My Story of AutoCAD Customization and Programming
18+ years ago, I would have never thought I was building towards telling the story of AutoCAD Customization and Programming one piece at a time during Autodesk University. Heck, 18+ years ago, I thought I had presented my first and last AU session in Las Vegas.
Looking back now though, I realize that not only did that first journey start telling the story of AutoCAD Customization and Programming, but it was a telling of the journey into my career.
This year, at Autodesk University 2021, I was lucky enough to transform what I will say was my worst AU session ever. Back at AU 2013, one of my sessions was changed from an instructional demo (think lecture back then) into a roundtable. I seriously questioned the change, but thought I would give it a go and well it couldn't have been more painful. Trying to have an engaging conversation about customizing AutoCAD with people that don't know what the possibilities are, yeah... well, not exactly the best structure. I should have listened to myself and not presented it, but the experience for what it was did alter the way I presented sessions every year after that.
The disaster of a session was titled, "A Venture Down the Rabbit Hole: Getting Started with Programming in AutoCAD". This session was meant to originally be the lead in session for the AutoCAD Customization Boot Camp session that was also launched at AU 2013.
With focus shifting back to AutoCAD as a platform and Autodesk building out the Forge platform even more in recent years, it felt like the right time to present the session as I always had envisioned it. Of course, getting sessions selected is always the hardest part so luckily it did get picked up.
The reboot of the session was presented this year at AU 2021 under the title "Down the Rabbit Hole: Autodesk? AutoCAD? Customization and Task Automation". It is what I originally had envisioned many years ago, a session that would help to connect the dots of using AutoCAD commands and system variables into the automation of workflows. Whether this ends up resonating with many, time will tell as we know how reboots and prequels can go.
The significance of this session in the end is I have the opening chapter to my main story and the overarching vision to what I have been putting together over all of these years. Here is what that journey now looks like for the sessions that are available on the Autodesk University website today (2013 through 2021):
Hope you enjoy and that the journey continues for many more years.
Associate and CAD Manager at MWM DesignGroup | Autodesk Expert Elite | Autodesk Group Network
3 年Lee Ambrosius, thanks for adding the links to your article. I was going to look them up later. I attended a few labs at past in-person AU’s and I attended this year’s “Down the Rabbit Hole” presentation virtually. It was well presented and the subject matter was excellent. Thank you for continuing to present and for publishing the books you have, another great resource for information on customization. (Also thanks for autographing my copy of “AutoCAD Platform Customization” at AU a few years ago.)