New reg - 1st impressions

[jonseewhy]

Ok, here I am & very pleased to be here! I'm a very longtime self employed Acad/MDT user wishing to explore Lisp/VLisp in a deeper than 'one line' way. I've landed here via the Afralisp site though lurked a bit in the past. Before they get lost here are my first impressions & questions.... 1- Why no mention of 'MDT' (Mechanical Desktop) as a registration 'qualifier' in the Autodesk vertical product list?? I have noted but still fail to understand Autodesk's attempt to erase the memory but why would Cadtutor? 2- I could not find a list of which cookies Cadtutor wants to place in my browser and which cookies it needs to place in order to function? It would be a feather in Cadtutor's cap to make this obvious, especially for the security/privacy minded of us. More to the point, more folks now use a dedicated web-browser PC which is set up to lock out all scripts & cookies and in order for the site to operate at all a choice has to be made at the outset, which cookies and scripts to allow. If it's too difficult then you risk loosing new members. It took me more than a few visit attempts to figure out access and get registered. 3- Cadtutor looks to be a very useful site and I aim to be an active member. Kind regards, jonseewhy (failing to see what is wrong with text formatting)

[steven-g]

Welcome to CADTutor, it's always nice to meet new members.

[jonseewhy]

Welcome to CADTutor, it's always nice to meet new members.

 

Thanks steven-g, I need to fill in my profile and get the post formatting sorted....

[nestly]

I believe "most" users do not make significant changes to their browsers security settings and therefore don't experience the registration/login/formatting issues you've encountered. Having said that, I do block ALL cookies and ALL scripts except those I explicitly allow. As far as cookies go, I believe you only need allow Cadtutor.net and tenlinks.com I believe yahooapis.com is the only script exception required to have full site functionality.

 

Welcome to Cadtutor.

[jonseewhy]

Thank you nestly, for the warm welcome and the pointer on 'yahooapis.com'.

 

I had avoided that one so far but have enabled it this time around.

Agreed, most web users probably leave security settings 'as is' because it's not

easy or obvious (especially with IE) to get a functional but secure setting for every site. Like wise I block everything as a default and try to discover what is actually needed on a site by site effort. This is a very responsive forum:)

[tzframpton]

Welcome... enjoy your stay.

[jonseewhy]

Thank you tzframpton,

 

It's very near the end of a working day here so I'm off to wind down. I like your "Personal Projects" line!

[JD Mather]

1- Why no mention of 'MDT' (Mechanical Desktop)

 

Autodesk has not sold MDT since Feb 2002. (that is 12 years ago - ancient history in software years)

MDT was completely discontinued with release 2009.

 

I don't know anyone who is still using MDT.

[f700es]

, perhaps he means AutoDesk AutoCAD Mechanical. Seems to have a 2015 edition.

http://www.autodesk.com/suites/product-design-suite/included-software

 

and stand alone

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-autocad-mechanical/overview

 

I wonder if they just renamed it?????????

Edited April 16, 2014 by f700es

[jonseewhy]

Thank you JD Mather,

 

-I believe that the majority of software companies are 'revenue driven' so the business model dictates a relentless new release/subscription cycle, so I understand that perspective.

 

-Cadtutor is also (I'm guessing) revenue driven and maybe they are loosing some 'foot-fall' by having no mention or welcome for MDT. After all, the other 'qualifying' products mentioned are not as actively discouraged.

 

-I registered as a 'mechanical' (vertical/Acad 2002) user and I'll presume there are plenty of folks actively using Acad releases of the same vintage or earlier. I know that I'll learn a lot.

 

-Tounge-in-cheek..... there is at least one current user of MDT6 that you know of......

[jonseewhy]

Thanks F700es,

 

For info - MDT (Mechanical Desktop) is a very capable 3D parametric solid modeller which is built on top of both Mechanical and Autocad. It was in it's day a direct competitor for Solidworks and the like, until fashion and I guess an increasingly unwieldy code-base prompted Autodesk to come up with Inventor.

 

For long time Autocad users like me, MDT was in the short term a more comfortable proposition than any of the alternatives. Inventor (R5.3) at that time (2002) felt decidedly left-handed.

 

Maybe Autodesk could have rewritten Autocad and integrated the parametric modeller to better effect than going with Inventor??

 

Any-road-up, I 'speak' Autocad and Mechanical as well as MDT so I fee at home here. Maybe I should have kept quiet:unsure:

[tzframpton]

Maybe Autodesk could have rewritten Autocad and integrated the parametric modeller to better effect than going with Inventor??

That would be impossible. AutoCAD, at its core, cannot be rewritten and still be AutoCAD. This is why you have Inventor.

[ReMark]

I doubt that CADTutor is loosing much "foot-fall" because there is no dedicated MDT forum. After you have been here a while you'll begin to notice how far ranging some of the questions are despite the absence of an appropriately named forum. And since many members have been in the CAD field for some time you might encounter others who are at least familiar with the program you are using but may no longer be actively using it having graduated to something different.

 

Dedicated MDT forums can be found at Eng-Tips, AUGI and the AutoDesk Discussion Groups.

 

None-the-less, welcome to the CADTutor forum.

[CADTutor]

1- Why no mention of 'MDT' (Mechanical Desktop) as a registration 'qualifier' in the Autodesk vertical product list?? I have noted but still fail to understand Autodesk's attempt to erase the memory but why would Cadtutor?

 

Welcome to the forum We're not trying to erase anything. This forum is user-driven and no one has ever asked for this before. But now that someone has, I'm happy to add it to the list. You'll now find "MDT" in the user profile options and I've renamed the "Mechanical" forum in the vertical products section to "Mechanical & MDT". I hope this meets with your approval. We aim to be as inclusive as possible and to exceed your expectations

 

Oh, and by the way, you talk about CADTutor as if it were some corporate entity. Actually, it's just me, running the site from a shed in my garden. The real stars here are the members of our lovely community as I'm sure you'll discover. This community is CADTutor.

 

nestly is correct about the cookies and scripts but if you need a definitive list, it's anything that vBulletin (the forum software) needs. I've never compiled a list but if you have, I'd be happy to make it available for others.

[f700es]

That would be impossible. AutoCAD, at its core, cannot be rewritten and still be AutoCAD. This is why you have Inventor.

 

Why not? There would be nothing stopping them from doing so. They basically did it, to an extent, with AutoCAD for Mac. It not the same as the PC but it is still AutoCAD. If I ever get my PowerMac project up and running I plan to see how AutoCAD for Mac behaves to an old school AutoCAD user (me)

I guess I am saying that without being "in the know" of the core programming of AutoCAD we really don't know.

[tzframpton]

Why not?

From a friend of mine who's a low-level programmer, he states the core language isn't capable of it. It's kind of like trying to use HTML or LISP to develop Microsoft Windows operating system. Just a different type of programming language. It "can" be done but it'll be a totally different platform altogether, which is why I stated "that's why you have Inventor".

 

I'm no programmer so don't harm the messenger.

[f700es]

Yeah I see that reasoning. I guess I would do like AutoCAD for Mac. Start with a clean sheet and mimic the qualities I wanted to keep and then add in the ones I wanted to add.

I am no programmer either. Sh*t is like ancient Greek to me

[tzframpton]

Sh*t is like ancient Greek to me

Right?!? But yeah, I guess the perspective is "at some point the program changes completely from the original". Just what I've been told.

[f700es]

Right?!? But yeah, I guess the perspective is "at some point the program changes completely from the original". Just what I've been told.

I guess it would have to as you complie it to run on new OS's (Win95-> XP-> Vista-> Win7(64/32)-> Win8 and so on). Much like the incorrect comment some make that just because AutoCAD has a command window it must have Dos in it

[jonseewhy]

Cadtutor and others...help! I'm in too deep:oops: and struggling with this editor and a wayward touchpad.

 

Thanks Cadtutor, I really wasn't after a dedicated MDT spot...and I guess it's only likely to be me looking in there:(

 

You were spot on, I assumed the site was maybe an offshoot for a dealer. Sorry. There is an MDT chip on my shoulder.

 

I do wish to be useful here.