ForceEffect from Autodesk

ForceEffect, Autodesks mobile engineering app for simulating design concepts on the go, has finally been released for Android. It has been available on iOS devices since November 2011.

“ForceEffect, wow, that sounds cool, but what does it do?” I hear you ask. Well, to start with it allows:

•Freehand sketching of elements and construction lines with snaps, constraints, and inferencing
•Object dimensioning, global scaling, units, constraints
•Import image as background
•Create joints (welded, pinned)
•Break element at joints
•Create supports (fixed, grounded, sliding)
•Create loads (known, unknown, distributed) and moments
•Add weight to individual elements
•Compute reaction forces and moments for equilibrium and over-constrained systems
•Toggle forces to show force vector components
•Results reporting with picture, results, all equations
•Save and load files from Autodesk 360
•In app tutorials

I won’t lie to you, I have no idea what most of that is. ForceEffect is an app that I will probably never use, but that’s ok as it is not aimed at me! Oh, did I mention, it’s free also.

For more information on ForceEffect for Android, check it out on Google Play or if you have an iOS device, check it out on the App Store.

You can also check out Autodesks other applications for Android by clicking here.

Carlsberg don’t do fans, but if they did…

Lets be honest here, the current Irish football team, for all its merits, is severely lacking in world class players. Those that we have are quickly coming to the end of their careers and whilst we have some good players coming through, it’s going to take a while for them to mature. At the moment though, we are just not good enough.

The Irish soccer fan on the other hand is world class. No one comes close to them. Watching their team get a lesson in the beautiful game last night from Spain, they sang their hearts out. The Fields of Athenry rang out proud and loud around the stadium in Gdańsk last night, it’s probably still ringing out in Poznan as I type!

Take a look, it’s electrifying.

Draftsight V1R2.0 Released

Draftsight have just announced the release of DraftSight V1R2.0 which includes the following enhancements:

• Fields - A field is updatable text that is set up to display data that may change during the life cycle of the drawing.
• Enhanced Layer Filters.
• New APIs (application programming interfaces) for accessing the application, creating regions, and accessing printing functions with the DraftSight Premium Pack for enterprises or educational institutions. The Premium Pack is an affordable technical support and services package designed to help manage CAD requirements by providing support with software deployment, customization, and integration.
• New ePDM connector for customers that have invested in the DraftSight Premium Pack or ePDM.

I jumped right in and downloaded the latest version this morning. It certainly doesn’t look any different, but then why should it. It does seem to be more responsive, although that could be my imagination, I do have quite a vivid one!

I’ve been using it all morning on an active project and so far so good. I’ve not had any issues with it. If you have customised Draftsight in any way (I haven’t), you might want to back up your configuration before upgrading.

On a side note, I’d love to get my hands on the Premium Pack, but unfortunately, it is only available for purchase in blocks of 5 licences. Lisp functionality is something I could really do with, as I have many routines I like to use. I don’t expect Lisp functionality to be in the free version, but it would be nice if a single Draftsight licence could be purchased.

DraftSight V1R2.0 for Windows, OSX and Linux can be downloaded here.