Marc Ramones Residence rendered in AutoCAD 2008 & 3D Max

my stab at it
a warning though
i have no background in 3D Max
im thinking of going to school for it though

Autocad Architecture Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 is now available for AutoCAD Architecture 2008.

AutoCAD Architecture 2008 crashes during startup - FATAL ERROR

On the command line you might see the command aecprojectbrowserstartup and then you get a crash. It says something like: AutoCAD Error Aborting - FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0000 Exception at cf77528h. The address cf77528h can be different each time.

Knowledge Base document: AutoCAD® Architecture crashes during startup

There is no need to uninstall SP1 as suggested in the KB unless you find other reasons that SP1 is trouble for you.

Use REGEDIT.EXE (be careful though)

Locate the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\MC3

Set MC3OptIn to 0

This is the same as opting-out from Customer Involvement Program (CIP)

Either you can continue to not opt-in for CIP or you can select to not Show Project Browser at Startup.

1. Start AutoCAD Architecture 2008.
2. Click Tools menu > Options.
3. In the Options dialog box, click the AEC Project Default tabs.
4. Select the Show Project Browser at Startup option.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Help menu > Customer Involvement Program.
7. Select Yes.
8. Click OK.

Source: JTB World Blog

this is really handy because i had this problem before and i kept reinstalling AutoCAD
till i found this.

Open a Windows Application in AutoCAD

One way is achieved by the AutoLISP function startapp. Notice that the control of what is started is not in the hand of AutoCAD. So if you have an AutoLISP program the code will just continue executing.

Here is an example how it can be used to open with Notepad the acad.pgp file that AutoCAD uses. If you do edit the acad.pgp file you need to run the ReInit command and select the PGP file check box so the changes will be used by AutoCAD. Or if you want to use AutoLISP: (setvar "re-init" 16)

Command: (startapp "notepad" (findfile "acad.pgp"))
33

33 is the return value. As long as not nil is returned the function is successful.

Notice that if one of the arguments contain spaces you need to use double quotes like this sample: (startapp "notepad.exe" "\"file with spaces in the name.txt\"")

If you want to launch Windows Explorer here is one way to open the folder of the current drawing: (startapp (strcat "explorer /e," (getvar "dwgprefix")))

If you want to open a PDF file in Adobe Reader 8.0 at a specific page this can be used.(startapp "\"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Reader 8.0\\Reader\\AcroRd32.exe\"" "\"/A page=5 C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Reader 8.0\\Reader\\plug_ins\\Annotations\\Stamps\\ENU\\StandardBusiness.pdf\"")

If you want to open a DWF file in Autodesk Design Review here is how:(startapp "\"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\Autodesk Design Review\\DesignReview.exe\"" "\"C:\\Program Files\\Autodesk\\Autodesk Design Review\\Tutorial\\IRD Addition Autodesk Design Review Sample.dwf\"")

And another one if you want to open a DWF in your favorite web browser:
(command "_browser" "http://freewheel.autodesk.com/dwf.aspx?path=http://freewheel.autodesk.com/sample/Hotel5.dwf&sec=1")

To run a VBScript this can be used:
(startapp "wscript" "c:/MyCoolScript.vbs")

There is also the AutoCAD command SHELL.

With SHELL, you can execute operating system (OS) commands while remaining in this program. When SHELL prompts you for an OS command, you can enter most valid commands for your OS. When the command has been executed, SHELL returns you to the Command prompt. You can also call the SHELL command with AutoLISP like this: (command "_shell" "dir *.dwg /p")

Another alternative is if you have DOSLib. In that case you can use the function dos_execute (Runs an external program), dos_exewait (Runs a program and waits for completion) or dos_shellexe (Opens or prints a program or file). You can with these also control how the newly opened window is to be displayed.

I think you pretty much get the idea. If you have any sample you want to share please add a comment below.

Source: jtbworld.blogspot.com

Autocad 101-03: Single Drawing Compatibilty Mode in Autocad 2008

Ok it seems the guys at Autodesk have removed this handy tool form the options menu to give you the option to open your files in multiple instances or one instance in Autocad 2008. The reason is they are trying to remove options not usually used by consumers.

To enable it if you want multiple instances, type "sdi" and to enable it type "1", and Single Drawing Compatibilty Mode for AutoCAD 2008 is on again...

Autocad 101-02: Get Rid Of Tick Marks

You know how sometimes you have litle tick marks on your AUTOCAD work area every time you click the mouse or draw a line or even select an entity?

Really annoying right?

This may may have been activated by accident and you want it to go away of course.

Type "blipmode" on the command line and turn off the blipmode by typing off.

There you go, an easy solution to an AUTOCAD problem.

AutoCAD 101-01:What is AutoCAD?

AutoCAD as defined in wikipedia.com is a suite of CAD software products for 2- and 3-dimensional design and drafting, developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc... The original concept of AutoCAD in the 1980s was to promote customization and feature extensibility, and that's what made it especially appealing to customers. Most contemporary CAD products at that time offered little if any customization capability and most were far more expensive. AutoCAD is also one of the first CAD programs to run on a Personal Computer, while most CAD software at the time ran on dedicated workstations or a graphics terminal connected to a Mainframe Computer such as a VAX.

AutoCAD's native file format, DWG, and to a lesser extent, its interchange file format, DXF, have become common standards for interchange of CAD data. AutoCAD in later years has adopted another file format known as DWF. These files allow selected DWG drawings to be compiled to one file. This allows distribution of the drawings to those without AutoCAD or similar packages. It also protects the drawings from manipulation by others as the drawings are rasterized inside the DWF file. DWF files can be viewed with a free program from Autodesk called "DWF Viewer" — this program allows users to both view and print DWF files. Another advantage of DWF files is that a large number of drawings can be compiled to a single DWF and be of a very small to reasonable file size for electronic distribution. In 2006, Autodesk estimated the number of active DWG files to be in excess of one billion. In the past, Autodesk has estimated the total number of DWG files in existence to be more than three billion.

Billions of engineers and architects use AutoCAD to convey designs and proposals efficiently and accurately.

This the introductory segment of a series of posts I will be doing from time to time on AutoCAD software to give you tips and tricks to help you better understand its inner working and to get the most out of your software.

Questions are welcome and will be entertained, of course I will not profess to know everything about AutoCAD but I am sure together we will slowly master it together.

The AutoCAD software has been my ally for years and has become part of my daily work and I hope to help you on your queries regarding this remarkable software.