Between the Lines

100 Days of GCC 2015

Autodesk participates in the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) with hundreds of employee teams competing internally and against other companies and the perfect side effect of getting more fit. This GCC 2015 is my third year participating and last year our team made 11th place within Autodesk as Team OCTO (Office of the CTO.) Teams of 7 log their steps from pedometers, or the distance biking or swimming daily in this fun fitness challenge. In keeping with always over doing things... Read more →

Worlds Oldest Tools Discovered

The oldest stone tools known to man were found in remote Northern Kenya. The tools date back 3.3 million years. My friend Dr. Louise Leakey documented the excavation and tools using Autodesk technology to share the discovery with the world. These historical findings are detailed in an article published last week in Nature Magazine (May 20, 2015). Now, through the power of Autodesk technology, people all around the world will have the chance to share in this major scientific discovery.... Read more →

Autodesk’s Pier 9 Artist in Residence 2015 Reel

Autodesk’s Pier 9 is a SF office space where many resident artists and Autodesk employees make some amazing creations, products, and some teams do futuristic research. Check out Pier 9's Spring 2015 Artist in Residence Reel Video, it’s truly amazing! Pier 9's Spring 2015 Artist in Residence Reel from Pier 9 on Vimeo. If you are a creative maker and/or artist you too can apply for a resident artist position at Pier 9 and have one of the most creative... Read more →

Meet the Robot that Draws

My Autodesk Office of the CTO colleagues Evan Atherton and David Thomasson were just featured in a Forbes story on research projects in robotics and teaching robots to draw. It is fascinating to watch the robot in person interpreting the images and instructions. It is still safer to teach the robot to draw with a pen than carve wood with a knife but someday its creations will be hard to detect when compared from an artisans work.. The goal isn't... Read more →

Be Safe This Weekend

It is Memorial Day weekend in the United States which kicks off Summer. Sadly it also is the start of more traffic accidents and many related to long holiday drives while tired. Please, if you are driving long distances this weekend stop and take resets and arrive alive. The photo was taken by me this week from a UAV Quad Copter a rest area along Highway 26 between Portland Oregon and Cannon Beach. Read more →

Throwback Thursday AutoCAD-86 Version 1.1 Floppy

AutoCAD-86 version 1.1 original floppy disk for the old Victor platform from 1982/1983. Cheers Shaan Read more →

High Tech Venus Flytrap

Today I received an update notice for the Adobe Flash Player (and I had thought Flash was dead and still look forward to that day) but I noticed something that could cause come serious system issues if you don’t pay close attention to what Adobe set as a default in their Windows Flash update installer. Many times if you have more than one antivirus software installed it can and will cause problems especially if it is a antivirus software with... Read more →

99% Invisible is 100% Awesome!

A Portland Oregon friend of mine turned me onto a great storytelling podcast named 99% Invisible by Roman Mars that centers on a unique and interesting way of talking about architecture, design, and technology. Imagine my surprise and delight to see Autodesk has partnered on a new flag design with 99% Invisible for San Francisco which partners civic pride and design. Autodesk and 99% are teaming up to sponsor and facilitate a redesign of the San Francisco flag. The current... Read more →

Autodesk Open-Source Ember 3D Printer Design Files

Autodesk posted the open-source design files under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license for the Ember 3D printer this week. You can freely download the complete assembly in Fusion 360, Inventor, DWG, STL and more formats to create your own 3D printer design or modifications for Ember. If you design your own 3D printer based on the Ember you can use the open Spark platform. Ember Mechanical Design Files Complete Assembly (BOM) Read more →

Autodesk Dynamo Studio and FormIt 360 Pro Announced

Autodesk announced this week at the AIA show the new Dynamo Studio and FormIt 360 Pro releases of new products. For more on these conceptual Architectural design tools check out the announcement posted on the Autodesk PR blog In the Fold. Autodesk Launches Dynamo Studio and FormIt 360 Pro at AIA http://bit.ly/1ICCwcz Availability and More Information Pricing and product details for Autodesk FormIt 360 Pro are available here, and for Autodesk Dynamo Studio here. Check out this series of podcasts... Read more →

New Release of Autodesk Recap

At the recent SPAR Conference Autodesk announced the new release of ReCap and the Reality Computing workflows that solve customer problems in various industries. Here are the highlights from that announcement. After more than one year of extensive usage of our first ReCap product line by thousand users, we are very happy to introduce ReCap 360 at SPAR. ReCap 360 unlocks the power of using Reality Data with better measurement, enhanced markup, greater collaboration, search and automatic registration. Several new... Read more →

Coffee Please – Social Media Experiment

I am sitting in a new space in Autodesk’s San Francisco Steuart and would like a cappuccino. Let me rephrase that, I need caffeine please. I am located near the 2nd floor forest scene aka “The Park” at the picnic bench near the hammock, and complete with trees to possibly simulate the Lake Oswego Oregon office. In 15 minutes without the caffeine I may be in the hammock or cuddled under a tree. Will my awesome Autodesk colleagues help me... Read more →

How to Weld - MIG Welding on Instructables and So Much More!

Where can you find out how to fabricate a trojan horse, 3D print moth deterrent, create a whiskey still, make skittles vodka, make a unicorn, bake ghost sugar cookies, make a worm hotel, or learn how to weld? InstructablesInstructables is Autodesk and not only have the coolest creative office space in Autodesk at Pier 9 but also published thousands of instructables covering most anything you could ever consider making and they reward those that share their own knowledge with a... Read more →

AutoCAD Hacked! - Part 2

Read more about AutoCAD Security in the second article in the series from Autodesk's Dieter Schlaepfer. http://bit.ly/1EeznIg Read more →

May the 4th Be With You

Today May 4th is a day that Star Wars fans celebrate the iconic science fiction movie series as “May the 4th” a play on the Star Wars saying “May the Force be With You.” My fellow Autodesk (OCTO) team member Evan Atherton recently produced a great Star Wars fan movie around the loveable droid R2 D2 titled “Artoo in Love” that went viral around the world on the biggest of online news clamoring to cover the movie. The beauty of... Read more →