Previews for Autodesk University 2016

September is here and fall is approaching fast in Michigan where I live. This is the time of year where my early mornings and weekends are spent preparing for Autodesk University. This year marks the 5^th year that I will be speaking at the conference in Las Vegas. I am teaching 3 classes, one of which is a hands-on-lab. This year I have decided to give you a sneak peek at what I have planned. Even though the conference is not for two months, now is the time to get ready, practice, and provide a good presentation to my fellow CAD Professionals.

Below please find a brief description of my classes, a link to the Autodesk University, and a preview of what to except this year.

Advanced Topics Using the Sheet Set Manager in AutoCAD: No Sheet! I am teaching sheet sets again. What do you prefer %%U or ALT+160 for blank fields?  The Sheet View and Model View tabs?  I believe that the Sheet Set Manager in AutoCAD is one of the most productive tools introduced and has been in the software for over 10 years. The SSM continues to be avoided by many CAD users. I believe this is mainly due to not giving it a try or believing it is not necessary for the type of work you do. Take this class and you will see the power behind this great design tool.

Pumping Up Productivity in the LAB with Macros, One Character at a Time: Taking macros to the lab. Open up the the CUI (Customized User Interface) in AutoCAD and touch a command then look at the pane to the lower right. Go through the list of commands and look at the Macro that controls what the command does. Think about altering the macro, adding additional commands and putting it to work for you. If you want to meet some of the best CAD people in the business; I have 3 lab assistants who could teach this class by themselves.

Rick Ellis – Based out of Portland, Oregon Rick is the President of Cadapult Software Solutions. I have to say that most of what I know in Civil 3D I have learned from Rick and his books.

R.K. McSwain –From Houston, Texas comes R.K. who is the owner of CADPancea.com and has a secret identity of Hot tip Harry.

Paul Munford– All the way from the Dorchester, Dorset, England comes Paul the owner of  The CAD Setter Out.com

All 3 of my assistants are well respected people in the industry and will be speaking at AU this year. Look them up today! We learn from each other and these 3 guys have taught me so much over the years from their books and blog posts. Don’t be shy and look them up while at AU and say hello to each of them, you will not regret it.

CSI: CAD Standards Implementation: The new kid to the party. Over the past year I have been working on creating standards and a standard approach to auditing and checking CAD files. This tool can prove to be very efficient in AutoCAD. I am very excited to explore this further and present at AU. We are going to create our .dws (standards file) and compare that to several non-compliance drawings and demonstrate how effective we can be.

That’s all for now!  Enjoy your weekend and look for me news and information from me as the conference approaches. I always look forward to seeing some friends and meeting new people at the conference.

See you all in Vegas at Autodesk University 2016 – Sam