In the Pipes

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.