This morning Autodesk announced a pay-as-you-go model for all the company’s desktop software including the latest Design and Creation Suites, Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Maya LT. A “hangout” was held this morning on Google this morning where Andrew Anagnost, SVP, Industry Strategy & Marketing for Autodesk and other industry specialists, discussed this new offering.
Businesses are increasingly adopting this type of model for consuming services and products as opposed to owning software. Options generally include renting, sharing or purchasing subscriptions such as this “pay-as-you-go” model. This way designers, engineers and architects no longer will have to be concerned about purchasing the next version of the software. New comers will also be able to get up and running on the software with few up-front costs, and get projects started with this software.
Options include quarterly and monthly or annual rental plans for customers who want to stay current with product updates, use of Autodesk 360 cloud services and support. This is a similar option to what Autodesk Subscription customers already enjoy. The rental plan will be available beginning September 2013 and applies to Autodesk AutoCAD Design Suite, AutoCAD Inventor LT Suite, AutoCAD Revit LT Suite, Building Design Suite, Entertainment Creation Suite, Factory Design Suite, Infrastructure Design Suite, Plant Design Suite, Product Design Suite, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya LT.
Here is a video of the Vico Office 4.2 download link so you can get up and running with the latest functionality. Vico Office 4.2 is virtual construction software, augmenting 3D models with constructability analysis and coordination, location-based quantity takeoff, 4D (time) scheduling and production control, and 5D (cost) estimating that has just been released. This software is part of Trimble’s new data integration capabilities between a variety of its planning, estimating and management software applications.
See what the new interface between Tekla and Vico looks like in this video, narrated by Marcel Broekmaat, Market Manager of Project Controls, with Trimble Buildings’ General Contractor Division:
Design, documentation, detailing, construction are the parts of the design. “That divide between designer and documentation team is as big a dvide as between the documentation team and the contractor, which BIM has not addressed so far.”
“There is by no means a unified objective in the design team.”
“When does design really end?” A difficult question to answer, and it really doesn’t. “There is this perception that architectural design is something like the napkin sketch. That’s not design. Design isn’t just poking a wall in and giving you a SketchUp model.”
In an article in the Wall Street Journal, it was announced that a software and structural system manufacturing company, Prescient, will debut its integrated and standardized AEC platform at the 2013 American Institute of Architecture (AIA) National Convention, June 20-23 in Denver.
Prescient’s platform works toward streamlining the AEC process for multi-unit buildings such as apartments, condos, senior and assisted living communities, hotels, and student and military dormitories. The software will integrate design and engineering of its framing system with project plans during the architectural design process and generates a bill of materials back to Prescient’s production facility for design-to-production manufacturing. From that information, Prescient can deliver and install the panelized structural system.
Robotic welding is used by Prescient’s manufacturing process to achieve high throughput efficiencies and very tight tolerances. This integrates engineering, architecture, manufacturing and construction into the panelized process.
In a world where blueprints are the backbone of the architectural/construction process, it sounds like heresy to consider replacing blueprints with something else – some thing digital, no less. But the ability of building information modeling (BIM) to eliminate problems before they happen with the use of analysis tools and iPads and other mobile devices, has simplified the whole AEC process. The amount of time, money, and manpower have all been reduced by the use of this technology.
When you see an article in a regional or daily newspaper about a technology topic such as BIM that you’ve known about some time, you know that topic has hit prime time:
Michelle Addington, Hines Professor of Sustainable Architectural Design at Yale University, is educated as both an architect and engineer whose teaching and research explore energy systems, advanced materials and new technologies, spoke at sg 2013 in April 2013 at the University of London on the topic, “Data and its dis-contents”.
Trimble announced SketchUp 2013, the latest version of their 3D modeling platform. The new release features an Extension Warehouse for add-on tools for professional architectural, construction and design users, as well as rebranding of the software’s free version, to SketchUp Make.
Nemetschek Vectorworks has released a new version of the Vectorworks Cloud Services mobile application, Vectorworks Nomad 2.0.
Much anticipated by customers, the 2.0 version of Vectorworks Nomad lets users view, share, measure and annotate files. New redline drawing shapes, a sheet layer sidebar palette, angle and path measurement modes, improved download and upload performance and improved annotation text objects are among the product’s enhancements.
The app is now available for both iOS and Android devices and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store (http://tinyurl.com/d6g9sdz) and the Google Play Store (http://tinyurl.com/cy3vxnh).
Dr. Biplab Sarkar, chief technology officer of Nemetschek Vectorworks, said that, “The ability to view, measure and annotate files in an offline mode provides even greater freedom, as users can make design decisions in the field without a network connection. And now, even more designers can take advantage of our mobile app, as it supports Google’s Android platform.”
The Smartgeometry 2013 (sg2013) Conference, hosted by Bentley Systems, held in London at the Bartlett UCL Faculty for the Built Environment, assembled some of the most forward thinkers in the area of architecture today.
On Friday the venue is called “Talkshop” where a number of panelists present on various topics. Some of the highlights from those sessions are as follows:
