

Thanks to the heads up from my Perth Australian friend Steve Johnson for alerting me to this news item from Amit's Digital Inspiration blog posting. I did not even know even though TechSmith has a booth almost directly across from the Autodesk MyFeedback booth at Autodesk University 2007. I just have not got a break to run over and say hi to Betsy and the creators of SnagIt and Camtasia which I have used daily for years for producing screen captures or video recordings to communicate ideas, processes, create documents and even most of the screen images over the years in this blog.

http://www.labnol.org/software/download/download-camtasia-studio-free/1829/
http://www.labnol.org/software/download/free-download-snagit-with-serial-number/1841/

These are fairly old versions but great tools for free and the newer releases are even better. TechSmith used Camtasia and recorded a Screencast from New Zealander "kiwi" CAD Blogger Robin Capper who is attending Autodesk University this week as well.

Cheers,
Shaan

13 November 2007

AU 2007 Meet and Greet with the Autodesk MyFeedback Team

My team will be holding a Meet and Greet at the La Scena Lounge located in the Venetian Hotel and Casino on Monday November 26th beginning at 6:30PM and lasting till whenever we are booted out or things wind down. This will be a relaxed informal get together for people to meet each other before Autodesk University 2007 starts the following day. It is always nice to know some people before the event as it makes it much more enjoyable and productive.

I am also inviting all bloggers to meet up at this time so people can place a face to the poster as well as network.

The MyFeedback Team is responsible for working with all Autodesk product teams and connecting them to customers for usability, research, and beta projects.

Hope to see, meet, and chat with you at Autodesk University
Shaan

06 November 2007

Windows Live Writer 2008 Now Available

Windows Live Writer is a free tool and I have used it to compose blog post offline for over a year now while it has been a beta product. It provides editing, spell checking, archiving, and integrates well with most blogging systems.

Read more details on Live Writers exit from beta status

Download Writer 2008
Windows Live Writer 2008 (version 12.0.1366.1026)

23 October 2007

Another Autodesk Blog is Born - Inside the System

image Revit MEP Product Manager Kyle Bernhardt has now launched a Revit MEP blog. Congratulations Kyle, welcome to the CADBlogging world.

http://inside-the-system.typepad.com/

RSS 2.0 Feed

 

Cheers,
Shaan

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05 September 2007

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

feedback 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

Another New CAD Blog: CADing and Coding

image Mohamed Haris has started a blog on AutoCAD customization. Mohamed is a draughtsman/draftsman in U.A.E.

Welcome Mohamed to CADblogging!

 

http://cadingandcoding.blogspot.com/

28 August 2007

AutoCAD Guru Jimmy Bergmark Interviewed by NOVEDGE the blog

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

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

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

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

An Interview with Jimmy Bergmark, AutoCAD Guru

 

Cheers,
Shaan

Another AutoCAD LT Blog: Kate's CAD Tips

My PhotoI received an email in response to my blog post about An AutoCAD LT Blog is Born that there are more AutoCAD LT friendly blog sites out there with tips and tricks. Kate's office at Robert Silman Associates a structural Engineering firm in Washington DC are almost entirely made up of AutoCAD LT users.

Kate's CAD Tips

Thank you Kate and welcome to CADBlogging although it appears you have been doing it for sometime and have quite a few helpful tips posted.


Cheers,
Shaan

27 August 2007

John Benstead's Excellent AutoCAD History/Adventure/Evolution

John Benstead

In this year that is the 25th year of AutoCAD and Autodesk, New Zealand based Jon Benstead posted on his http://www.cadit.net blog a about AutoCAD history from a 20+ year AutoCAD veteran/legend/survivor. The story and photos are priceless to those wishing to see and understand the evolution of CAD and AutoCAD. The lettering machine will most likely make many shake with flashbacks or scratch their heads wondering what it is.

AutoCAD - In The Beginning...

Lettering_Machine AutoCAD_PC_AT

Thank you for sharing John.

Can I please share your images in my AutoCAD History images on Flickr or if you have a Flickr account (free btw) you can tag them with AutoCAD History and I will then add them to the group collection links.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/sets/72157600140924927/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/472931@N23/

Autodesk Civil Engineering Guru/Geek Anthony "Da Govna" Governanti's New Blog

Ultra-Value Blog by Da Govna

 

image

Blog Note/Suggestion to Anthony, when an Autodesk employee you are always an Autodesk employee 24/7 even on a separate blog. There is no taking off our hat unfortunately, even when we do this on our own time. Cutting loose with anything we want to post has to be considered although there is no censorship. The having to wear the corporate hat all the time like a tattoo does make you consider what rating the image or post is and the limit on colorful language you can use or political issues and controversial topics you can post about. :-/

Of course theoretically speaking one could could start an anonymous blog with no ties to your name or topic and then get away with expressing yourself in anyway you wish but there is always a risk. ;-)

21 August 2007

An AutoCAD LT Blog is Born

AutoCAD LT product user Erik Deyo has now started a blog dealing with AutoCAD LT.

Welcome to CADBlogging Erik!

http://ltsideofthings.blogspot.com/

02 August 2007

CADTIMES Podcast

I got a request to speak in a podcast and finally synced up schedules with the CADTIMES crew Michael and Peter. We talked at length tonight on many different subjects. I expect the podcast to be posted in the very near future, but they may have to edit a bit since we talked for about 90 minutes. :-)

CADTIMES Website

CADTIMES Blog

CADTIMES Podcasts

 

I realized tonight it might be easier to podcast than blog, nobody knows you have a typo or an out of place comma in an audio only podcast. I can most certainly speak faster than I can type. :-)

 

UPDATE: Podcast is now live  http://www.cadtimes.com/blog/?p=18

This week we are joined by Shaan Hurley from Autodesk.  He’s the author of Between the Lines (his blog), and runs the MyFeedback Portal (Autodesk Beta Testing).  Please check out his blog if you’ve never been there before.  It’s updated frequently and has lots of great information.  Also, sign up for the beta testing.  You get to see some of the new features before anyone else, and you can also give your input on the product.

This week we discuss Shaan’s role at Autodesk, his blog, beta testing, and various other items. 

Direct Download: Episode008

iTunes: Episode008

20 July 2007

The Autodesk University Blog

Joseph (Mr. AU) Wurcher has a new Autodesk University focused blog location.
Link

Did you know there are only 130 days (187,200 minutes) until AU 2007?

15th Annual Autodesk University
November 27-30, 2007
The Venetian Resort Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.A.

Registration for AU 2007 should start in the near future.

03 July 2007

FeedBurner Now FREE for Everyone

FeedBurnerflamocon FeedBurner (http://www.feedburner.com) a great site and service that allows me to track popular blog posts and usage stats even for RSS feeds and I have been a paying Pro customer for quite sometime. Now that the behemoth Google has purchased FeedBurner they are making many of the features that once cost money to bloggers free.

FreeBurner for Everyone

Web Based Hackers Diet Released, Congratulations John Walker

The Hacker's Diet Online http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet
"How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition"

 hackers diet4 hackers diet3  hackers diet2

Those who know or read the Autodesk founders blog (http://www.fourmilab.ch/fourmilog/archives/2007-07/000862.html) will know the new web based hackers diet program has just been released after two months of beta testing.

image

development log

source code

 

 

 

John developed this weight loss program back in 1991 and it has really worked for many people but now you can set and track your participation in the hackers diet online. This diet has evolved over many years after John Walker took a different look at ways to lose weight and found a method that worked for him. The diet plan PDF book is a great read even if you are not dieting as it is from a true engineers approach to a problem and treating the body more like a software or process analysis. John is one of the most intelligent and funny people I know. When giving driving instructions, John would prefer to instruct you to take the turn 270 degrees exit out of the roundabout rather than the second exit of a roundabout. :-)

Hackers Diet by John walker

I am in the process myself of losing weight and getting fit and considering a modified hackers diet regime in addition to my current eating healthier and exercising more.


Cheers,
Shaan

02 July 2007

Autodesk Launches Aggregated RSS Feeds Pilot

More RSS features on Autodesk.com. I love RSS and rely on it now instead of a morning paper.

image

http://www.autodesk.com/rss

image

Industry Feeds

 Architecture, Engineering & Construction

 Manufacturing

 Media & Entertainment

Support Feeds

 Product Support, Updates & Service Packs

 

What Are RSS Feeds?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds make it easy for you to get news and content updates from your favorite web sites, all in one place.

When you subscribe to a feed, new articles and updates are automatically sent to a web service or software known as a feed reader or aggregator.

New Autodesk Blog: Geospatial Made in France

image The Geospatial Made in France blog (http://blogs.autodesk.com/geospatialfrance) has gone live to spread information in French covering Autodesk's Geospatial product line with tips, tricks, and more. The blog will be hosted by Paris based Autodesk employee Gwenael Bachelot

For those not aware of Autodesk Geospatial products check out the product information

* AutoCAD Map 3D

* Autodesk Topobase

* Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise

* AutoCAD Raster Design

 

Gwenael Bachelot welcome to Autodesk Blogging!

RSS Feed: http://geospatialfrance.typepad.com/geospatialfrance/rss.xml

 

List of Autodesk blogs and other blogs I read as well as the latest Autodesk Blogs OPML file.
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/blogs_i_read.html 

Cheers,
Shaan

08 June 2007

New Autodesk Blog: Topobase Insiders

image The Topobase Insiders blog (http://blogs.autodesk.com/topobaseinsiders) has gone live to spread information on the power of Autodesk Topobase. The blog will be hosted by the Topobase Product Manager Cédric Moullet, Andreas Boos, as well as other team members. The topics will cover the latest news about Topobase, to learn new GIS features, and for information about the API.

For those not aware of Autodesk Topobase check out the product information site http://www.autodesk.com/topobase.

Cédric &  Andreas welcome to Autodesk Blogging!

Cheers,
Shaan (in San Rafael California currently)

31 May 2007

Windows Live Betas

image 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.

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

03 May 2007

2 New Autodesk Blogs - 2D to (Civil) 3D and Engineering Education for the Non-Civil Minded

2D to (Civil) 3D - Varsity Views on Civil 3D by Sanjay Asnani
A blog by an Autodesk Civil 3D Product Development Team member

http://2dtocivil3d.typepad.com/

Engineering Education for the Non-Civil Minded by Melissa Thomas
A blog by an Autodesk manufacturing Team member on most Autodesk manufacturing products such as AutoCAD Electrical, Autodesk AliasStudio, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Productstream, Autodesk Showcase, and Autodesk Vault.

http://engineeringeducation.typepad.com/engineering_education_for/

New Autodesk Blogs OPML file 05-02-07 to add all RSS feeds for the blogs in one step to a RSS reader. Download ADSKBlogs-5-2-07.opml

13 April 2007

31 Autodesk Blogs!

Like Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream with its 31 flavors Autodesk now has 31 tasty blogs covering many Autodesk teams and products. The number is increasing all the time as more teams catch the blog bug and realize what a great electronic conversation medium it is.

An OPML file allows you to import a XML list of RSS feeds all at once instead of entering them one by one into you RSS feed reading software.

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/files/ADSKBlogs-4-13-07.opml

Cheers,
Shaan

 

 

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Another New Autodesk Blog: BIM and Beam

A new Autodesk Revit Structure blog has been launched by Wai Chu the Revit Structure Product Manager and Nicolas Mangon the Structural Product Line Manager. For those not aware BIM standards for Building Information Modeling.

http://bimandbeam.typepad.com/bim_beam/

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 April 2007

A new Autodesk Blog "It's Alive in the Lab"

Scott Sheppard - the original author of the DWF blog, Beyond the Paper has launched a new Autodesk blog talking about Autodesk Labs named "It's Alive in the Lab". Volker Joseph has taken the reins of Beyond the Paper blog. The Autodesk Labs is near and dear to my heart as I remember when it was Eric Stover and myself and creating the pages together and going live off of our own server. Now Autodesk Labs is a grown up and on its own with its own team and many both exciting and interesting things planned for the future.

Cheers,
Shaan

 

 

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27 March 2007

AutoCAD 2008 Preview Guide & More

Fellow team member Heidi Hewett has posted on her AutoCAD Insider Blog the AutoCAD 2008 Preview Guide as well as a bunch of other informative posts about AutoCAD 2008.

 

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19 March 2007

Roopinder Gets Solid

Roopinder Tara, the man behind the CAD and design news site www.tenlinks.com and his CAD Insider blog has now started a new service of creating solid models and part catalogs at www.innovate3D.com. They can create 3D Inventor models for you.

Roopinder told me anyone who mentions they read about it on this blog “Between the Lines” would get 3 free Inventor models.

Now I need to get Roopinder to provide their online gallery in the 3D DWF format or the Freewheel viewer which requires no install of a viewer.

Cheers,
Shaan

01 February 2007

Shaan is in Costa Rica 2/1/07 to 2/14/07

I will return on February 14th. I will try to blog and post photos to the Daily Grind III photo gallery but Internet access may be difficult.

30 January 2007

Congratulations to Mark Kiker

Mark's CADDManager.com blog turned 300,000 views old yesterday and over 29,000 visitors. Congratulations Mark, who said CAD Managers can be celebrated from time to time instead of despised for enforcing standards. :-)

Link

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