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Dedicated Registered
AutoCAD Workers
Users Group - Fort Wayne,
IN area
2001Meeting Highlights
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September | July | May | April | March
| February | January
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Highlights
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2002
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December 2001
Thank you to Greg
Shearer and Matt Lennon for suggesting the topic of selection
sets. The topic took a lot longer to go through than I
thought, but I think we all learned a little bit more about
selections sets, the Box option if nothing else.
Another tip we had
was to look at the little button in AutoCAD 2002 to the right of
the layer pull down in the standard tool bar. The command is Layer
Previous. This is a way cool little command that allows you to
change your layer setting, do some editing or creation, and then
go back to the previous layer settings. Very sweet and overlooked.
The last item for
the meeting (sorry it ran over so long folks, I really am working
at being done by 9) was business for the DRAW group. We will hold
elections at the next meeting. We also tried to encourage the
users in areas that they could volunteer. We also looked at our
expenses and what dues we might need to maintain our users group.
We will announce our results at the next meeting.
Regretfully we did
not have time to get through many of our Autodesk University
highlights, so we will add that to our resume' session in January.
Thanks again to all
who attended.
November 2001
OK. So we fell short on the beer, but the pizza and
sodas were
good. We had some great discussion brought forth from the
"round table" once again. Matt Lennon got answers to his
surfacing issues and with the help from Dennis was able to modify
his menu files to get his hot keys to work properly again. Byron
got answers on how to modify the linetypes of trails in MDT. Boy
there are some really cool things in the AMSTDSYM command inside
of MDT.
We also had discussions on boundaries and cross
hatching. By modifying the UCS we were able to relocate the hatch
patterns where we desired. By using boundaries we were able to
create regions and were able to further modify them using
intersect, subtract, and union.
October 2001
Needless to say that the pizza and beverages were
good. With some last minute changes to our plans we looked at some
web development issues using dynamic web pages using Active Server
Pages (ASP). Allen Gager showed us how to create 2D and 3D springs
using the power pack from Autodesk. It sure makes creating springs
easy! We also brought back our old round table discussions. One of
the topics was on getting the most out of your graphics card. We
played with setting the AutoCAD/MDT software to hardware
accelerated and used the Heidi Open GL device driver. We were also
able to change the parts to display the materials that we assigned
to them when they were in shaded mode. Once again I came away with
some cool information: you can assign materials by layers or
colors in addition to the "part" method that I had been
using.
September 2001
We had a little taste of pizza and some new topics
this month. We looked at the new Tweeks in Mechanical Desktop 6 and
the time it can save in manipulating large assemblies. One of the
best features of this command is the ability to switch back and
forth between the current UCS and the WCS while creating the tweeks.
The next topic was related to text. We looked at the
three text commands; text, dtext, and mtext. We also looked at the
text related Exress Tools from AutoCAD 2000. Some highpoints were
the migration of Express tools to 2000i or 2002 from older versions,
manipulating the line spacing of mtext, controlling stacked
fractions, and using the FIND command.
Dave Shoeff led a lesson introducing us to VBA and
how it might be used in AutoCAD. It sure makes things look easy
compared to all the code in AutoLISP. We will continue tutorials in
the VBA arena over the next several months. Allen Gager mentioned a
web site/service that allows users to send in questions on VBA and
you actually get real results - for free. The address for vbdesign
is http://www.vbdesign.net/cadpages/
One other discussion was regarding the Autodesk's
Subscription program which is replacing the VIP program. So far,
there was not a single company represented by our users group that
was able to access the new site or features. Meanwhile the VIP area
has been removed leaving the users without any of the features or
support that they have been paying dearly for. My personal opinion
on this is "Come on Autodesk, wake up and start serving your
users, especially when we are paying premium for it." I wonder
if other maintenance programs are this poor or if it is just
Autodesk.
Also a reminder that you can register for Autodesk
University 2001, which will again be located in Las Vegas. While
it is not the deal it was last year (costing $200 more and less
extra events) it is still about the best thing going for the
Autodesk product user. Most of the classes are well done and the
ability to network the some of the best users in the country doesn't
occur like this at any other time. I am really proud of the DRAW
group this year as almost one third of the members will be at AU
this year.
See you in October.
August 2001
No meeting held.
July 11, 2001
July's meeting was a great
meal of chicken, baked beans, chips and of course the drinks.
Dennis gave us a look at Autodesk's new products of AutoCAD 2002
and Mechanical Desktop 6. The hottest points of discussion were
the true associatively of dimensions and the speed that the
programs load.
June 2001
No meeting held.
May 9, 2001
May's meeting got us through
the rest of April's agenda with a bit more organization. The
presentation included creating a file listing of a directory and
importing that into Excel or Word to use as a checklist of tasks
performed.
We then created a plate in
AutoCAD and added blocks with attributes. The block that was used
was a simple circle with a diameter of 1". When we added the
block to the plate it represented holes drilled in the plate.
Attribute information contained things like tapping data, depth,
purpose, etc. The data was then extracted to a text file which was
then inserted into Microsoft Excel. The data was sorted and
formatted to create a nice looking hole chart. The hole chart was
then put into the original drawing as an OLE' object. Pretty cool
display of how different software packages can be used together.
Dennis showed us three new
products. One allows you to create .pdf files as easily as
one prints a document. .pdf files are used to keep formatting
irregardless of the computer used to look at it. It makes a great
way to allow someone to see your drawing without being able to
change it at all.
The next software was a
shareware install program. This allows you to create a
"package" of files and have the installer prompt the
user how to put them on his/her computer in the same fashion that Microsoft
does when installing their software.
The third item we looked at
was Groove. It is kind of like Outlook, ICQ, and Instant Messenger
on steroids. It truly allows collaboration of projects quite
easily. I am sure we will see more of this product in the near
future.
I will place links to each of
these items in the near future.
April
11, 2001
April's meeting was not
attended like the past three, but we had a great time, good food,
plenty of beer, and learned about the UCS and about Excel.
Dennis presented us with
plenty of information on the User Coordinate System, its icon, and
how to change them. Allan Gager gave a short demonstration of a
LISP program he had written to change the UCS relative to two
lines.
Dave Schoeff did a great job
presenting Microsoft's Excel program. Why would we care about
Excel? We can use Excel to track the status of drawings or jobs,
we can create smarter tables and charts to be inserted back into
AutoCAD. Dave even had some pretty cool tips for those of us more
experienced in Excel.
Byron then demonstrated how
to insert an Excel spreadsheet into AutoCAD 2000 as an OLE'
object.
Due to time issues, we did
not cover blocks and attributes so we will cover these in May's
meeting.
March
14, 2001
What a great meeting. Our
numbers were not what they were for the past few D.R.A.W. Users
Group meetings, but the response in the class was awesome.
We looked at the AutoSolids
software available for $795. This third party software runs on top
of AutoCAD and creates AutoCAD solids. The difference is that
these solids are editable and the interface makes creating solid
much easier. We did a quick comparison with Mechanical Desktop to
show the difference in power vs. the intuitiveness.
We also reviewed the survey
answers from last month and how we were going to try to meet the
needs of the users. Remember this is a User's Group and to
continue as such we need your participation.
The CVUNIT command was looked
at. It can be run as a LISP command or within the AutoCAD's
calculator. To see the most information you can look at the help
file in VLISP. There is much more information there than in the
AutoCAD help file (near none). There is also the information on
how to add your own units of conversion.
CVUNIT was a great lead in to
the CAL command. Usually entered as 'cal within an AutoCAD
command, it allows algebraic and/or geometric computation. We
looked at using the MEE to start a line midway between two
endpoints. We also looked at using RAD option to "get"
the radius from another entity. Last we looked at using osnaps
within the CAL command to get the centroid of three points. Lots
of potential here. I recommend looking at this one further when
you get some time.
Dale Estabrook also showed us
a $20 program called Unit Convert (UCV312D1.ZIP and UCV312D2.ZIP).
These files were placed on CAD Associate's ftp site for download. Pretty slick application that would make
conversions a piece of cake without the frustration of the CVUNIT
command or digging in your old college text books.
The MULTIPLE command was
shown. It allows the user to continue with one AutoCAD command
until the ESC key is hit. Very handy for changing attributes,
adding lots of points, etc.
Mentions were made regarding
the NDES (National Design Engineering Show) in Chicago. A great
show to get your exercise and see lots of need ideas and vendors.
At this show we got to see the newest Inventor, CATIA, SolidWorks,
and several Data Management Softwares. We additionally got to talk
with the representative from AUGI
who were from the Greater Chicago AutoCAD Users Group. They gave
us some tips and ideas to help DRAW.
February
15, 2001
Again this was one of the best attended
meetings in the six years that I have been active with the D.R.A.W. Users
Group. I am getting really encouraged. We looked at some of the tracking
and osnap uses. My favorite was the temporary tracking points allowing you to select a point at some distance from an obtained
tracking point. It seems that construction lines could become a
thing of the past!
Of course the highlight was
the pizza and beer. A full stomach is a happy stomach you know.
Autodesk and Tekni provided several door prizes for us. Thank you.
The sipper cups don't even leak this time! Yeah.
Later in the evening we
looked at Inventor 4. We got to see how easy it is to create
parts, especially sheet metal parts. This package is certainly
worth keeping an eye on.
As a result of this meeting
we also sent out a survey to influence the future of the DRAW
Users Group. You can see the basis of that survey.
The results will be summarized and posted soon.
January
10, 2001
This was one of the best attended
meetings in the six years that I have been active with the D.R.A.W. Users
Group. Thank you.
Our focus was a recap of Autodesk
University and the iDesign meeting in Indy with Lynn Allen. Some of the
tricks and tips passed on were the ability to highlight a section of files
in Windows Explorer by dragging from right to left. We discussed limiting
your virtual memory to 1Gb and making it a fixed value on your C: drive
for best performance. We looked at the web site http://www.sysinternals.com/
and some of their programs for windows that are similar to Norton's Utilities,
but in many ways better. We talked about ways to output your autoCAD
drawings to be used in Word. If the files were output as wmf files, we
learned that we could set the value of wmfbkgnd so that the background was
blank instead of black. In MDT we learned that we could do an amviewout,
then hold shift and click on cancel, allowing you to place the 2D output
into a different layout within the same drawing. (cool). Another great tip
for MDT was for those tough tweeks, you can create a pline and select the
endpoints to get the path wanted. http://www.mymcad.com
was looked at for some of its helpful information including a link to
additional materials to use for rendering. One other tip we looked at was
the use of profiles in AutoCAD. What a powerful little tool. Profiles
could be used to control the layout of icons for each user so they would
see the AutoCAD screen the way they were used to irregardless of the
computer they were using. It could also give you multiple menu layouts for
different arenas of your drafting. I do this to add dimensioning and
rendering icons at the end of the design task and keep them out of the way
during the beginning of the design.
Thanks again for a terrific
attendance at this meeting.
December
14, 2000
There was no official meeting in the
month of December, but a number of us went down to the iDesign meeting in
Indianapolis. What a drive! Getting there was quite an adventure in
itself. We saw a couple dozen cars and almost a dozen semis off in the
ditch. There were a number of sessions on Architectural Desktop,
Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, Map, AutoCAD, and AutoCAD Mechanical. There
were a number of dealers for all over Indiana and a number of Autodesk
employees to answer questions.
The highlight of the day was Lynn
Allen, Autodesk's Technical Evangelist. Lynn was very funny and at the
same time shared some great tips, tricks and new features of AutoCAD
2000i. Ask us how to keep folks from talking on their cell phones in a
conference! We will share some of the highlights at January's
meeting.
November 8, 2000
This was one of our better turn outs in
a while allowing more input and greater discussion. We handed out more
copies of Volo View and SW Lite hardware generation software.
Dave Schoeff demonstrated Netmeeting
and other new Internet tools of AutoCAD 2000i. Using Netmeeting we were able
to have one person "take control" of a second persons computer via
the Internet. This would be a great tool for trouble shooting or conveying
ideas via the Internet. Dave was also able to create an e-mail that already
had the drawing attached (as a dwt file) and subject completed from within
AutoCAD 2000i.
In light of the LARGE file sizes of
updates for AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, and Windows; we looked at some
tools available on the web like Go Zilla, Zip Zilla, Download Wonder, and
Download Manager which allow better odds of getting that huge file safely to
your own machine. Can you believe Microsoft really expects us to down load
an 85 Mb patch via a 28.8Kbps modem? Most of these routines may be found at zdnet.com.
In Mechanical Desktop 5, Allen Gager
showed us that individual features could be colored. Dennis Jeffrey showed
us how useful the new "next" option was when doing revolves and
extrudes to create features. We also looked at using AutoCAD dimensions in a
drawing prior to creating the sketch and having those dimensions become
parametric dimensions.
Idesign and Autodesk
University were also discussed. At least three of our number will be
representing the DRAW Users Group this year in Las Vegas. We hope to bring
you back all kinds of useful tips.
October 11, 2000
Unfortunately we only had three
attendees at this meeting, limiting our planned coverage of topics.
We briefly covered Microsoft's
Netmeeting and distributed copies of SW Lite hardware generation software.
A few of the tips of the evening were
to used the shift key to deselect geometry from the current select list
instead of using R for remove.
In Mechanical Desktop we noted that to
move parts in the browser, the shift key needed to be held while dragging
the part. We also went through the creation of standard parts using power
pack.
Some time was spent using the Internet
and working on more effective searches.
Next months meeting schedule
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