Cadalyst - September 2008 - (Page 12)

cadcentral AutoDesSys Cultivates BonZai 3D At AIA 2008 in May and SIGGRAPH 2008 in August, 3D enthusiasts got a glimpse of BonZai 3D, a lightweight modeling solution from AutoDesSys styled after Google SketchUp. Currently in beta testwho wish to express their thoughts graphically, easily, on the fly, but also clearly with the capability to advance to the next level of detailed solid modeling and production.” Like form.Z, BonZai 3D relies on solids modeling, NURBS surfaces, and Boolean operations. The software features interactive rendering with shadows, transparencies, textures, support for 3D printing, graphic texture map editing, a content library (with ready-to-use trees, furniture, and entourage elements), support of Google 3D Warehouse, and BonZai 3D, in development by AutoDesSys, will offer compatibility with quick and easy sketching as well as the ability to advance the design concept to the next levels of detailed solids Google Earth and modeling and production. SketchUp. Pricing has not been set, ing, the product is described as “an but when BonZai 3D is ready for the offspring of form.Z” (the compapublic, AutoDesSys plans to make ny’s flagship NURBS modeler) to the software available as a downaddress “the demands of designers load at www.bonzai3d.com. CS-Map Versus PROJ.4 In July, Autodesk donated CSMap, the map coordinate library it acquired from Mentor Software, to the project archive of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), promoting celebration in the open source community. (Read “CS-Map Enters Public Domain,” www.cadalyst. com/CS-Map.) “This is indeed good news for the open source community and OSGeo,” observed Dean Mikkelsen, who maintains the Terra ETL blog about open source geospatial tools (http://terraetl. blogspot.com). “Congratulations to Autodesk and Norm Olsen [founder of Mentor Software] for taking this important step,” wrote Jason Birch, who records his “geospatial ramblings” in his own Random Nodes blog (www.jasonbirch. com/nodes). Before CS-Map was made public, PROJ.4 served as a stellar coordinate conversion engine for the open source community. Inevitably, CS-Map’s arrival could prompt some code shuffling. The first can be seen in a recent public request submitted to the open source software MapGuide’s steering committee to switch the coordinate system from PROJ.4 to CS-Map. The petitioner, Hugues Wisniewski, provided reasons as follows: “CSMap can address things that are not well addressed by PROJ.4, like: vertical datum shifting; WKT [well-known text] transformations in multiple flavors like Oracle; greater coverage in terms of coordinate system definitions. . . .” The request is pending review. CS-Map is also embedded in Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise, a commercial alternative to the free MapGuide. Kenneth Wong is Cadalyst’s executive editor. Dreamy Color in a Mobile Workstation At SIGGRAPH 2008 (August 11–15, Los Angeles, California), HP launched three workstation-class notebooks: HP EliteBook 8730w, HP EliteBook 8530w, and HP EliteBook 8530p. The 8730w is currently the only mobile machine featuring an HP DreamColor LCD display, powered by NVIDIA graphics. The system runs on an Intel quad-core processor. Designed to improve color consistency from display through printing, DreamColor technology features 131% of the NTSC color gamut, true 8-bit color depth with support for more than 16 million colors, a tricolor LED backlight, brightness 50% better than that of traditional notebook PC LCDs, and the HP Display Assistant to customize color calibration. DreamColor also can be found in select HP Designjet photo printers. The new mobile machines each come with a DuraCase magnesium chassis, eSATA Port, and dual-link DVI support. Optional features include a Blu-ray port, integrated high-definition multimedia port, Webcam, and business card reader software. The w series also includes OpenGL support and ISV certification. All HP workstations support HP Remote Graphics software, aimed at those in the digital content creation, MCAD, and CAE fields. According to HP, the software “uses the company’s proprietary compression and decompression technology to enable cross-regional collaboration and sharing on graphics-intensive projects over a standard network connection with minimal lag time.” Pricing for the 8730w begins at $1,699; the 8530w and 8530p start at $1,499 and $1,549, respectively. More News Find breaking and current news at www.cadalyst.com/news. 12 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst September 2008 http://www.cadalyst.com/CS-Map http://www.cadalyst.com/CS-Map http://terraetl.blogspot.com http://terraetl.blogspot.com http://www.jasonbirch.com/nodes http://www.jasonbirch.com/nodes http://www.bonzai3d.com http://www.cadalyst.com/news http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - September 2008

Cadalyst - September 2008 Contents Editor's Window Cad Central Tech Trends: Genie Out of the Bottle Cadalyst Labs Reviews: Big Tools for Big Jobs — Wide-Format Scanners and Printers Make Small Work of Large Projects Cadalyst Labs Reviews: AutoCAD 2009 — General-Purpose CAD Software Cadalyst Labs Reviews: AecBatchStylesEditor 2009 — CAD Standards Management Software for AEC Cad manager: Synchronize CAD Files over a Wide Area MCAD Modeling: Is 2D Drawing Doomed? Plm Strategies: More Bang for Your Truck Aec Insight: Works and Plays Well with Others Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry: VBA Hints for Customizing AutoCAD

Cadalyst - September 2008

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