Tips & Tools Weekly (Vol. 21, No. 10)

This Week's Software Tips

Video Tip: Line Up Text in AutoCAD If you've ever needed to align existing text strings to a specific point or distance, then you need to check out the TextAlign command! In this video from Cadalyst and Autodesk Evangelist Lynn Allen, you'll see how easy and fast it is to get your text in order. Watch the video

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Resources

Cambashi Pins Slowdown in Engineering Software Growth on Subscription Licensing
Cambashi, a global industry analyst and market consulting firm, has announced the 2016 first-quarter update to its market data resource, the "Cambashi Market Observatories." According to Cambashi, spending growth for 2015 was 12.5% measured in constant currency terms, falling to 5% in 2016; the slower forecast for 2016 reflects the move to subscription licensing by providers.

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Deals & Freebies

Thinkbox Offers Free On-Demand Licensing of V-Ray and More This Month
Thinkbox Software is providing free licensing hours of Deadline and Krakatoa as well as free hours of The Foundry's NUKE and KATANA, and Chaos Group's V-Ray, for the month of May. Deadline 8 introduces on-demand, per-minute licensing for Thinkbox tools and third-party applications. The free hours can be used for on-premise or cloud-based rendering; users are responsible for compute resources.

Free Trial of New ProgeCAD Version Available
ProgeSOFT is offering visitors who register on its site a 30-day, fully functional trial version of progeCAD 2017 Professional. The 2D/3D DWG/DXF-native general-purpose CAD application is built on the IntelliCAD 8 platform. Improvements in this release include a new Windows ribbon–style user interface, multicore support with improved memory management, and import of point clouds.

NVIDIA Provides Free Trial of Iray Plugin for Rhino
Visitors to the NVIDIA website can register to download a free 90-day trial of Iray for Rhino. The plugin rendering solution helps designers who are using McNeel Rhinoceros to quickly produce physically based, photorealistic visualizations. With the plugin, Iray is integrated into Rhino, rendering directly within its viewports.

Ideate Updates Sticky for the Revit Project Environment, Offers Trial Version
Ideate Software has released a free trial of Ideate Sticky for Autodesk Revit, which was recently updated. Ideate Sticky imports and synchronizes Microsoft Excel file content into the Revit project environment. In addition to fixing bugs, the company has reengineered Ideate Sticky for Revit 2017 to maintain visual fidelity between Stickies across pre-2017 and 2017 Revit versions.

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Opportunities & Honors

DesignJet Owners Can Enter HP Sweepstakes Till July 31, 2016
To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the launch of its DesignJet printer family, HP is inviting DesignJet customers to enter the "Me and My DesignJet" sweepstakes. From May 2 through July 31, owners of HP DesignJet Printers can enter into a random drawing. The first 450 U.S. entrants will receive a $25 gift card for the HP.com store, and one U.S. winner will receive an HP DesignJet T830 Multifunction Printer.

Trimble Dimensions Accepting Speaker Proposals Till June 20, 2016
Organizers of the Trimble Dimensions 2016 conference have issued a call for speakers. The conference, which will be held November 7–9 in Las Vegas, Nevada, is designed to highlight the success of Trimble users and the ways they are applying innovative technologies. Presentations should discuss best practices or new technology trends that are shaping the industries where Trimble products are used.

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Books & Training

CIMdata Launches Online PLM Course
CIMdata, a product lifecycle management (PLM) strategic management consulting and research firm, has added a new e-learning course to its PLM leadership education and training offerings. The "PLM Basics" course is delivered through three self-paced, one-hour, online educational sessions. Successful completion of the course and assessments leads to a Basic Certificate of PLM Leadership being award.

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What’s New at Cadalyst.com

Indovance Predicts Global Growth in CAD Outsourcing
Sandesh Joshi believes that augmenting local teams with overseas design and engineering assistance can help businesses reach their goals — without threatening jobs. Read more

IMAGINiT Tricks Tutorial: Export and Import Autodesk Fusion 360 Designs
Learn about the process for handing off a design and what options are available — without having to add them to your A360 project. Read more

In Third Generation, HP Trims Z1 Price While Preserving Performance
Like many of its competitors, HP sees vast potential in the entry segment of the workstation market, and is designing machines that meet budget constraints while exceeding PC capabilities. Read more

Rigorous GPU Update Regimen Enables VFX Wizards to Produce Eye-Popping Visuals from CAD Files
At the W.I.P visual effects collective, graphics are always a work in progress, and continual updates are necessary to ensure the best performance possible. Read more