Stop what you're doing and put Wednesday 3rd November 2010 in your diary - you won't regret it!

The Autodesk Digital Prototyping forum is being held at the world famous Belfry Golf Club & Hotel in the West Midlands and will be a packed day of Digital Prototyping goodness. It will be that good it might just count towards your five-a-day quota!

On the agenda for the day will be presentations by Autodesk as well as a number of customers who will be taking to the stage to tell us their story and how they use Digital Prototyping to their advantage.

There will be a number of breakout sessions in the afternoon where you can choose the ones that suit your needs and requirements most. There will be four 90 minute breakout sessions that will be repeated twice so that you can get as much information as possible. The breakout sessions will focus on:

- Autodesk Inventor Tips & Tricks
- Dynamic Simulation
- Design Analysis & Optimisation
- Plastic Flow Analysis
- Data Management
- Technical Publications & Documentation
- Industrial Design
- Visualisation

I'll be presenting the Autodesk Tips & Tricks session which will be 90 minutes of as many tips and tricks as I can physically present in the time. Make sure you bring your super fast writing utensils.

How much is it to attend:
It's free!

Who should attend:
If you are already a user of any of the Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions such as AutoCAD, AutoCAD Mechanical, AutoCAD Electrical, Inventor, Alias Design, Showcase, Algor, Moldflow etc then this event is for you. The content is aimed at end users of the solutions to come and learn more about the tools in hand but to also network and speak to peers and Autodesk.

If you don't use any of the Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions but are interested in how they might benefit you then please feel free to come along to the event.

Where is it:
The Belfry Golf Club & Hotel
Wishaw
Sutton Coldfield,
West Midlands
B76 9PR

Click here for location details.....

What time does it start & finish:
The main proceedings kick off at 09:15 and the day will aim to finish around 17:15.

Lunch & refreshments throughout the day will be provided.

How do I get more information and register:
It's quick and easy, just click on this link for more info and to register....

You can also get answers to your questions by adding your question as a comment to this post and I will get back to you with an answer.

I found out about this great new up and coming web site today, Facebook I think it's called and it's all about......

Ok, ok - not really!

Unless you have been living in a cave in the middle of nowhere land for the past couple of years you can't fail to have heard about the success of Facebook. There are literally hundreds of millions of users connecting for all different reasons - old school chums, colleagues, friends and family are adding and poking to find out what they have been doing for the past 10 years since they last spoke to them.

In short terms, like it or loathe it Facebook is a great way to connect people and share information.

With that in mind, we have created a Facebook group for anyone in the UK or Ireland that uses (or interested in using) any of the Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions and would like to connect with other users to share tips, tricks, workflows, experiences, ask questions and find out more about the tools in hand.

Anyone can join the group and the more the better!

If you're an engineer, designer, student or educator and you use Facebook why not come and join your peers in the new UK & Ireland Facebook group. If you use or are interested in any of the Digital Prototyping solutions, you should head on over:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=144941045545462

Please feel free to invite your colleagues and peers if they have an interest too!

Look forward to seeing you on Facebook.

PS: This is my 100th post on this blog!!

My collegues over at From the Ground Up blog have asked me to let you all know about an event they are holding next month in London.

The Autodesk Civil team will be at The Thames Water Barrier in London on Thursday October 28th to show how Autodesk analysis tools can help Civil Engineers plan and design urban drainage systems, storm and foul sewers. Integrating stormwater and wastewater analysis tools during planning and design will help improve overall project productivity and increase your engineering capabilities in the UK.

Aimed at those who work in civil engineering as engineers and planners, you will learn how Autodesk analysis tools can help you with run off calculations; storage and pipe sizing; detention ponds and outlet structures and lots more.

Click here for full event details and registration.....

I remember in the early 1990's seeing a version of AutoCAD running on an Apple Mac, I can't for the life of me remember where it was, I know it was during my days of "studying" but it was something that quickly dissapeared......................until today!

Today, Autodesk have officially announced what many people have been expecting, blogging and tweeting about for a few months - AutoCAD is once again available for the Apple Mac.

This announcement cements the rumours that users of Apple Mac hardware can now install and work with a native version of AutoCAD for the Mac without the need to use emulators like Parallels or Bootcamp. This new version of AutoCAD 2011 takes advantage of many of the Apple Mac user interface tools such as menu-bar to the integration of cover flow support to visually scroll through your DWG file previews, multi-touch gestures and making use of the track pad; which all go towards providing users with an experience that fits in with any of the other native Apple Mac software used.

It's worth pointing out that this is not a port of the Windows based AutoCAD to run on Mac OSX it is a complete re-write of the AutoCAD application!

AutoCAD for Mac is currently going through some final beta testing and should hopefully be available in the Autumn to trial, purchase & download from the Autodesk Student Community.

Have a watch of the AutoCAD on the Mac launch video:


For more information about AutoCAD for Mac, click on the link below:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=15421056&siteID=123112

Autodesk also announced the AutoCAD WS mobile application, a new app soon to be available through Apple’s App Store that will extend AutoCAD to Apple’s iOS. The AutoCAD WS mobile application will enable AutoCAD users to edit and share AutoCAD files on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch so they can have real-time collaboration even while on the go.

Make sure you visit back regularly as I'll have more information about AutoCAD WS in the near future.

Hot off the press, Autodesk Inventor 2011 Service Pack 1 is now available for download for all users of Autodesk Inventor. This service pack applies to users of:

- AutoCAD® Inventor® Professional Suite 2011
- AutoCAD® Inventor® Routed Systems Suite 2011
- AutoCAD® Inventor® Simulation Suite 2011
- AutoCAD® Inventor® Suite 2011
- AutoCAD® Inventor® Tooling Suite 2011

The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of service pack 1 can be downloaded from:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=15506670&linkID=9242019

Make sure you have got your original Inventor 2011 media (DVD or download) to hand as you will need it during the service pack install.

For more information about this service pack and a list of issues addressed, have a look through the on-line readme file:

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/inventor_2011_sp1_readme_enu0.htm

Following on from my earlier post Autodesk have recently announced that we are looking for great visulisations that have been created using Autodesk technology that can be featured in the Autodesk 2010 showreel.

We are particularly interested in visuals that have been created using Autodesk® 3ds Max Design®, Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Showcase®, Autodesk® Civil3D® and Autodesk® Maya® software. If you have been creating your assets in HD then even better, but it doesn't matter if it's not HD, all formats are most welcome!

The Autodesk 2010 showreel will be aired during Autodesk University 2010 in Las Vegas on the main stage and breakout sessions and is a great stage for your work to be shown.

For more details about the submission process, follow this link....

I love working in manufacturing, I love spending time with design engineers, manufacturers and production teams. I love walking through shop floors watching things being produced from raw materials to something useful and wanted. And I love the smell of swarf!! (and thats not the guy off Star Trek with the funny forehead before you ask!)

However, I also love something almost as much as I love manufacturing, and that's watching the amazing output that users of the Autodesk media and entertainment tools like 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage are creating. I watched Wall-E again last night (which was created using Autodesk Maya) with my 4 year old son and still sit in amazement at the wonders Pixar are able to come up with - both story and visually!

To give you an idea of the kinds of things users of 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage are coming up with, have a watch of this showreel that was aired at the recent Siggraph exhibition in Los Angeles:




Now, enough of that and lets get back to raw stock, cnc machines, grease, oil and bills of materials!

Manufacturers have been using Autodesk Vault for many years to help them better manage their 2D, 3D and non-CAD data. Those outside of manufacturing that are using tools like 3ds Max Design, Civil3D and AutoCAD have also benefitted from using Autodesk Vault to help them version control, find and share their data quickly and easily.

One question that we get asked a lot is when with Autodesk Vault be available for users of our Revit BIM (Building Information Modelling) solutions?

Well, wait no more!! The following video recently posted to the Autodesk YouTube Channel shows how Autodesk Vault can be used with Autodesk Revit Architecture:



Happy Vaulting!

Do ever find that someone asks you a question and you think "that's a great question, I must do some research into that", only to then find you get asked the same question by totally unrelated people within just a few days? Well that has happened to me recently when I was asked on 3 or 4 separate occasions about re-using Adobe Illustrator data in AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor!

Today, I got some time to look into it a bit deeper and produce a quick video of the process of getting Adobe Illustrator vector data into AutoCAD based applications and Autodesk Inventor:





Adobe Illustrator allows users to output files in either AutoCAD DWG or DXF formats. The thing to remember is when outputting to either of these formats and your Illustrator data contains text, make sure you select "Maximum Editability" from the output options. This will bring the Illustrator text into AutoCAD\Inventor as editable text.

If layers and colours are used in Illustrator then these will also be honoured in AutoCAD and Inventor.

What will be different though is that arcs will be converted into a group of small sections, rather than one spline, circle or arc. What you will have though is all of the correct positioning and layout to replace the imported geometry with single entities if you want to.

Hope this helps you to make best use of any Adobe Illustrator data you might create or receive.

Happy Illustrating!

In the UK we have just launched a public competition to find a Design Visualisation Star on our 3d Design Visualisation Blog. The competition is aimed at designers, recent graduates or any other talented individuals from any industry. Top prize is a high end graphics card from ATI, worth over £1000 and great runners-up prizes of ATI graphics cards for second and third places

To enter, simply post a link to your 3D visualisation or design visualisation showreel in any format (i.e. YouTube video, Flickr slideshow, blog link, etc.) as a comment reply to this blog post, along with a description under 140 characters as to why you think your entry is great. Each entry must have used at least one Autodesk product (with/without a 3rd party product.).

Make sure you spread the word amongst colleagues and friends as the number of likes is one of the judging criteria!

More information is available on this blog post. Full Terms and conditions available here

On day one of the Farnborough Airshow we hosted a number of manufacturers from various industry sectors at the Autodesk office to show them how our Digital Prototyping solutions are helping manufacturers be more productive and more competitive.

Today (Wednesday) we hosted a number of companies from within the built environment and media & entertainment industries. The day was similar to Monday's event with manufacturers but there was more of a focus on how Autodesk can help those who are developing (or re-developing) airports.

We were able to show how Autodesk solutions help all industries who are working on the development of an airport, right from the Geospatial ground work, through Civil Design & Engineering, Architectural design, Building services, Structural design, Manufacturing and then visualising the design using our Media & Entertainment tools.

The key part of all this is that we were able to show how all of the industry specific solutions can be used together to help reduce errors, reduce the amount of re-work and increase communication. For example, a fabricated glass staircase that has been designed using Autodesk Inventor with all of the drawings, bill of materials, cut lists etc is required in the main airport terminal. We showed how the manufacturer could output a 3D BIM ready version of the staircase that could be used in Revit Architecture.

We also showed how we could aggregate all of the industry specific data together to give us an overall view of the project, where it was up to, any problems with things like clashes but also introduce the element of time to see how the project would be delivered.

Many of those in attendance knew about Autodesk, they knew about AutoCAD and the tools that they were using but they didn't know they could be used in this way to enable successful collaboration between different industry teams.

The presentation that we gave is based around Millennium Airport, an airport development that the Northern Europe Technical Sales Team put together, and allows the user to select the industry sectors that are important to them to see how the Autodesk solutions will help:

http://aec-area.co.uk/MillenniumAirport

Just hover your mouse over the interactive airport to select the industry sector(s) you want to learn more about. There's plenty of content, videos and documents that show you exactly how the Autodesk solutions can help:


The afternoon was spent out on the lawn outside of the Autodesk office in Farnborough discussing with the delegates what we had presented that morning but also enjoying the fabulous air display being put on at the show:


We were treated to the A380, F16 and The Blades again but added to the program was a fly-by by a B52 and a display by an RAF Vulcan

Day two of the Farnborough Airshow continued as day one finished - very warm, lots of visitors and a great air display!

The Autodesk stand in Hall 1 was also very busy and was visited by manufacturers from the UK, France, Russia, Singapore (amongst others) all eager to see how our Digital Prototyping solutions could help them. We were able to tell them the story of one of our partners on the stand Envisage Group, who have designed a new concept of a first class seat using Autodesk Alias Design and Autodesk Inventor:

A visual of the chair was being displayed on a powerwall on the stand where visitors can visualise the new concept in a fully immersive 3D environment using Autodesk Showcase. With the aid of a pair of 3D glasses, visitors to the stand were wowed at the level of detail and realism they were able to experience.


The afternoon air display didn't fail to impress with the highlights being the F-22 Raptor and the fly past of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner accompanied by two Spitfires.

It was hot........very hot!!

You'd be forgiven for thinking that you were in the South of France or the Mediterranean rather than Farnborough today, especially if you caught the early morning weather forecast. It certainly didn't forecast the superb sunshine and clear blue skies, but too be honest I didn't mind (and I'm sure thousands of others didn't either) as it meant todays air display at the Farnborough Air show was even more spectacular!

For me the day started early, 6.30am into the Autodesk office which is situated right next door to Farnborough Airport. We were taking advantage of the airshow and had invited a number of manufacturing companies to come and see what Autodesk have to offer.

We spent 90 minutes showing how the Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions can help manufacturers increase productivity, decrease the number of physical prototypes and help to increase innovation. We also have them an insight into how other industries such as Architecture, Structural Engineering, Civil Design and Visualisation can help.

After a packed agenda we boarded a coach over for the afternoon at the air show where we enjoyed the delights of a superb air display in the sunshine. Here are some of my pictures from this afternoons display:

The Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner cross paths


The Airbus A380 takes to the skies:




The Blades aerobatic display team give the audience a spectacular show:


If you're visiting the airshow come over and see us in Hall 1 on Stand 4.

You might have noticed I've been a little quiet on here and on my @AutodeskMFG Twitter feed recently, there has been a good reason........honest!

As well as having a week of holiday\vacation\rest I have been working closely with my colleagues at Autodesk on a presentation for the Farnborough Airshow which is taking place next week.

The Autodesk UK office is situated right next door to the Farnborough Airport, we can see the full airport, runways, hangers etc from the office window. This means that every couple of years when the Farnborough Airshow takes up residency for the week you have to keep a tight hold of your coffee or tea as the jets fly over the office! It also means that we can uproot from the office to the exhibition halls on the airport to show manufacturers, design engineers and others interested in design excatly what Autodesk can do for those in aerospace.

This year, we have decided to go a little further than just concentrating on our Digital Prototyping solutions for manufacturers and we have put together a presentation that shows how the complete set of Autodesk solutions can benefit every aspect of aerospace and airport design. The presentation is split into a number of industry focussed sections so that visitors can see exactly what is important to them, they include:

• Aircraft Interior Design
• Manufacturing
• Architecture
• Civil & Structural Engineering
• Geospatial Solutions
• Design Visualisation
• Design Collaboration
• Sustainable Design

Each of the industry focussed sections aims to show exactly how tools such as Autodesk Inventor, Revit, Alias Surface and 3ds Max Design allow design engineers to engineer and collaborate during their design process.

You can find out more about the presentation if you're visiting the Farnborough Airshow next week, we'll be in Hall 1 on Stand 4. Just look for the big Autodesk stand and come say Hello.

Here's a few of the images we've created to wet your appetite....



I'll be blogging directly from our stand at the airshow next week and I'll have my camera with me so will upload some pictures of the event.

See you there.....

The FeatureMigrator tool has been developed to allow Inventor users to more easily create parts from assembly features. Through functionality provided by the tool, users are able to migrate (re-create) an existing assembly feature in the relevant sub-parts at the right location in the part space and with the same properties as the parent feature in the assembly. The FeatureMigrator can reliably migrate an assembly feature to the part level. This can save a lot of time and effort for the user when compared with the manual approach, i.e. creating the equivalent features in the affected parts.

FeatureMigrator is available for download on Autodesk Labs:




http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/ADN_plugins/

If you have 2D drawings that you would like to convert to 3D parts then the tool for you is available on Autodesk Labs!

The 2D to 3D tool has been available for Autodesk Inventor for a few releases now and provides a great way of taking existing 2D geometry and quickly and easily re-using that geometry (along with the intelligent dimensions etc) to create a 3D part.

Here's an example of the 2D to 3D tool in action in Inventor 2010:



Good news for those using Autodesk Inventor 2011 is that the 2D to 3D tool has recently been updated to work with Inventor 2011 and is now available for download of the Autodesk Labs website:

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/2d_to_3d_tool/

The 2D to 3D tool is available for Autodesk Inventor 2009, 2010, 2011 in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. There is also a version for R11 to 2008 and Inventor LT.

Did you ever use iCopy for Autodesk Inventor that was available on labs.autodesk.com? If you did (or even if you didn't) you'll be pleased to know that the iCopy tool graduated from Autodesk Labs into Autodesk Inventor 2011.

The iCopy tool allows you to take an assembly and add intelligence to it so that it can be used and re-used within an assembly to update the size, shape, number of components etc. It's a great way to help save you time and effort when wanting to use components that are similar but differ in size, shape and included components.

Here's an example of something that I have been working on this afternoon. This staircase was put together by our distributor Man & Machine here in the UK, and shows just how iCopy can help automate the design process:


There is just one stair tread assembly and one balustrade assembly, we don't need to create an assembly for every different size\shape configuration, we're going to let iCopy do that for us.

All we need to do is author the assembly as an iCopy assembly which tells Autodesk Inventor how to change\configure it during the process (I'll cover this iCopy author in more depth in a later post). Once the assemblies are authored they can then be inserted into another assembly, set the datum points & pattern direction, sit back and let Autodesk Inventor do the work for you.

It's also worth noting that the drawing for each of the newly created iCopy assemblies is automatically created and updated too!

Have a watch of iCopy in action:



Here's some other videos of iCopy in action that you might find interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INBSFhiwV1k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4qgZPv0O_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKP5WueATvg

Happy Automating!

Autodesk has been launching a new set of product suites last week. One of them is Autodesk Factory Design Suite.

Autodesk Factory Design Suite is a 2D/3D factory layout solution purpose-built to help you make better layout decisions by enabling you to create a Digital Prototype of your factory. It provides tools for integrating 2D layout data with 3D models of factory equipment, creating accurate factory models and 3D visual walkthroughs that help teams collaborate effectively and make more informed decisions before any equipment is installed and commissioned on the factory floor.
Core products in the Suite include AutoCAD Architecture, Autodesk Navisworks, Autodesk Vault, and Autodesk Inventor enhanced with the Autodesk Factory Design Utility that gives users a factory-specific parametric work environment to better design, optimize, and visualize factory layouts.

Do you want to see Autodesk Factory Suite in action?

http://www.youtube.com/user/ADSKFactory

You might remember in a previous post I introduced you to the new Autodesk Showcase & Visualisation blog that has been started and regularly updated. The blog is regularly being updated by two of Autodesks visualisation specialists based in Northern Europe.

Robin Oldroyd is our Design Solutions Consultant and has many years of experience and a huge amount of knowledge on the Alias products including Alias Design, Alias Surface, Alias Automotive and of course Autodesk Showcase.

Graham Bell has 15 years industry experience using tools like Autodesk Maya to create file, TV and game material material.

Both of these guys are at the top of their game and are sharing examples of work, tips, tricks, workflows etc via the Autodesk Showase\Visualisation blog.

They are showing how manufacturers can take some of the coolest visualisation tools to quickly and easily create stunning visuals of their Digital Prototypes that can be used to sell their products and solutions.

Here's just one example of how Hyphen Design are using Autodesk Showcase to help sell their designs to their customers:





If you want to learn more about Autodesk Showcase and visualisation tools from Autodesk, get yourself over to the Robin and Grahams blog to see how you can bring your 3D Digital Prototypes to life - http://www.autodeskshowcase.co.uk

Happy Visualising!

When is it?
Thursday 17 June 2010

Where is it?
International Automotive Research Centre at the University of Warwick

Who Should Attend?

- Existing Autodesk Moldflow Adviser and Insight users
- Engineering managers, designers and toolmakers not yet exploiting Moldflow technology to optimise the design and manufacture of plastic components

You will learn about the latest ideas on best engineering practice associated with injection moulding plastics, as well as the capabilities within the brand new Autodesk Moldflow 2011 release. It will also be a chance to find out about future developments of the world's leading software for plastic injection moulding processes. Presentations will be made by Moldflow users and the software developers including Dr Franco Costa, Autodesk Senior Solver Development Manager, and Hanno van Raalte, Autodesk Manufacturing Industry Group Product Manager.

This meeting is an excellent opportunity to network with existing Moldflow users, meet Wilde as the new value added reseller for Autodesk Moldflow, and share your own ideas, experiences and challenges with the Autodesk Technical Team.

Venue
The prestigious International Automotive Research Centre at the University of Warwick. A facilities tour of the Measurement and Visualisation Centre of Excellence is included in the meeting.

When does it start & finish?
The event starts at 9.30am and aims to finsih at 4pm

Cost
There is no charge to attend this event.

How to Register
Please contact Jane Jones from Wilde (Tel: 0161 474 7479) or email: jjones@wildefea.co.uk to reserve your place and receive your joining information. Places are limited, so we recommend you book asap to avoid disappointment.