Between the Lines

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 →

AEC Hackathon - Silicon Valley February 22-24

Join the 40th AEC Hackathon, back in Silicon Valley where it all began back in 2014. Info and Registration Here: http://aechackathon.com/silicon-valley-3/ http://aechackathon.com/about-us 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’s a weekend of geeking at its finest for improving the industries that affect all that live or work in a house or building. It has quickly... Read more →

Autodesk Research Employee Jos Stam to Receive an Academy Award

Former Autodesk Research Employee Jos Stam was awarded an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 3D subdivision surfaces among other technical giants such as Edwin Catmul of Disney / Pixar and brothers Thomas Knoll and John Knoll of ILM and co-creator of Adobe Photoshop. Jos is now a researcher at NVidia. “To Edwin Catmull for the original concept, and to Tony DeRose and Jos Stam for their pioneering advancement of the underlying science of... 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 →

Portland Revit Users Group Meetup January 15th at the Autodesk Portland Office

If you are located in the Portland Oregon area next Tuesday January 15th at 5:30pm-6:30, then RSVP to attend the Portland Revit Users Group “pdxRUG” meetup hosted at the Portland Autodesk office. The special meeting will be covering: Some pdxRUG normal business and updates. See the new Autodesk office and I will provide a quick welcome and overview including a shout out to local pdxRUG members that were responsible for the design and construction. We have special visiting guests Bob... 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 →

BunnyBots 2018

If you are in Portland Oregon tomorrow Saturday December 22nd, and have kids or like robots or both, then there is a perfect inspiring event happening and free. The BunnyBot is a bunch of FIRST FRC Teams competing in a pre season events involving stuffed cute bunnies. Its action packed and a competition where the robot design, build, and programming is all by the high school students. The game also takes cooperation and strategy as well as being gracious professionals.... Read more →

LEAP Design Competition in Portland

This weekend the final judging of the Linking Engineering and Philanthropy (LEAP) design contest for local FIRST Robotic FRC Teams was held at Mercy Corp in Portland Oregon. The high school FRC Team 1540 Flaming Chickens from Catlin Gabel that I have worked with for a few years founded LEAP and run it. Autodesk was again a proud sponsor with the prize money and Mercy Corp was the non profit recipient, awesome host, and defined the challenge and need for... Read more →

Puppies, Kitties, Beer, Gifts, Bad Sweaters and Gingerbread all for a Good Cause

Yesterday in the Autodesk Portland Oregon office, we held a fun event in the afternoon. Two volunteer employer groups Ministry of Mischief and Impact Team partnered to have fun and support some good local causes. The Impact Team supported making the holidays better for a local family and gathering things they needed for their family. The Ministry of Mischief organized the donation to the Oregon Humane Society and they brought puppies and kittens into the office. Also for fun by... Read more →

Pi Day for PIE

If you are located in beautiful and innovative Portland Oregon and love new technology from startups then you should absolutely RSVP and mark your calendars for Pi Day 2019 and the PIE Demo Day 2019. PIE is the Portland Incubator Experiment and all about nurturing startups and their founders. We believe in PIE so much we provide space in our Autodesk Portland office for the PIE Shop incubator currently with 7 startup companies and also PDX Women in Technology (PDXWIT)... Read more →

Post Autodesk University Monday– Now What?

Maybe you were one of the over 11,000 attendees in Las Vegas last week attending Autodesk University 2018 and have traveled home and perhaps getting back to normal after catching up on sleep and getting my voice back over the weekend like me. But now what? If you are like me, you have a lot of great memories, photos, business cards, people to follow up with, a few new found pounds from the food to get rid of, many emails... Read more →

Are you an Autodesk Inventor User in Portland – Join Us

We would like to invite you to the next Autodesk Inventor User Group meeting on this Thursday November 8th from 5:30-7pm. This month we will have two presenters. Paul Normand from Autodesk and Kelly Shuman of General Design. Paul will start by talking about Inventor Tolerance Analysis, the state of the industry regarding going paperless, and showing a bit of both the Autodesk MBD/PMI solution, and the new add-in being provided with 2019 collections - Inventor Tolerance Analysis (compatible with... Read more →

Autodesk University 2018 Tips

We are now less than two weeks from Autodesk University! Autodesk University is the premier Autodesk customer event held yearly where several thousand creative design and visualization experts descend on Las Vegas. They arrive wide eyed, craving knowledge from the best in the industry. They leave tired and full of valuable knowledge to make them more productive back at work. After attending every Las Vegas based Autodesk University, I have compiled a long list of tips over the years for... Read more →

AU2018 Blogger and Social Media Meetup Sign Up

We are now less than two weeks from Autodesk University 2018! Every year at AU we invite active bloggers, social media participants and other “friends” to join us for a little food and drink at AU – a chance for us to meet some of these people face to face and to thank them personally for their (typically unpaid) work that helps promote Autodesk products or by assisting our Autodesk customers. This year LinkedIn Learning has graciously partnered with us... Read more →

Fusion 360 Meetup in Portland 11.01.18

We are excited to be reintroducing the Fusion 360 Meetup in our new Portland Autodesk office located in the Central Eastside Industrial District. When: Thursday November 1 5:00 PM ‐ 8:00 PM Where: Autodesk Portland 221 SE Ankeny St, Portland, Oregon Agenda: 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm Arrive, socialize, eat and drink, check out the space including the PIE Shop - ask questions 5:30 pm – 6:45 pm Welcome, Meetup going forward, Fusion updates, and Portland Autodesk Space Mike Aubry... Read more →

Thank You Seattle Startup Week

Last Thursday I spoke on a panel How Technology is changing the $10 trillion construction industry at Seattle Startup Week with: Greg Howes - Cofounder, CutMyTimber, AEC Hackathon, Seattle Proptech Amy Hutchins - Founder, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Unearth Technologies Salla Palos - Director of Emerging Technology & Innovation, Sellen Construction Greg Howes opened the panel discussion with a quote on a slide from Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost about AEC and Manufacturing are merging. He then asked the panel... Read more →

Sleepless in Seattle

I am working remote from Seattle this week for several reasons. Tuesday I had my FAA Part 107 renewal exam for commercial SUAS pilot – and passed. I did a lot of studying and practice tests. I can’t recommend RemotePilot101.com enough and first learned of them in our corporate training program and now use them for all my SUAS training and certification needs. Thursday I am speaking at Seattle Startup Week. How Technology is changing the $10 trillion construction industry... Read more →

The First Portland Media & Entertainment Showcase

Last evening in the new Autodesk Portland office, about 150 local 3D creatives and some Autodesk employees gathered for the first ever M&E (Media & Entertainment) Showcase event put on by two local Portland Autodesk employees Jordan Giboney and Hagen Deloss. There were several top local 3D talent presenting and some VR demos, and a really good food and beverages. The event was free and solely held to showcase the amazing talent in Portland's creative artist community. Roland Gauthier, Executive... Read more →

THE FACTORY Powered by Fusion 360 Back at AU 2018

Do you remember the awesome speakers many made at Autodesk University 2017, and how popular this was? We're bringing the crowd favorite back to AU2018! This year a new project where attendees will have the chance to roll up their sleeves in a unique hands-on factory setting to design and manufacture their own air quality sensing lamp. THE FACTORY powered by Fusion 360 will be front-and-center in the Expo Hall and is open to a limited number of participants on... Read more →

Digitally Designing the Physical World – XR for Architecture and Construction

A week ago, last Monday evening I presented at a local meetup group Design Reality that was for an AEC focused XR event. My goal was to expand the awareness of AR/VR beyond the 3D rendered images commonly used in pre-construction design reviews and into what I see as a sweet spot in AEC construction. XR is the new term for eXtended Reality which combined AR/MR/VR and is a nice high level since it appears that all three will be... Read more →

Linking Engineering and Philanthropy (LEAP) 2018

The LEAP 2018 competition challenges FIRST FRC teams to develop new technologies to engage and assist resource-poor youth in farming and agriculture, while working alongside Mercy Corps. Autodesk has proudly partnered with Mercy Corps and Team 1540 to support FIRST Robotics Teams designing a solution to a global challenge. LEAP was started by students of Catlin Gabel here in Portland as FIRST FRC Team 1540 Flaming Chickens. It is such a good way to connect engineering design and philanthropy and... Read more →

Calling All Portland 3D Creatives

Are you located in or near Portland Oregon and work with 3D such as animation, design visualization, and vfx using 3ds max and Maya? We are holding a great event with awesome local Portland talent, Autodesk employees, along with some beverages and snack foods. This event is free and being held in our new sweet Autodesk Portland office. The Autodesk M&E Showcase is an event for folks in the 3D creative industry to network and learn, hosted at Autodesks' new... Read more →