Autodesk University 2010 - Call for Class Proposals

Currently, on the AU blog (BLAUG) there are posts regarding the requests for proposals for Autodesk University 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. There is a checklist to understand what will be required, and considerations on what types of classes are sought. The deadline to submit proposals for classes is May 14, 2010.

I know many who have the ability to share their experience with others. This would not only elevate the entire Civil 3D user community, it helps build relationships which strengthens the community, as well. So, if you have been considering teaching at AU, I highly encourage you to start the process now. Follow the links, understand the requirements, and DO IT!

Be Better! ...TEACH!

AU 2009 Speaker Proposals

Yes, it has already begun. The initial steps toward AU 2009.

There will be a few changes this year. Most notably, AU 2009 will be held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, December 1-4. There should be over 600 class sessions and there is confirmed space for over 9,000 attendees.

For those of you that are interested in submitting proposals to teach class sessions, you can learn more at the Call for Proposals webpage at the Autodesk University Online Website. The deadline for submitting proposals is April 30th. Speakers and sessions are announced in early July.

This is obviously a great way to share your industry and product knowledge.

Be Better!... teach a class.

AU Day 1

Dana Probert, Jerry Bartles and I held a Land Desktop to Civil 3D Implementation Bootcamp. It seemed to go well and was a good way to start the AU 2008 week.

I am looking forward to the remainder of the week.

Be Better!...Explore Alternatives.

AU on an Ipod

Did you know that you can subscribe to Autodesk University 2007 audio podcasts at the iTunes store? These podcasts can then be synchronized and listened to on any iPod at convenient times. (I can hear you now, and YES, I do have a life. I also spend a fair amount of time traveling... you get the point)

As a matter of fact you can find session from 5 different tracks. They are...

AutoCAD
Architectural
Geostatial
Civil
Manufacturing

Unfortunately, this list is in popularity order as listed by iTunes. Apparently, there have not been many subscribers to the Civil Sessions. Let's see if we can change that.

The first podcast that I had available was Dana Probert's "Using Civil 3D 2008 for Stormwater Management Tasks Part I". It was a 1 hour 23 minute session.

The second session was Ian McGregor's "Civil 3D Vault & Design Review: A Workflow". This session was co-presented by Jack Strongitharm, Nick Zeeben and Pete Kelsey (talk about an allstar line-up). It was 1 hour and 20 minutes long.

I mention this because I have been exploring methods of learning that may not be so obvious, but would be very convenient, such as YouTube. There are lots of ways to learn. If you have other ways that you find helpful, may I impose upon you to share them with me. One method to do so is to add them as comments. I would appreciate it.

Be Better... than the competition!

Civil 3D, AU Online, and my Goals

As a somewhat new Autodesk employee, my attendance of Autodesk University 2007 was a very different experience for me. I was not able attend as many classes as I thought that I would, but being there was ENTIRELY worthwhile.

Now to my goals. I have told myself that I will read every Civil 3D handout available (.pdfs and a few .docs) and watch every Civil 3D Screencast that is posted at AU Online.

Let me attempt to put this into perspective. By my count there were 61 different (non-repeated) Civil 3D related classes and labs available this year. 48 of those classes have their handouts available at AU Online (actually a couple I had to download at sites related to the authors). 43 of the classes have Screencast available to be viewed (I think all 43 can also be downloaded). I believe only one of the 61 classes did not have a handout available and did not have a Screencast. That means that I can virtually attend 60 of the 61 classes in one form or another.

Every AU attendee has access to AU Online as do Autodesk Subscription customers. So many of you can do similar. :^)

I have already had the opportunity to read three of the 48 handouts that I have (This has made for good bedtime reading). I can also say that I have learned some things that I did not know. I wonder how long this will take me?

P.S. This reminds me that I did not have a chance to get one of the cd's that contained all of the handouts from all of the classes. Oh well.

Bye for now. BE BETTER!

My Autodesk University 2007 Thoughts

My primary thought regarding last week's Autodesk University was how relatively smooth things appeared to have run. Place about 10,000 people anywhere and there is likely to be some mayhem. Not so, from my perspective, last week. Although I know some things went wrong (I saw one class closed due to too many attendees), things seemed to run smoother than in previous years. There were not ridiculously long lines for meals or traffic jams at the escalators. The class I taught went as smooth as I could have hope for (thanks to all who attended it).

AU is a great event for many reasons. First and foremost, let me mention the learning of tons of information. This is done with both lectures and hands-on labs. The classes are taught by arguably the best of the best across the globe. We get to see friends that we have not seen since perhaps the last AU. We get to meet new friends. We get to network with both old and new friends, Autodeskers, resellers, new users, and experienced users for tips, tricks, recommendations, and thoughts. We get to rub elbows with the Civil 3D development team. The Venetian is a top notch place. There is all the food you can eat and the drinks you can drink. There are socials and parties to unwind at. We get four nights of accommodations. There is entertainment. There is an exhibit hall with vendors selling things and giving things away. There were competitions and puzzles to solve and prizes to win. And if all that is not enough, oh yeah, you are in Las Vegas (I heard that there may be a thing or two to do and see around town ;^) ). No wonder I returned home so tired.

If we missed anything, afterwards we can download ALL of the handouts from ALL of the classes with AU Online. We can watch many classes that were recorded with AU Online.

At around $1500 for early bird registration this year's event was WELL WORTH IT.

So, if you were not able to attend this year. You may want to start planning for next year.

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.

Nothing Up My Sleeve

Just like everyone else, I have been unbelievably busy. Although, I did get to try something that has me VERY excited about the future use of Civil 3D. A product will be out shortly called Advanced Road Design CORRIDOR-EZY. Some of you may have seen it at Autodesk University. This product is developed by CADApps Australia. After learning some about it here is my progress.

Step 1: Open original drawing with about 26 Alignments (see image below).

Step 2: Press one button. 45 second later drawing contains items software recognizes as "ROADS" and creates proposed profiles for them (see image below).

Step 3: Press a second button. 1 minute 5 seconds later drawing contains all curb return alignments and proposed profiles for them as well (see image below).

Step 4: Press a third button. 2 minutes and 5 seconds later a surface exists of the entire road system in a development (see image below).

4 minutes total!

Now, I do not wish to mis-lead anyone. I have not yet addressed Knuckles or Cul-De-Sacs, which this software can address along with Roundabouts. I would want to check all proposed profiles, change widths of certain collector streets, etc. But, for 4 minutes worth of work to do 33 intersections along 26 streets this is ama-za-zing stuff.

To qualify this, remember that I gave a Knuckle and Cul-De-Sacs class at Autodesk University this past November.

With some instruction we can create true Civil 3D corridors in a fraction of the time it would take with Civil 3D alone. Using Civil 3D by itself, in my opinion, a capable person could create an intersection for scratch in about roughly 1 hour (that means about 33 hours for the example above). At just about any price this product should pay for itself in no time at all.

And imagine what this will do for those involved with preliminary design and visualization, I can not think of a better tool to do that.

Oh, and I almost forgot the most impressive thing of all. Profiles of crossing streets are linked by the software. If I raise or lower a major road... ALL CROSSING ROAD PROFILES ARE ADJUSTED TO MATCH AUTOMATICALLY! Yes, all crossing road profiles. That includes the curb return profiles. We do not have to go back and adjust them manually. How awesome is that!

You may be asking, when can we expect to see this product? I understand that it should be available just about when Civil 3D 2008 is released, near April 16, 2007. If this all sound somewhat familiar that is because this is the next incarnation of Advanced Road Design INTERSECTION which has been out for awhile.

Thank you CADApps!

Congratulations Abound

As I attempt to get caught up from being away there are a few pats on the back that I would like to share.

First to the group over at civil3d.com, for very quickly receiving their 100,000th page view. Few groups have contributed to advancing our collective industry as has Engineered Efficiency, Inc, and for achieving this milestone I congratulate them.

Next, to the following Autodesk University 2006 instuctors. They received the highest ratings from their class attendees for the specified categories:

HIGHEST RATED SPEAKER in 90min SESSION
Louis Marcoux "Animation Rigging concepts for Advanced 3ds MAX"

HIGHEST RATED SPEAKER in 90min HANDS-ON LAB
John Beltran "Introduction to Dynamic Blocks"

HIGHEST RATED SPEAKER in 3.5hr SESSION
Jay Tedeschi and Derrick Smith "Using Autodesk Inventor for Simulation"

HIGHEST RATED SPEAKER in a LARGE CLASS
Matt Murphy "The Do and Donts of Dynamic Blocks Revealed"

HIGHEST RATED FIRST-TIME AU SPEAKER
Kevin Robinson "Power Tools of AutoCAD Mechanical"

Great Job to you all!

Lastly, I congratulate all bloggers, users of YouTube, Amazon reviewers, Wiki contributors, posters to flickr, the MySpace community, bidders and sellers on eBay, iTunes downloaders, discussion group'ers, open source developers, and everyone else that helps define Web 2.0.

Why?

Because in their December 25, 2006 / January 1, 2007 edition Time Magazine made us all "Persons of the Year" for controlling the Information Age, along with all of the good and bad (spelling & grammar) that that entails.

Autodesk University 2007 Save The Dates

In case you wanted to know...

15th Annual Autodesk University
November 27-30, 2007
The Venetian Resort Hotel
Las Vegas, NV. U.S.A.

2005 ~5,500 attendees
2006 ~7,500 attendees
2007 ??????

Personally, AU2006 was the most useful, fulfilling, and memorable event of the year!

Want To Double Pick or Right-Click Edit?

One of my favorite classes at Autodesk University 2006 (last week) was given by my friend David Garrigues. During the class he described how he had created a CUI with custom Right-Click menus (many commands per object type) and the ability to Double-Pick on an AECC object (Alignment, Surface etc.) and bring up the object's Properties Dialog Box, instead of the AutoCAD Properties Palette. This gives users of this CUI a quicker way to create, edit, interact with, and control their Civil 3D objects. The images to the left show what you see if you bring up the right-click menu while selecting a Surface and Feature Line respectively.

During the class, David mentioned that he would make this CUI available. The simplest way to do so was for him to post it in the "Content Sharing" section of the "Civil Engineering Community" website. It is located in the "Utilities" area of "Content Sharing". It is titled:

"Double and Right Click CUI"


You must be registered and login to the site in order to download this CUI.

Download it and follow the instruction from the readme file to get it installed properly. I have already done so and it makes life a bunch easier.

Thanks Dave!!

AU2006 What Myths and Legends are made of

I am about to go down to attend my final class. Once the three classes that I gave earlier in the week were over I started attending everything that I could. I mean everything.

There is so much to see, do, learn, listen, touch, play with, try, eat, and drink at Autodesk University it can literally make your head spin.

I intend to post a more formal recap at a later point. Preferably, not from a hotel room. I will have lots of thoughts to share in the coming days and weeks.

MYTH or LEGEND?
Some of the stories of this year's activities, I am sure, will go in to annuls of Autodesk lore. Some occured at the ISD Industry Reception on Wednesday evening at TOA in the Venetian (What a place by the way!). Some may remember. Sadly, others I am sure, will not.

Either way it has been an incredible time!

AU2006

Well, I am now in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Venetian is an excellent place for Autodesk University 2006. With 7500 attendees expected I am awe struck by the logistics of this event. At this hotel AU attendees had a separate hotel registration area with 27 hotel clerks admitting attendees.

I teach one class tomorrow and two on Wednesday. Wish me luck.

I'll try to post as often as possible.

New Autodesk Labs Technology Preview Available

In the Autodesk Labs website there is a new technology preview available.

Autodesk Impression allows the creation of presentation-ready graphics made directly from our drawings.

The interface is supposed to be simple, and easy to learn and use. I wish I had some time to look into this, but with AU coming up next week I unfortunately can not.

If you wouldn't mind let me know what you think about this preview.

AU Class Schedule Changes Deadline

Tomorrow Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 5;00 pm Pacific Time is the deadline for making changing to your Autodesk University 2006 class schedule.

After tomorrow the only way on attend a class or lab, that you are not enrolled in, is based on seating availability on-site.

Autodesk University 2006 Update

Today, Friday November 10th, is the last day to pre-register for Autodesk University 2006. This year's edition is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 27 through December 1. Anyone wishing to register after today can still do so on-site via late registration.

The demand for Civil 3D instruction has exceeded all expectations. This is evidenced by that fact that ALL three of my AU classes now have over 300 registrants. One of my two PowerTrack courses was closed at 440 registrants.

Joseph Wurcher mentioned in his AU Blog that overall registration is up 41% over last year's event. Remarkable!

Cul-De-Sacs Fix in SP3

Dan Philbrick, Autodesk Civil 3D Software Development Manager, mentioned in his blog, in the Civil Engineering Community, that Service Pack 3 fixes an issue that has existed when trying to design cul-de-sac corridors with arcs in the centerline alignment.

If our baseline was run around the cul-de-sac bulb entirely as one alignment and had as its target an centerline alighnment with an arc, the assemblies would not solve correctly and leave a flat teardrop shaped gap in the middle of the corridor. This did not happen if the centerline alignment was a tangent (straight).

The necessary workaround was to create two alignments around the bulb of the cul-de-sac each targeting the centerline alignment with the arc.

With the fix provide by Service Pack 3 we no longer need to create the two alignments and can accomplish this goal with one alignment if we so choose.




I went back through the ...README.htm file to see if this was mentioned. I could not find any mention of it. Either way this is a very good thing.

Too bad my Autodesk University "Cul-de-Sacs Are Not a Dead End" class handouts were already submitted. Oh well, I will just have to mention that that was fixed.

What Comes First AU or 100,000 Page Views

Lately, this blog has averaged over 6,000 page views a month. With 28 days left until Autodesk University 2006, there have been approximately 93,000 page views to date. With a little math it seems that it is possible the the 100,000th page view may occur while I am at AU.

Seems apropos.

Be Seen at Autodesk University

Dave Simeone, Autodesk Civil 3D Product Manager, posted in his blog that he is looking for some interesting completed project examples that he can show during Autodesk University, (My guess is during the Infrastructure Solution Industry Main Stage, probably several thousand industry attendees).

So, if you would like to get some exposure for your company, or for yourself, you may want to look into this more closely.

Autodesk University 2006 Update - Students Galore

Well as of a few moments ago my three classes at Autodesk University now have over 1000 registered attendees combined.

Here are the three classes I am teaching (The second two are a part of the Powertrack and are being recorded):

CV11-2 Civil 3D® Pipe Networks Made Easy 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Nov. 28
CV23-4 Civil 3D® Corridors: Cul-de-Sacs Are Not a Dead End 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Nov. 29
CV25-3 Civil 3D® Grading Made Easy 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Nov. 29

These classes have 275, 287 and 439 in enrollment respectively. That is 1001 students. Amazing.