Between the Lines

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 →

AutoCAD WS Update Coming – Free CAD & DWG Viewer

The AutoCAD WS Team is once again teasing us with this posting on their Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/#!/AutoCADWS “First glimpse of the new launch screen for the next release of AutoCAD WS - Coming Soon!“ Read more →

Design, Raised to the Power of the Cloud

During the course of today (and throughout the week) you’ll likely hear us at Autodesk talking about the latest deployment of Autodesk 360 and Autodesk BIM 360. If you’re familiar with the notion of cloud based services, then Autodesk 360 will be a natural way to extend your designs beyond your local desktop. The power of Autodesk 360 starts to compound when you consider that mobile access means that I could collaborate on this new tower concept design while I was making new friends in Kenya. Read more →

Capturing Ancient Remains in Kenya with a Remote Octo-Copter

Jambo! Gonzalo Martinez and myself (Shaan Hurley) are currently in the extremely remote Turkana Basin of Kenya where many of the hominin fossils (our human ancestors) were found along with a great deal of other fossils and tools. We are researching aerial video and photo capture with Louise Leakey using a state of the art eight bladed remote copter mounted with lots of high tech equipment and cameras that we have named the Autodesk Octo-Copter for many exciting potential uses. Read more →

Flying the Autodesk Octo-Copter in a very very very remote region of East Africa.

If you go to the middle of nowhere in East Africa, go North, and turn right, then drive another couple hours in the blazing heat, you will be where I am. Gonzalo Martinez and myself of Autodesk are capturing some of the most remote geography in Africa using a remote controlled eight bladed Octo-Copter. The photos and video are amazing as are the reaction from local nomadic tribe members when they see the copter fly by and they run to... Read more →

Bones of Turkana Documentary

For US readers; please tune in for Bones of Turkana on PBS May 16th, 2012. This is a new documentary about the Leakey's human origins research in Kenya's Turkana Basin: http://t.co/si59ckRu Read more →

New 123D Catch for Windows, Web Hosted, and Apple iPad Available and FREE

Autodesk 123D Catch is a technology where you take photos with your digital camera and then using cloud computing it constructs a textured 3D mesh model. There are three new flavors of this delicious 3D treat - one for the Windows desktop, one for the Apple iPad, and one web hosted version you run in a browser. Read more →

Google Drive Features Autodesk’s AutoCAD WS & Pixlr as Native Apps

It was only recently that the impending and anxiously awaited product Sketchbook Ink was shown on the Apple main stage launch for the iPad 3. Now Both Pixlr and AutoCAD WS are basking in the limelight glow of the Google Drive launch. Read more →

AutoCAD WS Mobile 1.4 What's New Video

New features include 3D viewing, GPS support and remote plotting. Download now for iOS from the App Store here: http://aucad.ws/wDQhps Download now for Android from the Android Market here: http://aucad.ws/wmWbKS Read more →