Web/Tech
-
As a quick recap, here are the posts we've seen in recent weeks on this topic: Autodesk FormIt and its JavaScript API Introductory look at FormIt and the Maze Generator plugin. Using VASA with FormIt via Dynamo – Part 1 How VASA can be used within Dynamo for FormIt to solve mazes (etc.) in 3D. Using VASA with FormIt via Dynamo – Part 2 Applying the same principle with urban scenes imported by the 3D Context Creator plugin. In today's post we look at the fact that VASA can also be used directly from a FormIt JavaScript plugin – via…
-
Over the last week I've been heads-down on core Dasher work, but with very little visible result. Here's why. Early last week I received an email telling me that it was time to dig into Dasher's use of 3rd party components and make sure there weren't any security issues. (This isn't something unusual – all our products go through this, and many of our research projects, too.) As anyone working on web development projects will know, it's important to go through from time to time to reduce the technical debt that accumulates due to the use of old libraries and…
-
I've been thinking a lot about "technology wars", of late. Some of this has been driven by my foolings around with Floppy Fridays – thinking about the competition between 8-bit computing platforms, back in the day – but other musings have been prompted by links I've been sent in various newsletters. For instance, here's an article on Quora by Dave Whittle that takes a look at the fascinating history between OS/2 and Windows, and why the latter won the battle for the graphical desktop OS. In a JavaScript newsletter I received a link to this excellent 3-hour (!) podcast interview…
-
It's time to talk about a little project I started over the holiday break: connecting Project Refinery – the optimization engine for Dynamo that will help drive Generative Design workflows – to Virtual Reality. It's a project I've been thinking about for some time, now, and was originally inspired by two things: the workflow Van Wijnen uses Refinery for makes heavy use of VR for visualization – to evaluate designs with internal stakeholders – but right now they export the geometry from Dynamo to Revit and then use Enscape to visualize the scenes. It's not a complicated process, but it…
-
After the previous day's excitement of seeing AutoCAD Web on mainstage at the Google I/O developer keynote, on Wednesday our very own Marcus O'Brien, Senior Product Line Manager in the AutoCAD team, took to the stage during another session at Google I/O – entitled "Building the Future Web with WebAssembly" – to talk a bit more about AutoCAD's history and the path that led to this latest incarnation of AutoCAD Web. Here's a video of the session. It's probably worth watching more of this one, but for your convenience I've set the below video to start with the AutoCAD segment.…
-
As a great way to demonstrate the promise WebAssembly holds for software developers, AutoCAD Web was showcased during yesterday's developer keynote at Google I/O. This is well-deserved recognition of the important work done by the AutoCAD team on the Fabric project (and on AutoCAD Web itself, of course). Congratulations to all those involved!
-
If my calculations are correct, I'll be in Singapore during this year's Autodesk University in Las Vegas. It's the first I'll have missed for many years – and it's going to feel more than a little strange, when that week comes along – but this trip (and my family) will be taking precedence, for once. While I'm not going to be there myself, my good friend and colleague, Simon Breslav, is stepping in to deliver the class I would be giving if I were there. Although as Simon is the person who developed a great deal of the code being…
-
The AutoCAD team recently released a preview version of a new AutoCAD web viewer. Give it a try using the latest version of Chrome. What's interesting about this is that it's very much a taste of things to come – something I alluded to in this recent post. Here are some screenshots: The top three thumbnails link to standard models so that you can quickly take the new viewer for a spin: Here's the "Plumbing.dwg" drawing loaded in the browser: The text on the left of this page is very interesting, particularly the piece I've highlighted below in bold. New…
-
There's a new WebGL-based technology being developed by Autodesk and it's completely awesome. And you can request access to it today. Project Play has been in development for some time. It has some shared lineage with the Smithsonian X 3D Explorer – although I'm not sure to what extent, if any, they share code – and it's the viewing technology used by millions (?) around the world to explore the ReCapped Apollo 11 Command Module. But this technology is about way more than just viewing static models. It's a full node-based editor that allows you to create rich 3D experiences…
-
As promised, way back when we started this series of posts looking at various Windows Holographic platform capabilities to build an app that displays an animated ABB industrial robot inside HoloLens, here's the part where we make it dance. 🙂 During Autodesk Switzerland's 25th anniversary party in late October, people will be able to give the app a try and hopefully see the robot dancing along to whatever tunes the DJ plays. Let's talk a bit about how the system works… Quite early on I decided against doing the additional audio processing directly on the HoloLens device itself. So I…