Convergence is the next stage of digitization, leading to digital blending of previously separate technologies, processes, and digital and physical assets; the reshaping of industry structures and markets; and entirely new combinations of products, services, and experiences. This class will explore the underlying causes and effects of convergence in more detail, and suggest how you can capitalize on convergence as an opportunity for innovation and growth. Moreover, this talk will highlight examples of how successful companies have capitalized on convergence as they made changes to their ways of making.

What are new emerging methods for tackling large and complex challenges such as sustainable design? More specifically, what might happen when we combine technology from one industry and apply it to another? Further, how can designers leverage these experiments in "convergence" to inform the future of design-and-make? Inspired by an Autodesk Technology Center resident, this case study explores the sustainable implications of converging industrial design tasks with "procedural modeling" tools (a Media and Entertainment technology). This talk shares the results of both practical hands-on experiments and conceptual thinking on how procedural modeling tools could influence higher performing design decisions applied to product-design and manufacturing. Experience the convergence of industries as the Technology Centers explore what it means to continuously reshape and adapt objects to meet functional and performance requirements.

Convergence, platform, and industrialized construction—changing business models emerge in the built environment. The industrialized construction revolution is upon us; this is indisputable. The built-environment ecosystem is demanding more certainty in cost, schedule, material availability, and safety.  We’re under pressure from mounting demand, project complexity, global skills, material shortage, and increasing sustainability requirements. This pressure requires change and transformation. Autodesk’s Queen of Prefab Amy Marks, vice president of industrialized construction, will discuss convergence customers’ need for a connected platform. The Autodesk platform connects our customers data using the Autodesk portfolio of products and the digital glue of our partner ecosystem. This empowers companies to productize, inform design and construction, and enable optimization of manufacturing and other technologies—all to reduce digital and physical waste, achieve business outcomes, and drive toward circularity.

We are starting to see a convergence of different industries and disciplines like we have never seen before. Construction and manufacturing for modular construction and building product manufacturing coming further into design. Plant and power owners using these same methodologies to help meet deadlines and set quality standards. Owners using digital twin and integrated factory modeling for digitalization of factory building and production lines. Digitization in infrastructure for everything below or above ground. Along with GIS, the ability to explore locations, events, and trends so stakeholders can be better informed or create awareness of the environment. See how today’s current desktop and cloud technologies like Revit, Inventor, Construction Cloud, and Fusion 360 are helping to bring a common data environment to multiple industries. Understand how Collaboration, Connected Data, and Digitization are bringing the “art of the possible” to a level that we have never seen before.

Join Autodesk's Alex Pena Workflow Analyst, Amy Marks VP of Industrialized Construction, Tiffany Bachmeier Director of Global M&E and Advanced Manufacturing, along with a panel of industry-leading customers in a discussion about convergence. As companies evolve their future states to include outcomes and solutions like Industrialized Construction, IFM, and Digital Twins – we will consider and discuss the future of data, sustainability, and talent for ecosystem transformation. Autodesk is helping you differentiate from the competition by providing thought leadership, consulting, success plans, technical and product adoption support for you as your industries flex in capabilities beyond your primary businesses and harness emerging outcomes, project strategies, and business models.

While you make analyses using Inventor Nastran software, you do many things correctly (assigning the right connection types, applying the loads correctly, and so on). But if you aren't sure of the accuracy of the results, this class is for you. When you direct your parts or assemblies to the Inventor Nastran tab, by choosing the most accurate analysis type, you can simplify your assemblies for analysis, use the suitable mesh types, and define specific settings before analysis to bring results closer to reality. This class will show you how to choose the analysis and mesh type, what methods will simplify assemblies, and how to define settings to bring results closer to reality.

Join Raji Arasu, Chief Technology Officer at Autodesk, and Charlene Li, author and founder of research firm Altimeter, as they discuss new research which reveals how convergence will characterize the next wave of digital transformation. Raji and Charlene will share insights on how the blending of previously separate technologies, processes, and data to create new products, services, and experiences will reshape industry structures and enable companies to reimagine the customer experience.

In the days when companies followed a linear business model, workflows in the AEC and manufacturing industries were created using incompatible software programs. That meant data would be lost between handoffs from discipline to discipline—whether from architect to contractor or engineer to manufacturer—and would have to be recreated or stitched back together throughout a project. That doesn’t work in today’s world, when data needs to be at the center to help solve complex problems and spark innovation. To mitigate global challenges such as urbanization, population growth, and climate change, project stakeholders need to design and make with help from automation and a seamless flow of data and insights. In this panel, execs from Epic Games, Lenovo, SpaceIQ, and Autodesk discuss why converging processes, technology, data, and industries are key to a thriving future.

Sustainability factors are critical to successful project outcomes in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, from exceeding performance requirements to improving cost control. Building design and construction stakeholders are faced with global challenges regarding limited resources and the impact of development on the surrounding environment. This panel will explore where responsibility for sustainability outcomes lies as we experience the convergence of design, engineering, and construction teams in common data environments. We will discuss the state of the industry in terms of solution maturity for advanced building insights on topics such as embodied carbon, resiliency, and materiality. We will also seek to understand key workflows that meet financial project goals while addressing environmental concerns and uncovering sustainability outcomes at the intersection of performance and ethics.

Are you a Revit structural user interested in the fantastic new steel fabrication tools now in the 2019 release? Do you want to know how they interact with Advance Steel software? Or are you an Advance Steel user who is now being sent Revit model files. How can you make the most of them without replicating what has already been done? If you’re asking these questions, then this is the class for you! In this class, we will examine the level of detail (LOD) that can be virtually modeled in each software. We will import and export models using the Advance Steel Extension for Revit. To help identify the differences, we will apply connections; add plates, bolts and welds; and create construction/fabrication documents using both Revit software and Advance Steel software. By the end of this class, you will have a good sense of when you need to use the steel fabrication tools in Revit versus using Advance Steel.

As a construction company, experienced in the retail sector, we see an important change in the requirements of our customers. They want to see results faster, cheaper, and are more demanding. Sustainability is becoming increasingly important. We make this possible with digitalized and integrated construction processes and intensive collaboration. With the Stamhuis Total Concept we create a convergence between AEC and manufacturing in one company, from concept, design and engineering to manufacturing, pre-assembly, installation, and maintenance. In this lecture we will present how we deal with BIM projects and apply the principles of modularity, interchangeability, and prefabrication throughout the preparation, execution, and production phases with Autodesk Revit, Inventor, and Navisworks. You will understand how we guarantee the purchase orders from our clients by linking the processes to CMMS and ERP software. We will showcase the importance of Autodesk BIM 360 as our central platform for connecting all disciplines, stimulating collaboration and promoting communication. Finally, we will give you some insight on how Generative Design brings the Stamhuis Total Concept to a higher level, by optimizing the conceptual design of our retail projects and by automating time-consuming tasks. Autodesk and Stamhuis acting as an innovator provides unique applications that will be game changers for our industry. We invite everyone to think along with us and build a better world together.

What use would a tire company have for construction management software? We had to ask ourselves that same question at first. Unlike most who work in Autodesk Construction Cloud, we aren't paying our bills through the construction of buildings; we're investing in the buildings. We manage the entire project lifecycle of our facilities from conception to operations. Tires are our product, but we need a place to build those tires. We need to maintain that facility, manage our assets, and, most importantly, we need to transform our manufacturing footprint. All of these things need to happen, all while product continues to flow out the door. We produce tires despite the building process, we don't build despite the production of our products. We hope to share a different perspective of how an owner and operator takes advantage of Autodesk Construction Cloud and the rest of Autodesk's portfolio to make a successful process.

Autodesk industry and product leaders demonstrate how Autodesk products are empowering the convergence of design and manufacturing.

Come and learn about the convergence of manufacturing and construction, and discover techniques for optimizing construction projects to capitalize on distributed and coordinated manufacturing.

Buying habits have changed due to the global pandemic, with the Retail industry experiencing a reduction of in person shopping. The great return (post lockdown) meant people flocked to bars and restaurants but in person shopping has never recovered with retailers experiencing a 5.7% decrease in sales. Retailers have to reimagine themselves having seen the reality of layoffs and store closures around them The effect of this has accelerated adoption and requirements to provide immersive experiences to allow customers to shop in familiar environments whilst visualizing products they want to buy. It is a pivotal time right now to support this industry as there is a possibility of a sink or swim phenomenon of retailers with varying levels of technology maturity. In this Convergence session we’ll discuss how Autodesk technology can support physicalizing digital retail experiences and enable product buying decisions

Cloud technology is at the heart of enabling connected workflows, processes, and data. New ways of making are emerging that are driving convergence in how we work across industries. Join us to learn how Autodesk’s cloud platform, Forge, can help you harness the power of these new ways of making and take advantage of the opportunities that convergence is introducing. Hear from current customers and partners across industries who are already using the Forge Platform to do more with their data, bridge industry gaps, and reimagine possible.  

Industries are converging, and so are the workflows and products that today's leading brands are using. In this session, we'll explore workflows with 3ds Max software for digital representations of products that can be used in a variety of ways, including marketing materials, online product imagery, and real-time applications such as augmented reality with the use of open standards which can also extend into the metaverse.

Whether we use a pencil or the latest technology, as digital artists we still need to develop creative to give our clients an advantage over the competition. Clients sell the same product to the same clientele—how do we help them differentiate? We have technology converging in many ways (architectural visualization, video games, real time)—how do we find the best way to make use of this convergence? Ultimately, as a creative agency or architectural visualization firm, we need to look for ways to show off products and environments that are visually more compelling so that they become the catalyst of this differentiation. Products such as 3ds Max software, Maya software, NVIDIA mental ray software, Revit software, AutoCAD software, and new emerging real-time technologies like Showcase software help with this problem, but that’s just the beginning. In this roundtable we will talk about why we follow these trends and where these new technologies will bring us. Is it all a fad? Will we find a real practical use other than entertainment? Will our clients end up showing us the way?