blads blog

Yes it's on again…  a Vegas-styled Australian Autodesk University summit…      The Summit is a series of events held throughout Australia, which  starts in Sydney on March 13, will be in Adelaide and Melbourne on March 16 and March 21 respectively, before concluding in Brisbane on March 23.        The full-day program offers elective options throughout so that attendees can focus on topics specific to their job.   The two IMAGINiT speakers who will be presenting at the Summit from the United States are Carl Smith and Alex McCarthy. Carl Smith, an Autodesk certified instructor, sought after speaker and blogger, will deliver the manufacturing focused sessions, whilst Alex McCarthy, a Revit platform, sustainability and BIM expert, will deliver the Autodesk Revit and BIM related sessions. Some of the topics that they will cover include collaboration, design automation, green design, Revit MEP simulation and visualisation.   ...

  This beautiful old  historic building located in Williamstown, South Australia is home to Domain Day cellar door   which has some unique wines  from its cool climate vineyards.   A particular wine favourite of mine, Saperavi, has proved difficult to find in SA until now and Domain Day's version is simply gorgeous… Highly Recommended :)   On arrival, we were greeted by   their cellar door manager, Jimmy Day - his passion for his wines was infectcious and we treated to not only delicious Saperavi tastings but other styles as well.  For the uninitiated Saperavi  is a red wine grape variety that is a native of Georgia in the former Soviet Union where the  grapes are known for their dark pink flesh and very dark skins, from which they get their name.  It makes a intensely deep purple coloured wine with great tannins to give outstanding cellaring potential.

The best thing I ever did was switch from PC to Mac OSX which seems like eons ago now…   Since then, many other friends and relatives have also switched and have asked me for a list of my favourite free (or low cost) "tools" or "apps" for the Mac that will make their lives easier… This is what I've come up with so far (in no particular order)... RoaringApps Not an App but an extremely useful website wiki to check compatibility for Mac OSX Lion and now iOS 5.  Exceeding useful if you're thinking of upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion Dropbox Everyone knows Dropbox for their amazing file-sharing service. Drag any file into the Dropbox folder and it automatically gets shared. Sign up for a free account and you automatically get 2GB to share with your friends. Set up shared folders and anything you drop will be instantly downloaded by others. Need mobile access to your files? There’s an iPhone app just for that. Th...

Before I get back into work mode, thought it'd be great to ramp up my cycling, so with the aid of one of my favourite iPhone apps BikeBrain Lite… I started the week, Sunday 2012-01-01 with a great ride down past the Sturt River Linear bikeway - just the thing needed to clear out the cobwebs from the previous night's activities. Day 2 didn't according to plan, shortly after setting out at the Athelstone end of the River Torrens Linear Park bikeway, I happened  along a group of joggers who didn't wish to share the path which unfortunately resulted in some "nice" battle scars… After having an unplanned rest-day 3, Tues. 2012-01-03, started moderately early in the morning with a ride down to Glenelg from Hallett Cove to meet friend, fellow trainer & this morning's riding partner.     Yesterday, Thursday 2012-01005, saw a more leisurely ride part way along the Encounter bikeway along with friends and their kids. Great scenery and a great ...

Wow, its been a while since I posted my analysis of my iTunes Library (April 2010)… since then I've had a bit of a splurge on music / cd's which I love listening to whilst working… From my first analysis this was my summary (refer link ) since then my library has grown somewhat Wow… my Track count has increased by 73.5% and artist count increased by almost 33% and my most played genres are…

Little keys open big locks Simple words reflect great thoughts Your smile can cure heart blocks So keep on smiling it rocks. Happy New Year everyone.

Wow, it certainly hasn't seemed like six fantastic years… but my time as an AUGI BoD is almost gone.  Without doubt, it has become a milestone event in my life and it has become extraordinarily clear to me is that there are so many committed and talented people doing wonderful work in their respective trades and industries and all for the benefit of the AUGI Community. I certainly plan to stay connected to AUGI in some ways and look forward to 2012 with excitement as I explore new opportunities and broaden my horizons… I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dedicated staff and volunteers who are the backbone of this great organisation and the AUGI Board of Directors, both past and present, who have provided me with guidance and support during these last six years.

In keeping with tradition, I'm happy to present the 2012 Edition of the AUGI CWC Calendar… thanks to all at #AU2011 who participated in wearing the "official AUGI hat" It can be viewed at the  AUGI Forums - Coffee Without CAD  (You must be logged in to see this forum)

With so many things happening at this years'  Autodesk University , here a brief list of what is happening with  AUGI at AU. Monday, November 28 Autodesk's AU Leadership Forum AU Freshman Orientation AU2011 Bloggers & Media Reception Tuesday, November 29 AUGI Volunteers gathering AU2011 Welcome Address & General Keynote AUGI Forums Moderator's gathering Exhibit Hall Opens - International Community Reception AUGI Top Daug 2011 Challenge begins at the AUGI Booth Wednesday, November 30 Its  AUGI Day  today!!! Annual General Meeting AUGI Board of Directors' Elections voting opens AUGI Beer Bust Thursday, December 1 AUGI TweetUp  at the AUGI Booth AUGI Top Daug Final Presentation Be sure to catch up with all the info / photos at AU with AUGI's "HotNews Daily"

Project Photofly has been a very popular technology preview. People from all over the globe have created 3D models from their 2D photographs using the power of the Autodesk Cloud. Now it's time to take the next step. With today's release, the technology has been incorporated into 123D Catch Beta… Scott Sheppard's " Its Alive In The Labs " blog announced earlier today about Project Photofly's graduation Are you ready to start?  Click on the  123D Catch Beta…  link to access the website to download the Autodesk 123D Beta.  Once its downloaded, open the self-extracting zip file to start the installation

Mistress of the Dorkness: AUGI Wishlist System - Go Rank Some Wishes! Great article Melanie :) I couldn't have said it better myself...

On the weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the famous "Stick Shed"  in Murtoa, a small town north-east of Horsham in Victoria’s western district. This area of Victoria is predominately a wheat and wool farming community. Ordinarily, wheat after being harvested is stored in grain silos  wheat before being sold for either domestic consumption or export. However, in 1941, when the "Stick Shed" was "born", Australia and the world was at war.   War didn’t just deplete the number of available hands to assist with the harvest, it also closed off most of Australia’s export options. When combined with an exceptionally-good season, the farmers of Murtoa had a real problem on their hands because suddenly there was an oversupply of wheat grain and no-where to store it. Enter the “ Stick Shed ”, officially the  Marmalake/Murtoa Grain Store No.1 Murtoa Shed . In 1941, building supplies and labour were in exceedingly short supply so the shed’s builders had to u...