Terrestrial laser scanning enables accurate capture of complex spaces, such as the interior of factories, hospitals, process plants, and civil infrastructure. Reconstruction of 3D shape and appearance from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based photographs enables operators to rapidly capture exterior structures and their surroundings. Merging these technologies helps users quickly and accurately capture their entire facility—including impractical areas such as rooftops—and provide outdoor context to indoor scans for complete site mapping. We will present workflows for combining terrestrial scan data and UAV photo models into a unified point cloud for visualization, interrogation, design, modeling, and analysis. We will highlight how operators can capitalize on the accuracy and reliability of laser scanning through UAVs’ capability to quickly capture expansive environments in great detail, and provide reality-captured context to improve downstream workflows in AutoCAD software, Revit software, and InfraWorks software. This session features ReCap 360. AIA Approved

Through the development of Dasher 360, Autodesk Research has been pushing the limits of what’s possible in the Forge viewer. In this class we’ll take a look at the latest developments in this tool - which integrates historical sensor (or IoT) data into a 3D context - and see how they might be applied to other Forge viewer use-cases. The topics we'll cover in this session include: * Hosting both the Esri 3D viewer and the Forge viewer in the same site. * Displaying skeleton data created by OpenPose inside the Forge viewer. * Loading and animating rigged robot models via Collada. * Using the MeshLine library to display animated streamlines. Whether you're interested in the direction we're taking with Dasher 360 or curious about how to implement advanced visualization capabilities in your own Forge viewer app, this quick-fire look at our recent research will have something for everyone.

Back by popular demand—again!! One of Autodesk University’s highest-rated classes, this is intended for emerging 3ds Max software and Maya software users. This session will explore the world of image-based lighting for rendering images using high dynamic range (HDR) maps and NVIDIA mental ray / NVIDIA iray software. We'll begin with the process of capturing the existing real-world environment lighting. From there we'll see the steps involved in creating HDR panoramic image maps that are used within 3ds Max software and Maya software for photorealistic scene lighting. Finally, we'll employ camera techniques that will create very real images that combine computer graphics and real photographs for completely believable and seamless final imagery. What’s new this year? This year we will focus on graphics processing unit (GPU)-based rendering, specifically NVIDIA iray and others.

Fusion 360 software could be your most powerful tool as a designer, maker, or engineer. Fusion 360 is an all-encompassing piece of software that helps users with processes from start to end, design to manufacture, utilizing CAD, CAM, Simulation, and Rendering to envisage a design. This class will focus on the middle of that process—Simulation. Simulation lets designers test (simulate) their designs before reaching the manufacturing process. This enables iterative changes without the time and money (and potential waste) that can go into making a product only to find it doesn't meet the standards needed. The Simulation workspace in Fusion 360 can feel a little intimidating at first glance—with so many options to choose from. We will cover all the different Simulation types, cover the basic steps, showing you which study type of simulation can be used depending on what your aims are. You will leave this class feeling more confident and ready to improve your whole design process!

This presentation demonstrates real-time, round-trip editing of a simplified 2D rendering of an Revit intelligent model on any mobile device with no need to install any additional software whatsoever beyond a web browser. How can this be achieved? A Revit software add-in exports polygon renderings of room boundaries and other elements such as furniture and equipment to a cloud-based repository that is implemented using an Apache CouchDB® NoSQL database. On the mobile device, the repository is queried and the data rendered in a standard browser using server-side generated JavaScript and SVG. The rendering supports graphical editing, specifically translation and rotation of the furniture and equipment. Modified transformations are saved back to the cloud database. The Revit add-in picks up these changes and updates the Revit intelligent model in real-time. All of the components used are completely open source, except for Revit itself. This is an advanced class for experienced programmers.

In this intermediary class I will build upon the theory presented in my class, Shading And Texturing Workflow, with a practical example that involves shading and texturing a high-resolution photoreal robot. The techniques presented can be used to texture any high-resolution hard-surface object, whether for visual effects, animated films, video game cinematics, or even architectural work. We will focus on how to efficiently shade thousands of individual objects without having to spend a lot of time UV shading everything. Blended box maps, projection paint, curvature maps, occlusion maps, and the building of a library of materials are just some of the topic that we will cover. I will use 3ds Max software, Chaos Group's V-Ray rendering engine, and Adobe Photoshop for this example, but you can apply the principals discussed to the 3D app, paint application, and renderer of your choice.

Creating 3D visualizations using AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, Civil View, and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design software is not just for roadways. You can take full advantage of Civil View to transfer Civil 3D content straight into 3ds Max Design and create a compelling 3D visualization that tells the story of the commercial project. Together we will go through the workflow for bringing together not only Civil 3D data but also Autodesk® Revit® software data to create rendered still shots and video flyovers of the proposed project. This class will definitely open your eyes to new possibilities for company presentations. Don't miss it!

Revit software and Green Building Studio web-based energy analysis service provide us with in-depth and overwhelming data in relation to building performance. Currently, however, organizing the data and decision-making is mostly a user responsibility. For example, although Revit software's full analysis provides us with lighting and thermal analysis, the results are not synchronized. To be more exact, the lighting part of the full analysis uses lighting power density (LPD), which is only related to the area and disregards other features such as window properties (even window size) or orientation, and so on. Using the Dynamo visual programming language extension and cloud-rendering services (illuminance calculation is currently a render operation) provided by Autodesk, Inc., it is possible to gather and organize illuminance values for the internal space. From there it is easy to calculate the internal lighting load, and accordingly it is possible to achieve a fully concerted thermal and lighting analysis, which is crucial in decision-making (especially in the design phase).

3D visualization has become a very important part of the practice in today's design industry; it is no longer limited to just the film and game studios who have long-established pipelines that deal with rendering and compositing. These critical techniques are little known by other design industries, or they are typically practiced to a very limited degree, utilizing available software such as Adobe Photoshop. There exists a common misconception that the Hollywood-like compositing workflow is too expensive or beyond reach. Design companies that have 3ds Max software or Maya software can get help from the Composite program from Autodesk, Inc. From 3ds Max software, you will learn how to render by element, separating important layers that can be used in a compositing workflow. From Composite software, you will learn how to assemble your rendered layers and make post-production changes that impact the look and feel of your final rendered image or animation.

This class gives you a challenging and fast-paced look at recent advances in mental ray® Standalone 3D rendering software and the NVIDIA® iray® renderer with 2014 Autodesk® software releases. In this class we cover (1) the use of mental ray image-based lighting (IBL) in 3ds Max® 2014 software for product rendering, (2) the use of the Skylight IBL mode for final gathering, (3) the use of String Options in the new UI and through MAXScript to access hidden features of mental ray such as progressive rendering, importons, and irradiance particles, and IBL in 3ds Max 2013, (4) the use of the new Unified Sampling option, and how it compares to previous options (5) the new Architectural and Caustics modes in iray 3.1, and (6) optimal hardware options for using iray.

Being able to connect your 3D design data inside Inventor software to other downstream workflows is a critical part of collaborating inside and outside your organization. This course will focus on connecting Inventor to Fusion 360 software with the new Send to Fusion 360 tool inside Inventor 2022. Some example workflows we will demonstrate will include sharing your Inventor data with an outside stakeholder for CAM toolpath creation inside of Fusion 360; maximizing generative design on a part created inside Inventor; running simulation tools inside Fusion 360 on Inventor components; and creating high-quality visualizations inside Fusion 360 of your Inventor parts and assemblies.

Producing 3D content for entertainment games, serious games, or real-time visualizations for single or multiplatform targets such as PC, mobile, web, or XR technologies can be a daunting task. You have to balance high-quality content with various technical limitations. Often this question arises: How exactly can I produce compelling content without making difficult sacrifices that interfere with my artistic intention or significantly degrade the quality of what I’m trying to show? Using 3ds Max software, we will walk through an end-to-end content production process where you’ll learn various tips, tricks, and optimizations that you can easily adopt and perform in your own content production pipelines.

Movies do it, the most popular television series are basing most of their effects on it, and commercials love the opportunities, but what about architecture? Can it help the client to better understand their site, their design, and the direction and the impact of their company onto the community? This class will demonstrate the advantages of using the techniques of integrating computer graphics into live plates, the process, and the possible pitfalls—especially when using it with aerial footage.

Time, cost, quality - keeping these elements in balance is a key challenge of any architectural design process. Real-time rendering is emerging as the essential tool to achieve the optimum balance, enabling teams of any scale as well as individuals to do more with less while delivering better designs. This session will detail how real-time rendering can be deployed at every design stage, from competing projects to construction and occupancy. The presentation will begin with a conceptual introduction to the benefits of real-time rendering at every architectural stage and conclude with a live demonstration showing the benefits of real-time rendering in action. Hosted by Enscape.

In this class, we’ll show how to solve a critical situation that might cause a waste of money and time in the maintenance operation of underground utilities of 630 railway stations. Lack of data causes major issues. To retrieve the correct information about the underground, we’ve established, for each station, an innovative workflow that starts from an AutoCAD file containing an old design of the utilities, mainly water system and sewerage. The first step of this workflow is the topographic and geophysics surveys, followed by a post-processing data and 3D rendering of the underground. Inside Civil 3D software, the 3D model of the underground utilities can be used to optimize the design of the sewerage and water system, and link them to information and documentation useful for maintenance operation.

This class provides a novel way of analyzing earthworks' logistics in linear projects such as railways and highways. As the availability of 3D models increases in the tender phase of Danish state-owned infrastructure projects, new possibilities emerge for the analyzing, estimating, and planning of construction projects. Freely available geographic information system (GIS) data, aerial imagery, and digital terrain models provide a basis for detailed analysis of project earthworks. A workflow using AutoCAD Civil 3D software, InfraWorks software, and Rhino-Grasshopper software is described, and examples of the results are shown using visualizations created in InfraWorks software.

This class dives into our cross-divisional project at Autodesk for the making of a SmartBridge inside our Pier9 facility.We'll walk through our case study where we used structural analysis, Eagle, Revit and Forge to design and plan the layout of sensors onto an interior pedestrian footbridge. Using sensors for strain, acceleration, temperature, pressure, humidity, sound and cameras, we created the "nervous system". We then integrated all this live sensor data into Autodesk's cloud environment, and used Forge to bring all the data into one context on top of the BIM.Using data at the centre, we'll show you how we learned from the data to create various machine learning analytics for interacting with people on the bridge. In our class, we'll go over how we applied big data analysis techniques, machine learning, computer vision and visualization in the cloud to make our bridge "smart".(Joint AU/Forge DevCon class).

This class will examine designing environments for visually capable Machine Learning Agents to train in. Looking at both modular, procedurally generated environments and non-generative spaces, the class will cover constructing environments to promote generalization and learning. Additionally, the class will give an overview of the design constraints imposed when training AI, including vision sizing, computing power, and graphic fidelity. The class will dissect the Unity Obstacle Tower Challenge environments, including their construction in Autodesk Maya, the modular structure, and procedural generation. The class will also survey the possible issues in adapting an existing digital environment to use with AI.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools have found a niche in real estate sales and marketing, and they are having some impact on design decision making, but the real impact on construction lies just over the horizon when gaming technology, wearable computing, and machine learning will deliver a rapid proliferation of multiplayer collaboration environments for process planning to optimize design, sequencing, coordination, and safety planning. This class will take an industry look at where we are today, and what the near-future and long-term-future states of VR and AR are likely to be. This session features Autodesk Stingray and Maya. AIA Approved

This class will demonstrate how Skanska is capitalizing on virtual reality (VR) to foster collaboration and communication between design, preconstruction, and operations in one of the world’s largest construction companies. The class will provide specific examples, including international coordination between Skanska USA and Skanska Sweden, external collaboration between the architect and the construction manager, and internal collaboration within preconstruction service groups, such as scheduling and estimating. We will also discuss benefits and best practices. These include the benefits of a templatized, data-centered approach that enables the user to create immersive experiences for any platform.