WorldCAD Access

Microsoft's Kinnect gets hooked up to a 3D printer

Karl DD of Interactive Fabrication is describing how Microsoft's Kinnect has been hooked up to a 3D printer:

1. Get Kinnect to capture 3D poses.

2. Convert the 3D data to mesh data for display.

3. Convert the mesh data to STL files for printing.

 4. Send the STL files to a 3D printer.

The output is quite small (just 3x3cm) in order to capture quickly (1/4 of Kinnect resolution) and print (relatively) quickly -- 25 at a time, so the software was programmed to add interlocking tabs. In this way, three scans could produce a full figure.

Karl notes that attendees of the conference where this system was demo'd returned frequently to see if their scan was printed. But 3D printing doesn't have the speed of a Polaroid yet, he remarked. "Unfortunately, for 3D printing it seems we are still some way off this reality."

See photos here.

 

Autodesk ceo: We do M.L.P.

When he was asked about Vault during last week's conference call with financial analysts, Autodesk ceo Carl Bass came the closest yet to saying Autodesk does PLM. First, he gives a bit of history to Autodesk's approach to PLM, in that Vault emphasizes access to data, and does not attempt to do PLM the way competitors do:

But our strategy, which has been in to kind of stark contrast to that of our competitors, we've stuck pretty close to data management for the engineering teams has been very successful...

But then he seems extend Vault's capabilities from merely managing data to managing product lifecycles:

...when we disclose the numbers [at a future date], I think everyone will be quite surprised by the amount of data and the number of users who are managing the life cycle of products through Vault and the associated products.

Source.

ASDK 12Q4 conference call: my favorite lines

Here are my favorite lines from Autodesk's conference call last Thursday with financial analysts:

"When you SKU by SKU, you don't see great variability in ASPs."

"I think, some of this is a potpourri of stuff. I mean, it's labeled that way."

"Or kind of what is that?"

"And then a more broadly kind of derivative question: is the new categorization of new and adjacent-- it's kind of a bunch of different products."

"So hopefully, that algorithm answers your question and gives you a little perspective as you start to model that going forward."

"We don't guide that per se forward-looking."

"Certainly, there is a lag effect to your point."

 

Bricscad v11.3.1-1 has a tiny increment number for so many big changes

Bricsys today posted Bricscad beta version 11.3.1 that updates v11.2.9. The change from 11.2.x to 11.3.x adds so many changes that other CAD vendors might have been tempted to call this one "v12."

Here's an overview of what's new and changed:

• ACIS modeler updated to V21. 
  
  
• Now creates and edit tables and table styles -- finally!
  
  
• Standard text style now uses Arial instead of TXT -- another finally!
  
  
• Colored and major/minor adaptive grid lines through new system variables. 
  
  
• Toolbars can now have multiple rows.
  
  
• And improvements to the mtext editor,  file open dialog box, hatches, and UCSes.

You can read the details here. The problem, of course, is that v11.3.1-1 makes my ebooks mildly out of date, ones that I just finished updating for V11 in the last month. Sigh.

DraftSight finally is a real product, as of 7:00am Paris time

The 400,000 who downloaded DraftSight since June may be surprised to learn it wasn't ready. Well, it was beta, and now the Windows version no longer is. The OS X version continues in beta, while the Linux version still is delayed.

Dassault Systemes announces that it is now available for general release in three versions (free, fee-supported, and education) and 14 languages. http://www.draftsight.com

In related news, I have a set of ebooks available for learning DraftSight -- or "ARES," as it is known through Graebert Gmbh -- from secure.graebert.com/en/shop :

• Inside ARES -- introductory tutorials on drafting in 2D and drawing in 3D with the Windows version of ARES/DraftSight ($29.95).
  
  
• Inside ARES for Macintosh -- same, but for the OS X version of ARES/DraftSight ($29.95).
  
  
• ARES for AutoCAD Users -- understanding the similarities and differences between ARES/DraftSight and AutoCAD ($19.95)
  
  

Updated eBook: Learning Bricscad V11 in 7 hours

Now available as a n new 220-page PDF ebook for just $20:

1. Go to www.upfrontezine.com/lb8

2. Choose the edition you prefer:

• Bricscad V11
• Bricscad V10
• Bricscad V9
• Bricscad V8 

3. Purchase through PayPal.

 

Table of Contents

Quick Summary of Changes to Bricscad V11

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO BRICSCAD V11
Hour 1 — A Tour Through Bricscad
Hour 2 — Navigating the Bricscad Interface

PART II: LEARNING TO DRAW IN 2D
Hour 3 — Setting Up A New Drawing
Hour 4 — Creating Your First Drawing
Hour 5 — Adding Details to Drawings
Hour 6 — Making Changes to Drawings
Hour 7 — Adding Notes and Dimensions

PART III: ADVANCED 2D TOPICS
Chapter 8 — Bills of Material 
Chapter 9 — Modeling 2D Regions and Booleans

PART IV: APPENDICES
A — Concise Summary of Command Aliases
B — Concise Summary of System Variables and Settings
C — Concise Summary of Pattern Samples

In upFront.eZine this week: bim, Bim, BIM

In this week's upFront.eZine, we have for you...

1. bim, Bim, BIM    
    Readers respond

2. And in Other News

You can read all about the business of CAD this week at www.upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-679.htm

 

 

foto of the sunday: keeping an eye on your shopping

An apartment block and a security camera on the Vaci Utca (Vaci street), Budapest's famous pedestrian shopping street. Photo taken December, 2000.

The trend seems to be that GUIs are defenestrating, kinda like Unix & DOS used to be

GUIs = graphical user interfaces

Defenestrating = elimination of openings, specifically windows

It was the brainiacs at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center that first came up with the new ideas of how  to interface to computers that we all use today: mouse, windowed programs on the screen, white background/black text, and so on.

Until then, the norm was keyboard only, one program running at a time that monopolized the screen, monochrome text on black background.

But the trend is now reversing:

- the most popular computer in the world today is the smartphone: no mouse, no windows.

- Apple has said it wants to port its full-screen interface from iOS (iPhone) to Mac OS X: no windows

- Linux-based MeeGo effectively eliminates windows from its UI.

I wonder if this trend will become the new norm, or just an interesting aside in the history of computing.

The battle over ".dwg" ends next week, Thursday

There are a few strange stories that haunt the history of CAD, and one of them is Autodesk's attempt to register the ".dwg" file extension as a trademark in the USA and other countries.

(In brief, the USPTO hasn't been inclined to grant Autodesk's registration request, since file extensions cannot be registered. Along the way, Autodesk has sued out of existance attempts by other CAD vendors to use the letters D-W-G in product names, or paid them to stop.)

I thought the whole matter had ended when SolidWorks and Autodesk came to a surprise agreement early in the morning before a court trial was to begin over "DWGEditor" and other verboten names SolidWorks had registered. That was 23 June 2010.

(Later, we realized that the capitulation by SolidWorks came about because they had an ace in their pocket: they had signed an OEM agreement with Graebert to license ARES under the name of "DraftSight." Coincidently -- or not -- Graebert has spent the last many years in German court fighting Autodesk over another issue. Revenge tastes best when served piping hot!)

It had been a year since I last looked at the "DWG" file at the USPTO, and so I was very surprised this morning to learn that Nemetschek Vectorworks had also filed an objection last March. (CEO Sean Flaherty protested Autodesk's attempt to register DWG.) Two month later, the USPTO decides it agrees with Vectorworks, adding that there are reasonable grounds for refusal.

On August 24, the USPTO wrote Autodesk's external law firm (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati) that they had six months to respond, or else Autodesk is deemed to have abandoned its registration attempt of DWG.

The six-month deadline is next week, Thursday. We'll have to check back on Thursday to see whether or not Autodesk has given up on registering DWG as a trade mark.