Richard Humphrey, senior director, Industry Strategy at Autodesk, spoke about the company’s newly announced 2014 software portfolio in a press conference held Tuesday, March 26th.
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Autodesk Announces New 2014 Software Portfolio
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013Newforma product line spring 2013 release
Friday, March 15th, 2013Bob Batcheler, co-founder and executive vice president of Strategy for Newforma, talked with AECCafe Voice about the new spring 2013 release of the Newforma product line. The company is well known for its Newforma Project Center, a project information management software (PIM). The product line also includes Newforma Building Information Management, Newforma Contract Management, Newforma Project Analyzer and Newforma Project Cloud. Its new enterprise project resource management software, Newforma Project Analyzer, is a product built expressly for project managers and principals in architecture and engineering firms.
Autodesk CEO Carl Bass on Autodesk Financials
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013In a webcast this week, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass addressed the company’s financials. “As we near the 2-year anniversary of the launch of our design and creation suites, we couldn’t be more pleased with their progress and growth. Revenue from Suites increased 50% over that 2-year period. Suites now represent 30% of total revenue, up from 23% just 2 years ago. We’re delivering exceptional value to our customers, who get to utilize and experience more of our broad product portfolio. What’s more, we have seen a meaningful increase in our ASPs. It’s a win-win. Growth in our Suites help drive the record revenue results in both our AEC and Manufacturing business segments.”
Bass went on to say that the investments made over the past couple of years in major account direct sales continue to pay off. In the fourth quarter, Autodesk had a record 45 transactions that exceeded $1 million in value. This is up 25% year-on-year. The total value for these large deals increased 36% year-on-year. For FY ’13, large deals increased by 18%.
Autodesk’s AEC business had record quarterly results. Strong growth in AEC Suites to the growing implementation of BIM across all disciplines of the AEC industry, including infrastructure. BIM 360 wins in Q4 were concentrated in construction, reflecting Autodesk’s leadership role in providing cloud and mobile technologies to that industry.
Beyond the desktop with IMSI/Design’s TurboSite and free TurboSite Reader for iPad
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013IMSI/Design announced TurboSite and free TurboSite Reader for iPad in November. I spoke to Bob Mayer about this release at Autodesk University.
TurboSite is a field and site survey mobile app that facilitates drawing in the field and geolocation using a GPS on an iPad. It also has an indoor sensor based positioning system which tracks your position indoors.
Royal Farros, CEO of IMSI/Design, said: “TurboSite is the first true mobile AEC app… a professional building app that can’t be done on a desktop or laptop computer.”
This product eliminates the need for laptops, full sets of building plans, table and chairs and digital cameras that were all a part of the site visit process in the past. The information gathering is also simplified by having this app on the iPad where all building plans can be electronically viewed and navigated with the touch screen.
According to the press release, GeoWalk tracks location within a structure, while GeoNudge pinpoints exact location. When documentation is required, a photo or video is taken using iPad’s built-in camera and is automatically positioned correctly in a separate layer over the electronic file. Text notes and audio annotations can also be added. Even your orientation when taking notes and photos is denoted by TurboSite’s unique GeoMarks. GeoMarks offers a collection of rich data that are geolocated, according to Mayer. This can includes audio, notes, photos, dictation, and many other data types.
President Obama recognizes the need to rebuild U.S. infrastructure
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013In President Obama’s State of the Union address, he specifically talked about rebuilding the U.S. He outlined a “Fix-it-First” program to put people to work on “urgent repairs,” such as failing infrastructure like bridges, roads and other critical infrastructure. He also said on the topic of climate change, “If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.”
TopCon offers ScanMaster CAD Link interactive link with AutoCAD
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
At AU I spoke with TopCon Positioning Systems (TPS)’ Brad Burgess, North American sales manager for scanning products, about the ScanMaster CAD Link which they were demonstrating at the show. CAD Link provides users with an interactive link between ScanMaster and AutoCAD and enables them to efficiently extract and draw objects.
The ScanMaster CAD Link makes editing point cloud data collected by the GLS-1500 scanner through the drawing operation via AutoCAD very smooth and efficient.
The main functions of CAD Link for ScanMaster are as follows:
— Synchronize views between ScanMaster and AutoCAD.
— Send coordinates, distances by picking scans data.
— Send ortho-images as background images of AutoCAD screen.
— Synchronizing UCS (User Coordinate System).
CAD Link had been released several weeks before the show. TopCon is active in various industry segments, and very busy in the heavy construction and machine control industries. The scanning product division covers a couple of vertical markets.
Where once before TopCon was known more as a traditional hardware manufacturer, now they are very involved on the office side. There has always been some software packaged with TopCon hardware.
“It’s a necessity today because once you collect the data it’s got to be processed in some manner so it can be consumed in the traditional design packages like Autodesk and MicroStation, and Carlson,” said Burgess. “You don’t have a solution unless you can move your data off your hardware platform and into your customers’ CAD platform.”
In the past 10-20 years or more, there has always been a multi-step process to move data. There were always a number of hoops to jump through to get that done. “What is different about this is a customer that’s using our scanning technology in conjunction with our ScanMaster software, doesn’t have to export a certain file format and then import that back with the CAD Link data. With the link created, as you’re working in ScanMaster software extracting features, those features are automatically and simultaneously populated in the AutoCAD environment. So there is no import/exporting, it’s just happening in real time.”
By creating this link you’ve really streamlined a couple of keystrokes and there is no glitch of having to have compatible versions, it’s a seamless workflow.
CAD Link provides a link between the two worlds of data production and design. “Even if you went to a surveying engineering company you might find surveyors in the basement and the designers are on the second or third floor,” Burgess pointed out. “Now we truly have a product that links these communities together with one piece of software.”
REVIZTO communicates design intent
Thursday, January 24th, 2013Arman Gukasyan, CEO of VIZERRA,spoke with AECCafe Voice about their new REVIZTO virtual reality product designed for the AEC market.
AECCafe Voice: How do you think virtual reality is game-changing at this point?
Arman Gukasyan: Thanks to virtual-reality technology such as Google Earth, people are able to explore settings that mirror our existing world of natural and built environments. People have become accustomed to exploring virtual environments, which is driving the demand for new applications of virtual reality technology. It is now possible not only to view a virtual world, but also to interact with the intricate details of buildings and cities – making it a game-changer for architects and urban planners.
How does REVIZTO fit into that picture?
REVIZTO allows design professionals to convert detailed 3-D building models into interactive, data-rich 3-D virtual environments that can be shared with others to visually explore and collaborate. This is a great way for project owners and other stakeholders to visualize their projects, and to provide feedback to designers and contractors before construction has begun.
What are the areas architects are most often using virtual reality for?
Architects have used 3-D modeling tools to develop highly detailed virtual building models for construction, and to study the way their buildings will impact the surrounding environment. REVIZTO takes this one step further by allowing anyone to easily visualize and collaborate in an interactive 3-D virtual environment everyone can understand – without having to learn how to use complex 3-D modeling software.
Do you see REVIZTO being used in the development of 3D cities and other larger planning efforts in the future, and how do you think it can contribute?
Yes. In fact, REVIZTO’s development was a direct result of the visualization services we provided for large-scale construction projects, such as city planning for a new train station in Barcelona, and the master plan for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. While working on these projects, we saw a clear need for an easy-to-use visualization platform that enabled anyone to communicate and collaborate. REVIZTO helps architects and planners easily communicate the design intent of their projects with non-professionals. 3-D visualization allows everyone to have a clear understanding of the project and to foresee problems before construction starts. REVIZTO is a powerful tool to build projects more efficiently and therefore more sustainably.
2013 Construction Industry Predictions from Autodesk
Thursday, January 17th, 2013Amar Hanspal, senior vice president of information modeling and platform products group (IPG) at Autodesk, outlined his predictions for the construction industry this year. Specifically, Amar believes the following trends will drive critical change in how construction firms compete for business and deliver completed projects:
1. National Infrastructure Discussions Evolve Into Global Discussions
Discussions on national infrastructure will evolve into global conversations on interconnected transportation and financial systems. For example, completion of the Panama Canal will force the U.S. East Coast to upgrade their ports to accommodate a massive increase in traffic and ship size.
2. Infrastructure Priorities: Developing vs. Developed Regions
Today, there is a marked divide between the infrastructure priorities of developed and developing countries. Developing countries are creating, funding and building brand new infrastructure systems while developed countries are trying to fix their crumbling systems in order to address the needs of tomorrow.
Pictometry/AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 integration
Monday, January 14th, 2013Pictometry International Corp., inventor of measurable, aerial oblique imagery and analytics tools, launched Pictometry Integration for Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 and 2012 products at Autodesk University the last week of November 2012. Now users’ high resolution geo-referenced aerial imagery can be accessed from directly within the AutoCAD Civil 3D workspace, enabling users to visualize and take measurements of real-world field environments, helping reduce the need for field visits. AutoCAD Civil 3D use has grown phenomenally over the past two-three years, and continues to climb, according to experts in the field. It will also certainly benefit Pictometry to gain access to Autodesk’s millions of users.
According to Pictometry’s David Petterson, product manager, solutions integration, the integration with AutoCAD Civil 3D follows last year’s integration with AutoCAD Map 3D. Both of these integrations utilize the new Pictometry Connect platform that allows users to instantly access Pictometry’s 2.1 petabyte library of olique and orthogonal imagery, as well as accurate geospatial content.
Top AEC Predictions for 2013 — AECCafe Voice
Monday, January 14th, 2013At the beginning of each year, AECCafe looks at what the current trends are and predictions for the coming year. 2012 has been an exciting year, with the acceptance of the Cloud in many facets of business, and some new areas of interest spawned from the possibilities the cloud opens up. The Cloud is still on our bucket list for 2013 because there are many uses for it that have not yet been realized. Other areas are coming forward, fueled by the urgency of the failing infrastructure and climate change that threatens existing infrastructure as well as food sources.
