CAD Toolbox

CAD for iPhone/iPad (Update)

2010-08-31T20:27:53Z

Has Autodesk been listening? I think so. Autodesk has announced an upcoming release of AutoCAD WS. This will be a free application allowing you to view, edit and share AutoCAD DWG files.

This is certainly good news for the travelling engineer or in-field technician needing to view and edit DWG drawing files without carrying around out of date printed copies.

More information can be found here:
http://butterfly.autodesk.com/mobile/.

…

Inventor 2011: Service Pack 1

2010-08-27T21:02:35Z

Inventor 2011, service pack 1 is now available from Autodesk. They must have been in a hurry to post it, looks like they forgot to update the copy-n-paste references to Inventor 2010.

Check out all that’s been patched via the readme.

Download Link

iLogic – Web Configurator

2010-08-06T02:40:04Z

I came across this You Tube video when looking for some new iLogic tutorials. I’ll have to say, this is some pretty exciting stuff coming out of Autodesk. The video shows a web based configuration tool for driving your iLogic rules within Autodesk Inventor. Both a part and associated drawing can be created by simply filling out a web based form.

Here’s the link to the step by step how-to-guide:

http://autodeskmfg.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-did-i-put-together-ilogic-web.html

Check out the video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi0BtCwZU08

Inventor: No support (yet) for Excel 2010

2010-07-17T12:19:05Z

This is a good read from the official support blog for Inventor, “Being Inventive“. According to the post, it’s confirmed. Inventor 2010 (and obviously all previous versions) does not yet support Excel 2010. I may have to try this out, but I’m fairly certain there is a path to installing Office 2010, uninstalling Excel 2010 and then reinstalling Excel 2007. This will keep Inventor working and satisfy your appetite for the latest and greatest software from Microsoft.

New on Labs: 3D Annotations for Inventor

2010-07-17T12:09:02Z

A new beta tool has been released on Autodesk Labs which allows you to annotate a part file within the modeling environment. This may be a handy tool for quickly communicating design intent from a designer to a drafter or dropping into a design review presentation. If you make widgets at your company, you could technically use this tool to bypass the whole drawing creation step. Check it out for yourself here: http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor3da/

Not really sure why, but the addin is only available in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States.

Off Topic: Windows Live Mail & Gmail

2010-06-27T01:35:02Z

…and now for something completely different.

I use Gmail for all my email and for the most part use the web interface for everything I need to do. This was mainly due to the fact that I could never really find a good (free) tool for use with Gmail. I was using Thunderbird but it was always quirky and displayed odd Gmail folders that I did not want to see.

I recently downloaded the beta of Windows Live Essentials which includes Windows Live Mail. I really like it. It’s getting very similar in appearance and functionality of Outlook at zero the cost.

One of the issues I still was having was that Windows Live Mail was displaying the folder (or in Gmail terms; label) that was called “[Gmail]”. Being of a CAD perfectionist background, this annoyed me to no end.

When I tried to hide it, Gmail would not allow it. If I tried to delete it, Gmail said it was already deleted.

To fix it took some trial and error but it was helpful to know you can install a special Gmail Labs tool called “Advanced Imap Controls” to hide tags individually from display within your IMAP mail application. This can be found from the “Labs” tab within your Gmail account options. This was good to know, but still did not fix the issue. To resolve it completely I had to first create a new label within Gmail named “[Gmail]” and then I could delete the folder within Windows Live Mail. From there I simply deleted the label within Gmail. Problem solved.

It’s also worth noting that I wrote this post using the Windows Live Writer tool that comes part of Windows Live Essentials. It’s really the best tool I’ve seen at getting your formatting just right for posts. Even better than the WordPress editor itself.

CAD Fodder

2010-06-18T02:11:32Z

Just added a page to the site with some feeds from some popular Inventor blogs. I’ll be adding to the list of blogs over time. Send me a note if you want yours added.

Check out the fodder here: http://www.cadtoolbox.com/?page_id=1379. You can also use the "Links" pull down menu at the top of the site. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

New iLogic Web Series

2010-06-10T01:23:00Z

From Ellipsis, the official blog of Autodesk’s technical evangelist team comes a new iLogic web series. The You Tube video was created by Rob Cohee from Autodesk. This is one of the first video demo’s I’ve watched that was both informative and somewhat entertaining. Hope to see more demo’s like this from Rob.

Read the blog post here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_EkUCCPeHI

Thank you Autodesk Labs!

2010-06-08T13:07:22Z

Looks like Autodesk does listen. I was very excited to read on the Autodesk Labs site that they are investigating running Design Review on an iPad. Like I said, how cool would that be.

Labs: Design Review on the iPad

Get Krypton, save face.

2010-06-01T13:56:25Z

Autodesk Labs has released Project Krypton for use with Inventor and Solidworks. Krypton checks your plastic parts for manufacturabilty, cost efficiency and carbon footprint.
Check it out for yourself: Project Krypton.
I’ll be posting some feedback as soon as I get a chance to download it myself.