|
Greetings!
Controversy in the Stacks
As most of you know, I have written over twenty texts
at this point, all on one Autodesk product or another.
The books are sold primarily to schools and ATCs. I
don't feel competitive towards my fellow authors
because I think the more books on any software app is
a good thing. The more books, the more secure the
end user feels about the product, the more the product
sells, and all authors reap the benefits.
I don't usually read the reviews on Amazon. I did when
I started as an author and quickly decided that this
actitivity came under the heading of "get a life". I do
the best I can, listen to what people tell me and try to
react to what I am told. No single book is going to
answer all your questions. I will buy every book out
there on some software packages and if I get one good
chapter out of each book, I consider myself very
lucky. And when it comes down to it, if you learn ONE
thing that saves you a minute every day on the job -
isn't it worth the cost of the book?
Recently, my publisher informed me that somebody is
posting bogus bad reviews on Amazon. At first, it
looked like the reviews were coming from a particular
author, but now it looks to me like it is coming from one
or two odd ducks out there.
Look at this review on a Sham Tickoo SolidWorks book:
my boss informed me that I needed to learn the
differences between SolidWorks 2003 and 2004. My
company is upgrading in January. I would not
recommend this book to learn 2004. This is an advance
book that does not cover any of the preliminary details
and is written in a jumpy fashion. It is very confusing to
even a user for two years....
Now read this review for a Planchard SolidWorks
book:
Author moves around a few types of commands in
his book and do not pay attention to the proper layout
of the book. After reading this book I got so much
confused that ultimately I have to go through the help
provided along with the software. The author skips
back and forth from topic to topic in the book. If you
are looking for a balanced introduction to SolidWorks,
for a reference guide, or for a genuinely application-
oriented view of SolidWorks, look elsewhere.
The reviews come from the same guy. I wonder if
he actually used either book or if he has some sort of
learning problem and is blaming the books.
I don't know how much you rely on book
recommendations from colleagues or the reviews on the
net, but please keep in mind that it is really easy to
post a good review and even easier to post a bad
review. Ask yourself how often you agree with your
local movie critic. And if you find yourself using the
same technical reference book over and over, do post a
good review on it...we authors work very hard on these
books and really don't make a lot of money on them.
They are more a labor of love and act of dedication to
the community than anything else.
|
|
So Have You Noticed Any Decrease in Spam? |
 |
|
As of January 1, 2004, the federal Can Spam Act went
into effect. This law is supposed to eliminate - or at
least reduce the amount of spam (junk email) you get.
It is now against federal law to send unsolicited email.
However, unlike the California law - which the federal
law trumps, individual users can't sue the spammers. It
is is up to the feds or your ISP to sue.
You can forward any unwanted email to uce@ftc.gov.
I've set up my email system so it automatically
forwards unwanted spam to this email address. The
FTC is then supposed to track all the spam and come
down on the bigger offenders. I suspect that even the
feds don't realize how bad spam really is. If everybody
forwards their spam to this address, I'm betting the
FTC server will crash.
CADzette does not qualify as spam even though it is
sent out through a bulk email service. I am in
compliance with the Can Spam laws as I follow the
rules and then some.
- I don't add any email addresses or harvest email
addresses. I only send CADzette to people who have
signed up for it.
- In order to sign up for CADzette, not only do you
have to subscribe BUT you also have to confirm you
really want it. This is to prevent someone from signing
you up without your knowledge.
- There is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of
every email and you can unsubscribe at any time for
any reason. If you email me directly and ask me to
remove you from the list, I will also remove you-usually
within 3 days of the request (the law requires within
180 days)
- All CADzettes include my website, my email, and my
physical address -I'm not hiding from
anybody...although since I live in a rural area, you
might have a problem finding my house without
directions.
I hate spam as much as anybody. Do I think the
new law will work? Only if the feds start prosecuting.
If we don't see any lawsuits against spammers in 2004,
then the law is useless.
|
|
|
Uninstall/Reinstall for AutoCAD 2004 and XP |
|
|
If you have had problems installing AutoCAD2004 with
Windows XP, you are not alone.
The solution is to install and run the optional Windows
XP Support Tools, which includes an Installer Cleanup
utility called msicuu.exe.
The Support Tools can be found in the Support/Tools
folder on the Windows XP installation CD.
Refer to the Microsoft link below for a detailed
explanation. There is also a utility available for 2000,
ME, NT, etc. You need to make sure you download the
correct utility for your operating system.
To download the XP Installer Cleanup utility... »
|
|
|
12th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ISO 9000 |
|
February 23-25, 2004
3-Day Conference
Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena
Vista, FL
The most comprehensive conference that combines ISO
9000:2000, ISO/TS 16949, AS9100, ISO 14001, TL
9000, OHSAS 18001, IWA 1, ISO 13485, Continual
Improvement, Customer Satisfaction, Web-Based
Applications, Value Stream Mapping, Quality
Characteristics, Value-Added Auditing, Balanced
Scorecard and Six Sigma.
For this 3-day Conference, the regular registration fee
is $995. However, if you register by January 16, 2004,
you will receive a $50 discount and a Palm Zire, an HP
PhotoSmart 120 Digital Camera, or a one-day ticket to
Disney or Universal Parks, as your early-registration
gift. We have special discount for groups and for
Government employees. One-day registration is also
available. Please see page 14 of the attached
Conference Brochure for further information.
For more information... »
|
|
|
The Accident-Prone Horse |
|
|
Along with New Year's greetings, many of you
expressed an interest in my horse, Laertes. Laertes is
an 8 year old Peruvian Paso. He was a rescue horse
who was seriously abused, but still sane when I got him.
This last month he has been a bit of trial. He
scratched the cornea in his right eye. Since he is head-
shy from being beaten in the head, he needed to be
sedated for the eye exam. He came off the eye
medication last week.
We recently moved him into a double stall with our
recent acquisition, a large grey Arabian named Oberon.
Oberon and Laertes get along fine. Laertes is almost
half Oberon's size, but he makes up for it in attitude.
They like to horse-play and are very happy together.
Except Oberon stepped on Laertes during a play session
and tore the pastern on his left front foot. This is the
area right above the hoof. Tore him right down to the
muscle.
As luck would have it, a vet happened to be on the
premises. Laertes got ten internal stitches and about
that many on the outside as well. Because the tear
was right over a nerve, he was heavily sedated. Now
when a horse is sedated, everything relaxes - including
the bladder. So as the vet was stitching him up, every
few minutes he would let loose. Here we are trying to
keep as sterile environment as you can on a ranch, in
the mud, and he is trying to add his own disinfectant
into the mix.
He'll be fine...assuming no infection sets in, but I
won't be riding him for at least a month. The good
news is that with the rainy weather I probably wouldn't
have been doing much riding anyway. By the time the
weather clears up, he should be good as new and full of
piss and vinegar - as the expression goes.
|
|
|
PTC TIMEOUT PROBLEM SET TO STRIKE SATURDAY |
|
|
PTC advises users of Pro/ENGINEER, Pro/INTRALINK,
and Windchill to
download and install a software update by January 10
to avoid a
timeout problem that may cripple a number of
commands and
capabilities and cause certain communications between
applications
to time out prematurely. PTC says an incorrect value
was used in a
constant that helps identify a theoretical infinite time in
the
future: "Because the value of this constant was not set
to the
largest possible value, the theoretically infinite time will
be
reached on Saturday, January 10, 2004 13:37:04 GMT,
which is
Saturday, January 10 08:37:04 EST."
For more details... »
|
|
|
Attaching a Word Document to A Drawing |
|
|
We have about a 500 page spec book that the client
will not accept. They require that the specs be
integrated into the drawing set.
The Word doc has headers and footers which indicates
the code section, so it is critical that they are
maintained. Copying the doc into Mtext will not include
these headers.
Just using a copy/paste will bring in the header/footers,
but only brings in the selected page. Using "Paste link"
will bring in the entire doc (or up to the 1st page break)
but not the header/footers.
Set up a Generic Text printer in Windows
Then print to file using this Generic Text printer
and import through the MTEXT editor. If you go into
the Page Setup....
you will get some advanced options that will include the
footers as well as all other embedded code elements
from WORD.
Printing the word document to the Generic Text
printer will for the most part preserve all of your
formatting.
|
|
|
Using TrueType Fonts |
|
|
When you open a drawing from an outside source which
uses an unregistered TrueType font, the alternate font
defined by the FONTALT setting is displayed instead.
Sometimes in this situation, the Autodesk software
shuts down unexpectedly and no error message is
displayed. This problem occurs if the drawing file is
currently open and the unregistered TrueType fonts are
located in the same folder. Or maybe you want to use
a TrueType Font that is not available.
You must register the unregistered TrueType font in
the Windows operating system to display the font that
is specified in the drawing. The Windows operating
system has a Fonts item in Control Panel that you can
use for registering TrueType fonts. After the TrueType
font is registered with the operating system, the font is
displayed when the drawing is opened.
To register a TrueType font:
- On the Start menu (Windows), click Settings >
Control Panel.
- In Control Panel, double-click the Fonts item to
open the Fonts window.
- On the File menu, click Install New Font and
navigate to the location of the font.
- Select the fonts to load and click OK.
For help on registering TrueType fonts in Windows,
refer to Help in Windows Explorer.
|
|
|
Tips & Tricks |
|
|
Your toolbar has shifted position, how do you get your
toolbar back where it was before without alot of hassle?
If you double click on the toolbar title bar it should
return to the location specified in your menu file.
|
| Quick Links... |
|
|
