Lynn Allen's Blog

I've been blogged from Denmark!

How nice to wake up to a few nice comments about Yours Truly on Roopinder Tara's blog, CAD Insider. Roopinder is also the founder of the very popular Tenlinks.com and used to be the editor for Cadalyst Magazine.  He definitely made my day!

Many of you have asked about the dreaded demo that took place in Denmark in year's past (per my earlier entry)...let's just say I did just about everything wrong and everything that could go wrong, went wrong.  I lost my tool palette to Never Never Land...and then my command prompt...primarily because the resolution of the screen was so low (800 X 600) if you can imagine. I had to disconnect the computer from the projector - kick up the resolution - find the two MIA objects and move them to the center of the screen - and then reconnect the projector.  Of course it took me quite some time to come up with this solution as I became a dear in the headlights at first...(it wasn't pretty).  I should have checked everything out thoroughly before beginning - but I didn't...(bad presenter).  After being rattled in front of the audience I made several other mistakes...I refer to this as my "Disaster in Denmark".  Fortunately for me they've allowed me back into the country anyway and I've managed to make up for my earlier demo sins.  The painful experience, however, was a nice lesson in humility!  I always, always, check everything out thoroughly now as a result of my Disaster in Denmark.

Well I'm off to Stockholm for my final AutoCAD 2007 presentation of the week.  So far the audiences have been so positive about the new release (did you see the fabulous review by Bill Fane in Cadalyst magazine on AutoCAD 2007?).  Autodesk must have sent him lots of flowers and chocolates (or at least they should!).  Thank you Bill...

A Hip Tip from Denmark!

Oslo was a great launch day and I thoroughly enjoyed the Norwegian audience.  Even though my presentation was about AutoCAD 2007, they had more questions to ask me about Inventor and Vault (but then I love talking about both of those products so I was delighted!).  Today I am in Denmark - home of one of my worst demos ever (I'm still trying to make up for it).  I am hoping for a stellar performance this morning (cross your fingers for me please).

A Hip Tip from Denmark on updating Page Setups:

This great tip was emailed to me from Kerry Knauss and I love it!  He's been using the new free download of DWG TruConvert to update multiple layouts in multiple drawings - what a great idea!  As it stands right now it takes a LISP routine to automate this process (or tons of time as you patiently do it manually)...

DWG TruConvert is used to batch convert multiple drawings from one release of AutoCAD to another.  It also allows conversion of pen widths to lineweights and the addition of page setups.  That's where this cool tip comes into play.   Simply open the program and select the drawing files you need to update. 

Select the "Include Page Setups" option and navigate to  the drawing file that contains the correct page setup.

If you don't need to change the file format to a different release then select the same release the files are currently in - hit that Convert button and Voila!  If you are the paranoid type you can also save a backup of the files just in case (it doesn't hurt now does it?).

Thank you Kerry for this great idea!  I'm off to present...

From Sunny Arizona to Norway...

Well it's been a crazy week and weekend for me...on the go nearly constantly.  I truly enjoyed my first COFES (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software) where many great minds came together as a big think tank.  I particularly enjoyed meeting some of our counterparts from our competition such as Solidworks and PTC.  It was great to be in an environment where we could temporarily take off our competition hats and focus on the issues at hand - I truly enjoyed it.  The non-stop classes left me little down-time during the day because I couldn't bear to miss a single session.  I'd like to offer up a special thanks to CADWIRE for going above and beyond (thank you Rick!).  If you haven't taken a look at their website, it's filled with all types of information and articles for all things CAD.

So here are a few pics for you from the COFES closing night party and awards dinner before I'm off to my AutoCAD 2007 presentation in Oslo...

Here we have two of my favorite people - previous AUGI Board members...Mike Harkins (one of the funniest men in the world) and Marv Mustin (one of the nicest guys you will ever meet).

This is from the CAD Society Award ceremony with the presentation of the Joe Greco award for Community Service (which I was fortunate to win last year).  Joe's late wife was also up on the stage with me presenting the award to this year's recipient.   They were also able to set up a scholarship fund for Joe's old alma matre in his honor...great news...

And this is my wonderful COFES chaparone David Cohn!  Chaparone?  My goodness...that's like letting the fox watch the hen-house...(luv ya Dave)...

I'm off to another presentation!

Off to COFES and some Mouse Tips!

I'm getting out of Dodge and heading to nice sunny Phoenix!  After 40 days of rain in Northern California (should I be worried that my neighbor is building an arc?) I am positively delighted to dry off and head to some sunshine.  I'll be attending COFES for the first time and am quite excited.  Last year an award was presented to me at COFES by the CAD Society (which I was thrilled over) but wasn't even able to accept it due to my travel schedule.  So perhaps I'm a year late but I'm still looking forward to it! 

AutoCAD Hip Mouse Tips for AutoCAD 2007

Holding down the mouse wheel along with the Shift key launches you into the new and improved 3DORBIT command.  Unlike the old out of control 3DORBIT that would fly you aimlessly all around your part, this one is constrained so you stay above it (great for floorplans).

While in the new 3DWALK command, hold down the mouse wheel to look up and look down.  use the left mouse button to look left and right...very cool!  And of course, use the wheel to move forward and back as well.

So there you have some cool mouse tips...SQUEEK!

Happy Belated Easter and a Help Hip Tip!

I trust you all had a great Easter weekend.  I enjoyed the company of my family over the holiday and a good time was definitely had by all!  The Easter Bunny (shown below) visited our house and hid eggs filled with candy and the traditional Starbucks cards (caffeinated rabbit) and a mad hunt ensued (it wasn't pretty).  My house is still in disarray over it.

A Hip Tip on Speeding up Help:

Are you tired of waiting for hours and hours for the Help screen to appear (ok...I admit to a slight exaggeration here - but it certainly feels like hours).   One of the main reasons your Help file is showing up so slowly is due to your Virus checker.  It feels the need to check your entire Help file to make sure it isn't infecting your computer with some horrible dreaded disease - so it's up to you to tell it to move on with life...and exclude the AutoCAD Help file from scans...

Now you all have different virus scanners so I can't tell you exactly how to do this - but somewhere in your software there will be an option for excluding specific files from being scanned...simply point to the AutoCAD Help file and you are good to go!

A special thanks to Gary Vandawalker for bringing this to my attention...I am often asked why the Help file is so slow and now we can correct that minor little annoying issue!  I suppose if you get paid by the hour you should just ignore this posting...

And now for the lovely Easter pictures:

This is the Easter Bijon getting ready to hide the Easter Eggs...

And I thought I'd show the beautiful hand painted eggs I bought while in Salzburg...the one on the top center is a picture of Mozart (since Salzburg is celebrating his 250th birthday this year).  Below you'll see one of the many store windows just filled to the brim with these eggs - a truly amazing sight to behold!

 

A Hip Tip on Converting a Surface to a Solid...

You can turn a surface into a solid fairly easily in AutoCAD 2007 (something that was not nearly so easy in previous releases).  The new THICKEN command is one of my favorite command Newbies.  Simply select a surface and input the thickness and poof - it's now a solid! 

Command:  THICKEN
Select surfaces to thicken: Select one or more surfaces to thicken into solids
Specify thickness <default>: Specify a thickness value

The DELOBJ system variable controls whether or not the original surface is deleted in the process.  Imagine using the new LOFT tool to create an awesome surface - and then using THICKEN to turn it into a solid...Very handy tool!

Dallas, User Manuals and a New Blogger!

The weather here in Dallas is great!  I know I've been terribly neglectful of my blog lately (I'll try to do better). 

Rumor has it that one of my all time favorite industry people, Roopinder Tara (the founder of Tenlinks.com), has just started his own blog!  Roopinder used to be my editor at Cadence magazine (and it was a real treat working for him I might add).  I confess to using Tenlinks often to find the latest and greatest information on all things AutoCAD and Inventor. 

Be sure to visit Roopinder's new blog called the CAD Insider for his usual unique insight into all things CAD.  I particularly loved his posting on Too Skinny and Too Rich which talks about the MIA user manuals.  I, myself, like to drag the user manual around with me everywhere...Sigh...but at least we can just fill in that little card, send it in and get those good old manuals. In Autodesk's defense,(and they have batted this issue around in many meetings for years) they actually received many requests to remove those big books and save a few trees (remember that Autodesk Headquarters is in California).  This was primarily from the large accounts where multiple books were taking up tons of space...and being thrown out without ever even being cracked open...But for you user guide readers I definitely feel your pain...

I received a few pictures from my last night in Salzburg which I thought you might find amusing.  The last night Franz, Patrick and the team took me out to a fabulous dinner which was so nice they actually had a small table for my handbag.  I have traveled all over the world - been to some extremely nice restaurants - but I've never had a restaurant bring me a table for my handbag!  (If I'd known that - I'd have brought a much nicer handbag!). 

If you look really close you'll also see that they put a little holder under my knife (wouldn't want that pesky knife to touch the table!).  We affectionately referred to these as "knife pillows" and the European team was so thoughtful they bought me and beautiful Silvia our own set of "knife pillows"!  So if you ever come over to my house for dinner you'll definitely get a chance to use them (that's Franz with us).

Notice we are in jeans...we didn't know it was such a nice restaurant until we got there!

Here is a closer shot of the infamous acrylic Knife pillow...(beautifully crafted shot by Patrick!)

and last but not least...here I am promising my handbag it will never have to sit on the floor again!  (silly girl)...not a very glamorous shot!

If it's Tuesday it must be Salzburg

Ahhh...beautiful Salzburg...the home of Mozart (even though, he himself was not a big fan of Salzburg).  This is also the city from the Sound of Music (as you'll see below).  Salzburg is a beautiful and charming town - and I am so glad I was able to sneak in a couple of days of site-seeing over the weekend.  I'm here for a Manufacturing Conference where we'll be talking all about Autodesk Inventor and The Vault.  I'll start with a Hip Tip and then show you some pics I took over the weekend...

AutoCAD Hip Tip on conserving screen real estate:

If you are like me - you want to have as much room as possible for your drawing area without all the added clutter of palettes, toolbars, etc.  I don't even like sacrificing the extra room the layout tabs take up (and entire row for layout tabs?).  AutoCAD 2007 let's you move the layout tabs to the status bar (plenty of room there anyway).  Simply right click on the model or layout tabs and select "Hide Layout and Model Tabs" from the shortcut menu.  After that - your tabs will appear on the status bar as seen below:

The black icon is model space (of course) and the whitish one is paper space (a layout).  If you have multiple layouts, pick the button with the two triangles to display all the possible layouts.  This will save you a little more screen space and that makes everyone happy!

on to the promised pictures!

Do any of you recognize this place?  This beautiful mansion palace served as the house for the Von Trapp family - and this is the lake the kids fell into - remember?

And this is the romantic gazebo where the young couple sang "I am sixteen going on seventeen"...ahhhhhhh...what a great movie...(let's all break into song).