April 2008 Archives

Tomorrow, I will be presenting the Acrobat 8 for Engineering Professionals eSeminar at 12 pm CST (10 am PST).  This seminar will be focused on functionality across several engineering disciplines, and not specific to the AEC vertical market. It is focused on Engineering as a type of work versus solving an industry vertical pain point.  To register for this event, or see the event details, you can find it here. 

One of the question/complaints I get when I tell someone I work for Adobe is how do I turn off the updates?  Most of the time it is the Adobe Reader that is in question and they are refusing to actually update, and they just close the update window each time.  What I will tell you is that the updates are very critical and will become even more critical as we advance applications like Acrobat 3D.  Only certain versions of both Acrobat and the Free Adobe Reader will support some of the new functionality.  My advice is to update when notified.  If you absolutely insist on turning off the updates, you can go through the Help - Update and then at the end of the update you can click "preferences" and uncheck the box that says automatically check for updates.  If you are IT administrator you can disable updates during the installation using the Adobe Customization Wizard.  We are having an upcoming IT eSeminar on May 1st if you would like more information.

A quick note to turn you on to a very cool website that has a lot resources as to how Photoshop is used in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry.  The individual that owns this site is Scott Onstott and his site is www.scottonstott.com.  On Scott's site he has several video podcasts that are Free as well as some that you can purchase.  My colleague Mark James participated in an Architecture technology summit in Vancouver where he met Scott, and could not wait to tell me about Scott's site and his work.  Scott shows a lot of the Photoshop Extended product and how you can use other applications for the 3D content.  Great site for how Photoshop is used in the AEC Industry!

The Fiatech Technology Conference delivered once again.  For those of you who are not familiar with Fiatech or more importantly have not joined Fiatech need to engage.  I attend and sit through countless presentations that identify the issues that the industry currently faces, but what continues to impress me about this organization is it is delivering solutions for its members and giving a direction to the technology companies as it relates to standards.  The conference started with James Porter of DuPont not saying if they were going to implement ISO 15926 but how they were going to require it.  This was a very strong statement, and really indicates how far and viable ISO 15926 standard has become in truly addressing Interoperability.  Fiatech has delivered in many respects and now it is your opportunity to use and capitalize on it.  Adobe was able to participate in an emerging technology panel that gave us an opportunity to present our vision and direction.  For those of you who were unable to attend I would like to share some of this with you as well as give you some thoughts and opinions as it relates to the conference.