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Thanks to my Swedish CAD friend and blogger Jimmy Bergmark for reminding me via his blogs RSS feed about the AU 2005 registrations starting this Monday. I had the date but forgot to announce them here. I have been looking forward to this AU since last December when I announced the location on this blog. This registration is only for AUGI or Autodesk Subscription customers. Public registration begins the following week. AU 2005 Orlando December 3rd 2004 Announcement of AU... Read more →
I wanted to highlight the latest AUGIWorld Magazine that I just read and wanted to pass on the recommendation for others. It is free after a free registration and full of great information. The current Issue is the July/August 2005 issue. You should sign up and subscribe to the free AUGIWorld magazine. The only thing you have to lose is bad CAD habits and you learn new tips and tricks to make your job easier. Link to AUGIWorld Magazine page... Read more →
You can now Offset to a current layer. In the OFFSET command prompt there is a nrew option to set the offset to be on the current layer rather than the same layer as the entity being offset. An example of how this could be used is you have one layer for interior walls and one for exterior. When you wanted to offset the interior wall for the exterior, you could have the exterior wall layer current and the offset... Read more →
ACADINFO is a command utility for gathering information about your AutoCAD installation and current settings. You can find this utility in you AutoCAD 2006 Support directory. To run the utility in AutoCAD 2006 just use the ACADINFO command. The routine will examine your system and write a text file called “acadinfo.txt” to your specified location on the hard drive. The ACADINFO tool was originally developed as an AutoCAD Express Tool to aid support and troubleshooting. Since its early days it... Read more →
It seems like only yesterday (June 2005) that we reached 7 Million downloads of the Autodesk DWF viewer. Now here it isn’t even August yet, and we have reached 8 million. The number of people downloading the free Autodesk DWF Viewer continues to grow due to the popularity and benefits of the DWF format over other electronic formats for CAD documents. To put this in perspective, each of the following is roughly 8 million: The total population of Georgia, New... Read more →
I mentioned the recent Google Earth which is very cool and free. Now there is another mapping tool this time from Microsoft named Virtual Earth. The Virtual Earth is still in beta and not all features are available. It is very interesting and the future feature road map and demos have some very advanced features. Right now you get a view looking down or a road map. In the future you will be able to orbit and change views including... Read more →
The DWF 7.0 Toolkit allows a 3rd party developer to develop applications that read or write multi-sheet drawings in DWF (Design Web Format) format. The toolkit contains a C++ library that aids in the generation, reading, and parsing of DWF files. Experienced C++ programmers can use it to work with DWF files without having to understand their complete underlying data format. This toolkit contains support for the DWF file as defined with the release of AutoCAD 2006. The DWF Toolkit... Read more →
The DXF file (drawing interchange file) format is documented by Autodesk so that other applications can read and write files to and from AutoCAD. You can download and review the AutoCAD 2006 DXF format or other prior versions from the following link. http://www.autodesk.com/dxf Read more →
Google has launched another online free map resource but this time not for Earth http://earth.google.com but instead the moon. The new site is http://moon.google.com/. What is funny is that I noticed if you zoom in really close to the lunar surface it reveals a cheese like surface validating the longtime theory the moon is indeed made of cheese. What next, Google Sea, Google Mars, Google Sun, or Google Galaxy? Shaan Read more →
I created a image of an AutoCAD major release timeline showing the past 20 releases of AutoCAD since 1982. More at my unofficial AutoCAD history site. Link Cheers, Shaan Read more →
You can find the gallery from the button on the http://www.cadalyst.com homepage, or through the link: http://www.cadalyst.com/cadalyst/static/staticHtml.jsp?id=155048 Submit some DWF files and you get the chance to win some cool flash drives. You can also take the time to check out the new DWF Composer 2 review by Ron LaFon of Cadalyst. http://management.cadalyst.com/cadman/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=170143 Cheers, Shaan Read more →
There are 8 new AutoCAD 2006 courses posted to the Subscription Center. 1. Creating Custom Tool Palettes 2. Managing and Sharing Tool Palettes 3. Creating Sheet Sets 4. Working with Sheet Sets 5. Setting Sheet Set Properties 6. Using Fields in Sheet Sets 7. Using Attributes in Sheet Sets 8. Publishing, Transmitting, and Archiving Sheet Sets These courses are available exclusively to Autodesk Subscription customers. To access them, sign in to the Subscription Center: http://www.autodesk.com/subscriptionlogin Read more →
So you have some comments or a problem with a specific topic in the online AutoCAD Help, where do you send the comments? A perfect way to get these logged into the system is to select the "comments" link at the bottom of each Help page. These comments go directly to the technical publications team with all the needed info on the exact content you were on. Cheers, Shaan Read more →
I thought I would quickly publish a little known trick. Since AutoCAD 2004 was released there is no longer the need to install a custom object enabler. Architectural Desktop objects will now display in AutoCAD. However, if your requirements are just to have a flat 2D underlay, then there is a command (ExportToAutoCAD) built-in to the last version of AutoCAD 2006 that enables you to convert the custom objects to plain AutoCAD entities. The command ExportToAutoCAD even contains the Express... Read more →
There are now 2 white papers published on the new AutoCAD 2006 feature Dynamic Blocks. These documents explain the feature, best practices, and tips and tricks to help get you started in using the powerful new feature. The information is from those requiring basic as well as advanced information. There is a part 3 to be published later and I will announce that one when available. Part 1: Dynamic Block Overview and Quick-Start Tutorial Part 2: Inventory of Block Editor,... Read more →
A quick list of events: Depart San Francisco at 10:45AM for Chicago Depart Chicago for Amsterdam Netherlands Almost 3 hours into the 7 hour flight we are diverted for a problem to New York City JFK airport. Sit on the plane for 4 hours until we are provided with hotel rooms in New York City. I arrive at my room at 3AM Sunday. The hotel is 3 blocks from Times Square. Hotel and food compliments of the airline. Cant sleep... Read more →
I am headed to the Netherlands today. After arriving in Amsterdam I will then be driving to a city on the German border named Enschede. Stay off the roads Sunday in the Netherlands as I will be tired from the long flight, jet lagged, and driving. :-) Cheers, Shaan Read more →
There is now a pre-release beta for a new Autodesk Batch Drawing Converter. The only difference from the existing Batch DWG Converter at http://www.autodesk.com/migrationtools is this version does not require any AutoCAD to be on the machine it is installed on. So now you can install on a machine with no AutoCAD on it and convert DWG files back and forth between R14 and the current versions of DWG used by AutoCAD 2006 using a native Autodesk tool. To get... Read more →
In June 2005 we reached 7+ Million downloads of the DWF viewer. The monthly download rates are increasing. The number of people downloading the free Autodesk DWF Viewer continues to grow due to the popularity and benefits of the DWF format. To put this in perspective, each of the following is roughly 7 million: * The total population of Virginia; Oklahoma and Oregon combined; or Switzerland. * The entire population the Roman Empire in 47 AD. * If you had... Read more →
My sincere sympathy goes out to all those affected by the heinous acts in London today. Shaan Read more →
Fellow Autodesk'er Lynn Allen has posted her very popular AutoCAD 2006 Tips and Tricks Booklet on her blog. This booklet was in so much demand during the recent Realize Your Ideas tour that I could not even get a printed version at the event. Now you can print your own booklets from the posted PDF file. The booklet is full of great tips on many of the new features in AutoCAD 2006 and even some tips that apply to prior... Read more →
For those located in the United States and Canada, you can now download the AutoCAD 2006 trial product. AutoCAD 2006 trial is a full version but is time limited to 30 days. This gives you plenty of time to test out the new AutoCAD 2006 features like Dynamic Blocks, enhanced Tables, and more. You will need a broadband Internet connection to download the 337Mb file. For those outside the United States or Canada you can obtain the trial version of... Read more →
AUGI is putting on more CAD Camp events in 2005. www.cadcamp.com Orange County, CA USA August 16th Salt Lake City, UT USA August 23rd Columbus, OH USA August 25th Toronto, ON Canada August 30th Paramus, NJ USA September 13th Cleveland, OH USA September 15th Kansas City, MO USA
I may be slow in posts this week...Yesterday was the US holiday the Fourth of July. On the Fourth of July there are lots of fireworks watched and also many light their own fireworks to celebrate the holiday. I had an accident with a firework yesterday that has essentially left me with a bandage on my right hand for the next week or two covering a burn and also a free & unplanned hair cut. I was quite lucky that... Read more →
My employer Autodesk is generous in providing employees the time to wind down and regenerate the creative energy. Every 4 years Autodesk employees earn a six week sabbatical (time off). I have had one sabbatical while at Autodesk and did some camping with the family as well as just some relaxing time around the house. I am now starting to count down until I am eligible for my next sabbatical which is January 19th, 2006. I will probably take the... Read more →