Between the Lines

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 →

Kids at Autodesk Day – Portland 2019

This is always one of my favorite days of the year and it was held in the Autodesk Portland office yesterday. We had over 60 kids of our employees show up for a day filled with fun activities, snacks, food, and even robot rides. Read more →

Throwback Thursday - AutoCAD Helps View Solar Eclipses История по четвергам - AutoCAD для наблюдения за солнечным затмением

While those old 5.25 inch floppies may not be of much help these days other than memorabilia, the Autodesk Moscow office made good use of them as lenses to view a solar eclipse.а первый взгляд, сейчас трудно найти применение 5.25-дюймовым дискетам. Может только как экспонаты в музее! Но сотрудники московского офиса Autodesk нашли им применение для просмотра солнечного затмения. Read more →

Revit 2020.1 Is Released

Just in case you weren't aware, Revit 2020.1 has been released and the Revit Blog has all the details in great detail as usual. If you do MEP work in Revit, you MUST go get this. ”A new version of Revit in August? Now that we release features as soon as they are ready, subscribers don’t need to wait for the annual release to access the latest Revit. The product team is happy introduce this latest Revit point release, bringing... Read more →

16 Years of Between the Lines Blog

Two years ago on this day there was an solar eclipse, this year just me saying thank you sincerely for reading between the lines and Autodesk who gave me the freedom to speak freely with support and encouragement in speaking to our awesome customers. I started blogging 16 years ago this day after two Autodesk employees Eric Wright and Bill Johnson suggested it in response to me being the top answer poster in the Autodesk discussion groups and answering the... Read more →

Learn How XR May Impact Your Work in a Portland XR Workshop

My awesome Portland XR startup friends are running a very limited workshop next month. I believe XR (AR,MR, and VR) will be a common platform for delivering information, experiences and visualizations in the future. This 2 1/2 hour workshop and networking event will be held on Thursday September 26th at 52 Limited in NE Portland. This is an interactive workshop that gives attendees a clear understanding of how XR may impact your work. XR Foundations for Business Presented by The... Read more →

Behind the FX - Bifrost Aero Solver Masterclass

If you love to learn more about why FX work and are so awesome and not scared of math and complex algorithms? If you didn't run away and are curious then I have an awesome article for you on the Area by Autodesk Senior Principal Research Scientist Robert Bridson on the math behind the Bifrost Aero Solver including the Improved Time Integration. If you are a Maya user and have not yet tried the new Bifrost…oooooh prepare to get your... Read more →

Hard to Believe but Between the Lines Blog Turns Sweet 16 Tomorrow

Sixteen years ago tomorrow I started this blog as a fun side project after a couple Autodesk employees Bill Johnson and Eric Wright approached me about this new thing called Blogs and I have been throwing words and photos up here ever since. Its amazing since my daughter just turned 18 and this blog started when she was barely two years old. I need to think about what I'm going to say on the Sweet Sixteen anniversary of a blog... Read more →

Portland Autodesk Employee Mass Timber Field Trip

Almost Two weeks ago I arranged a special tour for Autodesk Portland employees with two of our customers a field trip of a mass timber building designed by Skylab Architecture constructed by Anderson Construction and located a block from our Autodesk Portland office. Following the building tour, we loaded up on a shuttle and went to Northwest Portland for a tour of CutMyTimber’s NW Portland shop with Hundegger Speed-Cut SC-1, Hundegger K2, and Kuka automation which was used in making... Read more →

Mondays

Realizing how hard work life is when my laptop hardware fails and I'm down to using an external keyboard on a laptop and it fails to boot at times. Our Desktop Services is on this to get me a new working laptop. via GIPHY At least I have two sweet hairy 4 legged colleagues in the Autodesk Portland office today that make everyone all better on this Monday. Daphne and Cali Read more →

Its Back to School Time

Here in the US many children are getting ready for the school season to begin or starting imminently. In addition to all the supplies like paper, pens, glue, laptops, and backpacks we have one more thing that students and their teachers can benefit from for free. It is Instructables and their new Teachers Notes feature to share lessons on hands on topics. Even beyond the new Teacher Notes feature Instructables is an absolutely invaluable resource for budding young makers, creatives,... Read more →

Weekend Adventure Rewind – Timberline to Paradise Park on Mt Hood

This weekend I did some solo adventure hiking up on beautiful and iconic Mount Hood, an extinct volcano with an elevation of 11,161 feet. My route in the 58 degree cloud covered weather was from Timberline Lodge to Paradise Park Loop and then the Paradise Park Loop at 14.5 miles and 5900 feet elevation climb. I got rained on but mostly covered in clouds and cool temperatures, but still amazing and without the sun and heat it limited the sunburn... Read more →

Autodesk University 2019 Registration Just Opened

Get in on the classes and presentations you want before the seats fill up. Start planning your AU schedule and be sure to consider joining hundreds of us Tuesday morning at 6am including Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost for the annual AU 5K run walk crawl and networking while getting some fresh non casino air. For those that really like a good fun run, try the Rock n Roll Marathon ran in the past the Sunday before AU. https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/conference/las-vegas/overview Check out... 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 →

Autodesk Portland Office and Our Changing Neighborhood

The Autodesk Portland is surrounded by an ever changing Central Eastside Industrial District neighborhood of Portland. This neighborhood has historically been fruit and produce wholesalers and manufacturing shops but that has been changing over the years. While a great deal of it is being planned and nurtured for the future and some areas protected by the Portland Innovation Quadrant and an Industrial District. Portland is changing and depending on who you talk to and their perspective it is for the... Read more →

Tinkercad Classroom in YOUR Classroom This Year

This school year, use our new Tinkercad Classroom feature to get your students up and designing in under a minute. Learn more on the Tinkercad blog. https://blog.tinkercad.com/2019/08/05/introducing-tinkercad-classroom/ “Teachers, we heard you needed a faster way to get your students started in Tinkercad. For this new this school year, we’ve simplified the process of getting students up and running with a new feature we call Tinkercad Classroom. Now, students can start designing the moment class starts.” Read more →

AutoCAD 2020.1 Update is Now Available

Check your Autodesk Desktop App to see if the AutoCAD 2020.1 Update is now enabled for you as there are some good feature enhancements as well as fixes for reported problems. AutoCAD 2020.1 Update Release Notes New Feature and Feature Enhancement Summary Blocks Palette Drag and drop actions now apply the settings for Scale and Rotation The display of thumbnail images is improved Tooltips can now be suppressed with the TOOLTIP system variable Text on Layer Sets a default layer... Read more →