autodesk

Autodesk Inventor Fusion is a Mac application for creating 3D CAD designs. This is not a stripped-down product meant to give you a taste of a much more expensive tool, but a free full-featured product of its own. The download is sizable at 740MB but installation on our MacBook Pro went quickly and easily. Once installed, Autodesk Inventor Fusion requires a bit of a learning curve to use effectively, but that's to be expected from a product such as this one.

The process of designing with Autodesk Inventor Fusion begins with the 2D sketch. A set of simple and … Read more

What do Elon Musk, Leap Motion, Microsoft Surface and Windows 8, Autodesk 123D, and Dow Solar's PowerHouse Solar Shingles have in common?

They are all among the winners of Popular Mechanics magazine's eighth Breakthrough Awards. Awarded each year by a panel of the magazine's editors, the honors go to people and products that are seen to be leading the world of science and commerce forward.

This year's product winners are: The North Face Powder Guide ABS Vest and Backpack; the Lytro camera; Autodesk 123D; Microsoft Surface and Windows 8; Ford's 1-liter EcoBoost engine; Dow PowerHouse … Read more

Autodesk has signed an agreement to acquire Socialcam, the popular Facebook video-sharing app, for approximately $60 million, the two companies revealed today.

Autodesk, a company that creates 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, will focus on helping the startup grow. This transaction is expected to close soon.

"Autodesk will prioritize support for the existing Socialcam community, while investing in scaling the platform and developing a more comprehensive set of tools for Socialcam users," the company said in a press release. "Autodesk also plans to use the Socialcam platform to help make its Academy Award-winning technology for professional … Read more

Have a hit flash game on the PC? Autodesk has a way to quickly and easily get it on the smartphone.

Last week, the company unveiled the latest version of its Scaleform software, a tool used by programmers to make games for consoles and, increasingly, smartphones. In fact, the newest version has more features dedicated to the mobile environment, a reflection of the growing importance of that market.

I spoke with Autodesk executives Mark Stevens and Frank Delise about the new software and got their thoughts on the gaming industry as a whole.

Scaleform started as a tool to help … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Since 2006, Maker Faire has offered tens of thousands of people an annual celebration of the best and brightest in the do-it-yourself movement.

But while everyone from individual tinkerers who have built small rockets to two people doing amazing things with Diet Coke and Mentos to paper airplane masters and crafters making magic out of felt has had a venue for the last five years to showcase their innovative projects, there's never been a forum for the growing number of people and companies that are developing the new business platforms that are merging manufacturing and making. … Read more

If you're a fan of America's long and storied history of great engineering, the National Park Service has got something for you.

On Monday, the park service's Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Autodesk and kubit will announce the technological process of documenting these structures, a process that resulted in a broad collection of 3D imagery of projects like the Space Shuttle Discovery, as well as NASA launching pads, famous bridges, and more. The imagery was used to generate what are known as "point clouds" of data that, together, show a 3D version of the object. … Read more

Techies are all abuzz about 3D printing. Imagine turning your photographs into 3D models. Autodesk recently unveiled two free pieces of software that enable users to do just that.

The software, called 123D Catch and 123D Make, creates a 3D model of your images, which can then be sent to a 3D printer or can be constructed out of cardboard as a template. SmartPlanet recently talked to Autodesk to see how it all works.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "Print 3D models out of your pictures."

Related SmartPlanet links

SAN FRANCISCO--You may not know CAD, but if you've got a computer, you can now start creating 3D models.

That's the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company's existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.

Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

Consumer advocates are up in arms over a recent ruling by a federal court of appeals in Seattle. The decision, Vernor v. Autodesk (PDF), held that the terms of an end-user licensing agreement, or EULA, can change the sale of commercial software into a mere license, in this case a license that prohibits users from reselling their copy of the software.

The case involved an eBay seller named Timothy Vernor. Vernor bought several outdated copies of Autodesk's AutoCAD program from a business that had originally purchased the … Read more