That's right ladies and gentlemen, with Land Desktop in no further production, no reason not to split up the platform again.  I have not reviewed the costs, but it the capabilities are quite similar.  I suspect alot of companies will move to the new Civil product.

There are a few disturbing items though.  Most companies migrating from Land Desktop will undoubtedly go to the Civil product.  Unfortunately Geospatial analysis from MAP is in the 3D package. 

Surveyors are likely to go to the more simplified version, but there is no Shape file nor TIF support.  All you LABINS fans, you might have too buck up and spend more money.

Autodesk says that the target audience for the Civil product is technicians.  The 3D product is analysis personell, engineers.  You know... I don't know many engineers who even know that the MAP menu source is there, much less what it does.  Unfortunately that is alot of what is being left out of the Civil package.

There doesn't really seem to be much of a difference in the product lineup.  However if you do it all, then you need to keep your eyes and ears open during this subscription upgrade.

Read This Autodesk PDF for more information

"AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009 will remain on the Autodesk price list until spring 2009;
however, effective July 8, 2008, subscription for AutoCAD Land Desktop will no longer be
available. Customers with current AutoCAD Land Desktop subscription contracts,
including multi-year, will continue to receive subscription benefits through the end of their
contract". ...... Autodesk Civil publication.

Please check out this  link for more info.

Anyway, hopefully this will be a good chance to see the future of this industry in our region. I hope so, because I had to use a vacation day. :)

Info from the press release:

In a stormy and unprecedented economic climate, businesses large and small are pursuing economic advantage through ambitious environmental innovation and social responsibility. The West Coast -- Portland, Seattle and San Francisco in particular -- is home to successful business thought leaders who have long understood the economic potential of sustainability. Still, tough viability questions and real economic context are sorely lacking, as are authentic, inspirational events that capture the true opportunity in going "beyond green."

REGISTER NOW!

The event is being held at the Portland Art Museum.

More Portland sustainability posts here.

Full info after jump (cut and paste style)

Featuring

Karl-Henrik Robèrt Founder, The Natural Step Framework

Sam Adams Portland Mayor

Panelists

Creating a new material for the Materials Database is not difficult, just hard to get to.

"On the panel bar, click the down arrow and select Design Accelerator. On the Design Accelerator panel bar, open any generator or calculator, and on the Calculation tab, check the box next to the Material edit field. Note: Material database is not connected to Autodesk Inventor Material Styles Library."…. Autodesk Inventor Help.

Below you should see that I have opened a file, and followed suit into the bolted Connection Component Generator. Next to plates material, Check the box. The materials database dialog will open. Notice in the upper left hand corner the button tooltip saying "Add Material". Pick that button

 A new blank highlighted row will appear. Fill in the appropriate columns with pertinent information. (I am not sure about the standards of wood, so I have to go back and verify everything. 

 Note: That Standard must be correct here! The Content Center Family will filter the materials by what standard exists here. 

The Family in the Content Center will be filtering ANSI, and so either we change the Material database now, or the Content Center Family Later. 

When you are done pick OK, and then CANCEL. 

Check back for the continuation of this series, New Content Center Family

articolo de "Il Sole 24 ore": sole24ore

Im Rahmen der digital creation days werden feierlich die animago AWARDs 2008 in Karlsruhe verliehen. Der animago AWARD ist der wichtigste Preis der DCC-Branche.  Dieses Jahr konnten als Sponsoren Autodesk und MACKEVISION gewonnen werden. Die Preisverleihung verspricht dieses Jahr ein riesiger Event zu werden. Es gingen genau 1026 Beiträge bei der Jury ein. Die Masse war, wie jedes Jahr, natürlich Stills. Insgesamt 532 zum Teil großartige Stills wurden eingereicht. Der animago AWARD 2008 wird dabei mehr und mehr international: Artists aus 42 Länder bewarben sich um Preise der zwölf Kategorien. Schwerpunkt der Einsender liegt aber weiterhin auf Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Dennoch waren einige exotische Beiträge wieder mit von der Partie. So kamen Einsendungen aus dem fernen Pakistan, den Vereinigten Arabische Emirate und dem Iran. 

Dieses Jahr beginnt der Networking-Event der Branche zum animago AWARD 2008 am 12. November ab 19 Uhr im Konzerthaus Karlsruhe. Der klassizistische Bau liegt direkt am Kongresszentrum Karlsruhe. Hier findet am 12. Und 13. November die digital creation days statt. Der Beginn der feierlichen Veranstaltung zum animago AWARD 2008 ist für 20 Uhr festgesetzt.

Dieses Jahr bestand die Jury zum animago AWARD aus folgenden Mitgliedern: Michael Vitzum, nhb, Hamburg, Robert Hranitzky, freelancer, München, Harald Siepermann, freelancer, Hamburg, Tim Borgmann, BT-3D Wuppertal, Tobias Richter, The Lightworks, Köln, Matthias J. Lange, DIGITAL PRODUCTION, Hans-Jürgen Kuntze, DIGITAL PRODUCTION, Günter Hagedorn, DIGITAL PRODUCTION

This Page was started after I have fought through so many issues that have not been addressed by others.  Many times I see my question posted on the discussion booards, and then after opening, I either see no response, or "hey guy, maybe you could try something unrelated".  I have not kept good records of all the odd and crazy things I have worked out, so I felt like this might be a great idea. 

My ideas come from constantly beating the problem until it screams the answer out.  I have attended Autodesk University 2006 and 2007 in Las Vegas.  It appears as though I will not be attending this year. (Umm..donations for the AU needy are being accepted here: Plane tickets and AU reservations.)

As I come up with ideas, or have the time to post well used twists, I will post them here.

If you want to see something, please let me know.

Le groupe Vivartia (présent dans 30 pays) a mis l’une de ses marques dans Second Life : 7Days. La marque existe principalement en Europe de l’Est. 7Days est plutôt un industriel de la viennoiserie de type snack. J’ai vu cette marque inconnue pour moi sur plusieurs sites centrés sur Second life par le biais de bannière (skyscraper) annonçant le lancement de l’île dédiée à la marque. Rarement les marques (celles qui venaient pour voir) s’inscrivaient dans un vrai projet incluant de la promotion mais aussi un contenus adaptés au monde Second Life et non une enieme représentation basique ou sans intérêt. 7Days est partis pour un monde cartoonesque et immersif dans le gentil monde du croissant et consorts, le benchmark proche de Charlie et la chocolaterie / Ratatouille etc… La représentation est proche de Ben and jerry’s dans second life, d’ailleurs les éléments n’ont pas été réalisés cette fois avec les outils par défaut de la plate-forme mais en utilisant des ressources externes tel que Maya d’Autodesk.

Le prestataire (http://www.involve3d.com/ ) a semble t-il bien réussi à conseiller son client en lui imposant des choix techniques et surtout une histoire, un cheminement, une expérience. On notera au passage l’organisation de l’agence (Chief Technology Officer, Creative Director, Senior Builder/3D Artist, Modeler/3D Artist, Animation/Texture Design, Character/Avatar Design…). Second Life ou les mondes virtuels sont des espaces où le conseil et la direction de projet sont la base d’un travail sérieux et original et ceci demande des equipes avec des compétences prècises.

Un monde virtuel conjugue par défaut les aspects multimédia classiques (video, son, images), ici le visiteurs est rapidement immergé grâce aux localisation sonores distillant selon les espaces des ambiances ou bien un speech d’un personnage.(ce principe de bande de son était présent aussi sur l’île Yves saint Laurent l’années dernière). Ce sont des personnages sympathiques qui vont animer notre passage sur l’île et aussi nous fidéliser un peu aussi (le fameux temps passé dans un monde virtuel).

Un dispositif de freebies (goodies) est en place avec des bornes maisons (distributeurs automatiques) et plusieurs choix de viennoiseries à emporter ou à réaliser.

L’univers est ludique et c’est sur point que l’opération est réussie et fréquentée car elle se fond dans  un monde imaginaire et fait l’impasse discrète sur ses vrais aspects commerciaux. Cette opération montre que le contenus fait la différence à l’instar de la simple cosmétique. Ce projet s’inscrit dans la lignée des réalisations de l’agence Rezzable (Greenies…), à savoir un concept immersif adapté aux possibilités actuelles de la plate-forme en insistant sur le détail et l’animation ceci confortant l’expérience de l’utilisateur qui gardera un souvenir agréable pouvant naturellement se viraliser.

A lire: Greenies et L'Oréal Paris

My brand-spanking-new computer arrived yesterday!! So many boxes... so much stuff to unpack... but its so worth it... I have Maya 2008(not sure if its unlimited or not...), and teh Adobe creative suite (3) and other bits and pieces!! So much free stuff!

It's really jammy that I get all this stuff for free, it's only because I've got a stomach condition(Chrons) and the worst case scenario means I have to stay at home and work from here. And I'm not complaining I get thousands of pounds worth of stuff for free lol, that would be mighty ungrateful right? My brothers so annoyed I've got all this stuff. He's trying to get himself diagnosed with something so he gets free stuff too lol.

My desk is no even more cluttered than before... and there are soooooooooo many cables I'm a little worried frankly...

Anyways, that is all for now, I'm gonna go have a play with Maya and install some games, Viva Pinata, Sims 2, Black and White 2 etc. The new one will be primarily for work and high spec games only at the moment, since I don't wanna infect my new machine with anything just yet... downloads will be down with this computer.

ProLost: What Should Adobe Do With Premiere Pro?.

Back in 2006, when Google acquired startup @Last and its 3-D modeling product, SketchUp, most observers saw it as a nice add-on for Google Earth, perfect for "hobbyists and enthusiasts." But since then, the SketchUp program has blossomed into a tool in its own right, used by design professionals to fashion everything from consumer products to urban landscapes to country homes.

Green design professionals are particularly taken with the program. Widely praised by architecture and design community for its "intuitive" nature, SketchUp, one of the few 3D rendering programs on the market, is also by far the easiest one to use. And its integration with Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse have elevated the program from a simple design tool to a location-based, product-inclusive architectural design powerhouse.  As a result, SketchUp is nurturing a growing ecosystem of green design startups.

Begin at the beginning
Getting energy, water and carbon information into the design process early on was once a costly, if not impossible, endeavor. But the sooner modeling and analysis tools are involved in the process, the bigger the questions are that designers can ask, and the more impact they can have on the final design.

"The software tool you choose is always going to arise from the question that you're asking," says Chris Meek, a University of Washington professor who heads up the Integrated Design Lab in Seattle. "What role do these tools have in their design process? What's it going to affect in the design?"

Out of the box, SketchUp offers some great features for green design, which the cleantech-happy Google has been quick to promote. Because it integrates smoothly with Google Earth, SketchUp users can punch in the actual latitude and longitude of their project site to visualize buildings in their real-life context. That not only helps designers communicate to their clients how the project will look, but allows them to accurately model how nearby landscape features and structures will cast shadows over the building -- useful for fine-tuning a building's site orientation or window placement to cut energy use, or for positioning solar panels.

The proof is in the plug-in
A handful of startups (and even the federal government) are working to soup up the SketchUp toolbar with energy analysis plug-ins that support even more detailed information about materials used and spatial relationships within the building. For the startups, it's a way to raise visibility for their own proprietary tools.

Integrated Environmental Systems (IES) offers VE-Ware, a free energy and carbon analysis tool that benchmarks designs against the energy reduction goals of the Architecture 2030 Challenge, as a free Windows-only plug-in. The professional versions of IES's Virtual Environment software can provide more detailed analysis and its consulting practice can help make sense of the data analysis for those new to the world of green building design.

Demeter, an energy analysis plug-in from Greenspace, lets users dig deeper into how much energy their design might use by taking into account details such as surface materials. By gathering this kind of information, the program allows architects to quickly export the model to Green Building Studio, a sophisticated analysis program developed by Greenspace Green Building Studio Inc. that was acquired by Autodesk (s ADSK) in June, and run a complete energy modeling analysis report. (Since it requires users to export their data, this plug-in isn't available for those using the free version of SketchUp. The Pro version, which integrates presentation tools and allows users to export their models into other design programs, costs $495 a pop.)

It's what's inside that counts
With a growing number of green designers using SketchUp, green building product manufacturers have gotten into the game as well. SketchUp integrates seamlessly with the Google 3D Warehouse, and as architects pull together models of their home designs, they can stock their models with everything from paint to doors to dishwashers from its reserves. Need a toilet for your bathroom model? Find one in the 3D Warehouse and download it into SketchUp.

For the many startup companies marketing green building products, SketchUp can be an inexpensive way to break into the market. While not every green building product manufacture is already SketchUp savvy, the easy-to-use program lowers the bar for learning. If that’s still too much of a challenge, Blue Marble Project is one startup aiming to get green building product companies into this market. Started by the guys who launched Go2School, an educational podcast series on using SketchUp, Blue Marble Project creates models of a company’s products with information about their size, shape, surfaces, environmental properties and even their SKU numbers. The company, launched in 2007, has been gradually adding new clients, including Whirlpool and West Elm, according to co-founder Mike Tadros.

While integration with Google Earth allows SketchUp to position digital models in the real world, the 3D Warehouse lets green design move the other direction as well.

This article also appeared on Businessweek.com.

First,  some noteworthy web apps I use regularly that never had equivalents on my desktop:

• Twitter - microblogging
• Blogger, Wordpress - blogging

Next, the web apps that have replaced their desktop equivalents:

• Diigo, Del.icio.us - bookmarking
• Yahoo Mail, Google Mail- email
• Yahoo Contacts, Ovi - contacts
• Google Calendar, Ovi - calendar
• Google Reader, Feedly - feed reader
• Google Notebook, Evernote - note-taking
• Google Documents, Zoho - word processing, spreadsheets, presentations
• EditGrid - spreadsheets
• Autodesk Project DRAW - drawing
• Aviary - image, color, and vector editing
• Meebo - instant messaging
• Toodledo - get things done (GTD)
• TSheets - time management
• MindMeister - mind mapping

Finally, the storage I currently use in cyberspace, replacing my local storage:

• Box.net
• DropBoks
• Gspace - turns each Google Gmail account into a virtual 8GB "drive"

The redundancy you see in some cases is deliberate and you can consider it as risk management. I also use various synchronization programs, all freely available to synch online services on the web with my Nokia N95 8GB and Windows Vista desktop, the latter is mainly to ensure high availability of my data in the absence of an Internet connection or when a service is offline. Google Gears takes care of my data from many of their online services with an offline mode synched to my desktop, so I use this as well. I'm using the free versions of all of the services I've listed, which completely fills my needs for now. I use the Firefox 3 browser almost exclusively, but I'm also testing Google Chrome. To ensure ultimate portability "on the go" I keep some open source portable applications, including a Firefox 3 browser with all of my addons and plugins along with Google Chrome, on a 2GB USB memory stick on my keychain.

I've kept this post relatively short because I plan to go deeper into detail later about these and other web apps I'm using. I mainly wanted to start a dialogue about the use of these web apps and their lessening of our dependence on the desktop and local storage, so I'm looking forward to seeing your comments about your own experiences.  I've already become fairly comfortable living in my browser as a denizen of cyberspace, what about you?

Related articles:

• Use Web apps offline with Google Gears

E ora ditemi, giocando, vi siete resi conto che "la sfida" è sponsorizzata? o meglio, che il gioco è una geniale trovata pubblicitaria?

Come no?!
Guardate in alto a destra... Autodesk: la software-house del famosissimo programma 3D per architetti, AutoCAD.

Se avete ottenuto un punteggio scarso e non siete "del mestiere", allora siete semplicemente poco allenati; altrimenti siete il target perfetto, perché il messaggio sottinteso è che "i render eseguiti con i loro sofware sono belli, e si vede!"

Niente male, bravi.

[CuartoDerecha]

This marks the company's first venture into 64-bit BIM applications and applies to Revit Architecture 2009, Revit Structure 2009 and Revit MEP 2009.

The English language versions of new 64-bit Revit software applications are available now to existing Revit Architecture 2009, Revit Structure 2009 and Revit MEP 2009 subscribers via the online Subscription Center. The 64-bit software will release in other languages at a later date.

For more information on the 64 bit versions of Revit refer to the following website.

Självklart kommer jag rapportera, fota och filma
för bloggen, jag ska leka paparazzi all over dom
nya programmen och berätta allt om dom snaskiga
detaljerna.

Stay tuned...

For more information check it out for yourself here.

DMG Padiglione 24 Stand D01-D03/C02-C04 

Invia una E-Mail: marketing.italia@openmind-tech.com, oppure telefona al numero 02 93 16 25 03 per prenotare la tua visita e il tuo bliglietto d'ingresso gratis: il personale OPEN MIND ti accompagnerà lungo il viaggio!

Entrevista con MicroAccess...

Autodesk. Innovación en Diseño en Áreas de Arquitectura, Ingeniería Civil y Manufactura.

Descubre como ahorrar tiempo y dinero en la elaboración de sus proyectos, con la tecnología Autodesk que le ayudará en la gestión y control de información. Ingenieros y Arquitectos certificados resolverán todas sus dudas.

Conoce todos los detalles del evento AQUI

Our Setup

We are using HP xw4X00 workstation class PC’s with Windows XP Pro, Autodesk Revit Architecture Series 2009 (web update 1), MS Office Pro etc, standard Architectural office configuration.

The History

One of the Architects in our office had been complaining about a problem with his keyboard for sometime, after trying to resolve the problem internally we called in the ‘big guns’ - our IT Support/Autodesk Reseller to look into the problem. At first it was thought it could be hardware (memory) related and then it was thought to be viral but as each theory was tested and “fixed” the problem still appeared….. argghhh

Until today when one of our Technicians in the office replicated the error on his PC (locked up keyboard), now I was sure it had to be related to Revit Architecture 2009 as his PC had showed no earlier signs of “glitches” to date….

The “Bug”

The bug appears when you access the Pantone colour palette in Revit Architecture 2009 (Series), try it out for yourself…. Follow the below steps:

1. Make sure you have at least two applications open i.e. Revit Architecture 2009 and Outlook or Word.

2. Start a new Project file in Revit (an existing one will do the same thing but it’s safer with a new file so you don’t loose any “real” work) and create a new Filled Region on a View.

Edit the Properties of the Filled Region you have just created and change it’s default colour to be a new Pantone Colour (any colour will do).

Click OK to accept the new Filled Region.

**** Bang****

3. You should now have noticed that Revit has disappeared into the “background” and that your other open Application is now in the “foreground” – but the most frustrating thing we are finding, is that our keyboards at this point are “frozen up” or “locked out”.

To date the only fix we have been able to find to the above “Bug” is to exit Revit by way of using the Windows Task Manager to switch back to Revit and close out, this restores the keyboard to “normal mode” and is fully functioning again.

If anyone has any suggestions around the above problem (other than not using Pantone Colours) or has experienced the same problem can you please post a reply.

Thanks.