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March 26, 2013

AutoCAD 2014 System Requirements

Here are the system requirements for AutoCAD 2014:




AutoCAD 2014 System Requirements for 32-bit Workstations

Operating system:
•Microsoft Windows XP Professional - Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later
•Microsoft Windows XP Home - Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later
•Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
•Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
•Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
•Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
•Microsoft Windows 8
•Microsoft Windows 8 Pro
•Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise

Browser: Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

Processor:
•Windows XP - Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Dual Core, 1.6 GHz or Higher with SSE2 technology
•Windows 7 and Windows 8 - Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Dual Core, 3.0 GHz or Higher with SSE2 technology

Memory: 2 GB RAM (4 GB Recommended)

Display resolution: 1024 x 768 (1600 x 1050 or higher recommended) with True Color

Disk Space: Installation 6.0 GB

Pointing Device: MS-Mouse compliant

Media: Download and Installation from DVD

Additional requirements for 3D Modeling: Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3.0 GHz or greater or Intel or AMD Dual Core processor, 2.0 GHz or greater

4 GB RAM

6 GB free hard disk available not including installation requirements

1280 x 1024 True color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Direct3D capable workstation class graphics card.

Note: 64-bit Operating Systems are recommended if you are working with Large Datasets, Point Clouds and 3D Modeling - please refer to the AutoCAD 64-bit System Requirements for more information.

.NET Framework .NET Framework Version 4.0, Update 1

AutoCAD 2014 System Requirements for 64-bit workstations

Operating system:
•Microsoft Windows XP Professional* - Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later
•Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
•Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
•Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
•Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
•Microsoft Windows 8
•Microsoft Windows 8 Pro
•Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise

*Note: VBA is not supported on Windows XP Professional

Browser: Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

Processor:
•AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology AMD Opteron with SSE2 technology
•Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support and SSE2
•Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology

Memory: 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended)

Display resolution: 1024 x 768 (1600 x 1050 or higher recommended) with True Color

Disk Space: Installation 6.0 GB

Pointing Device: MS-Mouse compliant

Media: Download and Installation from DVD

Additional requirements for 3D Modeling: 4 GB RAM or more

6 GB free hard disk available not including installation requirements

1280 x 1024 True color video display adapter 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Direct3D capable workstation class graphics card.

.NET Framework .NET Framework Version 4.0 Update 1

Inventor 2014 System Requirements

Here are the system requirements for Inventor 2014:




For Inventor 2014 Windows users
For general part and assembly design (typically fewer than 1,000 parts):

  • Windows 7 (32-bit minimum, 64-bit recommended), Windows 8 64-bit, or Windows XP Professional 32-bit operating system
  • Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, 3 GHz or greater, or AMD dual-core processor with SSE2, 2 GHz or greater recommended, or Intel Xeon E3 or Core i7 or equivalent with SSE2, 3.0 GHz or greater
  • 4 GB RAM minimum for less than 500 part assemblies (8 GB recommended)
  • 15 GB free disk space for installation
  • 1,280 x 1,024 or higher screen resolution
  • Microsoft Direct3D 9 or compatible graphics card (Microsoft Direct3D 11 or higher recommended)
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later (.NET Framework Version 4.5 web browser)
  • Microsoft Excel 2003 or later software for iFeatures, iParts, iAssemblies, thread customization, and spreadsheet-driven designs
  • Adobe Flash Player 10
  • Internet connection for web downloads and Subscription Aware access
  • Microsoft-compliant mouse or pointing device
  • DVD-ROM drive
For complex models, complex mold assemblies, and large assemblies (typically more than 1,000 Parts):
  • 64-bit Windows 7 or Windows 8
  • Xeon E3 or Core i7 or equivalent, 3.3 GHz or greater
  • 16 GB RAM or greater
  • 15 GB free disk space for installation
  • 1,280 x 1,024 or higher screen resolution
  • Direct3D 9 or compatible graphics card (Direct3D 11 or higher recommended)
  • Internet Explorer 6 or later (.NET Framework Version 4.5 web browser)
  • Excel 2003 or later for iFeatures, iParts, iAssemblies, thread customization, and spreadsheet-driven designs
  • Flash Player 10
  • Internet connection for web downloads and Subscription Aware access
  • Microsoft-compliant mouse or pointing device
  • DVD-ROM drive
For Inventor 2014 Mac users
On Boot Camp:
You can install Autodesk Inventor Professional software on a Mac computer on a Windows partition. The system must use Apple Boot Camp to manage a dual OS configuration and meet the minimum system requirements.
  • Mac OS X 10.6 (10.8 or higher recommended)
  • Boot Camp v2.0 or higher
  • Windows 7 64-bit
  • Intel Core 2 Duo or greater processor with SSE2 technology, 3.0 GHz or greater
  • 8 GB RAM or greater
  • 64 GB free disk space on Windows OS partition (250 GB recommended)
Mac Virtualization on Parallels Desktop:
  • Mac OS X 10.6 (10.8 or higher recommended)
  • Parallels Desktop 8.0 or higher
  • 64-bit Windows 7 or Windows 8
  • Core 2 Duo or greater with SSE2 technology, 3.0 GHz or greater
  • 8 GB RAM (16 GB recommended)
  • 500 GB free disk space or greater

Product Design Suite 2014

Here is what is included in Product Design Suite 2014. There are a couple of changes. It is still broke down into 3 levels.


Product Design Suite Standard
  • Inventor
  • AutoCAD
  • AutoCAD Mechanical
  • AutoCAD Raster Design
  • AutoCAD ReCap
  • Mudbox
  • Showcase
  • Sketchbook Designer
  • Vault Basic
Product Design Suite Premium
  • All of the above plus:
  • Inventor Professional
  • AutoCAD Electrical
  • Navisworks Simulate
  • 3ds Max Design
Product Design Suite Ultimate
  • All of the above plus:
  • Alias Design
  • Navisworks Manage

AutoCAD 2014 - What's New

Here is the full list of What's New for AutoCAD 2014.

User Interaction

Command Line


The Command Line interface is enhanced to provide smarter, more efficient access to
commands and system variables. And, you can use the command line to find other content such as
hatch patterns, visual styles, and internet help.

AutoCorrect

The Command Line supports AutoCorrect. If you mistype a command, instead responding
with “Unknown command”, AutoCAD autocorrects to the most relevant and valid AutoCAD command.

For example, if you accidentally type TABEL, the TABLE command is automatically launched.

AutoComplete

AutoComplete command entry is enhanced to support mid-string search. For example, if you type SETTING on the Command line, the suggestion list displays commands containing the word
SETTING anywhere within it, not just at the beginning.

Adaptive Suggestions

Commands in the suggestion list are initially displayed in the order of their usage based on general
customer data. As you continue to use AutoCAD 2014, the order of commands in the suggestion list will adapt to your own usage habits. The command usage data is stored in the profile and adapts to each user.

Synonym Suggestions

The Command line has a built in synonym list. Enter a word at the command line and it will return a
command if a match is found in the synonym list. For example, if you enter Symbol, AutoCAD finds the INSERT command so you can insert a block. Or if you enter Round, AutoCAD finds the FILLET command so you can add a fillet to a corner.

Input Settings

You can customize the behavior of the command line using controls in the Input Settings menu when you right-click on the command line. In addition to the previous options to enable AutoComplete and search for system variables, you can enable AutoCorrect, search content and mid-string search. All of these options are turned on by default.
 
File Tabs
 
The AutoCAD 2014 release offers drawing tabs as a fast and visual way to switch between open drawings or to create new ones. You can turn the file tabs bar on or off using the File Tabs control on the View ribbon tab. When File Tabs are turned on, a tab for each open drawing is displayed at the top of the drawing area.
 
File tabs are displayed in the order they were opened. You can drag and drop tabs to change their order. If there is not enough room for all the file tabs to display across the area, an overflow menu at the right end of the file tabs bar provides access to the additional files.
 
A lock icon on a tab indicates that the file is open as read-only and an asterisk indicates if the file has
been modified since its last save. When you pass the cursor over a file tab, preview images of the model and layouts are displayed. If you pass the cursor over one of the preview images, the corresponding model or layout is temporarily displayed in the drawing area and Plot and Publish tools are accessible from the preview image.
 
The right-click menu for file tabs enables you to create, open, save and close files including the ability to close all open files except the one on which you right-clicked. You can also copy the full file path to the clipboard or open the file location in Windows Explorer.
 
A Plus (+) icon to the right of the drawing tabs, enables you to easily create new drawings, automatically adding their tabs as they’re created.
 
Layer Management
 
The number of layers displayed on the ribbon has been increased. Layers are now displayed using
natural ordered sort. For example, the following layer names 1, 4, 25, 6, 21, 2, 10 are sorted as 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 21, 25 instead of 1, 10, 2, 25, 21, 4, 6.
A new Merge option in the Layer Manager enables you to select one or more layers from the layer list and merge the objects from those layers onto a different layer. The original layers are automatically purged from the drawing.
 
Xref Enhancements
 
The display of linetypes and layers from externally referenced drawings is enhanced. Xref linetypes are not displayed in the linetype list of the ribbon or Properties palette. Xref layers are still displayed in the ribbon so you can control their visibility but they are not displayed in the Properties palette.
Design Exploration
 
Geographic Location
 
Support for Geographic locations has been significantly enhanced in Keystone. It includes the same
Coordinate System Library as AutoCAD Map 3D and new Autodesk Live Maps.
There are many benefits to defining a location in your drawing. When you import geolocated data into a geolocated drawing, AutoCAD transforms the data based on the drawing's geographic location. You can see your design within the context of its location and if you render the model, it will have the correct sun angle. If you export the drawing to a mapping service like Google Earth, it will automatically display at the correct location. When you insert geo-referenced images or blocks into your geo-referenced drawing, they are automatically placed in the correct location and at the correct scale. For example, imagine large projects that have multiple designers working separately on the same design, such as a housing project. If each designer uses the same coordinate system, all the drawings will insert at their appropriate locations when combined into a single file. You can mark specific point of interest in your drawings knowing that those points correspond to logical geographic locations. And, if you have a GPS device enabled on your computer, you can see your current position in the drawing and you can even mark positions as you walk around. For example, landscape architects can visit the site and take notes of the surroundings by marking them on the drawing.
 
You can set a geographic location in your drawing using the Set Location tool on the Insert ribbon tab. Choose to set the location using Autodesk Maps Service or by selecting a KML or KMZ file.
 
Reality Capture
 
Reality Capture enables you to take a 3D laser scan of an object, topography, a building or even an
entire town and attach it to an AutoCAD drawing as point cloud data. You can then use it as a real-world reference for your design work. This point cloud data is stored as thousands, even millions, of points in 3D space.
 
Autodesk ReCap
 
Autodesk ReCap is a separate application which enables you to create a point cloud project file (RCP) that references multiple indexed scan files (RCS). It is installed with Keystone, by default and you can launch it from the Window’s Start menu or from the Autodesk ReCap desktop icon.
 
You can use Autodesk ReCap to convert scan file data to a point cloud format that can be viewed and edited in other products. Autodesk ReCap processes massive datasets enabling you to aggregate scan files and clean, section, spatially sort, compress, measure, and visualize them. The resulting high-speed formats can then be used by AutoCAD and other Autodesk applications including Revit and Autodesk Inventor.
 
Documentation
 
Drawing Enhancements
 
AutoCAD 2014 includes a variety of drawing enhancements to help you produce drawings more efficiently.
  • Arcs - Easily draw an arc in either direction using by pressing the Ctrl key to switch directions as you draw.
  • Polylines - The #11 AUGI wishlist request for the ability to fillet a polyline to itself, creating a closed polyline, is granted in Autocad 2014.
  • Sheet Sets - When creating a new sheet in a sheet set the CreateDate field stored in the associated template (.dwt) displays the creation date of the new sheet rather than the creation date of the template file.
  • Plot Styles - The CONVERTPSTYLES command enables you to convert the current drawing to either named or color dependent plot styles. In Autocad 2014 it is enhanced to support style names with spaces.
Annotation Enhancements
  • Attributes - The default behavior for inserting blocks with attributes displays the dialog box. ATTDIA is set to 1.
  • Text - Single line text is enhanced to maintain the last justification setting until it’s changed.
  • Dimensions - The new DIMCONTINUEMODE system variable provides you with more control when creating continued and baseline dimensions. When DIMCONTINUE is set to 0, the DIMCONTINUE and DIMBASELINE commands create dimensions based on the current dimension style. When set to 1, they apply the dimension style of the selected dimension.
  • Hatch - The Hatch tool on the ribbon maintains the previous method for selecting objects to hatch: Pick internal point or Select objects. The Undo option is added to the command line.
Customization

Operating Systems

AutoCAD 2014 supports Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you are using a Windows 8 touch-enabled device, you can benefit from smoother pan and zoom performance. A new control on the System tab of the Options dialog box displays a touch mode ribbon panel when a touch screen device is detected.

There is a short breakdown of the New Features in AutoCAD 2014. You can read about the rest of them when I post the full What's New document coming soon. You can follow me on alot of the social networks included in the following post. Different Ways to Follow Inventor Topix

Inventor 2014 - What's New

It is that time of year again to release the details about the latest enhancements that are added to the newest release of Inventor. Here is the list of What's New for Inventor 2014.

They are broke down into 7 different categories, but I am going to focus on the top 4. You can read about the rest when I post the What's New document later.
  • Sketch Design
  • Part
  • Assembly
  • Drawings
  • Communication and Interoperability
  • CAD Administrator Tools
  • Learning Tools
Click after the Break for all the details:

March 25, 2013

Autodesk Live Event

Autodesk is having a special Live event on March 26, 2013 at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern, 3pm UK and 4pm Europe to learn more and see the impact that Autodesk software is having across the industries we serve.

Usually this time of year is when Autodesk introduces the new 2014 lineup of products, so if you want to watch first hand what is coming, you can join the introductions live on the internet. They are having two locations for your viewing pleasure.


Here is the link for the Facebook viewing site, www.facebook.com/autodesk

Here is the link for the Livestream viewing site, http://www.livestream.com/autodesk

If you can't make the lve events, stay tuned to Inventor Topix after the events to find out what is coming.

March 22, 2013

Inventor of the Year - 2012

Ellis Furniture leverages Autodesk Inventor software to offer greater levels of product customization to its customers and create high-quality furniture that fits their needs. (Photo: Business Wire)Autodesk has named Ellis Furniture, chosen by the manufacturing community, as the 2012 Inventor of the Year. Ellis Furniture, a U.K. based furniture company in business for more than a century, was chosen as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for August 2012 for using Autodesk Inventor as part of Autodesk Product Design Suite to offer greater levels of product customization in significantly less time.

This speed enables Ellis to rapidly explore a number of design options for its customers, ranging from luxury hotels to government institutions, and create high-quality furniture that not only fits their precise needs, but is designed to last a lifetime.

Using Autodesk software, the company estimates that it is able to clarify initial product design concepts with customers 20 percent faster and establish material sources and material costs 30 to 40 percent faster. Ellis’ manufacturing process, including generating a bill of materials (BOM) and preparing design files for computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools with Autodesk software, takes 80 percent less time.

StudentThe rules-based design automation capabilities of Inventor software enable an efficient workflow where intelligent data behind each furniture design is fed into Ellis’ ERP system. This fully digital process eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors and speeds up turnaround time, even as the company gives its customers greater freedom to express their design intent and personalize their furniture offerings.

When one of its larger university customers required a vast array of size and color permutations for a new range of furniture, Ellis was able to develop a base model in Inventor software and tailor it until the university was satisfied. Likewise, when one of its military customers urgently needed a new range of bedroom furniture, Ellis was able to complete the models in Autodesk Inventor within a week and go straight into manufacturing with total confidence and without delays on the shop floor. Two weeks later, the units were being shipped to the other side of the world.

Ellis Furniture

Congratulations Ellis Furniture

Here is the original YouTube video about Ellis Furniture.


Image Credits: Ellis Furniture, Autodesk

March 8, 2013

Inventor of the Month - February 2013

Autodesk has named BioLite as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for February 2013. BioLite uses Autodesk software to create wood-burning, power charging stoves that burn 90 percent cleaner than conventional wood-burning stoves or open fires.

The portable BioLite CampStove and the larger BioLite HomeStove convert waste heat into electricity that can be used to charge small electronic devices such as cell phones, GPS units and LED lights. By offering products that function as both off-grid power chargers as well as clean and efficient cooking devices, BioLite provides a true on-demand energy source for users around the world.


This flexibility is critical for developing countries where rural electrification rates are quite low, but also makes a huge difference during natural disasters in developed nations as well. For example, New Yorkers in lower Manhattan took advantage of charging mobile devices at CampStoves during Superstorm Sandy.

BioLite used Autodesk Simulation 360 cloud services to digitally simulate heat transfer within the CampStove and, later, the HomeStove.

The BioLite design team also used Autodesk 3ds Max Design visualization software within Autodesk Product Design Suite to create photo realistic digital prototypes and 3D animations of the stoves, allowing the team to evaluate stove aesthetics.
As a result of leveraging Autodesk software, BioLite significantly reduced the time required to commercialize its innovations and bring them to market. The CampStove is currently available for purchase through the company’s website, with a large-scale roll out in the works with nationwide U.S. retailers.

Here is a link to BioLite's Website

Here is a YouTube Interview with BioLite.

Credits: Autodesk, BioLite