Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Autodesk’s Integratated Moble CAD/CAM”.
So i’m annika zunus france makes digital fabrication editor and i’m here at makercon, talking with andrew anagnost about his new announcements for autodesk and the fusion 360 platform, and also a little bit about you know how the workforce is changing. So you mentioned in your talk that just completed that we have, you know a workforce that is more nomadic and the way that people engage is changing. Tell me a little bit about that yeah. So we we see this, especially with the new generation of people that are coming into manufacturing.
They come together, sporadically they work together on projects they bring people in on projects. They may not be co-located in the same place, their their loyalty to a particular way of doing things or a particular group is a little bit more dynamic, and you know they. They have an expectation or a working model where they’re hey, i’m working with somebody that may be someplace else different than where i’m at, but it’s okay, it’s great. I know how to engage with them. I’M comfortable engaging with them and the thing we’re trying to do is actually build out applications that support that natively not just kind of try to fake it.
So tell me a little bit more about that. You know how do computer control tools? How does fusion 360, you know how do these new developments and software support that type of workforce yeah? So you can think so. One fusion is natively built for the cloud. It doesn’t work without the cloud, so the data is always going to be accessible by the mobile team by the mobile workforce, but what you can think of is fusion, as in in ways is a portal to a whole set of doing things. You know fusion is a way to build a model and by the way you know tinkercad users and all that stuff, hey bring in those models right and then and then start then start creating much more sophisticated models to actually take to more complex manufacturing processes. So we support this notion of you know: what is it? What do i want to look like? How do i make it function? How do i decide how to fabricate it and then connect to some kind of fabrication facility because we’re in the cloud and we’re native, we can start doing that and we’re working on building up a whole network around that piece. Then, of course, i can keep managing my interactions with other people, including the people in my virtual group, that i work with and you mentioned sending it to a fabrication facility.
But you could also fabricate it yourself, correct, absolutely, and you were talking a bit about micro manufacturing and you know labs that are springing up where you know. People have access to cnc tools or their own tools, and they can use this software to not only create their 3d models, but then use the integrated cam to actually create the tool paths for the machine yeah and the other thing that’s exciting around. That piece is yeah, we can create those tool, paths and things, but i think you know, as of last may, when carl was here, he talked about the spark platform we’re doing and we are dead, serious about being a major enabler with the whole spark platform. It’S open: it’s free. It’S designed to connect 3d applications to new ways of producing things, specifically 3d printers, and things like that.
So we’re like committed to enabling this ecosystem and making it work. Great um tell me a little bit about the announcement you made today and tell me a little bit about the cost and how they compare to other comparable software yeah so uh. Today we have a lot of users of fusion that are on the mac. So a lot of creative people love the mac.
So thank you. We really appreciate that love the mac, so we you know sealed the final piece of our investment in the mac. Fusion went live on the apple mac store. So not only does it work natively, you can buy it.
Natively install it. Natively manage it, natively, okay, it’s the only application of its kind on the mac apple store and when you compare a professional grade application like fusion to anything else, you know it’s. It’S like 25 to 35 dollars a month. You know, or you know, a few hundred dollars at most.
If you’re gon na buy like the most expensive version. We have it’s it’s way cheaper than anything, that’s out there, but it’s way professional grade as well fantastic. So it sounds like you know: autodesk is starting at the very beginning in education and teaching people about cad. You mentioned cat literacy, which i thought was really important and a key concept to get behind and you know, then you have tools that they can graduate to at affordable price point yeah.
You know that’s one of the exciting things about what we’re doing with the consumer group. You know all of you guys are using those tools from the consumer group, but what’s even great about that, what’s even better and exciting. Is that all the people you want to sell stuff to or interact with, are using those tools too so wow? How amazing to have this literate consumer class that actually knows how to inter iterate and interact with you around a 3d model and we’re trying to drive that ecosystem as well, so we’re just so committed to building up this whole ecosystem from the consumer to the professional? To these new means of production, around 3d printers and all the things that are connected to it, it’s very interesting, so you have a kind of pneumatic workforce. That’S changing the work habits.
You have tools that enable them to collaborate and collaborate virtually um, and you have software. That’S in the cloud now available on a mac at an affordable price point that enables people to step up and actually digitally fabricate things, either through service or themselves. I love the way you said that you said it better than i did well. It’S been a real pleasure talking to you andrew i’m, really excited about fusion 360 and the kind of future of this type of of working and always about digital fabrication tools.
So thanks so much thank you and you can see andrew’s full talk at makercon.com or faire and please check it out. It’S got lots more detail on all the concepts that he expressed here. .