HyperPics: Beyond the UI

October Issue of HotNews by AUGI

AUGI has just released its HotNews issue for the month of October. As always the issue doesn't disappoint, it has many great articles.

Some of the articles can be found below:

Customization Corner: Wrap-up of Tool Palettes with Odds & Ends
Tipniques: Tips on Surviving AU
A Match Made in CAD Heaven: The union of LISP and VBA for customizing AutoCAD

If you are not receiving AUGI HotNews or are not a member of AUGI go to the AUGI website and sign up. It is free to receive the newsletters and becoming a member is free as well.

Click here to access the AUGI website

Click here if you are already an AUGI member, but don't receive HotNews in your inbox

Sincerely,
  Lee

Previous Poll Results Can Now be Viewed

Many of you have noticed that I change the survey questions located on the far right on this Blog every couple of weeks to about a month. Before when the Survey is rotated out the results were not accessible anymore. I now have added a box to access the previous Poll results, this new feature is located just below the survey section. Hope you have enjoyed the polls, as I often use them to write up articles that people will hopefully benefit from.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Looking for Some Help?

Are you looking at migrating to the newest version of AutoCAD and need some help? Looking to streamline processes in the current work flow of your projects in AutoCAD? Need some custom training in learning AutoCAD or how to customize it? Want to make your employees that use AutoCAD more productive?

If you answered “Yes” to any of the above questions; send me an e-mail and I will see what I can do to help you out based on the consulting services I offer. You can send your inquires to: [email protected] .

I am diverse in many versions of Windows, AutoCAD and Office. I know how to program with VB/VBA, C++, ObjectARX and AutoLISP. So what are you waiting for? A productive business is a profitable business.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Heading to Chicago for a Couple Days

A couple months ago I was asked to come down for a couple days in Chicago and sit in on a Visual Basic for Applications, more commonly referred to as VBA, session in AutoCAD. This is an Introduction for people that might have some or no experience with customizing AutoCAD using VBA. VBA was added back in AutoCAD R14 on the install CD as a Preview Edition and then later it was released as part of the main install in AutoCAD R14.01. I have been using VBA since R14, so I am interested on how this session and its presentation will go.

The course is being offered through Taylor Technology. For me this will be a mini-vacation after spending a week in San Rafael in ObjectARX training. Taylor Technology offers both standard and custom classes for its customers. Their training schedule can be found at the link below for future classes.

Training offered from Taylor Technologies and the locations they are being offered at.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Autodesk rolls out the Red Carpet for its Subscription users at AU

If you are new to Autodesk University and are an Autodesk Subscription member there are some additional benefits to you. This is the second year that Autodesk is doing this, it was a great way to get some additional benefits as a Subscription member. Some of the benefits are listed below, but if you want to learn more about the program go to the Autodesk Subscription site and login.

Autodesk Subscription customers enjoy:
* Priority registration lines
* Invitation-only technology sessions: Hear from each of the divisions and other groups within Autodesk.
* Don't miss the conference wrap-up Q&A with Lynn Allen. Your feedback improves the conference year after year.
* Autodesk executive networking opportunities
* More...

Click here to access the Autodesk Subscription site.

Last year they gave away a small gift of a USB Drive that included the AutoCAD 2004 Service Pack 1, Tool Palette Extension and some others on it. Hope to see you at AU this year in Las Vegas... it sounds like it will be the last one in Las Vegas on then onto a new location.

Sincerely,
  Lee

3ds max 7 now shipping

3ds max 7 is now shipping to those that are on subscription. If you are on subscription you should be receiving your copy very soon and for those that are not, contact your local reseller if you are planning on upgrading. There are many new features that are built into 3ds max 7. To learn more about the new release check out the links below.

3ds max 7 Home Page
3ds max 7 Brochure
3ds max 7 Technical Specifications

Happy animating... I'm waiting for my copy to come in the mail.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Pictures from my traveling trip to San Rafael

I uploaded some of my pictures from my time out in San Rafael... I didn't go very far at night after my class, so I don't have tons of pictures to share. That and my camera was not very happy with me... it was making an awful whining noise when zooming in and out.

Photos from my trip to San Rafael.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Traveling to Autodesk in California - Day 5 & 6

Both of my last days in San Rafael were very fast paced and at times hard to absorb all of the information. These last couple of days in the Advanced ObjectARX class dealt a lot with COM. I really haven't done much in the shape and form of COM in the past as I just didn't need to with the things that I work on. I see the benefits of the COM wrapping of custom objects and creating custom Tools for the Tool Palette Window, but like anything it will take a little bit of practice, trial/error and some long hours.

I also spent lunch on Thursday with some of the folks at Autodesk, we went out to a pretty good place for Chinese food. Later that day, after I got out of class I walked down the hill from the Coppertop building to the Civic North and South buildings where more of the Autodesk employees work. I think there is a total of four buildings with in about a couple blocks from each other. Shaan Hurley, gave me a tour of the building and I was able to meet many of the people that I have talked to on the phone or in the Autodesk forums. The atmosphere around the building was very up and positive wherever you turned.

Friday was my day to come back to Wisconsin... left the warmth west coast for the cold of the North Midwest. It would have been nice to spend a couple more days out there, but I had prior arrangements to head to Chicago on Monday and Tuesday.

Thanks to everyone that I met at Autodesk for a great time. The ObjectARX training was great and very informative.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Traveling to Autodesk in California - Day 4

Day four of my traveling in San Rafael and ObjectARX training was a great day. The first couple days of class focused on the basics of using ObjectARX and how it connected to AutoCAD. The third day or day four of my traveling the class focused on creating custom objects that were both graphical and non-graphical. Of course when you create custom objects you need to learn how to work with ObjectDBX and filing the information for the object in and out. This was a very interesting day as I never really got into creating custom objects before. They do have their pluses, but also contain negatives as well. It will take me sometime to get use to using this new found skill like anything new, it takes time to absorb it and apply it.

Day five we willing be taking a look at COM objects and wrapping the new object that we created in class so it can be accessed in the Properties Palette and be used by other languages like VBA. With COM support it allows others to use your object in their drawings and their tools.

Sincerely,
  Lee

Beyond the UI Reaches 100th Post Milestone

Back on October 6th... my web log "Beyond the UI" reached another milestone with its 100th posting, the first milestone that was reached was 10,000 visitors a couple months prior. What started off as a way to get content out there that varied from my web site, has proved to be very valuable to many out there. Hope you have enjoyed so far, as I hope to keep providing some more information on customization in the months and years to come.

Sincerely,
  Lee