http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideaexchangepage/blog-id/37/tab/most-recent
Ever wished for a much needed feature inside of AutoCAD Electrical? Or maybe you have an idea for some added functionality to an existing feature… Now you have a direct link to the team working on future releases. Use the link above to access the Electrical IdeaStation and start posting your requests. Or review the existing requests, add your feedback, or simply give some ‘Kudos’ to add some weight to a topic.
Autodesk took care of this post for me.
I took a week and a half off this month. My vacation goal was to build an office desk/work bench. I had this idea in my head but really nothing on paper. I started on the Inventor model on Saturday last week and today finished the desk. I had no idea this project would involve so many people and I’m deeply grateful to all that helped. Technically this desk is not 100% complete. I have a good bit of sanding and painting on the routered grooves left to do. However I was so excited by the final results I had to share them.
My original conceptual drawings. The little end table picture was from the letters section of an American Woodworker magazine. Sorry I can’t find the magazine it came from anymore, so I can’t give credits for the picture.
Final Inventor Print..
Finished design (before paint) The plan is to have the grooves the same color green as the walls.
Before more pictures, I would like to give a huge thank you to my parents for helping transfer and the pieces from OH to SC and for all the help assembling once it was home. Also a huge huge shout out to Dean and Wayne at Wengerd Wood for all the routing and CNC programing time.
Three sheets of 3/4 inch cherry veneer MDF coming home from the finishers. We bought the wood from Kiem Lumber but I can’t remember the name of the finisher.
First sheet on the router. I must say, I was a bit nervous as the bit first cut into it.
Tabletop and middle front just about finished.
The grooves vary from 1/8th to nearly 3/4 inch deep.
All the parts finished ready to be wrapped up to head to SC.
3/27/14 Update
I have 99% of the sanding and smoothing complete now. Just about ready to paint.
5-16-14 Update
On all of the front edges, we extended the cuts an extra inch and then cut a 90 deg. V from the back side all the way through. The little triangle that was left we folded over and glued and nailed into place. I spent a good bit of time manually recreating a few of the knobs that broke off when creating the folds for the front edges. 
That extra work is what makes the transitions look so seamless.
I started priming the grooves yesterday. This first drawer took about an hour. 
5-26-14 Update
I spent a large part of Saturday and a few hours Sunday night painting again. You can’t see it in the pictures below but I painted behind the drawers as well.
6-1-14 Update
I updated/finished the 3D model
6-13-14 Update
I have finished sanding the primer and will start painting this weekend. The white will stay!. I am going with a high gloss white.
I posted the model to GrabCAD… https://grabcad.com/library/my-hobby-work-bench-1
I’m not sure if its me being an engineer, or me being a true nerd, but for some reason I’m fascinated by the stats that can be created from a webpage. Below are a few interesting things about this blog from last year. All statistics are shown for the year 2013 only.
Total blog (not page) visits: 8,309
Directly entered web address (not referred): 29.10%
From a search engine (Bing, Google, ect): 21.87%
Mobile and tablet traffic: 4.39%
Visits grouped by browser:
Number of new posts: 37
My official (posted) goal was 24 posts for last year. My personal goal was 52. I’m not sure if 37 is a win or not.
Most active blog post: AutoCAD Electrical 2013 New Features! (2,210 Views)
Breaking The wd.env File Down Line By Line (908 Views)
Wire From/To Annotation On the Schematic (694 Views)
Creating a custom PLC style (620 Views)
Title Block Update - Previous / Next Sheet Numbers (604 Views)
Number of new people I have personally met because this blog: 2
Number of pages viewed per blog visit:
Average time (in minutes) spent per page visited:
Visits by location:
Top ten locations:
Percent of new viewers vs returning viewers: 54.36% New on Average
This years visits per day
The dips are weekends.
I hope you enjoyed this useless information. I have a series of reporting posts in the works.
This update adds new AB content to the existing AutoCAD Electrical content databases.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21972810&linkID=9240738
As with any update be sure to review the Readme to be sure its installed properly.
This link contains the additional content details.. AB-RA Content Details
This isn’t really electrical in nature. However it is about AutoCAD Electrical, and I put a bit of time into this article, so I want this group to see it as well.
http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/autocad/mechanical-applications-autocad-electrical-16515
Remember to say “Thank You” on Monday. It’s so much more than a BBQ day.
While sorting through some old papers in preparation for taxes, I ran across some long forgotten papers. I was working as a draftsman for Steiner Turf and Brouwer Turf at the time. When I first started we were on AutoCAD 12. Soon after our upgrade to 14 we decided to move into the 3D world and purchased Mechanical Desktop. I was sent to Technical Software for some accelerated training on our new software.
We designed one sod harvester using MDT. The Rollmax 2400! It rolled 2' by 100' rolls, wrapped them in webbing and discharged them out the SIDE! It was the first harvester of its time to discharge out the side. All others dumped out the rear requiring a fork lift in the field to move the completed rolls before another pass could be made.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=20545414&linkID=9240738
Service pack one was released yesterday. It includes the AutoCAD service pack 1.1. This service pack fixes my last post's issue! Listed below are the other addressed issues.
Dialogs
- Dialogs disappear off the screen if displayed on non-primary monitor.
Insert/Edit Components/Footprints
- %U tagging format results in incorrect component tagging for drawing wide update.
- The Insert Component Icon Menu fails to get back to the default state after inserting the Pneumatic, Hydraulic or P&ID Components.
Project Manager
- The Preview in Project Manager does not display for the drawings saved in AutoCAD 2013 Drawing format.
- Apply Project Defaults does not work when a single drawing is selected in Project Manager.
Performance
- Poor Catalog Lookup performance in a shared environment.
Terminal Strip Table Generator
- New drawings created after running Terminal Strip Table Generator report are not added to the Project Manager.
Wires
- Wire Numbering state cannot be changed in Create/Edit Wire Type dialog.
http://imaginit.com/lp/know_it_all/index.html
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=assistance_landing
This is similar to a program Autodesk offered a year ago to help individuals get training for a new career. If you know someone who is out of work send them to this site. Student copies of anything Autodesk along with Training and Support! You do have to qualify to get into this program.
Here are a few other new features. If you missed my earlier post of new features its here... AutoCAD Electrical 2013 New Features - Post 1
You can install Autodesk Exchange Apps and other 3rd party Apps for your products. Clicking the button opens your web browser to Autodesk Exchange Apps Store http://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/ACAD_E/2013/en/Home/Index When this was posted there were over 50 apps listed and 28 of them were FREE!.
Select the app you want and press install...
The Plug-Ins tab displays the Autodesk Exchange Apps that are currently installed.
The Online tab will end up receiving its own blog post as some point in the near future. Shown here is a comparison between the Electrical 2012 and 2013 Online tab. It has never been easier to share and collaborate with engineers.
This is really a core AutoCAD change but it affects the Electrical user as well. To see more about this update see John Hackney's post about it here... http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/2012/03/autocad-2013-command-line-gets-a-face-lift.html
http://usa.autodesk.com/autocad-electrical/
At start up this dialog will now display until the "Show at startup" box is cleared. The videos are actually done quite well and show what Electrical is really capable of. Hopefully this will cut down on the number of users who simply use Electrical as AutoCAD with a fancy symbol library. Its so much more than that.
The marking menu has been in some Autodesk software for several releases now. This year it's made it to Electrical as well. What is it? Over certain object you can right click and drag then let go. A mark is made in the direction the mouse is moved and when the right mouse button is released the command in that direction is started. The marking menu also works as a normal right click menu.
In the images below I am using the new marking menu both with and without gestures.
Will they be more effective? Once I learned the command locations I felt it was much faster. Here is a case study on marking menus from 1994 by the University of Toronto <<User Learning and Performance with Marking Menus>>
If you don't have time to learn a new right click menu right now, turn this feature off until you do. The AEMM system variable controls the marking menu display. 0 = Marking Menu OFF, 1 = Marking Menu with Icons Only, 2 = Marking Menu with Text Only, 3 = Marking Menu with Icons and Text (Default)
Finally the allowed drag and drop inside the Project Manager! But they didn't stop there, they also included the use of project subfolders. These folders can be selected anytime a project wide utility (Plot Project) is used.
There are a number of other enhancements as well but these three were at the top of the list. I'll post a few more posts about 2013 including one explaining what's going on behind the scenes for project subfolders.
More new features here...
http://myacade.blogspot.com/2012/04/more-autocad-electrical-2013-new.html
