CAD Garage Blog

Artlantis Render & Studio sale-new and upgrades ends soon

Artlantis is the fastest stand-alone 3D rendering application developed especially for architects and designers and we have an incredible sale going on until December 31st, 2011 on Artlantis Studio & Render. Our end of the year sale includes new and additional license as well as upgrades and some of the media libraries that you might want to add as a belated stocking stuffer.

If you are looking to produce high quality photo realistic renderings and animations and don't want to rely on "specialists" to get the job done Artlantis is the tool for you. Create stunning iVisist 3D Panoramas for stunning client presenatations on your iPhone or iPad. It's fast, easy to use and the preview window technology allows you to see what you will be getting without waiting for the rendering to complete. Artlantis is available on both Macintosh and Windows platforms and works with most modelers used in the Architecture profession. Plug-ins for ArchiCAD, Vectorworks, SketchUp and Revit are available.

To take advantage of these savings visit the CADgarage Artlantis section HERE.

If you have any questions give us a call or send an email-we'll here to assist you!

Happy rendering,

 

Greg

Artlantis Render & Studio 4: Increased Quality, Speed & Productivity

The exciting new version of Artlantis is here!  Equipped with a new rendering engine, Artlantis 4 is now faster than ever.  It also introduces the new iVisit 3D technology for easily sharing virtual tours of models through the internet and on all mobile devices including iPhones and iPads.

For upgrades and new license pricing head HERE.

The new features of Artlantis 4 are the following:

Quality Improvements:

The new radiosity engine improves images for a better perception of colors, textures, and materials.  A new Fresnel Shader has been added to the library. Watch the video here!

Performance Improvements:

 
Artlantis 4 is faster than ever. The average rendering time is TWO times faster, and SEVEN times faster if the project uses many Neon Shaders. In order to better handle large projects, Artlantis 4 is now optimized for 64-bits on Macintosh and Windows. Watch the video here!

Productivity Improvements:

The most important new productivity tools are the Horizontal projection, the Gravity for Objects and the Split by Mesh tools.

iVisit 3D Panoramas:

 
Artlantis Studio 4 is able to create a true, virtual tour inside your project with multi-node panoramas. The player is free of charge and based on Flash™ technology.  Watch the video here!

iVisit 3D Application:
iVisit 3D allows iPad and iPhone owners to view and share panoramas created with Artlantis Studio 4.  iVisit 3D is available in two versions (Lite and Pro) from the App Store. Watch the video here!

Artlantis Objects, New Media Librairies Available:
5 New media libraries are available as follows.

 

• Dosch Design 3D Cars 2008

• Dosch Design 3D Cars 2009

• Dosch Design 3D Cars 2010 Asia

• Dosch Design 3D Cars 2010 Europe

• Dosch Design 3D Transport 2010

That will get your motor running!

 

Happy rendering,

Greg

 

Awards, Awards, Awards!

Well it's that time of the year again when awards programs abound. I was surprised this last week when my inbox had so many emails about the big one out there. For many years we have supplied the digital tools to assist many Architects and Designers to visualize their dreams in 3D and create suberb renderings. You might call us an "Award Enabler"...

To help you in showcasing your design talents we carry formZ / bonzai 3D, Cinema 4D, Artlantis Render / Studio & Piranesi and a few other goodies. All of these tools are known for their ease of use-the ahrd part is creating award winning projects! If you've got what it takes read on for some great awrds programs.

 

 

Architect Magazine 59th Annual P/A Awards

Categories Include:

• 1.Commercial
• 2. Cultural
• 3. Educational
• 4. Governmental
• 5. Industrial
• 6. Religious
• 7. Health-Related
• 8. Multifamily Housing
• 9. Recreational
• 10. Single-Family Housing
• 11. Urban Design

Click HERE to register
Deadline: October 28th, 2011 

 

Hanley Wood 2012 CUSTOM HOME Design Awards

Categories Include:

• 1. Custom Home / Less Than 3,000 Square Feet
• 2. Custom Home / 3,000–5,000 Square Feet
• 3. Custom Home / More Than 5,000 Square Feet
• 4. Custom Kitchen
• 5. Custom Bath
• 6. Renovation
(residential remodeling or addition)
• 7. Architectural Interiors
(build-outs, interior renovations)
• 8. Accessory Building
(pool house, stable, garden house, guesthouse, etc.)
• 9. Custom Detail 
(a specific detail from a custom home)
• 10. Outdoor Spaces
(built outdoor areas such as pool decks and outdoor kitchens)
• 11. On the Boards 
(any unbuilt custom residential project not yet completed)

ELIGIBILITY:
Projects must be completed after Jan. 1, 2007.

Click HERE to register

Deadline: November 14th, 2011

Contract Magazine 33rd annual Interiors Awards

Categories Include:

• 1. Large Office (25,000 sq. ft. and up)
• 2. Small Office (up to 25,000 sq. ft.)
• 3. Hotels
• 4. Restaurants
• 5. Healthcare
• 6. Retail7. Education
• 8. Public Space
• 9. Showroom/Exhibit
• 10. Sports/Entertainment
• 11. Spa/Fitness
• 12. Historic Restoration
• 13. Adaptive Reuse
• 14. Environmental (Green) Design
• 15. Student/Conceptual

Click HERE to register

Deadline: October 7th, 2011

Builder & Custom Home Magazine Watermark Awards

Categories Include:

• 1. Kitchen in a Custom Home

-Less than 3,000 square feet

-3,000 to 5,000 square feet

-Over 5,000 square feet

• 2. Kitchen in a Production Home

-Less than 2,000 square feet

-2,000 to 3,000 square feet

-Over 3,000 square feet

• 3. Kitchen in a Remodeled Home

-Less than 2,000 square feet

-2,000 to 3,000 square feet

-Over 5,000 square feet

• 4. Master Bath

-Custom Home

-Production Home

-Remodeled Home

• 5. Multifamily

-Kitchen

-Bath

• 6. Powder Room

-Custom Home

-Production Home

-Remodeled Home

• 7. Special Focus

-Innovative use of materials

-Lighting • Custom details

-Other

Click HERE to register

Deadline: November 4th, 2011

ELIGIBILITY Builders, architects and designers may submit residential kitchens and baths from projects completed after January 1, 2010.

 

Good luck!

Greg

 

Artlantis Media Madness 50% sale ends 5/15!

It's coming to a close...

First thanks to all of you that have purchased Artlantis Media (Shaders & Objects) during this ever so fine special. It's been pretty busy here at the 'garage and I've had the chance to catch up with some long time users I hadn't spoken to in ages and met a lot of new people. Those relationships shall continue but unfortunately the sale ends on May 15th, 2011 at midnight so if you need (or just want) shaders take advantage of this sale and save an unprecedented 50% off on downloadable items.

At CADgarage we carry an extensive line of Artlantis Shaders & Objects available as individual libraries such as Casual 3D Models 1 (people) small collections and the full Artlantis Family Media Collection of 29 volumes featuring hundreds of objects and shaders. You can find our Shaders & Objects section HERE.

So take advantage of this opportunity to fill out your entourage and begin producing more realistic renderings!

ps: And don't forget the Artlantis Roadshow:

The Artlantis Roadshow will be coming to the Boston Architectural College on Monday May 23, 2011. You can Register Here.

In addition to Boston, the Artlantis Roadshow will be making stops in San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Alexandria, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD & Vancouver, BC starting May 22.

With demo's (free) and training ($195) you can learn how to use all those new Artlantis Media purchases!

Greg Conyngham

 

Artlantis Road Show

 

 

It's that time of year again! The Artlantis Roadshow will be coming to the Boston Architectural College on Monday May 23, 2011. You can Register Here.

In addition to Boston, the Artlantis Roadshow will be making stops in San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Alexandria, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD & Vancouver, BC starting May 22.

Whether you are new to Artlantis or a seasoned user, the Artlantis Roadshow is a wonderful oppportunity to broaden your horizons. Each stop will offer demonstration sessions for those who do not yet own the software, and training sessions (in select locations) for those who already do. The Boston Artlantis Training is $195 and a total of 16 seats will be made available so Register Here for the training soon!

Powered by a highly accurate radiosity engine, Artlantis Render/Studio is one of the most powerful stand-alone rendering solutions for photorealistic 3D rendering. Abvent, developers of Artlantis, have worked hard on enabling the exchange of data between Artlantis and leading CAD applications such as ArchiCAD, Vectorworks, SketchUp, and Revit. Known for it's speed, ease of use and interoperability, Artlantis makes high-quality photorealistic rendering accessible to all.

So sign up and learn how to create great renderings with Artlantis's fast easy to use software and bring new skills to your firm!

Greg

 

 

 

 

Birds nest in the 'garage

Winter is here in New England and as the birds set in to nest we to have a new bird in the CAD Garage. After many months of using our archicad_boston account for CAD Garage tweets we have now set up a new Twitter account, CADgarage, for a little more exclusive use by our team of mechanics. You can now find us at:

http://twitter.com/CADgarage

Myself, Jaimee Baker and Brian Clark will be keeping these birds busy tweeting about new products, specials and interesting resources for our clients. So expect to see more stuff on ArchiCAD, formZ, Bonzai, Cinema 4D, Piranesi, Macs and other things we like lining our new nest.

And of course if you are looking for more ArchiCAD specific info you can follow us at:

http://twitter.com/archicad_boston

We look forward to seeing all of you there!

 Greg Conyngham

Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Betweekend

Short and sweet:

CAD Garage is having a "Black Friday, Cyber Monday and everything in between (Betweekend?)" sale from now through November 30th, 2009. We'll take 10% off your order total when you enter coupon code: BFCM10 at checkout. Coupon applies to orders totaling $250 or more. And orders over $100 qualify for free shipping! Details here.

It's a great time to take advantage of those big ticket item purchases such as ArchiCAD, formS, Piranesi, Artlantis or a new plotter. So head back to CAD Garage and start saving now!

Greg

CAD Garage 12th Anniversary!

Happy 12th Anniversary to us!

Ok, CAD Garage as a brand has not been in use for 12 years but our online store began in November of 1997 with just a few ArchiCAD and formZ books available. Back then it was just the "ICS Online Store", and was hosted by a startup online e-commerce group in nearby Harvard Square who was later purchased by Yahoo. So we were a Yahoo Store from day one of Yahoo stores with the exciting URL of www.store.yahoo.com/intcad. In 2003 we registered the www.cadgarage.com domain, not knowing what we would use it for, later to realize we had this online store in desperate need of a branding makeover and CAD Garage was truly born. But alas, we still celebrate our birth as being November 1997 as a little store to sell hard to find specialty books and training materials for software programs such as ArchiCAD, formZ, Arlantis, Piranesi and many others. We have also strived to provide other hardware and software that is "best in class", unique, hard to find or just strikes us as interesting with a particular emphasis on Mac or multi-platform tools. And that's where we are today and what we will continue to offer in the future.

So thank you to all of our customers over the years for purchasing from us, coming back again, spreading the word and becoming friends. And thank you to our employees who work hard, strive for excellence and continue the tradition.

And if you did read this far you get a little prize! Use coupon code "CG12" at checkout to receive $12 off on any purchase over $50 through November 30th, 2009 at CAD Garage.

Greg

- BIMulus -

BIMulus: The Stimulus for the rest of us.

Or so my story goes.

It's clear from my travels, meetings and calls to architects that BIM (Building Information Modeling) is beginning a critical upswing within the profession. Clients, both public and private, are asking for BIM models or for teams to work within a BIM process. Contractors are starting to ask architects if they have a BIM model available and even peer pressure from fellow architects (you doing BIM yet?) is taking hold. And with all that we can start to see a future where there are the BIM have's and have not's-and projects will go to those that can provide the services clients are requesting. So in these times of reduced workload it's time to start thinking about becoming a BIM have.

Ramping up your skills now will have a big payback as projects begin to come back on board through either stimulus money or the opening up of credit markets. You'll be competing against a few BIM early adopters but by being able to show your firm has the skills in place and can meet the clients needs you're much more likely to be shortlisted. And many of the public projects receiving stimulus money will require BIM-both GSA and state government funded. In the private sector the ability to provide BIM service, at even a basic level, will set you apart from much of the competition in your marketing and business development efforts. So get BIM'ing!

Here's a few ways to start:

-Download Graphisoft's "BIM Learning Studio":

<https://trialregistration.graphisoft.com>

It's a 30 day trial of ArchiCAD 12 plus a number of tutorials to get you started on your way. Graphisoft invented the Virtual Building technology 25 years ago that we know today as BIM. And it's free!

-Learn ArchiCAD better:

The Virtual Tutor for ArchiCAD 12 DVD will assist you in learning ArchiCAD on a project from start to finish while watching video tutorials. Get the popcorn started!

-Read some BIM books:

It's not just about the software you know? You need to be able to speak about the process and do it if you win the work. So here's a few titles for you:

Building Information Modeling, by William Kymmell

BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling, By Chuck Eastman & others

Green BIM: Successful Sustainable Design with BIM, by Ed Krygiel and Bradley Nies

Those will provide you with more then enough ability to talk the talk while inducing minimal naps.

-Learn another new tool:

Now that you have yourself a fancy little Building Information Model gussy it up with Artlantis Render. A good rendering tools can help you sell yourself and your projects. And really, do you think the client just wants a big old data filled model? They want the pretty pictures too!

-If the entry price of BIM software is holding you back consider a few options:

ArchiCAD 12 PayPerUse (PPU)

Get started with a 300 hour use key for under $500. And credit up to 3 keys towards a full license through the end of 2009.

ArchiCAD Start Edition 2009

BIM for the sole practitioner, small firm or builder with an entry level price.

So wake up tomorrow and say to yourself "I'm going to put a little BIMulus in my firm"

Greg