dsviewer and everything Google does

It's been a while since I'd needed to use the command, but, the other day a part-time user in the office was aggravated about being able to tell where on our campus he was, because he needed to be zoomed in really close to see the level of detail he needed... (his monitor is much smaller than mine, and he doesn't have a scroll-wheel mouse). I knew there was a command which gave you an aerial view of your drawing, but, I'll admit that I had to ask some friends from the adesk discussion groups what the actual command name was: Dsviewer
Which of course, goes to show what a command line junkie I am that it didn't occur to me to look under the View menu for 'Aerial View' until the following day ~bangs head against wall~

Do you know everything that Google does?
Search the text of books, research papers, for videos, search blogs, newsgroups and images, keep a wishlist with froogle or find maps and news... this would be a good page to bookmark.

AUGI Annual Salary Survey

Salary Survey 2005


AUGI does it again! They are out to help their membership, not just to see if your pay is comparable to that of your peers, but, also as a tool to determine which fields and job titles have the most potential for growth or future job openings.

AUGIworld – Jan/Feb 2006 http://www.augi.com/images/uploads/surveys/salarysurvey2005.pdf

The salary survey results are online! This year we had twice as many respondents as in past years, and I’ve also made it my personal (yet unpaid) mission to offer more by way of information, hence the new and separate page under the survey results on augi.com.

I’ve put an FAQ sheet up, so be sure to read that before you send me a question. This contains the information asked for on last year’s survey as well as questions collected by the survey manager over the past two years (yes, I know there’s at least one spelling error, I’ll fix it soon, I promise).

Next there is a ‘Fast Stats’ document, which currently lists the average salary per industy, listed from high to low (mining to interior design). Also lists the average raise this year per industry. And for those forward-thinkers (students looking for a field, or those wishing to gain further education to move to a more lucrative field), I’ve included the percentage of each industry approaching retirement age. This document will be updated with additional information soon, so be sure to check back in on it.

And (since I’ve heard many relative newbies complaining about their pay), I’ve also listed the average pay per years of experience. There are sizeable differences based on how long you’ve been working, no matter your level of expertise, so hang in there another 2-4 years. ;)

There is also a new section for breakdowns by industry, which I hope you will find helpful. And a comparison of male and female results (just to point out, women with approximately the same amount of experience will make 12.6% less in salary, but, have better benefits and work fewer hours).

I do realize these things also change based on geography, but, please keep in mind that while 6,000+ responses sounds like a lot, they are split between 25 industries and dozens of countries. As always, I hope for more people to participate next year so that we can get a little more specific while still keeping the numbers meaningful.

I’m planning on writing an article for hotnews based on results for the salary survey, I’ll post here when I do. And, yes, to have repeated access to these results (which should ONLY be hosted on the AUGI site, so no downloading them and posting them to your own site), you’ll need to be an AUGI member, but, it’s free so why not?

Becoming an AUGI member will also open up other resources to you, as well… the AUGI forums are tech-support heaven and the ATP is a free, online training program taught by the best and the brightest, the AUGI exchange is a place where you can get all sorts of nifty routines created by the AUGI gurus (my favorite is ‘flatten’ lisp, search for it, it’s way better than the express tool), as well as publications such as AUGIworld and Hotnews, and early registration to AU and CAD Camp, oh, and not to forget, a majority of the course handouts from past AU’s.

Or, don’t pay any attention to all of that great stuff, but, pop by once a year to take the salary survey. ~shrug~

Also, keep in mind Robert Green’s CAD Manager Survey, elaborating on his findings orginally published in the November 2005 issue of CADalyst. His survey focuses on management only, and he’s able to elaborate on things specific to that market, such as software used and how many people you supervise. There is also a salary survey conducted by the AIA.

New Email Address for me

Alright, within the next couple of weeks, my icadc.com email address will be disappearing. Please direct any future correspondence to mstonegatewayaug@yahoo.com or, if it is an emergency, and I've given it to you, feel free to send me a message at my work account.

Thank you and happy cadding.

oh, don't forget about QSELECT... lol... not to beat this one to death, but, I've introduced yet another buddy to the tool he never knew existed. Have fun with it... or, just keep from repeating yourself too much.

Looking for a Large-format Multi-function?

I just got the go-ahead for this, I'd been asking for a scanner for a while, and my boss says we should go for a multi-function.

I am leaning toward the hp DesignJet 4500 scanner. It looks like it can do all sorts of nice things.
I did a search on the autodesk newgroup's hardware forum but, the initial search came up with posts 2-3 years old, and an expanded search comes up with too much junk to read through. I tried doing a search for CADalyst's lab reviews, but, could only find scanners or printers.

I'm not really concerned about space, just about ease of use. I'd happily accept any opinions from people who have purchased and used this type of system.

FMDesktop and Autodesk

http://www.appliedspatial.com/
Wow, just heard about this. Autodesk has acquired FMDesktop and merged it into their Building Solutions Division. Autodesk will support existing users and honor subscription agreements. Bob Fahlin and Dusty Smith will be working in the BSD now, too.

If you are an existing FMDesktop customer, you can check out the FAQ on their site. For those who are not currently customers, you can purchase from resellers listed here for now.

I am excited about this acquisition as it's an even more overt support from Autodesk for Facilities Management. Not everyone will like the idea of big old autodesk taking over another company, but, for lifecycle and interoperability issues, I'd rather we got something from Autodesk themselves.

I had a wonderful Christmas and am off to a great start in the New Year! and I hope the same for you.

Autocad Book, Salary Survey, CAD Standards and Happy New Year

Well, I've been a little slim on tips and tricks here lately, but, I've been understandably busy.

I'm going to be offline for about a week, so expect silence here.

I did want to highlight a couple of things so you aren't totally without technical content...

Read any good books lately?
Ever notice the 'chapter' setup on the Autocad Community Forums?
Pick a topic and skim through to brush up on certain features such as:
Frequently Asked Questions, General, 3d, Fields, Plotting, Sheet Set Manager, General 2006, Dynamic Blocks, Tables and CUI Menus.

Salary Survey Results
Keep an eye out on next month's AUGIworld, then hop up to the AUGI site to get more detailed information.

Don't We All Love CAD Standards?
We recently added a CAD Standards forum to the AUGI site, and we've already had 61 topics added pertaining to CAD and drafting standards. Quite a few of those threads are started to gauge others' procedures. It's always nice to know what works for our peers to evaluate our own processes and understand one anothers' preferences.

The forums in general have also been recently reorganized, and in my opinion are set up a bit more intuitively. Many props to those guys who work behind the scenes and balance our requests and preferences with practicality and universal usibility.

I'm off to finish up a few things right now.

Made many fabulous memories with my 2 year old, as this was his first Christmas really getting into things. I experienced a Christmas miracle in that I picked all food that my mother would actually eat. ;) She and my sister are really picky, but, I always do the cooking anyway. A great time was had by all, my gingerbread how wasn't constructed according to specs, but, it did come out looking quite good anyway, much better than last year's. I'll try to post a pic, as I'm very proud. lol.

Happy (and SAFE) New Year's celebration to all.

Don't dock that palette...

I don't remember where I first heard this, but, it stuck in the back of my mind til I needed it...
I am working with my properties palette open, and I have my SSM up as well... I like to keep them both on the left side of the screen... I don't need to see all of my properties, just a couple, but, I'd like my SSM up without squishing both of them by docking them on the same side.

So, with my properties docked and my SSM floating, I grab the bar on the SSM and drag to the left... with the CTRL key held down, which prevents the palette from docking...

(also, you can right click on the palette, and uncheck 'allow docking' but, if it's only a temp thing, I like the use of the CTRL key)

Merry Christmas!

AU mainstage rundown, Blog Survey, PDF of 2006 System Variables

Take a blog survey from Autodesk

See a rundown of AU's mainstage presentation and download a video

I posted a pdf of all of the 2006 system variables and their switches in the Autodesk Newsgroups.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays. All the blessings you and your family deserve in the coming year.

Quick Navigation Tip and Response Request to GAUG Members at AU

I took Donnia Tabor-Hanson's AUGI Tips and Tricks class at AU and it was fabulous!
Jen Leamy (aka augi CADKitty and ATP Recruiter) suggested a tip about qselect, and I asked if I could say something about it, hopped up on stage and mentioned one of my favorite uses for qselect...
I have some pretty big floor plans, and sometimes I am asked for measurements or other information of a specific room, and rather than zoom in close enough to read the numbers and pan around until I find it... I use a combination of qselect and zoom to object...
Let's assume I know the exact room number, Qselect > Object Type: Text (or Mtext) > Properties: Contents > Operator: =Equals > Value: 4401 (or whatever your number is) > OK
so, somewhere on that drawing, that room number has been selected, so you can hit 'Z' 'O' (for Zoom to Object) which will take you right to the room that you are looking for.
Enjoy!

Also, I sent out a notice today to all of the members of the Gateway AUG asking who attended AU this year, but, I got a lot of bounces... if you attended Autodesk University in Orlando and DID NOT get that message, please send me an email as soon as possible at mstone@icadc.com.
Thank you!

2006 System Variables O-W

Continuing from previous posts, (part 3 of 3)

From the help files... 2006 system variables beginning with the letters 'O' through 'W':


OSNAPZ
Controls whether object snaps are automatically projected onto a plane parallel to the XY plane of the current UCS at the current elevation.
0
Osnap uses the Z-value of the specified point
1
Osnap substitutes the Z-value of the specified point with the elevation (ELEV) set for the current UCS

PREVIEWEFFECT
Specifies the visual effect used for previewing selection of objects.
0
Dashed lines (the default display for selected objects)
1
Thickened lines
2
Dashed and thickened lines

PREVIEWFILTER
Excludes specified object types from selection previewing. The setting is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the following values:
0
Excludes nothing
1
Excludes objects on locked layers
2
Excludes objects in xrefs
4
Excludes tables
8
Excludes multiline text objects
16
Excludes hatch objects
32
Excludes objects in groups

QCSTATE
Determines whether the QuickCalc calculator is active or not.
0
Not active
1
Active

RECOVERYMODE
Controls whether drawing recovery information is recorded after a system failure.
0
Recovery information is not recorded, the Drawing Recovery window does not display automatically after a system failure, and any recovery information in the system registry is removed
1
Recovery information is recorded, but the Drawing Recovery window does not display automatically after a system failure
2
Recovery information is recorded, and the Drawing Recovery window displays automatically in the next session after a system failure

SELECTIONAREA
Controls the display of effects for selection areas. Selection areas are created by the Window, Crossing, WPolygon, and CPolygon options of SELECT.
0
Off
1
On

SELECTIONAREAOPACITY
Controls the transparency of the selection area during window and crossing selection. The valid range is 0 to 100. The lower the setting, the more transparent the area. A value of 100 makes the area opaque. The SELECTIONAREA system variable must be on.

SELECTIONPREVIEW
Controls the display of selection previewing. Objects are highlighted when the pickbox cursor rolls over them. This selection previewing indicates that the object would be selected if you clicked. The setting is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the following values:
0
Off
1
On when no commands are active
2
On when a command prompts for object selection

SHOWLAYERUSAGE
Displays icons in the Layer Properties Manager to indicate whether layers are in use. Setting this system variable to Off improves performance in the Layer Properties Manager.
0
Off
1
On

SSMPOLLTIME
Controls the time interval between automatic refreshes of the status data in a sheet set.
The SSMPOLLTIME timer sets the time in seconds between automatic refreshes of the status data of sheets in a sheet set. Valid values are 20-600. The SSMSHEETSTATUS system variable must be set to 2 for the timer to operate.

SSMSHEETSTATUS
Controls how the status data in a sheet set is refreshed.
The status data for sheets in the current sheet set includes whether a sheet is locked and whether a sheet is missing (or found in an unexpected location). This status data can be updated automatically for all sheets.
To refresh the sheet set manually, use the Refresh Sheet Status button on the Sheet List tab of the Sheet Set Manager.
0
Do not automatically refresh the status data in a sheet set
1
Refresh the status data when the sheet set is loaded or updated
2
In addition, refresh the status data at a time interval set by SSMPOLLTIME

TABLEINDICATOR
Controls the display of row numbers and column letters when the In-Place Text Editor is open for editing a table cell.
0
Off
1
On

TEMPOVERRIDES
Turns temporary override keys on and off. A temporary override key is a key that you can hold down to temporarily turn on or turn off one of the drawing aids that are set in the Drafting Settings dialog box; for example, Ortho mode, object snaps, or Polar mode.
0
Off
1
On

TOOLTIPMERGE
Combines drafting tooltips into a single tooltip. The appearance of the merged tooltip is controlled by the settings in the Tooltip Appearance dialog box.
0
Off
1
On

VTDURATION
Sets the duration of a smooth view transition, in milliseconds. The valid range is 0 to 5000. (initial value: 750)

VTENABLE
Controls when smooth view transitions are used. Smooth view transitions can be on or off for panning and zooming, for changes of view angle, or for scripts. The valid range is 0 to 7. (see help file for detailed table)

VTFPS
Sets the minimum speed of a smooth view transition, in frames per second. When a smooth view transition cannot maintain this speed, an instant transition is used. The valid range is 1.0 to 30.0. (initial value: 7.0)

WINDOWAREACOLOR
Controls the color of the transparent selection area during window selection. The valid range is 1 to 255. SELECTIONAREA must be on.

WSCURRENT
Returns the current workspace name in the command line interface and sets a workspace to current.