Between the Lines: Architectural Desktop

Are you aware that you can combine multiple network licenses into one license? If you have a mix of network licensed products, you can combine them into a single license file for running a mix of licensed products or releases.

This could also be the products you upgraded in Autodesk Subscription program. Then when you roll out the new version you could continue to use the prior release until all your users have migrated or moved to a new project to start the new release.

Knowledge Base Article from http://support.autodesk.com

Link to Knowlege Base Article
http://support.autodesk.com/getDoc.asp?id=TS65928

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, April 01, 2004

UK Architecture Firm Specializing in Timber Framing Using ADT

Chris Yanchar wrote a very nice blog article on Timber Framing and ADT. It is always amazing to see what our customers do with our products and their success.

If you have an exciting or interesting use of our products or the products you design using our products, send me an email at [email protected] with the subject line of "Blog" and the details and I will spotlight it in this far reaching blog with thousands of unique readers per day. This is the most active CAD/Autodesk related blog currently on the web.

Here are some screenshots (click thumbnail for larger image):

The Link to the Blog "Between the Walls" article

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Beau Turner - Fan of AutoCAD/ADT 2005 Fields

Beau Turner writes in his blog "Will Render for Food" that he really likes the Fields feature of AutoCAD 2005.

Link to Beau's blog post

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, February 23, 2004

New Autodesk Blog! Between the Walls by Chris Yanchar of the ADT Team

Fellow Desker Chris Yanchar of the Architectural Desktop team now has a blog. I forced him into this fun side-work project as I know he is perfect for the task and does not sleep just like me.

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_walls/

Make sure to bookmark his blog.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Monday, February 23, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Steven Papke's Vizdepot.com Posts AutoCAD and ADT 2005 Articles

Check out what Steven likes about the upcoming releases.

http://www.vizdepot.com/showarticle.php?s=&threadid=164

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cadalyst Magazine - Autodesk previews Architectural Desktop 2005, Building Services 2005

Cadalyst magazine article on Architectural Desktop 2005 and Building Services 2005

http://www.cadalyst.com/cadalyst/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=86182

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Sunday, February 22, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, February 20, 2004

HOT NEWS! AutoCAD 2005 Beta and ADT 2005 Beta Available to all Autodesk Subscription Customers

If you are a current Autodesk subscription customer, you can now get the AutoCAD 2005 and ADT 2005 Beta releases by download. Keep in mind this is not the final released products, but beta releases.

Go login to your Autodesk Subscription website to get the details and instructions. Make sure to read the installation instructions and documentation carefully and also have a broadband connection to download.

Cheers
-Shaan

Posted on Friday, February 20, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

AutoCAD 2005 and 2005 Based Products Announced "Go Further"

AutoCAD 2005 AutoCAD LT 2005 ADT 2005
Civil Des 2005 Map 3D 2005

Official Autodesk 2005 Preview Site
http://www.autodesk.com/preview2005

AutoCAD 2005 Preview Guide - PDF

AutoCAD® 2005 Information

Creating a single drawing as efficiently as possible is important. Delivering a coordinated set of drawings in a timely manner directly benefits your bottom line. With AutoCAD® 2005 you can do both. Everyday tools like the table object and tool palettes boost productivity, and the new Sheet Set Manager helps you control content across entire sets of related drawings, enabling you to lower the risk for errors. Then, in a single view, you can compose and collate sheet sets and share them with your project team using plots, eTransmit, or DWF™ (Design Web Format™) files.

AutoCAD 2005 System Requirements

Intel® Pentium® III or later, with 800 MHz or faster processor, or compatible Microsoft® Windows® XP (Professional, Home Edition, or Tablet PC Edition), Windows® 2000 Professional 256 MB RAM (recommended) 300 MB free disk space for installation 1024x768 VGA with true color (minimum) Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0 CD-ROM drive Mouse, trackball, or compatible pointing device

AutoCAD 2005 Customer Quotes

David Stein, AMSEC LLC The new table entities and table features are awesome! We develop software for the shipbuilding industry and their design processes demand tables of all sorts and shapes. This new functionality makes our jobs (as well as the jobs of our end-users) much easier and more productive.
Darren J. Young, Cold Spring Granite Company
This next release of AutoCAD is one of the best releases to date. The Sheet Set Manager and Field features are robust and just plain well thought out. By utilizing these features, as well as the table objects, users will see tremendous productivity gains. I don't know that I've seen a release whose new features have the potential to impact such a large segment of the AutoCAD user base across all disciplines in such a huge way.

Steven D. Papke, KBJ Architects, Inc.
I really can't say enough good things about the new layers dialog box. I really appreciate the count of the layers displayed versus what is in the drawing. The design delivers information in a manner which is very simple, straightforward and intuitive.

Brian Allen, McKEOWN INC.
The next version of AutoCAD has the best feature set of any AutoCAD release since AutoCAD 2000. The use of fields alone will save our company huge amounts of time. When we use fields with the new tables feature, we’re able to quickly produce material lists, legends or notes. The Sheet Set Manager is also a great time saver - no more searching directories for drawings that are related to the current project, it's all part of the sheet set now.

Darren Myles, LHT Ltd. (New Zealand)
The latest version of AutoCAD provides the answers to some of the workflow issues that I have been trying to resolve for some time. The sheet set manager, fields and tables will improve consistency and accuracy of drawing information."

Robert Pappas, Norfolk (Virgina) Redevelopment and Housing Authority
Sheet Sets are an extremely efficient way to organize the project drawings. By keeping all the drawings sheets in one place and automating the information in the title block, the Sheet Set Manager creates a consistent and easily managed set of project drawings that can be transmitted with ease, through either DWF or traditional internet formats.

AutoCAD LT® 2005 Information

With AutoCAD LT® 2005 you can easily create, plot, publish, and share your 2D designs. You get more done in fewer steps with a streamlined plotting interface and drafting features that boost your productivity. Quickly create tables, better manage large groups of layers, and conveniently access frequently used content to work more efficiently. Sharing your data widely is a snap: even team members without AutoCAD LT software can view and mark up your published DWF™ files, and you can instantly distribute multiple DWG files in a single step. Plus background plotting frees you to work while you print out your drawings.

New Table Functionality
Tool Palette Enhancements
Easier Layer Management
Enhanced Multiline Text Editing and New Symbols
Simplified Publishing
Easy Data Sharing with DWF Files
Streamlined Publishing to DWF
Working with AutoCAD 2005 Users

What are the key differences between AutoCAD LT 2005 and AutoCAD 2005?

Both the AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD LT 2005 software programs use the same software architecture and technology, and both create the same native DWG file format and the new DWF™ (Design Web Format™) file format. Both products offer collaboration functionality that enriches, expands, and simplifies your design processes to save time and money. But AutoCAD 2005 provides additional capabilities in the following key areas:
3D capabilities

Sheet set management

Customization (LISP, ARX, VBA)

Presentation graphics

CAD standards management

Network licensing

Links and More Info

Autodesk.com AutoCAD 2005 preview site should be up at http://www.autodesk.com/preview2005. Main site to launch in the next few weeks. As well I will be updating my AutoCAD History Site with 2005 details and customer drawing gallery.

Lee Ambrosius of www.hyperpics.com A great resource on AutoCAD 2005

What's New in 2005 PDF

References updated for 2005:
AutoCAD Quick Guide Reference PDF
System Variables Quick Guide PDF
System Variables General Overview PDF
Environment Variables Quick Guide PDF
Environment Variables General Overview PDF
Command Quick Guide PDF

Jimmy Bermarks AutoCAD 2005 site
www.jtbworld.com/autocad2005.htm

Terry Dotson of Dotsoft's article on AutoCAD 2005
http://www.dotsoft.com/acad2005.htm

WorldCAD Access AutoCAD 2005 Top Ten
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2004/02/top_10_whats_ne.html
http://www.upfrontezine.com/2004/upf-373.htm

From Patrick Emin of CADxp.com AutoCAD 2005 site in French
http://www.cadxp.com/
http://www.cadxp.com/Downloads+index-req-getit-lid-225.html

Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro) story on AutoCAD 2005 and based products.
http://www.yucad.com/neo.htm

Do you have a link to an AutoCAD 2005 or based product? Send me an email with the link.

Do you have a question regarding AutoCAD 2005? If so post your question as a comment to this blog entry. I will try to answer when I can as I am traveling this week.

More details, images, tips and tricks, articles, and resources very soon as there will be a lot of press articles and more over the next day.

Trivia tidbit on the AutoCAD 2005 image. It is the Yokohama Ferry Terminal in Japan.

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Print on Demand User Guides from Autodesk Now Available

For those that want the printed user guides, you can now purchase all of your printed user guide product manuals at the Autodesk eStore. I agree that sometimes I need a paper-based manual but do use the online Help the majority of the time. No more killing trees for those that were not going to read the paper versions is what started as a trend with many software companies a few years back. In fact I heard personally the complaints from customers with hundreds of seats of products, and they were shocked to get hundreds of printed manuals back a few years ago. Of course all of the product documentation is in the product's help system, but we now give you multiple options to suit your needs. Most products at least have a printed user guide and install guide in the box, but if you want more just go order them from http://estore.autodesk.com/.

Currently listed User Guides on the eStore:

AutoCAD 2004 User Guide

AutoCAD 2004 Customization Guide

AutoCAD 2004 Command Ref Vol I/II Doc Pack

AutoCAD 2004 Network Admin Guide

AutoCAD 2004 ActiveX/VBA Dev Guide

AutoCAD 2004 Visual LISP Tutorial

AutoCAD 2004 Visual LISP Dev Guide

AutoCAD 2002 User Guide

Architectural Desktop 2004 New Features

Civil Design R2i User Guide

Land Development Desktop R2i User Guide

Survey R2i User Guide

Direct link to the eStore page with the User Guides: Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

Now back to your regularly scheduled program. ;-)

Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, January 26, 2004

Autodesk Design Awards 2003

Professionals and students submitted their designs for the Autodesk Design Awards in the Fall of 2003. Winners were announced in December at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Have a look at the winners as there are some really impressive designs:
Click Here

Cheers,
-Shaan

Posted on Monday, January 26, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, January 23, 2004

Wow! Some Really Nice Architectural Desktop "ADT" Examples

Autodeskers Chris Yanchar and Julian Gonzalez of the Autodesk Architectural Desktop "ADT" team showed me some really nice examples of the power of their product. Of course I have to mention ADT is built on AutoCAD as a platform for the architectural specific industry.

You can find many awesome examples posted by ADT users in the discussion groups:
Autodesk Architectural Desktop Customer Gallery
Other discussion groups both web based and news reader and hopefully soon by RSS syndicated feeds.
http://discussion.autodesk.com
ADT Discssion group list where many ADT Team members also participate in the active discussions with cusomters.

Some Awesome Examples of ADT Users Work:

HOK S+V+E: Kansas City Stadium