CAD Hub ... all of the latest CAD news in one place ...

Buzz introduced me to Xobni in this video. If you use Outlook, and don't use Xobni, get it. It's that simple.

In late October, about Microsoft PDC time, Live Mesh went from "Preview" To "Beta". Apart from adding a word to the logo it's also meant a bunch of new & improved features. I've put full details in the extended post but of most interest are Mesh is now worldwide, for PC, and a limited release of Mac & Windows Mobile clients. The vision of Mesh is your data being available on whatever hardware you have so it's good to see new platforms being added.

Mesh Beta also has better conflict resolution if a file has changed in several devices. This was weak in the preview so it's good to see it improved. After a couple of weeks with the Beta I've found it's working well. If you want to try Live Mesh there are also new "Getting Started Tips" to ease you into it.

Windows Live Mesh - www.mesh.com

Microsoft Windows Live Mesh Beta

New features:

·  New devices supported.  We are delighted to release our client software for Mac OS X (10.5.1 or higher) and Windows Mobile (6.0 and 6.1).  Because these are both significant new software investments for us, we’re going to only provide them on a limited basis for now (and mobile is restricted to only US or UK to start.)  If you get a message saying that we’re at full capacity for these clients, keep an eye on the blog here.  We’ll post updates as we increase availability over the coming months.

·  Worldwide availability. We’ve removed the limits on what countries are able to sign up to use Live Mesh.  We previously had limitations in place so that we could complete our testing with various language and locale settings, and now that work is indeed complete (with the caveat of course that for now the mobile client, as mentioned above, is not actually available worldwide).

·  WAP access.  Some of you already discovered that browsing http://m.mesh.com from your WAP-enabled phone gives you a lightweight way to view Mesh content (and, on phones that support it, upload new files.)  We’re now making WAP an officially supported feature.

·  Folder roles/permissions. Members of a folder can now be assigned one of the following roles to control their access rights: creator, owner, contributor, and reader. Previously, the only permission level (aka “role”) you could set for a member was “owner,” which meant that all members had the same control over the contents of a folder (adding, changing, deleting) as you did. Now, you can assign specific permissions for each member in a Live Mesh folder. Want members to be able to read what’s in a folder, but not change any content? Make them readers. Want them to be able to add to the folder, but not invite other users? Make them contributors.

·  Automatic update is now available for the Live Mesh software.  This has been a common user request, and we’re taking a first step towards making it possible for your Mesh client software to update itself automatically, without you having to click on any links.  In this Beta release, automatic update works like magic if you chose not to install the extra enhancements that required administrator rights.  If you did install them, we still have to prompt you to update so that you can click through the UAC elevation prompt and give us permission to update administrative components.  We will continue to work on streamlining this process for you in future releases.

·  P2P sync can be managed from your computer. When we first enabled P2P sync, you had to go to the Live Desktop to change the sync settings for a folder so that it would no longer synchronise with your Live Desktop and eat up your 5 GB storage limit. We heard from many customers that this was not very intuitive (and we agree: it wasn’t). Now you can change this sync setting from the Live Mesh software on your computer, without having to visit the Live Desktop at all.

·  You can drag and drop files to folders on your Live Desktop. One of the most frequently requested features since we opened Live Mesh as a technology preview in April has been the ability to drag and drop files and folders to and from your Live Desktop. We’re extremely happy to be able to say: You can do this now! This makes the Live Desktop experience much more intuitive and even more aligned with Windows. Note that the drag-and-drop feature currently only works with a Windows PC and Internet Explorer 6 or later.

·  You can select multiple files for upload or download. In addition to drag-and-drop, you can now use SHIFT and CTRL to select multiple files/folders when uploading them to your Live Desktop.

·  Added new synchronisation status indicators. If you’ve been using Live Mesh to sync a lot of data, you’ve probably found yourself wondering at some point how far along the synchronisation process was. We’ve added an icon to the notification area of the Taskbar and a progress bar so that you can tell at a glance how your folder sync is coming.

·  “Get started” feature added for new users. Quick tips on how to start using Live Mesh appear on the Live Desktop and when new users install the Live Mesh software. Great for friends and family you invite!

Additional improvements:

·  Improved peer-to-peer (P2P) reliability and performance. P2P synchronisation is an integral part of how Live Mesh keeps your data current across all your devices. Most of the time, P2P sync happens in the background without you having to worry about it. When Live Mesh tries to update a file on one of your devices, it will leverage whatever connections it can, sometimes pulling from your Live Desktop (the “cloud”), other times pulling from your other devices. You can also choose to have some folders only sync P2P by choosing to never synchronise those folders with your Live Desktop. We have made numerous improvements to P2P sync with this release of Live Mesh. We’re now regularly testing synchronisation of folders as large as 60GB, and we’ve also had success synching a single file as large as 20GB.   

·  Hidden remote screen is now the default for Live Mesh Remote Desktop. We heard feedback from many customers that they’d like to see this feature turned on by default to help ensure the privacy of their remote desktop feature.

·  Improved conflict resolution. The user interface (UI) for resolving conflicts has been updated to be easier to use. You’ll also now see the same conflict resolution UI between the Live Mesh software on your device and the Live Desktop on the web. And, when resolving a conflict, you’ll be able to choose keep either version of a file or all versions.

·  The Live Mesh bar appears minimised by default, and remembers its previous state. When you create a new Live Mesh folder, the mesh bar (appears when you open a Live Mesh folder) will now appear minimised by default. The mesh bar will also remember the last state it was in (minimised or maximised) for each Live Mesh folder, and show that state the next time you open the folder.

·  Better support for large display configurations using Live Mesh Remote Desktop. We’ve added a new “superpan” feature to improve support for large desktop display configurations (e.g., high-resolution displays or multiple monitors).

·  Added support for two-factor authentication for Live Mesh Remote Desktop. Enterprise customers can now require two-factor authentication (both domain password and smartcard) for Live Mesh Remote Desktop on networks, or choose to disable the Live Mesh Remote Desktop functionality altogether.

·  Install Live Mesh with roaming profiles.  The Live Mesh client now supports installing to a user account with roaming profiles.  Previously users may have noticed an inability to sync or remotely access devices that use roaming profiles.

Given this is, occasionally, a CAD blog I suspect you use design software. But in addition to that do you use Outlook, do you send email, do you have contacts and business relationships to mange, or quick presentations to give? Would you like to learn how to do this better, from an expert?

I first “encountered” Buzz Bruggeman when he sent me an email suggesting I try ActiveWords. That happened within minutes of me commenting on a post about Microsoft Search on a, sadly now extinct, MindManager related blog . It was the first I'd heard of ActiveWords and after a week or so of using the free trial I'd purchased it.

But this isn't about ActiveWords, it's how a CEO of a company created a connection with someone who'd never heard of his product within minutes. You might think that’s rather special, and it is, but Buzz has “about 13,000” contacts in his Outlook and somehow manages to engage them all.

"Living in Outlook is not where I had planned to spend my life, but having resolved to build the best relationships for ActiveWords that I can, I have resolved to master Outlook"

This self described “Geek wanna be, ActiveWords evangelist, and small town Minnesota boy” shares some of his techniques, and tools, in a conversation with Robert Scoble. Rather than a single solution you see how a combination approaches can literally create free time by saving you the drudgery of performing repetitive tasks. Put aside some time to watch it, you'll get it back later!

Managing Your Mind With the CEO of ActiveWords | FastCompany.TV
Buzz Bruggeman is one of the world’s best networkers that I’ve ever met and also runs ActiveWords, which is a cool utility that helps you get more things done through programming your keystrokes, but that isn’t what excited me about Buzz. He’s one of the world’s top users of Mind Mapping Software and we’ll talk about that, and other things that have his attention.

A strange thing: Two XP Pro machines, running different A/V and firewall suites (Trend & ZoneAlarm), in different environments (home/work), yet on both Internet Explorer has started loosing the browser history on shutdown.

Both are set to remember history for different numbers of days, the "Delete Temp files on shutdown" is not ticked, and the A/V packages aren't set to clear history. I can't think of anything else and it's only started sometime in the last week

Any ideas on what might be happening?

My Google Earth Pro license expired. This was entirely my fault as Google Earth does warn you to renewal time is approaching but I hadn't used it for a while and forgot. However, because our firewall blocked part of the transaction process I was unable to renew it immediately.

You'd think, since there is a free version, it would just revert to "free mode" but not so. It refused to load any data until the license was updated. That was rather embarrassing as when it was needed, it was needed!

Once away from the firewall restrictions the renewal took only a few minutes Next time I'll take more notice of those warnings!

Details of the next, and last for 2008, Revit User Group - Auckland (RUGAKL) meeting:

Wednesday 19th  November at Jasmax Offices, Level 4, Upper Queen Street

Join us from 5.30pm for Drinks and Nibbles ($5 donation - receipts available)
 
Agenda:

6pm: Welcome, General Business and Presentation Introduction - Kerry Thompson
 
Presentation: "Revit, Max, Rhino and Communication" 
Presented by Nathaniel Cheshire & Calum McNaught from Cheshire Architects

6.30pm:  Q & A , Tricks and Tips and general Revit discussion. If you have any examples of work you would like to share - please bring them along.
 
7.30pm: Meeting Closes.

Please RSVP via the link on  the website - http://www.rugakl.org/ - by 5pm Tuesday prior to the meeting  (for catering  purposes)

You'll know MindManager 8 is different before you even launch it. The, formerly blue'ish, MindManager icon has a new, and very red, appearance.

That's the first sign of changes to my favourite mapping application which aim to make it easier to integrate information with a map, edit it without leaving MindManager and then share it with others.

You can experience one major component of this release and learn about all the others simply by visiting the Mindjet MindManager 8 website. Mindjet Player allows a rich live map viewing experience in a PDF file or on a website using Adobe Flash with no separate viewer install.

I'll be blogging about how this and other new features could integrate with BIM/CAD use of MindManager over next few days/weeks. I've also been allowed to offer one special copy of MindManager 8 which will enable someone to enjoy all the benefits of using MindManager whilst helping others improve their lives. More on that in a future post.

Until then, try the MindManager 8 free 30 day trial or take advantage of the MindManager 8 Upgrade Offer at www.mindjet.com

* Probably showing my age with this post title While trying to think of "eight" lines I could not get away from an old TV sitcom title. Don't know why because I didn't really watch it!

From supercars to superminis, Giugiaro has designed them all. The best designer in the history of the automobile talks about it's future:  

Giugiaro about the future of cars
A series of thoughts by Italdesign's founder Giorgetto Giugiaro about the future of the automobiles and the difficulties for designers in the automotive industry of today.

This photo, from AU 2006, demonstrates one of Tris Hussey's 10 conference photo tips:

5. Try not to use the flash

Of the hundreds of photos I've taken at conferences like this it's usually the off-beat ones, even if technically flawed, that are the most memorable. This is a hand held no flash shot, using the rail as a support, taken in the rush between sessions.

If you were at Autodesk University 2006 I suspect you remember the hordes on the escalators. Although nothing to do with the conference content I think this image captures the scale, for first timers, overwhelming nature of the event. Since then a revised schedule, with offset sessions, has meant this photo opportunity is largely avoided!

If you're going to AU take loads of photos and post them for me to see!

How to Photograph a Conference - 10 Tips
There are two things that are pretty common at almost every conference I attend: laptops and cameras. However the quality of pictures captured and posted from a given conference vary wildly. Very wildly. To help you out I’ve compiled my top 10 tips for better conference pictures (and a few other words of wisdom too).

Restore document/workspace on re-start - With a tick IE7 will restore open tabs next time you use it. Why can't all other applications offer the same for their files?

Close & Delete a document - Why make me use Explorer to find the file I've already got open just to delete it. MindManager allows deletion from the document tab, with an "Are you sure" confirmation dialog to avoid accidents. I just noticed SnagIt also has this for images in it's captures tray.

Open Containing folder - The application knows where the document is so make it easy for me to access that location, without resorting to Explorer browsing, like this! 

Timed defaults for information dialogs - The brilliant Free Download Manager has a countdown on this info dialog. You get 30 seconds to select an option before the default is accepted. If the outcome is non-destructive why not do the same?

Larry Larson has shared Hi-res screen shots of Windows 7 as seen at PDC.

Windows 7 Screenshots | PDCNews | Channel 9

Hopefully you can see the slide show above? The [ ] button will make it full screen. This is the first time I've embedded a Flickr slide show. I only discovered it was possible after seeing replies to this question on LinkedIn today.

Its Halloween already in New Zealand (we lead the world).

Will a well known Kiwi Revit Wiz* be out Trick or Treating in his favourite leather Evel Knievel outfit?

* No, not me

It's been a long time since I seriously at Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as a way of sharing design information. Since then both the standard itself and applications that use it have been through several generations of development.

From the IFC Wiki;

• The IFC represents a data model structure for sharing construction and facility management data across various applications used in the building domain.
• The IFC data model is an object-oriented data model based on class definitions representing the things (elements, processes, shapes, etc.) that are used by software applications during a construction or facility management project.
• The IFC data model focusses on those classes that are needed to share information (rather then processing it in a particular proprietory software).
• The IFC data model is a neutral and open specification that is not controlled by a singular vendor or group of vendors.

Except you can't trust the information in an IFC. It works, but only for some, mostly simple, objects/geometry which means it doesn't work at all. Below is my test Building Information Model. It's a pretty simple collection of floors, rooms, walls, doors roof, curtain wall objects. The only "complication" is the curtain wall hosted on a tapered mass.

• Below is the information resulting from an export it to IFC, import from IFC.
• Spot the difference? Not just visual changes but missing objects and mis-represented geometry.
• What if you quoted on, certified, or worse built based on the IFC information?

Today Autodesk announced a special opportunity (see the AU Blog post below) for those still considering attending Autodesk University. I don't know if the state of the economy has impacted registrations, other than mine, but this offer makes a good deal even better.

Since 2004, with the exception of 2006 when the "AU Plane thing" was generously rewarded with an Autodesk Scholarship, I've attended AU thanks to some company support - mainly time - and investing a salary bonus which arrived about the same time. This year that bonus didn't happen, the economy again, and I won't be attending.

I think, even at the standard rates, Autodesk University is exceptional value. In comparison a local (non-CAD) Tech event had a similar fee, but was a day shorter and didn't include accommodation, or Vegas, or even parking! However, getting to AU from New Zealand means the additional travel cost isn't trivial. The current state of our dollar, recently plunging from US$0.8 to $0.55/NZ$1 (and falling), also means the US has recently gotten a whole lot more expensive for Kiwis. It's that darn economy again!

Why should you consider attending Autodesk University anyway? Simply, it's the best place on the planet to learn and meet fellow users of the applications you use. I've written a lot about it over the years (the Wordle below summarises hundreds of posts) but in a sentence;

If you can get to Autodesk University, GO, it's worth the investment.

Some of you may have seen today’s announcement that we are starting an AU Buddy promotion today.  Starting on November 5th,  anyone with a non-discounted AU pass can request a Buddy Pass—the first 100 are free. After the first 100 are distributed, Buddy Passes will cost $595. A Buddy Pass includes everything a regular pass includes but It does not include hotel (hence “buddy” to share a room with) and classes cannot be preselected. Still... it truly sounds like a great deal and an easy way for attendees to get twice as much out of their conference budget.

A Buddy Pass can be added to any new registration or any previous registration. We will start issuing Buddy Passes at 9:00 am (GMT -8), and they will be issued on a first come, first served basis. 

Not registered yet? Then do it now to avoid delays on Monday.

Questions? Learn more about the Buddy Pass.

I've posted about it before but tonight after trying to research something and reading perfectly rational intelligent posts reduced to unreadable "Blah" by the "improved" new Autodesk Discussion Groups, which like this post have un-invented the concept of paragraphs and mangle punctuation, I came up with a new banner for them as find it annoying that there is a wealth of information which people have contributed just to help others that is being destroyed by a system yet it appears from the lack of comment, or any sign of a fix, that nobody at Autodesk cares.

Autodesk: Discussion Garbage Groups

  Thanks to posts reduced to this

Microsoft announced the Windows Azure, their cloud services platform, today. Do you wonder where "The Cloud" actually is? The BBC found some of those servers in a bean field near Quincy, Washington! Their post quotes some amazing statistics and is worth reading just to discover what the BIG RED BUTTON* does!

BBC NEWS | dot.life | The town in the cloud...

I wondered how Windows Azure related to the Live Mesh Preview? It's part of Live Services as explained in this post on the Mesh Blog..

* Don't press it!

I've never heard a New Zealand Autodesk reseller use radio advertising until today. Radio Live had a CADPro advert for AutoCAD & Inventor. It got my attention but I wonder what their audience, it's a talk/news station, made of it?

The Problem:

Open a old project with AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (ACA). Create a new view, attempt to place it on a sheet, Crash!

The Investigation:

My usual approach with problem files is to try them on another machine but this time that didn't help. This project was one of our first to use the (then) new Project Navigator way back in 2004. The view in question assembled a mixture of files from internal/external sources with both AEC/Vanilla AutoCAD content. A thorough audit of all the files, to check for corruption, found no problems. Purging only removed some obsolete content, the files & objects having been updated to current standards by ACA's Project Standards feature.

Watching while the view was placed, using the SysInterals Tools, revealed ACA displayed the placement "ghost image" OK but, once an insert location was selected, began using increasing amounts of memory as it tried to place the view. From a base of 500MB acad.exe consumed close to 1.6GB RAM, plus a similar amount of swap-file, before an error dialog appeared, then exit to desktop. It was actually Windows XP running out of addressable memory rather than ACA crashing that resulted in the exit.

Looking for anything out of the ordinary I noticed some of the Elements - which we use for Design Options - had a full stop, or period for US readers, in the filename. Although it's supposed to be OK in Windows I still avoid them as find they can cause problems in some applications. For example, older versions of PDF Writer used to truncate filenames at the first ".". Our current project template doesn't use any but this project was done in the experimental phase before it was established. More out of habit, rather than expecting anything miraculous, I renamed the files and tested again.

The Solution:

Removing that "." from the file names reduced memory use to by over 1GB to a mere 700MB and eliminated the error. Quite why it happened in ACA2008 and not before I'm not sure, There have been so many changes in the OS, Network and Application since that project was done in 2004 it's hard to know what was tripping up. Needless to say I was amazed what impact a single character in a file name could have!

There are many improvements to ACA2009 project handling so it will be interesting to see how it performs with this project. I was waiting for Update 2 before deploying it and just completed the trial deployment on Friday. More on that in future posts!

Although not new, they are to me;

• The CADsmart Blog - The CAD & BIM Skills software company on CAD, BIM.
• Rockmaster's CAD Resources - Jason Foster - What it says, and more!
• [n]Codon - Bojana Vuksanovic, Peter Guthrie & Pierre Forissier share amazing modelling ideas (based on Rhino).

TypePad, my blog host, is celebrating it's 5th birthday however this blog is a bit younger. When I wrote that first post back in March 2004 I didn't know where it would lead. I certainly didn't think I'd still be blogging four years later as wondered if I'd run out of material for posts or would anyone read it?

It turns out that wasn't a problem and, in response to TypePad's 5th birthday question, this is how blogging has impacted my life;

• Connections: I'm connected to hundreds, thousands?, of people around the world despite living as far away from most as it's possible to get.
• Readers become friends: I've have met many readers, blog friends, on my travels to Seoul, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Francisco & New Orleans. It's been amazing to arrive on the other side of the planet only to have someone say "Hi, I read your blog!". That wouldn't of happened, indeed some of those trips wouldn't have happened, without blogging.
• Giving back: One of the initial motivations was repaying some of the knowledge I've picked up from other web-pages, discussion groups and blogs over the years. Occasionally I get an email, or comment, regarding a post which has helped someone and that's rewarding.
• Meeting the makers: Thanks to relationships built through blogging I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the people who create the software tools & services I use every day. Although they are the work of teams those people, and often their own blogs, are the human face of companies large & small..
• A place to write: Before blogging I hadn't done much writing, for pleasure, but have discovered it is something I really enjoy. OK, I realise there is still huge room for improvement but maybe these blog things are a good way to learn. I have submitted a few (non-cad related) posts to publications, edited appropriately for their media, and was surprised they were accepted as written. Thanks to all that suffer the late night writing, suspect punctuation and proof reading lapses that appear on the blogs as I learn!

Perhaps best of all is, in a small way, the blog is helping people who'll probably never even see it.

 
                       This blog is only 4 and a bit