RobiNZ CAD Blog

upFront.eZine CAD industry legend Ralph Grabowski retires

The final upFront.eZine #1.138 This email, the final upFront.eZine #1,138, marks a significant event in the history of the CAD industry and media. I don't remember when I first read Ralph Grabowski's eZine but it long pre-dates meeting him in 2003. He presented at a CAD Productivity Conference in Auckland NZ and I have stayed connected, as a reader/commenter and meeting occasionally at US cad conferences, ever since. Ralph's in-depth coverage and straight talk about the CAD industry, often deep into the core technologies sitting under the end user products we know so well, is second to none. I was... Read more →

Some design lessons to amuse the kids (of all ages) | COVID-19 Lock In

Shaan shared this resource from Disney & Kahn Academy for children of all ages: One-of-a-Kind Learning Experience from Disney Imagineers | By Shaan Hurley on Between the Lines Read more →

Remote Desktop tips

If working connected to the office machine using Remote Desktop set your home machine to a different Windows theme to the work one. Helps remember which is which when working full screen! If you can adjust BIOS Settings (or your IT Help desk might have to do) some machines have BIOS power settings to automatically restart after a power outage and auto restart if not running at a set time. In our case I set to 06:00 so if accidentally powered off at least you don't have to visit the office to turn on again. Also there are different shortcut... Read more →

U.S. get rid of one obsolete measurement unit, time for the rest

I only discovered the bizarre U.S. Survey foot after encountering it in a CAD file. I did the foot > metre conversion on an incoming imperial file and none of the resulting measurements made sense as were ‘a tiny bit out’. Turned out the file was actually created in U.S. Survey Feet, slightly different to normal ‘Feet’. The international foot is defined to be equal to exactly 0.3048 metres. United States survey foot are defined as exactly ​1200⁄3937 meters, approximately 0.304800609601 metres. Now this historical unit has been discontinued: The U.S. Survey Foot Has Outlived Its Usefulness – RIP |... Read more →

BIM AK August Meeting Announcement

BIM AK August registration is open, see you there! Less than a month to go until the August 2018 BIM AK Event! Make sure you are registered! Thursday 23rd August, 5.30-8.00pm The August event will be focused on BIM in Construction featuring a presentation from Gabor Gulyas of PDC Group on the $3.5b Brisbane Queens Wharf project, along with a construction industry panel discussion. Attendance is FREE, drinks and food will be provided but pre-event registration is essential. All attendees are required to register prior to the day of the event via the registration link below. Whether you’re a BIM... Read more →

Scanning the LHC

Fascinating look at the CERN, European Organisation for Nuclear Research, LHC facility captured by laser scanners: Inside CERN - lidarnews.com “The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is situated 100 meters below ground at CERN and is considered the biggest single machine on the planet. It is also the location of one of the most important scientific achievements of this century, the Higgs boson.“ Read more →

March BIM AK (Auckland) Event Announcement

Time flies and it is nearly March, see you there: Only one week to go until the March 2018 BIM AK Event! Make sure you are registered! (Thursday 1st March, 5.30-8.00pm). This months event will be focused on Procurement, BIM, and how we can foster more collaborative working arrangements, and will feature an industry panel discussion, with participants from design, construction, project management, and client organisations - we will be actively encouraging audience participation and look forward to some lively debate. Attendance is FREE, drinks and food will be provided but pre-event registration is essential. All attendees are required to... Read more →

CADPRO Systems Ltd acquires Salesoft CAD Solutions Ltd

An interesting development in the New Zealand Autodesk reseller space today with this announcement: CADPRO Systems Ltd acquires Salesoft CAD Solutions Ltd Effective Thursday 23rd June 2016, the amalgamation of these two businesses will create the largest New Zealand owned Autodesk reseller with over 20 staff based in Auckland and Christchurch… Read the full details of the announcement here (CADPRO web site) or in this PDF letter. The NZ Autodesk reseller community is a small world. It, strangely, just got both smaller and bigger as the combined businesses make for a powerful sizeable all NZ owned team. I’ve been a... Read more →

Real2015 | CAPTURE > COMPUTE > CREATE now view on demand

If, like me, you didn’t get to the reality capture conference Real2015 you can view the sessions on demand. An amazing collection of topics, see a sample in the summary video below. Real2015.com/on-demand/ Get Ready for REAL 2016 by taking a look back at last year’s ground breaking summit. The inaugural year of REAL was an amazing exploration of the convergence of 3d sensing, making & visualization. Relive and experience leading designers, artists, entrepreneurs & educators discussing the latest innovations in this 3D revolution. Read more →

Microsoft & Trimble take BIM beyond the desktop with Hololens

Trimble featured in the Microsoft Build 2015 (Developer conference) Hololens demo today showing Building Information Models and augmented reality in action. When a model mixes with reality the results are stunning! There’s more info on the Hololens hardware — the first fully untethered, see-through ‘holographic’ computer that will arrive with Windows 10 — in the video below: “Windows 10 is the first platform to support holographic computing with APIs that enable gaze, gesture, voice, and environmental understanding on an untethered device. Microsoft HoloLens, together with Windows 10, will bring high‑definition holograms to life in your world” Source: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us Read more →