Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Autodesk Ended Support for Microsoft Windows Vista, but not Windows XP for 2012
On January 1st, 2012, Autodesk formally ended support of products released in 2012 that will be running on the Windows Vista Operating System (See Press Release). However, they have not ended support for their products running Windows XP. Interesting isn’t it?
Right now nothing has really changed because as of the date that this is posted, Autodesk hasn’t released anything (that I am aware of) in 2012. The 2012 line of products were released in the year 2011 so they are still supported, if you are running Vista.
Why are they doing this? They ended sales support for Vista way back in 2011 so they are following suite with the rest of their support system. Ok, that makes sense but why support XP and not Vista? According to their press release they have enough customers using XP that they need to support it. That’s just crazy isn’t it? What’s going to happen when Windows 8 comes out this year?
I don’t know either but all of these updates makes my head spin! It’s going to be a great year for IT support and CAD managers dealing with software updates. Maybe this is a great year to get all of your users on the same Operating System?
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Pivot from Microsoft
Microsoft has a labs site, just like every major software firm in the world. One of their latest additions is Pivot. Pivot is an interesting concept. If it takes off, it could help users browse large amounts of data very quickly. It uses a visual interface system that links groups of data on how they are related. These groups of data are called Collections. Each Collection groups, or links, large amounts of single items on the internet. It does this in a way that we can view them, either as individual bits of information, or as larger amounts. Microsoft says that Pivot will allow us to see hidden patterns in our data, and maybe even take us to places we didn't even think of. Could be.
It is very interesting, and at least fun to play with at first. Check out the Pivot site for a video of what it looks like. Pivot Video
Whether or not Pivot will change the way we interface with the internet is too hard to tell at this moment. I do know that it will be fun to try. But what do you do with the data once you see it? How do I get the data out of Pivot and put it in the application I'm using? It is too early to tell where this product will go. it may never make it out of the labs. I will keep my eye on it.
It is very interesting, and at least fun to play with at first. Check out the Pivot site for a video of what it looks like. Pivot Video
Whether or not Pivot will change the way we interface with the internet is too hard to tell at this moment. I do know that it will be fun to try. But what do you do with the data once you see it? How do I get the data out of Pivot and put it in the application I'm using? It is too early to tell where this product will go. it may never make it out of the labs. I will keep my eye on it.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
AutoCAD 2010 - No Longer Comes With Microsoft VBA
AutoCAD will no longer come with Microsoft VBA. This has been mentioned before on other blogs, but I wanted to make sure that I addressed it too. For those of you that already have AutoCAD 2010 and use custom VBA routines within it, you may have found out the hard way. I hope not.
AutoCAD 2010 does support VBA, it just doesn't come with it anymore. You have to download the application separately. Autodesk made sure that AutoCAD could use VBA, and they made sure to make it available to those that need/want it. Follow this link to get to Autodesk's download:
VBA Support in AutoCAD 2010
Once you download it, follow Autodesk's instructions on loading it. If you are using stand alone applications of AutoCAD, it's very simple to install. I did it on my machine and can run VBA macro's now no problem. I haven't tried it out on an enterprise or network deployment, but I'm sure somebody has.
Why would Autodesk stop supporting this widely used feature? Because Microsoft has. Once I learned that, then it made since to me. Of course Autodesk would stop supporting a software feature that will no longer be supported by its creator.
It appears that Microsoft Office products will no longer support it either. Office 2007 was the last version to have it. Don't get too panicked, they (Microsoft) are essentially replacing it with VSTA. No, that's not a misspelled Vista, it is VSTA. That stands for Microsoft Visual Tools for Applications. It is the next step in macro evolution, be it good or bad, that's where it is headed. Does this mean that AutoCAD will eventually support this format? I don't know. As far as I can tell, I don't think Autodesk knows yet either. They are still committed to supporting LISP. Imagine the outcry if that ended!!
There are many people that will not be affected by this. In fact, there may even be people that will be affected and they have no idea! Don't worry. If you are one of those people, and don't feel bad if you are, your VBA macros will still work. You will just have to jump through a few hoops to do it.
Here's a question; If you used VBA for custom macros in AutoCAD, will you still use those macros, or will you rewrite them in LISP? Obviously you won't have to for AutoCAD 2010, but what about 2011? Will Autodesk provide this download for that release? Who knows? Maybe the 2010 download will work in 2011 and 2012. It may not in 2013 when the traditional DWG revamp will likely take place.
It seems obvious to me that it would be good for users to start making the move away from VBA in AutoCAD as soon as possible and head the .NET direction. But who knows when that will go away. Maybe users are better off sticking with LISP. Script files are still great, and there is always the Macro Recorder in AutoCAD!! Laugh all you want to, I think it has potential. Not like LISP or VBA or even SCRIPT files, but it has its place.
That is one of the big issues with technology, it is always changing. Once you feel you have a good grasp of something, BAM they take it away, or change the interface to a ribbon!! Change is constant in software, get used to it. I remember when I could program anything in BASIC on my Commodore 64! Man that was a long time ago, especially in software years.
Well, anyway, no need to panic just yet. Autodesk was wise and started the process of weaning its users off of VBA. Perhaps they should have started last year with AutoCAD 2009, but perhaps there were enough surprises in that release with the Ribbon. And AutoCAD 2008 came too soon after the 2007 announcement from Microsoft. Oh well, it is what it is and I think Autodesk is doing the right thing here, as frustrating as it might be. Especially to me because I just bought a VBA for Dummies book about 8 months ago!
Happy CADDING
AutoCAD 2010 does support VBA, it just doesn't come with it anymore. You have to download the application separately. Autodesk made sure that AutoCAD could use VBA, and they made sure to make it available to those that need/want it. Follow this link to get to Autodesk's download:
VBA Support in AutoCAD 2010
Once you download it, follow Autodesk's instructions on loading it. If you are using stand alone applications of AutoCAD, it's very simple to install. I did it on my machine and can run VBA macro's now no problem. I haven't tried it out on an enterprise or network deployment, but I'm sure somebody has.
Why would Autodesk stop supporting this widely used feature? Because Microsoft has. Once I learned that, then it made since to me. Of course Autodesk would stop supporting a software feature that will no longer be supported by its creator.
It appears that Microsoft Office products will no longer support it either. Office 2007 was the last version to have it. Don't get too panicked, they (Microsoft) are essentially replacing it with VSTA. No, that's not a misspelled Vista, it is VSTA. That stands for Microsoft Visual Tools for Applications. It is the next step in macro evolution, be it good or bad, that's where it is headed. Does this mean that AutoCAD will eventually support this format? I don't know. As far as I can tell, I don't think Autodesk knows yet either. They are still committed to supporting LISP. Imagine the outcry if that ended!!
There are many people that will not be affected by this. In fact, there may even be people that will be affected and they have no idea! Don't worry. If you are one of those people, and don't feel bad if you are, your VBA macros will still work. You will just have to jump through a few hoops to do it.
Here's a question; If you used VBA for custom macros in AutoCAD, will you still use those macros, or will you rewrite them in LISP? Obviously you won't have to for AutoCAD 2010, but what about 2011? Will Autodesk provide this download for that release? Who knows? Maybe the 2010 download will work in 2011 and 2012. It may not in 2013 when the traditional DWG revamp will likely take place.
It seems obvious to me that it would be good for users to start making the move away from VBA in AutoCAD as soon as possible and head the .NET direction. But who knows when that will go away. Maybe users are better off sticking with LISP. Script files are still great, and there is always the Macro Recorder in AutoCAD!! Laugh all you want to, I think it has potential. Not like LISP or VBA or even SCRIPT files, but it has its place.
That is one of the big issues with technology, it is always changing. Once you feel you have a good grasp of something, BAM they take it away, or change the interface to a ribbon!! Change is constant in software, get used to it. I remember when I could program anything in BASIC on my Commodore 64! Man that was a long time ago, especially in software years.
Well, anyway, no need to panic just yet. Autodesk was wise and started the process of weaning its users off of VBA. Perhaps they should have started last year with AutoCAD 2009, but perhaps there were enough surprises in that release with the Ribbon. And AutoCAD 2008 came too soon after the 2007 announcement from Microsoft. Oh well, it is what it is and I think Autodesk is doing the right thing here, as frustrating as it might be. Especially to me because I just bought a VBA for Dummies book about 8 months ago!
Happy CADDING
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