Autodesk changes will affect Mechanical Desktop 2009 customers!

Hot off the wire!

Autodesk has notified Avatech Solutions of an important delivery change for Mechanical Desktop customers.

With the release of the Autodesk® Inventor® 2009 products, we are changing the way our customers receive the Mechanical Desktop® software. While all Inventor 2009 products include Autodesk® Mechanical Desktop® 2009, the software is no longer included on the Inventor DVD. Customers who still use Mechanical Desktop must download it.

A notification card included in the DVD box explains the change and invites customers to visit www.autodesk.com/mdt, where they can download the appropriate files. This download page includes a short questionnaire that will enable us to improve our understanding of current Mechanical Desktop usage. Customers may also request physical media after completing the questionnaire.

Mobile CAD Viewing Application

We were recently asked by a client if they could view designs on their mobile devices. The answer is yes, with Project Freewheel. This works with WM5-6 software and Blackberry.

But, the homepage of Project Freewheel does not support this, it has some incompatible elements. try instead this page: http://freewheel.labs.autodesk.com/mobile/.

Disable Antivirus Software During Installs

It has always been said in the installation instructions that the antivirus software should be disabled during the installation. This is not widely known and most people when asked are not aware that their supposed to. If the antivirus software is not disabled, the registry may not be written to properly. This causes a common error with the Tool Palettes that will read “Class Not Registered” when a tool is activated. If this happens to you it will likely take a “Clean” reinstallation of the software to correct the problem. For details on how to do this, see http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1070370. Please also check your antivirus manufacturer’s documentation for assistance with turning off the antivirus protection for installation purposes.

Issue Found in AutoCAD Architecture 2009 & AutoCAD MEP 2009

The Avatech team is excited about the release of the 2009 product line – and we pride ourselves on our ability to break things before anyone else. Our technical support team found a glitch in AutoCAD Architecture & AutoCAD MEP 2009.

We are proud to say we found this before Autodesk did.

Enough already! What did we find?
The drawing scale cannot be changed through the Drawing Setup menu in either of the products. However that this can be changed through the command prompt using the “CAnnoScale” variable. To do so, simply type cannoscale at the command prompt and enter the scale you want to change to such as ¼” = 1’-0”.

We hope this helps. Stay tuned for more glitches and fixes.