Autodesk Research
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A few days ago, Scott Sheppard wrote an interesting blog post entitled "Why does Autodesk have a Labs?". I tweeted it, as I found it did a good job of describing not only the rationale behind Autodesk Labs, but other important customer touch points such as the Beta program and Autodesk Research. With my completionist hat on I'd probably expand the touch points to include how we connect with Major Account customers – particular via Autodesk Consulting and our Enterprise Support teams – as this is also a way that product features and defined and delivered. In fact, I'd probably…
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Regular readers of this blog will have heard mention of Project Dreamcatcher and how Autodesk Research is using it to explore the future of design. It's a generative design technology that goes beyond the current "state of the art" – which means combinations of tools such as Revit + Dynamo or Rhino + Grasshopper – as it works backwards from goals stated by the user, rather than expanding and evaluating options that have been programmed in. One great way for people with a programming background to "get their heads around this" is to relate it to the world of programming…
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It's been an interesting first week in Autodesk Research. I've had the opportunity to jump into a few projects that are really interesting. One involves the use of generative design tools to perform a number of different analyses on design alternatives for an architectural project, assessing criteria such as maximum team co-location and improving the circulation of people through corridors. One the tools being used for the analysis is Dynamo: something I've been meaning to spend some time with for ages, but finally have good reason to. (Some of you may remember my involvement/interest in the DesignScript project… DesignScript is…
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As part of the restructuring that went on at Autodesk, last week, I have a new role. This isn't a bad thing, thankfully: in fact it's the opposite… it's something I've been working towards for several years. I've been in the AutoCAD team for the last 4 years and was in the Autodesk Developer Network team for my 16+ years at Autodesk prior to that. These were great environments for me, for quite different reasons, but my ultimate interests lie in where the company (and the broader industry) is heading, technology-wise… one reason I've always felt drawn to the work…