AU Class
AU Class
class - AU

Revolutionizing Roadway Design: The Versatility of Autodesk Construction Cloud in Horizontal Projects

Share this class

Description

As new programs are developed and implemented across the construction and design worlds, it can be difficult to discern how specific tools are helpful. Convincing others to migrate from their tried-and-true methods can be even more difficult, even when the benefits are clear. In this session, we will unpack the advantages of executing horizontal design projects within Autodesk Construction Cloud. We will explore how Autodesk Construction Cloud facilitates optimal utilization of data acquired from the field, as well as generated in the office, thereby empowering teams to make superior design decisions. We'll be covering some of the novel ways we at VHB have made use of its tools for roadway design, its strengths when used from project start to finish, and some of the best arguments for making the switch to Autodesk Construction Cloud.

Key Learnings

  • Learn Autodesk Construction Cloud basics, including file management, issue tracking, model sharing, and more.
  • Gain insight into the best ways to use Autodesk Construction Cloud as a design review tool, as well as a data collection tool.
  • Discover the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform's utility as it relates to bike path, roadway, and highway design.

Speaker

  • Avatar for Charles Sanderson
    Charles Sanderson
    I'm Charles Sanderson, I work as a Transportation Designer and Drafter for VHB Inc. in Boston Massachusetts. For over 5 years now I've helped design, review and oversee the construction of, roadway, structural and transportation projects. A few years ago I became interested in custom automation and programming related to Civil 3D and AutoCAD. With the resources available through Autodesk and the wider internet, I've taught myself C#, .NET and Dynamo and have created a host of time saving applications and tools for my company. I'm by no means an expert programmer but my experience has taught me that it's not necessary to be one in order to help yourself and your company save time and make an increasingly better product. My hope is that I can teach others some of the basics I learned and help them avoid some of the pitfalls and trials I experienced when I started.
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
  • Chapters
  • descriptions off, selected
  • captions off, selected
      Transcript

      CHARLES SANDERSON: Hey, everyone, and welcome to the presentation. I want to thank you all for coming or viewing this right now. And really appreciate everyone who took the time out of their day to sign up and get involved in this. I had 113 people registered. And we'll see if 113 actually attend last day at AU. Understand how it goes. But I just really appreciate that. It was a big number, and I was initially a little nervous. A little terrified, actually, is probably a better word.

      But after I got over that initial bout, I was humbled and honestly pretty reassured, just because I think like a lot of you, I may have thought that ACC was maybe just a construction tool. And maybe you didn't really completely see the utility of using it for infrastructure design. And part of my job recently has been figuring out the ins and outs and how it can be used for highway design. And the other part of my job has been convincing people that it's a worthwhile tool for highway design.

      And I wanted to take some of the lessons that I've learned throughout that experience and maybe put them out for people that are trying to do the same at their companies. So without further ado, let's get into it. Now, Safe Harbor statement. Probably seen this a ton at AU so far, and there's one more time here. Basically, don't take anything that I say as a reason to buy this product or anything like that, or start using it. And anything that I talk about that might be coming in the future are really just hopes of mine.

      Anyway, so like I said, I'm Charles Sanderson. I'm a transportation designer with VHB, Inc. We're a mid-sized, multi-disciplinary, I think 2,100 person firm all up and down the East Coast. We do everything from highway design to landscape architecture. Landscape design. Structures. Transit and rail. Environmental. A bunch of other things. I personally have been doing highway, roadway, and bike infrastructure design for about seven years now, from the initial concept information gathering phase to the actual DWG design, and then all the way out to construction site services. So it's been a great experience, and I'm excited to do more of it.

      On top of that, I'm a model based design coach, which if you don't know what that means, you can watch or attend my colleague [INAUDIBLE] presentation shortly after mine. And again, on top of that, I do a lot of C Sharp, vb.net, Dynamo automation, and a lot of our CAD education and training. A lot of training and live demonstrations. So if I make any PowerPoint faux pas, I'm usually used to doing a more live demo stuff. But I'm going to do my best here.

      So I wear a lot of hats. And on top of that, I've been working with Autodesk products since I was a freshman in high school. And I started out on AutoCAD LT, made my way up to Revit, and Venture from there. Use Fusion 360 all throughout college. And like I said, I'd been doing Civil 3D for about seven years now. So I really just have a well-versed-- yeah, just a well-versed history with Autodesk. And I've used that to great effect with figuring out exactly how ACC works. And it's been a great product so far. This is my third time at AU-- or will be my third time at AU. And it's my first time speaking. So just again, really appreciate you all coming to this presentation.

      So today, what are we learning about? So we're learning about ACC's basics, including file management, issue tracking, model sharing, and more, and gain some insight into some of the best ways to use ACC as a design review tool, as well as a data collection tool. And then we're going to discover some of the platform's utility as it relates to bike path, roadway, and highway design.

      Now, a little bit of an addendum up top. I'm realizing that this will be the last day of AU, and the third year that I've heard about ACC. And probably more than that for others. So some people might be a little basic-ed out. You might not necessarily need to learn how to place an issue down or things along those lines. So really, a lot of what I'm going to try to do with this and a lot of what I've been trying to do in general is reframing some of the functionalities of ACC, and some of the basics and the names. And just reframing how we look at them to maybe work more with our highway design plans.

      ACC was an outgrowth of BIM 360 and a lot of Autodesk other construction tools. So like I said, up top, it might not seem at first as though this is the best tool to use for horizontal infrastructure design. But I've learned through the different projects I've been working on that it really is beneficial and is such a great thing, too, that I love using.

      So yeah, we've been using ACC at our company for about two years now. And because of that, we haven't really finished a large highway project in ACC yet. Any highway engineers out here? Our projects take a long time. A lot longer than two years. Some of the stuff that I first designed when I started seven years ago is just now being built. So like I said, we haven't finished anything yet. We haven't finished a full project in ACC yet. Some things are being migrated over. We've got some on-call construction things working with some of our bigger clients in ACC. And starting out a lot of projects in our concept phase in ACC.

      So when I first was selected for this presentation, I wanted to combine a lot of those things into one whole huge finished project and show everyone this is how a fully designed highway project will look. I made a bunch of fake DWGs and demo sheets, and took a bunch of actual photos out of Massachusetts Avenue and made a bunch of different issues and sent a lot of emails to myself and to coworkers to show all the correspondence stuff. And I even got back into Revit and made a boxy building, and you can definitely tell it's designed by a civil engineer.

      But I was going through my initial dry run, and it took about an hour and a half. So talked to my mentor. Tried to reassess things. And what he told me was just, listen, you don't necessarily need to go through every piece of this. People have been hearing about ACC for a while, and will have heard a lot of it at this conference. So really just get into what is working for you with ACC. Why you like it. Why you recommend it to other people. And I went back to the drawing board.

      One of the things that I've been learning over my past experience with ACC is that we're a multidisciplinary company, like I said, and a lot of the other teams that I've been working with are much more excited than our highway team is about using ACC. Our landscape development and landscape architecture and everyone else is pretty gung ho about it and has gone through and actually completed a lot of their short-term projects in ACC already.

      So when I was redesigning a bit of this presentation, I thought, well, let's ask my highway team why they're a little bit reticent to go about this. Now, I got a lot of information that I expected-- or got a lot of responses that I expected at first. Like the questions I asked at the top, a lot of people were wondering, isn't that just for construction? Why would I need to use it? But some other things that were coming across that I didn't necessarily expect-- a lot of questions about files.

      Isn't that just for working online? I thought I had to be in the browser. Or, wouldn't I have to download my files every time to keep using them? Or, every time I click on something in ACC, it opens up a web version. I just want to see what I need in Civil 3D and Bluebeam. And then, like I said, our projects take a lot longer than other disciplines. What if ACC isn't around for the long run?

      Now I can't talk to tech company hype cycle stuff. But having worked in ACC for a bit now, I'm pretty confident that's going to be around for the long haul. It's not the metaverse. But it makes sense. People are a little bit worried. They want to be able to access their files now, and in the long haul. So one of the things that I've been trying to get across to people is that if all you need is your files, ACC and your company's internal server are pretty much going to be the same in a lot of ways and better in a lot of other ways.

      Once the project is connected, accessing them is the same way through File Explorer like it always was. Or opening up your DWGs in Civil 3D through the browser there. It's really going to be pretty seamless and pretty much the same. Browse and open in the same way. And one of the points that I've been trying to make to get people on board initially is that at its most basic, you can think of as ACC an external hard drive.

      Now I know that's a little reductionist, but it's a good way to look at it at its most basic. So if all you need is your files, the Desktop Connector is what you need. And like I said, we're not going to go into all of the intricacies of Desktop Connector. But as I'm putting up here, it really is that easy. You install it, select your projects, and then in a couple of seconds, all that stuff is readily accessible in File Explorer. It is such a seamless and easy to use tool that once that's all set up, I've seen people-- you transition pretty quickly and pretty easily.

      And so really, it's a lot of that's operating the same. Well, the same and faster, as I'm going to show here. I decided to do a bit of a demonstration between opening up a file in ACC our internal server. So right now, I'm opening up an 89 megabyte beast of a [INAUDIBLE] surface through ACC and through the internal server. And just to show that I wasn't cheating and caching things beforehand, I started the ACC a little bit behind and loaded up that project.

      So as you can see right now, Desktop connector is downloading from the cloud the same way that Civil 3D is downloading that DWG from your internal server. But you can see ACC is moving a lot faster. And now that it is actually loaded up and loaded up very quick, you can see that I'm going to close it out. And because it was cached on your computer, things are going to open up even quicker the second time.

      And that's not just for DWGs and opening up individual DWGs. Reloading XREFs is faster. Syncing your data shortcuts is faster. Smoother. All that sort of stuff. I am getting less crashes and less lag time than ever. Now again, this is anecdotal and a very cherry picked example. One that I made especially hard for our internal server. But in general, as a self-professed CAD jockey that's in the DWGs every day, I can tell you one of the things I notice the most between-- I'm working in projects that are on ACC and on our internal server, and it's just pretty seamless how things open up in ACC. It's again, anecdotal, but I've noticed a massive difference.

      And files are getting bigger. Things are getting more complicated. We're getting more and more data, and it's going to be pretty imperative that our stuff is all loading fast. Loading correctly. Loading the first time. That we're not losing work on saves. That we're able to coordinate between all the different places that all this different data is stored. And if this was the only benefit of ACC, I'd still be here talking about it. I would still be pushing for all my projects to be on ACC. But as we're going to get into, that's not the only thing.

      So we've got our initial projects. We got our initial files loaded up in the cloud. Things are faster, easy to access, all the same ways as before. Just a little bit better. But what happens if you've got other projects and you want to connect them? What if you wanted to link them or path them together or bridge?

      Now let's talk about ACC Bridge. Again, probably heard a lot about it already. Probably going to hear more about it come AU time. But I really like ACC Bridge. with a couple of small caveats. How do I know that ACC isn't always marketed with civil infrastructure in mind? Well, their main project connecting features named after one of the most quintessential pieces of civil design and construction.

      I often work with our bridge team on bridge projects and I need their bridge files and their bridge DWGs and bridge PDFs and bridge, bridge, bridge. I actually have it written down that many times like I'm Jack Nicholson in The Shining. But with all that, as confusing as it can get, as unfortunate as the naming is, it's really still such a great feature. Now, could they have gone with Link or Connect or something like that? Yeah. But hey, I'm not a marketing guy.

      Even with all that said, I love bridge. It's such a great feature. And one of the reasons that I love it and one of the reasons that I want to reframe how it's thought about a little bit is that the way that Bridge-- at least I've always seen it come across is that it's for talking to a bunch of different subcontractors and different companies outside of your own.

      And while it's incredible for that, one of the ways that we are making the most use of it is just internal file sharing. Like I said, we're multidisciplinary. We've got a lot of different things going on. Some of our projects are intersecting with each other or collaborating. But they're in different file systems for different clients. Or we have projects starting under different contract numbers that then need to collaborate after the fact.

      So in the past, we've done a couple of different things. And you let me know what you think is the easiest, fastest, and best way for this. Is it having XREF paths to multiple places in the network and having shortcuts within your files? XREFs going all over the place? Things that are orphaned and unloaded? Is it copying and pasting files from other disciplines and just really hoping and praying that people emailing you update their DWGs and that none of your layering breaks when you upload a new file? Or would it be choosing the exact files that you want to get sent to you, choosing exactly where they go, and having them update automatically? I know which one I'm choosing as we go forward.

      Now again, I won't belabor this point. There are going to be much more in depth presentations on Bridge than what I'm going to go through right now. But I just wanted to convey really, honestly how easy it is to share these things. You just select the files you need, share in the same way you'd share outside links or with other project members. You select the name of the folder that you want it to be. So it can be in your own file system if you're working with someone who's working for the MBTA, and I need things in the MassDOT file structure. However it works out for you all, wherever you are.

      But yeah, just select your project, select the target folder, select the files you want, write a nice little message, share it across, and all that stuff can be updated automatically. Now I should say that depending on the project, depending on your company, you might not want things to be automatically updated. So that'll have to be a conversation between your PMs and everyone else that is involved in the project. But it is pretty cool and pretty helpful that we even have the option for these to just automatically update like they were in XREF or something like that.

      So things are coming together. We got a different project linked together. And I'm going to say linked from now on, at least for the rest of this presentation. So we got all these projects linked together. What else do we need? Often for us, we start needing data from the outside, especially if we're starting off a project. So one of the first things that I was doing as a young engineer was going out and taking a bunch of pictures.

      Now the old way I used to do this was go out. Take a bunch of pictures. Probably the next week I'd be sorting through them, trying to figure out, OK, I took a picture of utility pole 121 there. And there's that bush in this next photo that I recognize. So this photo is definitely of the one catch basin that I need to be aware of and all that sort of stuff. And trying to make sure all of my plans and stuff were coordinated between that. And honestly, ACC has just made that a ton easier.

      Now I know there are other geolocation softwares out there that have made geolocating your photos pretty easy. But I really enjoy how connected, and again, just easy it is on ACC. Even if you're not using the ACC app on a iPad or on your phone, really it's just taking photos with your phone, making sure they're geolocated, dragging, dropping, and then they're already on that map for you. It's really as easy as that. Just on the quintessential Google Maps map. And all the photos that you need will be right there.

      Now speaking of Google Maps, I don't know about y'all, but whether it's from concept phase to the 100% submission that's due tomorrow, I'm pretty constantly on Google Maps for my projects, just trying to see if there's something that I'm not getting from the survey file, or just trying to get the correct disposition of something. But if you're in Google Maps all the time, you'll know that often things aren't updated to exactly what they are.

      You're looking at right now at Mass Ave in Cambridge, which is one of the most busy thoroughfares in the greater Boston area. And that hasn't been updated since 2020. I know for a fact that that street has been worked on since. You got a separated bike lane there now. And let's say we're doing a proposal. It's going to be pretty time-consuming and honestly pretty expensive to send a survey team out there for a project we might not get. Or if it's early in a project, we might not have the time.

      But you know what is easy and time efficient and not expensive? Sending out this guy with a GoPro strapped to his head to ride up and down the corridor and make yourself your own little Google Maps. So this is something I discovered that-- we'll get more into the data visualization side of things after the fact. But I didn't know that I could upload geolocated panorama photos to the map in ACC and essentially make that photos tab a lot like my own personal Google Maps. And it's been such a godsend for some of these places that don't have all that info updated.

      And like I was saying, it was so easy. This was about an hour of me riding up once, riding back down, making sure everything was good to go, and then uploading all those into the cloud. And I can look at this whenever I need if I need to figure out exactly what's going on with the drainage right there, or if I need to say, hey, what kind of sign is this? or something like that. So easy to just access that and have it viewable in the browser, but viewable in other places as well.

      So we've actually been developing a tool with Autodesk to bring some of that information from the browser down into our actual DWGs. What you're looking at right now is a little bit of a-- wish I could actually show you in Civil 3D itself, but it's a tool that we've helped develop with Autodesk to-- sorry-- create an ACC Connector Tool to bring some of that information down. So we've got our projects up top there, and different issues which we'll get into in a second.

      And then our photos. We can actually select which photos we want. Bring them in as a hyperlinked block just exactly where they need to be in our DWGs. And from there we can just click on them and then be brought to that exact photo. And it just allows for more connectivity and linkage between the info that's viewable in our browser or the app, and then bring that down into the actual place that I'm doing the work into our DWGs.

      So we're going forward. Got our projects, got our projects linked, and now we're starting to get some of that outside information. We got our pictures. Our geolocation. So what might be the best way to start connecting more of this data to get it all linked together? And some of you may be surprised, but the best way that I've found for that is with Issues.

      Now, if you like me, I thought that Issues were kind of just for punch lists. I did a year working at a general contractor before I started working for VHB, and punch lists were a huge thing. And that's how I've always seen Issues portrayed as. It's just this way to make a list of different problems that were either arising in the plans or problems that arose during construction, and categorize them. And it's great for that, but there's a lot of other things that I can do.

      As I've started using them more, I realized, well yeah, I've heard about attaching photos to pictures. That's pretty cool. That's a great way to have that information stored. And then from there, it's like, oh yeah, geolocation. Issues are a great way to store exactly where this problem is in my project. And then from there, you can bring it into the sheets. Have all that information accessible from this place and this place and this place, and then be able to click on it in the sheets that I'm preparing.

      From there also, cool, people can also be linked to this. I can select different things or different project members and have them connected to this thing as well. And then from there, pretty much everything else in your project can be linked through Issues. So really, again, in the spirit of reframing a lot of these things from the more construction-focused lens to just a general sort of lens, my really only issue with Issues is the name. Although in this case, I can't really think of a better one. But, hey.

      One of the best pieces of advice that I got during college was-- it was during my MATLAB class. And the professor, she was going over with-- got a class of a hundred civil engineers, a lot of whom had never coded before-- just the difference between different coding languages. And she said that the main two things that each coding language does is how it stores information and how you access that information. And I think that applies here because there's so many different ways that information is stored within ACC. And one of the best ways to connect all of that and access them is with Issues here.

      Now I have a little bit of an example. When I was first going through these, when I was first getting into Issues, I actually started out in a pretty small project. It was a bike path repaving project that I was doing out in Western Mass. And I really wanted to use ACC for this project. We've been talking about it. We've been trying to figure out the best way to utilize it. And I just was like, it's going to be this one.

      So sat down with my PM, sat down with the environmental engineer we're going to be working with, and we just started brainstorming. All right, here are the tools. How do we use them? And my environmental engineer brought up to me-- he's like, well, I'm doing a tree inventory. I really need just a list of the different sized trees and all available information about them. And I thought, OK. Well, I've been told that Issues are a great way to make a punch list, so why don't I start looking into that?

      And I've got my-- sorry. I started going into the Issues and making my own custom ones. And I realized, OK, cool. I can make my sub ones there. So I've got trees under 6 inches and trees from 6 to 12 inches, and going on up then. So I made those. And then I go out in the field with the iPad and I'm like, cool. I can actually plop this pin exactly where I need it. And awesome, I can start taking photos and have that all attached there.

      And it just really started to come together through that project that this tool, which I thought was just to make a list of things that were going wrong, was actually a great way to have all of the other info I had sorted together, put together in a way that was readily accessible and readily viewable. All of that became a sorted list in this tree inventory that my environmental engineer needed.

      And one of the biggest things with this was, and one of the reasons I bring up this project is that this ended up being a $400,000 repaving job, which in the grand scheme of a lot of highway projects, that's pretty small. And again, in the spirit of rephrasing a bit of how ACC is viewed, especially within the highway community of things-- is that I'd always gotten the impression that ACC was for these massive, tens of millions of dollars site projects where you're coordinating with a dozen different subcontractors and you have all these different submittals and RFIs and stuff like that.

      So I was a little reticent to try it with something like this. But in reality, yeah, I only used Photos and Issues part of ACC to make this easier. Well, I also had all my DWGs and stuff, but we were able to utilize those two things, get them into our sheet views quicker, see the problem areas that we have, and estimate this much faster than we used to be able to. This is something that would have taken, I don't know, maybe two weeks before of me in the field coordinating with our environmental engineer. Him having to go back out and fix all the mistakes that I made.

      Now, this was a day and a half of me with the iPad walking up and down these eight miles, getting a list of every tree that was causing a crack in this thing and having all the information readily accessible. Something that was probably, again, two weeks in the field, one week of putting all together-- we finished it in a week. We made this, again, admittedly small project even faster. Got it in on time.

      And so I think one of the biggest things that I'm trying to get across is that you don't necessarily need to utilize every aspect of ACC to make it a worthwhile thing. If you're just using one or two, or even just for storing your files, it is incredibly helpful. So as we're going on, cool. We've got our project. We've got our main project and all of our files. We got things linked. We're starting to get photos and geolocation and connecting all that stuff with issues.

      And I'm sorry this is getting a little muddled. I'm not a graphic designer. But I make good corridors, though. They're pretty. But as we're going on, one of the last things that I want to bring up is just the data visualization side of ACC, and just how helpful that's been with showing the design intent that I'm making, either internally or with the public, or aiding the design itself.

      So one of the biggest things about our industry is that-- and I know that all construction projects are liable to public scrutiny to a certain degree. But I don't know how much other projects can be derailed after three years of work because you couldn't explain to the public what exactly was going on in your plan set. And we have so many incredibly cool tools these days to show you what our design intent is. It's just not often easy to get that out to everyone.

      Like I said, this beyond typical stuff is great. And sharing a shared InfraWorks view is incredible. But they don't really mean much if you can't disseminate them to the people that need them. But with ACC, you can have all of those files loaded up into a single [INAUDIBLE] shared space. Share out links before a public meeting. People can walk through. Or just even during a public meeting itself, being able to bring up this stuff all within one space. Not have to have a bunch of different programs to show a video and then do a little site walk through on your model that you created.

      So it's really cool-- just the fact that we'll be able to present this all in one spot, but then also send out links so that people will be able to view them without needing the programs themselves. And getting more into that, I think the thing that's been the most crucial and the most helpful for me is just being able to view what you need when you need it.

      Because the Data Viewer is such an impressive tool just for the fact that I can either do the more traditional or more marketed stuff that I've seen about ACC, which is zooming around my drawings and looking for utility conflicts and looking at different things like that, or just getting a point cloud. And I think that gets to another point that I love about ACC-- is that I was looking through the entire list of all the viewable files.

      There are 83 different types of-- sorry, there are 83 different types of viewable 2D and 3D file types that can be viewed within the Data Viewer of ACC. Like I said before, projects are getting more complicated. We're getting more data from more different places. And I hadn't run across a point cloud before, and now I know that I can download and use ReCap. But I don't have ReCap. But there's a solid chance I might need to look at a point cloud, or someone else might need to look at a point cloud.

      And I've just found that when I've had these things that I know have viewable, pertinent, visualizable data, I can honestly just throw them into ACC. And nine times out of 10, I'm going to be able to get the information I need just because that Data Viewer is so robust. And I wanted to throw up a list of all the things just to impress upon you how robust all this was, but I realized that's probably going to be outdated maybe one time that I give this actual presentation at AU.

      So it's incredible how much this tool has been changing, and how versatile it already is. And like I said, we might just need to reframe a little bit of how we're viewing ACC within the highway community, thinking about it not as this construction tool, but as this multi-purpose go-to thing for anything that we need, whether it be our initial site photos or a site walkthrough or just a great place to store our files and look at them the way that we need to when we need to.

      So to wrap up really quickly, ACC. Initially, great foundation. Great place to store your files. And because of that, also it's a great place to link different projects and different files together. From there, we're getting all of our different site info, whether it's photos, geolocation, all that sort of stuff. We're using our Issues to link them together. And then because of the Data Viewer, we can bring in so much more info. Utilize it in different ways that we haven't been able to before.

      And then from there, we're able to display that to the rest of the world-- or, display that either internally to make our design lives easier or display it to the world so that I don't have another bike path shut down at the 11th hour because I couldn't really explain it at a town meeting. But anyway, I really appreciate you all coming today. And I really appreciate you all taking the time out of your schedules to look at this video or come to my actual presentation.

      And feel free to contact me. Like I said at the top, I'm a bit more of an in-person demonstrator. So if you want me to run through some of the things, some of the different ways that I've done this, my email is up in that first slide. Please feel free to contact me. I love talking about all this stuff. And have a nice day. And I hope to see you all at AU or some other time in the future. Thanks.

      ______
      icon-svg-close-thick

      Cookie preferences

      Your privacy is important to us and so is an optimal experience. To help us customize information and build applications, we collect data about your use of this site.

      May we collect and use your data?

      Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement.

      Strictly necessary – required for our site to work and to provide services to you

      These cookies allow us to record your preferences or login information, respond to your requests or fulfill items in your shopping cart.

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

      These cookies enable us to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we use to deliver information and experiences tailored to you. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not be available for you.

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

      These cookies collect data about you based on your activities and interests in order to show you relevant ads and to track effectiveness. By collecting this data, the ads you see will be more tailored to your interests. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

      icon-svg-close-thick

      THIRD PARTY SERVICES

      Learn more about the Third-Party Services we use in each category, and how we use the data we collect from you online.

      icon-svg-hide-thick

      icon-svg-show-thick

      Strictly necessary – required for our site to work and to provide services to you

      Qualtrics
      We use Qualtrics to let you give us feedback via surveys or online forms. You may be randomly selected to participate in a survey, or you can actively decide to give us feedback. We collect data to better understand what actions you took before filling out a survey. This helps us troubleshoot issues you may have experienced. Qualtrics Privacy Policy
      Akamai mPulse
      We use Akamai mPulse 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. Akamai mPulse Privacy Policy
      Digital River
      We use Digital River 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. Digital River Privacy Policy
      Dynatrace
      We use Dynatrace 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. Dynatrace Privacy Policy
      Khoros
      We use Khoros 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. Khoros Privacy Policy
      Launch Darkly
      We use Launch Darkly 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. Launch Darkly Privacy Policy
      New Relic
      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

      icon-svg-hide-thick

      icon-svg-show-thick

      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

      icon-svg-hide-thick

      icon-svg-show-thick

      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

      Are you sure you want a less customized experience?

      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.