Autodesk University 2009 took place in Las Vegas, Nevada from Dec. 1-3. This year's event attracted roughly 6,000 people to the live event, and 16,000 to a simultaneous online broadcast of the content. The event theme, "Learn. Connect. Explore," highlights some of the advantages of the in-person experience, but with the economic and environmental benefits, the online version is likely to grow in subsequent years. With economic pain widespread among the AEC community, the emphasis was placed on the benefits of innovation and for a revamped design/build process that moves us further toward integrated design.

There were many discussions about job cuts, company consolidations and fewer people able to travel due to budget constraints. The current economic outlook provided greater focus on education, particularly in the BIM space, as a means to gain market advantage. With economic pain widespread among the AEC community, the emphasis was placed on the benefits of innovating and for a revamped design/build process that moves us further toward integrated design.

Data Quality Issues

The Utility Symposium at the event provided a good overview of multiple scales of utility operations and a global perspective, with representation from North America, Europe and Australia. The panel discussion provided some good insight into utility data quality issues that present a barrier for advancement. A pervasive low-quality level of data is endemic, particularly in North America, and one utility even stated that the more the data is used the worse it gets.

The issue that all users shared is that any large-scale changes to systems cause great disruptions that take time to recover, and that lapses in funding for field data maintenance (often the reaction in a down economy) cause data quality issues that take a great deal of time to make right again.

Model-based design was prominent throughout the session, with more of an emphasis on 3D data and streamlined design workflows. As Parsons put it in their presentation, the traditional linear approach to design doesn’t work when moving to a collaborative model-based approach. There is a disruptive change that replaces the “relay race” approach with a more collaborative and streamlined process. The benefits of a model-based approach in the utility sector revolves around quality data for quality decisions, and a focus on streamlined and more inclusive processes.

The move to such an inclusive approach among the user community when they were asked where they're placing their development dollars. Most stated some variation of custom Web 2.0 solutions that will help them empower more users with simpler interfaces that don't expose their enterprise system to data quality degradation, but instead that help them increase the currency and accuracy of their data.

Exploration

Carl Bass outlined the product lifecycle that spans from the impossible, to the impractical, to the possible, and then to required. He placed this progression in the context of model-based design to state that those early adopters of what's possible stand to gain the most, and that BIM is now ready to provide its users with a competitive advantage.

Among the surprise announcements at AU was the commitment to develop more software on the Mac platform. No specific details on packages or delivery dates was made available.

Bass also highlighted a growing role for Web-based computing resources to help extend the work that we do on our own machines to eventually extend into visualization and analysis capacity. The ultimate outcome of these advancements will be the ability to explore what if scenarios with our designs that will lead to better designs and better results.

Whole Systems Thinking

Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute was the keynote speaker. His talk centered on the importance of working backward from the desired end result to what Lovins calls integrative design or whole system thinking. Lovins has been focused on the business case for sustainable design since the 1970s, and counts a number of high-profile clients and test projects that have broken down barriers. Lovins and his institute have always taken the "think and do" approach to solving problems.

Lovins is partnering with Autodesk on a new education and outreach effort called Factor10Engineering (www.10xe.com). Over the course of the next year, there will be a series of case studies that are pulled together that highlight “high brain velcro ideas” that demonstrate the importance of integrative design.

“Factor Ten Engineering (10xE) aims to accelerate this paradigm shift, by providing engineers with a tangible guideline to whole-system thinking to enable radical efficiency gains. Now that nature is scarce, the next innovation revolution can raise natural resource productivity 10- to 100-fold. The initiative will engage academia and industry to help transform engineering pedagogy and practice, unleashing the next wave of engineering innovation that our world and we truly need.”

Lovins has been a pioneer in connecting the idea of efficiency to sustainability and business gains. He doesn’t focus his energy on the detrimental impacts that we’re having on our planet, but on solutions that provide business opportunities that also benefit our planet. He’s enlightened many businesses and governments over the years and now with the 10XE effort, he’s engaging like-minded people in the design realm to band together and promote design change for a cooler and safer world that is also fairer and richer.

The Future of Visualization

The Media and Entertainment main stage event was as much about the future of 3D for AEC as it was about the mind-blowing realism of 3D for entertainment. In lean times, it felt appropriate to tone down the glitz and talk about real practical benefits of virtual renderings that speed processes and reduce costs.

To illustrate this point of efficiency, we heard from Marriott corporation and how they convey design vision and hotel redesigns to their many hotels. In the past the hotel chain would create full-scale models of room designs and would prototype lobby redesigns by remaking the lobby of one of their hotels, with disruptions and considerable costs. The speed of such renovations were slow and felt like “arriving at the prom late and in an old dress.”

Now the process has moved to virtual designs with high levels of realism. Large-scale renderings are placed on full walls with fabrics and furniture in the foreground. The design are quick and inexpensive to present and convey all the design knowledge needed to make important decisions, returning much-needed nimbleness in a business whose largest differentiator these days is design.

The huge build-up for this session was a sneak-peak at James Cameron’s upcoming 3D movie Avatar. Autodesk technologies are credited with making the realism of this film possible, and there’s likely one of those technical Academy Awards in the offing for their efforts. The emphasis was placed on 3D storytelling and the use of 3D to create immersive experiences and not just items flying at you off the screen.

The sneak peak at James Cameron's new film Avatar was the highlight for many at the event. The film's producer Jon Landau gave detailed background to fill in the details that were presented in the film clips.

Computing Power Feeding Design

Brian Mathews, director of Autodesk Labs, gave a briefing to the press about some of the top trends he sees that are driving software development. The role of Labs is to eliminate speed bumps between technology that is practical and technology that is possible, creating real prototypes with ideas that come from their researchers as wel as other think tanks -- taking the best ideas and applying them to the problems faced by Autodesk customers.

The trends of model-based design are profoundly different than the term “computer-aided design.” Mathews declared that the term CAD is dead now, and said it really was never a fair term for what the software stood for. People continue to be the designers in today’s paradigm, with the computer just assisting the accurate rendering, but that’s about to change.

The center of this vision is the idea of what it means to design. Autodesk is investing time and effort on such things as biomimicry and the development of genetic algorithms for design variables. The shift away from the computer accepting our inputs for the creation of a model to the computer assisting us to make the best possible model will be profound.

The intent of the shift is toward a much more integrative, attractive, safe and lowest cost model that takes in principals of nature and that involves production with the least amount of impact on our planet. I think we can all buy into the paradigm shift that lies ahead.

Related Blog Posts

• Autodesk Labs Aims for True Computer-Aided Design
• Geospatial Informs Infrastructure
• The Future of 3D on Display
• Amory Lovins: The Guru of Whole Systems Thinking
• Still About Data and Process

PHOTO CREDIT: All photos were taken by Shaan Hurley of Autodesk, and permission to re-run them here was granted. You can see more of Shaan's photos of the event via Flickr.