The Big Make & DYI Movemnet

There has been a Movement especially in NYC over the past 5 years. one Company was Instructables who were bought by Autodesk August 2011.

Arduino, MakerBot, O’Reilly’s Maker Magazine, Craft Magazine and Maker Faire, Etsy, Kickstarter, Inventables, Tinkercad

From their about page:

Instructables is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others. The seeds of Instructables germinated at the MIT Media Lab as the future founders of Squid Labs built places to share their projects and help others. Read more about the history...

In August 2011 Instructables joined Autodesk, a leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software. Read more about why we're excited to be part of Autodesk.

Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses | CNET News

You may not know CAD, but if you’ve got a computer, you can now start creating 3D models.

That’s the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company’s existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.

Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event at its innovation center here today, making the argument that just about anyone can now play the role of 3D modeler that has traditionally belonged to CAD experts and other professional designers.

With 123D Catch, a user can take any digital camera and use it to photograph a real-world object. By snapping a few dozen pictures from angles all around the object and then uploading them to Autodesk’s cloud-based system via the software, the user can within minutes get back a 3D model of the object. Autodesk will process the model at no charge.

via: Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses | CNET News

CENSORED - Tumblr gets the word out

Today I found my Tumblr Blog edit window blacked out

with this message behind

Congress is considering two well-intentioned but deeply flawed bills, the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.

As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.

Read more: An Open Letter EFF Ars Technica Fred Wilson

Falling Water

By: Cristóbal Vila. This CG Animation is 4 years old

So you want to be an Architect

Home Sales & World Prices

Interesting chart from (of all places) McKinsey, circa October 2009:

“From 2000 through 2007, a remarkable run-up in global home prices occurred (see chart). But that trend has reversed abruptly. In 2008, the value of US residential real estate fell 10 percent; the global average fared only somewhat better, declining by almost 4 percent. We estimate that falling home prices erased more than $3.4 trillion of household wealth in 2008.”

The chart below reads to me as having regular cycles, oscillating within a range. But something happened in the early 2000s to have that range explode upwards.

(Please note the title is from McKinsey, I have long stated this was a credit bubble –not a housing bubble)

via: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/11/a-global-view-of-the-housing-bubble/

US Single-Family New Home Starts and Sales



US Distressed Sales Share of Total Home Sales



via: http://financialservices.house.gov/UploadedFiles/FSOCAR2011.pdf

State of the Art - Modeling In SketchUp

I found this example by Ramy Hanna that shows mastery of Sketchup. Some people make it look easy.

Modeling In SketchUp from Ramy Hanna on Vimeo.

I decided to capture my modeling process. For modeling I usually use SketchUp. After seeing this video, hopefully you will understand why. It is a very powerful program for modeling architecture. It's so fast and easy to create objects, and edit them after creation. The models also import into 3dsmax very clean and light.

The entire model took 5 1/2 hours to model.