"Autodesk 360", Crystal Clear?

Could you define 'Autodesk 360'?  Does the fact that a name is actually alphanumeric bother you?  I think it is a little different.  I had some trouble with this, so I thought an article might help clarify it.  The whole theory behind this is interesting, though!  Autodesk has recognized that many applications are going to the “Cloud” and they have started that journey with Autodesk 360.  What is it?  Autodesk 360 is a collection of online functions that you can access through an account with Autodesk.  The official definition is:

Autodesk® 360 is a cloud computing platform that provides a broad set of features, cloud services and products that can help you improve the way you design, visualize, simulate, and share your work with others anytime, anywhere.

Some of the functionality is completely free.  You do not even need to own/run any of their software.  Some of the functionality is tied directly to the software that you purchase and is made available to you via subscription. If you have not already noticed, Autodesk is using the “360” to describe their applications that run in the cloud.  For example, Autodesk has a cloud-based PLM system called Autodesk PLM 360.  With that said, this article is about Autodesk 360, the online account that you can log into for cloud functionality.

This all sounds wonderful, right?  What is the catch?  Honestly, there is not really any catch.  I do believe that there is a downside to this.  This may make me sound old, but there are too many options that go in too many directions (and I think this will only grow).  You will need to figure out what tools are useful for you and the way that you work.  On the positive side, Autodesk has provided many different options.  If you are mobile and you are working with others, these tools will be useful to you.  If you do not share data with others, then this may not provide that much value.  Do you take a tablet or use your smartphone to capture data onsite?  If so, I bet this will be useful.  Do you sit at one computer and store data on your own server for others to access?  If so, I believe this will not be useful to you.

If you are interested in further information, here is a link for you to learn more and potentially sign up to use it:

Autodesk 360 Landing Page

Apps in Inventor?

What's an app?

     You may be a bit behind the times if you are asking yourself what an app is at this point. But just in case there are a few out there who have not moved to a smart phone/tablet PC, an app is a small program written to extend the functionality of another program, for example, Inventor.  Apps are the easiest way for a user to customize what they want Inventor to do for them.  The idea of using apps for a CAD program may seem odd, but think about all those times you wished Inventor did something slightly different, or displayed something it doesn't.  Now those options could be just a download away.

How does it work?

     You can access Autodesk Exchange from the welcome screen or next to the "sign in" for subscription center. Autodesk Exchange is a website where users can browse, search, rate, and even review apps.  The website is easy to navigate with categories making it easy to find the apps that are related to your industry.  The apps are also easy to install, after downloading, all you have to do is run it.

     Have experience writing 3rd party software?  Sign up, and start posting your own creations for others to use!

Whats the catch?

     There really isn't one.  Most of the apps are in the $0.99 to $5.00 range.  Some even have an option for a trial, so you can try them before you actually buy.  That doesn't mean all of them have a cost involved, quite a few are free.  I've tried out quite a few of the free ones, and to be honest, there are some worth paying for.


     For more information on Autodesk Exchange and the apps available there: Autodesk Exchange

Bring your machine layouts to life.

Overview

Traditionally machine line layouts in a factory are created with pen and paper or in the form of 2D drawings. Using these means, it is extremely difficult to explain the working intent of the machine lines to clients or internal stakeholders. Using 2D workflows, it is very challenging to account for movement of material, people, and material handling devices and show them interacting with each other inside the facility. The inability to clearly articulate the working intent often results in losing bids to competition and the inability to sell ideas to stakeholders.
Project Factory.Modz() is a free^* Physics Based technology preview for Factory Animation that enables you to bring your machine line layouts to life and clearly articulate the working intent of the layout to your clients and stakeholders. It helps you to visually communicate your ideas by animating the movement of material and people inside your facility. It is easy to use, does not require CAD expertise, and you can be up and running creating your first animation in less than 5 minutes.

Game Technology meets CAD

• Physics Based Animation Environment
  Project Factory.Modz() is powered by an underlying physics engine. This enables you to animate the machine lines with the highest degree of realism and see the effect of force and collisions in animating material movement inside your facility.
  
• Artificial Intelligence
  Project Factory.Modz() is powered by Autodesk^® Kynapse^® which is an artificial intelligence middleware that empowers game developers to build compelling character behaviors in video games. It offers high performance path finding within dynamic environments and automated tools for generating AI data. With Autodesk Kynapse technology inside Project Factory.Modz(), you can perform automated path finding operations for human workers and material handling devices such as forklifts inside your facility.
  
• 1-Click Workflow
  Project Factory.Modz() is tightly integrated with Autodesk Factory Design Suite with a 1-Click Workflow. This enables you to use Autodesk Factory Design Suite to create layouts by dragging and dropping assets on the factory floor and with a single click transfer them to the Project Factory.Modz() environment for animation workflows. All the necessary geometry, constraints, and animation Meta data is automatically transferred which gets you started quickly.
  

Availability

This technology preview is available until July 31, 2012.

To download and see more videos visit Autodesk Labs

Autodesk Vault Office 2013 Web Client

Autodesk Vault Office 2013 now offers additional functionality for the Autodesk Web Client.  In previous releases of Autodesk Vault, the web client provided Search, Print, and Viewing capabilities.  The new and enhanced capabilities of Vault Office 2013 include the ability to Check Out and Check In files for editing purposes.


The first thing you will notice is when you login to the web client.  There is now a check box to login in a "Read-Only" mode.

Logging in with the "Read Only Access" toggle on will allow the user to access Vault Web Client with the same functionality that was available in previous releases.


Toggling this option off will enable the enhancements provided in the 2013 Web Client.  In order to install Vault Office 2013, you must first have Vault Workgroup, Collaboration, or Professional installed.


Once the user has found the file they are looking for, they will see a new option to check out the file.

After they are done they can check it back in

This functionality is supported in a variety of different browsers:

• Apple Safari 4 or 5
• Google Chrome 13
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or 9
• Mozilla Firefox 6

And supports the following Microsoft Office products:

• Microsoft Excel 2003, 2007, or 2010
• Microsoft Outlook 2007 or 2010
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, 2007, or 2010
• Microsoft Word 2003, 2007, or 2010

For more information on this and all the Autodesk Vault products contact your ADRAFT representative at (866) 769-6163.

Track Changes in Autodesk Manufacturing 2013 Products Here!

The 2013 software is out and Autodesk is launching PLM into the cloud!  This year’s release of Autodesk products feels different than other years.  A ‘normal’ year has been about the features and upgrades to the software that we use everyday.  This year, there is a large discussion around the cloud and subscription in addition to the new features in the software and the changes in the suites as compared to last year.  We are going to be posting blog entries on all of these changes so stay tuned!

2013 Release: Different from other years.

One of the biggest pushes from Autodesk is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).  Heads up:  Autodesk PLM 360 is already here!  I say heads up for a reason.  Autodesk went from no PLM to launching PLM in the cloud for everyone.  We are trying to take an objective approach to this new direction for Autodesk.  Please check it out for yourself! If you sign up for a trial version, please list Adraft as you Reseller and let us know.  This way we can learn more about your use/testing.  Here is a link for you:

Autodesk PLM 360

We are very interested in getting feedback from clients and what they think about it.  We will be stopping and taking a look at this technology to see how our clients would be using it.  We are going to be posting blog entries as our journey with this unfolds.

I want to be sure to say that there is huge potential here for a useful tool that goes past the Engineer/Designer crowd.  I love the thought that this could provide easy to use tools for Managers!  We will be looking to answer questions about: How easy is it to get started?  How does this tool stack up to other PLM tools out there?  What are the sources of data and how are they connected?  What utilities stand out as useful for the Manufacturing industry?  How well does this work with the Autodesk Vault?  We like to “play” with technology before making recommendations on, so please check in here to see what we are finding!  This could be huge!

Controlling Linetype Scale in AutoCAD

Using linetypes are beneficial to differentiate between types of geometry in AutoCAD. These types of geometry can be hidden lines, center lines, visible lines, and so on. Depending on the scale of your drawing, linetypes will be displayed differently. Understanding and controlling the scale of the linetypes is important to making the drawing look correct.

Here is an example of how linetype scale can change the display of a line. The “Center” linetype is being displayed on these four lines, each of them is being displayed at a different linetype scale. As you can see the spacing and the length of the line is altered as the scale is changed.

Note: from top to bottom the linetype scale is being reduced by .25 each time.

Linetype scale can be controlled a couple of ways. The first way is through the properties panel (with the geometry selected). In the "General" section, there is a "Linetype" option.

The other method is to use a command (LTSCALE) at the command line. This is a global setting, meaning it will affect all the lines with a linetype applied to them in the drawing.

Note: This method will affect the scale of linetypes you may have already manipulated through the properties menu. Example if you set a line to be at .5 through the property menu, and then set LTSCALE to be .5 the line you originally selected to be .5 will now be at .25 overall scale.

Take the Guess Work Out of Rendering with 3DS Max Design 2012

Tired of all the guess work with that comes with making a rendering? Look no further than 3ds Max Design 2012. With the recent addition of the iRay rendering option, users now have a much less complicated form of creating photo realistic images.
iRay Rendering functionality is great for those who don't want to spend hours waiting for an image to cook up, only having to tweak a few more settings, and start the waiting game again.

A few advantages to using iRay:

• No More Guessing - iRay is built around calculating the lights, shadows, reflection, and refraction. No more tweaking the exposure setting to get the proper lighting in your scene.

• Time Based - Have an initial presentation due in an hour? No problem! iRay allows you to set the time for it to render, and it does the rest. This works in the opposite direction as well, you can set it to render until you want it to stop.

• Autodesk Material Library - using iRay does not require you to use a special set of materials. Users have access to the 1200 unique materials found within most of the Autodesk products.

• Ability to Pause - iRay gives you the ability to pause and save an image of the rendering at its current state, then start right where the rendering process left off.
  

To find out more about iRay Rendering:

http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81jH1p7FWRU

Image courtesy of Marriott International, Inc & Autodesk

WANTED - Missing Dialog Box

Have you ever experienced the dreaded "Missing Dialog Box"?  You know there is supposed to be a box that shows up in your program but instead the program just seems to freeze.  Or better yet, the program is telling you to enter the information in the dialog box.  You search high and low, but there's nothing on your screen.  


Don't beat yourself up, it probably a case of the dialog box slipping off your screen.  This can happen for a number of reasons.  Maybe you changed your screen resolution, or maybe you typically use dual monitors and now you have only one.  Either way its a fairly simple fix.


First - change your screen resolution to its highest setting and see if you are able to see the dialog.  It could be that it is near the edge of the screen and is not displayable at lower resolutions.  If you do see it, drag it back to the center of the screen and return your resolution to its previous setting.


If changing the resolution does not resolve the problem, here is a simple method to get it back.

1. While the dialog box is supposed to be on the screen, press <alt>  then the <space bar> then <m> all together. Pressing in this order and all together puts the dialog box in a "Move" state.
2. Press the left or right arrow keys to move the dialog box in either direction. Once you do this, the dialog box is attached to your mouse cursor.
3. Move your mouse and place the dialog box in the center of your screen.
4. Click to place the dialog

That's it. The next time a dialog box goes A.W.O.L., don't get frustrated, follow either of these simple methods and you'll be back to work in no time.

To Train or Not to Train? That is the question!

No, not really.  Deciding to not get training on your new software is not often a decision as it is a result of circumstances.  Not enough time, too expensive, too busy....trust me we have heard most of them and we do understand.

With the new year I wanted to take a few minutes to see if I could bother our readers for some input.  We are always trying to create new products/classes that will better suit the needs of our customers.  So, to this end, I am asking you, the reader, "What kind of training best suits you needs and availability?"

Delivery of Class:

Instructor Led, Virtual/Web Class (elearning), Computer Based Training (Videos)

Length of Class:

Full day, half day, 2 hr. Workshop

Type of Class:

Essentials & Advanced Class, Specialized Topic Workshops, ...?

Not learning how to use your software to its full potential is like buying a Ferrari* and never taking it out of first gear.  

*Please substitute you favorite car here

Taking away 1 simple new skill or idea from a training class can result in a large amount of time savings/week.  Add these up and its not unrealistic to see days if not weeks of savings over the course of a year. Now multiply that by how many designers/users are in your department, I think you get the picture.

YOUR HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT!

Let us know what you think. Add a comment here or email us at training@adraft.com