In the Pipes

AutoCAD Plant 3D Courseware, and other useful links

I get asked regularly for AutoCAD Plant 3D training materials. Just today I got a message from Pakistan asking about it.

If you are looking for AutoCAD Plant 3D courseware (which includes content on AutoCAD P&ID), you can download it here: http://autocad.autodesk.com/ama/orig/plant/Autodesk_Plant_2012_Courseware_Update.zip

Or you can order a printed copy here: http://ascented.com/courseware-solutions/autodesk/courseware/Autodesk-Plant-Design.aspx

These links were posted 2 weeks ago on the Autodesk Plant Solutions facebook group by Eileen Foran, our community program manager. This facebook group is a good way to keep informed. It’s an open group that you can join at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/groups/autodeskplantsolutions/.  There is also a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/autocadplantexchange which I like.  (get it? "like" on facebook? haha)

There are also videos showing AutoCAD Plant 3D that many are using for self paced training – you can find them on AutoCAD Plant Exchange  or on youtube AutoCAD Plant 3D playlist  (same videos both places)

AutoCAD Plant Exchange is also an excellent stop for Autodesk Plant news, discussions, content packs and other resources.

That’s all I have – I know there is demand for Advanced training too. I’ll let you know when something materializes on that side. Also, if you’d like videos on other topics, please let me know. We continue to add to the library throughout the years.

Happy Holidays!

Hello from Autodesk University 2011

Yay!  I'm back at Autodesk University here in lovely Las Vegas, Nevada!  :-)

I missed it last year, since 8+ months pregnant is not a good look for Vegas.  But I'm back!!!  I just got here, and already feel like I've missed a lot - my twitter feed had been blowing up with reports from the Innovation Forums, Grey Matter Smackdown, and the buzz around the Autodesk's 123D line.

This year I'm speaking in just one class "Meet the Plant Team". I plan to do a quick retrospective and overview of our Plant Solutions plans, then roll into open audience Q/A session.  I will have a couple fellow Autodeskers on the Panel, and we are honored to be moderated by none other than Dave Tyner from davetyner.com. If you are here at AU2011, I do hope you'll come - PD5258 Wednesday 3PM in Marcello 4506. Come with your hard questions!

Ok, I'm off to the first reception of the night. AEC Mixer, here I come.

In the Field with AutoCAD WS

I’m lucky enough to have a second a guest blog - This time from my colleague Jason Drew.  Jason is a Product Support Specialist with Autodesk. He provides support to customers using AutoCAD Plant 3D and AutoCAD P&ID and was featured on the AutoCAD Plant Exchange “Ask the Expert” for February 2011.  He is also a member of the “Krusty Krew”, a team of Plant Design professionals from around the globe. Before working with AutoCAD Plant products Jason worked for three years as an administrator/designer using Intergraph SmartPlant P&ID. His background is in Information Technology where he worked for six years providing computer support for an engineering company in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hope you enjoy his first post!

Ursula

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AutoCAD WS is one of the many new cloud services offered by Autodesk. It allows users to upload and share drawings with anyone around the globe. No need to send large email attachments or upload to FTP sites. AutoCAD WS works with the following devices:

• iPhone & iPad
• Mac
• Android phones and tablets
• AutoCAD (Plug-in)

Have you ever gone out to the field with a stack of paper drawings and wondered if there was a better way to perform a walk-down?

While there currently is not an AutoCAD WS plug-in for AutoCAD Plant 3D and AutoCAD P&ID (meaning you cannot upload to AutoCAD WS directly) there is a simple workaround.

From the office:

1. From Project Manager use the ‘Export to AutoCAD’ feature
2. Upload the drawings to AutoCAD WS

Before heading to the field site:

1. Login to AutoCAD WS with your mobile device or tablet
2. Select the drawings and use ‘Download to local’
3. Head out to the field

In the Field:

1. Mark-up and redline drawings
2. Connect to the Internet
3. Upload and share drawings
4. Home office users launch AutoCAD WS
5. Download the drawings and open in Design Review

You internal customers back at the home office won’t have to wait for the drawings to be mailed back, scanned in, etc.

Go green… Keep it in the cloud, keep it simple!

Hello world & upcoming AutoCAD Plant 3D Beta

And now for something different – a guest blog from my colleague in arms Pat Jenakanandhini (Pat J12i for short). He's a great addition to our team, and more involved in day to day product creation than I am as of late. I'll let him introduce himself as he takes a shot at blogging. -- Ursula

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Hi World! I want to introduce myself and join my colleague Ursula in blogging about all things in the pipes – well maybe not all things. J My name is Pat Jenakanandhini and I am one of the Product Managers working on Plant Solutions at Autodesk. My background includes degrees in Process & Piping Design, Computer Science and a recently completed MBA. I also spent a lot of time early in my career working for another plant design software maker. I have two wonderful kids (2 yrs and 1 month), an incredibly supportive wife and family, and live in the great state of New Hampshire. Ursula has graciously offered to let me try guest blogging through her blog – so here goes!

AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012 was released just a couple of months back. The engineering team have been hard at work and we are getting close to having new beta of Plant 3D soon. Yes – that's right just a few short months and we already have a beta of the next version. We need YOUR help though. We need your feedback and help with looking at the new beta and finding problems with it. This will help our team fix as many problems as possible and deliver a high quality product that will delight you.

So, you are ready to help! What next you ask?

1. Sign up at http://beta.autodesk.com The picture below shows the site. If you have previously participated in Autodesk beta, you can just login with your existing login information. If you are new, click the link for new users and register.

   

    

2. Once you are logged in, click on "About Me" link on the left side.

   

3. Scroll down and select the products you are interested in providing feedback on. Select AutoCAD P&ID and AutoCAD Plant 3D of course!
   
4. That's it! Once the beta starts, you will get added to the project and notified with further instructions. You can then download the latest software and give us direct feedback on what works or more importantly what doesn't work.

So there you have it – my first blog post. I'll be back with more posts in the future. Please give me your feedback or let me know if you want to hear about any particular topic. Thanks.

Isometric Generation in the Cloud

We released our 2012 Plant Design Suites earlier this fall – and one of the key new components in AutoCAD Plant 3D was a new isometric drawing creation engine. For some time now, customers have requested we look into creating a new solution for generating isometrics from a 3D piping model. This was our first release containing the newly developed Autodesk isometrics generation engine. 

Now, we’ve taken the engine into the cloud. On Autodesk Labs, we have just gone live with our AutoCAD^® Isometrics WS technology preview.  This preview takes an uploaded PCF (or a zip of many PCFs) and generates isometric drawings.

Check out the service here: www.autodesk.com/autocadisometricsws

Also, check out Scott Sheppard’s It’s Alive In the Labs post on the Isometrics WS Technology Preview for more information and details on how to give feedback.

We created a short video showing the AutoCAD^® Isometrics WS technology preview in action :

PS:  As a technology preview – its free!  Check it out and let us know what you think.

Thinking about the release after next, and beyond

Most of this week I’ve been attending one of the most interesting meetings of my year. Each year, the Autodesk Plant team invites in about a dozen people from the Plant industry to discuss strategic goals and direction.  We call this our Plant Strategic Advisory Board meeting, and this year was a mix of Owner Operators, people from Construction, and people from Engineering firms, making for an interesting mix of viewpoints. The attendees, hailing from 6 different countries, came together at our San Francisco office to talk about where we want to be in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years from now.

 Autodesk Plant Strategic Advisory Board Members - 2011

This meeting is great, as we all get to step back from our day to day jobs and think about the future. We get time to reflect on how technology trends will affect the plant industry.  We start with big ideas – such as if computing power is unlimited & free, and available everywhere – what will that bring us?

Last year members were quite skeptical of cloud computing and SaaS; this year they understand that there are real benefits and the risks can be managed. Last years meeting there was a lot of concern and unwillingness to trust Plant data to “the Cloud”.  This year, there was more concern about which cloud, and how to keep running if there is network interruption from a backhoe cutting through the T1 line.  (hey, it happens)

Another hot topic this year was around augmented reality – previous thoughts that it was “just a gimmick” gave way to some wows about how useful it could be. If we could project a model of an proposed design atop what is really there, say on an ipad right there in the construction site – wouldn’t that rock as a communication tool?

Still synthesizing the feedback and organizing my notes. So much to think about, my brain is fried. Yet at the same time energized by the interesting things to come.

Step 1 – Get your Autodesk ID

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, hasn’t it? (Sorry! Mommyhood takes all ones free time – who knew?)  We have some exciting things going on at Autodesk, and moreover in the Plant group, so I am motivated to post.  Actually, we always have interesting things going on – but these I can actually talk about.

About a month ago Autodesk launched Autodesk Cloud Documents. This is a cloud storage service with 1GB free storage (3 GB if you are on subscription). 

Store, Share, View.  Extend your desktop. Advance the way you work. Nice tagline, no?

There are a number of interesting things that are happening with this and other cloud services. How can you participate? Step 1 to use Autodesk Cloud – get a Autodesk ID.

Here’s how:

Starting at https://documents.cloud.autodesk.com/Landing, pick the big blue sign in button. 

From here, pick the link Need an Autodesk ID?  Then fill out the presented form – which simply asks for your name & email in order to create the ID.

That’s it – you now should be able to login into the Autodesk Cloud. 

Go ahead, Store, Share, View – and keep your eyes open – more is coming soon!

Process Industry Practice (PIP) Spec now available

We continue to post more and more specs and catalogs on Plant Exchange. This content is free for download and use in AutoCAD Plant 3D. Recently the Plant Content team announced the update of the Process Industry Practices (PIP) specs content pack. This content pack contains a total of 92 (!!!) PIP specs for Carbon, Stainless, and Alloy steel from class 150 to 1500. This allows users to directly download the specs and use them with their project with minimal tweaks.

Content packs Link: http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=plant_content_packs

Readme Link: http://autocad.autodesk.com/ama/orig/plant/README-PIP_Specs_added.pdf

For more details on the Piping material specification, please visit www.pip.org.

Once again, thank you Plant Content Team!

Back in the Saddle

I really wanted my first blog post back to be something significant, full of monumental announcements written in a witty engaging style. But after two weeks back, and a calendar that has already filled up, Autodesk policy against un-release product announcements, and an pint-sized office assistant who demands attention, well, it has been difficult to be witty about anything longer than a tweet. 

Today, the best I can do today for witty is to forward along this:

The team has been busy these past months, of course. I’d recommend you check out Plant Exchange for the latest happenings. In particular, we have an ever growing list of content packs and an active discussion forum, among other plant topics of interest.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their congratulations on my new arrival. She’s 3 months old now - we’re doing well.  We had a fun Easter and now looking forward to a fun Queensday tomorrow.  We even have new orange hats!

If you haven't already heard, the AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011 hotfix 1 and AutoCAD P&ID 2011 hotfix 1 are now available. For information about the hotfixes and what they include, visit:

http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=servicepacks

Thanks!