Upgrading to AutoCAD 2013? Is Your Hardware Good Enough?

If you are upgrading to AutoCAD 2013, I hope you take the time to see if your current hardware can handle Autodesk's latest version of their flagship software.  If you aren't sure, then you are in luck.  I wrote a four part series for CADspeed on this very topic.

Here are links to the four articles:

The Best Hardware Configuration for AutoCAD 2013, Part 1: Can Your Current Workstation Handle The Upgrade?

The Best Hardware Configuration for AutoCAD 2013, Part 2: Current and Future Needs

The Best Hardware Configuration for AutoCAD 2013, Part 3: Review Recommended Hardware

The Best Hardware Configuration for AutoCAD 2013, Part 4: Processor, Video Card, RAM and Hard Drive

I hope this helps.  I know I learned quite a bit researching the topic.

Cadalyst Magazine’s All-In-One CAD Tip #5 (and I Helped)

Cadalyst Magazine has had a series of All-in-One CAD tips put together by one of my favorite CAD Guru’s Curt Moreno, the Kung Fu Drafter.

The series is sponsored by HP’s new “All-In-One” Workstation the Z1.

On Tip Five, Mr. KFD asked me to lend a hand.  I contributed the tip about using Autodesk Design Review.  I’m so proud!  Check it out and check out the other All-In-One tips from Cadalyst, KDF, and HP.

• All-In-One CAD Tip #5
• All-In-One CAD Tip #4
• All-In-One CAD Tip #3
• All-In-One CAD Tip #2
• All-In-One CAD Tip #1

Two Good Articles on What's new in AutoCAD 2013 from Cadalyst Magazine

Cadalyst Magazine has posted two great articles discussing what's new in AutoCAD 2013.

One is "AutoCAD 2013 from the CAD Manager’s Chair" by CAD Manager Robert Green.

The other is from Cadalyst Labs Reviews "AutoCAD 2013" by Bill Fane.

Robert Green gives a good review of the new version of AutoCAD from the perspective of a CAD Manager.  He highlights the main issues a manager needs to be aware of.

Bill Fane details out the new features, updates, and changes to AutoCAD 2013.

Check them out.  They are good articles.

CADspeed article: Tips on Buying Wide-Format Printers for CAD, Part 3 of 3: Setting It Up

Are you or your company about to get a new printer? Before you do, check out my latest article for CADspeed. It's part three of a three part series.

In this series, I discussed ways to determine your needs and the different types of wide-format printers. Now let’s talk about setting it up.
Check it out!

Cadalyst to host TwitterChat

Cadalyst Magazine is hosting their first ever TwitterChat.  What's a TwitterChat?  It's an organized event where twitter users are purposefully using the same HashTag to have a conversation with other Twitter users.  Cadalyst has put together a webpage (click this link) where they describe the ins and outs of their TwitterChat.

This TwitterChat is scheduled to begin on Thursday, June 23 at 1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST.  The Hashtag will be:

 #DellCAD

This TwitterChat is sponsored by Dell and presented by Cadalyst  (@cadalyst_mag).  The chat will be hosted by Lynn Allen (@Lynn_Allen)

The topic of conversation will be centered around collaboration, specifically using AutoCAD WS.  To join the conversation remember to search on twitter for the hashtag #DellCAD ! Everyone is invited! If you miss the chat, don't worry.  The hashtags shouldn't go anywhere, there just won't be anyone live tweeting.  I think Cadalyst is going to create a transcript of the chat for later.  Cadalyst is also planning to have more of these chats.  If you are on "the twitter", join in and ask some questions.

Robert Green's CAD Manager's Survey 2010 is ready

How much money do CAD managers make? Do they work part-time or full-time? These questions and more are answered by Robert Green, CAD Manager Extraordinaire, in his annual CAD Manager Survey.

Robert takes a look at the average CAD Manager salary, education, age, and even more. If you want to see the questions he asked in the survey follow this link. Survey Questions.

Robert conducts this survey every year and the results are interesting to look at, especially in these past tough economic times. You can see the economic tool taken on CAD Managers over the past few years through his survey results.

Take a look at it and draw your own conclusions. Is your pay close to the average? How secure is your position? Looking to become a CAD Manager then take a moment to look at this survey, and those past, to get an idea of what might be expected of you.

Cadalyst Magazine - The Future of Software for AEC? Autodesk's Direction Offers Some Clues

Cadalyst Magazine Editor in Che if, Nancy Spurling Johnson takes a look at Autodesk's recently released 2011 line of products and what it could mean for the design industry.

You can read the full article here:

Nancy takes a look at some of the items revealed to her at AEC Tech Day.  Take a look at the article, you may find something in it for your industry.

Cadalyst's Tips & Tools Weekly

Cadalyst magazine has several newsletters.  I am the Tip Patroller for their weekly newsletter Tips & Tools Weekly.  It is published every Monday.  This weeks tips include:

Start Commands with a Double Click

Set Extrusion Distance

Two-Key Commands

Program Keyboard and Mouse Inputs

Go to Cadalyst's website and click on the CAD Tips button to find all of the tips and to sign up for the newsletter.  Every tip is reader submitted.  There is a ton of great stuff there.

AUGI World is Back!

It's been a rough time for CAD related print magazines. Cadalyst magazine was dropped by Questex Media then picked up and licensed by Longitude Media (see my post discussing this.) AUGI and Solidvapor parted ways effectively halting the publishing of AUGI World.

Great news, AUGI World Jan/Feb 2009 was just issued! But, in digital form only. Sound familiar? Cadalyst is doing the same, for now. Being a writer for both entities I have been aware of these awful situations. Thousands of readers go to both magazines to glean information, tips, and trends on a daily basis.

This issue of AUGI World includes, but is not limited to, the following article topics:

• Tutorials for the newest Autodesk products
• CAD management trends and issues
• Tech articles and tips & tricks
• Training advice
• CAD industry observations

And don't forget my article on Impression (as usual!)

Follow the link and download a copy of the magazine. AUGI World is a great find. There is so much information in it covering many different fields and topics that anyone can get something out of it. And it's free!!

CADALYST Magazine to Continue!

I know many of you, just as I have, have been reading Cadalyst Magazine for most of its 26 year history. It started off as a user group of sorts but came to be much more. This past month, Questex Media Group, Inc. announced that they would no longer publish Cadalyst. Questex has owned Cadalyst for several years. They quickly let go several key staff members and kept a skeleton crew to finish out the month of February.

That has changed, to some degree. Longitude Media, led by former Questex Media vice-president, has agreed to publish Cadalyst through a licensing agreement with Questex. Nancy Johnson, editor in Chief of Cadalyst will remain in this position.

Press Release

It also seems that most (if not all) of the contributing authors will stay on creating their high quality articles and tips as always.

Longitude Media will be able to continue with the online side of Cadalyst with little or no stop in production. However, the print side of things is up in the air for now, but I am told that they will eventually print again once it is feasible.

I am very excited about this announcement as I am on of the contributors to Cadalyst. I review the tips submitted to Cadalyst by its readers for the Tips and Tricks Weekly newsletter that comes out every Monday. Last week I thought I had reviewed my last tip, but today, after this blog post, I have to get back in the saddle and get these tips reviewed before tomorrow so we can catch up!

Hurry for Cadalyst and for its readers. I can't wait to see what this change will bring!

http://www.cadalyst.com/

Graphtec Wide Formet Scanner-Review

I have written a review article for Cadalyst Magazine. This review article take a look at Graphtec's CSX300-09HDplus Wide-Format Scanner. This scanner is meant for firms that need full color scanning but do not have a hehavy load. This reduces the initial cost so that the company will have access to color scanning. It does a great job of scanning, it's just slow. The black and white scanning abilities are up to par and allows companys to archive paper drawings.

Check out the full article at Cadalyst.

AutoCAD 2009 Workarounds to increase Performance

Steve Johnson, writer of BUG WATCH for Cadalyst magazine has a great article this month on how to improve the performance in AutoCAD 2009.

AutoCAD 2009 gave us several new features that often get in the way and Steve talks about handling them in a way you may have already figured out. He also goes into the 2 Service Packs that have been released from Autodesk.

Bug Watch

Cadalyst Magazine Luanches CAD Tip Web site!

CAD-a-Blog Exclusive!

Cadalyst Magazine will be launching a new feature, CAD Tips. This is a collection of all of their CAD Tips they have received over the years! Right now it is still in Beta, but will be released around the 9th of July to the public. Upon it’s unveiling, there will be nearly 1800 tips available to browse and search through. These tips come from the Hot Tip Harry column. Cadalyst has plans to add their other tips on a later date.

This new feature will work similarly to a wiki, but not exactly. You will be able to add your own tips, comment and tag other tips, etc. Many of them have LISP or VBA files that you can download and use. The nice thing about this website is that all of the tips will be in one place making it easier to find them.

I am very familiar with the content of this project as I was fortunate enough to be able to work with Cadalyst on it. I helped with the initial tagging of the tips, and other CAD related concepts. I started to tag the newest tips and worked my way back in time. It was very interesting to see the needs and wants of CAD users and how they approached solving different issues. Many of the tips and routines preformed tasks that Autodesk later added to AutoCAD as a main feature. My favorite tip, and one of the oldest, that I came across was a tip on how to take care of Plotter Pins!!! Do any of you use a pin plotter today? Most of the older tips seemed to help in aligning text (remember when all we had was DTEXT?)

Because of my involvement, Cadalyst has given me the go ahead to let CAD-a-Blog readers in on this new secret a few days earlier than the rest of the world! The site is up and running. Just go to it, sign up (it’s free) and take a look. Rank some tips, tag some tips, submit your own, etc. Keep in mind that it is still in Beta Form and you might run into a few snags. If you do, feel free to e-mail those issues to: webmaster@cadalyst.com

Before I forget, here is the address for the new site: http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/

Enjoy this bit of news and enjoy it before the rest of the world does!

I've been busy

It's been a while since I have posted. I have an excuse, I've been busy. I have. AUGI Hotnews published another article that I wrote (click here) and AUGI World published my article on Autodesk's new program Impression. The biggest news is that they made it the cover story!! (That sound is me patting myself on the back) Plus I'm working something out with Cadalyst (the magazine). Make sure you read it in January (and before that too).