RobiNZ CAD Blog

The Autodesk 2012 Launch Aquatic with Salesoft CAD Solutions

It takes something special to lure you into an underground bunker filled with sharks. After a photo at the door (easier to ID the remains?) it was quite a trek, stopping to observe the Penguin Colony, to the Antarctic Hut and an auditorium lined tanks of huge stingray & fish. A welcoming drink & tasty finger food satisfied the appetite although you wondered if the seafood watching from the tanks realised some of what we were eating was seafood. No chance of a quick exit as it was guarded by sharks and, anyway, we were here to see design software:... Read more →

Australian & New Zealand Revit Standards

I’m a bit slow posting this but the Australian & New Zealand Revit Standards have been published. Details & download at: Australian & New Zealand Revit Standards | www.anzrs.org Well, it’s been a long time in coming, but ANZRS is finally here. It’s been a mammoth effort, and has been a collaborative effort with input from dozens of industry representatives from multiple disciplines and roles within the AECO/FM community. In the 3 weeks since this year’s Australasian Revit Technology Conference (RTC), the ANZRS beta website had more than 2,000 unique visitors! The first digital public release of the Australian &... Read more →

AutoCAD 2012 Block Editor Save Corruption Hot Fix

If you are running AutoCAD 2012 based apps check out this hotfix. I haven’t seen it happen yet but the potential problem it fixes is rather alarming! Description of Problem: When a drawing is saved from within the Block Editor, the entire content of the drawing is sometimes lost and replaced with the content of the block being edited. Autodesk - AutoCAD Services & Support - Autodesk 2012 Block Editor Save Corruption Hot Fix This hotfix prevents possible loss of data that may occur if the drawing is saved while the Block Editor is open in AutoCAD® 2012-based products. Read more →

Have a Cadalyst Twitter CAD chat with Lynn Allen & Josh Mings

If you are on Twitter & want to chat CAD check out the Cadalyst Twitter Chats. The series kicks off with Autodesk Evangelist Lynn Allen followed by Solidworks blogger Josh “SolidSmack” Mings. The Cadalyst page has details on how to join in the fun. Cadalyst Dell-Sponsored Twitter Chats - http://www.cadalyst.com/wwwcadalystcom/twitter-chats Join Cadalyst on Twitter for a series of informal conversations about CAD-related topics. Thursday June 23, 2011 4p EST/1p PST Topic: Design Collaboration, AutoCAD WS Guest: Lynn Allen (@Lynn_Allen) – Autodesk Technical Evangelist Thursday July 28, 2011 4p EST/1p PST Topic: Design Collaboration Guest: Josh Mings (@joshmings) – Blogger, SolidSmack... Read more →

AEC Systems Auckland Technology Solutions Day

Recently I spent a day at SkyCity Convention Centre with a bunch of other CAD/BIM users for the AEC Systems NZ Technology Solutions Day. I couldn’t see everything as after a few shared sessions the day split into tracks covering Civil, AEC and Manufacturing. It was a little bit like Autodesk University in that the challenge is not deciding what to see, but what to miss! This post covers the sessions I attended, a fraction of what was on offer. Adobe: PDF and content aware image magic The day kicked off with a demo of Adobe applications including Acrobat 10.... Read more →

AutoCAD Architecture & MEP 2011 Update 2

I thought I’d get to 2012 before installing these but found they fixed two problems I have noticed: Sometimes editing sheet properties in a project would cause a crash to desktop. Our MEP user found Export to AutoCAD could result in out of scale blocks (seemed to be older plain & MV Blocks). Both seem to be fixed and there are lots of other items addressed in these updates. Check the Readme before installing for full details. After all, that’s what read me means You can download Update 2 for AutoCAD Architecture 2011 here, AutoCAD MEP 2011 here. These Updates... Read more →

MindManager: Copy & Paste Marker Groups + Mac/iOS news!

I use MindManager Map Marker groups to mark topics (E.G. CAD platform in the map below). I was unaware you could copy/past them between maps until I saw a recent post on the Mindjet Blog: Quick Tip - Copy & Paste Marker Groups | The Mindjet Blog When creating multiple maps, the key to project efficiency is standardization. A quick way to standardize your maps is to create custom tags & markers that can be applied to a variety of different maps… MindManager 9 for Mac out, New iOS version coming soon… A Tweet this morning alerted me to a... Read more →

Autodesk Labs Project Photofly 2, ready to make models for you!

A couple of weeks back I showed the scene below in a presentation on “bImformation modelling” for the Auckland Revit User Group. It was created with Autodesk Labs Project Photofly technology which assembles a collection of 2D digital camera images into a 3D spatial arrangement then generates a 3D point cloud spatial model. This allows measurement & line geometry to be traced. Using the TV as a reference dimension I was amazed it captured the size of a painting in an adjacent room, not even directly photographed, to within 0.5cm! The Photofly editor also found edges (the white vertical dimension)... Read more →