In yesterdays post on Project Photofly, I promised the next post would be on the Shape Extraction tool, and I gave a little teaser about whether the hack for ACAD 2010 worked…

It didn’t. After following the directions, I could get the Point Cloud tab to show up, but the last step, loading the ShapeExtractionApp.arx file would not take. Look at the command line in the image to the right (click) for details. Also notice the clouds with question marks in place of several icons and the missing Density slider on the Point Cloud panel.

It would have been nice if it had worked as 2010 is the version I own, but I do have a Autodesk Assistance Program version of ACAD 2011 that the technology preview  did install correctly on (I think)….

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(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk announces the availability of Project Photofly, a technology preview of a web service that allows users to easily create 3D models from photographs using the cloud. Project Photofly is currently available for free* on Autodesk Labs.

The Autodesk Project Photofly technology preview enables architecture, design, media & entertainment and manufacturing firms to easily create 3D models from a series of photographs.

Photofly breaks the barrier to entry to image-based modeling because of its automatic calibration process. The manual calibration of photographs enabled by other technologies is complex and requires a strong expertise to get a good result. Project Photofly utilizes an automatic calibration engine, called “Camera Factory,” which is made available as a web service through a Windows-based client called “Photo Scene Editor.” Customers connect to the Camera Factory through the Photo Scene Editor, and then use their favorite Autodesk 3D modeling software (AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk 3ds Max, etc.) to consume the data in DWG format to model on top of the images.

“Reality capture gives designers and engineers the ability to better measure, analyze, document and plan for projects.”

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I found this article from Design News interesting because Dynamic Structures design spiral sounds very similar to the one used in the yacht building industry.

The following quote brought back some memories of yacht design where we used Inventor, AutoCAD, Navisworks (before Autodesk bought them), Rhino, ShipConstructor, and 3Ds Max for rendering and animations…

“Often we create a track in AutoCAD and use Inventor to design a vehicle,” continues Breckenridge. “Then we can put them together in 3D Studio (3ds) and produce an animation that shows what a ride will look like. We use Navisworks for visualization and dynamic simulation. Then we can play the video animation for clients so they can see what the vehicle looks like as seen from a spot on the ground. Or, we can show them what the ride looks like from the front seat.”

I don’t think the AutoCAD/Inventor workflow is efficient or accurate , but unfortunately, it is often necessary for many reasons.  The second part, about the visuals is spot-on. Clients now expect to see their project designed in 3D, and more and more they are demanding fly-throughs  and animations in addition to renderings.

Autodesk recently came out with the ‘Factory Design Suite’ suite of programs that give factory designers a full toolset at a better price, but a more generic toolset that goes from sketch to animations would likely have more mass appeal.  Just sayin’.

Read the rest of the article at Design News >>>

Progress on the iCabinet has hit a snag in the creation of an iLogic/API Rule to automatically demote promoted solid bodies to assembles and sub assemblies.

Due to my total ineptitude in writing the part demotion code, I will simply model the process manually and use the opportunity to report the time it takes and any mistakes (if any) that pop up along the way. In the end, this will at least give me the baseline figures for comparison to the procedure once the code is in place –which shouldn’t be too far off.

So I dug the trusty stopwatch that I bought back in the Inventor 10 days when I was tasked with evaluating Inventor’s feasibility as a replacement for AutoCAD…….. it did not go well until Inventor 11 came out, but I’ll leave that for another post –if ever. Since Inventor 11, the program has become incredibly stable, the sun shines brighter, everything seems to taste better, yada, yada, yada…

Anyway….with stopwatch in-hand, I will be placing all of the lower cabinets in the little test layout, then doing all of the demotions to sub-assemblies by hand.

When all of the cabinets are properly demoted to sub assemblies, I’ll move on to creating output automation.

Drawings should be relatively easy, but time will tell. The question I am asked the most though is “does Inventor output to CNC?”. The simple answer is no. Read the rest of this entry →

I was reading a post over on Deelip’s Blog about the ill-timed punitive upgrade scheme Autodesk has decided to foist upon their customers, and decided it was about time to post something on it. The post over at Deelip was titled How To Piss Off a Paying Customer? and is in response to a very angry comment posted regarding Deelip’s original post on the subject titled Autodesk’s New Upgrade Pricing Policy. My comment can be found here.

I myself found out about this new policy a bit early because my subscription ran out last fall, and my VAR sent me a copy of the new policy trying to convince me that it would be wise to pay the subscription fee before the nastyness kicks in. The new policy is as follows:
“Autodesk is introducing a new upgrade pricing model that will go into effect on March 16, 2010. After that date, all upgrades, from any release level, will cost 50% of the price of a new license. This is a departure from the way upgrades have always been priced – which has been based on the “coming from” release level. For example, after March 15, customers upgrading from AutoCAD 2008, 2009 (or 2010) will all pay the same price: 1/2 the cost of a new license of AutoCAD.”
I explained to them that I cannot renew my subscription at this time as I would need to forgo paying the mortgage or not feed my children this month in order to do so. They responded warmly with another form letter urging a renewal. How sensitive. I think the Direct TV AD below describes the corporate ‘thinking’ behind this type of ‘strategy’ quite well…

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