Autodesk Manufacturing & Digital Prototyping Solutions

Autodesk Screencast Available

This month Autodesk launched Autodesk Screencast. This is the progression of Project Chronicle that was available on Autodesk Labs.

As you may guess from the name, this is a new tool that allows you to record interactions with of our applications as a screen capture video. Perfect for tutorials, tips and tricks and other general training videos.

 
Where it differs from some other solutions available on the market is that:-

#1 - This tool is free to use and integrates directly into AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD, Revit and Inventor.

#2 – It captures not just the screen movement but also the commands within a timeline, so a user can go back to any operation or point of interest within the video just by clicking on the timeline.

#3 – You can upload the completed recording directly to the Autodesk Screencast service just by using an Autodesk ID. Here you can control who has access to the individual screencast, whether it’s for public access, public access via a unique hidden link (so no Autodesk ID required to view) OR only allow certain user IDs.

Take a look. You can download it from http://screencast.autodesk.com

Happy New Year

As the world gets back to work, we all return relaxed and few pound heavier. I for one am trying to start as I mean to go on, call it a new year's resolution if you want. I want to try to bring news to you about Industrial Design and Visualisation on what is happening and some interesting tips and tricks along the way.

Looking forward in 2014 we have the Autodesk Innovation Forum 2014 in Munich. This is becoming a regular get together for the Automotive & Transportation customers to network, share experiences and listen to some inspiring presentations from customers and Autodesk. Previous years speakers

Find out more about previous speakers at Autodesk Innovation Forum 2013 Patrick Le Quément  Axel Becker – Airbus Cabin Innovation

Find out more and Register for Autodesk Innovation Forum 2014 

 

Autodesk® Remote launched for subscription customers.

Anyone that pays close attention to the Autodesk® Exchanges Apps may have noticed a new addition in the last week. This new application is called Autodesk® Remote, and is available to download as a subscription only benefit, and is aimed at users who need to access their workstation and associated applications from a remote location without the traditional interface performance issues associated with it. Click here to go to the Autodesk Exchange Apps store.

Background

I’ll try and give you some background to try and help place where it’s aimed at.

Having worked for a hardware vendor before coming to Autodesk, one area we focussed on was the topic of VDI. Now VDI isn’t some transmitted disease, but stands for ‘Virtual Desktop Infrastructure’.

There are various software providers that specialise in this market, such as Citrix, Parallels and VMware to name a few. The concept for VDI is to centralise the managed desktop environments, so instead of desktop users having expensive individual PCs that all need maintaining, the users environment could be virtualised on a server and would only require an easily managed ‘thin client’ to login to their desktop from anywhere they have access.

The above scenario requires some investment and is typically aimed at the office user. One of the reasons for this is, up until the last few years, virtual desktops didn’t have any real hardware acceleration. So users weren’t able to run graphically intensive software such as most CAD applications.

Now at the other end of the scale are users that occasionally have the need to work remotely BUT may not have access to the hardware or application licences to be able to do so easily.

In this scenario, some individuals and organisations have either purchased specific software that allows controlled remote access, such as GotoMyPc from Citrix or have been utilising Remote Desktop within Windows and connecting via VPN.

The problem with relying on the MS Windows Remote Desktop component is that:-

1. You have to have an infrastructure in place that supports it.
2. It only graphically accelerates DirectX9 software.
   1. Only Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 offered any graphics acceleration (this is when Microsoft introduced a technology they called RemoteFX) but this is currently limited to DirectX9 support. Most Autodesk applications are currently either DirectX 10/11 or OpenGL.

So where does Autodesk Remote fit in?

Autodesk® Remote is aimed at individuals or organisations that need the flexibility to access their host installed software from wherever they are in the world with a minimal amount of effort or pre-configured infrastructure.

Autodesk® Remote is a stand-alone application for Microsoft Window 7 and 8 and is also available to download as an iPad App.

Having used other solutions in the past I have to say the user experience for me was incredible. Driving Autodesk Inventor from an iPad without the lag and very good graphics scaling really impressed me. Also as I didn’t have any special port blocking on my firewall the connection was really easy and effortless. To see more in depth information about requirements Click Here for the Remote Support FAQ.

Installation additional information.

One of the things that may put you off looking any further is the bold letters on the Exchange App site that state that “Autodesk Remote currently works in North-America only”.

Well this isn’t entirely true, although once up and running, the performance will depend on the region you are in, plus as it stands, the iPad application is currently only available to download from the US App Store. (…a quick google on ‘how to’ overcome the above may resolve this for most people)

Once you’ve downloaded the installer for the desktop (which can be downloaded by clicking on ‘Write a Review’ and logging in with a valid Autodesk ID) and iPad, follow all the instructions as highlighted in the FAQ.

Autodesk Inventor to Autodesk Revit - Materials

I was asked a question recently about material consistency when sharing data from Autodesk Inventor to Autodesk Revit using the BIM Exchange tools within Inventor.

As you can see from the screen shots below, the materials, colours and textures that originated in Inventor for the manufacturing design have also been used in Revit. The Inventor assembly was shrink-wrapped and then passed to Revit using the BIM exchange tools via a single .adsk file

Original assembly in Autodesk Inventor:

The same shrink-wrapped model in Autodesk Revit: