Technology is transforming the way we design and construct everything, from buildings to cities and the infrastructure that connects them together. The rise of reality capture, cloud computing, gamification, and social and mobile platforms as well as building information modeling is dramatically extending how the AEC industry creates value. But product and service advances are by themselves not enough. To drive innovative projects, we need to move from designing objects to designing complete systems. Join leading industry innovators as they demonstrate the power of collaborative, integrated, holistic design and construction.

This class shows the versatility of the laser scanner when it is applied to complex construction projects, and the relevance of point cloud visualization for different purposes. We explore solutions in various construction phases covering clash detections, cinematic studies, quality control, volume calculation, monitoring of execution during construction, urban environment studies, and hoisting sequence, just to name a few. Also, we explain the process we used with Autodesk® software where the point cloud and the intelligent model can deliver an extraordinarily accurate solution for better decision making.

Learn more about productivity-increasing functions and methods for sketches, parts, assemblies, drawings, calculations, point clouds, and the reuse of 2D data.

This class will examine emerging technologies that support the design and construction industry. Technologies we will discuss may include augmented reality, immersive environments, fabrication and prefabrication, mobile computing, 3D printing, and laser scanning.

Procedurally generated content is more and more interesting for companies and creators. In this session, we will cover some of the ways you can use scanned data to create modular assets and later to teach AI to build structures the same way that we the people do. In the presentation, we’ll walk through the process of acquiring scanned data, calculating it into 3D models and textures using ReCap reality capture software and cleaning and splitting the assets into modules. We’ll cover how this module can be used for procedural content and what the things are that we creators need to look after.

Watch, experience, and understand how it's possible to create realistic environments and architecture with millions of polygons that can run on a mobile device.

This class will offer a deep explanation of the real worlds we need to recreate, and how to decide between modeling techniques, lighting systems to advantage of the mobile devices capabilities.

The first part will unveil the power of the techniques, showing in real time how a mobile device can handle a huge street and a detailed store with millions of polygons.

The second part will start with a brief analysis about the sort of information we need to create a huge environment suitable to be transformed into virtual reality. Professional pictures, or mobile cameras? Photogrammetry? When and how? We'll cover all the details you need, and questions you have.

Finally, we'll look at the incredible tools in 3ds Max to handle all sorts of big data, and to optimize it for mobile and virtual reality.

You'll walk away with an actionable approach for current and future virtual reality systems.

Not everyone is aware of the risks and hazards associated with complicated construction operations, even the professionals who perform those tasks every day. Special training is required before commencing this dangerous work. But does traditional training actually influence the behaviors of people when faced with an unsafe condition? Most research points toward the culture of the construction worker as the primary barrier to safer construction sites. To change these behaviors we must use more effective means of communicating safe and unsafe practices to positively influence people's instinctive decisions. This is how our industry can capitalize on Building Information Modeling (BIM)—to enable visual storytelling. All contractors need to add this capacity to their toolkits. This class will focus on how you can develop models and use them to explain safety hazards and procedures in a safe virtual environment, and we’ll explore 3 fundamentals of visual storytelling to help change safety behaviors.

This class will be a 60-minute demonstration that uses 2 actual infrastructure projects as a backdrop showing the synergy between Civil 3D software and InfraWorks software while emphasizing using data from native Esri data sources that are needed from early stages to construction phase. The geographic information system (GIS) emphasis in the demonstration will cover traditional import, FDO connection, the display manager, and geodatabase support, but, more importantly, it will hone in on the new tools available in InfraWorks and Civil 3D as a result of the new partnership between Esri and Autodesk. In this class, the new technology will be applied to real-life project situations, including early predesign changes and challenges, with changing data during the project lifecycle. Project data for the projects will include reality capture, planimetrics, geotechnical, utilities, and transportation.

Wales, Alaska, is the most westerly inhabited village in North America. Having easy access to the site is not feasible if you should happen to forget what it looks like—not to mention that it’s covered in snow for 75% of the year. So let’s build a road over 10 miles of permafrost with the use of 12,000 acres of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data. Using InfraWorks 360 software, we’ll work in 4D and adjust the road location over the permafrost. Then we’ll use InfraWorks 360 Hydrology to determine the watersheds and culvert locations, and size them for us. This session features InfraWorks 360 and AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Do you need near real-time feedback on your construction project?Is scanning the way to achieve it?We think so.

This Instructional Demo will highlight the flow of data that could be experienced immediately after a slab pour.Point cloud data will be optimised using a combination of Revit, APL, Dynamo and BIM 360 Layout.

You will already know that slab deviations in relation to point clouds can be displayed graphically in Revit, but what else can you do with that information?

What if you could send back the out-of-tolerance locations to your team in the field and enable them to mark the areas requiring remediation on the ground semi-automatically?

We will show you how this could work for you.

Join Hayden Griffin as he presents a case study in laser scanning from site data collection to the issuing of BIM to client for fabrication and construction works. During this presentation, he will recount the initial journey from being a laser scan novice through to delivery of projects on time and budget. Hayden will provide in-depth insights into the methods used to provide deliverables to clients and looks at utilising the array of tools in the Design Suite range to achieve these outcomes.

Point clouds are a very important component in current infrastructure projects, and it is vital to know how to handle them for successful project execution. This class will provide all the necessary information to import, process, and extract information from point cloud data in Autodesk, Inc., architecture, engineering, and construction products. More specifically, this class will teach surface/terrain generation from high-resolution point cloud data in InfraWorks software and demonstrate how to use it in AutoCAD Civil 3D software. The class will also cover how to model city asset features to create a virtual city model, and how to bring those city assets into a design product (such as AutoCAD Civil 3D software) as COGO points. This class does not have any prerequisite. Any knowledge of InfraWorks software, AutoCAD Civil 3D software, and point clouds will be helpful in understanding the class material. At the end of this class, attendees will be able to use point cloud data with ease and confidence for their modeling and design projects. This session features InfraWorks 360, AutoCAD Civil 3D, and ReCap 360.

West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) and Transcend Spatial Solutions completed a pilot project to collect mobile LiDAR (light detection and ranging) for 281 miles of roadway in Huntington, West Virginia. The imagery and LiDAR data were collected in 5 days and processed to point clouds and corresponding video in 40 hours. Features were extracted by bringing the point clouds into InfraWorks software, where the terrain was processed, vertical features were classified, and feature modeling was used to extract features. The extracted features were loaded into a geodatabase and made accessible through WVDOT’s existing straight-line diagramming application called Road Analyzer. Other existing roadway characteristics and Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS)-related attributes are also available through the Road Analyzer interface. This class will outline the project objectives, approach, results, and next steps. We will include a demonstration of the imagery and point cloud viewer, as well as the straight-line diagramming environment. This session features InfraWorks 360 and AutoCAD Civil 3D. AIA Approved

In this class, Ronald Poelman, one of the world’s experts on reality capture technologies, will discuss a wide variety of capturing devices that exist today and some ongoing exciting future research. You will be introduced to all current methods to capture reality, learn about the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and get experts tips for using the devices and post-processing the data. The class will use a variety of examples to demonstrate where specific techniques are used and why.

Transportation engineers work every day to keep cities and people connected. But how do we keep transportation engineers connected so they can help successfully deliver projects? This class will focus on providing a workflow for hosting multidisciplinary transportation projects in BIM 360 software. We will start with project setup, including cleaning inherited files, folder structure, and drawing and model creation. We'll discuss the steps teams need to take to collaborate through effective data shortcut management, markups, issues, and model coordination. We'll examine collaboration techniques between roadway, utility, and structural designers working in Civil 3D software and architects working in Revit software. In addition, we will show how LIDAR data can be used using Navisworks software to complete the 3D model. Finally, we’ll summarize best practice tips and tricks that can aid design teams in the efficient management of projects. We'll use examples from a successful BIM 360 transportation project located in Toronto.

Why model as-built conditions when you can work directly with a high-resolution point cloud? In this very hands-on class we will stake out the foundations for a new addition to our Autodesk University (AU) classroom using a remarkably easy, cloud-enabled workflow. First, participants will import a point cloud of our AU classroom into Navisworks Manage software. We will then use Point Layout software to place points on a number of modeled objects that we intend to stake out as part of a small classroom renovation. The model will be shared with the field using BIM 360 Glue cloud service. Finally, we will connect the BIM 360 Layout iPad application to a robotic total station to enable field users to stake out and verify the exact position of the points. All of this will happen using a contextual model of our surroundings.

The Millennium Falcon really is a heap of junk. Well, it was when Han bought it from Lando; it took a lot of work to refurbish it so that it could do the Kessel run so quickly. Using point clouds, Point Layout software, BIM 360 Field software, and BIM 360 Glue software, Han and Chewie managed to get the restoration turned around in less time than anyone had turned around a rust-bucket spaceship before—and to a higher quality with all the documentation and testing recorded for reference whenever the hyperdrive didn't kick in. This class will echo the workflows in real life from renovation to moving and from the end of construction to handover into facilities management. This will be a tongue-in-cheek class with much of the humor of the 2012 Autodesk University class, Building the Death Star the Autodesk Way.

ReCap Photo is a cloud- connected high performance photogrammetry desktop application that allows digitizing reality using digital cameras.

The application can automatically turn a series of overlapping 2D photos of an object or a scene into a very high resolution and photo realistic textured 3D mesh model.

And it has the capability to process aerial images captured via UAV/Drones to create detailed engineering/survey grade data like mesh models, point clouds and ortho images that are geo-located. It supports features like specifying ground control points and geo-referenced coordinate systems.

With the introduction of the Reality Capture API on Forge, anyone can access the same powerful technology to convert digital images to 3D/2.5D models for various industrial use cases, leveraging cloud computing.

In this class, one will learn how to use the Reality Capture Web API with code samples to add highly-scalable photogrammetry capability to their desktop, web or mobile applications.

Can 2D wiring drawings and 3D mesh models play together? This class will explore the possibilities of using iPhone/iPad Pro LiDAR to create mesh models of substation assets in the field. In this case study, working with a utility customer, we scanned their substation wiring panels with an iPad and iPhone Pro. Next, we created mesh models in a ReCap Photo environment and connected it to its 2D drawings in AutoCAD Electrical software. Finally, we attached it as part of a lifecycle in Vault software. Capturing this data could allow engineers and designers to see the actual wiring in a model with their 2D wiring drawing. This can also allow snapshots of how the rack was wired at that point in time. We’ll go over the process of retrieving the data, the differences in hardware, exploring the advantages and shortcomings of the data retrieved and how we may further the process as the technology improves.