AEC Collection Extends Autodesk’s Cloud Subscription Value and Addresses Infrastructure

Autodesk announced their expansion of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Collection (AEC Collection) that includes support for design through pre-construction. The new tools will extend the product with no additional cost to those who already have a cloud-based subscription with the company. The expanded tools are included in the subscription rate of the AEC Collection. The emphasis on Civil 3D allows users to access InfraWorks and Revit for infrastructure and pre-construction. Products in the Collection include Revit, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Navisworks Manage and 3ds Max.

Some highlights of the new expansion include:

Revit Live. Revit Live allows you to visualize your Revit models by turning them into immersive visual experiences. You can even take your designs into a virtual reality environment—in just two clicks of your mouse.

Robot Structural Analysis Professional and Structural Bridge Design are analysis and computational design software that work with Revit to extend your capabilities to perform structural analysis for any structure.

Dynamo Studio can be accessed as a standalone programming environment to help solve challenges faster by automating workflows that drive the geometry and behavior of your design models.

Interoperable with Revit and Navisworks, Autodesk has added Advance Steel and Fabrication CADmep to the Collection so you can conceive, model and fabricate better MEP and structural steel systems on an integrated platform.

Other tools included in the AEC Collection include:

AutoCAD and CAD vertical applications, to access and create documentation and share it with all project team members.

AutoCAD Civil 3D is BIM software to enhance civil infrastructure design and construction documentation and includes AutoCAD.

Revit is the well-known cloud-connected BIM software for conceptual design, analysis and planning.

Recap Pro gives users reality capture and 3D scanning for verifying as-built conditions and understanding existing conditions in buildings.

Navisworks Manage is a project review software sporting advanced coordination , 5D analysis and simulation tools.

3ds Max is Autodesk’s modeling and rendering software to design visualization and virtual reality experiences.

Vehicle Tracking is design and analysis software to evaluate the movement of people and vehicles on transportation or site design projects.

AutoCAD Plant 3D offers BIM for Plant for production of P&IDs that can then be easily integrated into 3D plant design models.

InfraWorks is Autodesk’s cloud-based BIM software for conceptual design, analysis and planning.

Structural Bridge Design offers integrated tools for loading, analysis and code checking bridges. AutoCAD Map3D provides model-based GIS and mapping software to enrich map data.

If you already subscribe, simply log into your My Account page to access the new software, and start trying out the new workflows that the Collection supports.

With the different tools all in one place and integrated, users can maximize the use of their Revit, Civil 3D and InfraWorks and take advantage of more cloud-based tools.

Autodesk products going forward are only available on the cloud. Desktop products have not been upgraded for quite some time, as the company has transitioned its customers over to the cloud. The cloud does give users the ability to access their models without the overhead of large servers to store their data. It also gives Autodesk the ability to track active users and provide valuable updates.

In a recent article in Barron’s, Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost said the most exciting development was the uptake of the construction market, rapidly taking up subscriptions for the company’s “BIM 360” cloud computing software program.

While construction was a sleeper for many years in terms of its uptake of computer aided engineering and design, it is now a huge consumer of IT and BIM. Contractors recognize they need to digitize the construction project. BIM 360 is a product designed to use across the lifecycle of big projects.

“The vast majority of the cloud growth is just in BIM 360,” says Anagnost. “What’s unique about construction right now is it needs the cloud because of the distributed nature of the work,” he added.

While talk of a National Infrastructure Council has been tabled for now by the U.S. administration, investment in infrastructure is critical on a state by state, municipality and city level. Whether there is a council driving the effort or not, the evidence is in that this is a vital investment for the health and safety of the nation.

Blueprint 2025 Leadership Forum Aims to Reframe Discussion of Infrastructure

Tags: 3D, AEC, architects, architecture, AutoCAD, Autodesk, Autodesk Revit, construction, design, generative design, infrastructure, laser scanning, reality capture

Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AECCafe, architecture, AutoCAD, Autodesk, BIM, building information modeling, Civil 3D, civil information modeling, Cloud, collaboration, construction, engineering, field, GIS, point clouds, project management, reality capture, subscription programs, virtual reality, visualization

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