October - November 2008             

All Autodesk® Users

Architecture, Engineering and Construction

Plant and Process

Manufacturing/ Mechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering and Geospatial

Autodesk® 2009 Experience It Before It's Real Tour - Pensacola

7:30 am - 12:00 pm, October 21, 2008, New World Landing, 600 S Palafox St, Pensacola, FL

ALACAD's Experience It Before It's Real Tour comes to Pensacola! Register today to join ALACAD at this FREE event and learn about how Autodesk visualization and simulation technology can help you gain a competitive advantage by allowing you to experience your next project in a 3D digital modeling environment. Register here.

Schedule:
7:30 - 8:00 am Breakfast/ Registration
8:00 - 9:00 am AutoCAD 2009 General Session
9:00 - 9:15 am Break/ Registration
9:15 - 10:45 am Industry Breakout Sessions: AutoCAD Civil 3D, Revit Architecture and Autodesk Inventor
10:45 - 11:00 am Break
11:00 am - 12:00 noon NavisWorks: the new AEC collaboration tool

Click here for more information and to register online.

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Autodesk® Efficiency Stimulus Promotion

This new promotion offers unprecedented savings of up to $2,000 on the purchase of eligible Autodesk products to help businesses cut short-term capital expenses while realizing immediate gains in efficiency, productivity, and quality. From August 18, 2008, through October 17, 2008, customers who purchase eligible new seats of AutoCAD LT software can get a $200 rebate or new seats of AutoCAD or almost any other vertical product and get a $400 rebate after submitting an online request and providing proof of purchase documentation. This offer is limited to a maximum of five (5) seats total per customer invoice address. Call us at 888-442-3100 for more information.

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Autodesk® Retirement Program

On March 13, 2009, Autodesk will retire the following products:

  • AutoCAD® 2006
  • AutoCAD® LT 2006
  • AutoCAD® Architectural Desktop 2006
  • Autodesk® Land Desktop 2006
  • AutoCAD® Raster Design 2006
  • AutoCAD® Mechanical 2006
  • AutoCAD® Electrical 2006
  • Autodesk® Inventor Series 10
  • AutoCAD® Map® 3D 2006
  • Autodesk® Viz 2006

This means Autodesk will no longer sell upgrades or crossgrades from these retiring products and support will be discontinued. However, if you upgrade to the latest version before October 17, 2008, you can get a significant discount off the normal price. Call us at 888-442-3100 for more information.

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Autodesk® Legacy Program

Still designing in AutoCAD® Release 14, AutoCAD® 2000, AutoCAD® 2000i, AutoCAD® 2002, AutoCAD® 2004, or AutoCAD® 2005 software? Keep your software current with the Autodesk Legacy Program, which gives loyal customers, like you, an easy way to keep your software up to date. Between July 19 and October 17, 2008 qualified software owners who own a valid license of select, retired Autodesk software can purchase the latest version of their software for up to 35% off the suggested retail price when purchased with subscription. Call us at 888-442-3100 for more information.

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Autodesk® VIZ to Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2009 Crossgrade Promotion

Until October 17, 2008, existing Autodesk VIZ customers can cross-grade to 3ds Max Design 2009 for a promotional price. Autodesk research indicates that approximately 90% of VIZ customers would prefer to use 3ds Max. With this cross-grade promotion, there has never been a better time to get full access to 3ds Max Design software, which is tuned specifically for architects, designers, and visualization specialists. Call us at 888-442-3100 for more information.

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ALACAD Is Now an NVIDIA Quadro® Reseller

ALACAD is now an official NVIDIA Quadro graphics card reseller. Boost your graphics card performance and maximize your productivity with NVIDIA Quadro cards by PNY Solutions that are "Built for Professionals". Designed and optimized to run professional applications such as Autodesk Inventor, the Quadro lineup outperforms more expensive consumer graphics cards.

To visit our eStore, browse the NVIDIA Qaudro line and purchase online, click here.

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[acronym] online - the New eZine for Government Autodesk Users

We are very excited to announce that [acronym] online , the eZine for government Autodesk users is now live and waiting for your participation! [acronym] online is an interactive online community that includes forums, technology tips, product reviews, articles, white papers, and more specifically for public sector professionals who work within 2D and 3D digital design disciplines. Connect and explore a green field of design possibilities for the public sector at www.acronymonline.org. Check it out today!

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Beta 2 Release for AutoCAD® 2009 Update 2 Is Now Available

We are pleased to inform you that the Beta 2 release for AutoCAD 2009 Update 2 is now available in the Downloads section of the AutoCAD Futures zone on the My Feedback Portal. You will find both 32-bit and 64-bit beta versions available for download. Please be sure to download and review the Readme document before downloading and installing Beta 2 for AutoCAD 2009 Update 2. Click here to go to the My Feedback Portal now.

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64-bit Versions of Revit® Now Available

Revit software applications for Building Information Modeling (BIM) specifically designed for personal computers using Windows 64-bit operating systems are now available. This marks Autodesk's first venture into 64-bit BIM applications and applies to Revit Architecture 2009, Revit Structure 2009 and Revit MEP 2009. The 64-bit versions are now available to existing Revit platform software subscribers. Download these applications through the Subscription site here.

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Free Revit® Training in Memphis! Design Options – Existing and Beyond

8:00 - 10:00 am, October 29, 2008, The Crescent Club, Memphis, TN

In the CAD world, you would show your options and phases with a complex group of layers. This session will cover how you would use the tools inside Revit to assist with projects phases, and how to show design options. Revit has unique tools to assist you in these areas, while allowing you to keep your project proceeding into future phases at the same time as design decisions are being contemplated. We’ll cover the techniques and practices for this design alternative when applied to the drawing set. Please note: The dress code for this venue is business casual. Please NO ATHLETIC WEAR, SHORTS, TENNIS SHOES OR DENIM. Register here. Breakfast will be provided.

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The Autodesk® Plant & Piping 3D Beta is Available for Download

Autodesk's upcoming 3D Plant & Piping solution Beta test version is now available for download at Autodesk's My Feedback Portal and we want your feedback to make it the best solution it can be. This is your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of software design and provide feedback to make sure this software will work the way YOU want it to. Here is the link:

http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/ShowDetail.asp?NewsId=8632

You do need to sign up first – when you hit the Sign up button, the first block on the registration form is the Beta Code block. Please enter "Plant Customer Council". Further down, when it asks about your interest in products, there is a checkbox for Plant & Piping. The remaining information is your own personal information.

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Free AutoCAD® Electrical Hands-on Test Drive - Birmingham, AL

8:30 am - 12:30 pm, November 13, 2008, ALACAD Corporate Office, 2687 John Hawkins Pkwy, Birmingham, AL

Join ALACAD for a FREE hands-on test drive of AutoCAD Electrical. AutoCAD Electrical is AutoCAD® software for control systems designers, purpose-built to create and modify electrical control systems. Automated tasks and comprehensive symbol libraries help to increase productivity, eliminate errors, and provide accurate information to manufacturing. AutoCAD Electrical delivers the tools needed to design control systems quickly and accurately with significant cost savings. Register here.

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Buy Autodesk® Inventor® Software and Save Big on a Dell Workstation

For a limited time, when you purchase Autodesk Inventor software, you qualify to save up to $1,119 on a Dell Precision Workstation featuring the Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor. The Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor delivers new levels of multi-tasking performance. Click here to take advantage of this special promotion once you have purchased a new copy of Autodesk Inventor and have your serial number. Call us at 888-442-3100 for more information.

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For Autodesk® Inventor® Users: Frame Generator and Content Center Error

QUESTION: When I start the Frame Generator command I get the following error message: “Problems encountered while executing frame insert command.” “Failed to read data from Content Center.” “Content Center server query failed. Please check your Content Center configuration to make sure all required libraries are present or check Content Center connectivity to server”

ANSWER:
This message means that you are not logged into Vault.

You will need to log into Vault to access the Content Center files.
1. In Inventor go to FILE > Autodesk Data Management Server > Log In…
2. In the login dialog box enter your login name and password, also enter the server name and database name.

3. If ADMS is loaded locally and you are not using Vault to check in/out files you will need to place a check in the “Content Center library read only user” box.

View all of Keith Waite’s articles at:
http://cad-dm-master.blogspot.com/

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For Autodesk® Inventor® Users: Installations

A phrase that makes most homeowners cringe... and a lot of software installers as well. Let's go through some things that may make software installations a little easier.

1. Check the software requirements, BEFORE starting the installation, not when you are having trouble. In other words, memory, hard drive, if a DVD player is needed and video requirements.

2. Plan your installation - do you need to fix anything from #1 (above)? Where are you going to put the files? Are there any custom changes that are required? Take notes and make a list.

3. During the install pay attention. If silent install is an option, get to know the software and what to expect before you turn this on.

4. If you are having trouble installing, check the media player (aka DVD player) to see if it has a problem, check the media (aka DVD) to see if it is scratched or dirty, and check to see if the hard drive is full!

5. Don't panic or get too frustrated if you have problems installing the software. Remember: you have a backup.... call your reseller or Autodesk (if you have subscription).

6. If you do have problems installing, try to copy all of the DVD to the hard drive and install from there (when copying some of the files are duplicated, so just accept them). Then delete the DVD copy.

7. While you're installing take screen shots of all the dialog boxes, so you can remember what options you choose. It helps later on, trust me.

Hope this helps.

View all of Jon Selzer’s articles at:
http://missioninventor.blogspot.com/

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For Autodesk® Inventor® Users: Autodesk Inventor 2009 Subscription Bonus Pack

Autodesk Inventor Subscription members can now download the new Autodesk Inventor 2009 Subscription Bonus Pack. Subscription customers will enjoy new productivity tools in drawing, part, and assembly environments. Many of the productivity tools found in the Autodesk Inventor 2009 Subscription Bonus Pack were recommended by Autodesk customers.

Here are a few of the new productivity tools:

  • Drawing Manager Productivity – With the addition of productivity tools such as Arrange Dimensions, you can quickly and easily clean up your dimensions with a few simple picks.
  • Part Modeling Productivity – Users can now create parameters on the fly through the edit dimension dialog without ever having to access the parameter dialog.
  • Assembly Design Productivity – The Bill of Materials (BOM) editor now allows for editing similar to that of the Microsoft® Excel® application.

To download this bonus pack, click here.

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AutoCAD® Land Desktop Transition Program

As technology has advanced and the challenges facing engineering organizations have become increasingly complex, Autodesk has decided it is time to look beyond Land Desktop to new technology that better addresses the demands of today’s engineering organizations. As a result, AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009 products will be the last release of Land Desktop software. From July 8th, 2008 through April 17th, 2009 eligible AutoCAD Land Desktop 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 customers can cross grade to AutoCAD® Map 3D, AutoCAD Civil, or AutoCAD Civil 3D for a special promotional price. Call us at 888-442-3100 for more information.

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For AutoCAD® Map 3D Users: Good Looking Annotation Blocks

Tired of the plain looking annotation blocks used for labels? Annotation blocks can contain geometry along with the data tags or attributes. A lot of users forget the annotation blocks are blocks and do not think about adding complex objects to them. So if you want your labels to stand out and look more like “That Other Software” then think about creating your blocks with some symbols. In my example I have a road map that has an Interstate highway in it. Instead of having a text label of “I-24” I created my annotation block with the interstate shield and the data value as the number. The Red and Blue colors are solid hatch and the INTERSTATE letters are polylines. The Express Tools “Explode Text” works good for creating the letters.

The Interstate Shield Marker

Start with your marker or shield in this case, create it as you would a normal block and save the block definition. Hint: I create all my blocks and symbols in one file then use the design center to drag and drop as need in my maps.

Once you have the shield/marker created then go about creating the annotation template as you normally would.

Once you get into the block editor, before you create the Annotation Text, insert and explode the shield block you create. Do not forget you have all the AutoCAD commands and tools in the block editor, you can create layers, insert blocks, create text or most anything else you would do in AutoCAD. Now with the marker placed where you need it, go ahead and create the annotation text.

You need to keep in mind the text style, height, justification and the color for the annotation text. To simulate a white color I use color 255, a light gray, this way if I use a white/black background scheme in the drawing editor the color will stay.

With the annotation text placed, you may need to set the draw order of it to the front to ensure it is always over top of the hatching in the marker.

Now save and close the block editor then label away.

The finished Annotation Block in used, getting the text value from my OD table and using a nice symbol to label my Interstate Highways. You are not limited to just the interstate marker there’s plenty of road sign markers you can use in your maps. US Route or State signs can be created also, or how about speed limit signs or even city street signs.

For a refresher on getting some symbols to use and not having to start from nothing, http://map3d.wordpress.com/2006/02/25/want-those-esri-symbols-in-your-autocad-map/

View all of Murph’s articles at:
http://map3d.wordpress.com/

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For AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Users: Those Pesky Pipe Slope Labels

Wow, has it been almost a month since my last post? Eh, life on the road! Anyway, I was visiting with a customer yesterday who was somewhat aggravated about the way Civil 3D labels pipes, inverts and slopes.

I tried to explain to him that the software is set up to compute pipe lengths and slopes based on the starting and ending points of the pipe. This means that the slope is computed from center of structure to center of structure. Being from the same geographical region as my customer and having dealt with most of the same regulating agencies, I felt his pain. You see, in our area the reviewing agencies require a 0.10' drop across a sanitary sewer manhole and 0.20' drop if the angle is 90 degrees. This drop across the manhole is measured from the invert of the pipe coming in to the manhole to the invert of the pipe going out of the manhole. I explained that Civil 3D, as well as all of the other civil engineering software packages that I have used in the past, calculate the slope of a pipe from the center of a structure to the center of the next structure. Herein lies the problem. The reviewing agencies look at the inverts and the lengths of the pipe and check the slope. Well, if I give them the length of pipe and it is the same as the distance between the manholes they start questioning the design. Or, if I give them the face to face length of pipe and the inverts, the slope doesn't match the computed value. So, what is the solution?

After scouring articles and discussion groups on the internet I had decided that most of the people that had written on this subject had come up with the best solution. But as I met with my customer yesterday we had a little brain storm. Why not use an expression to calculate the desired slope? We tried it and hey, it worked! We got our desired results!

Here is what we did. Since the regulating agency expects to see the inverts, face to face pipe length and the slope we created an expression. I would suggest creating this expression in your standard template file so that you don't have to recreate it with each new project. First click on the Settings tab in Toolspace. Then go down to Pipe and expand the node. Then expand the Label Styles node and expand the Plan Profile node. Here you will see an item called Expressions.

Right click on Expressions and select New. This will bring up a dialog box that looks similar to a scientific calculator. Be careful here when selecting a name for the Expression that you are creating.

Once you create the the Expression, you cannot edit the formula or change the name. So, be careful and pay attention to what you are doing. For this expression, we chose a name of Slope face to face. Then we added the components to our expression. In the figure above you see the keypad that looks very similar to a calculator. To the right are two radio buttons. The first button is a list of available variables that can be used in your expression. The second button contains a list of mathematical functions that may be included in your calculations.

For our Expression we added in the the following formula:

({Start Invert Elevation}-{End Invert Elevation})/{2D Length - To Inside Edges}

Then we changed the Format result as: box to Percent, since that is the solution that we are looking for.

Once the expression is created you have to go into your Pipe Label Style and change the style to contain the new "Slope face to face" label and change the pipe length to the 2D - inside edge to inside edge. This should fix the label issue. The only issue that remains, and I haven't come up with a solution for it yet, is that in the profile view, if you measure from the point of intersection of the inside pipe diameter line and the side of the box to the nearest grid line and calculate that elevation, the elevation of the pipe will be off by a couple of hundredths for flat slopes. This should not be an issue since this is a graphical representation.

Have fun with Pipes!

View all of Whit McCormack’s articles at:
http://gettingtothedirt.blogspot.com/.

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Alabama CAD/CAM, Inc., 2687 John Hawkins Pkwy, Birmingham, AL 35244