Autodesk
Autodesk Project Bluestreak video of the features
Oct 29th
Autodesk Project Bluestreak Check a video of the features just released in October.
Autodesk Revit Activity Stream
Oct 27th
Autodesk Revit Activity Stream
The Revit Activity Stream app connects Revit to Bluestreak cloud services to help distributed teams more effectively collaborate as they work on one model. This Bluestreak app combines automated notifications of Revit worksharing events with informal team comments so team members can communicate when models are saved to central to ensure efficient hand-offs. The Revit Activity Stream app is compatible with the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Revit Architecture 2011, Revit Structure 2011, and Revit MEP 2011 software, as well as the Revit Server environment. Note: In order to use Autodesk Revit Activity Stream, you must also install Bluestreak Desktop.
Author: Autodesk, Inc
Autodesk Bluestreak Desktop
Oct 27th
Autodesk Bluestreak Desktop
Bluestreak Desktop is a compact window that works alongside any Autodesk or other desktop application you so can stay connected to your distributed AEC project team with real-time communication and automated application notifications. Bluestreak Desktop captures informal team communication in a design stream so team members in any location can quickly resolve open issues and make informed decisions. Bluestreak consolidates automated notifications from design applications, starting with Revit Worksharing. Bluestreak Desktop securely connects to the Bluestreak cloud so you can communicate with team members in any location or across companies.
Author: Autodesk, Inc
AUGI CAD Camp
Oct 1st
AUGI CAD Camp
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Autodesk Software Updates
Oct 1st
Civil 3d 2011 Update 1
Navisworks Service Pack 1
AutoCAD Architecture 2011 Update 1
AutoCAD MEP 2011 Update 1
AutoCAD WS Mobile Application
Oct 1st
AutoCAD WS Mobile Application
V-Ray Render Setup
Sep 24th
Good morning! I have been bombarded with request to explain my render setup for my strip mall render.
The render was accomplished using V-Ray 1.50.SP5 for Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design. Post production was done using Adobe® Photoshop® CS5.
In V-Ray you have hundreds of little toggles and spinners that control your render. V-Ray uses a very advanced algorithm and I would suggest, to help maintain your sanity, to learn what all the settings do.
Below you’ll find some screen grabs of my workflow:
3ds max preference - gamma settings
V-Ray Color Mapping
Leave “clamp output” unchecked so you can access all that 32-bit floating point pixel information in Photoshop.
sRGB color space
V-Ray raw image file
More to come!
2011 Autodesk Certification for Industry Professionals
Aug 7th
Autodesk Certification for Industry Professionals
The following Exam Guides include detailed exam preparation information, exam sections and objectives, sample items, and test taking strategies for both the Associate and the Professional exams. Certification is currently available for these products:
2011 Certification Options
AutoCAD 2011 (pdf – 124Kb)- AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 (pdf – 136Kb)
- Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 (pdf – 132Kb)
- Autodesk Inventor 2011 (pdf – 136Kb)
- Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 (pdf – 144Kb)
Digital-Tutors Reveals its Largest Training Release for Autodesk Digital Entertainment Creation Software
Aug 4th
Oklahoma City, OK – August 4, 2010 – Digital-Tutors online training library reaches epic proportions with its largest release of educational courses for Autodesk Digital Entertainment Creation Software including an unprecedented 660 videos and 83 interactive hours of production-based content to educate users on Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Composite, Autodesk MatchMover, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Mudbox and Autodesk Softimage software.
“Digital-Tutors is an exceptional training partner for Autodesk,” said Maurice Patel, senior industry manager for Entertainment at Autodesk. “The company’s expansive video collection is produced by passionate, highly qualified instructors who are dedicated to providing unique learning experiences that make robust applications – like Autodesk’s software for Digital Entertainment Creation – easier to learn and use.”
With this ground-breaking release of step-by-step tutorials, the Autodesk Authorized Publisher and award-winning training provider presents students, professionals, instructors and hobbyists of all skill levels with a high-quality learning experience accompanied by essential workflows, tips and techniques to utilizing Autodesk’s media and entertainment software for creating stunning results and unique digital entertainment.
Pricing and Availability
Digital-Tutors training is available with the purchase of any subscription plan. To sign-up and get access, visit: www.digitaltutors.com/09/pricing.php.
View the complete list of all new training at: www.digitaltutors.com/09/training.php
Autodesk 3ds Max Courses
- Creating Walk Cycles in 3ds Max
- Introduction to Rendering in 3ds Max
- Introduction to Camera Animation in 3ds Max
Autodesk Composite Courses
- Depth-Based Compositing in Composite 2011
- “Infiltrator” Production Pipeline Volume 7: Compositing
Autodesk MatchMover Courses
- “Infiltrator” Production Pipeline Volume 4: Match Moving
Autodesk Maya Courses
- Match Moving and Compositing Pipeline in Maya 2011 and After Effects
- Match Moving and Compositing Pipeline in Maya 2011 and Composite 2011
- Modeling Realistic Hands in Maya 2011 and Mudbox 2011
- Match Moving and Compositing Pipeline in Maya 2011 and Nuke 6
- Creating Low Resolution Environments in Maya 2011 and Photoshop
- “Infiltrator” Production Pipeline Volume 2: Modeling
- “Infiltrator” Production Pipeline Volume 3: Rigging
- “Infiltrator” Production Pipeline Volume 5: Animation
- “Infiltrator” Production Pipeline Volume 6: Rendering
- Creating Walk Cycles in Maya 2011
- Introduction to Rendering in Maya 2011
- Creating Hair for Next-Gen Game Characters in Maya
- Introduction to Camera Animation in Maya 2011
- Curve-based Facial Rigging in Maya 2011
Autodesk Mudbox Courses
- Introduction to Mudbox 2011
- Creating Facial Expressions in Mudbox 2011 and Maya 2011
Autodesk Softimage Courses
- Introduction to Character Rigging in Softimage
- Introduction to Rendering in Softimage
About Digital-Tutors
Digital-Tutors is an innovator and leader in video-based training for emerging digital artists. The award-winning educational solutions developed by the team of educators and industry professionals at Digital-Tutors are currently being used by students, professionals, universities, and production companies from across the globe. Artists from the world’s top studios are utilizing Digital-Tutors’ training solutions and services to assist in the creation of next generation feature films, commercials, video games, visual effects, and emerging media. Digital-Tutors maintains strategic relationships and partnerships with Autodesk, Pixologic, Houdini, Luxology, Next Limit, Adobe, Pixar, eyeon, MAXON and Microsoft in the development of the software and education materials. Learn more at www.digitaltutors.com
For press inquiries, web demos, and media relations please contact Courtney Shaw at courtney@plstudios.com.
Autodesk, MatchMover, Maya, Mudbox and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.
©2010 Digital-Tutors and the Digital-Tutors logo are registered trademarks of PL Studios, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Project Helix, Point Cloud Tools for Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2010
Jul 14th
I am pleased to announce the first Autodesk Labs project for 3ds Max, a technology preview enabling display and rendering of 3D laser scanning/LiDAR data sets with Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2010 & 2011 and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2010 & 2011. With the 3ds Max Point Cloud Tools you can import reference data that has been captured from various 3D scanning devices and use as a snapping reference for modeling workflows, or simply apply a material and render the point cloud using the mental ray renderer. We anticipate seeing a wide variety of use cases for this technology preview and have already seen users load up to 1 billion points within the viewport.
The Point Cloud Tools for 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design allows you to:
- Import .PTS format point cloud data into 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design scenes (release 2010 & 2011)
- Display the point cloud data in the 3ds Max viewport with a variety of rendering options and levels of detail
- Render point clouds using the mental ray rendering option
- Slice point clouds into pieces using geometric display volumes
- Export multiple clouds or parts of clouds to a new .PTS files
- Snap to specific points within the data
- Render with shadows for quick shadow studies
- Apply materials or projection map images onto the point cloud data
- Display captured per point color in viewport
- Independent LOD control for viewport and render settings
Working with 3D point cloud data is very memory intensive, we recommend at a minimum Win 7, 64bit, 8GB RAM, and a 64bit version of 3ds Max. Stability problems will increase on lower spec systems and the amount of data you can work with is dependent upon the amount of RAM in the system. Although there are a number of very functional features in the technology preview, it has not been widely tested on a range of hardware and configurations.
Lake Cabin Illustration
Jun 3rd
Here is a lake cabin illustration that I just completed. The model was created in 3DS MAX Design 2011 and rendered using the V-Ray render engine. If you have any technical question feel free to post them here.
Composition is one of the most misunderstood concepts in any form of artwork. It has been said that you can be the greatest painter in the world, but if you don’t know how to compose properly, your painting will fall apart and the same goes for digital art/illustrations/renders.
Like all illustrations of mine, this one started off in my head. First I decide what would make this image special and I decide on a focal point. These cabins are on a lake, very close to the water, and have windows and a deck facing the South. I like to play with contrast so I typically place my camera about 45 degrees from my light source (in plan), with the focal point being in the light. Since the cabins are on the lake facing South I know that you would see the sunrise so I took advantage of the glass on the sliding windows. I chose the sunrise in the reflection as my focal point.
To bring the viewers eye to my focal point (composition is really about moving the viewer’s eye) I placed the boat in the foreground, pointing towards my focal point. The boat was tipped slightly away from the camera so it wouldn’t bring so much attention to itself. I used yellow on the boat to help the viewer up into the image knowing the eye associates colors and the sunrise in the reflection is yellow too. The focal point is also 1/3 to the left of center and about 1/3 below center, which is were the eye is naturally drawn to in an image. I usually have my horizon lower, but I wanted at least as much blue water as blue sky (the water and sky are blue, which are complementary colors to my focal so it brings the illustration into balance).
Below are some screen grabs of my V-Ray settings:
VFB Frame Buffer
Global Switches
Antialising
Image Sampler
Environment
Color Mapping
Camera Type
GI
Brute Force
Light Cache
Caustics
DMC
Displacement
Systems
Elements
V-Ray Camera
HDRI
Gamma
I can comfortably say that I have never used the same settings for any 2 scenes so these settings might not work for you, but it might be a good starting point. I am running a render farm with 90Gb of RAM and 24 processors so unless you have an equivalent farm these settings might be to high for you.
Below find some Photoshop CS5 post screen grabs:
(coming soon…)
IES Releases Revit 2011 Compatible VE Plug-in For Environmental Performance Analysis
May 18th
BOSTON, May 13, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), a provider of integrated performance analysis software and consulting services for sustainable building design, today released an updated version of its VE plug-in to Autodesk Revit Architecture and MEP. The plug-in allows Revit 2011 users to easily export models into any of the IES Virtual Environment (VE) environmental building performance analysis tools; VE-Ware, VE-Toolkits, VE-Gaia and VE-Pro. Removing the need to re-build models, the IES plug-in greatly enhances design workflow and simulation accuracy, bringing comprehensive and integrated analysis options for all design stages to the Building Information Modelling (BIM) process.
This new IES VE plug-in now supports Revit 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. It offers enhanced model transfer capabilities and can handle challenging and complex geometry, as well as offering users the option to choose the level of geometry detail exported from the basic, to how shading surfaces are handled, to whether curtain wall mullions are counted as shading surfaces. The VE sets no explicit limits on the number of surfaces that it can import. This important capacity gives users ultimate control over geometry detail used for performance analysis and energy modelling within IES tools. Highly detailed curtain walling systems, multi-faceted shading surfaces and mullions, and additional complex shapes and junctions, can all be handled.
The IES VE tools offer a range of powerful performance assessment options suitable for all different design stages and user experience-level, while the integrated nature of the suite allows the interrelationships between energy use, CO2 emissions, solar, lighting, airflow and system design to be taken into account and analysed at a whole building level. Building mass and form, the climate, natural resource availability, occupancy, materials and services can all be taken into account to ‘virtually’ test the feasibility of different energy saving strategies and low carbon/ renewable technologies.
IES also offers a range of automated tools which assist with the LEED and GreenStar rating systems, and compliance with UK energy reduction and Performance Certificate regulations.
The latest version of the IES VE Revit Plug-in can be downloaded at http://www.iesve.com/Software/Model-Building/Revit-plug-in
Autodesk Developer Network Introduces Companion Products for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011
May 18th
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Apr 06, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Autodesk, Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!adsk/quotes/nls/adsk (ADSK 30.11, -0.04, -0.13%) announces that several Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) members have released companion solutions for Revit Architecture 2011 and AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011. ADN developers reconfigure Autodesk software for niche industries, providing customized products that streamline design efficiency, innovation and sustainability.
“ADN partners, offering companion solutions to Revit Architecture 2011 and Civil 3D 2011, are allowing their architecture, engineering and construction customers to efficiently and collaboratively model and design complex projects,” said Richard, Harpham, Autodesk director, AEC industry marketing. “These solutions extend building information modeling practices that cut the costs and time for delivering work. Our developer partners, building on Autodesk technology, are reaching millions of new customers in niche markets and, in turn, tremendously increasing the growth of BIM adoption and by helping customers become more competitive in winning work.”
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an integrated process for exploring a project’s key physical and functional characteristics digitally before it’s built, helping to deliver projects faster and more economically, while minimizing environmental impact. Coordinated, consistent information is used throughout the process to design innovative projects; better visualize and simulate real-world appearance, performance and cost; and create more accurate documentation.
ADN members that have released products supported by Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 include:
– Adapt (www.adaptsoft.com/revitstructure/)
– Eagle Point (www.eaglepoint.com)
– GSA (www.gsa-network.com)
– hsbSOFT NV (www.hsbcad.de)
– Struc-Soft (www.strucsoft.ca)
– Trelligence (www.trelligence.com)
Analyze the effects of solar radiation on various surfaces of your conceptual building model.
May 16th
Use the Autodesk Solar Radiation Technology Preview for Revit 2011 to understand and quantify solar radiation on various surfaces of your conceptual building model.
Using the Autodesk Solar Radiation Technology Preview during the conceptual design stage of your project can help you make informed design decisions about building shape, orientation, and shading strategies early on when changes are least expensive.
The technology preview uses the geometry of conceptual massing elements from Revit and calculates the amount of solar radiation hitting the selected surfaces of the massing shapes, based on location and weather data. It is possible to display the distribution and availability of solar radiation over an entire building or even a city block. This can be particularly useful when considering shading requirements or assessing the best areas to place photovoltaics for maximum collection.
The Autodesk Solar Radiation Technology Preview is modeless and delivers an integrated experience within the Revit environment. This experience is made possible by the Analysis Visualization Framework, Dynamic Model Update, and other new API’s made available with the Autodesk Revit 2011 family of products.
This technology preview is a limited term release to seek customer feedback on its performance and expires on November 5th, 2010.
Ambient Occlusion
Apr 2nd
Ambient = Dark
Diffuses = Light
An Ambient Occlusion pass returns a gray scale image with intersecting geometry darker. This technique allows you to do some post production using layer manipulation. Revit 2011 has some built in Ambient Occlusion capabilities so be on a lookout in the next release.
The below image was created via a script and I use this technique on almost all of my work. It gives your illustration a more realistic feel. This is also how I create the museum board stills and animation.
What’s new in Revt Architecture 2011?
Mar 25th
So what’s in RAC 2011 you may ask? RAC 2011 introduces some new concepts, an improved interface (needed too after the grief that Autodesk got about the Ribbon for 2010) as well as some genuine user feature requests. Whilst this blog just covers the main features it does not cover everything, but I do plan to cover specific functionality in future articles.
