Through the Interface

AutoCAD integration samples for Kinect for Windows 2 –Part 4

After introducing the series, taking a look at some basic samples and then looking at importing Kinect’s high-definition face tracking data into AutoCAD, it’s time for (in my opinion) the most interesting piece of functionality provided on the Kinect SDK, Kinect Fusion. Kinect Fusion is a straightforward way to capture 3D volumes – allowing you to move the Kinect sensor around to capture objects from different angles – and the KINFUS command in these integration samples let’s you bring the captured data into AutoCAD. Which basically turns Kinect into a low-cost – and reasonably effective – 3D scanner for... Read more →

AutoCAD integration samples for Kinect for Windows 2 –Part 3

Today’s post looks at face tracking and – to some degree, at least – Kinect Fusion, two more advanced Kinect SDK features that go some way above and beyond the standard samples we saw in the last post. In Kinect for Windows v1, these features belong to an additional “developer toolkit”, although they appear to have been fully integrated into the core Kinect SDK for v2. At least that’s the case in the preview SDK. There are some additional runtime components you’ll need to copy across into AutoCAD’s program files folder to make use of these features: you’ll need... Read more →

AutoCAD integration samples for Kinect for Windows 2 –Part 2

Following on from the introduction to this series – and to the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor – it’s time to take a closer look at some of the AutoCAD integration samples. At the core of the Kinect sensor’s capabilities are really two things: the ability to capture depth data and to detect people’s bodies in the field of view. There are additional bells and whistles such as audio support, Kinect Fusion and face tracking, but the foundation is really about RGB-D input and the additional runtime analysis required to track humans. Let’s take a look at both of... Read more →

AutoCAD integration samples for Kinect for Windows 2 –Part 1

Last Friday Microsoft announced a preview SDK for Kinect for Windows 2. As the first public release of the SDK, it seems a good time to publish an initial set of samples for readers to play with. These are very much a work in progress – I tend to restart AutoCAD between Kinect Fusion captures, for instance, as otherwise I’ve been getting regular crashes – but they should give people a sense of what’s possible. And while I haven’t yet implemented certain capabilities we had before, I have gone ahead and snuck a few enhancements in (which you’ll see... Read more →

Building a web-based viewer using the Autodesk View & Data API – Part 2

In the last post we saw the process for getting content uploaded to Autodesk storage and translated into the format required by the Autodesk 360 viewer. In this post we’re going to show the steps to take that data and embed it in a “simple” HTML page. (Any complex capability in this page it’s due to the UI code that Dan Wellman kindly allowed me to borrow for the sample: otherwise what it does is very simple indeed.) There are, of course, more complex samples that the ADN team has developed to demonstrate the richness of the new View... Read more →

Building a web-based viewer using the Autodesk View & Data API – Part 1

Over the next few posts we’re going to take a look at the steps needed to build the Steampunk Morgan Viewer, my first sample using Autodesk’s new View & Data API. In today’s post we’re going to look at the steps needed to host content to be served up to instances of the viewer. In a subsequent post we’ll look at the client-side implementation, connecting to and streaming down content and controlling how it gets viewed. So let’s start with some basics. The first thing you need to do when working with the new View & Data API is... Read more →

Kinect Fusion for Kinect for Windows 2

A few weeks ago I received the official retail version of Kinect for Windows 2 (having signed up for the pre-release program I had the right to two sensors: the initial developer version and the final retail version). After some initial integration work to get the AutoCAD-Kinect samples working with the pre-release Kinect SDK, I hadn’t spent time looking at it in the meantime: the main reason being that I was waiting for Kinect Fusion to be part of the SDK. The good (actually, great) news is that it’s now there and it’s working really well. For those of... Read more →

Quite the road trip: 3DRV

Some of you are probably aware of this activity from Shaan’s and Scott’s blogs, but I thought it was overdue a mention here, too. Autodesk is sponsoring the mother of all road trips: over the course of 8 months, TJ McCue is travelling the length and breadth of the United States in a brightly decorated recreational vehicle (RV), spreading the word about 3D technology. TJ is talking to people around the country about reality computing – capture, processing and fabrication processes such as 3D printing – as well as the availability of low-cost design tools. TJ is documenting his... Read more →

An updated implementation of a CAD standards plugin for AutoCAD using .NET

Over the last few months I’ve had a number of people ask me for an update to this 6-year old post on implementing a CAD standards plugin for AutoCAD (which in turn was based on code from an older DevNote created from a much older VB6 sample). Augusto Gonçalves from the ADN team very kindly made a start on this while I was out on vacation, providing a basic port that I’ve now just put a few finishing touches on. Very few changes were actually needed from the code in the original post, thankfully. Also, I did do my... Read more →

DogeSharp in AutoCAD

Sometimes you just need to ease back into work after a few weeks off. So today I decided to have a go at integrating DogeSharp – a programming language on top of of .NET inspired by Dogescript – into AutoCAD. There was absolutely no reason to do so, other than to cause myself some amusement. Which is actually a pretty good reason, now that I think about it. For those of you who – like me – are almost completely unaware of Internet memes such as Doge, this was apparently a big one in 2013 and all started with... Read more →

Autodesk Exchange Apps Hackathon 2014

After the initial Autodesk Exchange Apps Portathon was held last year, the ADN team is running a similar – but expanded – event, the Autodesk Exchange Apps Hackathon, on September 20-21. There’s more information available on both Jeremy’s blog and the ADN DevBlog, but here’s a quick summary of the salient points: Free to attend Open to anyone, anywhere (it’s a virtual event) Lots of great presentations on app development The ADN team will also be available to provide support You earn money for apps you get published $50/$100 for published free/paid apps, up to 5 per company Additional... Read more →

Top 5 beaches on the island of Andros

As mentioned in the last post, we recently got back from our first trip to the beautiful Greek island of Andros. While we managed to visit 8 beaches during our 12 days on the island – some multiple times – there are more to see: the list is far from exhaustive. I’ve done my best to state my (admittedly subjective) criteria, in case you’re looking for something different from a beach holiday. I’ve rated the various beaches in 5 different areas: Access [easy or hard to get to, state of access road, parking relative to the beach] Facilities [umbrellas,... Read more →

Our holiday on Andros

The next few posts may seem a bit anomalous – yes, I more commonly write about programming with AutoCAD – but then I’ve been sitting on a variety of beaches on the Greek island of Andros for the best part of the last two weeks, so for now it’s all I have to write about. :-) In today’s post I’m going to introduce Andros, one of the islands in the Cyclades island chain, while in the next post I’ll talk about its beaches. Here’s a quick Autodesk-centric anecdote, though. I wore a pair of flip-flops with the Autodesk logo... Read more →