Shape Extraction for AutoCAD

[#1]

On February 1, 2 technology previews ended on Autodesk Labs:

1. Point Cloud Feature Extraction for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 and 2012
2. Shape Extraction for AutoCAD 2012, AutoCAD Architecture 2012, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012, AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012, AutoCAD MEP 2012, and AutoCAD Mechanical 2012

At this time we have no interest in extending this technology preview. The feedback that we would receive would not apply since our future plans would be based on another technology. The situation has changed with the acquisition of the Alice Labs, and it will take some time to integrate the Alice Labs technology into another technology preview, if we decide to do that at all.

We believe Alice Labs has the best technology for:

• Viewing clouds in full density without heavy overdraw
• High visualization speed
• Fast access to points for interpreting algorithms
• Photorealistic rendering

We will continue to work with this new technology to perhaps make a technology preview available in the future. For users who have been experimenting with these technology previews, we know it’s a difficult situation, but this is why technology previews are technology previews. They are not intended for production use. The expiration dates are published at the onset so everyone knows they will need to be done with their "evaluations" by the end dates. The list of users who have downloaded each technology preview will be the first people we contact if an Alice-Labs-based technology preview becomes available.

[#2]

Our company recently purchased a 3D scanner at a cost of $ 60 000. As you know many software like Microstation dare available on the market. Since Autocad offered a simple and easy to use tool, we managed to carry out several projects with it and we were able to convince many customers of the benefits of using Autocad  instead of Microstation, for example.

Of course what happens changes things.

As we can no longer trust the Autodesk products, we will be forced to convert several projects already underway on the Microstation platform. Also for customers already using Autocad and wanting to stay on this platform we will be forced to buy third-party software for top dollar.

Between now and the day you will integrate Alice Labs will be too late. We will have to use other products.

This is known to miss the train.

At the very least you could extend the trial period of the tool until the transfer of technology to serve your client.

But you do not seem to care...

Christian Lacroix, Cima +

[#3]

Thank you for your candid feedback. $60,000 is indeed a great deal of money. Time is also money, so I understand how you need to complete your project on time. Yesterday I documented the issues regarding the end of the Shape Extraction for AutoCAD technology preview:

http://labs.blogs.com/its_alive_in_the_lab/2012/02/three-technology-previews-come-to-an-end-for-now....

We certainly hate to lose a customer, but I understand your motivation for doing so. Should you ever revert back to using Autodesk applications, I welcome your participation in our technology previews and your feedback in accordance with the technology preview end dates that are published at the onset of each technology preview. If anything changes regarding the status of this technology preview, I will certainly post an update in this forum.

[#4]

That's a bummer. I'm sure this was not an easy decision for you.

I hope things change as we are getting more and more calls about scanning and what Autodesk has available. I guess for now it's just point cloud support inside the software, but no automated processing.

Does this in any way affect the point cloud tool for Revit? I think the expiration on that is Aug 1.

Thanks, Scott.

Tim

[#5]

The Reality Capture team at Autodesk (point clouds, Photofly) is the one who acquired the Alice Labs team. I could see where the Alice Labs guys make an API available to all of Autodesk, and then teams like AutoCAD, Revit, and 3ds MAx make technology previews available for their applications that leverage that API. So perhaps the Revit team will do so on August 2, but no promises.