Friday, August 31, 2007

Data Management Server 2008 Service Pack 1

OK, Let's try again from the top.

Service Pack 1 for Vault 2008 and Productstream 2008 has been reposted.

Service Pack 1 for Vault 2008 and Autodesk Productstream 2008 fixes a variety of issues pertaining to both of these products. As always, carefully read the Readme file (it is not very big), it provides installation instructions, details of corrections, and additional information.

By the way, this service pack does apply if your are using Vault 2008 with Civil 3D 2008, Civil 3D 2007 (with ADMS 2008 Support Patch), Civil 3D Land Desktop 2008 Companion(Subscription only), and Land Desktop 2008(Subscription only).

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

AU 2007 Registration Open

I should have mentioned this earlier, but we are now accepting registration for Autodesk University 2007, to be held at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada from Tuesday Nov. 27 through Friday Nov. 30.

Early registration is until October 7th, and saves you $500.

Many classes will fill-up and will be closed to later registrants, so register soon.

By the way, I will be giving a 90 minutes class, CV110-2 "Cul-de-Sacs Are Not a Dead End" on Tuesday Nov. 27th from 1:00 PM until 2:30 PM.

I hope to see you there.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Data Management Server 2008 Service Pack 1 Pulled

Friday, we released Service Pack 1 for Vault 2008 and Autodesk Productstream 2008. Unfortunately, there was a problem for certain configurations. A newer service pack will be made available very quickly.

If you downloaded Service Pack 1 and have not yet installed it please wait for the newer service pack.

Check back for more information.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

New Webcast CD

It is that time again. There is a new CD of recorded webcasts available. This CD has approximately 55 recorded sessions (that is over 1 years worth), ending May of 2007.

Additionally the CD contains white papers and custormer success stories.

I have always treasured my CDs and DVD of recorded webcast for the ability to view them anytime, anywhere.

Click on the links to get to the order page.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Purge Registry Applicatons Utility

Last month, at the Civil CADD Consortium meeting James Maeding of Hunsaker & Associates, presented a utility that would address an issue that has haunted many a CADD user over the years. The issue locally was referred to as "file bloat".

This occurs when a seemingly blank drawing is inexplicably large in file size. Well, we now know that this occurs when data is introduced from one drawing into another via one of many methed (i.e. block insert, drag-and-drop). The registered application table of the first drawing is added to the table of the second. If I use that second drawing, erase all of it's entities and save that "blank" drawing to start a new drawings, my 'template" will be far larger than I would expect. Over the years some users found that a "blank" drawing may be as large as 2MB in size. The -PURGE command's suboption "R" will purge these registered applications only within the current drawing.

Back to the original comment, by clicking on the title of this post you will be taken to the download page at http://www.cadthinking.com/. Here you will find a utility (PurgeIDS 2007)that will purge the registered applications from multiple drawings simultaneously without the need of opening each file idividually. James demonstated how this can be done with dozens even hundreds of files quickly, saving a lot of time for an organization.

I want to thank James (and some Autodeskers who helped with this routine) for making this process much more streamlined.

Sincpac3D

Today, in the discussion groups user "sinc" (I believe that that is James Sincovec, P.L.S. or perhaps Richard J. Sincovec, LSI) posted a link to a URL that contains a collection of Civil 3D utilities. After briefly reviewing the list I thought that there would be Civil 3D users out there that would find them useful. A couple of the listed routines that caught my attention are...

PARCELOFFSET (alias POS) - Creates offsets at various distances around a parcels.
PT2FEATURE - Datum-adjusts existing point, based on existing linework.

This collection of utilities address: Surfaces, Parcels, Alignment, Profiles, Survey Figures, Feature Lines, Points

There is a download for 2007 and one for 2008.

As with any product or application particularly 3rd party stuff care and security should be taken when using them (typical disclaimer here...).

Thanks to James and all involved for sharing!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Custom Autodesk RSS Feeds

It is possible to create a custom RSS feed that notifies us when Updates, Hotfixes, or Service Packs become available for various products of our choosing.

Click on the title of this post to get to a page where we can select one or multiple products. Then press the "Create Custom Feed" button to be taken to another page where the custom feed URL can be aquired. This page also contains links to automatically subcribe our newly create custom feed into various desktop and web-based RSS feed readers.

It is interesting that Outlook 2007, Internet Explorer 7, and 2008 Autodesk products can now accomodate RSS feeds. This proves that receiving specific information of our choosing via the internet is a very import part of being in-touch with our world.

Note:
If we select multiple applications for the custom feed, and because Updates/Technical Solutions might be posted to various products simultaneously there may be some duplication of information. If our custom feed is for only one application, duplication of information typically does not occur.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Ask Lucy

When I mentioned the Civil 3D Resource Center previously I did not mention the "ASK LUCY" page. Not intented to be a replacement for technical support (clearly stated on the page) this is an avenue for an FAQ that you have not yet seen answered.

I would like to thank Lucy Kuhns, a close co-worker of mine, for all of the energy that she ( and the autodesk team that support these pages) provide the civil engineering community via this site!

Land Desktop Companion 2008 SP1

I had not yet mentioned that Service Pack 1 for Land Desktop Companion 2008 was made available earlier this month.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Northern Pacific Civil Consortium

Last Thursday, I was fortunate enough to attend a meeting of the Northern Pacific Civil Consortium (NPCC). This is a group of CADD managers for Civil Engineering companies in the Sacramento, California area.

This group meets on the fourth Thursday of every month, to discuss issues, have presentation, and share knowledge about matters that they have in common. NPCC is modeled on the highly successful Civil CADD Consortium (C3) group in Southern California that I have mentioned before.

Subjects of this last meeting were
  1. AUGI AU Promo
  2. Educational grants of Autodesk software
  3. Autodesk software home use policy
  4. Sheet Set Manager Demonstation
Although the August meeting is a planning meeting for current members only, potential new attendees may want to place the September meeting on your calendars. It will be on Thursday, September 27th at 5:00 PM. Contact the current President David Zavislan at FirstnameDotLastnameAtNolteDotCom (Please forgive the need for this precaution) for meeting location information.

So, if you are a CADD Manager for a Civil Engineering company in the Sacramento area, and wish to be a part of such a organization, I highly recommend that you attend and/or join this group.

Civil3D.com Changes

For those that are not yet aware Civil3D.com has a new look and some new capabilities. There is always good, new information to be found there. Drop by and see for yourselves.

I would not normally post about a cosmetic change to any site. But this site has so much good information I figured that I would take this opportunity and mention them again.