Autodesk University - Day 1

First off,  I'd like to thank Digital Drafting Systems for emailing out the blast for this blog and my twitter posts.  Jaime, Sandra, Raquel, and all those at DDS are a great reseller and sponsor for our AUGI group.


Also, sorry for the delay on the Day 1 update.  Tuesday started off well.  The early morning sessions were packed.  My first session was a class on transitioning into Revit.  I also attended a few classes on initiating BIM standards and how to be a good CAD/BIM manager.  

One great perk here at AU is that we can take any of the Autodesk certification exams for free while we are here.  I've already updated my AutoCAD certification and I'll be working on Revit and 3DMax later on Wednesday.  


The opening keynote by Carl Bass appeared to be a big hit.  Of course there was talk about emerging technologies and how Autodesk is involved.  Amory Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute was the guest speaker.  He came on and spoke about approaching design as a holistic approach.  His whole system design notion is pretty amazing.  Jeff Kowalski, Autodesk CTO, came on and showed how Autodesk is using point cloud technology to digitize real world environments.  It was pretty cool seeing a 3D laser scan of the Mandalay Bay converted into a digital, and very realistic environment.  He also went into the use of augmented reality in various aspects of the design process.  One neat example showed someone being able to point his smartphone at piece of mechanical equipment and the phone automatically pulls of the information on the equipment, including the installation manual.

The exhibit hall opened up after all of the classes ended.  Although it appeared smaller than last year, there were still many various exhibitors showing their wares.  I saw three different companies "peddling" their 3D printers, and all three were pushing their models as the best.  Of course some exhibitors brought some fun to AU.  NVIDIA had a martini ice sculpture/slide with their logo on it.  Needless to say, that line was long.  For those of you who attended the Miami chapter AUGI meeting in November on Reed Construction Data's SmartBIM Library, they were in attendance and I met Tom Lutz and thanked him for the webcast.


Wednesday should be a another great day.  The class that I am teaching is right after lunch, so that could be a good thing.  The annual AUGI address where the wishlist winners are announced and the beer bash occur on Wednesday evening.


Remember that you can follow me during the day on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/arkitect75


And for those who didn't see my pictures on my Twitter post, here's the link:

http://twitpic.com/photos/arkitect75