Finally, Autodesk has said to me that IoT is definitely in the center of their radar screen but what is there to show for it? Sure, IoT has a mechanical component, but it’s a lot more than just that, and it will become more prominent in Fusion over time. Then came the late arrival of Inventor for 3D design, but that’s story for another time. Previously, and I’m dating myself, but it wasn’t all that long ago that Autodesk had dedicated manufacturing products, such as Mechanical Desktop and AutoCAD Mechanical (I was a big fan of both at the time). Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but this focus left a lot for mechanical design/manufacturing customers wondering how committed the company was to them for the long haul.Īfter making a big noise about its investments in manufacturing, the company has divested itself of some interesting manufacturing products and technologies for a variety of reasons.
I personally was glad to see manufacturing return as a focus of Autodesk recently, because for the past couple years a focus has been, in my opinion, AEC and rebuilding the world. Some forays have been successful, some not so much, but that hasn’t stopped the company from trying. I spent most of the week in Toronto at Autodesk Accelerate, a conference that discussed Autodesk’s manufacturing strategy going forward. The theme of the conference was “The Future of Making Things” (at least according to Autodesk), and in large part Autodesk succeeded in getting this message across with its Fusion 360.įor a long time Autodesk has tried to be everything to a wide range of industries – from manufacturing to mapping to architecture to entertainment. Tags: Additive Industries, additive manufacturing, AM, America Makes, Autodesk, Autodesk Meshmixer, EOS, Fusion 360, Netfabb, Netfabb Simulation, Spark Fund MCADCafe Interviews Sualp Ozel, Autodesk Senior Product Manager Now that most of us are working from home, it feels like we’re working 24/7”. We started the conversation by asking how he and Autodesk were faring in the midst of the pandemic. The following is based on a virtual interview we conducted with Sualp Ozel, Autodesk Senior Product Manager. However, we have been able to conduct them virtually via Zoom. We had intended on conducting in-person video interviews at RAPID 2020, but COVID-19 got in the way. Autodesk is proving to be one of these companies.
Although traditional in-person software vendor conferences, such as Autodesk University, and industry events, such as RAPID and IMTS have been cancelled this year, some vendors are forging full speed ahead with product development and introductions.