Whether you are an architect or a designer, it is likely that AutoCAD is a vital everyday design tool. But did you know that you can now add 3D visualization and animation to your repertoire – all within the familiar AutoCAD interface. Autodesk’s new AutoCAD Design Suites is a easy and cost-efficient way to extend your familiar AutoCAD work-flow. By integrating four of Autodesk’s premium design and visualization software, Autodesk Design Suite Premium (the Rolls Royce of suite offerings) –– is a great way to expand your design software portfolio and add high quality 3D visualization and illustration without hurting your department’s shrinking IT budget.

In August of this year Autodesk made quite a splash when they announced they would release a new version of its most popular computer-aided design software and engineering tool, AutoCAD for the Mac OS X operating environment. The news broke and the web was abuzz. Our sister blog even wrote an entry about AutoCAD’s return to Mac. After all, AutoCAD hadn’t been available on Mac since 1992. Despite Microsoft Windows’ rise in popularity – both for personal use as well as business use – Mac has remained a popular choice for designers. Which got us thinking. How are you using technology in the workplace? What do you hope technology will be able to do for you in the future? Is a Mac environment an option for your agency?

If you didn’t get a chance to attend the Autodesk See the Advantage Virtual Event back on October 5th – don’t worry! All of the webcasts and documents were archived on the Website for you to view on demand. You can access the archive here: www.dlt.com/seetheadvantage . The archived event is a little hard to find, but your best bet is to navigate straight to the Auditorium in the virtual event hub where you’ll find the webcast archives. If you’re looking for a good read, go to the Exhibit Hall and click on your professional track (Buildings, Utilities, Civil Engineering, etc.) Each “booth” has its own resource section including white papers and videos. I found the Buildings booth to have the most – but all provided some useful resources.

18 years ago. It was 1992. Gas prices were a mere $1.13 per gallon, our Vice President infamously misspelled everyone’s favorite Idaho export, and the Buffalo Bills lost in the Super Bowl…again. 1992 also marks the last time AutoCAD, Autodesk’s flagship 2D and 3D design software, was available on Apple computers. Fast forward to 2010. While the Bills are still losing, AutoCAD is talking steps in the right direction. Earlier this week Autodesk announced they will release a new version of its most popular computer-aided design software and engineering tool, AutoCAD, that will run natively on Mac OS X.

Caron Beesley, Editor [acronym] online sat down for a five minute interview with Cadalyst columnist and Autodesk Technical Evangelist Lynn Allen. Lynn speaks to more than 30,000 users worldwide each year. For the past sixteen years she has written a monthly column in Cadalyst magazine called “Circles and Lines” and is the voice behind the popular Cadalyst videos – “Tips and Tricks Tuesday with Lynn Allen”. Lynn started using AutoCAD® software with Release 1.4, over 20 years ago, and she taught at the corporate and collegiate level for 13 years before joining Autodesk. You can follow Lynn on her blog http://lynn.blogs.com/ and on Twitter @Lynn_Allen. Here are some things you might not know about Lynn!

Shaan Hurley is a passionate and public Autodesk figure. His blog, “Between the Lines,” was the first recognized CAD industry blog back in 2003. Despite working for Autodesk for more than 10 years, Shaan considers himself to be a product user and customer evangelist first and an Autodesk employee second.