RobiNZ CAD Blog

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 →

The sexiest car?

The sexiest car in the world is a... Read more →

Goodbye email newsletter

Mindjet’s regular Email Newsletter is well written, full of good tips and has links to some great template maps. Yet, tonight I un-subscribed from it. Why? If you are publishing an email newsletter, offer an RSS feed as an alternative. You won’t loose readers, if fact you’ll probably gain more. Just as important: If you are publishing a feed, realise that some (about 3% in my experience) prefer email and offer that option. Services like Feedblitz make that easy. Mindjet Newsletter Website: www.mindjet.com/us/company/newsletter/ Mindjet Newsletter RSS Feed: http://www.mindjet.com/rss/newsletter.xml Read more →

Digital Paper takes flight

Recently I blogged about digital design of Aircraft using the title “The end of paper flight?”. The odd thing is that many flights, especially in light aircraft, are totally dependent on paper – thick books of charts and flight instructions. It seems rather primitive to have pilots carrying hundreds of bits of paper, searching for the right chart when they probably have more important tasks to do! It appears that hassle is about to end as electronic ink, digital paper, takes to the air. eFlyBook is a small, electronic notebook for use in the cockpit which uses a passive, paper... Read more →

Kiwi street mapping goes mainstream

The trademe auction site is probably New Zealand's most visited website. They just have launched smaps which offers street level mapping for all New Zealand. Although Google and Microsoft have recently added NZ street data smaps doesn’t use either. The data is from Terralink and the map engine is from Kiwi company Projectx Technology – the people behind Zoom In. Go Kiwi! smaps - www.smaps.co.nz Read more →

John Walker's blog - Fourmilog

Reading Jimmy, again, I find John Walker (the Autodesk founder not the Kiwi Athlete) has a blog. I knew of his website, as read The Autodesk File there a few years ago, but the blog is well worth a visit/subscription. I really like his book reviews as they cover a huge variety of topics from Gunfights to The Ultimate Computer. Fourmilog: None Dare Call It Reason John Walker's Fourmilab Change Log Via JTB World Read more →

Tablets back in school

My Granny used slate tablets in school. It appears Tablet is back although these (PC’s) are convertibles. The evening news reported on Project Chaos – a trial of tablet and other new IT technology in NZ public schools. It looked like they were having fun while learning lots, a good combination! Introduction of Project Chaos - www.digiops.org.nz Brooklyn School (Years 1-8) in Wellington is implementing Project CHaOS (Children Have Ownership of Schooling). For older children, learning resources will extend to those available outside the classroom and be accessed by using pocket digital apparatus (PDA), tablet PCs and stand-alone computers. Other... Read more →

Amazing Circles

I’m guessing that the CAD audience that reads this blog looks at the image (right) thinking: a few circles, an array – sorted. But it isn’t. This is a tiny portion of Richard Sarson’s The Circle Project. A series of drawings done with paper, pens and a compass by someone who has a lot more patience than I do . The results are stunning. The Circle Project - richardsarson.com I like to organise things, especially shapes via drawn Read more →

Technorati search is back

I was reading Jimmy’s post on and realised I’d lost their search box during my redesign. So now it’s back, in the side column under “Search”. If is new to you click on the image to see the results of searching my CAD blog for “Jimmy”. Technorati tracks the number of links, and the perceived relevance of blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging. Because Technorati automatically receives notification from weblogs as soon as they are updated, it can track the thousands of updates per hour that occur in the blogosphere, and monitor the communities (who's linking to... Read more →

Auckland AutoCAD User Group Meeting 24-07-2006 - AutoCAD 2007

Just got home from an Auckland Autodesk User Group meeting, Omar Awny (Senior Applications Sales Engineer Application Engineer Manager from Autodesk Australia) gave a great presentation of all the nice things to be found in AutoCAD 2007 and DWF Design Review. He also mentioned a few websites that may be of use to AAUG members and readers here; http://labs.autodesk.com/ – Test versions of Freewheel DWF Viewing (see my post), Google Earth AutoCAD Plug-in (see my post), Dgn import and more… http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueview – Free AutoCAD dwg viewer http://www.autodesk.com/dwgtrueconvert – Free Convertor for AutoCAD files (between versions) http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/ – Shaans AutoCAD blog... Read more →