Imagine walking a design site before it’s ever built, with grading, buildings, and utilities unfolding around you in full context. Immersive Digital Workplaces make that possible, turning project models into shared experiences that improve communication and bring teams into alignment before construction begins. In this fast-paced, high-level session, three voices from civil design, immersive technology, and construction will share insights from the field. Rather than a technical deep dive, this session offers a big-picture look at how immersive Digital Workplaces are bridging disciplines, reducing errors, and clarifying complex data throughout the project lifecycle. When stakeholders can visualize a design in its environment, they are empowered to make faster, more confident decisions. Join us to explore how immersive workflows support better outcomes from concept through construction.

University College London at Here East, a new manufacturing center in east London opened in 2018, hosts a new master’s degree in design for manufacture uniquely within a school of architecture. Equipped with industrial robots, computer numerical control (CNC) milling and turning machines for fabrication and structural frames, large-scale metrology, and climate chambers for testing, UCL at Here East strives to cultivate an environment with students at the interface between a design studio and the point of industrial production. How might the well-established methods for manufacturing in automotive and aerospace be used in construction? This session will present an educator’s approach of “model-make-measure,” showing how the course connects students with the properties of materials used to construct buildings and the fabrication processes these materials undergo existing as nominal digital design intent. Examples will show how this approach has suggested novel design outcomes and ways of working, offering skills transferrable to the construction industry.

The traditional method of building walls using studs is labor and time intensive, and results in a fundamentally flawed product, with a substantial percentage of the wall being thermally and acoustically bridged. BamCore has developed a wood-bamboo hybrid panel that is structural and load bearing. It enables the firm to build walls from panels that are prefabbed to customer specifications. It eliminates 80-90% of the internal framing, along with the thermal and acoustic bridges that framing creates in traditional walls. It also reduces the need for hard-to-find job-site labor. This class will cover the design steps we use, CAD-CAM workflows, the marking of MEP locations, and our job-site app, providing a comprehensive view of our industrialized construction processes. We will also talk about the tremendous sustainability of the BamCore system, which comes both from the use of incredibly fast-growing timber bamboo and also the dramatically improved thermal envelopes that our walls provide.

In this class, we’ll cover four topics of automotive manufacturing: mold simulation and CAM, factory planning, automated manufacturing, and emerging design and manufacturing technology. We’ll begin with the challenges that automotive tooling companies face, and how the use of new technology and increased machine utilization can address the needs of more-complex and accurate tooling. From there we’ll move to factory planning and ways in which to address the challenges that drive change in manufacturing facilities; the problems that arise because of change; and the use of a unified digital model to manage this. We’ll then look at how manufacturing productivity can be increased using intelligent automation, and how it can improve consistency and component reliability. And we’ll finish discussing the use of emerging technology like generative design and additive and hybrid manufacturing, as manufacturers look to improve performance and efficiency of vehicles to meet sustainability and regulatory requirements.

Often times, we hear from users that they don't really understand how to get started with Generative Design in Fusion 360. Questions like these regularly come up: What types of problems is it good for? What knowledge do I need to get started? How do I get access? How much will it cost? We would like to take this opportunity to help set up a strong foundation for how best to get started with Generative Design in Fusion 360. We will provide answers to these questions and many more during this session. You should expect to leave this session with a clear understanding of how to put Generative Design into action on your first project.

Horizontal machining centers (HMCs) have many advantages, and some disadvantages, over their counterpart. Many struggle with efficiently programming or getting started programming HMCs. This Fusion 360 instructional class will advise different workflows on setting up and programming an HMC. We'll demonstrate tips and tricks to make programming and machining times quicker and more efficient. We'll showcase several example posts and operation property modifications you can utilize to make the programmer’s and operator’s jobs much easier. With these methods and a bit of machining knowledge, you'll have more confidence in programming and optimizing the efficiency of your HMC.

As a longtime Inventor user, the speaker found Fusion 360 software interesting, but also challenging. The workflows were close enough to Inventor to be easily accessible, but different enough to be challenging. And just how does this cloud storage thing work anyway? But the speaker kept at it enough to the point of comfort in either platform. So why bother? Besides the obvious answer that learning new software is in their job description, the speaker found that it’s a great platform for easily doing many simulation analyses. And when they started exploring the 3D machining tools, they found the same thing applied there. Plus, it's easy enough to acquire for home use. So, if you haven’t tried Fusion 360, but you know Inventor or a similar platform, spend an hour to learn the workflows, and save many more!

Fusion 360 software now offers a simple workflow for programming industrial robot arms. Anyone familiar with post-processing machine code from Fusion 360 can now create robot code in the same way. During this lab, users will use the manufacturing space from Fusion 360 to generate robot native code that can drive industrial robot arms. First, we will show a generic robot workflow within Fusion 360 that will post with the ABB post processor. Then, we will cover exporting code into a virtual robot simulator, ABB RobotStudio, for validation. We’ll then pivot to recordings at Autodesk Technology Centers, explaining calibration of various coordinate systems localizing the robot arm and robot operation for milling applications. We’ll introduce other applications that participants can use with this workflow, such as welding and additive. Finally, we will share various case studies from Autodesk Technology Center residents and customers utilizing Fusion 360 for industrial robots.

For the last couple of years, the speaker has taught generative design classes at Autodesk University. The first years, we did an “Introduction to Generative Design” lecture; last year we did a lab showing the process and setup for applying a generative design to a part. This year we want to look at the results that you get from running the part and talk about how to interpret the information that you get back. We also want to look at how to download the desired result as a solid model, modify the file for any needed cleanup, and use it in an assembly. We are going to start by submitting a file to Generative Design in Fusion 360 software, then we’ll look at the results that are returned for strength, weight, and even cost. We will review sorting the results to get the best possible option for what we want, then we will download the file and talk about what you can do with the file. We’ll finish up by talking about changes to Generative Design in Fusion 360 that have come out this year.

The alarming trend of schedule and cost overruns in conjunction with unprecedented market forces has led to a demand for innovation. Among these results, there has been tremendous progress in the elimination, through automation, of the 4.2% of total capital expenditure that—according to NIST GCR 04-867, National Institute of Standards and Technology U.S. Department of Commerce Technology Administration—is the result of poor project handover. With the Forge platform, as much as 40% of engineering time can be eliminated by enabling rapid access to current project information for engineers, vendors, fabricators, and other stakeholders. Forge software has also enabled digital workflows for lists, reports, logs, scheduling, requests for information, and construction planning during the engineering and design phase, which has, in turn, led to automated construction work packages. You’ll hear about these amazing developments in this lecture.

It is quite common for companies to manage many projects for one site; however, it requires that the design documents are contained within one entire project to enable consistency in documentation. The documents can be managed in such a way that the projects can all be run concurrently, but updating occurs in one location. In turn, this process enables external use of the data, such as in Autodesk® Navisworks® software or database software that is also managed as a single project/site entity. You will learn how to contain the integrity of site information, such as P&IDs, models, and isometrics. We will outline the requirements and benefits of managing projects in this type of system.

The South China University of Technology (SCUT) robotic team never stop seeking brand-new solutions for improved efficiency and quality workflow from design to manufacturing. Zhen-Po led his team, the South China Tigers, to a first-place RoboMaster 2019 regional championship through the adoption of generative design tools in Fusion 360 software. Zhen-Po was hired by the RoboMaster’s organizer, DJI, an electronics manufacturer in China after graduation. Combining 27 parts to only a single part for the stabilizer mount achieved a final weight of 170 grams—a 42% weight reduction compared to the original computer numerical control (CNC) process. Reducing the material waste while enhancing the strength by generativity adding support, therefore reducing the mass of the robot while ensuring structural integrity, the mechanical team’s entire iterative cost was reduced by 80%, which would not have been possible before.

AutoCAD Plant 3D Isometrics software is a powerful tool for turning your complex plant piping system models into accurate contractor drawings. This class takes a hands-on approach to customization of isometric drawing output from AutoCAD Plant 3D software and goes hand in hand with the use cases outlined in the Getting the Most Out of Plant 3D Isometrics tech talk. To start, this lab will cover the creation of a new iso style. Then we'll continue into the basic customizations found in the Project Setup interface. From there we'll learn to integrate a custom title block and ways to populate its attributes with project data. We'll then tackle more complex output by delving deeper to make advanced tweaks directly in the configuration files. Finally, we'll wrap up by generating an isometric drawing using the newly created iso style.

As technical professionals, we spend years in school and then years studying for licensing exams, and we spend our entire careers pouring over code books and technical manuals. By the time we reach management positions, we are technical experts and excellent project managers . . . but we never learned how to manage people. As it turns out, soft skills are just as important as technical skills, and in the current world climate, much of these management activities are now happening at a distance. This session will offer a forum to discuss various management skills and techniques that will help us all improve our management skills, especially in a remote environment.

Checklists save lives. Surgeons and airline pilots use checklists to make sure they don’t miss important steps in surgery or during flight. Checklists may save the life of an AutoCAD Plant 3D software project as well. This class will cover key steps for getting an AutoCAD Plant 3D software project underway successfully. We’ll also look at how to set up the project directories and drawings for best practices’ use of external references and for utilizing a plant coordinate system. This in turn enables us to overcome the large coordinates issue and actually work with a state plane coordinate system (SPCS)—and far from 0,0 origin! We’ll also demonstrate checklist steps for incorporating models from other Autodesk, Inc., products such as Revit software and Advance Steel software; for successfully generating isometrics and orthographics; and for using an advanced feature in isometrics that creates these isos in the SPCS. You’ll be provided with all of these checklists as a way to retain this information and to expand on them for your AutoCAD Plant 3D software projects.

You may have thought Inventor Nesting software is just geared toward sheet metal components. Learn how to use Inventor Nesting for other types of components and materials. Even if these designs come from AutoCAD software, other 3D CAD applications, IGES/STEP, or they reside in a DXF file format, this session will cover how to use different file formats in your nesting process. From setting up your raw materials, templates, and nesting studies to exporting the results back to your computer numerical control (CNC) process, this class will clearly demonstrate that Inventor Nesting isn't just about sheet metal. In addition, this class will offer an extra bonus demonstrating how the Inventor Nesting interface can be used to optimize a saw cut list and costing study for your bar stock material

In this session, attendees will get a look at how Generative Design in Fusion 360 software can help them improve the way they design and make engineering decisions. We will review the development progress we made throughout the year, and highlight why those features were key to improving how users capitalized on Generative Design. We will also look ahead to how we will be investing in improving our workflows, as well as growing our physics support to expand the types of problems that can easily be solved with Generative Design in Fusion 360. Lastly, we will show a sample of some of the successful customer projects that have been executed throughout the year.

Utilizing BIM for facilities management (FM) has been the utopian dream of BIM enthusiasts since the inception of BIM. A fully parametric BIM can provide immediate access to information from mechanical component types and periodic maintenance records, to fixture and equipment inventories, to seating charts and disaster recovery plans. However, a closer look at the process of delivering FM-BIM shows that a gap exists in integrating facility-related information with intelligent models for efficient handover to support facility management operations. There are many technical challenges posed due to the lack of interoperability of multiple software involved. Also, there are challenges in the process of data gathering due to the current contractual framework. This presentation will take a deeper dive in understanding the process and technology challenges in creating useful FM intelligent models and will propose a road map to turn the utopian dream of BIM for FM into reality.

Micromachining is a notoriously demanding process that requires precision beyond levels that most machine shops are comfortable with. However, any shop can take on micromachining jobs with the right cutting tools, machines, accessories, and some knowledge on the differences between traditional machining and the nuances that micromachining brings with it. In this session, we will dive into strategies for successful micromachining, covering both micromilling and microturning applications. We will talk about cutting-tool selection and how it can differ from traditional machining standards, how miniature tooling reacts differently in the cut than larger tooling, and ways that you can take your machines to the next level with high-speed spindles and accessories.

Using a multiaxis machine tool is a great method for reducing the machining time when manufacturing components. This presentation will give an overview of how this software can speed up the process of programming multiaxis computer numerical control (CNC) machines to manufacture complex components. The focal point of this presentation will be showing how CAM can simplify the machining of complex components, while minimizing mistakes in the process and increasing productivity.