Between the Lines

The Future of Autodesk Forge

Happy Halloween! Just a treat, no trick today. If you are interested where all this talk of the Forge platform is going then you shouldn't miss the keynote events at AU in the Forge DevCon event. Visit the Forge DevCon Village Monday Forge DevCon Keynotes Forge pumpkin was created by Autodesk Portland colleague Michelle Stone as an entry to our office pumpkin contest. Read more →

Clean your AutoCAD DWG and Kill Zombies

Are you receiving bloated unruly DWG files from someone that are a suspected zombie apocalypse and walking dead? Here is a good solution good solution and timely for Halloween. Slay those zombies bloating your DWG files. “Ready to purge the zombies? These three apps will help you clean up your AutoCAD drawings like never before: http://autode.sk/2xyLwMZ “ Read more →

LEAP Design Competition 2017

For the past week local PNW high school FIRST Robotics teams have been designing and entry for a new vision for OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) and the turbine room to attract and educate youth in STEM.The competition is named LEAP for Linking Engineering and Philanthropy as a way for FIRST Robotics teams to do more than just robots.The winning teams won prize money from Autodesk to apply to their upcoming FIRST Robotics FRC competition season. The LEAP... Read more →

Autodesk is 14th in the World

Being 14th among companies around the world is nothing dismiss, especially when the ranking is for being among the most innovative, caring, and inclusive workplaces. We’ve been named #14 on the World’s Best Workplaces. http://autode.sk/2xretdW Read more →

Design Night Sheffield Was a Smash

Tuesday evening I participated in Sheffield’s first Design Night held at Sheffield Institute of Arts. The evening was kicked off by Lee Mullin, Construction Technical Specialist at Autodesk. Design Night Sheffield was also a great occasion to acknowledge the 20 year anniversary of Navisworks which Autodesk acquired 10 years ago. The Sheffield Autodesk office is the main location for Navisworks and BIM 360. The main speaker for Design Night Sheffield was Elliott Crossley who is a Technologist in the Building... Read more →

Back Online

For the past week I have taken some time off while traveling to our Sheffield UK office for Autodesk Design Night Sheffield and some Autodesk customer and partner meetings. I spent a couple days in Iceland on a stopover finding out I could save the company over half the airfare doing so and then spending some adventure time exploring Iceland and staying in yurts on my own personal dime and taking in some amazing geography for photography and some hiking.... Read more →

The Future of Making at Autodesk University

Normally at Autodesk University you attend to see and learn from great speakers, but in this case you get to make an awesome custom speaker. In the Product Innovation Platform track you will get to go through each step from the beginning electrical design in Autodesk Eagle to the product design and machining in Fusion 360 and at the end of the track you will get to assemble and take your custom CNC machined wood enclosure speaker. Here is a... Read more →

Architectural Changes in Portland

There are several new buildings and upcoming designs that challenge the self imposed low key style of Portland Oregon, but that appears to be changing. Several of the designs being built on the Central Eastside push the architectural design and creative envelope. The building in this photo is named the Fair-Haired Dumbbell and was a crowd funded project by Gorilla Development. The location was once planned to be a Home Depot, but the 2008 recession changed those plans. Now the... Read more →

Northern California Fires

Many Autodesk employees have been affected by the Northern California Wildfires, and a few friends and colleagues that have lost their homes. My heart and love flows out to everyone impacted by this fire as we try to help them. I used to live nearby the burn areas in Sonoma County, and can’t imagine the fear and loss people must be going through. I am now live about 700 miles North of the SF Bay area but if anyone needs... Read more →

Big Robot Fight October 17th

Watch the Giant Robot Duel on October 17th at 7:00pm PDT MegaBot was designed using Autodesk software such as Inventor and Fusion 360. Team MegaBots: Autodesk The Giant Robot Duel will premiere on twitch.tv, the world's premier live-streaming platform. Subscribe to our twitch channel to watch the Duel with millions of your closest friends: twitch.tv/megabotsinc While you're at it, you should just go ahead and follow us on these other platforms to get all of the juicy behind-the-scenes details between... Read more →

Capture a Building in 3D

Last week we flew a UAS (drone) over a old historic building being renovated in Portland Oregon. We captured 279 photos in two short 15 minute flights and automatically generated a 3D textured model and Ortho corrected TIFF files using Autodesk ReCap Photo. ReCap Photo has an entirely new engine and now expanded to 1000 images support as well as DEM file and Ortho TIFF file creation. If you have a land development or construction project, you should look into... Read more →

Special Hoover Dam Field Trip at Autodesk University

Yes, Dam excited about this special Hoover Dam Field Trip and you can join us at Autodesk University 2017. Join the Dam tour and endure the long list of bad Dam puns I have, but it will be totally worth it to see such a monumental and iconic infrastructure project and learn how we digitally captured a large dam in 3D. The US Bureau of Reclamation and myself will be your safe, knowledgeable, and entertaining hosts on this special tour.... Read more →

Girls Generation Event 2017

The Girls Generation robotics event was held this weekend and hosted by Catlin Gabel’s FIRST Robotics team 1540 Flaming Chickens of Portland Oregon. Several FIRST teams from around the Pacific Northwest brought their FIRST FRC robotics competition robots from last season to compete with only their girl team members participating. It was an amazing and inspiring event for all and especially younger girls watching the girls competing. The Red Alliance of teams 2811, 1540, and 753 won in the finals... Read more →

Sheffield & Manchester UK Meetups Invitation

I will be attending Autodesk Design Night Sheffield - October 24th and setting up a couple informal meetups to get together and discuss Autodesk, Autodesk Products, Technology, and Design. No presentations or pitches, just a casual chat. I am inviting some special guests to join us. We can even talk all things reality capture using laser scanners, photogrammetry, or drones including my project in the first chapter of the new Autodesk Future of Making book. Sheffield UK the evening of... Read more →

Throwback Thursday – The Roaring Twenties of Computing

This is the 35th year of Autodesk and AutoCAD, and in the past year I have exchanged emails with the founder of Autodesk, John Walker. I asked John about the beginnings of Autodesk and also asked about what he sees in the future of technology given that he was at the beginning of the wave of PCs back in the 80s and took big risks on several early technology including one that became the most used CAD in the world... Read more →

Autodesk 3ds Max 2018.3 Released – Fluids

One of the top 3 requested 3ds Max Ideas site items is now complete with the addition of Bifröst Fluids which was previously only available for Maya. Tutorial: 3ds Max Fluids Part 1 - Basic Setup Read an overview of 3ds Max 2018.3 at the Autodesk’s AREA blog. Fluids: Fluids allow you to create fluid simulations directly inside 3ds Max using Bifrost technology. Read/create BIF files for direct interoperability with Maya. Save/create presets based on viscosity, giving the illusion of... Read more →

FIRST Robotics Girls Generation Competition in Portland

If you are in Portland Oregon next weekend and want to see something amazing young female role models, join me at the Girls Generation high school robotics competition. Several local FIRST Robotics teams will be getting together for a girls robotics. Only the girl members of the teams will be competing in this special event. http://team1540.org/girlsgeneration/ Saturday October 7th Location: Catlin Gabel School Gymnasium Address: 8825 SW Barnes Rd. Portland, OR, 97225 8:00am Pits open 8:30am Field open for practice... Read more →