Connected

Adventure Travels Continue

Jason and I are at a meeting in Sun Valley this week.  None of us had heard about the 40,000+ acre fire that is engulfing the area until we arrived.  Today we could see that the fire had approached the Bald Mountain Ski Resort, just outside of the resort where we are staying.  They tell us we are in a safe area, but as you can see from the picture, it's still a bit eery.  You can read more about it here.

SaaS; A Comprehensive Look at the Total Cost of Ownership of Software Applications

Tim Douglas, ACS Marketing, uncovered a white paper from SIIA that covers the true cost of owning software vs. subscribing to a service.  Here's the full paper.   

"The key cost drivers for any software implementation are the cost of the software
application, the hardware required to run the application and the people services required
to design, deploy, manage, maintain and support the application.

• Traditional software pricing is limited to the cost of the software application, in most cases an upfront fee in exchange for a perpetual user license. It is up to the customer to determine the cost of the hardware and the people services.

• SaaS applications are charged on a subscription basis. The subscription fee
includes the cost of the software application, the hardware and the people
services.

This difference in pricing models can make an apples-to-apples TCO comparison
“tricky”. Software and hardware costs are well understood but the people resources
associated with traditional software applications are often underestimated or omitted in a
TCO analysis. As a result, the usage driven subscription cost of SaaS applications can
seem to be the more expensive solution over a multi-year period. However, when these people resources are correctly associated, deploying a SaaS application becomes – in many cases – the more cost effective option."

DWF Viewing issue in Buzzsaw

If you get an error message in Buzzsaw that reads:

Please visit the Site or Project Information page to install your DWG viewing component.

it's because you haven't set "Buzzsaw Viewing Components" as your DWF viewer in Buzzsaw.

To correct this:

1. Open Buzzsaw
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click Preferences...
4. Click File Types tab
5. Click Published Drawings(.dwf)
6. Set the View With: dropdown to "Buzzsaw Viewing Controls"
7. Click OK



That should fix it, according to our Support expert Nicholas Braun. Thanks Nicholas!

LinkedIn, do you get it?

I'm a pretty big fan of LinkedIn, like apparently millions of you guys.

Technical Specialist Steve Williams warns us of the dangers of relying too much on automated tools:

“Funny story…I accidentally imported my *entire* Outlook list into LinkedIn instead of just a few key people.  I swear I had only checked the Autodeskers, but somehow it pulled in everyone.

The upside, though, is that I’ve since reconnected with several old Buzzsaw employees, my girlfriend from freshman year in high school who I just found out is moving to Indonesia with her husband, many confused relatives (my sister: “I’m a homemaker – why do I need this?”), and others that don’t quite get it (see below).

Needless to say all turned out for the best, but I was mortified there for a second!

If you haven’t tried LinkedIn, it’s a great way to reconnect with colleagues and get leads on business opportunities. Just keep my sister out of it!”

Here's the email he got from one of the people he invited to link up - it's pretty funny if you think about it:

From: K----+S----t@abc.com [mailto:K----+S----@abc.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 5:46 PM
To: Steve Williams
Subject: RE: Invitation to connect on LinkedIn

 

Sure thing.

---

From: Steve Williams [mailto:steve.williamsATautodesk.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:08 PM
To: K---, S----
Subject: Invitation to connect on LinkedIn

S---,

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

<hyperlink here to accept request>

-Steve

Buzzsaw's No Access permission strikes again

Buzzsaw admin John H. writes:

I've had a few users come to me with comments that the permissions settings in Buzzsaw have changed.  Where they used to have users assigned to groups that for one reason or another don't have permission to view a certain folder or project, they now find that the No Access permission overrides their attempt to give individual users of that group permission anyways.  So now they have to give the entire group permission and go back to select all the users that they want to keep at a No Access level.

Has anything changed or is there a better solution to managing those permissions?

Thanks,

- John

John has been hit with a common misconception regarding the No Access permission in Buzzsaw. Here's my response to him:

Hi John,

It is always preferable to “Remove” users and groups from things you don’t want them to access instead of giving them “No Access” permission, for the very reason you describe. No Access overrides everything else in many cases, and if its use becomes widespread it can get somewhat confusing.

No Access was intended to be used as a “super-permission” for those rare cases where you want things to be absolutely private from large groups of people. Nothing has changed recently as far as I know, it’s likely that someone set a No Access somewhere on the site and that rippled down the site to affect many users. It’s been my experience that this happens fairly commonly when people don’t fully understand the No Access permission.

My recommendation is to go through the site and (using the Permissions Matrix) remove the “No Access” permissions from the site. Then check to see if the permissions are the way you want them. Instruct your admins that they should simple Remove folks who shouldn’t have access instead of giving them No Access, except in cases where the information you’re dealing with is extremely confidential.

Jason

 

What I'm Wearing Right Now

Sometimes it's hard to convince you construction guys that this computer stuff isn't going away. That's why I have the t-shirt. It looks great with my Jordache jeans:

Can you believe it? 25 Years!

It's hard to believe that Autodesk introduced AutoCAD at COMDEX in 1982, 25 years ago.  While our roots have stayed very true to our beginnings the company advanced in ways we never would have imagined in the 80s.  We just launched this new website that shows a timeline of the company's progress.  Check it out here:

www.autodesk.com/autocad25

Aug 21st Webinar - Design and Delivery: Using Technology for Better Teamwork

I wanted to bring your attention to an event that is being hosted by ACEC focused around using technology for better teamwork.  The guest speaker in this event is Autodesk's own Diane Li, Sr. Product Manager for DWF. 

This seminar will offer insights into collaborative project management, on-demand project information availability and consumption, and how streamlined communication and business processes ensure the successful execution of projects and programs. The session will also provide strategies for securely sharing and managing complex design and engineering information between numerous internal and external stakeholders.

You can find out more and register here.

The Cost of Green Revisited

Davis Langdon just published a report called The Cost of Green Revisited. In it, they contend that while construction costs are escalating, LEED projects are still coming in on budget with their green-cred intact.

Oh and they wish you would quit thinking about green as something you just tack onto the project after it's designed. Think holistically.It's greener.

New Expert Corner and Webcast

If you haven't already signed up, make sure to catch the webcast today at 10AM PST.  You can register here.  On this page you will also see links to the new expert's corner where you can access podcasts relating to many different topics around Collaborative Project Management and SaaS.