More on eZ

We got asked: What is this EZ, btw? Is it specifically design with SU collaboration in mind?

eZ is a bunch of neat stuff - basically for sharing CAD drawings. We have recently added SketchUp to it as one of its CAD formats, and are just about ready to announce it to the SketchUp community.

eZ Meeting is an easy way to collaborate on a CAD drawing in a Net Meeting like environment. The cleverest thing is that the CAD data is downloaded to all participants machines, so when you spin or zoom on the drawing, the same drawing is redisplayed quickly on each machine - rather that having to transmit the pixel changes from the screen - like in Net Meeting. Also, as each collaborator adds notations and comments to the model, they are all saved back to the eZ file which is being shared.

eZ SketchBook is a non-meeting version of the same thing. It lets you create a document containing SketchUp and/or other CAD files, images and other documents, and "mark up" on them. (highlights, arrows, notes, etc.). However instead of doing it interactively with the other party, you send them the document, and let them view it and/or add comments and return it to you.

eZ Free is a free version of eZ SketchBook to get people interested. Hopefully, they will want to pay a small amount for the more powerful version.

Al

eZ for SketchUp

We met this week with our developing and marketing partner - Sigma Design - about our new free, add-on for SketchUp. eZ for SketchUp (free), and eZ SketchBook (not free) should be available for testing in 2 weeks.

eZ lets you markup SketchUp drawings (red line, notes, arrows, comments, etc.) and share them with co-workers or clients. The free version does a wonderful job of marking up documents. The main advantage of the for $$ version is that you can create multi-page documents, and include other documents formats (.PDF, .DOC, images, etc.) in you final presentation.

Watch for more news in a week or so.

RpWallMaker comments

Dennis showed RpWallMaker, the free add-on for SketchUp at the ARRIS CAD Users conference.

They had a few helpful comments for us:

1. Add other justifications, besides center justified.

2. Find a good way to close the final wall.

3. Consider a good way to use two components for windows (inside and outside) and/or to automatically stretch a component.

For more on RpWallMaker - see RpWallMaker

Denver Blizzard

Denver finally got some snow. We have had more snow so far in this storm then we have had so far all year. (8" - it has been pretty dry down in Denver up to now).

We appreciate the snow, but I sent everyone home, so we won't be putting out the new releases I had hoped to complete today.

ARRIS CaD meeting in Denver

ARRIS CAD is holding their user's group meeting in Denver tomorrow (if anyone can get here)

One of the highlights will be a discussion on Paperless Design and Build at the Art Museum tomorrow morning and a talk by a local SketchUp user on "Drawing with SketchUp" tomorrow afternoon. We are teaching a session on SketchUp Rendering and Plugins Saturday morning.

If anyone wants to try to attend any of this, let me know. We can probably work one or two more people in. Or if you just want to meet us we will be at the Art Museum and the the Warwick hotel tomorrow and Saturday.

People have started ordering nXt for Revit

We received our first actual order for nXt for Revit yesterday.

This was a big deal for us. Although we hoped that there would be value adapting a fast, powerful engine like nXt to the Revit system, we were not sure whether anyone eles would agree that is was worth paying for a renderer when there is already a free renderer included with the product.

We appreciate the confidence Revit users are placing in Render Plus and the nXt engine, and we will continue to improve it.

Updated download link for nXt for Revit

The download link we sent the earlier was incorrect. If you tried to download nXt for Revit and it did not work properly, please download a new version from:: Downloads

Rendering Contest

There is just one week left in the Rendering Contest. We have received some great entries, and I know some of you are waiting until the last minute to get yours ready.

We have decided to add one more (potential) prize. If both of the top two winners already own IRender nXt, then we are going to award a copy of IRender nXt to the top finisher who does not already own a copy of the product. That way the best rendering by a contestant who does not own the software will get a free copy of the software.

See: Contest for more information on the rendering contest.

We are not putting any of the entries in the Image Gallery until the contest is closed.

Also, we will automatically enter any images which are uploaded to the IRender nXt Image Gallery.

All images will be judged at 800 x 600 resolution, however you may submit larger resolutions if desired. (The larger resolution image may be helpful when the images are added to the Image Gallery)

nXt for Revit released for production

nXt for Revit - our version of IRender nXt for the Revit engine has now been released.

We have now moved nXt for Revit from Beta test mode to Production mode.

We recognize that there will continue to be bug fixes, improvements to the base engine, and to the interface, and that is why we are offering the production version to our testers for less than 1/2 of the final price. (See Purchase)

We have created a good rendering engine for Revit, and have fixed most of the bugs which our Beta Testers have reported. nXt for Revit is producing good renderings now.

We feel that the product is ready for release to the general public, and have released it.

We appreciate the work the testers have put into helping us define a product which is useful for the Revit community.

IRender nXt Reviews

We found some reviews of IRender nXt on site that reviews software.

Most were pretty good, like:

"amazimg!

5http://www.novedge.com/images/boxes/_2147.jpgproductIRender nXt

I use this product in educational purpose, like a student of architecture, and I think it is the best plugins for sketchUp.
for a little time zou can make a beutiful and photo realistic 3D project.
It is the best and for now I will use only IRender nXt!!!

Posted: Thursday, January 29, 2009"

But one was fairly negative:

"Accurender with sketchup

1http://www.novedge.com/images/boxes/_2147.jpgproductIRender nXt

i felt the renderer was very clumbsy to work with. the renderings were not very high quality and to adjust the settings is not intuitive. as a side note, the plugins for sketchup that are also available are very interesting and useful. not as well executed as the built in modules of the program, but nice add-ons.

Posted: Friday, January 26, 2007"

But the good news about the negative one is that it is over 2 years old.

nXt for Revit

We put out a new version of nXt for Revit today - our add-on rendering product using the same engine as IRender nXt for SketchUp.
It's been a little while since we had a release, but this one has some nice features

• Glow add for materials
• Background images and colors added.
• New Setup Option interface.

Earlier Releases:

• Fixed locations for RPC objects and Trees embedded in Families
• Improved the RPC interface.
• Reduced the delay loading the Map Material and Plant dialogs.
• Added support for the new fractal AccuRender nXt trees.
• Fixed height and width for procedural tile materials
• HK09: We now use the Color, Transparency and Reflection from the Revit rendering material for materials not mapped to AccuRender nXt materials.

See: Forum for more information about nXt for Revit

We have been talking to Coen and the other at SketchUcation about how to generate some revenue to maintian their site. We convinced them that it might be more profitible to run ads form their own clients, rather than Google Ads at the top of he site.

As a result, we now have an ad for our rendering contest on their two main pages.

Videos Tutorials on YouTube

We are uploading our video tutorials to YouTube, take a look: YouTube



The Videos on our own site - Videos - are of better quality. But the YouTube videos might get seen by some people who have not heard of IRender nXt yet or visited our home page.

What do you think?

We launched our new logo today!

Check it out on our Home Page

More Video Tutorials

Our first two video tutorials were designed to let you see what a great job IRender nXt does without making any changes to your model, and using the default settings.

The next videos produce even better results with a minimum of effort. Video #3 - Interior Lighting Basics - shows how to add some lights to an interior room, and how some simple lights - ceiling lights, a floor lamps and sconces on the wall - will create stunning renderings.

See: Video Tutorials and select the 3rd entry -Interior Lighting Basics