Ok, nobody named Pedro is running, but you can still vote. The polls are finally open, so cast your vote for the two new members of the AUGI Board of Directors. Let's see if we can get more than 221 members to vote this time.

Let's get some new members on this board. Choose from Dario Passariello, Kenneth Leary, and Marv Muston, Current board member Mark Kiker is also running.

Well, 8 months after the failed elections, Augi is finally getting around to the first steps of holding a new election.

Recently, four candidates were "pre-approved" by the current BoD, and announced. These candidates are, in no particular order, Mark Kiker, Marv Muston, Dario Passariello, and Kenneth Leary. I find it strange that two of the candidates who were "pre-approved" for the November election, somehow failed the approval process for this election.

A special forum was created where members can ask questions of these candidates. Unfortunately, you can't just simply submit a question. When you submit a question, it must be "approved" by a one or more "special election forum moderators". I submitted a question to the candidates and it was totally reworded, losing its effect. Of course I was never notified or asked if I would rather withdraw the question rather than have it changed.

One final thought. Will more than 221 people vote this time around?

Edit: Don't miss Steve Johnson's thoughts on this matter.

If you are importing ESRI SHP files that contain closed objects using the MAPIMPORT command, and you end up with filled MPOLYGON objects instead of plain old closed polylines, read on....

First, you can instruct MAP to import closed polylines instead of MPOLYGONs by running the MAPUSEMPOLYGON command and setting the value to OFF. If you do want MPOLYGON entities, but you don't want them filled, run the POLYDISPLAY command and choose Edges only. Be sure to REGEN after running this command.

Back in August 2008, Robert Krumenacher told us how to perform a silent install of DWG Trueview 2009 and its dependencies with minimal effort.

So I finally got around to messing with DWG Trueview 2010, and the same method does not work. I have learned through Scott Sheppard and Volker Joseph that it is just not possible to perform a silent (or unattended) install using the .EXE file like we were able to with 2009.

If your machines already include all the dependencies, like .NET 3.5 SP1, etc., then you can deploy the .MSI file itself silently, but if you install the .MSI without all the dependencies, Trueview will not launch.

Without a Net recently published the info necessary to silently deploy Design Review 2010, although it is basically showing you how to install the dependency components individually along with the main application. Based on my tests, it looks like you can simply install the MSI for Design Review on a machine that already has a proper install of Trueview 2010 since the dependencies are already installed.

Today, I attended the first half of the Autodesk "Move Forward with 2010" event here in Houston. This event was put on by Total CAD Systems at the Reliant Center (next door to Reliant Stadium), and featured Autodesk Technical Evangelist, Lynn Allen, whose unique method of speaking is both informative and entertaining.

In certain situations, it can be helpful to know the order in which AutoCAD's startup files are loaded. Autodesk documented this about 8 years ago and I wanted to check and see if it is still valid. Read more below...

Here is a menu macro that will open Windows Explorer to the directory of the current drawing in AutoCAD.

^C^C(startapp "explorer" (strcat "/e, "(getvar "dwgprefix")));

Create a new command in the CUI, add this macro, give it a name and create an icon, then drop this in your QAT. Now you have a quick way to access the current drawing directory.

Had to share these pics. Just another busy afternoon weekday (4:30p on a Monday) at Dallas Love Field, headed towards the Continental gate (yes that's singular). Ok, they do have two gates, but they only use one...

If for some reason you do not regularly read Steve Johnson's blog nauseam, consider starting today...
 
If you didn't catch his lastest post today, check it out. It talks about AUGI World, David Kingsley’s missing column, and the "augi members only" response to it from AUGI President Mark Kiker.
 
If you are in the dark about the mess over at AUGI in the last 9 months or so, reading both of these documents should help summarize a lot of it...

If you are running Norton 360 3.0 and AutoCAD 2010, chances are your OPEN and SAVE dialogs do not work, among other problems.
 
Here is an Autodesk KB article on the issue: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1104727
 
Here is a direct link to the fix from Symantec.