Dear [first name],

Welcome to the January 2008 issue of Manufacturing News, the newsletter designed especially for professionals in mechanical engineering, engineering design, process engineering and electrical engineering.

This issue, we find it hard to contain our excitement over the announcement of the Beta testing kick off for the latest iteration of Autodesk Inventor.

We have insights into some of the challenges and trends CAD Managers are going to be facing in their jobs this year including some productivity tools to help you along as well as give you the chance to read all about what happened during Autodesk University 2007 in Las Vegas. If you couldn’t be there, we’ve got some great links to pictures and video.

We will, of course, have our usual dose of Tips and Tricks for you; and we showcase our Autodesk Inventor of the month winners for December 2007 – Craftsmen Industries.

If you would like to share your comments on how we can improve this newsletter, please send them to asean.marketing@mail.autodesk.com.

Happy Reading and here's wishing everyone a great start to 2008!

The Manufacturing News Editorial Team

Community
Inventor Beta is here!
The Autodesk Inventor Product Management Team is proud and excited to present the latest iteration of the Inventor Beta Program. This upcoming 2008 release is a culmination of user insights gathered over the past year. Test its new functionalities to the limit by heading over to the My Feedback Portal and update your profile or sign up as a new user. Beta code is "TESLA".

Focus on
Unravelling Autodesk’s Customisation User Interface
Lynn Allen, worldwide AutoCAD technical evangelist shares some of the usefulness of the CUI command in customising AutoCAD to suit the individual user’s needs. Despite the vast improvements since its initial launch, many users still stumble about its intricacies.

Click here to unlock some of these secrets to greater productivity for yourself.



What’s in Store for CAD Managers in 2008
Cadalyst contributor and author Robert Green, puts forth some of his observations gathered from manager surveys and field experience on what to expect for the coming year as well as some advice on how to deal with and react to trends.

Read his article on how best to stay on top of the challenges of 2008.

Tips and Techniques
Tip 1: Creating Skeleton Tolerance
Garin Gardiner, Technical Marketing Manager with Autodesk’s Inventor Product Management Team shows users how to create a simple skeleton sketch then add the tolerance to the components that need it later while still keeping everything tied to one sketch.

Posted to Autodesk Manufacturing Community Portal

Download the Hot Fix from this website.

Tip 2: How to Default to Fixed Component Tag IDs
Posted by Nate Holt on the Manufacturing Community Blog

Click here to learn how to do this.

Tip 3: Mass Update of Items on Productstream
Posted to the Autodesk Manufacturing Community Portal

Click here to learn more.

General News
Autodesk Manufacturing Community Gets Ready to Select the 2007 Inventor of the Year
Autodesk has kicked off the official Inventor of the Year voting process by inviting the manufacturing community to log onto the Autodesk community web site and choose which of their favorite 2007 Inventor of the Month recipients should be named Inventor of the Year. The Inventor of the Month (IOM) program recognises the most innovative design and engineering advancements made by the extensive community using Autodesk Inventor software.

Check here to see the results of the votes now.

Frame Generator Customisation Tool for Inventor
The Frame Generator customisation tool functionality allows you to quickly and easily add your own custom structural profiles to the Frame Generator in Autodesk® InventorTM 2008 software. These custom shapes behave in the same way as the standard shapes provided, including placement and orientation and end treatment considerations.

Click here to download the tool now.

Subscription News
Service Pack 2 for Autodesk Inventor 2008
You must install Autodesk Inventor 2008 and apply SP1, before you can install Autodesk Inventor 2008 Service Pack 2. This service pack updates Autodesk Inventor Suite 2008, Autodesk Inventor Routed Systems Suite 2008, Autodesk Inventor Simulation Suite 2008 and Autodesk Inventor Professional 2008 for all languages.

Users can now download Autodesk Inventor 2008 Service Pack 2 from the Inventor download page.

To access these tools, please visit the Subscription Centre www.autodesk.com/subscriptionlogin.

Don’t have a login? Please email us at ap.subscriptions@autodesk.com for your login.

Customer Success
Craftsmen is Autodesk Inventor of the Month for December
Craftsmen Industries, a leading provider of customised vehicles for the event and promotion industry, has been named as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for December 2007. Rather than building, modifying, and then rebuilding a series of physical prototypes to get the desired end result, Craftsmen embraces Digital Prototyping as a way to visualise, simulate and analyse its designs in 3D before anything is actually built.

Click here to read more about why they are such worthy winners.  
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Industry Events
Catch a glimpse of AU 2007

From the serious learning sessions, to the more playful social events, AU 2007 was an exciting event. Green design was a strong theme in all main stage presentations. But aside from the focus on green, the big theme for the manufacturing industry was “Designing the Future”. Read all the details including a summary of Ray Kurzweil’s presentation in the in-depth event report by Kenneth Wong.