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Last fall, Paul Waddington, from Sydney, Australia,
offered 1,000 AUS to anyone who could create a
model using in Inventor in less time than it took him
to create it in MDT.
The purpose of the challenge was to show Autodesk that they should not eliminate MDT until Inventor has all the capabilities that Inventor has. In fact, Inventor does have some weaknesses, some of which I have pointed out in this newsletter. Specifically, it falls apart when it comes to irregular patterns, like what you might see in an air-hole grid or on a 19-inch plate. Patterns that are easy to create and edit in MDT are torture in Inventor. Paul's challenge created a minor furor among the Inventor community, who balked at his appointment of himself as judge and jury of the contest (since it was his dough, he felt justified to play according to the Golden Rule - him who has the gold, makes the rules.) Additionally, many Inventor users were indignant that he could even hint that MDT was in the same class as Inventor. There was a winner in the contest, a young fellow who designs motorcycle parts using AutoCAD and Inventor. Charles Bliss, an Inventor guru, claims that he also beat Paul's challenge, but Paul says Charles was unable to prove that he complied with all of Paul's rules (Some of which were a bit opaque, in my mind. His rules seemed to change as the contest progressed, sort of like trying to hit a moving target.). Paul tells me that he had members of the Sydney user group help him with reviewing the submissions and the correspondence pertaining to the contest and I am glad of that. That way he had some folks who know that he had only the best of intentions providing him with moral support and a sounding board. I think the Autodesk community needs more users like Paul, who question Autodesk and demand quality solutions, rather than those who lock-step with the party line. Instead of finding ways to tear Paul down, those users who scorned him should be thanking him. Users like Paul keep Autodesk on their toes, challenging them to do better. For those who participated in the challenge, no doubt it was a learning experience in more ways than one. |
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I've been using the new FIND tool quite a bit and am
finding it to be a big time saver. What works for me
is to use the Window option (the icon located in the
upper right of the dialog). This allows me to focus
my search to a specific section of a drawing. So, if I
have a set of racks in a drawing that need to be re-
labeled, I can just window around the racks that
need to be changed and perform a find and replace
just on those without having to worry about
accidentally re-assigning unwanted data to other
labels.
The great thing about the FIND tool is that is works with attributes, not just text. What a great tool! |
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EGIG is hosting a workshop for consultants and the
self-employed. With the economy the way it is, it is
helpful to learn how to market and sell your services,
how to set rates, etc.
The seminar is only $35 which seems like a good investment to me. |
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DWG Gateway promotes itself as a file conversion
and printing tool. You have to have an existing
version of AutoCAD (R14 or better) installed on your
system to use it. It allows you to save to any
version of AutoCAD. OK, so if you have R14, why
would you want to save as 2005? 2005 will open an
R14 file. If you have 2005, you may want to save
down to R14 so someone else can read the
file....Autodesk already provides a free tool to do
that.
Intriguingly, DWG Gateway says that they will have a free PDF writer available soon that will work with your AutoCAD installation - now that would be a goodie! Will this promise be vaporware? So, then the question becomes why would SolidWorks, Autodesk's arch enemy, provide users with a free file conversion kit telling users they don't have to upgrade their AutoCAD - use the conversion kit instead. The three reasons users upgrade is 1) they want the new features; 2) they want to be able to read the new files WITHOUT having to deal with using migration tools; 3) they want all their users to be on a level playing field of productivity (especially if they have customized menus and templates). SolidWorks is hoping that users will let their subscriptions lapse, don't upgrade AutoCAD, and use SolidWorks instead. Then use the DWG Gateway as a stop-gap until and after they fully migrate over to SolidWorks. That's a nice dream, but it's still a whole lot of wishful thinking on SolidWorks' part. First off, we are still in a 2D world...ah, yes, we still are doing more in 3D, but I'm talking the majority here and the majority is still creating 2D orthographic views and layouts...they have to interest, plan, or desire to move to 3D SolidWorks/Inventor/MDT or whatever. And if you work in 2D - you are working in AutoCAD. Secondly, a lot of users have gotten used to their lisp routines, custom menus, blocks, etc. They have invested years into those productivity boosters and they are not going to move over to SolidWorks and start over. Finally, if you are of a suspicious sort, would you trust a competitor with your data? Gosh, I wouldn't...I value all my hard work just a little too much. I'll stick with Autodesk's FREE Batch Converter, thank you very much. On the other hand, if that FREE PDF writer ever appears, I may have to take another look. |
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Free 3D Models to download
More Free 3D models for download Some Free 3D Models from Low Polygon3D |
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