Floating, off the coast of Galiano Island - - - House sitting, in Kitsilano. - - - Sleeping in, Saturday morning - - - All images (c) 2011 by katgrabowski.blogspot.com Read more →
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Floating, off the coast of Galiano Island - - - House sitting, in Kitsilano. - - - Sleeping in, Saturday morning - - - All images (c) 2011 by katgrabowski.blogspot.com Read more →
Posted at 01:01 PM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
It may have taken the ITC five years to ship IntelliCAD 7, but the new architecture means updates now are available likity-split. This week's 7.0a release improve PC3 printer configurations, attributes, entity editing, "and many other areas." ITC development director Dave Lorenzo gives us a sneak peak: "I expect IntelliCAD 7.1 based on a newer ODA Teigha platform will be released in early fall." Likity-split on, Dave! www.intellicad.org Read more →
Posted at 01:11 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS | Permalink | Comments (0)
now updated for AutoCAD 2011 and 2012* "Tailoring AutoCAD 2011/12" $39.90 upfrontezine.com/ta12 *) Will be updated for OS X Read more →
Posted at 11:16 AM in Reviews of Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
Dassault Systemes didn't just license Graebert's ARES, and then dump it out there as DraftSight for free. They've gotten Graebert to add features, making DraftSight more and more viable as an AutoCAD alternative. Well, of course, that's was the master plan all along -- displacing AutoCAD, I mean. It now runs more more operating systems than does AutoCAD, and last week's update adds a few more keen features to catch up a bit more with AutoCAD: One command to place every kind of dimension: linear, aligned, radial, diametrical, arc length, and angular. Now, the interface is a bit awkward, since... Read more →
Posted at 01:27 AM in Free CAD Software | Permalink | Comments (9)
ASCON Group of St. Petersburg has been holding an annual modeling contest for nearly a decade now, and this morning they released the names of the winners in eight categories. I particularly liked this image of a portion of a 3D model of a mobile drilling rig, model SBSH-250D, manufactured by UGMC-Rudgormash-Voronezh: The design was the honorary winner in the “Implementation of PLM Concept” category. The parts were modeled with KOMPAS-3D, the 3D parametric MCAD software from ASCON. www.ascon.net Read more →
Posted at 08:59 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS | Permalink | Comments (0)
In this week's issue, we have for you... 1. Spatial CGM Capabilities Webinar - Q&A 2. Updating Civil B Part 3: CivilB Replies to Autodesk's Response 3. Out of the Inbox and other regular columns You can read all about this week's business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-701.htm Read more →
Posted at 01:04 AM in CAD Blogs | Permalink | Comments (0)
My son loaned me an MKV file of a recent episode of Top Gear. It is in high-def, 1280x720 resolution -- or "720p" as it's more popularly known. It turns out MKV is a "container" format, popular for tv shows, which includes the video and audio tracks in a single file. It is an open source competitor to AVI, also a container file, and one that is more broadly supported. I did some research: MKV is short for "Matroska Multimedia Container", and the "Matroska" is a loose transliteration of the Russian word for their nesting dolls. But to Russians, "matroska"... Read more →
Posted at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Remember modems? Now we complain when there's no wi-fi available. I'll give credit to the smart phone, and even begrudging credit to the iPhone in particular, for improving the way we communicate and the way we work on the go. There's no denying that we've made real progress. But what if sometimes the old fashioned way really was better? Remember the digitizer vs. keyboard debate? Well old-timer, say hello to the ribbon. Remember when HTML was invented to encapsulate content and relationships in a view-independent way so that consumers could decide how to format it? Step right over here, and... Read more →
Posted at 01:41 AM in Owen Wengerd | Permalink | Comments (4)
Jay Vleeschhouwer now does software research for Griffin Securities, Inc. Here is a summary of a report he released this morning: Dassault will be reporting 2Q11 results on Thursday July 28th. For the quarter, we are estimating total revenues and non-IFRS [ie, International Financial Reporting Standards] earnings of €407.9 million [roughly US$585m], up 6%. We are assuming Catia revenues up 3%; “Mainstream 3D” [ie, SolidWorks] revenues up 11%, and Enovia revenues up 1%. PTC will be reporting 3Q11 results after the close of market on Tuesday July 26th. For the quarter, we are estimating total revenues and earnings of $279.9... Read more →
Posted at 10:43 AM in Jay Vleeschhouwer | Permalink | Comments (0)
OK, here we are at the CGM Capabilities Webinar, which we joined late, since WebEx spent the first ten minutes insisting the event starts at 4pm this afternoon -- instead of 7am this morning. After a few "Huhs?" and refreshes, WebEx let us in, but then complained that our Opera 11.5 Web browser is not supported by WebEx (boo). Over to FireFox 5.0 and we're in! We're hearing someone telling us that CGM does robust modeling. For example, a parting line is a sharp line that goes across curves. Fillet the area, and many sharp parts are added by other... Read more →
Posted at 07:27 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS | Permalink | Comments (2)
Yessiree, this week upFront.eZine is 700 issues old. The number is just about incomprehensible to me, but it's the kind of number you get when you publish something pretty much every week since 1995 -- with appropriate breaks for summer and at Christmas, 'natch. The newsletter began as an irregular supplement to the CAD++ newsletter, my monthly print publication that focused on programming and marketing in CAD. Then the cost of printing, postage, and paper overwhelmed the incoming subscription fees, and so upFront.eZine replaced CAD++, first as a bi-weekly, and then weekly. The e-newsletter was "all-e," in that it eschewed... Read more →
Posted at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Chinese CAD vendor GstarCAD this morning attacks critics of the Chinese software industry: People may be skeptical about "made-in-China" products, but there is no denying that with its 1.3 billion China definitely has no lack of brain power. GstarCAD team employed part of this amazing brain power to create its full-featured, IntelliCAD-based software. In its press release, the company credits a number of reasons: GstarCAD is active in intellectual property protection. Eighteen years experience in technology. Lost-cost software based on IntelliCAD. Positive feedback from exhibitions in Austria, Poland, and Italy. Read more →
Posted at 09:02 AM in Media and/or Spin | Permalink | Comments (0)
Here are some of the photos I took with my Android cell phone camera over the weekend, during our brief stay on Galiano Island -- off the coast of British Columbia. Read more →
Posted at 10:19 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tailor Made Software is one of the oldest CAD software companies still happily steaming along, and yesterday Scott Taylor let me know that he's updated his Java-based CadViewer program that uses JavaScript as its API. (This lets other programs use CadViewer as a display system.) As a Java applet, it downloads automatically without installation. CadViewer 10 now gets the following features: Dynamic drawing highlighting uses Javascript to control the color of areas, changes to text, and layer toggling. Supports Russian, Chinese, and Unicode text. Improved speed and memory use to handle larger drawings. http://www.cadviewer.com Read more →
Posted at 11:13 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS | Permalink | Comments (1)
This week, upFront.eZine has for your reading pleasure: 1. Updating CivilB -Locating Utility Conflicts - Designing Irregular Shapes 2. Dassault Reveals V5R21 and V6R2012 Part 2 of an interview with Fabien Fedida - V4-V5-V6 - New Openness in V6 R2012 3. Out of the Inbox and other regular columns You can read all about this week's business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com Read more →
Posted at 11:56 AM in CAD Blogs | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bluebeam Software got patent #7,971,149 for the document comparison feature in its PDF Revu software. It does the following: Automatically scales, rotates, and aligns the selected base and revised drawings. Highlights differences with cloud annotations on a copy of the modified PDF. PDFs are synchronized; as you pan or zoom one, the other follows. Batch compare multiple revision sets. Select portions of drawings to compare. Read more →
Posted at 01:13 AM in Patents | Permalink | Comments (0)
Earlier this week, a 320,000-volt transmission tower collapsed on the banks of the Fraser River near Vancouver, Canada. The responsible utility, the government-owned BC Hydro, said that a barge had hit the tower 1.5 months ago, and that they had been monitoring the tower. Guy wires were placed to stabilize the tower, and surveyors checked the tower every few days. In the meantime, the utility was figuring out how to deal with this problem, one of two major transmission lines serving the Greater Vancouver area, potentially affecting millions. June and July are high-water months for the Fraser River, when flooding... Read more →
Posted at 03:19 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Too often we are told by CAD vendors that we are being shown the best product ever. We understand that your products are better than everyone else’s -- that’s pride of ownership, and we get that. But when you say your new stuff replaces the old stuff -- which was just garbage, by the way -- we can’t believe anyone falls for this. And that’s a pet peeve. The Conversation That Never Happened I was seated at lunch with a few other journalists and a CEO, who, for reasons soon to be apparent, will remain unnamed.... Read more →
Posted at 03:14 PM in Roopinder Tara | Permalink | Comments (0)
The United States Patent and Trade Mark Office decided last month that DWG is indeed not a name that can be registered as a trademark. As it has been saying all along -- and along with interveners like SolidWorks and Open Design Alliance -- the USPTO repeats that DWG is a description of a file type. In their words: DWG is merely descriptive of applicant’s goods under Section 2(e)(1) of the Trademark Act for two reasons: (1) DWG is a recognized abbreviation for “drawing," and (2) .dwg is a file format used for computer-aided design (CAD) drawings made both with... Read more →
Posted at 03:01 AM in The Courts | Permalink | Comments (3)
I spoke yesterday with Fabien Fedida about the massive set of releases Dassault Systemes announced over the last few days. He's the senior director of global offer strategy and business intelligence at Dassault. One point he emphasized is that "V6 and V5 work together very well. I know there is some FUD [fear, uncertainty, doubt from competitors] out there about this. In this release in particular, just like in all previous releases, you can see evidence of DS ensuring V6 and V5 work together very well." To make sure V6 works well with V5... ...the two systems use the same... Read more →
Posted at 01:58 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS | Permalink | Comments (2)
My daughter upgraded her cell phone, and so her Samsung Hype (A256) became superfluous. This gave me the opportunity to try my hand at unlocking a cell phone. I found www.cellunlocker.net and sent them the phone's IMEI number and the $7. ($7 is a lot less than the $50 charged by our national cell phone companies for unlocking phones!) The IMEI number is the number that uniquely identifies every cell phone. It is short for "International Mobile Equipment Identity" and you can learn more from Wikipedia. You usually find the number inside the phone, under the battery. After a day... Read more →
Posted at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
This week, upFront.eZine has for your reading pleasure: 1. Dassault Moves 3D Authoring and PLM to the Cloud - Q&A 2. Where is the Anti-Trust in CAD? - Readers React 3. Out of the Inbox and other regular columns You can read all about this week's business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com Read more →
Posted at 10:52 AM in CAD Blogs, Cloud | Permalink | Comments (0)
Robert Pee of Bluesky PR send out some photos his company took of the Glastonbury Festival, a British recreation of Woodstock. The photo below is a small portion of the full image, in which I noted the following: 1. The range of tents, from one-man units used by cyclists, to multi-room T-shaped ones. 2. The garbage. Oh, the garage! 3. The brown dirt paths worn into the lawn by people walking between tents. 4. The yellowed grass rectangles where tents used to be, left by those who headed home early. 5. The communal areas, where several tents ring a pile... Read more →
Posted at 10:08 AM in Computer-aided Design: NEWS | Permalink | Comments (0)
by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com I’ve probably sat through hundreds of presentations given by excited CAD executives. So many times has one of them pulled out his iPhone to make a point that I am sick of it. I can see it coming as they reach in. Then they pull it out. It's followed by something clever, like: "10 years ago, it took a roomful of computers to do what this little thing does. I don’t need a user manual to operate this." Hey! Look, just cause you have an iPhone, it doesn’t mean we all do. We might secretly want... Read more →
Posted at 01:20 AM in Roopinder Tara | Permalink | Comments (12)
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