AutoCAD 2009 (again & again & again)

A large part of my life deals with using and supporting AutoCAD (yes, I’m a self professed nerd), yet for some reason, I want to spend even more time writing about it. As promised, I have a couple quick positive comments about changes in AutoCAD 2009. First, you can FINALLY keep the layer dialog open while you work. Let’s see, AutoCAD is only 10 years behind MicroStation on that one. The only problem now is that I’ve grown so accustom to la(enter) that my fingers are faster than my brain 9 times out 10. I sit for a couple seconds waiting for it to pop up before realizing that it is already open on my second screen. I’ve been repeating the same exercise with xr(enter) now that it is non-modal as well.

Dang! I had another AutoCAD rave, but my brain must have taken a coffee break. I’ll have to edit it this post when (if, is more likely) I remember.

Random Question… why do people refer to AutoCAD as CAD, but all other CAD software by its name? Several people I work with constantly do this and some days it really bugs me. AutoCAD is not CAD, it is a CAD software package.

Negative Nancy – AutoCAD 2009 – Continued

Here is your Negative Nancy update on AutoCAD 2009 (really, I don’t always have negative things to say). I’ve continued working with 2009 (minus the annoying ribbon) and have found more useless, resource consuming updates to complain about.

First using Autodesk Map 2009, I was again shocked to see another pointless graphical change… a BRIGHT blue drawing background. Blue??? Where did that come from? After only 30 seconds of that color while I switched the background, I had a monster headache. I can’t imagine staring at that color for 8 hours a day… I’d probably go home and kick the dog (I don’t really have a dog and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t hurt a poor, defenseless animal for some Autodesk genius’ new “improvement”) If anyone out there has any clue how a bright blue background could possibly be an improvement, please enlighten me. For the rest of us, it’s right to options (key-in) -> display tab -> Colors. Set the uniform background to black. Heck maybe we should all set it to neon pink… wouldn’t that be pretty.

Here is a pretty screen shot for you….

Next up, the super cool, gigantic tool tips. If I want pictures and several paragraphs explaining how to use a tool, I’ll press F1 for help. Back to the options I go. I don’t see these monster pop-ups being useful to anyone other than an extremely inexperienced user (even they would probably be tired of them after an hour or two).

Okay, I’ve complained enough for today… don’t think I’m completely done yet, I have quite a list of awesome 2009 updates (can you hear the sarcasm… guess you can’t hear it) I’ll find some positive things to write about next time and maybe a useful tip or two.

Project Hell

I’m sure we all have those projects that just won’t go away. You know, the one with no budget that was done half ass just to get it out the door. Many times just the name is enough to make us cringe. Those are always the ones that come back to haunt us over and over again. Why can’t the good projects be revived?

So this afternoon I get the “so, you know that presentation you did for so and so”, but despite my urge to deny all knowledge of said project, I said “sure, I’d be happy to modify that for you.” Next time, I will make up some story about how aliens hid in the restroom and used high powered magnets to wipe it from all computers, servers and backups and there is no way the project can be recovered.

Modeling the Whole World

Estimating timeframes and budgets has always been my downfall. As the number of visualization projects I’ve been asked about has begun to increase, I think I need to work on my formula. Currently my formula consists of the number of structures, times the level of detail, times the area of the site, plus the amount of lint in my pocket, to the power of the steps it takes to get to my desk, divided by the number of times I say “umm” in a day. Okay, so I don’t really count the number times I say umm each day, but there are eight pieces of lint today.

I bring this up because I was asked to give an estimate for a drive of a 4 mile stretch of road. Yep, 4 MILES! I’m sure I can do it, but I’ve never done anything of this size before and my previously mentioned formula is making me very nervous. Without fail, I’m sure my computer will become possessed and commit suicide within hours of the deadline.

Just the rendering time for this project makes me want to run for the hills. Figuring 30 fps and traveling at a rate of 60 mph hour, I’m looking at 7200 frames for a 4 minute video. Depending on the detail of the rendering, a low estimate would be 2 minutes per frame. So 7200 frames times 2 minutes per frame equals 14,400 minutes or 240 hours or 10 days and that’s just straight rendering time. I’m going to have to set up distributed rendering.

Going into this, I have the DEM and proposed plans for the road, but that’s about it. I’m sure that due to the sheer size of the supporting files, I’m going to need to break the model into smaller sections and render them separately to combine at the end. Just attempting to import half the DEM has caused my computer great pain.

How many people out there have completed projects of this size and how much time did it take you? If you can add any other information that might be helpful, it would be much appreciated.

Random Questions – Do you know the answer?

Once in a while I run into issues or things that I’d like to know the answer to, but aren’t really worth spending the time to do an indepth search. In these cases, I’ve usually done a quick search of my resources an come up empty, so I’ll post them here and if you know the answer or url where it can be found, post it as a comment. I’ll update the post as questions are answered and credit the person that posts the answer.

1. Is there a way to get the 3d pipes from Civil 3D to export to 3DS Max?

Blender vs. 3DS Max

Looking into other 3d visualization programs, I came across Blender. While the price is great (free), I haven’t been able to find any decent examples of photo realistic renderings. I’ve used 3DS Max for years now and have always been happy with the end product. There are tons of tutorials, objects and examples. I’m interested in Blender, but wondering if it’s worth the effort if the end product is not of the same quality of Max. So if any Blender users read this and know of some good examples of Blender’s capabilities, post a comment with the url.

It’s a Driver problem… No it’s the Installation… No it’s the Mouse… No it’s a Wonderful Variable

I had a user with a problem where she couldn’t double click edit anything. I asked how long it’s been that way and she said from the time AutoCAD was installed. There’s a default profile that loads on all users computers’ the first time they run AutoCAD, so I figured it had to be something with her computer. I looked at the mouse driver and found that it was the basic HID driver despite the mouse being a Logitech upgrade. So I figured we’d start with that, but it didn’t fix it. After that I reinstalled AutoCAD and the problem was fixed. Great! Not so fast, the next morning, she said it wasn’t working again. She told me nothing changed. I noticed that her interface had been changed and she said she had a profile that she uses all the time. Umm… that would qualify as something changing.

So the problem was from the PICKFIRST variable.

Long description short, it’s old setting (don’t you love how Autodesk never gets rid of ANYTHING, even if it has absolutely no logical use now) that would allow users that didn’t like grips to turn them off. That’s the only function that I’ve found for this variable.

So, if you can’t double-click edit your text, check your PICKFIRST variable. After researching the variable a bit more, I found that the mvsetup command has been known to change this variable as well.

AutoCAD 2009 – First Impressions Part 1

I started using AutoCAD back when they were on version 9. For those who don’t know the history, that was when the interface was the command line and screen menus on the right. There have been lots of improvements and new features added over the years and for the most part they were a step in the right direction… wasn’t that a great set up for what’s coming? AutoCAD 2009 really took a step backward. Now I didn’t just install it today, I’ve been working with it for about a month. I’ll get more into the changes and new features with later posts, but I hit the most notable first. If you haven’t seen a screenshot yet or installed it, they went the Microsoft ribbon route.

I don’t like it. No sir, I do not. I figured that I’d like it more as I used it and it might even grow on me. Boy was I wrong! The more I use it, the more I think it was a colossal was of effort on Autodesk’s part that could have been put toward developing some useful features. Instead of having tools that I need organized in a quickly accessible format, I find myself keying in most stuff. I’ve forced myself to attempt to use the ribbon, tabs and panels for most stuff, but they’re just too slow and clunky.

I love learning new ways to improve efficiency, but adopting the interface change is not one that I will recommend to my company. I’ve given it a fair shot. If I can’t get back to at least the same production speed in a month’s time, it’s a poorly designed interface. I’ve used every version of AutoCAD since version 9 and although some changes have required time to adjust to, the benefits for changing have always been apparent. So far I have seen absolutely no reason for the change, other than jumping on the Microsoft bandwagon. At least Microsoft did a good job of it.

Plans for my Cyberwaste

Just about every day, I have a user come to me with some strange occurrence with their computer or software. I start off with the usual questions, did you restart, is it just this file or everyone, is anyone else having the same issue? After that I go to their computer have them recreate the problem to watch their steps. After that I do a quick search of the sources I’ve listed in my previous posts. That’s where I’ll leave off, but most problems follow the same troubleshooting outline. If anyone wants more detail, let me know.
Since many of the problems I come across don’t have a posted solution, I’m going to start a knowledge base for each of the programs I support. It’ll be post based, but as a subcategory of the program. Most will be MicroStation or AutoCAD since that’s what I spend the majority of my time supporting.

A few sources for help

Everyone knows what a wealth of information there is on the internet, but often sorting through all the junk (like this) consumes a great deal of time. So, I decided to share some of my favorite sources for technical answers and support. I’ll be updating this list over the next week.

AutoCAD
discussion.autodesk.com
www.augi.com

MicroStation
discussion.bentley.com
www.askinga.com
www.eatyourcad.com

3DS Max / Visualization / Modeling
area.autodesk.com