HELP! Unknown Command "HELP". Press F1 for Help

The other day I was working in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 when, shockingly, it crashed. The interesting part was that it didn't fully crash the program.  Instead it just stopped working.  Civil 3D was still there.  The file was still opened, but nothing would work.  Every time I tried to enter a command, in any way, an error message was displayed:  

Unknown Command "whatever the command was". Press F1 for Help.

ACAD/Medre.A Malware – An AutoCAD Based Virus that may be stealing your files and email contacts!

Dealing with computer viruses is a pain.  Windows users have been doing this for a while and recently many Mac computers were infected as well.  It seems that nobody is safe anymore, or at least everybody should be weary and prepared.  The same is true for AutoCAD users as recent headlines would show.  The malware “virus” known as ACAD/Medre.A has made an impact in the country of Peru in the past few months according to ESET’s Threat Blog.

ESET (an IT security company headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia with branch offices in San Diego, U.S.A.; Wexford, Ireland; London, United Kingdom; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Prague, Czech Republic; Singapore and Kraków, Poland and was founded in 1992) shared the news on their Threat Blog and discussed the threat and what it was doing.

Autodesk Releases ForceEffect for Android

Autodesk® has released their mobile engineering app for simulating design concepts ForceEffect™ for Android. It’s about time. ForceEffect™ is a simulation app that can perform calculations for you. Since it is on your mobile device you can perform these design calculations anywhere. All of your designs can be exported to a DXF file format which allows you to use your work in most of Autodesk’s design platforms.
If you have been waiting for this app today is your day.  Go to Google Play and download it.  It is completely free.

TechSmith Releases Camtasia Studio 8

TechSmith has released its latest version of its screen capturing and video editing software Camtasia Studio 8 for Windows. It is available now. You can try it free for 30 days or purchase it for $300 (U.S.D.) Owners of Camtasia Studio 7 can upgrade for $99 (U.S.D.) but this is a limited-time only price. Upgrade now or spend more later.
I use Camtasia Studio to create my AutoCAD Training videos so I can’t wait to start using Camtasia Studio 8. I am literally going to start my next video title this weekend and I will be using Camtasia 8 to do so. I plan on giving a full hands on review in the future.

Autodesk Announces New Cloud Service – Autodesk BIM 360

Autodesk announced and released a new Cloud Based service today called Autodesk BIM 360. Autodesk BIM 360 includes a set of services that provide cloud based access to BIM project information throughout the project’s lifecycle. Autodesk BIM 360 will work with several of Autodesk’s BIM solutions including Autodesk Building Design Suite and Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite.

"Cloud-connected workflows are giving our customers worldwide a better way to work with colleagues across their organizations and with business partners, clients and stakeholders,” said Amar Hanspal, Autodesk senior vice president, information modeling products.

3Dconnexion Releases Update to 3DxWare 10 Beta Software

3Dconnexion released the next update to their 3DxLabs Beta software 3DxWare 10.  3DxWare 10 (or 3D Mouse Anywhere) is a driver platform for 3Dconnexion 3D mice that allows them to work in any application.  This software package allows users to take advantage of their 3D mouse in other programs besides CAD.  That means you have even more input possibilities in your web browser (will it work in TinkerCAD?), Word Processor, spreadsheet, you name it.

Hardware, Software reviews. I do them.

I am currently working on reviews for several different CAD related pieces of hardware (workstations, large format all in one printer/scanner, 3D mouse).  I also have lined up some CAD related software to look at too (raster to vector, browser based CAD, non-browser based CAD).

If you have any hardware, software, programs, tools, or services that relate in some way to the CAD industry, anything that a CAD User may use in their job, even briefly, related to design, engineering, architecture, manufacturing, GIS, CAM, AEC, PLM, surveying, managing any of these topics, anything!!  Contact me so we can discuss your product for a possible review on CAD-a-Blog.com

Go to the CONTACT page for details on contacting me.

3Dconnexion Announces Official Certification for 3Dconnexion 3D mouse support in Autodesk Inventor 2013

See Paul Munford's article on the new additions to Autodesk’s digital prototyping platform, Inventor.

June 14, 2012 – 3Dconnexion today announced certified 3Dconnexion 3D mouse support in leading 3D CAD modeling software Autodesk® Inventor® 2013, including Autodesk® Inventor Professional®.

This is good news for Inventor 2013 users that also use 3Dconnexion 3D mice.

3D Print a Burrito with Burrit0bot! (I’m not kidding)

If you are a fan of 3D printing and burritos then you have to check out Burritob0t!  Burritob0t is a thesis project for maker Marko Manriquez at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.  Mr. Manriquez says “ I made my little bot as a means of exploring my two passions – digital fabrication and good food.”

I may never buy a PC again!!

I have been working with an HP Z420 Workstation review unit (yes a full review is coming, stay tuned) for over a week now and it has been a great experience.   So far two things come to mind when I try to describe my experience:  smooth and no crashing!  That’s right… over one week of running AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 and I have not had one crash!  I’m sold.  I don’t know if it’s the beefed up processor or the ECC (Error Correcting) high speed RAM.  My experience has been so great that I am going to find it difficult to purchase a “regular” PC ever again.  At least not for CAD work that is.

HP Announces new HP Z220 Workstations and EliteBook Mobile Workstations

HP Z220 Workstations

HP has announced some new additions to their workstation lineup.  First up is an entry level workstation called the Z220.  It features next-generation Intel® Core and Intel® Xeon® processors, the latest integrated and discrete professional graphics from Intel, NVIDIA and AMD and four integrated USB 3.0 high-speed ports. The Z220 entry-level workstation is available in a choice of an exceptionally expandable, Convertible Mini-Tower (CMT) or a highly compact Small Form Factor (SFF) that’s 65 percent smaller.

Autodesk’s Acquisition of Vela Systems Means Nothing

Autodesk announced today that they have acquired Vela Systems.  (See the press release here.) Vela Systems provides field management software for construction.  They have partnered with Autodesk for some time now and, like many other software providers, they are now a part of the Autodesk family (see the history of Revit.)  This acquisition is a great one for Autodesk.  Vela’s software is a fantastic fit with what Autodesk has been trying to do this past year.  Autodesk has created Autodesk 360, a cloud sharing and setting syncing service, Autodesk PLM 360, http://www.autodeskplm360.com , a cloud based Project Lifecycle Management system, and their integration of these services in their 2013 product release.  Vela is all about BIM (Building Information Modeling) and can be applied, or made to be applicable, to most any construction project.

Autodesk releases Hotfix for Autodesk 360 Sync Error

Autodesk released a Hotfix for those that are having constant Autodesk 360 Sync errors.  If you are using (or have used) Autodesk 360 (Autodesk’s cloud storage and settings syncing service) then you are probably getting an annoying error.  All of the time.  I am.