July 18, 2017

MediaValet leverages Autodesk Forge

Visualvalet

When you think of valet, what comes to mind? Chances are that you think of an attendant parking your car as in valet parking. Though the word valet could apply to any servant who attends to the personal needs of someone, the only chance that most people get to experience such service is when they get their car parked. Well, when it comes to digital assets, a company called MediaValet wants to change that.

MediaValet is a digital asset management company that helps its customers aggregate, organize, and secure marketing materials such as videos and photos. For traditional 2D data like JPG and MP4 files, MediaValet could rely upon in-browser-already technologies; however, to expand their service by building a solution for viewing 3D CAD files, MediaValet used technology from Autodesk.

Though MediaValet already had a successful cloud platform in place to enable its customers to share and view digital marketing assets, it couldn't meet the growing demand from the architecture/engineering/construction and product design/manufacturing industries to support 3D CAD assets. MediaValet didn't have development resources to focus 100% on adding support for 3D data files, so they turned to Autodesk Forge.

MediaValetAPIs

MediaValet discovered that Forge offered existing solutions that new customers required, as well as valuable industry expertise.

  • The Forge Viewer provides the ability for customers to view CAD files with the same permissions structure as MediaValet's existing product without the need for additional software.
  • Using the Data Management API, MediaValet could navigate various project structures.
  • The Model Derivative API allows MediaValet to convert 3D assets into WebGL so that MediaValet customers do not need to download or install any browser plug-ins.

Because Forge was easy to use and featured developer resources and code samples, MediaValet needed just one developer to build out the first proof of concept: an intern. That made integration easier and seamless for both the internal team and customers. MediaValet estimates that Forge enabled them to reduce development time by 6 to 9 months, enabling MediaValet to direct resources to other feature development.

MediaValet found that every company has some sort of marketing material, even if it's just a business card with their logo. CAD files are pretty prolific as well. It might not be their primary business, but they still have CAD files. Usually, no one can view those CAD files unless someone has Autodesk software or a third-party viewer, so only a few people have what's needed. The integration with Forge allows MediaValet to go to organizations where everybody throughout the organization, whether they have 5 people or 50,000 people, can now view a 3D file in its full glory. For many of their customers, MediaValet was already being used to distribute all of their media assets and marketing materials throughout their entire organization. By integrating with Autodesk Forge, all of a sudden, now if those customers also want to share a CAD file of the latest product they designed or the latest building, they can now share that with everybody across their entire organization. They can get in, spin it around, blow it apart, and look at it in fine detail. MediaValet provides a single source of truth for all digital assets. Forge helps them achieve that.

MediaValet customers like the Dupont, Experia, Port of Portland, A&W, and the US Naval Institute can manage their AutoCAD drawings in the same way that they manage their photos. It's one big happy digital asset management system.

Personalized service is alive in the lab.

Posted by at 04:00 AM in Autodesk Forge | | Comments (0)

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July 17, 2017

Autodesk's New FUTURE OF MAKING book now available on Amazon.com

Autodesk_Future_of_Making_Cover_v03

If you want our new book, you can order it from Amazon.com.

Book1

The Autodesk vision is to help people imagine, design, and create a better world. Our customers design, make, and use places, things, and media (TV shows, movies, games). We characterize ourselves as:

Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you've ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you've experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. For more information visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk.

So it's no surprise that Autodesk Fellow, Tom Wuject's first Autodesk book was entitled IMAGINE DESIGN CREATE. At Autodesk, one of the challenges that we are helping our customers address is the future of making things. As such, Tom wrote a follow-up book entitled THE FUTURE OF MAKING. I was honored to help him with some of the project management and serve as a proof-reader. I also worked with CEO Emeritus, Carl Bass, on the foreword.

THE FUTURE OF MAKING tells remarkable stories of how emerging technologies are changing how we make things, who makes things, and the very nature of the what we make. The book expands on Autodesk's vision of how the building, manufacturing, and digital story-telling industries are transforming. Filled with beautiful images, infographics, and provocative ideas, it shows how leading designers, architects, manufacturers, and makers are creating better things.

There are those who contend that the internet is making printed books obsolete; however, books are tangible objects that convey substantial points of view. THE FUTURE OF MAKING shares our key themes of Autodesk's future of making things vision in a clear and vivid long-form narrative format. This is something that you'll want on your coffee table. The book has 3 levels of consumption:

  1. Look at the pictures and get the general idea
  2. Look at pictures and read the "pull quotes" in large type to understand what the pictures represent
  3. Read the actual chapters and become truly informed about the future of making

I was thrilled to get my copy in the mail yesterday. I bought one outside of work to verify that the ordering process works:

Book2

It does.

You can order a copy for yourself:

Order

Still not sold? You can learn more about the book at www.autodesk.com/future-of-making-book.

Hawking books is alive in the lab.

Posted by at 04:00 AM in Books | | Comments (0)

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July 12, 2017

Three Summer Interns in the Autodesk Applied Research & Innovation Lab at Pier 9 in San Francisco

3interns

In earlier posts, I identified two interns who are working with us this summer:

Well, Jack Reinke and Brice Dudley are not our only two interns. Our team has three other interns working in the Applied Research & Innovation Lab at our Pier 9 workshop.

Charlott3

Charlott Vallon

Charlott Vallon will start her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering this Fall at UC Berkeley, studying the application of machine learning for personalized autonomous driving systems. She is particularly interested in controls for human-robot interaction and has designed self-fitting exoskeleton components, a voice-controlled robotic companion, smart wearables, and haptic devices for stroke rehabilitation. This is Charlott’s second time interning in the Applied Innovation & Research Lab at Autodesk. In 2013, she spent the summer debugging Fusion 360 and 3D printing speakers and wind-up toys. In her spare time, she likes to run and windsurf.

Berkeley

Charlott joined us on May 22. She is working with Principal Research Engineer, Dr. Hui Li, on using machine learning to improve an industrial robot's ability to learn from synthetic data creating using Autodesk simulation software.
Fereshteh3

Fereshteh Shahmiri

Fereshteh Shahmiri is pursuing her PhD in Design Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. This summer, she'll be working with the our team as an Advanced Robotics Intern.

Georgiatech

Fereshteh joined us on May 22. Specifically, she’ll be researching, designing and developing software applications, sensory devices, interactive systems, and custom use interfaces in the field of robotic and human-computer interaction alongside Senior Research Engineer, Heather Kerrick.
Hsien-chung3

Hsien-Chung Lin

Hsien-Chung Lin attends UC Berkeley where he studies Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are robot learning from demonstration and human-robot interaction. Demonstration refers to having a robot mimic movements rather than manually programming them. As part of his studies, he implemented a real-time robot collision avoidance algorithm for human guidance programming and developed a learning algorithm to teach robot peg-hole insertion and grinding by demonstration.

Berkeley

Hsien-Chung also joined us on May 22. He'll be working with Principal Research Engineer, David Thomasson, as an Advanced Robots Intern. He will be working on assigning tasks to the robots through Virtual Reality (VR) to get the robots to perform these actions in the physical, real world. Hsien-Chung will primarily be focusing on coding the VR aspect of the project. In his spare time, he likes to travel and try different kinds of food.

Welcome, Charlott, Fereshteh, and Hsien-Chung.

Hands-on experience is alive in the lab.

Posted by at 04:00 AM in Applied Research | | Comments (0)

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July 11, 2017

Levi's Stadium Designed by HNTB in Santa Clara

Since I work in San Francisco, I have blogged about some San Francisco landmarks:

Since I am originally from New Orleans, I blogged about the Louisiana Superdome.

This prompted a comment from my friend, Dave Jones.

OK, fair is fair! How about a post about our Levi's Stadium designed by HNTB of Santa Clara with Revit 2012? I (DDP, San Luis Obispo) happened to have had the pleasure of doing all of the curtain wall 3D modeling for the stadium also using R2012. Even at $165 million, the Superdome was cheap compared to the 49ers stadium cost of $1.2 billion! And Levi's stadium was constructed on schedule and on budget. Quite a feat these days...

I decided to oblige Dave's request. Like I did for other posts, for this post, I turned to Wikipedia to gather some information. Levi's Stadium is a football stadium (home to the NFL San Francsico 49ers) located in Santa Clara, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here is the culled and rearranged result.

Levis_design_make_use
photo courtesy of Tim Barrios

Design

  • In 2006, the 49ers initially proposed constructing a new stadium at Candlestick Point in San Francisco, the site of their existing home, Candlestick Park. The project, which included plans for retail space and housing improvements, was claimed to have been of great potential benefit to the nearby historically blighted neighborhood of Hunters Point. After negotiations with the city of San Francisco fell through, the 49ers focused their attention on a site adjacent to their administrative offices and training facility in Santa Clara.
  • The stadium is located approximately 40 miles (64 km) from San Francisco and is named for Levi Strauss & Co., which purchased naming rights in 2013.
  • The stadium was designed by HNTB, an internationally renowned architectural firm, with a focus on creating a multi-purpose venue and with the fan experience and green technology as top priorities.
  • Levi's Stadium is designed as an open stadium with a natural grass field.
  • The stadium has a seating capacity of 68,500, expandable to approximately 75,000 to host major events.
  • The seating design of the stadium places approximately two-thirds of the fans in the lower bowl, which is one of the largest of its kind in the entire NFL.
  • The design features significantly improved accessibility and seating options for fans with special needs and disabilities when compared to Candlestick Park.
  • The configuration is similar to Ford Field, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions, with the majority of the luxury suites on one side of the field, which puts the fans in the upper deck closer to the action.
  • As a multi-use facility, the stadium can be configured for special touring events including concerts, motocross events, indoor/outdoor conferences, and other community events.
  • The stadium is also designed to meet the FIFA field geometry requirements for international soccer, which will allow it to host international friendly matches and major tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup.
  • The stadium features over 109,000 square feet (10,100 m2) of flexible premium meeting space in the club areas.
  • The stadium is also believed to be the first stadium that will have both a green roof and solar panels.
  • Levi's Stadium has been praised for its excellent sightlines, beautiful architecture, plentiful amenities, technological advancements, convenient public transportation access, and environmental sustenance.

Make

  • In June 2010, Santa Clara voters approved a measure authorizing the creation of the Santa Clara Stadium Authority, a tax-exempt public authority, to build and own the new football stadium and for the city government to lease land to the Santa Clara Stadium Authority.
  • In December 2011, the Santa Clara City Council voted for an agreement that calls for the city's Stadium Authority to borrow $850 million from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and U.S. Bank. This covered most of the construction costs, with the remainder to be made up via funding from the NFL, a hotel tax, and city redevelopment funds.
  • On February 2, 2012, NFL owners approved a loan to the 49ers of $200 million for use in constructing the new stadium, and to be taken from a new G-4 stadium loan fund.
  • Construction began in April 2012.
  • Civil engineering work was performed by Winzler & Kelly, which was acquired by GHD Group in 2011.
  • The 49ers are exploring collaborative opportunities with the Environmental Protection Agency to explore environmentally friendly components including:
    • Use of an outside commissioning agent to verify that energy-related systems are installed, calibrated, and performing in compliance with the project requirements
    • Use of public transit nearby including VTA, ACE, Amtrak, with connection to a proposed future BART extension
    • Construction of a green roof (27,000± sf) and photovoltaic panels (20,000± sf)
    • Use of paving materials and roofing materials with a high solar reflectance index
    • Use of recycled water for landscape irrigation, toilets, and urinals along with water-conserving fixtures
    • No use of CFC-based refrigerants in the HVAC systems. Systems will instead use refrigerants that minimize compounds that contribute to ozone depletion
    • Installation of permanent monitoring systems that provide feedback on ventilation system performance
    • Diversion, recycling, and/or salvaging 75% of non-hazardous construction waste
    • Use of controllable and programmable lighting control systems and thermal comfort control systems
  • The stadium is currently one of the largest buildings registered with the U.S. Green Building Council.
  • Levi's Stadium received a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certificate. It is the first professional football stadium in the United States to receive this certification as new construction.

Use

  • Levi's Stadium opened on July 17, 2014.
  • Commissioning services were provided by Glumac.
  • The stadium has served as the home of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League since 2014.
  • Levi's Stadium hosted Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016.
  • Levi's Stadium also serves as the site of the Pac-12 Football Championship Game for at least three years, beginning in 2014.
  • The stadium has created an in stadium app designed specifically for home football games for the 49ers to provide a better fan experience for fans and guests.

I have been to Levi's Stadium once. It had a happy ending.

Saints_beat_49ers

Growing up in New Orleans where the Saints and 49ers were division rivals, I can never be a 49ers fan; however, I have no problem admiring their stadium.

A stadium is alive in the lab.

Posted by at 04:00 AM in People | | Comments (6)

Tags: #AutodeskForge, Autodesk Forge

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July 10, 2017

Autodesk Gallery at One Market in San Francisco: Empowering rural communities Exhibit

Exhbit1024-2

The Autodesk Gallery at One Market in San Francisco celebrates design — the process of taking a great idea and turning it into a reality. ``With about 60 different exhibits regularly on display that showcase the innovative work of Autodesk customers, the gallery illustrates the role technology plays in great design and engineering. Autodesk Gallery Ambassadors conduct gallery tours as a sideline to their day jobs. The tours provide employees with opportunities to practice public speaking in front of small groups.

With regard to the Empowering rural communities exhibit:

People

Software

Approximately 1.2 billion people around the world — many in rural areas — are living without electricity. That's 17% of the global population who lack a basic, reliable source of power for things like lighting, heating, and cooking. But one company is working to bring clean energy to remote parts of the world by plugging into natural resources.

German-based Smart Hydro Power has developed micro-hydro power plants that produce electricity using power generated from the natural flow of water. The system consists of a gearless turbine designed to sit in a river or canal and features debris protectors and a patented anchoring system.

System783

The plants don't require the development of new infrastructures (such as dams) or additional power supply (such as a diesel generator) and don't interrupt the flow of water, so they're also economically and environmentally conscious (environment is not polluted with carbon dioxide emissions).

Smart Hydro Power is part of the Autodesk Entrepreneur Impact Program. This program supports clean technology innovators with design and engineering software to help accelerate their development of solutions to environmental challenges. What makes Smart Hydro Power unique is that their micro-hydro power plants use kinetic energy from water to produce electrical energy and are constructed so that they don't require any maintenance and can be operated by laymen.

Smart Hydro's design team pushed the boundaries of how traditional turbines look and function to create three new versions that are appropriate for different conditions around the world.

3kinds

Using 3D design and simulation software, Smart Hydro Power created a digital prototype of its micro-hydro power plant and viewed how the different components of the turbine interacted before proceeding to construction. This gave them the opportunity to fix any design flaws and also enabled the small team of eight to bring its product to market faster. Early tests were not without problems, as the team found rising water levels could wash away the turbine, but Smart Hydro Power used the experience and digital design tools to improve subsequent versions.

The turbine consists of a three-bladed rotor, a five-kilowatt generator, a float, and a three-part diffuser that protects the generator and increases water velocity as water passes through.

Model-2

Smart Hydro Power used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to run performance analysis — examining, for example, how water moves in and around the turbine and how it interacts with different materials — before installation.

Simulation24

Learning from the simulation minimized costly mistakes and helped ensure a smooth installation process.

Install1024

The micro-hydro power plant only weighs 360 kilograms (794 pounds) total and can be easily transported.

Tractor1024

It can even be carried by eight people.

Carry1024

The first system was installed in Peru in 2011, but today, Smart Hydro Power turbines can be found in 40 locations around the world such as other sites in South America, Indonesia, India, Italy, Nigeria, and Germany. The micro-hydro power plant developed by Karl Kolmsee and his team is particularly attractive to those regions that are located far from populated centers and extended power networks.

Map1024

Thanks to the Autodesk Gallery team for the descriptive text for this blog post.

The Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco is open to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. There is a guided tour on Wednesdays at 12:30 pm and a self-guided audio tour available anytime. Admission is free. Visit us.

Electricity is alive in the lab.

Posted by at 04:00 AM in Autodesk Gallery, My 2017 Favorites | | Comments (0)

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