| LD Assistant Live Oct. 9th |
| Oct. 9 Roadshow: Hippotizer, and Pre-Visualization Tracks Added |
| By David Keene - It just keeps getting better–the day’s agenda for the Oct. 9th InfoComm/NewBay Media Rental & Staging Roadshow that will take place at the facilities of Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL (a suburb of Orlando). We’ve just added two presenters to the afternoon line-up: Chris Curran of TMB will demonstrate advanced video tools using the Green Hippo Hippotizer Video Server Platform–a piece of kit that can add a great deal of diversity to most shows and events, working with either projection or various LED screens. Also added: Live Event Design & Pre-Visualization, by Kevin Denzel, Technical Director at Swank Audio Visual, Southern Division, who will present samples of his work using LD Assistant, with a focus on CAD and packaging workflow. We’ve got a high-powered panel line-up that includes LMG, Clair Brothers, Swank, and more. Click here to keep reading |
| LD Assistant's 2012 NEW Easy-To-Use Ribbon Menus |
 |
 |
| New Blocks In The User Area |
| Visit the user area for the latest blocks. Included are MAC Aurs, EPV762 MH and metric FD34 straight truss by user Jörgen Dohmen. |
  |
The Autodesk 123D Catch app for iPhone and iPad allows users to capture the world around them in 3D anytime, anywhere. The app features a capture window that includes familiar iOS camera controls to help manage focus and exposure while taking the photos. Users can then review the photo thumbnails before submitting them to the cloud where the photos are transformed into a 3D model. The Autodesk 123D apps tap into Autodesk’s rich 3D design software heritage for professionals yet are easy enough for everyone to experiment and enjoy the creative process and make their designs real. Click here to keep reading
One of the things we were most proud of when we launched AutoCAD WS was that the functionality we had included in the app might herald a new era of collaboration and sharing among CAD users. Until the arrival of AutoCAD WS, if you wanted to show your work to others, you had a number of options: You could send the original file to people and then try to manage the different versions you got back with different markups. You could save your drawing to another format, like PDF, and email that.
You could print out your drawing and deliver it via bicycle messenger. Or, for a truly read-only experience, you could invite people to come and look at your computer screen! Click here to keep reading
Here is a trick that I find many people are not aware of. It is possible to copy geometry from one AutoCAD drawing to another without using traditional copy and paste methods.
There are a couple of rules.
•Both drawings must be open in the editor
•
Here is how to do it.
1.Start by getting both drawings visible at the same time.
2.A quick way to do this is with the SYSWINDOWS command, then specify the Horizontal option.
3.Next, zoom both drawings to the approximate area that you need to see in each one.
4.Now, select the items to copy.
5.Using the left mouse button pick on a selected object (but NOT on a grip) and hold down the mouse button.
Click here to keep reading
AutoCAD® has been the standard in 2D design drafting for decades. It can also create 3D content, with 3D creation tools that have seen tremendous improvements since AutoCAD 2007. AutoCAD 2010 added mesh tools, the 2011 release added surface creation. AutoCAD 2012 improved on all of these. AutoCAD 2012 added a new tool called Base View. This tool will (nearly) instantly create two-dimensional views (or isometrics) of your 3D model. Before Base View came along, the process of creating projection or orthogonal views in AutoCAD was tedious and time consuming. Click here to keep reading
Many customers have noticed after moving to AutoCAD 2012 that the program will freeze after trying to do a Copy and Paste. The majority of the time this is happening in 2012 because of excessive layer filters in the file. Once these are cleaned out, Copy/Paste should work as expected. Click here to keep reading
Almost everyone needs to plot or print drawings. Here are some tips for working with layouts and plotting. Please leave a comment with your own tips so we can have a great plotting resource all in one place!
Working with layouts
1.To see what is on a layout tab without displaying it, hover your cursor over the tab to see a preview.
2.To quickly rename a layout tab, just double-click , type the new name and press Enter.
3.Re-order a layout tab by dragging it left or right.
4.To move through layouts using the keyboard, press Ctrl + Page Down (to move right) or Ctrl + Page Up (to move left).
5.To quickly create a configuration of floating viewports on a layout, use the VPORTS command. In the Viewports dialog box that opens, choose a configuration and click OK.
6.To go into model space within a viewport on a layout, double-click inside the viewport. You can then draw and edit. To return to paper space, double-click outside the viewport.
7.To cycle from viewport to viewport while in model space, press Ctrl + R.
8.To set the scale for a viewport, select its border and open the Properties palette. From the Standard Scale drop-down, choose one of the standard scales (or use the Custom Scale text box to specify a custom scale).
9.Once you have set the scale, you should lock the viewport. A quick way is to click the Lock/Unlock button on the status bar, next to the VP Scale pop-up list. (You can also use the Properties palette.) Click her to keep reading
In this edition of the CADLearning Instructor Series, AutoCAD experts Matt Murphy and David Cohn discuss how to use classic toolbars with the ribbon in AutoCAD 2012. Click here to view the YouTube movie
System Features
Large and unusual-looking tower cases are popular among desktop workstations of late, and this Xi MTower PCIe workstation is a prime example. The all-black CM Storm Trooper Quiet High Ventilation tower measures 9.5" x 23.75" x 22.5" (WxHxD) — the largest we've seen in Cadalyst Labs — and is visually striking, with a motif suggestive of Star Wars. As its name implies, it is quiet, despite the fact that it is cooled by three dedicated fans, including one monster fan (7.5" diameter) on top. All six sides of the tower feature metal mesh for ventilation. A sturdy, integrated handle lets you get a firm grip on this 44-lb unit. At the heart of the Xi MTower PCIe sits an Intel i5 2500K quad-core processor (3.3 GHz; 6-MB L3 cache) overclocked to 4.5 GHz. A Corsair silent, sealed water-cooling system, which includes its own fan and mini-radiator, keeps the CPU cool. In keeping with its large case, the Xi MTower PCIe includes a Corsair TX850 Ultra-Quiet power supply (minimum 80% efficiency). The whopping 850 watts of power it provides should handle virtually any add-ons you might require. Click here to keep reading
Requirements for 2D Drafting • Microsoft® Windows® 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP3 or later) • For Windows 7: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology • For Windows XP: Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology • 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended) • 6 GB free disk space for installation • 1,024 x 768 display resolution with true color (1,600 x 1,050 with true color recommended) • Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later web browser.
Requirements for 3D Modeling • Pentium 4 or Athlon processor, 3 GHz or greater or Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz or greater • 4 GB RAM or more • 1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter 256 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, OpenGL, Microsoft® Direct3D®-capable workstation-class graphics card.
Standard Rendering Requirements • 4 to 6 GB RAM
High-End Rendering Requirements • Depending on the size of drawing from 6 to 12 GB RAM may be needed.