Between the Lines

How to activate a Start-up or Educational license for Fusion 360

I recently had to provide this information to a friend who is setting up a school with Fusion 360 for the students and felt this would be great to highlight for anyone else looking to get up and licenses running for the free education or start up licensed Fusion 360. Hopefully you were aware that as a student or teacher or even a startup company or enthusiast user you may get many of the Autodesk products free for a term... Read more →

AUGIWorld March 2019 Issue with Autodesk Portland on the Cover

Look what made the cover of Autodesk User Group Intl “AUGIWorld” magazine for March 2019! The photo on the cover is of the Autodesk Portland office stairs constructed of reclaimed lumber and the design by MacKenzie that was inspired by CAM cutting paths that some of our software generates. In addition to the awesome Autodesk Portland office on the cover, there is some great content. https://www.augi.com/augiworld/issue/march-2019 Tips ‘n’ Tricks – Shawn Herring uncovers some AutoCAD Civil 3D tools that are... Read more →

Have You Tried?

Autodesk’s AutoCAD API guru Lee Ambrosius just pointed out a great AutoCAD learning resource. "Have You Tried" is an article series written by the AutoCAD CXD team that takes a look at forgotten and underutilized AutoCAD features. Check out the 18+ months worth of articles to learn about features that could increase your productivity. https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2019/ENU/?query=%22have%20you%20tried%22&knowledgeSource=Product%20Documentation Read more →

Autodesk University 2018 Tips

We are now less than two weeks from Autodesk University! Autodesk University is the premier Autodesk customer event held yearly where several thousand creative design and visualization experts descend on Las Vegas. They arrive wide eyed, craving knowledge from the best in the industry. They leave tired and full of valuable knowledge to make them more productive back at work. After attending every Las Vegas based Autodesk University, I have compiled a long list of tips over the years for... Read more →

Inventor Tip: Frame Generator Custom Notch

This Autodesk Inventor tip was submitted by Peter Barker. Whilst the ‘Notch’ tool available within Inventor’s Frame Generator is very powerful, it doesn’t always give us the exact shape we would like to manufacture. Take a look at the example below: The default notch of the circled area would give us the following profile: But would we really cut the Frame end to that shape? Maybe not intentionally! More likely we would want something simpler such as this: This can... Read more →

Share How to Do Something Using Screencast

Autodesk Screencast is not your ordinary screen recording tool, its purpose built for Autodesk products and FREE. Screencast records: Keystrokes Mouse movement and clicks Commands on the timeline Screencast supports AutoCAD, Inventor, Maya, Fusion 360, 3ds Max, Revit, InfraWorks, and other popular Autodesk products. Go Record, Edit & Share! https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast You can also just watch some Screencasts to learn something new and follow along with every click, pick, and command they use. Choose a product to see its Screencasts Questions?... Read more →

Free Training Courses

In addition to all the free great classes and keynotes from Autodesk University (Autodesk University 2017 Classes Posted), LinkedIn is providing 40 courses for free covering Autodesk product training and certification preparation, construction management, technology like artificial intelligence, and business. In addition to English some courses are available in French, German, Japanese, and in Spanish. LinkedIn Learning Teams Up with Autodesk to Offer Free Access to 42 Technology Courses Go get some new skills, for free! Read more →

Migrate Settings from an Older AutoCAD

So you are upgrading from an older version of AutoCAD to a shiny new version, and you want to know how best to accomplish the migration of your settings from old to the new. Luckily we have that covered for you in our Autodesk Knowledge Network. Read more →

Autodesk Answer Day is Tomorrow May 18th

If you have Autodesk product questions, we have answers. Join the big Autodesk answer day tomorrow online and speak with people from several Autodesk product teams. What: Autodesk Answer Day – You have questions, we’ve got answers! Date: May 18th, 2016 Time: 6am to 6pm Pacific Time Products: AutoCAD, Maya, 3ds Max, Civil 3D, Revit, Inventor, and Vault. http://autode.sk/answerdays Read more →

Big Autodesk Answer Day May 18

It’s free. It’s easy. It’s Autodesk Answer Day. Join us online May 18th, 2016 for the next big event. Have questions that you’ve always wanted to ask? We’ll be answering questions in the AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Revit, Inventor, Vault, Maya, and 3ds Max forums. What: Autodesk Answer Day – You have questions, we’ve got answers! Date: May 18th, 2016 Time: 6am to 6pm Pacific Time Topics: AutoCAD, Maya, 3ds Max, Civil 3D, Revit, Inventor, and Vault. http://autode.sk/answerdays Read more →

Check out the Autodesk Fusion 360 Design Differently Blog

There is an Autodesk Fusion 360 blog named Design Differently that has great tips, tricks, and info like what is in the latest monthly Fusion update. If you are a Fusion 360 beginner or a seasoned Fusion user looking for advanced techniques and inspiration this might be the perfect regular resource for you. http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/ There was a post this week detailing the latest Fusion update that was far more than just a new logo. April 13, 2016 Fusion Product Update... Read more →

Great Fusion 360 Article & Training Resources

I just spotted a great Fusion 360 article by Josh Mings of SolidSmack and had to share. Fusion 360 Model Features You Have to Try: Part Modeling If you want to learn the basics of Autodesk Fusion 360, check out the free live webinar being held tomorrow. Webinar: Fusion 360 Basics “Attend this session to learn the basics in Fusion 360. This is intended for those out there who are completely new users of Fusion and 3D design. After an... Read more →

Autodesk Fusion 360 Answer Day April 6th

The next Autodesk Answer Day is coming up on April 6th, 2016, from 6am to 6pm Pacific Time and will be on Autodesk Fusion 360. This is a live Questions & Answers online event where you can get all those burning questions answered by the teams that support and develop the product. Fusion 360 Answer Day Read more →

AutoCAD Save (Three Different Ones)

SAVE is one of the most common AutoCAD commands; we all know what it does, but did you know there’s more to save than just the little floppy disk icon? Here’s a look at the ins and outs of saving files, and pass the savings on to others! Read more →

Making Property Selection Filters in AutoCAD

When you have a large drawing to work it becomes necessary that you act smart in order to remain productive and reduce your drawing edit time there are many tools in AutoCAD which will help you in becoming more productive and efficient one such tool is Quick Select which can be used not only for making selection filters but it can also be used to count number of objects of a particular type in AutoCAD. Read more →

AutoCAD Shortcuts

You can work more efficiently within AutoCAD by knowing the keyboard shortcuts and be one step closer to being a power user or CAD Ninja. Whether it is the one key shortcuts or multiple key toggles it is just plain more efficient and faster to work. Autodesk has published in addition to the Help documentation a nice web page showing all the shortcuts for AutoCAD. Don't forget you can create your own shortcuts in AutoCAD but I will save that... Read more →

What is Autodesk Screencast?

Autodesk Screencast provides a whole new way to share knowledge in short video recordings and provide training with in-depth contextual meta data from Autodesk products like AutoCAD, Fusion 360, Inventor and Revit you see the commands, dialogs, and menu items on the timeline. The Screencast timeline allows you to scroll back through every details the person recorded to see exactly what they were doing step by step command by command. Autodesk Screencast also records non-Autodesk products but doesn't have the... Read more →

Keeping up Appearances with Autodesk Inventor

Guest post on Autodesk Inventor by Scott Moyse of Design & Motion. Back at the end of March 2012, Autodesk launched Inventor 2013. With that release came a more unified materials and appearance experience with other products in the Autodesk stable. At first it struggled, there were lots of bugs and it was a controversial change with many users. I personally loved the direction, but disliked the reliability and it was just clunky. With Inventor 2014 came a large number... Read more →

AutoCAD Deployment Tutorial

Do you need to learn how to install; or deploy AutoCAD easily onto computers? Don't go installing one by one on multiple machines wasting your time and others, do it fast and easily whether standalone or network licensed use the deployment feature. Read more →

5 Hidden Surfacing Tools in Autodesk Inventor

Guest post by Paul Munford of the blog CAD Setter Out blog. We all love Autodesk Inventor's smooth and clean user interface - but it can make some of Inventor's powerful surfacing tools tricky to discover. In this post we'll take a look at five surfacing tools you may wish you had discovered earlier! Create surfaces using solid tools A solid feature could really be thought of as an automatic way of creating a number of trimmed surfaces. All of... Read more →

Project Chronicle Google+ Hangout

Yesterday we held a live Google+ Hangout with Autodesk's Project Chronicle Product Manager Eric Stover and myself.It was a fun time with Eric and I in the Office of the CTO brainstorm room complete with lawn chairs on fake grass, but there was one big issue. We had over 50 people wanting to attend but found Google+ Hangouts have a limit of ~10. We want to thank everyone that was able to attend from as far as New Zealand and interact and ask questions, but also those that tried to attend. Read more →

Autodesk University 2013 Classes Online

Learn some new Autodesk product skills for free in this new year from some of the very best speakers and class content anywhere. If you attended Autodesk University 2013 but were unable to attend all the classes you wanted to or were unable to attend AU at all, this is your opportunity to enjoy the classes. There is also other great content like Innovation Forums and the keynotes available to watch on demand. The AU2013 classes are now available online:... Read more →

Drag & Drop Directories in AutoCAD for Mac 2014

It has always been a pleasure to publish a guest post from someone in the Autodesk community. It helps the guest author get more visibility among peers as well as shares some valuable knowledge with the readers of this Between the Lines blog, a win – win for everyone. This guest post is by Jim LaPier - blog www.macncad.com. Jim has been an AutoCAD and AutoCAD for Mac expert with his job using AutoCAD and supporting it. In AutoCAD 2014, a new tab bar was added to the drawing interface. This tab system allows for simple and quick drawing switching and also added the convenience of opening the parent folder of the current AutoCAD for Mac 2014 - Open File Locationdrawing. This may seam like a simple addition but it is one I’ve welcomed with open arms. At one point I even added a lisp routine to my AutoCAD setup that allowed me to accomplish this, so I was quite happy that by simply right-clicking on the tab, you can choose “Open File Location” and an explorer window will open at the files location. Why so happy you might ask? Most firms I’ve worked for use a fairly expansive series of folders to manage their projects. When I’m working in a drawing I often need to look at other files pertaining to the dwg file. pdf’s, images of the site, Excel bill of materials, etc. An option like this makes it so much easier than opening Explorer and navigating from Read more →

Happy Halloween - AutoCAD and Civil 3D Trick or Treats

I received both Tricks and Treats for AutoCAD and Civil 3D after posting for readers to send Autodesk product tips and tricks as Tricks and Treats. There are 8 tricks for AutoCAD based products and 3 treats for Civil 3D for you to try. For the 6 people submitting these tricks and treats I will send them something fun. If they are attending Autodesk University 2013, I will give it to them there and of course buy them a beverage of their choice as a small token of thanks for participating and sharing in the fun. Enjoy the Tricks and Treats! Read more →

Autodesk Product Trick or Treat 2013 - Share in the Fun

Last week on this Between the lines blog fun competition was announced to share Autodesk product tips and tricks in the spirit of Halloween. Autodesk Product Trick or Treats 2013 Request for Submissions A couple great submissions have already been received. Both submitted were tricks and we need some treats to share and more products covered. Send in your trick or treats for Autodesk products lie AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, Fusion 360, Civil 3D, InfraWorks, 3ds Max, and many more. We have thousands of daily readers of this blog and many are Autodesk product ninjas with great tricks and treats to share. Read more →