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.

Autodesk releases Hotfix for running Impression 3 on Windows 7

Autodesk has been silent (or at least very quiet) with regards to Impression for some time.  I even stopped writing about it for AUGI World.  It's back! Sort of.  Impression doesn't run to well on Windows 7.  Or so I'm told.  I'm running it ok on Windows XP and Windows Vista.  They have released a hotfix for it.  According to Autodesk's website, this hotfix fixes a problem Impression has in Windows 7 where when you attempt to open, save or import a drawing, Impression fails!  Ouch!  

Download the hotfix from this site.

Impression is great.  I use it and have several tips on this blog about it.

Sorry for the Delay

You might have noticed that I haven't been blogging much, at least not on CAD-a-Blog.com.  I have been doing a bit of micro blogging on Twitter and Facebook.  Don't worry.  I'm getting back to it.  I've been busy on a project that has been published (I'll talk more about it later) and tried to get some other projects going.  I didn't finish them.  That's ok.  I want to rework this blog's format, and once I do, I will get back on the job.  Hang with me, and keep coming back!

Google Sketchup Model Your Town Competition

I'm a CAD guy. I know, it's hard to believe, but I am. I love making things in CAD, it's how I roll. 3D CAD is very cool too. I also like Google. I use several of their products. One that I haven't used as much is Google Sketchup. I've toyed with it a bit here and there over the years but I have never done any serious work with it. Until now!

I have decided to through my hat in the ring in Google's latest competition, Model Your Town. Essentially this contest is a brilliant way for Google to increase their meager 3D Building content on Google earth for free! Or for at least at the cost of a party for the winner, some press, and a $10,000 tax deduction in the form of a check to the winners home town school! It's a great idea.

Modelers basically have until March 1st to submit their models. they have to be simple enough for Google Earth, yet accurate. they also have to have realistic photo renderings on them. So they have to actually look like the buildings from your town. And, you have to provide meta data for each building.

Easy enough right? If it were just one or two buildings then it would be a piece of cake. Or if it were just random CAD Gurus from here and there, I'd have a huge shot at winning! After all, I've been using CAD for 16 years now! But it seems that cities from all over the world are getting into it! Not to mention that big architectural firms are jumping in too! At last count, it seems that there are at least 200+ entries at the time I am writing this!

The good news is that you can form a team to do your work. So, my son and i are teaming up on this project to try and win 10 grand for the school in our town. It also seems that other teams consist of Architectural firms, or what you might call "experts". We are feeling a bit like David amongst several world wide Goliaths here, but that's ok with us because David one with a single stone.

Blog Action Day - Climate Change - CAD the Green Way

This years Blog Action Day is about Climate Change. This is my first year participating in Blog Action Day, but I thought it was relevant to this site's content. CAD-a-Blog is about CAD, not going green, but there are many steps that CAD users can take to reduce their impact on the environment. Lacking any hard data or surveys, I would tend to think that two of the major impacts CAD users have on the environment is the use of paper and power. Let's face it, my job is to create construction/permit drawings on a computer all day. If I use less paper and less power, then it can only help.

Use Paper Less

There are several steps CAD users can take to reduce the amount of paper we use. Just say no! We live in the digital age. paper is nice for drawings of course, but the software we use comes with ways to produce our drawings electronically. Instead of printing to paper, print to PDF. if you are using AutoCAD or any other Autodesk product, print to DWF. If you print to DWF then you can use Autodesk's Design Review software (and it's free by the way) to mark up drawings and to share comments. All of this without using paper! If you have to submit your drawings to a client or government agency, submit them electronically. Send them the PDF or DWF files instead of paper. If they won't acept it, start a dialog on how it can help reduce the strain on the environment, but it couls help reduce costs as well. Several govenrment agencies are now allowing electronic submittals. Some even require it.

Use Less Power

This may seem like an obvious help to the environment, but one that might not be as easily remidied. Let's face it, CAD runs on electricity and the power has to be generated somehow. We need to find ways to use less of it, but mainly to stop waisting it.

Turn things off when you go home. It's ok to shut down your computer, desk lamp, radio, etc. If you have a charger for a phone, blue tooth device, GPS unit, etc., unplug the charger until you actually need to charge the unit. Turn your monitor off when you leave your desk.

Just Put in a Bit of Effort

It can be difficult to change our mindsets, our habbits, and the way others do things. It might even seem that our little bit isn't going to save the planet. But if you take a little bit from a lot of people then it adds up. If we don't start reducing waist at all, then we will all run out of resources much quicker.

Thanks for taking the time to read this "PSA". We can all do a little bit, we just have to start.