It is Alive in the Lab

What You Can Do With Project Cooper

Using Project Cooper, Autodesk employees have created a host of precise drawings and plans. Every so often, we take a minute to sketch out other, more whimsical subjects. Take a look at what two team members shared with us today. Fun is alive and well in the Labs.

"Woman” by Zushun Zhan

"Sneaker” by Kevin Ke

Project Cooper: You Name It!

[Amanda Collins writing for Scott Sheppard while he is on sabbatical]

Have you tried Project Cooper with Win 7, Vista or even XP? Be sure to email labs.cooper@autodesk.com with any comments you might have.

What do you think it should be called? Help us give Project Cooper a permanent name! Take this short, multiple-choice survey. Should take less than 2 minutes, and we appreciate your input.

SurveyMonkey survey link is live at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=sDjZfumZmi14Uu4E2e3VWA_3d_3d

More on Project Cooper

[Amanda Collins writing for Scott Sheppard while he is on sabbatical]

One of the divisions at Autodesk is named Platform Solutions & Emerging Business (PSEB). Autodesk Labs is part of the “emerging” area. Another Emerging Business team in PSEB, led by Product Manager Lisa Crounse, has been working on technology to make it easier for the average person to create polished drawings. Not technical drawings like those produced from AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT, but drawings that are to scale, and accurate enough to hand off to an engineer or architect or city planning office.

Get a jump-start with sample
drawings and symbols in Project Cooper. 

Today Lisa’s team released a technology preview of Project Cooper, an easy-to-use drawing application that lets you create quick designs without sacrificing quality. Now contractors and ordinary people like me, who don’t necessarily “speak CAD”, can create accurate, detailed plans and layouts to scale. It’s a godsend to those of us with a great idea (like that dream kitchen) but lack the ability to pencil it out. With the sample drawings and library of content included in Project Cooper, I don’t even have to start from scratch. I can take a sample drawing and use that as a first step toward building the customized layout I have in mind.

Project Cooper is great for architects and engineers too, because they can include original sketches in their technical drawing sets. Architects tell us that omission errors resulting from misunderstood conversations are one of the key challenges to getting projects in on time and on budget. Project Cooper can help in those situations. Better communication; less rework.

Use Project Cooper to get ideas on paper,
then save the drawing as a DWG and
share it with your architect or designer.

You can sketch a host of different things with this software. So far, my best effort has been a porch-to-sidewalk ramp, but this is from a person who has trouble drawing a simple stick figure, so it’s quite an accomplishment! Hats off to the Project Cooper team for taking rough sketches to a higher level. And thanks for developing an application that can help an average person like me get what’s in my “mind’s eye” … down on paper for the rest of the world to see.

Project Cooper is available at no charge. Try it! And watch for exciting news to come.

Building for tomorrow is alive in the Labs today.
Amanda Collins, Senior Marketing Manager, Autodesk Labs

Project Cooper evaluated on CNET

Rafe Needleman from CNET evaluates Project Cooper on Win7 with multi-touch. If you remember a few years ago, multi-touch on the desktop was obscure and unsupported. Now you can see how multi-touch is entering the desktop environment. Check it out!

 

Introducing the Project Cooper Technology Preview

 
[Amanda Collins writing for Scott Sheppard while he is on sabbatical]

In an earlier blogpost, Scott hinted about an exciting new technology preview coming your way: Autodesk Project Cooper. Drum roll, please .. it has arrived! Check out this easy-to-use drawing application and let us know what you think.

Download Project Cooper from Autodesk.com
Find out more about Project Cooper on Autodesk Labs
Read the announcement

Project Cooper Technology Preview Coming Soon

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." 
   Romeo and Julliet, William Shakespeare, 1594.

Project Cooper is our easy to use sketching tool that allows consumers to communicate their visions. I have to admit that every time I type Cooper, I have to work real hard not to type Copper. Maybe its because I am from Arizona which is the Copper state? That got me to thinking, how did Cooper get its name?

Technologies on Autodesk Labs have a variety of sources for their names.

• Project Freewheel got its name from being free from having to install Autodesk Design Review.
• Project Draw got its name from its origin as Cumulate Draw.
• Inventor LT followed in the footsteps of AutoCAD LT in that it is a Limited Technology version of Autodesk Inventor. By the way, the cognoscente all say "el-tee" instead of "light."
• Project Dragonfly got its name from Product Manager, Brian Souder, who thought they were interesting and nimble little insects.
• The Boomless Chameleon took its name from the Boom Chameleon developed by the Autodesk Research team. It provided similar functionality but without the boom.

So what about Cooper? Is it in honor of Gary Cooper? No. Actually Project Cooper gets it name from Product Manager, Lisa Crounse, who was inspired by the small size of the Mini Cooper automobile. Think of Cooper as a mini AutoCAD. :-) That's not 100% accurate, but you get the idea. Wherefore art thou Project Cooper? I will post an announcement on this blog when the technology preview is open to the public.

Pondering the origins of our monikers is alive in the lab.