NERD-A-PALOZA 20111!!!

Certification Exam this afternoon, then Focus Groups tonight. I am going to try to take the Inventor, AutoCAD, Civil and MEP test this week. I will be Certifiable by the end of this week. I have something scheduled from 8:00am to past 9:00pm every night (counting events stuff).

If you are in the Environmental CAD field this session is for you! Come join us in the

Birds of a Feather Area outside the Exhibit Hall. Tuesday Night 8:30pm-9:30pm

We will be talking about the issues that are pertinent to the Environmental Engineering CAD User. We have issues the normal CAD user in a single Platform doesn’t normally face.

• Dealing with Multiple Disciplines
• Dealing with Multiple Platforms
• Dealing with Legacy Files – Landfills last forever and so does the Environmental work.
• More Software More Problems – When you have to work with not only AutoCAD and its verticals, buy GIS, Microstation, IntellaCAD, Equis, Vizo you get all kinds of fun errors…
• Handling Large Projects vs. Small Projects
• SWPPPs, SPCCs, BMPs, Phase I, Phase II, MEME, POT MAPS, BLs, etc
• Dealing with Hazardous Materials – Not only do we have to worry about peoples safety as a structural engineer would, but we also have to worry about blowing them up and making them sick.
• Dealing with Sub Contractors – Some firms do all the design in house, others outsource the Electrical or Structural or even Civil Work.
• Sharing info – Now we need data or we need to give data to:
• Drawing Security- Some sites we handle are controlled by the government, some are owned by the government and others are just on Dept of Homeland Security lists. How do you handle:
• Site Visits – Do you get to go onsite?

This is a round table interactive discussion. Come see what others in your niche field are doing to deal with these issues. Everyone from the Enterprise User to the 1 CAD Guy in the whole firm. You will find we all face the same issues, doing more with less.

CAD Plan Files Disclaimer, Release and Limitation of Liability Agreement

YOUR COMAPNY Inc.

(###) ###-####

Project No.:  088880####

Project Name:  Project Name

Date:  xx-xx-2011

The information contained on the electronic files for the above listed project was created by Your Company Inc. ({YCI}) While {YCI}  has made every appropriate effort to assure the accuracy of these documents, it cannot guarantee that these documents contain complete and accurate information.  These documents must be compared to the original hard copy, with stamped and sealed certification, in order to insure the accuracy of the information contained and to further ensure that no changes or modifications have been made to the documents. 

All design files are AutoCAD 2010 drawing files (*.dwg).  Receiver agrees that {YCI} cannot provide the files in other file formats or compressed formats, and agrees to accept the file(s) in the format provided.  Receiver agrees that {YCI} cannot be held responsible for problems arising from files which have been converted for use in non-native applications (e.g., AutoCAD design files to MicroStation).

Since revisions or additions to the design file(s) may occur at any time, the receiver agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless {YCI}, its officers, agents, and employees from and against any and all claims, suits, losses, damages or costs, including reasonable attorney’s fees, arising from the use of outdated design files, and such indemnification shall survive acceptance of said file(s) by receiver.

Any use of these documents is at the receiver’s sole risk.  The undersigned agrees, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to indemnify and hold harmless {YCI}, its officers, directors, employees and subconsultants against all damages, liabilities or costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and defense costs, arising from any changes made by anyone other than {YCI}  or from any use, transfer or reuse of the electronic files.  

Under no circumstances shall delivery of electronic files for use by the undersigned be deemed a sale by {YCI}, and {YCI} makes no warranties, either express or implied, of merchantability and fitness of these files for any particular purpose. In no event shall {YCI} be liable for indirect or consequential damages as a result of the use or reuse of the electronic files.

AGREED

I have read, understand and agree to this Disclaimer/Release/Limitation of Liability, and I am authorized by the receiver named below to execute this agreement on its behalf.

Company (Receiver):                                                                                                

By Name:                                                                          Title:                                         

Signature:                                                                          Date:                              

This month we will be trying something different. In the past when we did new things they seem to have gone over well. So this month I will be showing you a work-flow. Basically what I do to take an inventor project from start to competition. This will not be the perfect world scenario you here in one of my classes (do this and make sure you do that). I am going to show you some real world work around and who to complete something on “$0” budget and no time to get it done.  I will also be taking information over to AutoCAD to simulate working with others who may not have Inventor.

Alright last week I said I wanted to format the old beast… Problem I ran into is I don’t feel like downloading 2012 INV Pro. I am trying to find a USB Suite key or just order one. I may need to do that before 2013 gets here…

MTAUG

Last Thursday I got to go see Lynn Allen’s “What’s new in 2012″ here in Nashville. To those of you from the users group remember we are using that as our July meeting. Thanks to Advanced for letting us tag along and to the group members who got to go to Noshville Deli with us afterwords for a little MTAUG time.

AU 2011

I had to stay home today with my 4-yr son who was sick today. So I thought I would use this time to start on my AU 2012 class. Unfortunately I didn’t get very far because of Shaun over at Autodesk. Not a bad thing though he gave me a Google+ invite, and I have been playing with it all day. Pretty cool I am only one Kevin Bacon Step from Mark Z. 

I promise to get started this week on my Au Presentation though, I will not let it sneak up on me again. I will have a kick butt handout and presentation in 2011!

No I am not losing it (any more than usual) it is time for the Autodesk 2012 rollout! I had the chance to watch the webcast yesterday showing off all the new products. Seems to me Autodesk is moving away from selling customers software and trying to be more of a problem solver. To me this seems like a good thing, I just have to get the correct problem for them to solve. One of the things they have come to realize over the past few years is most companies need more than one solution. They are really moving into packaged solutions so you get things like, Autodesk Factory Design Suite: AutoCAD® Architecture, AutoCAD® Mechanical, Autodesk® Showcase®, Autodesk® Inventor® Professional
Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design, Autodesk® Navisworks® Manage, Autodesk® Vault, and Autodesk® Factory Design Utilities.

This gets companies with lots of bleed over between disciplines to have the tools they need. Now if they will just make a Waste Water Design Suite: AutoCAD MEP, Inventor, AutoCAD Civil 3D. This would follow a pipe from machine all the way out to the pond for treatment.

If you have not seen the new stuff they have done some cool new Interface features this year. When you right click you now get clouds! They call them Marking Menus but I think they look like speech bubbles from comic books. this gives you a quick and easy way to see the most command commands you may use. Stay tuned I will post some more step by step tips tonight…

Getting ready for the big Autodesk Announcements this week!

Quick inventor Tip

When doing Scenes in Inventor, you may notice sometimes the preset scenes do not show the way you would like them to (i.e. sky pointing down). If you grab the View Cube and get your part situated the way you want it to, then reset front, this will re-orientate the scene.

Quick AutoCAD Tip

When using Images in AutoCAD you know you can set the frame = 2 which will show you the frame yet not print it. But sometimes it may not work correctly. Sometimes you may need to change the setting to = 0 then back to =2. It lets the setting refresh and will fix this for you. Now when you print it will not show up, yet it is still on screen and you can manipulate it.

I tried to e-mail Msft support but it wants the product ID that the software has not yet generated. When I tried to use the Key it said it was unable to use that.

Uninstall: I tried to uninstall, and I used the MSFT uninstall tools, didn’t work, tried to manually uninstall msi, tried to erase it out of my regestry, still will not let me install 2010?????

 I noticed it is giving me a diffrent error after re-running it again, just saying there was an error this time. Then it wants to restart my computer.

Any ideas what is causing this error?

Here is the earlier errors I was getting

Here is the latest error I have been getting…