Between the Lines

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 →

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 →

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 →

Autodesk Fusion 360 and Wacom

Wacom just released a video featuring Autodesk’s own Jeff Smith using Fusion 360 on a Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 tablet. https://youtu.be/4bCN2SgGnIo Our Autodesk Portland office also made a cameo from my aerial footage. Both Autodesk and Wacom have offices located here in beautiful Portland Oregon. Read more →

Free Software and Fusion 360 Training for FIRST FRC Teams

We are just a week away from the big 2019 FIRST FRC Destination Deep Space competition reveal and thousands of teams start to formulate their game strategy and begin design their robots for 6 weeks then the competitions begin between teams in regions with some heading for the world finals. Many winning teams see CAD as key to their strategy and design allowing them to better design and simulate as well as generate their Gcode for CAM cutting of parts.... Read more →

Generative Design for Industrial Machinery

Have you heard all the news about generative design, but not certain how it might be a benefit to you and the industrial equipment you design? Here is a great opportunity to learn more in a free live webinar. Generative design leverages artificial intelligence and cloud computing to enable engineers to simultaneously generate and explore multiple CAD-ready solutions based on real-world manufacturing constraints and product performance requirements. Unlike topology optimization, the software explores all the possible permutations of a solution,... Read more →

Smelly Glitter Bomb for Surprise Package For Thieves Designed Using Autodesk Fusion 360

I have always said that we at Autodesk have the most awesome and creative customers in the world, and to that point I submit another fine example. Having personally been a victim of a package thief that stole my package from my doorstep and made off with my new yoga mat, I would rather have boobytrapped my stolen package like Mark Rober and Sean Hodgins did. These two are in my top admired people doing good things and should be... 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 →

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 →

One Fusion 360

Autodesk made a great announcement today about simplifying Fusion 360 tiers into just one for a low annual price for an amazing mechanical and industrial design tool. “On October 7th, 2018, we are enhancing Fusion 360 to a single product offering that includes ALL available functionality. We want you, our community, to be able to take full advantage of what Fusion 360 has to offer. This new offering will include access to everything currently included in Fusion 360 Ultimate and... Read more →

Generative Design Makes a Great Design Assistant

You can use Autodesk’s generative design technology in Fusion 360 today to assist you in the design process. You will be assisted in finding design options beyond just shape and material optimization as you can consider strength, cost, and materials. We looked at a design inspired by the famous Elbo chair using generative design. Generative design came up with a design that resulted in 18% less material and 78% stress reduction as well as looking amazing in Fusion 360- and... Read more →

Fusion 360 to Get a Makeover

The Fusion 360 Team is all about transparency and including you in what is going on or going to happen in the future and including Fusion users in that process asking for your feedback. Somethings need updating over time, and that is not limited to wardrobes and kitchens, but also including software. Its not that that the Fusion 360 user interface and user experience (UI and UX) were poor, just that there is always room for improvement as more and... Read more →

What is CAM

I just ran across a nice article on the Fusion 360 Blog that explains the bones of CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) for someone with little experience. Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM): The Complete Introduction for the Beginner’s Mind 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 →

FIRST FRC Team 1540 Robot Pandora Reveal

For the past 3 seasons I have volunteered as a mentor with the FIRST Robotics Team 1540 Flaming Chickens of Catlin Gabel in Portland Oregon. It has been an amazing experience to see the inspiring young adults problem solve, design, make, collaborate, outreach, philanthropy with LEAP, and compete. These are inspiring young humans prepared for the world and a bright future. Check out the Team 1540 reveal video for the robot named “Pandora” that will be competing in the 2018... Read more →

Spring Fusion 360 Event at Portland Community College

Presented by the PCC CADD department: Enjoy hands-on 3D learning in this informal workshop featuring Autodesk Fusion 360 and CADD instructor Phil Eichmiller. Stay a little, stay all day. Who: Anyone can attend When: Friday, March 30, 2018 from 9:00am-4:00pm. Where: PCC Southeast campus, room MT117 Cost: FREE Read more →

ADN DevDays Webinars Available

Autodesk Developer Network DevDays Webinar recordings are now available at http://autode.sk/2C8momg on the Autodesk DevTV YouTube channel. Revisit any presentations you may have missed, or want to re-review! The recorded discussions cover the APIs for Forge, Revit AutoCAD Civil3D, BIM 360, InfraWorks, Inventor, Autodesk Vault, Fusion 360, and AutoCAD. Read more →

Modify an STL file in Fusion 360

Have you ever needed to import geometry from other software but weren't quite sure what was the optimal method to do this and be able to edit the geometry? Lars Christensen shows us how to quickly import and modify a STL file in Fusion 360. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxC-kwuksug Be sure to subscribe and check out Lars other Fusion 360 tutorials for great tips and tricks on design and CAM in Fusion 360. Read more →

FIRST FRC 2018 Power Up – Are You Ready!

This Saturday January 6th 2018, the new FIRST FRC 2018 season game and field will be revealed which will then set thousands of high school teams and they will begin work on their robot designs followed by the competitions. The only thing we know right now from FIRST in their public hints and teaser video, is that the game and field is themed “8-bit” and the game is named “POWER UP”. FIRST Robotics Competition Game & Season Info Autodesk will... Read more →

Free Training Courses

In addition to all the free great classes and keynotes from Autodesk University (Autodesk University 2017 Classes Posted), LinkedIn is providing 40 courses for free covering Autodesk product training and certification preparation, construction management, technology like artificial intelligence, and business. In addition to English some courses are available in French, German, Japanese, and in Spanish. LinkedIn Learning Teams Up with Autodesk to Offer Free Access to 42 Technology Courses Go get some new skills, for free! Read more →

Most Popular Speaker at Autodesk University 2017

The most talked about and lined up for speaker at Autodesk University 2017 was, well a real speaker this year that you could build yourself. At Autodesk University, a group of attendees participated in a Product Innovation Platform track organized and designed by Autodesk’s Garin Gardiner. Participants designed the speaker starting from the speaker body in Autodesk Fusion 360 and the circuits in Autodesk Eagle as well as generating the CNC G-code to machine the parts. Those that were not... Read more →

Fusion 360 Sheet Metal Challenge Winners

Winner winner Sheet Metal dinner. The results of judging the entries are in and you can look at all the great design entries. Autodesk University! http://autode.sk/2ePhUH7 Congratulations to 1st Place Winner! Eric Tremblay is going to san Francisco to manufacture the bumper. Read more →

Fusion 360 Meetup Portland

Last evening we held a Fusion 360 Meetup in downtown Portland at the nice modern CENTRL space. Fusion team members Michael Aubry, Mike Prom, and Keqing Song were in attendance. Attendees came to hear Mike Prom show the newly added Sheet Metal Fusion 360 feature, learn about the Fusion 360 Sheet Metal Challenge, as well as some good questions and answers with the team on using Fusion 360. Some brought their laptops and entered a sheet metal contest for some... Read more →