Between the Lines

FIRST FRC World Finals Houston

Houston, we have a competition with a lot of smart teens from around the world! Catlin Gabel Team 1540 the Flaming Chickens of Portland are the team I have been a mentor of for a few years are competing this year with their awesome designed, fabricated, and programmed robot named Phineas who was designed using Autodesk Fusion 360! They are the most amazing group of humans I know, and will definitely impact the world in good ways in the future.... Read more →

Autodesk Fusion 360 and Generative Design

An in-depth review of Autodesk Fusion 360 and generative design was just posted by DEVELOP3D, who are also holding their conference DEVELOP3D Live in Sheffield England today. “As we discussed at the outset, topology optimisation refines a singular form to an optimised state, typically using a singular material. Generative design in Fusion 360 is, by contrast, a platform for experimentation on a much grander scale. All in all, what Autodesk has delivered on here, in its first pass, is pretty... Read more →

World’s First Production Chair Imagined by a Human and Co-designed with Artificial Intelligence

This might be called the AI Chair or a fine clean example of cutting edge and clean design chair, but it is also a worlds first. You may remember that Autodesk did the first chair imagined with generative design a few years ago ( Generative Designed Elbo Chair One of 2016s Most Innovative Objects) as a test of what could be re-imagined using generative design. Now there is a beautiful production chair by Phillipe Starck that you could purchase someday... Read more →

Tap Handle Competition and I Want You To Help

In our Autodesk Portland office we are all nearing our 1 year in this beautiful historic and renovated building, and have a internal design contest. Employees are encouraged to design and 3D printed tap handles for our beer taps in the office game room named after the Portland neighborhood of Slabtown. The Slabtown game room is used for events like user groups, receptions, training, and more. I know our customers and my readers are the most skilled and talented designers... Read more →

FIRST Robotics PNW Finals

Last week and finishing up Saturday was the Pacific Northwest FIRST District Championship 2019 where 68 Pacific Northwest FIRST FRC Teams competed for invites to the World Finals in Houston to be held April 17-20th. I drove up to Tacoma Washington for the PNW Finals to see the team 1540 that I mentor compete and see the other 67 regional teams. Team 1540 Flaming Chickens designed their competition robot named “Phineas” using Autodesk Fusion 360. These events are always inspiring.... Read more →

Design Week Portland - Ultimaker+ Autodesk

Design Week Portland is right around the corner, and this year we’re partnering up with Ultimaker to help you level up your design-to-make game. Come see the latest from Ultimaker and Autodesk in Autodesk’s renovated new Portland office (renovated Towne Storage Building) just off East Burnside by the bridge in the central eastside industrial district. Look for the water tower with our logo and you can’t miss us. Parking can be a bit of a challenge at times so choose... Read more →

Autodesk Technology Center in Boston is Holding a Design Night March 28th

Are you a design and make enthusiast in the Boston area? Join the Autodesk Technology Center for Design Night on 3/28! Get your tickets: https://autode.sk/DNboston Read more →

FIRST FRC PNW District Clackamas Academy Event 2019

FIRST Robotics FRC Team 1540 the Flaming Chickens placed 1st ranking again this weekend in Oregon City, but lost out in the quarter final alliance competition match. They are heading to the Pacific Northwest FIRST District Championship in Tacoma Washington April 3-6 and then hopefully onto the FIRST FRC World Finals in Houston Texas. I am so inspired and impressed by team 1540 and their design created using Autodesk’s own Portland non-GMO, organic, free range mechanical design software Autodesk Fusion... Read more →

PIE Demo Day

What a great and inspiring event where local Portland startups presented on their products with passion and energy. It was also nice to see such an inclusive and diverse event with most of the presenters being women founders and Latina and people of color represented. One of the nice things is all of the early stage presenters are using the PIE Shop incubator in Autodesk’s Portland office and we are so lucky and grateful for them. PIE Demo Day 2019... Read more →

See Some Portland Startup Pitches Today on Pi and PIE Day

On this Pi day (3.14 etc.) I hope you will join us on the PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) Demo Day livestream at 2PM Pacific Time on March 14, 2019. Tell everyone there is plenty of room on our livestream from Aladdin Theater in sunny Portland Oregon. https://bit.ly/PIEDD2019 We love Pi and PIE! Update: PIE Demo Day 2019 replay is already available. Just in time for some weekend binge watching. https://bit.ly/PIEDD2019 Read more →

AUGIWorld March 2019 Issue with Autodesk Portland on the Cover

Look what made the cover of Autodesk User Group Intl “AUGIWorld” magazine for March 2019! The photo on the cover is of the Autodesk Portland office stairs constructed of reclaimed lumber and the design by MacKenzie that was inspired by CAM cutting paths that some of our software generates. In addition to the awesome Autodesk Portland office on the cover, there is some great content. https://www.augi.com/augiworld/issue/march-2019 Tips ‘n’ Tricks – Shawn Herring uncovers some AutoCAD Civil 3D tools that are... Read more →

Autodesk AEC 2019 Showreel

Are you ready for some AEC design and construction inspiration? Look no further than this link for a showreel highlighting some of our amazing customers and partners. https://youtu.be/vBJX5e2NEkQ Read more →

Startups in Autodesk's Portland Office

Autodesk has provided space and resources to a local Portland startup incubator organization named PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) to run a startup incubator in our Portland office named PIE Shop. Read more →

Autodesk Design & Manufacturing Official Show Reel 2019

Autodesk just published a new video showing some amazing and inspiring highlights for our Design and Manufacturing industry products, partners, and customers. Enjoy! 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 →

Robots by High School Students

For the past 3 years I have been mentoring a high school robotics Team 1540 Flaming Chickens in Portland at Catlin Gabel who compete in the FIRST Robotics FRC. For the past 6 weeks the students have been designing in Autodesk Fusion 360, fabricating, and programming this years competition robot and just released their reveal video for their robot named Phineas that will compete in this years competition Destination Deep Space. Pretty amazing robot and design. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ7DZsimjpo 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 →

FIRST FRC PNW Robot Scrimmage

This weekend there was a scrimmage for Pacific Northwest FIRST robotics FRC teams held in Corvallis Oregon . My team 1540 Flaming Chickens of Catlin Gabel were there with their 2019 competition robot named, Phineas. FIRST Robotics FRC Teams started designing, fabricating, and programming for this years challenge just about 6 weeks ago. Team 1540 Flaming Chickens design in 3D using Autodesk Fusion 360. The goal of the scrimmage was to test the robot on a competition field and see... Read more →

Do You Want to Know What is Coming in Future Revit?

Here are some great ways to find out what the future of Revit has planned, and how you can help shape it. One is to check out the Public Roadmap which a new one was just published on the official Revit Blog. Revit Public Roadmap – January 2019 Submit your ideas to the Revit Ideas Revit Ideas http://www.autodesk.com/RevitIdeas Another option is more of a heavy lift, you can get involved and actively participating in the beta program for Revit at... Read more →

Thank You pdxRUG for Visiting Autodesk Portland

Thank you pdxRUG (Portland Revit Users Group) members and BilT team Bob Bell and Phil Read for visiting Tuesday night to see the new Autodesk Portland office, some good local pizza, networking, and learning about the upcoming BiLT conference in Seattle this summer. It was nice to host the meeting and hope we can do it again, soon. Some Autodesk employees were there to meet you as well some came with questions on how you used our products together. If... Read more →

See Generative Design Technology at IDS Trade Day Toronto

Join Autodesk Jan 17th in Toronto to learn about Project Refinery and the Autodesk Technology Centers. The Future Is At IDS https://youtu.be/znG1w8RB6Iw Read more →

Autodesk Design Night in Dublin Ireland

Making Dreams Happen. The future of designing + making is here. If you are in Dublin Ireland, please join us at the first ever Autodesk Design Night in Dublin Ireland We are bringing our global event Design Night series to Ireland for the first time on 16 January, 2018. Making Dreams Happen Design Night by Autodesk is a regular, sold-out event at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. Design Night has travelled to major design capitals of the world including... Read more →

Arcade by Autodesk Portland Employees

I'm in the final edit stage of a video of interviews of some fellow Autodesk Portland office employees for something fun and unique. When we say Make Anything as a tagline of Autodesk, we embody that with our employees. We moved into this renovated Portland building downtown last April, and some employees realized we needed something fun and unique in our game room area. It was an organic grassroots volunteer project, but a group of employees decided “hey, lets make... Read more →

FIRST FRC Mentor Day

Today is mentor day celebrating volunteer mentors for FIRST Robotics teams. I can speak as having been mentoring a FIRST FRC Team 1540 Flaming Chickens of Catlin Gabel in Portland Oregon for the past few years on why YOU should also get involved. The high school students tell me I help, but I'm not sure they are getting the better end of this volunteering deal as I get so much from being continually inspired by these students I could never... Read more →