A few weeks ago Autodesk evangelist and Cadalyst contributor, Lynn Allen, joined our partners DLT Solutions and CADD Microsystems for a government seminar in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this week, as a member of the Autodesk AEC Bloggers Council, we got a sneak peek at Stingray, a powerful engine that can be used by AEC professionals to make BIM-informed 3D visualizations in 3ds Max fully interactive in a real-time environment. In plain English, it means that building designers using Revit can go anywhere in the BIM model and see everything as you would in the physical world.

Stingray has its origins in 3D gaming software and is built on the Bitsquid engine, which Autodesk acquired last summer.

The dog days of summer have arrived and what perfect time than to grab 5, 30 or even 60 minutes to brush up on your CAD skills.

Whatever your discipline, staying ahead of the curve is essential, but with tight government budgets training isn’t always that easy to come by.

Good news! We’ve put together a cross-section of upcoming webinars and online training that won’t cost you a dime. Go ahead, register for one today and surprise your boss with new ways of thinking and doing!

1. On-Demand Videos: Lynn Allen Video Library of AutoCAD Tips and Tricks

Autodesk recently reached its one-millionth app download from the Autodesk Exchange Apps Store.

What app was the one-millionth download? CoolOrange threadModeler for Autodesk Inventor. The app helps users to generate a realistic modeled thread based on an existing Inventor thread feature.

By  Ron Couillard, CADSoft Consulting

Have you ever seen a drawing file you created with Civil 3D balloon in file size? Has this caused performance to take a nose dive?

The following steps should help you get some improvement on getting smaller file size, and hopefully better performance:

Who doesn't want to do things faster and more easily? Well, if you're a Revit or Inventor user, check out the newly released keyboard shortcut guides. With over 100 shortcuts, you can annotate, analyze, search, view, add contextual elements, and more, in one easy keyboard shortcut.

View them below (you can also download PDFs):

Do you use Autodesk A360 Team to collaborate in the cloud from any device? Looking to get more out of your investment? If so you may be interested in joining A360 Project Accelerator.

This June, Autodesk launched a new release of its flagship preliminary design software tool for AEC professionals, InfraWorks 360 (we profiled all the great new features in our earlier blog: 4 Exciting Features In The New Release Of InfraWorks 360). One of the biggest changes with this release is the ability to convert regular old intersections into roundabouts with only a few clicks.

Written by Shaun Bryant

It’s 1988. I have received my joining instructions for my first AutoCAD Basic course, and off I go to sit in a classroom with 21-inch CRT monitors, a projector, a screen (if I am lucky), and a flipchart/whiteboard (with pens!), plus the all-knowledgeable AutoCAD instructor. In my case, my instructor was a lovely guy named Andy Corden, who later in my career became my applications engineer when I worked in CAD sales. Small world, huh?

I'm pleased to make an exciting announcement that we hope will benefit all our readers.

Acronym was recently selected to join the Autodesk AEC Blogger Council.

What is the Autodesk AEC Blogger Council?