Excitech have recently launched a new video portal to highlight the enhanced functionality of the Autodesk solutions portfolio, which provides access to a wide range of short focussed demonstrations of each solution in the main industry segments.

The video portal can be accessed via the following link: http://www.excitech.co.uk/2011w

Once you have selected the relevant industry from the link at the top of the page, you can choose to filter the list of available videos either by product:

Or by type, such as the ‘New Features’ of the latest release:

When you click on the topic you are interested in, one of Excitech’s many specialists will present the relevant functionality in the side panel; which can also be expanded to full screen for added convenience:

For those of you with smartphones, such as the iPhone, the mobile version of this portal will provide easy access to this information on the move, so you can get the information that you need while getting to work in the morning!

This portal will be updated with new videos regularly on additional products, features and future subscription enhancements, as they are made available; so please sign up for the video update notifications using the link at the bottom of the page!

Enjoy!!!

Over the last few years, Autodesk have been developing cross platform interoperability between a number of their products for the transfer of intelligent data that spans a number of traditional Autodesk ‘silos’ that are made up of 5 divisions, the Manufacturing Solutions Division (MSD), The Infrastructure Solutions Division (ISD), the Building Solutions Division (BSD) and the Media and Entertainment Division (M&E) and finally the Platform Technology Division (PTD) which looks after AutoCAD, the base for many Autodesk Vertical Applications. Whilst this may be a convenient business model for Autodesk it does not lend itself to the many design consultants and industries that depend on the need to transfer intelligent data between the various products.

A good example of the above are the many manufacturing companies using Autodesk Inventor to create digital prototypes of products that are destined for use within the construction industry. Many of our customers are utilising the parametric technology of Autodesk Inventor to create digital models of bridges and tunnels which ultimately need to reside in Civil3D or Revit Structure for coordination with terrain models and then on to 3DS Max to create realistic visual outputs. Other examples are Building services equipment such as Air handling units, or architectural items such as cladding, doors, windows etc.

Autodesk have been hard at work developing the interoperability between various platforms and have some new additions lurking within the 2011 products.

One new workflow is the intelligent transfer between Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis.

A frame can be created within Autodesk Inventor and then analysed within the Inventor Frame Analysis environment. Rigid links and boundary conditions can be added as well as some basic loading. You can then Publish the Structural model using the Export command and then transfer the Model to Robot Structural Analysis. The Member type, size and loading are transferred as well as the rigid links and boundary conditions.

The frame can then be transferred directly to Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis for a complete structural analysis and integration with larger framing systems or Revit Structure 2011 if needed.

My next Blog will outline the extensions to the .adsk file transfer and the common materials library that most Autodesk 2011 3D products are now utilising. Here is the link: http://www.technology4design.com/?p=847

LawrenceH