Between the Lines

Autodesk IDEA Studio Research Proposals Due May 15

We're looking for the best, the brightest, and the most innovative and creative faculty, students, and researchers that you know, and we need your assistance in encouraging them to apply to the IDEA Studio - Autodesk's unique scholar-in-residence program.  The IDEA Studio is now accepting proposals for residencies that will take place in November 2013 through January 2014, and proposals are due May 15.

Located in San Francisco in the Autodesk Gallery at One Market, the IDEA Studio supports faculty and students from around the world who use Autodesk software in advanced, imaginative ways to solve real-life problems. In addition to grants of up to $30,000 USD, residents are given an inspirational workspace and are connected with a tailored network of Autodesk advisors to help them reach their research goals. 

Applicants can submit a brief proposal directly via the online Proposal Submission Form.

"Bioprinting has the Potential to Change the World"

This was a quote from our Autodesk Chief Technology Officer Jeff Kowalski on the partnership with medical research firm Organovo.

While the ability to print yourself a new liver after a tough New Years Eve party may not be possible this year, the research and technology is definitely headed towards the ability to 3D print print real functioning human tissue and organs in the future will be reality.

Read more in the Wired.com article:

”Autodesk Developing CAD Software to Design, 3-D Print Living Tissue”

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/12/autodesk-3-d-print-tissue/

Take it easy on your body this holiday season as you cannot 3D print replacement parts, yet…

Cheers,
Shaan

Related articles

3D Printing - The Future is Coming to a Print Shop Store Near You

Biotech startup targeting liver, cardiac and kidney research with 3D bioprinter

Thank you Schuyler "Sledgehammer" St.Leger

Capturing the Exploratorium in San Francisco

The San Francisco Exploratorium has long been a place for kids and adults alike to explore science and technology, but it is moving. The Exploratorium is moving to the historic Embarcadero waterfront at pier 15 in 2013 and closing the current location in the Palace of Fine Arts in a couple weeks.

One of the people that the Exploratorium helped get interested in science and technology was Autodesk’s very own Brian Mathews who is now the Group CTO for the IPG group. Brian mentioned it made such an impact on him that he wanted to help document the existing Exploratorium in 3D using Reality Capture methods such as laser scanning and photogrammetry for historic preservation.

Laser scanning is where stationary laser scanning equipment such as the FARO Focus 3D projects a laser beam and captures the x,y,z coordinates and other attributes at a very high speed. The highly accurate points captures create a 3D point cloud that can be used as a digital reference of the objects and space.

Photogrammetry is where you take a series of photos and then software creates a 3D textured model. Autodesk currently has a free photogrammetry software for computers as well as the mobile iPhone and the iPad named 123D Catch where you can take photos of an object and create a 3D model. Brian is using an advanced unreleased version of the technology we are working on.

Having the Exploratorium captured forever in 3D will preserve not only how it was configured to help with planning exhibits at the new location, but also preserve it for historical record purposes long after the old location is gone. One could even later print the objects in 3D physical models.

Check out the video that includes Brian and the Reality Capture from ABC 7 KGO in San Francisco (you do have to bear through a commercial first grrr)

Exploratorium preserving past, preparing for future
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=8924014

Cheers,
-Shaan

Thank you Schuyler “Sledgehammer” St.Leger

Some may have attended or seen the fun Cage Match on “3D Printing is a Toy” with 12 year old prodigy Schuyler St.Leger last week. I even wore the Nacho Libre mask and cape in an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate Schuyler. This was really a no win debate for my position that 3D printing is a toy.
First: he is a cute and well spoken 12 year old kid that is passionate about 3D printing rating on enthusiasm meter of a scale 1-10 he pegs it at 99, and he really is smarter than most 30 year olds with a degree.
Second: 3D Printing is here to stay and will only get better and used in many more ways to benefit everyone.
My only point to be made during the entertaining fun event was that while I do fully believe in 3D printing, currently for most it is just printing small plastic toys with some limited exceptions.

Cage Match Video at Autodesk University 2012 Shaan :Electric Boogaloo” Hurley "3D Printers are Toys?" and Schuyler “Sledgehammer” St.Leger http://bit.ly/TBR2qC 

He hit me with not only great debate points but LED bombs and a hammer names the “Hurley Hammer” and then called me Aardvark as that animal has two “a”s in it’s name like me.

Here are two photos from the match taken by Mike Burke shared in the AU2012 Flickr Photo Pool
http://www.flickr.com/groups/au2012/pool/

 

He received a really cool steampunk styled trophy.

 

 

 

 

Check out Schuyler’s keynote presentation at Autodesk University: "Why I'm a Designer & a Maker"  http://bit.ly/schuylerAU2012

Personally I don’t see in the near future anyone printing critical components for bridges, nuclear equipment, or submarines that I used to design several years ago. It will take some great advancements in the future to be able to reliably, scale, and economically replace current materials and manufacturing methods, but I think we will get there someday. We are currently in the infancy and exciting research stages in my opinion especially for consumer 3D printing, but the technology is rapidly evolving. I have to laugh at articles like the one on thedailymash where they poke fun of where we are now with 3D printing with a bit too much sarcasm perhaps to troll readers. I have seen other online blogs where they call 3D printing a fad, but in time they will be proven wrong.

I share the optimism of Schuyler on 3D printing, and their significance in the future of manufacturing and science. I commend him on all that he does to promote 3D printing and Makers. He is one amazing and smart kid. It will be amazing to see what he does in the future as he may be that one person that comes up with the way to make 3D printing as common in manufacturing as a CNC milling or casting process.

 

Thank You Schuyler!!!

The Future is So Bright I Got to Wear 3D Printed Shades!

-Shaan

Wouldn't it be cool if...

You could engineer a better world? Autodesk’s own Dawn Danby and the independent creative genius Saul Griffith produced a video to inspire young people, teachers, designers, makers and others to dream of all the challenges and things you could do.

Engineering, design, science, experimentation, making things, solving problems, taking on challenges, and yes even math are indeed cool.

http://bit.ly/WJIRcm

Which Way Next Interview with Louise Leakey at Singularity University

Singularity University just posted a YouTube link of a recent interview of world renowned paleoanthropologist, and friend Louise Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute. The interview was by Singularity University faculty chair member and fellow Autodesk employee Jonathan Knowles.

Video Interview with Louise Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute

Amazing Experience and Amazing Example of Engineering

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a rocket motor test here in Utah. The test was conducted by ATK and ULA United Launch Alliance. It was an amazing experience to see the rocket motor prior to firing, then the actual ignition from less than a mile away from the ignition site. The first sensation is the bright light from the flame, then the loud sound shaking your body, and about 3 seconds later then some heat. The solid fuel rocket engine burned about 90 seconds.

The vectorable motor is 60 inch diameter and 53 feet long and produces 270,000 pounds of thrust.

        

These GEM-60 rocket motors have re-designed motor from liquid fuel to solid fuel thus being more economical. ATK performed this fixed test where the motor is restrained to the ground to confirm design and gather data using many sensors. These rocket motors are used for important orbital lift operations such as ULA’s Delta IV launch vehicles which launch several important payloads including GPS, satellites and military payloads.

 

Imagine this motor in 2 or 4 configurations to lift vehicles into orbit, that would be really amazing and loud and would be great to mount one on my jeep to get a little speed boost on a commute, or the drive to AU 2012!

What a way to spend a Thursday, watching some of the most complex engineering and science in action.

Thank you ATK & ULA for the opportunity to attend the test and the front row seat.

Cheers,
Shaan

270,000 pounds of Awesome Thrust – Let The Countdown Begin

I will have a front row seat in the media area when ATK performs a ground test of GEM 60 solid rocket motor on September 6th, 2012. Last time I was at this test site, I had front row for the ARES DM1 fixed motor test and see the amazing engineering before and after firing as well as speak with the real rocket scientists and engineers. It was so amazing that I couldn’t event remember how to use my camera for a few seconds when the DM1 lit up and rumbled the earth. I felt the heat from a mile away. The countdown alone is enough to raise your heart rate with each number 10, 9, 8, 7, then they tease you with hold times to make sure all is ready but I personally think it is just to see how much anticipation and anxiety you can take. The only thing ever to rival this was being front row for the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 and blogging and tweeting it live. It was a truly emotional time and saw several of the veteran Space Shuttle astronauts as well as some legendary Apollo 11 astronauts like Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong RIP.

DM1 Test blog post:
What a Day, 3.6 Million Pounds of Thrust Was a Blast

In a ground test they mount the motor to the ground in a special reinforced fixture instead of it blasting off into the heavens. It takes a great deal of engineering to do this test, and restrain an amazing amount of energy provided by the rocket engine producing 270,000 of thrust. Granted this is only a fraction of the Ares DM1 motor at 3.6 million pounds of thrust, but still just as amazing. Once you light the rocket motor there is no stopping it until it burns out of fuel. There is no UNDO command.

I will be tweeting @ShaanHurley as well as blogging during and after the event, and can hardly wait.

This is another fine example of math science and engineering being cool.

 

Press Release

ATK to Perform Ground Test of GEM 60 Solid Rocket Motor

Salt Lake City, Utah, August 30, 2012 – Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) will test a GEM-60 solid rocket motor, Thursday, September 6. The 60-inch diameter graphite epoxy motor (GEM) is a commercially provided, reliable, low-cost propulsion system. It measures 43 feet in length.

What:   Horizontal ground test firing of GEM-60
Date:     Thursday, September 6, 2012
Time:    11:15 a.m. MDT
Where: ATK Aerospace Group facility in Promontory, Utah

Test Objectives/Background:

• GEM-60 fixed nozzle qualification at cold temperature
• Brand new nozzle (previously built by supplier – now by ATK)
• The motor will be cooled to 30°F to measure solid rocket motor performance at low temperature
• When fired, the motor will produce a maximum thrust 270,000 pounds.
• GEM-60 motors have successfully boosted ULA’s Delta IV M+ launch vehicles since 2002

A public viewing area is available along State Road 83 North approximately 20 miles west of Corinne, Utah.

I cant wait for the countdown to start and then when they light this monster of a candle. This is all thanks to my ATK friends in Utah where the Space Shuttle “SRB” Solid Rocket Boosters were developed, tested, and made for many years until the Space Shuttle Program was retired.

Tonight when you look up in the night sky you will see a rare full blue moon, think of Neil and Buzz.

It is said you can get one wish upon a blue moon. The next one is in 2015.

Cheers,
Shaan

Major Discovery in Northern Kenya Featured in Nature Magazine

How does Autodesk fit into this blog post, read further. The nature magazine is no ordinary magazine, it is more of a science periodical of peer reviewed papers and information on major discoveries in science. My good friend Dr. Louise Leakey and her 3 generations of family as paleoanthropologist’s, the Leakey’s have a new paper published in the August 2012 issue of nature released today that identifies a new species of our distant relatives that could change the way we look at evolution of we humans (homo sapiens) and those that came before us. The find was located in the East Africa region I recently visited with Dr. Louise Leakey, Deming Yang of the National Museums of Kenya, and my colleague at Autodesk Gonzalo Martinez in Northern Kenya’s harsh and hot desert environment near Lake Turkana.

“New fossils from Koobi Fora in northern Kenya confirm taxonomic diversity in early Homo

Meave G. Leakey, Fred Spoor, M. Christopher Dean, Craig S. Feibel, Susan C. Antón, Christopher Kiarie & Louise N. Leakey + et al.

Three newly discovered hominin fossils—a well-preserved face of a late juvenile, a nearly complete mandible and a mandibular fragment—aged between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old, confirm the presence of two contemporary species of early Homo, in addition to H. erectus, in the early Pleistocene of eastern Africa.”

Discoveries like this do not happen every day and takes years and years of research manually searching the desert.

And below is the future Dr. Louise Leakey in 1972 as a baby accompanying her father Dr. Richard Leakey, and mother Dr. Meave Leakey.

And again at age 7 with her sister.

Even Starbucks coffee recognizes the lifelong dedication of the Leakey family.

When we were there in the remote Northern Kenya in May 2012 on working on both sides of Lake Turkana, we used a modified remote controlled 8 bladed Octo-Copter to test if that would automate and speed up the process of locating the fossils that are really just small pieces that fit in a puzzle of our ancestors. I can only hope to go back someday to work, explore, and assist the amazing local people located in the region.

Last week I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr. Louise Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute and a National Geographic Explorer in Residence at the San Francisco Autodesk headquarters for meetings as well as her presenting to the Singularity University located on NASA Ames Research Center  in Mountain View. Singularity University is funded and ran by several sponsors including Autodesk, with a goal each of each PhD and PhD candidates to affect the lives of a billion people.

Title of the Singularity University Talk

“Using Technology to Accelerate Exploring our Past: An Evening with Paleoanthropologist Dr. Louise Leakey

Anthropology & Paleontology have long been a laborious task but now technology may hold the key to faster collection, documentation, and sharing the artifacts around the world in 3D via the Internet so all can share in the discoveries of the past and our origins as a species. From the days of riding camels to remote regions and manually looking for small fragments to now using aerial capture of locations of interest, laser and photogrammetry technology to capture the specimens it is all changing and allowing us to accelerate the process before the clues to our past are destroyed by modern development and domestic herd animals moving into the region, oil exploration, or time and erosion, and lost forever.”

Autodesk has captured in 3D several of the specimens using the free Autodesk 123D Catch and a regular digital camera and also laser scanning using a FARO edge laser scanning arm and then printing them in 3D as well as placing them in a virtual museum at http://www.africanfossils.org.

Autodesk isn't only focused on sales of software and services, but also philanthropic projects. I like to say while Autodesk may be a corporation, it is really just a group of 7200 awesome individual people that really care about the world we live in, and making is a better place for everyone.

Cheers,
Shaan

 

PS: Watch the program “Bones of Turkana” online and follow the Leakey's quest to unravel the mysteries of human evolution.

3D Print Protects Your Garden

Perhaps you’re a gardener and have seen these evil little butterflies (Cabbage Moth / Cabbage Butterfly Plutella xylostella, Pieris rapae) that lay eggs on cabbage, then the caterpillars devour your vegetables. Why is it this is the only butterfly that I don’t like and does bad things? It is referred to as both a moth and butterfly so I will assume it is more annoying moth than a delicate innocent beautiful butterfly. It turns out these little delicate insects are highly territorial and wont go into a garden area where another is. I wonder what a butterfly fight looks like…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_butterfly
http://www.yates.co.nz/problem-solver/problems/cabbage-moth-cabbage-butterfly/

Old remedies were to spray tons of nasty chemicals all over everything, spread egg shells in your garden, or place white paper butterfly decoys - but now we have 3D printing.

So I designed a 3D cabbage butterfly in AutoCAD end used STLOUT or 3DPRINT command to generate a STL file for use by 3D printers. I could also have easily designed the 3D Butterfly and generated an STL 3D Print export using the free 123D solid modeling software. I then printed it on my MakerBot Replicator and then affixed it with fishing line to some 1/8” copper wire.

The detailed steps to create a decoy to keep other real cabbage butterflies away has been posted as an Instructable on instructables.com http://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printing-a-Cabbage-Moth-Butterfly-Decoy-to-Sa/

The 2D DWG and 3D STL source files are posted on Thingiverse at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:26719

I hope the decoys keep these little hungry cabbage eaters out of the garden this year.

Cheers,
Shaan

Smithsonian and a Whale of a Reality Capture

In this months June 2012 Smithsonian Magazine there is a great article involving Reality Capture by Smithsonian curator Nicholas D. Pyenson Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals where you capture an existing object in a digital form such as a 3D mesh or point cloud. The article is “Save the Whale Bones – Laser scans record fossils” on page 84 of this issue and online at How Two Laser Cowboys-Saved The Day “http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/How-Two-Laser-Cowboys-Saved-The-Day.html”. The article details a unique archeological dig in Chile that was a collection of ancient whales located in the desert where a highway was going to be constructed, so time was of the essence to preserve this scientific anomaly of a group of full whale fossils in a land location.

The “Laser Cowboys” Vince Rossi and Adam Metallo of the the Smithsonian 3-D digitization team were sent to the field location to work with Nick to determine a method to preserve the existing scene. The laser cowboys used a Faro Edge laser arm and a Faro Focus3D laser scanner to capture the scene in a detailed and accurate 3D point cloud to preserve the information long after the fossils have been relocated to make way for the impending highway project.

At the end of the project they took photos of the scene and used the free Autodesk 123D Catch to generate a 3D mesh model and then 3D printed a scaled miniature of the model . How great to have a miniature of a large project to show others, or place as an exhibit, or the coolest paperweight on your desk ever.

Having the digital models and 3D prints will allow the sharing of accurate data in digital and physical forma for scientist all over the world to determine what caused this and to preserve this unique scene forever.

Time lapse video of capture of the whales and more on their YouTube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/3DSmithsonianDigi?feature=watch
Time_Lapse_05_G9_Arm_Scanning
Fossil_Whale_B31_short

Read more on the Laser Cowboys digitizing the massive Smithsonian collection by Cnet Smithsonian turns to 3D to bring collection to the world

They have a Facebook page Smithsonian 3D Digitization

Cheers & happy 3D scanning!
-Shaan

Autodesk Octo-Copter Video of Kenya

Last month myself and Gonzales Martinez spent a few weeks in Kenya with Dr, Louise Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute and Yang Deming of the National Museum of Kenya. We were researching several aspects of aerial photography and from a remote controlled copter to not only capture video and photos by map and locate areas of interest for fossil artifacts. We were in the Northern most part of Kenya in the Lake Turkana basin where the earliest evidence of man has been discovered over the years including several skulls dating back millions of years. Gonzalo has taken some of our video from both my camera and the onboard Octo-Copter video as well as photos and posted the video for everyone to enjoy.

Autodesk Octo-copter aerial video of flying in Northern Turkana region of Kenya. http://youtu.be/KvhJu6b0gug?hd=1

Cheers,
Shaan

Bones of Turkana Documentary

For my US readers; please tune in for Bones of Turkana on PBS Wednesday May 16th, 2012. This is a new documentary about the Leakey's human origins research in Kenya's Turkana Basin http://t.co/si59ckRu.

The Turkana Basin of Kenya is where many of the hominin fossils (our human ancestors) were found along with a great deal of other fossils and tools. Autodesk has been working with Louise Leakey, Turkana Basin Institute, and the National Museums of Kenya to document many in the collection in 3D using Autodesk 123D Catch for display online at http://www.africanfossils.org. 

Introduction Video narrated by Louise Leakey:
Welcome to AfricanFossils.org

More on how this video was created using 123D Catch and 3ds Max:
3D Fossil Exploration in a Virtual Laboratory

If in the US be sure to watch the Bones of Turkana Documentary! http://t.co/si59ckRu

-Shaan

Utah's FIRST Robotics 2012 Competition

This past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday several high school student teams from around the Western United States converged on Salt Lake City Utah and competed in the Utah's FIRST Robotics Competition regional competition.

Over 40 teams started designing in January for the Rebound Rumble challenge which involved several challenges where the robots must autonomously make some basketball baskets shots and then the wireless controlled manual portion gathering the balls and shooting them for points as well as some obstacles and cooperation challenges where one robot helps another over an obstacle. In between the events there is fun trivia and entertainment like music and dancing to keep the crowds energy going.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded by Inventor and Engineer Dean Kamen in 1989 with the vision:
"To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders."

I was fortunate enough to attend on Friday and Saturday and meet many of the teams. Autodesk is a proud supporter and sponsor of FIRST Robotics and provides software and support for the teams in the Autodesk Education Community’s FRC Program.

Students interested in engineering + robots + music = AWESOME

Here are some photos I took with my phone.

Regional Winners

• Team 2403 Team Plasma of Mesa Arizona. The team used Autodesk Inventor to wow those in attendance with their rotating 3D model on their laptop in their booth. The team was also a regional winner in the competition with their robot. This robot would be a welcome addition to any NBA team with its ball gathering and shooting skills.
• Team 3230 Protoypex from Salt Lake City Utah
• Team 3254 The Ravens

Engineering Inspiration Award

• Team 2486 CocoNuts

FIRST Dean’s List Finalist Award

• Caitlin Vitale-Sullivan of Team 1569
• TJ Houze of Team 4348

Regional Chairman's Award

• Team 3456 LiveWire of Pocatello Idaho (3 high schools, 4 coaches, 5 thousand hours, 6 weeks of building) – (This was an amazing and energetic team!!!)

The FIRST Finals 2012 will be in St. Louis April 25-28, 2012 and live streamed by NASA webcast.

It was a great and entertaining event seeing all the different ideas in the designs and everyone so pumped up.  In speaking to several of the teams it was clear that more mentors are needed. I was asked and by at least 4 teams for the 2013 competition season and looking forward to it. It was nice to see a real mix of boys and girls as both should be active and involved as math, science, and engineering is indeed cool and fun. I would strongly recommend you go to a regional or finals event if you live near a location one is being held or better yet get involved or support a local team. To learn more checkout http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ and for younger children checkout the FIRST LEGO League.

It is all our responsibility to get our youth to get involved in math science and engineering.

Congratulations to everyone who participated, volunteered, sponsored, mentored, and the students that participated in this competition.

Cheers,
Shaan

3D Fossil Exploration in a Virtual Laboratory

Autodesk gave a grant to help world renowned Paleontologist Louise Leakey to help develop one of her goals to bring many of the rare fossil specimens in Kenya to the world by the web. The website http://www.Africanfossils.org by Louise Leakey has been updated with several new features since its launch at Autodesk University 2011.

Some of the new features launched this week:

• Select the small blue globes for more information and features on the site
• Many new hominin (your human ancestors) and fauna specimens added to the collection with information on each
• Updated interface graphics including iPad scrolling
• An fossil real-time viewer for desktop browser visitors
• A Google map of the Turkana Basin with fossil discoveries
• A hominin phylogeny chart
• A geological formations chart
• A new backend database structure so that more specifies can be added or edited easily

Please visit http://www.africanfossils.org and explore the site.

The Site Experience:

You enter looking in the Lab with big windows looking out of over the beautiful Kenyan Turkana Basin.

Video Walkthrough:Download AfricanFossils.org walkthrough video 7Mb

You can pan around the lab left and right with your mouse of finger on your iPad exploring different exhibits indicated by the little blue globe icon/glyphs. When you select globes on the tables with the fossils you will launch a fossil view that on desktop browser will allow you a real-time viewing of the specimens along with information about them such as when when and where they were found and their origins and discovery notes.

The fossil viewer.

Here is the Google Map of locations in the Kenyan Turkana Basin launched when clicking the map on the wall in the lab.

How the Fossils were captured in 3D

The fossils were captured in 3D using just a digital camera and then using the Autodesk 123D Catch (formerly known as Project Photofly) which converts the photos to a 3D model which can then be exported as OBJ files for use in other applications like 3ds Max.

It has been an amazing experience to be part of this philanthropic project to bring rare specimens in Kenya digitally to the world to advance Louise’s non-profit goals of sharing the collection with the world helping paleontologists, students & researchers globally with design and reality capture technologies.

The Team

• Louise Leakey World renowned paleontologist based in Kenya
• YANG Deming – Capturing specimens with a digital camera at the National Museum of Kenya
• Max Ehrlich of ME3D – 3D graphics
• Chris Mollomo of Puddlejumpmedia working on all the web features
• Scott Bjelland of the Turkana Basin Institute
• Gregory K Miller and myself Shaan Hurley working on behalf of Autodesk using Autodesk 123D Catch models and project management

Thank you to Autodesk executives Brian Mathews & Amar Hanspal for bringing this project vision to reality.

For more on Louise Leakey and the Turkana Basin Institute please visit:
The Turkana Basin Institute http://www.stonybrook.edu/tbi/

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk at TED 2011 this Week

For those interested in cutting edge ideas, technology, and speakers the TED conference has been the source of a brain stimulating smorgasbord to feast on since its founding.

The focus of TED is “T”echnology, “E”ntertainment, and “D”esign.

As you may be aware Autodesk is passionate about all three of the focus points in TED but perhaps best known for the big “D” in Design. Autodesk is a sponsor of the TED 2011 conference and has exhibits this week at the event being held in Long Beach California.

Autodesk has several cool exhibits from the Autodesk Gallery at One Market as well as technology demos like the Autodesk Labs Project Photofly custom setup where you can in one-click capture your head in 3D. Don’t worry it wont capture what you are thinking, just yet.

Read more about the Photofly Project camera setup behind the scenes from my fellow Autodesk Labs geek Scott Sheppard on the It is Alive in the Lab blog.

• Project Photofly: The Red Box Diaries
• Project Photofly at TED

Some photos from TED thanks to Brian Mathews:
 

Join Jason Medal-Katz for a video tour of "The Gallery" presented by Autodesk at TED2011 http://youtu.be/cGdcrytmHX0

Autodesk VP of Corporate Strategy Jon Pittman is tweeting on Twitter during TED. @JonHPittman.

Autodesk’s Tom Wujec presenting at TED 2010 Build a tower, build a team

I just saw a photo on Twitter posted by Jonathan Knowles @JonathanKnowles that Bill Gates stopped by the Autodesk Gallery booth.

@BillGates @ "The Gallery" at #TED2011 presented by #AutodeskTED #TED http://yfrog.com/h2gd2aej

If you are at TED 2011 staring at the cool balloon sculpture, be sure to check out “The Gallery” presented by Autodesk nearby.

Cheers,
Shaan

Spaced Out this Week

This week I will be in Florida on vacation attending the NASATweetup final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 on Thursday February 24th, 2011 at 4:40pm EST. I will be tweeting and posting photos from the launch pad 39A during the Rotating Service Structure retraction Wednesday night and the live launch from the turning basin location at Kennedy Space Center. Look for me near the famous countdown clock in any broadcasts of the launch including NASA TV Watch NASA TV.

I will be Tweeting, posting video and photos as much as possible from my @mrcadman account http://www.twitter.com/mrcadman.

MY Flickr NASA Photo Stream location: http://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/collections/72157626029382418/

STS-133 Mission page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/index.html

Launch countdown milestones http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/133_countdown_milestones.html

Cheers,
Shaan

This Week at Autodesk and NASA

This week I am in the San Francisco Bay Area.visiting the Autodesk home office today and tomorrow, It is always great seeing colleagues and what is going on, even the ten foot tall inflatable dinosaur on the second floor. I will be posting and tweeting whenever I have a spare minute.

On Friday, I will be visiting NASA Ames Moffett Field in Mountain View. I received an invitation to the first NASA Twitter Meetup event named a NASATweetup at NASA Ames for a special behind the scenes tour and NASATweetup. I am truly excited to be attending as a person who promotes engineering, design, science, and technology.

Lighting does strike twice as last year I received an invitation to attend a NASATweetup event for the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133. Discovery is the oldest and most celebrated shuttle and I looked for ward to seeing her lift off from launch pad 39a from less than 3 miles away back in November. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but the launch was scrubbed for technical issues.

After a few months of analysis and repairs, NASA graciously once again extended the invitation to attend the launch at the Kennedy Space Center Florida on February 24th the day before my birthday. NASA also is working on a special trip the night prior to launch where we get to the Space Shuttle on launch pad at night when it is bathed in spotlights and witness the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure 

I will definitely be capturing photos for Project PhotoFly to generate 3D meshed and textures models from a standard digital camera.

To follow me live at the NASATweetup events you can follow me at @mrcadman and http://buzzroom.nasa.gov/

You can also see my photo gallery for the Space Shuttle Launch STS-133 NASATweetup part one, and the upcoming part two.

NASATweetup for Space Shuttle STS-133

This is like being Charlie and finding the golden ticket to the Wonka Chocolate Factory!

Cheers,
Shaan

Lab Coat Please…

As of February 1st I have moved to the Autodesk Labs group within Autodesk as a Technology Evangelist. It is a full circle for me as I developed the first Autodesk Labs site and posted several projects back in 2006, now I finally get to work in the group. I will be working with the teams supporting and evangelizing the Labs hosted technologies to current and future customers.

This blog will remain as it has for seven years, an active all things Autodesk blog with varied topic posts from A to Z, or AutoCAD to Zombies. I have always covered design, science, technology, and visualization on this blog in addition to covering Labs technologies since its founding, so there are no big changes expected to this blog’s secret sauce. I will still be covering AutoCAD topics as it has been an important part of my experience both as a customer and as an Autodesk employee. AutoCAD is an important part of Autodesk technology and a product that is used in combination with many of the Labs technologies.

Autodesk Labs has excelled at providing emerging technology to people for feedback. Technology Previews are not really a beta for a product, but an early Technology Preview. The goal is that you and your feedback shape the direction, and if it might become a product or a new feature in a product.

Autodesk Labs longtime employee and blogger Scott Sheppard “It’s Alive in the Lab” http://labs.blogs.com/ and I will be covering Labs content from different angles, so now Labs has  two voices and blogs instead of one, like stereo but better.

While I have your attention give some new technology a look and perhaps take it for a test drive at the Autodesk Labs. There are many exciting projects posted as well as more coming.

Some examples of the most popular:

• Project Vasari Conceptual design and analysis for buildings.
• Inventor Fusion Technology Preview Unites direct and parametric modeling workflows.
• Project Galileo  Create 3D city models from civil, geospatial, and building data.
• Photo Scene Editor for Project Photofly Create 3D models from photographs using the web.
• Shape Extraction for AutoCAD Convert point clouds to real geometry.

And much much more.

In addition to the larger Technology Previews, there is the Plugin of the Month from the Autodesk Developer Network where our developer consultants aka programming ninjas and our ADN partners post plugins for Autodesk products.

• DrawOrder by Layer for AutoCAD
• ScriptPro 2.0 for AutoCAD
• FeatureMigrator for Inventor
• Offset in XREF for AutoCAD

Cheers,
Shaan
@mrcadman on Twitter

T-Minus 7 Days STS-133

The NASA Space Shuttle STS-133 launch is only 7 days, but the #NASATweetup starts in 6 days on Halloween at Kennedy Space Center. I was lucky enough to be invited to attend as one of the 150 selected from around the world to participate for Space Shuttle #STS133. We will tweeting behind the scenes and only 3 miles from the launch pad near the infamous countdown clock, and 3 miles closer than the public. What a super special treat to spend Halloween at NASA in the warm Florida weather and escape todays snow in Salt Lake City where Winter is is moving in..

STS-133 Launch Specifics:

• Date: Nov. 1, 2010
• Mission: STS-133
• Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery
• Site: Kennedy Space Center - Launch Pad 39A
• Time: 4:40 p.m. ET

Space Shuttle Info http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Watch the launch live: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA is considering STS-133 as the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

NASA Invites Reporters To Next Space Shuttle Launch And Tweetup

WASHINGTON -- At the next space shuttle launch, NASA will host 150 people from around the world and provide them with a behind-the-scenes perspective to share with their followers via the social networking service Twitter.

Participants at the NASA Tweetup on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 will tour Kennedy and meet with shuttle technicians, managers, engineers and astronauts. They also will get a demonstration of Robonaut, a human-like robot similar to the one that will be delivered to the space station with this mission. The Tweetup culminates with the viewing of the shuttle launch. At 2:15 p.m. EDT on Oct. 31, NASA will use UStream to broadcast an hour of the Tweetup program at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-television

People are expected to attend from 38 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Japan, Latvia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
Tweetup participants are coming from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Attendees were selected randomly from more than 2,700 online registrations.
.
To follow the Tweetup participants on Twitter as they experience the prelaunch events and shuttle liftoff, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees at:

http://twitter.com/nasatweetup/sts-133-launch

NASA also has a website where anyone -- including those not on Twitter -- can follow along with the events:

http://buzzroom.nasa.gov

http://www.scibuff.com/space-shuttle/index.php#

http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov

Robonaut is on Twitter @AstroRobonaut

Check out the official press kit: [PDF] http://bit.ly/b2pO6r

Follow me on Twitter for the play by play of the #NASATweetup with photos, video, and technical details of the launch @mrcadman.

Cheers,
Shaan

Autodesk, Geomagic, & FARO at Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage

A very cool video has been posted to the Jay Leno Big Dog Garage website. We got to work with not only some of the coolest cars and people in Hollywood, but also the coolest in Engineering Technology.

“Holy cow! American ingenuity is alive, kicking, and awesome. Now you can combine the products of three homegrown tech companies, FARO, Autodesk, and Geomagic to create pretty much whatever you want under your own roof. Watch while Jay scans and reproduces his face!”

See Autodesk Inventor, Geomagic, & FARO 3D Laser Scanning at Jay Leno's Garage http://bit.ly/9oHhDH

Making appearances in this video are Jay Leno, Jim Hall of Big Dog Garage, Autodesk’s own strategic research director Gonzalo Martinez, Geomagic’s amazing CEO Ping Fu, FARO’s laser firing duo David Morse and Jeff Squibbs. Not shown in this video were the geometry taming Kevin Scofield of Geomagic, Bernard of Big Dog Garage, the Tabasco hot sauce loving Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski, and Lil’ ol’ me.

Left to right: Jeff Kowalski, CTO (Autodesk); David Morse, VP (FARO); Kevin Scofield (Geomagic); Jay Leno; Ping Fu, CEO (Geomagic); Shaan Hurley, Evangelist (Autodesk);  Gonzalo Martinez, Director of Strategic Research (Autodesk); Jeff Squibbs, Western Region Director (FARO)

From my colleague Dan Ahern describing the process:

With Jay Leno's rapt attention, the team demonstrated our combined technologies to scan original parts and create 3D models. They then began to print 3D prototypes, showing Jay how fabricating a replacement part for his cherished cars has taken a tremendous leap forward. Since Jay's garage began using 3D modeling with AutoCAD and Inventor, they have fabricated many parts including intake manifolds for a 1945 Rolls Royce engine. In addition to fabricating replacement parts, the garage team uses Inventor to redesign components based on the mechanics' learning and new engineering methods like fatigue analysis.

It is always amazing when multiple technologies work together so perfectly to make something so challenging appear so easy. This would not have been possible without the great people and technology of FARO, Geomagic, and our own Autodesk family.

A few years ago I mentioned this concept to some people, and they looked at me like I was really crazy or watching too much Star Trek. One person back then pointed out the most complex prototype I had scanned, meshed, and 3D printed was the infamous Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture. The Matt Murphy Clay Head did make an appearance with Jay Leno a few years back after it toured the world with me but that is another long sorted tale. I felt back then the infamous Murphy's head was the beginning of not only some fun geeky time with clay, a laser scanner, cool software, and a 3D printer, but something much much bigger.

Who knew it would all come down to 3 technology leading companies in Jay’s shop scanning a part in 3D, meshing the part and modifying the part digitally in Autodesk Inventor then printing to a Stratasys 3D Printer. Once the prototype is verified it is easy to take the digital model to the next step in the machine shop. We also 3D scanned Jay Leno’s head. Perhaps we could market a line of Jay Leno rubber chins.

 

My next wishful project mating technology with fun might be a trip out to the natural sand arches here in Utah and scanning them in all their beauty in 3D using a FARO 100M scanner with the cool name of “Photon”. Why, because we can. I also think there is value to preserving a digital representations of buildings, structures, but also natural landmarks as they can change with time or be destroyed. A painting, photo, or text story can never be as grand and bring back each subtle geometric detail. It is like bringing the dinosaurs back to life in the future to study or preserve. Imagine a digital recipe for a large structure on file in the Smithsonian.  Who knows maybe we will print a full size Delicate Arch out of a 3D printer someday but I am not sure 3D Printing technology is quite ready for that, but wouldn’t that be so cool to have a full or half scale of Utah’s Delicate Arch in your front yard to impress your neighbors? That would be far more cool and stylish than those pink flamingoes or garden gnomes.

If you are still reading this, you may be wondering whatever happened to that Matt Murphy Clay Head, well it is in a hermetically sealed container somewhere near Boston and cherished by none other than the real Matt Murphy, and an exact 3D Print in ABS material of the Matt Murphy head is on a shelf in my office, how “Wicked Cool” is that?

Another recent blog post of 3D Scanning, Autodesk, and Jay Leno:
Awesome Technology Makes Greater Horsepower

Technology, Innovation, and fun keep moving ahead at high speed!

Cheers,
Shaan

What a Day, 3.6 Million Pounds of Thrust Was a Blast

I just returned from the worlds largest solid fuel rocket motor test about an hour drive North of me in Utah. The rocket motor was the NASA ARES-1 DM-1 built and tested by ATK Space Systems. ATK Press Release

This is why science and engineering are cool and young people should be considering a future in science and engineering fields!  We need another manned lunar mission. Support NASA, the ARES project, and future space exploration!

A few quick bits and pieces beyond the rocket test’s sheer power and performance while burning over a million pounds of solid rocket fuel in two minutes.

How did they keep the rocket horizontal for this static test? ATK  had placed nearly a football field of concrete that the rocket motor assembly was mounted to. ATK and NASA had 650 sensors for monitoring and recording acoustical, pressure, and strain measurements. The initial results were successful and the data will be analyzed over the coming weeks to get detailed data to use in future motor design modifications and refinements.

There was a rattlesnake that survived being directly behind the motor test. The snake was located underneath some sand. The snake was not injured in any way despite the fact that some of the sand in the area turned to glass with exposure to the high temperatures generated by the rocket motor test. The ATK personnel certainly were surprised to find this lively little snake as they were moving sand after the test.  I took a photo of the engineers looking at the snake, but due to the snake blending in with camouflage markings you can see the lucky little reptile.

NASA located a special video camera with a mirror setup behind the rocket motor, the camera survived only a few seconds after the motor ignition. The camera was on a small car sized concrete footing, and it is believed to be spotted half way up the mountain behind the test.

During the test I spotted a commercial passenger plane passing over the several thousand foot tall plume of smoke. I can only guess what the passengers were thinking as they passed over.

I did ask a purely fun question while speaking with one ATK employee. With such a powerful rocket motor fixed to the Earth, I inquired whether they had considered the rockets force to alter the Earths rotational speed and possibly altering time. ;-)

NASA TV video of the rocket motor test:
NASA and ATK Successfully Test Ares First Stage Motor

Local television station Fox 13 video coverage of the test:
Rocket Test Successful in N. Utah

Local television station KSL:
ATK awaits Fla. test launch after successful test fire of Ares rocket

I was tweeting on Twitter live @mrcadman during  the day when I could get a phone connection.

This was an absolutely amazing experience, one that I will never forget. I met with many people today including real rocket scientists and Space Shuttle astronauts. I have many more photos to post to my Flickrstream as well as future blog posts. The ATK and NASA employees were awesome and I cannot begin to thank them enough for allowing me the opportunity to attend this historical engineering event. 

What an experience!

Cheers,
Shaan

T-18 Hours Until ARES 1 DM-1 Rocket Motor Test

I will be attending the large solid fuel rocket test tomorrow here in Northern Utah with ATK & NASA.  This is the ultimate engineering geek experience. This first stage rocket engine will be a vital component of the next generation manned space flight vehicle Orion Crew Vehicle.  If all goes well with my cell connection I will be blogging live before during and after the test as well as later be posting high resolution photos to my Flickrstream. The test will also be shown live on the NASA TV streaming over the web.

• 3.6 million pounds of thrust fixed in the horizontal position
• 2 minute burn
• 2/3 the temperature of the sun turning sand into glass

This is just the perfect type of event to get young people interested in science, space, and engineering.

“To Infinity and Beyond!” – Buzz Lightyear

Cheers,
Shaan