I’ve always been intrigued by the artistic side of engineering. You know, the guys that bring the look and feel and beauty to the design environment. This can be anything from a cool coffee maker to the complex surfaces of a race car. There are a variety of tools on the market that designers use to create their art. One, in particular, is Autodesk Alias. It is an immensely powerful tool that can do amazing stuff. But, like everything, with power comes complexity. Complexity in the sense that its not a tool for the casual user. Certainly, not a dig on Alias, as the these users are anything but casual. They do this for a living and therefore require a powerhouse of a tool. There is a need for a subset of the tools in Alias across the design landscape.
Let’s take a look at how Autodesk is exposing their goods bit by bit across the product line. I recently visited the Manufacturing Division of Autodesk in Lake Oswego, OR and was exposed to a variety of tools. Check out the latest Alias design for Inventor video clip below. They are exposing a subset of Alias functionality to the design engineers who are driving Inventor. Clearly giving users a “choice”. For those that need all of the powerful tools, they can drive Alias. For those that simply need a bit more functionality than inside Inventor but not ready to pop into Alias, they now how a simple Alias toolbar exposed in Inventor. You’ll have to excuse the shaky video, I’ll blame it on the wonderful high-octane Peet’s coffee in Portland.
The clip above only shows a minute and a half of grabbing and pulling of sketches and leveraging images, but I think it gives you a clue of what can be done by a “non-Alias” user. Below is an image of the Alias product in action. I was amazed at what they were doing on the screen, very modern/powerful tool. Way more in-depth than the plugin in Inventor. But, I think that is the point. Autodesk has a suite of products that can be used by the various specialties but is exposing a bit of each where it makes sense in the various products. Very interesting strategy. I like it.
I also love how Autodesk is thinking outside the box. They are embracing “mainstream”, not necessarily traditional ways of reaching out to their customers as well as those that that may have been outside their market. They are as intune with Social Media as anyone in this space. Arguably, they are leading the charge. We looked at two great ways that you can add more artistic flair to your design environment. But, how about sketching out concepts or doing a little graphical brainstorming. Check out Sketchbook Pro for the iPad.
This is a small subset of what Autodesk has under their Concept Design umbrella. Go out and check it out for yourself, there may be some tools in there that you can leverage.
