Between the Lines

Met with @AutodeskHelp This Week

2013-05-16T12:35:06-06:00

Jessica Thrasher ^JES,Philip Schmelzer ^PHL and Amanda Kinley ^AK, and me (Shaan Hurley) ^PIA If there was ever a reason to jump on Twitter, @AutodeskHelp is one of them. Autodesk has a team that assists people in social media. They do not avoid a challenge and just take the easy ones but also actively engage those with highly charged tweets as those usually only take some personal assistance and attention to solve their problems, or just point them in the right direction. I was in San Francisco this Monday and Tuesday and finally met in person with the @AutodeskHelp team’s US members. This team is doing amazing things that more companies should be doing and that is use the power of social media to engage and assist customers. Simply put they are in the right place, doing the right thing.

Autodesk Beta Programs - What is it, and How Does it Work

2013-05-13T23:57:52-06:00

Last week Autodesk hosted some of the Autodesk Expert Elite group members in our sunny San Francisco office. This group of customers are top nominated participants (Expert Elite Nomination Form) in their product assistance to their peers in the Autodesk discussion forums. My colleague Scott Sheppard presented to the group on Autodesk Labs and Autodesk Beta and promised to follow up on the topics in blog posts. Scott is posting a blog post on Autodesk Labs, and I am posting on Autodesk Beta. Beta has long been a passion and responsibility of mine, and is once again a responsibility of mine along with my other Office of the CTO role responsibilities. Bug SplatAutodesk Beta or the Autodesk Feedback Community is pre-release testing community for most every Autodesk product from desktop to mobile and cloud applications. Autodesk Feedback Community is where people can get involved in testing the pre-release products and provide feedback and help us identify the defects before final release. The Autodesk Feedback Community is also home to some of the future research projects where the product teams can speak confidentially under a non-disclosure with a group of users on possible concepts and ideas to solve user needs and work flows. The members of the community are even used by some teams to recruit for customer visits and in person gunslingers of early versions of software.

First Climb of the Year

2013-05-13T23:33:17-06:00

The weather where I live in Utah is finally very warm, and the snow meting enough that I could make the first big hike/climb of the year just yesterday. I joined a meetup.com group “Ultimate Thrillseekers” to summit Mount Olympus which is one of the prominent peaks you see in the backdrop of Salt Lake City. It is not Mount Everest and actually 20,000 feet lower in elevation, but at just over 9000 feet it is no small hill either to break in the legs this year.

AutoCAD Tip: My Delete Key, Double Click & Layer Control are Not Working

2013-05-13T08:20:15-06:00

This has to be one of the most common of all AutoCAD questions and issues encountered by AutoCAD users. They become puzzled when this system variable is set to 0 by accident, errant Lisp or script or perhaps evil coworkers messing with them. The most common clue is their Delete key and double click and Layer control are not working.

Events in June

2013-05-10T11:00:01-06:00

I will be presenting at the following fine Autodesk partner events in June. I am pretty much heads down working on the presentation along with normal work. I will be covering Autodesk technology and innovation from the 15-20,000 foot level. I will be talking about and showing things you may have not seen publicly as well a personal invitation and challenge to help shape the future products and technologies.

Autodesk IDEA Studio Research Proposals Due May 15

2013-05-09T11:34:12-06:00

We're looking for the best, the brightest, and the most innovative and creative faculty, students, and researchers that you know, and we need your assistance in encouraging them to apply to the IDEA Studio - Autodesk's unique scholar-in-residence program. The IDEA Studio is now accepting proposals for residencies that will take place in November 2013 through January 2014, and proposals are due May 15.

Autodesk 2014 Products Available to Students & Faculty 3 Years Free

2013-05-09T11:11:36-06:00

Hey students and faculty, are you aware Autodesk pretty much gives all Autodesk products for free to you? Autodesk is is not only committed to our amazing current professional customers, but we are equally committed to helping build the future architects, engineers, and 3D fx and visualization professionals. All you need to have is a valid educational email, register at the link to the Autodesk Student Community, and you can download most any Autodesk product for free right now. There are also extra benefits such as some increased Autodesk 360 storage and some Autodesk product curriculum to assist you in learning the products. So students, go get your free Autodesk software at the Student Community now and start using the best professional design and 3D software out there for 3 years. This will help you be the best skilled when you graduate and begin looking for that job. You will be able to demonstrate your mastering of the software as a distinct advantage to that dream employer.

AutoCAD Stacked and Baseline Dimensions

2013-05-06T07:24:01-06:00

The Autodesk product teams receive several emails from the Autodesk Product Feedback Form. The Product Feedback form is the one that I had mentioned in the a recent post: Send Your Feedback or BBQ Recipe to an Autodesk Product Team. Your feedback goes to the products teams and they read them. In many cases team members respond if there is enough detail and time permitting as they can’t respond to every feedback submission and are not product support but do try to help. The AutoCAD QA Team wanted to address a couple of the common feedback form reported issues they have received in a few blog posts. This post on Stacked and Baseline Dimensions is by AutoCAD Test Development extraordinaire Chris Miller. How do I create Stacked Dimensions?

Introducing Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2014: BIM Workflow for Roads and Highways

2013-05-06T07:14:24-06:00

This is a guest post by Michelle Rasmussen of ASCENT, who also happens to in Utah just a few minutes South of me. ASCENT is responsible for the official Autodesk Official Training Guides for Autodesk products. I am extremely excited to bring to you the first ever Autodesk Official Training Guide (AOTG) addressing an Autodesk Design Suite. This book introduces a seamless workflow for designing roads and highways, as described in the flow chart below. It uses multiple products found in Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate 2014 to design a new transportation corridor for a growing city.

Autodesk Flashback Friday - Spur Gear Building Design

2013-05-03T07:27:35-06:00

I proudly present to you my spur gear building designed in AutoCAD Architectural Desktop (ADT) r1 circa 1998 and codenamed Portsmouth. I tried to convince the Autodesk AEC team then located in Henniker New Hampshire I was a mechanical designer and had little architectural design skills. It was the warped humor of mine, but as I recall the architecture professionals were not thinking it was as funny as did I.

Autodesk University 2013 in 216 Days - Call for Class Proposals

2013-05-01T14:39:11-06:00

It is that time of the year and 216 days from today Autodesk University 2013 will be starting. The countdown has begun to the best and biggest Autodesk related event. If you want to be considered as a speaker, and for your hard work and expertise get much of your costs to attend Autodesk University covered then now is the time to submit your class proposals. Speakers and Lab assistants can receive honorarium ($$$) and an AU pass and in addition to getting to shine in the spotlight and showcase your expertise in front of your peers.

Autodesk Homestyler Goes Mobile

2013-04-29T19:46:12-06:00

Autodesk Homestyler has been around since coming out of Autodesk Labs a couple years ago (August 2010) as Project Dragonfly. For those not aware of Autodesk Homestyler, it is a free web based 3D interior space design application to visualize the space before you jump into the project. You can pre-plan your dorm layout to the future layout of your home or future dream home or space. It is also perfect for couples and roommates to plan furniture changes so all parties are happy and can visualize the redesigned space. Trust me it is so much easier to move digital furniture up and down floors and around the room of a house on Homestyler than in real life multiple times to find just the right place. So many uses, and so darn easy to use that pretty much everyone in the house except your pet goldfish can use it. You can even export your design as a 3D Revit model. Going to the small screen! Autodesk Homestyler is available as a mobile app. The mobile app version allows some really unique features and workflow such as using the camera of your device to capture the room and it then approximates dimensions and allows you to adjust and fine tune. You can then place new furniture, electronics, décor, and more in your captured room to visualize a redesign of the room.