Monday, 29 June 2009

Whitianga Photos



A few months ago I went to Whitianga, a place located in the Coromendal peninsula, New Zealand. Above are some of the photos that I took particulalrly of the natural landscapes of Whitianga.

Photos can be purchased and printed on canvas or other mediums. Just contact me if interested.

Friday, 26 June 2009

Microsoft Unveils Energy Management Software

hohm

Google has been releasing information on their smart meter management software called PowerMeter little by little, but we've yet to see a fully-completed product.  Microsoft is hoping to steal some of their thunder by releasing a beta version of their energy management software, Hohm, this week and, at least appearance-wise, it has Google beat.

The web-based software allows users to monitor and control their energy use by logging into the Hohm website with their Windows Live ID and zip code.  Based on that information, the software makes estimates of their home energy use and allows the user to enter specific information by answering any or all of 180 questions, with each answer making the numbers more accurate.

So far the software is only available for use by a few utilities - Xcel Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy - with more in line to start using it soon.  If you happen to live in one of the areas serviced by the list above, your energy use information will be even more comprehensive with historical data available from the utility.

The software will be smart meter-compatible as soon as any of its utility partners begin using them.

Eventually, the software will be used in connection with electric vehicle charging and grid demand management, but those more delux features will likely come with a price.  Microsoft has made clear that this software is a product like any other they've created and as it's further developed, cost will start being a factor.  For now, at least while it's in beta, the energy managment tool is free.

via Ecogeek and Earth2Tech



Thursday, 25 June 2009

World Builder: the Next Generation of SketchUp

The short film below could be "the SketchUp of the future."

The man in the film wants to build a virtual world for the woman he loves, and the way he creates it is very similar to how you'd do it in SketchUp. He starts with simple boxes, adds details like doors and windows, applies colors and textures, brings in some shadows, etc. Flowers and trees are a little more challenging at the moment in SketchUp, but maybe future versions WILL be this easy. Enjoy!



Via 3dvinci

Thursday, 18 June 2009

See the steps to model for Google Earth

If you've wondered what the process really looks like for getting a 3D model into Google Earth, you should check out this new video (also included below). You'll see a building created from scratch in SketchUp, pushed up for review, and placed in Google Earth for all to see. It's soup to nuts. The building is very simple and the reference photos are great for modeling (if I do say so myself).

This video provides step-by-step directions describing how to use photographs, Google SketchUp, Google Earth, and the Google 3D Warehouse to create and upload a model for consideration in Google Earth's 3D Building layer. Check it out when you have a chance.





Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Take your 3D with you

Google just released a new feature in the Google 3D Warehouse that enables anyone to embed an interactive view of any 3D Warehouse model on a webpage or blog. Here's an example:



Here's how it works:

You've probably seen these two buttons on a model's details page:


The "Link" button shows you the URL for the current page. The "Include" button expands to look like this:


If you've ever embedded a YouTube video on a web page, this should be familiar to you. You'll select the type of embed (a static image, a 3D view, or a view using the Google Earth plugin), copy the HTML, and paste it into your site. This Help Center article contains more details.

Via Google

Saturday, 13 June 2009

EVOGRID Visualisation



Rammy Elsaadany, a Masters of Architecture student at the Bartlett school of architecture, has just completed a collaborative film with Bruce Damer about the proposed EVOGRID project.

The film connects together a simplified version of the scientific narrative and also a conceptual development of what could possibly happen once the EVOGRID project is established. Rammy used a variety of techniques to achieve this film, including 3d modeling, compositing, and green screen. The software used includes 3D Max, After Effects, Premiere and Sound Booth.





See http://www.evogrid.org/index.php/Main_Page for more info - we really like this, its up there with some of the best work we have featured here on digital urban.

Take a look at Rammys YouTube channel for more work, he is currently working as a freelance so if any of you out there need one of the best new urban animators do get in touch with him.

Via Digital Urban



Thursday, 4 June 2009

Revit to Microsoft Project Connector Released

bimjet

A new release of the BIMjet Connect software was released this week. The Connector provides a bi-directional link between Microsoft Project and Autodesk Revit platforms. Enabling Architects and Contractors  to schedule complex BIM models for 4D visualization and construction scheduling.

Via Blgsim




Wednesday, 3 June 2009

XBox 360: Project Natal - Potential for Architectural and GeoVisualisation



Microsoft has announced the new Natal motion controller fro the XBox 360 at this years E3 conference. Natal is a small, device that sits underneath the screen and senors the users movement, completely eliminating the need for a controller.

This offers huge potential in the world of Urban visualisation, both in the professional realm and for communicating geography and architecture to a wider audience.

Game engines and gaming devices offer a lot of potential for visualisation and simulation and with Natal that has just got more interesting.

Via Digital Urban



Microsoft reinvents Live search as ‘Bing’

So far through the last year, Microsoft has been mostly criticized for making products and releasing services which were either poor in quality or of no customer value.

Live search by Microsoft remains the top candidate in that case, which promised to provide a search engine as better as Google but failed miserably in achieving a user-following like Google did. But perhaps with Microsoft's new search engine called Bing, the scenario might change.

bing

Bing is the final version of the long-in-alpha new search engine by Microsoft codenamed Kumo which we reviewed earlier this year and to be honest, its intelligent and also pretty amazing.

According to the press-release by Microsoft:

Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today's search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions.

Bing definitely helps in improving the customer-experience by providing data in the most organized manner. As soon as one passes on a query, it is processed and the results are displayed much like in the same format as Google, but Bing takes the edge when it comes to the organization of these results.

Results are organized into links, images, videos, maps and Bing is smart enough to give you a preview of these results even in case of videos.

Also, being new, Bing has a definite advantage over Google as it is immune to black-hat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing so the results are more relevant and up-to-date. Moreover, Bing has support for aspect-oriented queries such as weather, location etc.

As it seems, Live search is right now redirecting to Bing and soon will act as a portal all to Microsoft Live services. So to test out Bing, head over to the Live search website.

Via Sizlopedia



Open .Docx files online with Google Docs

Google Docs serves as a great alternative to native OS word processors like Microsoft Office and OpenOffice but with only one limitation until now, the inability to process .Docx file documents.

However, with the recent addition of new file formats to the list of support ones in Google Docs, users will now be able to not only upload and process .Docx file documents but will also be able to upload and process .xlsx spreadsheets with Google Spreadsheets.

upload_docx

The .Docx format was introduced by Microsoft in Office 2007 as a standard XML file format to store the data of any document, spreadsheet or presentation and is hereby the most-commonly used extension for documents.

Having the ability to now upload and process these files through Google Docs will allow users to make use of the cloud services in a better way and keep their documents safe and synchronized wherever they go.

To upload, simply select the file document and Google Docs will automatically detect the format, upload it, convert it and display it.

For more convinience, you might want to try out the .Docx to .Rtf converter.


Via Sizlopedia