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Last fall, nearly 12,000 building technologists, architects, engineers, manufacturers, and related professionals descended on downtown San Diego for Autodesk University, the annual gathering organized by the eponymous developer of “design and make” technology.

Among the exciting news items revealed: Autodesk has become an official partner of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and will undertake efforts to help Los Angeles host the summer spectacle by revitalizing infrastructure and upgrading venues without the need to build new ones. The three-day-long conference also had plenty to offer by way of workshops demonstrating new software and highly choreographed keynotes by industry leaders, with an expo floor, to boot.

Following are the tools, presentations, and projects that caught RECORD’s eye at this year’s edition.

All images courtesy the developer

Project Bernini

Although not yet available to the public, attendees of the conference had a chance to test Project Bernini, Autodesk’s experimental generative-AI model. Using simple prompts—including text and sketches—it produces 3D objects. Pictured is one result created by typing “Corinthian column.” Although Bernini (named for the Renaissance sculptor and architect) may need to spend more time studying the classical orders, given the two-word input, the limited data that the model is trained on, and its relative infancy, the output is astounding. It can’t design a full-scale building either, but so-called “kit-bashers” and dabblers in architectural ornament may be interested in its capabilities.
autodesk.com

FieldPrinter 2

Architects spend a lot of time drafting—laboring over details, establishing hierarchy, organizing layers, and adding labels. But, in the hands of a sloppy builder, all that painstaking work quickly goes out the window. FieldPrinter 2 (nicknamed “Dusty”) is a battery-operated robot that prints line work directly onto a job-site floor. Guided by a tripod-mounted laser, the autonomous unit delineates the location of walls and different materials to the nearest 1/16 of an inch, navigates around obstacles, and can print written instructions. What more could you want from a friendly robot with two cartoonish eyes?
dustyrobotics.com

Tandem

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has long set the standard for complex undertakings. Now Autodesk Tandem allows design teams to transform detailed 3D models of their completed projects into so-called “digital twins”—virtual representations of physical buildings that use data to track performance in real time. Charles Thompson, an associate at Quinn Evans, explained how his firm’s meticulous renovation of the Michigan State Capitol benefits from the software (pictured), which allows maintenance staff, architects, and engineers to visualize information gathered from sensors (such as temperature, humidity, and occupancy), mitigate leaks, and monitor the building’s overall health. Especially fascinating is Tandem’s “Warehouse View,” which allows users to isolate elements, like windows or doors, and calculate how much space replacements might require in a storage facility prior to installation.
autodesk.com

Forma

Decisions made in a project’s early phases can have long-term consequences, both good and bad. Autodesk Forma, a cloud-based software tailored for concept and schematic design, allows architects to quickly geolocate models with real-world data. Its newly integrated embodied-carbon analysis tools are especially helpful in determining the most effective massing strategies, optimal orientations, and building materials to reach sustainability goals. Kevin Walsh, an architect at Nikken Sekkei, and Ellis Herman, senior product manager at Autodesk, illustrated how different forms—all with the same gross floor area and height cap—can be evaluated and color-coded to estimate final carbon footprint (pictured). Forma also easily connects with Revit, Rhino, and Dynamo for cross-platform workflows
autodesk.com

Envision

Chaos, maker of the V-Ray engine and real-time virtual reality renderer Enscape, debuted Envision at Autodesk University. This tool gives architectural-visualization specialists the ability to import textured models and quickly populate them with passing cars, walking and seated people, and procedurally generated flora, from an extensive integrated library. The software produces scenes that help architects relate narratives and offer clients the ability to better envision virtual spaces. Also worth noting: V-Ray 7’s new Gaussian Splat feature, which easily renders large swaths of context, urban and rural, without the burdensome amount of processing power required by point-cloud models.
enscape3d.com

The Volterra Challenge

For nearly a decade, the Volterra-Detroit Foundation has partnered with Case Technologies, Autodesk, and others to digitally reconstruct architecturally significant sites in Volterra, Italy. Most recently, the foundation has explored the gamification of these efforts, using Epic’s Unreal Engine to render the city’s Roman theater. Within a virtual environment, participants move through and around present-day ruins (pictured, captured by LiDAR) and, after reaching certain checkpoints, travel back in time to perambulate the theater as scholars believe it originally looked. Balancing “artistry with historical accuracy” is a key challenge, said technologist Brey Tucker, who practiced architecture earlier in his career and spearheaded this latest effort. It’s a fascinating investigation of video game technology in the service of research, education, and historic preservation.
volterra-detroit.org