Tuesday, September 23, 2008

ERASE - the most frequent AutoCAD command


You might be surprised but the most commonly used AutoCAD command is neither LINE, CIRCLE nor DIM, but the ERASE command. And the most frequently used command sequence is ERASE-MOVE-COPY. This is the result of the analysis performed by Autodesk on the data sent by AutoCAD users who are taking part in the CIP program (Customer Involvement Program).

It looks like CAD users are rather erasing than creating designs. But the true reason for this surprising winner is probably that CAD users are usually trying different scenarios, drawing and playing with their designs and then erasing again most of the variants. And the common command - ERASE - then jumps in the command statistics. The data may be also distorted by the fact that not all users enable the CIP program to send out their statistics data online (the CUSTOMERINVOLVEMENTPROGRAM command). CIP is probably more used by beginners and "testing" users.

The full results of the command analysis - not only for AutoCAD but also for Revit, Inventor and 3ds max - are available in the post Autodesk Research on Command Usage from CIP Data on the "Between the Lines" blog. For respective command names in your AutoCAD language use the AutoCAD command dictionary.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Google Chrome and CAD web services

Google just released their own, new, fast and open internet browser "Google Chrome". This application - despite it is only a beta version and only for Windows - can substantially change the internet browser market. Well, "market" is probably not the right term here, as most browsers are free software, but in any case, the dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer and still growing share of Firefox may be soon in danger.

Every new version of an internet browser, or even a brand new browser always influences not only its users-visitors, but also the web authors. The structure and code of their web pages must be checked and possibly modified so that visitors with different browsers will get the proper and functional content. That's why we have tested some CAD-related web services and web applications in Google Chrome (Czech Beta 0.2.149.27):
  • CADstudio.cz - functional, small cosmetic issues
  • CADforum.cz - functional, small cosmetic issues
  • iPROJECT - non-functional, requires MSIE only
  • XANADU Blogs - functional, small cosmetic issues
  • MapGuide GIS webs - functional with AJAX clients, not with ActiveX controls
  • Autodesk Freewheel (DWF viewer) - non-functional
  • Autodesk Showroom - functional
  • Autodesk Project Draw (online diagramming/drafting) - functional, but serious layout problems