Between the Lines

Civil Engineers Can Save the World

Here is a great article about thinking about things differently and how engineers can help create a better world and future. 3 Ways Heroic Civil Engineers Can Save the World Through Resilience Planning https://autode.sk/2EFfBAg Read more →

FAA Highlights Changes for US Recreational Drones

There are some big changes coming in the United States to people flying UAS (drones) recreationally, especially in cities and controlled airspace. I am writing this blog post from an area of class c airspace in downtown Portland Oregon. It basically levels the field for recreational and commercial part 107 UAS operators. There were times where I as a commercial operators couldn't fly in a controlled airspace without 3 months of an airspace authorization and waiver requests or more recently... Read more →

Reimagining the Eiffel Tower Landscape Using BIM

“At an event in Paris’ City Hall this week, Gustafson Porter + Bowman was named the winner of a competition to redevelop the Eiffel Tower’s “grand site”—an area which includes the Trocadéro Gardens and Champ de Mars, as well as the Tower and its esplanade. The announcement was made by Paris’ mayor, Anne Hidalgo, along with Jean-Louis Missika, and Jean-François Martins, Deputy Mayors of Paris.” “Autodesk worked closely with the teams over the last year to help them visualize their... Read more →

Machine Learning Unleashed to Aid in Construction

Machine learning has been a growing in this ever growing world of growing data. It has been in your hands surfacing tips and reducing tasks on your phones, in your bank statements, everyone and now in construction. Autodesk has released a preview of Construction IQ after several years of research and testing to help customers identify risk, Construction IQ Preview available for Quality and Safety for customers using BIM 360 Field. Using machine learning can surface insight into your construction... Read more →

RawR See a T-Rex in Stunning 3D Detail - without being eaten

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking with a panel of Smithsonian employees of the Digitization Program Office and they let me know of an amazing reality capture project that went live just yesterday. It is stunning in detail and fascinating information. You can also download the 3D model data and then 3D print your own although at a smaller than life size. Tyrannosaurus rex This T. rex skeleton was unearthed in Montana beginning in 1988. It is posed over... Read more →

More Power in CAM Operation with the Launch of Autodesk PowerMill 2020

Read about all the faster calculation, simulation, and verification with PowerMill 2020 CAM in the Manufacturing Lounge blog post from Clinton Perry. Autodesk Launches PowerMill 2020 http://www.manufacturinglounge.com/autodesk-launches-powermill-2020/ Cheers, -Shaan Read more →

Builders Herald the Coming Wave of Mass-Timber Construction

In Portland, Seattle, and around North America we are seeing more and more beautiful wood being used in building construction, and it has been more common in Europe for years. There is a massive tall timber project is in the planning stages for Toronto by Google’s Sidewalk Labs. These buildings using solid wood or engineered woods are commonly called Mass Timber. Most commonly you see CLT (cross laminated timber) and increasingly some CLP (cross laminated plywood). The use of the... Read more →

How to activate a Start-up or Educational license for Fusion 360

I recently had to provide this information to a friend who is setting up a school with Fusion 360 for the students and felt this would be great to highlight for anyone else looking to get up and licenses running for the free education or start up licensed Fusion 360. Hopefully you were aware that as a student or teacher or even a startup company or enthusiast user you may get many of the Autodesk products free for a term... Read more →

Autodesk Portland

This morning we held the opening of our 3rd floor and 6th floor spaces at the Autodesk Portland Oregon office. We moved into this renovated historic building just over a year ago with a couple construction phases with the first phase being our reception area, 2nd, 4th, and 5th floors and access to the deck for last summer, but now we are complete except some area of the 1st floor. We now have plenty of room again for allow the... Read more →

Employee Made Arcade at Autodesk's Portland Office

Our Portland Autodesk office took the Autodesk tagline of “Make Anything” quite literal. We moved into this beautifully restored downtown central eastside Portland office a year ago. So when some of the employees heard we had a game room, they asked about an arcade game. There wasn’t an arcade game or budget – so they decided to make one. It was an organic grassroots volunteer project, but a group of employees decided “hey, lets make our own arcade console.” They... Read more →

Fusion 360 Meetup in Portland May 7th 2019

Last evening at the Autodesk Portland office a Fusion 360 Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/Portland-Fusion-360-Meetup/) was held and several attended to hear Keqing Song and Paul Sohi of the Fusion team present as well as Paul be challenged to answer questions in a “Stump the Chump” session as well as tips and tricks. It was a good time with lots of pizza, beverages and a great deal of Fusion 360 wisdom all around. Keqing Song and Paul Sohi starting the Meetup. What happens... Read more →

Interested in Artificial Intelligence for Engineering– Attend our Engineering Summer School 2019

Autodesk is hosting an immersive event in Toronto to help students and professionals acquire expertise in state-of-the-art AI methods and techniques. autode.sk/2PUKipw Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Engineering Summer School 2019, hosted by Autodesk, is a two-week event that brings together a talented group of engineering graduate students and industry professionals to acquire expertise in state-of-the-art AI methods and techniques, with the focus on deep learning and reinforcement learning. While there has been a significant resurgence of AI technologies, other scientific... Read more →

I love to Ride my Bicycle I Love to Ride my Bike

May is national Bike month and Portland Oregon is one of the most “Bikiest” cities around. Several of our employees commute to the office by bike and I have once again joined them as a I am a fair-weather bike commuter. I rode 7.73 miles in this morning to the Autodesk Portland office on mostly dedicated paved riding paths along the beautiful river. I would have made faster time, but a railroad crew felt it necessary and wise to inspect... Read more →

Fusion 360 Stump the Chump in Stumptown

Got stumped using Fusion 360? Don't worry, you're not alone. Lucky you, Paul Sohi, our Fusion 360 Evangelist extraordinaire / chump will be in our Autodesk Portland office, so we've decided to host a Fusion 360 meet-up and put him on the spot to answer you questions. Meet fellow users in our Portland community, as well as the folks behind the software. Paul may even show off some of his own workflow tips for making the most of Fusion 360!... Read more →

Revit IFC v19.2.0.0 Open Source Code Released

Autodesk’s Angel Velez mentioned on Twitter the Revit IFC 2019 source code was just released with many bug fixes and 2020 is coming. “The long awaited Autodesk Revit IFC v19.2 released ((link: https://bit.ly/2PKzt9C) bit.ly/2PKzt9C)! Lots of bug fixes, and working on getting 2020 open source out the door also (with even more fixes, many of which will be back-ported to v19.3). App store soon.” RELEASE NOTES 19.2.0.0 General: • This is generally a bug fix release with some new IFC... Read more →

AEC Hackathon in Seattle was Amazing and Inspiring

The 41st AEC Hackathon event was held in Seattle this past weekend and was great and filled with many smart and inspiring people and several new friends and connections. First, the Seattle weather was amazing and I got in a morning run and flight in South Lake Union area. The AEC Hackathon was held in the University of Washington campus Department of Construction Management CERC. Friday the event began with introductions, speakers including Damon Hernandez the AEC Hackathon Executive Director,... Read more →

Fusion 360 Academy is Coming in August

Happening in Portland Oregon is the largest Autodesk Fusion 360 learning & networking event, the Fusion 360 Academy! The Fusion 360 Academy will offer 25+ classes taught by Autodesk experts and industry pro's, a Design Slam to show off your skills, and plenty of opportunities to network. Sign-up now and save $100 with an early-bird special! https://autode.sk/2Ipkm3I Read more →

Power of AI & Machine Learning in Construction

Subscribe to our BIM 360 Newsletter and get access instantly to this PDF report on AI and Machine Learning in AEC Construction, and much more. AI and Machine Learning will be a big part of all of our future from how our personal phones process our photos, provide navigation, and deliver data tips from the massive amounts of data we use daily to make it beneficial and personalized and AI and Machine Learning will also have a great benefit to... Read more →

AEC Hackathon This Weekend in Seattle

Starting tomorrow, another (41st actually) AEC Hackathon will be held this time in beautiful Seattle Washington and I will be participating. 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 has quickly become a community of innovators that include all elements of the built environment, not just AEC all around the world. Please join all of us... Read more →

Autodesk University 2019 Important Dates for Speakers

You have a chance coming up to gain fame, your name in lights, gain good karma from your peers, and get your Autodesk University registration covered and compensation. The data to submit your proposals for classes for AU 2019 is coming up next week! Get ready to think what would be good to speak about that people need to learn like generative design in both AEC and Manufacturing, AI, DfMA, Revit new features, AR/VR in construction, how to not go... Read more →

Shaping the future of construction using BIM tools and an innovative design approach of DfMA

The acronym DfMA stands for Design for Manufacture and Assembly and is a growing in popularity process to make sure that the manufacturing and assembly on site is considered in the design phase to save materials, labor, time, and bottom line costs. DfMA is not really what we have known historically as prefab as it is much more like the growing offsite construction for homes and buildings and considering in the design process how to manufacture and install efficiently and... Read more →

Reddit Accolades

A photo of me was posted on Reddit today with some some Autodesk Portland colleagues with the subject “Who are you, thank you very much”. We volunteered to clean trash from our local Portland neighborhood at lunch with SOLVE Oregon. Someone noticed & wanted to say thank you. They posted a photo of us cleaning up trash on our lunch hour with a large cat looking out the window and watching us. We love our new Portland office neighborhood and... Read more →

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 →