It is Alive in the Lab

BIM Family Toolkit retires from Autodesk Labs

Since the add-on stopped working on November 20, I retired the BIM Family Toolkit from Autodesk Labs. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the technology preview and provided feedback via email and the discussion forums. Party hats and cake are alive... Read more →

Project Galileo Online Available Once Again

I am at AU. I updated the Labs site this morning from the Venetian. The Project Galileo Online team has the actual service ready. Product Marketing Manager, Chris Andrews, sent me some updates for the Autodesk Labs site. He and... Read more →

Vault Plugin for MicroStation Now Available

Thanks to AU hotel WiFi, I was able to update the Autodesk Labs site this morning. For people who work in mixed environments, we have a new technology preview on Autodesk Labs. Vault Plugin for MicroStation Program Manager, Mary Hoadley,... Read more →

AU 2011: Creativity 2.0 – Making Design Personal Again

As I mentioned the other day, the AU 2011 Innovation Forums will leave you informed, inspired, and energized about trends and technologies that will be personally important to you and your business in the years ahead. These sessions feature a... Read more →

Arrived in Las Vegas

Image courtesy of Shaan Hurley I am in Las Vegas this week for Autodesk University. I fly out Thursday night. I will be in the Exhibit Hall talking about the Autodesk Labs process and how feedback is what makes it... Read more →

The Nonsavvy Traveler

The old Southwest Airlines free drink coupons had no expiration date. The new ones do. So as a savvy traveler, I was using the new ones first expecting that the old ones would never expire. On a recent flight I... Read more →

Happy Black Friday

Like yesterday, today we have the day off. Today is known as Black Friday in that it is the official start of the Christmas shopping season. It's a perfect day for me to stay home. Read more →

Happy Thanksgiving

Autodesk employees in the United States have today and tomorrow off. Regardless of your location, we at Autodesk Labs extend our best wishes to you to be thankful for all that is good. Read more →

Updated Project Falcon Now Available on Autodesk Labs

Project Falcon for Autodesk Alias software is a wind tunnel simulator that allows designers to interactively investigate the aerodynamic performance of their designs. About 5 minutes ago I posted updated installers (32-bit and 64-bit) that contain the team's latest update.... Read more →

Structure Generator for Revit Now Available

Project Structure Generator for Autodesk Revit Structure and Autodesk Revit Architecture is our newest technology preview on Autodesk Labs. (And when I say newest, I mean as of 5 minutes ago, because I also posted Simulation Mechanical/Multiphysics yesterday and wrote... Read more →

Simulation Mechanical/Multiphysics Technology Preview Now Available

Find out something's going to break before it breaks. We have something new on Autodesk Labs for you to try: Simulation Mechanical/Multiphysics Technology Preview - what we have been calling Project Scout internally. As its name suggests, this technology preview... Read more →

AutoCAD Quick Send To 3ds Max Now Available

Most of you know Product Manager, Guillermo Melantoni, from his work with many Autodesk products as well as his What a Mesh! blog. As part of Project STEEL, an internal initiative to improve the interoperability among Autodesk products, Guillermo shared... Read more →

December ADN Plugin of the Month, HierarchyClone for Inventor, Now Available

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching and Autodesk University almost upon us, I decided to release the December ADN Plugin of the Month early. Fear not, you can still get the November ADN Plugin, String Search for Revit, from the ADN... Read more →

Project Galileo Online in transition to an improved technology preview

Project Galileo Online is a technology preview on Autodesk Labs that allows users of Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 software to collaborate on and share infrastructure-scale models with their stakeholders. Using Project Galileo Online, users can publish models to the Autodesk... Read more →

Book Review: War of the Worldviews by Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow

Since I enjoyed A Brief History of Time and The Grand Design, Amazon recommended War of the Worldviews by Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow. The title is an allusion to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, and this new... Read more →

AU 2011: The Promise of the Cloud – The Implications of Virtually Infinite Computing for Your Industry

This year’s AU will replace industry specific keynote presentation with cross-industry Innovation Forums. We believe everyone attending AU could benefit from the topics in these forums, and we want to make sure everyone attending AU knows what they are –... Read more →

Project Parsec for AutoCAD Map 3D Now Available

A shortened form of a distance corresponding to a parallax of one second, a parsec is the distance from the Sun to an astronomical object which has a parallax angle of one arcsecond. That makes it about 19 trillion miles.... Read more →

Act Now - Technology Preview Expiration Dates

As I have mentioned before, some technology previews are like milk cartons. They have expiration dates on them. When a technology preview expires, the technology preview no longer operates. A preview has a time bomb in it that makes it... Read more →

Wired: 40-foot Woman Controlled by iPhone

Wired Magazine's latest video mentions Project Photofly which is now 123D Catch Beta. Check out 123D Catch Beta for yourself. 123D Catch Beta Sculpting is alive in the lab. Read more →

Chinese Language Versions of 3 Technology Previews

Autodesk is a global company. We have software developers all over the world. For example, Autodesk Labs has staff in San Francisco, San Rafael, Sofia-Antipolis, and Shanghai. Our team members in Shanghai decided to localize a few of our technology... Read more →

A walk down memory lane

Most of you see the Autodesk Labs page as: But actually instead of By Industry, you also can see the available technology previews By Product: The Labs site did not always have this ability to see the technology previews this... Read more →

123D Catch Beta In The News

Though it's only been a few days, 123D Catch Beta (the software formerly known as Project Photofly) has gotten lots of press. "Where Catch and Make come in, however, is the ability to push these capabilities to the consumer. With... Read more →

Exhibit Hall Plans for Autodesk Labs at AU

Like last year, we will have the 3D Photo Booth in the gallery section of the exhibit hall at AU. You can see 123D Catch Beta in action and get a 3D model of your head. But unlike last year,... Read more →

Updated LaunchPad for Product Design Suite Now Available

The LaunchPad for Product Design Suite is a technology preview that accelerates design efforts by providing a single portal into Product Design Suite applications, project data, and workflows. The one-click workflows prepare your design data in the Suite environment that... Read more →

Project Photofly graduates to become 123D Catch Beta

Recall my Why am I posting this? blog article on October 7. I hinted that something was coming with the phrase "how jets now Perfectly Poop" which was an anagram for Project Photofly now 123D Sweep Beta. At the time,... Read more →

November Scheduled Down Time for Project Freewheel

Several times during the year, new functionality is released into Autodesk’s Enterprise Information Systems to enhance the company’s services to partners / customers and help the organization run more efficiently. The next update is scheduled for three hours on November... Read more →

On Vacation

My wife and I are in New Orleans for my nephew's wedding. I will be back at work on Monday. Read more →

Project Photofly: Videos Created by the Autodesk Labs Community

In my never-ending quest to observe uses of Project Photofly in the wild, I have found some more videos. These are not videos of real world objects. These are animations of computer models generated from digital pictures of real world... Read more →

AutoCAD Isometrics WS Technology Preview Now Available

Cloud, cloud, cloud. It's all the rage. Fear not, desktop applications are not going away. We're just giving people choices. Desktop applications like AutoCAD Plant 3D have the ability to generate isometrics. That's not changing. The misinformed believe the cloud... Read more →