AutoCAD DevBlog

Forge DevCon Announces Call for Proposals

By Stephen Preston

The Forge Developer Conference (Forge DevCon), the largest gathering of design and engineering software developers in the world, is ramping up. This year we are partnering up with Autodesk University (AU). No longer do you need to choose between DevCon and AU. You can do both.

New for this year is call for proposals. We have expanded our efforts and want you to help shape the event. This year is unique as we will be:

• Accepting applications (open 4/19 to 5/17)
• Taking class recommendations (open 4/19 to 5/17)
• Hosting community voting (open 5/17 to 6/16)

Speaking at Forge DevCon

Are you an expert in using Forge or the Fusion 360 APIs? Have you found creative ways to integrate and use Autodesk Forge in your real-life projects and products? Have you developed processes that improve company workflows and efficiency? Do you have ideas about where your industry is headed? Are you an expert in a web technology that complements Forge? If so, then you’re a candidate to speak at Forge DevCon.

Forge DevCon will be held over two days (Monday November 13th and Tuesday November 14th).

• Monday classes will be open to Forge DevCon attendees only.
• Tuesday classes will be open to all Forge DevCon and Autodesk University (AU) attendees and will be co-listed with the AU ‘Software Development’ Track.

Forge DevCon 2017 Themes

• Architecture, Engineering and Construction
• Manufacturing and Design
• Cross Industry/General Programming Topics

All Forge DevCon classes should be related to Autodesk Forge, Autodesk Fusion 360, or complementary APIs.

Class formats:

• Presentation (60-minutes)
• Panel (60-minutes)
• Lab (90-minutes)

How to Apply

1. Go to https://forge.autodesk.com/devcon/call-for-proposals
2. Fill out the application with your proposal
3. Simply check the box on the proposal submission form that indicates your willingness for your class to be considered for Forge DevCon

Please note, your class will be reviewed by both the Forge DevCon and AU teams – and may be accepted to either conference.

Deadline to Submit Applications

Speaking proposals will be accepted via the website only from April 19 to May 17.  No late applications will be considered.

Recommend A Speaker - New!

A new feature this year is “request a class or recommend a speaker”. Not ready to lead a class? Tell us what information you need to get started with Forge or bring your new cloud-based solution to life. What do you want to learn? Are there thought leaders, practitioners, and power users whose expertise and insights that would enrich DevCon? Help us to help you.

About Forge DevCon

The Forge Developer Conference (Forge DevCon) is the largest global gathering of design and engineering software developers. It is a conference that brings together over 1,500 software developers, engineers, business owners and information officers as a community interested in creating web and mobile applications that use the Autodesk Forge or Fusion 360 APIs.

For more info go to: Forge.Autodesk.com/DevCon

About Autodesk University (AU)

AU Las Vegas 2017 is your chance to connect with the best in the business, share technical knowledge, solve unique business challenges, and gain a deeper understanding of cross-industry opportunities. Plus, you can learn best practices, stay on top of the latest trends, and experience advanced technology firsthand. Join your global community of professional designers and engineers as we explore the Future of Making Things.

For more info go to: AU.Autodesk.com

There's still time ...

Happy New Year!

There's still time to make one more New Year's Resolution - to submit a proposal for the inaugural Autodesk Cloud Accelerator program.

Don't miss this opportunity to spend two weeks in sunny San Francisco integrating Autodesk cloud services with your application with the help of Autodesk experts.

Visit the program website to find out more - autodeskcloudaccelerator.com.

 

 

Get ready for the Autodesk Cloud Accelerator Program

By Stephen Preston

• Have a great idea for a new product that leverages an Autodesk web service?
  
  
• Want up close and personal help from Autodesk to turn your idea into a working prototype?  
  
  
• Interested in getting face to face with Autodesk Cloud Engineers to both learn and make sure they know what you want?

 

If yes, the 2015 Autodesk Cloud Accelerator may be for you.

Autodesk will be hosting a Cloud Accelerator in our San Francisco office for up to 14 creative software developers for two weeks – March 9 to March 20, 2015. During the Accelerator, participants will work intensively on their chosen project  with the help, support, and training of the Autodesk Cloud engineering teams.  This includes daily classes by industry experts on important aspects of Cloud development – and 1 on 1 help from these experts in real time. At the end of the Accelerator, you will also have the opportunity to present your prototype to senior Autodesk Executives.

To pursue a place in the Accelerator, send us a proposal (in English) of not more than 1000 words explaining why you should be one of participants and graduates in the “first class”. Proposals should be emailed to [email protected] no later than January 10, 2015. Successful candidates will be notified on or around January 17, 2015.

How will Autodesk choose who participates in this first Cloud Accelerator class?

To get a position in the Accelerator, Autodesk will be looking for the following in your proposal:

• Use of an Autodesk Web Service API to fill a compelling customer need. (View & Data, AutoCAD® I/O, Autodesk® Fusion 360™, Autodesk® BIM 360™ or Autodesk® ReCap 360™)
• Likelihood of having a demonstrable prototype by the end of the Accelerator.
• Strong development skills.
• High motivation.
  
  

Too costly for you?  

Autodesk recognizes two weeks of time out of the office, as well as travel and living costs, is a large investment.  To partially offset these costs, Autodesk will pay lodging costs for all the developers in this first class (14 nights in a hotel).  Up to 2 people from a single company will be accepted so be clear in your proposal if this is for 1 or 2 people (maybe you want both a product designer and developer to participate?). All other expenses are the responsibility of the participants including airfare and food (though you can be confident Autodesk will be buying a number of lunches and dinners for the class).

Questions?

Don’t be shy to ask us if you need more information to decide whether to apply.  We are happy to talk with you about what you are considering developing as part of the Accelerator – or about details you may want to know on Accelerator logistics.

We want to help you make progress developing your own products that use Cloud technologies – whether or not you end up participating in the 2015 Accelerator.  So we strongly encourage you to be quick to ask us any questions you may have on the Accelerator.  Send your questions to
[email protected].

We're hiring

By Stephen Preston

The ADN team is hiring an API evangelist based in our San Francisco office. Please spread the word. Experience with AutoCAD APIs - or any other Autodesk technology - is not required (but would be a bonus).

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/13975557

Autodesk is hiring an API evangelist!  If you’re a software engineer who’s enthusiastic about new technologies, enjoys interacting with others and sharing this enthusiasm, and loves to evangelize code –then this is the job for you!

Autodesk is in the process of launching a large number of new cloud services – all of which are designed as platforms for developers to build upon.  We need to tell the world about these new APIs.  As the successful candidate, you will join the Developer Technical Services team (our developer evangelist team at Autodesk, and part of our Cloud Platforms Division).

Responsibilities:

• Working directly with third party developers to help them solve their problems using our APIs. 
• Acting as developer advocate to our internal software development teams – helping them understand the APIs our developer community needs to be successful.
• Evangelizing our new technology through conferences, hackathons, meetups, blogging, webcasts, social media, and whatever other communication channels you dream up.

To be successful you will have the following attributes:

• You’re a gifted programmer who is excited about learning new technology and teaching others. (You already know deep in your heart if you’re a natural programmer – if you don’t then you’re not).
• You have a good grounding in web programming technologies, including JavaScript, REST and HTML5.
• You have a good grounding in, or are willing to learn, mobile platform programming technologies, such as Java and Objective-C.
• You’re intelligent and inquisitive, and enjoy solving problems.
• You enjoy interacting with people – including one-on-one conversations and presenting to large audiences at conferences.
• You enjoy writing – including blogging, tweeting, and other social media outlets.

Autodesk University Call for Proposals

By Stephen Preston

In case you missed the announcement, here is a reminder that the AU Call for Proposals is now open. You have until May 23rd to submit your proposa for a class, lab, panel or roundtable session. Click on the image below to go to the Call for Proposals website.

Code for America

By Stephen Preston

Earlier this week I drove in to San Francisco to attend a meetup for the 'SF Developer Advocates' group - my first visit to this group. The meeting itself was interesting - there were about 15 'developer advocates, so it was easy to talk to everyone. But the reason I'm mentioniong it on this blog isn't for the meetup, its for the organizers.

The meetup was hosted by Code for America - a non-profit organization that helps programmers write code that helps their local communities (and encourages cities to expose data that those programmer scan use). I think this is a great idea, so the least I could do is give them a mention on DevBlog.

So here's a big Friday Shout Out for:

 

Visual Studio 2012 availability

By Stephen Preston

As explained in other blog posts both here and on Kean Walmsley's excellent blog (and of course in the ObjectARX 2015 documentation), AutoCAD 2015 is not binary (API) compatible with previous AutoCAD versions. This means that the Visual Studio version required to build your plug-ins has also changed. What this actually means to you depends on which API you're using.

For .NET they key requirement is .NET Framework 4.5. Both Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 support .NET Framework 4.5, so you should be able to use whichever of those two IDEs you prefer. Many .NET developers will likely go for Visual Studio 2013 because of the new 64-bit edit-and-continue feature (which is available for .NET debugging only - not native C++).

Requirements for ObjectARX (native C++) developers are a little more stringent. Because an OjectARX plug-in is a C++ DLL, it has to be compiled using the same Visual C++ compiler version as AutoCAD itself. This means that you must build your ObjectARX plug-ins using the C++ compiler that ships with Visual Studio 2012 (update 4). If you have Visual Studio 2013 installed as well, then you can use that IDE - but you must still install Visual Studio 2012 (update 4) and target the correct C++ compiler using the Platform Toolset feature.

Why is AutoCAD built using Visual Studio 2012 instead of Visual Studio 2013? Quite simply because Visual Studio 2013 was released by Microsoft too late in our development cycle to make the switch. (AutoCAD is a complex beastie, and its not trivial to convert such a large codebase to a new compiler).

This has led to a few questions to our ADN team about how to obtain a copy of Visual Studio 2012 - which is the reason for this blog post. I asked one of the Microsoft team who manages our Autodesk corporate account for a definitive statement on Visual Studio 2012 availability, which I'm posting below verbatim. Remember as you read it that this is written from a US perspective, so prices are in US dollars and programs mentioned may differ in other countries. Contact your local Microsoft reseller for full information on your local situation:

>>>

Options to acquire VS 2012

Due to the release of VS 2013 many customers need to still acquire VS 2012 for compiler compatibility.

We are currently offering an upgrade price for customers who purchased VS 2012 to VS 2013 but there is no upgrade available for older products like VS 2010.

While you can target the VS 2012 tool set in VS 2013 by setting this up in the project properties, you must already have VS 2012 to do this.

Volume License customers can purchase VS 2013 and download VS 2012 from their Volume License site.

Any customer that own VS 2013 with MSDN can download and use VS 2012.

For large customers with Volume License agreements this is probably not an issue.  Prices are approx. $450 for VS Pro license only and approx. $400/yr for VS Pro with MSDN

For smaller customers here are their choices:

• If the customer does less than 2M/yr and has been in business less than 3 years they can sign up for our BizSpark program and acquire as much VS with MSDN as they need for free.  To sign up customers just need to go to www.microsoft.com/bizspark.
• Customers customer can buy VS Pro with MSDN on Open Licensing (not a Volume licensing program but provides some discounts) for approx. $900/yr
• Customers can purchase VS Pro with MSDN directly from Microsoft for approx. $1200/yr
• Customers can acquire VS Pro 2012 box copy from sites like eBay for approx. $500

<<<

Update 4/24/14:

Following a smallish thread on this in the Twittersphere, I've updated the text above to bold an important sentence about the source of the quoted information - to make that more obvious. I'll also take this opportunity to draw your attention to the Disclaimer contained in the 'About this blog' page (link at the top of this page - just below the banner).

 

 

 

Feeling Foolish

By Stephen Preston

The ADN blog posts yesterday were the result of the second year of our team's internal April Fools' Challenge, where we have a little friendly competition to see who can post the 'best' April Fools' article. Of course, different people like different kinds of humor, so there's never really just one 'best'. (We try to avoid posting serious articles on April 1st in case someone thinks we're joking when we're not, but one sometimes slips through due to timezone miscalculations).

In no particular order, here is a full list of our Foolish posts (along with the name and location of the perpetrator):

• Xiaodong Liang (China) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/2014/04/avr-glass-autodesk-virtual-reality-glass-in-the-age-of-cloud.html
• Adam Nagy (UK) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2014/04/william-as-honorary-autodesk-spokesperson.html
• Kevin Vandecar (US) - http://getcoreinterface.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/preparation-for-your-3ds-max-customers-cloud-storage.html
• Augusto Goncalves (Brazil) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/infrastructure/2014/04/infraworks-360-public-pilot.html
• Daniel Du (China) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/cloud_and_mobile/2014/04/autodesk-exchange-is-making-it-a-real-one.html
• Jeremy Tammik (Switzerland) - http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/automating-large-scale-waste-recycling-and-sustainability.html
• Cyrille Fauvel (France) - http://around-the-corner.typepad.com/adn/2014/04/3d-printing-second-industrial-revolution-is-under-way.html
• Partha Sarkar (India) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/2014/04/1-2-3-d-import-a-revit-family.html
• Brian Ekins (US) - http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2014/04/new-age-of-cad-interaction.html
• Stephen Preston (US) - http://adndevblog.typepad.com/autocad/2014/03/autodesk-announces-microsuites-1.html

And of course, I have to mention the post by Kean Walmsley - our longstanding Master of Fools.

Although, the Autodesk-related post yesterday that made me laugh the most was this one - http://designandmotion.net/autodesk/its-autodesks-turn-to-get-acquired-by-facebook/.

Autodesk announces microSuites

By Stephen Preston

Over the last few years, Autodesk has been steadily expanding its range of industry focused ‘design suites’. Our current Suites range includes titles such as:

• Product Design Suite,
• Factory Design Suite,
• Plant Design Suite, and
• Building Design Suite.

However, our existing suites all cover relatively large scale (or macro) design challenges. The growing maturity and scope of our Autodesk 360 services combined with very significant architectural modernization of our desktop products, such as the Big Split in AutoCAD, the core changes required in Inventor to create Inventor OEM, and the rationalization of the Revit API have created a framework that allows us to create much more focused Suites to address ‘midi’ and ‘micro’ design challenges. These ‘microSuites’ will be sold exclusively through the Autodesk Exchange Apps store at a subscription price of $50/month or less (depending on the scope of the Suite). Some microSuites will also include low-cost in-product purchases to enabled enhanced features and functionality – similar to the $4.99/month Pro upgrade in our Autodesk 360 Mobile app.

Autodesk today announced the first product in the microSuite range - Autodesk Toilet Design Suite.

Priced at $19.99/month, Autodesk Toilet Design Suite (or TDS for short) brings together the design, analysis and simulation functions you need to develop a full Restroom Information Model (RIM) for any building regardless of size - from a single unit to a stadium. TDS features include:

Cubicle layout optimization

Cubicle size requirements are the first step in your planning process. Requirements vary significantly between facilities, and sub-optimal cubicle geometry can significantly slow down throughput and leave your customers frustrated. An airport cubicle requires easy entry and exit with a suitcase; a retail mall cubicle requires off-floor storage space for shopping bags; a factory cubicle needs no more space than is required to unfold a newspaper. The cubicle layout optimization module is built as a lightweight AutoCAD OEM application.

Customer throughput analysis

Using algorithms documented in the groundbreaking research by Thomas Crapper, TDS will model customer throughput in your restroom space. For multi-restroom establishments, this module also includes a restroom spacing optimization option. Simple parametric design allows you to optimize for the numbers of cubicles (taking into account cubicle layout optimization – see above), urinals (where applicable), washbasins, and towel dispensers/hand-dryers) - and the relative paths between these. The calculation is tailored to account for the percentage of customers expected to wash their hands in your geographic location.

Empirical modeling demonstrates that the Crapper technique can increase customer throughput by up to 50%.

Restroom Maintenance Scheduling

The Restroom Maintenance Scheduling module takes the results of your Customer Thoughput Analysis and generates an optimized maintenance and cleaning schedule for each restroom in your facility – allowing you to implement state-of-the-art ‘just in time’ cleaning and toilet paper replacement strategies. Optionally, this can also interface with data from physical sensors installed at your facility to tailor your schedule based on actual usage data for your site.

Fluid dynamics

TDS Premium includes two fluid dynamic packages: water in/waste out (WIWO 360); and odor isolation (OI 360) – both based on customized SIM 360 algorithms:

                WIWO 360 calculates optimal pipe bore for water input (to reduce inter-flush downtime) and for waste removal (to minimize blockages). Input parameters include ambient water pressure, expected throughput (calculated from the Customer Throughput Analysis package), and a user-definable ‘fudge factor’ to account for the proximity of food supply (for example, if the restroom location is close to a food court or vendor).

                OI 360 simulates airflow throughout the restroom area, allowing you to plan for optimal placement of baffles and extractor fans to minimize inter-cubicle odor leakage and maximize soiled air extraction.

Acoustic analysis

There are many places your customers will welcome background noise – your restroom isn’t one of them.  Even worse, experimental research by Armitage Shanks et al. (1976) demonstrated that inter-cubicle noise propagation levels as low as 30 dB can increase average stall occupancy time by up to 17%. And, although not experimentally verified, this phenomenon is believed to have worsened with the modern trend to increasing use of cellphones in restrooms. This can significantly impact queue time, especially during busy periods when occupancy (and hence noise levels) are high. The Acoustic Analysis package (another SIM 360 derivative) will highlight noise ‘blackspots’ and recommend acoustic isolation materials and pan placement.

Onsite Visualization

The final component of TDS is an iOS or Android app (separately available for a one-off price of $9.99 from the Apple and Google Play stores respectively). Based on visualization technology taken from BIM 360 Glue, the mobile app will allow you to visualize onsite any of the designs and data created by the above TDS modules. Using motion sensors and positional awareness (GPS or indoor beacons), the mobile app offers point and play walkthrough visualization. Variable timesteps allow you to visualize changing data in realtime, at an accelerated rate of up to one day per minute, in slow-motion, or freeze-frame.

 

TDS will be available FOR FREE in the Autodesk Exchange Apps store today only, reverting to the standard $19.99/month from tomorrow, so hurry and buy your subscription now.

TDS is the only first of many Autodesk microSuites. Additional microSuites planned for release in the coming year include:

• Kitchen Design Suite – For single kitchens to large scale catering facilities.
• Retail Design Suite – For retail establishments of any size from the corner store to megamart.
• Plant Design Suite II – For gardens ranging in size from a small backyard to a botanical park.
• Bedroom Design Suite (Education only) – Primarily aimed at teenagers and college students.
• Bachelor Pad Suite – Free medallion and bottle of aftershave with every Subscription order.

VBA macro compatibility in AutoCAD 2014 64-bit

By Stephen Preston

I've been handling quite a few questions recently from customers migrating to AutoCAD 2014 64-bit from an earlier 64-bit AutoCAD version. The typical problem is something like this:

My VBA macro is referencing some additional OCX control or Type Library. It worked fine on AutoCAD 64-bit versions prior to AutoCAD 2014. But now my macro generates an error related to that Type Library or OCX control.

The explanation for this is that AutoCAD 2014 is the first AutoCAD release to use Microsoft's newer VBA 7.1 engine, where older AutoCAD versions used the VBA 6.3 engine. VBA 6.3 was available as a 32-bit component only. VBA 7.1 is available as 32-bit and 64-bit components - and (as you'd expect) AutoCAD 2014 64-bit uses the 64-bit component. Your Type Library/OCX control can't be loaded because it is a 32-bit component. It is impossible to load any 32-bit component into a 64-bit process space. This is the reason for your error.

In order to make your macro work again, you must replace your 32-bit component with a 64-bit version - or refactor your project to use an alternative if the vendor of that component doesn't provide a 64-bit version.

The reason the same VBA macro worked in older AutoCAD 64-bit versions is because AutoCAD launched VBA 6.3 in a separate (32-bit) process to which AutoCAD marshals its COM calls. So, although AutoCAD was running 64-bit native, the VBA engine was still a 32-bit process and could happily load 32-bit components.

VBA being run in a separate process like this is also the reason why VBA macros used to be about 30 times slower running in AutoCAD 64-bit compared to AutoCAD 32-bit. The new VBA 7.1 engine fixes that problem for AutoCAD 2014 64-bit.