Featured Creative Producer - Preston MacIntyre

Preston MacIntyre is the President of Spectrum Productions, Inc. a creative production company located in Atlanta, Orlando, Miami and Charlotte. Spectrum has started using LD Assistant to design and sell jobs. “I like the way LD Assistant gives us the flexibility to change the design quickly," says MacIntyre. "The equipment list that LD Assistant generates helps us with we bid jobs.”

September 2009 News

• Autodesk Offers '2010 Certification' Program for Designers

• NVIDIA Claims First Interactive Ray Tracing Engine

• NVIDIA Tesla GPUs Powers HP Z800 Workstation

• Autodesk Labs Redesigns Website

• Autodesk Supports Apple Boot Camp

• Autodesk Labs Updates Sustainable Materials Assistant

• Autodesk Releases Mechanical Desktop 2009 SP 3

• Autodesk Labs Updates iCopy for Inventor

September 2009 Articles

• AutoCAD Architecture 2010: Key Features, Pt 3 - using Ctrl, Shift key during layout of wall, using object snaps with wall justification line, Tharakesh Ananthakrishnan, AUGI

• Five Minute Interview: Lynn Allen - talk about good, bad things, digital design-related project, philosophy of life, Caron Beesley, Acronym Online

• An AutoCAD Hip Tip for XLIST with Long Layer Names - increasing character limit in XLIST.DCL file to accommodate long layer names, Lynn Allen's Blog

• An AutoCAD Hip Tip on Listing Nested XREF Layers - using express tool XLIST to select object, Lynn Allen's Blog

• 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

• The Benefits of 2D Parametric Design - People often believe AutoCAD is an application that produces only points, lines and arcs, some even saying that it produces just “dumb” points, lines and arcs.

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

• AutoCAD: Use the Autosave Files to Recover Your Work - enabling auto save, finding auto-save files, CAD Addict

• What's New in Autodesk Patents - Autodesk applies for patent for navigation wheel, 'presumptive drafting' patent may signal touch-based CAD product, Ralph Grabowski, WorldCAD Access

• Getting Certified: Get the Recognition and Rewards You Deserve - defining path to earn Autodesk Professional certification, identifying learning tools used to prepare for certification, Barbara Bowen, Autodesk University 2008

• What We Should Really Be Teaching in the 2D AutoCAD 2009 Classroom, Pt I - strategies for teaching new commands, features in AutoCAD 2009, superseded AutoCAD 2D commands, importance of 3D in 2D classroom

• Question Everything - question functions like planning project prior to design, executing, communicating design, Dennis Jeffrey, AUGI

• Draw a 3D Threaded Bolt - AutoCAD tutorial, Ellen Finkelstein.com

• Coordinate Input in AutoCAD - entering real, relative coordinates, using AutoCAD drawing aid tools, Orhan Toker, Daily AutoCAD

September 2009 Reviews

• Multicore Matters - performance of multicore processors will immensely improve when combined with appropriate software running multithreaded applications, Peter Varhol, Desktop Engineering

• Cadalyst All-Star Awards 2008 - HP xw4600 and LP3065 30" LCD, Xi PowerGo Duo XT, NVIDIA FX 3700 graphics card, Autodesk Design Review 2009, Nancy Johnson, Cadalyst

September 2009 Jobs

• Av Technician	Aerotek Lorton, VA 22079
• AV Design Engineer / Audio Visual Consultant / AV Designer	Company Confidential New York City, NY
• Audio Visual Project Manager / AV PM / Systems Integration PM	Company Confidential San Diego, CA
• AV Lead Tech / Audio Visual Installer / Systems Integrator	Company Confidential San Diego, CA
• AV Design Engineer / AV Designer CTS-D	Company Confidential San Francisco, CA
• Systens Design Engineer	AZCAR Technologies, Inc Canonsburg, PA 15317
• Facilities and Infrastructure Manager / Tech	PSCI Wilmington, DE 19801
• Audio Visual Project Manager and Designer	System Source Hunt Valley, MD 21031
• HELP DESK Technician -- IT Division	AVI-SPL Tampa, FL 33634

More LD Assistant Features

• Rendering Final Gathering
Final gathering is an optional, additional step used to improve global illumination (GI). It increases the number of rays used to calculate GI to smooth out and eliminate adverse lighting artifacts.
  
Because global illumination is calculated from a photon map, rendering artifacts such as dark corners and low-frequency variations in the lighting may occur.
  
By activating final gathering, you increase the number of rays used to calculate global illumination, which reduces or eliminates these artifacts.
  
There is a catch when deciding to use final gathering. Final gathering can greatly increase rendering time. It is most useful for scenes with overall diffuse lighting.
  
Tip Leave final gathering off to preview the scene, then turn it on for the finished rendering. (Increasing the number of photons used to calculate global illumination can also improve global illumination.)


• Photometric Lights
Photometric lights are physically-correct lights. Physically correct lights attenuate as the square of the distance. Photometric properties can be added to both artificial lights and natural lights. Natural lights are the sun and the sky. The natural lighting is represented interactively by a viewport background type.
  
Photometric lights always attenuate using an inverse-square falloff, and rely on your scene using realistic units.


• Render Destination
Rendered images appear either in a viewport or get displayed in the Render Window.
  
When you render a scene, the image can be displayed in either the viewport or the Render Window. This is the render destination.
  
The render destination is set in the Advanced Render Settings palette in the Render Context section. The default setting is Window.
  
When the render destination is set to Window, the renderer automatically opens the Render Window and the image is processed. Upon completion, the image is displayed and a history entry is created. As more renderings occur, they are added to the render history so you can quickly look at previous images and compare to see which have the desired results. Images that you want to keep can be saved from the Render Window.
  
If you choose to set the render destination to Viewport, the generated image is rendered and displayed directly in the active viewport. In essence, this is a one-time rendering because there is no render history entry that you can compare with later images. If you want to keep the image that you rendered to the viewport, you can use the SAVEIMG command to save the images.
  
Rendering to a viewport always renders against the background color you set for the drawing area. The Render Window background color matches the background color. Use the REGEN command to refresh the display.


• 3D ALIGN 
In 3D, use the 3DALIGN command to specify up to three points to define the source plane followed by up to three points to define the destination plane.

• The first source point on an object, called the base point, is always moved to the first destination point.
• Specifying a second point for either the source or the destination results in the selected objects being rotated.
• A third point for either the source or the destination results in further rotation of the selected objects.

LD Assistant Block Update FREE to 08.5 Users

LD Assistant 08.5 users click below to download new lighting fixtures, EAW sound cabinets, staging, trussing, movies and textures. Ac08.5 & PL08.5 users click here to download, save to your desktop, unzip and run the installer. Download includes 200 new blocks, textures and movies.

Project FREEWHEEL

View, collaborate, and share design data using your web browser. Use Project Freewheel® and your web browser to collaborate across project teams, without installing additional software. Project Freewheel combines a dedicated website and a comprehensive web service. Type in a provided URL to interactively view your design data, and then embed an interactive viewer displaying your existing design data. Project Freewheel lets you and specified team members view DWF™ files on a Windows®, Linux®, or Apple® Macintosh® computer, or on a personal digital assistant, cell phone, or in the Microsoft® Internet Explorer® or Mozilla™ Firefox® web browser. All you need is a standard web browser. • Click here to visit FREEWHEEL •

Project Freewheel is software as a service approach to viewing and 
collaboration using just a web browser.



             • Click to view on YouTube •

Win Your Dream PC

Want someone to build an amazing, one-of-a-kind PC for you? Here's your chance! 
       
NVIDIA has partnered with Modders-inc, ZOTAC, and CPU Magazine to bring you the ION Case Modding Contest! Modders-inc.com is giving you a chance to WIN a custom PC based on your unique idea. Just submit an image and a description of the ION-based PC you'd like created for a chance to win. The grand prize winner gets their dream PC. Other prizes include ZOTAC ION ITX motherboards, Sims 3 PC games, Battlefield Heroes Battle Funds, and subscriptions to CPU Magazine. Click here to get started