Autodesk University - Las Vegas

Autodesk University starts in Las Vegas next week and, for the tenth year in a row, I will be there again. If you are not aware, AU is Autodesk’s primary annual learning and networking customer convention. It is an event I look forward to and then return from exhausted because of the sheer scale of it and the number of things to see. The venue accommodates 10,000 Autodesk devotees and the organisation of the event is incredibly finely tuned, even the lunch hall can seat everyone and still have them back at their classes within the hour.

Ten years have passed quickly, but much has changed in the Autodesk world. New products have been launched, the way that the software is purchased is radically different and personalities have come and gone. One of the most exciting aspects of AU are the big announcements. Some of the game changing software launches have happened in Las Vegas, not least BIM360 and Fusion Lifecycle. As a result, before I go I like to try and predict what is coming every year, which isn’t always easy. The speed at which computing technology is evolving is incredible and Autodesk has recently proven to be highly agile in adopting the latest platforms to deliver new products. The embryonic precursor to Amazon Web Services had only been launched two years before my first visit in 2008 and it was to be two more years before the iPad was publicly announced. Now products at the heart of Autodesk’s cloud strategy like Fusion 360, Fusion Lifecycle and BIM360 are all delivered using these two pieces of revolutionary technology.

This year I am playing it safe with my predictions, partly because Autodesk has been drip feeding us information through social media and other events throughout the year. Autodesk Forge, the development service for the Autodesk cloud technologies is a hot topic. For the first year there is a whole day of the event dedicated to Forge and I predict some announcements about new capabilities that will be significant for the development community. Specifically, I expect to see new options for manipulating Revit and Inventor files using Forge services so that, for example, sheets and drawings can be automatically extracted and published.

Unsurprisingly, I am anticipating some big news about the BIM360 next generation services. Autodesk has been flagging changes publicly to the platform with a move away from a family of products to a set of integrated workflows. We have seen a few high-level preview presentations at other events over the year, in Las Vegas I believe we will see some detailed announcements. Expect to see BIM360 Docs at the centre of these workflows as a single repository for all construction project data.

Finally, the Fusion family is due a big announcement and here I predict we will see something new around manufacturing and fabrication management. Autodesk has been working on an extension of the Fusion Lifecycle platform for managing shop floor processes and again I believe that we will see more detail about the finished product. Expect to hear more about new functionality in the Fusion 360 design platform because more and more new tools seem to be added almost weekly.

If you are attending Autodesk University Las Vegas this year or would like to know more about this event please get in touch.