RobiNZ CAD Blog

Visual Project (and task) Dashboards with MindManager

Donnie, The CAD Geek (aka Travis), has a great post on how a MindManager Dashboard has assisted with the process of writing his first book. Visual Project Dashboards with MindManager | The CAD Geek Blog A book is a huge project but the same can apply to a simple task list. Due to a change in process I recently had to review some settings in a bunch of projects. I used a spare machine filling the gap in my workflow when tasks like render, print, publish tied up my primary machine. The sporadic workflow and varied tasks per project meant... Read more →

The film location blog banner

Karekare beach has interesting history and has recently featured in film & TV productions. If you saw the movie “The Piano” its seemingly remote location was not far from Auckland City. This photo was taken on a busy summer weekend, the car park was full, which explains the crowd! Read more →

Revit User Group Manawatu - Notice of March Meeting

Next Meeting feature Presenter: Productspec 5.30pm, Wednesday 3rd March 2010 @ Square edge fx2 theatre, Ground Floor to the rear of Square Edge Gallery, The Square, Palmerston North Format for the evening will be; 5:30pm - Drinks, nibbles and chit chat session. 6:00 - 610pm - Welcome and introductions by Scott Sellars 6:10 - 6:20pm - Worksetting your project 6:20 - 6:30pm - Autodesk Revit Extensions 6:30 - 7:00pm - Productspec presentation & demonstration 7:00 - 7:10pm - Featured website of the month 7:10 - 7:15pm - Q&A session on the nights topics 7:15 - 7:30pm - Close of meeting... Read more →

Foxit PDF Preview Handler for Windows & Office

One thing missing after my move to Windows 7 was a decent PDF preview in Outlook. The default Office 2007 install gave an error referring to the Windows Vista PDF Preview Handler. The solution was Tim Heuer’s PDF Preview Handler for the excellent Foxit Reader. Thanks Tim & Foxit! Foxit PDF Preview Handler - timheuer.com The Foxit PDF Preview Handler is a piece of software written by myself with sponsorship from Foxit Software (providing the license so that we all can enjoy). Read more →

Notice of Revit User Group Wellington February Meeting

When: Wed 24 February 2010 Where: Productspec HQ, 14 Holland St, 5.30 - 7.30pm Presentations: Polyflor Revit Content, by Kelly and Matt Preview of the Polyflor content available from PS COES MEP Revit Content, by Trent and Matt Preview of the newly created Revit MEP Content created by Productspec for COES Revit Architecture - Massing & Site Tool, by Steph Arlaud (HERRIOT + MELHUISH: ARCHITECTURE LTD) Discussion on linking survey plan, setting up True North/Project North, and generating topography surface. How to generate a cut/fill schedule for Resource Consent purpose. Schedules to Excel and the 2 Machine advantage, by Michael... Read more →

The end of the disks, I mean discs? Now it’s download!

I must be getting old… Remember when AutoCAD came on a few floppy disks? Then a handful of CDs, or a DVD? I just finished building CAD application deployments that would require about 26,624 floppy disks. Admittedly it was AutoCAD Architecture/MEP, Revit Arch/MEP and 3DS Max (plus some 64 & 32 bit duplication) so a little more capable than the floppy disk era application. And soon, the end of discs! This arrived in the email yesterday: “Please read this important notice about how you will receive your future Autodesk® software upgrades. In 2010 Autodesk is making download the default method... Read more →

What is it about ink, tablets (and the iPad)? A lesson from Autodesk University 2009

I took my iPhone and a HP Convertible Tablet PC (from work) to Autodesk University. It was the first time I’d travelled with both and the differences, in form and function, in real world use* were revealing. That experience was at the forefront of my mind as I watched the iPad “reveal” and why I found it distinctly underwhelming. * If a conference in Las Vegas can be considered “real world”! What is it about “Ink” that makes it more than writing (analog or digital) or typing? The MindManager map (right) was inked on a Tablet during an AU session... Read more →

Revit User Group Auckland - Notice of February Meeting

Details of the next Revit User Group - Auckland (RUGAKL) meeting: When: Wednesday 17 February 2010 - from 5.30pm Where: Jasmax Offices, 2 Marston Street, Parnell This weeks meeting proudly supported by COES & POLYFLOR Join us from 5.30 for Drinks & Networking 6pm Meeting Opens - Kerry Thompson Presentation 1 - Revit to Max: Rich Sales, Salesoft CAD Solutions Presentation 2 - Coes & Polyflor Revit Content Tips, Tricks & Open Forum Please RSVP via the link on the website - http://www.rugakl.org/ - by Midday Wednesday prior to the meeting (for catering purposes) Read more →

Renting software and the dangers of flying in cloud

Matt’s post on cloud based software rental, and the article he links to, is worth a read but be sure to also read the comment it generated, especially from Kevin Quigley. Dezignstuff SolidWorks Blog » You-bought-it-you-own-it vs the Cloud Kevin Quigley: Matt this is a serious issue. I can speak from personal experience of this type of licensing via my encounters with Think3 in the early 2000s… While the rent vs “own” (ignoring the “what is a license” debate) has it’s attractions there is a potential risk when you are talking about long term data use. The “reverts to a... Read more →

A folder too far? 3DS Max Deployment creation fails with access error

I was creating a deployment and it failed with a folder access problem, then Windows Installer error. The folder was there (accessed with Explorer) and I had full control access so rights shouldn’t have been a problem. A web search revealed the “Internal Error 2350” could indicate a problem Windows Installer or perhaps the supplied media. Rather drastic fixes included removing/adding the installer or copying the media to your hard drive but the solution proved to be much simpler. I noticed our Server set-up plus the Autodesk folder structure resulted in a very long folder/filename path. I tried using an... Read more →