It is Alive in the Lab

Autodesk Gallery at Autodesk University in Las Vegas: Ireland's New Children's Hospital

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... Read more →

A Bold Proposal: Initial Savings from Solar Panels for My Home in Cypress, Texas

Autodesk is committed to helping designers and engineers create a future where we all live well and within the limits of our planet. We are excited to lead the way with sustainable, forward-thinking business practices. Together, we can design a... Read more →

What is Autodesk Forge?

If what archers do is called archery, why isn't what Forge developers do called Forgery? So what is Forge and what do Forge developers do? Jim Quanci is a Senior Director for the Autodesk Developer Network. Stephen Preston is a... Read more →

Autodesk Gallery at Autodesk University in Las Vegas: New Approaches to Motorcycle Design

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... Read more →

eSUB uses Autodesk Forge to help Subcontractors

Autodesk Forge is our application program interface (API) platform and supporting materials (sample code, manuals) as well as a community of developers who uses those APIs. Although Forge is intended for our customers and 3rd party developers to be able... Read more →

Autodesk Fusion 360 Applied Innovation Interns: Where are they now?

Since it's April Fool's Day, I thought I'd cover something light and fun. Despite what's associated with today, the stories you are about to read are real. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent. When Carl Bass... Read more →

Hey, That Name Sounds Familiar

It's Friday, so that means that I blog about something besides Autodesk technology. Here is something that I did in fun. I made a joke on Facebook the other day that got me to wondering. What else could I find?... Read more →

I Was Startled by a Ring Doorbell Motion Alert

...Along came a spider, who sat down beside her, and frightened Miss Muffett awake! Our new Lennar home (designed in AutoCAD) is a smart home. Lots of devices like lights, locks, and home entertainment are controllable by smartphone apps as... Read more →

3-year Subscription Savings now Available for Seats Switched from Maintenance to Subscription

Here's an opportunity to save some money, so I am passing it on. ...and now, a word from our sponsor: Earlier this month, Autodesk announced the extension of its 3-year subscription savings promotion into a continuous offer. Beginning today, we... Read more →

BUILD Spotlight Series - AI SpaceFactory

Although most works of science fiction depict space habitats as domes, this is wrong. A cylinder is a more appropriate structure instead. The Autodesk Technology Centers are where the future of making takes shape. With locations around the world, we... Read more →

What's so Hot about this Forge Thing - the High-level Picture for Software Development Managers

Let's say you've been an Autodesk customer for a long time. You've got decades of your intellectual property captured in AutoCAD drawings, Inventor models/parts, or Revit models. If you'd like to leverage that data to showcase your work to your... Read more →

Results of the Crisco Cookie Taste Off

It's Friday, so I post about something besides Autodesk technology. I am posting this today, but this is actually something I did and wrote up last Saturday. My wife, Sheryl, likes to bake chocolate chip cookies. I like to eat... Read more →

We're getting a pool at our home in Cypress, Texas (Part 1)

California real estate is expensive. One of the advantages is that when you sell a home in California, pay off the mortgage, and move to someplace like Texas, you can use the proceeds to buy a new Lennar home (site... Read more →

How does one classify generative design?

So what is generative design? Is it modeling, reality capture, scripting, artificial intelligence, or something else? When it comes to how designs have been traditionally created, there have been a variety of ways: Modeling by hand where a human expresses... Read more →

BUILD Spotlight Series - Digital Stone Project

The Autodesk Technology Centers are where the future of making takes shape. With locations around the world, we collaborate with industry, academic, and entrepreneurial communities to reimagine what it means to design and make, and create a shared vision of... Read more →

Dakota Safety: The Technologies That Are Revolutionizing The Construction Industry

The world's population is set to grow to 10 billion people by 2050. By that time, 68% of us will live in cities. Cities are characterized by lots of buildings. They're where we work, live, eat, pray, and play. To... Read more →

A Bold Proposal: Inspection and Activation of Solar Panels for My Home in Cypress, Texas

Photo courtesy of Freedom Solar Power As I mentioned in a series of blog posts, we are going solar on our new home in Texas. I considered this a bold proposal ($37,044) because in 2011 we made small improvements to... Read more →

Autodesk Gallery at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, Perth's Optus Stadium, Now On Display at Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco

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... Read more →

Factory_OS is Forging a Better Way to Build

Last week I blogged about how our team visited Factory_OS (factory off-site): Our Factory_OS Tour in Vallejo, California We wanted to see the convergence of construction and manufacturing for ourselves. Autodesk and Factory_OS have worked together to tell the Factory_OS... Read more →

The Future of Automation - The Serious and the Humorous

Autodesk has always been an automation company, and apparently, everyone cares about automation, even late night TV hosts. It’s a complex and nuanced topic and helping people understand the coming changes to our work is important. We’ve been doing it,... Read more →

The Rock Boat XIX: Day Five of Five - Somewhere in a Song

The Rock Boat is a floating music festival. Bands play concerts as the ship travels to its destinations. This year, our cruise went to Key West and Nassau, The Bahamas. Believe it or not, the destinations do not matter. The... Read more →

Autodesk Gallery at Autodesk University in Las Vegas: Space Exploration Lander

Setting up the exhibit before AU opened 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... Read more →

A Bold Proposal: Installation of Solar Panels for My Home in Cypress, Texas

As I mentioned in a series of blog posts, we are going solar on our new home in Texas: A Bold Proposal: Solar Plans for My Home Energy in Cypress, Texas A Bold Proposal: Proposed Layout of Solar Panels for... Read more →

Our Factory_OS Tour in Vallejo, California

Computer nerds in hardhats? On Wednesday, my colleagues and I from the Autodesk Corporate Strategy team took a tour of Factory_OS (factory off site). Factory_OS is located on Mare Island in Vallejo, CA. Factory_OS builds well-designed, tech-ready multifamily homes 40%... Read more →

The Rock Boat XIX: Day Four of Five - Tales and Personal Stories

The Rock Boat is a five-day floating music festival. Bands play concerts as the ship travels to its destinations. This year, our cruise went to Key West and Nassau, The Bahamas. Believe it or not, the destinations do not matter.... Read more →

Paolo Soleri: Arcosanti was an Example of More with Less for Better that was Ahead of Its Time

Palo Soleri died in 2013. He was an Italian born architect, urban theorist, craftsman artist, and philosopher. He founded his Architectural Design and Craft Studios, Cosanti, in 1955 and founded Arcosanti in 1970. Arcosanti is an urban laboratory focused on... Read more →

Redshift: 6 Disruptive Examples Show How Manufacturing and Construction Are Converging

Since the Autodesk position is that construction, manufacturing, and multimedia are converging, I shared Mark Albert's "A Convergence of Construction and Manufacturing" post on It's Alive in the Lab the other day. Actually, Autodesk has held this belief about industry... Read more →

The Conveniences of a Smart Home Augment the Comforts of Home

Tucked away in a game room closet is an array of equipment that combines with smartphone apps to make a smart home. We recently moved to Cypress, Texas. The deciding factors for the home that we purchased included having an... Read more →

The Rock Boat XIX: Day Three of Five - It Was a Group Effort

The Rock Boat is a five-day floating music festival. Bands play concerts as the ship travels to its destinations. This year, our cruise went to Key West and Nassau, The Bahamas. Believe it or not, the destinations do not matter.... Read more →

The Hills are alive with the Sound of Convergence

Autodesk serves three primary industries: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Product Design and Manufacturing (PD&M) Media and Entertainment (M&E) Our position is that these industries are converging: Customers who make buildings (AEC) are starting to behave more like customers who... Read more →

A Bold Proposal: HOA Approval for Solar Panels for My Home in Cypress, Texas

Q: Can efficiency trump aesthetics? As mentioned in previous blog posts, we're adding solar panels to our Lennar home in Cypress, Texas. A Bold Proposal: Solar Plans for My Home Energy in Cypress, Texas A Bold Proposal: Proposed Layout of... Read more →

Personalized License Plates: The tradition continues...

Though I often view myself as the way my wife sees me (to ensure I am a decent husband and father), I sometimes define myself by what I do. What I do is tightly coupled to the company I work... Read more →

The Rock Boat XIX: Day Two of Five - Alan Doyle Made My Day

The Rock Boat is a five-day floating music festival. Bands play concerts as the ship travels to its destinations. This year, our cruise went to Key West and Nassau, The Bahamas. Believe it or not, the destinations do not matter.... Read more →

Happy Valentine's Day

A few months ago I saw an ad for a personalized product where you put in the dates and locations of where you met your spouse, proposed, and got married. Purchase one from ModernMapArt The result is a physical print... Read more →

Olivier Lépinoy: Blockchain for Construction

Olivier Lépinoy is an Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Sales Development Executive in our Worldwide Field Operation team. His focus is on Strategy, Digital Transformation and Data Analytics for clients in Construction. His education is as an architect and urban... Read more →

THE FUTURE OF MAKING: Compose Infographic Maps Materials based on Structure and Composition

I was the project manager for Autodesk's THE FUTURE OF MAKING book. THE FUTURE OF MAKING tells remarkable stories of how emerging technologies are changing how we make things, who makes things, and the very nature of the what we... Read more →

Autodesk Research: Things are Designed in the Context of Other Things

Rhys Goldstein is a simulation expert in the Complex Systems group at Autodesk Research. His work helps communities of researchers and practitioners collaborate in the development of next-generation simulation-based design tools. At the 2018 Winter Simulation Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden,... Read more →

The Rock Boat XIX: Day One of Five - That Doesn't Sound like the Album

Today is Friday, and regular It's Alive in the Lab readers (like Adam Hockley) know that means that I'll blog about something besides Autodesk technology. Since I just returned from a five-day vacation, I'll write about each of the days... Read more →

List of Autodesk Gallery Exhibits by Industry

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... Read more →

THE FUTURE OF MAKING: Create Infographic maps Hardware to the Ways Things are Made

I was the project manager for Autodesk's THE FUTURE OF MAKING book. THE FUTURE OF MAKING tells remarkable stories of how emerging technologies are changing how we make things, who makes things, and the very nature of the what we... Read more →

Yes, It's The Rock Boat Time Again

This week my wife and I are on The Rock Boat. This is our eighth voyage. The Rock Boat is a 5-day cruise that departs from Tampa, Florida to Key West, Florida and Nassau, The Bahamas where rock concerts are... Read more →

Lorenzo Villaggi: Inspiring the Future of Vertical Urbanism

Lorenzo Villaggi is a Research Scientist in Autodesk Research. He's an architect, researcher, and educator based in New York City. Lorenzo explores the future of architecture with The Living focusing on generative design, new materials, and the quantification of qualitative... Read more →

Happy Birthday Autodesk

I am at our Portland office today, and Autodesk is 37 years old today. The company was started on January 30, 1982. In honor of the day, we're supposed to wear our oldest Autodesk shirt. I have several old ones... Read more →

A Bold Proposal: Proposed Schedule for Solar Panels for My Home in Cypress, Texas

As I mentioned in a series of blog posts, we are going solar on our new home in Texas: A Bold Proposal: Solar Plans for My Home Energy in Cypress, Texas A Bold Proposal: Proposed Layout of Solar Panels for... Read more →

THE FUTURE OF MAKING: Capture Infographic maps Hardware to Human Senses and Location

I was the project manager for Autodesk's THE FUTURE OF MAKING book. THE FUTURE OF MAKING tells remarkable stories of how emerging technologies are changing how we make things, who makes things, and the very nature of the what we... Read more →

City of Alameda, California Looks to Address Climate Change

Though I live in Cypress, Texas now, when I lived in Alameda, California along the water, our community got concerned about our homes being so close to the San Francisco Bay. So a few years ago, I did a little... Read more →

Expanding the Definition of Environmental Sustainability

David Benjamin is the Founding Principal at The Living and Assistant Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). He also directs the GSAPP Incubator at the New Museum’s NEW INC. His work combines research and practice,... Read more →

THE FUTURE OF MAKING: Compute Infographic ties Design Process to CPU Advancements

I was the project manager for Autodesk's THE FUTURE OF MAKING book. THE FUTURE OF MAKING tells remarkable stories of how emerging technologies are changing how we make things, who makes things, and the very nature of the what we... Read more →

Home Energy: Our Honeywell Lyric Round Wi-Fi Thermostats

Over the years, since an element of Autodesk's vision is a more sustainable world, I have covered home improvements that I made to our home in Alameda: A Modest Proposal: Results of My Home Energy Audit A Modest Proposal: Improvements... Read more →

Autodesk Gallery at Autodesk University in Las Vegas: Engineering for Formula 1

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... Read more →