Between the Lines

AEC Product Roadmap Ask Me Anything Series Recordings

Last week we held 5 live events on the future roadmap of AEC products, and hundreds attended and asked their great questions using Slido. The annual event was to learn about highlights from recent releases, including Revit and the AEC Collection Ask product managers and experts about the future roadmap of the Autodesk AEC products. Thank you to all that participated and here are the recordings for those unable to attend. We will be posting a list of questions asked/answered very soon. Read more →

AEC Product Roadmap Ask Me Anything Series This Week

Join us and learn about highlights from recent releases, including Revit and the AEC Collection and ask the Product Managers and experts about the future of Autodesk AEC products such as Revit, Dynamo, InfraWorks, Civil 3D, ReCap, Structures, and MEP. Join the conversations! Read more →

Upskill Using Free Autodesk Industry Courses

Just taking 15 minutes a day to go through Autodesk courses could make you far better prepared for your current role or advance yourskills for a new role. These curated courses cover Architecture, Engineering, and Construction, Design and Manufacturing, Cross-Industry. Search over 500 available courses developed by the best in the industries. Read more →

Health Check for Autodesk Cloud – What's Up?

You can check health the status of Autodesk Cloud Services such as BIM 360, InfraWorks, FormIt, Fusion 360, AutoCAD Web, and a few others quickly by going to https://health.autodesk.com/. Read more →

Autodesk Community Conversation - Geolocating Models Using Drones and ReCap Pro, ReCap Photo, InfraWorks, Civil 3D, Revit, Navisworks, and BIM 360/ACC

Join expert Matt Wunch for a fun and informative demonstration of using a drone to get accurate geolocations for your models, with Autodesk software used across several disciplines. Matt will walk us through the process of uploading photos to ReCap Photo and tying in ground control points to create a point cloud, geo-TIF, mesh, and digital terrain model. How can you modify a point cloud using ReCap Pro and then bring that into an InfraWorks model along with the geo-TIFs?... Read more →

Availability of Photos API in Autodesk Build

Autodesk Forge announces the availability of Photos API, another Autodesk Build specific Forge API. Photos is one of the modules in Autodesk Build. It provides a single, unified place to view and manage photos and videos in Autodesk Build. This is useful, such as for documenting progress photos, informal communication, and material tracking. Everyone on your project can upload photos and videos. These files will all be available in the Photos gallery, but they can also be attached as a reference to issues, RFIs, submittals, and forms in UI. Read more →

Historic Preservation is a Digital Gift to the Future

In honor of Historic Preservation Month, Nicolas Magnon Vice President of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Business Strategy and Marketing at Autodesk has wrote a nice article on the importance of preservation. Read the Article and learn more how Autodesk and Autodesk technology has been involved in several historic presentation projects including the Apollo 11 Command Module, the USS Arizona, the 3,000-year-old medieval city of Volterra, and the Notre-Dame de Paris. Read more →

3D Laser Scanner in My Pocket

I’ve been using my Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and it’s built in LiDAR to scan some ancient old growth trees up to 1000 years old. Preserving the trees digitally in 3D point clouds & meshes and I will talk more about that amazing adventure I had on holiday last week. I’ve also been capturing objects and measuring things such as my retaining wall construction in the yard and outdoor fireplace work. I have been using the apps 3D Scanner... Read more →

The Digital Vaults of the Smithsonian Museum Have Opened

This week, 2.8 million of the Smithsonian Museum’s digital collections were released for public use from https://www.si.edu/openaccess. You can now download, transform, and share the wonders of the Smithsonian. When I first met with the Smithsonian at the beginning of the digitizing project I had no idea we would get to this exciting point that the collection will be open and free. This is an amazing resource for learning around the world. 21st-Century Diffusion with Smithsonian Open Access “For the... Read more →

Capturing the World in 3D Using my Phone and Autodesk ReCap Photo

Last week I was attaining events in Washington DC to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. While there I snuck to a few Smithsonian Museums because they are amazing, free, and have awesome air conditioning when it is 200 degrees Fahrenheit outside (felt like it with that hostile humidity heat index and 100 degrees. I went to the amazing Freer Museum and it was filled with so much amazing and historical art, but one piece I... Read more →

Project Egress Build Thursday July 18th at the National Air and Space Museum

I hope you are either planning to attend at the National Air and Space Museum or watch the live stream of the #ProjectEgress build with Adam Savage. Read more here https://airandspace.si.edu/events/project-egress-build and https://www.tested.com/science/space/880604-announcing-project-egress-project-national-air-and-space-museum/ This event should be live streamed tomorrow by the Smithsonian and/or Tested.com. Jen Schachter and Andrew Barth worked into the evening to get as prepared as they can get for this complicated build of many parts some 3D printed, some machined, and some sourced. Autodesk’s employees Jonathan... 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 →

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 →

Visit the Eiffel Tower Project in VR

The project was modelled using Autodesk Infraworks. Discover the existing conditions 3D model developed for the City of Paris. The 3D virtual reality model consists of: A 54 ha site 8,200 trees of different species 1,000 buildings 4 bridges 25 statues 560 light fixtures 425 benches 100 trashcans Read more about the model and download the VR experience at autode.sk/2CYz79X Read more →

Spotted a Wooly Mammoth and You Can Too

Last week I was working in Washington DC meeting with some customers and partners including my longtime friends and digitization heroes at the Smithsonian Digitization Program Lab. While there catching up on all the cool projects for the Smithsonian and talking about our several years as partners on the https://www.3d.si.edu/ and the Apollo Command Module capture, I spotted a 3D print of the Smithsonian's mammoth at small scale. It wasn't full scale 1:1 3D print of their mammoth skeleton as... Read more →

Rats in Autodesk Portland Office

Well, this is Portland Oregon and yes we are weird or uniquely creative including the placement of small toy ponies attached to old city horse hitching rings and yarn or knit bombings of local statues. In the Autodesk Portland office some of the weird fun culture crept in to our new Portland office in the East stairwell. In this stairwell there are crevices in the brick where there old janky spooky stairs were mounted and then removed to put nice... Read more →

Updates to Reality Capture API on Autodesk Forge

Updates were made the reality capture API on Forge that not only dramatically improves the resulting quality and speed to produce a mesh or view point clouds, but also adds geolocation for InfraWorks. For example you can use this Forge API to generate a 3D textured mesh from photos taken buy a UAS (drone). Read More Updates to Reality Capture API “The Reality Solutions team is excited to announce the availability of our next generation Forge Reality Capture API. We’ve... Read more →

Apollo 11 Command Module in 3D

Autodesk has had a great relationship with one of the most amazing collections and museums in the world, the Smithsonian. Having been there several times and met with teams I have an even greater personal connection appreciation of the museums, collections, and the people preserving history. A few years ago I was involved in the project kicking off on a bold project to digitally preserve 137 million objects in the collection which even includes the National Zoo with living animals.... Read more →

Project Impossible

For those in the US that have access to a TV with the History Channel, there is a television series named Project Impossible that Autodesk helped sponsor showing our customers as well as some Autodesk employees on some large projects. The series celebrates the engineers, builders and construction professionals that are transforming our world. Project Impossible is an original 10-part series that follows a new generation of epic engineering projects that were considered unthinkable just a few years ago. In... Read more →

Old Ways Cost Real Money and Precious Time

I was involved with a large project. I ended up laser scanning the building in a couple days capturing the building in full 3D using a FARO Focus3D LiDAR. The contractor compared my scans to the Revit BIM model from the architect and realized there was a big problem. The Revit BIM model was created based on measurements taken manually and then all the engineering based on that model which means they were wrong too. I mean this how we... Read more →

Congratulations to the Glen Canyon Dam Modeling Team

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Autodesk Inc. just won the 2018 USGIF Government Achievement Award. https://autode.sk/2Job2Kq Some Autodesk employees (including myself) led by Pete Kelsey were involved in the 3D capture and modeling of the Glen Canyon Dam. The US Bureau of Reclamation and Autodesk just won a USGIF Government Achievement Award. What an amazing project that took a long time to plan due to the immense scale and then a lot of sweat and CPU cycles to accomplish... Read more →

Reality Capture API is Now Available on the Forge

An API for Reality Capture is available on the Autodesk Forge platform to create 3D models from photos using photogrammetry just like ReCap Photo (aka formerly Autodesk ReMake). Now you can build this same functionality into your own Forge platform applications. Read More at The Hitchhiker's Guide to Reality Capture API, for tips and tricks on using this API. http://autode.sk/2ts6TC6 Read more →

New Autodesk ReCap Photo Version

If you are using the former Autodesk ReMake updated with new abilities and UAV support, you will be interested in the updated version released just this week. ReCap Photo is included with your ReCap Pro subscription. Autodesk ReCap Photo update version 18.2.0.8 is now available. Read Here Here is a recent project of mine with a textured 3D mesh of a building created solely from photos taken in a 15 minute UAV flight. Display mode is set to texture with... Read more →

Captured in First FARO LiDAR 3D Photo Booth

Last week at Autodesk’s Design Night Sheffield, FARO had their first ever LiDAR 3D Photo Booth for good fun. The booth setup used multiple FARO Focus LiDAR scanners to scan from various positions. LiDAR is generally used to capture buildings, bridges, equipment, terrain, but at Design Night Sheffield it was used for the fun capture of willing attendees in 3D. After several people volunteered, and weren't sliced to pieces by the lasers, I decided to get captured in 3D and... 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 →