It is Alive in the Lab

The Promise

There’s only one promise that I have ever made where I recited a vow in front of witnesses, in a house of God, and signed paperwork afterwards. I, of course, am talking about my wedding vows. Given this level of... Read more →

Congratulations to Tom Wujec, thought leader

I am in the same group as Autodesk Fellow Tom Wujec. I have blogged about Tom's exploits before: TED Blog: Visual note-taking with Tom Wujec at TEDGlobal 2011 INKtalks: Tom Wujec - Towards a new tech-tonic shift ADSK and TED... Read more →

Once again, thanks for another great quarter

I have tabulated our FY14 Q4 results: The Autodesk fiscal year runs from February 1 through January 31. So our quarters are Feb-Mar-Apr, May-Jun-Jul, Aug-Sep-Oct, and Nov-Dec-Jan. On January 31 we ended Q4 of fiscal year 2014. In my role... Read more →

YouTube video: Autodesk Gallery: The Art of Macoto Murayama

Check this out: We are all fascinated by this exhibit. Autodesk Gallery at One Market: Botanical Blueprints Exhibit If you are ever in the San Francisco area, you must stop by the gallery. It is open to the public on... Read more →

I Am On Vacation On The Rock Boat XIV

This week I will be on vacation on The Rock Boat. This is the third time my wife and I are enjoying this event. As in the past, Sheryl, and I are taking this cruise with my college roommate, Tim,... Read more →

Autodesk Strategic Innovation: Armed and Dangerous

"Metal under tension — begging you to touch and go Highway to the Danger Zone Right into the Danger Zone" — "Danger Zone," Top Gun Soundtrack, Kenny Loggins, 1986. As I have mentioned before, I sit next to our robot.... Read more →

Autodesk Gallery Exhibit: Inside Explorer Table

3D printing is one way for Autodesk customers to take a design that is captured inside the computer and release it — get it out into the real world via additive manufacturing. Scanning and photogrammetry (3D models from pictures) are... Read more →

YouTube video: Project Khan for Maya Valentine's Day Update

On February 14th we updated the Project Khan technology preview. Recall that Project Khan is a free experiment in desktop application cloud augmentation. You use Maya on your desktop but can offload asset optimization to the cloud and bring the... Read more →

Project Pinocchio Graduates to Autodesk Character Generator

Project Pinocchio was our technology preview that leveraged Autodesk's powerful 3D design and animation tools so you can create fully-rigged custom 3D characters. You designed a creation of your own or modified existing stock characters using a variety of pre-defined... Read more →

Updated Daylighting Analysis for Revit Now Available

I got this report from David Sheer. David is an Autodesk Software Developer/Building Energy Engineer. He's the product champion for the Daylighting Analysis for Revit technology preview. I thought I would share it with you. I posted the new build... Read more →

Valentine's Day update available for Project Khan for Maya

Project Khan is our free technology preview where we partnered with Donya Labs AB to get your feedback on a new experimental plug-in for Maya that allows you to generate optimized versions of your 3D model assets on the Autodesk... Read more →

My Valentine's Day Saga: No Thank You 1-800Flowers; Thank You UPS!

Here is my saga. For those who want to skip to the punch line: Don't do business with 1-800FLOWERS. Luckily UPS was able to save the day. I thought I would buy Sheryl some roses for Valentine's Day. Sheryl's second... Read more →

The plan is to extend Project Scandium to get more feedback

Happy Valentine's Day. Project Scandium for Autodesk Simulation Moldflow Insight 2014 software is our free technology preview that extends simulation capabilities by offering new capabilities to try out and provide feedback. These extensions include: New Parametric Study option in Optimization... Read more →

Updated Daylighting Analysis for Revit technology preview Now Available

"Light, light, light — everybody needs the light." — Led Zeppelin, 1975. David Sheer is an Autodesk Software Developer/Building Energy Engineer. He's the product champion for the Daylighting Analysis for Revit technology preview. David shared some info with me (that... Read more →

Design Checker for Inventor Graduates from Autodesk Labs to Autodesk Exchange Apps

Design Checker for Inventor is a technology used to give a designer insight into the adherence of standards for the product being designed. Live checking provides instant feedback on the adherence to company and customer standards, as well as ensures... Read more →

Project Dalton: How do I work this?

"Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again after the money's gone Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground You may ask yourself, how do I work this? —"Once in a Lifetime," Remain in Light, Talking... Read more →

Design Night on March 6: Can you identify good industrial design?

Design Night, open to the general public, is an 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... Read more →

Daylighting Analysis for Revit extended to March 31 or commercial availability

The Daylighting Analysis for Revit technology preview free analysis period has been extended to March 31 or until in the event that a commercial version becomes available, whichever comes first. For the uninitiated, the Revit 2014 Daylighting Analysis (RDA) plug-in... Read more →

DWF is not dead. Long live DWF!

Autodesk VP/IPG CTO, Brian Mathews, was on our team when he invented the DWF format. Our first foray into sharing design data via the internet was a WHIP! plug-in for the Netscape Navigator browser. Internet Explorer had not really emerged... Read more →

Project Pinocchio to graduate to Autodesk Character Generator

Recall what I mentioned when Project Pinocchio first launched: We will continue to offer desktop applications bundled into Suites for years to come; however, eventually you are going to want to do everything from your mobile phone or tablet device.... Read more →

Autodesk Commits $250 Million in Software and Services to American Middle and High Schools

"Give me steam And how you feel to make it real Real as anything you've seen Get a life with this dreamer's dream" — "Steam," Us, Peter Gabriel, 1992. Yesterday I got this from our PR department. I was so... Read more →

Book Review: Plan B by David Kord Murray

image source: Kenneth Scudder When Autodesk conducted a getAbstract pilot, I was able to "read" a bunch of management books in a short amount of time. The getAbstract process provides 5 page summaries of well-known books including those that provide... Read more →

BuzzFeed article: 9 Stunning Architectural Images: Rendering Or Reality?

"Is it real? Am I dreaming? Sometimes I don't know, but I want to believe it so. Let me dream on." — Utopia, "My Angel," Oops! Wrong Planet, 1977. When Project Showroom was on Autodesk Labs, it was a technology... Read more →