CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD 2006 CD-ROMs

Remember when I told you to buy a portable DVD reader? (CAD Mgmt Toolbox: Portable DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Several Autodesk products, including Architectural Desktop 2006, Building Systems 2006, Inventor Series 10, and Inventor Professional 10, are now delivered on DVD-ROMs instead of CD-ROMs. If you are a subscription customer you can request CD-ROMs by mailing back the Media Request Card that came in your DVD-ROM case or by filling out the form at www.autodeskmediarequest.com. If you are ordering a new license, be sure to ask for the media format you want.

Or you can still purchase a portable DVD-ROM here:

"LG Portable DVD-ROM/CD-RW"

CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD 2006 Books

Looking for your user guide in your AutoCAD 2006 or other Autodesk software box? Look inside the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM case for your book request card, fill it out, and mail it.

If it got misplaced as lap trash when you opened the case you can also request your user guide at www.autodeskbookrequest.com

You can purchase additional manuals here:

Here is a smple of the titles available:
AutoCAD 2006 User's Guide
AutoCAD 2006 Customization Guide
AutoCAD 2006 Network Administrator's Guide
AutoCAD 2006 Command Reference Volumes I & II
AutoCAD 2006 ActiveX & VBA Developer's Guide
AutoCAD 2006 ObjectARX Developer's Guide
AutoCAD 2006 AutoLISP Tutorial
AutoCAD 2006 AutoLISP Developer's Guide

Lunch with Lynn Allen and Jon Hansen - more details

Lynn Allen and Jon Hansen want to have lunch with you in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, March 30.

Please pre-register for this FREE event (so there is enough food) by sending an email to register@d-team.com or go to www.d-team.com for other registration options.

Francis Tuttle Technology Center, Main Seminar Room
12777 N Rockwell Ave
Oklahoma City, OK 73142
10:30am The registration table will open.
11:00am Lynn Allen, Cadalyst columnist and Autodesk Technical Evangelist, will demonstrate AutoCAD 2006. Lynn is a great presenter and a great friend to AutoCAD users everywhere. You can count on her presentation to be both informative and fun.
12:00 Lunch (FREE!) and Q&A with Lynn
12:30pm Jon Hansen, Asst. Fire Chief (ret.) Oklahoma City Fire-Rescue and Autodesk Manager of Emergency Response Solutions, will discuss Autodesk's Emergency Response Solutions. Jon is a familiar face and voice to everyone in the Oklahoma City area.

Lynn and Jon will be the guests of the Francis Tuttle Training Center and The Design Team, an Autodesk Value Added Reseller with offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Wichita.

CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD 2006 Background Plotting

Plotting in the Background (finally)
With AutoCAD 2006 you will be able to truly plot in the background. This is something CAD Managers have been waiting for a long time.

By default publishing in the background is turned on and plotting in the background is turned off. These settings can be changed in the Options dialog in the "Plot and Publish" tab or with the BACKGROUNDPLOT system variable:
0 = Foreground Publishing and Foreground Plotting
1 = Foreground Publishing and Background Plotting
2 = Background Publishing and Foreground Plotting (default)
3 = Background Publishing and Background Plotting

Hint: This is a little nerdy, okay, really nerdy, but if you can remember the idea "Publish now and Plot later" and a little binary (you remember binary don't you?) then you can easily remember the settings:
00 = 0 = Background Publishing off (0) and Background Plotting off (0)
01 = 1 = Background Publishing off (0) and Background Plotting on (1)
10 = 2 = Background Publishing on (1) and Background Plotting off (0)
11 = 3 = Background Publishing on (1) and Background Plotting on (1)

Plotting in the Background (sometimes)
If you use the PUBLISH or PLOT commands (or -PUBLISH or -PLOT) from a script file then the BACKGROUNDPLOT setting is ignored and publishing or plotting occurs in the foreground.

Plotting in the Background (are we there yet?)
To check the status of your plotting just hover your cursor over the AutoCAD status bar plotter icon.

More about AutoCAD 2006: www.autodesk.com/autocad

Lynn Allen coming to Oklahoma City

Autodesk Technical Evangelist Lynn Allen will be in Oklahoma City on March 30, 2005 for an event hosted by The Design Team and Francis Tuttle Training Center. If you are anywhere in the Oklahoma City area, please plan on attending so you can hear about the latest version of AutoCAD from Lynn.

Lynn is a great presenter, a great writer, and a great friend to Autodesk software users worldwide. Her blog should be part of your favorites: lynn.blogs.com

The Design Team is an Autodesk Value Added Reseller with offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Wichita. (bias alert - this is my day job.) For more information about this special event, just send an email to info@d-team.com. Their website is www.d-team.com.

Francis Tuttle Training Center is an Autodesk Authorized Training Center in Oklahoma City. Their Website is www.francistuttle.com.

CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD New Features Workshop

Start at the Beginning
One of the first things people see in AutoCAD is the New Features Workshop. Unfortunately it is also one of the first things many people turn off. Promise me as a CAD Manager that you won't select "No, don't show me this again" until you've at least skimmed the entire workshop or given me an acceptable justification. Here's why...

New Features Workshop = "Free" Training
Please don't ignore this "free" training opportunity for you and the designers you support. Read it. Use it. Share it. You didn't read the User's Guide in one sitting (did you?), so don't expect to make it through the entire New Features Workshop in one sitting either. Each time you open AutoCAD just go through one or two lessons and move on to your original task.

Starting Over
If the New Features Workshop does get turned off you can still access it from the Help Pull-Down Menu or the _AI_INVOKENFW command. (Now there's a command name for your next AutoCAD Jeopardy party). Also, if you use installation scripts, be sure that "NFW" is not in your REMOVE list.

__The Bottom Line__
The New Features Workshop is a training tool that you, the CAD Manager, can use for yourself and the designers you support. Remember, "more training usually results in fewer tech support calls."

CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD 2006 coming soon

Just a quick note to let you know I have been given permission to post a few thoughts about the upcoming AutoCAD 2006 release. Check back within the next couple of days and I'll see what I can get accomplished between Cub Scouting, Cheerleading, and traveling to Las Vegas.

Hmm... What will CAD Managers want to know about most? Installation/Migration Improvements? Mtext and Table Improvements? Oh yeah, how about Dynamic Blocks - those are really cool. They definitely need to know about the new Custom User Interface (CUI) file. Decisions, decisions.

Thanks for reading. Check back later...

Meanwhile, check out Shaan Hurley's post here: Between the Lines: AutoCAD 2006 is coming - you heard it first here