WorldCAD Access

My Tabletet MoI

At another blog, someone was hoping I'd report on what it's like to use MoI (the Rhino-like Moment of Inspiration 3D software) with my new HP TX1220 convertable notebook computer.

It's okay. Just.

The problem is not the software; it's that the concept of the TabletPC is flawed -- even if Bill Gates declared it would be the biggest selling PC by last year.

I love interacting directly with the screen, which is why I love my PalmPilot and have owned five since Dec 1994. But PalmPilots are everything that TabletPCs are not. Here are the problems with the TabletPC:

-- too heavy to hold for long; must use it on a surface, like any other notebook computer.

-- too big to hold comfortably; and I own one of the smallest TabletPC-style computers, with just a 12" screen.

-- the widescreen format that currently monoplizes the notebook computer market is problematic when used in portrait mode, the normal TabletPC mode; the screen is too narrow.

-- surface is too insensitive.

Even when I get past the first two problems by having the computer on a desk, sensitivity remains a problem. I find I have to jab the screen hard for either MoI or the OS to register my taps. I think the screen is insensitive to avoid registering arm and hand brushes -- after all, that screen is a surface much larger than a PalmPilot.

And so these reasons may be why I heard a report that MoI was changing its focus from TabletPCs to regular PCs.

Trying Out InventorDay 4

I've been tooling along with Inventor for the last week or two, the reason being a new book that I'm working on. I've been looking at how Inventor and AutoCAD are similar and different, especially since Autodesk has been tweaking the user interfaces of both products to make them more similar.

For example, the Dashboard added to AutoCAD 2007 mimics Inventor's Panel. (Which leads me to wonder, "Why Inventor?" Why not make AutoCAD and Revit more alike?)

But not everything is particularly compatible between the two. Last evening, I wanted to insert a DWG file into an otherwise empty sketch. After I selected the .dwg file, Inventor displayed this dialog box:

"Sorry, this pre-release version has expired."

Strange message, since I'm running released versions of both software products.

Inventor generated its error report and sent it off to Autodesk. Moments later, I received an automated email from Autodesk:

We recently received an error report from you. While we have not yet determined the resolution to the error, we have determined that the latest maintenance update has not yet been installed for your product.

I was gratified at the quick response (expected, I suppose, when machines are running things), but soon found that the email wasn't quite telling the truth. Reading the service pack's Readme file, I found that there is a resolution to the error:

3. This patch does not address the “End of Evaluation Period” error with the AOEMView 2008. Please refer to the details and follow instructions provided by the links below:

- Hotfix - End of Evaluation Period error during DWGIN
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9741651&linkID=9242019

Still, I was pleased that there is a fix to the problem. Yet, I remained puzzled that such an error existed at all.

Update

The hotfix is a 151MB download!

Trying Out InventorDay 2.75

Is a six-year-old computer under-powered for Inventor 2008? I had to find out.

I figured out how to extrude my sketch (Finish Sketching, Extrude). I added fillets to all edges (a single step, AutoCAD users might gnash their teeth to learn). I turned on the extra detailed drop shadow, applied a chrome material, and turned on real-time zebra analysis. That should nicely bog down my computer, I figured.

I found the button for real-time 3D rotation, and began twirling the model. I mean, twirling. Really. Not a problem: Inventor 2008 seems to run faster on my computer than does AutoCAD 2008.

Also gave a try at dimensioning the sketch. It was so easy, that I'm starting to understand why Autodesk is trying to get its users to switch away from AutoCAD. It's not only the added revenue for Autodesk; Inventor is just plain easier to use than AutoCAD, even for 2D drafting.

Trying Out InventorDay 2.5

Robin Capper werote, I get your point, it's poor documentation, but a couple of seconds with on the net would have found that info.

Perhaps I was being too subtle. Here is a document entitled "Autodesk Inventor 2008: Plan Your Install" bundled with the DVDs, but it has no system info.

He asked, Is it really viable testing/reviewing CAD software on such an old machine, esp something as "heavy" as Inventor?

This six-year-old computer has the following specs:

* 2.4GHz CPU
* 1GB RAM
* 500GB worth of hard drives
* nVidia 5500 graphics board (not six years old).

Computers just haven't changed much in the last six years. In my use of Inventor to date (three days), it has run just fine.

The only thing that's slow is the installer, which I'm running a third time to install the content libraries that got missed yesterday. They are needed for the tutorials.

First Tutorial: Sketching

I had tried the sketching tutorial without the content installed, and it was a disaster. Nothing seemed to make sense, based on the text in the tutorial.

But now with the content installed and the Standard(mm).ipt part template loaded into Inventor, things go very smoothly.

For a drafter of nearly 40 years (I began in Grade 8), it is irksome to keep reading the word "approximately," as in ...move the cursor up approximately 40 units.... Whatever happened to precision?

The tutorial unfortunately does not explain that sketching is meant to be approximate -- hence the term "sketching," as in on-the-napkin kind. Dimensions are later applied to make the sketch precise; constraints are applied as the sketch is created to enforce uniformity.

Bit of a disappointment here: the intro to the first tutorial implies (and illustrates) that a 3D part is created, but after I draw the 2D sketch, the instructions tell me to discard it for the next tutorial. I want to extrude it! The rest of the chapter becomes more concentrated on manipulating constraints and adding dimensions.

Tomorrow, I'll skip ahead to Chapter 3 and try some 3D part modeling.

Trying Out InventorDay 2

I tried to install Inventor again. This time I got past the license page, and agreed to install pretty much everything. According to ZoneAlarm, there was much accessing of the Internet.

In between installing a DVD worth of software, I monitored the tree cutters, who were taking down a too-tall London Plain tree in our back yard, which also, according to the arborist, is the cause of much allergy suffering. Indeed, the six masked and goggled tree cutters were suffering from the dust given off by the tree's leaves, bark, and seeds.

Every so often, I'd return to my office to give Zone Alarm permission to let Inventor or one of its siblings access the Internet yet again. The install was nearly done. One more time I gave permission to Zone Alarm, but this time the installer was too impatient.

It complained that things were taking to long, and began uninstalling. Wait! Stop! Well, it didn't uninstall everything. The summary screen listed:

Installation Failed
* Inventor Professional 2008 -- succeeded
* Vault 2008 -- succeeded
* Data Management Server 2008 -- failed
* Content Center libraries -- failed.

It looked like enough got installed for me to try out the software. I double-clicked the Inventor icon on the desktop, and it started up. Success!

Trying Out InventorDay 1

Autodesk's external pr firm sent me a copy of Inventor 2008, and -- like Roopinder Tara of CAD Insider last year with SolidWorks -- I finally took it off the shelf to install it.

The software came in a large black box with a bonus wireless mouse (stopped working the second day) and USB hub. Perhaps, I mused, these were part of the tutorials.

The box contained Getting Started, a paperback book. This, I knew instinctively, was where I would learn how to install Inventor. I knew the software had some pretty steep hardware demands, what with approved and mildly-disapproved graphics boards, and who knows what else.

Paging through the booklet, I found "Introducing Autodesk Inventor," and "Creating Sketches," and-- But nothing on installing it. Hmm. On my own then. I opened the CD case to find two DVDs. There was familiar-sounding software listed by name on the discs:

1. AutoCAD Mechanical 2008
2. Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008
3. Autodesk Vault 2008

Oh, yes, also Autodesk Inventor. Later, during installation, lots more software gets installed, I found. Why, that much software is easily worth five or six thousand dollars.

In with the DVDs was another booklet: Plan Your Install. That's more like it. I paged through it. "License Types and Usage," "Content Center," "Autodesk Productstream and Autodesk Vault." Oh, here we are: page 19: "Installation Process."

And a few pages later, "System Requirements":

For each product you plan to install, review the system requirements. If your systems do not meet the requirements, problems can occur during installation.

That's all? What are the system requirements?

I tried the install anyhow, not knowing if my six-year-old desktop computer was up to the task. I inserted DVD 1 and ran setup. A lot of waiting, but otherwise everything went fine until the license page. I click I agree, but the installer complains, "Cannot find license," and then quits.

Well, try again another day.

Update:Installing Design Review

Autodesk's redesigned Web site would not let me download Design Review because of an "Invalid ZIP code" error. Being from Canada, I felt insulted, but then tried again by putting a space in the middle of my postal code. That worked.

The download is 40MB, and the download page offers another 35MB worth of plug-ins for DR:

- Batch Print Plug-in with HP Instant Printing. (Hmm... the press release made it sound like this feature was included.) 0.5MB

- JT Import Plug-in. (That would be a result of the agreement between Autodesk and UGS to share data formats. When they say "JT" I assume they mean JT and not JT Open.) 24.5MB

- DGN Import Plug-in. (No agreement with Bentley Systems, Autodesk wrote their own DGN xlator. If this is the same DGN importer as AutoCAD 2008, then it's limited to 2D V8 files.) 10.3MB

After installing, Design Review displays its new interface elements for navigating 3D space. It might be useful for you to download this software just to experience the new concept. Might it make its way into other Autodesk software?

If you don't like the software interface, then there's the hardware one: Design Review now directly supports 3Dconnexion's SpaceTraveller 3D mouse.

Some problems I encountered: There is the ongoing problem of Design Review's menu text being extra tiny. I wonder why that is. DWF Viewer's menu text is unusually large; that of DWF Composer (now Design Review) too small to read.

Curiously, clicking Sample DWF Files takes you to Autodesk's DWF Web page (which would not download for me), instead of the sample DWF files installed on your own computer.

Georeferencing

I had been wondering about georeferencing; here's a summary that makes it sound promising: "Use maps from Autodesk Map 3D 2008 to view maps with published coordinates to identify existing coordinates or, if a compatible GPS device is installed, identify real-time coordinate information."

Reading that makes me think that I can load any AutoCAD drawing onto my notebook computer, hookup a GPS, and be on my way. But the detailed on-line help makes it more restrictive:

"A georeferenced map is a sheet within a DWF file published by Autodesk Map 3D 2008 that contains a global coordinate system and defined latitude and longitude coordinates based on the WGS84 datum. In Design Review 2008, sheets with a published coordinate system can interact with GPS devices that use the NMEA 0183 protocol. Not all DWF files published from Map 3D 2008 contain map coordinate information." And then it goes on to list the specific requirements. Sigh.

Tight Integration

The other item I was curious about was this claim made by the press release: "Tight integration of Design Review and Freewheel with AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor and Revit..."

After running Freewheel and installing Design Review, I relaunched AutoCAD 2008, but could find no sign of integration -- close or otherwise. When exporting a drawing in DWF, AutoCAD now offers to open it in Design Review, instead of DWF Viewer, but that no more special than my Eudora email software opening Web pages in Opera Web browser. No sign of Freewheel integration. Perhaps Edelman needs to rewrite that sentence.

Getting ATi's FireGL to Work with Acad07

I was initially disappointed that the FireGL X3 graphics board (sent to me by ATi). It performed poorly with AutoCAD 2007. When set by the 3dconfig command to recommended values, the board fails in all four areas:

Geometry acceleration: Not recommended and off
Smooth line display: Not available
Gooch shader: Software emulation in use
Full-shadow display: Not available

After some back and forth, ATi set me up with one of their Professional Services tech support people. He quickly discovered that my computer had never enabled all of its AGP graphics. It had the AGP slot, but not the Intel driver that tells Windows how to access the slot for specialized graphics features.

Here's how to figure it out: run the dxdiag.exe program (from Start | Run). In the Display tab, check the setting for AGP Texture Acceleration. On my computer, it was set to "Not Available."

From the ASUS Web site (manufacturer of my computer's motherboard), I downloaded the Intel AGP driver, and then installed it. It required a reboot, following which DxDiag reported that ACP Texture Acceleration was enabled.

The Pro Svcs guy also told me to install the latest driver for the FireGL X3. This involves the following steps:

1. Download the new driver from ati.com (caution: their site is not fully compatible with Opera).
2. Uninstall the existing driver by removing it from the Hardware list.
3. Reboot the computer.
4. Windows is now in its annoying 640x480 VGA graphics mode. Install the new driver.
5. Reboot.

Upon launching AutoCAD and running 3dconfig, most features were enabled:

Geometry acceleration: Available and on
Smooth line display: Not available
Gooch shader: Available and using hardware
Full-shadow display: Available and on

But not all. Perhaps I can learn from ATI why smooth line display is unavailable.

Review (part 3): ATI FireGL X3

A brief update on the latest....

My son installed the FireGL in his computer. There is no way I was going to jepardize the (relative) stability by introducing new hardware crucial to its operation -- unlike, say adding an external DVD burner.

My parania was justified. Although the board and its software installed with little effort, there is an annoying problem: Any time he scrolls Internet Explorer, Windows crashes the computer. He's updated the drivers, but no difference. (Fortunately, his primary computer is a notebook, so the death imposed by the IE-incompatbility is not a severe problem.)

Update

Before contacting tech support, he decided to try to change the board's setting from "Default" to "AutoCAD" that that solved the crashing IE problem. Curious.

Review (part 2): ATI FireGL X3

ATI's FireGL is a red-looking graphics card, with half its surface covered by copper cooling fins and the fan.
Copper has high thermal conductivity, which means it dissaptes heat faster than most other metal, and twice that of aluminum. (The drawback is that copper costs more.) It's too bad the board gets hidden inside the case.

The other item of significance is that the board has its own power cable. It cannot draw sufficient power from the bus, so it's got an extra cable with a standard socket that connects to one sets of wires coming out of the computer's power supply. Most of today's power supplies have plenty of connector cables, so this should not be a problem.

Some specs of the FireGL X3:

+ Designed for Linux and Windows 2000 SP1 or XP
+ Certified for OpenGL and DirectX
+ 256MB RAM
+ Three-year warranty.
+ Made in China

Outputs are:
+ Two DVI (digital video interface), and comes with two DVI-VGA adapters
+ Output to two monitors, wtih different resolutions and refresh rates.
+ Stereo3D connector
+ Outputs to 9-megapixel displays.

It runs on:
+ Intel Pentium 4 or Xeon
+ AMD Athlon or Opteron
+ Requires AGP v3.0 4X/8X bus
+ Requires that the computer have the latest AGP chipset drivers.
+ 300W power supply

Annoyingly enough, there is no printed manual included in the package. More sign of cost cutting: the \Usersguide folder of the CD has guides for four different models:

- FireGL_V3200_V3100_UG.pdf
- FireGL_V5100_UG.pdf
- FireGL_V7100_UG.pdf
- FireGL_X3_UG.pdf

Hmm... no sign of CAD-specific information. More to come later in Part 3.