Lynn Allen's Blog

A Holiday Blog and a new Book!

Well it's finally here...my latest book!  I'm so excited (and I hope you will be to).  It's the perfect holiday present for all those CAD buddies of yours (wait...you probably aren't buying presents for your CAD buddies now are you?)  AutoCAD Professional Tips and Techniques is filled with all kinds of cool tips and tricks you're sure to enjoy!

I suggest buying it off of Amazon because they have a good discount.  My mom will be so proud!

Bart Dujardin, the gentleman who sent me the cool tip on changing the Inventor zoom direction has asked me to acknowledge the very robust Inventor Wizard website where he found the tip.  He promised this would make the Inventor Wizard team happy (and we definitely want the wizards to be happy).

And last but not least, the AOTC team has been kind enough to extend the same Autodesk University discount they gave to attendees to anyone through the end of the month.  These materials are very helpful in learning a new product (I taught myself how to use The Vault using AOTC materials!).  There are some great titles as well.  So save yourself an additional 20% by using  Promo Code "AU2006" when buying courseware from the Autodesk Store www.autodesk.com/eStore.

Happy Holidays everyone!

A Holiday Hip Tip on Autodesk Inventor...

Are you ready for the holidays yet?  We got our tree over the weekend (always such a big ordeal) and have started to decorate accordingly - AU put me way behind schedule.  Although I'd be the first to admit I'd probably be behind schedule anyway - with our without AU!  My Colts took a thorough beating yesterday - my goodness!  It was just too painful to watch towards the end.  At some point - can't you just throw up your hands and say "Uncle"?  Uncle, Uncle, Uncle!

On to a Holiday Hip Tip on Inventor:

Those of us who flip between AutoCAD and Inventor can get frustrated when it comes to zooming in and out with the wheel on our mouse.  With AutoCAD - if you push the wheel forward you are zooming IN, pull the wheel towards you - zooming OUT.  The exact opposite is true in Autodesk Inventor.    Why these two aren't synced up by now is beyond me but there are a couple of ways to fix this annoying behavior so they both sync.  I previously blogged how you could reverse the zoom in AutoCAD (hence Inventor wins) by going into the Options command, 3D Modeling Tab as seen below.

The better option, imho, is to sync Inventor to AutoCAD - especially if you're a long time AutoCAD user (old habits are hard to break).  Bart Dujardin, one of my European buddies, was kind enough to send me the information to change Inventor behavior and reverse the zoom wheel (hoorah!).  You do have to be a little brave, however, because you'll be changing the REG file on your system (Yikes!).  I did myself (so if I can do it - you can do it!) The below information came straight from Bart (thank you).

1. Make sure Inventor is closed.
2. In the START menu choose “Run”, key in  “regedit” and  press ENTER.
3. Now you’re getting the registry-editing window, it’s similar to the windows
explorer. Just run through it to the next folder:
4. My Computer\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Inventor\RegistryVersion11.0\System\Preferences\Display
5. Now in the right column you double-click on the name: “Viewing Command
Options”
6. Another dialog box appears; change the value from 1 to 3.
7. Click the OK button and close the window.
8. Now start Inventor and the zoom-direction of your mouse wheel will have
changed.

Hip Hip Hoorah!  I am so much happier now that I've changed my wheel zoom...(less time in therapy). : )

For you all - a before and after shot of Tiffany.  Before - just groomed...After - just outside playing in the mud...all within the same day...such a drag...

Before:

After:

Oh My Goodness!!!

Oh Where or Where has Lynn Gone?

Oh my...where is Lynn?  So sorry folks but Autodesk University completely consumed me all of last week and I've spent the past few days catching up (and recooperating!).  I am SO exhausted after AU.  The stress of presenting to over 7000 people perhaps?  That would do it!  Well the good news is that I still have my job (phew!) and I had a wonderful time.  Emceeing the AU Party was the highlight - I've never seen so many people in one room...very thrilling!  Maybe I'll quit my day job...hmmm..maybe not!

Here are some notable pics from the week...Shaan Hurley has all kinds of AU pictures on his blog as well.

I opened the mainstage on Tuesday morning - which was very exciting for me.  Carl Bass, Autodesk's President and CEO did a terrific job of providing a glimpse into the future of technology and introducing customers who had really taken Autodesk technology to the next level.

 

I feel so tiny in that huge room with that big stage!

one more:

And the AUGI Board had a great annual meeting that night.  The AUGI Board works so hard all year long and they just shined on stage!

You guys clean up so good!  : )

The AU Party featured the Blue Man Group and a fabulous comedian - Don McMillan (the powerpoint comedian!). 

The terrific Shaan Hurley was "volunteered" to participate in the show!  What a trooper!

Poor Shaan! They covered him in paint and slung him against a canvas for some "Shaan Art"

And later he came out with his head encased in Jello...what a trooper!!! (We love you Shaan)

And this is the lucky winner of a free pass to AU 2007!

Me posing with our star comedian Don McMillan...

And 3 of my favorite people in the world...Yoshi Honda (former AUGI President), Craig (the hubby) and Jim Balding (Revit Star!).

 

To cap it all off - I took a few of our star presenters out for lunch on Friday to celebrate a great week (and thank them for all their hard work).  We shared a champagne toast to another exciting week of AU!

Thank you Matt Murphy, J.C. Malitzke, Karen Miletsky and David Cohn!  And a toast to all the other great speakers who worked sooo hard this week - we couldn't do it without you!!!