It is Alive in the Lab

DesignScript Now Supports AutoCAD 2014 too

Years in the making, DesignScript is our free technology preview created by Dr. Robert Aish in Farnborough and his team around the globe. The goal is to get customer feedback on exploratory design. The technology preview consists of:

• a powerful scripting language for generating complex geometric models,
• an IDE (interactive development environment) for editing, debugging and executing scripts,
• a geometry library to generate geometry for AutoCAD,
• analysis/simulation tools.

You can learn more about it on:

Download DesignScript via Autodesk Labs

This most recent update, build 0.4.90.7939, includes defect corrections based on your feedback. This update also adds support for 64-bit AutoCAD 2014 on Windows 7.

The team is looking forward to hearing from both AutoCAD 2013 and AutoCAD 2014 users alike. You can reach the team in a variety of ways.

Programmable geometry is alive in the lab.

Updated DesignScript Available via Autodesk Labs

On Thursday, Pi Day since it was March 14, the DesignScript team provided me with an update of the technology preview. Here is what Senior Principal Engineer, Luke Church, had to say about it:

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A faster DesignScript

The existing versions of DesignScript are due to expire at the end of March, so it’s time to extend that and share some of our latest improvements with you. There’s a new build available, build 0.4.43.6798, that will add another 6 months to the expiry date, as well as a number of other improvements.

The big one is that DesignScript is now a good bit faster. As an example, lets stack some bricks like this.

In the previous build of DesignScript this took my laptop 5729ms. In the build now available it takes 3775ms. That’s a speedup of 1.5 times, or 34% faster!

The exact speedup will differ based on properties of the model. Our performance test suites show 30% improvement is pretty typical, with some very compute intensive models improving by as much as 98% (our implementation of the N-Body benchmark)

We’re by no means done making DesignScript faster, or adding new features. We generally don’t like to talk about what we’re going to be doing in the future, we’d prefer to just give it to you when we’re ready for feedback, but every now and again a hint of a new feature slips through the net before its ready…

In some circumstances, you’ll see an ‘Import Data’ menu item like the above. For now, it inserts some code that doesn't do much. So please just ignore it, and take it as a teaser of exciting things to come.

You can find the full release notes for the build here.

Enjoy the new, faster, DesignScript. And as always, do get in touch; we’d love to hear from you.

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Thanks Luke. You can check out the new release for yourself via the Autodesk Labs site:

// Download DesignScript for AutoCAD 2013

Technology improvement based on feedback is alive in the lab.

Updated DesignScript technology preview (build 0.4.31.6050) Now Available

Four years in the making, DesignScript is our free technology preview created by Dr. Robert Aish in Farnborough and his merry men around the globe. The goal is to get customer feedback on exploratory design. The technology preview consists of:

• a powerful scripting language for generating complex geometric models,
• an IDE (interactive development environment) for editing, debugging and executing scripts,
• a geometry library to generate geometry for AutoCAD,
• analysis/simulation tools.

You can learn more about it on:

• Download DesignScript via Autodesk Labs

This most recent update, build 0.4.31.6050, includes many new features and defect corrections based on your feedback -- so much so that new release notes and a list of corrected defects is available on the Labs site.

Programmable geometry is alive in the lab.

DesignScript Update Now Available on Autodesk Labs

As I get ready to travel to Las Vegas for Autodesk University, the DesignScript team provided me with an update of the technology preview. Here is what Senior Principal Engineer, Luke Church, had to say about it:

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Looking for (1), but got (2)? We've been there too. This post explains how to fix it.

We launched DesignScript a few weeks ago. Since then we've been busy. The main thing that we've done so far is fixed a whole bunch of defects like the one above. A number of which were reported by you, our users. Thanks! We heard you, and DesignScript is getting better for it.

We've also added a couple of new features e.g. SAT/OBJ import and export in the geometry library, a new manual, new videos, and the beginnings of a better start up experience with geometry samples.

To get all these please upgrade to the latest version, 0.3.32.5376. (Just click the 'Install Update' in the editor and it'll do the rest.)

We've been delighted to see the models that people are making with DesignScript. You can even now talk about them on our Facebook page. As always you can also email labs.designscript@autodesk.com and contact us in the forums. Looking forwards to hearing from you.

Well, we're only just getting started - so for us it's back to work. :)

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Thanks Luke. You can check out the new release for yourself via the Autodesk Labs site:

// Download DesignScript for AutoCAD 2013

Technology improvement based on feedback is alive in the lab.

Updated DesignScript Now Available

Today is election day in the United States. It's also the day anyone worldwide can download an updated version of the DesignScript technology preview.

DesignScript is a language that helps designers build and analyze complex geometric models that would be difficult to model with interactive techniques. It includes a scripting language for exploratory programming. DesignScript is used by designers with little previous programming experience.

Sharad Jaiswal is a Principal Engineer on the DesignScript team. On behalf of the team, yesterday Sharad gave me a new build to post on Autodesk Labs. He noted that that this build has ~140 updates based on feedback from the Autodesk Labs community. You can this technology preview update now:

• Download DesignScript via Autodesk Labs

Please give it a try. Users running AutoCAD 2013 on a 64-bit Windows 7 system can provide feedback in a variety of ways.

Keep that feedback coming in. So far your efforts are definitely shaping the future of this technology.

Amelioration is alive in the lab.

Updated DesignScript Now Available

Senior Principal Engineer, Luke Church, is our guest blogger for today. He provided this update for DesignScript that works with 64-bit versions of AutoCAD 2013.

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A week ago, we made the DesignScript Tech Preview available on Autodesk Labs.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/designscript

The response has been great, but there were a few problems here and there. Notably, our editor didn't get along well with international keyboards. Sorry about that. Over the past couple of days we've shipped an update to fix the issue.

When you start DesignScript, you'll see a new button appear, as below.

When you click it, it'll download and change the button to 'Install'. Give it another click and follow the instructions to update your copy of DesignScript. These updates are pretty small, so it should take at most a couple of minutes.

After you're done - you can check that it worked by going to Help -> About. The version number should now be 0.3.17.4758.

This is the first of many updates we'll be delivering, so we'd love to hear whether it worked for you, or if you have any problems. As always, you can get in touch at labs.designscript@autodesk.com or at the forum http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/DesignScript/bd-p/DesignScript.

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Thanks Luke.

Amelioration is alive in the lab.

DesignScript Available for Download via Autodesk Labs

In an earlier posting I asked:

• Are you expert enough for an early version of DesignScript?

Well the team has continued DesignScript's development since then, and now it's time for everyone to answer that question for themselves. The technology preview is now avalable for download on labs.

• Download DesignScript via Autodesk Labs

DesignScript is a language intended to help designers build and analyze complex geometric models that would be difficult to model with interactive techniques. It includes a scripting language for exploratory programming. DesignScript is intended to be used by designers with little previous programming experience. Please give it a try. Users running AutoCAD 2013 on a 64-bit Windows 7 system can provide feedback in a variety of ways.

Scripted productivity is alive in the lab.

Are you expert enough for an early version of DesignScript?

Dr. Robert Aish and a team at Autodesk are developing DesignScript for a technology preview later in the year. For now, the core audience for this technology will be fairly limited.

To date there has been a small group of people (architects and designers) that the team has been working with for the past couple of years – who have participated in workshops based on preliminary versions of the technology. The team is now looking to expand that list.

DesignScript is a technology that, at this early stage, needs the user to be an architect or mechanical engineer with more than a passing interest in programming (familiarity with VBScript^® or JavaScript^™ and even C#). As such the team fully expects the audience to be limited. On the other hand, though the team would like to get more people to play with DesignScript, that would require more extensive help/tutorial/wiki support – something that the team is not in a position to do right now unfortunately. As an alternative, a sign up list is available on the Autodesk Labs site.

If you are an architect or designer with programming experience, you can sign up. a team member can contact you, and perhaps you can be added to the set of users playing with the early form of the technology. Only serious applicants need apply. When a slot is available, a team member will follow up with prospective users using the email list and gather additional information.

// Apply now for inclusion via Autodesk Labs

As mentioned, further down the road, a public technology preview, much like other technology previews on Labs, is planned. That may have more relaxed requiremets for programming expertise.

Yelling "pick me, pick me" is alive in the lab.