#030 – HP Zbook Ultra G1a // AMD Ryzen AI Max

My Star Wars Lego Dark Falcon (a derivative of the Millenium Falcon) has pride of place in The Workshop (my office) on its Wicked Bricks display stand. As those of you know me well, I love my Lego, and I am a big Star Wars fan. Well, as of now, I am a big HP […]

#029 – Read // Listen // Watch = LEARN

Not Just CAD I did start this as a LinkedIn post, but then realised that it needed to be more than that, so here goes…. Not Just CAD (affectionately known as NJC) is building slowly in the background. Its origins were formed way back in the Blogger.com days, when I started a very simple blog […]

#028 – Being an Expert Elite

Some might say that being a member of the Autodesk Expert Elite (EE) program involves answering and solving user questions in the Autodesk forums and wearing an EE-branded jacket at conferences such as Autodesk University (AU). Nope. It is WAY more than that. As an EE, you are an ambassador for Autodesk. You are an […]

#027 – AutoCAD 2026

After 37 years of using AutoCAD (yes, I’m showing my age, LOL), I still get that childlike excitement when a new AutoCAD release comes out. Even when I had to do network deployments of 25 workstations or more, finding out what was new and how it could improve AutoCAD workflows was always fun. As I […]

#26 – Advocacy

2024 was not a good year for me. For those of you who don’t know, my father was involved in a severe car crash in November 2023 while I was at AU2023 in Las Vegas, just before I taught an AutoCAD class that was inspired by his ‘shipshape’ philosophy towards everything in life. In my […]

#24 – TECH REVIEW – 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Wireless Bluetooth

Those of us who work in CAD, BIM, and other associated Design & Make industries know the name 3Dconnexion. 3Dconnexion has brought us the SpaceMouse, the CadMouse, and the 3Dconnexion Keyboard. They have kindly sent me one of their latest SpaceMouse iterations, the SpaceMouse® Wireless Bluetooth® Edition, for tech review. I love to review 3Dconnexion […]

#23 – Welcome to Autodesk University 2024: The Ultimate Guide for Newbies

Welcome to Autodesk University 2024 (AU2024)! Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned pro, this guide will help you navigate the exciting, enriching, and sometimes overwhelming experience that is AU. As a veteran AU attendee, speaker, and mentor since 2006, I have attended AU in various locations: some great, some not. I have built up […]

#022 – Celebrating the drafters

imdb.com says Star Wars IV (A New Hope) was released in 1977. I was a mere whippersnapper of eight years old back then, and I remember a group of us were escorted by some of our parents to the Palace cinema in Aldershot, UK, to see what was one of the most iconic movies ever. […]

#021 – What’s New in AutoCAD 2025?

Another version of AutoCAD has arrived; yes, it has new stuff. Over the decades, AutoCAD has evolved dramatically from the MS-DOS version I started on, with its monochromatic screen, tablet, and puck. It is now a highly capable drafting and modelling application with mobile and web apps. It talks to the cloud and uses machine […]

#20 – Resilience

Monday, 13th November 2023. Autodesk University 2023, Las Vegas. I was sitting in the main keynote, and my phone started buzzing. And it kept buzzing. After leaving the keynote, I saw a missed call from one of my father’s friends back home in the UK. Upon checking messages, I learned my 82-year-old father had had […]