Etc: Lou's (In)Famous Buttered Whiskey Recipe

The other day I was at Juniper 61 in Milwaukee eating dinner with some friends. They had a drink special on Hot Buttered Rum. It was delicious, and something about the butter and the warmth made the buzz I got especially comforting.

A few days later, with Holiday Stress at its peak, I wanted, nay, NEEDED this drink again. However, I didn't have rum on-hand. I substituted Kessler whiskey instead. Even though this is crap booze, the sugar and spices masked the harshness.

Here is my result:

Makes 1 drink at a time:

1 pinch allspice
1 pinch nutmeg (freshly grated is better)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
8 oz water
1 1/2 teaspoons butter
1 shot whisky (more if you're having a rough day)
1 Cinnamon stick as garnish (optional)

Directions:
Put nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, brown sugar, butter and water in a microwavable mug (ideally, one of those Irish coffee deals). Microwave on high for about 1 minute. Muddle/mix well. Add shot(s) of whiskey. Enjoy!

Happy New Year. Party responsibly, but hard.

Force Design Review 2013 to Open 2014/2015 DWG Files

In this post, I am going to show you a workaround for this issue where users try to open a DWG in Design Review and get the error, "Opening DWG files in Design Review requires the latest version of the free DWG TrueView program be installed." But, you probably DO have TrueView installed, so what the heck?

If you don't already know, Design Review 2013 is the most recent version of the viewing markup tool. Going forward you can create an Autodesk 360 account and upload for viewing online.

There are still many reasons one would want to use Design Review.  Design Review can open a file, allow markups and let you save as a DWF in one platform.  What many people don't realize is that Design Review really isn't doing the work, TrueView is really the program that is showing you the DWG.  In other words, regardless of version, if you want to open a DWG in Design Review, you must have True View installed. If you have updated to either 2014 or 2015 version of True View, the connection to Design Review no longer exists.

But this connection can be restored!

The knowlege base article is here: http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/design-review/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-open-a-DWG-file-in-Design-Review-with-DWG-TrueView-2015.html

I am going to show you the same information graphically:

1. Go to Start > type in Regedit 
   
2. In the registry editor, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\DWG TrueView\
3. Right-click on the "folder" DWG True View and select New > Key 
   
4. Name the new key R10
5. Highlight the new key, and in the right-side pane, right-click and select New > String Value 
   
6. Name the new String CurVer and press enter to complete the naming.
   
7. Double-click the new String value and add dwgviewr-E001:409 in the Value data field. Click ok when you are done. (note that the 409 may be different if you are using a non-English version of Design Review. This link takes you to a list of language codes.)
   
8. Now browse in the registry editor HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\DWG TrueView
9. Again, right-click on the "folder" DWG True View and select New > Key.
10. Name the new key R10
11. Highlight the new key, right-click on the "folder" DWG True View and select New > Key 
    
12. Name this new key dwgviewr-E001:409 
13. Highlight the new key. Right-click in the right-hand pane and select New > String Value.
    
14. Name the new string value Location. Double-click and set the value to C:/Program Files/Autodesk/DWG TrueView 2015 - English (change as needed for different languages or non-default pathing) 
    
15. Click OK. Exist the registry and attempt to open a DWG file in Design Review. You should have no issues. 

I made a little Autodesk Screencast video of these steps as well.  I install all my software to the D drive, but otherwise, the steps I use are the same as above (you will need to login to Autodesk 360 to view the video):ViewTrueView-DesignReview Hack

Enjoy, Happy Christmas, Merry Hanukkah and Blessed Kwanzaa. 

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