Volo View On Sale!
This low promotional price of only $49 ends July 31st. Volo View 3 is the tool that views, marks up, measures, prints, and plots AutoCAD 2004, and raster formats, as well as DWF files-without having the original design creation software.

	Installing the new 2004 Products
All Autodesk 2004 based product was designed and built to run in the Windows XP, Windows 2000 Pro, or Windows NT 4.0 (with all the service packs) operating system environments. Attempting to run the software on Windows 98, Windows ME, AND Windows XP Home will always cause you MORE man-hour expensive problems. You DO NOT save ANY money running a less expensive operating system. You cost yourself MORE money in maintenance and lost productive hours. Do NOT employ the "Upgrade" installation option when you upgrade your existing computer from these operating systems. If you do, you are likely carry over significant Windows registry problems into the new operating system. Make sure that the operating system service packs are installed BEFORE you install the application software. Any 2004 product will migrate the drawing file format of every drawing you open. With Architectural Desktop based products the ADT object conversion is completely irreversible. The ADT 2004 objects are too different from ADT 3.3 objects to convert back. You can save ADT 2004 drawings back to the 2000+ drawing file format, but the ADT objects cannot be edited in earlier release software. Currently, Land Desktop 2004 (with Civil installed) will NOT coexist with LDT 3.X (with Civil). There is a version "switching" utility in the works, but we have yet to test it. The Civil 2004 install overwrites the Vertical Alignment Editor dll in the Autodesk\Common Files folder. Therefore, you cannot run LDT 3.X or earlier with LDT 2004 on the same computer effectively unless you never work with Alignments in LDT 3.X on that computer. Having recently upgraded to the 2004 products, the first thing I did was install Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000. This is a recent release and you can download this for free from Microsoft's website. My next upgrade was to my BIOS on my motherboard. This also was free. I simply went to the hardware manufacturer's site and downloaded the latest BIOS software. It became apparent very quickly that I needed more CPU and more RAM. The system requirements, even for vanilla AutoCAD 2004, are significantly more hefty. So, off I went to my local computer hardware store. I got the highest CPU possible for my existing motherboard (saving me the cost of a new MB) and another stick of memory. It took all of five minutes to install the new CPU and memory...the hardest part was removing the heat sink from the old CPU. I doubled the power of my hardware for less than $300 and the whole process took less than an hour. So, before you install your 2004 software, check your hardware to make sure you meet the mimimum system requirements and install the latest service packs for your operating system. This will ensure a smoother transition and more success.

	Expired Subscription?
If you own ANY CURRENT AutoCAD 2002, or 2002- based products, and have a subscription contract that has expired in the last 365 days; then you are eligible for a 20% discount on an upgrade to a 2004 product. Subscription required on upgrade(s). Offer ends July 31st. Contact your local reseller for details.

	Revit 5.1 Companion Seat Promo
If you own ANY CURRENT AutoCAD (2000-2004) or Architectural Desktop licenses (ADT 2-2004), then from May 1 through July 31, 2003, you may also purchase an Autodesk Revit license (Subscription required) in addition to your current license for a special discounted rate. You may purchase a Revit "companion seat" for each AutoCAD/ADT license you own. Contact your local reseller for more details.

	Announcing the 0% Financing Program for all Synergis Adept Software, Services and Subscriptions!
Now through September 26, 2003, Synergis is offering qualified companies in the US a special financing rate of 0% for 12 or 24 months on a minimum purchase of $5,000 for all Synergis Adept software, upgrades, services and subscriptions. Qualified buyers can also choose to extend payment terms beyond 24 months. With Synergis' simple, powerful and affordable solution you wil be able to: Manage and track all your 2D/3D design data, revisions, and other business documents Find files quickly and easily Improve collaboration and communication across departments or the enterprise Automate the engineering change and approval process Achieve and maintain in-house and industry standards Secure and control access to critical information Provide non-CAD users the ability to view, print and redline design data For more information... »

	RevitCity Stirs Up Revit Users
RevitCity, a new website, catering to Revit users has successfully garnered the attention of Revit users worldwide. Unfortunately, the attention is primarily negative. Revit users are considerably annoyed by the amount of spam being generated by RevitCity. One user complained of getting three copies of the same email on the same day. Another user notes that most of the content actually originated from RUGI's site (www.rugi.org). I am not sure this is true or not. The content on Revitcity's site seems different, but I would have to spend some time really comparing sites. In the meantime, AUGI (www.augi.com) is working with RUGI to get the RUGI content transferred over to AUGI's servers, so the RUGI content can remain accessible, available, and FREE to all. To check out Revitcity »

	Tips & Tricks -
Inventor Tip To dimension to an imaginary intersection point - Use the dimension tool and pick on the first edge of your part then right click and pick intersection then pick the second edge. It will take a little getting the hang of it but it will work. AutoCAD Tip After you redefine a block definition, use ATTSYNC to update any changes to the attributes of existing block references. Revit Tip To place a car on a hill or ramp 1. open car.rfa 2. In Settings | Categories and Parameters uncheck Always Vertical checkbox 3. Save car.rfa 4. Reload it into your project ADT 2004 Tip There are two new Wall Cleanup tools available in Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004 that will certainly make you more productive. The first tool is Apply "L" Cleanup. This tool will automatically trim or extend two walls so that the nearest corner meets exactly in the shape of an L (like fillet 0" radius). The second tool is Apply "T" Cleanup. This tool will automatically trim or extend the selection set to another wall.

	Free Color Book Editor Available From Autodesk
For designers who like to add colors to their renderings, Autodesk has developed a way for you to create a Color Book tab in the Select Color dialog where you can create and store your custom colors. The Autodesk® Color Book Editor allows you to create "user-defined" or custom color books. Each custom color book contains a set of pages, and each page contains a set of "user-named" colors. You can apply your custom color book colors to objects in your drawings by using the Color Book tab in the Select Color dialog box. Read the Color Book Editor Help file to learn how to use this utility. Applies to: AutoCAD® 2004 Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004 Autodesk® Civil Design 2004 Autodesk® Land Desktop 2004 Autodesk Map 2004 Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop® 2004 Autodesk® Survey 2004 This is a free add-on! Get it now before Autodesk decides to start charging for it. To download your Color Book Editor »

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Free ADT 2004 Tutorials from Autodesk

Try out Penguin - This beta product brings freehand sketching, watercolor painting and cartoon-like rendering to Rhino and AutoCAD.