RobiNZ CAD Blog

#AU2009 Day 2 – Industry Keynote Wednesday

• 08:00am - 09:30am Multi-Discipline Project Coordination With Autodesk® Revit® AB204-1
• 10:00am - 11:30am Industry Keynote: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction KN208-1
• 01:00pm - 02:30pm Industry Keynote: Manufacturing KN214-1
• 03:00pm - 04:30pm  Autodesk® Revit® for Conceptual Floor Plans AB218-1  

Multi-Discipline Project Coordination with Revit…

It was a fairly easy start to the day with a session featuring the ins and outs of the Revit Coordinate System and project/content linking. OK, maybe not everyone’s idea of light morning kick off but Jim Stoneberger & Neal O’Neill – Avatech Solutions – covered the topic nicely. I picked up a few subtleties of the Revit 2010 base & survey points which were new to me. There was one, perhaps seemingly trivial to some, tip about how Revit treats AutoCAD links that more than justified the whole session. More on that when I have experimented with our own content!

After that began my “Industry Keynote Day”. I chose to attend a few as my work, platforms and interests span several applications and industries. The AEC keynote is perhaps closest to what I do, the applications we use, and it was first up.

Industry Keynote: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction

Jay Bhatt opened with an address that, along with some holiday memories of China, set out how challenges facing the world could be opportunities to deliver change. A series of customer presentations showed the AEC applications in this light with a surprising emphasis on the “EC” portion.

Primat Engineering showed Plant 3D (first time I’d seen it) and Statoil demonstrated how Navisworks helps coordinate their installations. Parsons showed a local example, a water treatment plant in Las Vegas, which used BIM/Digital Prototyping.

Parsons Brinckerhoff showed the impressive use of modelling and 4D graphics in  the Doyle Drive Project (seen in the main stage).

Rather more immediate was a project where attendees in an industry session gathered survey data, designed a roadway in Civil 3D and saw some of it formed in the desert near Vegas, all in a day!

Thus far the presentation had been lots  of “E” and “C” but then Phil Bernstein arrived on stage to present some “A”. He joked about saving the best till last but looking back I’m not so sure. Not because of any weakness in the architectural work shown but simply because of how far Engineering and Civil visualisation has progressed.

As with the main stage preview renovation/rebuild and laser capture of as built featured. If the future of networks is the cloud it seems the future of BIM will be point clouds. Even if scans aren’t available technology like Autodesk Image Modeller allows as built modelling from images.

I wonder about the next step of getting from accurate cloud to actual BIM objects but I guess that’s keeping the boffins working. Projects shown included a facility at Stanford,  Tuttle Courthouse Annex and a research project with The National Building Museum. It was scanned to a point cloud model, then converted (somehow) to an object model.

While there was a lot of cool stuff shown I thought this keynote felt a bit “flat”. Perhaps the tough AEC market (both industry and software) showed through?

Industry Keynote: Manufacturing

Although I don’t use Inventor several of our suppliers do and my Product Design background means this keynote is always of interest. Robert “Buzz” Kross, Senior VP  Manufacturing Solutions, announced Inventor is Ten. That made someone who attended the NZ launch of AutoCAD Designer (which preceded Mech Desktop and Inventor) feel a rather old! He went on to introduce Inventor’s use in a couple of projects.

The first was Triple Eight Racing U.K. which reminded me of the Triple Eight Australian presentation at the NZ Autodesk Solutions Day. It showed how, like with their V8 Supercars, Triple Eight engineer their British Touring Cars in Inventor using detailed digital models.

Then came a mental “Robocoaster” from Dynamic Structures (right). It’s a roller coaster with car mounted robot arms swinging you around whilst rolling & coasting.

It was shown running in Inventor but would take more than faith in Digital Prototyping to get me on the thing. Maybe before lunch…

The X sur’Prize

I expected cool projects but wasn’t expecting a revelation. Then they invited Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman/CEO, X PRIZE Foundation, to take the stage. Yes, it was there on the AU website description but I hadn’t read that as signed up on the schedule heading alone. Like all techie geeks I was well aware of the X Prize but getting to hear Peter speak was a real privilege. He began by outlining the drivers for change and had a brilliant measure to evaluate a country’s curiosity factor.

He presented a powerful argument for incentive based development using X Prize examples. The $10 million Orbital prize spurred over a billion dollars of investment and kick started a new private space industry. Military spending $200 Million over twenty years to not develop an Autonomous Vehicle, 20 Grad Students spent $500,000 in two years and succeeded.

Current and future X prizes include lunar, automotive and genetic challenges with the aim of generating new discoveries and new industries. Check out the website for more details - http://www.xprize.org.

The real geeky cool feature of his talk was the upcoming Rocket Racing League. It will, next year, feature small piloted rocket powered aircraft racing along a virtual 3D aerial “track”. Imagine Formula 1 meets Red Bull Races with a bit of traditional air racing and video game technology thrown in to bring it to the people. In a word: Awesome!

Peter finished with a mention of Singularity University. With corporate backing from the likes of Autodesk, Google it aims to:

“Assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges.

I recommend looking at their blog (featuring some great video) to get an feel for what that actually means and the calibre of those involved.

Burning Hot Tech

Next up Amy Bunszel, Director of Mechanical Design Products, presented the upcoming “Hot Tech” segment.  It was simply astounding how much she covered, and the potential revealed, in a seamless and very slick presentation.

I was using my Mindjet for iPhone to grab notes for the keynotes (great when even a Tablet PC is too much) and the easiest way to summarise it is the copy paste from the map (below). Now consider that I tapped this in, and I’m not fast on the iPhone keyboard, while watching demo after demo of all the features, applications and concepts in action. Part of that was an enormous 3D print, a full size turbo prop engine that was spinning away through the whole of AU. It was an brilliant finale for a superb keynote. The best I saw at Autodesk University and remember, I’m not even an Inventor user!

 

Revit® for Conceptual Floor Plans

Jim Balding and Scott Brown showed how to create information rich concept plans in Revit with content and methods aimed at “casual users”. While the results looked almost sketchy they leverage the smarts of Revit without the burden of precision. It was a refreshing look at how loose Revit can be while retaining many of the advantages of BIM. Plenty to think about after this session and lots of experimenting to see how it fits with our workflow. Thanks Gents!

Technorati Tags: #AU2009

#AU2009 Day 1 – Tuesday

• 08:00am - 09:30am Advanced Design Integration for Radical Energy Efficiency AU104-6
• 10:00am - 11:30am AU Keynote and Welcome Address with Carl Bass
• 01:00pm - 02:30pm Experience Design for Architects, and Product, Automotive, Package, Interior, and Interactive Designers DL114-2
• 03:00pm - 04:30pm BIM 4 Contractors: From 2D Conversions to 3D Manipulations CR118-1
• 05:00pm Industry Keynote: AutoCAD® and Media & Entertainment Keynote and Mixer KN122-1

I was going to write these up and publish daily at Autodesk University but…   So over the next few days will summarise the sessions I attended, then plan to revisit some topics in greater detail as time allows.

Advanced Design Integration for Radical Energy Efficiency

First up, how to save the world! Amory Lovins, co-founder and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, gave a presentation that spanned from Auto Design to HVAC Systems.

He demonstrated that clever, commonsense application of technology can make a difference. Buildings that are energy positive, HVAC installations that save both capex and energy, smart windows in old buildings, cars that offer the space of mid size SUV with double the economy of the best small hatchback.

The surprising thing is none of it is especially radical. His approach is “just” logical rethinking of what we do by looking at the whole system. The secret is focusing the result desired at the consumption end of the supply chain and letting savings there compound back through the system. Interesting that on the plane to Autodesk University I was reading about a 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbodiesel electric BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept that offered the space and performance of an M3 but will do 75 mpg (it was an English book!). Although Amory mentioned Japanese Manufacturers and Ford it seems they aren’t alone in applying new thinking.

Amory had an optimistic and technologically friendly outlook, we don’t need to return to the cave as so many eco warriors seem to desire, but with an appropriate note of caution. An audience question on climate change prompted the answer “irrespective of that we should be doing this anyway”, but also that the climate experts he knows are very concerned…

Check out the Factor Ten Engineering (10xE) Website (www.10xe.org) for how you can be involved:

Factor Ten Engineering (10xE) is an ambitious project undertaken by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to accelerate the reformation of engineering pedagogy and practice. While we believe the target of ten-fold gains in resource productivity is achievable, it is clearly not easy. Such optimization will require original trans-disciplinary thinking and a willingness to question familiar practice.

Although not application focused, i.e.not the typical AU session, it was an inspiring and refreshing start to the event.

AU Keynote and Welcome with Carl Bass

Next it was into the Event Arena, which featured two huge screens flanking the stage, to see the main keynote event.

Lynn Allen opened and showed Laura’s YouTube clip which won a ticket to AU. I had seen it on YouTube but it looked fabulous on the huge arena screens. Then the usual legal disclaimer statement was performed by Elvis, a very Vegas approach!

Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO, kicked off with a theme which pervaded the rest of Autodesk University. How technology evolves from:

Impossible > Impractical > Possible > Expected > Required

The technologies mentioned included: cloud computing (render and analysis), mixed virtual and real environments (design & film production), new collaboration tools (social media + design) and use of technology to tell a design story. Perhaps the difference to previous keynotes I’ve seen (all since 2004 except 2008) were the many real world, not future scenario, projects shown. From Civil (Doyle Drive S.F.) to the production process, and a glimpse, of the movie Avatar.

Jeff Kowalski, Autodesk VP and CTO, talked about convergence and how infrastructure (net & cloud computing) and hardware development (location aware connected smart phones) will make the Impossible > Impractical become Possible even more rapidly than before.

The demos showed a Smartphone with virtual and real information displayed in context thanks to design models and coordinated location awareness. That combined phone, video, GPS, Compass and accelerometer in your pocket opens up a whole new world.

Jeff also talked about the “the next possible” using Autodesk Labs technology to walk through a scenario when web applications (Dragonfly), catalogs (Seek) and visualization (Showcase) could enhance the purchasing experience for something mundane like an oven. Seeing it in place, in your home before stepping out the door could solve a lot of problems.

BIM has moved beyond Possible towards Expected but the AU keynote stunner for me was a demonstration of laser scanning for as built models. They showed a high resolution photo mapped 3D scan of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center including the 16,000 seat arena we were sitting in. It took BIM from the realm of new projects to as built. A technology preview that showed one day every building could have a BIM model.

Experience Design for Architects, and Product, Automotive, Package, Interior, and Interactive Designers

When I heard a podcast about this session it got my attention. It was another "non-typical" AU session as was completely non-technical. I mean “experience and emotion” at a computer conference is usually only seen when you mention CAD vs BIM, Windows vs Mac, or The Ribbon in the wrong company!

Using a wide variety of examples from products, packaging, cars, even hotels David S Freeman showed how factors like emotion, feel and human response can influence your design. His background is character & plot development techniques "Beyond Structure" for authors of all types (Print, film, games).

He showed how those techniques can generate ideas for products, interior/exterior design themes and potential new experiences to attract & enhance the customer/user/client experience. David mentioned Mind Mapping as a technique for brainstorming and making unusual connections while I was sitting there capturing notes, on the work tablet PC, with MindManager!

As I said, hardly the typical AU session and all the better for it!

BIM 4 Contractors: From 2D Conversions to 3D Manipulations

Yay, I got to meet Laura Handler! Very cool having known her from excellent blog for years and more recently Twitter. That was a bonus on top of an excellent session on dealing with BIM for construction, rather than design. Although not a contractor I got a lot of information on model specification from the construction point of view. If anything this AU, now BIM for design is old hat, is revealing the gap between “Design BIM” and “Build BIM” and how that is exposing “everyone works in a BIM” to be fallacy. Part of that is the legacy of disconnected process but also the inadequate tools and workflow for construction vs design models. If the cloud removes physical aspects of disconnect the gap will remain until the tools to cope with the full BIM process. I hope Autodesk are taking notice…

Industry Keynote: AutoCAD® and Media & Entertainment

No pictures from this one as it was locked down for a very good reason. The AutoCAD presentation showed how Marriot Hotels have used digital prototyping to dramatically reduce hotel interior prototyping costs. Digital models have largely replaced prototype rooms or actual hotel refits to test new ideas. Another real world example of Digital Prototyping changing process resulting in better solutions, for less capital expenditure.

While that was impressive it was the next part that demanded a no recording policy (apart from Shaan’s authorised Audience shot below). I wasn’t prepared to see how the rather imposing Security Staff who surrounded the audience reacted to a camera!

The media division had organised a behind the scenes look and 15+ minute preview of AVATAR. It is a technological tour de force created by James Cameron with the help of Weta Studios. They used “virtual camera” technology and MotionBuilder to shoot real actors, their CG character and a totally CG world as you would a real scene. It was presented in Dolby 3D surround and was stunning to see the quality unlimited talent, technology and budget (outside of Hollywood’s unreal world) can achieve. However I must admit what we saw was enough as it didn’t look like my sort of film.

 

Images from Flickr Official Avatar Movie

Technorati Tags: #AU2009

#AU2009 Shaan’s Shutterbug Tour*

Shaan Hurley combined his love of photography  with the Vegas scenery and arranged some unofficial AU related events for snap happy CAD Geeks. The Shutterbug tours took a mix of attendees to sights away from the unreal world of the strip, to experience some real Nevada and photograph it. I could only go on Monday when, unfortunately, pre-AU workload caught up with Shaan so he had to stay behind. A few us went anyway and headed out to see Hoover Dam & Lake Mead.

I had been before but it was a bit of a rushed visit so another look and the opportunity to see the new bridge was worth the trip. The bridge had just been started when I first flew over, back in 2004, and still isn’t complete. It’s a feat of engineering and in part the delays are due to the challenge of building in a harsh environment. It’s an impressive structure spanning the gorge and will be a fantastic photo spot when finished. “The Dam Tour” was great and I recommend allowing extra time for “The Hard Hat Tour” if you go. In addition to the standard powerhouse tour it takes you deep inside the dam through tunnels that go from the base of the dam up to the road deck. The best part was getting to look, and photograph, the gorge & bridge arch from a vent grille in a tunnel about 1/3 up the dam face.

 

Lake Mead is very low, after nine years of drought, resulting in bizarre sights like miles of boat ramp to get to the water and marinas floating far away from where they were built. The whole concept of a marina in the desert seems strange and I wonder about the attraction of boating where everywhere you go is just more lake foreshore & desert. While Lake Mead is an impressive sight Auckland Boaties are spoiled having the Hauraki Gulf on our doorstep

  

Although you couldn’t come ours, thanks to Shaan for organising the Shutterbug tours. I must remember to get the shirt!

* Without Shaan!

Technorati Tags: #AU2009

#AU2009 – I’m (finally) here!

Auckland – Terminal kerb to aircraft in a mere 7 hours…

Perhaps it was my fault, maybe posting the Savage Chicken baggage claim hell toon wasn’t such a good idea. The trouble started long before LAX baggage claim, in fact before check in at Auckland!

I arrived nice and early, about 12:30, to avoid the possible Sunday afternoon rush only to find the QANTAS check in line went beyond the ziggy zaggy queue area and halfway along the departure hall. That seemed a bit strange three hours before departure. I joined the end only to be told that the check in system was down and, due to a mechanical delay, the L.A. flight check in would not start for an hour.

Time to bail out and go get a coffee & muffin, with my Mum who’d dropped me off, to fill the gap to until dinner on the plane. About an hour later the screen showed “QF25 Check in” so I headed back to the departure hall. The line was now the ziggy zaggy queue area and the entire length of the departure hall, and then some. Strange thing was it didn’t appear to be moving very much. Turns out they hadn’t started checking anyone and there would be another 20 minutes before they did.

As I was waiting the curious sight of “Est Dept Time’ changing from 15:40, !6:40, 17:40 and then 20:05 kept me entertained. When I finally got to the desk the lovely, really she was in spite of getting hassled by irate people, told me the aircraft had an fault, would not be flying anywhere today and replacement was on its way from Sydney. Although a pain, I was far happier to wait than set out on a 12-13 hour flight, nearly all over open ocean, in a broken aircraft!

As I write it’s 18:20 and there is no sign of another QANTAS plane anywhere near here apart from a 737-800 that just arrived from somewhere. I hope we aren’t going on that! Best case would be the sight of a nice new A380 touching down to collect us but I suspect we will get a recently dusted 747, with a slight mothball aroma. It will be interesting to see how they get on sorting out a connecting flight, given Thanksgiving Sunday is hardly a quiet time. More to follow…

Hello and Goodbye L.A., Viva Las Vegas!

Well, that was interesting! By the time we took off it was 21:30, so I arrived into L.A. over an hour after my connecting flight departed. QANTAS had rebooked the flight so I had to scoot, with bags, around the L.A. concourse to US Air for a flight but had a couple of hours to do that so wasn’t a panic.

The aircraft arrived, a little regional jet, and they seemed rather keen to get us on board, slowed by having to tag a lot of “cabin” baggage for storage in the hold as the overhead bins in the aircraft were rather tiny.

Once on board not a lot seemed to happen only to get an announcement that “due to traffic over Vegas and need to arrange a slot” we wouldn’t be leaving the gate for another 40 minutes. Seems the rushed departure wasn’t rushed enough!

Arrived in Vegas to a fairly empty airport, one advantage of being late, and the luggage arrived really fast. After a short shuttle trip to the Mandalay Bay, first drop off, it was a relief to check in!

I didn’t get far before meeting some AU people as Robert Bell got into the same elevator! After a long hot shower I headed down to register which was easy and very quick due to few people being there.

A first look at City Center

In an effort to stay awake, to get in sync with local time, I went for a wander down the strip past City Center. That’s not a quick exercise as it stretches from Monte Carlo to the Bellagio. This 68 acre mix of hotels, condo, casino and shopping is a huge development. The shopping and some hotels open this week so I hope to get down there on Friday before heading to the airport, for a look inside.

The leaning Aria Towers are spectacular and have a finish which changes with the lighting around the. A nearby lit fountain created rippling bands of gold light across the facade.

I headed back to the hotel to get some sleep as tomorrow is a day out to see some sights and photography.

While sitting around airports isn’t much fun it is a small price to pay for the chance to attend Autodesk University!

Or is it LAX?

I hope Savage Chickens Arrivals isn’t a sign of things to come…

 

Technorati Tags: #AU2009

Autodesk University Prep 1.09 – My Schedule*

This is my Autodesk University schedule. If you see the black shirt with a silver RCB Logo on your travels say hello!

• Sunday,
  • Arrive, register, work out which way is up!
• Monday,
  • Shaan’s Shutterbug photo trek and Blogger Social
• Tuesday, December 1, 2009
  • 08:00am - 09:30am Advanced Design Integration for Radical Energy Efficiency AU104-6
  • 10:00am - 11:30am AU Keynote and Welcome Address with Carl Bass
  • 01:00pm - 02:30pm Experience Design for Architects, and Product, Automotive, Package, Interior, and Interactive Designers DL114-2
  • 03:00pm - 04:30pm BIM 4 Contractors: From 2D Conversions to 3D Manipulations CR118-1
  • 05:00pm Industry Keynote: AutoCAD® and Media & Entertainment Keynote and Mixer KN122-1
• Wednesday, December 2, 2009
  • 08:00am - 09:30am Multi-Discipline Project Coordination With Autodesk® Revit® AB204-1
  • 10:00am - 11:30am Industry Keynote: Architecture, Engineering, and Construction KN208-1
  • 01:00pm - 02:30pm Industry Keynote: Manufacturing KN214-1
  • 03:00pm - 04:30pm  Autodesk® Revit® for Conceptual Floor Plans AB218-1
  • 07:00pm - 07:10pm Tweetup (AUGI)
• Thursday, December 3, 2009
  • 08:00am - 09:30am Autodesk® Revit® for Film and Stage AB304-1
  • 10:00am - 11:30am BIM Bids Only! How to Get Your Subcontractors to Bid an Autodesk® Revit® Project CR308-1
  • 01:00pm - 02:30pm The Real Engineer's Workflow: MEP Massing for Pre-Design Analysis   MP314-3
  • 03:00pm - 04:30pm Next Generation AEC Collaboration  AB318-1
  • 05:00pm Integrated Architecture and Interior Design Documentation with Autodesk® Revit® AB322-3
• Friday:
  • Depart (early evening)

* I reserve the right to change this schedule without notice or reason!

Technorati Tags: #AU2009

Autodesk University Prep 1.07 – This is for everyone

If you can’t get to Vegas Autodesk University is coming to you. In addition to the all on-line AU Virtual there is Autodesk University Extension (AUe?). It combines AU Vegas Instructors and classes supported by local instructors at an Autodesk Training Centre near you (including New Zealand!). Even better, it is free! See the details in Kate’s post below:

One more way to get to AU – LT Unlimited

There are now THREE ways to see AU 2009 content and events (and that's not even counting all the stuff that's already available at AU Online).

1. AU in Vegas : Of course there's the live event. You get in-person classes, networking, the AUGI Beer Bust, etc.
2. AUv (Virtual): There's also AU Virtual, which is a way to see live classes and events over the web. No security lines to get to this one, and it's free. (Or $99 for a Premier Pass.)
3. AU Extension: Last but not least, there's AU Extension, which combines expert-led class content from AU in Las Vegas with face-to-face interaction with local instructors. With over 90 Authorized Training Centers participating, in 35 countries, chances are pretty good there's one near you. Even better, AU Extension is free, and comes with the option to purchase additional training at a discount.

I hope one of the 3 AU options works for you!

Technorati Tags: #Au2009

Autodesk University Prep 1.06 - Eureka!

Captured this thought, on SketchBook Mobile iPhone, during last nights Auckland Revit User Group meeting. Had been thinking about it for the past few days then, while watching Jason using Revit MEP 2010, the circuits between my "little grey cells" connected. Will have to get organised before departure (for me that's Sunday week). #AU2009

Autodesk University Prep 1.05 – Snap, Business Cards to iPhone

It’s a digital age but after Autodesk University, and other conferences, I invariably end up with a stack of business cards. I keep the originals but it’s not much fun copying contact details into Outlook (which is synced with my phone). When I saw Shape Services Business Card Reader on an iPhone blog it looked like a possible solution. Take a photo of the card with the phone, let the software scan the image and OCR it into into a digital contact.

The reality can be a little trickier as I got about about 1 in 10 cards that weren’t read correctly and several that required reshooting – good lighting and a steady hand help! However even on the “misses” correcting a few mistakes is quicker than entering everything from scratch. The scanning can be foiled by lack of contrast (but why have a grey card with silver ink?) or very “artistic” cards with unusual layouts.

In the example below the “Cap” in “Capital” had to be added, lost in the logo behind it, but other details were captured into the correct fields. The 0800 number was not seen as a phone number, probably due to no prefix and formatting, but was captured. If needed a “text only” screen showing all the captured details makes manual corrections painless or you can edit the “New Contact” fields before saving. I have tried reverse colour cards (white text on blue) and some with incredibly small text which were read correctly.

The application leads you through the process but I have found a couple of tips to improve results:

• Photograph Readable Text Up: The shooting screen has an orientation guide with “This Side Up” but it’s best interpreted as “Top of readable text”. On “portrait” cards, where the text runs across the short side, shooting them with “readable text side up” can give better results even though the card image will be smaller
• Snap then Scan: You can save the images and reload them from the library for scanning but I don’t recommend this. My experiments found that scanning the image immediately gave much better results than the same saved image. I don’t know why but wonder if image compression on save reduces the quality of the retrieved image?

Some nice refinements include a LinkedIn look up and ability to merge the capture details with an existing contact. Although not perfect Business Card Reader is a slick application and I think it’s faster, & much more fun, than copying cards by hand.

Via: 50 in 50 Day 14 – Business Card Reader | iPhone MVP

Autodesk University Preparation 1.04 – Update TweetDeck iPhone

Just in time for the Autodesk University TweetUp!

Took a bit of experimenting to work out some of the icons, why doesn’t the iPhone have tooltips?

Best features are #tags & @address picker, will save a lot of finger taps entering #au2009!

TweetDeck for iPhone - now with added Awesome

• Facebook integration
• Video uploading
• Landscape compose mode
• Trending Topics
• Tweets Nearby column
• Address Picker
• Tags
• Save Message Draft.
• Open in Safari
• bit.ly account support

Blogging around the world, to meet at Autodesk University

A few days ago Gregory Arkin celebrated post #800 on Revit 3D.com and included a visitor map (below left). It prompted a comment from this Kiwi blogger: “Hey, I have a problem with that map! Can you guess why?”. Today he totally redeemed himself with this post and accompanying map (below right).

 

Just to show this blog goodness and traffic goes both ways here are my readers by Country & Florida in detail. Although the US dominates there are only a few countries that don’t figure at all.

	Country/Territory
1	United States	37,753
2	United Kingdom	6,590
3	New Zealand	4,986
4	Canada	4,565
5	Australia	3,508
6	Germany	2,636
7	India	2,533
8	Netherlands	2,263
9	France	2,089
10	Italy	1,931

I’m going to meet Greg at Autodesk University, at the bloggers social and his class, and its somewhere between our worlds!

That’s what I like about blogging, a way to share info, connect with, even sometimes meet people around the world even when you live off the map!

* And before anyone comments on my map it appears Google Analytics doesn’t reach, or show, Antarctica!

** It’s sobering how much ocean you cross flying to the US from New Zealand. About 13.5 hours of the 14 hour flight!

Autodesk University 2009 Preparation 1.03 – 45 Long Distance Travel Tips

Dragos has 44 great tips for long distance travel but I’d add one more to reduce the need;

45. Don’t live in New Zealand, just about everywhere is a long haul trip from here!

Dragos’s first tip is.

1. Make A Standard Packing List and refine it every trip: I do have a minimal packing routine and I always start by getting it done first. After my minimum is done, I try to figure out what exactly I need in rapport to that specific destination: is it going to be clothing? Or maybe some specific medicines I should carry on? Sun glasses and sunscreen? I’m usually done in one hour, regardless of the final destination.

It is probably no surprise to regular readers that I use MindManager for my travel plans and my packing list is part of it. I also have sections like pre-flight and check out as memory prompts for those times when you need a mix of items/process. Some are really obvious, passport, others seemingly trivial. Check you’ve got an AAA Battery is not a big deal until you are on the aircraft with 14 hours flying ahead and flat Bose QC Headphones…

I export the map to Word to print my itinerary and upload the map and an HTML export to a secure web site. That means the info is available without MindManager should the print get lost. For the AU 2009 trip I’ll try bringing the map on my iPhone for reference on the move but will still be carrying a dead tree version as back up!

 

Click through to his post for the rest:

44 Tips for Travelling Long Distance - www.dragosroua.com

Last year I travelled more than I travelled in my entire life. I’ve been on 4 continents and circled the Earth 2 times by plane. It was an exciting time, knowing my propensity for travel as a personal development tool, but it was also pretty draining. Never having long distance trips until that was definitely a huge roadblock for me. I had to learn on the fly (sometimes, literally on the fly). Somewhere between my 2nd and 3rd trip I started to write down some simple steps I should follow, sort of self directed tutorial. For your information, long distance travelling means for me one to two weeks trips which includes at least a transcontinental flight longer than 7-8 hours….

Autodesk University 2009 Preparation 1.02 – Check ahead for Birds?

Like Dragos, I will be flying Qantas from Auckland to Los Angeles, then Vegas. I doubt we will meet the same bird, bet it has a headache at least, but hope not to repeat his “plane – bird“ interaction” experience with another! Click through for the full story and his take on the madness that is Vegas!

The Trip To Las Vegas and a “plane – bird“ interaction - www.dragosroua.com

 

Autodesk University 2009 Preparation 1.01 – The Flat White

Find all the coffee vendors in the vicinity of Mandalay Bay Hotel and have them watch this so I don’t get puzzled looks, or worse, if I forget where I am and ask for a “Flat White”!

Notice it’s not sold by the gallon, doesn’t have “flavours” added (because it tastes of coffee), contains caffeine (as all coffee should) and has real – from cows that eat grass – milk!

(Prepared by Alan, The Falls Restaurant, Waitakere City, NZ)

The Autodesk University 2009 YouTube Contest

When I saw this contest it reminded me of AU2006. If you are eligible I recommend entering as the prize is awesome. Back in 2006 a video, a sheet of a4 paper and the generosity of the AutoCAD Product Marketing Team helped me get to Autodesk University! This video was submitted to the MyFeedback site, but later went on YouTube and has had over 1,800 views.

I'll be there this year, thanks to The Warehouse, so perhaps we could have a "YouTube to AU" meet-up. It's over to you to get the camera, or like I did Camtasia, rolling! 

The Autodesk University 2009 YouTube Contest

The Autodesk University 2009 YouTube Contest is your chance to win one of three (3) AU 2009 Las Vegas 3-Day, All-Inclusive Passes (includes conference, classes and hands-on labs, hotel, meals, and social events)...

* Sorry non-US readers, the conditions of entry states "...for legal residents of the United States and Canada, including Hawaii and Alaska, 18 years of age or older at the time of entry, but excluding Florida, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, and the Province of Quebec"

Not yet, but I will when it opens...

Today my Boss asked: "Have you booked that thing yet?"

"They delayed registration until tomorrow, but I will do it as soon as possible" I replied.

So, see you at Autodesk University 2009

UPDATE 2009-08-13: I have booked that thing!

Special Announcement for AU Online Members: Early registration for Autodesk University 2009 has been moved from Wednesday, August 5 to Wednesday, August 12. General registration will open on August 19. This change enables us to complete some extra features to the site that will make registration faster and easier for all AU attendees. Check back soon!

Team Blue22 launch Civil 3D University New Zealand!

At a recent Autodesk Solutions 2009 event Team Blue22 announced they would be hosting a New Zealand "Civil 3D University" in mid-August. It focuses on Autodesk Civil 3D related subjects offering a mix of industry based training sessions and networking opportunities in a format inspired by Autodesk University. It's great to see this kind of opportunity offered locally as the cost & time commitment limits the number of Kiwis who can attend Autodesk University. If you are a Civil 3D user, or considering making the switch, this is a great opportunity to learn from the best. Check out the schedule and registration details at the links below.

Team Blue22 - More info on NZ's First Civil 3D University or Download PDF Brochure & Application Form

My Big, Autodesk Solutions, Day Out

Yesterday, last Thursday, a couple of weeks ago * I spent the day at an Autodesk Solutions 2009 event. Over the day most of the 2010 product range was presented by industry specific resellers and a few customer presentations. The venue, Novotel Hotel - Ellerslie, was great with free parking and, for Auckland, easy access. I thought it was better than the typical city locations. Arriving early, thanks to lighter than expected traffic, meant I could sit in on a Civil 3D session I hadn't registered for.

Civil in the morning

Robert Gadbaw, Team Blue22, took the first session of the day demonstrating Civil 3D 2010 to a full room. I'm not a civil user, although quite polite, but seeing the survey, surface, piping, alignments and intersections created, changed, regenerated in minutes was pretty impressive. Robert got through a lot of content in the 45 minutes allocated but it really was just a glimpse of this sophisticated product. It was also the first time I'd seen Civil 3D with a ribboned interface. Like the other ribbon applications it makes extensive use of context sensitive tabs, even stacking several at times, but seemed pretty logical. I was also interested to see the .adsk file format used to import a Revit Model into Civil 3D. It's a pity Civil models can't use the .adsk format to go the other way.  Team Blue22 also announced they are planning a multi-day "Civil 3D University" later in the year for more in-depth sessions. I will post details when confirmed.

The Autodesk beat?

After morning tea, for me much needed coffee, it was into the main session. Finding a length of plastic tube, a variety of colours & lengths, on each seat was a little perplexing and then a drum beat started. Human Rhythms, coordinating entirely by mime, took the arriving audience through a short interactive percussion session. “The Tubes” started with simple beat sequences & built to the Autodesk theme, some captured in the video below. It was a pretty cool way to kick off the main session and certainly got peoples attention!

Time to make them work?

The first section, the Autodesk corporate session, introduced the day, sponsors and the mentioned the economic context. The main themes were that industry solutions, but not platform specific, and digital prototyping can resolve design problems and aid process rather than just documenting design. That extended from components in Inventor, Revit Building Information Models to Civil Infrastructure and Digital Cities.There was also much talk of recessionary times being an opportunity to up-skill and the value/benefits of subscription was rather heavily promoted throughout the day. I suspect the recent sales results had something to do with that... 

Paul Arthur, Channels Business Manager, surprised me with a presentation that challenged customers to demand more value from Autodesk and the dealer network. He suggested taking a look at the business problems and opportunities that design solutions can assist with then challenge Autodesk to provide solutions. It was an interesting approach and reflects Autodesk's apparent evolution from 'industry platforms" to mixed platform solutions. It may be a cunning plan to sell more boxes into the current customer base or perhaps reflects the reality that no single platform is the complete solution for a given task. In the AEC space I seem to remember a time when Revit was touted as the single database, single platform solution for all Architectural Design. While it currently is the best candidate to create and manage the project split databases (Arch/MEP/Structure etc) and the new .adsk format to share data means you can look to the best solution for a given part of the process. With linked Revit models, platform data sharing and tools like Navisworks merging multiple model formats "BIM" becomes a more complete solution to modelling all aspects of a building project than a single platform approach.

AutoCAD 2010, all meshy and dynamic!

Gary Page, Salesoft CAD Solutions, demonstrated AutoCAD 2010 with the focus on the new parametric features, incorporated with dynamic blocks, and mesh modelling engine. It was a convincing display of how parametric constraints can save a lot of drafting and how you can replace multiple legacy blocks with one smart, if only 2D, dynamic block. I know one part of the demo where multiple parameter/name settings were seamlessly copied from a spreadsheet catalog to the Dynamic Block got peoples attention. The mesh modelling, below, is fun to use and Gary clearly enjoyed demonstrating it. There was also a link to the following Revit demonstration with the AutoCAD mesh model being passed on to Revit.

 

Revit 2010, inspired by a tortoise?

I'm wondering if that heading will get a comment about ribbon performance but it's actually refers to a building. Rich, Salesoft CAD Solutions, showed the new Revit User Interface, Modelling engine, profile and pattern tools using a building shell inspired by a tortoise. It also incorporated an ex-AutoCAD mesh model column and, via .adsk import, door hardware from Inventor. Apart from a PowerPoint mention there was no sign of Revit MEP or Structure. That probably reflects the, UI aside, lightweight changes they had this time around. Although Revit is pretty established in New Zealand for Architecture the services seem slower to adopt it so it was a pity not to see it in action.

Inventor 2010, in the fast lane;

Perhaps it's my Product Design background that make the Inventor sessions of interest even though I don't currently use it. Greg Heeley, CAD Pro Systems Ltd, showcased Inventor 2010 with a rapid fire demo of the sheet metal, F.E.A, plastic and mold flow tools and design accelerators for frames and bolted connections. I was impressed to see Alias data incorporated in an Inventor model, with the Inventor model and it's additional added features changing to reflect Alias updates. It was also interesting to see extensive use of Vault with Inventor and AutoCAD Electrical but has me wondering why the AEC platforms don't use it to manage database/project/drawing versioning.

Steve Riddell, Aspex, presented the first of two customer sessions. He shared how Digital Prototyping and Production with Inventor, Vault and CNC technology enables them to design and manufacture of industrial automation equipment and machinery. It was good to hear how DWF, Autodesk Design Review, enables that process of model sharing to extend to the client, for free. In response to a few questions he also explained how Vault helps control the flow of design data within the business ensuring each stage is working with valid, current data. It was a good insight of how previously "enterprise scale systems" can now help a small scale manufacturing business.

Simon Holt, Triple Eight Racing, was the final presentation but one worth waiting for. Although I'm a race fan I was surprised how much in-house manufacture is done for the Australian V8 Supercars they build, totally modelled in Inventor. He showed how hundreds of pages of sporting regulations are transformed into a race car with much of the physical compliance captured and validated in the model. The level of detail was impressive, the result is race & championship winning cars.

A good day, except for what was missing;

Although a huge amount was covered there was no sign of Max and maybe scope for a bigger event as time pressure was evident. With over 200 attending the turnout was good but many familiar faces were "missing". Given the small community I thought it was pity that, for whatever reason, two solution days were held within a week covering similar material. When the focus of the day I attended heavily emphasised sharing data, cross industry collaboration and breaking barriers it's a pity Autodesk New Zealand couldn't do the same for all it's customers. It's not often such a wide range of industry professionals have a chance to get together and the lunchtime/break sessions are a good chance to make/renew contacts, Hard to do when they are at the other day...

Taking note with MindManager;

You may have seen my agenda MindManager Map posted last week before the meeting. I said it would be defaced with my illegible scrawled notes and a few commented on seeing the work Tablet PC in use. Its nice to use in meetings/presentations as allows seamless note taking that you just can't achieve on a conventional laptop. 

MindManager's native inking is fast and the zoom + topic filters effectively gives you infinite paper with none of the 'running out of room" I find happens with paper mind maps. The image right shows the result by the end of the day but most of the time I only had the current branch expanded. It's quite surprising to see how much you can gather over the day but remember this was only a topic, often just a word, every few minutes during several hours of presentations. The best part of inking maps is you can also scribble diagrams that typed input can't match.

Unfortunately MindManager Player, an interactive map in a PDF, doesn't support inked topics so can only share this "all expanded" image view. The full size image (click the thumbnail) doesn't quite match the resolution seen in MindManager itself is but clear enough to see. Sadly it won't help you read my awful writing!  

Download Autodesk_NZ_Solutions_Day_2009.mmap (793.8K) requires MindManager (Note: Trial install becomes a full function viewer when it expires)

* As you can see It took a bit longer than expected to get this post finished.

Goodbye MyFeedback, hello beta.autodesk.com

1,683 days ago I joined the Autodesk beta portal MyFeedback.com. Today MyFeedback goes off-line forever, to be replaced by a new community on a new platform: http://beta.autodesk.com

I was just one of a huge community of users & Autodeskers who participated in product alpha/beta discussions in MyFeedback. While much of what went on remains hidden behind a cloak of NDA here are a few notable memories;

The AU Plane: A MyFeedback competition, sponsored by the AutoCAD Platform Group, resulted a paper plane that flew all the way from New Zealand to Autodesk University. My, then six year old, niece thought I had gone mad trying to film a paper plane flying around the garden in the rain!

Finding a bug: This screen-shot from my home PC shows even fellow insects helped to find bugs in MyFeedback. Seems fitting it was a Mantis!

The Avatar Horrors; Changing avatars presented quite a challenge, the subject. My last one (above right with my stats) was me at a "Royal Style Banquet" in Viet Nam. Others have included:

 

The Benefits: Beta does take some time but there are also real commercial benefits. Several times I have completely changed my plans based on what I knew from beta discussions & trials. The best example of that was canning a planned reorganisation of our Store CAD folder structures. It would have been completed just months before Architectural Desktop 2004's Project Manager feature arrived. The new structure was based on Projects, seen in the beta, and their content management features which have saved countless hours updating store projects as content has evolved.

A glimpse behind the scenes: It can be frustrating when you see problems reported in the beta appear in release code, along with the frustrated user cries of "Why didn't this get found in beta?". Often they were seen and debated intensely behind the NDA firewall. However, one other benefit of MyFeedback involvement has been a glimpse of the shear effort involved in creating, releasing and maintaining complex applications.

It's amazing how an apparently simple fix can impact many aspects of the application, partner applications and even localisation. If nothing else you see these applications are not the output of a faceless corporation, but rather hardworking dedicated people striving to deliver the best product they can. It's also apparent that many factors, not just technical, can impact their ability to do so...

The Community: Thanks to all who were involved running and participating in MyFeedback. It's been a privilege working with you, meeting some at Autodesk University and cad events closer to home. In fact I "met" several Kiwi cad users on MyFeedback long before meeting them in person! While most posts were project related MyFeedback really was a community of beta users with personal (wedding, baby etc) and off-topic threads tolerated by the beta teams. I hope some of that will happen in the new space.

The Future: If you are a MyFeedback user accounts will not be automatically migrated. Both existing and new people who want to be involved should sign up at: http://beta.autodesk.com

Phil, the ribbon cuts?

In 2001 a guy walked into our office with a new design application. He passionately demonstrated it and left an impression. While the software was Revitlutionary the thing I really value from that day is knowing Phil Read. We've met occasionally over the years, both at AU and nearer home, and while I don't always share his opinions I have always left those meetings inspired by his passion, vision and ability.

It appears that those attending Autodesk University this year will be denied that opportunity:

Your Regularly Scheduled Programming Will Not Be Seen Tonight... Arch | Tech  

I was informed today by ADSK that my proposed sessions should not be a part of AU 2009 and someone else should manage Building Design Power Track...

That's a mistake of epic proportions. Although it seems the decision has been made I've shown my protest by visiting AU On-line and voting for these two sessions: 

AU 2009 Session Proposals:
1. Insanely Great Stairs and Railings with Autodesk Revit
2. The Rise of the Phonix: The Design and Construction of NBC Universal Studios Backlot with Autodesk Revit  

Also see this comment from Guy: Grow up Autodesk

The Foolish CAD Manager Blog

I found this relatively new CAD Manager blog via the Autodesk University Blog Network. Marla, from one foolish CAD Manager to another, welcome to the foolish world of CAD blogging!

The Foolish CAD Manager
The Foolish CAD Manager is an attempt to start stringing together those of us who need to connect and learn from others doing (or having done) the same things, rather than learning the same lessons the hard way all over again. These are clips of my foolishness and resulting wisdom (I hope), which may be if use to you, my fellow CAD Managers.

the technology of sustainable design blog

I stumbled upon this blog while researching a recent post and have subscribed. Alex's background seems to be with form modelling applications, Maya & Rhino, but it appears the Revit bug has bitten. His post on green software @ autodesk university 2008 was of interest given my recent experience with Revit MEP and Ecotect. I hope the promised follow-up isn't far away.

the technology of sustainable design
an inquiry into how method can advance performance.

my name is alex webb and I am a designer who is primarily interested in performative algorythmic design, environmental sustainability, and building information modeling (BIM).

Ed Goldberg - Autodesk University 2009 and more

Ed Goldberg's latest ezine has some interesting comments on AU 2009 and the general state of the US AEC market. Down in NZ there seems to be a strange mixture: a feeling of impending doom yet most AEC people I know are still rather busy. Retail has been tough, although TWL seem better than most, and it's certainly a great time to buy a car, if not to sell a house.

I suspect AEC project lead times mean the impacts will be felt later in the year as the real estate "bubble" certainly has burst. Currently most people are still in summer holiday mode and they really have been getting a summer. The hot fine weather usually seen in Feb/March, when I prefer to holiday, is here now. I hope it lasts!

You can read Ed's "Autodesk University +" ezine on-line at:

Ed's Independent Voice - Volume 2, Issue 1 January 5,2009
In this Issue:

• Autodesk University 2008
• New VICO software will estimate with a combined Revit, ArchiCAD and Tekla model.
• EcoBuild / AECST

Subscribe to future editions at Ed Goldberg Architect | HEGRA Architects

PS: Ed's ezine profile mentions his trademark hat. You have to go a long way to see him without it. In 2006 I met a hatless Ed in the middle of Hoover Dam! It was soon after AU2006 and, by chance, we happened to join the same dam tour tour of the dam :-)

AutoSketch has ten lives?

I haven't seen it running yet but from the release notes AutoSketch 10 sounds more like a "make-over 9 to get it running on Vista" release rather than anything revolutionary. It's been years since the last release (2004?) so it's quite a surprise to see 10 at all. I wonder if it still has a better Array command than AutoCAD 2009, it did in 1995!

Is there still a market for a low cost 2D CAD system? Autodesk must think so but I'm not so sure given the number of "free" alternatives out there. I guess the market will decide.

Autodesk Releases AutoSketch 10 for 2D Drafting - tenlinks.com

http://www.autodesk.com/autosketch

UPDATE 2008-12-03: Roopinder Tara's report on Carl Bass meeting the press at at Autodesk University mentions AutoSketch and new interpretation of CAD!

CAD Insider: Carl Bass Takes On A Roomful of Journalists
Then why was it [AutoSketch] ever discontinued?
"We lost interest. Corporate AD [attention deficit, a new meaning of CAD is coined]

Take a look at Las Vegas, thanks to a unique city model

About this time of year I'm usually packing my bags, ready to head to Vegas for Autodesk University. I suspect there will be much said about "Digital City Models" at AU this year but you don't need a computer to model a city. Last year I blogged about Julian Bencito's New York paper city model school project. He's just completed another amazing model: this time of Las Vegas. I won't see the real thing this year, but this version comes close!

There are more videos on Julian's Papermodeling YouTube Channel

Name: Julian
Age: 15
Hi I'm Julian Bencito and I make Models out of Paper for fun!
I build cities out of paper that gives a virtual image of everything that you can see from the air. I have completed New York and Las Vegas City. My next Project will be Los Angeles...

Updated 2008-11-28:  A couple of photos from Julian (Click thumbnails for full image)

10 Tips for Autodesk University photographs

This photo, from AU 2006, demonstrates one of Tris Hussey's 10 conference photo tips:

5. Try not to use the flash

Of the hundreds of photos I've taken at conferences it's usually the off-beat images, even if technically flawed, that are memorable.

If you were at Autodesk University 2006 I suspect you remember the hordes on the escalators. Although nothing to do with the conference content I think this image captures the scale and, especially for first timers, overwhelming nature of the event. This is a hand held ambient light shot, using the rail as a support, taken in the rush between sessions. Below, for comparison, the same subject using the flash.

Since then a revised schedule, with offset sessions, has meant this photo opportunity is largely avoided!

If you're going to AU take loads of photos and post them for me to see!

 

How to Photograph a Conference - 10 Tips
There are two things that are pretty common at almost every conference I attend: laptops and cameras. However the quality of pictures captured and posted from a given conference vary wildly. Very wildly. To help you out I’ve compiled my top 10 tips for better conference pictures (and a few other words of wisdom too).

The Autodesk University Buddy opportunity

Today Autodesk announced a special opportunity (see the AU Blog post below) for those still considering attending Autodesk University. I don't know if the state of the economy has impacted registrations, other than mine, but this offer makes a good deal even better.

Since 2004, with the exception of 2006 when the "AU Plane thing" was generously rewarded with an Autodesk Scholarship, I've attended AU thanks to some company support - mainly time - and investing a salary bonus which arrived about the same time. This year that bonus didn't happen, the economy again, and I won't be attending.

I think, even at the standard rates, Autodesk University is exceptional value. In comparison a local (non-CAD) Tech event had a similar fee, but was a day shorter and didn't include accommodation, or Vegas, or even parking! However, getting to AU from New Zealand means the additional travel cost isn't trivial. The current state of our dollar, recently plunging from US$0.8 to $0.55/NZ$1 (and falling), also means the US has recently gotten a whole lot more expensive for Kiwis. It's that darn economy again!

Why should you consider attending Autodesk University anyway? Simply, it's the best place on the planet to learn and meet fellow users of the applications you use. I've written a lot about it over the years (the Wordle below summarises hundreds of posts) but in a sentence;

If you can get to Autodesk University, GO, it's worth the investment.

AU Buddy Passes - The Autodesk University Blog

Some of you may have seen today’s announcement that we are starting an AU Buddy promotion today.  Starting on November 5th,  anyone with a non-discounted AU pass can request a Buddy Pass—the first 100 are free. After the first 100 are distributed, Buddy Passes will cost $595. A Buddy Pass includes everything a regular pass includes but It does not include hotel (hence “buddy” to share a room with) and classes cannot be preselected. Still... it truly sounds like a great deal and an easy way for attendees to get twice as much out of their conference budget.

A Buddy Pass can be added to any new registration or any previous registration. We will start issuing Buddy Passes at 9:00 am (GMT -8), and they will be issued on a first come, first served basis. 

Not registered yet? Then do it now to avoid delays on Monday.

Questions? Learn more about the Buddy Pass.

What does Autodesk University mean to me?

I was asked this today and pondered how best to respond. Perhaps the most complete answer;

"Just read what I've blogged about it over the years"

But that means digesting (excluding this post) over four years of blogging;

• 113 posts
• 1,360 paragraphs
• 18,111 words 
• 84,366 characters

Or maybe just one image to summarise them all!

Click the thumbnail for the full image, created in seconds by pasting all those posts into the totally brilliant Wordle

UPDATE 2008-10-11: Some alternate AU Wordles are here

AUGI at Autodesk University

If you want to keep in touch with AUGI at Autodesk University 2008:

• Join the AUGI Group on AU Connect by clicking here:   
• If you use Twitter join:  

* And say Hi to Mike Perry, who prompted this post, for me

Autodesk University 2008, ready to make your choice?

I just got my invitation to pre-register* for Autodesk University 2008 and have been reading of others who have got in already, not without hassles, and made their choices. Sadly I am unlikely to be there this year, which is annoying because, having been to AU 2004 through 2007, I know what I will be missing

Autodesk University 2008

* AFAIK this was offered to all AU2007 attendees. Public registration opens 15th August, 2008.

Autodesk University 2008 Sessions online

The Autodesk University 2008 sessions are on-line so it’s time to start thinking about what you’ll go for when the registration opens. With hundreds of sessions and only a few days to attend them it’s important to plan your approach!

AU 2008 Session Catalog! : Autodesk University Blog (BLAUG)
Almost 1,500 sessions were submitted for AU 2008, and these have been whittled down to 621 sessions for presentation this fall.…

PS: Dear Autodesk, are your RSS feeds changing? In the last few weeks “Area”, AU, Civil and Manufacturing feeds have died in my reader and required re-adding. I hope this is just me because the whole point of RSS, content updates without visiting the sites, means a feed should never ever change! 

If you’re a blogger, or considering blogging, it’s one good argument for using a separate feed service, like FeedBurner, for your RSS feed. I could change this blog from TypePad to another platform and my FeedBurner feed will still be the same.

Michael on Silverlight...

On the way to Autodesk University 2007, during my S.F. stopover, I had the pleasure of catching up with Michael Scherotter over coffee. I first got to know Michael when he was with Mindjet and visited him there after AU2005. Last year he moved to a new role with Microsoft which seems a perfect fit.

After studying Architecture, as in buildings not software, Michael found his real love was developing software solutions for new uses/niches. If you asked me to cite one characteristic that defines Michael it’s his passion for new technology and sharing that knowledge.

That is apparent in this clip where he talks about Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and how it’s soon to be used in major media projects.

Michael Scherotter of Microsoft Silverlight at SXSW Interactive 2008

Michael’s Synergist Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/default.aspx

Tags: Silverlight

My Autodesk University 2004 - 2007 on Flickr

I’ve been loading all my Autodesk University trip images to Flickr over the past few weeks. At a miserable 100kbs upload it’s a slow process! Click through to the collection if you’re interested!

Autodesk & CAD Related Travels Collection - www.flickr.com/photos/robinzblog/

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - The Technology Mainstage

The Autodesk University Technology Mainstage was a chance for Autodesk and AU Partners Intel, HP and Microsoft to share their vision of how new technology, services and software will impact the design world. I regretted missing it in 2006 so made sure to be there this time.

Computing “in the cloud” with Carl Bass:

It’s obvious Carl just loves technology. His talk, casually delivered and with no supporting presentation, covered everything from immediate challenges to future technologies and work methods. He spoke about big concepts, like technology's impact on society and the planet, but also got quite specific about challenges facing Autodesk today. He’s challenged Autodesk to deliver design software that offers the sort of interaction and graphics currently seen in games:

My son’s Xbox should not look better than a $5000+ design application.*

He also expressed frustration that his multi-core PC doesn’t really exploit the power it has today.

The challenge facing application engineers is creating software to exploit how ever many processors/cores are available.*

Shared processing and storage across multiple computers and networks, so called “computing in the cloud”, means this could be hundreds, even thousands, rather than the two, four or eight cores we use today. While modelling is now the accepted design method any simulation, analysis and high end visualisation is generally done in a separate post design process. The results may refine the design model but that is generally an iterative process, often requiring several applications. Vastly increased computing power will allow simultaneous design, analysis and high quality visualisation. Carl sees all that happening while you design, almost instantly, giving the designer much more feedback to use while refining their ideas..

This vision also takes computing and data off the desktop to become available on the tools that best suit the current task and location. It might be your office workstation, a Tablet/UMPC your smart-phone or even a table or wall. Imagine that with new user interfaces like the Perceptive Pixel "multi-touch" screen, as seen in the AU Exhibit hall, and “Surface computers” and we have an exciting future. The following speakers showed this future isn’t very far away. 

Also See:
Google and the Wisdom of Clouds - www.businessweek.com
Microsoft Follows Google Into Cloud Computing - Technology News World
New digital era is dawning, says Microsoft chief - Telegraph

Nano, Nano, Intel:

Intel spoke about their 45 nanometre “Penryn" technology. It gives more computing power (30% from memory) while using less power which means less heat and longer battery life. However they aren’t stopping there as mentioned 32 nanometre technology is planned for sometime in 2009. 

“Intel has demonstrated its 32nm logic process with a functional SRAM packing more than 1.9 billion second generation high-k metal gate transistors”

In addition to ever faster chip/systems new modes of processing will bring more power to the user. I say “user”, rather than machine, as it’s likely you’ll be working across distributed remote PCs., virtual machines on your own PC and virtual applications. The line between desktop, servers, local network and web is becoming increasingly blurred. All of that’s happening now and it’s worth investigating how it will impact you. Both Microsoft and HP had more to say about that in their own presentations

BIM on a Blade with HP:

The HP presentation included their new “Blade Workstation Solution” (BWS). It’s enables workstation standard hardware to serve users powerful CAD/BIM applications with all the hardware, apart from monitor keyboard and mouse, located in the server room.

“Harness the power of your workstation environment and experience it anywhere”

The idea is BWS reduces operational overhead and allows more efficient use of the hardware. It’s an intriguing concept and worth investigating but I wonder how it handles with multiple profiles on a single box. We haven’t tried using roaming profiles for CAD users and I wonder if they are required in this model. The positive side is that all the grunt work, including graphics, is done on the BWS with only screen graphics and mouse/keyboard inputs being transferred. It looks to make high-end cad on a remote box much more viable.

HP also showed print isn’t dead and is getting easier with their “One Click” HP Instant Printing system. The idea is the user doesn’t  need to manage print settings for various page sizes etc in a document set. Just click once to print the whole document set with the correct settings. You can try it with Autodesk Design Review 2008 today if you have compatible HP plotters (Tick “Use HP Instant Print” in the print dialog) but it may also turn up in other applications.

Microsoft’s Digital World –  Life in the Cloud:

Microsoft had a very design oriented demo of how their technology, and services, can help with design collaboration. The scenario was of a company developing a new consumer product. Sharepoint was the main tool for storing, finding, monitoring and sharing info. Office live meeting was used with a cool new device for on-line meetings.

Microsoft Round Table looks a little like a table lamp without a shade but houses cameras and microphones. One camera shows a panoramic 360 degree view of the whole room so you can see everyone in the meeting. Another camera, rather eerily, follows the current speaker with automatic tracking and shows them in a bigger window. It looked like a slick simple answer for a small meeting compared to more conventional camera/mike meeting room setups.

A video showed Microsoft’s current concept of a digital lifestyle. Some used existing technology, others new, but it all depended on on-line storage and integrated networks to allow seamless transition across multiple devices. For example a call that started on a mobile phone at home transitioned to the car phone system, with integrated voice/location aware search/directions, then ended on the same persons tablet PC. Your data is not device specific and stored “in the cloud” being served to the device that best suits your current needs.

That’s not a new idea but the technology and networks are getting to the point its becoming viable. It’s also interesting to see how Microsoft, still considered “rulers of the desktop”, are responding to the mass of on-line competition. It’s a challenge facing all the “traditional” application companies, including Autodesk, as they struggle to work out the best “Software + Services” offer. While the data flowed seamlessly what I thought was missing from the “vision” was an integrated UI which works with keyboard, tablet, touch and voice on all types of devices; something like this!

I saw some of the location based search technology in action just before Autodesk University when I was in San Francisco. I met Michael Scherotter for coffee and he showed me voice driven, location aware search on his Windows Mobile phone. We were in San Rafael and asking for “Italian Restaurant” produced a list, and virtual earth map, of nearby Italian restaurants complete with reviews. Very cool!

If anything came out of AU, on the IT side, for me it’s a real need to learn more about server, machine and application virtualisation. I think these technologies along with dramatic improvements in, already impressive, hardware and graphics will radically change the way we all work in the near future. My works IT are currently "virtualisiing servers” so that part is done but there is real potential to simplify testing and deployment with virtualisation at the desktop level.

I only have one real reservation about life in the cloud. It requires reliable network connectivity and I wonder where you find that! What if “The Cloud” isn’t there?

* Most of this post was written somewhere over the Pacific on the plane heading home from AU but I’ve added relevant links from more recent times. The “pull lines” are not in “Quotes” as are from my notes/memory rather than a reference or recording.

Tags: Carl+Bass

William McDonough's "Tower of tomorrow"

Autodesk University AEC Keynote speaker William McDonough was commissioned by Fortune Magazine to design a “Tower of tomorrow” . It’s nice to see his ideas applied to a multi-story city building.

Tower of tomorrow | FORTUNE Magazine

The building of the future will not just sit on a lot – it will breath, sleep, and wake up in the morning. And it will be beautiful…

Imagine a building that makes oxygen, distills water, produces energy, changes with the seasons—and is beautiful. In effect, that building is like a tree, standing in a city that is like a forest.

Via inhabitat.com

Tags: William+McDonough

CAD related Blogging Highlights for 2007

I’ve posted my “Blogging Highlights” for the year on my other blog but a few are CAD related so excuse their repetition here:

RobiNZ Personal Blog: 2007 Blogging Highlights (Click for full post)

It’s time to do a Blog related review of the year so here goes…

Best Blog Event:

Well, it’s not really a blog event but Autodesk University probably brings together more bloggers than many dedicated events manage. I was fortunate to attend again this year and the real highlight is meeting fellow bloggers and readers. It was great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones  I won’t name names for fear of leaving someone out but to all I met at Autodesk University thanks for reading and saying hello. I’m constantly amazed people all around the world invest their time in reading this stuff

It’s for that reason Autodesk University is again, as in 2005 and 2006, the best Blog Event I attended this year.

Biggest Surprise?

A year later and I’m still called “the Paper Plane Guy” at Autodesk University!

Blog Related Concern:

I need to do more for CAD/BIM related posts on my “Cad Blog”. If you’ve got any ideas for things to cover email me or leave a comment!

Best New Blog Tool:

Last year it was Camtasia, this year it’s SnagIt. It’s not new but recent add-ins for Blog Platforms (like TypePad & Wordpress), Flickr and MindManager make it a tool I use for virtually every post, including this one!

Boring Blog Stats – Only here so I can look back at them

RobiNZ CAD Blog [2006 figures]

Posts: 1,157 [860] | Comments: 674 [390] | TrackBacks: 74 [67] | Pages: 3 [New in 2007]

Page Views: Total 405,974 [284,009] | Average Per Day 298.07 [220]

Subscribers (via Feedburner): Avg: 576 [312] Max: 707 [640]

Most visited post of 2007: DWG to [Google] Earth, do you read me? - Autodesk Labs AutoCAD Google Earth Extension (from 2006)

Most Popular Post from 2007: Align, the forgotten AutoCAD hero

Thanks for visiting during 2007, Happy New Year for 2008!

Click for post related Disclosure Statement

Meeting Betsy, Screencast of the week and that AU Plane a year later...

It was great to meet Betsy Weber and the TechSmith team in the Autodesk University Exhibit hall. She told me I was featured on her blog, screencast of the week (26/11/2007), again! About this time last year a Camtasia Studio recording helped me get to AU 2006 and it seems that little video made quite an impression. It’s had about 1,350 views and I was amazed how many at AU 2007 still remembered “The AU 2006 Paper Plane guy”.

That presentation was a mix of AutoCAD, PowerPoint, Corel animation and live video but it was Camtasia Studio which pulled it all together. It’s a brilliant way to share/capture information and just before Autodesk University 2007 TechSmith released the latest version, Camtasia Studio 5.

I’ve only had a quick look at the trial version so far but one new feature alone justifies an upgrade for me. If you are not recording full screen Camtasia can now resize the application window and recording area to a selected size. This is brilliant when you are recording several clips to be merged especially if, like me, you run higher than average screen resolution.

It’s best for file size and compatibility to record screencasts at 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x800 resolution, or less. Previously this required fussing about with graphics settings or “hand sizing” windows which meant getting consistent sizes could be tricky. Now you just set your desired production size in the recorder, pick the target and let Camtasia coordinate the window and clip mask to suit. Very nice!

 Click for post related Disclosure Statements

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - AEC Industry presentation

Jay Bhatt set the scene and, like the General Main-stage, the emphasis was on sustainable, green and ethical design. He introduced Phil Bernstein who, with a team of application specialists, walked through a demo of real world multi-discipline design collaboration today, a possible future and then handed over to keynote speaker  William McDonough to outline how we must approach that future.

The art of the possible - Digital Collaboration and BIM Today:

This demo was based on a project in Brazil also seen in main-stage and visualisation presentations. It stepped through a number of platforms showing how shared data, from the best application for each task, could combine to complete an all-digital process. The intent was to show how applications available today interact and perform and, unintentionally, it did. The flow went something like this:

• Revit Architecture was used for the Architectural building model. This included a conceptual window louvre system system for daylight control.
• Inventor: The Revit louvre was used as a basis to design a mechanical assembly complete with linkages and animated functional check of the mechanism. This was later extended to detailed component stress analysis and validation.
• Civil 3D: An imported Revit building outline was used with a model of site, services (piping) and roads. AutoTurn was used to validate road design which required a change to the road width. Hydraflow* was used to validate and size pipe systems. While data from Civil 3D was transferred into Hydralfow for sizing it seemed the changes had to be manually updated in the Civil 3d model. From the demo it appeared there was no bi-directional element changes as you see with other BIM external analysis tools (e.g.; Revit Structure + Robobat).
• Revit Structure: This demonstrated a Structural model used for sizing and takeoff. Design loads and elements were tested with, recent acquisition, Robobat with the results updating the Revit Structure  model. To show the versatility of the link, perhaps to validate using different calculation methods, they also showed links to ETABS and RISA 3D.
• Revit MEP;  Armundo Darling, Technical Marketing Manager for MEP Engineering, unintentionally showed how “real world” this demo was when he attempted to show Revit MEP and IES doing daylight and heat load analysis. I’m sure it worked a thousand times in rehearsal but the curse of live demos struck as Revit MEP “white screened” with the management and a huge audience to witness it. Anyone who has done a live demo knows how painful this is but Armundo handled it with style and remarkable lack of, apparent, stress. In my, limited, experience if you wait long enough Revit MEP will sometimes recover from this but it wasn’t an option with a tight schedule and thousands watching...
• Navisworks: This combined the various models for cross platform interference check. They also showed use of Timeliner for construction time line management/visibility.
• Quantity Take-Off: This time Armundo got an application that behaved! It’s a new application which leveraged models, in DWF format from memory, for costing and takeoff. It was hard to tell but seemed to have basic workbook functionality to generate rate based costing based on the model quantities. I didn’t see any other information about this at Autodesk University and as yet there is nothing on the Autodesk site.
• Inventor: This time Inventor showed machining of the window louvre components with CNC machinery tool paths. This represented an all digital production process from design to the finished product.
• Revit Structure: The final section showed the Revit Structure model exported to ARCAD for detailing. As with Civil 3D it appeared this was not a bi-directional link.

It was impressive so much was packed into a short demo. Perhaps most interesting was the use of, recent acquisition, Navisworks to combine and analyse multiple discipline specific models in one project. What ever happened to the ideal of the “one model BIM” ideal? I don’t think that was ever viable but coordinated parametric models will do just fine.

“The Cool Wall* - Digital Collaboration and BIM Tomorrow:

A vision of the future was shown in the “Project Chicago” Video. It showed BIM with wonderful integrated design tools running on a multi-touch surface wall display. This technology has a proper name but I think “The Cool Wall”, from BBC Top Gear, is more appropriate . It’s easier to see it in action than explain and the video is available on the Autodesk Green Research site – http://www.autodesk.com/greenresearch. Check it out along with Roopinder’s post which has some background on the amazing technology seen at AU in the Autodesk Labs exhibition.

Sustainable is not good enough – William McDonough:

The session concluded with an inspiring presentation from William McDonough. I’m not a climate change skeptic but do get frustrated by those whose solution is to deny “the rest of the world” the privileged lifestyle we enjoy. You can argue our technology is the cause but I also think it’s our only hope for a solution. Perhaps that’s why his presentation was so inspiring. He challenged conventional thinking, shared thought provoking concepts, possible solutions and had real world examples of his approach making a difference. A few lines that struck me (not in quotes as from memory/notes scrawled in the dark):

Being less bad is not being good

Spaceship Earth: There is no “away” to throw things to

Recycle only what is safe to recycle, don't recycle cancer

I must I haven’t read his book “Cradle to Cradle” but it’s now on my to-do list. I also recommend checking out his presentation earlier this year at TED. It’s available on-line or as a download via his TED pages:

TED Speaker Details: William McDonough: Architect

TED Video: William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle

It was a great session which reminded me of the AU2005 Orlando Presentation in it’s “whole project” approach. Thats not a bad thing as it was one of the best but it’s amazing how far the industry and technology has moved in just two years. I can’t wait to see Autodesk University 2008!

* Hydraflow (www.intelisolve.com) was recently acquired by Autodesk, see “Finally – Civil 3D - Paving the Way” for more detail.

Tags: au2007

CCNTV @ Autodesk University - CAD Video News and Reviews

CCNTV were at Autodesk University and their current report shows a couple of interesting exhibits which suit video media. I can’t see much point in “talking head” videos, a podcast will do for speech, but seeing a product, especially hardware, demonstrated can be valuable. First they show the SpheroCamHDR from Spheron.com. It allows a space to be captured in a “spherical high dynamic range image” and allows 3D measurement within the resulting image. Later in the screencast you see the brilliant desktop 3D scanner from nextengine.com in action.

The concept of CAD video news is great but I think the current implementation has some problems:

• The small screen means no hope of seeing any detail, say application dialogs, and there is no way to resize it. It maybe to limit bandwidth requirements but when the audience is CAD users – who usually run high resolution screens – it would be nice to have the option to re-scale the player, even at the current resolution.
• The lack of forward/rewind (buttons or slider) or a chapter index means viewing any part of the video requires sitting through the whole thing. There is no way to skip past content that’s irrelevant and if you want to review anything it means back to the beginning, watch the whole clip again. These options are seen on a right click menu but don’t appear to do anything, for me at least.

Seems a pity to compromise a great concept, and content, with a poor player interface but it shouldn’t be too hard to fix. If the existing production software won’t allow it CCNTV should invest in a copy of Camtasia Studio

CCNTV • CAD News and Reviews
CCNtv is a bi-weekly CAD news and information broadcast focused on what's happening in the industry.

Tags: au2007, CCNTV

MindManager at Autodesk University 2007

James Van abandoned PowerPoint and used MindManager for his presentation. Robin used MindManager to take notes!

This is the result: File Attachment: AU2007 - Revit Effective techniques for large projects.pdf (376 KB)

 

Humour or Horror: A Blast from the Past - Where were you in 1982?

Warning: The images below may require parental guidance for younger readers.

Scott Sheppard started this so direct all complaints to him. Inspired, if that’s right the word, by Lynn Allen’s 1982 AU photo he posted a image of himself in 1982 and challenged to Shaan Hurley, Melanie (Lynn 2.0) Perry and Myself to respond.

Why 1982?

AutoCAD is 25 years old and “Party like it’s 1982” was the theme of the recent Autodesk University 2007 conference.

Not only AutoCAD started in 1982!

Just before leaving for Autodesk University my employer, The Warehouse Limited, celebrated its 25th anniversary. While John Walker (& co) was creating AutoCAD in California on the opposite side of the Pacific, in New Zealand, Stephen Tindall opened the first “The Warehouse” store.

To commemorate this Support Office staff joined for a group photo outside our office (Store Development is the blue “stain” in the sea of Retail red uniforms). It’s funny that the software we use to design our stores is almost the same age as the company!

TWL Staff Photo Credit: http://www.kphoto.co.nz/

So where was RobiNZ in 1982?

I figured out I was 16 and still, just, at High School. This is the only photo I could find that is definitely from that year, scary eh! Although it looks like some sort of mug shot it was actually taken in my sister’s office (Don’t you love the 70’s fake wood partitions!). She worked for a camera retail company, in their head office, and it was to try a brand new high tech compact 35mm automatic camera. The Canon Snappy was also released in 1982 and I had a red one!

While searching for that I found this even earlier photo. It’s not really CAD related but shows me with Grandad's state of the art portable typewriter and, surely one of the first, LED digital calculator. This one is dated 1974…

Sorry about inflicting all this on you, it’s Scott’s fault!

Tags: au2007

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - Friday 30/11

A mixed bag of Revit, from Beijing Olympics to Supply-Chains?, then a dash to the airport for that relaxing 14 hour jaunt home. Leave on Friday, arrive on Sunday!

The Successful Implementation of Building Information Modeling in a Construction Project for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
8:00 AM-9:30 AM ME400-1
Lido - 3106   

Revit® Architecture: Beyond Documentation -- From Rapid Prototyping to Supply-Chain Integration
10:00 AM-11:30 AM AB404-1
Murano - 3303

My Autodesk University Schedule

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - Meeting "The Mistress", or was it "The New Lynn Allen"

I’ve been attending Autodesk University since 2004 but somehow never managed to meet Melanie, “The Mistress of the Dorkness”, Perry. I met her husband Mike last year (he’s the English Gentleman in the photo right) but AU2007 was the first chance to meet Melanie. I’ve known her virtually for a long time via the Autodesk Discussion Groups, AUGI, My Feedback, email and her world famous CAD blog: Mistress of the Dorkness. Meeting fellow Bloggers and blog readers is a highlight of Autodesk University. No matter how often it happens to me there is genuine surprise, and pleasure, that anyone actually reads all this stuff! 

Last night, at the Subscription event, while Melanie & I were chatting one of her readers introduced himself. He was excited to meet her and said “I love your blog, you’re the next Lynn Allen”. Melanie was flattered and I was stunned when, with impeccable timing, the door near us opened and the current Lynn Allen walked in. I said “Melanie has something to tell you” and the story was told to an amused (real) Lynn Allen.

Mike has visited New Zealand before and I suspect Melanie is keen to see the land where they filmed “The Lord of the Rings” (which she loves). Maybe next time I see “The Mistress” it will be closer to home!

Mistress of the Dorkness
Melanie (Stone) Perry's [aka. Wanderer] CAD Blog! Well, this will mostly be dedicated to CAD/Technology (especially as it relates to Facilities Management [FM] and BIM), but, I'm sure other things will catch my fancy, and I'll share them here.

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - Thursday 29/11

I’ve just started experimenting with virtual machines as a way to test software so the first session will be interesting. Other than that it’s a Revit day, notice a theme this year?, with everything from games to facilities management. The day ends with the “AU Dinner Party” whatever that means…

Running Revit® Architecture in Virtual Machines
8:00 AM-9:30 AM AB300-2P
Palazzo J-I 

Autodesk's Revit® Platform, AutoCAD® Architecture, and Autodesk® 3ds Max®: Real-Time Game Technology for Visualization
10:00 AM-11:30 AM AB304-2P
Palazzo J-I 

Architectural Building Information Modeling: Transferring Information into the Facilities Management/Asset Management Process 
1:00 PM-2:30 PM FM310-1
Lido - 3002

From Concept to Construction: Real-World Construction Management Techniques and Best Practices with Revit® Architecture
3:00 PM-4:30 PM AB314-2P
Palazzo J-I 

Advanced Massing Studies in Revit® Architecture
5:00 PM-6:30 PM AB318-5P
Palazzo J-I   

AU Dinner Party

My Autodesk University Schedule

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - Wednesday 28/11

Today starts with the AEC Industry presentation. It’s always cool to see how others use the software & get a peek into the future of AEC software. The day ends with a  Technology mainstage and a look a the future of operating systems and hardware. I missed this last year and regretted it. TWL are in the midst of server virtualisation and contemplating application virtualisation. We have a great team looking after infrastructure, so it’s not a concern of mine, but it’s always useful background to help understand what they are talking about!

Building the Future - AEC Industry Presentation 
8:00 AM-9:30 AM MS200-1
Palazzo H-D 

Approaches and Processes of Using Revit® Architecture, Structure, and MEP in Complex Projects
10:00 AM-11:30 AM SE204-2
Murano - 3303

Sustainable Design Systems Based on Revit® Architecture
1:00 PM-2:30 PM AB210-2P
Palazzo J-I   

Design Options and Phasing in Revit® Architecture
3:00 PM-4:30 PM AB214-1P
Palazzo J-I 

Effective Techniques for Large Projects in Revit® Architecture
5:00 PM-6:30 PM AB218-3P
Palazzo J-I 

Technology Mainstage
7:30 PM – 9:30PM
Palazzo E-1

My Autodesk University Schedule

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - "Designing the Future" Main-stage

This year the main-stage was "in the round". A huge room with centre stage, giant screens facing in all directions, and seating (it seemed to me) for all. Mighty impressive when all is said to be about 10,000! On the outside wall a huge 360º continuous screen surrounded the room.

The presentations ranged from detail product design, recent Kiwi based acquisition MudBox featured, to Architectural Design with everything from Maya to Revit. Of real interest were conceptual applications for viewing a building in-context, at high quality, through to a complex complete city model.

The theme was green with the emphasis on design being a part of the solution to the challenges facing humanity. On that theme, the keynote from Yves Behar presented real world examples of design making a difference. This ranged from better products reducing energy consumption or, in the case of the $100 laptop, allowing more people to learn and participate in a digital world.

Thats a two three paragraph summary, tapped out between sessions, which really doesn't do justice to a stunning presentation.

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - Tuesday 27/11

It’s all Revit today including a Phil Read’s “Film & Stage” session. I first met Phil back in 2001 when he was the Implementation Architect for “Revit Revit” (prior to Autodesk buy out) and came to our office. This was when Revit “arrived” in NZ and Phil’s mission was to spread the word and assist with the migration to Revit. He was so convincing I had a to write myself a multi-page document about why it wasn’t a good idea to migrate to Revit. I still revisit that document and as Revit has developed nearly all those concerns about functionality or usability have been resolved…

PS: The image is from a children’s book: “The Story of BIM – Written for 3 year old Charlotte”, Kathleen Mellor, published. Melb. Georgian House  nd.194-? I couldn’t find any other information but would be interested to know more!

General Session - Designing the Future
8:00 AM-9:30 AM (Conference Event)  MS100-1
Exhibit Hall D 

Effective Collaboration with the Revit® Platform 
10:00 AM-11:30 AM AB104-2P
Palazzo J-I 

Revit® Architecture for Film and Stage   
1:00 PM-2:30 PM AB110-5
Lido - 3002 

All in the Family: Creating Parametric Parts in Revit® Architecture
3:00 PM-4:30 PM AB114-3P
Palazzo J-I   

My Autodesk University Schedule

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - I'm here

I made it to Vegas & know Trisha did too. We met up at San Francisco Airport where, as planned, I also met another Kiwi cycling friend for coffee. Have just registered which was a painless process. Seemed even easier than last year in-spite of about 1/3 more people.

If you're here and reading this, very likely I know... I'll be the guy in a red shirt and Kiwi cap tomorrow!

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - Monday 26/11

Today it’s off to Vegas and time for Autodesk University, proper. It’s a small world when a friend from the South Island of New Zealand happens to be passing through San Francisco airport, coming from Canada, at the same time I’m heading to Vegas. With a bit of luck, and airline schedules aligning, we’ll be able to meet for coffee on the other side of the Pacific!

I have a non-AU event planned tonight as couldn’t be just one casino away from SPAMalot and miss it. Wynn is next door to the Venetian but the size of things in Vegas means it’s still a bit of a hike!

It’s a feast of Python’ness this month as a couple of weeks after I get home from AU Eric Idle is visiting New Zealand with his show “He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!”. From one side of the world to the other, it’s all Python!

My Autodesk University Schedule

RobiNZ @ Autodesk University 2007 - A day across the bay...

Today I travelled across the bay to Larkspur to meet with Michael Scherotter. I arrived at the ferry terminal to find the first one left about 90 minutes later than I thought so thanks to Michael for rearranging his schedule at short notice. It was a grey day so the ferry trip scenery wasn’t spectacular but I spent about half the trip getting a lesson in aerodynamics. A solitary gull worked out it could get a free ride across the bay by gliding in the “slipstream” just off the stern of the ferry. It was like one of those nature documentaries showing bird flight close-up as was within a metre or two of the stern, doing 10–15 knots, for 20–30 minutes without flapping it’s wings once. It reminded me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the fable about a gull who was fascinated by flight, which I read years ago. It was a strange mystical book and I must admit I found Richard Bach’s books on his real aviation life as a barnstormer far better.

Last time I did this trip I visited Michael at the Mindjet Office (MindManager) near the ferry terminal. I got to know Michael via his blogging for Mindjet and was impressed by his enthusiasm for combining technologies to create new solutions. He developed a prototype combining MindManager and Autodesk DWF which was of interest to me. It was great to see him again and learn about his current role as a “Synergist” for Microsoft. It’s great to he’s still “Combining Software in Amazing Ways” and excited about using new combinations of technologies to help people solve problems. As you can imagine there are lots of technologies at Microsoft to keep him busy!

Synergist Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/default.aspx

I wandered back to the hotel via downtown at dusk looking at some of the architecture, including The Transamerica Pyramid, and Christmas decorations. Tomorrow  it’s off to Vegas, to get ready for Autodesk University.