I’ve just recently got my hands on DraftSight Professional. The main area of interest for me with the Pro version is that it supports Lisp. i have quite a large Lisp Library and it’s great to be able to use all those tools again.
Just like with IntelliCAD, not every Lisp routine is working straight away, so I’ll have to investigate those issues, but so far so good.
Hopefully I’ll post an update in the new year about how I get on and the other features in the Pro version.
One of my favourite songs of the year… Taken from the album A Flash of Darkness by Mark Morriss.
It was announced earlier in the week that as of December 20th 2013, Winamp will be no more.
I first started using it back in the late 90s, just around the time that MP3 files were first starting to make an impression. It was, for along time at least, the best music player out there. It was simple to use and and had an easy to manage interface. Unfortunately it seems destined for the great digital graveyard.
I’ve continued to use Winamp as my media player of choice when having a party as it is so easy to edit the playlist on the fly… Don’t like the next tune on the play list, just remove it with a click. Want to hear the 52nd track on he list next rather than waiting an hour, just drag it up the list. Simplicity itself.
If you haven’t tried out Winamp or had simply forgot all about it, pop over to winamp.com before it’s too late and they remove the download.
Every site I seem to go to has a pop up, drop down, in your face message about how they use Cookies on their site.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I clear my internet history when my browser closes, so every time I revisit a site, I get the same annoying message about cookies.
I wonder how many people have decided not to visit a site because it uses Cookies. I also wonder how many people actually bothered to find out what a Cookie is and what it does. Finally, I wonder how many people just click on OK with out knowing what they are doing.
An EU directive that the punter in the street just ignores serves no use at all.
Any of you guys got a Mac and were patiently waiting for the latest version of AutoCAD to arrive on it? Yeah? Well wait no longer, it’s now available. Check out the video below, or just keep reading to see what’s new.
Apart from supporting Apples Retina Display, what else can you expect? Well, try these on for size:
Apparently there have been tweaks to the UI and fixes for bugs that annoyed the hell out of you in AutoCAD 2013 for the Mac. Read all about it here.
So,is it any good? Was it worth the wait? I’ve no idea to be honest, I don’t own a Mac. I’m not sure, but I think I might be allergic to them!
Check out this funny short based around an interview in a typical Irish office.
The Interview (for vimeo) from Frame It Productions on Vimeo.
Becoming Men from Motherland on Vimeo.
The latest version of DraftSight, the free CAD package from Dassault, has been released for Windows 32 and 64 Bit, OS X, Fedora and Ubuntu. While they are all V1R4.0, it should be noted that the OSX and Linus releases are still classed as Beta. You can download your chosen version here.
What's new in V1R4.0? Well…
Windows 7 Preview: This feature will show a preview thumbnail for each opened DraftSight file when a user hovers over the DraftSight taskbar button. This functionality allows the user to activate/close a document through the taskbar button.
Enhancements to EXPORTPDF - Dialog boxes have been combined for ease of use (DraftSight for Windows only).
Slide Library: A slide library is a file containing one or more slides. Slide library files are used for creating custom image tile menus and for combining several slide files for convenient file management. Users can create slide libraries from slide files using the MAKESLIDELIBRARY utility. After users have set up a slide library, they can view slides by specifying the name of the slide library and the slide (DraftSight for Windows only).
Print Scale List: We have a list of some pre-defined scales that can be used to setup view scale size in ratio to model space. Instead of calculating size and setting up that size at each place, users can use the pre-defined scales to speed up tasks – being able to add to the pre-defined scale list, edit values and remove unwanted scales.
True Type Font improvements for Asian texts.
Migration to ODA3.8.
Enhancements to DraftSight APIs (application programming interfaces) (for the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight only).
The name changed for DraftSight Premium Pack to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight.
The addition of a Drawing compare tool to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight (formerly the Premium Pack). This add-on can be used to graphically compare entities between two drawing documents. The differences between the drawings are displayed in color codes. Note: Drawing Compare compares the bitmaps of two drawings at the bit level. Only visual changes are captured when the drawings are compared. For example, if you move an annotation 2mm to the left, this change is reflected in the comparison. Conversely, if you change a custom property such as the Description, this does not reflect in the comparison (DraftSight for Windows only).
The addition of a Design Library to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight (formerly the Premium Pack). This add-on utilizes a tab in DraftSight's task pane to provide a central location for user-defined reusable elements, such as blocks. These elements are added to the drawing file and contain the properties associated with the content file, such as Line Style and Layers. Simply drag and drop the content from the palette into the task pane (DraftSight for Windows only).
The addition of Toolbox for DraftSight to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight (formerly the Premium Pack) (DraftSight for Windows only).
I haven’t installed it as of yet myself, my PC is in the throws of dying and I’m trying to back it up, but I will probably install it on my Netbook tonight.
It’s great to see the updates coming thick and fast for DraftSight, long may it continue.
Back in December 2011, I bought my first tablet, a Blackberry Playbook. I brought that tablet all over the world, everywhere I went, it went. Late last year, I brought it to Tokyo and it served me well on the flights to and from Japan and had plenty of juice left in the tank.
I really liked OS 2.1, but like most Playbook users, was waiting for the upgrade to BB10. Unfortunately, back in June of this year, Blackberry announced that the Playbook would no longer be getting an upgrade to BB10, and that was the final nail in the coffin.
I had put up with the lack of apps on the platform as the browser served me well, likewise I had converted some Android apps to work on the Playbook, but some of the ones I really wanted, would not convert and will never see the light of day on the Playbook.
Yesterday I bought a Google Nexus 7 2. It’s a beautiful piece of kit, really light, fast and an incredible screen. It’s not perfect, but at least I know the OS will be updated regularly and there will be no shortage of apps (both good and bad) to help me waste some time.
I’m unsure what to do with the Playbook. I’ll not throw it away, that much I know. It is, as I have said before, a fantastic piece of hardware. It’s just a shame that Blackberry have seen the need to give up on it. If only Blackberry had not been so damn good at locking it down, someone might have been able to hack it and get Android on it!
Anyway, that’s it. No more Blackberry Playbook for me, from here on in, it’s the Google Nexus 7 2. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about it in the future.
RIP Blackberry Playbook.
In recent years, IntelliCAD seems to have been overshadowed by DrafSight in the low cost CAD market. It’s very hard to beat the no cost DraftSight offering if all you want is an alternative to AutoCAD LT.
The ITC have been fighting back though and have recently announced the release of IntelliCAD® 7.2c and yesterday announced the IntelliCAD Mobile Platform.
Check out the video below for more information on the IntelliCAD Android Viewer created using the IntelliCAD Mobile Platform.
For more information on the IntelliCAD Mobile Platform, check out the Press Release here.
It would seem that someone over at Autodesk HQ is in line for a spanking!
Earlier in the week, @autodesk were happily tweeting about the following “#HSMExpress now integrated into #Inventor Suite to improve teamwork & efficiency”
That all sounds good, except the picture they tweeted was actually of Solidworks, by rivals Dassault Systèmes!
Autodesk, as you can see below, have since replaced the offending tweet.
It’s amazing the things that make me smile…
Dassault have released the latest version of DraftSight. Download DraftSight V1R3.2 here.
Release Notes:
Poor old Drico. What a way to have your Lions career ended. I can’t help but feel there was more too it than simply tactics. In other news, Warren Gatland, win or lose on Saturday, you’ll still be a tool.
I think Hitler sums it up well…
Are you using DraftSight? Have you ever wanted to integrate a map into your drawing but found it too awkward, too cumbersome to do? Well Graebert / DraftSight have released a plug-in to make it easier.
Online Maps for DraftSight is available for free from the Market for DraftSight. It requires DraftSight V1R3.1 and you do have to register, but it is free and it works well. Online Maps for DraftSight is powered by ArcGIS Online from Esri.
Hopefully this will be the first of many plug-ins available for DraftSight.
The hype is over, the change is complete. AutoCAD WS is no more, please welcome AutoCAD 360!!!
So, what is new in AutoCAD 360?
Check out the Welcome to AutoCAD 360 video below for some more info.
While you are at it, why not check out these other videos to help you improve your AutoCAD 360 experience.
Probably the best phone I ever owned was the above mentioned Nokia 6310i. It’s battery life is the stuff of legends. It just ran and ran and ran…
Unfortunately, today's smart phone just can’t compete with the battery life of the 6310i. Sure you’ll read about people on forums who say that they get 3 or 4 days out of the smart phone without charging it, and you can, if you don’t use it!
My current smart phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3 and up till recently, I was getting a full day out of a charge. I use it a lot, so I don’t mind charging it every night. About 10 days ago, I started getting 4 hours out of it. 4 HOURS!!! I thought that maybe some app was sucking the life out of it, so I did a factory reset, but to no avail.
Then I had a brain fart, maybe the battery had a defect, so I ordered a new one off Ebay for €3.99 The battery arrived so I charged it up over night and took it to work the next day. Same old story, 4 hours and the phone was dead. You could almost see the battery level drop as you watched it. Enough was enough, I dropped it back to the store to get it replaced.
I picked it up today. I asked what the issue was, she replied she didn’t know, but they had changed the logic board on it. So far so good, the phone is behaving as it should.
I’ve done a bit of googling on this, and there seems to be plenty of others affected out there by the same issue. There’s lots of advice going round too, from factory resets and updating your Rom, to getting the Vatican to perform an exorcism on your phone. My advice? Try a factory reset, don’t install any apps on it for a day. See if the battery still runs down. If it does, just bring it back to the store.
The reaction of this 90 year old lady is priceless… I think it’s the reaction we all hope for when we do anything in 3D!
The Line/Shape/Space Blog has a great post on 5 AutoCAD tips and tricks you’ll probably end up using on a daily basis.
Check it out here.
I can’t believe I’m the only one to see the resemblance between the new Autodesk Logo and the Google Drive Logo…
Might I suggest, if you get a moment, that you take a look at Disney’s latest animated offering, Paperman. It’s an outstanding piece of animation that mixes computer generated wizardry and stunning hand drawn animation. For best results, watch it full screen and in HD.
Just a quick heads up to point out that Draftsight V1R3.1 has been released. It includes product enhancements and support for Mac Mountain Lion.
Download, for free, it from www.draftsight.com
“but a thousand tiny ones not to… "
Interesting short film produced by Kennedy Films Ltd.
