IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Autodesk Product Design Suite 2014

Its that time of year again, the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and Autodesk is busy releasing new software.  If you haven't already checked it out, its probably in your Subscription Center waiting for your eager downloading to begin.  Word to the wise, its in there with Autodesk as a prefix now and not just the product name so don't be afraid to scroll down if you are looking for a particular product.

In this post we will take a look at what has changed in the Product Design Suite as far as Suite composition and what it means to you the user.

To begin with in the Standard Suite we now have Raster Design and the newly re-branded and super awesome reality capture product called Autodesk Recap.  You might need a graphics card update for your OpenGL on this one, its not DirectX like our beloved Inventor.  So what do these two products do?

Raster Design:

Make the most of raster images, maps, aerial photos, satellite imagery, and digital elevation models. With powerful raster editing and raster-to-vector conversion tools, AutoCAD® Raster Design software helps you to easily clean up, edit, enhance, and maintain scanned drawings and plans in a familiar AutoCAD® software environment.

Basically awesome for getting those old prints out of the file cabinet, digitizing them, and removing those unsightly coffee stains that might have accrued over the years.  Its not a raster to vector silver bullet though, so enjoy your testing with it.  At the very least, its great to get those old paper drawings in digital form in AutoCAD.

Autodesk Recap:

Autodesk® ReCap delivers powerful and easy to use workflow on the desktop and in the cloud to create intelligent 3D models from laser scans and captured photos. Rather than beginning with a blank sheet, Autodesk ReCap now enables any designer, architect or engineer to add, modify, validate and document their design process in context from existing environments.

This one is for you scanner folks out there that need to make some 3D models with your LEICA or FARO scanners to get the model in Inventor quickly and efficiently.  You see this used in the Manufacturing sector a little more with getting accurate as builts after a scan is taken of the installation of a piece of equipment or if you are given a scan to reference in your planning of the intial equipment.

So what's new with the Product Design Suite Premium?  Well, now you have Inventor Professional instead of just Inventor Routed Systems.  Yay! Now we get to use all of Inventor instead of begging the Ultimate users to get out of the software so you could run a quick FEA or Simulation as well as the ability to push to the cloud Optimization service.

And Ultimate?  Well we get a small update to Navisworks Manage instead of just Navisworks Simulate.  I always saw a lot of potential for just the Simulate product without having to go to Manage though.  The inclusion of the larger Navisworks grants users the ability to do clash detection with conglomerated models sets and points clouds from Recap though, so it does make sense.

Here is a feature list for quick reference...

On a personal note, I am still dismayed that Inventor Publisher is not in the Suite as well as the removal of Mudbox from everything but the Ultimate Suite.  Here's hoping next year or that the Inventor Publisher cloud technology preview shows itself sometime this year as something more than a tech preview.  Other things you will notice this year is that Inventor Fusion is not in the installer either, that because Fusion 360 has taken off quite well and is in a very rapid development cycle with a large beta test and ever growing community.  It always seemed odd to me that they would package a Technology Preview with the Suites in the first place.  Anyway, give Fusion 360 a whirl, it is using some really awesome technology that blows away the old Fusion.  You will see some T-Splines technology in there as well as some tech from the HSM Works acquisition for CAD/CAM (but its not there yet).

Clean-Up Your Local Vault Workspace

When it comes to working on a computer, we all tend to be a little lax in keep our hard drive clean and organized.  One of the best ways to maintain your local workspace is to use the “Close files and delete working copies” option as you are checking in files.  This option will delete all files from your local workspace after a successful check in.

If you do not use this tool your local workspace can become bloated and disorganized.  Also after time passes, we do not remember the status of files and are afraid to delete anything so the problem escalates.

Vault Workgroup and above offers a tool to help you manage your workspace from inside the Vault client.  I would like to offer a word of caution before I get into the functionality of the tool.  If you are placing files in your local workspace that you do not plan to check into the Vault, use caution if you use this tool.  As I mentioned, it is a clean-up tool so files not in the Vault that become dated beyond the criteria of this Vault tool, will be lost!  With that warning out of the way, we can explore a very good tool to maintain a clean and organized local workspace.

The tool is located just above the Main Panel in the Vault Client.  There are two tools on the same icon, Workspace Sync and Quick Sync which are selected with the small dropdown arrow to the right hand side of the tool.  The first time you use the tool make sure to select Workspace Sync in order to configure the process.  The Quick Sync tool is a quick execution of current settings which you will use later.

After selecting the Workspace Sync tool the process of analyzing your local workspace will begin.  Depending on how cluttered your local workspace it, the process may take a few minutes or a few seconds.  After the process is complete you will be presented with a list of files.  The list is a bit overwhelming the first time you run the tool but we are here to configure the process.  Find the Settings icon in the lower right hand corner of the dialog box and select it.  Make sure at this point you do not select the Finish icon.

The Setting dialog box has a number of options which we will explore from the top to the bottom. 

The first setting is which type of files you desire to be written from the Vault to the local workspace if local workspace synchronization is required.  This process will not happen very often but when it does do you want the Latest Version of the files or the Current Revision to be copied from the Vault to your local workspace.  This could be important if you have been working on a set of files after a revision was created.  If you chose Current Revision you also have the option to have the revision selected that is related to the last released lifecycle state by checking the Released Biased box.

The next section is the Auto-delete Filters.  In his box you can add or remove file extensions of files in your local workspace that you would like to delete automatically during Workspace Sync.  It is important to note that these files have to be unmanaged files.  Managed files are those files in your local workspace that have been checked into the Vault and are being managed by the Vault.  Unmanaged files are not in the Vault and therefore are not managed.  We all will accumulate these kinds of files which we want to always delete so enter their extensions here.  Be sure to place a checkmark beside the extension once created to make it active.

The next section is used to select the time frame to apply to managed and unmanaged files before the Workspace Sync tool deletes them from the local workspace.  For example the setting below indicates that all files in the Vault (Managed) will be deleted from the local workspace when they become 3 weeks older than the current system date.  The files not in the Vault (Unmanaged) will be deleted from the local workspace when they become 2 weeks older than the current system date.  There are two options for the time period, weeks or days, selectable by the drop down arrow.  You can also select a range of 1 to 15 for the number of days or weeks for the Managed files and a range of 0 to 15 for the unmanaged files.

The last section allows you to add files or folders in your local workspace that you would like to configure different expiration dates than specified in the previous section.  You have the same selection of time periods as in the previous section and also the ability to exclude files and folders from the rules completely by selecting Never as shown below.  In the lower left hand corner of the dialog box you can select the Remove Empty Folders option.  This setting will tell the Workspace Sync tool to remove all folders that become empty during the synchronization process. 

You can also export and import your settings to share with others or use at a future date to change your settings.  Click OK to finish the configuration.

The file list will update and the list will display files with different synchronization criteria.  You may see Download – Overwrite for files that are in the Vault and your local workspace and the local copy is out of date.  You will also see a Remove list listing all files that will be deleted from your local workspace according to your settings above.  READ THEM CARFULLY and return to the Settings if adjustments need to be made.  If you have select files or folders you wish to remove from the synchronization process, you can remove the check marks accordingly.

Before you hit the Finish button, I suggest you take a moment to empty your Windows Recycle Bin.  If during the Workspace Sync process you find files you needed were deleted, it will be easy to restore them.  Select Finish to start the process.

After the Workspace Sync is finished, you will be shown a status dialog showing the results. You can Save, Send to Vault, or Print the results.

The Quick Sync command bypasses the dialog box showing the files to be synchronized and the ability to select the Setting button.  It should be used for day to day work AFTER you have configured the process and feel comfortable with the process.  Take note, it becomes the default command after you use it once.

A clean and productive Vault local workspace is in your future.

Autodesk Vault "Labels" - Bookmarks for Your Vault

Many manufactures have clients that require their machinery to be updated from time to time or they may want a set of prints for a machine that was shipped in months or years past.  This requires the manufacturer to maintain a complete "as shipped" set of files for the client's machine.  This can be a nightmare with a Windows based achieve systems with the final "as shipped" files being copied out to a protected folder and the copying of parts out to other folders for use in other projects.  In an Inventor assembly, if this copy is not done correctly, the "as shipped" assembly will be destroyed.  All of the Autodesk Vault versions have a built in tool that makes this task very easy.  It is located under the Tools menu drop down and is called Labels.

 

We are going to make a Label for an "as shipped" Inventor assembly with parts and drawings to show the process.  The assembly is a small steam engine as shown below.

Select the Labels tool to open the Label dialog box.  Select New to create a new Label.

Select the Vault browse button and navigate to the folder containing your top level assembly.  Normally you will have the parts and drawings belonging to the assembly in the same folder but it is not necessary.  If parts exist in this assembly from other machines and folders, that is not a problem.

Next give your label a very descriptive name and a full description.  You may know what the label represents now but in a few months or a few years it will be gone from your memory. Select OK and then close the Label Dialog box to finish.

Time passes and you may modify some of the parts used in the assembly or maybe even changed the top level assembly itself for another job.  With the Autodesk Vault, you do not need to think about preserving the status of the as shipped job because of the Label you created when it was shipped. 

This assembly has been changed over time in three ways, the base has been shortened, the recessed pocket has been removed and the posts on the bottom of the base have been shortened.

The client calls up and ask to get a complete set of files for the "as shipped" machine.  Go back to the Label dialog box and select the label previously assigned when the machine was shipped.  Select the Pack and Go button at the bottom of the dialog box.  This will collect all the files bookmarked with the Label and export them to a folder of your choice.  A warning here.  Normally do not use the Restore process since this will restore the Autodesk Vault files back to the date the label was created.  Without proper preparation, this could be problematic.

Configure the Pack and Go dialog box as you desire and select OK to continue.

Point to a folder inside your current project workspace that you can be sure and identify as previous data and not get it confused with current design.  It is recommended to "Copy to a Single Path" to make it easier to manage.

Opening the restored model you can see the original "as shipped" model has been re-created.

Inventor / General Memory Probing

This is one of my favorite things to show users when they are telling me about slow down or complaining that they do not have enough memory for their machines.  Autodesk Inventor installs a free utility called memprobe.exe with your installation which allows you to the loaded memory of your computer and by default the Inventor program. 

It goes a little more in depth than a simple Task Manager CTRL+ALT+DEL manuver and can really help you push management to get you either a new computer or at the very least some more RAM.  Let's face it the secretary doesn't need a new machine, she needs your old machine!  Sorry channelled by previous industry self there for a moment.

You will find this little gem located in your program files.

Now if you were looking at that first image thinking to yourself how green and yellow bars look familiar in Inventor, you were right to have some fond recollection there.  This is actually the same meter you used to see in Inventor when it was a 32 bit application and you can still see this on current 32 bit installs (good way to see if IT screwed up the install on your 64 bit machine).  Its been so long since I have seen this meter that it took me a hot second to put two and two together on that.

Now, what else can this little utility do for me?  Well it can monitor any process, not just Inventor.

It can also run a log and adjust warning message alarms too!

Now remember, with great power comes great, well you know.  Make sure you scientifically analyze your systems before going to management and have them thinking you weighted your request on an overloaded processor by having everything Autodesk program open at once.  Overall this is a neat tool and can help some of us with less technical purchasing people controlling our computer usage.  Some people just understand bars and meters better than angry emails.

Inventor of the Year 2012 Voting Begins - Vote Now: You Decide the Winner!

If the Grammies, Oscars, SAG, Nickalodeon Kids Choice, New Mountain Dew Flavor contests and awards shows have you bummed about nontechnical cool things to vote on and root for, then I have your solution.  The Inventor of Year award for 2012 voting has opened and is entirely chosen by the user community.  No stuffed shirts allowed.  Vote for who you think is the most innovative company and is putting their software to use in the best way.

The Autodesk Inventor of the Month program identifies the most innovative among hundreds of thousands of designers and engineers that invent with Autodesk Digital Prototypingtools. This year’s recipients employed software including Autodesk Inventorsoftware as part of Autodesk Product Design Suite, Autodesk Factory Design Suite, the Autodesk Simulation family of products and Autodesk PLM 360.

Community members will select the next Inventor of the Year by voting for the best of the monthly award winners from 2012, and the company with the highest rating will receive the Inventor of the Year honor. Voting is under way and closes March 1 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Read about the candidates and then Vote ---> Inventor of the Year 2012

The Contenders: 2012 Inventor of the Month Winners

January 2012: Tolar Manufacturing, a manufacturer of transit shelters, street furniture and advertising kiosks, used Autodesk Product Design Suite to create custom products tailored to the needs of municipalities throughout North America. Tolar offers more than 500 shelter types within the company’s four main product lines, each designed and engineered to be long-lasting, attractive and environmentally friendly.

February 2012: 4^thDimensional Façade Solutions, a New Zealand-based design and build company, employed Autodesk Inventor software to create stunning facades for projects with unique physical and environmental challenges, as well as highly complex design and build procedures. The company’s work includes a café that sits on the edge of a 6,000 feet high mountain and a stunning vacation home called Jagged Edge, where each facade on the structure is rhombus-shaped and contains no 90-degree angles.

March 2012: Sunkist Research and Technical Services, a division of international fruit supplier Sunkist, worked with Autodesk Product Design Suite to develop a flat fruit-packing machine that doubles hourly throughput. Typical flat fruit packing machines pack a single layer of fruit into a box during each cycle, while Sunkist’s packing machine can feed a layer of fruit into twoboxes at once. Instead of processing 200 boxes of fruit per hour, the machine can potentially process 400 boxes per hour.

April 2012: HydroSpin, an Israel- based clean technology company, used Autodesk Inventor software and other Autodesk Digital Prototyping tools to develop a micro-generator solution that produces energy from the flow of water inside distribution pipes, saving hundreds of hours of development time and hundreds of thousands of development dollars. The generators power a wide range of “smart water” devices that monitor the movement and quality of water, along with other parameters, throughout the distribution network.

May 2012: Feige Filling, a German company, leveraged Autodesk Factory Design Suite software to not only design its innovative filling machines, but also the layout of its factories that house them. Feige used Autodesk Inventor together with the complete Factory Design Suite to create equipment for its customers and then optimize the factory layout before any equipment is installed. As a result, Feige now serves as a “turnkey” solution provider to its customers, giving the company a powerful advantage in the marketplace.

June 2012: Huntair, a leading designer and manufacturer of specialized heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, applied Autodesk Simulation CFD and Autodesk Inventor software to develop the revolutionary CLEANSUITE airflow delivery system. With healthcare-acquired infections claiming 99,000 U.S. lives annually and costing the healthcare system billions of dollars, the CLEANSUITE system helps avoid contamination of operating room patients.

July 2012: California Analytical Instruments developed gas analyzers and custom systems using Autodesk Inventor software as part of Autodesk Product Design Suite to help companies monitor and measure the emission of greenhouse gases from a wide variety of pollutant sources, including smokestacks, power plants, refineries and machines powered by internal combustion engines. CAI has more than 1,700 customers.

August 2012: Ellis Furniture, a U.K.-based furniture company in business for more than a century, used Autodesk Product Design Suite to offer greater levels of product customization in significantly less time. For example, Ellis’ manufacturing process takes 80 percent less time. This speed enables Ellis to rapidly explore a number of design options for its customers — ranging from luxury hotels to government institutions — and create high-quality furniture that not only fits their precise needs, but is designed to last a lifetime.

September 2012: BMC, a Turkish automotive industry leader, utilizes Autodesk Product Design Suite to improve design and production processes at its main plant in Izmir, Turkey. Increased productivity allowed the company to more efficiently produce a wide range of vehicles — from light and heavy trucks, to buses and military vehicles — which are supplied to international and local markets, helping BMC move toward becoming a global brand.

October 2012: MariCorp, a nationwide leader in the boat dock industry, was recognized for using Autodesk PLM 360 to streamline project management and Autodesk Product Design Suite to improve their designs. As a result of implementing Autodesk software, the fast-growing company has been able to respond to bids more quickly, execute designs more effectively and efficiently scale its organization — helping reduce work tenfold.

November 2012: Autodesk chose the industrial design students enrolled in the Automotive Design course at Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico City for using Autodesk Product Design Suite with other Autodesk software tools to develop the Aurora concept car. Rather than relying on a fuel-hungry central combustion engine, the Aurora project uses hybrid propelling technologies to power the car.

December 2012: UVP, a global leader in life science imaging, designed and manufactured with Autodesk Product Design Suite scientific imaging equipment that is used to identify potential cures for major diseases. UVP’s bioimaging systems allow medical researchers to better understand the genetics of a variety of diseases including cancer, diabetes and other major ailments.

Merry Christmas from the Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Merry Christmas to all of our readers out there!  This Christmas card comes from our very own Rusty Belcher.  He used Autodesk 123D Catch (mobile app) and Autodesk Showcase to make this amazing e-card.

 

Autodesk University 2012

Its that time of year again, birds are heading south, leaves are getting raked, my wife is burning baked goods, and prepping for Autodesk University.

This will be my fifth year speaking at the conference but this time I've scaled back.  Last year I presented 5 classes, 6 the year before that.  This year I am only doing one so I can focus more on the sheer awesomeness that is at the event.  There is sure to be surprises, announcements, and humorous stories to orate for months to come after the show.  As always I will be doing a heavy amount of tweeting, blogging and writing from the show so we can all share in the aforementioned good times.

Remember, even if you are not attending you can still get quite a fill of the show's keynote speeches through AU Virtual and there are a large amount ofclasses there too.  Oh, and its free to attend the Virtual show.

AU Virtual Catalog

If you are in physical attendance this year, make sure you check out my class on Product Design Suite Workflows for the Machine Design minded.  Caleb and I are having a blast with this class and should be quite entertaining.  I'll post the handout here after the show in case you didn't make it to Vegas this year.

MA3204 - The Suite Life: Autodesk® Product Design Suite Workflows for Machine Design

Class Description

In this class, we will take you on a tour of Autodesk® Product Design Suite 2013. We will show you what you can do with this flexible set of tools that are specialized in 3D mechanical design, simulation, tooling, electrical design, visualization, documentation, and collaboration. Using the design suite tools, you can evaluate and optimize machines while exchanging information with others throughout the design workflow. You will learn what you can accomplish by combining the Digital Prototyping capabilities of Autodesk® Inventor® software with enhanced design, visualization, and cloud services tools to reduce development costs and get machine designs to your clients faster and with less rework.

The Next Big I.D.E.A.s event is coming soon! Discover the Value of Design Simulation

The next BIG I.D.E.A.S. event showcases the industry's best design tools and techniques to Gain Competitive Advantage and Deliver Better Designs Faster.

 

Sessions include overviews of the evolving simulation space, current trends, best practices and technology options to better manage projects and steps to getting your simulation solution off the ground.

 

Hear from IMAGINiT experts and guest speakers on the importance of performing simulations early in the design and engineering process to investigate behavior, test innovative concepts, and optimize designs before manufacturing. With simulation-driven design, designers and engineers can understand the implications of design choices as they make them.

 

Join us at BIG I.D.E.A.S. and let our Autodesk Simulation Certified Experts help you Solve Your Most Challenging Design Problems with Fast, Accurate and Flexible Simulation.

Who should attend this complimentary event?

Engineers, Designers, Managers and Executives who are looking to use technology and process to optimize their designs.

Experiential, engaging and solutions-driven… all in one exciting event!

Login from anywhere. Listen to the presentations via audio through your computer speakers, chat with live booth staff and network with your peers in our virtual lounge at your convenience during the event.

Register Here

Click for Session details...

11:05am – 11:40am   Keynote Presentation   Overview of Today's Simulation Trends
Matt Jaworski, Autodesk 

11:45am – 12:30pm   Simulate While you Design – Simulation Workflows available inside Inventor
Rusty Belcher, IMAGINiT Technologies

12:45pm – 1:15pm   Design for Durability with Simulation Mechanical
Carl Smith, IMAGINiT Technologies

1:30pm – 2:15pm   CFD: Innovation through Insight and its Fit in Today's NPD Process
Jason Pfeiffer, IMAGINiT Technologies

2:30pm – 3:00pm   CFD Case Study from Spectrum Brands
Jacob Smith, Spectrum Brand

3:15pm – 3:45pm   Getting your Simulation Environment up to Speed in Zero to 60
Caleb Funk, IMAGINiT Technologies

Autodesk Mobile Apps: Force Effect and Sketchbook Mobile

The Autodesk line of mobile apps seems to be growing all the time, but I wanted to focus on a few of the apps that are beneficial for when you are not in the office but still want to let that engineer swagger come out.  Two of them have been around for some time while the third is actually an update of a previous one.

Force Effect and Force Effect Motion both allow you to do Simulation anywhere for free body diagrams.  Force Effect Motion was recently released and allows the user to perform studies with linear actuators and motors and even show trace points.  This has really been a nice benefit to me when I am inspecting a user's machine and I can quick snap a pic and use it as the background for my FBD or Motion study while in the field.  The other side of this coin is that I can then transfer the FBD back to a DXF in my immense Autodesk Cloud storage and then access back on my PC.  Oh yea, the reports are cool too, it can save my images, equations, and graphs of data.

And if you have an Android tablet or phone, don't worry, I hear its coming soon for that.

But what if I don't have a camera on my device or the product doesn't actually exist yet?  Well look no furthur than Sketchbook Mobile Express or Pro (lots more features for a cheap price).  Simply start sketching your idea in the canvas and then apply that to the Force Effect app of your choosing as a background.  I will also go on record as saying in the past I was not a fan of Sketchbook for Engineers...I am eating my words in this post, it has REALLY grown on me for design work.

Check out how these apps can work in conjunction with each other in the video below.

 

Don't have any tablet to do this cool sketching?  Well fret not, you have Sketchbook Designer in your Product Design Suites.  Well post on that tomorrow with a little more detail about how we are going to get into design with these concept sketching tools.

Inventor of the Year 2011

Autodesk announced the winner of the covenant award of Inventor of the Year.  Last year the winner was Sean Dotson's company RND Automation and the year before that was our very own client Dynamic Structures which currently graces the box media of the Autodesk Manufacuting Portfolio of softare.  This year the winner went to the UK based company Green Structures which participated in the Autodesk Clean Engery program for software (they basically get it for free).  The winner was chosen by the Manufacturing community through a public voting process.  Looks like being green is still quite an awesome thing to vote for.  Kermit would be proud.

Green Structures uses a fair amount of manufacturing design software as well as building products.  Perhaps their most significant usage of software comes from the analysis side with Autodesk Simulation to perform building cooling analysis with Revit models as well as Inventor models.  See below for the full press release.

Autodesk Names Green Structures as Inventor of Year for 2011

Green Structures Speeds Development of Innovative Heat Recovery System

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 8, 2012 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) has named Green Structures as the Autodesk Inventor of the Year for 2011 for developing the Ventive energy-efficiency system that is ideal for building retrofits.

Members of the Autodesk manufacturing community from around the world chose the U.K.-based company by voting on the community website. Green Structures uses Autodesk Inventor software and a range of other Autodesk Digital Prototyping solutions to transform the way energy systems are planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated within the built environment. The company was originally named Autodesk Inventor of the Month December 2011.

As a member of the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program — an initiative that provides Autodesk Digital Prototyping software to emerging and established clean tech companies — Green Structures is an innovator in passive heat recovery ventilation and thermal energy storage systems.

Thomas Lipinski, founder, managing director and CTO of Green Structures said, “With access to the same world-class Autodesk professional software as some of the United Kingdom’s largest manufacturers, we have strengthened the quality and professionalism of our design process. It is an honor to receive this award and be recognized for our work by the Autodesk Manufacturing Community.”

The firm’s Ventive heat recovery ventilation system works with existing chimneys to channel air and heat. This system contrasts with current mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems, which require that complex ductwork be installed throughout an entire building. Ventive can be installed in less than 30 minutes, providing a far faster and less expensive alternative for retrofitting buildings with the latest green technologies.

Green Structures relies on Autodesk Inventor, as well as Autodesk Ecotect Analysis software, Autodesk Simulation Multiphysics software and Autodesk Revit Architecture software in its product design and development. Access to Autodesk design and simulation technology provided a more controlled environment to test designs, helping to make the design process less costly, faster and with less guesswork.

Autodesk Simulation Software Saves Time and Money

Green Structures accelerated the prototyping process for its Ventive heat recovery ventilation system through the use of Autodesk Simulation software to digitally simulate wind tunnel tests and perform heat transfer analysis, saving on physical testing costs of approximately $1,550 (£1,000) per day. Autodesk reseller Envisage helped provide training and support to enable Green Structures to more quickly implement Autodesk Digital Prototyping software in the design process.

Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Design, Lifecycle and Simulation at Autodesk said, “We join the Autodesk Manufacturing Community in congratulating Green Structures for its standout application of Autodesk software to transform energy systems.”

About the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program

Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation. For more information about the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program, contact us at IOM@autodesk.com.

About the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program

The Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program supports the efforts, innovations and environmental advancements of clean technology pioneers, providing world-class software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas through Digital Prototyping. Clean tech companies in North America, Europe, Singapore and Japan are invited to apply to receive up to $150,000* worth of software for only $50. Access to a collection of Autodesk industry-leading software includes up to five licenses of Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate, AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite, Autodesk Simulation Mechanical, Autodesk Inventor Publisher and Autodesk Vault Professional software. Get more information.

About Green Structures

Green Structures is a UK-based clean technology company working within the built environment to develop commercially attractive low-carbon building solutions. For additional information, visit www.greenstructures.co.uk.