|
Greetings!
The future of LUGs
A few issues back, I wrote about the issue of LUGs and
the problem of declining attendance as the population
ages.
Mel Persin, a long-time AUGI member, recently wrote an
interesting article for AUGI's October Hot News (this is
a monthly enewsletter for AUGI members) where he
summarizes the challenges that local user groups face
today.
One challenge he discusses is the fragmentation of the
user community. Twenty years ago, the members of an
AutoCAD user group all used AutoCAD. Today, the
same group is splintered into different vertical
products. This makes it very hard to put on a meeting
that will be interesting to all attending.
Mel's October article is the first in a three part series.
His November article will discuss ways LUGs can boost
attendance and be mroe relevant to today's users. If
you are in a LUG, you won't want to miss the November
issue of Hot News. You can subscribe by going to
www.AUGI.com. Membership is free.
Read what Mel Persin has to say...
|
|
Autodesk wins against Dassault |
 |
|
As I predicted, Autodesk triumphed over Dassault in a
jury verdict on October 3. The jury took less than two
hours to decide that Dassaut had no case.
Read on... »
|
|
|
Cadalyst reports new release of Viz Expected |
|
|
Autodesk revealed its design visualization strategy,
which does include
a new release of Autodesk VIZ in early 2004. Autodesk
says the next
release of VIZ will "benefit from advancements made
last year in
developing VIZ Render--an integral part of Autodesk
Architectural
Desktop software--and the upcoming release of 3ds
max 6 software." It
also promises greater interoperability with other
Autodesk products.
Autodesk VIZ caters to architectural and industrial
designers who need
to product high-quality images of their work, but don't
need advanced
features found in 3ds max. VIZ Render is for
Architectural Desktop
users who want to create photorealistic images of in-
progress designs.
3ds max, with v6 due out soon, provides advances
tools for 3D modeling,
rendering, and animation.
So far, I have written one book on Viz targeted for
beginners who get lost in the interface. I'm glad that
Viz has a future. It is a great product and a real tool
for students who want a future in animation design.
To order my text on Viz »
|
|
|
Unigraphics to Inventor Translator Available |
|
|
CADCAM-E has announced the release of CIMINV-Ug
V1.0, a new Unigraphics to Inventor translator that
runs within Inventor. CIMINV-Ug converts Unigraphics
parts and assemblies to corresponding Inventor parts
and assemblies, preserving the assembly tree. A
Unigraphics license is not required. CIMINC-Ug is a plug-
in that is integrated into Inventor V6, and its user
interface has the same look and feel of other translator
options that are available in Inventor. Options are
available to filter entities for translation based on entity
type such as sheet body or solid, and whether the
entity is blanked or visible.
Learn more... »
|
|
|
ASME On-line courses now available |
|
|
New Courses in: Finite Element Analysis, Two-Phase
Flow and Heat
Transfer, Controls and Vibrations, Heat Transfer, HVAC-
R,
Hydraulics/Pneumatics, Instrumentation/Measurements,
Kinematics, Dynamics & Machine
Design, Materials Engineering ,Mechanics of Materials
and Thermodynamics and
Power Cycles.
Learn in your home or office, while saving the time and
expense of a
classroom courses. For instructor-led courses, register
by October 27,
2003. Courses will begin on November 3.
Sign up for classes here »
|
|
|
Scientists Discover Why a Cookie Crumbles |
|
|
Scientists in Britain have discovered why biscuits seem
to break so easily.
Using sophisticated laser techniques, physicists at the
University of Loughborough, in the north of England,
found that a biscuit develops "fault lines" a few hours
after it comes out of the oven.
As it cools down, it picks up moisture around the rim,
causing it to expand -- while at the same time,
moisture at the centre makes it contract.
The result is a build-up of strain forces which pulls the
biscuit apart, making them vulnerable when handled,
moved or packaged.
Lest you think this has no other applications - keep
in mind that plastics, metals, and any other compounds
that go through any heating or cooling forces (including
surface-mount PCBs) go through similar cycles.
"This will help biscuit manufacturers adjust the
humidity or temperature of their factory production
lines to change the cooling process in such a way that
the biscuits won't break up due to normal handling, and
hence producing the perfect biscuit," Doctoral student
Qasim Saleem reports.
|
|
|
Chinese CAD and Computing Seminar on October 31, 2003 |
|
Many firms in the Bay Area now have projects in China.
They input Chinese text into AutoCAD, translate
documents into Chinese, and exchange files and email
with Chinese clients. AutoCAD and Windows now have
powerful multi-language functions, but many users
don't know how to take advantage of them. And even
skilled users often experience frustration dealing with
these issues in their daily work. We will have a seminar
to exchange our knowledge with regard to these issues.
Presenters will include Autodesk and Microsoft experts.
Seminar topics will include:
- How to configure AutoCAD and Windows for Chinese
text
- Why Chinese characters become unreadable and
how to manage this problem in various situations.
- Chinese email exchange issues
- Information on various code pages and their
evolution
- Exploring tools and functions
- Panel discussion
- Q & A
- Wish list
- Bug report
Date:Friday, October 31, 2003
Time: 8:30 am - 12:00 pm
Location:
Flack + Kurtz Inc.
405 Howard Street, Suite 500
San Francisco
Register for the meeting »
|
|
|
Inventor Issues and Solutions |
|
|
Issue
There is a known limitation in Autodesk Inventor® 6
and
7 but has been addressed in Autodesk Inventor 8. The
weld symbol will not automatically move if the anchor
point is in an area of the view that is not displayed due
to the broken view. You need to move it manually to
another area of the view before applying the broken
view.
Solution
Upgrade to Release 8 when it comes out or live with it.
Note: Autodesk Inventor will not work if you use the
Get weld symbol function on a view that has a broken
view applied and if the weld symbol is placed in
the "hidden" part of the view.
Issue
You converted a standard assembly to a weldment and
saved the changes. However,you want to know if you
can convert the weldment back into a standard
assembly so that the Preparations, Welds, and
Machining categories do not exist in the Browser.
Solution
Once you have converted an assembly to a weldment
and saved it, you cannot convert the weldment back to
a standard assembly.
Issue
You want to create a single part from a set of parts.
Solution
To create a single part from a set of parts:
Issue
You click the "Look At" button then select a planer
face in an assembly, but sometimes the model rotated
180-degrees from the view you
expected?
Reason
The "look at" button references the selected face or
plane. Since almost
all commands reference the script outlining the order of
creation of the
parts, it also references the UCS at the time the part
was created. The
"view" you see is usually the closest to the x/y plane at
the time the face
was created. It's not always convenient, but it's the
best Inventor can do
with it's logic.
|
|
|
WIPEOUT- NEW AUTOCAD 2004 COMMAND |
|
This command allows you to either draw a polygonal
shape or select an existing polygon to create a figure
that overlays existing geometry. The existing geometry
is not erased.
Why would you want to do this? Well, it would be
useful for marking up or exploring different design
concepts. Once you place the polygon, you can add
entities on top of the polygon as seen in the second
figure.
To make it more interesting, you can turn off the
wipeout frame. Simply type WIPEOUT, FRAMES, OFF.
Your edits can then seamlessly blend with the existing
drawing. You can adjust the wipeout frame using grips.
To make it easier for you to understand...remember
back in the days of vellum drawings. A lot of time we
would paste a small piece of white paper or a special
editing wipeout paper over a section of the drawing
that needed to be re-detailed. WIPEOUT essentially
does the same thing.
To make it more powerful, you can use layers to
control the visibility of different wipeout scenarios.
Try it out today - this is a pretty cool command that
packs a lot of wow!
|
| Quick Links... |
|
|
