It seems like architects jumped on board with Revit®-based software from the beginning because it helps them produce more detailed designs and really doesn't add a lot of additional work. However, engineers have traditionally avoided the switch from AutoCAD® to Revit. In this roundtable, we will discuss the benefits of using Revit from both the architectural and engineering point of view. Architects can explain why engineers need to use Revit and engineers can defend sticking with AutoCAD. Construction managers can also weigh in on why it helps when the engineer produces a 3D model.

This class will discuss the details on how to select the right CPU, GPU, Memory and storage for optimal performance. We will review the latest technology available in workstation hardware as well as benchmarks and specific recommendations for Autodesk products. How to justify the right workstation for your engineering team including ROI will be discussed.
The Dell Precision Optimizer, a tool that helps user maintain, analyze and optimize Dell workstations, will be introduced.

This class provides not only the techniques but the actual working methods and workflows that are used by the top performers in the woodworking and fabrication industry. Software and processes exist that, when working properly together, can perform the tedious steps in a fraction of the time. This class focuses on the how-to, and provides actual workflows that are not out-of-the-box. Learn about unique construction procedures that use the latest versions of AutoCAD® software, Revit®-based software, Inventor® software, and computer-aided manufacturing tools (CAM). Through demonstration and lecture, the class presents methods for the wood trades—tasks that usually take days for architects, designers, engineers, fabricators, and model makers to complete can be cut down to hours. Also using the latest tools in solid-assembly modeling and woodworking-specific feature-recognition technology, we demonstrate how to get from a completely assembled 3D model to machine-ready, nested, NC code with almost no user intervention (controlling machinery).

Creating stunning, real-time interactive visuals for architecture, product design, and manufacturing is fast and easy with Unreal Studio. Unreal Studio is Epic Games’ suite of tools for importing 3D models from CAD and Digital Content Creation applications to Unreal Engine. This session will explore Unreal Engine visualization workflows and the Unreal Studio toolset, and illustrate how the Datasmith plug-in can accelerate your enterprise workflow.

Ever feel like your boss doesn't like you? You aren't alone. The battle of Management versus CAD/BIM Manager is real. It's not how well you know the software that will lead to your success, but how well you can manage management that will determine your outcome. This class gives you ringside seats as a non-tech principal and a CAD/VDC director go head to head. We will give you a glimpse into the dark side of business and explain why this matters. We will give you tips on how to overcome the roadblocks that principals will throw your way. Both sides will give you tips on how to articulate your CAD/BIM agenda in business terms that your manager will understand and respect. We will explain why CAD/BIM Managers shouldn't make their boss look stupid even when they can and why diplomacy and IT tact will go a long way. We will discuss the challenges management faces and how as a CAD manager, you can become a valued and respected leader in your firm.

A carefully planned BIM workflow enabled the design team to create both coordination and structural analysis models for a structure with highly complex geometry extremely fast and efficiently. Using AutoCAD® as a central hub of geometric definitions, the design team was able to communicate seamlessly between Rhinoceros®, Revit®-based software, and SAP2000®. This resulted in the architecture, coordination, and analysis models all matching each other perfectly while also making it easy to track changes and update the models as the design progressed.

While architecture and engineering professionals should always focus on making the best design for the project, workflows designed to produce plans and intelligent models are often missing vital steps for the visualization at the end of the cycle. These steps are easy to add to your workflow once you know what they are. Learn how to speed up the visualization process with small adjustments to your AutoCAD® or Revit® software workflow and with 3D modeling standards that can be checked for and corrected with tools built into 3ds Max Design software. For visualization professionals, we look at how to create or select 3D models of environmental elements that slip easily into your pipeline without adding extra correction work or long render times. We also look at the vocabulary and tools that you can use to communicate with designers about your workflow needs.

New to design visualization? Having a hard time understanding the language needed to communicate or produce the daily requests for images or videos? Don’t know how a photorealistic image is constructed from a software perspective? Learn the basics of design visualization through various software examples. This lecture will help you understand the language needed to create images or videos that will communicate your designs. Get an overview of the Autodesk, Inc., design visualization portfolio. This class will work from concrete examples directly related to 3ds Max Design software, Maya software, Showcase software, VRed software, Navisworks software, Ecotect Analysis software, InfraWorks software, Revit software, Inventor software, AutoCAD software, and Inventor Fusion software.

Custom Tutorials can help you retain tribal knowledge of the tricks your company's developed over years, and then pass that knowledge on to new hires or outsourced resources to ensure your data is built and behaves as expected. This class will show you how to use your very own CAD tools and practices to create written and video tutorials covering those tricks-from everyday basics to those needed once every 6 months. You will learn how to post publicly and privately to the A360 cloud-based collaboration service, and how to share with others.

This lecture will cover the process of creating striking videos designed to communicate complex infrastructure projects within a Building Information Modeling (BIM) pipeline. You will discover how products from Autodesk, Inc., can enable you to deliver detailed technical information to both engineers and non-technical audiences involved in a project. Helicopter video shooting, tracking, and 3D replacement have become essential exercises for achieving this purpose in transportation infrastructure projects such as airports, freeways, and elevated-train systems. We will follow some of these videos from beginning to end, covering topics that include: preproduction tips for shooting video from a helicopter and tracking with the MatchMover application; integration of tracking points and camera in a 3ds Max software environment; BIM pipeline integration with 3ds Max software and Revit software; rigging and animating transport in 3ds Max software; rendering management in the Backburner application; and optimized compositing. Download videos at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/thq3yvdw3119aho/AABlyqsDi9Wz57tZVBIImfnSa

As we move away from the familiar 2D world of AutoCAD software into 3D Revit Structure software, the focus shifts toward training and skill development. This results in a new way of working that demands structured workflows, taking data from the model into fabrication information. Design Solutions require quick turnarounds with continual change management, and this is an area where Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools technology can deliver value. We will review how workflows that are used by temporary works offices improve the efficiency of reinforcement detailing and scheduling and increase the productivity of bolted and welded joint steel fabrications. We will also examine Solutions using the Revit complementary software systems, SOFiSTiK Reinforcement Detailing and Advance Steel software.

Are you new to design visualization? Are you having a hard time understanding the language needed to communicate or produce the daily requests for images or videos? Do you not know how a photorealistic image is constructed from a software perspective? Through various software examples, you will learn the basics of design visualization. This lecture will help you understand the language used to create images or videos that will communicate your designs. Get an overview of the Autodesk, Inc., design visualization portfolio. This class will work from concrete examples directly related to 3ds Max Design software, Maya software, Showcase software, VRED software, Navisworks software, Ecotect Analysis green building software, InfraWorks software, Revit software, Inventor software, AutoCAD software, and the Fusion 360 3D CAD design app.

This class will explore the utilization of Autodesk, Inc., products in the development of early phase energy models that help guide the Design Team in the development of sustainable and cost-effective Building Solutions. We will cover the use of Vasari software as an early tool for conceptual level analysis and how we can effectively hand off this geometry to more detailed modeling engines for additional analysis. We will also explore Revit software as a tool for developing complex building geometries for energy analysis that maintain the flexibility to be rapidly updated as building design advances. These strategies also compliment Autodesk cloud-computing services, including the Autodesk 360 cloud-computing platform for data storage, as well as options for rendering and daylighting in the cloud for additional analysis and development of presentation materials.

In this class you will hear firsthand from one of our customers, Parker Hannifin Corporation, regarding how the firm deployed Vault software from a small group of 30 users to what is now over 1500 active users. You will also learn how the firm is using Autodesk PLM 360 software to manage the other processes that support engineering, quality, costing, quoting, and supplier management, and you will see how this enables the firm to use cloud-based PLM collaboration to extend the product data management productivity and increase the time to market of products and services.

Explore the tools inside Advance Steel software to make it easier to navigate and manage the final output from the model. Learn about the use of the project explorer and how that can help with the searching, phasing and grouping, and level management within a project. See how this can lead to further links with the drawing-production process.

Although reinforcement-detailing capabilities of Revit Structure software have been improved from release to release during recent years, a lack of features is preventing users from changing their workflows from 2D detailing with AutoCAD software to a Building Information Modeling (BIM)-concentric workflow in 3D. This class will demonstrate how to overcome these feature gaps by using third-party software. This includes easily distributing rebars along non-planar faces, splitting area reinforcement on large slabs, properly handling revisions, and creating 2D views out of the 3D model. This session features Revit Structure.

As a general contractor, quality control of building layout and verification is necessary to minimize the risk of rework and additional costs or schedule delays. When establishing site control to implement the use of total stations, the team will need to work through a number of challenges and prerequisites. General contractors will need to understand the risk of taking or not taking this responsibility or transferring the risk to third-party quality assurance / quality control teams. Buy-in from the project team and enforcing trades to work on the same controls across a site is important to consistency in layout and verifications. This class will highlight all the prerequisites and challenges that general contractors might typically face when implementing this process, and we’ll document a generic workflow for efficient implementation and best practices. This class will also cover a generic workflow of managing layout using the BIM 360 Layout app, Point Layout software from Revit software, Navisworks software, or AutoCAD DWG™ technology. This session features BIM 360 Layout, BIM 360 Glue, and Point Layout. AIA Approved

A practicing consulting engineer will take a project from the schematic concept phase to the construction completion phase using HVAC Solution Software and Revit MEP software. See how the intelligent air, hydronic, steam, control, and plumbing system schematic models are used to convey and coordinate critical mechanical and electrical information with the design team. Both of these software systems used in concert enable your projects to be successful and profitable by providing precise and efficient mechanical designs and information to clients. HVAC Solution also accelerates project completion by automating mechanical system calculations and equipment selection through the phases of your projects. Because schedules and other reports are generated on the fly, the software enables firms to include information, diagrams, and reports on all phases of a project, thus providing clients with a high level of service.

This class will cover how to effectively set up an AutoCAD Civil 3D software project. To manage the size and stability of an AutoCAD Civil 3D software project, we will focus on using data shortcuts and external references in a workflow that makes drawings more manageable. This class will also cover basic tips, tricks, and tools to help keep drawings clean throughout the projects longevity.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is great for large commercial projects with conventional geometry, but what about modeling an architectural Mayan ruins site that's been excavated, or modeling themed columns with adjacent rockwork, or pulling quantities for a mountain? These are some of the challenges we faced when considering Revit software for our theme park projects. Come and listen as we share the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lessons learned when taking on these unconventional projects, and how we overcame the problems. This is the story of a firm's quest to design a Mayan theme park in Revit, and how that firm used Revit to set in motion best practices for all its subsequent theme park projects.