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Archive for the ‘Visualization’ Category
Is Paperless still a Myth?
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
By Darren Hartenstine
With the advent of electronic Data Management applications and digital formats, why are companies still printing on paper? I was reviewing some statistics around the printing industry and found the information alarming. Here’s just one blurb I feel is noteworthy.
The pulp and paper industry is the single largest consumer of water used in industrial activities in OECD countries and is the third greatest industrial greenhouse gas emitter, after the chemical and steel industries (OECD Environmental Outlook, p. 218)
Green initiatives; sustainable design; these are great concepts, but is anyone actually making the effort to use less paper? I know that a company cannot go 100% paperless (yet), but I feel that the Engineering Design process is a perfect component for this evolution. The Autodesk Vault product family has some great tools to facilitate paperless design.
In the last week as a test, I have tried to cut my paper use out completely and have struggled with it. I am somewhat old school and use paper for note taking. It seems to be faster for me up front, but in the long run, I know that it is inefficient and it often becomes difficult to locate past information. I know it’s funny, but having that piece of paper is like comfort food.
I am interested in opinions, comments, experiences, etc. with companies/individuals that have attempted or successfully implemented a paperless design process. Feel free to contact me via email or through this blog posting. My email address is Darren.hartenstine@mastergraphics.com.
Working with Civil 3D Files Just Got Easier!
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Autodesk Civil 3D has changed the design process for civil engineering projects from a 2D paradigm to a 3D paradigm, a shift already made in most near every other industry. While this has helped out the civil engineering community by creating 3D models of their work, those models could not be directly addressed for visualization purposes as there was no direct path from Civil 3D into 3ds Max.
Earlier this month, Autodesk announced the acquisition of Dynamite VSP. Dynamite VSP is an intermediate software package that allows a Civil 3D user to export their design in full 3D into a format that can then be imported into 3ds Max. This is a dramatic leap forward for both the civil engineers and the design visualization artists, providing a more direct, accurate and efficient method of importing the data. Dynamite VSP brings in all geometry data and provides automated tools for road striping and other features. In adition, it has tools to assist in animating cameras along the road as well as placing and animating vehicle traffic.
Autodesk has not yet announced how Dynamite VSP will be incorporated or distributed so keep an eye on the Subscription and other Autodesk news sites for updates.
Stephen Gabriel
Senior Application Engineer
Autodesk Inventor Publisher Technology Preview
Monday, December 14th, 2009
By, Dan Banach
If you or your company creates technical publication for parts book manuals, assembly instructions or operation instructions you will want to check out http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_publisher/ and download Autodesk® Inventor® Publisher Technology Preview (in the Manufacturing section).
Inventor Publisher allows you to fully leverage your Inventor data by importing 3D data from Inventor or a DWF file. The models cannot be edited in Inventor Publisher and no previous Autodesk Inventor experience is required. Once the data is imported you manipulate and annotate the design. Lastly you publish the data to programs such as Word, PowerPoint or create a movie file. Your documentation will always be up to date. If the original Inventor models change you can update the Inventor files in Inventor Publisher.
To learn more you can watch how to videos at: http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/inventor_publisher/getting_started/
Enjoy,
Dan
ImageModeler and MatchMover
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
By Stephen Gabriel
The Autodesk subscription program has frequently been viewed as nothing but a way to get the latest version when it comes out, but for 3ds Max users, it is actually far more. In the last two years, we have seen significant software enhancements and additional tools available to subscription customers, such as CAT and the Connection Extension. Both of these added significant tools to our palettes.
This year, Autodesk subscription customers also gained access to ImageModeler and MatchMover. Each of these applications serves a specific function within the visualization process rather than adding a specific tool set into 3ds Max.
ImageModeler can best be thought of as a set creation tool. ImageModeler allows you to take a series of images of a location and build a 3D model be selecting common points within the images. The model accuracy is dependent upon the size of the images, the number of images and the number of points used to coordinate the images. This can help you create a 3D model that can be used as a setting for your visualization project, whether is it putting a building on the street or placing a product like a car in the environment. Because the model is 3D, you are no longer constrained to matching the camera position of the original image and can position it where it produces the most compelling shot.
MatchMover is a powerful utility that creates a camera from recorded video. MatchMover allows you to create tracking points that the software uses to determine the motion of the camera that was used to create video footage. The camera and it’s motion path can then be exported to 3ds Max to create the animation of your scene. The process is very quick and painless and you can even composite your model back into MatchMover to check the accuracy of the camera path. The result is a more precise camera match for animated shots.
Combined, these two tools represent a lot of value to visualization artists and they are free for download from the Autodesk subscription website for all subscription customers.
AU Virtual on Your PC
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
By, Dan Banach
If you cannot attend Autodesk University in Las Vegas on December 1 - 3, 2009 you may want to look into attending “Autodesk University (AU) Virtual”. The virtual event is free for Autodesk Subscription customers or $99 for a Premier Pass which gets you access to four days of streaming classes, clinics, keynote address and mainstage presentations. You can learn more about Virtual AU at: http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=virtual_home&pre=1.
Dan
AutoDesk “See the Difference Tour” Virtual
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Haven’t decided if the Autodesk 2010 products are for you?
November 17th, Autodesk takes its 2010 roadshow into the cyberwebs.
Register for this online event now. There will even be a virtual trade show area - where you can chat live with MasterGraphics’ software experts.. The web interface for the virtual event is more fun and interactive than your average webcast.
View informative sessions including:
- AutoCAD 2010 Tips & Techniques with Lynn Allen
- The AutoCAD Family of Products with Shaan Hurley
- The World of 3D Modeling with Heidi Hewett
Be sure to stop by the MasterGraphics booth and say “Hi!”.
See you there!
Lou
Rendering on GPUs
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
A common question is what kind of graphics card do I need for rendering. The answer is you don’t. Rendering is executed exclusively on the main CPU of the computer and all you need is a display adapter to show the results so the graphics card has little to nothing to do with the actual rendering. The graphics card still helps with displaying the scene while you are editing, but it just doesn’t help your rendering. But soon, that will not be true.
Some time ago, nVidia purchased mental images, the company that makes the mental ray rendering engine and since then, we’ve all been holding our collective breaths waiting for the marriage to produce offspring and that has finally happened. On September 30th, mental images announced the release of iray, a GPU based rendering system that uses the fast and immensely parallel processing system found in nVidia graphics cards to render out final quality images. GPUs (graphics processing units) are tailor built to handle rendering data making them faster and more efficient at this task than a more generally built CPU that relies on software to adjust its function to its current demands. iray will be available with the release of mental ray 3.8 later this month but it will likely take several months at the least before we see any integration with software like Max, Maya or SoftImage.
They have promised reducing rendering times from hours down to minutes which I’ll have to see to believe but I can certainly say the potential is there to greatly improve the rendering times, especially if the software allows the bridging of multiple cards as distributed rendering nodes. Time will tell but I feel a lot of excitement on this release and look forward to seeing what it can do for us.
You can read the release post at:
http://www.mentalimages.com/news/detail/article//mental-image-29.html
Stephen Gabriel
Senior Application Engineer
MasterGraphics
Autodesk Expands Options for Mac Users
Monday, September 28th, 2009
By: Dwane Lindsey
Attention Mac users, Autodesk has announced that AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Autodesk Inventor Professional, 3ds Max and Revit Software will be able to run on a Mac via Parallels Desktop .
****** SNIP******
"Autodesk customers are increasingly working with both Mac and Windows, and have asked us to support Mac virtualization," said Chris Bradshaw , Autodesk chief marketing officer. "Today we are pleased to welcome Parallels as a partner and Parallels Desktop as our preferred Mac virtualization software. This is the latest step in Autodesk’s ongoing efforts to support our customers on the Mac, who will now be able to use some of our most popular 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software alongside Mac OS X, in addition to the five native Mac applications we currently offer."
******SNIP******
The full press release can be read HERE.
M&E in the Education Market
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
This has been a very busy summer in the M&E world with an MG record breaking 5 classes in July alone. I’ve been teaching a lot of Max and even Maya this summer with some people from the industry but the bulk came from the Milwaukee Public School district. The adminstration has put an emphasis on the renderind and animation programs at the schools and the teachers that attended did very well in class and asked a host of great questions.
With classes in both applications under their belts, the teachers had some interesting insights regarding the software. The found both packages to be extremely powerful, limited more by your imagination than what you could or could not do with the software. In general, they found 3ds Max was easier to learn and use out of the box than Maya was. This is a reflection of Maya being a pipeline based software where many tools are written based on specific requirements of the project.
It was interesting as well to work with teachers from different areas. Typically, we only see teachers from the CAD end of the curriculum but in these classes, we had teachers from the arts end of the curriculum as well. I think this is important because this software is so much more than just design visualization and gives the user the ability to freely express themselves.
All of the teachers were interested in more resources and most were already on the Autodesk Student Portal. We discussed the creation of a group oriented specifically to educators in the rendering and animation field and we will hopefully see something come to fruition this fall. Connected to this topic, we discussed the creation of an inter-school competition on animation to give the students who want more the opportunity to explore a project from cradle to grave.
It was indeed an interesting and busy summer here but it was also a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing how far the school system carries their new programs.
Stephen Gabriel
Senior Application Engineer - M&E
Autodesk Trial Periods Vary with Products
Monday, August 10th, 2009
By: Dwane Lindsey
Over the past few months, especially when the new products come out, we always get people asking how long the trial period is for the product they just installed. And too many times, we get the call that "my trial has ended, can I extend it?!". Well, the extension can’t be done. You can however install the trial on as many computers as you would like…once. As soon as the trial period is up, that’s all you get.
As for the length, well that varies between products. For the most part, the majority of the Autodesk products are 30 days from installation. This includes AutoCAD based products (AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Electrical, Civil 3D, etc.), Inventor products, Navisworks products and many of the Visualization products like 3ds Max, Maya and Mudbox. (Combustion however, is a 15 day trial after install.)
The Revit line however is a little different…it’s still 30 days, but not from install. It’s not even 30 days on the calendar. Revit products work in the manner of 30 "days" of usage. What this really means is that if you open Revit for the first time on Aug. 10, that counts as 1 day no matter if you open it once or 10 times that day. If you don’t open the product again until Aug. 14, that only counts as 2 days…again, no matter how many times you open it on that day. So if you rarely open the product, that 30 days could last you quite a while.
If you have any questions on the length of a trial, please don’t hesitate giving your account manager at MasterGraphics a call. Or, give our support line a call at 1-800-377-6364.
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