Tom Stoeckel of Autodesk Product Support has detailed on the Without a Net blog a bogus AutoCAD ObjectARX application causing some problems for a few Chinese AutoCAD users. Malicious code writers are nothing new but just be cautious about the ObjectARX applications you download or use as well as most anything you download or install on your computers.
The new Autodesk Labs project named Autodesk Project Dragonfly has been gaining a great deal of chatter in the social networks as well as the web and traditional press. It is a really cool free web based application allowing almost anyone to design their house, space or just reorganize a space. It is as simple as drag and drop. You can assign dimensions and when completed share with others on the site or export to a JPEG, 2D or 3D .DWG file or a Revit .RVT file.
You first sign up for free at http://dragonfly.autodesk.com
I could have started using an existing design shared on the site or from scratch as I ended up choosing.
I started by simply dragging in some floors and then shape and get them to the right dimensions. Selecting the wall allows me to see the dimensions and change them.
Once you get the rooms all set you can then go crazy dragging in content from plants, flooring and rugs, doors and windows, to furniture, to cabinets and more off the palettes.
Here is my 5 minute creation. Note I am not a interior designer or architect. :-) You can select the View in 3D option and even work in the 3D view mode.
I grabbed one of the more complete designs from the public gallery to show what exporting to DWG results in.
You can also export to a JPEG raster image of a Autodesk Revit .RVT file.
Give Autodesk Project Dragonfly a try to re-organize your ofice, your house, or even a future dream office. Nothing to install, free, and downright fun. To use a line from an GEICO insurance companies popular television ads “So easy, a caveman could do it”.
Cheers,
Shaan
Tuesday May 19, 2009
10:00 AM. – 5:00 PM. EDT (7:00 AM – 2:00 PM. PDT)
There will be many presentations as well as Autodesk employees posted in the virtual booths to take your questions on the many new products.
I hope to “virtually” see you there as I will be participating in the chat sessions such as “Straight Talk about AutoCAD 2010 Benefits“.
Cheers,
Shaan
PS: Only 196 days until Autodesk University 2009!
Find out how to turn "What if" into reality & Why Design Matters
The Autodesk Imagine Virtual Event is an online live event with interactive chat sessions included.
Tuesday May 19, 2009
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EDT
7:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. PDT
Agenda
The Autodesk Imagine Virtual Event Agenda May 19, 2009
10:00am–5:00pm EDT / 7:00am–2:00pm PDT
11:30–12:00pm EDT / 8:30–9:00am PDT
12:00–12:30pm EDT / 9:00–9:30am PDT
12:30–1:00pm EDT / 9:30–10:00am PDT
1:00–1:30pm EDT / 10:00–10:30am PDT
Scheduled Chat Sessions:
1:30–2:00pm EDT / 10:30–11:00am PDT
2:30–3:00pm EDT / 11:30–12:00pm PDT
3:00–3:30pm EDT / 12:00–12:30pm PDT
Scheduled Chat Sessions:
4:00–4:30pm EDT / 1:00–1:30pm PDT
Scheduled Chat Session:
I hope to see you there as I will be participating in the chat sessions such as “Straight Talk about AutoCAD 2010 Benefits“.
Cheers,
Shaan
A new episode of the TeknoChronicles of Z has been posted on the AutoCAD Exchange as well as YouTube. This is the third episode and titled “Supply Chained”. Take a break and watch this video to get a mid-week laugh.
TeknoChronicles of Z Episode 3 – Supply Chained
If you have not been following the funny series The TeknoChronicles of Z it might help to catch up on these short fun videos from Autodesk. Don't forget to enter the General ShadowFinger’s Benign Design contest in 3D for some great prizes but valid for US contestants most likely due to some evil TeknoLawyer.
You can follow The TeknoChronicles of Z at the AutoCAD Exchange Community (http://autocad.autodesk.com), http://www.teknochroniclesofz.com/, or even on YouTube.
Chronological list of webispodes of TeknoChronicles of Z:
Cheers,
Shaan
I have found a great deal of people on Twitter discussing “tweeting” Autodesk products as well as sharing fun ideas and commentary on their daily life. If you are on Twitter and want to follow me I am @mrcadman http://twitter.com/mrcadman.
If you don't know what Twitter is…Common Craft has a great video explanation http://www.commoncraft.com/twitter.
They also have other videos for other technologies explained in easy terms and concepts.
Cheers,
Shaan
AutoCAD 2010 Help is now available in HTML online as well as many other AutoCAD 2010 learning and training resources free. I believe this is just one step towards something even more exciting in the future for documentation, but more on that if and when it materializes.
http://www.autodesk.com/autocad-help
More resources
Web-based Training and Help for AutoCAD 2010 can be accessed from the following resources
Learning Path.
Cheers,
Shaan
The new Episode 1 of TeknoChronicles of Z - “Z No Evil” is very funny.
“vrooom vrooom vrooom”
Be sure to pay attention to all the subtle humor like the scrolling text in the TeknoMap or the clouds in reverse direction in the TeknoJustice’s flying vehicle.
You can follow the TeknoChronicles of Z at http://AUTOCAD.AUTODESK.COM, http://www.teknochroniclesofz.com/, or even on YouTube.
Cheers,
Shaan
There is a new free online community for AutoCAD users named AutoCAD Exchange http://autocad.autodesk.com
This new site by Autodesk will feature many videos, Ask the Expert sessions, featured customers like Hollywood's Eddie Paul. There will also be some fun content like The TeknoChronicles of Z series, and even Roger Penwill CAD related cartoons. There is also the ability for members to share content and AutoCAD tips.
It should be another great resource for all AutoCAD users to bookmark and join.
There is also a CAD Management series I filmed in February with CAD Management guru Robert Green. It is amazing how they say the camera adds ten pounds to you, but I see it can also make me look hair challenged especially when appearing with Robert Green's healthy full head of hair. ;-)
Quite a bit in the AutoCAD Exchange community, and more as it begins to grow.
Cheers,
Shaan
I will try to not geek out and confuse you on this post. With AutoCAD 2010 there is an AutoCAD 2010 System Requirement to have a CPU (essentially the computer’s brain) with SSE2 support. SSE2 is an Intel CPU instruction set (SIMD Extension 2) which is essentially technology to replace the old MMX extensions which are half as slow in many data and math operations. Most current systems will support SSE2 except an old AMD CPU system over 6 years old. AMD Opteron, Athlon 64 both support SSE2 and have since 2003.
So why SSE2 requirement in AutoCAD 2010:
In developing software there is a limit on how old of technology you can effectively support without impacting current hardware and software users. In the case of AutoCAD 2010 adding the SSE2 requirement this increases performance for customers using current hardware. Many areas improve in AutoCAD such as OSNAPs.
I said I would not geek out so I will not go into details on floats, floating point, and registers. Your experience may vary but the change was made for some performance benefit of current hardware.
Bottom Line: Increasing performance is a good thing!
Cheers,
Shaan
With many of the new 2010 based products Autodesk is releasing, there is the new ability to share content with Autodesk’s Seek free online content service.
In AutoCAD 2010 on the Output ribbon tab I selected the Share with Autodesk Seek and then selected a block I wanted to share. The block was When Ice Cream Goes Bad” from coworker Cliff Young.
It is a simple process where I upload and then I am presented with a page to add a content description, tags, etc. You do need to register for a new and FREE Autodesk Seek account.
So…
Share and Share alike, and Seek and you shall find!
Cheers,
Shaan
If you do, how about attending an impromptu town hall meeting of AutoCAD based product users discussing various topics,exchanging ideas and tips and getting to know each other. Just an experiment to figure out the rough edges and what works.
Is anyone interested in seeing each others faces live in a webcam and hearing their voices in a virtual meeting of CAD and Design Professionals?Think of it as a live discussion group with faces and voices. Could be a great deal of fun, or a fun awkward bumpy experiment.
Of course time selection would be critical to allow for the most around the globe to participate so perhaps a Thursday mid morning.
One more clarification is that there will not be the ability to serve pizza and beer, so it will be a Bring Your Own.Virtual Refreshment And Virtual Pizza “BYOVRAVP”. I know someone will ask but please do not bring your Virtual Hookah pipe. Physical clothes not virtual are required.
Maybe this wild and crazy idea is all a result of being snowed in again and getting some cabin fever from being cooped up in the basement office far too long.
If you would be interested in participating and think I should go full steam ahead towards the first inaugural event, just reply with suggestions on format and topics in the comments to this post.
It does sound fun!
Cheers,
Shaan
Project Dragonfly is a free web hosted application which provides you the ability to easily design floor plans.
Yes Dragonfly is a free Do It Yourself “DIY” web based application unlike any other, give it a try.
See Scott’s post on the new Autodesk Labs offering.
Project Dragonfly now available on Autodesk Labs
Did you know this ability to download Autodesk products (electronic fulfillment) Autodesk by Autodesk Subscription customers already exists? I just found out about it and Autodesk Subscription customers should have received an email around February 24th on this. Autodesk Subscription Software Coordinators, Contract Managers and users with approved download rights can download Autodesk 2009 products in multiple languages now from the Subscription Center.
When the 2010 products begin shipping your Autodesk Subscription Software Coordinator for your Autodesk Subscription should receive an email containing your serial and product key and details on download or requesting a DVD.
You have the option to download and select DVD media. when you request the physical DVD media you get the full shipping product package not just a plain DVD in a envelope.
Where can you find these electronic fulfillment downloads? Go to the Subscription Center and login.You must have permissions for downloads from your Autodesk Subscription Software Coordinator who manages Autodesk Subscription for your company. When logged in select the Downloads menu item and then Launch Electronic Fulfillment.
That's it, instant product upgrade gratification without the need for waiting on a delivery person and box to arrive at your door.
Cheers,
Shaan
Recently a group of CAD bloggers who were also active AutoCAD 2010 beta customers were invited by Autodesk to attend a behind the scenes event for the AutoCAD 2010 announcement webcast (AutoCAD 2010 Webcast Behind the Scenes). Steve Johnson from Australia was there and was shooting video interviews.
Steve just posted a funny compilation video “A gaggle of geeks” video on his blog via YouTube and at the end with some editorial humor and creativity made me look like I could not spell the word “nerd”. The truth is that Steve he asked me the identification for the Star Trek ship Enterprise which I only knew the first letter as I am not a big Star Trek fan, but Steve changed the question in the video edit. I am glad he at least mentioned he changed the question to save me from complete embarrassment and mockery.
I did notice in the video that the usual head banging rock music fan Steve has apparently changed his music preferences to techno.
Steve, thanks for the good laugh heading into the weekend!
Cheers,
Shaan
This has a been a longstanding customer request and now fulfilled with the upcoming FREE Autodesk Design Review 2010. Now you can view DWF files from Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and last but definitely not least Mozilla Firefox.
Check out more on Autodesk Design Review 2010 and browsers at Beyond the Paper DWF Blog: DWFs on the Web: Not just for Internet Explorer Anymore
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
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,
Did you know there is a fans of AutoCAD group on Facebook? Yesterday Facebook announced that there are over 150 million users of Facebook and growing by millions each month. It seems there are a great majority of people wanting to be connected to friends, coworkers, or just a need to be a social butterfly. The AutoCAD Fans group has over 6000 members now and we just posted a special announcement for members there yesterday and intended to do more in the Facebook AutoCAD Fans group.
Cheers,
Shaan
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
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
The new version of TechSmith’s product Camtasia was released today after beta testing. Camtasia is excellent to create presentations and training videos. I use TechSmith products daily like SnagIt and Camtasia. Camtasia in a nutshell is for recording video from your computer screen, editing, and then publishing in a wide variety of formats like HF Flash, Animated GIF, WMV, MOV,MP4 and more.
I finally got to meet the team while I was in Michigan this year after knowing them for over 10 years.
Record, Edit, Produce and Share.
Just some of the new enhancements in Camtasia 6 are:
RECORD:
EDIT:
PRODUCE:
GOING
In the future, we'll stop producing RealPlayer files. It is used by less than 2% of our customers and is becoming less robust compared to other formats.
GONE
In general, they removed features and replaced them with something better. In the case of LiveOutput, it was used so infrequently, that the continued QA / Testing of it had a negative impact on our ability to test and improve other features.
Below is a screenshot of the main editing screen after I recorded a quick tutorial of AutoCAD’s Dynamic UCS I then edit and add voice narration and publish it and post it on my blog in this case. Very quick and painless. You can even record your PowerPoint presentation.
Sometimes text describing how to do something can be hard to understand, but a image or video can explain clearly and bypass even language barriers. I know many trainers and CAD Managers using Camtasia and SnagIt to show and demonstrate techniques with software or for training sessions.
TechSmith has a blog! http://visuallounge.techsmith.com
Cheers,
Shaan
OK the main point is not really winning at the card game Blackjack, but the table in this AutoCAD Tables in AutoCAD example does show the best moves when playing at the Blackjack card table. Autodesk University 2008 is in Shanghai China, Yokohama Japan and Las Vegas Nevada. In Las Vegas there is gambling available should you choose to gamble. I don't gamble when in Las Vegas myself except maybe a couple quarters in a slot machine. OK Shaan get on with it…
I created a Microsoft Spreadsheet showing what to do when the dealer’s hand is showing and you have a certain pair of cards in yours. This table does even the odds a bit, but in most gambling the odds are in the casinos favor no matter the skill.
Now at this point I could copy the Excel cells and using Paste Special in AutoCAD paste as AutoCAD Entities and end up with a native AutoCAD Table with the formatting, values, and the underlying formulas but I am not. In this example I want to show a cool and time saving tip and new AutoCAD 2009 feature. I want to have the spreadsheet linked between AutoCAD and Excel so if I update either they are synched up. I don't want to use the paste OLE object into AutoCAD as OLE is one of those things in Windows that can be a real pain. So we will use the new AutoCAD 2009 ability to create a Table from a data link to Excel. Note you must have Excel installed.
So I use the DATALINK Command. You can also select the Data Link option from the Tools menu.
I will then use the Data Link Manager to give the Data Link a name and then browse for a Excel spreadsheet.
I then can preview the spreadsheet and use the path or a relative path. I also selected a range in the spreadsheet.
Now I use the AutoCAD TABLE Command and select the Insert option “From a data link” and select the Blackjack Table I linked to and you can preview the table.
Now place the Table in your drawing. You can now edit the formatting and as I mentioned update the table from Excel using DATALINKUPDATE command. without having to resort to OLE which is a gamble itself. ;-)
That’s it!
I printed a DWF for reference and also placed one on the free Autodesk Freewheel where you can view a DWF without installing anything and works on any platform that can run JAVA in a browser.
Shaan’s Blackjack Table DWF Here
Or click the below image to see the DWF in Autodesk Freewheel.
Autodesk Freewheel is a free web service to share 3D and 2D designs without installing any software. You can also use the Autodesk Labs Technology Preview 3D/2D ShareNow Add-in for AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, and Design Review
All you need to do it ad your path to a DWF to the URL for Freewheel or upload your DWF to Freewheel either way it is free and results in a zero client DWF viewing.
All you need to do is point Freewheel at your DWF you have on the web
Now I need to get back to writing my many presentations and packing for travel to Istanbul Turkey this week.
Cheers and I hope to see you at one of the AU’s this year,
Shaan
I was walking through the Autodesk San Rafael offices last week and passed Brian Pene’s office. What caught my attention was he was playing with something wireless and his screen with a 3D building model was updating. I had to stop and ask what it was. It was the Tangible ViewCube (yes View+Cube are joined and trademarked as one word).
Think of it as the Autodesk ViewCube in real life and much better for manipulating a view than a Nintendo wii besides you look more professional than telling your boss why a gaming system is needed in your office. I saw other cool and practical things in Brian’s office, but I cant talk about those just yet.
Read Scott’s blog post on the Autodesk Tangible ViewCube device including a link to a video. Autodesk Tangible ViewCube
Cheers,
Shaan
This is really what I heard over the planes audio system when a Southwest airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas was preparing for takeoff. Indeed there was a guy in the back wearing shorts with hairy legs and waving who then said “I am here to make the rest of the crew look good”. I have to hand it to Southwest Airlines for some of the happiest and funniest airline employees.
I see myself as that same role here at Autodesk as I am here to show off all the cool stuff they do and make them look good. I am fortunate enough to stand on the shoulders of many very smart and dedicated developers, QA testers, designers, product managers, and many more deskers behind the scenes. Hopefully I make them or what they create more visible.
AutoCAD Tip: Where do I find blocks and symbols?
It has been a hidden gem in AutoCAD for a few releases named AutoCAD DesignCenter,
AutoCAD Command :ADCENTER or use CTRL+2 keys
You can search through files for blocks, leaders, layers and more and drag and drop content from other drawings.
There is the option tab to search the DesignCenter online blocks “DC Online” which is essentially all of the blocks with the former Autodesk product Autodesk Symbols but free inside AutoCAD. I know there are well over 100,000 symbols/blocks in DC Online and perhaps many more as I did not spend the time to count them.
There is also the new Autodesk Seek online which is free and has tons of content in AutoCAD DWG, DWF, Revit formats, DGN, PDF and even SketchUp SKP files. Currently it is in beta and primarily architectural but watch Autodesk Seek grow as it partners with more and more companies and catalog vendors and aggregates the content for use by millions of designers around the world.
Now back to my Saturday night fun of photographing some scorpion specimens I received today all very dangerous or known as “hot” like an Egyptian fattail scorpion Androctonus crassicauda with almost the same lethal venom as a cobra LD50. I like to photograph them under ultraviolet light as they fluoresce and glow. I also got one large mean Kuwait Camel Spider and he was really hungry. I hope to see these invertebrates in the wild next month while in Turkey, Kuwait and Dubai.
Here is a photo of a past ultraviolet photo of a scorpion which makes a great desktop wallpaper. If you watch or subscribe by RSS to my Shaan's Flickr Photostream, you will see my photos when I post them.
Cheers,
Shaan (the hairy legged ugly guy in the rear of the plane)
Thanks to BLAUGI, I was made aware that more Autodesk blogs apparently went live bringing the count to 43 Autodesk blogs.
Welcome to Autodesk AliasStudio related blogs:
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