Autodesk CEO Carl Bass Describes Key Technology Initiatives

"It's clear the world is changing, and the way we doour work is changing."

That's how AutodeskPresident and CEO CarlBass kicked off the General Session at Autodesk University 2009, noting design engineers are facing tremendous global competition and pressure towork more efficiently.

More than 5,500 people areattending this year's three-day, live event, along with 16,000 people fromaround the world who logged in to the first-ever Virtual Autodesk University.

"What can you do to staycompetitive?" Bass asked the audience who had presumably come to do just that –by attending classes and hands-on training sessions from Autodesk instructorsand experts. He noted although one of the best ways to be competitive isthrough the use of technology, technologies go along a continuum – fromimpossible to impractical to possible to expected to required – and theright timing is the critical factor. Too early, it's impractical, too late and,well, you've missed the boat. "If you think about it, the Newton was ahead of its time. And everybodyknows about the Prius, but who remembers the EV1?" he asked. Get the timingjust right, though, and you've hit the sweet spot.

Bass noted CAD, too,traveled along this continuum from impossible in the 1960s to now 2D and even3D being required. He outlined five new capabilities that are now moving intothe sweet spot, aided in large part by the availability of cheap, web-basedcomputing that gives people access to their data virtually anywhere, anytime and the complementary development efforts at Autodesk.

"This kind of technologyshift happens only every 10 to 20 years and today it is having a major impact onhow design work is done," he said.

The first capability Bassdiscussed is Exploration. "Design is all about looking at alternatives, but itoften isn't very practical. When people have to spend days or weeks exploringdifferent solutions they won't explore so many," Bass said. With the ability toembed information, for example regarding the manufacturability of variousparts, into the geometry, he said new tools are giving engineers constant feedbackon what actually can be built, winnowing down the number of options to acredible few for them to focus on.

A second capability is Analysis,which Bass noted should be happening at every stage of the design process fromconcept to finished product. But it is often too onerous. New tools, he added,will help engineers generate and analyze hundreds of options in the same amountof time that it now takes to analyze just one. "Ongoing analysis with real-timefeedback about different aspects of the design will allow the user to explorethe design space freely while respecting the parameters of the process," hesaid.

Storytelling is a thirdcapability, said Bass, noting there is a story behind every creation andthat visualization helps companies and design teams win support for a project."We at Autodesk are researching new ways to help project teams by leveragingthings like character technology developed for games and simulations that helpengineers understand how people interact with a design," he said.

A fourth and increasinglyimportant capability is Access, which Bass says Autodesk is committed to and isactively developing products for a range of platforms so that users can accesstheir data and projects in multiple ways. "We've released several products forthe Mac and are working on quite a few more," he said. Notwithstanding thepositive reaction from Apple fans, Bass said a nice side benefit of developingfor multiple platforms is that you wind up with much more flexible technologythat can be employed in new environments.

Bass also described aninitiative called ProjectTwitch, for which Autodesk is testing remote delivery of applications likeAutoCAD and Inventor over the web. "I am talking about the exact same softwareyou are used to running on your desktop machine, but now it's running on amachine that's much more powerful." He noted users can test drive it at Autodesk Labs online.

Autodesk also has extendedits Sketchbook digital sketch product with an app for the iPhone called SketchbookMobile. Bass says the $3 app has been downloaded 1 million times, and people are using it in some unbelievably cool ways. "People used to sketch onnapkins because they were readily available; now carrying around tools likethis allows you to make a digital sketch anytime, anywhere and take thesesketches and integrate them directly into your workflow," he said.

Collaboration is the fifthand final capability, and Bass concluded by saying web-based computingopens up entirely new ways for engineers to work together, from enablingmarkups and edits that are shared with everyone in real time to multiple peoplemarking up and editing at the same time. If that sounds slightly nightmarish,it does have the benefit of eliminating all those multiple versions of designs floatingaround.

Of course, data must also beshared, and Autodesk is working on ways to route the information to allparticipants without the need for extra manual steps. Just in the way that Facebook,Twitter and other social networking tools allow people to selectively followwhat other people are doing that is of relevance, Autodesk is exploring this featurefor applications in the design space. "Say you change something in your designand a message goes out to all team members automatically," said Bass. "What thisallows you to do is to focus on what really matters, which is better design."