Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you've ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you've experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything, but some segments of the general public are not yet aware of that.
The Autodesk Gallery at One Market in San Francisco celebrates design — the process of taking a great idea and turning it into a reality. With about 60 different exhibits regularly on display that showcase the innovative work of Autodesk customers, the gallery illustrates the role technology plays in great design and engineering. Autodesk Gallery Ambassadors conduct gallery tours as a sideline to their day jobs. The tours provide ambassadors with opportunities to practice public speaking in front of small groups by informing visitors about what our customers imagine, design, and make using our software.
Sometimes exhibits from the gallery go on the road and appear at special events, like pop-up galleries that we have hosted in Paris, London, Tokyo, and Toronto. In contrast, sometimes exhibits are created for special events and then make their way to the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. For example, at last year's Autodesk University in Las Vegas, we debuted 19 new exhibits. Some of these may resurface in San Francisco.
The Making Mass Customization Easier Customer: Project Frog exhibit is one such exhibit from AU:
People
- Project Frog // more
Software
- Autodesk Forge // more
- Autodesk Fusion 360 // more
- Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle // more
- Autodesk Revit // more
Prefabrication can trim construction time and accelerate permitting, but design teams often find it difficult to weave in prefabricated components, often needing to comb through complicated manuals.
Prefabrication can trim construction time and accelerate permitting, but design teams have often found it difficult to weave together prefabricated components. Finding out whether a roofing system will work with a given facade, for example, can require consulting complicated manuals. And manufacturers may have to recreate design details for fabrication tools, increasing costs and the risk of errors. Project Frog eliminates these obstacles — and many others — making it faster, easier, and greener to get the building right using prefabricated components.
Using Autodesk Forge, Project Frog allows designs to be customized using a library of prefabricated components that behave according to built-in rules so architects can design without consulting manuals, and proper information flows to manufacturers for fabrication and installation.
Using Forge APIs, Project Frog created a cloud-based solution that puts data at the center of the design-to-manufacturing-to-construction workflow. Architects can turn to Project Frog and Autodesk Revit to customize designs using a library of prefabricated building components. The prefab content behaves according to built-in rules, helping architects design without endlessly consulting manuals. Data flows seamlessly to manufacturers for fabrication and to contractors for construction.
Everyone in the workflow uses their preferred applications, but sources from the same data. That's because Project Frog relies on Forge High-Frequency Data Management (HFDM) and other Forge Application Program Interfaces (APIs). With HFDM providing a consistent language, developers at Project Frog concentrate on making mass customization easier — not on creating and maintaining middleware. The result is custom prefabrication that takes half the time of traditional construction while reducing job site waste by 90%.
Thanks to the Autodesk Gallery team for the descriptive text for this blog post.
Autodesk has always been an automation company. Today, more than ever, that means helping our customers automate their design and make processes. We help them embrace the future of making, where they can do more (e.g., efficiency, performance, quality), with less (e.g., energy, raw materials, timeframes, waste of human potential), and realize the opportunity for better (e.g., innovation, user experience, return on investment).
At Autodesk, we believe that the three industries that we serve [Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC); Product Design and Manufacturing (PD&M); Media and Entertainment (M&E)] are converging:
- Autodesk customers who make buildings (AEC) are starting to behave more like customers who make things (PD&M). Whereas buildings used to be one-offs, more and more, parts of buildings (e.g., trusses) are being constructed offsite in environmentally-controlled warehouses, brought to the construction site, and assembled into position. AEC customers like Project Frog are suddenly concerned with mass production and quality control.
- Autodesk customers who make things (PD&M) are starting to make more bespoke items. Instead of setting up huge factories with static assembly lines to make thousands of identical items, manufacturers are becoming more agile, configuring microfactories to make small runs of personalized items (more like one-offs of traditional AEC projects).
- Both AEC and PD&M customers see the benefit in showcasing what they make via Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (that has been a mainstay of the M&E industry for years).
Now is a moment that matters. The inevitability of more demand and the reality of less means an opportunity for something better. With advances in design and automation, lessons learned through adjacent industries and peers, and integrations across the technology spectrum, we can design and make a better world. Together, we can make anything.
The Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco is open to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. There is a guided tour on Wednesdays at 12:30 pm and a self-guided audio tour available anytime. Admission is free. Visit us.
Prefabrication is alive in the lab.