in this issue
Be Careful What You Take
When I was starting out as an AutoCAD drafter, I spent
a great deal of time creating titleblocks, blocks,
engineering manuals, and other documentation. When I
changed jobs, I would usually back-up all this material
and take it with me to the new job, so I wouldn't have
to re-invent the wheel. I should note that I did not
ever take any of the company's design drawings or
anything which would be considered patentable.
Having this legacy data and being able to offer it to my
new employer certainly gave me the edge against other
job candidates. But, was I committing a crime?
In a recent court case in Britain, it turns out that I
was, in fact, committing industrial espionage. Any
material created on the job, including title blocks, is
considered company property. An employee from one
company did exactly what I did, he brought some
titleblocks and quality manuals over from one company
to another.
The court ruled that even though the designs shown in
each company's drawings were different, the fact that
the second company had material from the first
company (the titleblock and quality manual pages)
indicated industrial espionage and substantial damages
were awarded.
Read the entire article...
Quick Links...
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Greetings!
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Using ModelPress Publisher
I had an opportunity recently to use ModelPress
Publisher on a design I am working on, using Inventor
Release 9. I am working with a small start-up company
here in Silicon Valley and I wanted to create a 3D
model of the product, currently in R&D, so it could be
reviewed by the various engineers.
My first problem was that ModelPress Publisher would
not read the files off the network...I had to move the
assembly to my local drive. I consider this a major
problem, but not insurmountable...just use Pack N Go
and move a copy of the assembly to the local
drive....this totally confused Inventor the next time I
started it up...Inventor wanted to keep working off the
local drive and I wanted to go back to the network
version of the file.
Creating the published file it was not clear where it was
being stored...turns out it gets stored in a Published
folder under the ModelPress Publisher application. I got
several error messages during the publishing process,
including an error saying that no file had been
created...however, the Publisher did create the files.
That was a 'huh?' moment...the software lied, but it
lied in my favor, so I guess I should be happy. Also, for
some reason, the Publisher did not like my 3D Connexion
device that I use with Inventor. I got several warning
messages that Publisher could not publish the
3Dman.exe file...since I did not want it to publish the
device's executable file, I simply ignored those alerts.
However, once the published files were located and I
opened them up using the free reader, I was delighted.
I love the Reader interface, expecially the ability to
drag and move parts around, explode the assembly, and
even create sectioned views. Wow!!!! The GUI is easy
to understand and operate and I totally impressed the
other engineers...they could check out the design
without having a seat of Inventor, inspect the 3D
assembly, even perform measurements, orbit, zoom in
and out, and even print out their favorite views. It
was a major hit!
Frankly, I don't care how big a pain something is for
me...after all, that's why I get paid...if the end result is
something easy, fun, and exciting for the people I work
with...it's a winner. The viewer works with almost all
the 3D softwares out there, including SolidWorks,
AutoCAD, MDT, and Inventor...so you should definitely
check it out.
Learn more about the free reader and publisher »
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The Mystery of the Inventor Hole Dialog
Now that I have been playing around with Inventor
Release 9 for a week or so, I have to ask...what was
wrong with the Hole Dialog in Inventor R5.3? I liked
that dialog...Yes, it had three (gasp!) tabs, where you
had to further define the hole. But the dialog was
small, easy to get around and didn't take a lot of time
to go through.
Then in Release 8, they changed the dialog and got rid
of the evil tabs. I like tabs, but what do I know?
Obviously, I am wrong. Now,the hole dialog had a More
button (>>>) which expanded the dialog (taking up
more screen real estate), where you could fill out the
same options we had on the tabs.
Now, in Release 9, the More button is gone...I guess it
was evil too. No more expanded dialog and no
tabs...but guess what? - a HUGE hole dialog that takes
up easily a third of the screen with an incredible
amount of white space...so much white space I am
blinded by the void.
The interesting thing to me is that each iteration of the
hole dialog does not offer any new or better features.
There are no advancements in your abilities to define a
hole...nope, just messing around with the hole dialog
because Autodesk developers obviously are struggling
with how to improve it. Here's a thought...go back to
the hole dialog that was in 5.3, pour cement on it, and
don't let another programmer touch it until ANSI
standards change. If you think I am wrong, let me
know. If you are also struggling with the constantly
changing hole dialog and the way it seems to have
declared a manifesto on your screen real estate, I want
to hear about that, too.
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The DWF Blues
So, this is how one day last week went. I am working
in an office in Mountain View and want to print a color
label. No problem...I have a color printer in my home
office...simply take the AutoCAD 2005 file and create a
DWF...then email the DWF file to myself and pick it up
when I get home.
Feeling pretty smug, I sit down in my home office and
download the DWF file. I have AutoCAD 2004 installed
on my system along with the DWF viewer. The DWF
file won't open! Yikes! Try Volo View...it still won't
open. No problem, I'll just download the latest DWF
viewer from Autodesk's website. Go to Autodesk's
website to download the DWF viewer, click the link,
Internet Explorer closes. No download. Try it again,
Internet closes. Try it again, Internet closes. What is
the definition of insanity? Repeating the same action
over and over, hoping for a different result. I found out
later that Autodesk's website was having a glitch which
prevented downloads from the site.
Turns out the DWF I created in Mountain View was
created using Inventor R9's Beta DWF software (which
came on the CD)...in order to open any DWF files
created using that, I needed to download the Inventor
R9 Beta DWF Viewer. On my standard phone line (no
DSL available in rural areas), the download took almost
45 minutes.
After two hours, I finally got my labels printed. Now,
don't you think a DWF file should be downward
compatible in a viewer? And, if not, don't you think
Autodesk should let you know that users have to
download the latest viewer in order to open up your
DWFs?
A bigger issue for me was fonts. I had downloaded
some jazzy fonts to use in my labels. In order for the
DWF Viewer to recognize the fonts, I needed to
download and reinstall the fonts on my home machine.
THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM WITH A PDF FILE!
A week later, I had to print out the label again and
ended up going to the local Kinko's because they
needed the labels right away. Maybe it was a printer
issue, but out of three label sheets printed, only one
had the correct font (even with the fonts installed.) I
will be switching back to Adobe Acrobat Pro now...I've
had enough excitement with DWF to last me awhile.
Check out these free fonts and jazz up your labels (or whatever) »
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A More Powerful Alternative to NotePad
Skyler Mills, of Providence, RI, recommends TextPad as
a replacement to Notepad. You can use it for script
files, dxf files, cutting and pasting system variables,
etc. Does everything NotePad does, and then
some...plus you can open and save up to 10 MB file and
still have it in ASCII format.
You can download a free trial and then buy it for
$29...a real bargain I would say.
If you decide to make the move over from NotePad to
TextPad, be sure to change your system settings to
set TextPad as your ASCII editor...that way you don't
have to right click on the file and select the 'Open With'
option. In most Autodesk installations, you will be
prompted for which text editor you want to use.
To set your text editor to TextPad (or whatever):
- Locate the My Computer Icon on your desktop and
click to open.
- Go to Tools->Folder Options.
- Select the File Types tab.
- Scroll down to the TXT extension.
- Highlight the TXT extension and press the Change
button.
- Locate TextPad in the application list. Highlight and
select 'OK'.
- Press 'Close'.
If you like, as long as you are in this dialog you can
also set the default of how you want your folders to
appear whenever you open Explorer. Personally, I am a
fan of the details view and not the icons...that way I
can see dates and file sizes easily. Simply select the
Folders tab and pick the options you prefer.
Check out TextPad and download the free trial.... »
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