The natural persistence of checking a blog for information about your design software is somewhat a chore if you do not use standard RSS feed readers. In passing with some of my readers, I ask them if they saw my recent post or one I did a week or two ago and common responses slash excuses slash pleasantries start to fly. I am not naive to the fact that if you under the gun to get something done you do not have time to surf the web and look at your normal sources of information to see if they are updated. We will solve this by the end of this post.
I'll be honest; one of the least utilized tools in the Autodesk products that I use is the communication center. I will be the first to admit in the past I would click the -Do Not Show This Notification Again- box to make it never pop up that annoying box again. In 2009 it saw its first enhancement in AutoCAD but in 2010 has really come into its own becoming the Infocenter.
Ok, so maybe I sensationalized it a little bit with the graphic, but sometimes when you ignore or pass judgment on a command early in your learning you have to come back to it with an open mind. Let's break down what is in the Infocenter:
- Help Search function - type in a topic and get results
- Subscription Center - Use to access Autodesk support requests and subscription site
- Communication Center - Use to stay up to date (I know this is vague, we will look at this next to see some great new benefits)
- Favorites - items tagged from the Help Search
- Help Launch - button for the F1 help
- Additional information arrow - used for additional help information and product details (see below)
Digging into the communication center a little deeper you find some very helpful enhancements. The biggest one that I noticed was the ability to burn RSS feeds into your Inventor interface directly. I cannot tell you how extremely efficient this is. If you are like me and visit many blog sites throughout the day and check it throughout the week only to find it has not yet been updated then this is for you. Here are the steps to get you started with your linking of RSS data.
Click the Communication Center button and then click the Infocenter Settings box just to the left of the close box. Choose the RSS feeds selection from the right and select the Add button. Put in the RSS feed subscribing link into the box and it will automatically pick up your feed's information. You can also set the number of items to show for each RSS feed. Select OK and go to the Communication Center again to see all your favorite feeds listed in the pull down as well as the first paragraph or two of the post to see if it is worthwhile reading.
Depending on your settings in the Infocenter you will be prompted for these every so often automatically so you can stop surfing and start working and when the important topic or occasionally free moment comes around you can take the time to continue your education and or leisure.
Here are a few to get you started:
- Garin Gardiner - http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/blogs/blog/6/?__ajax=BlogsRSS&id=2450&language=en
- Mod the Machine - http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/index.rdf
- Lynn Allen's Blog - http://feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/lynnblog/lynn_allens_blog
- Imaginit's Manufacturing Blog - http://imaginit.rand.com/blogs/getBlogByBlogId/14/five.xml
Until next time, may your feeds always burn into your readers
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