Browsing: Autodesk

Although it seems that the economy has left behind it’s worst days, the fact is we are still going through an economic crisis. Many architecture offices and companies have had to let good people go. If you were one of them, you might be wondering how to advance your career in this challenging global job market.

In order to get ahead in the workplace, you need to invest in yourself by increasing your knowledge and expanding your skills. And the good news is that Autodesk can help you get back in the game.

With the Autodesk Assistance Program you can take action today to gain a competitive advantage in your field. The program offers free software license, free online training, reduced-cost classroom training and certification. You can go to Autodesk official website to learn all the details.

During the past AIA Convention we sat down with John Bacus from Google Sketchup to discuss how this tool can help architects on their workflows, with a tool that is easy to use, fast and extensible.

We also had the chance to talk with Phil Bernstein, faculty at Yale and currently the Vice President of AEC Industry and Relations for Autodesk. Given his background and current position, I immediately scheduled an interview with him as I wanted an architect on the industry to tell us more on how BIM is helping out architects in several ways.

Phil was very clear and precise on this, and the idea of this interview is to help our readers to make a decision on  adopting BIM solutions, and also to help architecture students to see how learning to use a BIM software can help them in their future job seek.

As an example on the importance of BIM, I asked early this morning on Twitter what our readers think on adopting BIM and if arch students feel like they need to learn this before graduating. Here are some answers:

• eclosson @archdaily ; ive used REVIT 4 3yrs…valuable tool 4 small firms, wrkn on athletic complex in Romania w/ team of 6-8, only possible w/BIM
• roddimo @archdaily BIM is inevitable and you better get on the wagon if u want the next job. Clients are now asking for it
• cvandevere @archdaily  BIM is a process. There are a number of tools/programs that can assist in that process and it’s implementation. #bim #revit
• ryansinger @archdaily I use it and like it. For simple projects line drawing works and you can use your hand instead of CAD
• berntstenberg @archdaily Re: BIM–not yet. Perhaps it’ll be standard someday, but I think only for big projects. We do res. remodels–still draw faste …
• archop @archdaily @ my firm economy put halt on moving to BIM, but it is inevitable. Also the community College I teach at will begin offering i
• DanielCon @archdaily I have never worked on a project where BIM made the process easier or smoother.  I’m sure everyone will have to learn it but why?
• Numaru @archdaily I’m an architecture student in Korea. Even thought my class mates don’t know BIM well, we feel pressure of BIM.
• Winter_Street @archdaily we bite the bullet – here’s our recent blog post on the investment and rewards [of BIM] http://bit.ly/13u9NA

A few years ago i started using Ecotect v4 for energy analysis on projects. I gotta say that is a very easy to use tool, with a very short learning curve that lets you conduct several analysis on the design phase of your projects, such as shading, energy consumption, airflow, acoustics, lighting, etc. Also, during the process of analysis, it shows you on a very didactic way new terms and how they affect the project.

Easy, fast and accurate. What else could you ask for?

Well, these software was acquired by Autodesk as of last year and was released as Autodesk Ecotect 2009. And now during the AIA 2009 Convention they announced Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2010, the latest version of the software that offers improved integration with Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 and Autodesk Revit MEP 2010.

And continuing with the teaching spirit of the original version of Ecotect, Autodesk has launched the Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design, a new free online resource for designers that illustrates sustainable design principles, decisions and technologies for every phase of the building project lifecycle.

More screenshoots of Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2010 after the break:
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Here’s a little game developed by AutoDesk. You get to see 10 images. Some of them are photographs of real objects or scenes, others are created by computer graphics (CG) artists.

Test your ability to tell which among the array of images are real, and which are CG. Play here.

When I switched to Mac, I had to figure out how to run Windows on it, as the CAD (CAM) software I use the most wasn´t available for that platform: Autocad. It has been years since that and Autodesk never show any indications of an upcoming Mac OSX version, so i gave up on waiting  and tried other solutions: Vectorworks, Sketchup, even Illustrator!… but I always missed Autocad.

But today a friend told me Autodesk sent him an email asking to complete a survey for their next generation of Autocad products for Mac OSX.

Some interesting questions appear on the survey, such as the importance of the command line, how do you plot (from model/layout), 3d capabilities and the relevance of an Autocad LT version.

Well, it seems Autocad for OSX will be available on the future… we just don´t know when.

You can take the survey here and help Autodesk shape this version.