Between the Lines

Explore the Autodesk Forge Showroom

A new online resource Forge Showroom is now available to see what others are building using Autodesk Forge. https://forge-showroom.autodesk.io/ Read more →

AEC Hackathon Online – Join In and Bust Silos

I would encourage anyone in the AEC, technology, and the built environment industries looking to break silos and explore new ways of doing things and meeting like minded awesome people to look into joining the upcoming AEC Hackathon. This year the Hackathon will be online due to the current world events with COVID-19, but there are already plans to get back together, and hopefully we do it again in Copenhagen at BloxHub (AEC Hackathon Copenhagen 2020). I will be involved... Read more →

Forge Partner Talks - Digital Twins

If “Digital Twin” was in your Technology Term BINGO card – this is your lucky day! Digital Twins were one of the top ten tech trends of 2019, according to Gartner and Deloitte. Learn about some of Autodesk’s Forge partners and their solutions around Digital Twin and understand the importance of this to the AEC industry and building owners and see how Forge was a great platform for their solutions. https://youtu.be/JJ64DKsX9v8 Forge Partner Talks web series Tune in every Wednesday... Read more →

Fusion 360 Extended Access Program

Autodesk has recently announced a special program for Fusion 360 in the Extended Access Program which gives free commercial access to Fusion 360 until June 30, 2020. Find out more on the free Extended Access Program: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/extended-access-program Read more →

COVID-19 Design Challenges – Call To Action

My longtime friend and Autodesk colleague Kean Walmsley and I have been talking about ways Autodesk technology might assist our customers, and even us at Autodesk in these changing times or the “new normal”. How might we evaluate social distancing, points where people could congregate or HVAC flows all based on best health and safety practices being publicly discussed in this potential new normal environment when many self isolated communities slowly phase back in public settings and buildings. I would... Read more →

AEC Hackathon Copenhagen 2020

"The world is becoming too fast, too complex, too networked for any company to have all the answers inside." Yochai Benkler This past weekend myself and consultants Jan Liska and Paolo Serra from Autodesk Global Consulting Delivery participated in the public AEC Hackathon in Copenhagen Denmark. These AEC Hackathon events are where experts from the built environment and tech innovators get together to break silos in the AEC industry. This AEC Hackathon was hosted by the inspiring innovation lab BLOXHUB... Read more →

Join Us Next Week to Innovate and Break AEC Silos

There is a great AEC Hackathon event being held next week in beautiful Copenhagen Denmark. The goal is to break down the silos in AEC design, technology, and the workflows to result in better cities. I will be joined by two of the expertly skilled and amazing Autodesk consultants from our Autodesk Global Consulting Delivery organization. It’s going to be a lot of work and fun. You should consider attending if you will be in Copenhagen end of next week,... Read more →

AEC Hackathon 7.0 Copenhagen

One of my favorite events filled with innovative thinking and ideas combined with collaborative fun and technology are the AEC Hackathons held around the world. The next big AEC Hackathon is being held next month in one of my favorite cities in the world, Copenhagen Denmark. ] Feb 21 2020 18:00 - Feb 23 2020 20:00 In a nutshell, the hackathon starts with a group of people from industry, academia, tech, architects, and programmers that for the most part don't... Read more →

Step Inside the Jobsite of the Future

Allison Scott Director, Head of Construction Thought Leadership & Customer Marketing recently gave a great talk on the big stage at Autodesk University 2019 with the Architecture, Engineering & Construction Keynote and recently published this great article on the the Autodesk Construction Blog. I'm a big fan of Allison Scott, and I think you will be as well if you aren't already a fan. “Construction is a highly collaborative process, but it’s also very fragmented. Poor data and disconnected information are leading... Read more →

The Autodesk Group Network – Find Your Group

There are currently 70+ groups around the World and growing of thousands of Autodesk product and technology users just like you. Go have a look and find your group or enter your existing group (add a group) to the growing list. Local groups are an invaluable resource and network as I remember running the Portland Autodesk Users Group years and years ago and many awesome local people looking to share ways of using the software and back then it was... Read more →

Design Automation API Webinar Series - Register Now

Have you ever wanted to automate and process or create data or drawings using a cloud based API in an almost-headless configuration? Design Automation on Forge is most likely the answer to this need. There is still time to get hands on with the new Design Automation APIs. Four webinars are scheduled in December that will cover each of the Design Automation APIs in depth. Register Now and read more at the Autodesk Forge Blog https://forge.autodesk.com/blog/design-automation-api-webinar-series-register-now December 5 - Design... Read more →

Learn Autodesk BIM 360 - FREE

Are you looking for some training on using Autodesk’s BIM 360 to better manage your construction risk, improve quality, and deliver projects on time and on budget, and the training courses for free? Here is a great resource for you to learn BIM 360 Document Management, Approvals Workflow, Quality Management, RFI Workflow, Submittals Workflow, Cost Management, and Design Collaboration. Get started now at https://learnbim360.autodesk.com/ Read more →

Autodesk Forge Accelerator in NYC September 9-13

A Forge Accelerator is an opportunity for cloud developers to spend one week with the Forge team, with one-on-one help building applications. Apply to attend the #Accelerator in NYC from September 9-13: https://autode.sk/2GCGhCz Jim Quanci Senior Director, Autodesk Developer Network announced today that this event will be held at the big New York City Amazon AWS offices making room for more participants. From Twitter https://twitter.com/jimquanci ”Just teamed up with @awscloud- to hold the Autodesk Forge Accelerator in their large NYC... Read more →

Machine Learning Unleashed to Aid in Construction

Machine learning has been a growing in this ever growing world of growing data. It has been in your hands surfacing tips and reducing tasks on your phones, in your bank statements, everyone and now in construction. Autodesk has released a preview of Construction IQ after several years of research and testing to help customers identify risk, Construction IQ Preview available for Quality and Safety for customers using BIM 360 Field. Using machine learning can surface insight into your construction... Read more →

AEC Hackathon This Weekend in Seattle

Starting tomorrow, another (41st actually) AEC Hackathon will be held this time in beautiful Seattle Washington and I will be participating. The AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) Hackathon was created to give those designing, building, and maintaining our built environment the opportunity to collaborate with cutting edge technologies and its developers and designers. It has quickly become a community of innovators that include all elements of the built environment, not just AEC all around the world. Please join all of us... Read more →

Autodesk Launches Construction IQ – AI to Reduce Construction Risk

Increase your project’s intelligence and reduce risks by using some artificial intelligence trained using machine learning models from data from over 30,000 projects. Autodesk just introduced Construction IQ in a public preview where an artificial intelligence service works with Autodesk’s BIM 360 project management platform. ”Formerly known as Project IQ, Construction IQ for quality and safety analysis started in private preview in 2016. Altogether, the algorithm was developed with 150 million construction issues and checklist observations. Subcontractor assignments and historical... Read more →

Interested in AEC Space Analysis for Dynamo and Refinery – Meet Project Discover

Kean Walmsley from our Autodesk Research Team wrote a great blog post on space analysis using Dynamo and Refinery. “For Project Discover we used 2D space analysis to calculate various metrics that scored the individual layouts: Adjacency Buzz Productivity Views to outside Daylight The first two are largely about calculating paths between various locations, while the last three are implemented by ray-casting. These approaches are definitely connected, though: you need to specify boundaries (and barriers) that the various algorithms will... Read more →

Introducing Autodesk FormIt v17

A big update release to FormIt is now available on the web or for Windows. Enjoy a new Dynamo experience, BIM 360 Docs, Meshes, Plugins, Orthographic Views, more Visual Styles, Material placement adjustment, Non-Uniform Scale, and more! https://formit.autodesk.com/blog/post/introducing-formit-v17 Give the web version of FormIt a try, there nothing to install. https://app.formit.autodesk.com/ https://formit.autodesk.com/page/release-notes/#release-notes-web Enhancements Significantly improved app loading time, especially when the app was run previously in the browser and a cache from the previous session exists. A new geometry type:... Read more →

Industrialized Construction Is Growing and Needed

Yesterday I attended the 2019 Industrialized Construction Forum held by Stanford University Center for Integrated Facility Engineering. This was a packed event attended by by not only academia, but industry. The presentations, panel discussions, and conversations with attendees were very good and thought provoking on the impact and changes to construction and our built world in the near term and long term future. Some of the technologies and considerations involved society, AI/ML, robotics, offside prefab, modular construction, skyrocketing costs from labor and materials, and sustainability. My big takeaway is that Industrialized Construction “IC” may be the best solution to solving the limited resources, reducing carbon footprint, addressing the global housing shortage, and overcoming the labor shortage in the construction industry. We at Autodesk couldn’t agree more in doing More, Better, with Less. Read more →

Want to Work for Autodesk in Portland and Know Autodesk BIM360 or Revit

There is an open BIM support role in our awesome downtown Portland office. Enterprise Support Specialist, Designated Support Specialist BIM360 Location: Portland, OR - United States Job ID: 19WD31609 Enterprise Designated Support Specialist, REVIT Location: Portland, Oregon -United States Job ID: 18WD31213 Read more →

Autodesk Forge San Francisco Accelerator

Are you looking to develop a powerful cloud based solution to connect your designs, business, or industry? Develop for the cloud with Autodesk Forge with direct help from the Autodesk Cloud Engineering team. Autodesk Forge Accelerator is an opportunity to work intensively on a chosen project with help, support and training from Autodesk Cloud Engineering teams. The Autodesk Forge Accelerator is designed to help creative developers leverage Autodesk Forge Cloud APIs - https://developer.autodesk.com Apply now to take part in our... Read more →

Design Automation for Revit - Public Beta

If you have wanted to read, write, and modify data from Revit without installing Revit from within the the Forge cloud platform, then today is your lucky day. The Revit Design Automation API was just launched as a public beta. “Today we’re announcing the availability of Design Automation for Revit as a pubic beta. Using Design Automation, you can create, edit, and extract data from Revit models without a local Revit install. Because Design Automation is a cloud service, you... Read more →

Updates to Reality Capture API on Autodesk Forge

Updates were made the reality capture API on Forge that not only dramatically improves the resulting quality and speed to produce a mesh or view point clouds, but also adds geolocation for InfraWorks. For example you can use this Forge API to generate a 3D textured mesh from photos taken buy a UAS (drone). Read More Updates to Reality Capture API “The Reality Solutions team is excited to announce the availability of our next generation Forge Reality Capture API. We’ve... Read more →

AutoCAD Automation Beta on the Forge Platform

Access many of the AutoCAD objects in an API on the Forge platform as a Design Automation Beta. Automate repetitive and time intensive tasks and save time. Design Automation API (Beta)v3 https://forge.autodesk.com/en/docs/design-automation/v3/developers_guide/overview/ “Imagine you have thousands of DWG files stored in the cloud, and you need them all converted to PDF files. Ordinarily, you would have to download all the files, run a script on them in the AutoCAD desktop software, and then potentially upload them all back to the... Read more →

Inventor Design Automation on Forge Beta

The Inventor Design Automation API for Forge is in public beta. This can allow you to harness the power of the cloud for repetitive tasks. Design Automation API (Beta)v3 autode.sk/2LXv6FX “The Design Automation API (V3 Beta) provides the ability to use the core API’s of your favorite CAD engines, in the cloud, leveraging the scale of the Forge Platform to run automated jobs. These jobs could be highly repetitive or frequent, or could be larger problems that need large-scale processing... Read more →