Draftsight - An alternative to AutoCAD

It has been more than a year since Dassault Systemes (the makers of CATIA) have released their 2D CAD software, Draftsight. Their website says that the software is FREE for individuals as a standalone license. (Email activation necessary).
This software is ALMOST same as Autocad. (2008 version) and supports PGP, Plot configurations, etc. Very easy to use. You can download the software here.
This software is highly recommended.
Here are some screen shots:

Copy from Excel to a Revit Schedule 2012 64 bit

After such a long time (sorry), I updated the script to copy data from excel spreadsheet to Revit Schedule. The updated script is available at:
http://bim.nichitecture.com/copyexcel.html
The evaluation version can be downloaded from the above link. The evaluation version has a limit of 25 cells that can be copied into Revit at a time. You can buy the utility with no restriction in the number of cells to copy (at the bottom of this post!)
The software currently supports 64 bit and 32bit windows environment for:

• Revit Architecture 2009
• Revit Architecture 2010
• Revit Architecture 2011
• Revit Architecture 2012
• Revit Structure 2009
• Revit Structure 2010
• Revit Structure 2011
• Revit Structure 2012
• Revit MEP 2009
• Revit  MEP  2010
• Revit  MEP  2011
• Revit  MEP  2012

The cost of the licensed version of the software:
Single license cost is $2;
Site license cost for a firm with less than 10 employees is $10;
Site license cost for a firm with less than 50 employees is $25;
Site license cost for a firm with more than 50 employees is $50;

I copy and paste from my previous post:
The script works with both Microsoft Excel and Open Office.org Calc. 
The script copies a bunch of cells (rows x columns) and pastes them into a revit schedule (contiguous rows x columns).

1. The script works well if all the fields in Revit schedule are EDITABLE. (A normal schedule has lots of ‘read-only’ fields like Family name, Area, etc where this script will fail.) The cells also need to be 'instance' driven cells (as compared to 'type' driven cells)
2. The script does not create blank rows for data in Revit (yet). You need to create as many rows as you might need using this button in the Revit option bar before running the script.

You can buy the utility:
1. Register here.
2. Pay here. 

Autodesk University 2011

That time of the year again... Autodesk University in Las Vegas is about to start. If you cannot make it to the University in Las Vegas, dont worry. Autodesk is making most of the classes available online for FREE. All you need to do is to create an Autodesk account and register for the courses here. Autodesk has made the registraton process even easier this time by allowing us to use our facebook or twitter credentials...
Awesome!
If you use Twitter profusely... you can tag Autodesk University 2011 by using #AU2011 ...

ETransmit for Revit 2012

At last Autodesk has come out with an etransmit tool for Revit. In fact, they have not released it to the market, but the tool is available at the Autodesk at Autodesk Labs Utilities eTransmit for Revit. This is a free download.

The best part of the tool is that it can be used to archive a Revit project. (We used to have a long list of 'to dos' to archive a revit project along with all the DWG linked files, etc. Now this can be done in one step. Nice.

This is an add-in tool and it shows up in the ribbon for easy use. These are the things the tool does:

Copies the central file

Copies all the dependent files

Changes the path for all the dependent to be dependent paths, etc.

Works ONLY for Revit 2012!!

This free download is available only until Dec 31st 2012. Autodesk might make it a subscription update after this date! (They are just crowd sourcing the bug fixing phase!)

Definitely worth a try.

AutoCAD WS - Web and Mobile Application for AutoCAD - Autodesk

It has been some time since Autodesk released their web version of AutoCAD WS.

It works amazingly, whole thing is embedded within the web browser. Autodesk also has an app for android and iphone. Unfortunately the dwg website cannot accessed using Nokia web browser (It claims that it needs Adobe Flash support, which I thought Opera mobile has....)

Basically:

1. Create an autocad ws account (existing autodesk account will do)

2. Upload your dwg file.

3. Anyone, anywhere can can access your dwg and edit (as long as you give them access rights)

The dwg files can be collaborated online simultaneously. There are a lots of youtube videos that explain the features of the website.

Ofcourse, the online autocad is NOT full fledged version of the real one. But it is useful for most of the stuff you might need to do on job site or at coordination meetings. Very nice.