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Craig Venter shows Richard Dawkins around The Institute for Genomic Research

This isn't CAD or BIM but the hardware, technology and science seen in this tour of The Institute for Genomic Research is amazing. Genome sequencing depends on high end computer technology and the progress being made is astounding. Although 27,000,000² pairwise comparisons were required to analyse the human genome the challenge, having achieved it, is to do it faster & cheaper.

Craig Venter gives Richard Dawkins an informal tour of the facility and talks about the science, technology, history and future potential of this fascinating research.

This footage was shot with the intention of editing for a television program. What you see here is the full extended interview, which includes a lot of rough camera transitions that were edited out of the final program (along with a lot of content).

MailWasher, a work in progress update

I find MailWasher an essential tool allowing me to see all mail that comes to my accounts but ensure no spam reaches my Inbox. While many ISP's & mail services have their own spam filters MailWasher gives the user control to preview, accept or reject mail before it's downloaded. It removes the risk of spam filters stopping mail you actually do want but has rules to allow the majority of spam to be eliminated without any effort. I also use its preview window to read and process quite a lot of wanted email before it even gets to my Inbox!

MailWasher have released a YouTube showing their current beta in action. Although the new MailWasher looks quite different it works the same way as the current version. If you want to try the current release get it from Firetrust.com MailWasher. I can recommend it as one step toward "Inbox zero" is dealing with stuff before it even gets there!

Tags: mailwasher

AutoCAD Architecture AND Revit?

Guillermo Melantoni's recent post on AutoCAD AND Revit prompted me to share how AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) can help your Revit work-flow. Yes, you read that right, ACA can help with Revit.

I'm not going to steal Guillermo's thunder by merging AutoCAD Mesh models with Revit (below). My example is rather more prosaic but I think it's a convincing reason to consider installing the AutoCAD Architecture, rather than just pain AutoCAD, included in AutoCAD Revit Suite.

AutoCAD AND Revit? yeah! - whatamesh.typepad.com

Imagine a world where everything isn't designed in Revit (yes really) and you need to collaborate with, or re-use old, AutoCAD content. One of the best things you can do is remove as much "AutoCAD overhead" by cleaning up dwg files before linking them to Revit. In my case it was a site layout designed in another AutoCAD'like package which I was using as the background for a Revit Model. I only needed the line work so wanted to clean out hatches, most notes, dimensions and other junk ready for Revit. While you can remove layers from linked dwg's in Revit I find its tools to be a bit too "all or nothing".

The AutoCAD Architecture has a "Select Similar" command which allows you to select object(s) like hatch, text etc then Right Click > Select Similar to instantly find all similar items (type & layer) for deletion. Although AutoCAD has "Quick Select" I find Select Similar much faster and you won't find it in AutoCAD. Even if you only use the AutoCAD portion of your Revit Suite for dealing to legacy content consider installing AutoCAD Architecture. Perhaps it's the best AutoCAD for Revit.

MindManager Vs Nvidia, I win!

MindManager's Presentation Mode has a "Transparent Fade Out" option (seen right). This adds a, sometimes too subtle, fade effect to the unselected branches to focus on the selected topic.

After installing a graphic driver update it started going crazy, with constant redraws as the transparency overlay regenerated repeatedly.

The solution was to disable Nvidia's own nView Desktop Manager window transparency setting in the graphics properties. You can do this globally or for a specific applications as seen below.

Related Posts from LinkWithin

I'm trying a LinkWithin Widget which should be adding links to related posts (to the site, not the feed) based on the content. The recommendations should become more relevant as it indexes the blog,

I have checked it in IE8, Firefox and Chrome but would be interested to hear what you think of it. It seems to load after the main post content but adds thumbnail images (if the post has image content) so interested if there are any performance issues.

Show Related Posts with the LinkWithin Widget - everything.typepad.com

MapInfo Pro 10 gets a new User Interface

This is rare these days. A new CAD interface, a claimed dramatic increase in user efficiency, but not a ribbon in sight! 

The New Face of MapInfo Professional v10.0 is Here!

We are very excited to share the new face of MapInfo Professional v10.0. The completely redesigned user interface not only has an updated look and feel - but also dramatically increases users’ efficiency...

Missing images - Repairs in Progress done

If you're were seeing missing images in recent quite a few posts so am I! Have logged a support ticket with TypePad, hopefully things seem to be back to normal soon.

Thanks TypePad Support!

Notice of Revit User Group Wellington June Meeting

Details of the next Revit User Group - Wellington (RUGWELL) meeting:

 24th June 2009 - Meeting No. 14 - Proposed Agenda
Location : ProductSpec HQ, 14 Holland, Wellington, New Zealand

5:30 pm : Doors Open
6:00 pm : Welcome and Presentation Kick off.
CPD Points available : 15 (NZRAB)
 
Presentations

1. Presentation No1. "RUGWELL AGM" - Have your say on how RUGWELL is organised.
2. Presentation No2. "RTC 2009" - Overview of the Revit Technology Conference 2009.
3. Presentation No3. "Formulas and Families" - Learn how to maximise the database in Revit by placing formulas in your Revit families. 

Open session - Please email me your Revit problems so we can answer them in the "Tips and Tricks" open session.

8:00 pm : Wind down

If you would like to host an event please email me, it would be great this year to get around a few of the other practises to mix things up a little. 
Please rsvp to Jason@archaus.co.nz so we can make sure there are enough seats. A suggested $5 donation would be appreciated to help to cover costs of the refreshments. Hope to see you all there

My Big, Autodesk Solutions, Day Out

Yesterday, last Thursday, a couple of weeks ago * I spent the day at an Autodesk Solutions 2009 event. Over the day most of the 2010 product range was presented by industry specific resellers and a few customer presentations. The venue, Novotel Hotel - Ellerslie, was great with free parking and, for Auckland, easy access. I thought it was better than the typical city locations. Arriving early, thanks to lighter than expected traffic, meant I could sit in on a Civil 3D session I hadn't registered for.

Civil in the morning

Robert Gadbaw, Team Blue22, took the first session of the day demonstrating Civil 3D 2010 to a full room. I'm not a civil user, although quite polite, but seeing the survey, surface, piping, alignments and intersections created, changed, regenerated in minutes was pretty impressive. Robert got through a lot of content in the 45 minutes allocated but it really was just a glimpse of this sophisticated product. It was also the first time I'd seen Civil 3D with a ribboned interface. Like the other ribbon applications it makes extensive use of context sensitive tabs, even stacking several at times, but seemed pretty logical. I was also interested to see the .adsk file format used to import a Revit Model into Civil 3D. It's a pity Civil models can't use the .adsk format to go the other way.  Team Blue22 also announced they are planning a multi-day "Civil 3D University" later in the year for more in-depth sessions. I will post details when confirmed.

The Autodesk beat?

After morning tea, for me much needed coffee, it was into the main session. Finding a length of plastic tube, a variety of colours & lengths, on each seat was a little perplexing and then a drum beat started. Human Rhythms, coordinating entirely by mime, took the arriving audience through a short interactive percussion session. “The Tubes” started with simple beat sequences & built to the Autodesk theme, some captured in the video below. It was a pretty cool way to kick off the main session and certainly got peoples attention!

Time to make them work?

The first section, the Autodesk corporate session, introduced the day, sponsors and the mentioned the economic context. The main themes were that industry solutions, but not platform specific, and digital prototyping can resolve design problems and aid process rather than just documenting design. That extended from components in Inventor, Revit Building Information Models to Civil Infrastructure and Digital Cities.There was also much talk of recessionary times being an opportunity to up-skill and the value/benefits of subscription was rather heavily promoted throughout the day. I suspect the recent sales results had something to do with that... 

Paul Arthur, Channels Business Manager, surprised me with a presentation that challenged customers to demand more value from Autodesk and the dealer network. He suggested taking a look at the business problems and opportunities that design solutions can assist with then challenge Autodesk to provide solutions. It was an interesting approach and reflects Autodesk's apparent evolution from 'industry platforms" to mixed platform solutions. It may be a cunning plan to sell more boxes into the current customer base or perhaps reflects the reality that no single platform is the complete solution for a given task. In the AEC space I seem to remember a time when Revit was touted as the single database, single platform solution for all Architectural Design. While it currently is the best candidate to create and manage the project split databases (Arch/MEP/Structure etc) and the new .adsk format to share data means you can look to the best solution for a given part of the process. With linked Revit models, platform data sharing and tools like Navisworks merging multiple model formats "BIM" becomes a more complete solution to modelling all aspects of a building project than a single platform approach.

AutoCAD 2010, all meshy and dynamic!

Gary Page, Salesoft CAD Solutions, demonstrated AutoCAD 2010 with the focus on the new parametric features, incorporated with dynamic blocks, and mesh modelling engine. It was a convincing display of how parametric constraints can save a lot of drafting and how you can replace multiple legacy blocks with one smart, if only 2D, dynamic block. I know one part of the demo where multiple parameter/name settings were seamlessly copied from a spreadsheet catalog to the Dynamic Block got peoples attention. The mesh modelling, below, is fun to use and Gary clearly enjoyed demonstrating it. There was also a link to the following Revit demonstration with the AutoCAD mesh model being passed on to Revit.

 

Revit 2010, inspired by a tortoise?

I'm wondering if that heading will get a comment about ribbon performance but it's actually refers to a building. Rich, Salesoft CAD Solutions, showed the new Revit User Interface, Modelling engine, profile and pattern tools using a building shell inspired by a tortoise. It also incorporated an ex-AutoCAD mesh model column and, via .adsk import, door hardware from Inventor. Apart from a PowerPoint mention there was no sign of Revit MEP or Structure. That probably reflects the, UI aside, lightweight changes they had this time around. Although Revit is pretty established in New Zealand for Architecture the services seem slower to adopt it so it was a pity not to see it in action.

Inventor 2010, in the fast lane;

Perhaps it's my Product Design background that make the Inventor sessions of interest even though I don't currently use it. Greg Heeley, CAD Pro Systems Ltd, showcased Inventor 2010 with a rapid fire demo of the sheet metal, F.E.A, plastic and mold flow tools and design accelerators for frames and bolted connections. I was impressed to see Alias data incorporated in an Inventor model, with the Inventor model and it's additional added features changing to reflect Alias updates. It was also interesting to see extensive use of Vault with Inventor and AutoCAD Electrical but has me wondering why the AEC platforms don't use it to manage database/project/drawing versioning.

Steve Riddell, Aspex, presented the first of two customer sessions. He shared how Digital Prototyping and Production with Inventor, Vault and CNC technology enables them to design and manufacture of industrial automation equipment and machinery. It was good to hear how DWF, Autodesk Design Review, enables that process of model sharing to extend to the client, for free. In response to a few questions he also explained how Vault helps control the flow of design data within the business ensuring each stage is working with valid, current data. It was a good insight of how previously "enterprise scale systems" can now help a small scale manufacturing business.

Simon Holt, Triple Eight Racing, was the final presentation but one worth waiting for. Although I'm a race fan I was surprised how much in-house manufacture is done for the Australian V8 Supercars they build, totally modelled in Inventor. He showed how hundreds of pages of sporting regulations are transformed into a race car with much of the physical compliance captured and validated in the model. The level of detail was impressive, the result is race & championship winning cars.

A good day, except for what was missing;

Although a huge amount was covered there was no sign of Max and maybe scope for a bigger event as time pressure was evident. With over 200 attending the turnout was good but many familiar faces were "missing". Given the small community I thought it was pity that, for whatever reason, two solution days were held within a week covering similar material. When the focus of the day I attended heavily emphasised sharing data, cross industry collaboration and breaking barriers it's a pity Autodesk New Zealand couldn't do the same for all it's customers. It's not often such a wide range of industry professionals have a chance to get together and the lunchtime/break sessions are a good chance to make/renew contacts, Hard to do when they are at the other day...

Taking note with MindManager;

You may have seen my agenda MindManager Map posted last week before the meeting. I said it would be defaced with my illegible scrawled notes and a few commented on seeing the work Tablet PC in use. Its nice to use in meetings/presentations as allows seamless note taking that you just can't achieve on a conventional laptop. 

MindManager's native inking is fast and the zoom + topic filters effectively gives you infinite paper with none of the 'running out of room" I find happens with paper mind maps. The image right shows the result by the end of the day but most of the time I only had the current branch expanded. It's quite surprising to see how much you can gather over the day but remember this was only a topic, often just a word, every few minutes during several hours of presentations. The best part of inking maps is you can also scribble diagrams that typed input can't match.

Unfortunately MindManager Player, an interactive map in a PDF, doesn't support inked topics so can only share this "all expanded" image view. The full size image (click the thumbnail) doesn't quite match the resolution seen in MindManager itself is but clear enough to see. Sadly it won't help you read my awful writing!  

Download Autodesk_NZ_Solutions_Day_2009.mmap (793.8K) requires MindManager (Note: Trial install becomes a full function viewer when it expires)

* As you can see It took a bit longer than expected to get this post finished.