The CAD Insider

AU 2007 Day 3: Autodesk Labs Has the Neatest Technology

LAS VEGAS, NV - Within the sprawling billion dollar software factory called Autodesk which churns out megalithic software releases that take man years of labor to produce and a vast army of marketers to promote, there lives a small and agile group of developers that have somehow been allowed to roam free, work on projects of their choosing, who have succeeded in creating some of the most interesting and exciting applications I have seen in this market.

I met with Doug Look, Sr Strategic Designer of Autodesk Labs, as this group is called (http://labs.autodesk.com/). The concept appears similar to Google Labs, where the search engine giant hosts many "not ready for prime time" applications, many of them quite useful, all of them for free. Same idea here. Doug's group is also not constrained by profit pressures and gives away all its applications.

Autodesk Labs made the biggest splash with Inventor LT, a surprisingly robust solid modeler that differs from its commercial counterpart mainly in its limitation to parts (not assemblies) and geographies (can only be downloaded in US and a few other select countries).  Though not developed by the Autodesk Labs team, the Labs site serves as its distribution center.

Eddy Kuo of Autodesk Labs shows how easy it is to manipulate an architectural model in Autodesk Design Review with the multi-touch screen.

Here is a sampling of other projects Doug's group is working on:

• ProjectDraw. Web-based drag and drop drawing application like Visio (or should I say, like Actrix, an application Autodesk no longer supports). You can just go to http://draw.labs.autodesk.com and start drawing -- you don't need to download any software. You will need to register with Labs before you can save the drawing, but after that you can save to a few formats. Not DWG or DXF, though.
• The coolest application is a "multi-touch" screen that is at once a giant display and an interface. Not a big deal, you say? Sure, Apple has a touch screen on the iPhone and the latest iPod. But this baby is huge and it's called multi-touch for a reason: touching it at multiple points of contact can generate greater variety of commands. For example, touching the screen with 10 fingertips will reset the model and the view when used with Autodesk Design Review. I tried it and was able to zoom, pan, rotate easily and naturally -- something I have not been able to do with other 3D input devices. It's not cheap (the screen itself costs $100,000) but according to its manufacturer, the military is already a big customer. I can see it quite at home in a big corporate office. Certainly, no one would fall asleep during that design review. (see how it in action on Mark Kikers blog)
• Labs is also doing much with searches, both metadata (content) and visual (shape) searches. What a boon to be able to locate a part that already exists -- perhaps one your company already has designed -- rather than make it from scratch! Currently, the metadata search will look through a list of AEC content sites only, but a mechanical oriented search is being considered. The visual search uses VizSeek technology and can start with a sketch (you do it online), a 2D drawing, 3D model (assuming you have a similar shape, I guess) and even a photograph. The sketch input did not work so well when it was demonstrated but it is a work in progress.

If you have a few moments, you should definitely check out the applications available at Autodesk Labs. There are too many neat things to mention here. Even if you don't see anything you can use at the moment, bookmark this page because I expect Doug's industrious and motivated little group to unleash several more handy, gee-whiz gems in the future.

See a more complete list of Autodesk Labs technology on display at AU on here.

AU 2007 Day 2: It's Tough to Hire a Good Keynote Speaker

How to pick a keynote speaker? It's not easy. You need to find some one whose background in immediately impressive so that people will attend. You are told how much you can spend. So you scour the Internet looking for people who speak for a living (easy enough to do), could be interesting, somewhat relevant to your audience, and sign someone. Then you just pray your speaker will be well received, that he'll be informative, inspirational and entertaining -- and that the evaluation forms will come back with high marks.

Lo and behold, there is a website to make it easy for the conference planner. www.keynotespeakers.com lists many speakers, what they will speak on, their credentials, how much they charge (a range, at least) and even suggest what to say to introduce them.

Ray Kurzweil, the keynote for the Manufacturing Presentation, is listed keynotespeakers.com and according to the site, he can speak on a variety of topics ranging from the future to education to disabilities for anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000. For this event, he spoke of the future.

Call me jaded but listening to yet another Harvard/MIT professor/graduate discuss how computers are getting more powerful...the paradigm shift....how technology changes are occurring at an exponential rate...well, it's just so last decade. Being constantly amazed how kids can do wonders with the new technology only serves to make one sound old and out of it. I've heard a hundred times how a couple of students in college turned a pet project into a $150 billion dollar business (Google).

I thought I'd check out Mr. Kurzweil's background. I found out he received a bachelors degree from MIT but in Literature and Computer Science. I wasn't sure how the audience of engineers, architects and designers would relate. He has had some notable successes as an inventor, however, though I could find no evidence of Mr. Kurzweil being a CAD user.

I found my attention wandering. But I perked up during the following comments:

• Chimps don't really use tools, they just put sticks in the ground. Mr Kurzweil says though they have thumbs, differences in their hands still prevent them from grasping tools properly. With all due respect, I would think that if chimps had superior brains and ruled the earth, one of them would be lecturing how humans could never compete with apes due to the inferior anatomy of a human.
• Nanotechnology will make robotic blood cells. With it, you could do a Olympic sprint for 15 minutes -- or sit at the bottom  of a pool for 15 minutes. I imagine many pro cycling teams are monitoring the progress of this technology.
• How can a 10 year old catch a fly ball, something that takes a half dozen partial differential equations with out ever knowing calculus. Umm, it turns out that calculus and differential equations are separate subjects. To me, this example only seems to point out the inadequacy of mathematics to efficiently express even simple natural phenomenon.

I would like to ask my readers what keynote speakers they have found to be truly memorable. Please comment.

AU 2007 Day 1, Main Keynote

LAS VEGAS, NV - Carl Bass predicts a near future with 3 billion people with mobile phones.  I wondered how this could possibly segue into into green design, something Carl has been pushing lately. To me it seemed that all those cell phones will generate so much e-waste, primarily with all the batteries that wear out.

No, Carl was using the cell phone example as a part of his point about how the world is changing and how we (CAD users) need to adjust to it. It was a part of his 4 important trends of our time:

1. Going digital
2. Globalization
3. Infrastructure boom
4. Rising cost of energy

According to Carl, the Library of Congress contains 20 terabytes of data. Google indexes 850 terabytes. Of course, much of the web content Google indexes would not be worthy of the Library of Congress.

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass makes use of a round stage and a wraparound multiscreen display at Autodesk University 2008

Despite some doom and gloom stats about energy consumption and exploding population, "it's not a time to despair." "Today's world is going to test our ingenuity."

Next on the main stage was Yves Behar, founder of fuseproject, a San Francisco design and branding firm. I googled the site but was quickly ensnared in an overly creative navigation and had to bail. Yves talked of a design of a child's $100 laptop [pictured balanced on the head of a child in a dusty village], a children's water bottle that becomes a construction toy after its contents are consumed as "reuse is the best recycling" [obviously, Yves has not had to try to recycle tons of toys from kids who tire of them -- and besides shouldn't the kids just drink from the tap?), and the Leaf Lamp designed for Herman Miller, which looked flimsy but kinda cool, too (see picture)

Carl introduced Jeff Kowalski, CTO, as a "great friend." That might be but I was more interested in what Jeff was going to tell me about great technology at Autodesk. A CTO should be good for that, right? I'm such an optimist. Jeff seemed content to speak in broad terms like "visualize, simulate and analyze." But I did learn that the new Ford Mustang's look was derived from Steve McQueen's face (see picture by Shaan Hurley -- you have to squint).

A design example showed a game controller go from concept (Alias) to design (Inventor), to analysis (ANSYS) and production (mold design). Nice to see actual software at work, I thought. But a game controller? Now we'd really gotten away from the seriousness of saving the earth that Carl had started with.

On the whole, I'll remember this presentation for the dazzling display of technology of another kind -- an audiovisual technology with huge screens that encircled the audience. A BIM model of some city (was it Las Vegas?) brought oohs and aahs from  the crowd.

Lynn Allen fans got to see her for a few minutes before she introduced CEO Carl Bass.

AU 2007, Extensive Blog Coverage

LAS VEGAS, NV - Though Autodesk University may be the worlds biggest CAD user meeting, for every CAD user that is here, there may be a thousand more that stayed home. Those people will be happy to know that AU will covered in detail by a small army of bloggers. Look at this list of blogs I have found to virtually attend AU. You may not get to attend all the useful sessions or meet Lynn Allen in person but on the other hand, you won't catch anything in Las Vegas (why do they insist on having AU in this godforsaken place?)

• Autodesk University Blog (BLAUG) - official blog with many stats about this year's AU, by Joseph Wurcher, Manager of AU Program Development at Autodesk.
• Between the Lines - good description of the super hi-tech keynote, plus link to photos of event, by Shaan Hurley
• CADman-DO - includes photos and even video, by David Cohn
• Autodesk University 2007 - focus on new technology at Autodesk Labs on display at AU, by Scott Sheppard of Autodesk
• BLAUGI - some photographs, official blog by Autodesk User Group International (AUGI)
• Live from Autodesk University, Streaming Video of 6 Sessions - video and handouts, but it appears that you have to be a registered attendee to see them, by Shaan Hurley of Autodesk
• Civil 3D Rocks - includes getting to AU, how to prepare, more, by Dana Probert, who is a AU presenter
• news, views and analysis - covers opening day and promises more, by Arzan Sam Wadia, architect and urban designer
• Eat your CAD - see "latest on the site" for AU entries, may require free registration

AU 2007 Day 0, Off to Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NV - This time of year means more to AutoCAD users than just what to do with all the left over turkey. It's time to pack up and head to Las Vegas for Autodesk University, the biggest CAD user meeting in the world.

The numbers are not in yet, but over 10,000 are expected to attend. Autodesk itself is sending almost a thousand of its own troops. The flight from SFO, being near to company headquarters, has about 25 Autodeskers on it. For the old pros, there is a "been there, done that" weariness about AU. But for the users, there is an unmistakable buzz. For many, it is their biggest event all year. The week they can get out of the office. In Las Vegas, no less.

AU07 - most efficient registration ever! 5 minutes to log in and get a badge.

Unlike previous AUs, most of the press will be left sitting this one out. Autodesk has separated its "press events" from Autodesk University. AU used to be where AU would announce its latest products and updates but as product cycles are less likely to follow the calendar regularity of a user event, a large press attendance does not seem so critical. That seems to be the official story, though at the last minute Autodesk manufacturing division got into the act and a select few press members got invited anyway.

For me, attending the biggest user meeting in the world is a must. Being among so many CAD users is like once again feeling the earth under my feet, a reminder of why my company (TenLinks, Inc.) does what it does and a reminder of who it does it for.