RobiNZ CAD Blog

The Mistress talks money, actually it's the AUGI Salary Survey 2007!

Melanie has collected, collated, massaged and presented all the AUGI Salary Survey data. This time, in addition to the usual comprehensive article, she has also done a podcast! 

Read it and weep, or cheer. Depends what’s printed on your pay-slip!

Mistress of the Dorkness: CAD/Design/Engineering/Architecture Salary Survey 2007 Available!

• In this issue of AUGIWorld I rundown some basic demographics of the AUGI membership, and give average pay…
• In my first-ever podcast, I give a rundown of some industry highlights and give some advice on how to ask for a raise…

Category Management for new 2008 names

Using product names on your blog means re-branding presents some challenges. Do you change to the new name or keep the one most people know. Luckily it doesn’t impact my Blog title or URL but I’ve revised some blog categories (indexes) to reflect recent name changes:

• Architectural Desktop changes to AutoCAD Architecture
• Revit changes to Revit Architecture
• Building Systems changes to AutoCAD MEP
• Auckland AutoCAD User Group now Auckland Autodesk User Group
• I’ve added Revit Structure and Revit MEP but will need to re-index some posts into these categories.

It won’t alter post permalinks and TypePad retains the old category URL. It might say AutoCAD Architecture but TypePad will always know it as ../architectural_desktop/index.html. Seems like some names will never die  

These changes shouldn't break anything but if you have any problems let me know.

CAD/Software System Documentation with MindManager and Camtasia

Regular visitors may have noticed that I mention using MindManager and Camtasia for documentation . It’s difficult to share real content here without extensive editing to remove confidential information but this overview may be enough to get an idea of the process.

I made it to share with our IT how I document the design related applications, network resource use and structure, build process and applications. I start with a basic OS build from them and add design related applications. The build is ghosted but I capture the creation of that build, mainly for my own reference!

The YouTube resolution is fairly low but hopefully you can see/hear enough to make sense of it. If not let me know via “email me” or comments & will try some other format/host.

 

Notice of Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting

The next Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting is:

• Topic: AGM
• Date; Wednesday 22-11-2006
• Venue: Lone Star Newmarket, 8 Kent St, Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand
• Time; Assemble at 18:30, Meeting starts at 19:00
• Note: AAUG will provide refreshments, Food at own cost

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting - 13th September 2006

Demonstration & discussion of MindManager, Blogs, RSS Subscription and ActiveWords UI automation to assist with CAD related work, support, documentation and training.

18:30, 13th September 2006, Northcote, Auckland - If you are interested in attending email me for details.

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 24-07-2006 - AutoCAD 2007

Just got home from an Auckland Autodesk User Group meeting, Omar Awny (Senior Applications Sales Engineer Application Engineer Manager from Autodesk Australia) gave a great presentation of all the nice things to be found in AutoCAD 2007 and DWF Design Review. He also mentioned a few websites that may be of use to AAUG members and readers here;

• http://labs.autodesk.com/ – Test versions of Freewheel DWF Viewing (see my post), Google Earth AutoCAD Plug-in (see my post), Dgn import and more…
• http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview – Free AutoCAD dwg viewer
• http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueconvert – Free Convertor for AutoCAD files (between versions)
• http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/ – Shaans AutoCAD blog with links to AutoCAD Command Map, Release History & System Variable Map (see links in ”Helpful Resources & Blogs” in l/h column)
• http://www.autodesk.com/dwf – All about DWF, the Viewers & Writer

Shane Beaman, Ingram Micro New Zealand (Autodesk NZ), delivered Omar +  Beer and Pizza, Salesoft CAD Solutions provided the venue and projector. Thanks to all for a great meeting.

25-07-2006 - Corrected to show Omar's new title

Notice of Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting - 24-07-2006 - "AutoCAD 2007 - A Technical Review"

The Auckland AutoCAD User Group have a meeting about AutoCAD 2007 next week if you are able to attend;

AutoCAD 2007 Xref Manager Palette Vs Dialog

I went to an Auckland AutoCAD User Group meeting tonight and after an excellent demo of Revit Building and Revit Structure, thanks Rich & Damien,  the discussion turned to the subject of the next meeting – AutoCAD 2007.

The question was asked: “How do you re-path xrefs in the new 2007 External References Manager (right), it’s not that obvious how you save the path, and can you revert to the old dialogs if preferred?” I remembered reading the answer to the old dialog but couldn’t recall so here it is…

But first, why a new palette and how do you use it?

Adding DWF as a possible reference type meant the designers had the choice. Create yet another dialog for reference management or create a new interface for all types of file references. The External References Palette was combines the old Xref and Image Manager dialogs. It’s worth trying as it provides the only dialog to manage DWF references.

I show a few possible states and how to edit the references in this interface, and those classic dialog commands…

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 21-06-05 - BIM with Revit

I’m a bit late with this post regarding the Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 21-06-05.

Rich Sales (Salesoft) gave a presentation on Building Information Model technology based on Revit. The proposed change to Auckland Autodesk User Group is needed! As usual Rich gave a great demo of Revit which he has running beautifully. Thanks Rich!

While everyone was impressed with Revit some of the the resulting conversation tended towards the practicality of using BIM in the real world. From minor aspects like where do you track revisions (on the drawing sheet? in the model?) to issues of liability, ownership, etc as the BIM is shared.

I think implementing BIM is more a change in process than a change in technology. Migrating existing office practice to BIM or adjusting office process to fit with BIM is becoming a major factor in successful implementation. As CAD evolves to BIM the emphasis shifts from managing drawings to managing a database, from wrangling lines to massaging objects & data.

While many have used CAD drawing models to store and reference data with BIM you are managing a database from which the drawings are almost an incidental report. Everyone from the workstation to the board-room has to be aware that there is more to it than “doing a drawing”. The pay-off is a coordinated drawing set and a coordinated database which is capable of much more than any drawing but that needs to be understood by everyone.

Autodesk NZ Design Master Quiz a great success

I just got home from the Autodesk 2006 Launch & Design Master Quiz. This was the official launch for all the “2006 Release Autodesk Products”. On arrival you could join informal industry focused demonstrations from the Industry Solution Dealers. These were held in separate rooms but were open so you could wander around sampling all the products/demo’s if desired. Then everyone then headed downstairs to register then into main auditorium for the “Design Master Quiz”.

Due to a large turnout about 40 tables filled the room with a team of six or seven at each. Each table had a laptop and box of Lego sitting on it. Both would get much use, maybe too much in the case of the Lego, throughout the evening.

Hosted by TV’s Ric Salizzo, “Sports Cafe” creator/presenter, the quiz format was a short presentation followed by questions based on what you’d just seen with a few general, and not so general, knowledge questions thrown in.

AutoCAD 2006, Composer, Revit, Inventor, Vault, Civil 3d, Map were demonstrated then questions were answered online using the laptops which totalled the scores as each question was answered.

Ric gave one table grief for making paper darts and probably regretted offering a prize for the dart closest to a target on the stage. After much folding a paper air force was unleashed, glad I didn’t have to clean up!

While all this was going on we were also challenged to come up with an original Lego creation which would also be judged. We built a model of the Auckland Sky Tower, complete with bungy jumper, lit with the illuminated pens provided by Autodesk. The winning Lego team built a SUV truck. Good to see Auckland AutoCAD User Group members on this team!

All the Lego was collected and will be donated to the Starship Auckland Children's Hospital – nice one Autodesk!

Prizes on the night included iPod, Xbox, Lego and Autodesk Products. The team I was with came 3rd which meant we each came home with a Lego Ferrari F1. I already have one* so will add mine to the Children’s Hospital donation.

It was a great nights entertainment and painless way to learn about the 2006 products. Thanks to the event organisers: Shane Beaman and Carolyn Judd of of Ingram Micro New Zealand, the Autodesk Dealers & Autodesk Australia/NZ/Asia Pacific.

* As both a Ferrari and Lego fan I just had to get a Lego Ferrari Formula One when they were released.

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 23/7/04

Thanks to Canon NZ for an interesting introduction to their printer/plotter, scanner and digital camera range. This included background on the technology in these products, some near future enhancements, and a demo of the w6200 wide format plotter. Of particular interest to me were the digital cameras and the quality seen when these were output to large print sizes. The "investment" in a Canon Digital SLR mentioned in an earlier Blog is much closer after what I saw tonight...

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 1/6/04

Hans Grootegoed of CADPRO gave us an excellent presentation & demo of ProSteel 3D.
This is a Structural Steel BIM & Detailing package based on AutoCAD object Arx technology. It allows modelling of the complete steel structure complete with all connection, splice and fastening details. The model can be scheduled, output as 2D or 3D assembly views, and also 2d component fabrication drawings. It was an impressive display of BIM in action.
ProSteel 3D International Web Site

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 28-04-04

The topic was the new release of AutoCAD 2005 hosted by Rich & Gary at Salesoft CAD Solutions. Covered the new features in 2005 including sheet sets, fields, interface, & editing enhancements.
It was good to see what core AutoCAD can do but I think I’ll stick to ADT :-)