Lynn Allen's Blog

AutoCAD goes Mobile!

If you work in a fairly large company, you probably have a distributed workforce. Your day might start with a call to your team in Europe, and end with a meeting with another team in China.  Or, if you’re all on one continent, you might have a design team in New York leading a project being built in LA. You get the picture.

You AEC folks work with a number of people outside your company every day to manage construction or architectural jobs in progress—some all the way around the globe from your office.

(And even for those of you in smaller companies- you can't tell me you guys are always together in the same office!)

AutoCAD WS to the rescue!  Just in case you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s a web and mobile app that lets you view, edit, and collaborate virtually to review and mark up your DWG files in real-time.

Did I mention it is free, free, free?

 
 

 So how does this baby work?

 If you are working from a desktop or laptop, you can collaborate using the web browser version of the app (you can find this right at www.autocadws.com). Upload and share a file, and then start a co-editing session to edit a design. It’s pretty cool; you can see the other person’s cursor and all the edits are updated in each browser! Plus, the time-line keeps a record of all the annotations and edits you make (don't you wish AutoCAD did that?)

  But best of all – you can also share and collaborate on a design from your mobile device too! (iPad, iPhone, yadda, yadda)

 

Note:  The only difference is that you don’t have the “zooming and following” of the cursor, so you do need to position your drawing on your mobile screen at the location where your colleague is making the edits to see them happening in real time.

AutoCAD WS works from one mobile to another, as well as from a mobile device and a desktop (web browser) session.

 (and it's still free, free, free)

 

 
Think about it – Everything stops when someone has a question. This virtual collaboration can help you keep projects moving forward by immediately answering questions in real-time with someone back at in the office or in the field.  Get answers right away, avoid back and forth travel time, and reduce your carbon footprint too. Sounds like a Green Win-Win!  And it's super easy to take those markedup drawings back into AutoCAD for final updates.

 If you want to see it in action- check out the video:

AutoCAD WS Video

Got a mobile device other that an iPad or iPhone (lwho said anything about the Droid?)  Register to be the first to know when you’ll have another choice: http://autode.sk/acad_ws_android  Check it out!

You don't want to miss this Fantastic AutoCAD Video!

Calling all ye AutoCAD aficionados!  You are going to absolutely love this masterful film clip.   Put together by my good friend Dan Ahern from Autodesk - I'm thinking he has certainly missed his calling! (Do I see a future Oscar in his future?)

 Share this great video with your friends and family - let's face it - you're always trying to explain to them what you do anyway! 

So take a break from your daily design grind and check this out - you're absolutely sure to smile - probably even laugh out loud!  (I know I did).

Mr. McCluskey’s Method – An Autodesk Short Film

 Join the students at Huntley Boarding School as they meet their new teacher, Mr. McCluskey. Learn how Mr. McCluskey's unorthodox teaching methods educate and inspire the next generation of artists, engineers, architects and designers. And wait until you discover the secret that is making Mr. McCluskey's Method the viral sensation for Autodesk customers worldwide.

 

 

AutoCAD 2012 has Arrived!

 
I can hardly wait to start showing audiences the new features inside of AutoCAD 2012!  In fact my first live audience (guinea pigs) will be next week in St. Louis and Atlanta for Hagerman.  Be sure to stop in if you live nearby as these are going to be two great events!

So what are some of my favorite features inside of AutoCAD 2012?  Well there are SO many (this is going to be a great release).  Here are a few:

1.  Model Documentation:  What you say?  Now I can take my 3D models and easily create 2D views from my model.  (you know - front view, side view, top view, isometric view, etc!).  But wait there is more!  These views are linked so if the model changes (even though your designs probably never change) the 2D views will update as well!  Hoorah!  

 

2.  2D and 3D Associative Arrays:  There is plenty of good news here.  Not only can you easily create an array along a path now (no more Divide and Measure commands to do the job!) but you can create smart associative arrays that can be easily edited after the fact.  You can easily change the number of rows, columns, distance between the objects, etc AFTER you've created the array.  This is going to save you so much time!  I love the fact that if you modify the path, the array is smart enough to follow.

 

Note:  You'll even find a new Array option in the Copy command for adhoc arrays!
  
 3.  Overkill is a real live command!  This popular Express Tool has had a major overhaul and you definitely need to use this on your drawings!  Overkill's goal in life is to delete duplicate objects and essentially clean out your drawing files.  It works better than ever and can delete duplicate objects, extra vertices in plines, clean up overlapping objects, etc.

 

Ok...so those are just a few of my favorites - more to come!  Stay Tuned!
 

 

An Academy Awards AutoCAD Hip Tip on the Action Recorder (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Busy, busy, busy!  I've been to an Autodesk conference in Las Vegas and to the Academy Awards in the past two weeks - and my blog got pushed to the backburner (yet again). I was admonished by a friend for not including any mention of the Oscars in my blog - and I'm now hoping to right that wrong.  For those of you who are interested in my attendance at the Academy Awards - my lifelong dream come true - I've included a couple of pictures (maybe more later). This shot is from inside the awards (clearly my seat was wayyyy up there!)

 

Walking the Red Carpet by all those great stars was definitely a highlight of my life!  I just couldn't believe it.  We entered about the same time as Sandra Bullock (who was stunning as usual) and Robert Downey Jr.  You could actually see me behind them in a few videos and pictures. 

 And here's my favorite!  These two pictures were taken at the exact same moment (Sandra Bullock and myself). 

 

 I had such a great time I didn't touch the ground for about a week!  Dream come true for sure.

For the rest of you techies who couldn't care less - we'll jump to the AutoCAD Action Recorder.

An AutoCAD Hip Tip on the Action Recorder

Many of us AutoCAD users find ourselves repeating a series of steps over and over.  If you fall in that category - then you absolutely have to take a look at the Action Recorder.  The Action Recorder does exactly that - it records your actions!  Basically - you turn the recorder on, procede with those tedious steps and then turn the recorder off.  Voila!  AutoCAD has recorded all those steps automatically for you!

The Action Recorder panel is located on the Manage tab of the ribbon.

After hitting the Record tool, AutoCAD will record all of your actions in the Action Tree.  If you draw a circle, those steps are recorded.  If you change layers, that is recorded and so on.

 
When you are finished with your steps - hit Stop!.  Then you'll be asked to name your macro. Action Macros have an extension of .ACTM. 

Now you are ready to play your macro!  Your shiny new macro is automatically loaded up and ready to go - just hit "Play".

Check out my Cadalyst video if you want to see this in "Action"  (no extra charge for the painful pun).