Autodesk Evolution

On a visit to Autodesk’s headquarters in downtown San Francisco, we quizzed the company’s AEC development team on near and long-term development plans and got some candid answers.

by Martyn Day

At a recent investor day in San Francisco Autodesk announced it was ending the ability for customers to upgrade their software without being on Subscription.

This was described by Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk senior vice-president, industry strategy & marketing, as being an expected move having “conditioned” customers to the fact that Autodesk Subscription was the most cost-effective way of owning Autodesk software, together with getting access to additional services. Undoubtedly this will come as a shock to many who, despite the financial incentives of Subscription, have decided to upgrade only when they actually wanted to.

Autodesk’s introduction of time-limited Rental offerings has in some way replaced the need to go through the old upgrade process — the latest version is always available for download and at a lower cost than updating an old release.

From the figures I have seen, perpetually owned software on Subscription (full cost of software plus yearly cost) versus yearly rental takes about three years of ownership to benefit buying a full license over renting.

This option also alters the accounting for engineering tools, capital expenditure versus operational expenditure and may

Upgrades and business model

Autodesk’s business model has been a constant transition. When AutoCAD was all the company offered, it could be two or three years before a new release came out This moved to yearly releases with Subscription being the cheapest way to stay up to date, with corresponding escalating financial costs to update for those that stayed behind. In this model the ‘sweeper’ was introduced; which forced those who preferred a longer cycle to upgrade or face buying a whole new copy if they wanted to protect their investment. In the past four years Autodesk has been steadily moving away from its reliance from this three year upgrade cycle revenue to annual Subscription. To push Subscriptions more, Autodesk produced ‘Suites’, offering even more software for a relatively small yearly fee. The final act is the complete removal of ‘Upgrade’ as an option. I suspect this decision will be met with lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth by customers who feel ‘herded’ by Autodesk’s business model but now with ‘rental’ there are other aspects to Autodesk’s offerings which help mitigate this decision. depend on how and when you want to write off your software against future tax liabilities.

Admittedly it does make long term decisions of ‘buy to own’ or ‘rent’ a bit of a complex equation and who knows what the future holds? Autodesk is keen to point out that unlike Adobe, previous and future full license acquisitions of Autodesk software are still perpetually owned — albeit nonupgradable if not on subscription.

For Autodesk there is also distinct danger in this move, in that should many customers move to rent their software, they will have much greater freedom to move elsewhere, with less of a conscious historical and ongoing investment to maintain.

The latest release is always there for rent when required and there is no big ‘joining fee’ of buying the software. It will also help keep Autodesk’s development teams focused to deliver useable new functionality and services, which from release to release can be a little hit and miss and only deliver small portions.

Autodesk will be more vocal on these changes in the coming months, and I am sure the devil will be in the detail. For now, with the news that upgrades will be no more as of 2014, every firm should be weighing up the tactical benefit of using Autodesk Rental licenses.

Autodesk is embracing the cloud: here an InfraWorks model of San Francisco’s Presidio Parkway roadway is accessed via the cloud and reviewed on an iPad

AutoCAD 360

Not to be confused with Autodesk 360, AutoCAD 360 is the cloud version of everyone’s favourite AutoCAD. Do not worry AutoCAD is still going to be available on your desktop and for a very long time will be the version that has everything in it. AutoCAD 360 is an in-process development, which will offer AutoCAD functionality through a web browser using HTML5. For now the functionality is perhaps just a tad better than AutoSketch once was but the team will eventually add in all the functionality that makes sense. So you can have AutoCAD locally on your desktop, or access it through a browser on any machine. As AutoCAD 360 is cloud based and your data can be stored in the cloud, you can even rock up at one of your clients, log in through the web and launch AutoCAD 360 with all your drawings. AutoCAD 360 replaces the short lived AutoCAD WS which was Flash based. It will be interesting to see how many other Autodesk apps become available as webalternatives. I suspect that most will follow suit.

Autodesk 360 offices in Switzerland and the whole pro- thanks to years of development. Autodesk has been the key industry pontif- cess was very resource intensive. Soon all Autodesk has also developed an API for icator on the benefits of the cloud. The com- you will need to do is to log into Autodesk Autodesk 360 so its developer partners can pany’s mantra for the last three years has 360, where every user has an account and provide additional functionality, should been that the cloud will bring ‘Infinite’ com- every subscription comes with manage- they want to use the processing power of puting to the masses. Instead of requiring ment tools, to allow CAD managers to allo- the cloud, or even sit within Autodesk’s expensive desktops, cloud-based applica- cate CAD resources and capabilities own servers, which I presume would also tions can perform hard calculations through a single portal. Account holders be bought through the 360 platform. involved in rendering, building analysis could opt to rent more software or buy This is very similar to Autodesk’s origiand simulation in the blink of an eye. more cloud credits to run renders and nal business model, which had AutoCAD

However the reality is that, as the platform with third with the exception of rendering, online analysis is not being used by many. Infinite computing is a vision that is some way off. ‘‘ With the news that upgrades will be no more as of 2014, every firm should be party developers writing additional functionality through its API. However, Autodesk 360 is so much more for both Autodesk and

Autodesk’s 360 platform is weighing up the tactical benefit of its customers. the source of all this hype. Autodesk 360 is a lot more using Autodesk Rental licenses For Autodesk it is the ultimate customer relationship than just a collaboration portal or a place to get renderings done. It is Autodesk’s own ’’ management (CRM) system and direct product fulfillment. For customers it is a operating system, its very own global net- analysis calculations using Autodesk’s one-stop shop for Autodesk products, work with which to interface with its cus- powerful computers. third-party products, cloud processing tomers and as it slowly develops will be the Autodesk 360 is a place where all the services, rental, CAD management adminbackbone of all the company’s products and drawings and models can be stored, dis- istration and document distribution. services for desktop, mobile and cloud. tributed, accessed and viewed via desktop One wonders where this would leave

In the past Autodesk software was or mobile. Most Autodesk applications dealers. The company is making all the exclusively available from dealers through will eventually be available on whatever right noises to assure dealers that the distributors. It arrived on disks then mem- system you want: tablet, desktop, through channel is still an intrinsic part of its ‘go to’ ory sticks. Access codes could take an age a browser, on a Mac. I am told Autodesk market; but I feel the role of the dealer is to arrive at your dealer from Autodesk’s already has Revit ‘running on’ an iPad set to change more dramatically over the

next three years than it has at any other software cloud-ready. Some of that infi- card community to update Revit’s pipeline stage in the last twenty, with more services nite computing would go down well in to gain the benefit of today’s fantastic and less box revenue. the Revit community, complex BIM mod- GPUs. This could significantly help inter-

Add the end of upgrades to the univer- els need grunt. action and manipulation of large models. sal access that Autodesk 360 offers and Anthony Hauck, product line manager While Autodesk is committed to both the Autodesk offering is rapidly becoming for Revit/Building Design, explained some the desktop and the cloud, the latter is the like joining a club. of the planned changes with Revit. Mr target destination for next generation plat-

In the past you subscribed to the next Hauck agreed that performance was an forms. One only has to look at Autodesk release of AutoCAD; soon it will only be issue and with each release the team was Fusion to see the cloud solution the comabout a range of services, of which CAD always looking to make some performance pany’s manufacturing division came up software is just one of many things you increase to give users more headroom. with. AEC is also on the same track but at will be able to get for your yearly fee. Unfortunately, with each increase, it the moment less visibly. Autodesk 360 is an extremely significant either does not take long for users to eat that Senior vice-president, platform solutions development and will impact every line of up by adding more detail, or users were and emerging business, Amar Hanspal told how Autodesk does business and how already pushing beyond the boundries. me about the until now unknown ‘Project designers and engineers do Skyscraper’, which is looking business with Autodesk. AEC development ‘‘ Autodesk 360 is a lot more than just a to use the cloud, or perhaps local servers, to offload some of the heavy lifting and segreSo, where is Autodesk going with its AEC development? collaboration portal or a place to get gate the Revit database from the front-end. This year’s Revit update prob- renderings done. It is Autodesk’s own This would mean that the ably saw the least exciting release of new functionality. operating system applications would be light and model data can be With the focus on Suites, Autodesk seemed to forget that within these bundles ’’ streamed to clients, sending only what is needed, based on what the user is doing. This there was always one key product by When it came to multi-core processors makes a lot of sense as what mainly kills which users defined the majority of their the team had looked at the problem, but Revit’s performance is the omnipresent day to day job. by splitting up the code to run across nature of all the data, all of the time.

With its first release in 2000, as code multiple cores, they found reassembling As Autodesk moves to offering BIM to goes, Revit is actually getting quite long in it all on the other side gave little, if any, the complete building lifecycle, that amount the tooth and is due to be re-written or benefit to the performance. of detail is only expected to increase. updated to a next generation product. The For now Revit can make use of multiple So, for those wondering if Revit was in software clearly struggles with large mod- cores when rendering but it seems unlikely maintenance mode while the next generaels, does not have a contemporary graph- that the desktop version will be multi-core tion cloud version was in development can ics engine (unlike Bentley AECOsim), and any time soon. The solution Mr Hauck said rest easy that the team is still actively fails to make use of modern architectures the team is looking at is to defer and loca- working on enhancing the desktop versuch as multi core processors — some- lise Revit updates when it refreshes the sion. What seems likely is that the product thing which Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD does. model to relieve the processor. will evolve to enable a cloud or server

I have been led to believe that Revit was Graphics was certainly something that hosted dataset, which intelligently probeing rewritten but Autodesk was, com- the company was actively looking into and vides the right geometry and information pany-wide, investing heavily in getting its admitted to working with the graphics to teams of designers.

Autodesk Pier 9

With Autodesk growing and now preferring to be based at One Market in San Francisco, the company has been expanding to take over more floors of the main building together with investing in other spaces and facilities.

Pier 9, one of the historical piers jutting out into San Francisco bay, is just a ten minute walk from One Market.

Here, Autodesk has created what can only be described as the ‘ultimate man cave’ for its employees. With cost estimates between $5 million and $7 million, Autodesk has created a modern space filled with the latest digital fabrication tools: 3D printers, bio/nano lab, laser and water cutters, CNC machines, a woodworking and metalworking shop, an electronics workshop, a commercial test kitchen, and an industrial sewing centre as well as smaller specialty project areas.

This is very much along the lines of Techshop or the emerging hackspaces — providing a place for employees to learn new skills and test out the company’s software.

Pier 9 is also the office space for Autodesk’s ‘Instructables’ website team, who edit and create thousands of ‘How to’ posts, from cooking recipes to robots and rockets.

Walking around the workshops it is clear to see that Autodesk has invested heavily in some very big machines, which cover typical CNC devices that their customers may also use, as well as the high-end five and six axis machines.

It is a giant lab for Autodesk employees and they are already using it to refine their applications and help hardware manufacturers. A case in point was the giant metal-cutting water jet, which will only run off AutoCAD DXF files but it did not like Autodesk’s DXF output!

At this facility, Autodesk also has temporary ‘artists in residence’, who get access to all this fantastic hardware to work on agreed projects and push the design and manufacturing technologies, however weird they may be, such as a drum kit linked to servers and driven by an Arduino device, or a fire-breathing ‘Zoltan’ mechanical fortune teller.

(Right) Autodesk’s manufacturing division has a cloud-based design tool in Fusion 360. Its AEC division is also on the same track with technologies like Project Skyscraper, but at the moment less visibly (Below right) It seems likely that Revit will evolve to enable a cloud or server hosted dataset, which intelligently provides the right geometry and information to teams of designers

Civil and infrastructure For the last two years Autodesk has largely ignored promotion of AutoCAD Civil3D concentrating instead on Autodesk Infrastructure Modeller, which then tuned into InfraWorks and is now called InfraWorks 360 Pro. As if the name changes are not confusing enough, Rich Humphrey, senior director for Autodesk InfraWorks 360, reassured that Civil3D is still the go to product for detailed design, documentation for Civil infrastructure projects but Autodesk admits that the product is now pretty mature.

The excitement in the company is now based around InfraWorks 360 Pro because it wants to drive BIM for Infrastructure and a new platform that pulls together disparate datasets required to meet the needs of lifecycle assets. When documentation is required, Civil3D still needs to generate the detailed drawings but over time the data model will probably merge.

Mr Humphrey explained that InfraWorks 360 is a new codebase that came from the company’s experiences in creating LandXplorer, Map, MapGuide and Civil3D. Customers were asking for a database driven unified data model for infrastructure models in one platform, as opposed to point solutions.

The innovation is not just at the backend. The front end is almost game-like, making it easy to use. Simply sketching a line will generate a rules-based 3D model of a highway. The company thinks it is a game changer.

For now Autodesk has 30-40 big companies that are using the software and the product has yet to be properly positioned. Conclusion Before now the ‘Infinite computing’ mantra seemed pretty meaningless. But having seen just how much development Autodesk is doing, fundamentally changing the way the products and the company will interface with customers and the new options that this opens up to the way customers can work, I see that it is not only meaningless but totally underestimates the change that is coming to the way we all use software and computing.

The computing industry is changing and Windows — in fact all operating systems — are being replaced with cloud platforms, which can deliver what you need, where you want it, with a powerful back end.

While all this work is going on there will be serious challenges in streaming this functionality to firms with low bandwidth connections, or many users.

This is why product mixes of the future will be whatever makes sense — desktop, mobile or HTML5.

Autodesk is clearly looking to offer a wide breadth of applications to suit all needs, so, there’s no need to worry. It is not going to take away your beloved desktop application anytime soon; in fact the number of tools and possibilities will just increase.

With the Autodesk 360 backbone and Subscription and Rental priced to please customers, Autodesk’s change in business model starts to make more sense. The value proposition changes from how much AutoCAD ‘improvement’ do I get for my yearly fee to what services and level of access to tools do I get from Autodesk for the cost?

■ autodesk.com

Coming up...

In the next edition of AEC we will look at Autodesk’s vision for ‘Big Data’, Reality capture and Building Analysis — areas where it is making major advances with products such as Recap Pro and Project Memento.

The CyArk 500 Challenge aims to digitally capture 500 global heritage structures in 3D, with the help of partners Autodesk, Faro, Leica and others.

by Martyn Day and Stephen Holmes

CyArk 500

Spurred on by the Taliban’s destruction of the 1,600 year old Bamiyan Buddahs in Afghanistan, husband and wife team Ben and Barbara Kacyra set up CyArk to record archeologically important sites.

Using cutting edge technology, CyArk’s plan is to digitally preserve 500 cultural heritage sites within the next five years.

The locations are to be 3D scanned using laser and photometric technology, allowing them to be virtually recreated to millimetre accuracy as a 3D model.

CyArk partnered with the leading brands in scanning hardware and software: Autodesk, Faro, Riegl, Topcon, Leica and Trimble, along with 3D Laser Mapping and a new company called dotproduct. Backup and data specialist IronMountain provides the huge amount of storage required to vault the laser scanned data (estimated at 10 Terabytes). The company’s servers are stored inside a mountain.

By storing data records future degradation of the sites can be accurately repaired, and through using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, potential damages from elements such as soil erosion can be pre-empted.

The sites chosen for the CyArk 500 are submitted by the public. CyArk has 28 sites online from the data collected. It also produces educational materials, virtual tourism, and digital renderings.

Using photometric 3D scanning apps and digital photographs from smartphones, the public can help record data and create 3D models.

Autodesk’s software can recognise and position key points on a 3D structure, the tool can then create a 3D model, according to vice-president and group chief technology officer Brian Matthews.

As a result, Mr Matthews has been using as many photographs of the Bamiyan Buddahs as available to piece together a digital model, bringing the inspiration for this mammoth project back from destruction. Faro Focus3D 330 Last month at the launch event for CyArk 500, sponsor Faro took the opportunity to unveil its latest 3D laser scanner, a longrange version of the Focus3D, the X 330.

Faro revolutionised the scanning market with the Focus3D scanner in 2012. It was small, low-cost and ultra portable (weighing 5kg and would fit as carry-on luggage at airports) as well as having a touch screen for ease of use. The new Focus3D X 330 has almost three times greater range than the previous model being able to scan objects up to 330 metres away, as well as operate in direct sunlight. Accuracy for the device is +/- 2mm with a total range from 0.6m to 330m.

The device has an integrated GPS receiver for positioning and the laser scanner is able to automate the correlation of individual scans in post-processing making it ideal for surveying. The quality of output has been enhanced with a reduction in noise and the Focus3D X 330 utilises a Class 1 “eye safe” laser. Like its shorterrange siblings it is the same small size, touch-screen operation, SD-card memory and an average battery life of 4.5 hours. Dotproduct There is a scanning revolution underway, with Autodesk entering the market with its Recap Pro product and hardware firms such as Faro reducing the price and increasing the capability of scanning equipment.

One of the other interesting ‘low cost’ scanners on show at the CyArk 500 launch came from start-up dotproduct, which has developed the DPI-7, a sub $5,000 handheld scanner/tablet combination that can be used to capture objects 60cm to five metres away. The system uses a similar sensor to Microsoft’s Kinect, an Android tablet and a handle. It is similar to using a video camera.

By slowly waving the scanner, the display paints images with shades of green showing how well it has been defined. The deeper the green the more 3D data it has.

In reality the hardware is actually pretty much all off the shelf components. The clever stuff is the Phi.3D software that is stitching the information together in real time. Its creators think that it will be used to generate models for interior design, 3D construction documentation for oil and gas facilities, documenting crime scenes, imaging movies sets, gaming and entertainment applications. The product is deemed pretty hot, as Intel just announced that it had invested a considerable amount into the company.

As new low-cost scanning technologies come up dotproduct will apply its Phi.3D software to those hardware solutions and plans to bring down the cost of digital 3D capture. Conclusion CyArk is a noble non-profit that applies technology to try and save the topology and geometry from endangered heritage sites. Regular laser scanning will helps to assess degradation and weathering of sites and in the worst case at least provide some 3D documentation of sites that have been lost.