Between the Lines

Need to View a Design File for Free Without Installing Anything?

To view a design file such as a DWG, RVT, or IPT and over 50 other design file formats all you need to do is drag and drop to Autodesk cloud based A360 Viewer with nothing to install. After viewing you can share your file for viewing to another person with nothing for them to install. https://360.autodesk.com/Viewer Read more →

3D Artist Lukáš Hajka Crossing the Uncanny Valley and Freaking Me Out

Some of my Autodesk colleagues sent me into a daytime nightmare feeling simply with a URL to a web page in my email. On the web page in Google Chrome of browser with WebGL you see a 3D shaded head model and as you move you curser the model updates. Slovakian 3D artist Lukáš Hajka developed the shaders and in my opinion a 3D model with this amount of realism is crossing the uncanny valley and truly convinces you it... Read more →

Autodesk University 2014 Blogger & Social Meetup Signup Details

This annual Blogger and Social meetup event will be held this year on Wednesday December 3rd in the evening at 8 PM. It is so very difficult to find a time that works and a venue during the action packed Autodesk University but this is what we settled on and have a restaurant space with a bar. This fun social event is for those that are active about Autodesk in blogs and social media as well as this year some... Read more →

Light Up the Autodesk Gallery with the Project Social Lights Cube

We at Autodesk have now placed a cool 500 LED cube in the Autodesk Gallery. This cube was developed by an intern and responds with lighting up pulsating LED lights and effects to hashtags on Twitter. Huge thanks to the Autodesk intern and also Autodesk Social Media maestro Dan Zucker for showing me the cube when they placed it in the Autodesk Gallery on October 16, 2014. Description of the Project Social Lights Cube: This cube of 500 pulsating LED... Read more →

Autodesk Remote Updates to Support Maya and Revit

The Autodesk Remote team has posted an update that now supports iPad touch events for Maya 2015 and Revit 2014 & 2015. This update also provides improvements for some network environments. Read more →

11 Years of Between the Lines Blog

It was August 21st, 2003 when this blog went public with the sole purpose to help fellow Autodesk software users, have some fun, and add a personal voice to Autodesk. It was started to help people by sharing knowledge and information and have fun and was not part of my job, but something I really enjoyed and still do especially when I get a comment or email saying thank you for helping or that they enjoy reading the blog. Before... Read more →

What is Autodesk Screencast?

Autodesk Screencast provides a whole new way to share knowledge in short video recordings and provide training with in-depth contextual meta data from Autodesk products like AutoCAD, Fusion 360, Inventor and Revit you see the commands, dialogs, and menu items on the timeline. The Screencast timeline allows you to scroll back through every details the person recorded to see exactly what they were doing step by step command by command. Autodesk Screencast also records non-Autodesk products but doesn't have the... Read more →

Hour of Code Project

While writing your own software or apps, or even coding your own web page is not for everyone it is for some a very enjoyable hobby or career. The Hour of Code for the Computer Science Education Week is designed to expose people to coding or programming in hopes some may find it as their calling. In life we need to be exposed to a little bit of everything especially when we are young to help find our passion, talent, and where we fit in. Those who know me know that I am a huge supporter of getting more young people involved in design, engineering, math, and science. So here is an opportunity to expose someone to computer science which is mainly logic and math but a great career with many opportunities and fun. Read more →

Running Autodesk Applications in My Web Browser

The Office of the CTO is trending all over the web and social media this week due to one announcement! Tuesday we made a joint announcement with Amazon, Mozilla and Otoy about Autodesk desktop applications running through the browser. In short, we announced technology that lets customers fire up a Web browser, connect to an Amazon Web Services G2 instance, and run Autodesk Inventor, Revit, Maya and 3ds Max off the instance through the browser. Autodesk announced this under the brand umbrella of Autodesk Remote. Autodesk Remote is the name of the our remote computing initiative and it’s also the name of the PC-to-PC/iPad client that we launched earlier this year. The Amazon instance doesn’t have a brand name. Both are powered by OTOY’s ORBX encoder, with the distinction being that Autodesk Remote is peer-to-peer via the Autodesk Remote client; the Amazon instances are hosted and connect to any computer (PC, Mac or Linux) via the browser. ORBX.js is the javascript decoder. 30-day trials of Inventor, Revit, Max and Maya are pre-installed on the Amazon Instances.Your files can be stored on Autodesk 360, Dropbox, Google Drive, wherever you want. I get to take it for a test drive! Today and late into tonight I was delighted to be able to get my hands on this technology preview and run the four Autodesk applications over the web with nothing but HTML5 in a web browser. Look ma, nothing to download, install, or plugins required! That's' right there was no catch and nothing to download or install as stated I just fire up my web browser like Firefox and Chrome with HTML5 compatibility and ran full versions of Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Inventor, Maya, and Revit. So how is this different from other remote access applications out there? This technology allows hardware GPU acceleration and also since these Windows 2008 server machine instances are on the Amazon Web Servers along with modified Kepler Grid GPUs from Nvidia, I have one hell of a powerhouse machine that I can access anytime from almost any device. I can use Autodesk 3ds Max or Inventor from a MacBook Air. This my friends is what many with graphics hungry applications have been searching for, a scalable cloud GPU. The cloud based CPU cores have been around awhile now but those involved with graphics are more interested in GPUs and being able to use them in a cloud infrastructure where you can scale fast in a burst as needed unlike your local machine. I can just grab a new machine or device and fire up a HTML5 browser like Firefox and get to my desktop and run powerful applications without downloading or installing anything but a browser and also not sacrificing performance due to the local device hardware. I also wonder aloud if this will reduce the need for native platform applications if you can access them from most devices. For example I can run Revit on a Mac now without sacrificing performance. I have noticed just testing today that the performance is about 30fps but the absolutely amazing part is the remote instance itself and how responsive it is in graphical operations like rendering and working with huge files.The remote machine instance actually renders frames in a test animation I ran about 4 times faster than my beefy local machine can. Read more →

Friday Flashback – Run 1980s Software

I have my own private time machine on my laptop I still run AutoCAD 2.18 from 1985/86 using a Virtual Machine running a 10Mb DOS partition. It is pretty amazing to try and use 1980 software today especially AutoCAD 2.18 without the UNDO command, Autosnaps, real time pan and zoom and so much more. You really realize how far CAD and design software has come. In AutoCAD 2.18 it was the first release with AutoLISP and only had 90 commands. I run AutoCAD 2.18 on a virtual machine of DOS 5 and a 10Mb disk size maximum otherwise AutoCAD 2.18 will not run. Apparently in 1985 the idea of a hard disk larger than 10Mb was crazy talk. Here are a couple more screen shots and a quick video: AutoCAD 2.18 Start MenuAutoCAD 2.18 and Space Shuttle Sample Drawing If you want to try running Windows 1.0 or 1980 software for Apple check out these crazy web hosted virtual machines of software. Perhaps I should see about placing AutoCAD 2.18 in a web based virtual machine for people to try. Read more →

Autodesk Internal Design & Make Contest

There is a term "dog fooding" which essentially means using your own software or products to have your internal team better understand them and find problems with the product or usability. This internal testing is in addition to having your customers testing your software or product in alpha and beta testing and you end up with a much better product as well as your team better understand what they built and the customer workflows. Currently there is an internal Autodesk Design and Make contest where 14 teams comprised of over 60 employees are using a future cloud based collaboration competing by designing and building projects using Autodesk software. This new collaboration software allows the team to share ideas and resources during the entire process. Read more →

Autodesk Remote Released for Subscription Customers

I showed this technology for the first time publicly in June when it was called Project Blink running Autodesk Inventor from an iPad but you can also use a PC to access another workstation. The one big benefit I noticed is the lower latency than any other remote solution I have used. So if you are an Autodesk Subscription customer go to the Autodesk Exchange and give Autodesk Remote a try. From the Autodesk Digital Prototyping Blog: http://autodeskmfg.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/autodesk-remote-launched-for-subscription-customers.html “Anyone that pays close attention to the Autodesk® Exchanges Apps may have noticed a new addition in the last week. This new application is called Autodesk® Remote, and is available to download as a subscription only benefit, and is aimed at users who need to access their workstation and associated applications from a remote location without the traditional interface performance issues associated with it. Click here to go to the Autodesk Exchange Apps store.” Read more →

AutoCAD WS is now AutoCAD 360

The popular web, mobile, and Mac App known as AutoCAD WS has now been renamed as AutoCAD 360. AutoCAD WS now AutoCAD 360 has been downloaded over 12 million times in just 2 years and is still a free version plan with more functionality being added all the time. Adding AutoCAD WS as AutoCAD 360 to the Autodesk 360 platform family will provide a unified experience and allow for more powerful functionality, integration with other 360 applications and services, and collaboration and much more in the future. Read more →

Big Hearty Autodesk Welcome to Tinkercad

Autodesk announced yesterday at Maker Faire which is essentially the center of the universe event for DIY & Makers our intent to acquire Tinkercad. Tinkercad is an easy-to-use browser-based 3D design tool and will become part of the popular Autodesk 123D family of apps and supports Autodesk’s vision to help anybody imagine, design and create anything.. The addition of Tinkercad to Autodesk will help broaden the The acquisition will also revive the Tinkercad service and community, despite a previously announced shutdown by its founders and creators. Tinkercad has been one of the favorite tools of many Makers just wanting a simple web based 3D design tool to create 3D models for 3D printing. With Autodesk as a new parent and placed into 123D Family it is not only not going away as was the case before Autodesk, but it will be improved and given much love and attention. Tinkercad Blog Post: Tinkercad has found a new home at Autodesk Go give Tinkercad a try, its super simple and a fun way to create 3D geometry for 3D printing or just for fun. http://www.tinkercad.com Read more →

Met with @AutodeskHelp This Week

Jessica Thrasher ^JES,Philip Schmelzer ^PHL and Amanda Kinley ^AK, and me (Shaan Hurley) ^PIA If there was ever a reason to jump on Twitter, @AutodeskHelp is one of them. Autodesk has a team that assists people in social media. They do not avoid a challenge and just take the easy ones but also actively engage those with highly charged tweets as those usually only take some personal assistance and attention to solve their problems, or just point them in the right direction. I was in San Francisco this Monday and Tuesday and finally met in person with the @AutodeskHelp team’s US members. This team is doing amazing things that more companies should be doing and that is use the power of social media to engage and assist customers. Simply put they are in the right place, doing the right thing. Read more →

Autodesk FormIt 3.0 Released

Autodesk just released the 3rd version of the iPad App Autodesk FormIt after launching it at Autodesk University just a couple months ago at Autodesk University 2012. The team has been rapidly adding features and addressing requests based on users feedback. FormIt is the easy to use 3D conceptual modeler for the Apple iPad Tablet. You can create shapes and forms, and then later refine them in the auto-magically created Revit .RVT file or in another application using the SAT file. While FormIt is great for architectural design, there really are no limits and you can just as easily model a robot or any other 3D concept model. It is just plain fun, oh and it is also FREE. Read more →

Are Blueprints Really Dead?

I read an online articles headline stating blueprints were dead. I would love that, but in reality I find that proclamation of blueprints being dead as a headline hard to believe at this time. This topic also started a flurry of tweets discussing if paper blueprints were really dead and discussing if hardware could survive some work environments. Read more →

Autodesk Help on Twitter

If you are on Twitter and looking for a product related question from Autodesk then you are in luck. For about a year or so there was a Twitter account by Autodesk Customer Service and Support team first at @autodeskcare which is now @AutodeskHelp. Read more →

Vasari Talk 24 - Introducing Autodesk FormIt and Vasari Beta 2

Join Tom Vollaro and Lilli Smith tomorrow as they discuss the new Autodesk FormIt free iPad App and the recently released Vasari Beta 2 for conceptual architectural design and more. Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST http://ning.it/Xi7Sdy Read more →

Get Free Adobe Creative Suite 2 - Not

Apparently there are no strings are attached in this big free giveaway. You will just need to wait for their website to recover from the crash due to the massive traffic to download the Creative Suite. CReative Suite 2 “CS2” contains Photoshop, Illustrator, and nDesign. I am not sure Adobe did this just to be giving and charitable in the new year but perhaps down the road convert a percentage of those that download to upgrade or buy a new products. CS2 has plenty of of what people need when using Photoshop. The current version of Adobe Creative Suite is now CS6. In any case go get your free copy when their website recovers before they stop. Read more →

I Was In New Zealand Last Night

I presented to an Inventor User Group organized by CADPro Systems last night in Christchurch New Zealand, but I never left my house, dealt with the security & customs checkpoints, or the long flight with the standard baby with an earache crying with an unchanged diaper on the 15 hours of flights each way. I used my webcam and GoToMeeting web conference software to present to the user group virtually where I could see and hear the attendees and they could see and hear me. It was 10:30 pm time Wednesday (Halloween and wearing my Zombie Food shirt) and 5:30pm Thursday for them, so technically I was presenting into the future. Read more →

Have Webcam - Will Travel by Internet to Your User Group Meeting

I always enjoy attending user groups and do whenever I am in a town having one. Since I cannot really travel to all user groups, and receive numerous requests to speak and attend in all corners of the globe, I felt this would be one way to attend and participate user groups and customer training sessions almost anywhere. I am expanding the number of my Autodesk presentations without the added expenses of travel, living on planes (in the Hurley seat) and those frustrating airports part. I will begin offering web based meetings to user groups and company teams. Read more →

Nine Years – Wow Time Flies

Expect me to post a celebratory post about this blog turning 9 years old on the upcoming Tuesday August 21, 2012. Read more →

Autodesk University 2012 Social Web Session & Only 105 Days Left

The speaker is Dan Zucker Lead on Autodesk Social Media, and I was the co-speaker. This session will be great for anyone wanting to understand social web and media such as Facebook, Twitter, and more with best practices and applies to everyone from customers, partners, and Autodesk employees. Unfortunately there is currently a class conflict as I have another session at the same time. Read more →

AutodeskCare Solving Problems Tweet by Tweet and More!

Many of you have probably already heard about AutodeskCare. Some of you have talked to us on online already. For those of you we haven’t met yet, this is the scoop on what we do, where we do it, and how we work social customer care at Autodesk these days. Read more →