The new Autodesk
I received an excited email from Autodesk last week, offering to share some news under embargo. What was the news? A new Autodesk logo. I wondered, why does this matter? What does it have to do with delivering value to customers. Here’s what Autodesk’s Chris Bradshaw has to say on the corporate blog: “The new Autodesk is not just a surface change, but... Read More
Autodesk Fusion 360: The future of CAD, Pt. 2
Imagine, for a moment, that you worked at a major CAD developer, with massive technical resources, and more than a billion dollars in the bank. Next, imagine that you were given the task to develop a next-generation 3D mechanical CAD product. No need to generate short-term revenues. No requirement to build on the existing generation of products. Just a big toolbox full of component... Read More
Autodesk Fusion 360: The future of CAD, pt. 1
This week, at Autodesk University 2012, Autodesk unveiled Fusion 360, a new cloud-based mechanical CAD solution. What they didn’t do, however, was tell everyone the real significance of Fusion 360. They actually intentionally underplayed it. Here is the real story: Fusion 360 is a major generational change in CAD. It represents Autodesk’s best thinking on what the future... Read More
Autodesk to integrate Inforbix into PLM 360
Inforbix is not a big company. It’s, by any measure, a small technology start-up. Autodesk acquires small companies all the time. So why does Inforbix matter? Start with Oleg Shilovitsky, Inforbix’s CEO. He is what many people call a “thought leader” in PLM. He writes the PLM Think Tank and Beyond PLM blogs, and expresses his thoughts on PLM regularly, and publicly.... Read More
The Autodesk Skunkworks is hiring
I found them on Autodesk’s career site: job postings for a software architect, senior principal engineer, and senior software engineer, at Autodesk’s Boulder, Colorado development office. Two things caught my eye about these postings. First, they’re for very senior people; the kind that head-up major development projects. And, second, Autodesk didn’t used... Read More
Autodesk ForceEffect now has motion
Autodesk shipped its free iOS (iPhone, iPad, or iPod) based ForceEffect program several months ago, and it was an instant hit, especially with students and makers. It allowed users to do static free body diagrams, in a most elegant way. Autodesk has just released ForceEffect Motion. It too is free. It appears to be a phenomenal tool for doing conceptual design of kinematic systems.... Read More
In the future, will Autodesk products all be used online?
TechCrunch just posted this video, where Andrew Keen interviews Autodesk CEO Carl Bass. The interview is about 12 minutes long. About 2 minutes in, Bass makes possibly the most interesting comment in the interview: “I’d say two to three years from now, every one of our products will be used online. The only way to use them will be online.” If that happens, it will... Read More
Autodesk provides real-time DFM for plastic part design
There’s a lot of benefit to be had by doing manufacturability analysis (DFM, Design for Manufacturing) early in the design process, rather than waiting until later, when design changes are far more expensive. A couple of years ago, Autodesk Labs previewed a product, Project Krypton, which ran inside of 3D CAD programs (including Autodesk Inventor, DS SolidWorks, and PTC... Read More
Autodesk Inventor ETO gets webified
Autodesk has just introduced a new release of Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-order (ETO) software that can be deployed over the web. The new browser-based access is powered by the Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order Server, which includes the ETO (Intent) Rules Engine and the Inventor Server (for model and drawing generation), as well as web services and server farm management software.... Read More
High-tech tools for a cool ride
When Marcus Hays first heard about an electric bike, he was less than enthusiastic. Why load a bike with battery weight, turning the human motor into passenger in the process? That was 1995 and Hays was working with Lee Iococca to develop electric cars and bikes. Electric bikes use less than 1,000 watts of total power and can be used on bike paths. When Hays first encountered these... Read More
