See Only Resize-Friendly Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) In Google Images | Lifehacker Australia

Luke Johnson

You can now filter Google Image Search to just show you SVG files. Here is an example search:
“Nintendo” SVG files

See Only Resize-Friendly Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) In Google Images | Lifehacker Australia

So what is so good about SVG? From the wiki page:

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a family of specifications of an XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic (i.e. interactive or animated).
The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 1999.
SVG images and their behaviors are defined in XML text files. This means that they can be searched, indexed, scripted and, if required, compressed. Since they are XML files, SVG images can be created and edited with any text editor, but drawing programs are also available that support SVG file formats.

Free Hash / MD5 Checker for Windows Shell

Luke Johnson

After installing, just right-click on any file and select ‘Create Checksum File…’, then open the .md5 file that was created.

HashCheck Shell Extension

What is Hash or MD5 checking?
A cryptographic hash function is a deterministic procedure that takes an arbitrary block of data and returns a fixed-size bit string, the (cryptographic) hash value, such that an accidental or intentional change to the data will change the hash value. The data to be encoded is often called the “message”, and the hash value is sometimes called the message digest or simply digest.

Basically, when you download something important off the Net, it lets you know that the file has not been corrupted or modified in some nasty way…

What drives a successful BIM project…?

Luke Johnson

There was time spent changing a design that didn’t need to happen, all because of an unwillingness to accept that something might be different than what we know.

And in BIM, everything is. You have to be willing to get outside the box – do things differently – ask questions – be humble, but be motivated…to learn, to change your ways. It doesn’t matter if you’re a newly graduated intern or a 40 year engineer. The day you stop learning is the day you need to retire, so don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.

From The MEP CAD Engineer: What drives a successful BIM project…?

A li'l bit of Revit history…Part 3

Luke Johnson

I received a comment that referred me to this AUGI Forum page.

And here are some interesting comments from that page:

“
irwin
Revit Founder

Charles River Software was incorporated by Leonid 10/31/97.

I joined on 2/2/98.

First round of venture capital was in 1998.

First lines of code were written in 1998.

First office (not counting Leonid’s living room) was in Wellesley, MA, upstairs from Dominoes Pizza. It used to smell quite toasty in the afternoons.

Regarding Reflex, we did do an evaluation to determine if we should base Revit on Reflex and the conclusion was no. None of Revit was based on Reflex (though they both were intended to solve the problem of making a practical 3D architectural modeler). By the way, contrary to what someone said earlier in this thread, Reflex does not have a parametric change engine (one of the reasons we rejected it as a starting point for Revit).
“