Between the Poles

Autodesk DevCamps in June

Autodesk has announced that two DevCamps will be held in June.  DevCamps are for folks who want to learn how to use the APIs of Civil 3D/Map 3D, Inventor, Revit and new Autodesk web services and mobile technologies to develop custom applications or to integrate with other applications.  DevCamps offer training for both beginners and experts on the APIs. Probably the best thing about DevCamps is that the engineers who developed the APIs and the product managers responsible for them will be there so you have the opportunity to talk to them directly.

There is also a Business Development track for folks responsible for strategic direction and investments as well as Autodesk specific sales and marketing topics.

Two DevCamps are being held in June 2012.

AEC
When: June 6-7, with a DevLab on June 8
Where: Boston, Massachusetts -- near Autodesk’s AEC Division headquarters

Manufacturing
When: June 13-14, with a DevLab on June 15
Where: Portland, Oregon -- near Autodesk’s Manufacturing Division headquarters

Following each DevCamp theer will be a day long DevLab. The DevLab has no specific agenda and is designed for interactive coding and problem solving.  You should bring your laptop and expect to work on your code as you do in your own office.  There will be a team of developers available to review your code, answer your questions, and make suggestions. 

If you want to be informed of regular updates on these events, including agenda information, when registration opens, and early bird registration discounts, please send an email to Melrose Ross at email address [email protected] giving your full name and company name.

AutoCAD isometrics in the cloud

I've blogged previously about AutoCAD in the cloud, also known as AutoCAD WS, which allows you to do AutoCAD design with a browser or an iOS or Android device.  Now there is an AutoCAD Isometrics WS technology preview available free on Autodesk Labs that is an Autodesk Cloud service for creating, storing, viewing, and sharing isometric drawings. You can design and collaborate on isometrics across multiple platforms - desktop, web, and mobile devices - with full DWG compatibility.  To do this upload PCF files from AutoCAD Plant 3D, Autodesk Inventor, or 3rd party applications, and then generate isometric drawings on cloud servers. You can share and view the resulting isometrics through the AutoCAD WS web and mobile applications.  There is a video introduction to AutoCAD Isometrics WS.

BIM for Infrastructure: Infrastructure Modeler available in more languages

Earlier this year, Autodesk announced new software for conceptual design as part of its BIM for Infrastructure portfolio. Infrastructure Modeler represents the convergence of design, GIS and 3D visualization and is intended to help users create models that represent the existing natural and built environment using GIS, digital terrain models, CAD, BIM, and a variety of imagery data; sketch and evaluate multiple alternative conceptual designs for projects; and use 3D visualization technology to communicate what these design alternatives will look like to stakeholders.

Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is now available in French, German, and Simplified Chinese versions. Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese versions are expected soon.

GITA PNW: Standardizing as-built data management for municipal governments

Last year about this time I blogged about the Master Municipal Construction Documents Association (MMCDA) which maintains a set of templates for tendering and contract administration for municipal infrastructure projects that is geared toward government, consultants, contractors, and owners.  The documents are appropriate for municipal works projects, both underground and street level, and have been widely adopted in British Columbia.  The MMCD have been specifically designed for use in projects that can be characterized as municipal works (underground to street level), involving unit prices for the majority of tender items, and where the laws of British Columbia apply.

The documents include MMCD Templates for AutoCad Civil 3D for construction and record drawings that provide a common CAD standard that is is expected to enable comparability and consistency of presentation across the province.  The Civil 3D template project is focused on "internal drawing structure, external drawing presentation, and post construction GIS submissions".

Standarding Asset Data Management

At the GITA PNW conference this week Andrew Walther and Jonathan McIntyre outlined a new MMCDA project, the Asset Management Data Repository (AMDR) project, that is intended to assist local governments in meeting the requirements of PSAB 3150 (similar to GASB 34 in the US) by defining a standard data model and a process for managing as-builts from engineering design to records management.

Under PSAB 3150 municipalities are required to manage infrastructure assets under a set of standard accounting rules.  For most municipalities, existing infrastructure records are incomplete, out of date, and often not accounted for financially, according to accounting standards.  As a result of PSAB 3150, municipalities are actively engaging in developing an accurate and uptodate record of assets.

The AMDR project is designed to assist local governments in BC to adopt a standard approach for asset management including as-builts.

• Identify attributes required for financial management, condition assessment, performance monitoring, risk management and demand management, as well as replacement and renewal decision support
• Define a data model for a standardized asset management relational database, so that it can be utilized by a variety of software vendors and local governments in implementing product development and strategic information plans
• Identify best practices for the collection of infrastructure data
• Conduct a risk assessment for local government assets using BC Emergency Planning templates
• Recommend standards and processes for post construction record submissions
• Produce standardized reports, aggregated at the local, regional and provincial level, based on agencies subscribing to a standard asset management register

Autodesk Cloud announced

Autodesk has announced Autodesk Cloud, a collection of web-based capabilities, products and services.  Autodesk began providing cloud-based applications for the design industry more than a decade ago with Autodesk Buzzsaw.  Autodesk Cloud enables users to begin using the cloud to access and store their work; to view their work through web browsers or mobile devices; and to share their work with other users, I've blogged previously about AutoCAD WS which allows users to perform CAD design with a browser or with a mobile iOS or Android device.

Autodesk cloud is provided through partnerships with multiple partners, including Amazon and Citrix. Amazon Web Services for more than three years has hosted applications such as Autodesk Homestyler software and Autodesk Seek web service using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Store (EBS).

Additional cloud services provided by Autodesk include;

• Rendering ― server-based rendering to better visualize designs, increase the number of renderings they can create and reduce hardware investments.

• Simulation ― cloud-based simulation tool to test multiple design options in the cloud, and to create more sustainable designs and higher-quality products while reducing material, transportation and energy costs.

• Conceptual energy analysis ― cloud-based energy analysis to determine energy consumption and building energy costs of early design concepts from within the design application.

• Green Building Studio ― efficient cloud-based energy analysis to help designers, architects, engineers and building energy analysts perform faster, more accurate energy analysis of multiple building design iterations, optimize energy efficiency and design for carbon neutrality early in the design process.

• Buzzsaw - cloud-based document, data and design management solutions for AEC firms and owner-operators to centralize information and improve team collaboration.

Autodesk Cloud services are available now worldwide in English and will be available soon in other languages including Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

BIM for Infrastructure: Autodesk Announces New Conceptual Design Software

Autodesk has announced new software for conceptual design as part of its BIM for Infrastructure portfolio.  Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is designed for GIS, planning, and civil engineering professionals to help evaluate future infrastructure designs.  Infrastructure Modeler is intended to help users create models that represent the existing natural and built environment using GIS, digital terrain models, CAD, BIM, and a variety of imagery data; sketch and evaluate multiple alternative conceptual designs for projects; and use 3D visualization technology to communicate what these design alternatives will look like to stakeholders.

You can find videos here.

AutoCAD in the Cloud: Store drawing files anywhere

AutoCAD in the cloud, also known as AutoCAD WS, is getting a lot of interest. AutoCAD WS enables you to share AutoCAD drawings (DWGs) including viewing and editting over the web.  Users can view, edit, and share drawings with just a browser, or with standalone iOS or Android apps.

• autocadws.com - web application and online workspace
• AutoCAD WS - mobile app for the for Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch and for Android
• AutoCAD WS Plug-in – to upload and synchronize files automatically from AutoCAD

Hosting your data on your own servers

One of the questions I hear often from large organizations is, can I host the drawing files on my own servers instead of uploading them to Autodesk servers ?  

With the 2012 release, AutoCAD WS now allows you to host your data on your own servers.  AutoCAD WS streams your data from your servers into the AutoCAD WS web and mobile apps, so you don't have to manually upload or  keep copies of your drawings on Autodesk servers. This new capability is known as Anywhere Storage and was released last week.

Using this feature users can connect their AutoCAD WS accounts to a variety of external and internal storage sites. Basically it lets you map an external server into your AutoCAD WS account. All rules including permissions are determined and administered by the external service or server. The protocol used to transmit the data to AutoCAD WS is the industry standard webDAV secured protocol, supported by all major platforms and content management systems (Dropbox, Windows Server, Sharepoint, Buzzsaw, Documentum, Box.net, and others).

There are tutorials on how to set this up at the AutoCAD WS tutorials site, for example, to connect AutoCAD WS to Windows Server or SharePoint. 

AutoCAD WS for iOS Downloaded a Million Times

I blogged previously about Project Butterfly, an Autodesk Labs Technology Preview that allowed AutoCAD users to edit AutoCAD drawings over the web just using a Web browser.  Last September Autodesk announced the commercial availability of AutoCAD WS, which is is a web application that allows you to view, edit, and share drawings (.dwg) through a web browser or a mobile device.

• autocadws.com - web application and online workspace
• AutoCAD WS - mobile app for the for Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
• AutoCAD WS Plug-in – to upload and synchronize files automatically from AutoCAD

Since the mobile apps became available from the iTunes store, the AutoCAD WS mobile app has been downloaded over one million times by iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users. In addition, users have uploaded more than 1.2 million drawings.

Autodesk University 2011

If you are interested in new technological approaches for the challenges facing the utility, municipal government, and other industries, such as smart design, integrated substation design, records management, reducing truck rolls with high resolution imagery, convergence, digital cities, sustainability, open municipal geospatial data, and you would like to share ideas and experiences with other folks in the industry, then you might think about coming to Autodesk University in Las Vegas, November 29 to Dec 1.  

You can access last year's classes at the AU web site.

Standard Specifications and Drawings for Municipal Construction Projects and Data Quality

I have blogged in the past (here, here, here and here) about the poor data quality of utility records databases that has serious implications.  It can lead to  such things as unreliable reports prepared for management and for regulators, poor productivity of field staff, longer times to respond to outages, and longer times to deploy new services because the design data critical for serviceability calculations used to customer access to services such as broadband, cable, or power is either not available or unreliable.

One of the problems is the "as-built problem". The engineering design team typically use a CAD tool to design network infrastructure.  The network records group often use a traditional GIS application to maintain a record of the network infrastructure after it is constructed.  After construction is complete, construction drawings come back to the records team as paper drawings called as-builts.  Because of a perceived incompatibility between engineering design drawings and GIS requirements, records staff often redigitize construction drawings from paper into the records database.  As a result there is a backlog of as-builts waiting to be entered into the records database which can stretch anywhere from months to several years which means that the records database is always out of date.

At the URISA conference last week I heard a talk by Karen Stewart, who is based in British Columbia, in which she mentioned a set of standards for specifications and drawings for municipal construction projects that has been widely adopted in British Columbia. The Master Municipal Construction Documents Association maintains a set of templates for tendering and contract administration for municipal infrastructure projects that is geared toward government, consultants, contractors, and owners.  The documents are appropriate for municipal works projects, both underground and street level.

The documents include MMCD Templates for AutoCad Civil 3D for construction and record drawings that provide a common CAD standard that is is expected to enable comparability and consistency of presentation across the province.  The Civil 3D template project is focused on "internal drawing structure, external drawing presentation, and post construction GIS submissions".  This strikes me as having potentially far-reaching implications for municipal utilities because it is taking a standards-based approach toward resolving the as-built problem that arises from the inefficient way that engineering design data currently flows within many utilities.