AUGI December 2011 Hotnews Now Posted

AUGI's monthly newsletter, Hotnews, is now available for reading.  I suggest you check it out.  

In this issue David Harrington, AUGI President, provides a great review of Autodesk University2011.  There is also a story on this years Top DAUG contest, how it was different this year, and the final results.

Mark Kiker has a good CAD Managers article discussing users workstations.

At AU, AUGI presented Autodesk with their wishlist items.  Check out what AUGI members want.

Don't forget the Tipniques column.  This month's article is written by Patrick Hughes and is titled "Dr. Who and the CAD Manager"

Autodesk SketchBook Mobile for Android $0.10

The Android Market is celebrating the downloading of Ten Billion apps with their 10 Days of Offers - Top Premium Apps for $0.10 per day sale!!  Yes it's a mouthful.  The bottom line is that today Android users can get Autodesk's SketchBook Mobile for $0.10!!!  It is normally priced at $1.00 I believe.  At that price it won't break the bank but at one tenth the normal cost you may want to try it out if you haven't already.

Right now the other nine apps for ten cents are:

• Great Little War Game
• Paper Camera
• Sound Hound
• Asphalt 6
• Fieldrunners HD
• SwiftKey
• Minecraft
• Endomondo Sports Tracker Pro
• Color and Draw for Kids

Check them out.  I also use Paper Camera and SwiftKey in case you were wondering.

AUGI BOD Elections are up - Voting ends December 15th

AUGI is managed by its Board of Directors.  The board manages all long range planning, vision casting, management, and member interactions.  It is time to vote for the next AUGO BOD candidates.  There are three open positions on the BOD.  AUGI members are encouraged to vote.  Voters must be a member of AUGI in good standing for a minimum of 30 days prior to the close of BOD nominations (which was October 9th, 2011.)  Each voter gets three votes.  The thre candidates with the most votes at the end of voting will be elected as the newest members of the AUGI BOD.

Voting ends December 15, 2011 so please don't forget to vote.  Click here to become familiar with the candidates and vote.  Now go and VOTE!!!

Autodesk announces new features coming to AutoCAD WS

At the start of Autodesk University 2011 Autodesk announced the new features coming to the next release of AutoCAD WS. There are three new major features that they announced:

3D Support 

GPS Integration 

Plot to Print from Mobile 

These three new features are very exciting from a user’s perspective, like me. The 3D support will allow users to view and share three dimensional objects in DWG files.

The GPS integration is said to allow users to position themselves inside their designs when out on a site visit! That’s amazing if it really works that well. We will have to wait and field test it. This is a huge deal for all sorts of design professionals and DIY’ers. I can take a set of civil engineering drawings and visit a site. I could then, depending on the accuracy of your GPS unit in your mobile device, collect locations of existing fire hydrants, valves, sidewalks, trees, buildings, etc. I’m skeptical on this because I know how inaccurate mobile devices are with regards to GPS. However, it could be accurate enough for many field location tasks.

The ability to print from a mobile device is not a game changer but a good feature to have especially when collaborating out of the office with a tablet and AutoCAD WS. I feel that the real use of this feature will be limited. If I am collaborating with an uploaded DWG file then printing it is not a problem once I return to my desk, where my printer is. If I am collaborating with another user then they already have access to the file. Since they have access they will be able to print the drawing as much as they want to. I can print to my mobile device to my home or work printer (Yes I’m a geek) but I have yet to need to use that feature. That being said, having the ability to print from AutoCAD WS if the need arises is a good thing.

I am anxious to see these new features in place. There is no word (as of this writing) which, if not all, of these new features will be available on the Web Application (the website) or just on the mobile apps (for iOS and Android). I doubt that the GPS will be needed in the web app unless users plan on using it on a laptop, ok, so maybe the GPS but then the laptop would need a GPS radio. The Print from Mobile feature is rather obvious; besides, the Web App can already print. However, the 3D object abilities better be applied to both the mobile app and the web app. Then there is the stand alone Mac only version. I’m sure it will get whatever the Web App gets. By the way Autodesk, when is the Windows standalone version coming?



images from autocadws.com

Inventor Fusion coming to Mac First Quarter 2012

Autodesk’s Inventor Fusion is coming to Apple’s Mac computer. Not surprised. Autodesk has been slowly recreating some of their most popular design programs to be used on the Mac. And I do mean recreate. Like it or not Autodesk is going Mac. Regardless of what it means for Windows users, Autodesk is doing things the right way. Starting with AutoCAD for Mac, then AutoCAD LT for Mac and then with Inventor Fusion for Mac, Autodesk started over. They did not create a port to Mac from Windows. They reused what code they could but made Inventor Fusion (and the others) a native Mac program. That’s good. Now I wish they would rewrite the Windows versions!