AU 2007 ended on Friday, November 30. On Saturday, December 1, Peter Powell and I were married at the Valley of Fire in a Celtic Wedding Ceremony. Now I am officially Mrs. Powell. I’ve used the name officially so as not to confuse anyone when it changed so in a way it was my pen name. I will have some

photos to post as soon as we receive them from the photographer.

As of December 3rd, I am no longer working for a reseller. At this time I am working full-time with my CAD Fuel Design business that I have owned since 2001. That is why the photo has changed from the CJ5 Jeep to my plate with the AUGI frame. There seem to be a wealth of other opportunities available as well, though I suspect none until after the first of the year.

The past two days I have had the pleasure of participating in the first ever AutoCAD MEP training aimed at fabricators through Eastcoast CAD. There are two classes held as a pilot project. One is on the West coast and the other was held in Roanoke, VA.

The students were really great and since they were from different areas they were not in competition with each other and shared knowledge and helped each other in class. What a great experience!

AutoCAD MEP (formerly Building Systems) has typically been aimed at engineers. In the U.K. however, it has been the opposite. Fabricators have been more of the focus.

In AutoCAD MEP 2008, the U.K. Tools have been added to the U.S. product as the first stage to aim at the fabrication industry. You can see these tools by choosing your Global shortcut, which loads a profile with the metric Global content. You’ll see very different tools here aimed just at fabrication.

Autodesk has a strategic partner in Eastcoast to work on future releases of both products.

If you would like to make an influence in letting Autodesk know what you would like to see in AutoCAD MEP with regards to fabrication, you have several options.

1. Post specific command wishes to the AUGI Wish List or the Wish List on the Autodesk Discussion Groups.
2. Join the MEP Customer Council.
3. Sign up to participate in Usability Testing. Help Autodesk understand your business needs and how you use their products.
4. Sign up to participate in beta testing. Beta testing takes place at this time of the year for the release of new products in the Spring of each year. More about this and from Shaan.

I’ll be posting more about MEP in the upcoming days. Another blog that I recommend for AutoCAD MEP, though not specifically about fabrication is from Todd Shackelford.