Featured LD Assistant User GB Stephens

"I have been a long time advocate for using CAD applications for theatre and began experimenting with various CAD programs in the early 90’s. I became a serious AutoCAD user when AutoCAD released its Windows® version. I was thrilled to find LD Assistant, a CAD application which works on the AutoCAD platform which could be used for multiple theatre purposes. At the University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance, LD Assistant is used as a foundation for our technical theatre drafting, lighting and design classes. It not only provides our students with an understanding of the industry standard of CAD applications but LD Assistant provides tools and applications specifically for theatre scenic designers, lighting designers and technical directors.

Its extensive CAD Content provides an extensive library of lighting symbols, gobos, color media and LD Report which exports the lighting plot symbol data to MS Excel at the click of the mouse. Its visualization tools are enhanced with a huge library of materials for 3D object mapping and texturing. Once mapped, lighting your 3D objects can be done quickly with LD Assistants instruments enhanced with photometric lighting tools, gobos, atmospheric effects and even video. LD Assistant provides realistically rendered visualizations effortlessly to a number of exportable formats. As a Scenic and Lighting Designer, it is a program that meets all of my needs."

LD Assistant 08.5 - February 2010 Explained Features

Mirror Text

By typing MIRRTEXT in the command line and pushing the enter key you can change the way text shows on the drawing. Set the MIRRTEXT system variable to 1 if you do want the text to be reversed.

February 2010 Featured Article

CAD in Live Theatre Part 2 (AUGIWorld, Issue 1/2010) by David Ripley

The lighting designer's role is to add more than just visibility: part of the job is to use selective visibility to help point the audience to the focus of the action onstage. Having brighter parts of the stage means, consequently, there are darker parts where other things can happen unnoticed. Colour is also a vital part of the role. There are literally hundreds of colour choices now from various manufacturers.  LD Assistant, developed by Design and Drafting of Oak Lawn, Illinois, leverages Autodesk technology that allows a lighting designer to plan the position of his lanterns as required for a rig plan, then connect to a virtual console to visualize scenes and cues, render these out, and finally connect to a real console and lighting rig for t wo way communication. Click here to download the latest issue of AUGIWorld

Autodesk NEWS

Avatar, the Film
  

James Cameron and his production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, pioneered a new method for making visual effects movies with advanced virtual cinematography techniques. Using Autodesk® MotionBuilder® and Autodesk® Maya® software, the team created a virtual stage or “volume” in which they could capture actors’ performances and apply them directly to computer graphics (CG) characters, while viewing the results in real-time. This unique soundstage gave Cameron the ability to direct a high quality CG performance as if it were live action. Click here to keep reading.

Design & Drafting NEWS

LD Assistant at InfoComm June 9-11 and  CAD Training June 12-14

Join Design & Drafting at InfoComm booth C7656... and stay a few  more days for CAD Training         LD Assistant Las Vegas CAD training is being hosted by Pat Bash of In-House Production.         This hands-on training provides an introduction to the essential skills of using LD Assistant to create light plots. Attendees will discover the advantages of today’s object-based lighting design program: create a light plot using the built in tools and instrument data, generate paperwork, create real-time walkthroughs with video and audio playing back and more! Learning Objectives: Day One- Setting up the drawing area and creating a light plot from start to finish including schedules and paperwork. Day Two- Creating renderings that look like Photographs and working with 3D tools Loft, Extrude,Revolve and a lot more. Day Three- Creating walk and flying through with video and audio playing back using LD Control.     Limited Space... Call sales at 708-499-0107 or click here for more infomation or  click here to reserve your seat.

• LD Assistant Support     You've downloaded a 2D or 3D AutoCAD DWG block from a lighting manufacturer, now you want LD Assistant to track it in your schedules and to have data show up on the block. Click here to learn how to turn any block into a LD Assistant object.

Blocks, Blocks So Many Blocks... Who Has More & Where To Find Them

Sometimes you may need more than a Moving Light or Par Can block. McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million customers within the $4.6 trillion global construction community. CADdetails.com leads the industry with 2D drawings, 3D models and distributing design files to more than 300,000 users. Autodesk® Seek is a great site with all kinds of blocks, CADOPOLIS offers blocks and converters, CBEN.NET has a great Exchange Network and has an I-DROP® Site, KOHLER offers an I-DROP® Site,Steelcase offers its 3D seating models using I-DROP®, LD Assistant has an I-DROP® site and comes with 6,000 blocks.


With more than one million blocks available for LD Assistant... No wonder other CAD manufacturers want to import the industry standard file format, Autodesk's DWG.



 

February 2010 News

• 3D Desk-Top Software - CAD-N-Lighting announced today that there have been over 80,000 unique downloads of T3Desk 2010 since being placed online Dec. 2009. T3Desk is designed to work with any program to save space by turning the desktop into a 3D desktop. Download your free copy of T3Desk and start having fun.

• License Compliance - The Sixth Annual BSA-IDC Global Piracy Study shows that progress is being made in stopping the illegal use of personal computer (PC) software products around the world.

• Autodesk Smoke Software Comes to the Mac - Autodesk has announced that it is ready to start shipping Autodesk Smoke 2010 for Mac OS X, a software-only editorial finishing tool and the first Autodesk finishing product designed to run on the Mac.

• MagicJack's next act: disappearing cell phone fees - The company behind the magicJack, the cheap Internet phone gadget that's been heavily promoted on TV, has made a new version of the device that allows free calls from cell phones in the home, in a fashion that's sure to draw protest from cellular carriers. The unnamed femtocell will be priced at about $40.

• Skype reaches the living room via HDTVs - Skype is embedding its service on a bevy of HDTVs, the company said Tuesday, adding that it is supporting high-definition video calls in the 720p HD format on PCs.

February 2010 Articles

• Isometric Dimensions - adding aligned dimensions to cube, Kate Morrical, LT Unlimited

• Isometric Circles - set snap type to isometric, using ellipse command to create isometric circles, Kate Morrical

• Tips for Working with Layers - setting properties of new layer similar to that of existing layer,  Ellen Finkelstein.com

• Isometric Planes - drawing isometric planes using isometric snap, ortho, Kate Morrical, LT Unlimited

• Change Double-Click Actions - setting new double click action in the CUI, Kate Morrical, LT Unlimited

• AutoCAD Architecture 2010 Tips & Tricks - , AUGI, Dec 2009 (may require free registration)

• Practicing Rectangular Array - arraying 20x30 square with pattern, Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

• Taking Printout Step By Step - using layouts, setup page, draw titleblock, adjust pen settings to print drawing, Orhan Toker, Daily

• Creating Polar Array - using ARRAY command to create 8 copies of circle with radius 20, Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

• Introduction to AutoCAD 3D - by Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

• Using REVOLVE Command - by Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

• Creating Mesh Surfaces From Edges (EDGESURF) - by Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

• Using LOFT Command - by Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

• Using SWEEP Command - by Murat Saraldi, Daily AutoCAD

February 2010 Reviews

• Lenovo ThinkPad X100e - Lenovo's professional take on the Netbook has an AMD processor, a full keyboard.

• Lenovo IdeaPad S12-2959 (Ion, Atom N270 1.6GHz, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Windows 7). With its Nvidia Ion graphics processor.

• Samsung SyncMaster 2333SW LCD display / TFT active matrix Max Resolution: 1920 x 1080... $153.00

• HP ENVY 15t - 1.6 GHz, 500GB HD, 8GB RAM - If you demand more from a notebook, you'll need a true desktop replacement.

February 2010 Jobs

• PSAV Presentation. -Jump-start your career with the world’s largest and fastest  growing event technology company! PSAV®

• Meeting and Event Planner - Professional, non-profit trade associations, is looking  for a Meeting and Event Planner

• AVI-SPL is looking for Install Technician

• AV Installation Account Executive will sell integrated audio, video, and lighting  systems and coordinate projects

• TAC Worldwide is currently looking for an Event Manager in San Diego, CA.