There were 22 attendees at this meeting.

The meeting started with a question about using the DWG to PDF print driver. One member was having problems with the finished PDF's dropping text or parts of text. The general concensus from the group was that the DWG to PDF was not the best tool for PDF output. Some free alternatives to the DWG to PDF driver (and Acrobat) mentioned were PDF955 (www.pdf995.com) and PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/). The problem with using an external PDF printer is that when you print, the file created is named using the drawing file name + layout name. If you have a custom program that names your plot files (PLT, PDF or DWF) using something like the sheet name, you can still get the same results by printing to DWF first. Typically, getting these files into PDF format is as easy as creating DWF's and dragging these files onto the PDF printer icon (the one that's in Printers and Faxes which you can find on the Start Menu or Control Panel). The DWF viewer will open and automatically print the DWF's.

A couple possible ways to reduce the file size of PDF's were introduced. One was to create DWF's first, them print them to PDF. Another was, if you use Adobe Acrobat, to check the default "output version" specified in Acrobat. If Acrobat 4.0 or 5.0 are listed, try using Acrobat 7.0 or 8.0 instead. The newer the Acrobat, the smaller the fle size (typically).

Paul Kirill mentioned a website with some good information about the nuts and bolts of plotting as well as some very handy tools help with your printing efforts. Most notably a tool to print or export the contents of your CTB file. The website to find these tools is http://www.noliturbare.com/index.php.

We also had a lively talk about Autodesk subscription. The gist was that everyone had to decide on their own if it was right for them. With subscription, there are some nice advantages with subscription like eLearning lessons, technical support direct from AutoDesk, handy add-ons for some of the vertical packages. We also talked about exploring multi-year subscription with our resellers. With multi-year subscription you can lock this year's rate, usually get a discount off of that, and you can put a 3-year subscription (for example) on a 3-year lease.

The main topic was presented by Steve Johns and it was on how to make you own menus with the CUI. His presentation included some powerpoint, some videos from Shaan Hurley, and some hands on demonstration. (the supporting files will be forthcoming in the Tips & Training are of the website).

And to answer June's question, here is the default location of the CUI files for AutoCAD 2008: C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name here>\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2008\R17.1\enu\Support

Just a reminder - the RAM Survey is up and active. If you didn't get an email with the link to the survey, please drop us a note and we'll send it over. And the survey isn't just for RAM Members!

As our our members know, RAM meetings are typically the last Wednesday of every month. We do occasionally shift the date due to holidays or severe weather - but we do strive to be as consistent as possible. It is always amazing how fast that last Wednesday sneaks up on you! So here's a little something to help us remember. The link below opens an iCalendar file that when saved, will insert a recurring appointment into your calendar program. It works with Outlook and a variety of other calendar programs. All you need to do is:

• Using Internet Explorer, click the link, click Open to open the iCal file in your default calendar program and then save it.
• Using Firefox, right click the link and select 'Save Link As', then go to where you saved it and open the file.

Pretty simple!

**RAM Meeting Reminder**

(For more info on iCalendar files, check out these links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar, http://www.icalworld.com/news.html)