APS (Forge)
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My friend and colleague on the ADN team, Lisa Senauke, helped get a bunch of special-branded VR viewers for the upcoming Forge DevCon. If you're coming along and don't get one from attending my class, be sure to swing by the exhibit hall and pick one up. This is the latest "Google Cardboard"-style device from our friends at DODOcase and should even fit 6" smartphones (a problem with the previous generation). They look really cool, even if I do say so myself (I spent a few wild hours inside PhotoShop to create the layout, believe it or not). A big…
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Now that the Tech Summit in Montreal is over, I'm busy with the last bits and pieces in advance of the Forge DevCon in San Francisco. I know I mentioned at some point that I'm helping organise the VR/AR presence at the event – working with internal and external speakers and exhibitors – and it's taking up most of my spare cycles, at the moment. I'm presenting one of the VR sessions myself (as well as co-speaking during an IoT session, but that's another story): one focused on using the View & Data API to implement VR for Google Cardboard.…
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As mentioned in the last post, we're now going to take a closer look at writing extensions for the Autodesk View & Data API. To start with, we're going to create an extension which displays a vertical toolbar docked to the left of the Autodesk viewer. This toolbar will be centred on the viewer area and only contain three buttons: two will be toggles – with events assigned to when they're both clicked and unclicked – while the third will simply launch an action. Here's the JavaScript for this extension: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Autodesk.Research.TtIf.Extension.Toolbar // /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// AutodeskNamespace('Autodesk.Research.TtIf.Extension'); Autodesk.Research.TtIf.Extension.Toolbar = function…
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I've been working on a prototype implementation of a research project that makes use of the View & Data API for its visualization. It's interesting to get back into using this API, especially as it's a fundamental piece of the Forge platform. As we expect this particular application to grow, over time, we're using extensions to house logically separate parts of the UI implementation. Extensions are a great mechanism for encapsulating functionality: they're basically JavaScript objects that have load() and unload() methods that are called when the viewer loads/unloads them. A number of samples in the Autodesk samples repository make…
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Some quick updates to round off the week… Firstly, a couple of "calls for proposals" have just gone out. Autodesk University 2016 is once again being held in Las Vegas, but this year it'll be earlier than usual: rather than being held right after Thanksgiving, it's now the week before, from November 15-17, 2016. This is going to be a welcome change for all US-based presenters, in that they can deliver their classes at AU and then take a well-deserved Thanksgiving break rather than spending it making last-minute changes to their slide decks and demos. If you're interested in presenting…
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It's an exciting time to be a developer working with Autodesk technology. For my entire career at Autodesk, I've been a platform guy at a product company: while much of AutoCAD's success, over the years, can be indirectly attributed to the existence and use of a rich set of APIs, Autodesk has largely (and this is of course a gross generalisation) approached the exposure of APIs as an afterthought, or at least a secondary activity. Some teams have been better than others at building a platform and then a product based on top of it – a shining example is…
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The tracks have now been posted for the upcoming Forge DevCon in SF on June 15-16, 2016: Forge Basics AEC (including BIM and Generative Design) Manufacturing – Design Manufacturing – Making (including 3D printing and subtractive) Manufacturing – Manage (including PLM, ERP and more) Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Internet of Things Business Development To give people an idea of the content, we've pulled together about 35 class descriptions of the 60 or so we expect to schedule. I'm managing the VR/AR speaker track, so I've been spending time reaching out to and signing up speakers for the 8 or so sessions…
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Registration is now open for the Forge Developer Conference being held at Fort Mason in San Francisco on June 15 & 16, 2016. This event marks a significant shift for Autodesk, as we march towards a future where the majority of software is delivered via the web – and is accessible via web-services. We're still very much at the beginning of this journey and this conference is a great opportunity to be part of it: you can get in on the ground floor and participate actively in this important industry shift. We're expecting upwards of 1,100 developers (from more than…
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It's been a hectic – but very fun – few days in Munich, working with a group of 60-70 developers from all over Europe who are getting started with Autodesk's cloud services. I'm particularly focused on those working with AutoCAD I/O, which means probably 5-6 companies in total. Here's a quick summary of some of the problems that have come up, many of which are for pure AutoCAD… Draw Order warning One developer has a long-running custom operation that presents the following message: AutoCAD Warning: This operation may take a long time. To greatly improve performance, the system can disregard…
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Autodesk is holding its first Autodesk Forge Accelerator from March 14-18, 2016 in San Francisco. I say it's the first, but it's really a rebranding of the Autodesk Cloud Accelerators that were held earlier this year to have the same moniker as the recently announced developer platform, fund and conference. The "call for proposals" started just before the holiday break, and will remain open until January 31, 2016. So there are just over 3 weeks left to submit your sub-2,000 word proposal on how you intend to use an Autodesk web-service API during the accelerator. These currently include View &…