Moss Designs
December 23, 2004 CADzette
CAD News Large and Small

Volume II

Issue 31
Happy Christmas for all those who celebrate the birth of Christ! May you find exactly who you want gathered around your tree this year...what's under the tree is so much less important than the people you celebrate with.

This Christmas my husband of 27 years and I will be on the road traveling through New Mexico and Colorado, exploring new territories in search for the perfect piece of land for our horses and us to homestead.

Looks like the economy in 2005 will continue it's slow climb out of the morass...with the dollar weak and weakening, the US economy certainly has struggles ahead...but Americans are a can-do bunch and I have no doubt we will emerge stronger, if not a little shell-shocked, when the next good times come 'round, as surely they will. As always, this means that those of us in the CAD world, will have to work "smarter" with less resources and less money. Training and knowledge is "power"...what you know will always be recession-proof and I hope that this ezine helps you, in some small way, improve your skills so you can continue to do well and do even better in 2005.

Using Backgrounds in Rendering
 
So, like a lot of people who create renderings...I cheat. That means I use background images to help create my scene, whether it is clouds, a garden, a starry night, or whatever. But finding the right image to put in the back of my 3D model can be a major pain.

Enter this website (see below)...some great images (all free - my favorite price)...I just download, save to my backgrounds folder and then use as a background in my rendering.

By adding fog (which basically creates a noise or a depth to your 2D background) and adding in some 3D models of trees or whatever, I can meld everything together to create something that looks fairly photo- realistic.

The website also has some free software that allows you to create your own screensavers to mix and match your favorite digital images. Happy downloading!

Low-Cost FormZ Training
  Learn How to Write Plugins and Scripts
Come learn how to develop your own 3D modeling operations in form.Z 5.0 using the new extension architecture. Methods for creating independent 'plugins' and integrated scripts will be presented in a hands-on workshop format. $50, includes lunch and learning materials...Bring your own laptop.

  • Villa Florence at Union Square
  • Machiavelli Room
  • 225 Powell Street
  • San Francisco, CA 94102
  • January 13, 2005
  • 8:30 - 5:30
Joe Greco, Columnist and Trainer, Dead at 41
 
Joe Greco, well-known columnist and President of The CAD Society, passed away on December 12 while vacationing with his family.
Free Lisp Routine for Qleader control
 
Frank Whaley, from Autodesk, recently posted this lisp routine in Autodesk's newsgroups.

This is a lisp that lets you set your qleader settings so that they are autoloaded each time you start autocad.

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