Beyond the Paper

Free Autodesk Software for Students

 

The Autodesk Student Community was launched in 2006, with the idea of providing a place where students and faculty can download selected Autodesk software for free and where support materials can be found. The barrier to entry is a valid email address issued by a recognized university or school. As far as I can tell, there is no restriction on geographic location.

The student community may only be used by students. If you can prove you are a student you are entitled to the latest editions of almost all major Autodesk products. Recently, Autodesk unveiled their 2011 line of products and this time all products come with an extended 3-year license. At the time of this writing, more than 25 Autodesk products were available for free download.

All the students editions have the same features and capabilities as the retail edition, except for a watermark that appears over all finished work. This is to prevent their use in commercial work.

A selection of products that are on offer are:

AutoCAD
AutoCAD Civil 3D
AutoCAD Electrical
AutoCAD Inventor Professional Suite
Autodesk Algor Simulation Professional
Autodesk Alias Design
Autodesk Alias Automotive
Autodesk Alias Sketch
Autodesk Ecotect Analysis   
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Mudbox
Autodesk Revit Architecture
Autodesk Revit MEP
Autodesk Revit Structure
Autodesk Smoke
Autodesk Softimage
Autodesk 3ds Max
 
To get your free software, visit the Student Community registration page sign-up using the email address given to you by the University.

What's New with APIs in Autodesk Design Review 2011?

Design Review Software Engineer, Herbert He, mentions a few noteworthy changes to the 2011 Design Review APIs that aren't included in the current API documentation.

• New Animation Detection API
• New Lighting and Field of View Commands
• Moved APIs

New Animation Detection API
This new API enables you to detect if the 3D section as an animation section. This would be useful if the client code needs to control whether the animation commands are shown, or to provide some other feedback to the user based on the presence of animation.

EModelSection2.HasAnimation Property
Query whether the 3D section has animation.

Syntax
object.HasAnimation

Return Values
Return code Description
S_OK The property was retrieved successfully
E_INVALIDARG Invalid parameter passed
E_FAIL Current section is invalid

Remarks
If the 3D section has animation object, the value of the property is VARIANT_TRUE, else the value is VARIANT_FALSE.

New Lighting and Field of View Commands

Lighting Commands:
Two lighting commands were added in order to provide a more simplified lighting interface to the user (others were removed from the UI but are still available in the API). These new simplified lighting commands are available in the API.

1. NOLIGHTING
An additional possible value for EModelSectionType2.LightingOption, "No Light".
2. DEFAULTLIGHTING
An additional possible value for EModelSectionType2.LightingOption, "Default Light".

Field of View Commands:
Two field of view commands were added to allow the user to increase or decrease the field of view.

1. FOVWIDE
Only applicable to 3D sections, increase the value of field of view by 5 by default. For example:
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommand ("FOVWIDE");
   or
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommandEx ("FOVWIDE", 0);

2. FOVTELEPHOTO
Only applicable to 3D sections, decrease the value of field of view by 5 by default. For example:
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommand ("FOVTELEPHOTO");
   or
 CompositeViewer.ExecuteCommandEx("FOVTELEPHOTO", 0);

Moved APIs from the EPlotRenderer interface to the EPlotViewer interface

As a result of refactoring the Autodesk Design Review code base, all COM objects were removed from the EPlotRenderer module, relocating all EPlotRender APIs to the EPlotViewer module.

All existing code such as:

EPlotRenderer.IAdPage*
  and
 EPlotRenderer.CAdPage*

…needs to be changed to:
 EPlotViewer.IAdPage*
  and
 EPlotViewer.CAdPage*

Thanks for the update Herbert!

Embedding DWF Files: Do You Need New a CAB?

When embedding DWF files in a webpage, part of the embed code checks to see if the person viewing the webpage has Design Review installed on the computer. If not, the embed code automatically downloads and installs Design Review using a CAB file.

If you use this functionality, you may have noticed that the auto-installed CAB file hasn’t been updated recently. The embed code installs Design Review 2009, instead of the most recent version, Design Review 2011.

 
Using the Comments section below, please let us know:

1. How many of your customers are affected by this issue?
2. What revenue impact has this issue had to your company?
3. How important is an updated CAB file to your application?

As always, we appreciate your input!

Thank you.

Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D: 64-bit Version Released!

When we asked the question, “DWF Writer for 64bit??”, the response was very positive. Encouraged by that enthusiasm, we’re proud to announce that Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D is now available for these 64-bit versions of Windows:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 (Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium)
• Microsoft® Windows® Vista® (Enterprise, Business, Ultimate [SP1 or later])
• Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP2 or later)

As a system printer driver, you can select “Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D” as the printer to publish DWF files from many Windows programs, such as:

• Adobe® Acrobat® 9
• Bentley MicroStation V8i
• Google Chrome 5.0
• Microsoft® Excel® 2007, 2010
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 8
• Microsoft® PowerPoint® 2007, 2010
• Microsoft® Word 2007, 2010
• Mozilla Firefox™ 3.6.3

You may have noticed the “2D-ness” in the title of the Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D (64-bit) . Our customer research suggests that the DWF Writer is used primarily to publish 2D supporting design documentation. As a result, the 64-bit DWF Writer does not offer 3D support at this time. (Users of Autodesk programs, including AutoCAD-based products, Inventor and Revit, should use the built-in DWF publishing capabilities to create DWF files.) Also worth noting is that the 64-bit version is English-only.

Please download Autodesk DWF Writer for 2D (64-bit) and let us know what you think by adding your comments below. 

We look forward to your feedback!

Navisworks Manage 2011 Sectioning Tools

Autodesk Naviswork Manage 2011 enables you to turn on sectioning for the current viewpoint and to create cross sections of your model.

via blogs.rand.com

Disable AutoUpdate - Autodesk Design Review 2011

In some cases Design Review’s AutoUpdate feature may conflict with corporate firewall settings, causing the program to open very slowly. The Autodesk Design Review 2011 Installation Guide shows Administrators how to avoid this scenario, by preventing Design Review from checking for updates at install time.

Individuals who installed Design Review 2011 that are seeing this “slow start” behavior can also prevent checking for updates, by modifying two Design Review registry keys, InitialCheck and DoNotShowAgain. Changing the value data from 0 to 1 for each of these registry keys disables the AutoUpdates feature.

 
Figure 1: Modified registry keys for Design Review 2011 disables AutoUpdate on Windows XP.

The location of these registry keys depends on the computer’s operating system. We have listed the locations for the most common OSs here:

Windows XP 32-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Windows XP 64-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Wow6432Node\Autodesk\Designreview\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENR_USER\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Windows Vista/7 32-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AppDataLow\Software\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Windows Vista/7 64-bit
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AppDataLow\Software\Autodesk\Design Review\Settings\AutoUpdate

Note: It is recommended that you start the application at least once, else there is a good chance that the values of InitialCheck and DoNotShowAgain have not been created yet. If you decide to edit the registry prior to starting Autodesk Design Review 2010, you will have to create those keys manually.

Warning!
Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer operating system unusable. Microsoft has provided a wealth of critical information you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/support.
Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined in ARTICLE-ID: Q132332 "How to Back Up the Registry" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.

For network installs, Adminstrators can prevent Design Review 2011 from checking for updates by following the steps in the Autodesk Design Review 2011 Installation Guide.

Thank you.

Autodesk Design Review 2011 and Tablet PCs

When opening 3D DWF files on some less-powerful computers, Autodesk Design Review 2011 may stop responding, triggering a Customer Error Report. The issue is a known conflict between Design Review’s 3D rendering engine and an older, integrated graphics chipset from Intel. It seems more common on computers running Windows XP—most likely because those machines are older and are more likely to have the conflicting chipset.

Specifically, we’ve seen this behavior on Tablet PCs when trying to open 3D files from Autodesk Buzzsaw, to import 3D JT files, to embed 3D DWF files in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer, and when trying to change the display driver in Design Review 2011 in the Options dialog box.

If you experience this behavior, here’s the workaround.

1. Restart Design Review 2011.
2. In Design Review, click the application button > Options.
3. On the Model tab, in the View Settings group, from the Driver drop-down list, select Software (OpenGL)
4. Click OK.
    

Alternatively, you can disable the display adapter's hardware acceleration on the computer itself. If a solution is found, we’ll be sure to post it to this blog.

A word of "thanks" to Chris Blocher for writing the article for us.

Thank you.

Transparent Text May Not Print - Autodesk Design Review 2011

In Autodesk Design Review 2011, how to print transparent text isn’t very, well, transparent. A known issue in 2D drawings, transparent text may print to PDF, XPS, and paper as solid text.

For example, this drawing has a textual markup with 70% transparency. 

  
 
On output, the 70% transparency is ignored and the text prints as solid, obscuring the drawing.

Here’s the workaround to retaining the text’s transparency on output.

1. Apply the ADR_2011_Hotfix to Design Review 2011.
2. Start Design Review and open the 2D file with the transparent text.
3. Open the Print dialog box and click Advanced. The Advanced Print Options dialog box opens.
4. Under Pre-process Bitmaps, select Turn Data into a Bitmap Before Printing.
5. Click OK to apply the setting.
6. Click OK again to print the file.

The drawing’s transparent text will be retained.

Thank you.

Navisworks 2011 Video - What's New?

Check out this video which covers the new features and enhancements of Autodesk Navisworks 2011.

Feedback is welcome.

Thank you.

Autodesk Design Review 2011 - UI Video

Autodesk Design Review 2011 offers a familiar way to interact with your 2D and 3D DWF files. In this video, we'll tour the Design Review window.

Video Link

Thank you.