Stray Rescue of St. Louis Wins $1M

Congratulations to Randy Grim, Stray Rescue and the St. Louis community for winning a recent contest that earned them one million dollars for a shelter makeover.

ZooToo sponsored this makeover contest and searched the country looking for the most worthy program and gave financial gifts to the top three.
This looks like a really great resource site, which was founded by the former CEO of Meow Mix (Richard Thomas).

A.G. Edwards has apparently donated a warehouse to Stray Rescue which will house them and other services including Pound Pals (Randy's ultimate goal is for them to be able to offer 5,000 free or low-cost spay/neuter services to the poor each year to help reduce the number of strays who need rescuing).

With this contest combined with funds they've set aside, they've got roughly half of what they'll need to fit out this new space for occupation and use. So, as they enter into the Design and Development phase, I wish them luck toward the successful completion of this project.

~a round of applause~ Great job and keep up the good work!

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AutoCAD 2009 - All the rest

I went over some of the highlights of the my initial product review of the AutoCAD 2009 release in this article back in February.

In April, AUGI HotNews published my TipNiques column on the Interface changes with ACAD09.

And in May, I did a follow up (AutoCAD 2009: Odds and Ends) listing all of the little changes, enhancements and new features that I'd come across.

In June, Brian Benton is scheduled to round out this series with a good walk through on the Action Recorder, so be sure to check it out.

There have also been some articles in AUGIWorld and in other HotNews columns about making the most of new features.

And, please note, if you want the menu bar back and things to look more traditional, just switch to the Classic Workspace.


Of course, if you're not quite ready and willing to upgrade, feel free to refresh yourself and make sure you're taking advantage of the AutoCAD 2008 features!

TIPniques: Dashboard Customization
TIPniques: Using Referenced Files
TIPniques: AutoCAD 2008 Odds and Ends

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My Status Update

Alright, I've been a little busy lately.

Okay, a lot busy.

Since it's new product time, I'd finished up my work for Ellen on the 2009 AutoCAD and LT Bible, then started on a couple of articles for AUGI HotNews TipNique's column (April and May 2008).

I returned to college as a student of St. Louis University's School of Professional Studies to resume my Bachelor's degree.

Then my husband and I found out that we were expecting offspring #2... so I've been having to spend an awful lot of time napping because I'm EXHAUSTED.

Also, the Gateway AUG had their Spring Quarterly meeting. I presented on AutoCAD 2009 and Haden Smith presented on workflow with BIM. It was a pretty good meeting with a lot of great commentary by the members in attendance. We do apologize for going out of character and gathering on a Friday night rather than during the middle of the week, but, we had multiple scheduling conflicts that necessitated our departure from that norm.

During the meeting, I announced to the group that because of my schooling and impending bundle of joy, I would be resigning as President and would be replaced by Nicholas Iyadurai.
I'll still be serving on the board as a Member at Large, promoting and attending the meetings, probably presenting on occasion as needed. But, I'll no longer perform emailing or treasurer duties, as I have since the group's inception.
So, since then, past-President Brian Myers and I have been meeting with Nicholas and Chris VonFeldt about procedures, history and the new website revisions (Chris has been working hard to tidy up our site, lots more to come!). Also thanks to members Elle and Rich for their review of the site and additional ideas and to Rudy for helping to arrange our meeting space.
Our members are why we can do what we do.

As for why I asked Nicholas to step into my shoes... well, his company does a lot of work for mine, and I've always been pleased with his professionalism, enthusiasm and skills, and he was ready and willing. So, many thanks to him for agreeing to take on this laborious yet rewarding task!

Last week I had my final for my first college course in over five years. Whew! That's a lot of pressure. But, I read and studied the book and lecture notes and paid attention to the comments my classmates made in our online arena (which was hard in a night class considering I've given up almost all caffeine)... and surprisingly did really well and feel a lot better now than I did at the beginning of the class. So, I'm off for a couple of weeks before my next class starts.

I was a bit disappointed that the Industry Advisory Board for Vatterott's CAD program was scheduled for the same time as my final, as I do normally enjoy those quite a bit. I did ask my husband to go in my stead and he really thought it was a pleasant and productive evening as well.

AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH! Last week I also had a BIG presentation to give at work. As I've mentioned, I've been piloting the FMDesktop CAFM suite over about the past year. I've been trying to get enough support for a CAFM implementation campus-wide for almost as long as I've been here. FMD was finally cheap enough for me to push through a test, thanks to the support of my Manager and Director.

Every year we (the Engineering group) host an Education and Planning conference for our hospital, but, we also invite the pertinent corporate overlords, as well as FM leaders from some of the health system's smaller hospitals. We all present on various projects we've completed or would like to tackle, and it's a great time to get feedback, garner support and share our opinions with one another.

Well, since I'm the only nerd left in the department, I had the distinct pleasure of arranging the setup of the presentations and the A/V needs. I don't know just how many ways there are to break or choke up a Powerpoint file, but, I'll bet that I saw at least a half a dozen different methods early last week (although the deadline for submissions was the previous week).

So, everything ran smoothly technically as the two day conference went along, and last Friday I had made my presentation to the group (next to last, THAT really helped my nerves).

It was really very well received. I think we're getting to the point where we're willing to embrace technologies out of our traditional MEP engineering realm. There were some GREAT questions from the other Managers and the Supervisors. My boss and the director told me that it came off really well and they thought I'd done great.

I only hope that I did the possibilities the justice that they deserve. There's so much we could do better. We're already good at what we do, but, we can always improve things.
Wish me luck.

I'll be starting my next class soon, and I'm in the process of making my annual revisions to the AUGI CAD/Design Salary Survey. YES! You heard that right, ALREADY! We're going to run it in the summer so that we can publish it in the fall in time for year-end reviews. I don't know why we didn't think of this sooner.

Whew. Now I remember why I'm so tired.

Oh, and my office move that was scheduled for the 8th of May has been pushed back until the end of the month. Boy, oh boy. I can't wait. (rolling eyes)

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Rock and Roll... that old familiar feeling

Well, some residents of the Midwest are talking today.

Evidently overnight, there was a 5.4 Earthquake (or 5.2) on the border between the states of Illinois and Indiana.

Now, the Perry household resides in Missouri (over 130 miles away) but, we felt it. Near 20 to 5:00 this morning, both myself and my husband woke up. He didn't realize what woke him and fell back asleep.
But, past Californian that I am, I recognized the feel and sat up to see how long it would last and see how strong it was. It probably lasted half a minute. It was strong enough to shake the bed, but, not hard enough to knock anything over. After getting up to check on Mini-Mike, I went back to bed.

I do have to call my Mom over in Illinois later... she's got quite a collection of glass, metal and porcelain bells, so I'm sure the ringing noise was enough to wake my parents up.

There was a big to-do here when I was about ten years old, maybe a mild tremor with some guy predicting 'the big one' for the New Madrid fault. But, nothing came of it (except the wasted effort of packing away all of my Mother's bells).

The really memorable one for most people was the year prior, in 1989 I remember only that we were at DisneyLand and had to leave early because it was shut for inspections after a sizable quake. My Grandparents were fully woken, but, said that my Dad, my Sister and I slept right through it (so, sue me... a kid is pretty tired after a day at Disney!). Although what most folks talk about was a canceled baseball game, and the horrifying freeway collapses.

As for today's results... I haven't seen or heard of much damage around here (but, there is some elsewhere) but for a rickety old bridge on Kingshighway Blvd. It's been partially shut down until it can be further assessed (personally, I think the whole bridge should have been shut down long ago... I like to compare the appearance of it to a half eaten Windmill Cookie but, I'm not a bridge inspector, so, what do I know?).
This wasn't directly in our route on the way in, but, we did pass by it. I heard that it was shut down totally, but, now the center two lanes are open to traffic. That is a major artery for the South part of St. Louis city, so I can't imagine what a total shutdown would do to our roads (and tempers).

So, here's hoping everyone came through the excitement unscathed. And, here's to me being cautious and adding earthquake coverage to my home insurance policy last summer.

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Using MrSid files with AutoCAD 2009 Products

Check it out, Autodesk just posted the Raster Design Object Enabler yesterday.

ID: DL11091617
Applies to:
AutoCAD® 2009
AutoCAD® Architecture 2009
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009
AutoCAD® Electrical 2009
AutoCAD® Land Desktop 2009
AutoCAD® Map 3D 2009
AutoCAD® Mechanical 2009
AutoCAD® MEP 2009

The AutoCAD® Raster Design 2009 Object Enabler is a freeware application that you can use to display AutoCAD® Raster Design 2009 image files. This release allows object data created in AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 to be accessed outside the AutoCAD Raster Design environment.

At each new release, there is an onslaught of questions on the discussion groups from people wondering why they can't use their MrSid files in the new version, so, we just have to wait patiently (yeah right) for the object enabler to show up, and here it is. Enjoy.

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AU Course Proposals Due by April 27th

Autodesk University is accepting course proposals from those who wish to teach classes at AU2007 in Las Vegas.

Get them on in, don't wait until April 27th!
The great teachers and targeted topics are what make this trip worth it for eager students! Submit multiple proposals if you'd like!



Specifically for those Facility Management/CAFM folks out there, Mark Evans from Autodesk is willing to talk over ideas with you, if you'd like some feedback or refinement on a topic you're thinking about teaching.

Sadly, as mentioned, for the first time, I will not be able to attend AU this year, but, we have been increasing the quality of the Facility Management/Document Management/Coordination/CAD Management/CAFM track every year since they started being offered and I'd like to see that continue, even if I'm not there to benefit from it.

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Our son shows off some new threads

My little dork in training (also known affectionately as 'Mini-Mike') is very happy with his new shirt.

What do you think of it?Early November, if you're curious.

So, it looks like that class I was planning to co-teach at this year's Autodesk University will just have to be put on hold for awhile.

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