WorldCAD Access

AU 09: Day 0

Thanks to Design Engineering magazine, I get to fly to Autodesk University 2009 this afternoon, with seven interviews lined up.

I am planning on blogging live right here on WorldCAD Access, and as well as Twittering updates through @ralphg -- provided the hotel's wireless Internet allows me.

After I return from the 1.75 meeting-filled days in Las Vegas, I'll write more about for next week's upFront.eZine newsletter, and then for Design Engineering magazine.

3D Scanning with a Webcam, Kind of

The ShapeWays blog interviews Qi Pan of Cambridge University and his initial go at getting a Webcam to generate 3D models. The process works like this:

1. Use a highly-textured object. (By this, I think he means any object that has sufficient contrast that the software can determine points of interest. In his example, he uses a pop [soda] can, which has a high contrast label.)

2. Rotate the can in front of the Web cam. The software notices changes, and begins to stitch together a 3D view.

The software is very rudimentary at this point. It requires a partial 3D model to begin with. He hopes to improve the software so that it can deal with objects of lower contrast.

Full interview here.

Will I Learn "Learn What Sets CoCreate’s Explicit Modeling Apart From Direct Modeling"?

I usually avoid Webcasts, because the rate of information flow is too slow for my liking. But I was intrigued by PTC's email blast of yesterday, "Learn What Sets CoCreate’s Explicit Modeling Apart From Direct Modeling," because:

1. I would like to know if explicit modeling differs from direct.

2. If the Webcast will be more than just an episode of "Buy Now!"

The Webcast is scheduled for December 8.

Netbooks More Powerful Than Salesmen Want You To Believe

I've overheard computer store salesmen lie to potential customers of the powerlessness of netbook computers. I've read of ceos of large computer makers bemoaning the lack of profits they make from the most popular form of computer today.

Doesn't matter what they say. I still run AutoCAD 2010 on my LG X110 netbook, albeit limited to Windows 7. To get out from under the burden Windows imposes on computer hardware, though, it's better to run netbooks with Linux. (I use Ubuntu-based Linux Mint.) Richard Smith of Symscape confirms this:

Would you believe me when I say you can install Caedium and run CFD [computational fluid dynamics] calculations on a netbook? I've installed and run modest (small) CFD calcs on an ASUS Eee PC 900 9-inch netbook (1GB RAM, 20GB solidstate drive) running Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix [Linux operating system].

The Linux installer (Autopackage) we use for Caedium should be good for any 'modern' Linux distribution. If you fancy a go, you'll need to install both Caedium and Caedium add-ons from www.symscape.com/product/downloads#linux

Then get our Caedium Professional 30-day free trial from www.symscape.com/symcom/freetrial/174

60th Anniversary of 65 Million Killed

From last night's press release by Dassault Systems:

In China, in addition to supporting the first ever World Expo Online, 3DVIA Virtools was also the application used for the virtual design and rehearsal of the parade in celebration of the country's 60th anniversary this year.

Er, no. Not the 60th anniversary of the country. The 60th anniversary of the imposition of the brutal communist dictatorship that killed as many as 65 million of its own countrymen.

Not something of which I'd want to be a proud sponsor.

AU Virtual Numbers

Autodesk's AU Virtual Facebook page regularly trumpets the number of registered attendees, who get to watch AU sessions in the warm comfortable surroundings of their home. This morning, the number was 11,400. 

While a "Premier" pass costs $99, Autodesk is handing out free Premier passes like confetti:

• All educators and students get a free pass. When that email went out, the AUV registration number jumped by a thousand the next day.

• All who paid for a 3-day pass to attend AU in the flesh also get 4 free AU Virtual Premier Passes to hand out to others.

• Plus, all those 3-day passers also get a Premier pass for themselves. I haven't seen a more recent update, but it appears that nearly 6,000 are registered to attend in-person (a drop of 40% from last year).

Only the Premier pass costs $99 (for watching 50+ classes); you can also watch two classes for free, plus keynotes and so on. www.autodesk.com/auvirtual

Netfab: Download from our Facebook page; no, don't

Netfab has software for checking models before printing them in 3D. Here's what we learn through the netfabb Studio for Linux launched on Facebook announcement:

netfabb® GmbH are proud to announce the release of a linux alpha version of the netfabb® Studio Basic software. The software can be downloaded from the netfabb® Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/netfabb/93661616628

By using the Facebook page to launch the long waited for Linux version of netfabb® Studio Basic we want to draw attention to the growing importance of social media for business and to the netfabb® fan page on Facebook, says Ulf Lindhe, Business Development Manager at netfabb® GmbH.

We all know that plastering text with lots of ® symbols increases the sense of social.

I click the link, and arrive at the Facebook page with its 28 fans. There, I click on the link in the topmost article, "netfabb Studio for Linux," which takes me to the download page back at the netfabb site. Makes perfect sense.

A Bad Hair Day for PR People

It is the job of PR (public relations) people to competently present clients to the public, especially the narrow niche of public that writes vociferously. Yesterday, two pr oopsies landed in my email inbox. 

At times a desperate pr person asks to "recall" a press release due to an error. This is the first time I have seen a double recall:

Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:50:56 Release and image are attached. Call or e-mail with questions.

Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:07:23 Please disregard the release sent earlier... It has a typo.

Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:41:23 Please ignore the first and second transmissions of this release. THIS one is correct.

Other times, the email will contain chatter between pr people, chatter that someone forgot to erase. Yesterday, however, was the first time a pr person left markups turned on. Those of us who received the DOCX document could see clearly how sentences and words were tuned, moved, and removed.

I'd love to post a screengrab, but it would reveal the sender, and I wouldn't want to embarrass them.

When asked, I always recommend to pr people that they place the text of the press release in the body of the email. The reason is that then I can easily find it again in my email archives, something that's much harder with attachments.

But now I have a second reason to give those who ask: copy'n pasting eliminates the embarrassment of revealed markups.

The Thrill of the New, the Value of Free

Just Another iPhone Blog posts a chart that PinchMedia first posted last February showing the decline in use of free software. (It is not clear to me if this applies just to iPhone/iTouch apps, or to all software.)
 


Here is another chart, this one appearing today in Silicon Valley Insider. It shows the delta in Wikipedia editors.



Both figures chart the lack of ongoing thrill for the new and the free.

Finally: CFD Vendor Finds Honest Use for Twitter

Richard Smith of Symscape writes me:

I notice you are a Twitter fan, or at least a user. Wonder if you'd be interested in our novel use of Twitter to automatically post CFD [computational fluid dynamics] simulation telemetry?

Skeptical, I went to http://www.symscape.com/news/symlab-tweeter to find that Caedium v2.0.1 has the "world's first automated simulation telemetry system." By posting images to TwitPic and tweets to Twitter, it keeps you up to date on the CFD simulation progress while you are away from the host machine enjoying dinner.

Mr Smith adds:

To see an example Tweet stream, try http://twitter.com/Symscape.

If you use the PowerTwitter add-on for Firefox you can see the images inline (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9591).