Posts

Christmas presents - utilities by CAD Studio
For the nineth time, like all the years before, CAD Studio gives out a couple of free useful CAD tools as Christmas presents for all CAD users. As a part of this tradition, this year's Christmas-tree utilities are the following: GeoRefImg - automatic positioning, scaling and rotating of geo…

Make your AutoCAD listen to commands sent via Twitter
Well, I admit there is only a limited practical use for such scenarios but this can be used as a proof of concept or as an inspiration for similar applications. Our ACADtweet add-on tool is a general-use Twitter interface for AutoCAD. Built upon this interface, TwittControl is an AutoCAD LISP …

Unique stage system handles even a hippo standing on one leg
One of the CAD Studio's customers - Bosch Rexroth - uses Autodesk Inventor and Vault software for new business opportunities in new markets. The Systems & Engineering division of Bosch Rexroth, responsible for theatre stage systems business, has recently completed projects for theatres in…

Autodesk 123D Catch and other free 3D tools
The popular tool for conversion of photos to a realistic 3D model - Autodesk Photofly (Photo Scene Editor) - is now part of the "DIY" or "maker" family of applications "Autodesk 123D", under the new name - Autodesk 123D Catch . The 123D family now contains four tools…

Cloud - the question of trust
One of the hot topics on our recent conference " CADforum 2011 - digital prototyping " , both in the roundtable discussion and in personal meetings, was the "Cloud", that is, specifically Autodesk Cloud - web-based applications by Autodesk. The discussions revealed that the succ…

Project Geppetto - very alive pinocchios in 3ds Max
An interesting technology for 3ds Max was introduced on the Autodesk Labs website. Project Geppetto (after the carver who created the Pinocchio) is a generator of highly realistic walking characters and crowd scenes for animations in 3ds Max. The definition of pedestrian positions, movement res…

AutoCAD 2012 Language Packs for Design Suites
Users of Autodesk Design Suites in non-English speaking countries can now localize the AutoCAD part of their suites. While AutoCAD is available in 14 different languages (localizations), the Autodesk Design Suite packages have only limited set of localizations (at least in the version 2012). The …

Does it have a command line? It must be AutoCAD!
A couple of days ago, Autodesk has released a new AutoCAD WS for Mac and updated its mobile versions for iOS and Android. Today, they have released also an updated version of AutoCAD WS for web browsers, i.e. on the former platform of this free "online" AutoCAD. Similarly to the previou…

Three new AutoCADs for Mac - and AutoCAD WS 1.3
Like three magic nuts in fairy-tales, Autodesk brings three magic apples to its AutoCAD family of products. In a massively promoted " DESIGN816 " event Autodesk has today announced three new AutoCAD versions for Mac - from a full desktop version to a free lightweight WS version. Besi…

AutoCAD fan? Something new is coming 8.16.
Autodesk will present an interesting announcement on Aug 16th 17:00 GMT. If you are an AutoCAD fan, don't miss it. You can watch the "DESIGN816" event live via LiveStream:

When Autodesk goes shopping
Like all big IT corporations, also Autodesk acquires new technologies not only through its own research and development but also through acquisition of technologies or whole companies from all over the world. These acquisition activities by Autodesk are especially intensive in the last 10 years, wh…

Make 3D, Show 3D
Two recent Autodesk applications help creating 3D objects and displaying them interactively in 3D - also on mobile devices. Both are free. The first one is Autodesk Project Photofly - described earlier on this blog. Photofly magically converts a series of photos to a 3D model. Autodesk names th…

Autodesk Mudbox - where CAD is not enough
One of the less known components of the new Autodesk Design Suites is the modeling application Autodesk Mudbox . Despite its "dirty" name it is a useful tool - it can help to model 3D shapes that would be impossible or very difficult to model in standard CAD applications. Autodesk Mu…

Autodesk Neon renders your Revit projects
The web-cloud rendering service Autodesk Project Neon now supports not only DWG scenes from AutoCAD but also Revit projects. Project Neon comes from Autodesk Labs and it was launched about 1 year ago. Revit projects cannot be uploaded directly as RVT files but you need to install a Revit 2012 …

Get your AutoCAD add-on through Autodesk Apps
Autodesk has just launched a new online tool providing access to many add-on applications directly from AutoCAD 2012 - Autodesk Apps - an Autodesk Exchange store (a kind of "Autodesk Market" similar to Android Market or Apple iTunes). CAD Studio was one of several companies - develope…

Can your AutoCAD talk?
Yes it can. Any Windows version of AutoCAD can access the system "voice" API and send output through this "speech" interface. With surprisingly little programming (in VisualLISP, VBA, or .NET) you can "tell" various important messages to your AutoCAD operators. This …

Online service for converting STL files to AutoCAD and Inventor
In October 2010, we have started a free online service - STL2DWG - for web-based conversion of 3D stereolithography files (.STL) back into CAD applications. It would be sexy to call this a "web-cloud service" but it currently runs on our own physical CAD Forum internet server, so there …

Autodesk mobile GIS on Apple iPad
Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server (the software formerly known as Topobase web ) is not limited to access only from "thick" clients (AutoCAD Map Enterprise) and web browsers on desktop computers. Most of its key GIS functions can be provided also online, for terrain workers, through the…

Autodesk Photofly creates 3D models from photos
The just released Autodesk Photofly 2.0 is a new cloud application with great potential - not only for CAD. It takes a series of photos and automatically generates a 3D model from these photos. Although the Photofly version 1.x is already available for about a year, only since the new version 2.0 …

Autodesk 123D as a free 3D CAD converter
Autodesk has released a new software for do-it-yourself users and makers, "123D" (one-two-three-dee) . It is a great tool to design 3D models and have them physically manufactured in many interesting ways. Not only through 3D printing. 123D is based on Autodesk Inventor Fusion and uses…

AutoCAD WS Mobile for Android - finally an AutoCAD for Linux
Autodesk has released a free mobile version of AutoCAD - AutoCAD WS Mobile for Android . All users with mobile phones and tablets equipped with the Google Android operating system can now view and edit DWG files on their "pocket" devices, smartphones and tablets. AutoCAD WS for Androi…

Updated cloud renderer service - Project Neon
Autodesk Project Neon - the best CAD-related cloud application and a typical example what server clouds can bring to general CAD users - has been updated this Friday. Project Neon takes your 3D scene stored in an uploaded DWG file, puts the cloud servers in hard work and creates photorealistic rend…

AutoCAD Pranks - April Fools Jokes (updated)
Any CAD software often makes its own April fools jokes but if you insist on adding your own jokes to AutoCAD's own AI , here are some tips that will please your colleagues for sure. You can e.g. let AutoCAD display a seriously looking "system" message on any opened drawing: For t…

Autodesk 2011 Show Reel Video
Like every year, Autodesk again picks some of the best work of its customers and presents it in a company "Show Reel". Autodesk products were used in all presentations - from the design tools for digital prototyping, over the archictural and engineering BIM applications, over piping to th…

Google Docs understands CAD formats
The online viewer associated with the Google Docs storage now understands 12 new file formats. The Google Docs Viewer is traditionally used to display e-mail attachments for Google Mail accounts. But you can use it to display any office and image files in the most common formats (DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT…

New CAD Studio blog in Czech
Thousands of users of Autodesk's software already use some of our community web services as their source of technical information. CAD Studio runs quite a number of such web resources - most of them are primarly targeted to Czech and Slovak users (see an overview ) - the CAD Forum por…