Between the Lines

AutoCAD 2005 - 5 of 5 Stars from Cadalyst Magazine

"All in all, AutoCAD 2005 will be a worthwhile upgrade for most users." Link to Cadalyst Review Read more →

Sure is hot in Orlando Florida

The temperature has been very high this week and humid, but at least there are enough pools and cold refreshments to assist in my survival. I have been having a great time and have uploaded more images to the Florida photo blog on the left of this blog. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Alireza Parsai has an AutoCAD 2005 Seminar in Toronto Tonight!

Alireza will conduct a seminar about new features of AutoCAD 2005 for TRACE local user group in Toronto. For more details: http://www.trends.ca/~trace/ Read more →

Fun in Orlando Florida!

I have been in Orlando Florida for the past 2 days and am loving it. The weather is excellent and the Disney resorts are awesome. I am sure it is not just me but every animal including ducks, rabbits, birds, turtles, raccoons, and fish seem to be begging for food and have no fear of humans. Even the armadillos are not afraid of people. I added a new photo gallery for this Florida trip. Florida May-June 2004 Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Great Blog Post by Lee Ambrosius "Don't talk smack... instead give back"

Lee Ambrosius of hyperpics.com and his blog Beyond the UI obviously had taken a large amount of time and thought in order to compose this article. He explains the various ways of reporting and providing feedback to Autodesk. Link to Article "Don't talk smack... instead give back" Many will just expect a software company to know about a problem and it will magically be fixed in the next service pack but that is really not based in reality. We need... Read more →

Autodesk University 2004: A Booster Shot for Your Brain

Mark your calendar and save the dates for Autodesk University® 2004—the premier Autodesk learning and networking event. When: Tuesday, November 30 - Friday, December 3 Where: MGM Grand Conference Center, Las Vegas There's nothing like Autodesk University (AU). We're talking about the "you-gotta-go" user conference for everyone who uses Autodesk® solutions and services. Go to the AU website at http://www.autodesk.com/au for more information. Then start making plans to upgrade your brain at AU in Las Vegas. Registration opens in August.... Read more →

BlogJet Rocks!

If you have a blog, thn you should really check out BlogJet. BlogJet allows you to post to your blog but simplifies everything and allows more abilties in formatting and content than the standard web blog page entries do. It runs on your local machine and I even installed and tested the 30 day trial on my TabletPC. It works for most blog host providers such as: Blogger b2 .Text pMachine TypePad MovableType Blogware DasBlog LiveJournal DeadJournal Blogger API MetaWeblog... Read more →

Creating AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palettes and Custom Tools

Ellen Finkelstein (who sends me cookies) wrote an article about creating and customizing Tool Palettes for AutoCAD 2004 awhile back. I thought I would point it out again after receiving a few emails on the subject. The AutoCAD 2004 Tool Palettes extension adds even more abilities and the same abilities are included in AutoCAD 2005. Link to Article Cheers, Shaan Read more →

Going to Florida this Friday May 21st 2004

I will be headed to Orlando Florida this Friday and then headed to the beach on St. Pete Island located on the Gulf of Mexico for a week to soak up some sun and suds. I am taking the family to see the mouse at Disneyworld, so be ready for the funny pictures. I will be posting the photos to my "Daily Grind" image gallery. I am also meeting with a few people and customers for some visits and chat... Read more →

Perfect Paper Space, Part 2 by Lynn Allen

Lynn Allen has published her second part of the Perfect Paper Space series. Last month it was part 1 link here and now the latest. "LAST MONTH WE DIPPED our toes into paper space. This month let's wade deeper into this tricky subject. AutoCAD 2005 relies heavily on paper space layouts to maximize the Sheet Set Manager capabilities, so you'll want to be an expert in this topic." Link to the article on the Cadalyst website Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

AutoCAD® 2005 Sheet Set Best Practices White Papers

The following three white papers on AutoCAD® 2005 Sheet Set Best Practices are being posted to the Autodesk web site any day, but you get them here first. Cheers, -Shaan Best Practices Series Sheet Set Manager: Introduction to the Series Lynn Allen, Cadalyst columnist Wouldn't it be nice if an entire project consisted of just one drawing sheet, which we could simply create, plot, and hand over to our client? Unfortunately, in the real world, our projects consist of multiple... Read more →

Registration and Activation (Authorization) Codes: How does it work for Subscription?

All products on subscription are pre-registered to the Contract Manager named at the time the Subscription order is processed. When installing your product you will be required to obtain an activation code. When requesting an activation code for product installations and reinstallations, please be sure to have your Serial/Group ID number available (found on your product package). Group—A subscription contract may contain one or more groups. A company may choose to have several groups. Groups can be used to organize... Read more →

Quick Article on Design Document Communication with DWF

I just wanted to write a short article on using DWF and a workflow with markup. The DWF format is very small compared to PDF and other formats for transmitting to others. You can also use the free Autodesk DWF Writer 2 to publish from other applications such as Bentley MicroStation, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel or most any other application that can use a Windows System printer driver. You can publish in one click the entire Sheet Set in... Read more →

AutoCAD is used in so many places..

I just found out that the map at: http://www.sacairports.org/int/terminal/airport.html was actually cretaed using AutoCAD and then a few labels added in Adobe Photoshop. It just goes to show that AutoCAD is used almost everywhere. The credit for the map goes to Donald Wilson of the Sacramento International Airport planning department. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

AutoCAD Express Tools Tutorial from http://www.cadtutor.net

Some AutoCAD Express Tools are covered in Michael's online article: Layer Walk BCOUNT Change Space Layer Isolate You really should consider subscribing to his newsletter ‘The AutoCAD Toolbelt’. [Read Article] Read more →

Edge Panning with AutoCAD

We added a little known feature in AutoCAD 2004 which is also in AutoCAD 2005. I figured I would explain this after reading a post in a newsgroup with a customer trying to figure out this discovery. You must have AutoCAD 2004 or higher installed and on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. Edge panning is when you are panning the display by mouse in the AutoCAD window, and then you reach the edge of the maximized AutoCAD window and the display pans... Read more →

What are the differences between Autodesk Viz 2005 and 3DS Max 6?

Steven Papke of VizDepot.com has documented the main differences between the two products in a quick reference. The Vizdepot is a great resource for those that create rendering and visualization using Autodesk Viz. [Read List from VizDepot.com] Read more →

Attention AutoCAD Users: Want a Visit?

The AutoCAD Team is always looking for customer sites to visit for future feature discussions and to make sure we understand the problems you face in your AutoCAD design use. I am also interested in those that Bentley Microstation to understand their pain points as well. We are always engaging customers in discussions in many ways such as personal visits, local user groups, email survey, phone interviews, web presentations, discussion groups, AutoCAD Feedback emails, and many other ways. I would... Read more →

DWF Precision Follow Up

This is a follow up to the DWF Precision article by Brian Mathews of the DWF Team Link to Article By default, DWFs are plotted from AutoCAD at 400 DPI—but this is far below the limit for DWF (up to 60 million DPI!). In fact, as Brian’s article points out, with the resolution that DWF supports, “DWF can measure the continental USA with a precision of +/- 2.4 millimeters when using the maximum DPI and paper size settings.” To change... Read more →

AUGI Customization Corner - May 2004

Autodesk User Group International has posted a nice article of tips on AutoCAD Switches written by and AutoCAD Guru and also one of the most experienced and feedback providing AutoCAD customers Lee Ambrosius. Link to Article Lee also has a blog for many great tips on AutoCAD titled "Beyond the UI". http://hyperpics.blogs.com/beyond_the_ui/ "Last month, I finished the second installment of using and creating scripts for use with AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. Here, I’ll turn the attention from customizing inside of... Read more →

Great User Group Meeting

It was nice meeting the 38+ people in attendance last night at the San Francisco AutoCAD Users Group to see the presentation of AutoCAD 2005 by Shawn Gilmour of Autodesk. Congratulations to the winners of the drawings for the AutoCAD 2005 and the books. I have placed a few photos from the meeting in my daily grind photoblog. Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Congratulations to Eric & Kelly Stover on Thier New Family Addition

My coworker Eric Stover the AutoCAD Product Manager and his wife Kelly had a new arrival this weekend. Evan Daniel Stover was born at 10:34pm on Friday April 30th. Congratulations Eric and Kelly! Read more →

Beyond Megapixels - Part II

Part II of the series on digital cameras by Joe Marney thetechlounge.com. Part I was posted last week and busted the "8 megapixel cameras are better" myth. This is a very informative series for anyone using or looking at buying a new digital camera. Read the Article See some of my new daily grind images taken with my new Canon S1. I love this camera! Cheers, -Shaan Read more →