Autodesk to release "Vault Collaboration for A/E/C" (Integrates with Autodesk Buzzsaw)

To all Reprographers:

Dr. Lachmi Khemlani, founder and editor of AECbytes.com, just released an extensive, very detailed report on her trip to Autodesk’s A/E/C Technology Day. Below, I’ve copied into this post just three of the paragraphs that appear in Dr. Khemlani’s report. The “full” report is definitely worth reading.

One of the very interesting, soon-to-be-introduced Autodesk products you will read about in Dr. Khemlani’s report is Autodesk “Vault Collaboration for A/E/C,” which integrates with several other Autodesk software products, including, but not limited to, Autodesk Buzzsaw. Autodesk Buzzsaw is Autodesk’s “on-line project management and collaboration solution.”

In the latter part of 2010, ARC released PlanWell Collaborate. Early this year, ReproMAX introduced cMAX. Both of those software products are aimed at “on-line project management and collaboration” in the A/E/C world.

In my mind, the question is, will Autodesk’s introduction of “Vault Collaboration for A/E/C” have a negative impact on sales of PlanWell Collaborate and ReproMAX cMAX? I’m not smart enough to know the answer to that.

From AECbytes Feature Article, April 21, 2011

“Following the first AEC Technology Day that the AEC division of Autodesk had hosted for media professionals at its AEC headquarters in Waltham last year (2010), Autodesk hosted a similar event this year on April 5 and 6 (2011) in what seems to have become an annual event. Timed to coincide with its annual product launch, Autodesk used this opportunity to not only share information about the new features and enhancements in its 2012 AEC product line, but also to discuss some upcoming technologies it is working on as well as its strategic thinking behind what it has developed so far and what it plans to develop ahead. The event provided us with the opportunity to hear the story “straight from the horse’s mouth” and ask questions to get additional information and clarifications. In addition to presentations from Autodesk executives, the event also featured some customer presentations, which helped to provide the users’ perspective on technology and showcase real-life projects and challenges.”

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“This feature article captures the highlights of Autodesk’s recent AEC Technology Day event, including what was shared about the 2012 AEC product lineup. (The general Autodesk 2012 product launch was discussed last week in AECbytes Newsletter #50.) Although information was shared about Autodesk’s building as well as infrastructure products, both of which are now under its AEC division, this article focuses primarily on the building products and their updated functionality. However, it does cover some of the broader topics related to infrastructure design, urban planning, and cities that were discussed.”

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“Autodesk also introduced a brand-new initiative called BIM 360 to support collaboration and data management in AEC. It aims to provide AEC teams with a “complete, accurate, and digital view of their project, with access to information across the project lifecycle whenever they need it.” The technology at the heart of this initiative is a new product that Autodesk is introducing called Vault Collaboration for AEC. It is an AEC version of Autodesk’s Vault product that was originally developed for the manufacturing industry and is still used extensively there in conjunction with applications like Inventor. The AEC-specific version of Vault integrates with popular Autodesk applications including Revit, Navisworks, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, as well as Buzzsaw, Autodesk’s online project management and collaboration solution, allowing users and firms to better manage the large volume of data that is generated on projects. The integration with Revit, for instance, allows Vault to manage all the linked models in a Revit project. In the case of Navisworks, its Vault integration allows users to retrieve or save files, check in or check out, control file versioning, and manage the relationship between Navisworks files and the original design data.”

Here’s a link to the full article that Dr. Lachmi Khemlani wrote:

http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/2011/AutodeskAECTechDay2011.html

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.