AU has arrived!

I leave today to fly to Vegas for Autodesk University 2009. Just a quick note before I go. All of the papers were uploaded to the respective class listings. You can go to your agenda, click on a class link and at the top right you will see a link for the class materials. Last night I added datasets to several of my classes. If you are signed up for one of my sessions and want to download, be sure to check these out. I also updated my papers (resaved the PDFs) apparently some folks were having trouble opening them.

If you are going to AU, please stop by one of my classes and say hello. If you are not signed up for any of my classes, you can read about my FIVE sessions here. I also blogged about them a few weeks ago here.

Hope to see you all there! Thanks.

Course|Notes X 3

Pick your flavor! Course|Notes for AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP are now available! These are six page reference cards packed with tips and tricks for using each application. I now have them for Revit, AutoCAD Arch and MEP. Please contact me for details and if you would like to get a copy.

Badges!

While we are all gearing up for our two-and-half day week and too much turkey, those of us (like me) who have procrastinated till now are panicking at the prospect that AU is just days away! Do I really have five classes to prepare???

Well, I happened to be rummaging through my closet the other day looking for something when I stumbled across a collection of old AU badges! There seem to be a few missing here unfortunately, but I have most of the last several years. What fun!

Back in 2001, (I think this is the first year I taught) I was signed up for a "VBA Primer for Architectural Desktop" and a couple "VIZ" classes. (Never did much with either of those unfortunately. What about 2002? Seems that was the year Revit came on the scene, because I was signed up for: "Autodesk Revit - Implementing Building Information Modeling in your Firm." Based on the number of holes in my schedule that year, I assume I taught three classes that year. For 2003, the theme was "See what's out there"... Hmmm... I don't know about that one. OK, let's see what we had....  I was teaching four classes: Curtain Walls, Schedules, Scale-dependent annotation and Project Navigator - all in ADT. I was still working at CFA at that time (at least for a little longer), so a few other badges slipped in there like the Autodesk One-Team Conference.

In 2004 I don't have my agenda anymore, but from the little booklet in the badge, I can see we were still at the MGM. In 2005 we went to Disney World! Most people complained about this AU, but I loved it. Mainly because we took the whole family the week before and the kids had a blast at Disney. They were the perfect ages then. My oldest was 9 and the twins were 7. What a nice time. Sure the Swan and Dolphin hotels are not the best place for an AU, but having AU in a spot where the kids could come too and have a great time was a nice switch for me. I will always remember that one fondly. This was also the time I was striking out on my own (March 2004 actually, but AU 2005 would have been my first AU as an "independent") As such, I found a bunch of old business cards in my AU 2005 badge.

I think the business card my designer made for me and that I use now is much nicer. What do you think?

In 2006, we were "Agents of Change". We were back in Vegas at the Venetian. I liked the Venetian better than the MGM. The rooms are nicer, and the conference center much closer. I think this was the year we had Blue Man Group at the party. Pretty cool except I couldn't get a seat it was SOOO crouded. But great show anyhow. I was teaching both ADT and Revit at this point and from my agenda, I appear to have been taking many classes on both as well.

Well, I appear to have misplaced the 2007 and 2008 badges. Last year I taught five classes! 3 ACA and 2 Revit. Probably similar in 2007. This year I have five as well. I have a previous post here on what I am teaching this year.

This was a nice little trip down memory lane. While attendance is sure to be lower this year at AU, we are in a new venue at the Mandalay Bay so it is sure to be exciting as new places often are. I'll get another badge for my collection and hopefully we'll all come away a little smarter. Hope to see many of you there!

Mastering AutoCAD Architecture has arrived!

Got a box of latest edition of Mastering AutoCAD Architecture 2010 today! My apologies for skipping the 2009 release, but MACA is back and better than ever in its 2010 edition.

Still weighing in at nearly 1000 pages, however the trim size is larger. Take at look at the image here to compare its new size to the 2008 edition. I could not have completed this edition without the invaluable assistance of David Koch. David helped on several chapters and maintains his own blog here. Drop on by and see what he has to say. Thanks David!

Naturally, the ribbon was a big part of what's new in this edition. So nearly every screen capture is new. AutoCAD Architecture has a new file format in this release, so all the files were updated as well. We have also covered the new enhancements to Walls, Wall Cleanup and Endcaps. You will also find coverage of all the Project Navigator enhancements from both 2009 and 2010. If you woudl like to see a complete table of contents and learn how to order, please visit my website here.

And now for a little contest

As many of you may know, Autodesk University is right around the corner. Every year in each of my classes, I have a give-away of a copy (or sometimes two) of my book. This year is no exception. In the past I have done the business card draw thing, and raffle tickets, and last year I placed stickers on the back of people's handouts. I am looking to do something different this year. If anyone has a suggestion, please send it to me. If I pick your suggestion for AU, I'll send you one of the copies of Mastering AutoCAD Architecture 2010 you see here! I am looking for a fun and different way to do the give-away, so please any suggestion welcome. You can post it as a comment here if you like, but if you want to be eligable for the book, please visit the contact form on my site and send me an email with your suggestion and your email address. If you're idea is chosen, I will email you for your address to mail the book. Thanks very much! hope to see you at AU.

Mastering AutoCAD Architecture

I am happy to report that the latest update to Mastering AutoCAD Architecture is well under way. The 2010 edition shoudl be available later this Fall. You can see the table of contents and ordering information on the newly posted book page.

I have several chapters "in the can" already. The Quick Start (Chapter 0) through Chapter 5 are complete through copy edit. I will post my comments on these first six chapters back to the editor on Monday. Chapters 6 through 9 are finished through technical edit and I await the copy edit on those. Chapters 11 through 15 and Chapter 17 are completed manuscript and in the hands of the tech editor. The manuscript for Chapters 10, 16 and 18 are in progress. Several of the appendices are underway as well. So, even though I have not posted here on this book earlier, as you can see the project is well underway and we are hoping to have a bound book in a few months. Maybe October or November.

I would like to thank David Koch. David has been assisting me in getting the new manuscript ready for publication. You may know David from the Autodesk News Groups. He is a very active member of the AutoCAD Architecture forum and a registered Architect practicing at the firm Ewing Cole in Philadelphia. Thanks David. I could not have gotten this far or even had hoped to get this update done without your assistance.

Please post comments here if you have any questions.

Windows 7 (RC1) is available

Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is available. I have downloaded it and installed and spent about 45 minutes noodling around.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

I have not installed Autodesk software yet. Usually, when I build a new system, I install OS, patch it, reboot, patch it again, reboot, patch it again... (you get the idea) and then build an image of the clean OS. Then I add all my business apps. (Office, Photoshop, CD software, utilities, etc). Patch all those then make another image. This is my clean system before Autodesk software. I then install my Autodesk stuff.

For Windows 7, I am going to approach a little differently. I think I am going to install only the necessary business apps, then go right to Autodesk software so I can test it out. I have two hard drvies on my system, so I set up dual boot. I might be crazy, but I am actually contemplating doing some of my book chapters on Windows 7...

I stuck with 32bit for now, but I am also considering downloading and installing 64bit as well. Don't have a third hard drive, so I would have to re-image for that.

Anyone else tried Revit or ACA on Windows 7 yet?