If you have used any Autodesk product, especially some of the AutoCAD vertical products, such as AutoCAD Civil 3D you may have likely seen the pop-up box shown below. Yes, the dreaded error report or known by Autodesk as the CER report! Read more →

In case you are not subscribed to the Autodesk Product Support RSS Feeds (http://www.autodesk.com/rss) as you should be to get the latest fresh piping hot solutions straight out of the oven, Product Support published a new Knowledge Base document http://autode.sk/SXUiu2 detailing AutoCAD System Requirements from AutoCAD 2004 up to the current AutoCAD 2013. Read more →

Friday words of wisdom: Don’t ever try to compete on a tongue length contest with a giraffe. Read more →

Take your design conversations with you using the new version of AutoCAD WS 1.5! Check your mobile device for updates for the very latest AutoCAD WS 1.5 and if you don’t have it yet, why not its free and powerful for 2D and 32D DWG file viewing, editing and more. Besides the new splash screen from Castro Mello Arquitetos of the National Stadium Brasilia Design, there are other new features like Design Feed, tagging and Add Photo! Go Get It! AutoCAD WS iTunes App Store page http://bit.ly/9yYqtn AutoCAD WS Android Market page http://bit.ly/e9Abim Read more →

3D Direct Modeling Software Now Available for OS X Mountain Lion Autodesk, Inc. has announced that Autodesk Inventor Fusion technology for 3D CAD modeling is now available for download in the Mac App Store for the first time. Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac takes advantage of new OS X Mountain Lion capabilities to help increase productivity and transform how designers share designs and receive feedback, whether in face-to-face meetings or participating in social communities. Read more →

Autodesk has always considered sustainability for products and built world, as well as our own natural environment an important aspect of design to be considered. Looking down the road at what your choices in design make by saving resources, better products, and of course in many cases saving money. Read more →

It’s Facecast time again! On Thursday, July 26 at 11:30 Eastern, I’ll be hosting a Facecast on AutoCAD LT 2013. Join me to hear about the fun new features in this year’s version, as well as some of my favorite... Read more →

I was sent this nice link by Hexcam to a video on YouTube of Castle Rising Norfolk created using only the free Autodesk 123D Catch.. The actual model is a 3D textured mesh model that can be exported to a wide variety of formats as well as exported as an animation to YouTube or saved to your local computer. Read more →

I was training some folks at Cummins Engine Plant in Indiana, and one of the guys brought in a surveyor’s plan for his property asking how to enter the distance and bearing values from the site plan into AutoCAD. Read more →

I recently was in in extremely Northern Kenya near the Ethiopian border on Lake Turkana for a few weeks with Dr. Louise Leakey, Deming Yang of Kenya National Museum, and my colleague Gonzalo Martinez for an Autodesk research project. It changed my perspective on the world, and life. Read more →

The AutoCAD WS Team is once again teasing us with this posting on their Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/#!/AutoCADWS “First glimpse of the new launch screen for the next release of AutoCAD WS - Coming Soon!“ Read more →

Ever wish that you could impact the future of AutoCAD? Want to help guide and test drive what the AutoCAD team is working on? Read more →

Perhaps you’re a gardener and have seen these evil little butterflies (Cabbage Moth / Cabbage Butterfly Plutella xylostella, Pieris rapae) that lay eggs on cabbage, then the caterpillars devour your vegetables. Why is it this is the only butterfly that I don’t like and does bad things? It is referred to as both a moth and butterfly so I will assume it is more annoying moth than a delicate innocent beautiful butterfly. It turns out these little delicate insects are highly territorial and wont go into a garden area where another is. Old remedies were to spray tons of chemicals all over everything, spread egg shells in your garden, or place white paper butterfly decoys - but now we have 3D printing. So I designed a 3D cabbage butterfly in AutoCAD end used STLOUT or 3DPRINT command to generate a STL file for use by 3D printers. I could also have easily designed the 3D Butterfly and generated an STL 3D Print export using the free 123D solid modeling software. I then printed it on my MakerBot Replicator and then affixed it with fishing line to some 1/8” copper wire. Read more →

There are only 138 days until Autodesk University 2012 in Las Vegas. I just got accepted for two sessions. I hope when registration opens you will enroll for my fun and informative sessions. I am planning some fun things already for AU 2012, stay tuned. Read more →

Project Geppetto is our free technology preview for easily adding realistic autonomous crowds to 3ds Max animation and scenes. Project Geppetto helps bring your designs to life. This is definitely one of the more funs things to come alive in the Autodesk Labs. They appeared like zombies to me in the last Project Geppetto Labs technology preview release as the characters were limited and a default gray scale with rough edges, Now there is a nice textured display mode for the characters - no melting flesh, and do not feed on brains, so technically they are not zombies. Read more →

If you want to remove proxy objects such as those added by AutoCAD Architecture to use the command AECTOACAD Read more →

This weekend I was doing things and started getting emails, tweets, and Facebook posts that I was on NPR. Back in March I was at the 123D event in New York City with many of our patterns and a gentleman approached me to discuss 123D and 123D Catch and the technologies possible uses. Turns out this gentlemen was from NPR and just published his story and interview edited clips. Read more →

If you have read this blog over 8 years you know I am a big believer in promoting other blogs and product users tips and tricks as they say “a rising tide floats all boats” as it benefits all of us, and the of course you the readers. It has always been a real pleasure to publish a guest post from someone in the community to the community. The idea is to share tips and articles that benefit Autodesk product and technology users as well as promote you, the expert and your, consulting, books, looking for a job, or promoting your blog, Twitter handle, or raise your Autodesk street cred among the CAD peeps. It helps the guest author get more visibility among peers as well as shares some valuable knowledge with the readers of the Between the Lines blog, a win – win for everyone in my book. Read more →

A doppelgänger is a copy or twin of you in other words a person that looks like you. Well my friend and colleague at Autodesk Guillermo Melantoni Cortabarria apparently found mine. So is this a photo of me? No it... Read more →

Rain in Utah and the Southwest US is so needed, and luckily it is just now staring to sprinkle from the monsoon rains coming in from the Southwest. It has been in the high 90’s and in the 100’s for days and combined with all the long grass from last years 300% rain and snow pack has combined to a dangerous situation. We need rain due to all the fires in which I have had two friends almost lose their homes, one lost a barn. Even one of my Autodesk colleagues has a fire now behind her brand new home she just moved into. Amy Fietkau lives up to a beautiful mountain range near me in the Greater Salt Lake valley. Read more →

recently had the opportunity to think about books and the forms they come in especially after going to Africa. The fact is that much of the world does not have access to an electronic book (e-book) reader or smartphone or the Internet, but can get access to a book even offline or without power, and can have a book donated to them easily. Personally I love reading books on my iPad but in much of the world they use the traditional paperback books as that is all there is and may be the only access they may have to the knowledge and enjoyment of reading. I do have to confess when I am offline or in some locations I prefer a paperback for a few reason, but still my main choice on my iPad or mobile device whenever possible. Read more →

Been a great week in North America other than the stifling record heat waves, massive storms, and the wild fires in my state of Utah as well as Idaho and Colorado. My heart and prayers go out to all those affected by the fires and the brave firemen an National Guard fighting them. On a happier note the observed Canada Day was last Sunday and then Fourth of July tomorrow in the US are celebrated. I thought I would share few great links on taking photos of fireworks and this goes for the opening of the Olympics soon. Read more →

One of the new features of AutoCAD 2013 is the ability to import 3D models from a variety of sources including Autodesk Inventor. All versions of Inventor Part (.ipt) and Assembly (.iam) files are supported. Read more →