CAD Insider

AU Bite #9: Memorable Quotes

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University), Dec 3, 2009 - Here's some juicy lines heard at AU that simply must be revealed:

"The courts are fighting the last war"

Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, when asked about the effect of the decision of the Autodesk vs Vernor case, which went against Autodesk

"Only puny secrets need protection of patents. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity."

Marshall McCluhan, quoted by Amory Lovins, RMI

“Like Chinese cooking, use everything. Eat the feet"

Singaporean engineer Eng Lock Lee who advocates benign design that uses resources effectively, quoted by Amory Lovins, RMI

"Man who waits for roast duck to fly into his mouth must wait a long time."

Chinese proverb, quoted by Amory Lovins, RMI

"If our heart was designed the way we design buildings, we would need a heart bigger than our bodies."

Amory Lovins, about our 1.5 Watt heart and the fluid losses tolerated in piping systems.

"You can have tomorrow's computer today"

Brain Matthews, head of Autodesk Labs, discussing how future computers will differ only by the number of computing cores, something he can currently duplicate with server farms. Previously, computing gains were made by increasing processing speed.

"The Internet is having a lot of impact"

Autodesk product manager, who shall remain nameless for his own protection.

AU Bite #8: That's How You Do a Keynote

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University), Dec 3, 2009 - Yesterday's manufacturing keynote at AU was the best example of a successful big stage presentation.  Leading off was Dr Peter Diamandis, who inspired with his account of the X Prize, best known for opening space travel to the public --the very rich public, that is. Tickets cost about $20 million. Nevertheless, what could be sexier to a CAD geek? Ask us what's more interesting, we'll pick a rocket over a a Rockette. Yeah, it's sad.

But just as we come back to earth and realize, oh, we don't get to design rockets, Amy Bunzel, Autodesk's senior director of manufacturing, tell us how to make better doorknobs and dishwashers -- all using Autodesk products, of course. Here comes another session about the wonders of digital prototyping....

But Amy delivers the goods. Smoothly and skillfully, she goes through several Autodesk applications. Inventor, Moldflow, Algor, even Revit, neatly tying them together. Pitches to the mechanical designer in a AutoCAD rut, showing how advanced tools, all under the Autodesk umbrella, could add value is certainly not a new message, but somehow it's all coming together brilliantly on stage. The examples are on target, the sequencing is superb, the delivery is smooth without being slick. More than once, the crowd expresses their approval with applause. Amy is getting a long time on stage but nobody is getting fidgety. She's got them.

I've been to many other keynotes and they were not like this. Big user conference crowds are not easy to win over. At the first whiff of a sales pitch or a pep talk, they stop paying attention and start talking about what party to hit that night. They don't want pandering. They don't care for your cause of the day, who is chummy with who inside your good old boy network, or whatever buzzwords you have picked up from the first 3 chapters of the latest marketing best seller you managed to read before you fell asleep in your business class seat on your very bad flight from Shanghai. It's not their world.

What they want is a partner, a connection, like how Autodesk did at the Manufacturing Keynote... Of course, it helps to have a pitch person like Amy. 

AU Bite #7: When is a Pound Not A Pound?

 LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University), Dec 2, 2009 - We all know a lighter vehicle will save fuel since it is easier to accelerate. F=m*a. The force required is proportional to the mass for a given acceleration. But as Amory Lovins of RMI points out in his AU keynote, it's better than that.

Say you are able to go use a carbon fiber frame instead of steel, and save a few hunded pounds. That would immediately result in fuel savings. But now factor in that the engine can be smaller. With the engine smaller, a smaller hood and fenders will be required. The brakes may be downsized, maybe the transmission. Each pound saved in the frame may be worth 1.5 pounds off the car. 

While electric cars may add battery weight, they might more than compensate by losing a differential, a transmission, a gas tank, etc.

Such indirect savings also come into play in architecture. Superwindows that block solar heat heat but insulate may cost more in a retrofit but may result in a total savings because the peak air conditioning load is reduced, requiring smaller compressors -- or sometimes even eliminating them.

AU Bite #6: The Long Cord

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University), Dec 2, 2009 - I wasn't poking at Autodesk's CEO, Carl Bass, when I asked him about the future of software licensing in the wake of Autodesk losing the Vernor case (See Software Resale on eBay: Court Sided with Reseller by Kenneth Wong). I basically don't understand software licensing as Autodesk is trying to define it. I was hoping the Vernor case would lead back to a simpler time - when software was yours forever, even to sell.

But the court decision had not swayed Carl. "There have been 2 or 3 other decisions that support licensing," answers Carl. And then, a bit obliquely, he adds that it doesn't really matter. "We're fighting yesterday's wars."

He mentions the future will change, that people won't need to pay for a box, a CD even...software will be all downloadable, used over the Web, software as a service... call it what you will.

What? AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor used over the web? Nothing loaded on the desktop? Not even a download?

I walk away from the Q&A scratching my head. Later on, I meet Brian Matthews, who runs Autodesk Labs, arguably the source of some of the most futuristic and exciting technology ever to come out of Autodesk.,

Brain reminds me of Twitch, a Labs "technology preview' which effectively runs AutoCAD over the web. Brian's laptop screen shows AutoCAD but he is running it through the hotel's Wi-Fi and then over a thousand miles of Internet to a remote machine. He moves a 3D model around, there is no jitteriness in the motion I would expect over such a connection.

So now Carl's remark seems to make sense. Autodesk seems to be paving the way towards users license its core software to use as needed, with most applications being able to be run over "a long cord," meaning a network.

AU Bite #5: Engineering Education Perfectly Logical -- But Wrong

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University), Dec 2, 2009 - Don't be misled by Amory Lovins' unassuming appearance -- he's a radical environmentist. Rocky Mountain Institute's chief scientist has been damning conventional engineering wisdom for 30 years. Now that being green is all the rage, Amory day has come. He is courted by big corporations -- like Autodesk -- who hire him to deliver those radical ideas from a big stage.

Amory looks at the process which delivers to us the automobile. We size the vehicle, create the body, then pick the engine. "Perfectly logical -- but wrong," he says, a phrase he is to repeat many times throughout yesterday's keynote.

Consider that only 13% of energy we put into a car gets to the wheels, says Lovins. Even less -- as scant 0.3% -- moves the driver. The rest of the energy is wasted. Most of the waste has to do with excess mass. RMI has plans for an SUV hybrid with a carbon fiber frame that gets 100 miles per gallon and does 0-60 in 7.1 seconds. It would cost about $2500 more than a conventional hybrid at "mid volume" production, a cost Lovins says will be recouped in one year of use.

Amory Lovins of RMI discusses his hybrid SUV which gets 100 mpg and 0-60mph in 7.1 seconds (though not at the same time)

Worried a carbon fiber frame could leave you squashed on the interstate? Lovins show a reel of Katherine Legge's 116 mph crash on the track in 2006, a crash so severe that her Champ Car appears to explode. A carbon fiber frame not only saved her, it allowed her to stand and wave to the crowd not long thereafter, seemingly unharmed. Oh, she did have some bruises on her legs. 

  

AU Bite #4: Cadalyst Magazine Makes a Comeback

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University), Dec 2, 2009 - Cadalyst magazine was back in print form with a December issue. Issues were being given away for free at AU but the plan is to sell future issues for $10. The magazine will be published quarterly. 

Nancy Johnson, editor in chief, with the December 2009 issue of Cadalyst.

Cadalyst used to be free for most subscribers and published monthly. It has been a tumultuous period for Cadalyst staff. Cadalyst was reduced to an issue every 2 months last year as a cost saving attempt, then abandoned by Questex Media earlier this year. Led by Seth Nichols, who formed Longitude Media, its current publisher, and Nancy Johnson, editor in chief, it has survived since then as a online publication.

Response from AU show floor has been positive, according to Nancy. Several people have said "I'll buy it," she tells me.

The magazine is available for $9.99 plus $2.25 for shipping -- if you are in the US. Foreign readers had better have really missed their magazine -- they have to pay a hefty $71 for shipping. "The price only helps pay for our print costs," says Seth.

Click here to find out more and buy issues on the Cadalyst site.

AU Bite #3: Think Outside the Pump

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University) , Dec 1, 2009 - When you hear someone say "think outside the box," don't you want to poke them in the eye? Usually, restraint prevails or there would be a lot of bosses with eye patches. But thanks to Amory Lovins, chief scientist at RMI, who is keynoting AU, I finally learn the origin of the phrase.

Remember this brain teaser: connect 9 dots with 4 lines but do not lift your pencil from the paper? The solution occurs only if you think outside the box -- the box being the outline of the 9 dots.

But according to Amory, even this solution is box-like. Who says the line has to go through the center of the dots and why do the dots have to be small? With large dots and off-center lines, we can connect all the dots with 4 lines.

In fact, over the years, Amory has seen several solutions with less that 4 lines. His favorite: a 9-year old girl who told him that with a really fat line, you can connect all the dots with one line.

What does this have to do with pumps? Stay tuned...

(image courtesy of www.mathpuzzle.com)

AU Bite #2: Make Mine Short, Fat and Straight

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University) , Dec 1, 2009 - Amory Lovins is doing the keynote for AU. If there was no sound, you might dismiss Amory as a very unhip character. Dweeby with a slight paunch, he looks like a nice enough older dad who mostly works all day as at his accounting job and get's involved with his family only enough to tell his teenagers that no one needs tattoos -- he got along all his life without one.

But if you choose to listen, Amory's ideas are the kind that would extricate us from the mess we are in, specifically our dependence on fossil fuels.

A case in point: Pipes. Most piping and process assemblies use right angle elbows. Simply making 45 degree joints saves considerable energy and cost since less power is now required to pump the fluid. Make pipes "straighter" and while you are doing that, why not make them bigger (losses decrease as in inverse cube of diameter). A smaller pump will save on capital costs and lifetime operating costs.

That's just one idea. Amory, who is "chief scientist" at the Rocky Mountain Institute, goes on to discuss cars. More on Amory's speech coming...

AU Bite #1: LIMA: Logged In, Mentally Absent

LAS VEGAS, NV (Autodesk University) , Dec 1, 2009 - It's the night after the full day of Autodesk University, which at 5500+ attendees (Autodesk's official number) is still the biggest gathering of CAD users anywhere in the world. Later on I heard Autodeskers say it was over 6,000.

Autodesk is also quite proud of the 16,000 who have signed up to attend "AU Virtual." There are video and audio feeds available for free for those who elected to "attend" but not to travel to Las Vegas. Though the idea of giving Las Vegas a miss will sound quite appealing to many -- and a great relief to the spouses who would have been left behind -- I have to wonder how many of those in "attendance" are actually paying attention. In a Q&A session this afternoon with Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, not one of the virtual attendees was heard from despite several opportunities.

Being in the office and trying to virtually attend a show has many limitations. When you are away from the office, your boss or coworkers won't bother you (much). But if you are just tuning into an AU feed... Work must go on. There are meetings, emails, conversations, coffee breaks, bathroom breaks, and more.

Again, it is proved that there is no substitute for being somewhere -- in your entirety.