Behind every great immersive technology experience is a team that spent way too much time destructively preparing their projects for augmented or virtual reality. Well, my friend, come and find out how you can save (gobs of) time by automating common data preparation tasks in 2 ways. First, we'll look at automatically preparing Revit files and Navisworks files in a local 3ds Max environment. In the second part of the class, we'll look at how to use Forge Design Automation Services to automatically prepare data from BIM 360 software.

"Forge HFDM offers breakthrough technology to put "data at the center" of a project. But what exactly does that mean for complex BIM projects? How will existing applications like Revit connect to this new ecosystem? What kinds of new apps can Autodesk and 3rd Party developers build? What new market opportunities open up as a result? Come learn how Project Quantum is using HFDM to re-imagine BIM workflows to support better project outcomes and better collaboration from Concept to Fabrication.

This class will present a toolset for enabling and enhancing Human and Robot Collaborative for the building sector. A specific case study, “Collaborative Robotic Workbench”, developed for the Kuka Innovation Award 2018, will illustrate several techniques in generative design, communication protocols, and interfaces for enabling a human and robot collaborative building process. This workbench featured an augmented reality interface for superimposing data and dispatching tasks to the robot, a background computational engine for task distribution and path planning, and an online web platform for process visualization using Forge APIs. The class will provide an overview of the various system components and explain how they facilitated a collaborative construction process - going into particular depth on the communication between a ROS server managing the robotic process and a Forge viewer web client that enables remote monitoring of the construction process in real time.

Every building is unique. Each one has its own individual shape, appearance, and materials. Despite common and repetitive features such as windows and doors, designing a building remains a 'one-of-a-kind' process. Furthermore, clients are demanding better, more sustainable and more flexible buildings, build in less time, for less money, with a minimum total cost of ownership. Taking all these requirements and challenges into account, designers and engineers have to look at how all the different components fit and function together. This means they would need to have extensive knowledge of all the buildings components and systems and it requires a lot of engineering time. With the lack of lack of a standardised process, this makes it difficult to coordinate and manage, and to learn and improve across projects. Consequently, the design and engineering process is time, resource and risk sensitive and prone to errors. To structurise the design and engineering process, capture product and system intelligence in a digital environment, and optimise engineering time, BAM adopted a modular construction strategy. The first step towards a modular construction strategy and a structurised process is making use of modular products, or elements. These interchangeable building blocks can be combined in various ways while maintaining overall form, fit and function. In cars, for example, you can replace one type of engine with another, while the car still looks and functions the same. The advantage of modular elements is that you can create countless variations to fit specific needs, whilst cutting down on engineering time (up to 75%) and providing verification that the element can indeed be manufactured. During this session, Jaco Prins (Royal BAM Group) and Desmond Laeyendecker (Cadac Group) will discuss the challenges that were encountered and processes that were defined and analysed, present the software solution based on real-life BAM projects, and provide the improvement metrics and KPIs.

Industrial robots are primarily known from the automotive industry's production lines. The goal of this class is to present robots instead as multifunctional and flexible interfaces between the digital and the physical world that can be used for anything from innovative, large-scale fabrication to immersive virtual reality (VR) simulators. This extension beyond the robots' initial scope is enabled by new software developments that facilitate a seamless workflow from design to machine through Dynamo software and KUKA|prc. Utilizing parametric design tools lets us use robots for mass customization and small lot sizes, rather than mass fabrication. The class will provide an overview on how to utilize industrial robots through Dynamo and Fusion 360 software, and present realized projects by both small to medium-size enterprises as well as international corporations. We'll also look into the future toward new developments that build upon the geometric capabilities of the Forge cloud and couple it with serverless computation and integration with IoT platforms.

In this class, we will cover how to accelerate the transition to connected BIM (Building Information Modeling) for infrastructure with improved efficiency and project approvals through an end-to end design approach using InfraWorks software as the aggregator and design data visualizer. We will walk through one of our road projects and demonstrate the data collection solution we’re using in our data flow solution. Our techniques and workflow include high-end existing modeling conditions, road design representations in InfraWorks combined with built-in road and bridge design tools, ArcGIS Data collection and presentation in InfraWorks, Ramboll Risk Management data representation in InfraWorks, BIM 360 as collaboration tool for InfraWorks, InfraWorks data flow for 3ds Max software or Forge in the future, advanced visualization—virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR)—and more. We will expose attendees to leading practices using InfraWorks for data visualization and aggregation, and they will get inspired about how to improve design efficiency and reduce risk on the projects.

As Design and Make come closer together, the ability to access and modify data throughout all phases a project or product life cycle are becoming critical for success. Access to designs, and the information they contain, is critical for downstream applications and users to do their jobs, but are difficult to access using today’s technology.. Learn how we are building the Forge Data Platform will enable you to make those connections, and enable applications and users anywhere in the design lifecycle to contribute to the design. The Forge Data Platform will help you manage, modify, share and collaborate on data from any application that exposes an API to access its data.

Instead of starting with a blank drawing or model, this class will investigate how codified design knowledge can be used to give a better starting point to MEP engineers. This class will discuss ways to augment the existing conceptual design process of MEP engineering using optioneering, generative design, and cloud computation. Using Dynamo and Hypar, engineers can improve the way they conceptually design 3D models and airflow diagrams. The process will rapidly produce different mechanical system configurations based on varying sites, solution metrics, and architectural inputs. We’ll also look at how Forge and the Revit API can be used to assist in model creation and data synchronization.

The Research Team at Autodesk, Inc., has been developing technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) since before people called it that. Project Dasher is a building performance management tool that displays historical and real-time sensor data inside a building model. The Research Team has taken the learning acquired while developing Project Dasher and used it to create technology that addresses the needs of the broader IoT market. This session will look at how IoT APIs (application programming interfaces) from Autodesk Research can be used to display information in websites integrating the viewer from the Forge Platform to inform the design process and even power generative design. This session features Forge and Dynamo Studio. AIA Approved

Integrating Fusion 360 with Forge can be a really powerful way to streamline your existing processes.

In this class, we will provide an introduction to both the Forge and Fusion 360 API's and will explain how you can get started with implementing workflows using both Fusion 360 and Forge.

This industry talk will provide attendees with an inside look at how Innovation Forge is utilizing Generative Design to break barriers in engineering problem solving. Often times, there are additional engineering criteria other than mass and mechanical loading which must be included in the overall development of a design. Aesthetic qualities, surface area, flow characteristics (both internal and external), and manufacturing methods are just some of the additional criteria that will be explored in this course. Attendees will be presented with tips and tricks to achieve the best results for the given design requirements and follow through multiple real-world examples of how Autodesk Generative Design is able to contribute to a much larger design process. To round out the session, attendees will be presented with areas of research to further aid in problem setup and generation.

Candy Mechanics are a London-based chocolatier producing custom gift products. Their 2 products are Candy Cards and Lolpops. Their popup stores and corporate events provide an exciting experience for the customer. With your head scanned in 3D and then carved in front of you with a robot, it is important that the magic is not lost with software that does not connect or work well. They have been working with Autodesk's Advanced Consulting team to use Autodesk products to create a cohesive and robust workflow. The first step was to move the process to Autodesk's desktop-based CAM tools and automate the process of creating the design, calculating the toolpaths, and outputting the NC code. This was used to great effect and meant that designs were calculated in a speedy fashion and onboarding time of kiosk operators was reduced as they no longer needed to learn how to use the CAM tools. The drawback for a start-up company was the step cost of purchasing software licenses. As the company grows they need to make a large investment for each new software license. Scalability comes at a cost. The next phase of work has been to move the process from the desktop to the cloud. The process of automation remains the same as for the desktop products: calculate toolpaths, post process, push data to machine scheduling system, feed data to the machine. Candy Mechanics is able to use Forge to calculate toolpaths and Fusion Production to interface with their machines tools. A practical demonstration of the technology and robot machining will be performed as part of the talk.

The year is 2021, and BIM is steadily becoming the norm in the industry. While Building projects have welcomed BIM, there still is a lot to explore when it comes to Infrastructure projects in India, especially in the case of higher levels of details (LOD) model requirements. In this talk, we will look at some case studies from large Indian construction projects where Autodesk tools were successfully utilized for taking BIM to a new level, with construction and fabrication workflows in mind. Additionally, aspects of modern, cloud-based project management using tools from Autodesk Construction Cloud shall be discussed and how the data within the models can be connected to other applications by leveraging the power of Autodesk Forge platform will be covered.

The learning from the recent pandemic that struck businesses hard, was to enable business to function uninterrupted remotely. For engineering or manufacturing businesses, design forms the core element, which had to be quickly ported from cubicles to homes without compromising the performance. This required that not only design and drawings, but calculations, analysis, simulation and decision making that happen across the table, have now to be moved to the cloud to enable a collaborative, device or location independent functioning. Autodesk Forge, not only solved the cloud enablement of collaborative design, but also provided a platform to automate many of the calculation, analysis, configuration and documentation of products and processes. In this industry talk, I would like to touch upon a few case studies and customer examples, where Forge has enabled an elevator manufacturer, a process integrator and an Engineering conglomerate overcome their remote working maladies over the cloud

Virtual Reality can be quite isolating if only one person can experience it all alone. Meanwhile, Social VR brings people together virtually and provides a unique opportunity for collaboration that is both immersive and interactive. Social VR collaboration is a perfect solution for the distributed project team, where team members could be physically located in different cities, states, or even countries. Using Social VR, a project team could meet while immersed in the VR model. They can review the project model while taking a virtual tour together. This session will show you how to turn your isolating VR model into a Social VR model, and create a Social VR experience where multiple participants can chat with each other, review the project virtually and take some selfie all while immersed in Virtual Reality. During the class, we will go from Revit, to 3D Max, to Unity with Photon VR for network, and create some avatar prefabs and experience the VR using Vive and Rift VR system. (Joint AU/Forge DevCon class).

The ultimate objective of BIM (Building Information Modeling) is to design, construct, and operate more-efficient infrastructures with less impact to the environment. SYSTRA R&D teams developed two web-based solutions—CARBONTracker and SAFEbyBIM—to better simulate carbon emissions and reduce safety risks on projects using Forge and ArcGIS. This presentation will immerse you in a virtual demonstration of a project design review to show the benefits that BIM can provide ecodesigners and safety managers in their daily challenges to reduce these environmental and human impacts. The presentation will be in two parts. First, there will be a description of both applications’ functionalities. Then, we’ll perform a simulation of a design review around an asset to show how these solutions can support a more efficient integration of these disciplines into design processes by being able to extract the BIM data that’s created to provide the right information to the design teams in order to make design decisions taking into account carbon and safety impacts.

Architectural plans created with Revit software present a unique set of challenges when importing data into real-time interactive experiences using Unity or other game engines, whether targeting desktop, mobile, web, or XR—augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), or mixed reality (MR). This course will discuss different methods used to export 3D models and BIM (Building Information Modeling) data out of Revit and prepare it with 3ds Max software for importation into a Unity game running on the Magic Leap. We’ll survey various tools and techniques used to optimize and prepare the models for efficient experiences on low-power AR or VR devices, while maintaining access to the BIM data right through to the final Unity game experience. You’ll also learn how you can use the Forge Design Automation API to automate this process with very little programming.

From designing retrofits in AutoCAD to automating Revit workflows using Dynamo, and now exploring the many uses of Forge, Build Change has been using Autodesk products for 17 years to revolutionize the design of resilient infrastructure, particularly in the housing sector, and successfully reach national scale in many countries. By leveraging the latest Autodesk tools, Build Change is making home retrofits safe and possible in the COVID-19 era. In this session, we will explore Build Change’s 17-year history of using Autodesk products to impact 600,000 lives across 24 countries, providing an integrated solution for improving the resiliency of homes and communities and preventing loss of life in natural disasters. This session will feature a case study of the work Build Change is doing in Colombia, one of our largest country programs, and the Autodesk technology being used to scale housing retrofits there.

Today’s plant operations and maintenance processes require a highly experienced workforce to gather information from multiple sources while collaborating seamlessly across all stakeholders. Discover how the global operating company ANDRITZ has equipped their teams with an Information Hub which centralizes multiple data sources into an up-to-date Digital Twin of their plants. The class will highlight how 3D model data, 2D schematic diagrams, Equipment information, Documents, Maintenance tasks and even real time sensor information gets interactive linked together and provided to the stakeholders as an easy to use web application. Together with best practices how to build a sophisticated solution based on Autodesk Forge we will also share practical benefits the teams now experience by taking faster and better-informed decisions. The session will conclude with the various positive business outcomes companies can achieve by providing such a hybrid environment to their stakeholders.