Between the Lines

Autodesk ReCap Helps Preserve & Share the Story of the Antikythera Shipwreck

Autodesk ReCap helps preserve & share the story of this shipwreck with 3D models & 3D printed artifacts http://autode.sk/2dpgn8q Read more →

The Fusion 360 Team Wants Your Feedback

The Autodesk Fusion 360 Team is looking for feedback and interviews with Fusion 360 users. We want to speak with all kinds of Fusion 360 customers to learn more about how you design and test your product. Sessions will be over the phone and 30 minutes long. You'll receive a $25 Amazon gift card as thanks for your participation. http://autode.sk/2dd8Rt2 Read more →

Commercial UAS Pilot Certification - Check

The FAA has enacted new regulations that went into effect on August 31st, 2016 for US based small unmanned aircraft systems UAS/UAV/drones over .55 pounds but under 55 pounds after what felt like a wild wild west of unclear rules awhile drones became very popular for both hobbyist and commercial companies including Autodesk for construction and reality capture technologies. Drones Take Off In the Construction Industry as a Cost-Saving Tool Diary of a drone pilot – Medium Both hobbyist and... Read more →

One Week with the iPhone 7 Plus

Just over a week ago I drew a Friday 8am reservation for the new iPhone and upgraded as I do for the camera and increased storage alone. The new Apple reservation process was easy as I was in and out with the new phone in 5 minutes and had the first Apple 7 Plus Black matte for the Portland store I was at. After having used the phone for just over a week I have a few personal observations. The... Read more →

Smart Materials

Max Moruzzi is the senior principal research scientist in our Autodesk Research and has authored an article for Techcrunch on how smart materials will change and reshape the world for better through design. This is another remarkable glimpse at the Future of Making Things. How Smart Materials Will Literally Reshape the World Around Us tps://techcrunch.com/2016/09/17/how-smart-materials-will-literally-reshape-the-world-around-us/ “The IoT may well be The Next Big Thing, but maybe the attention around sensors is misplaced… What if we didn’t even need embedded sensors... Read more →

SketchBook Motion Released for the iPad

Autodesk has just released SketchBook Motion on the Apple App Store which was formerly available as as pre-release Project Draco from Autodesk Research. Now you can easily create compelling web based animations for illustrations or art using your Apple iPad. Read More about SketchBook Motion: http://www.sketchbook.com/blog/motion-new-app-sketchbook-pro-members/ Today, we’re happy to introduce a new app called SketchBook Motion. As its name suggests, it’s all about creating movement, but it’s a little different than your typical animation app. It’s about adding specific... Read more →

AutoCAD Family Feud Survey

Survey Says, Be at Autodesk University for: DING! Great classes, networking, seeing what the future holds, and fun! Please join Heidi Hewett, Lynn Allen and me at the AutoCAD Family Feud Tuesday 1:00pm at Autodesk University. We need your responses for the Feud at this survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q25PT65. It only takes a minute or two. Details on the social media reception coming soon for those that actively participate in social media throughout the year covering Autodesk products and technologies.There will also... Read more →

Andrew Hessel–Reddit Ask Me Anything on Biotechnology

Andrew Hessel of Autodesk's Bio/Nano Research Group within Autodesk Office of the CTO recently held a very thought provoking Reddit Ask Me Anything session. Andrew if you have not met him, is a very unique and brilliant researcher in his field and here at Autodesk working on big issues that truly impact our world like finding technology processes to cure cancer, disease,and other big challenges faces us as a species. He refers to the brain as nothing more than a... Read more →

Support Oregon STEM

The Oregon 2016 Tech Exec Auction just started and we have a high flying option to bid on with Autodesk Vice President Simulation, Greg Fallon. Not to be content with just another wine or brewery experience package in an auction event, Greg felt it would be unique and fun to actually involve a STEM experience and discussions with flying sUAS/UAV friendly drones and dinner. We can even capture 3D models of the terrain using Autodesk’s technology in addition to giving... Read more →

Play Hide and Seek with a 3D Laser Scanner

If you have done a lot of 3D laser scanning or LiDAR you know how waiting to see if the scan is done can be sometimes a hide and seek game to not get caught in the scan and photo. On a recent project the FARO scanner caught me as evidenced by the point matching when merging scans in Autodesk ReCap Pro. Laser scanning systems take photos at the end of a laser scan so that it can bake the... Read more →

AutoCAD 2017 Import PDF as Vectors

AutoCAD 2017 has added the ability to import a PDF as vector objects and not just as a raster PDF underlay added back in AutoCAD 2007. Customers have been asking for a longtime for this feature but there has been concerns since published data can have inherent inaccurate scales and a few other issues. Autodesk chose to look at the requests from customers in order to define the needs and took a couple years in development. So now in AutoCAD... Read more →

The Next Phase in Robotics - Collaboration

The robots are coming and they are not all evil but will help us make things and augment our capabilities at solving other challenges facing the world. Maurice Conti Director, Applied Research and Innovation, in the Autodesk Office of the CTO and colleague was interviewed by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for a nice article on robotics and the research Autodesk is doing in the Applied Research Lab. Human Augmentation: the Next Phase in Robotics http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/human-augmentation-the-next-phase-in-robotics Prominent, respected public figures... Read more →

Autodesk University 2016 Around the World

The main Autodesk University in Las Vegas Nevada United States is still 63 days away, but did you know that International Autodesk University events have been held and several yet to come? Tomorrow my many friends in Brazil will be attending AU in Brazil. Wish I could have been there this year. Tem um incrível Autodesk University meus amigos! We are very happy to offer Autodesk certification at each event this year. “Everyone who registers early or pays full price... Read more →

Autodesk Forge Free Online Hackathon

Get some help, build an app, publish it in the Autodesk App Store, and get a reward. Free Online Hackathon from September 1–October 31, 2016: http://autode.sk/2cyCDw4 Read more →

Throwback Thursday – Not all Bugs are Bad

Back in AutoCAD R12, R13, and R14 there was a bug that was not bad, a bug with benefits. The bug allowed you to speed up the plot regen by over 200 percent faster making the plot preview and plotting much faster. All you had to do what hit the keyboard spacebar while the plot was regenerating and BAM it sped up to light speed. Several years back when I was on the AutoCAD Team I discussed this good old... Read more →

Bad Poetry Slam Winner

Just over a week ago I hosted a Bad Poetry Slam at Autodesk’s Lake Oswego Oregon office during the Fusion 360 Teams Beer Bust for some fun. We had several last minute entries and all bad bad bad. Several employees submitted poetry as well as one external submission from a reader of this blog. Some were listed as anonymous submissions while others took full responsibility for their literary creations. While all submitted poetry was bad, one clearly sank to the... Read more →

Using Generative Design to Design a Bike Stem

There is an article published by SolidSmack explaining Autodesk’s Generative Design technology named Dreamcatcher developed by Autodesk Research. The article discusses Autodesk Pier 9 Artist in Residence Che-Wei Wang using Dreamcatcher to design an optimized 3D printed metal bike stem. In Dreamcatcher the user is not just a modeler or CAD designer but sets the design constraints such as initial geometry, loads, and material properties and then the designer selects the best output design from a series of results that... Read more →

Office Hangman

Over the Summer the Autodesk Lake Oswego Oregon (Portland) had some smart and fun high school interns developing the next version of BXD. BXD was developed to test FIRST Robotics robots complete with a physics engine. Many new features are coming to BXD from their work this summer, but they also had some fun. The interns challenged a nearby office building to a game of hangman using post it notes. The funniest response from the other office building was the... Read more →