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November 2012
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16 posts from December 2012

Today I received a 3D Christmas card from Mark Flayer created with the free Autodesk 123D Catch and Autodesk Showcase by a colleague of his Rusty Belcher. How awesome is that! Check out the video and prepare to have your mind blown when you think all it took was a common digital camera and the free 123D Catch software to capture the Christmas Village in 3D, Read more →


The San Francisco Exploratorium has long been a place for kids and adults alike to explore science and technology, but it is moving. The Exploratorium is moving to the historic Embarcadero waterfront at pier 15 in 2013 and closing the current location in the Palace of Fine Arts in a couple weeks. One of the people that the Exploratorium helped get interested in science and technology was Autodesk’s very own Brian Mathews who is now the Group CTO for the IPG group. Brian mentioned it made such an impact on him that he wanted to help document the existing Exploratorium in 3D using Reality Capture methods such as laser scanning and photogrammetry. Laser scanning projects a laser beam and captures the x,y,z and other attributes at a very high speed to create a 3D point cloud to be used as a digital reference of the objects and space. Photogrammetry is where you take a series of photos and then software creates a 3D textured model. Autodesk currently has a free software for computers as well as iPhone and the iPad 123D Catch where you can take photos of an object and create a 3D model. Brian is using an advanced version of the technology that we are working on. Read more →


AUGI Wish List 2012 Results for 8 Autodesk Products

Every year at Autodesk University Autodesk Users Group International “AUGI” present their members nominated and voted product wish lists to Autodesk at their annual meeting which precedes the infamous beer bust. This year was the most products covered in wish lists with: AutoCAD AutoCAD Architecture AutoCAD Civil 3D Inventor Navisworks Revit Architecture Revit MEP Revit Structure I want to sincerely thank every AUGI member that participated in the process. Get ready for one really long blog post. Read more →


Robert Scoble recently visited the Autodesk Gallery & interviewed Autodesk group CTO Brian Mathews. From infinite computing, bio/nano technology, rip mod fab, to reality capture including capturing Robert’s own head in 3D. This video will give you a really great overview of Autodesk and technology. In Robert's words, “mind blowing” and "If you are interested in the future of the world, this is a must watch." Read more →


Many people including myself have been predicting some mainstream print center would adopt 3D printing and bring it locally to millions of consumers. Quite frankly I thought it would be FedEx Kinkos first, but it looks like Staples beat them in announcing their intensions for 3D printing. Read more →


Some may have attended or seen the fun Cage Match on “3D Printing is a Toy” with 12 year old prodigy Schuyler St.Leger last week. I even wore the Nacho Libra mask and cape in an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate Schuyler. This was really a no win debate for my position that 3D printing is a toy. First: he is a cute and well spoken 12 year old kid that is passionate about 3D printing rating on enthusiasm meter of a scale 1-10 he pegs it at 99, and he really is smarter than most 30 year olds with a degree. Second: 3D Printing is here to stay and will only get better and used in many more ways to benefit everyone. My only point to be made during the entertaining fun event was that while I do fully believe in 3D printing, currently for most it is just printing small plastic toys with some limited exceptions. Read more →


It was a great Autodesk University ending in what can only be described as an “EPIC” party that will go down as possibly the best I have attended in all 15 years of attending AU. I want to sincerely thank the Autodesk University Team for pulling off this excellent 20th year AU in grand style ending with the grand finale of all AU parties. The party’s food and drinks including Jell-O shots were excellent and the entertainment awesome with several large rooms each with different types of music and activities. I did finally get found by my crazy Australian & New Zealand friends who dragged me out until the wee hours of the morning. Don’t believe any of the stories you hear such as Irish clogging. Read more →