Between the Lines

Sabbatical Week One

Greetings following my first week of sabbatical, and what a week it was! First thing I did was that I went looking for a new personal laptop to take on my adventures, since my MacBook from 2011 was not very peppy anymore and I didn't want to take my work laptop out on outdoor adventures and my iPad doesn't cut it. I looked all around for something that had dedicated graphics and performance as well looked nice and lots of... Read more →

Hello Summer

I am so grateful to have an employer that understands that employees need time away to refresh, recharge, and come back with a renewed energy and passion. Some of us use the time to go spend time with friends, family, education, reading, working on their home, camping, or traveling, but a 6 week sabbatical every 4 years provides a true length of time to disconnect. I will be checking email and posting to the blog occasionally so that things don't... Read more →

Sabbatical Next Friday

Next Friday, I will begin 6 weeks off for the 5th time in 20 years at Autodesk. This is one of the best benefits of working for Autodesk. The 6 weeks provides enough time you can truly disconnect, recharge, and come back with a renewed energy and focus. I don't have a big elaborate travel schedule, I am doing what I did last sabbatical and that was free forming it by going camping, hiking, road trips, seeing friends and family... Read more →

Custom Espresso Tamper

Thanks to the kindness and concern for good coffee in the new Portland Autodesk office and an excellent excuse to make things, Hans Kellner Autodesk employee extraordinaire in Autodesk’s San Francisco office designed a custom espresso tamper. Hans designed the tamper using Fusion 360 and then machined it on a Haas CNC. Now we have two new custom espresso tampers for our new Portland office’s espresso machine. From Hans: After testing it and seeing it was a perfect fit, size,... Read more →

Weekend Gorge Memories

Yesterday it was 90 degrees in Portland, so I headed into the Columbia Gorge to enjoy some hiking and wildflowers. Coyote Wall Tom McCall Nature Preserve Rowena Crest We love our pets in the Pacific Northwest, and maybe you know that Autodesk back to the early years has allowed dogs in several offices. I was sad to see search and rescue going up Coyote Wall yesterday but heard it was to rescue a German Sheppard dog that was having problems... Read more →

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit from Pimoroni to Give Away

I have a new and amazing Pimoroni Pi Starter Kit with about everything you would need to make something with Raspberry Pi. I would love to gift it to a teen that is totally interested in STEM and technology that would complete the build and provide a follow up of their project and experience. Do you know a teen or advanced pre-teen that would love this and do something with it? Email me Read more →

Throwback Thursday - Keep on Pedaling Michael

In our new renovated Portland office in the old Towne Storage Building, there is history all around us and all that could be maintained, restored, and celebrated was.The building had many years as a paper company storage, then county government records, then for some years as a funky storage building full of studios and lofts that people could rent. Over time the building was in jeopardy due to poor condition and safety and was potentially facing demolition like so many... Read more →

Make Anything – Portland Style

When employees moved into the new Autodesk Portland office they had more good surprises than the amazing renovated historic building, our CREFT Facilities team went above and beyond. Autodesk Portland CREFT team member Lynette Keller used our own Portland developed Fusion 360 design software to design a coaster to place on our desks when we arrived. Autodesk employee and Fusion 360 expert Mike Aubry gave Lynnette some lessons in Fusion 360 and she made the design. The Make Anything Coaster... Read more →

Bike City – Autodesk Portland

We have been in our new office in downtown Portland a week as of this Monday, and a few things have become very apparent. A new office can change more than the length of commute for employees, it is changing culture and pride in the office environment. Read more →

Mimic - Open-Source Autodesk Maya Plugin to Control Industrial Robots

The Autodesk Robotics Lab excited to announce the release of Mimic, an open-source Autodesk Maya plugin for controlling Industrial Robots. Mimic is a free and open-source plugin for Autodesk Maya that enables simulation, programming, and control of 6-axis, Industrial Robots. It provides a robust and intuitive, animation-based toolset, allowing creators to prototype, validate, and drive automated systems. The team works on a lot of experimental robotics projects, writing many of their own software tools from scratch.They found out that they... Read more →

Tough Audience

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting a class of 1st and 2nd-grade students in Lowrie Primary School in Wilsonville Oregon. An Autodesk colleague had children attending there and asked if I would speak to Ms. M’s class on technology, and of course drones. I love kids and talking with them about technology as they always have a lot of energy and questions. We even had the approval of the school to pop up a drone outside and capture a... Read more →

Snowpocolypse in Portland

We tend to over-react here in Portland when it snows or there is freezing ice storms, but for some good reasons. We normally don't get snow, or just a trace then it melts.In the past 3 winters we have seen more than just a trace. Snow or ice storms tend to slow or bring the city to a standstill because don't laugh but we have only a couple snow plows and our roads with hills are not designed for the... Read more →

Mowing Green this Weekend

In Oregon we have mild winters and as such grass in our yards are green and still grow requiring maintained by mowing. After 20 years of service with Autodesk, I was awarded a credit I could use for various gifts and I chose to green my house with a home improvement gift certificate. I have retired my gas engine lawn mower for a nice efficient Greenworks Pro 60-volt Brushless Lithium Ion cordless Electric Lawn Mower. It was really nice to... Read more →

Hedgehog Day in the Office

Did you know that before the overweight lazy Pennsylvania groundhog predicted when spring would arrive (poor accuracy record btw), there was the hedgehog? Its true, it was actually Hedgehog Day before it was ever Groundhog Day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day “Groundhog Day: is a popular tradition celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day sees a shadow due to clear weather, it will... Read more →

On This Day 20 Years Ago

On this day a much younger version of me left a design seat as an Autodesk customer and started with Autodesk in San Rafael California. Here is Autodesk customer Shaan Hurley, Mechanical Designer of Oregon Iron Works Portland Oregon in 1997. I was interviewed for the AutoCAD R14 demo CD. Here is my first Autodesk employee badge as well as a photo of me in my san Rafael office. Autodesk was hovering around $6.50 a share price and now is... Read more →

140 Years Next Week

Next week I will celebrate and reflect on 20 years working at Autodesk, or 140 in dog years due to our dog loving culture at Autodesk. I am going to gather up some of my fondest memories and accomplishments for a blog post next week. Autodesk has been a job that I only intended to do for two years then go back into a design seat, but I am still here for several reasons and my colleagues are like extended... Read more →

Happy New Year 2018

I have just returned from the holidays and all rested and refreshed and ready for this fresh new year.I spent the past 2 weeks hiking, snowshoeing, shoveling snow and ice, playing with my dog, and relaxing. I hope you had a great holiday and new year. I want to sincerely thank you for reading Between the Lines blog. Without you there is no reason for the blog. If there is any feedback and suggestions for Autodesk and technology related topics... Read more →

Happy Holidays

This is my 19th year of the Autodesk annual week of rest and planning to be offline until after the new year. I will also spend much of it on trails in the snow and the coast of Oregon this year. Next month I also celebrate 20 years at Autodesk (140 years in dog years). I want to sincerely thank all the readers of this blog, social media, my awesome colleagues, friends and family for an amazing 2017, and planning... Read more →

Cooper the Puppy

I realized how much my 5-1/2 month old puppy had grown this weekend. Just 4 months ago you could carry the little furball in one hand at only 6 pounds. Cooper is a unique Golden Retriever that is slender build long skinny head, and has a deep reddish copper wavy fur. Here is Cooper this weekend while we went hiking at Elk Island along the Willamette River in Portland. Look at his big smile. Here are a couple other photos... Read more →

Found my Lost Phone

A little over two weeks ago I lost my new iPhone and it didn't even show up on the Find My iPhone app meaning a clever thief disabled it, it was run over and dead, or it didn't have cell service. I panicked as the mobile phone has become my portable brain assistant as I don't even memorize phone numbers anymore and come to rely on technology. The last place I remember seeing it was at the Farmers Market before... Read more →

Halloween in Lake Oswego

The Autodesk Lake Oswego office held our annual Halloween lunch put on by the 5 member Ministry of Mischief of which I am a proud loud member. We had food, candy, beverages, and costume and pumpkin contests. We all had a great time for the final Halloween spent in our Lake Oswego office as we move downtown Portland in the spring. We had great prizes for the contests including 3 Amazon Echo Dots, sweet custom socks, Icelandic black death licorice... Read more →

Back Online

For the past week I have taken some time off while traveling to our Sheffield UK office for Autodesk Design Night Sheffield and some Autodesk customer and partner meetings. I spent a couple days in Iceland on a stopover finding out I could save the company over half the airfare doing so and then spending some adventure time exploring Iceland and staying in yurts on my own personal dime and taking in some amazing geography for photography and some hiking.... Read more →

Architectural Changes in Portland

There are several new buildings and upcoming designs that challenge the self imposed low key style of Portland Oregon, but that appears to be changing. Several of the designs being built on the Central Eastside push the architectural design and creative envelope. The building in this photo is named the Fair-Haired Dumbbell and was a crowd funded project by Gorilla Development. The location was once planned to be a Home Depot, but the 2008 recession changed those plans. Now the... Read more →

Northern California Fires

Many Autodesk employees have been affected by the Northern California Wildfires, and a few friends and colleagues that have lost their homes. My heart and love flows out to everyone impacted by this fire as we try to help them. I used to live nearby the burn areas in Sonoma County, and can’t imagine the fear and loss people must be going through. I am now live about 700 miles North of the SF Bay area but if anyone needs... Read more →

Helping Friends Affected by Hurricane Harvey

You may have seen the news of the large Hurricane Harvey that hit the Gulf Coast of Texas this weekend bringing winds around 150mph and 20+ inches of rain causing flooding. If you want to help, a trustworthy non-profit and in the area now assisting residents is the Red Cross. Be on guard for the flood of scams that unfortunately try to capitalize on the good intentions of people helping disasters that never gets to those affected. https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-harvey It’s heartbreaking... Read more →