RobiNZ CAD Blog

AUGIWorld July 2011

The latest AUGIWorld is out, and looking good*

AUGIWorld July 2011 - | BLAUGI Blog of Autodesk User Group International

Management, organization, getting your ducks in a row… Whatever you want to call it, spending some time to think through the process of implementation before you take it on means no wasted steps, less frustration, and ensures a streamlined process.

In “Revit Implementation: Workflow Tricks,” Aaron Maller lets his experience do the talking when it comes to Revit implementation and standardization.

AutoCAD Architecture pro Melinda Heavrin provides a blueprint for managing CAD Standards in her article “CAD Standards Management.”

Curt Moreno discusses a common sense approach to CAD Management in his article “CAD Management: Managing More than CAD.”

Visit the issue page to download the latest issue! -  Click here

* I might be a little biased. The cover is a photo I took, of a Range Rover Evoque Promotion in Sydney, on the way to Autodesk University 2010

Autodesk Special webcast next week

While I’m away cycling Coast to Coast you can learn about new Autodesk software for design, engineering and entertainment via a webcast.

It’s on March 21, 2011 (US Time) or Tuesday, 22 March 2011 for those of us who live in the future

Date / Time:

• US: March 21, 2011 2:00pm PST, 5:00pm EST, 9:00pm UTC
• New Zealand: Tuesday, 22 March 2011 at 10:00:00 a.m. (UTC+13 hours NZDT)

Register today at http://autode.sk/glzUsA

Augi Annual Salary Survey Running Now!

 As the Mistress says... (click through to her post for full details as I've only copied the basics)

CAD/Design/Architecture/Engineering Annual Salary Survey Running Now! - Mistress of the Dorkness

AUGI is currently running the 2009 Annual Salary Survey!

COMPLETE THE SURVEY BY JUNE THE 30th.

Which means that your peers need YOU to log in and report your views. We call this a survey because that's precisely what we're doing. We're collecting information from the members to compile and share back with the members. What a great idea!

But, unfortunately, only about 10% of our membership takes part each year, which limits the amount of meaningful data that I've got to work with. Remember, every little bit helps. Speak for your industry!

The survey results will be released in AUGIWorld Magazine this fall. Feel free to check out the results from the 2008 Survey

Its AUGI CAD/Design/Architecture/Engineering Salary Survey time

It’s time to help out AUGI and give The Mistress, who compiles it all, something to do by contributing to their annual salary survey*. Only takes a few minutes  and it’s confidential as detailed in the post linked below. The results may you some ammunition for that next salary review or, maybe not, depending how your current salary ranks!

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

AUGI is currently running the 2008 Annual Salary Survey!
Which means that your peers need YOU to log in and report your views.

* It’s not just for the US, I convert the results with the “Big Mac Index” for international comparison.

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