Entries from November 2005
On the floor at Autodesk University — On opening night at Autodesk University the exhibition hall was buzzing, courtesy of the AUGI beer bash! A couple of thousand CAD users had a couple and schmoozed with fellow attendees and the exhibitors. A few cool things were on display on the exhibition floor:
Cadzation was there touting their AcroPlot software a solution for PDF and DWF conversion. The solution can convert from within AutoCAD, as a separate Windows app., or it can act as a printer driver. Recently updated, the solution now boasts some new functionality including the ability to batch convert DWG files to PDF or DWF while also preserving layer information. Text features are now searchable and PDFs can now be reprocessed to enable markup and commenting in the free Acrobat Reader (7.0). The company has also announced a partnership with Autodesk via the DWF Partner Program.
Also present was my old friend Eric Waldman and the crew from GlobeXplorer. The company was on the floor explaining to a large influx of people that the ImageConnect Plug-in for AutoCAD is now available from their website
shhhh
dont tell too many people about this as its a well kept secret and will only be free for 30 days.. be sure to give it a spin! See www.autodesk.com/globexplorerdata to grab the plug-in!
A new company on the floor from the non-traditional Cad/GIS arena was LinkTek. The company was demonstrating their LinkFixerPlus Gold application. Simply put, this solution enables users to easily move or rename many types of files in batch mode. The solution works with all common office application files as well as CAD and PDF files. See www.linkfixerplus.com
Falling under the WOW category is the new HP Designjet 4500 printer (officially announced at the show) see the press announcement in our PR section. The unit supports 2 rolls (load paper and mylar at once), prints images at a resolution up to 2400×1200 dpi, supports large rolls up to 500 ft or 175m, stacks and flattens up to 200 plots, and boasts less frequent ink replacement. No more babysitting the plotter!! See www.hp.com for more specs.
There was loads more on the floor but I simply dont have time to cover off the other 96 booth exhibitors!
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Likely the biggest news to come out of Autodesk U this year concerns Autodesk’s involment with Mapserver. Just today an open letter was issued to the mapping community.. key points addressed the following… “To this end, we take this opportunity to share two bits of news: the creation of the MapServer Foundation and welcoming the addition of Autodesk’s next-generation web mapping platform (previously known as Tux) as open source into the foundation. MapServer Foundation” See more at http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/7514/. And from Autodesk, the official announcement “Autodesk Contributes Web Mapping Software to Open Source” – the company is releasing the code for MapServer Enterprise, the company’s new web mapping platform, as open source. See http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/7509/
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Likely the biggest news to come out of Autodesk U this year concerns Autodesk’s involment with Mapserver. Just today an open letter was issued to the mapping community.. key points addressed the following… “To this end, we take this opportunity to share two bits of news: the creation of the MapServer Foundation and welcoming the addition of Autodesk’s next-generation web mapping platform (previously known as Tux) as open source into the foundation. MapServer Foundation” See more at http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/7514/. And from Autodesk, the official announcement “Autodesk Contributes Web Mapping Software to Open Source” – the company is releasing the code for MapServer Enterprise, the company’s new web mapping platform, as open source. See http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/7509/
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Geoscience Australia’s 1:250,000 scale national topographic data TOPO 250K Raster is now available free online. These data form the backbone of the NATMAP Raster products which are popular in the recreational and commercial markets. The TOPO-250K RASTER data can be downloaded free as individual map sheets by visiting the ‘Free downloads’ page accessible form the GA website, then searching on topography. Users are required to complete a simple registration See https://www.ga.gov.au/products/servlet/controller?event=DEFINE_PRODUCTS
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Submit your DWF files and you might be a winner of one of a cool Apple iPod Nanos. The contest will run through January 27th, 2006. For details see http:// www.autodesk.com/dwf-nano - See you at AU next week!
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GPS Multi-Media Inc., a Manhattan based technology and entertainment company announced this week that they have released CityShow: the Holiday Edition 2005 a special version of their hand-held, GPS-based Tour Guide System for New York City. CityShow is a revolutionary product that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Consisting of a hand-held PDA computer, a GPS receiver and a pair of headphones, CityShow delivers location-based tourist information to New York City visitors. Visit www.cityshownyc.com
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GPS Multi-Media Inc., a Manhattan based technology and entertainment company announced this week that they have released CityShow: the Holiday Edition 2005 a special version of their hand-held, GPS-based Tour Guide System for New York City. CityShow is a revolutionary product that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Consisting of a hand-held PDA computer, a GPS receiver and a pair of headphones, CityShow delivers location-based tourist information to New York City visitors. Visit www.cityshownyc.com
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Russian company, Data East, has come out with the Data East TAB Reader is a Plug-in Data Source for ArcGIS Desktop. It
allows direct reading of MapInfo TAB and MIF/MID files in ArcGIS Desktop with retention of existing native TAB rendering, symbology properties and information about coordinate system (spatial reference). TAB Reader key features include: TAB attribute data and geometry support, TAB text support, TAB coordinate system support, TAB spatial indexes support, native MapInfo TAB rendering support. TAB and MIF/MID files loaded in ArcGIS can be converted into other ArcGIS supported formats. See http://www.dataeast.ru/Eng/software/TABReader.asp
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Explorer Graphics Ltd (EGL), one of the country’s (New Zealand) leading geographic information systems (GIS) consultancies, has recently announced it has formed an equally owned joint venture with an American firm to accelerate the Wellington-based company’s growth plans offshore. EGL is well known in New Zealand with over 2 million people i.e. 50% of the population, having access to property and related information via the company’s Xplorer Internet GIS technology implemented on behalf of a third of New Zealand’s territorial local authorities. NorthSouthGIS LLC (NSG), formed in partnership with Daniel Elroi, President of Elroi Consulting Inc (ECI), is incorporated in Colorado and will serve clients across the United States. Coincidentally, both partners are united in more than their GIS interest; they are both located at 40˚ latitude – albeit Colorado is 40° north and New Zealand 40° south – hence the choice of name. See http://www.elroi.com/ - http://www.egl.co.nz/
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