Through the Interface

Sign up for AU 2023 classes today!

AU 2023 class enrollment is now open for non-Autodesk attendees to register for their favourite sessions at the upcoming Autodesk University. (Autodeskers will get to do so nearer the event, once our customers and partners have had their pick.) I’m in the midst of preparing content for my two sessions. Thankfully I have friends like Jacob Small who send occasional suggestions, such as this one Jacob sent through for the VASA session: xkcd.com/2821 Don’t be at all surprised if we end up featuring some logic to help people use VASA’s pathfinding to route via ice cream stands. Keep them... Read more →

Introducing Central64: an open source implementation of central pathfinding

I’ve posted in the past about work done by Autodesk Research – in particular by Rhys Goldstein – to implement a more natural-seeming (but still direct and efficient) pathfinding algorithm. This is the algorithm at the heart of our Space Analysis package, and you can find details on how it works in these previous posts: A paper on our space analysis algorithm in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research Explaining how path counting helps simulate natural navigation Visibility in space analysis: an explainer The above posts reference these articles/papers that have been published elsewhere: Path Counting for Grid-Based Navigation... Read more →

The next release of AutoCAD and .NET

This post may feel like a blast from the past for any long-time readers still out there. After a break of several years, I’m once again posting about the topic this blog was founded (17 years ago!) to help people get to grips with: AutoCAD and .NET. This is definitely a blip rather than a trend, however: I just wanted to amplify this post by my friend Madhu Moogala, which talks at a very high level about the next release of AutoCAD (2024+1) and its API technology. Cutting to the chase, the nugget of information that interested me most... Read more →

Autodesk University 2023 plans

I’ve just come back from 2 weeks off work. We didn’t go very far, but did enjoy the Swiss countryside, as well as the national day on August 1st. Anyway, it’s back to the grindstone, with some looming deadlines around preparing content for AU 2023. The class schedule is now live, so you can head on over and search for or browse your favourite classes. Be sure to bookmark any that interest you, as you’ll be able to register from August 24th. Here are the two classes I’ll be presenting as primary speaker: My first class is bright and... Read more →