Lynn Allen's Blog

An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Super Speedy Dimensioning!

The Americas launch events are slowly winding down with with one last reseller event (Avatech) this week in Dallas.  Next week I move on to the Autodesk Imagine Tour in China where I'll get the opportunity to demo the new features in AutoCAD 2010 using the Chinese version of the software (wish me luck with that one!)

Last week I had the splendid opportunity to have dinner with fellow blogger Heidi Hewett and her super technical husband Nate Bartley while in Denver.  Definitely one of the highlights of my week for sure!  Below is a picture of fabulous Heidi and myself (she's just a tad taller than I am). When you travel all the time - a dinner with friends can make all the difference in the world and I appreciate them taking time out of their very busy schedules to have dinner wtih me!

 

Heidi is the one at Autodesk who trains me (and others) on the new release each year and she's never too busy to help me figure something out in AutoCAD.  I tell her constantly how I could never do my job without her (maybe some day she will actually believe me).  Be sure to check out her blog which is always filled with great infomation and AutoCAD tips.

Roger from TotalCAD also took me out to dinner while I was in Houston and that was much appreciated as well.  The Houston event had to be cut off at 220 registrations due to room constraints - really great event!  And hey - now I know my structural i-beam chart is incorrect (they are very detailed in Houston I'm told).

An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Super Speedy dimensioning!

Many years ago the fantastic QDIM Express Tool entered the world of AutoCAD.  QDIM, for Quick Dimensioning, is absolutely amazing and can really help you out with a tight deadline.  Why dimension one at a time when you can knock out multiple dimensions at once?  I always promote being the lasiest AutoCAD operator ever and this is certainly one means of doing it!  You'll leave your coworkers in the dust if you can wrap your arms around the QDIM command. 

Be sure to chck out my latest Cadalyst video and give QDIM a try - you will wonder how you lived without it!

A Few AutoCAD Hip Tips on Dimensioning!

The Imagine tour is over..(insert sad face here) and now I'm on to do some reseller events.  While in Calgary last week I had the most charming, brilliant 12 year old in my presentation who already knows Inventor, AutoCAD and is working on AutoLISP - amazing!  Alex Puddifant (seen below) completely stole the show and it was a delight having this young genius in my AutoCAD 2010 presentation.  Keep up the good work Alex and you can have my job some day (If you want it of course).

Thursday of last week we had the final stop on the Autodesk Imagine Tour in San Jose.  The computer gods were not smiling kindly upon me as my hard drive chose to fail about 30 minutes before my presentation.  Thankfully I had several white Knights who rode up on their gallant horses to save the day!  A big thank you to Scott Davis and John Janzen of Autodesk who managed to transfer my data across to another hard drive...and to Jorge of Ketiv who was kind enough to let me use his laptop for my presentation - Thank you Jorge!  (pictured below).

Everyone really jumped in and saved the day (and it was GREATLY appreciated!).

If you haven't checked out my latest Cadalyst video on Dimensioning Tips...be sure to check it out!

You'll hear all about DIMBREAK, DIMJOGLINE and DIMSPACE!  Check it out...

I'm off to catch a flight to Kansas City...(delayed of course)