RobiNZ CAD Blog

Formula 1 design evolution visualised

Perhaps this animated timeline of all F1 seasons (1950-2012) should be on the other blog but it’s computer, graphics and design evolution so here it is! It reminded me of the evolution seen in the “Formula One™ - The Great Design Race Tour Exhibition” collection. Discovered via a retweet by BBC 5LiveF1 Read more →

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. Read more →

How to present statistical data and keep people interested?

Economics statistics, don’t have to be dull. The message is interesting but the graphics are cool. Can Excel do this and I don’t know it? Via www.presentationzen.com Read more →

The retiring Type?

After a quick look to check I don't use any of them... Daniel Mall: Typobituaries . During a late night online conversation with another black, white, and orange website fan, it was decided that... Read more →

Portable Network Graphics, a format worth a look

Tracy Lincoln’s post comparing Portable Network Graphics, PNG image format and other image outputs from AutoCAD is a good reference and another reminder not to assume JPEG is the best format for every image. It’s great for photos but where there are large areas of plain colours or a limited palette often other formats like PNG can be much more efficient and give better results. I posted about this some time back when someone asked why I’d sent a PNG format screen shot rather than JPEG. I did some comparison tests with Corel PhotoPaint and a small screen-shot and the... Read more →

Experimenting with image formats for screenshots

Today at work someone asked why I sent them a Portable Network Graphics, PNG format screencapture image rather than JPEG. JPEG rules for photos but try other formats for images with limited colours or large areas of flat colour, like screenshots. For that type of image PNG, even 24 bit, can give better results and much smaller files than jpg. Using Corel PhotoPaint’s export to web to a variety of formats, with the same source, then comparing the results is interesting. The file sizes range from 1.5 to 25 KB and the largest (JPEG) looks nearly as good as the... Read more →

Beyond Bullet Points PowerPoint Seminar Online

Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points, shares awesome PowerPoint advice in this on-line seminar. Watch the video then buy the book! beyond bullets: Seminar recording now online If you'd like to take a look at the online recording of my May 10 web seminar "Transform Your PowerPoint Beyond Bullet Points"… Read more →

Visual Power Points: Learning from Down Under

Presentation Zen uses recent Aussie and Kiwi tourism promotion videos to introduce the impact of applying bold images and “The rule of Thirds”, a photographers favourite, to improve presentations.... Read more →

Awesome PowerPoint Tip for animated photos

Rick Altman is a Corel & PowerPoint guru. In his February newsletter he shares a tip to achieve animated photos that are easy to change, swap out the image, without losing all the animation effect work. Don’t animate the photo, animate a shape with a photo fill! For details follow this link then scroll down to: "PowerPoint Tip of the Month". Read more →

A little bit about Vista Graphics

It's from a Microsoft Flight Simulator related blog, so games focused, but there is some useful info on the Microsoft Windows Vista DirectX Graphics system changes. The Little Wheel Goes in Back : What I Know About Vista. “Vista will include the next generation of DirectX--Direct 10 (a.k.a. DX10). The current version is DX9 and it's available on Windows XP. Vista will support both DX9 and DX10. Why both? The biggest reason is that DX10 will not work on currently available graphic cards. It's just changed too much to be compatible” Read more →