Tag: design

Must-Know AutoCAD Customizations! Simple Pro Designer Tricks You Need to Learn Now

Posted on by faz_business


Hey All,

I hope your week has been a good one and not as busy as mine so far 🙂

I wanted to share today’s video asap since it’s a great one when it comes to saving time and setting up our AutoCAD or C3D workspaces to be as efficient and easy to use as possible.

In the tutorial I walk through a handful of my favorite Must-Know AutoCAD customizations. These are things that I do to tweak and improve my AutoCAD workspace on every new/fresh install or machine I’m working on.

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to screen setup, colors, toolbars and more. And in the video, I teach you how to get started with setting up yours to save you time!

Must-Know AutoCAD Customizations! Simple Pro Designer Tricks You Need to Learn Now

That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed this week’s email and I would love to hear what you think, do you have any ACAD Customizations you have to do?
 
Be sure to let me know by hitting reply or on twitter @cadintentions ! 

As always, thank you so much for reading and watching, I am super excited for the rest of the year, growing the content, tutorials, and blog with you all. 

Cheers and happy Drafting!

PS. If you’d like to improve your AutoCAD/Design skills to get into working remotely with CAD, be sure to check out my highly rated and recommended AutoCAD Fundamentals & Workflows Course! to learn all of my favorite Tips/Tricks!

I created this course to answer all of our most common questions and concerns when learning AuotCAD, I even polled 1000s of readers to get their questions and answered them all in the course!

It’s packed full of 15+ years of experience along with practical and highly requested tutorials on everything from initial drawing setup to pdf plotting, annotative text, xrefs, templates, packaging files for final submissions or archiving and so much more. 

If you’re excited to learn new workflows and AutoCAD Skills and join millions of viewers who learn from and enjoy my tutorials daily,

Get the Course Here

What viewers are saying about CAD Intentions Tutorials:

Where were you all my life
You have great tips on your channel

Stefan D.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was very helpful!
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Thanks a lot, Brandon. I didn’t know how to use this useful tool.
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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



5 Must-Know Tricks to Create Layouts Faster in AutoCAD!

Posted on by faz_business


Hey All,

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a great week and are ready for a few days off to recharge.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last email/video due to a last-minute surgery and then getting sick right after, but all is well and back to normal!!! And I’m excited to share this week’s video with you all.

In today’s video, I wanted to share a handful of answers/tricks to common questions that have come up recently in comments and in the CAD Support Private Discord (Learn more/Join Here), focusing on Layouts and Ways to speed up our drawing Production in AutoCAD.

We touch on the quickest ways to copy/reproduce layouts, tricks to automate text, how to use a block library/notes swipe file and more!

5 Must-Know Tricks to Create Layouts Faster in AutoCAD! – New Layouts, Copy Layouts & Automation

These tips are ones I talk about often and recommend to anyone looking to improve drawing production speed and simply streamline their layout workflows!

That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed this week’s email and I would love to hear what you think, do you have any Layout Tricks?
 
Be sure to let me know by hitting reply or on twitter @cadintentions ! 

As always, thank you so much for reading and watching, I am super excited for the rest of the year, growing the content, tutorials, and blog with you all. 

Cheers and happy Drafting!

PS. If you’d like to improve your AutoCAD/Design skills to get into working remotely with CAD, be sure to check out my highly rated and recommended AutoCAD Fundamentals & Workflows Course! to learn all of my favorite Tips/Tricks!

The following two tabs change content below.

Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Best Mouse For CAD (2022 Edition) – AutoCAD & Design Gear Guide

Posted on by faz_business


I’m excited to kick off this year’s AutoCAD/Design Gear Guide with my picks for the Best Mouse for CAD!

Every year or two I like to do a series of roundup posts highlighting and sharing some of my favorite tools and hardware for AutoCAD and Design in general.
Today we are taking a look at some of the Best Mice on the Market for CAD, many of these I’ve used over the last few years and some are highly recommended by fellow designers and users alike.

I’ve written previously about specific specs and features to look for when choosing the right mouse for AutoCAD and design here (CAD Gear Guide), in that article we go over some of the key things to look for when choosing your next ‘daily driver’ mouse.

The one issue with calling or choosing the Best CAD mouse is that mice, along with many other peripherals (keyboards, headphones in particular) are that there is no one size fits all options. Sure there are always a few top-of-the-class and generally recommended options but it’s rare, if not unheard of that a single Mouse or piece of hardware is “the BEST”.

We don’t all fit the same mold and neither do our mice preferences, especially when it comes to ergonomics, wired/wireless preference, accuracy/dpi, Left Handedness (Like myself), or even just overall aesthetics.

With all that in mind, I like to share some of my favorite Mice for AutoCAD and Daily Use each year, including a few options from a variety of types.

 

So, in no particular order here are my “Best CAD Mouse” picks for 2022:

3D Connexion – CAD Mouse Compact Wireless:

The CAD Mouse Compact Wireless, had been my daily use mouse for the past 2-3 months now and I am a big fan of it and many of its features.
I like the ergonomic feel and comfort when holding/using this mouse for long periods, I’ve found the smaller/compact size to be more comfortable than the standard size CAD Mouse by 3D Connexion, fitting my use better not only at the office or desk but also especially when travelling with it.

Battery Life has been great so far and I really like the additional buttons and dedicated radial menu center button. I would also highly recommend their accompanying mouse pad, using the two together feels buttery smooth when drafting in particular.
Buy the CAD Mouse Compact Wireless here (Amazon)

Logitech – MX Master 3:

The MX Master 3 is the newest version in Logitech’s line of professional mice and from what I can tell, the most popular mouse line for the past handful of years. You would be hard-pressed to go into any design, engineering or professional office and not find the majority of the workers using one of the MX Master mice.
There really isn’t much criticism for these mice and I can say that my MX Master 2 is the mouse I’ve used the most over the last 4 or so years and the longest I’ve used any single mouse in my life.

One thing I miss most for whatever reason having switched to the 3D Connexion mouse is the top button to release/freewheel the scroll wheel. I still find myself going to use that feature on any mouse I’ve used since and I wish it was a standard option on every mouse now haha.

Another great feature of the MX Master 3 is the move to USB-C for their charging cable, many newer laptops and even PCs have fewer and fewer standard USB ports, and having to deal with dongles is always a pain.
Buy the MX Master 3 Now (Amazon)

 

3D Connexion – CAD Mouse Pro Wireless:

The CADMousePro Wireless is the bigger brother version of the Compact mouse from above. I really enjoy using this mouse as well, but a few things have pushed me to choose the smaller compact version the majority of the time instead.
Again this is personal preference-based, since I find the Pro version to be just slightly too wide for my comfort.

In many cases, I find myself accidentally clicking the middle mouse button when trying to right-click, but if you have larger hands or prefer the additional size and feel then everything I enjoy and love about the CAD Mouse applies to this version as well!

At only $20~ difference from the Compact, both are great and CAD specific Mouse options that I will continue to use and recommend to my friends/colleagues for years to come.

One other point to note is the lack of USB-C for charging, both for the PRO and Compact versions of the wireless CAD Mouse. Not a deal breaker by any means but certainly something to consider.

Buy the CAD Mouse Pro Wireless Now (Amazon)

Logitech – MX Ergo Trackball Mouse

 

I couldn’t have a CAD Mouse list without including one of the most popular Trackball style mice. The MX Ergo Trackball Mouse is highly reviewed and regarded as a great option for those designers that prefer the Trackball feel and style for drafting.

It has a lot of the same great features and ergonomics as the MX Master series while also including the ability to use the trackball for less wrist/arm movement throughout the day. In turn, helping with fatigue and repetitive stress that is oh so common in the industry.

Check out the MX Ergo Mouse here if you’re a Trackball fan (Amazon)

 

 

Logitech – MX Vertical Wireless:

I wanted to include a vertical style ergonomic mouse on this year’s list since I’ve heard great things and have been wanting to try one since a friend and coworker started using one around the office last year. Just seeing one of these is certainly intriguing, and you can’t argue that it does seem more ergonomic to have your hand/wrist in a more natural upright position for extended periods of time.

This mouse is on my list to try in the next year, I will certainly update this post if I do get a chance to use one for an extended period of time.

Check out the MX Vertical Wireless Mouse here: (Amazon)

 

 

 

That’s all for this year’s list of my favorite/best CAD Mouse for 2022. I hope you enjoyed the list and I would love to see in the comments what mouse you’re currently using daily and why?! Let’s build out a list of all the CAD Intention readers/subscribers’ favorite CAD Mouse too!

These are just a few of the Mice I recommend and have been recommended for AutoCAD and I’d love to continue adding to the list this year as well as hear your suggestions!

 

That’s all for today, I hope you all will continue to check out and enjoy my posts lately, they have been a ton of fun to work on and I’m excited about more. Be sure to subscribe and follow on Twitter @cadintentions to keep up to date and be the first to get updates as well as sign up for the newsletter here: Signup Here (CAD Intentions Newsletter).

As always, thank you so much for reading and watching, I am super excited to be back and posting regularly on the blog and hope you all will follow along.

Cheers and happy drafting!

 

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



4 Benefits of Moving to a Cloud Based CAD Software!

Posted on by faz_business


This past year has seen a lot of change in the way we work as designers. Some of us have transitioned to fully remote positions like myself, while many are working on a hybrid Office/Home schedule and even fewer it seems, have returned to the office full time. Regardless of working location, one of the best things to come from the last few years of online collaboration, remote work, and advances in software for CAD Design are our options for Cloud-Based CAD software.

Over the last few months, I’ve had the chance to really get to use and learn about Onshape, a browser-based 3d modelling software. I’m excited to share my thoughts and in particular, some of the biggest benefits of making the switch to online design software whether it’s Onshape or any of the browser-based CAD options out there.

If you haven’t already checked out my recent videos on learning Onshape, be sure to watch them here to see what all the hype is about (Onshape Modeling Tutorial)

I wanted to thank Onshape for sponsoring this post!
To learn more and get a free Pro Onshape Trial be sure to visit them here: https://onshape.pro/cadintentions

4 Benefits of Moving to a Cloud-Based CAD Software:

1: No Install or Setup Time

One of the first things that stands out when using browser-based software is just how easy it is to get up and running. Simply open a browser on practically any device and just log in to the website to get started.

There are literally no install or wait times and I’ve found myself using different devices based on my location and how I’m feeling that day. This makes software like Onshape perfect for remote designers since we can log in from anywhere without having to worry about annoying VPN servers, lugging around workstations, or network licenses.

 

2: Simple & Streamlined Collaboration

Perhaps the biggest change from traditional desktop-based CAD software is the fact that our files are stored in the cloud. This makes collaboration, sharing, and review of files much more streamlined and simple. Simply sharing a link/filling out a sharing form allows colleagues and clients to view, edit and review our models instantly and while we are still able to work on them.


This completely eliminates issues like software compatibility when sharing files as well as common things like broken references and links within the model files after sending them for review or additional work to be done on them.

By working on the cloud collaboration is a breeze with instant live updates and the ability to have multiple users working on the same models simultaneously.

 

3. Minimal Hardware & Cost Requirements

I know many software decisions ultimately come down to cost. This is especially true for smaller firms, freelancers, and hobbyists. Don’t worry though, since making the switch to cloud-based software will likely save you money. Since the heavy lifting is being done by the software servers like Onshapes, the need for high-end workstation Laptops with expensive GPUs is no longer there. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by just how well Onshape has run and worked for me regardless of the hardware I log in on.

In addition to being able to use basically any laptop, tablet, or even phone, we also no longer require the expense and upkeep of a modeling file server, all of our models are stored on the cloud automatically for us. Further reducing the costs required to get up and running with a truly powerful CAD modeling software.

 

 

4. Increased Security and Peace of Mind

Having all of our models stored on a cloud server provides quite a few benefits over the traditional methods of saving files locally when working remotely or needing to use a VPN to access a server. VPN access can be difficult to get set up while working remotely and can be slow depending on file sizes and internal traffic.

Plus, the added peace of mind that if your laptop or device is lost, broken, or stolen, all of your files and projects will be safe and instantly accessible after logging in on a new device. Imagine losing a laptop while working remotely in another city or country and being able to simply log in on another laptop and continue working minutes later. No time-consuming setup, installation, or networking. Just internet access and a sign-in account.

I’ve found this to be one of my favorite features and benefits of Onshape these last few months. I’ve even logged in while camping on a new laptop with only my cellphone as a wi-fi hotspot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my overview of just a few of the benefits and features of Onshape and any Cloud-Based CAD Software. If you’d like to learn even more including a walkthrough of learning Onshape be sure to check out one of my Videos here:

 That’s all for today’s post, as always thank you all so much for reading, and let me know in the comments what you think of Cloud/Browser Base CAD Software?

Lastly, I wanted to Thank Onshape again for sponsoring this post and helping to support the content I make here!!
Don’t forget to check them out and get a free Pro Onshape Trial here: https://onshape.pro/cadintentions

 

PS. Thank you again for visiting and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter to keep up to date on new CAD news, tutorials and tricks: Subscribe here

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



3 AutoCAD Tricks to Search Layers, Styles, Blocks & More in Drawings! | 2 Minute Tuesday

Posted on by faz_business


Hey Everybody,

Brandon here back with a new post for you all, this week we are taking a look at 3 easy ways to help speed up working with Layers in AutoCAD. Specifically, how to search for layers in AutoCAD, whether you need to find out which layer an object is on in an xref, searching for a specific layer in a busy/large drawing, and more!

In the video, I walk through how to use each method of finding layers, step by step. My favorite is probably using the wildcard trick to search for a specific layer in any drawing on your computer or server! The xlist command can also be a real life-saver, especially on a large drawing with many xrefs.

watch the video below to learn all about each method and see how to use them:

3 AutoCAD Tricks to Search Layers, Styles, Blocks & More in Drawings!

 

That’s all for today’s quick Autocad Tip, I hope you all were able to take something away from it and able to add a new tool to your CAD toolbox!

Be sure to subscribe and follow on Twitter @cadintentions to keep up to date and be the first to get updates on the newest videos, posts, and downloads.

As always, thank you so much for reading and watching, I am super excited to be back and posting regularly on the blog and hope you all will follow along.
Cheers and happy Drafting!

PS. In case you missed out or are interested in the brand new AutoCAD Fundamentals & Workflows Course, check it out here (Available for Instant Download NOW): https://gum.co/learnautocad

 

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Is VR & AR the Future of Remote Work?

Posted on by faz_business


Have you spent much time in VR yet?

Recently I’ve been trying out and testing different use cases for VR when it comes to remote work,  engineering, design, and general day-to-day tasks. 

 I feel like VR and AR are much more commonplace in the major tech sectors and still flying pretty under the radar when it comes to construction and engineering. Over the last year though  I’ve started to hear it come up in general work meetings and seen a few convincing demos that the tech is finally at or close to a point where it will start coming into our industry.

I asked this same kind of question on Twitter here and got a variety of responses, with many of them being in favor of using VR for productivity and remote work cases.  I even posted this video below showing my personal workspace setup for Fusion modeling or general productivity and work within VR and I can honestly say I quite enjoy it.


Also published on Medium.

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



How To Create a Profile in Civil 3D

Posted on by faz_business


I hope your week is going well and things are productive! It’s been a busy few weeks around here, between working on replacing an old deck at my house I’ve also got a handful of projects on the go at work with fast-approaching deadlines.

This is a great reminder of just how helpful it can be to learn new productivity tips as a designer and slowly implement them into your daily workflow.

If you’ve been following along on the channel or blog you’ll know I love to share helpful tips and trick when it comes to AutoCAD and Civil 3D that are sure to speed up your work.

That’s why, in this week’s video, I wanted to answer a super common question when it comes to Civil 3D.

In fact, when you search “Civil 3D How To…” typically one of the top results is asking about how to create Profile Views in C3D.

This is because Profiles are really the starting point and building block of the majority of Civil Design within C3D.
Before we can start getting complicated with road design, site grading, or even utility layouts, the first step is almost always to cut a profile in the area we’re interested in to see what the existing ground is doing.

As I’m sure you already know (I tend to mention it often haha…) my day job is as a Senior Civil Designer and I’ve used C3D Daily for well over a decade.
Which is why I’m always so excited to share Civil 3D tips and today’s video is no exception.

If you need to create a quick profile in Civil 3d today’s tutorial will get you started in no time!

Whether you use Civil 3d all the time or are just looking to learn something new, check out today’s video here:
Civil 3D How To Create a Profile – Quick Profile Views & Tips For C3D!

Hopefully, you enjoyed the video and are one step closer to designing in civil 3D!

I also want to thank Plex Earth for sponsoring today’s video. I know I’ve mentioned Plex Earth multiple times on the blog and newsletter, but if you’re unfamiliar with it or haven’t checked them out yet. Plex Earth is an AutoCAD and Civil 3d plugin that helps bring additional data and visualization to your project including Imagery, Surface Data, and Integration with Google Earth.

If you’d like to learn more and try out Plex-Earth you can use the link here to start a free trial now: http://cadintentions.com/plex_ci

That’s all for today, I hope you were able to take something away from the tutorial, and if you have any questions be sure to leave a comment or reach out on Twitter @cadintentions.

As always, thank you so much for reading, I am excited to be back and posting regularly on the blog and hope you all will follow along.

Cheers and happy Drafting!

PS. If you are looking to learn more about Civil 3D and get a complete Crash course, check out my Civil 3D Crash Course here:
http://cadintentions.com/c3dcc


Also published on Medium.

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Must-Know AutoCAD Site Plan Tips! – Secret Viewport Tools: North Arrows, Scalebars & Text Automation

Posted on by faz_business


Hope you’re having a great day and week so far, it’s been a busy one here but I’m excited to share a new video and build on a previous video where we created a Site Plan/Location plan drawing using multiple viewports. If you haven’t seen the Viewport Tips video you can check it out here.

I’ve really enjoyed sharing and creating videos about land-based drawings like site maps, property layouts, and civil design drawings in general and they’re something I work on almost every day and get asked about often.

Especially as more of you have taken my Civil 3D Crash course over time, it’s apparent many of us are in similar industries and have a need for tutorials about these types of drawings.

It also blends and fit’s in well with our regular sponsor, Plex Earth.


Plex Earth allows you to instantly import recent and historical imagery, terrain data, and contours directly into our AutoCAD drawings. They even have the option to order and schedule a drone flight for your project area within the app if you need even more up-to-date imagery!

If you haven’t given Plex Earth a try yet, I highly recommend them. If you use the link down below, you can get a free trial to Plex earth pro for cad intentions viewers.
Try Plex Earth Now: http://cadintentions.com/plex_ci

Now let’s jump right into today’s video:

In this week’s video, I wanted to build on the viewport/site plan drawing we made a few weeks ago and share some awesome, somewhat hidden/secret tools in AutoCAD to make your Site Plans better and easier to create!

By following these steps and using the commands and tips in the video, we will take advantage of the AutoCAD free Map Toolset and utilize some “hidden” tools that will allow us to easily add dynamic north arrows, scalebars, and text in a matter of seconds!

Almost every drawing you create as a Civil designer or drafter will need a North Arrow and Scalebar. I just recently helped my Dad with some site plans for the City where we live in order for him to apply to subdivide a property and the submission requires a Scaled Plan which is made much easier when you understand viewports and scales in AutoCAD. 

Don’t miss today’s video, click the link and learn how we can quickly make a drawing more accurate and dynamic in just a few minutes! 

Must-Know AutoCAD Site Plan Tips! – Secret Viewport Tools: North Arrows, Scalebars & Text Automation

That’s all for today, I hope you were able to take something away from the tutorial, and if you have any questions be sure to leave a comment below or reach out on Twitter @cadintentions.

As always, thank you so much for reading, I am excited to be back and posting regularly on the blog and hope you all will follow along.

Cheers, and happy Drafting!

PS. If you liked today’s video or any of my videos/tutorials and you want to learn over 15 years of AutoCAD Tips & Tricks in a hurry, you can use this link to get my AutoCAD Fundamentals Course and join 100’s of fellow drafters/designers and get started right now!


Also published on Medium.

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/



Must Try Apps for Designers, Drafters & Engineers! Plus my favorite Organization Tips

Posted on by faz_business


Morning All!

I hope you’re having a great week and things aren’t too busy for you as we enter the fall season.

Fall can typically be a bit of a crazy time of year in the AEC industry, lots of projects are in a rush to wrap up construction before winter, deadlines are typically looming for large design projects and year-end is just a few months away.

All of this can be tough to keep up with and stay organized, especially when you add in Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in the span of just a few months.

I’ve written in the past about some of my favorite ways to keep from getting overwhelmed and stay on track with deadlines, tasks, and deliverables.

I highly recommend checking out the Post I wrote about staying organized here:
4 Tips to Staying Organized & Focused when Deadlines & Projects Pile Up

And if you’d prefer to read my posts in email format you can check this one out substack (here) and/or signup here: CAD Intentions Newsletter.

One of the tricks I use and talk about in the post above to help keep things organized and get the often many thoughts/distractions out of my head, is to make lists and notes in a notebook so I can check things off and not forget them!

I really am always keeping lists, whether it’s a simple work-to-do list, writing down questions & outlining potential video & post ideas, or just doodling in my notebook, I’ve always got one nearby and ready.

A few days ago I used it to track all the apps/software I used in a day, with the exception of #AutoCAD and #Civil3D which I use every day regardless.

I had recently been asked what apps I recommend and or needed to do my job as a Civil Designer and thought it would be a good idea to occasionally write down the ones I find the most helpful.

This was my list for the day:

  • Plex Earth: I’ve mentioned Plex Earth a bunch over the last few years and they’ve even sponsored some videos on the channel! But that doesn’t mean I don’t actually use their software, I have used it for years and still consistently use and recommend it for designers, especially anyone in Civil, Mining, or Environmental type work where up-to-date Imagery is a must. It makes it easy and fast to import ortho images, contours, and terrain data directly into AutoCAD or Civil 3d.
  • Global Mapper: Global Mapper is another must-have app/software that I find myself using more and more in recent months/years. Global mapper tends to be a jack of all trades when it comes to mapping data. Whether I need to work with Lidar (.las), Shapefiles (.shp), Raster images, Geotiffs, etc… you name it Global Mapper can likely open it. I typically use it to simply process overly large lidar surface data and huge image files. It makes it easy and simple to crop them down, merge them, and re-sample them to make my data work better and smoother in Civil 3d or Recap.
  • Discord: I feel like many of you will already know about Discord but if not, it’s a community chat/forum software with a ton of features! It’s kind of similar to Microsoft Teams but I like the ability to use it as a forum as well as for chat. My CAD Support forum is on Discord and it provides a great alternative for the water cooler type chat and questions that many of us who work remotely don’t have access to anymore. Keeping in touch with either friends or fellow colleagues is important for all of us, having someone to ask a quick question or even just see how their weekend was can greatly brighten our days and keep us from missing those connections from the office.
  • Autodesk Recap: This one doesn’t need much of an explainer, if you work with surfaces or reality capture scans in AutoCAD or any Autodesk software, then you’ll likely need/use recap at some point. It’s not perfect but it does help keep large data sets/scans moving smoothly, allowing us to clean them up and link them into our designs easily. Plus it’s fund and looks pretty cool to pan around a 3d Scan of a project site or building!
  • Audible & Spotify: I try to learn something new as often as possible. Whether it’s through reading, courses, videos or podcasts, it’s easy now to stay curious and engaged. Any tasks that are somewhat trivial or repetitive, as long as you can still complete the work while listening, I highly recommend listening to audiobooks (Audible is my go to, you can get a free trial now using my link here: https://amzn.to/3PCpN08) , podcasts or music. Not only does it help time go by quicker but I can also tend to get into a focused/flow-state and breeze through projects while also listening to my current Fiction Book or learning something new.

These are just some of my go-to daily apps, What are some of yours?

Let me know on Twitter (twitter.com/cadintentions)!

That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed this week’s post and I would love to hear what you think! 

PS. To stay up-to-date and get Tips, Tricks, Tutorials and News delivered weekly to your inbox sign up for the CAD Intentions Newsletter here for free: cadintentions.com/signup

As always, thank you so much for reading and watching, I am super excited for the rest of the year, growing the content, tutorials, and blog with you all. 

Cheers and happy Drafting!

Brandon

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Brandon is a Civil Designer, Aspiring Blogger/Creator, Husband, Father to two Amazing Kids and Tech Aficionado from a small town in Canada. He has been obsessed with design and technology since he can remember and working as a Civil Designer for nearly as long. Brandon’s blog and Youtube channel, CADIntentions.com has been his outlet and excuse for keeping up with new tech and trends in the CAD design world for the last 10 years growing to more than 60,000 subscribers and over 15,000,000 views, while also being the source of many great friendships and unique opportunities.

If you would like to Sponsor CAD Intentions or Work together in some way, Please visit my About Page and send me an email: http://cadintentions.com/about-me/