Between the Lines

Zombies Are Good for Your Health

Last weekend I ran the Zombie Chase 5k obstacle course with my oldest son.for the second year in a row. Last year it was during the day, this year at night under a full moon and in an old mining/ghost town. It is like a 5k run combined with obstacles and a haunted house mixed in. We got to run through houses, and old railroad caboose, all while having zombies chasing us. We did get revenge in the end where there was a paintball gun area and we could shoot the zombies with paintballs. It was a total blast and thousands participated. Read more →

Only 157 Days

Yes just a friendly Friday reminder there are only 157 days until Autodesk University 2013. AU 2013 in 157 DaysMany of the instructors for all those awesome classes and labs were sent out notices yesterday. The job of selecting the class and instructors proposals is tough as there are so many submitted and only so many class openings unless we extended Autodesk University into a month long event. Now those selected instructors need to get busy writing and preparing the top notch classes we expect. Read more →

The New Industrial Revolution Is Coming In 3-D

This is a great article by the online Wall Street Journal on new digital manufacturing and how some of those technologies translate into new ways to manufacture products. We are not yet in an age of robot factories, but getting close as more digital fabrication methods in additive manufacturing like 3D printing are advancing in materials, quality, and the scale required. Read more →

How to Manually Uninstall Software on Microsoft Windows

Have you ever been unable to uninstall some software, and the only thing you were accomplishing was pulling your hair out? Sometimes things happen when trying the normal uninstall method and you run into errors, and just need a fast and easy tool to remove the software application. This great tip comes from an Autodesk Knowledge Base article and applies to other Windows applications not just Autodesk products. Knowledge Base articles are published by Autodesk Support regularly based on support calls or internal discussions and research. Read more →

"Cloud Assisted Desktop" - Autodesk's Fusion 360 Launched

Autodesk Fusion 360 went live today as an official Autodesk product after a great deal of evolution based on customer feedback and research. Autodesk Fusion 360 started in Autodesk Labs as a Technology Preview of a desktop product, then as a Cloud Assisted Desktop1 application for Mac and Windows on the Autodesk Feedback Community where betas are run. Now the Beta product sticker has been removed and it is ready for primetime production use by designers and engineers free for the first 90 days and around the small price of $25 a month. The powerful product combines industrial design sculpting of T-Splines to the power of a parametric 3D modeling tool along with cloud based collaboration, versioning, file translation and more. It is Cloud Assisted Desktop1 and not only powerful, but fun to use and design in as I have been using it personally for quite sometime now. Read more →

AutoCAD 2014 Online and Offline Product Documentation

You can access AutoCAD online documentation in several languages using only your Internet browser. http://autode.sk/11z3ATR Read more →

Happy Summer Solstice

Today is Summer Solstice which results in the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. I am just glad it is not a longer Monday. Read more →

MakerBot + Stratasys Merge

Yesterday June 19th, 2013 the merger of two well known 3D printer manufacturers MakerBot and Stratasys was announced. MakerBot and Stratasys Announce Merger Rumors on the street for the past few weeks indicated they were possibly courting each other, but folks,they have now eloped and are now married. MakerBot gets a high end printing division and Stratasys gets a long needed consumer printer and the huge community and Thingiverse. It was mentioned that both will retain their independence and brands. Read more →

Autodesk FormIt 4.0 & Dynamo Announced at AIA 2013

Autodesk’s free conceptual tool for the ipad, Autodesk FormIt was just updated as version 4. FormIt is the 1st Architectural Form Modeler for the iPad. In addition to new features, there is a web based version of FormIt coming so that you will be able to use it from many more platforms. Before the Android tablet users fire up my comments section asking where is the Android version, the team is looking towards an Android tablet version sometime in the future. Read more →

Place your DWG File on a Diet

I received an email from blog reader Steve Roberts with a suggested tip topic on how to reduce the size and clean up DWG drawing files using four AutoCAD commands. I wrote a quick blog post in the topic. Read more →

The Innovation of Innovation

Autodesk’s Bill O’Connor created this nice short video on Innovation. This is very fitting since I have given two keynotes on innovation recently from an Autodesk perspective from taking CAD from the mainframe to the PC, BIM, digital prototyping, and cloud computing technologies. The path to innovation is paved with seven questions. Bill O'Connor, Founder of the Innovation Genome Project, shows us how these questions have been used in innovations throughout history—from fire to flight, writing to recycling, and everything in between. Read more →

Autodesk Project Blink Beta Opportunity - Run Remote Apps from PC & iPad

Project Blink gives you the power and flexibility to run software installed on your computer from a remote computer or tablet with lower latency than other solutions, and optimized for some Autodesk software. I wish I could say more, but this is a beta and you need to apply and get in the special beta to find out how amazing this cutting edge technology is compared to traditional remote hosted application technologies. Read more →

The Very First AutoCAD Logo from 1982

I have one of the first AutoCAD manuals with this old logo and showed it at my keynote on the topic of Autodesk and Innovation #AutodeskInnovation at the ProSoft Powerlaunch event Thursday. Read more →

Autodesk Team OCTO pi in Fitness Race

Autodesk is a firm believer in healthy employees equates to happy employees as well as reducing healthcare costs as a side benefit. Autodesk has for the second year joined the Global Corporate Challenge where employees form seven person teams to compete within the company as well as against other companies. Team members record their daily pedometer steps and exercise in a competition over a three month period. The teams virtually race around the globe based on their recorded steps & distances. Last year the program was a huge success for me as I lost 50 pounds (More Active = Less Shaan), and have kept it off using my FitBit One unit to help track and motivate me to keep moving. I even built a treadmill desk and stand up desk as opposed to a sit down desk. This year I am on team “OCTO-pi” with members of our Office of the CTO “OCTO” including our fearless leader Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski. Read more →

AutoCAD Tip - Create a Seamless Wood Grain Hatch

SUPERHATCH is a former AutoCAD Express Tool that is now included in the core AutoCAD product. You can create a hatch pattern from most anything without having to learn how to write a hatch pattern definition file. This AutoCAD tutorial is by Autodesk’s own Cliff Young of the AutoCAD Test Development Team. If any readers have a tutorial on an Autodesk product they want to be posted to this blog and read by thousands of readers please email me. Read more →