Between the Lines

White Paper: Best Practices for AutoCAD Migration

I have posted here the white paper "Best Practices for AutoCAD Migration" because a couple have had issues when downloading it from the Autodesk FTP server. This white paper covers many of the best practices to follow in order to make migrations much more easy. Download cust_migr.pdf Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Local AutoCAD Users Group Meeting Notice - San Francisco AutoCAD Users Group (SFAUG)

The next SFAUG meeting will take place on Monday, May 3rd and will be dedicated to AutoCAD. Shawn Gilmour from Autodesk will present the new release AutoCAD 2005. Doorprizes Time and place: May 3rd, 6-8pm. SFSU Downtown Center 425 Market Street, room 2601/2602 More Information on SFAUG see http://www.sfaug.org/ I will be there along with a few other Autodeskers to assist and answer any questions people may have. Please introduce yourself to me as I always enjoy meeting local users... Read more →

Beta Opportunity for Autodesk Inventor

If you are interested in enrolling to be considered for the next autodesk Inventor eBeta, the enrollment is now posted. From: http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm Autodesk Inventor® Beta Opportunity If you are interested in participating in this Beta program, please fill out the registration page with your contact information. All participants who are accepted into the program will be contacted via email with instructions on how to download a Beta version once it becomes available. Please use your business email and information to... Read more →

Paul Aubin ADT Author Stopped on By

The other day I was passing through the Autodesk Civic Center lobby and saw ADT power user, author, and trainer Paul Aubin standing there. I said "howdy" and then proceeded to show him around my office and the hardware lab and grab a bite to eat. He was here doing some training. It is always wise to keep our staff up to date on our products and usage from an outside expert since we dont all work in design offices.... Read more →

Background Mask Tools for AutoCAD 2005 by Lee Ambrosius

Lee Ambrosius has written some tools to work with the new AutoCAD 2005 feature Background Masking and posted beta versions on his AutoCAD related blog "Beyond the UI". Lee is a wealth of information and tools for AutoCAD. LInk to Lee's post with the download of the tools:http://hyperpics.blogs.com/beyond_the_ui/2004/04/background_mask_1.html The tools: -DIMMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for Dimensions from the command line DIMMASK - Allows you to apply and remove Background Masking for Dimensions from the... Read more →

New Autodesk Blog, In the Machine by the Autodesk Inventor Team

I would like to introduce and welcome the Inventor Team to the world of blogging. It was so easy to convince them of the value of blogging. In The Machine Blog Link: http://autodesk.blogs.com/in_the_machine/ I am also working on other teams to start publishing tid bits of knowledge, tips and tricks, and product info to a blog. It is as easy as writing an email in an online mail program. The ability to immediately publish to an audience and it naturally... Read more →

Robin Capper's CAD Related Blog

From Robin: "Inspired by your Viz Gallery have started my own CAD Gallery containing a mix of old & new work + some CAD play stuff." Robin also mentioned that Typepad may support DWF files and I will connect with them to see what can be done to expedite this. Imagine Blog hosted DWF galleries! Check out this blog at: http://rcd.typepad.com/ If you know more CAD related blogs, please email me the links. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

AutoCAD 2005 Updated Migration Tools Released

The Autodesk web site has now been updated with the updated AutoCAD Migration Tools. There is also a migration best practices document. http://www.autodesk.com/migrationtools Best Practices for AutoCAD Migration PDF (62 KB) Menu and Toolbar Porter (re-written) Import your menus, toolbar items, and keyboard shortcuts (accelerators) from previous versions of AutoCAD into AutoCAD 2005. Autodesk Batch Drawing Converter (no real updates as the file format has not changed) Convert any AutoCAD or AutoCAD-based drawing file to AutoCAD Release 14, AutoCAD 2000,... Read more →

DotSoft ToolPac 8.0 for AutoCAD

Terry over at Dotsoft has done it once again with Toolpac 8.0 for AutoCAD. He has packed over 675 tools to increase productivity in AutoCAD into his new release of the popular ToolPac 8.0 for AutoCAD. For more info see the ToolPac website: http://www.dotsoft.com/toolpac.htm Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Alireza Parsai of cadpanel.com and AutoCAD 2005 Table Tutorial

Tutorial on the new AutoCAD 2005 feature, Tables. by Alireza Parsai of http://www.cadpanel.com/ Click the following link to view the tutorial http://www.cadpanel.com/trainees/2005tables/040425tables2005.htm Thanks Alireza for all of your great tutorials available on your web site and caddigest.com. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Ahhhh Found Brazil Products Locally

I was told about a store in Marin named The Marin Brazil Store. I was able to get my new favorite soda from Brazil and many other things I got hooked on during my recent trip to Brazil. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Digital Camera Megapixel Myth.. Is Higher Better, NO

Beyond Megapixels - Part I By Joe Marney thetechlounge.com This is a great article and the author promises more. He clearly explains why you should not be sucked in by the number of megapixels in digital cameras today. A 5 megapixel camera can be better than a new 8 megapixel camera. I just purchased a Canon S1 which is 3.2MP but has an awesome optical zoom and built in image stabilizer to prevent those common blurred images because of moiving... Read more →

Cute Visitors Last Night

I had a family of possums wake me and my family up around 3AM this morning. There were three baby possums running around my yard. I went to take some photos and they turned out to be more curious than I was. I kept a sock on my hand to prevent my scent from being on the baby possums so that their mother would not reject them with human scent. I took a few photos then set them on their... Read more →

Autodesk DWF Composer Launches Today!

The Autodesk DWF Composer product website is www.autodesk.com/dwfcomposer. You can purchase the product through Autodesk resellers or at http://www.autodesk.com/store for $99! You can even upgrade the full Volo View 2 to Composer for $49. See what Mark Douglas of MKM did with DWF and Hyperlinks Link to Article Autodesk DWF Composer Overview Improve the efficiency and speed of the entire design review process—review, markup, and revision—with Autodesk®DWF™ Composer. Built around the DWF™ (Design Web Format™) file format and developed specifically... Read more →

Beta Opportunities Announcement

If you are interested in beta testing these products, make sure to use the code when enrolling on the second page. Also we require that you use a identifiable email account not one of the free ones like hotmail or yahoo. Cheers, -Shaan From: http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AutoCAD® Mechanical & Mechanical Desktop 2005 Beta Opportunity If you are interested in participating in this Beta program, please fill out the registration page with your contact information. All participants who are accepted into... Read more →

New Autodesk Viz Image Gallery

I have started some other image galleries including the Viz Image Gallery (http://autodesk.blogs.com/photos/viz_gallery/). Please feel free to email me images you want to show off that used Autodesk Viz. I also need you to state in the email that you release the images for use by Autodesk and also what you want in the credits. There is also an Architectural Desktop Gallery by Chis Yanchar coming soon. Sincerely, Shaan Hurley Technical Marketing Mgr / Beta Mgr. PTD Group (AutoCAD and... Read more →

Autodesk Viz 2005 is released!

Read more on Chris Yanchar's blog Between the Walls about the new Viz Release. Link to Article I also posted a photo of Autodesk Viz 2005 Product Manager Michael Woodcox celebrating the launch and shipping of the product in my Daily Grind Photo Blog: Read more →

AutoCAD Electrical 2005 eBeta Enrollment Open

To enroll to be considered for this eBeta opportunity go to: http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/betaweb.htm then follow the instructions especially the code name. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

DWFit Hyperlink Style!!

From Mark Douglas MKM & Associates"MKM is excited about the power DWF will bring to its office. We look forward to the day when we can jetison PDF and use DWF exclusively for many great reasons. Here's just one.... Open the below DWF file in the free Autodesk DWF Viewer. It will open directly to a Plan sheet. Here you will see there are Detail bubbles. If you CTRL-Click the Detail bubble it will HYPERLINK you RIGHT to that detail... Read more →

Autodesk VIZ 2005 is Lanched!

Autodesk Introduces Powerful Visualization Software That Takes Conceptual Design to the Next Level Autodesk VIZ 2005 is for designers who need the power to realistically explore design concepts, communicate design intent, and easily share work with clients and prospects. Read more in the press release. Click Here Read more →

Successful Network Installation of AutoCAD in a Large Design Firm

New Whitepaper to be posted on http://www.autodesk.com/autocad in the next week or so. A successful network installation of AutoCAD® 2004 and AutoCAD 2004–based software products depends not only on good planning, but also on sufficient testing of product functionality in a real-world business production environment. This white paper outlines considerations in successfully migrating from AutoCAD® 2000i to AutoCAD 2004 at Sasaki Associates, a large, multidisciplinary design firm with offices in Watertown, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California, and about 160 CAD... Read more →

Perfect Paper Space, Part 1 by Lynn Allen - Cadalyst

"EVEN AFTER 12 YEARS, the most frequently requested articles are those on paper space. So, after many moons (and many pleas from readers), it's time to dust off these tips and update them to reflect the new features in AutoCAD 2005. A great deal of confusion still surrounds paper space, as evidenced by the extremely large turnout at Autodesk University for the "Lost in Paper Space" class (perfectly taught by Dan Abbott). There are also many different theories regarding the... Read more →

AutoCAD 2005 Information by AutoCAD Bible Book Author Ellen Finkelstein

Check out the updated information from Ellen Finkelstein on AutoCAD 2005 at her website. Ellen is the author of the very popular AutoCAD Bible books. Features Shown: Tables Fields Sheet Sets Command tool palettes Layer groups and descriptions Text background masks Trimming hatches and hatching almost closed areas Plotting in the background ZOOM Object option New COPY command default http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autoCAD.html Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Avatech Solutions - Autodesk Product eDemos

Check out the Avatech Solutions eDemo list. Link to eDemos Examples of the available eDemos which are web videos that play in the Windows Media Player: AutoCAD 2005 Preview A first look at the latest version of AutoCAD. Find out how new features and capabilities are going to help your bottom line in this exclusive new demonstration. AutoCAD Electrical eDemo See the benefits of AutoCAD Electrical in this demonstration by one of our technical experts. He'll show you the intelligent... Read more →

Give AutoCAD® 2005 a Try, For Free!

You can order a free AutoCAD® 2005 Trial CD-ROM or a run the fully operational online AutoCAD® 2005 streaming trial. AutoCAD® 2005 30-Day Trial CD (This offer is valid only in the United States and Canada. For countries outside the United States and Canada, contact your local Autodesk Authorized Reseller) Link to Order Form AutoCAD® 2005 Streaming Trial (Stream a full version of AutoCAD® to your desktop for 30 consecutive days at no cost. Create, view, save, and plot your... Read more →