FEMhub Inc.

Blog moved to new NCLab home page

pavel — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:05:35 +0000

This Blog was moved to the Blog section at NCLab.com. Please stay with us and see you there!

Recent NCLab Presentations

pavel — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:18:36 +0000

NCLab was presented at the SNMS Conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, and we had an all-day teacher workshop at the Dilworth STEM Academy in Reno on Tuesday. In both cases we were in a computer lab and the teachers worked with 3D geometry and design in their web browsers. They were totally excited – for most of them NCLab is a completely new, amazing experience. The assistant principal Georgette Knecht said that their school wants to be the testing ground for NCLab.

NCLab on Chromebook

pavel — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:58:13 +0000

Today I [Pavel] tested NCLab on a Chromebook and it SHINES! Photo shows GNU Octave demo script and its output. I was worried that we will have to reduce the default size of some windows because of the smaller display but there is absolutely no need for that. 3D graphics (WebGL) works out of the box. There is a strange feeling though if you hold it in one hand by the corner since the plastic bends. Apparently, thin is more than sturdy. Bigger problem is that there is no Skype on it.

Transition to HTML 5 Completed

pavel — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 15:04:00 +0000

We are happy to announce that NCLab now operates in HTML 5! Probably the most significant change for the user is that advanced 3D graphics (WebGL) is now much more stable. It works in Internet Explorer as well as on mobile devices. You do no longer need to go into your web browser’s settings and enable WebGL manually. Problems with obsolete graphic cards and drivers should be now gone, too.

NCLab CAD Challenge 2012 Winners

pavel — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 01:31:31 +0000

NCLab CAD Challenge 2012 has finished! We received 84 designs from 8 countries. Not bad at all for the first year of the Contest. Big Thank You to Everyone for Participating! First place: Peter Cline (Monterey, CA) for the implementation of an entire font family for 3D printing. Second place: Andreas Kuhn (Stuttgart, Germany) for designing a clever algorithm to construct the Sierpinski Fractal Triangle with an arbitrary number of levels. Read more at the Winner’s Page.

New 3D Printing Service

pavel — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:16:05 +0000

3D printing makes learning geometry and solid modeling much more fun. That’s why NCLab is launching a new non-profit 3D printing service on Jan 1, 2013 – you pay just for material and shipping, on average 50% less than at Shapeways or iMaterialize. Currently available in the U.S. only.

More details and pricing can be found here.

NCLab Version 0.9 Released

pavel — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 02:46:57 +0000

We are pleased to announce that NCLab 0.9 was released! Most changes that we made will facilitate further expansion of NCLab and they are invisible to the user. But there are also quite a few that you will notice. NCLab’s browser-based file system was completely redesigned and several new services and features were added. Here is an overview of the most important changes:

Transition to HTML 5 was completed. Among other benefits, this opens the door to working with CAD models in Internet Explorer and on tablets (to be implemented in next release).
File manager was completely redesigned. Trash was added so that deleted files are no longer lost forever. Files now display icons of associated applications.
Octave installation was completed – NCLab now provides one of the most complete installations of Octave and its modules. Octave now displays plots in separate windows. Octave projects can have multiple files.
New module for Graph Theory was added. It is based on the NetworkX library developed in the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It comes with many examples ranging from simple to complex.
It is now possible to upload PDF files and view them using a new built-in PDF Viewer. This opens the door to the completion of the LaTeX module (to be added in next release).
Starting with Basic Plan, users can now access their NCLab files from the outside. Let’s say that your NCLab username is “jamesbond” and you have file “walter.pdf” in folder “armory”. Then you can access it via the link “http://nclab.com/files/jamesbond/armory/walter.pdf”.
Every Karel the Robot worksheet can now have multiple mazes. This makes it possible to check whether programs are written in a sufficiently general way.
Search in public projects was substantially improved.
Notepad was added.

Happy Holidays from the NCLab Team

pavel — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 08:03:28 +0000

Dear NCLab Users, the NCLab Team wishes you Merry Christmas and thanks you for your continued support. This time of year is relatively quiet in NCLab and therefore we are busy with testing, tuning, and upgrading. You may find the system down for maintenance from time to time. In January, you should see many improvements inside NCLab as well as a new, professionally designed home page. Happy Holidays!

SSL Certificate Expiration Warning and New Release

pavel — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 03:06:26 +0000

You may have noticed the SSL certificate expiration
warning on NCLab’s home page. This does not mean
any real problem, your data are still being encrypted
as before. So please hold on. The provider of our SSL
certificate, GeoTrust, do not work on weekends. Not
even on Thanksgiving weekends.

BTW, new NCLab release is coming in the next days. We
just can’t stop adding new features. Some of the changes
that are currently being made were not anticipated but
we decided to make them as they will ease NCLab’s future
development and give more power to users.

In both cases – thank you for your patience!

CAD Model of Water Molecule

pavel — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 06:54:52 +0000

During an NCLab workshop in Ely, NV a chemistry teacher suggested that PLaSM could be used to create 3D models of molecules. Indeed it is very easy — see the screenshots. The project can be cloned via the File Manager’s Project -> Clone menu. Its name is Chemistyr – Molecules -> Water.

Water molecule (Version A)

Water Molecule (Version B)