Autodesk world

As Parisian citizen, I could follow evening curses for a ridiculous price. I took advantage of this possibility to learn Autodesk 3DS Max and AutoCAD. Since I’ve tried to stay informed about the conpany’s evolution. And the difference between the Autodesk company I first discovered 8 year ago and now is extremely huge. Since this period, Autodesk acquired 2 of its main competitors in the 3D softwares edition environment :

¬ Maya – Jan. 1o, 2oo6.
¬ Softimage – Nov. 18, 2oo8.

Almost a monopolistic position by the way.
But the others domain of development of this company is the positioning of AutoCAD platform as the core technology for more specialized CAD tools:

¬ AutoCAD Civil 3D
¬ AutoCAD Electrical
¬ AutoCAD LT
¬ AutoCAD Mechanical
¬ AutoCAD MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing)
¬ AutoCAD P&ID (Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams )
¬ Inventor

In the architectural environment, the Autodesk® Revit® Architecture software integrates the essential Building Information Modeling (BIM), a process of generating and managing building data during its life cycle.

At least, but last not last, Autodesk initiates and promotes hardly the Digital Prototyping paradigm with the following tools :
¬ Autodesk Alias Studio
          – Alias Automotive
          - Alias Design
          – Alias Surface
¬ Autodesk Showcase
¬ Autodesk Navisworks
¬ Autodesk Modflow
¬ Autodesk Vault Manufacturing

Moreover I would like to introduce in this article some Autodesk sites and softwares I like.

 Autodesk Labs

The Autodesk Labs is both an experimental and innovative area for new projects. It offers new extensions for existing Autodesk or proprietary products (like Google Earth extension for AutoCAD for example). Moreover it offers the possibility to experiment real new projects or applications. The current projets are:

¬ Bauhaus, no yet revealed.
¬ Dragonfly, a floor planning tool similar to the existing Floorplanner solution.
¬ Draw, a vector drawing application. Don’t be surprised! The draw project takes advantage of Google Gears.
¬ Freewheel, for manipulating design data without installing additional software.
¬ Newport, a real-time 3D story building technology for architectural visualization and presentation
¬ Showroom, a web-based home decorating tool.

Area

The AREA web site is a communautary space where Autodesk softwares users may exchange, download resources, share experience and experiment the FBX format through plug-ins. Autodesk defines FBX as « Autodesk® FBX® technology is a platform-independent 3D interchange solution designed to facilitate the exchange of rich 3D data. » Like COLLADA, Universal 3D, X3D, 3dmlw, FBX technology aims at facilitating 3D data exchange.

Autodesk Alias Sketchbook

I can’t say a lot about the Autodesk Alias Sketchbook Pro software because I don’t have a lot of time to play with it… What I can say and share is that in an  interaction design point of view, this tool is very interesting. The reference to sketching is really a current strong prerequisite for product design, for web design and for software design. The second aspect is linked to the virtual pad as a way of accessing the software functionalities. Unusual, so a lit bit disturbing at the begining, it become quickly a real pleasant tool.

Autodesk 3DS Max

Just because I like 3DS Max. Just because I learn what I know about inverse kinetics, rendering, and so on thanks to this software. And just because I wanted to speak about the MaxScript language, the 3 APIs for Maya extension development(MEL API, Python API and C++ OpenMaya API), the AutoCAD Visual LISP scripting language.

Autodesk Mudbox

At least, I wanted introduce Mudbox because I think this software destiny will be linked to multi-touch technology. Digital sculpting and texture painting… great vision… Learn to use it at the Mudbox Learning Center. By the it’s a software I will explore soon.

I passionately recommend this company.

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