HOTNEWS gives you helpful advice, tips & tricks, news from the CAD and BIM user community, AUGI events, and special offers and announcements. View in Your Browser Wish List     Forums     Get Connected     Articles     Publications     Products     December 2025, No. 271 AUGI Forums   AutoCAD Dynamic Blocks: Polar Stretching in a Dynamic Block    AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager: Sheet Set Manager very slow in 2026    Civil 3D: Data Shortcuts Folder not saved       Activate Your Benefits     AUGI Members’ Articles   Tech Manager — The Best Performance Review Ever, Part Two Mark Kiker’s performance review describes an exemplary tech manager, highlighting not only their deep technical skills and commitment to knowledge sharing but also their exceptional character. They are praised for being winsome, collaborative, and encouraging, offering gentle, private corrective feedback and demonstrating immense patience when teaching complex concepts. Their resilience in overcoming challenges, trustworthiness in meeting commitments, and extensive professional network further contribute to their value. Above all, their customer service mindset and visible passion for technology make them an indispensable and highly appreciated asset to the firm. Read More   Civil 3D Training: How the Pandemic Accelerated Training Changes — Shawn Herring explains the training for Civil 3D has fundamentally transformed since the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting from traditional, multi-day classroom bootcamps to a hybrid, technology-driven, and project-based approach focused on maximizing retention. Training now blends online self-paced modules or virtual prep with shorter, customized in-person workshops, often using the client’s own datasets and real-world projects in smaller groups (4–8 people) to increase relevance. This new model emphasizes the use of digital collaboration tools and cloud workflows (like Autodesk Docs), moving instruction away from simply listing commands toward teaching outcome-based workflows. Research confirms this hybrid method provides the best retention, as opposed to passive online lectures, leading successful engineering firms to adopt a tiered training strategy that balances hands-on lab time for core skills with flexible web-based sessions for conceptual topics and ongoing reinforcement.    AutoCAD Architecture Display Themes — Melinda Heavrin talks about how Display Themes in AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) allow users to visually represent non-graphic property data (like fire rating or function) of ACA objects directly in a 2D or 3D drawing by overriding their display using specific colors, fills, or hatches. This feature is vital for project phases like conceptual design or for flagging objects that meet specific standards. Implementing a theme involves a five-step process: first, defining Property Data Formats for presentation; second, creating Property Set Definitions to group and attach data to objects; third, designing the Display Theme Style to define the visual rules and the appearance of the key; fourth, attaching the Property Set Data to the drawing objects; and finally, activating the theme by inserting the Display Theme Legend, which serves as a visual key and automatically applies the defined overrides, though only one theme can be active at any given time.    Establishing a Shared Coordinate System in Revit: A Comprehensive Workflow for Model Alignment — Jonathan Massaro explains how establishing a reliable Shared Coordinate System in Revit is essential for BIM coordination, requiring a formal three-stage workflow centered on a Building Coordination Model (BCM). First, the BCM is established by linking the civil DWG file, manually placing the Survey Point and Project Base Point at civil reference locations, manually inputting precise coordinates, and defining a custom site. Second, this coordinate setup is rigorously verified by exporting the BCM view to DWG using the “Shared Coordinates” base, opening it in AutoCAD, and confirming the coordinates match the original civil data, acting as a critical checksum. Finally, to share these coordinates, the target discipline models link the BCM (Internal Origin to Internal Origin), align their geometry to the link, and use the Acquire Coordinates command to inherit the validated spatial framework.        AI Usage in the AECO Industry Earlier this year we surveyed our users on their adoption of AI tools, presented in this article are the results from that survey.   Blogs CADnotes Pinoy CAD+ The BIMsider     AUGI Career Center   AUGI Store   AUGI Member Discounts Exclusive discount offers for AUGI (Professional and Student) Members: Developers: $150 per year for ADN Standard Membership (AUGI Professional only), that’s a saving of $1,250! per year Hardware: Learn more about Dell offer for AUGI Members On-Demand Training: Unlock premium eLearning from IMAGINiT/ASCENT’s ProductivityNOW platform for just $99 per year (must be an AUGI Professional member), a savings of $300 on this high-value learning platform   Events and Training   AUGI is committed to providing diverse opportunities for its members to further their education—Below are just a few of the educational offerings that AUGI currently provides to help its members sharpen their technical skills.   Learn More   Autodesk News Press Releases and articles from the past month relating to Autodesk. What you need to know: Updates to Autodesk’s Terms of Use, APS Terms of Service, and Acceptable Use Policy A new era for Autodesk Platform Services: Flexible, predictable API access for every innovator Autodesk shows its AI hand     AUGI Volunteering   There are openings for authors for AUGIWORLD; and opportunities to contribute to our social media outreach.   VOLUNTEER       Become an Autodesk Beta Participant