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Empowering Structural Engineers: Automating Constructibility Checks During Design

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Description

This session will look at how structural engineers can visualize, coordinate, and resolve constructability issues early in design by using Qnect for Revit software. We will show how Qnect for Revit helps young structural engineers develop holistic understandings of how a building is put together, enhancing their awareness of interdisciplinary coordination, constructability, erectability and 3D-modeling best practices. We will look at the broader benefits of integrating automated constructability checks within the building information modeling (BIM) workflow for all project stakeholders across the entire project lifecycle. Business leaders of engineering firms looking to attract and retain young, top, structural engineering talent will want to attend this presentation.

Key Learnings

  • Discover how constructability reviews are incorporated into the structural analysis and physical modeling process in Revit.
  • Explore the most commonly identified constructability and QAQC checks that engineers can learn from.
  • Discover new Revit capabilities for performing constructability reviews of the steel frame prior to steel connection design.
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      Transcript

      MICHAEL GUSTAFSON: Before we begin the presentation, here's a safe harbor statement from Autodesk. I want you to take a look at this and read through this.

      All right. This presentation is called Empowering Structural Engineers, Automating Constructability Checks During Design. Hello. My name is Michael Gustafson. I'm the Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Qnect. Qnect is a cloud engineering software that empowers structural engineers to be more efficient in their structural processes. And I'm excited to be talking about this presentation today about really what is the future of structural engineering.

      The learning objectives that we outlined for the session are really threefold. One, we're going to explore the most common steel issues that are faced to structural engineers. This is in their design process, but also in construction.

      The second objective is we're going to identify how constructability review occurs in both the structural engineering and the BIM modeling process. And then finally, we're going to explore and visualize some new Revit capabilities that us at Qnect have been working on and are delivering to help engineers better perform QA/QC design review of their structural designs.

      So as an agenda, we're going to walk through industry challenges around this space of QA/QC, talk about example best practices. I'll do a product overview of the solution Qnect for Revit, and then talk about what the future looks like, not just with the current technology, but where we're going next.

      So let's talk about industry challenges. And there's really three industry challenges that I see that are really shaping how engineers are looking at QA/QC, looking at the design review of their structures.

      And the first is there's a growing trend around engineers for delegating their design. And what I mean by that, whether it's doing structural steel connections that are delegated or even things like metal decking to aspects of their concrete design, what we're seeing is a growing trend of engineers delegating their design.

      And this is kind of related to the second trend where a lot of engineers are doing this because there's just not enough time to complete their design. There's a lot of pressure from the contractors to, say, order materials early. If you're talking about structural steel, that's an advanced bill of material. And so the designs are just not yet complete, and that's putting a lot of pressure on the engineers to deliver their designs in time and how to be profitable in that environment.

      And then the third pressure we're seeing is the growing importance of embodied carbon. But with the importance of embodied carbon reduction, it's really changing the calculus on how engineers think about most efficient design, right? Just because a design is low cost and very constructable does not necessarily equate to low carbon. And so this creates kind of a challenge, a new dilemma for engineers to figure out, well, how do I actually optimize my design?

      But all these aspects really are impacting then how engineers are thinking about or have to face coordination and QC issues. And this manifests itself through RFIs.

      There's survey data out there, and we actually did a survey itself where for every million dollars of steel construction, we estimate it was 50 RFIs. And each of these RFIs equate to typically $1,000 impact in the project, but also the profitability for structural engineers.

      We could see it's taking up to 10 days to respond to an RFI, and that really drags down the productivity, the profitability for structural engineers. So that's really the litmus test. The RFIs are the litmus test for, what is this challenge in dealing with RFIs?

      And the biggest challenge then because of those three challenges we talked about earlier is this bridge between design and construction, right? And around the world, we see there's different regional best practices to try to plug the gaps here to address, how do engineers better communicate their design intent to construction?

      In the US, we have the AISC Code of Standard Practice. There's legacy documents, such as the CASE 962D documents that's been around for a couple decades, and that provides checklists for engineers to go through and check their designs before they're issued.

      And then in Europe, the UK, the British Constructional Steel Association, DSTV and Germany, France, the CTICM. These are all different resources that are available that are helping define these standards for the industry. And then also in Japan, the Structural Steelwork Specification.

      And what's interesting, I would say, is the UK and Japan are similar to North America where engineers provide their design, but they're not necessarily doing highly detailed models. They might do connection design like in the West Coast, but they're not doing detailing. Whereas in the Nordics, Germany, and parts of France, they're doing the detailing, right? So the line in the sand of the handover is different, but there's still challenges that exist.

      And if we talk about the US then specifically, what I'm hearing from the steel industry leaders there at AISC is the delegate-- the trend of delegated design is really getting to a critical juncture where there needs to be better communication between that handover of the design intent by the engineers to fabricators.

      AISC's been building more language into the Code of Standard Practice where engineers are required to document special reinforcement areas of the frame. And if they don't do this, it opens up the opportunity for the fabricators. The trades ask for extras, and RFIs come because of that.

      And so this is a growing concern in the industry. I think engineers are seeing the impact of more RFIs in the industry. And so being able to define better best practices within the engineering organizations is becoming important.

      Over my years, I practiced as a structural engineer many years ago with a firm in Minneapolis. And I had the opportunity to join AISC at that time as a regional engineer. And there, it was interesting to see presentations from many of these steel experts like Jim Fisher. Larry Kloiber had a famous road show that went around the US around really defining best practices, for structural engineers when they're creating designs to minimize RFIs and to minimize impact and creating more constructable designs.

      Other studies from the Rocky Mountain Steel Construction Association in the Colorado area to folks like Michael West, to Dave Ruby, Clifford Schwinger, these folks are really the examples of leaders in the US steel industry, really helping shepherd young engineers, future engineers through their experiences on defining these best practices.

      But the challenges still exist, right? And we're trying to use then a combination then you can see of industry guidelines, experts in the industry to bridge this gap.

      So what are some examples of these best practices? So what I wanted to do is categorize these types of best practices and actually walk through some examples of the most important types of QA/QC checks, right? Design review checks that engineers should be thinking about.

      And I've organized them really into four buckets, and we're going to talk about really three of these four buckets today. Engineering, data accuracy, multi-discipline coordination, and constructability.

      And with the first bucket, we'll be talking about some examples. And here is about ensuring that the quality control of the engineering is the assumptions in the structural analysis and the simulation, the prediction of the math and physics of the structure, and making sure that manifests itself, right? And so understanding the impact of connections, not just in terms of low pass and rigidity, but thinking about the impact on the overall integrity.

      Data accuracy is about ensuring that documented design-- like, say, in the Revit model you're producing the design documents-- making sure that they're coordinated within-- between the structural analysis and the design, and that they're accurate, right? Dimensionally solid and with the data.

      And then multi-discipline coordination, we're going-- not to go into too much detail here because there's a lot of great presentations at AU around coordination with other disciplines. But I did want to say the last one on constructability is really important because we see a lot of engineers don't necessarily think about constructability as part of their wheelhouse, right? They might think that the final installed structure is really what they're responsible for.

      But from my experience designing as a young engineer at Ellerbe Becket and interviewing a lot of folks in the industry is it's really important for engineers to be thinking holistically. And a lot of the steel experts I mentioned earlier, you're going to hear them referenced in my following slides that they-- as the industry, they really believe that engineers need to be looking at the structure from its concept through construction.

      So let's talk about engineering. So engineering, there's a number of different issues that come up around QC that are important. One is just upfront, engineers thinking about the frame design. A lot of engineers-- most engineers separate the frame design from the connection design.

      The impact of this is that low pass might not be the most efficient. There could be risks with it. The behavior of the structural analysis itself with say, for example, joint stiffnesses are approximated. And also, it might not be the most cost-effective and low-carbon solution.

      So solutions to this is really for engineers to be looking at connection design, even if they don't know the exact type of connections. We hear engineers say, well, we don't do the connection design because we don't know what the fabricator's preference is. But that doesn't mean you can't look at multiple different options and kind of bound the problem.

      Engineers are very good at defining boundary conditions for their model simulations, right? And so doing the same thing with making assumptions around different connection types and seeing how the building behaves and sizing members appropriately is a good strategy. And this goes further about minimizing framing so that you minimize those special reinforcements we talked about earlier. And we'll be digging into that.

      So this is an interesting quote from Michael West and Jim Fisher about design is not just analysis. It's also member design and actually designing the connections.

      The second issue I wanted to talk about is the impact of coping on framing. And young engineers might be thinking about this when they're design-- you're looking at a Revit plan drawing. You see a W8 by 10 framing into a heavy W33.

      And this could pop up as an RFI and a drawing where it comes back to you that, oh my gosh, there's going to be these massive copes, as you see in the upper right screen here where that's because-- especially at a roof condition where you have joist bearing right on top of a beam. So you're losing that inch and a half, and then you cope it even further.

      So engineers need to take action. Like, OK, do we upsize the member of the beam or some other strategy? And I wanted to walk through just an example here in a video that shows this in a Revit model, what this looks like.

      And what you're seeing here, this is the Revit environment and an app from Qnect that's identifying this framing issue in the model. And you can see in this list view, it's identifying where the connection length required is not meeting the minimum space available.

      And so this check could actually lead to-- the memory capacity might not be met, or just, it's going to require a very complex connection. And so yeah, this is-- young engineers might face-- this might be the first type of checks that's important for them to learn about when they're learning how to put a building together, and so I wanted to highlight it here.

      The next issue I wanted to bring up about engineering is looking at the column wall capacity where there's connections like shear tabs coming into those walls. And what we hear-- and this was actually pointed out by the steel constructability or the Rocky Mountains Structural Steel Construction Association out in Colorado is that when engineers are doing design, even if they're doing delegated design, it's really important for them to consider the HSS connections and that the wall thicknesses might not meet all the limit states.

      Engineers might not be checking all these limit states. Maybe their structural analysis software checks these limit states. Some do, some don't. But being able to-- it's important for the engineers to make sure they're thinking about the framing, integrity, and limit states while they're doing HSS connection designs.

      And so I wanted to show you an example here in Revit again where here's an example of an HSS column where things like making sure the right material grade is, of course, specified because of the material grade is-- a lot of engineers might not model in Revit with the right material grades. And then if you're linking that to analysis, you're not using the right material grades. And then addition, the thickness of the wall thickness, if you're using only a 3/16-inch-thick wall or a 1/4-inch wall, that might not pass the K1.3 checks.

      So let's now switch gears. So that was on engineering. The next bucket I wanted to talk about is data accuracy. And so I wanted to walk through a couple of examples. And it's important for engineers to be-- when they're putting a building together is to be thinking about how the building closes.

      I know I've worked on projects where the dimensions might look accurate on the drawings, but if you actually add them up around the building, they actually don't close, right? And so survey crews or builders are building off of that. That could lead to field errors. And so verifying that data is very important.

      Another thing is if you're taking an analysis model, bringing it into Revit, and sending it to fabrication like SDS2 or Tekla, the work points actually should be going left to right, bottom to top on the global axis. I've heard of stories where fabrication, if that's flipped and not checked, it can actually impact the fabrication process. The NC files are incorrect. Shop drawings can be messed up. So those are the type of checks that-- I mean, if engineers are looking at passing models downstream, that's important. But just even for documenting their design drawings, it's very critical.

      So here's an example in Revit, where we're looking at-- we're kind of analyzing the framing geometry in Revit where we're flagging where intersections of beams and columns-- where the work points aren't exactly where they need to be. So for example, here you can see that the beam work point is just on the inside face.

      And some teams might have their own Dynamo scripts to check these tools. Having-- this is an example of Qnect's automation to be able to identify these type of tools to help teams identify these issues early in their process.

      And the second issue around data accuracy I wanted to talk about is column splice locations. And what we see is engineers-- it's not engineers are getting better at this over time. Building Revit models where the work points are at least a four foot above top of slab, that's the rule of thumb.

      And if that isn't specified-- and of course, if you would fabricate a model that way, that wouldn't be-- it wouldn't meet OSHA's standards. It wouldn't meet-- the connections would clash with each other. And it actually would lead to a bill of materials that's not very accurate.

      So being able to detect these in the model as you're designing or doing-- at different stages of design reviews, then it's critical. So it could be at 50% CDs, 100% CDs, the next couple stages in CDs, and just making sure you catch these issues.

      And all these issues that you're doing through the QA/QC process, you can do it kind of as you go through the design process. And then of course, do a final QC check at the end. So here in the model, we're just showing the four-foot offset on this splice that was successful, whereas the one that was down close to the top of steel actually is giving a warning that the column splice is too close.

      So that's looking at data accuracy. The third bucket that we wanted to talk about then is constructability. And I recently had the opportunity to do a podcast interview with Steve Hofmeister, former Managing Principal at Thornton Tomasetti. And I know Steve way back when he joined Thornton Tomasetti. I was an AISC regional engineer. And he actually worked at Ellerbe Becket when I did.

      And he's really passionate about over the years making engineers think about constructability. And I love this quote by him of imagining "a future where engineers respect constructability as much as they do design." And I think some engineers might feel intimidated about constructability. But I think that in the industry, we have the experts. We have those steel gurus. We can rely on fabricators to come in and guide us on this topic.

      I know when I worked at Ellerbe Becket, we would bring in-- Larry Kloiber from LeJeune Steel in Minneapolis came in and helped shepherd us and teach us young engineers about these topics. But we think it's a very important topic, so we wanted to go through some of the lessons learned or the issues that come up around constructability and give some strategies for engineers to work on those.

      The first is the shear connections, the connection tables. And I was guilty of this as well. The type of connections using standard load tables, whether they're based on beam depths with shear reactions or UDLs, which is Uniform Distributed Loading, all these steel experts say these are just-- they're simplified. In some cases they're over-conservative. In some cases, they're actually not. They can be unconservative.

      And so the rules of thumb are really two things. One is listen to what the local fabricators are recommending. And as a minimum, put design forces on the drawings. We know this can be a heavy lift for engineers, especially if you're not keeping your Revit models synced with structural analysis. But the tools are getting better out there to do this. And if you provide those design forces for the design, it can help avoid challenges in RFIs that show up later in the process.

      The second issue I wanted to bring up-- this is one that I really appreciated learning as a young engineer was around cambering differentials, right? And this is where young engineers, you spit out your composite beam design solutions for cambering, but you're not really thinking about the adjacency of these cambers.

      And if you have too much of a difference between the neighboring beams, like say the C1 that you see, that red C camber of 1 and the 3/4, if those beams are too close together and you have too much of a difference in the camber, the metal deck will actually not bear where it needs to bear. And you can't screw in. You can't puddle weld. You can't connect that diaphragm, which is critical.

      That will come back and bite you as an RFI. So using some type of feathering approach with these cambers, some rule of thumb based on the spacing of the members and what that difference between the cambers are should really be followed. Also, some recommendations from the steel experts was really to specify where the deck splice locations are, and that helps teams better manage this issue.

      And then the third constructability issue I want to talk about is around parallel beams too close to each other. And this is just kind of general fit up. I think engineers might not be aware that how steel is being erected, you know, swung in and beam spacings and geometry can impact safety. And there are measures detailers can take with locations of connections on near side, far side.

      But engineers can take action such as prefabricating assemblies. Like, if beams really need to be close to each other and maybe prefabricating them as a super assembly is more safe and more cost-effective to avoid fit-up issues.

      Here is an example, though, like in the Revit model with Qnect for Revit being able to identify where these framing issues are. So any beams that are less than 18 inches apart, which is an industry kind of rule of thumb, will be flagged. Space-- or could be beams on top of each other where once you slide in a beam, are you able to fit up the beam above it and so forth based on the order? So both horizontal spacing as well as vertical spacing.

      So those are some of the examples around constructability. So we talked about those three buckets around engineering, around data accuracy, and around constructability. So we think-- these are some of the key issues that we talked about that we think are important for engineers to be thinking about, especially young engineers as they're learning up and training.

      So I'm very passionate about this topic. When I was working those years ago, I really learned a lot of these best practices. And so it was great when I joined the Qnect team and I learned that Qnect already had this 10-year start of documenting a lot of these issues around engineering, accuracy, and constructability.

      And so about two years ago, we started developing a solution for Revit, working with engineers like Jeff Smilow who actually, we presented about this last year at AU around identifying these issues early and kind of teaching engineers about constructability as they're building Revit models. And so it's been a great journey here the last six months working with Autodesk's platform and Pelogic and Qnect, going through hundreds of simulations of joints with beta testers on identifying why steel won't connect.

      And so we're happy to announce that Autodesk University, the Qnect for Revit, which is this cloud engineering app that automates the checking of these steel issues all within that BIM environment. So engineers can not just visualize and coordinate them, but actually resolve those issues in context.

      And so many of the issues that we talked about earlier are the types of issues that Qnect for Revit is identifying. Within the buckets of engineering and documentation constructability, that includes checking for framing capacities, right? Checking the limit states on beams and columns, checking the limit states for HSS column wall thicknesses, looking at the steel connection design itself, both shear and axial for gravity and moment connections. And then from that checking and designing of connections, identifying those special reinforcement areas that are critical.

      And then what's interesting too about the Qnect for Revit is the forces. Remember how I said the industry experts really say, we've got to use the forces, right? Not just use shear tables.

      Well, Qnect for Revit takes both. Like, engineers can use their traditional shear tables, but then it also reads the end forces from both the Revit analytical model and physical model. So all those sources, both tables and from the members themselves, really are-- I see the current state and the future state of how engineers will be building their forces and doing connection design.

      The second bucket is around documentation, being able to visualize those special reinforced joints for things like shear doublers or moment doublers, moment connections with special reinforcements, of doublers and stiffeners. Qnect for Revit will identify those issues and help engineers resolve those, and also look at on their coordination plans identifying where the issues that need to be resolved.

      And then the third bucket is that constructability, being able to identify geometry issues, material grade issues, and meeting the AIS-- the codes for material grades. And then looking for erectability such as column splice locations and adjacent beam spacings.

      So this is a quick overview. What's interesting here versus what I was showing you earlier with some of the examples is the data being Revit into the-- written into the Revit model is all stored as Revit parameters. So your users have the ability to color the model with their model settings, right? So this is-- really gives the engineers to customize the visualization of Revit as much as possible.

      Green is steel that's connected successfully. Red are issues. And this is an example here of this HSS column that is denoted as having an issue. And then the Code of Standard Practice, of course, that we talked about earlier is being vetted here so that engineers can identify where there's special conditions.

      And I just wanted to double click on that topic of the Code of Standard Practice. So when Qnect is checking these connections, it's designing the connections. So here, for example, you see the connection codes for these moment connections, but it's also flagging for the user where there are doublers and stiffeners for the beams, for the columns.

      And the user can actually access the calculations through the end member parameters and see all the detail around the stiffeners. The doubler geometries, forces, welds, bolts, all the calculations, all the materials for those connection designs are there plus diagrams that can help inform the engineers of, OK, what do they actually need to document for their drawings?

      And actually, what a strategy could be for the engineers is actually to resolve these issues. I know when I designed my moment connections, I would actually do that trade-off analysis. Do I upsize the column sizes to resolve-- or to eliminate the stiffeners and doublers?

      And that leads into our future conversation around kind of optimization. Where are we going with Qnect for Revit? And we're excited about this first phase of doing QC review, but we really see the future going further, right?

      And that's around-- you know, remember at the beginning I was talking about the trends around things like embodied carbon and how constructability plus low cost doesn't equal low carbon, per se. And the carbon narrative is moving faster. And what I'm saying here, the design for carbon is going to expand beyond A1 to A3.

      A1 to A3 are really the life cycle analysis steps that we have very well documented in the US and in different parts of the world for material really and the shipping to the fabricator, and then the fabrication. Where the challenge is is going beyond shipping to the job site to job site. And we actually see that as we electrify the grid where A1 basically goes green to zero carbon or close to it, what that means is the blue on the pie graph becomes big. That means fabrication-- like, A3 gets big. And A4 and A5, which is really unknown, becomes very important.

      This is going to shift the calculus for how engineers optimize their frames. The traditional way of saying, make everything the same, make everything repetitive is going to be challenged because increasing the material and increasing-- it's not necessarily going to lead to low carbon. So the math is going to be changing.

      And then also, reuse and deconstruction is on the rise. So understanding the EPD values going beyond the A5s is going to create even more opportunities for optimization.

      So Qnect is looking at where we can help engineers kind of complement how they're doing carbon-- reducing carbon today, which I see a lot of engineers doing it up early, which is very important. That's the big space on system selection, grid layouts, beam spacing and layouts.

      We're helping on the interface between the shapes and the grades of the framing with the connections. And combining all these aspects of both, say, high-strength steel with connection optimization, we can see steel projects saving over 15-- over 15%.

      And so this is where we want to go further with our cost carbon analytics. You can see that what we have today for Qnect for Revit is really focused on the QC, the resolving of issues, early connection, design, and optimization. But we're looking at going further with carbon analysis, connection drawings, and other things related to connections.

      So just a couple examples of what we're working on now with cost carbon and analytics. This is a dashboard that shows how we can scan an entire Revit model, the framing, and then look at nine different connection strategies. It could be different combinations of-- preferences of connection combinations of double angles and shear tabs, extended shear tabs. It could be using one 3/4-inch bolt or using-- hey, let's use 3/4 inch with one inch, 7/8 and one and an 1/8, eight 490s.

      The users look at all these strategies and find, which ones are actually the least carbon? Because it isn't like a blanket number on every project, and different projects can result in lower carbon. So we're excited about this technology. We actually worked on this last year, getting feedback from structural engineers, and they're going to start commercializing this over the next year.

      And then the second bucket is around connection drawings, looking at, how do we better document, help engineers better document the drawings that they put together, their typical and nontypical details? There's challenges around ensuring that they have the right details for the right project.

      Are things kind of in context? Are they relevant? If they're not relevant, that can lead to a lot of confusion and additional RFIs on projects. So being able to help engineers kind of document where their details are is a direction that we're looking at.

      And then yeah, ending here on a great quote from Erleen Hatfield, President of Hatfield Group, is just with connections generally at that higher level of development, higher fidelity modeling that we see in fabrication software like Tekla or SDS2 and Advance Steel, wouldn't it be great if Revit had that greater capability? Autodesk has been doing great things of increasing the fidelity of the Revit models.

      We're very interested in taking that further with connection visualization. And yeah, because this visualization in 3D coupled with constructability review, carbon analysis, doing trade-off analysis between cost and carbon, it really needs that context of the higher LOD, Level Of Development visualization to help engineers.

      So with that, we're excited about this topic. I hope that you learned a bit about, what are the key aspects of best practices? What are the challenges facing the engineers around QC? What are the best practices that engineers are using in the industry?

      We walked through three different buckets of types of QC issues and best practices that engineers can take to resolve those issues, and then also gave an overview of the Qnect for Autodesk Revit app, what's released now and where we're going next. And we're excited about this future for structural engineers. With that, I'd like to thank you.

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      We use New Relic to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, and your Autodesk ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. New Relic Privacy Policy
      Salesforce Live Agent
      We use Salesforce Live Agent to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, and your Autodesk ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Salesforce Live Agent Privacy Policy
      Wistia
      We use Wistia to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, and your Autodesk ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Wistia Privacy Policy
      Tealium
      We use Tealium to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Tealium Privacy Policy
      Upsellit
      We use Upsellit to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Upsellit Privacy Policy
      CJ Affiliates
      We use CJ Affiliates to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. CJ Affiliates Privacy Policy
      Commission Factory
      We use Commission Factory to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Commission Factory Privacy Policy
      Google Analytics (Strictly Necessary)
      We use Google Analytics (Strictly Necessary) to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, and your Autodesk ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Google Analytics (Strictly Necessary) Privacy Policy
      Typepad Stats
      We use Typepad Stats to collect data about your behaviour on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our platform to provide the most relevant content. This allows us to enhance your overall user experience. Typepad Stats Privacy Policy
      Geo Targetly
      We use Geo Targetly to direct website visitors to the most appropriate web page and/or serve tailored content based on their location. Geo Targetly uses the IP address of a website visitor to determine the approximate location of the visitor’s device. This helps ensure that the visitor views content in their (most likely) local language.Geo Targetly Privacy Policy
      SpeedCurve
      We use SpeedCurve to monitor and measure the performance of your website experience by measuring web page load times as well as the responsiveness of subsequent elements such as images, scripts, and text.SpeedCurve Privacy Policy
      Qualified
      Qualified is the Autodesk Live Chat agent platform. This platform provides services to allow our customers to communicate in real-time with Autodesk support. We may collect unique ID for specific browser sessions during a chat. Qualified Privacy Policy

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      Improve your experience – allows us to show you what is relevant to you

      Google Optimize
      We use Google Optimize to test new features on our sites and customize your experience of these features. To do this, we collect behavioral data while you’re on our sites. This data may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, your Autodesk ID, and others. You may experience a different version of our sites based on feature testing, or view personalized content based on your visitor attributes. Google Optimize Privacy Policy
      ClickTale
      We use ClickTale to better understand where you may encounter difficulties with our sites. We use session recording to help us see how you interact with our sites, including any elements on our pages. Your Personally Identifiable Information is masked and is not collected. ClickTale Privacy Policy
      OneSignal
      We use OneSignal to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by OneSignal. Ads are based on both OneSignal data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that OneSignal has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to OneSignal to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. OneSignal Privacy Policy
      Optimizely
      We use Optimizely to test new features on our sites and customize your experience of these features. To do this, we collect behavioral data while you’re on our sites. This data may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, your Autodesk ID, and others. You may experience a different version of our sites based on feature testing, or view personalized content based on your visitor attributes. Optimizely Privacy Policy
      Amplitude
      We use Amplitude to test new features on our sites and customize your experience of these features. To do this, we collect behavioral data while you’re on our sites. This data may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, your Autodesk ID, and others. You may experience a different version of our sites based on feature testing, or view personalized content based on your visitor attributes. Amplitude Privacy Policy
      Snowplow
      We use Snowplow to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, and your Autodesk ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Snowplow Privacy Policy
      UserVoice
      We use UserVoice to collect data about your behaviour on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our platform to provide the most relevant content. This allows us to enhance your overall user experience. UserVoice Privacy Policy
      Clearbit
      Clearbit allows real-time data enrichment to provide a personalized and relevant experience to our customers. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID.Clearbit Privacy Policy
      YouTube
      YouTube is a video sharing platform which allows users to view and share embedded videos on our websites. YouTube provides viewership metrics on video performance. YouTube Privacy Policy

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      Customize your advertising – permits us to offer targeted advertising to you

      Adobe Analytics
      We use Adobe Analytics to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, and your Autodesk ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Adobe Analytics Privacy Policy
      Google Analytics (Web Analytics)
      We use Google Analytics (Web Analytics) to collect data about your behavior on our sites. This may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. We use this data to measure our site performance and evaluate the ease of your online experience, so we can enhance our features. We also use advanced analytics methods to optimize your experience with email, customer support, and sales. Google Analytics (Web Analytics) Privacy Policy
      AdWords
      We use AdWords to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by AdWords. Ads are based on both AdWords data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that AdWords has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to AdWords to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. AdWords Privacy Policy
      Marketo
      We use Marketo to send you more timely and relevant email content. To do this, we collect data about your online behavior and your interaction with the emails we send. Data collected may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, email open rates, links clicked, and others. We may combine this data with data collected from other sources to offer you improved sales or customer service experiences, as well as more relevant content based on advanced analytics processing. Marketo Privacy Policy
      Doubleclick
      We use Doubleclick to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Doubleclick. Ads are based on both Doubleclick data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Doubleclick has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Doubleclick to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Doubleclick Privacy Policy
      HubSpot
      We use HubSpot to send you more timely and relevant email content. To do this, we collect data about your online behavior and your interaction with the emails we send. Data collected may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, email open rates, links clicked, and others. HubSpot Privacy Policy
      Twitter
      We use Twitter to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Twitter. Ads are based on both Twitter data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Twitter has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Twitter to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Twitter Privacy Policy
      Facebook
      We use Facebook to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Facebook. Ads are based on both Facebook data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Facebook has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Facebook to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Facebook Privacy Policy
      LinkedIn
      We use LinkedIn to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by LinkedIn. Ads are based on both LinkedIn data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that LinkedIn has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to LinkedIn to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. LinkedIn Privacy Policy
      Yahoo! Japan
      We use Yahoo! Japan to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Yahoo! Japan. Ads are based on both Yahoo! Japan data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Yahoo! Japan has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Yahoo! Japan to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Yahoo! Japan Privacy Policy
      Naver
      We use Naver to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Naver. Ads are based on both Naver data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Naver has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Naver to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Naver Privacy Policy
      Quantcast
      We use Quantcast to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Quantcast. Ads are based on both Quantcast data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Quantcast has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Quantcast to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Quantcast Privacy Policy
      Call Tracking
      We use Call Tracking to provide customized phone numbers for our campaigns. This gives you faster access to our agents and helps us more accurately evaluate our performance. We may collect data about your behavior on our sites based on the phone number provided. Call Tracking Privacy Policy
      Wunderkind
      We use Wunderkind to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Wunderkind. Ads are based on both Wunderkind data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Wunderkind has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Wunderkind to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Wunderkind Privacy Policy
      ADC Media
      We use ADC Media to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by ADC Media. Ads are based on both ADC Media data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that ADC Media has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to ADC Media to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. ADC Media Privacy Policy
      AgrantSEM
      We use AgrantSEM to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by AgrantSEM. Ads are based on both AgrantSEM data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that AgrantSEM has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to AgrantSEM to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. AgrantSEM Privacy Policy
      Bidtellect
      We use Bidtellect to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Bidtellect. Ads are based on both Bidtellect data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Bidtellect has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Bidtellect to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Bidtellect Privacy Policy
      Bing
      We use Bing to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Bing. Ads are based on both Bing data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Bing has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Bing to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Bing Privacy Policy
      G2Crowd
      We use G2Crowd to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by G2Crowd. Ads are based on both G2Crowd data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that G2Crowd has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to G2Crowd to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. G2Crowd Privacy Policy
      NMPI Display
      We use NMPI Display to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by NMPI Display. Ads are based on both NMPI Display data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that NMPI Display has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to NMPI Display to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. NMPI Display Privacy Policy
      VK
      We use VK to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by VK. Ads are based on both VK data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that VK has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to VK to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. VK Privacy Policy
      Adobe Target
      We use Adobe Target to test new features on our sites and customize your experience of these features. To do this, we collect behavioral data while you’re on our sites. This data may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, your IP address or device ID, your Autodesk ID, and others. You may experience a different version of our sites based on feature testing, or view personalized content based on your visitor attributes. Adobe Target Privacy Policy
      Google Analytics (Advertising)
      We use Google Analytics (Advertising) to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Google Analytics (Advertising). Ads are based on both Google Analytics (Advertising) data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Google Analytics (Advertising) has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Google Analytics (Advertising) to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Google Analytics (Advertising) Privacy Policy
      Trendkite
      We use Trendkite to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Trendkite. Ads are based on both Trendkite data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Trendkite has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Trendkite to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Trendkite Privacy Policy
      Hotjar
      We use Hotjar to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Hotjar. Ads are based on both Hotjar data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Hotjar has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Hotjar to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Hotjar Privacy Policy
      6 Sense
      We use 6 Sense to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by 6 Sense. Ads are based on both 6 Sense data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that 6 Sense has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to 6 Sense to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. 6 Sense Privacy Policy
      Terminus
      We use Terminus to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by Terminus. Ads are based on both Terminus data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that Terminus has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to Terminus to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. Terminus Privacy Policy
      StackAdapt
      We use StackAdapt to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by StackAdapt. Ads are based on both StackAdapt data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that StackAdapt has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to StackAdapt to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. StackAdapt Privacy Policy
      The Trade Desk
      We use The Trade Desk to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by The Trade Desk. Ads are based on both The Trade Desk data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that The Trade Desk has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to The Trade Desk to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. The Trade Desk Privacy Policy
      RollWorks
      We use RollWorks to deploy digital advertising on sites supported by RollWorks. Ads are based on both RollWorks data and behavioral data that we collect while you’re on our sites. The data we collect may include pages you’ve visited, trials you’ve initiated, videos you’ve played, purchases you’ve made, and your IP address or device ID. This information may be combined with data that RollWorks has collected from you. We use the data that we provide to RollWorks to better customize your digital advertising experience and present you with more relevant ads. RollWorks Privacy Policy

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      We can access your data only if you select "yes" for the categories on the previous screen. This lets us tailor our marketing so that it's more relevant for you. You can change your settings at any time by visiting our privacy statement

      Your experience. Your choice.

      We care about your privacy. The data we collect helps us understand how you use our products, what information you might be interested in, and what we can improve to make your engagement with Autodesk more rewarding.

      May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?

      Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.