APS (Forge)
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On Saturday I once again headed to my local railway station to start my journey to this year's annual technical conference for Autodesk employees, TechX 2026. It was, as ever a lovely train journey to Zurich. There were some engineering works, so I had to change trains in Zurich's main station. Not uncommon for a weekend. This year's event was in Seattle. There isn't a direct flight from Zurich, so my first flight was to San Francisco. The flight was uneventful. I had a middle seat but at a bulkhead, so I was actually really comfortable. I'd been warned by…
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Wednesday marked the start of this year's DevCon, after the warm-up day on Tuesday. Things started with a breakfast in the Expo Hall. (These pictures are actually from later in the day, when I happened to be upstairs by the balcony.) Autodeskers were asked to attend the keynotes in the overflow room. The main takeaways for me from the Day 1 keynote were around the imminent public availability of official MCP servers for some of our products, as well as the fact that Autodesk Assistant will be able to call MCP servers that partners have certified in our Design &…
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On Monday evening I started my journey across to Amsterdam for this year's Autodesk DevCon. In this post I'm going to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about this journey, mainly because it was a little different. I took a couple of very standard Swiss trains to get across to Basel. My main hack when it comes to Swiss trains is to camp out in the restaurant car: these are typically very comfortable and give you a feeling of luxury for the price of a second class ticket. Not that I have to travel second class, but I only…
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This week I've finally accepted the winter is over… here's a snap from yesterday, my last day on the slopes for this season. It's now time to think about spring, and where better to do that than Amsterdam? Alright, there's no need to mention say Paris or Osaka… spring is lovely in lots of places, but I happen to be going to Amsterdam. So there. Next week it's once again the Autodesk DevCon at the excellent and iconic Beurs Van Berlage conference venue, a short walk from Amsterdam Centraal station. In fact I'll be walking across from there on Tuesday…
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I'm starting to get quite excited about Autodesk DevCon 2026 in Amsterdam. Just getting there is going to be an experience: I'm taking the NightJet service - a sleeper train - from Basel to Amsterdam, arriving the morning of the pre-conference day, during which I'll be hanging out at the Dynamo Hackathon. I've taken night trains in the past - several times in India and once from London to Edinburgh - but this will be my first time taking one in mainland Europe. I do hope I arrive rested. 🙂 Anyway, the Dynamo Hackathon is going to be a really…
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Registration for DevCon 2026 is now officially open. The event will be held from April 15th-16th 2026 in the historic Beurs van Berlage conference centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. There's an additional pre-conference day on the 14th, so make sure to plan on attending that, too. Register today to save your spot and take advantage of early-bird pricing until February 20th! I said some time ago that I wasn't planning on presenting at this year's DevCon, but, well, I changed my mind and submitted a talk just before the deadline. I'm happy to say it was accepted. I'll be presenting…
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Yesterday I felt well enough to get myself out of bed before the sunrise to head across to Basel for this year's Swissbau, a biennial construction conference for the Swiss market. It was easier than in past years, as there's now a direct train from Neuchatel to Basel. (We used to have to change in Biel/Bienne). The journey was spectacular: as we skirted the Jura mountains, we went from dark and foggy to sunny and frosty (even snowy, in places). Arriving at the main station in Basel I had a few minutes to catch the tram out to the Messeplatz.…
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There's a public Call for Proposals now open - and will stay open for much of the month of December, closing on the 28th - for people to speak at DevCon 2026 in Amsterdam from April 15th-16th, 2026. I actually don't think I'll be submitting anything for this year's event - somewhat frustratingly I don't feel I've been working on anything that makes sense to present there - but I'm very much hoping to come along to attend sessions and meet with members of the developer community. If you're motivated to speak at DevCon, be sure to check out the…
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The pre-recording of my DevCon 2025 class (which is basically identical to my AU 2025 class) is now live on YouTube along with other classes from the event. I hope you find the various recordings helpful, whether you were able to attend in person or not.
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I'm on the train back from Zurich airport after my whirlwind trip to Nashville and San Diego, so it's time for a wrap up post covering the rest of my time in the US. After a very interesting first day at ANFA 2025 in San Diego, we went back for more on the Friday and Saturday. During the opening it was great to see Autodesk Research being called out prominently as a sponsor. We're very happy to support a conference that's so well aligned with our research interests! The theme of Day 2 was "Designing for Human Flourishing" - with…