On the floor at Autodesk University -- On opening night at Autodesk University the exhibition hall was buzzing, courtesy of the AUGI beer bash! A couple of thousand CAD users “had a couple” and schmoozed with fellow attendees and the exhibitors. A few cool things were on display on the exhibition floor:
Cadzation was there touting their AcroPlot software – a solution for PDF and DWF conversion. The solution can convert from within AutoCAD, as a separate Windows app., or it can act as a printer driver. Recently updated, the solution now boasts some new functionality including the ability to batch convert DWG files to PDF or DWF while also preserving layer information. Text features are now searchable and PDFs can now be reprocessed to enable markup and commenting in the free Acrobat Reader (7.0). The company has also announced a partnership with Autodesk via the DWF Partner Program.
Also present was my old friend Eric Waldman and the crew from GlobeXplorer. The company was on the floor explaining to a large influx of people that the ImageConnect Plug-in for AutoCAD is now available from their website… shhhh… don’t tell too many people about this as it’s a well kept secret and will only be free for 30 days.. be sure to give it a spin! See www.autodesk.com/globexplorerdata to grab the plug-in!
A new company on the floor from the non-traditional Cad/GIS arena was LinkTek. The company was demonstrating their LinkFixerPlus Gold application. Simply put, this solution enables users to easily move or rename many types of files in batch mode. The solution works with all common office application files as well as CAD and PDF files. See www.linkfixerplus.com
Falling under the “WOW” category is the new HP Designjet 4500 printer (officially announced at the show) see the press announcement in our PR section. The unit supports 2 rolls (load paper and mylar at once), prints images at a resolution up to 2400x1200 dpi, supports large rolls up to 500 ft or 175m, stacks and flattens up to 200 plots, and boasts less frequent ink replacement. No more babysitting the plotter!! See www.hp.com for more specs.
There was loads more on the floor but I simply don’t have time to cover off the other 96 booth exhibitors!
