It is Alive in the Lab

Updated 3D/2D ShareNow Now Available

Autodesk Labs is happy to announce an update to our free ShareNow add-in. ShareNow lets you share your designs with others who only have a browser. This includes teammates who may be on a Macintosh, Linux, or a cell phone.... Read more →

Free Autodesk Inventor LT Technology Preview eLearning Exercises Available

The other day we got an unsolicited email: From: joe Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 1:20 PM To: labs.inventorlt Subject: Inventor LT E-Learning... educational is GREAT... Hi Inventor LT TEAM: I have just finished the E-Learning tutorial (LABS) and THIS... Read more →

Earth Hour 2008

On March 29, 2008 from 8 PM to 9 PM, Phoenix will join cities around the globe in turning off its lights to help save energy. I am happy to be part of this. For more information see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQF6cBqSBS8 If... Read more →

Autodesk Labs: No more Lorem ipsom delore namaity.

(larger view) Is this what you see? If you are a Firefox user, this might have been what you saw when you visited the Autodesk Labs web site. Sometimes I would. Sometimes I wouldn't. It was very sporadic. I saw... Read more →

Can I view a design on my Blackberry?

Q: Can I view a design on my Blackberry? Project Freewheel supports this. The home page, http://freewheel.labs.autodesk.com does not work. This page contains incompatible elements. With this in mind, you can try viewing the suspension sample by entering http://freewheel.labs.autodesk.com/mobile/ on... Read more →

FIRSTbase: The Autodesk Source for FIRST Robotics Competition Teams

Students participating in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition gain firsthand experience with Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk 3ds Max, 3D modeling, animation techniques, and rendering capabilities. Last year I featured the winner of the robotics... Read more →

Autodesk Labs Perceptive Pixel Multi-touch Wall meets TED

Philip Zimbardo (http://www.zimbardo.com/) Our Perceptive Pixel Multi-touch wall has been in our San Rafael facility for some time. It needed to get out of the office. If the device could talk, I'm sure it would say: "We gotta get out... Read more →

Drawing Cleanup Utility: Please resend [email protected] messages

For those who have participated in a 60-day evaluation of the Drawing Cleanup Utility, Technical Consulting Manager, Chris Nailer, requests that you please re-send any inquiries about the Drawing Cleanup Utility you may have previously (prior to March 21, 2008)... Read more →

Spend 20-30 minutes providing Autodesk Design Review feedback for $20 at Amazon.com

Usability Specialist, Alison (Ali) Kather, notes that we are conducting an online exercise to make Autodesk Design Review easier to use. This exercise is designed to help us better understand how you organize information. Your input will help us to... Read more →

Sign us up for another year of LT feedback

Product Marketing Manager, Tyler Barnes, asked me to announce that the Autodesk Inventor LT Technology Preview has been extended: http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/inventor_lt/message2009/ Autodesk Inventor LT Technology Preview will be around for another year. Extending our ability to get feedback in the area... Read more →

CrossOver 6.2 = Autodesk applications on a Mac?

Technical Evangelist, Brian Pene, just started looking into the new_release of CrossOver 6.2 for the Mac which features updates both to increase compatibility and to make Windows applications run faster than ever. CrossOver 6.2 caught his eye when he watched... Read more →

Autodesk Inventor LT Technology Preview 2009 available before May 1, 2008

We are thankful for the feedback we continue to receive from Australian, Canadian, New Zealander, and United States American users who are working with the Autodesk Inventor LT Technology Preview. This technology preview continues to be our feedbackiest item available... Read more →

I got your brainstorm right here...

As a software development team that moves quickly, Autodesk Labs does a lot of brainstorming. One of our developers, David Falck, came across an interesting article. Quote of the week: Why brainstorming is a bad idea As all of us... Read more →

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Shaan Hurley notes that today is a day for green beer and limericks. So here goes. Here's a limerick that I wrote in 6th grade: There once was an ugly old joker Who played at a dumb game of poker.... Read more →

Autodesk Design Review users can more easily collaborate with non-Autodesk Design Review users

You can share designs you are reviewing with Autodesk Design Review with others who do not yet have Autodesk Design Review. This includes platforms where Autodesk Design Review is not available such as the Macintosh, Linux, and the cell phone.... Read more →

Happy Pi Day

Using our American date format, today is 3.14.2008. Since the mathematical constant, pi, truncated to seven digits is 3.1415926, many people celebrate today at 1:59 PM (and 26 seconds after the minute) on Pi Day. The idea for celebrating Pi... Read more →

Autodesk Labs Downtime Planned – Sunday, March 16

The Autodesk Labs site is one of our Autodesk communities. When you have an Autodesk Labs login, you can use it on any one of our communities or vice versa. You also use your community login to upload designs, see... Read more →

Boom Chameleon without the Boom!

In previous blog postings, I have mentioned the Boom Chameleon. Autodesk Labs Autodesk University 2007 Exhibits Boom Chameleon/Search - an insider's perspective The device was invented by the Autodesk Research group (formerly known as the Alias Research Group). It is... Read more →

YouTube: Autodesk Channel

Autodesk Labs Marketing Manager, Amanda Collins, alerted me to the fact that Autodesk has some new videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channelautodesk In fact, two videos filmed at World Press Days have been posted and feature Autodesk Labs. In Segment 1, Autodesk... Read more →

Please test fix[es] for Inventor Content Center and ShareNow issue

WARNING: Feedback from some of our Inventor users indicates that there was an issue related to ShareNow and Content Center. Product support started to see cases on both Windows XP and Windows Vista machines with Inventor Service pack 2 applied.... Read more →

Grade Your Favorite Site

Autodesk Labs Software Engineer, David Falck, alerted me to a site: http://www.websitegrader.com/ Some grades right now: SiteGrade Between the Lines 98% Lynn Allen's Blog 97% Autodesk 96% It's Alive in the Lab 95% Autodesk Labs 90% Grayhawk Golf Club Dining... Read more →

Project Draw 0.7.2 Now Available

Project Draw 0.7.2 is now available from Autodesk Labs. // more With this release of Project Draw, we've done a few things: The ability to go offline with Google Gears is disabled for the Firefox 3 Beta since the Firefox... Read more →

3D/2D ShareNow supports AutoCAD flavors - both 2008 and 2009

The free 3D/2D ShareNow add-in has been updated to work with AutoCAD-based vertical solutions. This applies to the 2008 product line that is available now and the 2009 product line that will be available soon. At this time, this applies... Read more →

Project Freewheel + IE8 = so good, so far

I have been testing Project Freewheel with Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1: So far, everything has been working well. We are excited about the 6 connections per host capability. We will consider leveraging this to possibly boost performance. The developer... Read more →

Project Freewheel Server upgrade: Can you feel it?

They say it's not easy being green? Perhaps it's not easy not being green? Are you outside the green? The other day we made improvements to the server architecture that supports Project Freewheel. All users should see better performance -... Read more →

Highend 3D: Wiimote Server and Wiicam for Maya 0.1.0

Technical Evangelist, Brian Pene, alerted me to the following article on the Highend 3D site: Wiimote Server and Wiicam for Maya 0.1.0 We are always interested in hearing from people who drive Autodesk applications such as Maya or Autodesk Design... Read more →

Dilbert's Scott Adams and His Ultimate House with Project Draw

The saga continues. :-) Those who have been following my blog postings know that Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, specified what he considered to be the "ultimate house." He did this via a series of articles on his blog. At... Read more →

Autodesk University: Extra! Extra! Write All About It

AU Program Development Manager, Joseph Wurcher, has issued a call for papers for Autodesk University 2008. To join the outstanding slate of speakers being assembled for AU08, please submit your presentation proposal online at the Call for Papers website. The... Read more →