Vuuch for AutoCAD released and ready for primetime

A new version of Vuuch is available and the Vuuch for AutoCAD add-in has been updated as well so you can put the power of social to work for you and your team.

Turn drawings into WEB Pages & Connect People, Activities & Notes in a New & Social Way. It’s like Facebook for your drawings as well as for other documents.

Thursday, July 1 there are two free webinars. These webinars will walk through a series of use case examples of how to start using Vuuch inclusive of live Q&A. See the time and details at the Vuuch events page.

Vuuch palette within AutoCAD.

Private or public WEB site that you and others invited can access.

For more Vuuch details visit the Vuuch for AutoCAD page.

100 AutoCAD tips

If you want to learn some new AutoCAD tips take a look at 100 of them that Edwin Prakoso assembled on his blog CAD Notes.

I wonder if all the words AutoCAD tips where counted what that number would be. Start counting all commands and variables as a starter. Did you know that the command DCCONVERT converts associative dimensions to dimensional constraints?

Autodesk Design Suits bundles

There are three new product suits available from Autodesk that can be useful if you find that you need to use a mix of products. Previously there have been suits around Inventor and Revit.

"The design suites make it much easier for Autodesk customers to accelerate their design processes and benefit from the wide range of Autodesk design, visualization and simulation technologies," said Carl Bass, Autodesk President and Chief Executive Officer. "Customers will also benefit from increased interoperability and productivity through access to new features and web services that will only be available as part of the design suite family."

Here are the new suits and each suit is in different editions like Standard, Premium and Advanced depending on what products you want to have included.

Autodesk Design Suite is a bundle of AutoCAD, Alias Sketch for AutoCAD, 3ds Max Design, Autodesk Showcase and Alias Design.

Autodesk Factory Design Suite is a bundle of AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Navisworks.

Autodesk Plant Design Suite is a bundle of AutoCAD, AutoCAD P&ID, AutoCAD Plant 3D and Autodesk Navisworks.

Via Between the Lines.

Free 2D editor for DWG files

You find it at DraftSight with most 2D features you can need. Dassault Systemes and Graebert is behind it and makes it tougher for AutoCAD clones and possibly AutoCAD LT.

You can read more at Deelip.com and also an interview he made.

The product that is made public now is still Beta.

SSMPropEditor 4.0 released

SSMPropEditor now makes work with Sheet Sets even more easier.

Here are the news:

• Indexing/renumbering functionality making it possible to renumber all or selected sheets in a sheet set
• Easy to add Sheet count to a property so you can have text on the drawing showing for example “Sheet 5 of 18”.
• File Path, File Name and File Layout is possible to edit on one or multiple sheets at a time.
• Performance improvements when selecting sheets in the tree view.
• Recent list have the option to delete not found shortcuts.
• Alternative to use tab to move between property cells.
• Close of Sheet Set without closing the application.
• UI improvements.
• Bug fixes.

Sheet Indexing makes it possible to renumber multiple sheets.

If a selection of sheets should be indexed select them in the tree view.

Select one Sheet Property or Sheet Custom Property.

Click on Sheet Indexing button.

The dialog box that makes it possible to specify how the indexing should work opens up.

Note in this case how the Sheet Property Sheet number have been changed on all sheets and with the prefix specified.

Imagine doing this within Sheet Set Manager in AutoCAD manually on hundreds of sheets. With SSMPropEditor it is done with a few simple steps.

Contact us to get a time limited license file for free.
Full support is provided during trial period.

Existing customers are entitled to this upgrade at no extra fee.

AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT news

AutoCAD LT and Object Enablers Survey at surveymonkey.com

Among the questions is this one: “Which of the following (if any) Object Enablers would you like to see made available for AutoCAD LT?”

• AutoCAD Plant
• AutoCAD Raster Design
• AutoCAD Structural Detailing

New and updated AutoCAD LT tutorials are available.

If you have the need to find AutoCAD drawings or blocks on your hard drive give Project Snap for AutoCAD a try and give Autodesk your feedback.

Now this looks a lot like the Design Center so It is Alive in the Lab has this post What's So Special about Project Snap? and below is a video showing how it works.

If you use AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT or any flavor/vertical and have a story to tell Autodesk is looking for case study participants: www.autodesk.com/acadcasestudy

Create Microsoft Office documents online

First try to create online documents using Office Web Apps with Word Web App, Excel Web App, PowerPoint Web App and OneNote Web App.

Here is what the Word Web App editor look like with its Ribbon.

Visit http://office.live.com/ and try for yourself.

Update: http://office.live.com/?docsf=1 can sometimes help if the above link does not work in your region.

Autodesk Discussion Forums changes

Check out the new look and features at www.autodesk.com/discussion. I’m sure there are those that miss the support for newsreader (NNTP) so Autodesk tells more about it. There are also more details in this FAQ  & How To. Lithium now seems to be behind the technology. First thing I found was that the password is now saved something that I had problem with before as described in Password problem with Internet Explorer 7 and solution. Other than that there seems to be several useful features. Some great features I think stand out are that I can:

• Mark a thread as answered
• Embed images in posts
• Subscribe to RSS feeds (for boards, topics, and searches)

AutoCAD LT network license?

Is there support for network licenses for AutoCAD LT 2011?

Knowledge Base document: FLEXnet® feature codes for Autodesk 2011 products includes the feature code for AutoCAD LT 2011 at least.

I also find reference to AutoCAD LT Civil Suite 2011 but no idea what it is. A Google search and I think this is something for the Japanese market. Could the network license thing also be only for a limited market?

AutoCAD Exchange redesign

Here is a tip of a great resource for AutoCAD users.

“Based on your feedback, the site has been redesigned to provide a better user experience.  The new design allows you to more easily find, view, and experience content to make you more productive. We welcome your feedback on this redesign and ideas for further site improvements.” - http://autocad.autodesk.com

I think the new design is a big improvement. I did not like the previous all in black layout you can find a screenshot of on the Kung Fu Drafter blog.