Space Navigator for Notebook

3Dconnexion, a Logitech company, today announced the newest addition to its award-winning 3D mouse product line - the SpaceNavigator™ for Notebooks. Designed for on-the-go 3D professionals and enthusiasts, the SpaceNavigator for Notebooks enables a precise, rich 3D experience in a compact, mobile design that's only half the weight of its desktop counterpart - the SpaceNavigator. "As the notebook market continues to grow and more and more people carry their laptops with them, there is a greater need for advanced mobile input devices," said Dieter Neujahr, president of 3Dconnexion.

"This new 3D mouse encompasses a sophisticated design to address the need for portability in many environments, without sacrificing the intuitive 3D navigation and improved design experience our customers have come to expect from 3Dconnexion's product line. " The SpaceNavigator for Notebooks offers the same benefits as the original SpaceNavigator - effortless movement and control within 3D workspaces - but also includes a new cap design for more immersive and natural interactions within 3D applications. Designed to withstand the wear and tear of travel, the SpaceNavigator for Notebooks easily slips into a laptop bag and comes with a convenient travel case for easy transport. Its small footprint makes the device easy to use anywhere - at home, work, or at remote locations. Now a precision 3D mouse you can take with you! Compact and ultra-light, SpaceNavigator for Notebooks is the perfect travel companion for 3D designers and enthusiasts. 3D portability Designed for mobile professionals and enthusiasts, the compact SpaceNavigator for Notebooks is only half the weight of its desktop counterpart.

A small footprint makes it easy to use-even on airline trays-and a travel case makes transport effortless.New, improved designA new cap design increases comfort while making interactions with your 3D world more natural and immersive. The two-button layout simplifies control.Universal compatibility SpaceNavigator for Notebooks works with all your favorite 3D applications on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, or UNIX. Power dynamic 3D presentations with Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Build highly detailed models in CAD applications such as Autodesk Inventor or SolidWorks. Explore rich 3D scenes or worlds in Second Life, Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, Google Earth, NASA World Wind, or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Click Here for Pricing Details and Order Placement
Call Autograph on (012) 653-0351/61 for further information.

The Brick Library

Sean diVicenzo, a designer and a draftsman, sent some very interesting images on the Abvent's gallery. He kindly explained us how he conceived a library and music room for a private client in Arizona, all modeled with Google Sketch Up and rendered with Artlantis. These renderings reflect a very nice atmosphere made of wood, copper and glass... The complete user story is published on Artlantis website.You can also see the whole project, and more, on Lone Wolf Designs website

To discover how Sean conceived the project and its different stages of design, please download the whole user's story here

DesignMind Gallery

Find more photos like this on DesignMind

Artlantis in CreaNum

Here's the translation of an interview of Artlantis product manager recently published in Creation Numerique. He explains the Artlantis revolution.

What’s new in the latest version of Artlantis ?

“ The new version of Artlantis offers more than just features... it is a real revolution. We kept everything that Artlantis is famous for, its ease of use, intuitive interface and, above all, its powerful controls - and we introduced technologies that work for the user. Users can visualize the 3D model in real time using radiosity. Artlantis is unique among rendering software packages in the way it integrates radiosity into a live 3D preview.

The 3D model is displayed in real-time using high quality radiosity lighting effects, maintaining an appearance consistent with the final rendering.We also did a great job on the new lightings control, with systems that automatically balance the intensity of various light sources within a project. It works like the autoexposure setting on a digital camera.

Regardless of how many light sources are in the scene, the system automatically adjusts their intensity, in order to avoid overexposure. Thanks to this light balancing system, it is now possible to change from day to night exterior lighting while automatically keeping the intensity of interior light sources consistently balanced.

Once the scene’s lighting is prepared, the user only needs to determine what type of atmosphere to use - a day or a night sky - and the system takes care of the rest.For materials, we introduced algorithms that realistically simulate actual materials. While playing with the reflection or brillance settings, it is easy to show very realistic effects and, moreover, to control all the modifications in real time within the preview window.

With the “normal maps” function, we have introduced a new option to accentuate the shadows or create more depth perception in a material, making it possible to show, for example, the subtle height variations of tiled surfaces.Another new function allows the user to put QuickTime or AVI movies into a scene, such as onto a TV screen, creating more dynamic animations with Artlantis Studio. Also, we’ve included the ability to add animated characters to the scene, with a variety of realistic motion-captured preset behaviors like waiting, chatting, or walking from one point to another”.Artlantis is famous for its very user-friendly interactivity, is it still the case in this new version ?

“ Yes, I think we have reinforced this concept. To us, it is a major asset when people can benefit from an advanced technology that is almost invisible. Nevertheless, it’s really there, behind a very simple interface. The user can easily take advantage of these automated features and powerful tools in Artlantis, increasing productivity dramatically. To that end, it’s very easy to create a 3d sky, and add cirrus, cumulus or stratus clouds - and even add a slight haze to the skyline by manipulating the “pollution factor” !

Artlantis also allows the user to create enhanced images called “postcards”, either to easily store and share a palette of materials, or to study different type of materials in a project while being able to quickly return the model to its previous configuration. While Artlantis is designed to produce professional high quality documents, it’s not specifically dedicated to the high-end CGI expert, but perhaps to someone like a stage designer whose main goal is to choose the right views, attractive materials and appropriate effects, in order to produce the perfect “marketing-friendly” picture of a project “.

Memory Management in Artlantis

This interesting article is by courtesy of Alain Picard - Abvent

If XP knows that this OS manage only 2GB RAM per applications. Nonetheless you can manage till 3GB, to do so please do so but only if your are confident with Winodws bacause Abvent will not be responsible for any miss use or the following.Artlantis 2.0 is now « Large address aware ».

This will improve overall performance and let you manage bigger files.If you are a Windows Vista 32 Bits or 64 Bits user you’ll automatically take benefit of this new feature.If you are a Windows XP user you have to change one setting on your machine to allow the operating system to be also “Large address aware”. Please do the following:

1. In My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

2. Click the Edit button under System Startup to edit the BOOT.INI file.

3. Find the current boot entry, which typically looks like this:multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

4. Change this line by simply adding the “ /3GB” switch at the end :multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /3GB

5. Save and close BOOT.INI.

6. Click OK to close the Startup and Recovery panel.

7. Restart your machine. This works on all Windows XP systems (Home and Pro)I hope this is clear enough for you all…if not, as always, don’t hesitate to eMail me.

For those who want know a little more about memory management on Windows XP, please read through this document :http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

Hope this will help.

Alain Picard Abvent

Artlantis in Education

STUDENTS:

Abvent understand that todays Architectural and Interior Design Students, are potentially tomorrows Abvent clients.

For this reason, Abvent continue to support the educational environment in providing Students who are currently studying Architecture or Interior Design, an opportunity to use Artlantis Studio 2 for the duration of their study period, Free of Charge

The License issued, will expire after a twelve month period, at which time the Student can re-apply fo a further twelve month period, if they are still studying.

If you are a Student, click here to apply for your Artlantis Studio 2 - Student License

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS:

Abvent understand that today's Architectural / Interior Design Students, are potentially tomorrows Abvent clients.

For this reason, Abvent continue to support the educational environment in providing Educational Institutions with up to 90 x Artlantis Studio 2 Network Licenses, Free of Charge, to be installed in the Educational Institutions Computer Laboratory to enable the Students to acquaint themselves with the use of Artlantis Studio 2

The Network License issued, will expire after a twelve month period, at which time the Educational Institution can re-apply for a further twelve month period.

If you are an Educational Institution, click here to apply for your Educational Network Artlantis Studio 2 licenses.

Autograph take this opportunity to thank Abvent for their "forward thinking" and significant investment in the future of our Design Professionals.

AVIS (Artlantis Video Instruction Series)

Based on the popular Artlantis reference guide, namely The Missing Book, Autograph have now created the movie !!!

Comprising four hours of "step by step" instructional Video Tutorials, AVIS is guaranteed to get you "fully up and running" on Artlantis Studio within two days.

For FULL DETAILS on subject matter covered, as well as pricing, visit our Autograph website.