Context Menu Freeware…

The first one I use regularly is Firmtools Shellextension. It offers a thumbnail preview of many popular image formats. In addition to that, it gives the chance for quick image conversion and printing. It’s been useful for me.

FIRMTOOLS SHELLEXTENSION

If you want the same functionality for AutoCAD files, you download AutoCAD PVI Extension.
It’s just the thumbnail preview, no printing or any other functions, but I’m looking forward to an update to this.

AutoCAD PVI Extension

Third up for context menu, is a very quick and handy utility to upload images to image hosting sites: Tinypic, Imageshack, and Messyshare. With Tinypic Uploader, just right click on an image and select the service you want to upload the image to. You get a direct link you can copy to clipboard. This is excellent to share images for blogs, forums, etc. It also offers various types of screencapture with direct uploading features. Plus, you can batch upload images as well!

Tinypic Uploader

Freeware File Manager

My personal choice for a file manager is xplorer2 Lite by Zabkat software. I’ve never been satisfied with the windows default file manager. In the past, I was using Powerdesk, which was an excellent commercial app. Xplorer boasts, tabbed interface, dual pane file management, and a host of other features. The pro version (not free) has some great options for power users, but you can still do alot with the lite version. My only complaint about the software? There’s many features that are buried away under hotkey options and really should be presented in menus. It would also be nice to have icons for all the commands, so it would be easy to add them to the toolbar. Also, the toolbar icons are kinda small on hi-res monitors. I understand, the author is working on updating the interface, but this isn’t a tool that relies on appearance. It’s a powerhouse utility that gets better with each new release. Check it out!

Blog Expansion

Over the coming weeks, I'll be expanding my blog posts to include useful freeware, (NOT just CAD or GFX related!)

Also, in a effort to get organized in a more global manner, i'll be giving updates on my experience using the GTD method. What is the GTD Method? READ ABOUT HERE

Acdsee Pro 3 (Beta)

Acdsee Pro 3 Beta has been released. Anyone can download the beta and give it a test run.

Some definite interface improvements. I’ve just started testing it. If you’re interesting in trying out one of the top image managers out there, give it a shot and share your thoughts on Acdsee’s forums! They’re a good bunch of people over there.

Share Your Photos More Deeply

I’m a bit of a panorama photo lover, but the problem with panoramas is sharing those photos with others. Small prints lose details, same as small email attachments, and many free photo sharing sites aren’t geared for panoramics. Well along comes Deep Zoom Technology from Microsoft, to the rescue!

Microsoft recently released Deep Zoom Composer. A desktop application, allowing users to create deep-zoom application that can be uploaded for website viewing. I had a chance to play with Composer, it’s interface is minimal and it’s mostly drag & drop interface allows you to build a deep zoom app pretty quickly.

Check out a shining example of Deep-Zoom being used by the HARD ROCK CAFE.

So let’s say, you like Deep-Zoom, but you don’t have your own website. What can you do? Check out www.deepzoompix.com , with a Windows Live ID, you can upload your high resolution photos or panoramas and share them with the world. All the Deep-zoom work is done on the server. This is really just a technology showcase and the site says they’ll close the service at the end of 2009. So that gives you a few months to share your hi-res photos… For those interested, I’ve uploaded my own panoramas and misc photos. CHECK IT OUT!

Remember, you need the latest Silverlight installed to view these cool pix!

Free Panoramic Software – ICE

I’ll keep this post short & sweet. Microsoft has released a nice FREE piece of software for photographic users. Microsoft ICE. MS ICE is short for “Image Composite Editor”, a fancy term for photostitching software. What’s nice about this, aside from it being free, is that it offers some interesting outputs for your images. Including, the fun, Deep-Zoom. Deep-Zoom, is something similar to Zoomify, but using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. (oh, there’s the catch!) Yes, the freebie has a catch, if you want to use some of the “cooler” features of MS ICE, you’ll be using MS technology to showcase that. You also have the option to export your panorama as an HD-View Image. Again, another Microsoft technology. I find it odd that MS is using 2 different technologies that in the end do something similar. You’ll just have to try out the technologies to see what you prefer.

AutoCAD Color Tricks for B/W prints

Well, most engineering companies plot using CTB files for autoCAD. And typically companies will use a CTB file that will produce prints in black & white. But there are times when a user will want to use color. And yes, you can then create a color CTB, or modify the b/w CTB file being used. But I offer another option for those wanting to use color hatching or linework. How can i get color lines or filled hatches while using a black & white CTB?

METHOD 1... DWF

Here is a sample drawing printed using the monochrome CTB file.. My sample output file could be PDF, or DWF, or a hard copy print sent to a color printer.

I've decided to have a couple lines in color.. i dont want to modify the CTB file for printing. I'll add a couple rev clouds, but it could be any linework you want to stand out. Markup info, etc.
So i threw on a couple rev clouds on a seperate layer and then isolated the layer...

Plot it to DWF making sure you do NOT use a CTB style to print it.


now attach the DWF back into the drawing.

Doesn't look any different except for showing the frame of the DWF.

Funny thing about DWF attachments is that it bahaves alot more like an image attachment then attaching a drawing. So go to the properties of the dwf and make sure that "monochrome" is set to "NO".

now print or publish normaly. You'll see my new print has everything set to black using the monochrome CTB.

But the DWF attached info is printing out in color!

METHOD 2... GRADIENTS!

This method is good for hatches and doesn't require plotting and attaching a DWF file. I've decided to add a red solid hatch at the bottom of the drawing.

You can see the result if I just use a standard autocad layer and plot using the monochrome CTB file.

What i'll do now, is edit the hatch and use a gradient instead.

Open the hatch editor, and select gradient, 2 color mode... when picking the colors, you can either use the true color settings or even pick the same autocad index color to give it a solid color.

I picked color 1 (RED) for both of the colors in the gradient window.

save the changes and go plot to your monochrome CTB file. The result? Color output using the monochrome CTB, without need for adjusting pens, etc.

Viewing Photos In a different way

I'm constantly on the lookout for different ways to share/view photos, be it through digital means or otherwise. I saw a tech preview for something Microsoft was developing a while back. I thought I'd share it with those who might not have come across it yet... PhotoSynth!

What is PhotoSynth? Well, think of it as a way to dynamically link photos based on metatags. All of the photos can be viewed in a virtual 3d space to see how the different photos relate to each other. Pretty impressive stuff... Impressive enough to be used in a few CSI episodes!


The video shows the initial program called seadragon, but the seadragon technology is now part of MS Photosynth..

DosLib 8.0

Doslib v8.0 for AutoCAD 2007 thru 2010 is now available for download.For power users and programmers for autocad, this ARX addon provides many enhancements for programming your own routines. Very stable, very useful. Go grab it and start coding! For those of you wondering what's new in Doslib 8 since the 7.8 release...

dos_imagelist -Returns a list to all raster images in the active document.
dos_olelist - Returns a list to all linked OLE objects in the active document.
dos_plinewinding - Determines whether a closed polyline winds clockwise or counterclockwise.
dos_proxyclean - Removes all of the of proxy objects from the current drawing.
dos_proxycount - Returns the number of proxy objects in the current drawing.
dos_purgexdata - Removes all extended entity data (xdata) that is attached to an entity regardless of the APPNAME.

DOSLIB DOWNLOAD