TheSwamp

CAD Forums => CAD General => Topic started by: Jeff H on March 29, 2012, 11:08:42 AM

Title: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Jeff H on March 29, 2012, 11:08:42 AM
Am I missing something because i am not seeing the 'Treeview of topics in help'.
 
Just able to type in items to search.
 
 
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: M-dub on March 29, 2012, 11:20:21 AM
Am I missing something because i am not seeing the 'Treeview of topics in help'.

I think you are missing something... The tree view.


Don't worry, I'll facepalm myself and see myself out the door.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: mjfarrell on March 29, 2012, 11:20:42 AM
do you have the files installed locally? (install)

are you currently connected to the internet?  (disconnect)
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: dgorsman on March 29, 2012, 11:59:19 AM
Welcome to the future of Help.  You only search for things, right?
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: cmwade77 on March 29, 2012, 12:09:18 PM
Nope nothing missing, help is now search only.

It's actually worse than you think though, do a search for line and you will see that the results for drawing a line are in the middle of the results.

Ok, let's say that I don't know about convertpstyles, but I do know that I can change a drawing from style based plotting to color based plotting, let's try some obvious choices:
change drawing from style based plotting to color based plotting
change drawing from using stb to ctb
change drawing to color based plotting

Hmm...nothing useful with any of the obvious....so I use Google by proceeding the first search term with AutoCAD, I instantly find out that the command name that I need is convertpstyles, but I don't want to read the whole article, so let's go back to AutoCAD help and search for convertpstyles.

The help article does not show the steps, nor any screen shots of the process.

Also, remember that offline help files are not installed by default, if you want to use offline help, you have to download it separately from AutoCAD and install it on each system manually, there isn't even a way to roll it into a deployment that I have found yet.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: BlackBox on March 29, 2012, 12:37:20 PM
Awesome... I cannot wait for 2013!  :lol:
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Mark on March 29, 2012, 12:45:31 PM
good thing we have theswamp! *wink*
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: huiz on March 29, 2012, 01:50:59 PM
Since Autodesk introduced html help, I do only search via Google. It gives much more information and it is much better to read.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: KewlToyZ on March 29, 2012, 01:59:36 PM
I really hate Autodesks support system. If it wasn't for user groups, especially the Swamp, I doubt I would use the product at all.
I have yet to see the product show itself to be worth the license price for a long time, especially the support.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: dgorsman on March 29, 2012, 02:03:01 PM
good thing we have theswamp! *wink*

Damn skippy, good thing.  Anybody here feel like putting together a user created version of help to show the AutoDesk folks how we would like it done?  If done in raw HTML or similar, users could be kept up to date using SVN or other version control systems.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: dgorsman on March 29, 2012, 02:04:10 PM
I really hate Autodesks support system. If it wasn't for user groups, especially the Swamp, I doubt I would use the product at all.
I have yet to see the product show itself to be worth the license price for a long time, especially the support.

AutoDesk support has improved greatly over the past couple of years, in my experience.  They've solved a number of problems, but not the absolutely horrid front end to the official support request system.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: KewlToyZ on March 29, 2012, 02:11:07 PM
I really hate Autodesks support system. If it wasn't for user groups, especially the Swamp, I doubt I would use the product at all.
I have yet to see the product show itself to be worth the license price for a long time, especially the support.

AutoDesk support has improved greatly over the past couple of years, in my experience.  They've solved a number of problems, but not the absolutely horrid front end to the official support request system.
I found a few good individuals for help, but yes, the front end is still junk.
Also, 90% of the problems I resolved through places like the swamp days before Autodesks support help ever had a solution.
I go to other platforms like Rhinoceros and find even their usenet system and the people I actually have access to far above and beyond the quality I get from Autodesk. Which, when looking at the licensing cost, it really makes me feel AutoCAD has become a bloated product not worth supporting much longer.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Chris on March 29, 2012, 02:36:14 PM
good thing we have theswamp! *wink*

Damn skippy, good thing.  Anybody here feel like putting together a user created version of help to show the AutoDesk folks how we would like it done?  If done in raw HTML or similar, users could be kept up to date using SVN or other version control systems.
Its too big of a task for one person to handle, but I would gladly lend a hand.  Best bet is to take an old 2010 chm file, decompile it and then add in new pages and add them to the index and TOC.  If everybody took a small part, we could probably have it done in short order.

Then I'd suggest putting it somewhere without public access so we can sell it back to Autodesk to try to recoup costs associated with fixing their product. :evil:
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: dgorsman on March 29, 2012, 02:38:04 PM
I still have the 2011 CHM handy, if it comes to that.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: huiz on March 29, 2012, 02:43:18 PM
It's not only the help, but also the user guides are not provided in pdf anymore since 2012, but in html.


Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Jeff H on March 29, 2012, 02:52:36 PM
Great now only need to guess what names they used for new features so I know what to enter in search.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: BlackBox on March 29, 2012, 02:58:28 PM
Great now only need to guess Google what names they used for new features so I know what to enter in search.

FTFY  :-P
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Jeff H on March 29, 2012, 04:02:33 PM
For those of you not using 2013 you can go to 2013 Online Help  (http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2013/ENU/index.html)to see and use 2013 help.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: cmwade77 on March 29, 2012, 06:25:31 PM
I'll lend a hand as well, I just decompiled the 2011 help file, it really didn't take much to do it. Now, it's just a matter of creating new pages for 2012 & 2013 features and adding them in.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: BlackBox on March 29, 2012, 06:44:32 PM
If someone doesn't beat me to it, I'll upload one tomorrow.

Forgive the silly question (never made a CHM), what are you using to decompile?
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: cmwade77 on March 29, 2012, 06:47:30 PM
I actually found a better solution, there is a program that is a CHM editor, this makes it much, much easier. The only problem is it is a paid program, but it might just be worth it.

It also looks like this program can import HTML files, so I am downloading the offline help and will import the 2012 and 2013 features only and overwrite them.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Kerry on March 29, 2012, 08:17:32 PM
I actually found a better solution, there is a program that is a CHM editor, this makes it much, much easier. The only problem is it is a paid program, but it might just be worth it.



What is the program cmwade ?
Regards
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Chris on March 30, 2012, 08:14:07 AM
I used to use HTMLHelp which is free, I dont know if it would work for this or not.

The program Chris is using is CHM Editor
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: cmwade77 on March 30, 2012, 12:21:52 PM
I actually found a better solution, there is a program that is a CHM editor, this makes it much, much easier. The only problem is it is a paid program, but it might just be worth it.



What is the program cmwade ?
Regards
Sorry, it's called CHM Editor. It can be found at http://www.chmeditor.com/

There is a 15 day trial of it though.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Jeff H on March 30, 2012, 06:07:26 PM
Warning video may cause you to punch someone.
 
A new Approach to Help (http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2013/ENU/ws/player.swf?url=video/ACAD_win_help_overview.mp4&volume=100)
 
Maybe not I had to stop it because guy talking in it just sounds all too chirpy and upbeat about new approach and souds like he just finshed puberty and voice not yet done 'cracking' .
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: cmwade77 on March 30, 2012, 06:53:40 PM
Warning video may cause you to punch someone.
 
A new Approach to Help (http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2013/ENU/ws/player.swf?url=video/ACAD_win_help_overview.mp4&volume=100)
 
Maybe not I had to stop it because guy talking in it just sounds all too chirpy and upbeat about new approach and souds like he just finshed puberty and voice not yet done 'cracking' .
Thanks, I need the laugh at the downright lies in the video.....really, I don't understand why anyone would think this help system was a good idea. I know this sounds a little harsh, but it's true.

Even if it worked correctly, I want help to be help, if I want to look at community resources, I will open up my web browser, don't include what you think MIGHT be useful in the built-in help file. Oh, and I definitely do not want to use my bandwidth to access a help file.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: KewlToyZ on March 30, 2012, 08:29:29 PM
Warning video may cause you to punch someone.
 
A new Approach to Help (http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2013/ENU/ws/player.swf?url=video/ACAD_win_help_overview.mp4&volume=100)
 
Maybe not I had to stop it because guy talking in it just sounds all too chirpy and upbeat about new approach and souds like he just finshed puberty and voice not yet done 'cracking' .
Thanks, I need the laugh at the downright lies in the video.....really, I don't understand why anyone would think this help system was a good idea. I know this sounds a little harsh, but it's true.

Even if it worked correctly, I want help to be help, if I want to look at community resources, I will open up my web browser, don't include what you think MIGHT be useful in the built-in help file. Oh, and I definitely do not want to use my bandwidth to access a help file.
They keep trying to turn the drawing environment into a web browser... that, is never going to happen with any reasonable resource usage ever. That is like using a million dollar budget to make a single pizza. Senseless waste of resources. And I agree the guy makes me want to punch him lol
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Jeff H on April 01, 2012, 06:23:14 PM
Already have deal with developer documentation that just sucks, but now f**%%**g up the only documentation that was tolerable.
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Arizona on April 02, 2012, 10:10:13 AM
Already have deal with developer documentation that just sucks, but now f**%%**g up the only documentation that was tolerable.
It only seems to get worse. But of course you can always go to facebook to look for help! :roll:
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: M-dub on April 02, 2012, 10:29:28 AM
...But of course you can always go to facebook to look for help! :roll:

:roll: x 10

I already groan every time I click on a link for some kind of demo or help video and it's hosted on YouTube (which is blocked from this site).
Title: Re: Autocad 2013 Help
Post by: Jeff H on September 12, 2012, 05:08:35 PM
A little better