August 2009 Articles

• Autodesk Takes Lead in Harnessing Graphics Power for CPU Tasks - Autodesk speeding up simulation of plastic flow in injection molded components using GPU acceleration in its Moldflow Insight 2010, Greg Corke, Develop3D

• MIRROR Command - using AutoCAD command to create flipped copy of object, more complex tasks, Erhan Toker, Daily AutoCAD

• Align Objects - aligning objects based on pairs of points picked, Kate Morrical, LT Unlimited

• LTSCALE, PSLTSCALE, CELTSCALE and MSLTSCALE - AutoCAD commands to control linetypes, Mark Kiker, CADDManager Blog

• Enrich Yor DWF - range of Autodesk component technologies available for creating, manipulating, displaying DWF files, embedding Freewheel in websites for client-free DWF viewing, Kean Walmsley, Autodesk University

• Use the Shift Key as Shortcut - list of tasks done using shift key in AutoCAD, Ellen Finkelstein.com

• A PDF Wish Comes True! - AutoCAD 2010 creates much smaller PDF with higher resolution, text transfers as text, fonts translate as fonts, Lynn Allen, Cadalyst

• Mesh Split and Mesh Extrude - splitting, extruding faces in mesh in AutoCAD, Guillermo Melantoni, What a Mesh!

• Conversion from Mesh Into Solid (Pt 1) - using CONVTOSOLID command in AutoCAD, conditions for converting object into solid, Guillermo Melantoni, What a Mesh!

• Drawing a Roof Using Surfaces - drawing ridged roof onto frame in AutoCAD, Gokalp Baykal, Daily AutoCAD

• CAD Management: Planning for Progress - CAD managers live in two different modes. The first is the tyranny of the urgent and the second is the desire for the future.

• Supply Meets Demand - Engineers, architects, and designers demand more from their computing platforms than ever before. For these professionals, pure performance is critical for design, modeling, animations, and analysis of 3D designs. For these users, HP’s new Z-series workstations offer breakthrough levels of performance and scalability far beyond the reach of past solutions.

• An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Super Speedy Dimensioning - video, multiple dimensioning simultaneously using QDIM express tool, Lynn Allen's Blog

• The Benefits of 2D Parametric Design - parametric drawing tools in AutoCAD 2010 help users control design intent, override constraints anytime, use formulas, user variables, Guillermo Melantoni, Experience Building

• Writing Backwards - create new style, setting MIRRTEXT system variable to 1 in AutoCAD, Orhan Toker, Daily AutoCAD

• AutoCAD 3D Conceptual Design 109 - creating concentric cylinder, using SPHERE command to draw sphere at top of cylinder, Heidi Hewett, AutoCAD Insider

August 2009 News

• Fisher Dachs Associates, Inc. announces the completion of the Henry Miller's Theatre

• NVIDIA GPU-Accelerated Plug-Ins Dramatically Boost Performance For Adobe Creative Suite 4 Users

• Adobe and NVIDIA Announce GPU Acceleration for Flash Player

• Autodesk Flare: New Visual Effects Software Adopted Around the Globe

• Autodesk Helps Turner Construction Score Big with New Yankee Stadium

• Autodesk Labs Releases Project Showroom 1.0.20

• Autodesk Releases Robot Structural Analysis 2010 SP 2

• Autodesk Claims Over 1,000 Aerospace Customers

• Autodesk Acquires BIMreview from Avatech for $500K

• HP Introduces First Professional Workstation with Six-core AMD Opteron Processor

August 2009 Reviews

• Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds - portable workstation fitted with Intel Core2 Q9000 quad-core processor, 4GB RAM, built-in Wacom digitizer, 2 screens, full keyboard, Mark Fletcher

• HP Mini 110 - It's hard to see how netbooks could get much cheaper, but each new generation drives the price floor down, offering better parts for less starting at $399.00

• Google Voice - Google Voice wants to be the center of your voice communications. The Web-based service combines a lot of things: a permanent follow-around phone number; voice mail with transcriptions; and text messaging, to name a few.

More LD Assistant 8.5 Features

• Event Planning
Advanced production tools speed the creation of realistic seating arrangements, tables and chairs placement, curtains, back drops, drapery, doors / windows, stage stairs, security post and line - and much more. Track the complete event project with customized reports and paperwork.



• Preview Window
With LD Assistant 08, you can view your design from any reference point in the room using the new Camera Preview Window. One mouse point and click delivers a wire frame or rendered preview.

Easily drop cameras into
your drawing to
check your site lines!

You can turn a camera on or off in a drawing, and use grips to edit a camera’s location, target, or lens length. A camera is defined by a location XYZ coordinate, a target XYZ coordinate, and a field of view/lens length, which determines the magnification, or zoom factor.

Note: Users can view the camera preview window in wire frame or rendered, and it is a REAL-TIME view. That means as you move the camera you see the change instantly.


• Next Generation Rendering and Animation
In LD Assistant Ac 08, as light illuminates a colored object in the model, photons bounce to adjacent objects and tint them with the color of the original object. Indirect illumination enhances the realism of a scene by simulating ‘radiosity’, or the interreflection of light between objects in a scene.
When a material used in LD Assistant is transparent (like clear glass), the energy transmitted is ‘specular’, and light passes directly through the material (subject to refraction). The value of specular transmittance depends on the material's Transparency setting. Usually, when a material has high transmittance, it has low reflectance, and vice-versa.

• Sound
Choose from over 400 sound cabinets to complete your design. EAW®, EV® X-Series, JBL VerTec®, Apogee®, MSL, Myers and Turbosound® are only a few of the sound cabinets that are included with the program. Or stop by a manufacturer’s website and download their blocks to use in LD Assistant.

Featured Lighting Designer - Michael Köster

Michael Köster: QConcept OHG is located in Leichlingen, Germany and is the official LD Assistant Support and Resale Center for Germany. Michael Köster calls Berlin home and likes sailing and skiing when time permits. His duties with QConcept include job planning, touring, exhibitions, lighting TV shows and rigging. Michael has been using LD Assistant for a little over three years, and is now in charge of CAD training for QConcept. "I like the fact that LD Assistant uses the real AutoCAD DWG file, so when I work with other designers I don’t have any problems opening AutoCAD files," says Michael. "With the rendering only taking a few minutes I can work through what the final project will look in short order."

LD Assistant Helps Sell The Job!

Indirect illumination techniques like global illumination and final gathering enhance the realism of a scene by simulating radiosity, or the interreflection of light in a scene.          Below you will find a few of the advanced rendering features:       Materials Texture filtering Force 2-sided  Sampling Min-Max Filter type, width Shadows Mode Shadow map Shadow multiplier Indirect Illumination Photons/sample Radius off/on Max depth Max reflections Final Gather Mode Auto on/off Rays Radius mode on/offs Min - Maxradius Ray Tracing Max depth Max reflections Light Properties Photons/light Energy multiplier Diagnostic Processing Tile size & order Memory

Click to enlarge