Year: <span>2016</span>

Year: 2016

Autodesk, Win

Props to Autodesk for supporting education

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I have to raise a glass to Autodesk for supporting students and educators by making its software available free. Further props are due for removing the virus-like educational watermark. A further program that Autodesk supports is the FIRST robotics competition series, helping to develop young people into technology leaders; a member of my family has benefited directly from that. Credit where credit is due, Autodesk deserves praise for supporting education. Of course, Autodesk will ultimately benefit from this support, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Doing good and being smart are not mutually exclusive.

AutoCAD 2017, Autodesk, Customer Service, Rant, Rental, Subscription

Autodesk excludes maintenance customers from AutoCAD 2017.1 update (Edit: actually, it doesn’t)

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Edit: it turns out that when Autodesk said this was subscription-only, that wasn’t true. See my later post for details. A mid-term update containing a bunch of useful stuff, AutoCAD 2017.1 is the first update made available exclusively to subscription customers (renters). I’d love to tell you about how great this update is, but I can’t because I’m not allowed to use it. If you’ve been a loyal customer of Autodesk for 30 years and have paid countless thousands for your software, upgrades and Subscription (now called maintenance) over those years, even if you are right now still paying maintenance …

Web Stuff

Ah, the joys of web-driven updates

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A recent update to the theme I was running on this site caused all sorts of layout issues. I switched to a different theme and appear to have most of it working OK, but expect a few tweaks to appearance over the next day or so. If you notice something not working or something not to your liking, please let me know in the comments.

AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Autodesk, BricsCAD, Bricsys, Interoperability, LISP

Any BricsCAD users out there? v.2016

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Back in 2010 I asked the question Any BricsCAD users out there? and there were a few of you who had tried to replace AutoCAD with BricsCAD. Most who responded had made the change successfully, others not so much. Six years on, the situation is different. The fact that you can’t buy a permanent AutoCAD license any more has prompted some Autodesk customers to look more seriously at alternative vendors who do provide that option. Bricsys is one of those vendors, and their DWG-based AutoCAD alternative BricsCAD has improved way more rapidly than AutoCAD over the same time period. No, …

Autodesk, Bentley, Rental, Spin, Subscription, Win

Battle of the Bullshit part 4 – Bentley tells the truth

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Behold, the latest episode in the Autodesk versus Bentley PR battle over perpetual licenses versus rental! Bentley has issued a response to Autodesk’s response to Bentley’s response to Autodesk’s move to all-rental software. This is entitled Bentley Responds to Autodesk – You Have a Choice. I have already dissected Bentley’s and Autodesk’s previous responses and found neither of them entirely truthful. So, how does the latest effort from Bentley shape up? Very well. It’s pretty much spot-on for accuracy. There’s nothing that could be described as disingenuous, misleading, or even exaggerated. I encourage you to read it and make up …

Advertising, Autodesk, Rental, Subscription

When is a global offer not a global offer?

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Confusion reigned yesterday when my post on Autodesk’s “FY17 Q3 Global Field Promotion” assumed that Global meant what it said, and the offer made to me in Australia was the same as in other countries. That was a mistaken assumption, and I have updated the post to reflect that; my apologies for the confusion. That said, it was a not entirely unreasonable assumption given the superficial similarity between offers worldwide and the following in Autodesk’s fine print in multiple global Autodesk sites: Offer available from 7 August 2016 through 21 October 2016 worldwide with the exception of the Crimean Peninsula …

AutoCAD, Autodesk, Rental

Autodesk’s mixed rental and perpetual license offer

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If you’re on Autodesk’s mailing list you have no doubt been receiving increasingly desperate offers aimed at tempting you into renting your software. None of those have really been worth a mention, but the latest Autodesk FY17 Q3 Global Field Promotion for Asia Pacific contains something noteworthy. It acknowledges the value of perpetual licenses and allows you to retain yours. Don’t get too excited though, it does not apply in other regions and only allows you to retain your old  license. Anything new is still rental-only. Here’s how the offer works. Let’s say you have an old copy of AutoCAD …

Autodesk, Customer Service, Polls, Rental, Thoughts

How do I know most Autodesk customers don’t want rental?

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In a recent comment, I was asked how I know Autodesk’s move to all-rental is the opposite of what customers want. Have I conducted research? This is an excellent question and deserves a proper answer. So how do  I know this? Why am I so convinced? There are several independent sources of evidence, one bit of critical thinking and one undeniable proof. They all point in the same direction. First, a bit of evidence. There are many public places on the Internet where this issue has been discussed, including Autodesk’s own discussion groups. The viewpoints expressed everywhere are overwhelmingly against …

Autodesk, Comments, Fail, Rental

Disaster in progress – Getting it wrong

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No, not Autodesk getting it wrong, me  getting it wrong. In recent posts, I supported my arguments against Autodesk’s move to all-rental software with faulty evidence. As pointed out to me by several commenters, I completely failed to take deferred revenue into account. I would like to sincerely thank those who pointed out my error.* Although I included a disclaimer about not being a financial analyst, I should have gone further and simply not ventured into areas I am ill-qualified to cover. I got it wrong. I therefore offer unreserved apologies to Autodesk and my readers. What now? I have …

Autodesk, Fail, Rental, Spin, Subscription

Disaster in progress – Autodesk continues to lose heavily

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This post originally contained assertions about Autodesk’s financials that were based on flawed understanding, and has been removed. It’s not really possible to delete things from the Internet, so if you ever want to relive the joy of seeing me get things spectacularly wrong, feel free to use the Internet Archive to do so.

3D, Civil 3D, Tip

Draping images over surfaces in Civil 3D

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Having recently overcome various difficulties to successfully drape an image over a surface in Civil 3D, it may be useful to pass on a few points I have learned. There are various posts and videos out there that helpfully go through this process, but some of them (including Autodesk sources) contain information that is irrelevant or just plain wrong, and none of them contained all  of the information I needed to complete the task. I used Civil 3D 2015 for this, but the principles apply to all recent releases. Here is the basic sequence required: In the drawing containing the …

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2017, Customisation, Other Blogs, Tip

Restoring the Classic workspace in AutoCAD 2015, 2016 and 2017, etc.

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One of the more common queries on my putting things back to “normal” posts is how to restore the AutoCAD Classic workspace in those releases where it is absent. Since Autodesk removed that workspace it has been too involved a process to fully describe how to do it in the context of my post. In the 2017 version of that post I’ve added a useful link, but as that’s a massive post and the link is buried near the end of it, this may have escaped your attention. Here’s the link to Brazilian AutoCAD expert Luciana Klein’s step-by-step guide. It’s for AutoCAD …

Autodesk, Bentley, BIM, Other Autodesk Products, Other Products, Other Sites, Rental, Spin

Battle of the Bullshit part 3 – Beyond Bentley

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Somebody at Autodesk really does seem to have it in for Bentley right now. I thought they were friends? Oh well, times change. Autodesk has launched a campaign to promote its BIM offerings for transportation projects and is promoting this via emails to existing customers, all of which is fair enough. It’s suggesting BIM is a better tool than traditional CAD for such projects. Another reasonable claim, so it’s appropriate for us to evaluate the arguments and examine the options. What did Autodesk decide to call its campaign? Beyond AutoCAD? Beyond CAD? To BIM and Beyond? None of the above. …

Autodesk, Bentley, Bricsys, Customer Service, Fail, Other Blogs, Rant, Rental, Spin, Subscription, Thoughts

Battle of the Bullshit part 2 – Autodesk’s sophistry

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In my last post, I gave Bentley a well-deserved slap for, er, saying things that perhaps weren’t entirely factual. Now it’s Autodesk’s turn. What’s this about? Carl White, Senior Director of Business Models at Autodesk, wrote a blog post Not so fast Bentley: Separating fact from fiction responding to statements made by Bentley in its press release Bentley Announces Autodesk License Upgrade Program. Some of Carl’s observations on Bentley’s claims were perfectly valid, but unfortunately he went beyond that and wrote a few more things – “facts” – where he’s on shakier ground. Let’s examine Carl’s interpretation of reality, shall we? …

Autodesk, Bentley, Customer Service, Fail, Other Blogs, Rant, Rental, Spin, Subscription, Thoughts

Battle of the Bullshit part 1 – Bentley’s terminological inexactitudes

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I note with interest the blog post Not so fast Bentley: Separating fact from fiction by Carl White, Senior Director of Business Models at Autodesk. In this, he responds to statements made by Bentley in its press release Bentley Announces Autodesk License Upgrade Program, stating: Earlier this week, Bentley announced an “upgrade program” for Autodesk customers. We found the offer to be disingenuous and mischaracterizes what Autodesk offers our customers. OK, let’s have a look at what Carl is complaining about. Here’s one Bentley statement that could be considered questionable: For consideration by owners of Autodesk perpetual licenses facing Autodesk’s imminent deadline for …

AutoCAD 2017, Bug, CAD Management, Customer Service, Customisation, Development, Fail, Other Autodesk Products, Other Blogs

Hotfix for AutoCAD 2017 SP1 Autoloader bug

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As reported earlier, AutoCAD 2017 SP1 breaks third-party add-ins that use the officially approved Autoloader mechanism. Autodesk is to be commended for acting quickly to produce a hotfix for this. In order to make this hotfix available quickly, Autodesk has taken the very unusual step of allowing a third party to distribute it. See this post from Jimmy Bergmark, who pointed out the bug in the first place. Kudos to whoever at Autodesk made the call to think outside the box to do this. It’s a very un-Autodesk Corporate thing to do, and particularly commendable for that very reason. It’s …

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2017, Autodesk, CAD Management, Customer Service, Development, Fail, Nostalgia, Other Blogs, Rant

AutoCAD 2017 Service Pack 1 is out but you probably don’t want to install it

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As reported by Jimmy Bergmark, AutoCAD 2017 SP1 will break add-ins that use Autodesk’s built-in autoloader mechanism. It looks like it’s a problem caused by third party applications, but it’s not. It’s entirely Autodesk’s fault. The only fix at this stage is to uninstall SP1. It’s astonishing that Autodesk would release a service pack like this, introducing a nasty bug that will break customers’ existing functionality. This reminds me of the comedy of errors that was AutoCAD Release 13 with its multitude of updates, many of which introduced new bugs as well as fixing others. AutoCAD 2017c4a, anyone? If you needed …

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2017, ClassicArray, Comments, Tip

AutoCAD 2017 – Putting things back to “normal”

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The most frequently accessed posts on this blog are the AutoCAD 201x – Putting things back to “normal” series. They also attract a lot of comments: Most Commented Posts AutoCAD 2013 – An Autodesk Help writer responds – 164 comments AutoCAD 2012 – Putting things back to “normal” – 158 comments AutoCAD 2011 – Putting things back to “normal” – 135 comments AutoCAD 2009 – Putting things back to “normal” – 121 comments AutoCAD 2010 – Putting things back to “normal” – 106 comments The last one of these I did was for AutoCAD 2012, so I guess it’s well …

AutoCAD, Autodesk, Customer Service, Other Autodesk Products, Subscription

Last chance to buy Autodesk software – should you take it?

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If, like me, you’ve been receiving increasingly eager Autodesk emails urging you to action, you’ll already be aware that Autodesk will end the sale of its last remaining perpetual license software lines on 31 July 2016. The End Time has already arrived for AutoCAD, so the only way you can now buy any form of AutoCAD perpetual license is as part of a Suite, and you must also commit to a maintenance plan. Of course, any Suite is substantially more expensive than AutoCAD, both in terms of initial cost and ongoing maintenance fees. However, if you only buy software and …

Comments, Polls, Web Stuff

Polls and comments

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As part of the site layout changes here, the polls were moved from the right sidebar to the left. The Polls Archive page remains unchanged. The new site layout is responsive, so if you’re using a narrow browser window (e.g. on a phone), the sidebars may be automatically suppressed. If so, you can still get at the current polls using this post. Feel free to use this post to comment on any aspect of these polls. From the main page (or search results) where the comments are not immediately visible, you can comment by clicking the number next to this …