Between the Lines

Autodesk University 2019 Thrive Guide

We are now less than four weeks from Autodesk University 2019! 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 and published this annual long list of tips... Read more →

Introducing Alias Create VR

Immersive computing is revolutionizing the world around us. What started as a spark of imagination decades ago has ignited an inferno of technology-driven creative opportunity today. Nowhere is this more apparent than the automotive industry, where augmented reality and virtual reality technology (AR/VR) continues to deepen and expand its impact on the creative design process.So it is my absolute pleasure to announce the availability of Alias Create VR – a VR based conceptual design toolset as part of the Alias... Read more →

Autodesk Media and Entertainment Showcase 2019

Last Thursday in our Portland Autodesk office, we held a free event for anyone to celebrate and show the creative customers and community of our entertainment products such as Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max. We had several presentations from local visual fx and animation studios with amazing visuals and insight on how they work and create what they do. We also had two Autodesk product owners of 3ds Max and Bifrost. Speakers Gabe Selinger of Liquid Development Sarah DeFlaminis... Read more →

Autumn Colors in Portland

Just a quick post on the amazing colors in Portland Oregon currently with the sudden onset of Autumn. Yesterday I went to the Hoyt Arboretum especially my favorite of the Maple Loop and then hiked the Wildwood trail to Portland’s prized treasure the Portland Japanese Garden. It was amazing walk with the beauty of Washington park and the park changing colors for fall. Read more →

Fusion 360 Roadmap and More

Autodesk’s Fusion 360 has turned 6 years old and I remember when it was a little conceptual baby incubating in the former Autodesk Labs for people to download and provide their feedback. It has come a long ways in the past 6 years and become a real product and thousands of daily users and amazing products that have been designed by customers using it. If you are interested in where Fusion 360 is going in the future, here is the... Read more →

If You Love 3D and are in Portland Oregon Today

I hope if you are in the Portland Oregon area today, that you plan to attend the second annual Autodesk Media and Entertainment Showcase. The event is free with some food and refreshments with the highlight amazing local speakers who use Autodesk Media and Entertainment products like 3ds Max and Maya. See how people are using Autodesk products to create amazing VFX and animations and how technology can be used in incredible ways to unleash creativity and save time. You... 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 Portland Media and Entertainment Showcase Event is Next Week

I hope if you are in the Portland Oregon area, that you plan to attend this second Media and Entertainment Showcase. The event is free with some food and refreshments with the highlight being amazing local speakers who use Autodesk Media and Entertainment products like 3ds Max and Maya. See how people are using Autodesk products to create amazing VFX and animations and how technology can be used in incredible ways to unleash creativity and save time. You will also... Read more →

Start Your AU5K Training Tomorrow With This Easy Training Plan

Autodesk University is just over a month, a mere 48 days from now in November, and once again the highly popular AU5K is once again happening on Tuesday morning at AU with hundreds running, walking, and cheering last year. Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost even ran last year and has plans to run with us again this year. So please join me and everyone else at the AU5K and start preparing for it now with easy attainable steps building up. I... Read more →

Mass Timber in the Neighborhood

I love the new Mass Timber buildings that are growing in popularity, especially up here in the Pacific Northwest. We have had a mass timber building going up just a block from our Portland office. The Sideyard held a grand opening last evening and soon Ferment Brewing and other tenants will hopefully be opening, especially Ferment Brewing – yes yes yes. The Sideyard (B76 West) building went up really fast compared to other local construction we have been watching from... Read more →

Free Revit Courses

Check out the free Revit courses created in partnership with expert trainer and author Paul Aubin. Learn how to navigate the Revit interface and your model, how to layout the building plan, add and customize walls, floors, roofs, add construction details & much more. https://autode.sk/2kEHq4Y ”Learn the basics of what you need to know to navigate the software efficiently.” Read more →

Bring Your Questions to Autodesk Today

If you have questions about Autodesk’s AEC products and AutoCAD, today is your day with the AEC Answer Day event going on. How The Day will work in the ENGLISH Community: Our team of experts will be in the following Community categories from September 24th, 2019 from 6:00am to 2:00am on September 25th PST ready to answer your questions. Just pick your product category, select a forum and click the “Create a New Post” button to ask your question. AutoCAD... Read more →

Revit 2020.1 API

Have you wanted to extend Revit using the API but weren't aware of the power or just wanted to know what was new in the Revit 2020.1 API? Check out Jeremy Tammik’s blog post on What's New in the Revit 2020.1 API on the BuildingCoder Blog. This is a very detailed blog post and you are sure to find what you are looking for, or what you weren't aware existed. If you are developing on the Revit API, you should... Read more →

Fall is Here

I love the fall and today is the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) for those of us in the northern hemisphere. I love the end of the summer heat and the beginning of crisp mornings, garden harvests, the fall rain and fog, the wine harvest, Halloween, and most of all – the fall colors of all the leaves. I love change, and the change of seasons is a good one. In NW Oregon we should be peak leave fall... Read more →

Autodesk University 2019 Blogger and Social Media Meetup

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 for their (typically unpaid) efforts around Autodesk products. Read more →

Bringing the Outside In

At Autodesk, we are always listening to customers and opportunities to improve based on the feedback. One opportunity for bring the outside signals in where we bring people from outside of Autodesk into Autodesk for a limited time as a Visiting Fellow. We have done this successfully for several years in my team within the Office of the CTO and now named Strategic Foresight. The Autodesk Visiting Fellows Program recruits senior-level, industry-shaping talent to help light the future path of... Read more →

Throwback Thursday

I wanted to share a few more images of items in my Autodesk historical collection. This 5.25” floppy disk was from the very early beginning of Autodesk and AutoCAD. This is the AutoCAD 2.0 demo drawings shown at the 1984 COMDEX event. Read more from Autodesk Founder John Walker about COMDEX 1984 and some of the photos. The AutoCAD R14 demo CR-ROM from 1997 that featured a really geeky customer (yes me). https://youtu.be/fThsTwTNkQc A 1980’s era Autodesk logo pin. Read more →

Happy 20th Birthday Autodesk Inventor and Vault

Yesterday in the Autodesk Portland office we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Autodesk Inventor, and partied like it was 1999, when Autodesk Inventor was born in our. A flashback to 1999 Autodesk Inventor R1 codename Rubicon We even got Inventor R1 running for people to try their old school Inventor modelling skills. It was amazing to have all the fun conversations, wear old Inventor shirts, enjoy food and drink, and celebrate a big milestone of 20 years. The first customer... Read more →

Join me at Autodesk Portland Media and Entertainment Showcase

Plan to attend this second Media and Entertainment Showcase. The non-sales event is free with some food and refreshments with the highlight being amazing local speakers who use Autodesk Media and Entertainment products like 3ds Max and Maya. See how people are using Autodesk products to create amazing VFX and animations and how technology can be used in incredible ways to unleash creativity and save time. You will also network with other local Portland people in media and entertainment. Last... Read more →

Start Preparing for the AU5K Now with This Training Program

Autodesk University is only a couple months from now in November and once again the highly popular AU5K is once again happening on Tuesday morning at AU with hundreds running, walking, and cheering last year. Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost even ran last year and plans to run it again this year. So please join me and everyone else at the AU5K and start preparing for it now with easy attainable steps building up. I started this AU5K a few years... Read more →

What is Autodesk Researching with AI and VFX

Problems grow in complexity with time, what is Autodesk doing to solve this challenge for VFX? “From specialized image segmentation to AI-powered UV creation, and natural language art directing, see where Autodesk stands and is going with AI-fueled entertainment creation. Evan Atherton, Senior Research Engineer, kicks off the conversation of how designers and artists will work in the future with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Will Harris, Flame Family Product Manager, discusses AI for VFX and Color Finishing, and Sebastian... Read more →

Happy Labor Day

Many of my US based readers celebrated Labor Day yesterday, except for those preparing for possible hurricane in the Southeast US. Next door to the Autodesk Portland office is a new 17 story building 5MLK as been under construction for the past year by Hoffman Construction. In the office we have been spectators to the entire process of construction of the building, after all AEC construction is a major focus of Autodesk to transform the AEC design and construction industries... Read more →

Portland Adult Soapbox Derby 2019

Two weeks ago I had one of the coolest volunteer jobs as a Course Marshall for the 22nd annual Portland Adult Soapbox Derby held in Portland's beautiful Mount Tabor Park. I spent all day with a bullhorn and a radio clearing the course, heckling people who ignored the course rules, assuring the safety of the derby cars and drivers as well as the spectators, and making people laugh and have fun. There were several races and we had a few... Read more →

3ds Max 2020.2 Update Available and 3ds Max Roadmap

The Autodesk 3ds Max 2020.2 was just released and includes: Chamfer modifier improvement New SketchUp importer Synchronize With Display Mode Read More about the Update and learn about future feature plans in the road map: 3ds Max 2020.2 and Public Road map Read more →

My Office View the Past Few Days

I took off to the Mt Hood National Forest to camp, enjoy the beauty, disconnect from screens, spend time with my girlfriend and her young kids, breathe in the fresh mountain air, escape the heat wave in Portland this week, as well as reboot my brain. Now I'm back and have so much to do this week and next. Shaan PS: Did you know it is the 20th anniversary of Autodesk Inventor in just two weeks? Read more →