Autodesk University kicks off this morning as most industry events have been doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic—virtually. If you have attended the global software developer’s annual conference in recent years, you likely remember the swarms of architects, engineers, contractors, designers, and developers filling what seemed like every space in the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Last year’s event saw approximately 13,000 attendees, according to Autodesk AEC public relations senior manager Brian Farber. This year, the number of virtual registrants is upwards of 100,000—thus, despite not being able to throw an in-person event with an opening keynote that can double as a light show, Autodesk has significantly increased access to its workshops, training sessions, and presentations by making AU virtual and free.
As every year, Autodesk has released several product announcements in conjunction with AU, which runs from Nov. 17-20 for the Americas. Its theme this year: "Reimagine Possible." In addition to the news below, Autodesk announced it is acquiring generative design platform Spacemaker earlier this morning.
Autodesk Construction Cloud
First, Autodesk is adding three new products to its Construction Cloud portfolio of construction management products to round out the “comprehensive construction management platform with all data in one central location to simplify collaboration, proactively anticipate project changes, and provide data-driven guidance for organizational improvement,” according to a company press release.
Autodesk Build combines the features and functionalities of BIM 360 and PlanGrid, which Autodesk acquired in late 2018, to create a field and project management solution. It also includes the PlanGrid Build mobile app with additional on-site capabilities, such as RFI creation and drawing markups.
Next, Autodesk Quantify enables estimators to conduct quantity take-offs from both 2D plans and 3D models on a unified platform.
Finally, Autodesk BIM Collaborate helps project teams “align and execute on design intent by managing the entire design collaboration and coordination workflow from a single solution,” according to the press release. Features include a project timeline and aggregated model viewing and change review.
Autodesk Tandem
To support the AEC industry’s growing utilization of digital twin technology—or the creation of a virtual model to reflect the real-time conditions of a physical construction project and its systems—Autodesk is launching Autodesk Tandem to bring project models and related metadata for each asset onto a single platform. Tandem is intended to smooth the digital handover of the building model and metadata from the design team to the owner so the latter has knowledge of the project’s design and construction history. “A single source of truth for operations will help reduce the total cost of ownership of projects, and help owners realize the value of BIM long after handover,” said Marin Pastar, Jacobs’s global technology leader for vertical information modeling, said in Autodesk’s press release. In October, Autodesk became a founding member of the Digital Twin Consortium, “whose members are committed to using digital twins throughout their operations and capturing best practices,” states the press release.
New Cloud Offerings for the AEC Design Community
Autodesk has three updates specifically serving its architecture, engineering, and construction design teams. The developer is adding Autodesk Docs, which manages documents and offers a common data environment on the cloud, to its AEC Collection to help teams maintain a “single source of truth,” said Autodesk associate vice president Vikram Dutt during a Nov. 11 press briefing. Autodesk vice president and Autodesk Construction Solutions general manager Jim Lynch added that many design users already rely on the product to exchange information across the project life cycle. By including Docs in the AEC Collection, Autodesk hope to “offer significant value to our broader customers,” Lynch said.
Next, as mentioned earlier, the software developer is launching Autodesk BIM Collaborate for non-authoring team members, such as project managers, owners, consultants, and virtual design and construction specialists, to review changes to BIM models without needing full access to Revit or the design creation tool.
For users who do require coordination and analysis tools in addition to access to the latest BIM model and insights, Autodesk is launching BIM Collaborate Pro next year.
Additionally, the developer is launching the Autodesk Docs Extension for AutoCAD plug-in to allow users to publish CAD drawings as a PDF directly from AutoCAD to Autodesk Docs or BIM 360.
Autodesk and Schneider Electric Collaboration
To help more electrical engineers migrate to BIM and stay atop of what the “future energy landscape” may look like in terms of energy sources and infrastructure, Autodesk is collaborating with global company Schneider Electric to develop a cloud-based service using Autodesk Forge to help electrical engineers adopt BIM into their workflow. Anticipated capabilities include load distribution mapping, power balancing, equipment sizing, and single-line diagramming, according to the Autodesk press release. During the press briefing, Dutt said that the collaboration is not intended to promote Schneider’s products through Autodesk Revit. “Like us,” he said, “Schneider believes in an open ecosystem.”
NVIDIA Omniverse Demonstration
Following an Oct. 6 announcement of Nvidia’s open beta of its Omniverse platform, the Santa Clara, Calif.–based tech and computer-graphics company along with Autodesk will demonstrate at AU how the platform offers designers “virtual collaboration and photorealistic simulation capabilities with Nvidia RTX technology” while working in different design tools, according to the Autodesk press release. “For example, an architect in Autodesk Revit could work seamlessly on a building layout with an interior designer in Autodesk 3ds Max or Autodesk Maya.”
Autodesk Certification Program
Finally, Autodesk is announcing the launch of its Certification Program, which will offer certificates directed not only to specific products, but also to specific work flows and industry roles. “At launch, certifications for AEC professionals will include Autodesk Certified Professional in Revit for Architecture Design; Autodesk Certified Professional in Revit for Structural Design; Autodesk Certified Professional in AutoCAD for Design and Drafting; and Autodesk Certified Professional in Civil 3D for Infrastructure Design,” according to the Autodesk press release.
