Project Dragonfly now available on Autodesk Labs

A few of the folks who brought you Project Draw and Autodesk Seek, teamed with some fairly new members of the Autodesk family, have cooked up something new for the home project "do-it-yourselfer" - Project Dragonfly. I grew up in Louisiana and we used to call them Mosquito Hawks, so I was happy to hook this free web-based floor planning application into the Autodesk Labs site. Project Dragonfly’s technology preview offers all-types of users, even those without prior design skills, the ability to visualize a future home improvement project or dream about a long awaited one. Project Dragonfly Product Manager, Patrick Aragon, provided me with some insight into the project’s behavior and major feature areas.

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1. Start from Scratch or Modify something from the Gallery - Home floor plan designs can be created easily using our 2D design editor. Little to no prior design experience is required to use the free online application. Just drag and drop rooms, walls, closets or other structural items into your design - matching up common walls or resizing as necessary. Drag and drop doors, windows, or general openings into the walls to match your actual (or desired) living space and voila! Work in full-screen mode by typing the "S" key or F11 while in the designer.
   

2. Windows, Doors, Furniture, Flooring, and More - The online application's catalog offers several different items to choose from. Just drag and drop the desired item into the design. If you like picking all your furniture out before placing it within the design, use the canvas area outside the design for your future placement shortlist.
   

   Take Advantage of the Content Behavior Rules - Some of the content behavior rules make the application more intuitive with real life place. We’ve included the following as a technology preview of this capability: Auto Orientation - Furniture items (i.e. sofas, chairs, beds, etc.) automatically rotate to align properly with walls. In the example here, when dragging the sofa from the catalog to the scene, as you approach the wall, the sofa will rotate so that the back faces the wall, without any additional effort on your part.
   

   Elevation & Relationship Awareness - Things that belong on surfaces (i.e. plants, lamps, TVs, etc.) know that they belong on something. When you move a table or desk, the object on top of it moves as well. You can also slide an area rug underneath your furniture.
   

   Auto Attachment - Objects that require wall attachment (i.e. Pictures, cabinets, TVs, etc.) align and default to a specific height when brought close to a wall.
   

   Collision Detection - The use of green checks and red X’s help the designer place furniture only in valid spaces within the floor plan.
   

3. Visualize Your Design - 2D designs can be quickly and easily viewed in 3D live from the internet. This additional feature allows you to interpret how the changes to the floor plan truly affect your space.
   

4. Saving and Sharing Your Designs is Easy - Select "Join Now" to create your account. You may save your design to a private or public area in Project Dragonfly and easily access it later from any computer with internet access.
   

   Or, share your masterpiece with family and friends. Just save the design and then select the Share Design option. Project Dragonfly will send a link to anyone you choose, using your default e-mail application.
   

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Sharing design creation technologies that use a software as a service approach is alive in the lab.