Join us for a session focused on managing the distribution and updating of your Fabrication database and profiles. We'll cover essential techniques to ensure smooth and efficient operations.

Have you ever been doing the same thing repeatedly in AutoCAD software and thought, “Shouldn’t it know what I’m doing by now?” Or maybe you spend too much time drafting and not enough time designing. AutoCAD is the gold standard—but maybe in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) it could be smarter. This is where you come in. The focus of this class is making AutoCAD more powerful. Not more buttons—smarter software. Think of the recent smart blocks, but go beyond that. There’s similar geometry we all draw whether you’re in civil, manufacturing, and so on. We’re forever drawing things parallel, perpendicular, tangent, or concentric. What if AutoCAD picked up on this and started to draw for us? Join us for a discussion with AutoCAD product managers Peter Qian and Can Anbarlilar. We’ll touch on the current progress on this initiative and then move to discussion, with Brian Levendowski mediating. Be a part of shaping the future of AutoCAD!

Why should you be using dynamic blocks? Quite simply, dynamic blocks can greatly reduce the number of blocks in your library, improving your efficiency. While it does take a little more time up front to create a dynamic block, the time saved on the back end makes it well worth the effort! Even better news: If you’re a proficient user of AutoCAD software, you should have no problem converting those boring static blocks into shiny new dynamic blocks.

AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP Schedules provide an exceptional opportunity to elevate your drawings, enabling effortless creation of tables that highlight essential information about selected objects within your building model. Boost productivity and transform construction documentation workflows with ease, requiring only a minimal time investment. Unlock long-term success as the return on investment steadily grows over time. This proposal advocates for replacing outdated manual methods, such as relying on spreadsheets, with AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP scheduling capabilities. This transition enables the Automation, Integration, & Customization of tags and tables, ensuring they remain consistently synchronized with the building model. By removing the need for separate updates to drawings and spreadsheets, this streamlined approach unifies a fragmented, error-prone workflow into a seamless and automated system. Alongside exploring the schedules feature, take a moment to discover the latest updates in AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP 2026.

Turning a design-stage MEP BIM model into a fabrication-ready (LOD 400) model using Fabrication MEP parts is one of the most critical and complex phases in the project lifecycle. Once IFC files and construction drawings are handed off, the responsibility shifts to general contractors and subcontractors to ensure constructability, meet engineering standards, and align with fabrication requirements. This session will demonstrate how Autodesk Forma , AutoCAD or Revit with Fabrication MEP parts, curated MEP database sets, custom scripts and powerful add-ins enhance model refinement. You’ll discover how early modeling decisions reduce waste, improve rerouting, and accelerate field installation. By resolving fabrication needs in the model, teams reduce material use and empower crews with ready-to-build content. Whether you're a GC or MEP subcontractor working toward high-detail prefab, this session offers the tools to bridge design and construction empower by the cloud base tools.

Explore a practical journey with Autodesk Forma through an immersive hands-on training session. This 90-minute interactive technical workshop will immerse you in the world of CAD drawings within Autodesk Forma. You'll master the "closed-loop" system, seamlessly adding and receiving markups through the cloud. Discover advanced integration techniques, including incorporating markups as traces into your AutoCAD drawings. From fundamental concepts to advanced features, this session equips you with critical skills to optimize your CAD workflow, enhance communication, and accelerate project success within the Autodesk Forma ecosystem.

Discover how leading MEP contractors are using fabrication metrics—powered by Autodesk tools and Stratus—to improve throughput, reduce waste, and drive continuous improvement. This session will explore key shop KPIs—like labor use, equipment leveling, and station productivity—and show how to track and act on them using connected workflows, from order to delivery. Learn how to surface real-time data from Autodesk tools on the shop floor—like Autodesk Forma, Fabrication CAMduct software, and Stratus—to identify bottlenecks, improve predictability, and build a high-performance culture. Whether you’re starting your data journey or refining an existing system, you’ll walk away with practical strategies to scale your use of metrics and improve production output.

Why continue to struggle with outdated design tools when a more efficient approach is within reach? Embracing fabrication tools—like Fabrication Parts in Revit software—P&ID Modeler for Revit allows engineers to focus on engineering rather than spending excessive time on modeling. By starting with fabrication, designers can model faster and seamlessly transfer design intent Mechanical systems that actually work! This “backward” process significantly enhances efficiency, enabling engineers to dedicate more time to engineering rather than laborious modeling. The approach also accelerates the design-to-construction workflow and proactively resolves MEP coordination challenges—even before trade partners are onboarded. As its adoption grows, this strategy is proving to be a game-changer for speeding up the engineering design process and optimizing project delivery.

It's back—and it is time to keep moving your AutoCAD MEP software to places you have never been before. This fast-paced class will cover powerful new features of AutoCAD MEP 2013 and move into maximizing your project and drawing templates. We will present an overview of new content features and cover working with Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-exported models. Come to the class so you can take a breath, get ahead of the competition, walk away with the latest version of my template—and stay supercharged!

Forma Data Management is a cloud-based common data environment on the Autodesk Forma platform, facilitating concurrent collaboration between multiple users. Does working together on the same project pose challenges for the team, particularly when multiple users are working on the same set of drawings? Are you experiencing any synchronization issues while collaborating on the same project drawings? Do you encounter issues when notifications about one user's edits are not sent to the other users? Collaboration becomes significantly more productive when the system operates as anticipated and delivers instant results. With Forma Data Management project synchronization enhancement in AutoCAD Architecture software and AutoCAD MEP toolset now resolves the challenges and alleviates our burdens. The projects hosted on Forma Data Management now support automatic synchronization of changes across multiple users. Now two or more users can collaborate on a project across offices and locations. Users can identify if a drawing is available for editing or locked by others.

Why struggle with your current outdated workflows to develop design documents? You can integrate fabrication level modeling into your current workflow and be more efficient—spending more time on engineering and less time on modeling! The current industry standard for engineering firms that use Revit software involves focusing on the out-of-the-box content. Firms struggle with the limitations around modeling advanced systems in Revit. If used correctly, Fabrication Parts for Revit can eliminate the amount of rework that is generated around using Revit design systems. Firms have adopted the approach to build better content and develop stronger templates. But still, modeling systems such as plumbing can be labor intensive. Modeling plumbing systems in AutoCAD Plant 3D software or AutoCAD MEP software can help better bridge the gap for those who struggle with plumbing in Revit.

Keeping your projects on schedule, addressing issues promptly, and staying within budget is a significant challenge. This session will explore our strategies and tools for effectively achieving these project goals—from the design phase to field installation.

With many projects being vastly different from one another, it can be hard to figure out what exactly your BIM (Building Information Modeling) and virtual design and construction (VDC) needs will be for your project. AECOM Hunt has had the fortune to work on and coordinate many different projects. We have learned that, while perhaps similar, no 2 projects or teams are the same, and that each must be handled uniquely. During this course we will share our experiences on 4 projects: Little Caesars Arena, home of the Detroit Redwings; Aloft Magnificent Mile, Chicago; Mount Carmel Hospital, Grove City; and Kite Pharma-Cell Therapy. Other topics will include BIM (Building Information Modeling) stages such as coordination, completion, and turnover.

Learn how field teams can complete construction layout ten times faster with a higher degree of accuracy, while providing more depth of information used for building at a higher quality level directly from your AutoCAD or Revit models. Hear directly from a large general contractor about experiences delivering improved project quality with better collaboration from design to layout to construction, and get a live demonstration of the Dusty Robotics FieldPrinter system.

Throughout 15 years of collaboration, Windover Construction and Endicott College have embarked on more than 25 design-build projects, transforming the campus located on Boston's North Shore to accommodate growing student enrollment. This partnership has seen the construction of new classrooms, laboratories, and residence halls, as well as a student center, a main dining hall, and an auditorium. The trust Endicott placed in Windover empowered the firm to become a steward of the college's growth, interweaving the institution's history and vision into each project. This case study will explore the digital transformation journey from scan-to-building information modeling (BIM), digital handover, and the innovative use of digital twins and IoT to enable real-time data collection, enhancing facilities management, and paving the way for a smarter, more efficient campus. Join us for an insightful exploration featuring perspectives from Endicott College's facilities director, the virtual design and construction (VDC) team behind the digital-twin models, and an Autodesk expert.

Some consider AutoLISP, like Latin, to be a "dead" language. Nothing could be further from the truth! AutoLISP is an API built into AutoCAD software that's highly accessible, easy to write, and easy to debug. It provides comprehensive access to the underlying AutoCAD engine, allowing you to create new commands that can automate many tasks and change the way you interact with the program on a daily basis. We will demonstrate how to write a series of small, useful programming examples that provide examples of solid coding techniques—combined with unique, purpose-driven functionality for production drafting and design—which you can build upon after the session into larger and more complex routines. Even with little programming experience, participants will gain a wealth of knowledge about how to use the AutoLISP API to automate daily tasks, and how to use AutoCAD and its associated applications to increase productivity.

Come and see what's new in AutoCAD software.

This panel is back with a new list of topics to discuss. Learn from the experiences of this panel of diverse CAD managers who are widely respected as leaders in their field. Hear their unique perspectives and solutions to challenges faced by CAD managers from organizations of all sizes and backgrounds. Topics include understanding CAD standards, keeping up with rapidly changing technology, managing users, communicating with management and other nontechnical people, budgeting, and much more. There will also be time for questions and answers when you can ask these experts the questions you’ve always wanted answered. Bring your questions and get answers from 4 CAD managers who have been there and done that.

This class will discuss the methodologies of learning in a CAD environment, regardless of discipline, product, or specialization. Shaun Bryant will take you through methods of learning, from traditional classroom, office, and home environments to the mobile world of laptops, tablets, and smartphones. He will discuss various methods of how to retain what you have learned, and how to reuse that knowledge to work toward Autodesk Certification and other professional qualifications in your discipline. So, as Shaun will ask you in this class: How do YOU learn?