Hey students and faculty, are you aware Autodesk pretty much gives all Autodesk products for free to you? Autodesk is is not only committed to our amazing current professional customers, but we are equally committed to helping build the future architects, engineers, and 3D vfx and visualization professionals. All you need to have is a valid educational email, register at the link to the Autodesk Student Community, and you can download most any Autodesk product for free right now. There are also extra benefits such as some increased Autodesk 360 storage and some Autodesk product curriculum to assist you in learning the products.
So students, go get your free Autodesk software at the Student Community now and start using the best professional design and 3D software out there for 3 years. This will help you be the top skilled when you graduate and begin looking for that job. You will be able to demonstrate your mastering of the software in addition to your degree as a distinct advantage to that dream employer.
This is a guest post by Michelle Rasmussen of ASCENT, who also happens to in Utah just a few minutes South of me. ASCENT is responsible for the official Autodesk Official Training Guides for Autodesk products.
I am extremely excited to bring to you the first ever Autodesk Official Training Guide (AOTG) addressing an Autodesk Design Suite. This book introduces a seamless workflow for designing roads and highways, as described in the flow chart below. It uses multiple products found in Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate 2014 to design a new transportation corridor for a growing city.
Upon completing the course, you should be able do the following:
Perform clash detection in the Autodesk Navisworks Manage software.
Create visual presentations to communicate design intent using storyboards, scenarios, and renderings using the Autodesk InfraWorks software.
Visit the ASCENT website for more information about the Introducing Autodesk® Infrastructure Design Suite 2014: BIM Workflow for Roads and Highways training guide. Click here to register to join Michelle on Thursday, May 16, 2014,for an ASCENT webcast to present an overview of this new training guide
AutodeskHomestyler has been around since coming out of Autodesk Labs a couple years ago (August 2010) as Project Dragonfly. For those not aware of Autodesk Homestyler, it is a free web based 3D interior space design application to visualize the space before you jump into the project. You can pre-plan your dorm layout to the future layout of your home or future dream home or space. It is also perfect for couples and roommates to plan furniture changes so all parties are happy and can visualize the redesigned space. Trust me it is so much easier to move digital furniture up and down floors and around the room of a house on Homestyler than in real life multiple times to find just the right place. So many uses, and so darn easy to use that pretty much everyone in the house except your pet goldfish can use it. You can even export your design as a 3D Revit model.
Going to the small screen!
Autodesk Homestyler is available as a mobile app. The mobile app version allows some really unique features and workflow such as using the camera of your device to capture the room and it then approximates dimensions and allows you to adjust and fine tune. You can then place new furniture, electronics, décor, and more in your captured room to visualize a redesign of the room.
You can even go crazy painting walls without covering yourself for days in paint splatter.
You can also browse the Design Stream and select other rooms for inspiration and even choose to redesign those.
I liked the gallery of Empty Rooms as a starting point. From the very basic to the nice big city loft space or cabin style.
I selected a big city high rise looking space and used it to re-design my big city office space.
And this is my finished space all done on my iPad. Not bad for only flicking my fingers, and no hernia or back problems from moving furniture.
Not sure you are an interior designer, there are links to real professionals you can use.
Have you ever wanted to send some feedback to an Autodesk product team? Perhaps how you think something could and should be improved, something is broken, or you want to say how awesome something in the product is and in return, you want to share your grandmother’s secret barbeque chicken recipe.
There is a feedback form where you can enter your feedback and an email is then generated, and sent to the product team. Most of the time it is the QA, Product Managers, and Product Design team members on this email alias. I know from my past participation in the email alias that the AutoCAD Team actually answers a great percentage of these feedback emails if they contain enough detail, or they get the warm fuzzies and smile when people tell them what they are doing right.
So the next time you want to say something to your favorite Autodesk product team, do it and say Shaan told you to.
Autodesk just released the 3rd version of the iPad App Autodesk FormIt after launching it at Autodesk University just a couple months ago at Autodesk University 2012. The team has been rapidly adding features and addressing requests based on users feedback. FormIt is the easy to use 3D conceptual modeler for the Apple iPad Tablet. You can create shapes and forms, and then later refine them in the auto-magically created Revit .RVT file or in another application using the SAT file.
While FormIt is great for architectural design, there really are no limits and you can just as easily model a robot or any other 3D concept model. It is just plain fun, oh and it is also FREE.
What’s new in FormIt 3.0
• New visual styles that include sketchy lines, hidden lines, and line extensions • Import and manage multiple images on the ground plane • Multiple images translate to the Revit file created in the cloud • Apply bitmap textures to faces and objects • View your sketch from an orthographic plan view • Synchronize all sketches to the cloud by pulling down on the Gallery page • Toggle the ground plane grid display on and off • New icon and branding • Bug fixes and minor improvements
On this April Fools day, I am shooting straight and no silly stuff for once in my 10 years of blogging. No offering a 3D printable DVD of Autodesk products like last year, or a hacked blog. This year, I almost went with a post explaining I was finally changing my name “Shaan” to a more standard spelling so people would stop calling me "shan” pronouncing it like “man” instead of Shaan pronounced like “shawn”, but I did not. Scott Sheppard already posted a great internal Autodesk April Fools. Organizational Announcement: Welcome, Everybody, to CEO Staff
Last week Autodesk announced several new Autodesk 2014 products and most want to know how to get them, so here is the latest.
“From logging in to the Subscription Center to downloading, installing and activating your product, our brand new instructional guide will ensure a quick and seamless upgrade transition. And just in case you have any questions, concerns or issues along the way, we’ll be patiently waiting to assist @Autodesk on Twitter!”
Several of the new 2014 products are currently available for download on the ADN, and product pages like AutoCAD trial download page. I expect the 2014 products to appear soon for download by subscription customers on the Autodesk Subscription website and to students on the Autodesk Student Community which if you are a student or faculty you can get most Autodesk products free for 3 years.
The AutoCAD 2014 and the AutoCAD LT 2014 Preview Guides in PDF format are a nice highlight of the new releases written by Autodesk’s very own Heidi Hewett. The Preview Guide is like an exceptionally nice cliff notes guide for the new product releases under 30 pages, but not a 700+ page complete how to use the product.
This list will be updated as I find and am sent more Autodesk 2014 product news posts from the blogosphere. Please feel free to Email Me or post your link in the comments and I will add them to the list.
“It is often the arrival of a new tool that opens our minds to new opportunities we would have never imagined before. New tools not only make it possibleto do new things, they also expand our vision of what could be. We will soon be announcing our 2014 portfolio of tools for design, engineering and entertainment and we invite you to join us for a special webcast on March 26, 2013 at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern, 3pm UK and 4pm Europe to learn more and see the impact that Autodesk software is having across the industries we serve.”
As I mentioned on my Twitter account (@ShaanHurley) Friday, Autodesk’s own digital mad scientist or researcher in the Office of the CTO Brian Pene created a 3D rigged character using the new Project Pinocchio technology preview from Autodesk Labs and stepped it up a few levels. He took the rigged character he created and using a Xbox 360 Kinect & FaceShift was able to control the character in Autodesk Maya live in real-time.
What a great way to read bedtime stories to your young kids and give them a deep dark nightmare experience. Imagine setting the screen to your Skype call for a live business meeting or call home while traveling. Of course for those in the animation business there are more practical applications than my two examples, but I just like to warp the use of technologies just like my humor.
“Project Pinocchio is a free technology preview that leverages Autodesk's powerful 3D design and animation tools to provide you with a web-based laboratory where you can create fully-rigged custom 3D characters. Design a creation of your own or modify existing stock characters using a variety of pre-defined body types, facial features, and clothing styles for inclusion in 3D games, animations, and scenes.”
The reintroduction of Autodesk T-Splines Plug-in for Rhino and discussion on a new version 4 coming was discussed in a recent live webcast and now available to watch on YouTube. You may remember T-Splines (my friends in nearby Provo Utah) were acquired back in November of 2011, and Autodesk stated at the time they would continue supporting non-Autodesk products which T-Splines was developed for. Since that time updates have been released and a renewed effort for new versions has been announced.
Catch up on T-Splines with the recent webcast by Autodesk T-Splines Product Manager Matt Sederberg and Autodesk CEO Carl Bass. This is another frank and honest discussion by Carl on design software tools and his actual use of the tools. http://youtu.be/wjXS1oD0sY8
“T-Splines is a technology used by industrial designers, jewelers, and architects to easily create and edit freeform, organic designs.
A few months ago, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass delighted the T-Splines community by announcing on the T-Splines forum that T-Splines for Rhino development would resume actively. Watch this webinar to listen to Carl talk with Matt Sederberg, former T-Splines CEO and current Autodesk product manager, about what has happened with T-Splines over the past year, why Autodesk has decided to resume more active development, and what this means for the future. There will be live Q&A at the end.”
Even more exciting to me is T-Splines being integrated in the upcoming Autodesk Fusion 360 which is in beta currently at http://www.autodesk.com/Fusion360. I love Fusion 360 as you can do both complex organic product industrial design and solid modeling workflows on both Mac and Windows. Autodesk Fusion 360 is like a design tool that makes you a one man wolf pack of design.
More concrete proof that the Autodesk Labs project feedback you provide feedback on can propel them into a real product, feature, or technology. Autodesk LabsProject Geppetto from last year that was a really huge hit and great to demo is making it into the core 3ds Max product as it is shown in a 3ds Max 2014 sneak peek video. It has evolved even more than the Autodesk Labs project and now named 3ds MaxPopulate feature. You can create autonomous random characters to populate your 3ds Max animation scene providing much more realism by having natural acting crowds following paths and interacting.
So the former Autodesk LabsProject Geppetto makes it in the Autodesk circle of life from Autodesk Labs technology preview to Beta in 3ds Max 2014 and soon as a full feature in the upcoming 3ds Max 2014 product. 3ds Max 2014 is not shipping just yet, and will be coming out after customer beta testing is wrapped up soon.
If you develop customization or apps for AutoCAD please take a few minutes and provide your feedback on the AutoCAD Developer Documentation Survey. The team is looking for your feedback to help prioritize topics.
For those that love to participate in providing early feedback that helps shape the future of Autodesk products and technologies, there are several great options to get involved. You don’t have to be on the bleeding edge or the top Autodesk product user in the universe as all skill and experience levels are encouraged and needed.
Both Autodesk Labs and Autodesk Feedback Community are now managed under the Autodesk Office of the CTO. Both of these valuable future product and technological incubators are vital to Autodesk and of course benefit our customers.
Autodesk Labs is where several Autodesk teams post research and future technologies to get feedback on them. The technology previews are not products yet, but are early concepts. The goal is to find what technology previews are useful or need improvement from those that people have little interest for. Several current Autodesk products like Autodesk Inventor Fusion, Autodesk Revit LT, and Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler have successfully graduated from Autodesk Labs to be come real Autodesk products. Go to: http://labs.autodesk.com/
Autodesk Feedback community is the center of the Autodesk product universe for future versions. This is where you can sign up to be a part of the early discussions in product futures, early alpha and beta versions of the Autodesk software you use or wish to use. The goal is to get early user feedback on the new releases and of course send in bug reports to improve the products before the new releases are released to the general public. Go to: http://beta.autodesk.com/
Autodesk User Research is where you sign up to participate in in studies on how Autodesk products and technologies are used. Things like workflow where the product team or product design may want to know how a conceptual or current feature is discovered and used are studied remote, at events, or in person visits.
Get involved and help shape future Autodesk products and technologies today.
I received several great tips covering both AutoCAD and Revit and had to pick just one to give the license of TechsmithSnagit to. I chose Owen Wengerd for his type on cycling through objects.
Here is Owen’s tip:
In AutoCAD, you can cycle through each entity beneath the pickbox during object selection to get the specific entity you want in a crowded drawing without needing to mess around zooming in and back out. If selection preview is enabled, you can press <Shift>-<Space> to cycle through the available entities. If selection preview is disabled, you can hold the <Shift> key and left-click to cycle through the available entities.
Now you can be a monster Maker creating your own 3D creatures on your iPad for only $1.99 limited time pricing. The designs can be shared as well as 3D printed. Autodesk 123D Creature app.
From Techcrunch: Autodesk Releases 123D Creature, A Tool To Design, Paint, And Print Your Own 3D Monster stcrn.ch/Uftj0P
Go create your own and don’t forget to tell young kids with access to an iPad to create their own creatures.If robots are more your style check out designing your own robots in 3D using Autodesk 123D Design which there is an iPad version available.
Autodesk 123D Make 1.1 for Mac and Windows has been released. Autodesk123D Make is free software that allows you to import a 3D model (STL & OBJ) and slice it up into printed patterns. You can then using the pattern build a 3D model from cardboard, wood, plastic, tin, or even fabric. In the past we have created some really cool 3D models from cardboard including fossils, museum pieces, and even the life sized recyclable cardboard CEO named “Carl’board”.
Folded panels construction technique. Folded panels can be assembled in a variety of ways; tab and slot, stitching, and many more!
Multiple improvements for CNC users, including the ability to automatically generate Dogbones and T-Bones on cut slices, and to define the cutter tool diameter in manufacturing settings.
By popular demand: added export option to output your cut layouts in layered DXF format.
After installing you get the dialog that provides the opportunity to learn about 123D Make. I always try to look at these in any application I install that provides one as there is always something I learn as opposed to just installing a product and blindly exploring and potentially learning bad habits or long methods to do something. I won't hold it against anyone that doesn’t watch the videos and loves the exploration learning software brute force as you notice I said I try to watch them but there are time I just both feet in and go. In the case 123D Make I would suggest taking a couple minutes and just understanding how the UI, navigation, slices and patterns work as that will save you a great deal of time in the long run.
My good friend Dr. Louise Leakey the Turkana Basin Institute & Africanfossils.org has printed the 123D Make created patterns for miniature models of ancient skulls on paper lunch boxes so that kids can cut out and build their own 3D printed skull model after eating their lunch. It also provide a way for almost any classroom to have 3D representations of various fossils, museum specimens, or other 3D objects without requiring a 3D printer or expensive materials. You could also capture something using the free Autodesk 123D Catch and then create a pattern from the created model as that is how we created “Carl’board.”
Using 123D Catch I was able to create a 3D model of my head using just photos.
Using 123D Make I was able to import the OBJ from 123D Catch and proceed to slice it up into patterns to construct a 3D physical model from cardboard.
Don’t have any3D models, no problem as there are many stock and gallery 3D models available for free.
Go have some creative fun as it is like 3D printing, but in an abstract way.
I first saw this animated short movie being shown before a feature movie Wreck-it Ralph in November at the cinema but now Disney is releasing the Oscar nominated "Paperman" on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. It is very creative animated short which blended traditional animation and some complex computer animation methods resulting in an amazing retro style.
Bravo Disney for releasing this so everyone can enjoy it but perhaps February 14th would have been a great day for releasing it since it is a love story.
I hear it frequently when I speak about 3D Printing “Shaan I don’t have a 3D printer”, but they were not aware there are many printing services available locally and on the web. I think that is the business model 3D printing will be for awhile where the design shops and ultra hobbyists may have a 3D printer, but others designing in 3D can still pay for someone else to create the 3D print for them. I don’t think in the near future every home will have a 3D printer, but I believe they will all have access to one. We are starting to see companies like Staples dabbling in a local 3D print services but I want to see a day where the manufacturers of consumer goods provide free or a for a small fee replacement parts or custom modifications that you can purchase online and then pickup at your local FedEx Kinkos which are located about everywhere. That would save time, energy, warehousing, transportation costs and be better for the environment.
A good option is my friends like Duann at Shapeways.com that have some 25+ materials from plastics, ceramics, to metals they can 3D print in and also you can even market and sell your designs on their marketplace. There is also Ponoko, Scultpteo, i.materialize, and many more including if you are a member of 123D you can get 3D prints.
I currently have a MakerBot Replicator which is great for lower resolution ABS 3D prints and their HUGE freely usable Thingiverse community with 3D models ready to print or mod;
Soon I will have use of a real professional quality 3D printer the Mojo from Stratasys (acquired Objet). I am running to my door each time I hear a UPS truck drive by. Of course even with the Mojo I will still be limited in the number of materials unlike Shapeways and other 3D printing services which have several types of 3D printer types so if I want something other than a plastic I will use my Shapeways buddies.
You can also locate a local hacker space or TechShop and get involved as many of them have 3D printers as well as a host of many other tools for making things.
So if you have 3D software from free like the 123D Design & Meshmixer to AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Revit, Maya, Inventor Fusion, Autodesk Inventor, and others chances are you can export a STL file to be printed by a 3D printer and have options to print it. Your not going to be printing your replacement liver or hear, but 3D print your creation in plastics, ceramic, metal, and glass prints are currently possible by everyone.
Duann of Shapeways even printed me some wicked cool fun examples of materials including my cherished Bacon Mobius Strip which you can purchase one yourself!
If you want to learn from some of the best in the industry on Autodesk products and technologies then Autodesk University “AU” is the center of the universe. If you attended AU 2012 but were unable to attend some classes or didn’t attend, you can now get the great Autodesk University 2012 classes online and free now. All that is required is that you are a member of the AU website and it takes about 27.2 seconds to sign up then hundreds of classes are available to you from AU 2012. More than 2500 classes are available if you count the past AU event classes also online. The only things not online are the lounges and creative studio, great in-person networking and socializing, exhibit hall, the and of course the truly epic AU 2012 party at the Hardrock Hotel and Casino.
Videos of the AU special events—from the Keynote Address and Innovation Forums to the Exhibit Hall: http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=autv
Not to freak you out especially if AU 2012 is still fresh in your mind, but AU 2013 class request for proposals starts in less than two months in March. In March the AU 2013 countdown will officially start for presenters.
In case you were wondering, Autodesk University 2013 is only 312 days away December 3–5, 2013, at The Venetian Hotel.
Autodesk Formit is a free iPad app launched on iTunes as a version 1.0 during Autodesk University 2012 in December and just updated this past weekend to version 2.0.
Autodesk FormIt Version 2.0 has just been launched on iTunes, and it is completely free. This latest update includes some great improvements including metric units, automatic Revit file creation (with Autodesk 360), grid and snap settings adapt to zoom level, and some great user experience enhancements. Download or update today: http://autode.sk/TjO5Hj
Autodesk Formit provides a simple iPad based 3D modeling tool for you to conceptually model architectural designs, building massing models, or a conceptual master plan. Formit is a very basic and intuitive 3D tool where you use your fingers to create the designs. When you have the conceptual design you want you can then refine it into an accurate design model by logging into your Autodesk 360 account for the Revit .rvt file that is placed along with the Autodesk Formit .axm file.
It is just plain fun to explore architecture design concepts on the iPad tablet. For those mechanically inclined, check out the free Autodesk 123D Design.
What's new in version 2.0
Support for metric units (a hot user request)
Cloud conversion to Autodesk Revit: supports Metric or Imperial, depending on sketch setting
Imprint closed shapes on faces and push them in to make solid cuts
Grid and snap settings adapt to current zoom level
Rectangles can be drawn at angles to the grid
Satellite images can be reloaded
Redesigned sun-study popover takes up less space
Gallery is a single scrollable page and can be sorted by name or date
We are now gathering anonymous usage data. This can be disabled from the About page
Crash recovery: If there is a crash, you will be able to retrieve data on next load
Various stability and bug fixes
Here is a existing retail mall created in Formit by Angel Espinoza after he had only been using Formit for a couple hours. Angel started by just using a location which imported the Map or satellite background (you can even use a photo from of a site plan). He then created primitives and then modified those to create the 3D Formit model.
Recently Autodesk CEO Carl Bass was interviewed on Bloomberg TV for Bloomberg Design 2013. Hear from Carl about his experience with digital design as a hands on Maker, Design as a Verb,Design Experiments and Form Exploration.
One of the winner’s apps just went live on the Autodesk Exchange. PhotoGeoDWG took second place in the competition and is a really creative app allowing you to add camera markers to the raster images in your drawing. No more asking yourself or others “where is this location” when in a drawing file or in the field.
“Have you ever taken a bunch of existing conditions photos and after returning to the office wonder where and even why you took the picture? PhotoGeoDWG will help you manage those existing conditions photos by geolocating them in Google Maps and inserting camera markers into your CAD file. Build albums, automatically import camera markers hyperlinked with the location of the photo image file. Right click a photo name and zoom to the x-y location in your drawing. Click on the photo name and see it displayed conveniently in the palette, or insert the photo directly into the CAD file to better communicate to your field crew.”
Congratulations to CAD Management Resources! Stay tuned for more winning entries and their apps.
Join Tom Vollaro and Lilli Smith tomorrow as they discuss the new Autodesk FormIt free iPad App and the recently released Vasari Beta 2 for conceptual architectural design and more.
Apparently there are no strings are attached in this big free giveaway. You will just need to wait for their website to recover from the crash due to the massive traffic to download the Creative Suite. Creative Suite 2 “CS2” contains Photoshop, Illustrator, and nDesign. I am not sure Adobe did this just to be giving and charitable in the new year but perhaps down the road convert a percentage of those that download to upgrade or buy a new products. UPDATE: Gizmodo and multiple other major tech media apparently have got it wrong, as well as customers were sent the notice to download serials and software free because they (Adobe) were shutting down their CS2 activation servers. It is embarrassing for everyone, especially Adobe who will need to write more clear notices in the future. I would not like to be in their PR group today.
Accurate News: If you want a great alternative to Photoshop that has many advanced features, does not require a monster download, or take tons of disk space check out Autodesk’s free web based Pixlr. Pixlr is the worlds most popular online photo editor and also has mobile apps for iOS and Android.
