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Slight improvement in discussion group search

October 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm » Comments (2)

While almost all of the problems with the Autodesk discussion groups remain, there are some signs of movement in one area at least. The search facility, which until recently refused to find anything from before the update, now finds some earlier posts.
It would appear that some kind of search index is very slowly being built, but [...]



AutoCAD performance and productivity

October 6th, 2008 at 3:37 pm » Comments (7)

I have closed the performance and productivity polls as described in my posts here and here, and the results can be seen in the Polls Archive. As with most of the other polls I’ve run here, the distribution of votes has not changed greatly after the first few days.
It is clear from the very different voting patterns in [...]



The John Walker interview, and other observations

October 4th, 2008 at 9:22 pm » Comments (1)

I have been thoroughly enjoying Kean Walmsley’s interview of Autodesk co-founder John Walker, which he has now finished. Kean’s link to part 4 is currently broken (edit: now fixed) and that broken link has been picked up by others (edit: also fixed in Between The Lines), so here are the correct links: Part 1, Part [...]



Here’s a couple I didn’t mention earlier

October 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm » Comments (0)

The Autodesk discussion group editor inserts spaces into URLs longer than a certain size (about 70 characters, it seems). It will insert spaces in one place for the URL that it says is displayed on the screen, in another place for the URL that’s actually invoked when clicked, and sometimes in even more places on [...]



Discussion group search - partial workaround

October 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 am » Comments (2)

The Autodesk discussion group search facility is still impersonating an industrial suction pump in a puddle. It sucks very hard and produces little useful output. In addition to the problems already mentioned ad nauseam (apparently there have never been any posts made containing the word “AutoCAD”, but 34 have been made in the past 90 [...]



How not to do a web update

October 1st, 2008 at 3:44 pm » Comments (4)

If you’re a major company and your various web-based services have evolved over time, you may have a proliferation of user IDs and some other issues to tidy up. You may be tempted to have a major overhaul.
If you think your reputation among your customers isn’t low enough and you desperately want this update to be [...]



Autodesk on-line survey

September 27th, 2008 at 9:58 pm » Comments (0)

As posted on Between the Lines, there is an Autodesk survey you may wish to complete in an attempt to have some kind of influence over AutoCAD’s future direction. Among other things, you will be asked specific questions about these issues:

Interoperability
Batch Processing in AutoCAD
Custom Linetype Creator
Custom Hatch Creator
Transparent Fills

You will also be asked to rank [...]



Autodesk discussion group links - feedback and bookmarks

September 26th, 2008 at 12:36 pm » Comments (1)

The Autodesk discussion groups are currently working. They are also still irresponsibly displaying people’s email addresses as visible user names. If you’ve posted to the discussion groups in the past, I suggest you check to see if your email address is out there for the spambots to pick up.
There is now a feedback form for [...]



Autodesk, please turn the discussion groups off NOW

September 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pm » Comments (3)

You’re exposing some people’s email addresses as user names. Not mine, as far as I can tell, but it’s hard to say for sure because the search is broken. Anyway, this is very obviously A Bad Thing and you should not be allowing the site to be publicly visible that state.



Autodesk discussion group alternatives

September 25th, 2008 at 10:28 am » Comments (3)

As I’m typing this, the Autodesk discussion groups are down for maintenance again. Let’s hope that when they come back up, some of the problems are fixed.
In the meantime, if you’re an AutoCAD user and have something to ask or say, where can you go? Here are a few suggestions.

I like the AUGI forums. [...]



More Autodesk discussion group angst

September 24th, 2008 at 4:14 pm » Comments (3)

When you start using the new AutoCAD discussion groups, in addition to the broken search facility, you will have other issues to deal with. There’s a new editor with lots of features and lots of problems. Quoting formatted messages results in a mess. Switching from one tab to another messes up your text. Submitting your [...]



Autodesk newsgroup changes

September 24th, 2008 at 10:45 am » Comments (0)

As I mentioned yesterday, the Autodesk newsgroups have been overhauled. After spending yesterday going up and down like a whore’s drawers*, the site is now up, albeit still not 100% of the time. At this stage, newsreader users appear to be generally unaffected by negative issues, which is a pleasant surprise.
The space efficiency for Web [...]



Some Autodesk web stuff now coming back on line

September 23rd, 2008 at 11:57 am » Comments (0)

Right now, the Autodesk Subscription site is back up, although some people are experiencing problems. As an Aussie, I approve of the new Subscription slogan that starts with “No Worries”, even if it’s not yet accurate. Product Activation is requesting a logon, but I haven’t gone any further than that, so it may or may [...]



Lots of Autodesk web stuff broken right now

September 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm » Comments (5)

Autodesk is in the middle of a big site overhaul at the moment, with many services unavailable. For example, attempting to log into Subscription Support gives me this:
The Subscription Center is currently undergoing maintenance. You will not be able to access the Subscription Center during this time.
Support Request is also undergoing maintenance. Currently, you are [...]



I like Adobe a lot more now

September 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am » Comments (2)

If you haven’t found the Dear Adobe gripe site yet, have a look. Some of the comments are moronic, most are strongly worded, some are sarcastic, and some are just precious. How has Adobe reacted to being publicly blasted like this? Very well. Read what John Nack, Adobe’s Photoshop Principal Product Manager, has to say [...]



Matt Stein’s Blog and Microsoft’s Mojave Marketing

September 1st, 2008 at 3:34 pm » Comments (1)

Thanks to Shaan Hurley for revealing to the wider world the existence of Ribbon Man Matt Stein’s blog. I’m not sure it’s appropriate for a blogging n00b like myself to welcome somebody with a blog four years older than his own, but I’m going to do it anyway. Welcome, Matt (no pun intended).
Some of Matt’s [...]



Two “new” Autodesk products

August 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am » Comments (1)

Autodesk has announced two “new” products, Stitcher Unlimited 2009 and ImageModeler 2009. Stitcher Unlimited (US$350, Windows and Mac) is for patching photographs to generate panoramic images that can be used in rendering and other virtual-world applications. ImageModeler ($US995, Windows only) generates 3D models from 2D images. Both products are carry-overs from Autodesk’s purchase of REALVIZ.
Neither [...]



How long should the AutoCAD release cycle be?

July 30th, 2008 at 11:43 am » Comments (1)

I’ve just added a poll asking this question. Actually, the poll question is rather longer than that, because I want to make it as unambiguous as possible. Other polls I’ve seen on this subject, including ones by Autodesk and Cadalyst, have always left room for speculation about what a given answer would actually mean. Sometimes, [...]



Autodesk and Bentley - kiss, kiss!

July 11th, 2008 at 9:29 pm » Comments (1)

OK, so I’m a long way from being the first to comment on this, but maybe I’ll be the last? Don’t count on it. In the unlikely event that this is the only CAD blog you ever read, you may be unaware that Autodesk and Bentley have decided to swap code so their respective products [...]



Autodesk’s 12-month release cycle - Is it harmful?

July 4th, 2008 at 4:09 pm » Comments (9)

I’ve opened a poll asking for your opinion about whether the 12-month release cycle of AutoCAD and its variants is harmful to the quality of the software that Autodesk is providing. I won’t express my own opinion on this subject here yet, but will do so later, once the poll is closed. In the meantime, [...]



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