Free AutoCAD tutorials available on web for a limited time !

[PacificOcean]

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Please Note: The contents of the following site have been moved to www.GTEservices.com. Thanks,
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Hello All,

I am a full-time CAD instructor working for a community college. This summer, I created two project tutorials for my students. I need your feedback.

For a limited time these are available for FREE at www.covershim.com I am hosting them for a limited time because 1. These are my personal efforts not funded by college and 2. This costs me money.

Click on tutorials on left and there are two projects tutorials I have made so far. These are small .exe files approx 340 KB, which links to the actual contents on the server. One is a 2-D mechanical drawing (Covershim) consisting 33 lessons and other is 2-D CAD Lab floorplan consisting 53 lessons.

I need your feedback on following things.

1. Can you download/play these files without any trouble?
2. What do you think about this whole tutorial concept?
3. How can I improve these tutorials?

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. You can email me at support@covershim.com or you may post a reply on this forum.

Thanks,

_PacificOcean
www.GTEservices.com

[CADTutor]

This sounds good but I would never (EVER) download a .exe file and run it on my computer unless I was 100% sure of the source. Since most of us here have only known you for a few days, I expect that others will feel the same way as I do (no disrespect intended). Is there some other way this information could be distributed? Must it be a .exe file?

[PacificOcean]

Hello,

The .exe file is a Graphic User Interface which links to the actual contents. I do understand that this is a risky move, but here are some alternatives I considered before I uploaded.exe file.

1. This .exe file was created by an e-book software called eBook Pack express which gave me an option to compile the output without .exe file. The catch was the end user who wish to open the file should have eBook Pack express installed on his computer.

2. I had a link for each lesson which opened a .swf file. Since Flash is installed on most of the computers, that was the most effective way, until the number of lessons kept growing. (Now I have 33 lessons in the first and 53 in the second tutorial), so I had to look for another approach.

I wouldn't recommend downloading an .exe file even though I am the original creator of the same. You have a good point there, since most of the viewers have no clue who I am, they will never (ever) download the .exe file. The possible solution will be to upload 2-3 links for individual .swf file which will serve as demo for somebody who is interested in. I should be uploading that in a while.

Thanks for your response....

_Covershim_Admin

[CADTutor]

The possible solution will be to upload 2-3 links for individual .swf file which will serve as demo for somebody who is interested in.

I think that's a good idea. The .exe problem is a major drawback of your chosen method for delivery. I'm not sure what advantages eBook Pack has for you but I'm currently looking at Macromedia Captivate (http://www.macromedia.com/software/captivate/) for delivery of real-time tutorials. It's entirely Flash based (as you might expect) but it's amazingly versitile and the resulting files are tiny.

[PacificOcean]

I appreciate your response.

These 33+53 lessons are created by Macromedia Captivate, and I believe it does have pretty nice tools when it comes to publishing. I published them as .swf files. Though it has some other options, I never really played with them. One way is to create a menubuilder project which brings you an interface similar to what I have now, but without an .exe file and I should be trying that. Meanwhile, I uploaded 2 sample demo files as mentioned in my previous message, and it should be active by this time.

As you mentioned, the .exe method of delivery is the major problem, when it comes to land of wonderland called world wide web. Any suggestions would be really appreciated...

Again, thanks for your reply....

_Covershim_Admin

[CADTutor]

They are nicely done but I think they'd benefit from some voice-over.

[The Bruce]

Yeah, the only drawback is the .exe file as CADTutor mentioned above.

The tutorials themselves however, are top class. Both accurate and easy to understand, which is the key factors in a tutorial imo. Again, as CADTutor mentioned, a voiceover might prove a big plus as they seem slightly rigid with it only showing you how its done.

But overall, I enjoyed following them through and congratulate you on accurate and easy to understand work.

Thumbs up :D

[hyposmurf]

Yes I think they are nicely laid out.A voice over woulfd make the whole tutorial alot easier to follow.I dont know how long I could listern to the clicking cursor. :) These tutorials are more specific to a certain type of work,but that is not always a bad thing, at least the individual gets to run through a complete project.I downloaded and scanned the exe file for viruses,but still didnt like the idea.As stated before I think it would put alot of users off.Anyway good luck with the tutorials.

[PacificOcean]

The only thing is if I add voice, the file size gets bigger, and I may not be able to distribute these tutorials free as I am doing right now. Currently, each lessons in these tutorials is less that 5MB storage space. I have 33 lessons in the first project and 53 in the second one.

As these files are created in Macromedia Captivate, adding a voiceover is not that difficult even at this stage. Though, I am not sure what will be the file size after adding voice.

Currently, I receive about 6-10 downloads per day. I am having a yahoo standard account through which these are hosted. It gives me 4GB of storage with 75GB of bandwidth. So, say if this concept gets popular and I receive say 100 downloads a day...yahoo charges $5 per 5GB additional bandwidth.

Any suggestions over how I can host such kind of projects without costing me a fortune?

Thanks,

_Covershim_Admin

[CADTutor]

Any suggestions over how I can host such kind of projects without costing me a fortune?

Well, look for a host who does not charge for bandwidth. They do exist. I don't know the state of hosting in the States but some of the biggest hosts in the UK such as Fasthosts (http://www.fasthosts.co.uk) do not charge or cap bandwidth.

[PacificOcean]

Yes, if I get a reliable hosting network which I can afford, I don't mind taking this tutorial concept one step further and who knows I may add audio as well as video also.

As of today, I am not doing this on commercial basis but may accept advertisement to break even the cost. I was looking at rackforce.com for web hosting.

Meanwhile, any idea whether or not I am violating anything with autodesk 'cause I have made these tutorials with educatioal version and if I accept advertisement for my website then it becomes a commercial activity, but at the same time autodesk should be happy cause I am distributing free tutorials, and my efforts (hopefully) increase the awareness about the software for a common learner.

Any thoughts?

_Covershim_Admin

[The Bruce]

Your logic about raising awareness for the CAD product is probably what I would agree with, however you never know with these big companies and their copyrights and such. So I think the only sure fire way to know is if you e-mail Autodesk themselves and see what they have to say about it :)

[PacificOcean]

yes, I agree. Only thing is these big companies never have time for a small guy like me. I am going to contact regional re-seller through which my college buys the software. Hopefully, I will be able to create an info-sharing portal within legal limits without going broke for web hosting expenses.

I appreciate your response.

_Covershim_Admin

[hyposmurf]

Id interested to see what their response is or if they just refer you to the eula agreement

[PacificOcean]

Sure I should be posting the response provided they don't ask me to keep it confidential. (Afterall it's AutoDesk ..you never know....)

_Covershim_Admin
www.covershim.com