Autodesk invited bloggers from around the world to meet with AutoCAD product managers, specialists, AutoCAD team members and a gold beta user for a deep dive into the new AutoCAD 2015 release. I’d seen the beta before this trip but was interested to learn what had driven the changes and refinements it delivers.
The blogger day brought together people from as far afield as Poland, Czech Republic, Brazil, U.K., the USA (St Louis, Nebraska, Florida, Atlanta and Texas) and one from New Zealand (me!).
It was a great opportunity to renew friendships, made at other Autodesk events, and meet some only previously known virtually via their blogs, social media and on-line meetings.
Meet at Tiburon
The Blogger Day was based at the Autodesk Market St. city office but we were staying across the bay in Tiburon. That was partially due to high accommodation demand in the city due to other events. Tiburon is a very nice, exclusive and expensive, suburb with multi-million dollar views of the bay from the CBD to Golden Gate. I found a nice little plot of land for sale if you have a couple of million dollars to spare…
It was nice to see another side of San Francisco although I had been to Tiburon before. That was a very brief visit as I raced to catch the last ferry back to the city before the bicycle rental company closed! This time I had a chance to explore the neighbourhood.
Shaan’s early ferry Autodesk Tour:
Shaan Hurley convinced most of us to catch an early ferry to sample San Francisco’s finest coffee, waffles and an informal tour of the Autodesk offices. The Ferry Building Blue Bottle coffee/waffle lived up to the high expectations. The next day I discovered the new Humphrey Slocombe store opposite do a equally fine Blue Bottle Coffee ice-cream.
I was amazed how much the city office had grown since my last visit in 2009. The Gallery, reception and offices are still in the brick Market St. building but it now links into an adjacent modern tower with more office areas and our base for the day.
We entered the tower via an orange corridor between the old & new offices nicknamed “The portal”. Although I joked about it being some sort of Dr Who’vian time travel device in a way it was. Once on the other side the day was all about 2015 and the future!
Welcome to AutoCAD 2015
Amy Bunszel, (VP of AutoCAD products), welcomed us and introduced the themes for the 2015 release:
- Boost productivity:
- Modern User Interface
- Improved graphics
- Enhance Reality Capture
- AutoCAD everywhere (in all the design suites)
- AutoCAD anytime (360 desktop and mobile)
Then followed a series of presentations, a panel discussion, tour of the amazing Pier 9 workshop and a dinner. I’ll cover all that in a series of posts starting with the most visible change to AutoCAD 2015, the User Interface.
Disclosure: Travel, some accommodation and meals provided by Autodesk, see disclosure page for details.
See my AutoCAD Blogger Day 2014 Index page for related posts.
