Between the Lines

HVAC Content Extension for Autodesk Building Systems 2004 Subscription Customers

There’s no doubt about it: content is key to the design of building systems. Autodesk® Building Systems 2004 contains extensive libraries of intelligent 2D and 3D mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection content. And now the HVAC Content Extension—a modular extension to Autodesk Building Systems—gives you additional content, so you can spend more time designing and less time creating parts. New content includes Thirty percent more duct fitting content Significant coverage of ASHRAE duct fittings Ten percent more mechanical MvParts... Read more →

Happy Halloween!

Below is a photo of me and fellow desker Mikhail "Misha" Belilovskiy and his funny ballerina costume. We had a Halloween party and costume contest. Read more →

The AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palette Extension & Palette Groups

You can now with the Tool Palette Extension create and manage and even switch palette groups easier than ever. In the below image you see the Customize dialog you get after installing the extension then right-click on the Tool Palette and select "customize". You can switch the current palette groups as simple as right-click menu on the Tool Palette as seen in the below image. Below is a closer view of the Customize dialog where you can create, rename and... Read more →

New Interoperability and Productivity Extension for Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004 Subscription Customers

Just got the information from fellow desker Julian Gonzalez: Continuing to provide value to ADT subscription customers, we are pleased to announce the availability of the new Interoperability and Productivity Extension for Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2004. Productivity and smooth sharing of design data are crucial for today’s fast-track building projects. With the Interoperability and Productivity Extension for Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004, you get just what the name says: tools that improve interoperability and productivity for more speed and accuracy, plus... Read more →

More on Microsoft Windows Longhorn

Here is a great site with Windows Longhorn information and screen captures. Paul thurrott is also writing a complete review of Longhorn to be posted soon. There was a lot of ooohs and ahhhs at the PDC today at some of the features. Lets hope this operating system is developed like fine wine and done slow with lots of feedback and attention to detail. This is a promising start and it is not due to be released until 2005-2006. A... Read more →

Microsoft Unwraps 'Longhorn' Operating System

Well get ready for the tons of press releases and news on the next oprtaing system. In fact Microsoft will be making this beta available for everyone and no non disclosure agreement required which means beta cusomters will be able to discuss it publicly. At the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) this week there are tons of reports about Longhorn and other operating systems and tools on the horizon. Longhorn is a huge evolution in the operating system and is scheduled... Read more →

Notice to My Readers on Earth

There are solar flares predicted for the next few days here on Earth with the potential to affect radio and power companies and other things. On the bright side (no pun intended) the aurora may be seen lower in the hemisphere due to the massive size of the two sun spots causing the solar flares. Check out a current link showing some great images. Click Here Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

64 bit Computers & AutoCAD

The 64 bit computers are coming. It will take awhile before we see any native 64 bit applications but they will come. It may take time like the transition from 16 bit to 32 bit but remember all of the changes in applications and the things they allowed us to do? This is a perfect example of evolution not revolution. We have had 64 bit since the mid nineties remember the Sun SPARC? The operating systems are not there yet... Read more →

Newspapers Around the World

On the web site link below, you can read the worlds newspapers daily front page. It is very informative and interesting to see what is going on aorund the world. For example today in Sydney Australia, you will no longer be able to shower at the famious Bondi beach afterswimming or surfing in an effort to conserve water usage. I hope you find this as intersting as I do. http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/ Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Autodesk Express Viewer 4 is now Live!

You can click on the image to see a larger sized screen capture of Autodesk Express Viewer 4. To download this new DWF viewer Click Here Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Great New DWF Article from Lynn Allen

Why You Need DWF Click Here for this great article by fellow desker and friend Lynn Allen. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Great New Article on the new Tool Palette Extension

AutoCAD: The Tool Palettes Extension - Extending the AutoCAD Interface Nice tutorial on the new extension by well known AutoCAD author of the AutoCAD Bible Ellen Finkelstein and she is also a great cookie baker . Click Here Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

DWF-it!

I have received some great feedback from Autodesk customers after they tried the DWF format at my recommendation. I thought I might share the raw comments used with their permission of course and perhaps you might give it a try as well. What do you have to lose besides getting the smaller files, faster loading times, and smaller viewer with DWF than with the other format? As an exclusive to this blog, you may be interested to know that the... Read more →

AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palette Extension

A few customers have emailed me about some confusion with hatches and this new Tool Palette extension. If your AutoCAD system variable Pickstyle variable is set to 2 or 3, along with the associative hatch or gradient it selects its boundary. That multiple selection prevents dragging those objects into a tool palette because we do not allow dragging mutliple objects to a palette; only a single one. The solution is to set Pickstyle to 1 or 0, or use a... Read more →

Shaan's Travel Tip

I was on the road last week in Seattle visiting customers and also attending some meetings at the Microsoft Redmond campus. I stumbled across a great travel tip after forgetting to pack my toothpaste in my bag. I found that you can easily brush your teeth with the breath mints named Altoids. I am not kidding. Simply take two Altoids and chew them with some water in your mouth, then brush away the plaque and bad breath. Sounds odd but... Read more →

New AutoCAD 2004 Extension Releasing Today October 16th 2004

You are hearing it here first. There will be a new AutoCAD extension releasing today for AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2004 based products. The press release will be later today as well as the download available on the Autodesk subscription center. This is a very nice productivity extension. The Tool Palettes Extension enhances tool palette functionality and adds new fonts and text symbols such as centerline and plate. With the Tool Palettes Extension, you can create tools from drawing objects... Read more →

DWFWriter 2 Beta Now Available

In the image below I printed DWF files from a non Autodesk CAD application as well as even the almost 10 year old AutoCAD R12 for Windows. I have printed from many non Autodesk applications. The DWF format is a very nice and much smaller file than an Adobe PDF which is appropriate for your Word documents, not your design data. There is a free viewer that is a small download and loads very fast. All you need to do... Read more →

Do you have some suggestions for AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT

I am on the team that develops AutoCAD, the viewers and many other products. If you have a suggestion for us to look into, please email me. Email me at [email protected] In the subject line of the email, please mention "Blog - AutoCAD Wish List". Include the following: Your Name: Company: Phone Number: Email: Web URL if any: About what you do: Location: What problem you are trying to solve or your wish list item: Please describe in detail what... Read more →

Beta 1 Enrollment Announcement for the new DWFWriter Windows System Driver

Autodesk DWFwriter 2 Beta Print to DWF directly from your design applications. Enrollment is currently underway for the Autodesk DWFwriter Beta program. This Windows system printer driver allows you to publish DWF files from a variety of design applications, including Bentley Microstation, Graphisoft ArchiCAD, PTC Pro/E, Solidworks and ESRI ArcGIS. In addition, this printer driver can be used to publish DWF files from Autodesk applications that do not include built-in publishing to DWF, such as Revit, MapGuide and CaiCE. If... Read more →

New AutoCAD 2004 Extension Coming

The new AutoCAD Extension is named "The Tool Palettes Extension". It is a real productivity enhancing extension. It should be available by download to Autodesk subscription customers in a very short time. You will be able to include multiple new types of content onto your AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palettes such as LISP routines, images, xrefs all with preset properties. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Tablet PCs

I am really impressed with the TabletPC and have been using a Toshiba Portege 3500 for almost a year. They are now recently rivaling the power and performance of a Notebook laptop all in a smaller package with a pen to write with. I use AutoCAD 2004 which is Windows XP TabletPC version logo compliant as well as other applications like the free Autodesk Express Viewer and Volo View 3. I also have enjoyed using the latest OneNote 2003 from... Read more →

Great AutoCAD 2004 Reference

AutoCAD customer Lee Ambrosius of Hyperpics created a great PDF document for Quick Tips on AutoCAD 2004. Items covered: 􀂃 Keyboard Shortcuts 􀂃 Drag 'n Drop 􀂃 Command Shortcuts (or Aliases) 􀂃 Object Selection Methods 􀂃 Object Snaps 􀂃 Coordinate System Click Here (requires the free Adobe Acrobat reader from adobe.com) Cheers, -Shaan Read more →