One of the best parts of Autodesk Media Day yesterday was the Q&A conducted with CEO Carl Bass.
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Carl Bass Q&A at AU 2011
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011Be Inspired Bentley Thought Leadership Conference starts Monday in Amsterdam
Friday, November 4th, 2011On Saturday, I fly to Amsterdam to attend the Be Inspired Bentley Thought Leadership Conference held at the Hotel Okura.
Architecture 2030 keynote focuses on building’s contribution to global warming
Thursday, October 6th, 2011As part of the recent AIA New Mexico convention, Edward Mazria, founder of the Architecture 2030 Challenge, delivered a keynote on “Architecture on the Brink.”
Mazria said in working backward from the 2030 date, which was a data set by the scientific community, coal energy production will peak and phase out, then the world will get to where it needs to be to stabilize climate.
On an even more hopeful note, nearly 3/4 of the top 30 architecture and engineering firms in the world have adopted the 2030 targets, as have 41 percent of U.S. architecture firms.
In citing what would make design move forward with carbon neutral, Mazria offered changes in glazing, use of air conditioners, good construction, more efficient lighting, appliances, passive solar systems and photovoltaics.
It was not clear in his talk how this would take place, as currently building in the U.S. is not very active. Perhaps he was directing this toward retrofits and building in other nations.
The convention featured more than a dozen seminars on topics including Google SketchUp, innovative building systems and sustainable water systems. Tom Kundig, principal and co-owner of Olson Kundig Architects of Seattle, spoke about “kinetic architecture,” which he says refers to “architecture that can respond to whatever the existing conditions are, cultural or environmental.”
AutoCAD products for Mac 2012
Monday, August 22nd, 2011Rob Maguire, senior product manager, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT and
Tal Weiss, senior product developer, AutoCAD WS filled me in on the big news of the three new Mac products from Autodesk: AutoCAD for Mac 2012, first introduction of both AutoCAD LT for Mac and AutoCAD WS for Mac.
AutoCAD for Mac added features such as usability, documentation, communication and licensing. Features that are also new to AutoCAD 2012 for Windows in March such as associative array, multifunction, command line, which were all new features have been ported over to AutoCAD 2012 for Mac. Features that AutoCAD has had for sometime such as network licensing, some patch enhancements, layer groups, reference editing, larger drawing features are now a part of AutoCAD for Mac, as well as Mac Lion support and multi-touch gestures.
AutoCAD for Mac was the first Mac product everyone was asking for, according to McGuire, with large demographics among industrial designers and architects.
For those traditional 2D users, LT is still a good choice at a lower price point.
Tal Weiss said that Autodesk has had WS on mobile Apple devices for almost a year now, and they have had probably over 1 ½ million downloads between iPhone and iPad users. “For AutoCAD we wanted to create a free app that will let our Mac users be able to view and be able to do some lightweight editing and reviewing,” said Weiss. Autodesk wanted to release the product in the Mac App store along with AutoCAD LT, which is what they ultimately did.
Availability in the Mac Apple Store has garnered a lot of attention and brings these products to a more mainstream audience.
The “first” 5D Building Information Modeling System
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011Buried in the Genesis Worldwide, Inc.’s company financials is the significant direction the company is taking: hiring a professional software developer to help them develop what may be the first 5D BIM. The BIM model of their project would include dimensions of length, width, height, time and cost.
Genesis says the new 5D BIM will enable them to shift more of the construction to an offsite facility, saving in time, labor and materials and may allow for more efficient disposal and recycling of materials. They are suggesting this as a more green alternative to traditional construction methods.
Genesis Worldwide Inc. announces
first quarter 2011 financial results Digital
Journal, July 29, 2011
first quarter 2011 financial results Digital
Journal, July 29, 2011
