in this issue
R. Paul Waddington Ups His Challenge
I met Paul in Sydney, Australia almost a year ago...Paul
is a huge MDT fan. His biggest complaint against
Inventor is that it does not have a lot of the
functionality as MDT. Paul wants Autodesk to continue
developing and supporting MDT until Inventor has all
the features MDT has and more. Paul believes that
MDT is the superior product.
Not only does Paul believe it, but he is willing to put his
money where his mouth is. "$1500.00 ($Aus) Elise, is
now what I will pay for my challenge now," he emails
me.
Any one wanting to have a go will need to register their
intentions with Paul
and complete the tasks in a set period. The time frame
within which he will honour this offer is between
August Friday 13th
2004 and will close at 5pm (Sydney, our time) August
Friday 27th 2004.
Paul's contest is to make a deceptively simple part in
Inventor. If you can do it in less time than he can
make it in MDT, then you win the CASH. So, far
nobody has come close to beating the MDT time.
Take the Inventor V. MDT Challenge
Quick Links...
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Greetings!
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Get Out the Wet Noodles!
Whack me with a wet noodle! I got two emails
following last week's CADzette from readers who were
less than pleased with what I wrote.
Surya Sarda, President of Cadopia (the makers of
IntelliCAD), took exception to my belief that IntelliCAD
is only appropriate for small shops, students, and part-
timers. He provided a list of major accounts, such as
Xilinx, Boeing, and Raytheon. While those companies
have purchased seats of IntelliCAD, I know that
IntelliCAD is NOT the primary tool for design work at
those companies. My oldest son works for Xilinx, a
major chip manufacturer, and most of their tools deal
with ASIC design. IntelliCAD is being used in Xilinx's
facilities division - a very small department of 2-3
people (sounds like a small shop to me). Similar stories
at Raytheon and Boeing.
Says Sarda, "There was a time when SDRC and others
derided Autodesk's entry into the 3D world. They even
suggested that Autodesk stick to what it does best --
2D drafting. I was there at Autodesk at the time.
Things change, times change. Times have changed yet
again. Arrogance can only last so long."
There are plenty of folks who agree with the
IntelliCAD prez. If you're one of 'em, you might want to
consider buying a seat of IntelliCAD. And hey,
encroaching into the market takes time...if IntelliCAD
continues in their slow and steady growth, they may
prove to be the David that took down Goliath.
From Thomas Irvin (the fellow who has taken on the
mission of updating AutoCAD shx fonts), -
"In what was otherwise an interesting and informative
issue
of your newsletter, I was dismayed to see the swipe
taken at using SHX
fonts. Don't how it is in your part of the country but I
don't think
most everyone has abandoned vector-based fonts.
"I have only one client who insists on using
technical.ttf and although
the text looks nice, regens are noticeably slower and
panning across a
sheet filled with TTF notes is a test of patience, to say
nothing of the
unnecessary increases in drawing file size. None of my
other clients in
the upper midwest have abandoned SHX fonts for
production drawings and
noting although some use them for titles."
As a sidebar, I had forwarded copies of Tom's new
and improved fonts to Autodesk some months ago, and
Tom has yet to hear back from Autodesk about
whether or not they will use his work.
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Grumbles over AU at Vegas
Over at Randall Rath's Cadvault site, users are
grumbling about Autodesk University being at Las Vegas
again. Now Las Vegas is a great vacation destination,
but after the first couple of times, the glitter just starts
to wear off.
Mark Johnston wants AU moved to Seattle (his home
town)...and I bet there are users in SF, Chicago, St.
Louis, New Orleans, Atlantic City, etc. who would all
vote to move AU to THEIR home town.
Frankly, I would be happy if AU was anywhere BUT
Vegas. However, it looks like the MGM Grand in Vegas
is set to be the permanent location for AU...according
to the Autodesk AU team, that location has the best
accommodations for all the classes, the party, the
food, etc. at the best price.
If you want to go to AU, sign up NOW...classes fill up
quickly. Currently, I plan to skip AU this year. I hope
to go to NDES in Chicago, instead.
Check out Randall's website and forums! »
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A Quick Way to Create a Desktop Shortcut
A quick and easy way to create a desktop
shortcut....Go to Programs->Autodesk->[locate the
program you want to be able to launch from your
desktop].
Right click and select Create Shortcut.
Once you have created the desktop icon, simply locate
it, right click and select Properties.
On the General tab, you can rename the icon. On the
Shortcut tab, set the Start in field to the folder you
would like to always start work in.
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Creating a Tool Palette the Easy Way
Let's say you have created a drawing that contains
blocks which you want to place on a tool palette.
Here's a quick and easy way to do it.
- Open Design Center.
- Locate the drawing with the desired blocks.
- Highlight the Blocks folder.
- Right click and select CreateTool Palette.
- The tool palette will automatically be generated.
Don't stop there. Be sure to rename the tool palette to
something useful - like Favorite Blocks. Then, select
each block and set the Properties to the desired layer,
scale, etc.
If you have a symbol that you insert at different
scales, simply copy that symbol and set the Properties
to the different scale settings.
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