Free CAD

I found a decent FREE cad application for those wanting to do CAD work, but can’t or don’t want to spend money on a commercial “dwg” CAD package.
ProgeCAD 2009 is the freeware offering from www.progesoft.com
It’s an intellicad based program that offers DWG read/write capabilities. This is a powerful autoCAD clone, that can be used commercially if you purchase a license to do so. But if you are just wanting to draft up some personal projects, then you’ll find no better deal on the web than this!

What’s the catch? Well, it’s not the latest version of the software. And those of you spoiled by the ribbon, dynmaic UI and other goodies from AutoCAD 2009 and onwards will see that this CAD feels more like autoCAD 2000. That’s not really a bad thing.

The install is small in comparison. It supports reading and writing to DWG format, and you can even run lisp routines as well (something the 1200$ autoCAD LT can’t do!)

ProgeCAD 2009 also supports 3D. it has the basic set of 3d shapes that people using AutoCAD would be familiar with. It also supports editing of those 3D shapes with a very familiar editing toolbar.

It even integrates it’s own “express tools” into the program. Which basically means, all the command found under the express tools can be found in its own menu as well. It’s a nice touch for users who are familiar with AutoCAD.

This is good for AutoCAD users who don’t like to stray from the standard AutoCAD interface. However, I’ve never liked how AutoDesk organized their menu system.  So it would have been nice to see an intelliCAD based software break away from completely copying AutoCAD’s layout and make things more intuitive for new users.
Still for free, this is a great product. And if you want something that sports the new ribbon interface, Progesoft has recently released a 2010 version that includes that plus support for DWG 2010 format. Of course that version is not free!

ScriptPro 2.0 for AutoCAD

Well, i've been waiting forever on this one, and we finally have it... A new version of scriptpro is out for AutoCAD 2008 and  later..

So in addition to the cutesy ribbon interface what else is new? Well, the big thing users will notice is the option to run a script on multiple drawings without restarting CAD for every drawing. This was a BIG slow down with the older version of scriptpro. There's a "restart after X" option, so it can clear memory as it gradually gets eaten up by opening multiple drawings. So for you powerusers out there, go grab Scriptpro 2 and test it out yourself.

CADGFX ADDON UPDATE

I've been getting e-mails about the status of the CADGFX addon.
Is it vaporware? Did i photoshop the early screenshots? When is it being released? Etc, etc.


There's obviously been some delays...

The reason? I was compiling the latest version a few weeks ago when my build tree file went corrupt.
It's basically an index file that tracks all the files that get compiled.
I basically have to restore from an earlier version and update the build tree file with the updates and try again. The problem is my backup file was on a hard drive that crashed a while back. Shame on me for not keeping a good working backup. So it's going to take some time to get it back to the last build I had working.
I bought a dual sata USB drive that will become my main backup for my projects (including CADGFX stuff) In the meantime, I've been reorganizing ALL my files (photos, media, software, music) on separate external hard drives. This should make my workflow more efficient as each drive will be dedicated for a specific purpose.


I expect to be back up and running early August. Work unfortunately is taking a priority until then.

So as for a timeframe, i'll pay homage to a couple of my favorite software houses, 3D realms and ID, when I say, it will be released "W.I.D." At least i'm still doing better than Duke Nukem 4!! ;-)
In the meantime, I offer something a little different:


Go to google.ca and type "French military victories", then click the "I'm feeling lucky" button!

Favorite Free Photo Browser

I’m always on the lookout for good freeware tools. When I spend time reinstalling windows on someone’s computer, I like to include a variety of freeware that I find useful. Usually some sort of security/anti-virus. A zip utility, and an image browser. Because 99% of people will surf the net, get some kind of archive at some point, and will have images to view or share with others. At first, I was putting on Irfanview, then I migrated to XnView, and then to Faststone Image Viewer.

Each one of these viewers have their own benefits. And I won’t cover that in this post. Instead I’ll focus on an image browser that would be close to the image browsing capabilities of my old favorite, ACDSee. Ok, so after some surfing, I came across this:
Zoner Photo Studio Free

It’s very ACDSee-like in appearance, but offers a few features that even ACDSee lacks! Let’s get on with the mini-review!

MANAGER:

Well this is the Zoner’s manager interface. Zoner offers a dark theme, just like ACDSee. Tree browser and preview pane, with a task list on the right. Let’s compare this to ACDSee 12

As you can see the “manager” mode is very similar, and using them both, I can say that switching back and forth is very easy.

Viewer:

Each viewer mode is configurable, but you can see that once again, they are very similar.

Zoner:

ACDSee 12:

EDITOR:

Let’s compare the editing windows for them.

Zoner:

ACDSee:

 

Some differences here, but alot of the same basic editing is available. Color, B&W, Sepia Tone, Resizing, etc.

Some really nice features are included in the free zoner software. Batch EXIF editing, keyword application and searching. Which is great for those just starting to learn to manage their photos.

Now for the bells and whistles that’s unique to Zoner.

• Sort Photos – Read a group of photos and separate them based on Exif information (like date taken)
• Panoramic Stitching – Stitch together photos horizontal, and vertical panos are supported
• Create 3D images
• Calendar Generator! Really nice feature actually

So, why free? Because Zoner offers 2 other versions of their program, a Home version and a Pro version. You can check out the comparison chart here:

Zoner Comparison Chart

I’ll do a mini-review of the pro version of zoner vs ACDSee Pro at some point. But, if you’re curious, it’s worth checking out.

Largest Photo In the World!

A little photo goodie for you all... As of Dec 2009, the largest digital photo in the world is available to view online...

http://www.dresden-26-gigapixels.com/dresden26GP

CADGFX Update 10-02-02

Revised the menu system.. will allow users to create their own command aliases. There was a couple of conflicting commands when running the menu with Civil 3D 2009...
Still recoding some stuff, but it's taking a while.. Work is super busy!

Frosty Day

Just a photo that I took on my birthday!

Free Renaming – A Second Look

Sometimes people leave things thinking that they know the limitations of it. Thinking, that because they knew it or used it, or was a part of it for so long, that they knew all about it. The fact is that people make mistakes. Sometimes, if we look again, deeper into things we once knew, we can come away with more than what we expected or hoped. This can be true in many things, including relationships, friendships, or in this case, my old renaming utility Lupas Rename!
I think it’s important to right whatever wrongs we may have caused, so today, I am writing a few corrections for users who may have put Lupas Rename “out to pasture”, so to speak.
Let’s call this a re-review! While looking a bit more in depth at LR2000’s features, I came across a couple things that proved worth sharing.

1. LR2005 supports renaming files based on a list! Though the option was there, I somehow missed it!

To access the list feature, select the text editor button.

With the editor open, you can import text (file-->open) or use some of the other features to tweak your file list from the Import menu.

I’m just going to type my list as an example. And click the “X” button to close the window and return to the main screen.

Now in the main screen, we have to specify that we want to use the text in the text editor. We select The “replace text” option and RIGHT-CLICK to access a menu of available variables.

This context menu has lots of options, so, explore it! Really, i would like to see access to these options, a little bit more obvious. like a drop down list in the text box field or something. Because, if you don’t use a utility like this all the time, you’ll forget about this functionality.
You can see in this window, my modified list… with the <T> variable showing at the bottom.

With the variables available, you can get really creative options going. Also, using the “flatten folders” option, allows you to work on files stored in multiple folders! (it’s the folder tree symbol left of the text editor button.)
For example, i renamed 1300 PDFs that were separated into 40 different folders with different names in each folder. Each PDF was renamed to match the folder’s name and had a sequential number after the name. Total time to do the operation, just over 1 minute!
So, go check it out, LUPAS RENAME 2000.

Free PDF Management

Despite the leaps and bounds DWF has made in the CAD community. I'm still seeing PDF as a popular choice for electronic file sharing. The reasons are simple. PDF has been around for ages. Non-technical people know about PDF. And many of us have to submit drawings to non-technical people for a variety of reasons. I still get questions like "What's a DWF file?" from people in the industry. So, let's face the fact that as a CAD user, you will still need to create and manage PDF files.

There are alot of PDF creation tools out there. Some of them are free. (See my earlier post for my choices for that!)

When it gets to free PDF management though, the choices dwindle considerably. But I found a great utility called PDFSAM (PDF Split And Merge). Well by the name it offers some nice options, including, Merging, splitting, rotating, reordering, etc. It requires Java to run, but I've been testing it out. It works great. Very stable, and you can use an installer version, or a zip version. That's a plus for people that have restricted rights on computers.

So for basic PDF management, it's my choice.

CADGFX 2010

Well, i've been working on releasing the CADGFX addon for AutoCAD. I will be releasing two versions. 2008 version will be for AutoCAD 2008, and CADGFX 2010 will be geared for 2010 users. So far, the beta for 2008 is about 70% complete. Updating it for 2010 will take a bit more work. I'm hoping to release the beta for 2008 by the end of the month. (fingers crossed) But here's a screenshot of the menu for 2008.

Freeware Renaming Utilities

Everyone at some point has to rename files. But if you have to rename multiple files, a renaming utility can be your best friend. I recommend two utilities.

Option 1

LUPAS RENAME 2000 Lupas Rename was one of those utilities I’ve been using for a long time. It’s small and quick and should serve the needs of most of your renaming chores.
The Good	Free Windows context menu support can be portable easy to learn interface can create bat files
The Bad	No longer being updated since 2005 Using tags for MP3 renaming is not intuitive Cannot rename files based on a list

Option 2

ReNamer by Den4b It takes a bit of time to learn the interface, but it’s probably one of the most versatile renaming utilities available. I wanted to find a small simple utility that could rename files based on a list. This is it!
The Good	Free Windows context menu support Can be portable Rename based on custom list! Save and Load “presets” renaming functions Powerful renaming functions using Pascal scripting Still being developed
The Bad	Terrible name (if you don’t know Den4b!) scripting is geared for programmers Interface for selection/filter mode is clunky

They’re both free, and relatively small installs. I use both of these tools on a regular basis. From renaming drawings and PDF files to renaming MP3s.