LT Unlimited

Project Cooper Needs a Name

Project Cooper is a fine name for a technology preview, but it was never intended to be a permanent name.

To pick Project Cooper's real name, we need your help!

Try it out, then take the survey here.

Can't make it to Vegas? Come to AU Virtual!

I know that a lot of you won't be able to make it to Autodesk University this year, so I'm happy to help spread the word about a new alternative -- AU Virtual.

AU virtual provides some of the best of AU content, delivered right to your desktop. We'll be streaming over 50 virtual sessions live over the web, plus product clinics where you can get answers to questions from experts on a variety of topics. (Full session listing.)

If you're already a member of AU Online (and why not, it's free), you can attend any keynote or product clinic absolutely free.

If you want more, $99 gets you an AU Virtual Premier Pass. The Premier Pass includes all the keynotes and clinics from the Free Pass, plus the 50+ virtual sessions I mentioned earlier, where you get to interact with other attendees as well as with the presenter. The Premier Pass also includes post-conference on-demand access to recordings of over 350 classes from AU 2009, for viewing at your leisure.

Even better, if you're a Subscription customer, the Premier Pass is free. And everyone who registers for AU in Vegas gets 4 free Premier Passes to share with friends, so that's one more way to get to AU Virtual for free.

And in case you need one more reason to register, if you sign up for an AU Virtual Premier Pass by November 13, 2009 you'll be entered in a drawing for a full pass to AU 2009 or AU 2010 in Las Vegas (your choice)—a US$2,395 value!

Still have questions? Check out the AU Virtual home page, the FAQ, and the comparison of AU On-Site and AU Virtual.

Hope to see you in Vegas, or at least in cyberspace!

A Few More Thoughts on Windows 7

We're all excited about the support for AutoCAD LT 2010 (among other products) on Windows 7, and we hope you are too.

There are always a few things to consider and/or keep in mind with any upgrade, though, and two new Knowledge Base articles help you understand what you should expect if you transition to Window 7.

Windows 7 Support

Here are the highlights:

• AutoCAD LT 2010 is compatible with and supported on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.
• Older versions are not officially supported, but may work if you use Windows compatibility mode.
• You should check for Windows 7 versions of drivers for your printer/plotter, mouse/digitizer, etc.
• If you migrate to Windows 7, it's recommended that you reinstall AutoCAD LT, just to be on the safe side.

There are also a couple of known issues -- all minor, and most just occasional problems. For details, here's that knowledge base article:

Known Limitations with Windows 7

If you've already made the switch, I hope you're enjoying it!

Project Cooper -- New Technology Preview from Autodesk

Know someone who would like to be able to create simple yet polished drawings but doesn't have time to learn a new software program?

Point them to Project Cooper, a new sketching and drawing program from Autodesk, currently available as a FREE technology preview.

Download it at www.autodesk.com/projectcooper and start sketching today!

(Tiny bit of fine print: Project Cooper is currently available only to US and Canada residents.)

Announcing Support for Windows 7

I'm pleased to share the news that AutoCAD LT 2010 is now officially supported on Windows 7, which launched today. No patch required.

Excerpts from the press release:

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 22, 2009 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, has announced support for Windows 7. Effective today, Autodesk will support customers using nine products including AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD LT 2010 and the Autodesk Inventor 2010 family of software, on Windows 7.

For the 2010 product line, Autodesk will support nine products on Windows 7.  These products are Autodesk Inventor 2010, Autodesk Inventor LT 2010, AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD LT 2010, AutoCAD Architecture 2010,  AutoCAD Electrical 2010, AutoCAD Mechanical 2010, AutoCAD MEP 2010 and Autodesk Algor Simulation 2010 software.  Autodesk will support Windows 7 for most of its other products as updated versions are released.

Windows 7 offers many powerful new features and functionality that will benefit Autodesk customers, including full support for 64-bit computing, Windows search and improved performance. Multi-touch support has also become a core capability of Windows 7, and Autodesk is developing new software to take advantage of this technology. At the Windows 7 media launch event, Autodesk will demonstrate Project Cooper, a preview of new technology for simple drawing and drafting that has been engineered to take advantage of the multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7. The Autodesk Project Cooper Technology Preview is now available for free download at www.autodesk.com/projectcooper.

Display grips in blocks

Normally, when you select a block or external reference, you only get one grip, at the insertion point. (You'll also get grips for unlocked attributes, but these days I hope they're the exception rather than the rule.)

If for some reason, though, you want more grips, set GRIPBLOCK to 1. Then you'll see all available grips, just as if they were regular objects in the drawing. You can't do anything with these grips, besides the standard "move" action, and if you have a lot of blocks (or a few complicated ones) they can clutter your display pretty quickly.

But knowledge is power, right? And now you know one more way to control grip display in AutoCAD LT.

Technical difficulties, please stand by

I apologize for the posting hiatus -- assuming you noticed, of course. ;-) A combination of logistic and technical difficulties put my computer out of commission for the last few days. But now I'm up and running again, and back to posting as usual.

Save Changes to Layout -- Follow-Up

I got a comment from Murray Clack on the last post about saving changes to layout, and wanted to make sure it didn't get lost by just sitting in a comment thread. (And now that's one more post I don't have to write on Plot Previous.)

Murray says:

Let's say you just plotted the drawing but you forgot to check the "Save changes to Layout" check box. Simply start the plot again, and from the "Page Setup" pull-down menu, select "Previous Plot". This will reassign the previous plotting parameters Check the "Save changes to Layout" check box, and then click the "Apply to Layout" button (next to the OK button). Now you can simply click the Cancel button (so you don't re-plot the drawing) and the plot setup has been applied to the Layout.

It's nice to be able to reset the Save Changes option without plotting the drawing twice -- a good use of Plot Previous.

Save Changes to Layout

If you're not using named page setups to plot your drawings, there's still a way to remember your settings between plots.

It's a little checkbox on the expanded portion of the Plot dialog, called "Save changes to layout."

 

When it's checked, your last plot settings (whether it's a named page setup or not) will be remembered for the next plot.

Dimension Angles Greater than 180

When you want to create a dimension showing the angle between two lines, the obvious method is to pick first one, then the other.

But what if you want to dimension the reflex angle instead -- the angle greater than 180 degrees? When you pick lines, the dimension shown is always less than 180 degrees, no matter where you move the mouse.

 

 

Instead, before you pick any lines, press Enter to bring up the "specify vertex" option. Then you can choose the vertex and the endpoints of each side of the angle. Now, when you move your mouse, you'll see that the two angles available are the interior angle (as in the first image) and the reflex angle.