Leaderboard AdX

November 30, 2012

Inventor of the Month - November 2012

Autodesk has named a group of industrial design students enrolled in the Automotive Design course at Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico City for developing the award-winning Aurora green concept car as part of their curricula. For their efforts, the students have been named the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for November.

The Aurora project focused on the challenge of designing a car that would be suitable for megacity environments where large, growing populations can quickly contribute to pollution and environmental strain.

Rather than relying on a fuel-hungry central combustion engine, the Aurora uses hybrid propelling technologies to power the car. Magnetic propulsion provides power for city driving, while the car’s suspension converts the car’s upward and downward motion into energy that can be stored in rechargeable batteries connected to localized motors on the rear wheels.

The concept car also features virtual interactive controllers connected to smart traffic clearinghouses, to automated driving systems, and to the houses and offices of the users - representing an embrace of developing automotive trends such as smart traffic systems and autonomous transport.

The student team - including Julio Valenzuela, Monserrat González, Pablo Ramírez and Carlos Vásquez - used Autodesk SketchBook Pro software to create digital sketches and Autodesk Alias Design software to create virtual models of the Aurora concept car. Virtual animations were created using Autodesk Maya software.

The students also used Autodesk Inventor software to create 3D digital models and motion animations of the mechanical systems and infrastructure of the concept car, as well as to create models of large avenues in Mexico City that represented a typical megacity driving environment.

In July 2012, the Aurora concept car was chosen as the final project to participate in the "Innovative Mobility Solutions (IMS)" global contest organized by the General Motors Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) program in Shanghai, China.

The team from Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey won the important “Best Creative Research” and “Best Concept Development” prizes, reflecting the high design quality and development tool expertise achieved by the students.

November 28, 2012

AU 2012 - Fusion 360 Videos

Here are some YouTube videos that Autodesk released yesterday at Autodesk University (AU2012).

Powerful
Complete 3D design powered by the cloud:
  • Design with 3D organic free-form modeling, surfaces, and solids in one integrated solution.
  • Let the cloud do the heavy lifting so your Mac or PC can perform like it's supposed to.
  • Open, edit, and save designs in all common formats.


Effecient


Accesible
An affordable, easy, and fast solution that delivers:
  • Reduce your up-front expense with flexible and predictable term-based subscription options.
  • Realize your design ideas faster using an intuitive interface and built in guidance.
  • Go from downloading to designing in a matter of minutes on your Mac or PC.

November 27, 2012

AU2012 - Autodesk Fusion 360

Autodesk has just announced at Autodesk University (AU2012), that they are previewing a new product called Autodek Fusion 360, the world’s first comprehensive cloud-based 3D modeling offering.

Autodesk Fusion 360 allows design and engineering professionals to more easily create 3D product designs and collaborate with others in the cloud. The cloud technology behind Autodesk Fusion 360 offers anytime, anywhere access, from virtually any mobile device or web browser and puts essential data at the center of the design experience. It also supports an open design environment, allowing designers to readily incorporate and modify CAD data from virtually any source.

Autodesk Fusion 360 leverages the Autodesk 360 cloud-based platform and adds to Autodesk’s cloud portfolio for manufacturers, which includes Autodesk PLM 360, a cloud-based product lifecycle management offering, and Autodesk Simulation 360, a comprehensive set of simulation tools delivered securely in the cloud.

3D Industrial and Mechanical Design in the Cloud

A comprehensive product design tool geared toward small business professionals, Autodesk Fusion 360 capabilities span all aspects of industrial and mechanical design, melded with anytime, anywhere access to data, collaborative and social development capabilities the cloud has to offer. Autodesk Fusion 360 also connects to advanced capabilities such as large scale mockup, simulation, PLM and rendering.

Next Generation User Experience

Autodesk Fusion 360 offers a radically different user experience through an intuitive interface that conforms to the role and level of user expertise. Autodesk Fusion 360 provides built-in guidance to novice users to speed the learning curve, and the ability to turn off guidance and access deeper functionality for design experts. Regardless of their level of expertise, users can start designing in a matter of minutes and begin to leverage Autodesk Fusion 360’s integrated social collaboration tools.

Availability

Autodesk Fusion 360 will be available on a term basis making it affordable to businesses of all sizes. This delivery model will provide maximum flexibility and eliminate the high upfront costs of software license purchases, as well as the annual expense of software updates and upgrades. It is an ideal fit for professionals and small businesses seeking flexibility to scale their product design tools to fit changing project needs.
  
Autodesk Fusion 360 is expected to be generally available next year. For more information and a chance to experience Autodesk Fusion 360, visit www.autodesk.com/fusion360.

More information will be added when more is available.

Image Credits: Autodesk

November 20, 2012

Autodesk University 2012 & AU 2012 Virtual

Here we are less than one week away from Autodesk University 2012 (aka AU 2012). Here I am going to break down the schedules and try to give you all the information that you need for AU 2012 and AU 2012 Virtual. If you can’t make it to Las Vegas like myself, you can still participate and watch the live stream of the Keynote and all of the Innovation Forums. You can also watch the on-demand classes through AU Virtual as well. Follow all the links below.


Here is the Official Autodesk University 2012 Show Guide

Autodesk University 2012

AU 2012 Virtual

Here is the AU Schedule
Tuesday, November 27
Wednesday, November 28

AU Virtual Class Catalog Preview

Image Credits: AU, Autodesk

November 14, 2012

Have an Idea - Request It

Do you have an idea for a new feature or an enhancement to an existing feature in your favorite Autodesk software? Where are you supposed to submit your idea to Autodesk? That has always been a good question, if you didn't know where to go, it was very hard to find the right area.

Here is where you would normally go for all ideas,

Old, Hard to Find Contact Page for Ideas

Well, Autodesk has realized this was a hard place to find and is now setting up a standard for a place to request you new ideas, IdeaStation.

There are some that are already setup and more are on the way. They are basically another area for the forums, so if you are an Autodesk Forum member, which you definitely should be, you can submit your ideas to your hearts content. If you don't have any ideas, you can still go there, look through other peoples ideas and give Kudo's, which basically makes it more aware for the respective Autodesk teams to see the ideas that are most requested.

  • Autodesk Factory Design Suite
  • Autodesk Inventor
  • Autodesk Inventor ETO (Engineer-to-Order)
  • Autodesk Product Design Suite
  • Autodesk PLM 360
  • Autodesk Vault

  • If the software you have an idea for isn't in the above list, you need to go to the old method until they get it setup in the forums. Link provided above.

    So go there now and get requesting your ideas, you never know, your bright idea might become a new feature in a future release.

    November 13, 2012

    Autodesk Products and Windows 8

    Now that Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 8, has been out for a little while, Autodesk has decided to put out a list of which of their products are supported.

    Here is the list of products that have been tested and are confirmed as working correctly on Windows 8:
    • Autodesk 3ds Max 2013
    • Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2013
    • Autodesk Maya 2013
    • Autodesk MotionBuilder 2013
    • Autodesk Mudbox 2013
    • Autodesk Softimage 2013
    • Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2013
    Note: Unless indicated otherwise, this information applies to the 2013-2010 versions of all Autodesk products. Autodesk product versions of 2009 and earlier are no longer supported and are not included in considerations of Windows 8 compatibility.

     Autodesk intends to support many of our key products on Windows 8 and will add additional products to the list of products supported on Windows 8 as updates and future versions are released. Product Support will provide its best effort to assist customers who have issues with products that are not currently supported.

    Let's hope for the near future that they update the 2 major products soon which in my opinion is AutoCAD and Inventor.