Robert Goss responds to my prior article on the question of whether AutoCAD pings Autodesk's servers...
I read your letter about whether or not Autocad pings their website. According to the new McAfee antivirus program it does. In fact it gave me the option to block it. So I did. Now when I start Autocad, it takes longer to load.
Is it worth having McAfee? No.... I hate it. For the last 6 months I have been getting an annoying popup asking me to download the upgrade for free. So I finally gave into it. After installation was complete I ran the new McAfee. It was loaded with all kinds of crap, most of which I didn't care to read. So in typical fashion, I ran it saying yes to everything. Bam!! It has a registry cleaner in it. Several programs quite working. And you can imagine what it did to AC 2006 and AC 2007. I had to reinstall both.
BTW, I am getting a new computer soon, needless to say McAfee won't be on it. Which poses a question. With the new security features in Windows, is it worth have an Antivirus program? What do other cad folks do?

Well, personally I use ZoneAlarm, which is FREE...ZoneAlarm automatically notifies me when a program tries to access an external server or vice versa. I then have the option to approve or deny access.

In AutoCAD's case, most of the pinging that occurs has to do with that Communications Satellite which was added, I think, in AutoCAD 2000i. The Satellite checks for service packs, tutorials, etc. depending on your settings. You can turn off the Satellite so it doesn't ping...just go to Settings and switch the Check Interval to "On Demand"...then it only contacts Autodesk when you ask for it.

We all know there is no "I" in Team, but sometimes it is difficult when more than one engineer is working on the same project. This was driven home to me this week as I work in Inventor with two other members of my team, a manager and a drafter/designer.

Working in Inventor R9, we aren't using Vault...instead, we are working in semi-isolated mode, which means that we place our designs on a server (workgroup) and check them out to our local systems (workspace). When people know what they are doing, it works well. When people are untrained, well, it's a mess.

The workflow should have gone this way...I design the parts in 3D, the manager blesses them, and then I check them in, then the designer/drafter (who is more familiar with the company's drafting standards) checks the files out and creates the 2D drawings.

In the real world, the manager does an end-run around me and asks the designer/drafter to tweak the 3D model. The designer/drafter does this, but he messes up my 3D model because he does not use proper 3D CAD techniques (doesn't use iFeatures, doesn't use formulas, creates unnecessary work planes and other features and creates features which can lead to file corruption at worst or rebuild errors later on at best).

I complain...the result...the designer/drafter abandons the semi-isolated work flow all together, does a Pack and Go and goes off and makes changes to the 3D models which do not include the improvements I had made, continuing the error of his ways, etc.

Now, we should have had 2D drawings today...instead, we have a bunch of 3D models we can't use...the designer/drafter is taking off for home for the holidays and won't be back. Guess who is stuck to clean up the mess?

Twenty years ago, I would have thrown a major temper tantrum and stalked out of the building to cool down. Today, I just came in early and got to work...hey, I get paid no matter what and if management wants to be unproductive, slip deadlines, etc., it's no skin off my nose. I can't take it personally, because, after all, there is no "I" in Team.