Hedgehog in the Cage - winners of the 3D contest

CAD Studio has organized a designer contest "Hedgehog in the Cage" in cooperation with the CAXMIX magazine and with 3D-tisk.cz. "Hedgehog in the Cage" (in Czech "Ježek v kleci") is the most popular mechanical puzzle in the Czech Republic, featured in adventure stories by J.Foglar. This puzzle has origins in the United States - see Hedgehog in the Cage in Wikipedia.

The contest task was to design an innovation of the well known Foglar's puzzle for the 21st century, using any Autodesk 3D design product and submit this design through the Autodesk 360 cloud. All submitted works were designed either in Autodesk Inventor or in Autodesk 3ds Max.

The contest winner, awarded the grand prize - Apple iPad Mini, is Mr. Marek Janáček with his amazing and highly detailed science-fiction "hedgehog" taking a form of an embryo from the famous Alien movie, and its organic-shape nest. The prize will be handed over at the upcoming conference CADforum 2013. First three competitors will also receive a physical model of their designs, printed on a 3D printer.

Awarded designs:

1st place - Marek Janáček

1st place - Marek Janáček - the Aliens

2nd place - Martin Vaněček

3rd place - Jan Horák
Congratulations to all winners!

Inventor on an iPad? Simply - with Autodesk Remote.

This summer, Autodesk introduced an interesting application for remote access to desktop CAD software - Autodesk Remote. This application was available only in North America but now it is released worldwide.

Autodesk Remote (former "Project Blink") is one of the benefits for Subscription customers, available to any Autodesk product. You can download this application from the appstore "Autodesk Exchange Apps. You need to install it both on the workstation with your CAD software and on the remote computer which will be used to control your CAD. Both parts of the application support Windows 7 and Windows 8. But you can also use an Apple iPad tablet as the remote computer (a lightweight "thin client"). The neccessary iOS version of Autodesk Remote can be downloaded from Apple iTunes.

After you connect both parts of the application and login with your "Autodesk ID", you can use the client computer (from home, from site, while travelling) to control CAD software and other applications running on your workstation. There are many existing tools for remote access but Autodesk Remote has advantages in simple installation, its independence on IT infrastructure and embedded optimizations for CAD graphics, especially for Autodesk Inventor (version 2013 and higher). Remote can also handle (map) multi-touch gestures from tablets (pinch etc.). Common "office" applications for remote access do not support DirectX 10/11 nor OpenGL. So the increased performance and low latency of remote operations, even in 3D CAD software operated through Autodesk Remote is limited only by the speed of your internet connectivity.

So now you don't need to split up with your beloved Inventor, Revit or Civil even when you leave your office.

See also Autodesk Remote

Autodesk FormIt - conceptual BIM editor now also for Android

Free mobile application Autodesk FormIt helps to capture building design concepts and ideas - anytime, anywhere. FormIt is now available not only for Apple iPad but also for Android tablets.

You can build your conceptual 3D models on top of real-world site information. Establish a continuous Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflow by synchronizing designs in the cloud for further refinement using Autodesk Revit software and other applications.


FormIt offers easy-to-use tools like:

• Extruding 3D objects from predefined shapes or drawn lines
  
• Easy direct manipulation of 3D objects using gestures
  
• Setting project location in a searchable maps interface
  
• Importing satellite images of your site
  
• Exploring the effects of the sun using the location-aware Shadow Study tool
  
• Storing and sharing designs in the cloud using Autodesk 360 cloud services
  
• Transfering designs to desktop applications via RVT or SAT file formats
  
• Exploring design ideas and add detail to early design forms using top BIM technology
  

Download FormIt from Google Play