Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, July 17, 2008.

For more information (such as meeting topics or directions) please click the Calendar link above.

Meeting Minutes

Past meeting minutes for 2002:

December 19th 2002 meeting minutes:

We started the evening with our Meet and Greet Session. Food and drinks were provided courtesy of Avatech Solutions. After the initial socializing, Beau Turner started the first presentation session with brief review of Autodesk University (highly recommended), and invited the attendees to begin thinking of designs for a 3- by 6-foot banner we can use at future EVAUG meetings and shows. Submittals for the banner contest will start displaying at the next meeting.

Next, Beau and Avatech’s Mike Willette fielded questions and problems from the group. Problems included: deleting the history in the Today startup dialog, purging unwanted layer filters, the layer states not saving viewport settings, and quickly fading walls to gray. Beau continued with discussions of Express tools, and Dave Stein’s free DSX Tools (see Resources>Friends), and ended the early session with a demonstration of XmasTree.lsp, a novelty freeware program that models a 3D surface Christmas tree (see Downloads).

After a short break for snacks, Beau continued with a “beginners” lesson in Architectural Desktop (ADT). ADT comes with many standard wall, door, and window styles. Beau showed how an inexperienced architectural drafter can draw walls in 3D as simple as drawing polylines, or simply convert an existing polyline into a wall. He then demonstrated inserting doors and windows, and rotating the view of the 3D conceptual building. With ADT the operator rarely (if ever) needs to change the current layer. Doors can be changed to be partially open (or flipped) by simply using the Properties dialog box. Adding a roof is all it takes to generate a complete 3D conceptual model.

Beau also discussed the “Object Enabler”, used to show and edit ADT objects with vanilla AutoCAD, and the advantages of the Intellimouse wheel mouse for “on the fly” Pans and Zooms. Mike Willette assisted with brief descriptions of Autodesk Building-Mechanical, -Electrical, and -Plumbing (coming out soon), and Inventor for mechanical design work.

EVAUG Door Prizes this month included a T-Shirt from Autodesk University, a “customizing AutoCAD” textbook, and a “not for resale” package of Architectural Desktop. Congratulations to all the lucky prize winners!.

November 07th 2002 meeting minutes:

The "EVAUG Extravaganza" starring Lynn Allen was a great success. We had 104 registered people before showtime and we had a total of 115+ attendees at the meeting. The meeting started off with a great never before seen presentation from Avatech Solutions on Project Collaboration. In all the presentations on project collaboration that I have seen, this was the best one yet. Using a split 2 screen approach provided a very effective platform to show, in real time, how two or more people can use Buzzsaw to transfer, track and share digital data.

The headliner of the evening would be of course Lynn Allen who delivered, as expected, a great and witty presentation. After seeing and hearing Lynn live I can easily tell you why she is one of the most sought after speakers in the industry. Lynn presented several of her favorite tricks for using AutoCAD 2002. Several copies of her book were also given out to attendees. Lynn has agreed to send more to us to give out at the next EVAUG meeting, so if you missed receiving a copy you know where to go to get it.

I would once again like to take a moment to personally thank a few outstanding individuals for all their hard work in making this meeting a success. First and foremost without Paul Burgener (Vice-President) actively working with-in and for the EVAUG we would not have had Lynn Allen visit with us. Paul has worked for the past year to keep in touch and coordinate schedules with Lynn for her visit. In addition to lining up Lynn, Paul also produced the informative and well put together "EVAUG History" slide show that was running during the Meet and Greet session.

I would also like to thank my beautiful wife, Shannon (Treasurer and Food Coordinator) who, in addition to everything else she does for the group, also took care of the membership table along with help from a few other hard working and dedicated members.

Last but certainly not least I would like to thank Avatech Solutions for hosting this meeting at the Chesapeake Conference Center and also for sponsoring such a great food table, your generosity and support of the EVAUG is very much appreciated.

Without the help and dedication of each of these people mentioned above the EVAUG would not be where we currently are today. I would also like to thank each person who attended the last meeting, your active participation in support of the EVAUG is what helps us to grow and offer more for each attendee. I look forward to where we are headed in the future with such a talented group of individuals working together within as well as outside the EVAUG.

There were a few dozen door prizes that were given away, including copies of AutoCAD 2002, Autodesk Viz 4, Inventor 5, Architectural Desktop 3.3, Several books, AutoDesk bags, cups, hats, and t-shirts as well as 2 EVAUG memberships and more. Prize donations came from a variety of sources including but not limited too AutoDesk, Avatech Solutions and Lynn Allen. Congratulations to all the lucky prize winners!.

October 17th 2002 meeting minutes:

This was a great meeting, we started the evening off with our Meet and Greet Session. Food and drinks were provided courtesy of Avatech Solutions and great conversations were had among attendees. During the Meet & Greet session some questions were asked regarding Architectural Desktop and Beau demonstrated some basics such as walls, doors, windows and roofs. Other items of interest included drawing exchange with consultants and a three tier vs. two tier xref structure for drawing management.

After the Meet & Greet session, Beau Turner started the evening off with EVAUG business including a Lynn Allen update concerning her visit to us on November 7th. The membership drive is also still continuing.

To start the topics off for the evening, The presentation for "General Tips and Tricks" was provided by Beau Turner (see downloads section for handout). Some of the items covered during the evening included using running Object Snaps effectively. Conversation turned to the new “Intellimouse” center wheel usage, and MBUTTONPAN and ZOOMFACTOR system variables were discussed. Other tips Beau shared were using the @ symbol or <Enter> key to specify the last point, <Ctrl>-<Tab> to toggle among open drawings, <Ctrl><Shift> <Tab> to toggle backwards among open drawings, <Alt><Tab> to cycle among open programs, and the SDI variable to control multiple sessions of AutoCAD/ADT.

Beau demonstrated Autodesk Detailer (free with AutoCAD, but separate installation), and showed how to control overlapping viewports with <Ctrl>-R (I always forget that one). He then demonstrated the Autodesk newsgroups and credited Autodesk staff for their excellent support.

After a short break for snacks, the group’s conversation lead to MAXSORT, allowing more layers be alphabetized. Beau then described how the National Cad Standard/UDS utilizes layer naming. Other items of interest include Dave Stein’s website www.dsxcad.com (check out the free download of DSXTools, many tools are similar to Expresstools), and Bobby Jones’ acadx.com. The group soon drifted into discussing settings for cursor size, various Accelerator key short cuts, and reusing recent commands. Due to time the last item involved a Batch Plotting problem from an attendee. With input from the group the Batch Plot Utility was demonstrated and discussed, to use this successfully office standards are a must. As we said before the "Tips and Tricks" night is one of the best nights for a wide range of information.

Willie Horton was commended for his design of the “sunset” logo for the EVAUG and was also presented with a plaque. Several door prizes were given away, including Halloween pencil holders filled with candy, CDs of Halloween sound effects, and several AutoCAD books on various topics ranging from "Customizing AutoCAD" to "Solid Modeling in AutoCAD 2000i".

September 19th 2002 meeting minutes:

We started the evening off with our Meet and Greet Session. Food and drinks were provided and great conversations were had among attendees.

After the Meet & Greet session, Paul Burgener demonstrated AutoTURN, a vehicle turning simulation add-on for AutoCAD and Microstation. Paul showed how complex vehicles (including a 18-wheel tractor-trailer) can be "steered" around full scale traffic or ship deck drawings. The simulation paths confirm clearances around obstacles. AutoTURN is used by State Departments of Transportation and local government offices. Further information is available from www.transoftsolutions.com, Richard Link (604)-244-3822, or rl@transoftsolutions.com. An evaluation version is available by contacting Richard Link directly. Alternatively, a limited demo version is available for download from the companies website. Mention the EVAUG meeting and you will receive a 10% discount off the cost of AutoTURN.

After a short break for refreshments and networking, an IPAQ (personal digital assistant) was passed around to attendees to play with Pocket CAD. This software allows you to take a digital copy of your drawings with you in the field. You can check distances from or to objects, just like regular AutoCAD. Last but not least you can even do as-built field drawings with it as well, all in the palm of your hand. For more information please the Arc Second website www.pocketcad.com. Stay tuned for our January 2003 meeting for a full presentation from this company.

The EVAUG membership drive was also started.

For door prizes, a complimentary copy (not for resale) of Autodesk Land Development Desktop was given as our main prize. This was won by a student from TCC. Smaller door prizes included a Transoft AutoTURN dress shirt, and coffee cup. All attendees received a brochure and demo mini-CD of AutoTURN and other literature from Transoft and Arc Second (maker of Pocket CAD).

August 15th 2002 meeting minutes:

We started the evening off with our Meet and Greet Session. Food and drinks were provided courtesy of Avatech Solutions and great conversations were had among attendees.

After the Meet & Greet session, Beau Turner gave an tutorial on the AutoCAD Cad Standards Toolbar. This presentation covered items from general office standards to layer and layer translating.

During and after the main topic, several questions were asked regarding standards and how to use the Cad Standard toolbar to fix/address these issues. The UDS (Uniform Drawing System) was mentioned as well as the NCS (National Cad Standard) and others.

For the door prize, a complimentary copy (not for resale) of Autodesk Land Development Desktop was given.

July 18th 2002 meeting minutes:

We started the evening off with our Meet and Greet Session. We had food and drinks and great conversation with attendees. The new EVAUG bookmarks were also displayed.

After the Meet & Greet session, Beau Turner gave an introduction to Architectural Desktop 3.3. This introduction explained how ADT differs from AutoCAD. Beau showed how to place a wall, door and window as well as spaces. After these were created these objects were then "tagged" and ADT schedules were then created for these items. Beau then explained how the Property Set Definitions work in ADT for Schedules. Custom PSD's were created for the group to demonstrate the type of items and information that can be used.

After the main topic, several questions were asked regarding how to use ADT drawings in AutoCAD and Beau presented a white paper he recently wrote explaining how to use these objects and limitations of these items using the AutoCAD Object Enabler. For more information on this, please see the downloads section of the site for a copy of this white paper.

For the door prize, a complimentary copy (not for resale) of Autodesk Architectural Desktop was given.

June 20th, 2002 meeting minutes:

To start the evening off food and drinks were provided courtesy of Avatech Solutions.

After the Meet & Greet session, Beau Turner demonstrated AutoCAD's Design Center. Design Center is an excellent tool to transfer blocks, layers, dimension styles and text styles from one drawing to another. Beau also showed how to use ADT and Design Center for insertion of custom blocks, tags, etc... A handout was provided to attendees showing how to create custom content for the Design Center.

After the intermission break for snack and corner topics, Beau continued with the Architectural Desktop beginner series with an introductory tutorial for creating wall styles in Architectural Desktop. Taking dimensions from an attendee, Beau quickly created a multi-component custom wall in which windows and doors can be copied and moved, without the need to trim away lines, as is often done using off-the shelf AutoCAD for plans.

Beau also briefly briefed attendees on AutoCAD's E-transmit feature, Layer Manager, Autodesk's website and newsgroups, Architectural Desktop's Detailer, special %% characters, and quick hot-key short cuts.

For the door prize, a complimentary copy (not for resale) of Autodesk Architectural Desktop was given.

May 16th, 2002 meeting minutes:

To start the evening off -Paul Burgener demonstrated freeware AutoLISP add-on commands. One places centerlines in polar-arrayed circles; the other measures and labels areas. Paul also passed out a three-page handout (available with AutoLISP files on the Downloads page) for introductory AutoLISP use.

During the break food was provided and various corner discussions took place.

Then Barry Lauer, of the Whitlock Group (671-7478, in Virginia Beach) demonstrated Wacom's new Cintiq LCD flat screen monitor with high-resolution touch screen capability. Finally old-fashioned paint brush and canvas artists can smoothly transition into architectural computer art. By pressing harder with the wireless pen, the "virtual brush" widens for drawing thicker lines. By turning the pen, it erases, like a pencil. The flat screen is as portable as a large etch-r-sketch, freeing valuable desk space.

For more information contact Barry Lauer at: lauerb@whitlock.com For more information on the Cintiq touch screen monitor and other Whitlock Group products please go to: http://www.whitlock.com or http://www.cintiq.com.

For door prizes this evening, Barry passed out Tee shirts, magnifier rulers, and mini CD catalogs of Sony products.

April 18th, 2002 meeting minutes:

To start the evening off - Beau Turner showed how to use a valuable resource of free support "The Autodesk Discussion Groups". To start using the discussion groups please check this link out: http://discussion.autodesk.com/ This will take you to a section of the Autodesk Website dedicated for the discussion groups. You can find sections of support for all autocad products.

During the break food was provided and various corner discussions on support took place.

Brad Martin of Avatech demonstrated how to use Land Desktop and an add on package of Civil Design. Mr. Martin showed a demonstration on how to use these two packages together to create a piping plan. During the course of this presentation items such as Site Plans, Road Design, Storm and Sanitary Sewers were discussed as well as touching on a few of the other features available with-in these software packages. For more information contact Brad Martin at bmartin@avat.com For more information on Land Desktop please go to: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/section/0,,805821-123112,00.html For more information on the add-on package of Civil Design go to http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/section/0,,805197-123112,00.html

For door prizes this evening we had a study/ how-to learning guide on Land Development Desktop, compliments of Avatech Solutions.

March 2002 meeting minutes: This month we had two events.

March 21th, 2002 meeting minutes:

To start the evening off - Ryan O'Connell of Onsite Engineering recruiting company briefed the attendees on the ongoing demand for CAD technicians in the Tidewater and Richmond areas. For more information contact Ryan M. O'Connell - roconn@onsitecompanies.com

Dave Stein (see friends page) started the evening off with a demonstration of his latest release of "DSX Tools". DSX Tools provides alternatives to the VIP subscriber Express Tools, as well as providing other utilities. DSX Tools is a free download (yes thats right free) available from http://64.224.125.68/dsx.htm or http://geocities.com/davidmstein/dsx.htm

During the break pizza was provided by Onsite. Various corner discussions also took place.

After the break Mr. Stein gave a presentation and handouts on plotting with AutoCAD 2002. The handouts and behind the scenes overview helped to de-mystify the plotting with 2002.

For door prizes this evening we had several books/videos on a variety of subjects, coffee mugs from Avatech Solution, "a" magazine (a new publication from Autodesk), and a CadCARD slidechart (see friends page for more information).

March 14th, 2002 meeting minutes:

Company Tour - Lowe Precision Machining (LPM) - http://lpminconline.com/ 757-826-729 Located in the Copeland Park section of Hampton, VA at 58th and E Street. John Lowe provided a tour of his 5,000 s.f. shop. Mr. Lowe showed how his company (a family owned business) changes 3-D solid computer models into machined final products, using two computer numeric controlled (CNC) HAAS machines. LPM rapidly machines threaded ends onto aluminum bottles (such as fire extinguishers) and pressure reducing fittings, with minimal operator intervention, with clever designed features. LPM also designs and machines transmission cases from ultra light helicopters, wind tunnel models for NASA contracts, and high performance automotive engine parts.

Drinks were provided, but no door prizes.

February 20th, 2002 meeting minutes:

Due to technical difficulties with our projector we almost had no meeting. However Rich Stow was able to do the Cad Business portion of the meeting. Rich gave a great speech about the pros and cons of the business, then opened up for questions from attendees with a large range of questions. Such as how much does it cost to start a cad business? to How much should one charge for services? We really appreciate Rich for being able to keep the meeting going, despite the technical problems we had, with his great stage presence as well as his interesting/funny antidotes.

The new logo was also decided on. Stay tuned for more to come from this.

For door prizes this evening we had several books on a variety of subjects, coffee mugs from Avatech Solution, and a licensed copy of Intellicad 2001.

January 17th, 2002 meeting minutes:

Brian Smith of Avatech demonstrated the new features of VIZ 4, the latest rendering and animation software from Autodesk. Mr. Smith also demonstrated another product "EON". EON is a tool for developing high quality 3-D interactive applications. For more information contact Brian Smith - mailto: bsmith@avat.com For more information on VIZ 4 and EON click the weblinks below: VIZ 4 - http://www3.autodesk.com/adsk/section/0,,1042004-123112,00.html or http://www.eonreality.com/ .

Pizza and drinks were provided courtesy of Onsite Engineering.

Sketches and ideas for the new EVAUG logo were also showcased during the break.

To finish the night off the group took a tour or IKON Office Solutions in downtown Norfolk. IKON specializes in scanning and copying legal documents. IKON employees showcased the equipment they use for scanning and printing technical drawings, reports, and renderings as well. On sight artists can develop signage and banners as well. For more information contact IKON Office Solutions at 757-623-4110.