It is Alive in the Lab

Happy Holidays: The Gift of 3D Printing

Carl Bass is our CEO but is also our maker in chief. The Gallery at One Market features Carl's cheek to cheek bench that he designed with Autodesk Inventor. Though Carl is a very hands-on design application user, he sometimes... Read more →

Project Parsec retires from Autodesk Labs

Project Parsec for AutoCAD Map 3D provided functionality that enabled users to import and map GIS geometries and attributes to AutoCAD Map 3D industry models from SDF, SQLite, and Esri SHP and geodatabase files, as well as Microsoft SQL Server... Read more →

Project Simulus graduates from Autodesk Labs

Project Simulus offered powerful geometry modification capabilities through embedding Inventor Fusion along with a very intuitive simplification environment to prepare various CAD models for different simulation studies. In addition, it included more simulation capabilities such as Buckling and Fatigue analysis,... Read more →

Project Inspire retires from Autodesk Labs

Project Inspire was our technology preview that helped AutoCAD Map 3D users to find, bind, and publish INSPIRE compliant metadata using an open standard CSW (catalog service for the web) interface. For existing users, the technology preview will cease operation... Read more →

Christmas Letter 2012

Dear friends and family, As 2012 comes to a close, we hope all of you are happy and healthy. This year has brought an even deeper appreciation for family for us as Sheryl’s father was diagnosed with leukemia in January.... Read more →

Happy Holidays from OCTO

Regardless of what you celebrate, please enjoy the happiest of holidays from Autodesk Labs and the rest of the gang in the Office of the CTO (OCTO). Merriment is alive in the lab. Read more →

Autodesk Labs: Week of Rest

We have a variety of feedback mechanisms available for technology previews on Autodesk Labs. Please continue to use them. For the next two weeks our replies might be a little slower than normal. This is the time of year we... Read more →

It's not the last day on earth

Despite the Mayan calendar, I predict we will make it through the end of the day. Many song lyrics come to mind: "It's the end of the world as we know it..." REM "When the flood calls You have no... Read more →

Project Falcon for AutoCAD Now Available

"When you're hot, you're hot." — Jerry Reed Project Falcon is our free technology preview of wind tunnel simulation. As I mentioned only days ago, it has an interesting past: It debuted on Autodesk Labs in August 2011 as an... Read more →

Kuli Kuli Bars Nourish the World and the Niger Economy

Our daughter, Stephanie, and her friend, Lisa Curtis, have been friends for a long time. Actually as grade schoolers they cowrote an award winning essay for an Alameda Waste Management contest entitled Bobby and His Composting. Now they're all grown... Read more →

Using a Raspberry Pi Computer to Read to the Blind

You may recall some of my earlier posts related to the Raspberry Pi computer: Internal Autodesk Contest: Win a Raspberry Pi computer Internal Raspberry Pi Contest: And the winners are... Toward Making Facial Recognition As Easy As Pi Raspberry Pi:... Read more →

Project Grapevine Now Available

"It took me by surprise I must say, when I found out yesterday. Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine." — Marvin Gaye The general session presentation on main stage at Autodesk University 2012 highlighted a cornucopia... Read more →

Project Falcon for Revit Now Available

Project Falcon is our free technology preview of wind tunnel simulation. It has an interesting past: It debuted on Autodesk Labs in August 2011 as an add-on for Autodesk Alias software. A stand-alone version was made available in November 2011... Read more →

December issue of Innovation Edge now available

There's another issue of Innovation Edge, the Autodesk Labs newsletter, available for your perusal. This brief publication highlights technologies and utilities available on Autodesk Labs. Something people don't always know is that technology previews are free. All we ask is... Read more →

You can help Autodesk and Engineers Without Borders

"If you feel your dream is dying Hold tight This world is gonna pull through Don't give up You've got a reason to live Can't forget you only get what you give" -- The New Radicals Attention Autodesk Labs community... Read more →

#AU2012 How things get digitally made

Part of our AU 2012 general session mentioned that there are four basic ways that items can get digitally manufactured: Additive manufacturing, like 3D printing Subtractive manufacturing, like CNC milling and laser cutting Robotic assembly Nanobiology, designing and making living... Read more →

Scheduled Autodesk Freewheel Down Time for December

This is my once-a-month copy/paste blog posting to let you know when Autodesk Freewheel will be unavailable. Months ago Project Freewheel graduated from Autodesk Labs. Project Freewheel users are now using Autodesk Freewheel - the production version. To check it... Read more →

Volunteers Requested for a Smart Phone-Based Study

In the tradition of "Uncle Sam wants you!" the "Autodesk 360 Team wants you." They are looking for volunteers to participate in a study related to taking pictures using smart phones. http://labs.autodesk.com/you Conscription is alive in the lab. Read more →

Sustainability at Autodesk: Eating Our Own Compost

OK so maybe I don't have that expression right. When Microsoft referred to requiring employees to install the latest operating system build on their computers, they coined the phrase "eating one's own dog food." Today is 12/12/12. I was tempted... Read more →

Design Night: Leaps and Bounds

Design Night is a new events program at the Autodesk Gallery. At each event, guests explore a different theme – such as biomimicry, light, or robotics – that challenges the conventionally narrow definition of design. The theme is reflected in... Read more →

#AU2012: What Autodesk Labs does with all that feedback

Last week I blogged about my #AU2012 class with Shaan Hurley that covered the very latest in cool technology via Autodesk Labs. In that post I mentioned that we covered why Autodesk has a Labs to set the context for... Read more →

Project Hydra graduates to the Beta stage

The technology preview of Project Hydra for Simulation Mechanical / Simulation Multiphysics has ended. Thank you to everyone who participated. For existing users of the technology preview, the technology preview will operate until April 1, 2013. New users are asked... Read more →

check out the new management blog: Shutting Up!

When I attended what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) I wrote computer programs in a programming language called pl1 (programming language one). These programs ran on an operating system called Multics. Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing... Read more →

Village BIM: Revit Utopic City – Many Projects, many Challenges

As I mentioned on Tuesday, while at #AU2012 I met Autodesk Pre-Sales Engineer for Architecture, Emmanuel Di Giacomo, in person. He manages the French Autodesk “Village BIM” Blog and Revit Architecture Utopic City on Facebook. The response to Tuesday's article... Read more →

Project Falcon for Inventor Now Available

"Now that I know what to hope for Now that I can see the future Blow like cyclone my second wind Blow like typhoon my second wind Blow like tempest my second wind" -- Todd Rundgren Project Falcon is our... Read more →

2D to 3D Tool for Inventor 2013 64-bit Available

The 2D to 3D tool for Inventor has been around for a while. As I have mentioned before, technology previews are not intended for production use. After all, they're still in the early preview stage. They are in their infancy... Read more →

Village BIM: The Ever Growing Revit Architecture Utopic City on Facebook

While at #AU2012 I met Autodesk Pre-Sales Engineer for Architecture, Emmanuel Di Giacomo, in person. He manages the French Autodesk “Village BIM” Blog and Revit Architecture Utopic City on Facebook. Emmanuel sent me a follow up article. Since I believe... Read more →

#AU2012 Innovation Forum: A Better World: How Smart Design Is Improving Our Planet and Our Understanding of It

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Autodesk University is aptly named because it consists of "classes" that our customers can take to learn how to use our products. In addition to teaching users how to drive AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit,... Read more →