Getting ready for 2010 in the Autodesk world

Now that the Autodesk 2010 versions are finally available, it is time to get familiar with them. I am particularly looking forward to the new Revit functionality (3D modeling and paneling tools), but there’s far more than that in the Autodesk software roster. Maybe the main change to grapple with is the ribbon menu UI. […] Read more..

Curtain walls in wood

Coming from a wood background, it is a bit disappointing that most (low- to mid-rise) curtain-walls or storefront glazed walls contain only aluminum mullions as their support around here (US). It appears that many architects simply don’t specify these in wood. This fact came to my attention again last weekend when I visited the recently […] Read more..

Weekly (or so) CAD roundup

Some CAD news that landed in my inbox recently: SketchUp: This year’s SketchUp modeling competition for students has nothing to do with campuses. Google wants you to model a bridge over your favourite crossing instead. Deadline is June 15, 2009. Another competition has been announced by Dwell Magazine together with Volkswagen. For this one, you […] Read more..

Learn more about wood! Woodworks.org starts free webinar series

With the economy where it is, any free help is greatly appreciated. So if you are an engineer or an architect who works with wood (or would like to if you knew more about it), sign up for any of these webinars by WoodWorks and learn about this great material from the “comfort” of your […] Read more..

Gone Shoppin’…

Now Autodesk has two green thumbs! In a press release published earlier today, Autodesk has announced that it has acquired ECOTECT. Let’s see how they weave Revit, Green Building Studio and Ecotect together. FYI, here is a description of ECOTECT from the Square 1 website: Ecotect is a comprehensive environmental design tool that covers a […] Read more..

Exam Week

After the “Sustainability vs. Homeland Security” graph from my last post, I somehow feel that I could present another one. This one illustrates visit statistics for one of my course websites. I have 60 students in that class, which is properly reflected in the in-semester weekly number of unique visitors. Look below what happens when […] Read more..

“Building a 3D World” – Using SketchUp for Presentations

So far I have used SketchUp for a lot of things, but a 50-minute presentation wasn’t among those. Besides, one of the big no-no’s for “classic” Powerpoint presentations is having too much happen on-screen (flying-in arrows and the like). Given the dynamic 3D interface of SketchUp I was curious if flying around inside its space […] Read more..