AU is Autodesk's annual conference and it's huge. There were over 600 classes and labs, so there was something for everyone. More than 10,000 participants, instructors, and Autodesk employees came to the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I had never been to the Venetian; it's an amazing place, complete with an indoor Venetian town, covered with a sky-dome.

You can even take a ride in a gondola.

The General Session
AU always starts with a General Session, and it's always quite a show. They outdid themselves this year. Carl Bass, Autodesk CEO, hosted the event, complete with screens at the center and completely encircling the audience.

(Thanks for Melanie Perry for the 2 photos from the General Session.)

Carl Bass discussed four trends:

• Digital Life: More and more, p people rely on digital data for amusement, commerce, communication, education, and socialization. There's a global digital infrastructure supporting this digital life.
• Globalization: Globalization is providing cheap labor, outsourcing, and a global supply chain. Intense worldwide competition is the result.
• Infrastructure Boom: The physical world needs to catch up with the digital one, requiring infrastructure construction, repair, and development. Emerging economies must build networks and support industrialization. Industrialized countries must invest heavily in their deteriorating roads and networks. The answer is to develop technology for building and sustaining the infrastructure.
• Rising Energy Costs: The building boom, among other things, has led to rising energy costs. In addition, industrial activities have contributed to global climate change. Therefore, "green," that is, sustainable growth and develop is key.

How Autodesk Software Fits In
Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski used the 360-degree surrounding screens to provide a glimpse into the new technologies that Autodesk is developing that could provide a solution to the needs arising from the four trends. The show portrayed the development of a new library for a civic center in a city.

Maya (3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering software) was used to design a textured sculpture. The sculpture and other source designers were brought into Revit (architectural design software) to create a model of the building. Robot Millennium (structural engineering software) was used for structural support analysis. The data would be used by the MEP and civil engineering teams to see their design in context.

Then they dumped the data into Navisworks (3D design review software) for collision detection. Navisworks was also used to visualize the final project. Then, they used forthcoming software called Newport for design visualization of the building in context. The concept of building in context was key to the entire project

Then, they poured everything into another software product that showed everyone a real-time fly-through, from outer space down to the building site. A new product called Metropolis was mentioned for building digital 3D cities. The show flew through a detailed model of what seemed to be Washington, D.C., including going underground to look at utility lines (to highlight another new product, Autodesk Utility Design).

Another new product called Mudbox, manipulates models like clay. They showed some new freeform-design features of Revit, and new 3D features in Autodesk Impression, which creates advanced visual styles for architectural models.

The Real Stuff
Then the real point of it all, the classes, began. There were tracks for General Drafting and Design; Civil Engineering; Architecture and Building Design; Education and Training; Facilities Management; Geospatial; MEP Design and Engineering; Manufacturing; Structural Design and Engineering, and more. Classes were 1.5 or 3 hours long; labs, with computers for everyone, were 1.5 hours long.

I was a lab assistant in a lab on Customizing the User Interface. This photo shows half the lab.

I also taught my own class on visual styles in the AutoCAD 3D PowerTrack series. The official name of the class was “Looking Good with Visual Styles: Creating the Look You Want for Your 3D Models.” The 3D PowerTrack series included classes on 3D visualization and solid primitive conceptual design, sophisticated solid model design, editing 3D solids, creating 2D drawings from 3D solids, rendering, and more.

Time to Network
Networking is an important part of AU, and this one was no exception. There were discipline-specific luncheons, parties, and the times between classes. Often the only time when people in the CAD world who live far apart see each other is at AU. People came from 67 countries, according to Autodesk.

I'm the Senior Editor of Inside AutoCAD, a newsletter published by EliResearch. I had lunch with Mike Partenheimer (who writes the Civil Engineering column) and Darren Young (who writes the first AutoCAD article each issue) at Wolfgang Puck's Postrio restaurant at The Venetian.

Later, I met with the architecture writer for Inside AutoCAD, architect Lu Chin.

I also met with two AutoCAD notables that I've been corresponding with for years. Leonid Nemirovsky runs the well-known Better Than Nothing AutoLISP web site and has written and contributed AutoLISP routines for the DVD of my book, AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD LT 2008 Bible. I was very glad to meet him for the first time at AU.

Another AutoCAD notable that I met was Melanie Perry. Melanie is active in AUGI, and writes the Mistress of the Dorkness blog, which focuses on AutoCAD and facilities management. Melanie has helped me update chapters of my book, and so I was glad to get to see her in person.

I also met Shaan Hurley at AU. Shaan is Technical Marketing Manager for the Platform Technologies Division which includes AutoCAD. He's also the Worldwide MyFeedback Program Manager for all Autodesk products and betas. Therefore, he's the master of the AutoCAD beta scene. Shaan and I have known each other, mostly through e-mail, but also at various AUs, for several years.

He always has a camera in his hand!

Time to Trade
The trade fair had over 130 booths of companies who exhibited or sponsored, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Océ, Intel, ATI, AUGI (Autodesk User Groups International), and many more. There was a lot to see and many new products — both software and hardware — to learn about. I'm hoping to win the HP workstation that HP was giving away!

Well Worth the Time
AU is always chock-full of useful knowledge and people. I met so many AutoCAD gurus. If you're looking to further your career in CAD, it's a great place to be. Next year's dates are December 2-5, 2008. By next summer, you'll be able to register at Autodesk's Web site.

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