Lynn Allen's Blog

Video Text Tips and more Cool AutoCAD 2009 Features

It has almost felt like spring this week!  With the temperature in the 60's I am SO excited!  I have had enough  of the cold (I apologize to those of you who are still freezing) and I am so ready to move on to spring.  I even bought some flowers to plant in the yard I am convinced the worst is over (positive thinking anyway).

So have you had a chance to see my latest Cadalyst Tips and Tricks video?  This week my tip has to do with Text inside of AutoCAD 2008 - and Tiffany is even helping me out in it (you'll have to listen to see what I mean).  This tip is short and sweet (about 2 minutes in length) so there is no excuse not to catch it!  You might just learn something you can turn right around and use today. 

Go for it!

On to more AutoCAD 2009 features:

Improved Layer Management in AutoCAD 2009!

The Layer Properties Manager is now modeless so you can keep it displayed as you use other commands.  That means you can dock it, autohide or anchor it just like your other tool palettes.  Now you can get to your layers whenever you need them!  And it’s dynamic now - any changes you make within the Layer Properties Manager are now instantly applied to the drawing (no more “Apply!”).  One user in my audience called the new modeless Layer Manager "a dream come true".

If you’ve ever had a hard time viewing the layer name column when you slide over to the right side of the column you’ll be happy to know that now you can freeze a column so it stays put even as you slide across to the other end...fabulous!  You can also optimize one or all columns to keep content from truncating or maximize one or all columns to ensure that no headers are truncated.  And now if you need more real estate in the dialog you can collapse the Filters pane.

The new Layer panel on the Ribbon is filled with all types of layering controls – be sure to give it a try!

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Now I'm going to go outside for a few minute and enjoy the sun!

The Famous Cell Phone Story and more on AutoCAD 2009

Many years ago while I was speaking at the Jacksonville Autodesk User Group an incident occurred that became known as "The Cell Phone Story".  Over the years this incident has become quite a legacy - and its become quite popular for someone in my audience to yell out "Tell the Cell Phone Story!".  Being one who likes to please the crowd I nearly always indulge them (time permitting).  A fellow blogger, Steve Johnson, apparently filmed the famous story at Autodesk University (a couple of years ago) so I thought I'd share his link with you.  The story is absolutely true and I'll never forget it...the night it happened people were crying they were laughing so hard (including myself).  I'm talking pretty fast in the video but hopefully you'll be able to get the gist of it.

http://www.blog.cadnauseam.com/2008/02/21/lynn-allens-famous-cell-phone-story/

Thanks for sharing Steve!

The New AutoCAD 2009 Show Motion

If you do presentations for your clients then you’ll love the new ShowMotion command.  ShowMotion tools let you quickly step through different views in your drawing (with different effects) for presentation purposes.  In years past we used to create slide files and then make a slide show (before the world of PowerPoint).  This new tool is similar to that technique - just easier.  It can be found in the status bar or by executing the MOTION command.

Use the NEWSHOT tool to create new views for your presentation.  For organizational purposes you might want to save your views under specific named categories.  There are also three types of views you can save:  Cinematic, Still and Recorded Walks.  Similar to working in Powerpoint, you can also assign transition and movements such as zooming in, orbiting, etc.

The ShowMotion tool resembles the new Quick View tools.  View categories will display first with the Views assigned to each category above.    To play through all of the views select the Play All button in the control panel.  A loop option allows you to continue playing all of the views until an escape or stop occurs.  You can close ShowMotion while views are playing so as to not distract from the presentation (which I strongly recommend).

The ShowMotion tool is definitely a surprise feature I wasn't expecting - but it's pretty cool so be sure to give it a try!

Have a fabulous week!

Ode to Evelyn...a beloved Autodesk Dog.

So one of the great things about working at Autodesk is that we are allowed to bring our dogs to work!  The Autodesk founding fathers started this very cool tradition and luckily we've been able to maintain this tradition ever since.  Not all of the Autodesk offices support this but at our headquarters, where I work, we still have this privilege.

Over the years, some of the Autodesk dogs have become a mainstay in the office.  Evelyn, was one such dog.  There were very few days that sweet Evelyn wasn't in the office and we were all quite accustomed to having her around.  Evelyn would always protect her food when I came around (apparently I looked like the dog food stealing type) and would bark occasionally when someone suspicious would come around (but then - that was her job!).  She loved chasing tennis balls and Heather...being a good Dog-Mom, would always indulge her in this.  Evelyn was an extremely well behaved Autodog...she had her own Autodesk badge and nameplate (of course she did).  Evelyn just had a way of making whatever work issue you were dealing with a little bit easier.  I had the pleasure of having Evelyn over to dinner on one occasion and she kindly tolerated Tiffany when she was a puppy (although she did abscond with one of her chewies). 

Sadly...after 9 1/2 years at Autodesk, Evelyn has left us.  The halls will be a little bit emptier and we'll miss giving her a pet as we walk by.  Her dog-buddies will wonder where she's gone and not understand.  As for me...I'm certain that Evelyn is chasing tennis balls on the beach in heaven and that she's found the local "In and Out Burger" (one of her favorite treats).  I'm sure that Heaven is just a little bit brighter - as it was when she was with us.

So...this is my ode to Evelyn...we will miss you...

This is a picture of Evelyn on her last day...

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Give your pets an extra bit of love today and be grateful for the short time they spend with us.

Back at home and more AutoCAD 2009 news!

After traveling for two weeks (one week on vacation so don't feel too sorry for me!) I am finally back at home (and facing an enormous stack of mail - Yikes!).  I did my first two AutoCAD 2009 presentations in Florida.  Let's just say the first one was less then polished (first time presentations are always a little iffy) and thankfully the second one was much better at the Fort Myers AutoCAD User Group.  Tom Holmlund did a fantastic job with 100 sign-ups for the meeting (even going up against American Idol!)and the group was really great at providing feedback to help me continue to improve my presentation. A big thank you to all of them!

And here is a picture of Tom Holmlund (the User Group president) and yours truly (after my third presentation for the day).

And I would be remiss if I didn't also mention and thank Mike Parsons of CADDCenters of Florida for being such a fabulous chauffeur (and technical consultant)...driving me from Ft. Lauderdale to Fort Myers (and helping me spot alligators as we drove through the everglades!).  Thank you Mike!

On to some more AutoCAD 2009 features!

The New AutoCAD 2009 Steering Wheel

The new Steering Wheel view control makes it easy to navigate both 2D and 3D environments.  It also combines many different types of navigation tools into one.  You can grab the new Steering Wheel from the status bar or by keying in the word WHEEL.  The Steering Wheel follows your cursor as you move it so it’s always handy.

There are four steering wheels available, you pick the one that suits your current needs the best.  Let’s look at the options available to you on the full Navigation wheel.

Note:  While in paper space you’ll only have the ability to Zoom, Pan and Rewind

• Zoom
• Pan
• Orbit (3D)
• Rewind (a visual zoom previous)
• Center (recenters the view based on the selected point)
• Walk (simulates walking through a model)
• Look (rotates horizontally and vertically around a fixed point)
• Up/Down (slides the current view along the Y axis of the screen)

Tip:  Switch to Up/Down by holding down the Shift key (in Walk mode)

When you get REALLY good at the Steering Wheel you might decide to try the downsized mini wheels.  Mini wheels have tooltips instead of labels and are much smaller.

There are many different options (such as increasing or decreasing the walk speed) that go along with the Steering Wheel that can be found in the right-click menu (or by selecting the down arrow in the lower right corner).  You’ll also find you can control the appearance and settings in the Steering Wheels Settings dialog.

You're going to see this steering wheel start to pop up in many of the Autodesk products - that way, no matter what product you are using you'll be able to feel comfortable when you need to change your view!

The AutoCAD 2009 ViewCube!

The AutoCAD 2009 features continue!

3D Navigation Cube

Now it’s easier than ever to view in 3D.  The new CUBE command displays the very intuitive 3D navigation cube.  This interactive ViewCube becomes active when you move your cursor over it.  Hotspots highlight as you pass your cursor around the cube.  Click on a hotspot to restore the associated view.  It’s easy to grab the ViewCube command from the View panel on the Home tab (3d Modeling Workspace must be activated).

Note:  The ViewCube is only available when your drawing is set to any 3D visual style.

You can also use the compass ring at the base of the ViewCube to switch between views.  Pick and Drag any of the letters on the compass ring to rotate the current view in the same plane.  Choose between UCS or WCS from the Coordinate system pull-down (you can even create a new UCS from this pulldown)

Tip:  Pick the house icon on the ViewCube to quickly return to the home view.  The home view can be set from the shortcut menu.

You can control many aspects of the ViewCube  from the ViewCube Settings dialog (available by right clicking on the cube).

And rumor has it you'll be seeing this cool viewcube in many different Autodesk programs so you'll be able to quickly navigate in 3D regardless of which software you are using!

Have a fantastic weekend!

The new AutoCAD 2009 Action Recorder for Valentines Day!

ok...so this is my absolute favorite of all the new features in AutoCAD 2009!  (hey...it was written by an Express Tool programmer so you know it's going to be fabulous!)

The AutoCAD 2009 Action Recorder

Imagine being able to quickly and easily record your drawing steps for repeat use!  We all have tedious tasks we do throughout our design day – now you can record it once and play it as many times as you want later.  You can even include such features as pausing for user input, selecting objects, etc.

To get started...you will simply hit the Record button on the Action Recorder Panel to start recording your steps.

The Action recorder records actions from the command line, toolbars, ribbon panels, pulldown menus, the Properties window, the Layer Properties Manager and the Tool Palette.

After you are finished with your task, simply hit the Stop Button.  You will be prompted for a Macro Name and your macro will appear in a box in text format for you to view.  A file with an extension of .actm will be saved to the directory indicated in Options.

Now you are ready to try your macro by hitting “Play”.

Some tips for your action macros:

·         Right click on any action line of your macro to request user input

(for example, you want them to decide the radius of a circle)

·         Right  click on any action line of your macro to insert a comment to help lead your user

·         Right click to edit input such as points, numbers and text strings

Note:  Macros don’t understand dialog boxes except for the Layer Manager and Properties.   All other commands with dialog boxes will need to be run at the command line (put a dash (-) in front of the command).  For example:  -HATCH.  The Macro can get you into a dialog box but the user will need to input any information and exit manually.

You're going to love being able to quickly save those tedius steps you do over and over (and over) to a macro so all you have to do is snap a button and the work is magically done for you!  Hoorah!

More AutoCAD 2009 features!

You're going to love the new Quick Properties tool...now you can edit your objects on the fly - ever so quickly!

Quick Properties

The new Quick Properties tool lets you view and modify object properties in place, without having to go to the Properties Palette.  You can turn on/off Quick Properties from the status bar (QP).  After turning on - Simply select an object and the properties display for editing.  You can control which properties are displayed for each object in the CUI (select the Customize button in QP for speedy access).

There is also a new tab in the Drafting Settings dialog for additional control over Quick Properties.

Quick Properties is cool!!!

AutoCAD 2009 is Knocking at the Door!

It's everyone's favorite blog time of the year!  We get to start talking about the new features you can expect in the next release of AutoCAD!

So without further ado:

Check out the fantastic viewing tools that have been added into AutoCAD 2009!

Quick View Layouts

One of the new tools on the status bar, Quick View Layouts displays a row of your layout images.  This visual display makes it easier for you to navigate to the correct layout.  Too many layouts to fit on your screen?  No problem – just move your mouse past the edge of the image strip to view additional layouts. 

Tip:  Right clicking on any layout displays the standard shortcut menu with a fabulous new Export Layout to Model option

The Quick View control panel is used to Close, Publish all layouts, create a New Layout or to Pin your Quick View Layouts on the screen (until you decide to close them).

Tip:  Use the icons in the upper corners of each Quick View Layout for speedy Print and Publish. 

So there is your first glimpse at one of the new features in AutoCAD 2009...stay tuned until tomorrow for more!  :-)

An AutoCAD Hip Tip from Puerto Rico

It's been an extra long week for me because I came down with a nasty cold (compliments of my husband I believe)...but somehow through the cold medicine and the sniffling I managed to finish writing my next AutoCAD Tips and Tricks booklet (hoorah!)...I can't share with you any of the extra cool stuff yet but suffice it to say there are some very "hot" new features coming your way soon...

Wednesday I boarded a red-eye flight to Puerto Rico (certainly didn't help my cold situation) and yesterday we had a fabulous event here in beautiful San Juan.  The turn-out was amazing - in fact a little bit too good.  Unfortunately we had to turn about 100 people away because the room was only able to hold about 400 people.  I am SOOOOO sorry to those of you who went to all of the trouble to come down to the event and then were turned away...definitely not cool.  Everyone here was shocked at the overwhelming response but we promise to come back again soon (and get a bigger room!).   

An AutoCAD Hip Tip for Automatic Viewport Switching

The brilliant (and oh so humble) Paul Kellett suggested a twist on changing the F1 key.  I typically show people how to change it to an Escape key (since that is the key you were probably trying to hit anyway).  If you want to know how to do that you can check out my videos on www.cadalyst.com or you can check out my previous post on changing the F1 key.  Paul reprogrammed the F1 key for his team to switch between Viewports.  Let me explain:

Sometimes you have a viewport within a viewport..how do you get to it?  With a Control+R.  Control+R cycles you through from viewport to viewport until you get to the one that you want!  He assigned the same functionality to F1 so all his users have to do is hit the F1 key to cycle through their viewports...Brilliant!  Let's face it - it's not always easy to remember all those pesky control key combinations - but it is easy to remember to hit F1!

Thanks again Paul for another fab suggestion!

I'll leave you with a picture of the San Juan crowd:

This was during the Autodesk T-shirt throwing.  :-)  I must admit this was one of my all time favorite audiences!  They were so enthusiastic and friendly...it was a real pleasure for me.

And here is a picture of me with Astrid Baez...she worked very hard to pull this event together!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

An AUGI Super Bowl Posting!

What a game!  I just couldn't help rooting for the underdog and it was just so exciting!  And the best part is that I don't have to listen to Matt Murphy rubbing it in for another year!  Go Manning brothers!

The AUGI Board joined me for a little Super Bowl Bash and I believe a good time was had by all!  Craig sat between Mike Perry (British) and Bill Adams (Australian) and attempted to explain the game to them as it went along...they were good sports never the less!  We played a little Super Bowl game where everyone answered about 20 questions on the game (ex:  which team will throw the first challenge flag) and Larry Swinea was the proud winner of an official Super Bowl XXLII tshirt and mug!

Good going Larry!

And they all got official Super Bowl hats to go along with the game!

Don't we just look like a football loving crew?  From left to right we have Bill Adams, yours truly, Chris Lindner, John Morgan, Richard Binning, Mike Perry and Larry Swinea.  John was still upset that Greenbay didn't make it (as you can see) and I wore my Manning jersey (that was as close to the Giants as I could get!).

and here we are enjoying the game...

Sorry John (Morgan)...you got left out!  Two of the Augie Board members couldn't make it but they were there in spirit (and they still get their hats!)

So did you see the Vitamin Water commercial with Shaq on a horse?  Scott Oshita sent me a very cool image of that mechanical horse (remember it was created on Inventor)...take a look!

Thank you Scotty-O!  Amazing...I thought for sure that horse was the real thing!

And last but not least...the AUGI Board wanted me to announce that they are getting together on Wednesday evening, here in Marin at the Marin Brewing Company  Here is their invitation:

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Hello all,

Sorry for the short notice, but hopefully people will be able to attend.
Please join us for a Larkspur meetup this Wednesday evening, 7:00pm at the Marin Brewery.
The AUGI Board is in the San Francisco Area working on issues. 
Come by and meet your AUGI Board of Directors, share your concerns, share your thoughts, or just buy a beer and some good food with your fellow AUGI members.

When and Where:
Marin Brewing Company (http://www.marinbrewing.com/)
1809 Larkspur Landing Cir
Larkspur, CA 94939
Get Directions: (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=marin+brewery,+san+rafael,+ca&ie=UTF8&z=13&iwloc=A&om=0)
(415) 461-4677

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I'm going to try and drop by on my way to the airport...so be sure to join them if you live around here!