Yesterday in New York Autodesk held an event for media and partners in the consumer design space also known as the personal fabrication, DIY, and makers. Several new products were announced and shown at the event.

Capture, Design, Make, and Share.

Autodesk CEO, Carl Bass along with Samir Hanna, VP of Consumer Products both spoke about Autodesk and the support of Makers. Carl spoke about the “Post-Industrial Manufacturing and the Future of Making” explaining he has been a maker for over 30 years making things in his shop and then showed some great examples and research going on in the future of manufacturing including a 3D printer that prints building and another that can print human organs. Carl also mentioned the Consumer Products from Autodesk “are really aimed for kids 7-70 years old. Samir Hanna spoke about the changing in the role of consumers and design and how Autodesk is providing powerful yet easy to use tools for people to unleash their creativity as everyone has some ability to be creative and Autodesk wants to enable that with the growing 123D products.

Partners at the Event

• Epilog Laser
• MakerBot including their CEO Bre Pettis.
  
• Objet 3D printers
• Shapeways online 3D printing
• ShopBot The awesome guys from ShopBot actually cut a portion of my Delicate Arch model using a ShopBot.
  
  

So what was announced?

• Check out the updated 123D site (http://www.123dapp.com/) and register your account.
• A new desktop version of 123D Catch is coming adding new functionality like the gallery and MyCorner so you can exchange the data with other apps including 123D Sculpt online where you could heal the model making it ready for 3D printing. There was a mobile version of 123D Catch shown which will initially support the iPad so that you can capture 3D models of the world around you by simply tapping the screen around and object and then you can share or even 3D print it.
  We also showed our custom designed camera rig for mounting a camera to and then using it to move around an object to capture it using 123D Catch. The camera rig created from parts you can get from a home improvement store and a few 3D printed parts. Making it simple and easy to build was the key and also sharing the design so everyone can make one.
• A new version of 123D Beta 9 now available for download.
• A new version of 123D Make coming to not only the Mac, but to Windows and iOS.
• A new 123D Sculpt online where you can sculpt or repair geometry. There is also OBJ export coming to the 123D Sculpt iOS version via in-app purchase.
• Most of the consumer products continue to be FREE to everyone.

I will be covering the new products and feature details in a future post.

Cheers,
Shaan