Through the Interface

Catching up on the Autodesk University 2018 keynotes

Among other things, this week, I’ve been trying to kick-off my AU2018 catch-up viewing. So far I’ve just had the chance to fill in the keynotes that I missed, so I thought I’d collect those that I could find together for others to view. The first keynote of the Monday’s pre-conference events was that of Connect & Construct: Next up was that of the Forge DevCon. Very strangely (for me, anyway) I couldn’t attend this one in person, as I was presenting a Connect & Construct session at the same time. Of the main AU event, there was, of... Read more →

AU 2018 class recordings are now online

Like many of you (with some countries unfortunately having been excluded due to privacy regulations) I’ve just received an awesome customized video about this year’s Autodesk University. Here’s a link to the one I received, in case you didn’t get one yourself. I’m guessing they didn’t actually record a custom video – perhaps by training an infinite number of monkey videographers – to make this. Anyway – it was a great job, however it was done. The video was to announce a new web platform for AU content, including the recordings from this year’s event. Of my classes two... Read more →

Generative design and IoT, a virtuous circle!

I really enjoy my job, these days (although frankly that’s been true for the majority of my career at Autodesk): I get to work on projects related to IoT (Dasher 360) and to generative design (using Dynamo + Refinery). This is a real privilege, because there’s a connection between the two that’s tangible and that will become more and more important. It’s that connection that I want to talk about today, as this week was the first time I’ve covered my two areas of focus in a single, in-depth presentation. On Wednesday afternoon I presented a keynote session at... Read more →

Webinar on computational and generative design for AEC

My friend Dieter Vermeulen will be presenting a free, 1-hour webinar at 11am GMT on December 6, 2018, about how Computational Design can improve automation and optimization in the AEC industry. Here’s a photo of Dieter having a turn as DJ at the recent DynaNoche at AU Las Vegas. While the webinar’s title mentions computational design, Dieter tells me he’ll also be talking about the generative design tool Autodesk released into public Beta last week. Here’s the invitation to attend the session: Join us for this webinar brought to you by Building Magazine & Autodesk. Improve Automation in AEC... Read more →

Autodesk University 2018

I’m on the train home after a whirlwind week in Las Vegas. Another great AU is “in the bag” and I’m looking forward to getting home to my family. But first a quick recap of the week… I arrived on Saturday night, as usual, and managed to get a decent first night’s sleep. On Sunday I did a few things… I checked out the rooms I’d be presenting in during the week, which is always slightly surreal. I wandered along the strip: they’d closed it off for the Rock N Roll Marathon, which apparently caused incredible havoc for those... Read more →

Project Refinery: implement generative design workflows for AEC

I’m very glad to be able to share the news that Project Refinery is now available as a public Beta. This is the optioneering and optimization engine for Dynamo that Autodesk Research has been using to implement the “generative urban design” workflow for Van Wijnen. It allows you to generate 1000s of solutions to a particular design problem, whether you want to explore random solutions, work your way through the parameter space systematically, or use evolutionary computing to hone in on optimal solutions. In the Manufacturing space we had Project Dreamcatcher – now the generative design capabilities built into... Read more →

Interested in generative design for AEC? Watch this space…

I was hoping to be able to announce something exciting today, but it looks like I’m going to have to wait until Monday. In the meantime, here’s a quick taste of what you’re going to see next week. Exciting times! :-) If you’re coming to Las Vegas, next week, you’ll be able to hear more during my AU classes. See you there! Read more →

The calm before the storm that is AU2018

We’re in the last few days before the biggest week in my calendar: Autodesk University in Las Vegas. As usual I’m trying my best to conserve strength in the week before the trip, as if preparing for a marathon. (There’s actually a half-marathon in Las Vegas on Sunday, so a number of AU attendees are preparing for that as well as AU itself. Utter craziness!) Photo credit: James Marvin Phelps The Sign Says It All II via photopin (license) My handouts are uploaded and my slides are getting close to being presentable. To give you a sense of what’s... Read more →

A change of CTO at Autodesk

Some of you may have seen the interview on Engineering.com with our new CTO, Scott Borduin. If you don’t already know Scott, I recommend reading it to get a sense of who he is as a person. Today’s post is both to welcome Scott to his new role and to wish our former CTO, Jeff Kowalski, well on his next adventure. To say that we’ve seen a lot of change at Autodesk over the last year and a half would be an understatement. Since Carl Bass stepped down as CEO and Andrew Anagnost was promoted into the role we’ve... Read more →