One AutoCAD Keynote

[MUSIC PLAYING]

DANIA EL HASSAN: Hello. Welcome, everyone. I'm Dania El Hassan. These are my colleagues, Scott Crider and Maayan Gottlieb. We are product managers on the AutoCAD team. And we are super excited to be here today to tell you a little bit more about what we've been working on for the last year and share some of our future plans.

So-- I have to use this clicker. We show you this every year. If you haven't signed an NDA, please do. We really like to share our plans with you, but we do that knowing that things might change. And so we'd like you to not make any purchasing decisions based on what you see here today. So the NDAs are going around in the back.

We are going to use a tool called Poll Everywhere today to try to get some of your feedback. So if you would take out your phones and text AutoCAD next to 22333 or go to pollev.com/AUTOCADNEXT.

We're really excited. We take this very seriously. So take a look around the room when you're done with that and see how many black AutoCAD t-shirts there are here. We brought the whole team. We really want to hear what you have to say. And so thank you again for sharing your feedback with us today.

OK, so we are going to collect information from you guys. It's not going to display on the screen, because we're having some tech issues. But we do take the feedback super seriously. So please do continue to provide your feedback over the course of the presentation.

We are not collecting any of your information. This is totally anonymous. So please feel free to be as blunt or as realistic as possible.

SCOTT CRIDER: Great. So AutoCAD, you've seen the AutoCAD family evolve multiple times throughout history, right. 1995 saw the addition of AutoCAD Mechanical, '98 AutoCAD Architecture. By the mid 2010s, there were six different tool sets to give you the exact capabilities you need for your specific workflow.

Maybe you use AutoCAD Electrical for your wiring diagrams or Architecture to make windows and doors. You probably worked at your desktop computer. And you were mostly only working in the office. But we envisioned a world where when you subscribe to AutoCAD, you've got the power of the whole AutoCAD family in one package. That's the world of One AutoCAD. Now, when you subscribe to AutoCAD, you get all the specialized tool sets. Not only that, but AutoCAD is taking you further with the AutoCAD web and mobile applications that let you edit and view your drawings on the go.

When we think about creating power across One AutoCAD, we focus on three areas-- cohesive core experience, seamless data, and cross-platform workflows. Cohesive core experience means that AutoCAD will continue to be the most powerful drafting tool in the world. And that promise continues even as we move onto new platforms.

Seamless data means we'll help you collaborate with your team and get the most out of your enterprise data. And cross-platform workflows means that AutoCAD will help you be more productive in more places than ever before. So let's dive in.

Let's start with cohesive core experience. Nothing is more core to AutoCAD than 2D graphics performance. We've been investing in 2D graphics performance every year. From 2016 to 2018, we improved graphics performance and fidelity by calculating, caching, and multi-threading on the GPU. In 2019, we made big improvements in draw order, raster images. In 2019, we continued that. You'll notice an 85% improvement when working with changing visual properties, such as color, line type or layer. Additionally, an 86% improvement in working with REGEN and a 66% with QSAVE.

QSAVE is the 10th most used command in AutoCAD. It's done over 50 million times a month. So the fact that it went from 1.5 seconds on average to . 05 on average, a saving of 1 second, 1 second sounds pretty small, but when it's done 50 million times a month, there's power in 1 second. If our entire user base adopted to 2019.1 update, we'd get an extra 14,000 hours of work done every month. That's an extra 80 years of work per year, which is why we spend so much time on 2D graphic performance, because we know that it matters to your productivity when you're working in AutoCAD.

So now, let's try a quick poll of texting in. It's not going to display it. But is 2D graphics performance beneficial to you and your team? It's A through E. E is good. A is bad.

Great. So I wanted to give you a visual representation of what this looks like, because in our next release of AutoCAD, which is code named Qubit, we're continuing to improve and add seconds back into your work day. So in Qubit, we're focusing on drawings that have lots of blocks in them. Coming up here, you're going to see AutoCAD 2019 on the left and AutoCAD Qubit on the right. And you'll be able to see the immense difference in how quickly your mouse becomes responsive again.

In Qubit, we're making it so that our graphics engine is aware of blocks that appear multiple times in your drawing. So in the past, it used to recalculate every time you add a block. Now, it's going to remember that, store it, and we'll be able to improve the performance, when you have lots of blocks. So the more blocks you have in a drawing, the better your performance improvement is going to be. So, yeah, here you can see the one on the right responds much faster. Left is still thinking.

So specifically on block performance on drawings that have lots of blocks in them, will that help you? Do you have drawings that have lots of blocks? Is that performance an issue? A through E. E is good. A is bad.

Give it a couple of seconds.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Is the clicker not working?

SCOTT CRIDER: I don't know. I haven't used that one. Time to move on.

MAAYAN GOTTLIEB: In Qubit, we're also introducing a new and very exciting dark theme to the AutoCAD UI. Honestly, I love it when we invest in modernizing the AutoCAD look and feel. We just talked about how much time we all spend in AutoCAD. So it's important that AutoCAD offers the best in class visual experience.

Here's AutoCAD 2004. Here's AutoCAD 2004. Now, I bet some of you are now gripped with feelings of nostalgia. I know we are. But I want to encourage you to fight the urge to go back to this awful brown gray.

Here's AutoCAD 2009. This is when we first introduced the dark theme. Alongside other improvements, you can see that the UI is more organized and the contrast is higher. Since then, we've been iterating on the dark theme. And here is AutoCAD 2015. When you consider that most of our users stare at the computer screen for almost 8 hours a day, it's even more valuable to invest in high contrast and a softer visual experience.

In Qubit, we're evolving the dark theme again. I'm happy to introduce you to the new AutoCAD dark blue theme. The dark blue theme offers a dark blue background, which when combined with our easier to read flat icons, makes AutoCAD easier and more enjoyable to use. Now, we run endless user testing with the dark blue theme, both here at AU and at special research sessions in our offices in San Francisco. Users definitely noticed how the softer visual experience and the improved contrast makes AutoCAD easier. And therefore, they strongly preferred this new modern look over the dark and light gray themes of the past.

In the world of One AutoCAD, the dark blue theme is available not just in basic AutoCAD, but also in the specialized tool sets. And, of course, it will also be available in AutoCAD Mobile and AutoCAD Web. Actually, the dark blue theme had such a profound impact on the user experience, that Autodesk will be rolling it out across more Autodesk products, ensuring that you will have a cohesive and the same enjoyable experience while using collections as well.

So now, we'd like to hear you. Will the dark blue theme benefit you and your teams? That's the time for the poll.

AUDIENCE: Is Qubit going to be a separate application that you run on your computer or is it included in the package?

MAAYAN GOTTLIEB: Qubit is the next release of AutoCAD. This is the--

DANIA EL HASSAN: It's a code name.

MAAYAN GOTTLIEB: Yeah.

SCOTT CRIDER: So the last one was pi. And we just kind of go down the alphabet. So the next one we refer to as Qubit until it's released.

MAAYAN GOTTLIEB: Next, we want to talk about seamless data. Our goal is for you to have seamless access to your data from AutoCAD on any device. We're enabling this seamless interaction by delivering first class shared views, cloud storage experiences, and block management.

Now, we know some of you often have the need to collect feedback from clients and collaborators without sharing your valuable IP. This is why last year, at AU we introduced the shared views, which allows you to collect feedback from collaborators on a project without sharing even one DWG. Since the share view launched as part of AutoCAD 2019, we continue to improve and added functionality to the shared views that will allow you to gain even more value from your collaborations.

So let's take a look. Say I'm a contractor working on a first floor design. And I want to share the kitchen plan with my client to get her feedback. Sorry.

Using the Shared Views command in AutoCAD, I can create that view to share with my client. The view is generated in the background. And once it's ready, I will receive a notification. The link will take me to take a look at the view.

Using the Autodesk Viewer, I can create the view to share with my client. I can, of course, draw and add markups. I can also add comments. This will allow me to highlight areas in the drawing that requires my client's attention. Can also take a look at previous comments and use the view link to share with my client.

So let's say this is my client now opening this view. Now, she has access to my drawing and the comments that I've added to it. She can mark up and add her comments. With the continuous improvements that we added to the online viewer, the client now has more control over the layers she wants to display. So let's say I was working with an overhead lightening layer to turn it off, she can turn it on to get a better understanding of the plan. Of course, you can add markups as well and also comments. This way I can get her feedback on the drawing.

Another functionality we added to the viewer will allow the client to keep track with drawings I shared with her. She can use the Shared With Me tab to see other drawings.

Finally, I want to go back to the Autodesk viewer to view the comments and the feedback that I got from the client. I can use the export functionality to export all the discussions that we had. I can see the markups and the comment. This will help me to keep track of our discussions and make sure I didn't miss anything.

Finally, I can go back to AutoCAD and with the Shared Views tool, see the comments while I'm editing the drawing. We hope that the shared views improvements will help you to manage feedback easily without sharing your valuable IP. Now, we'd like to hear you again. We'll Shared Views benefit you and your teams?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

MAAYAN GOTTLIEB: Great feedback.

DANIA EL HASSAN: I'll give you a minute to finish up the poll. Did you all submit to the poll? Cool.

So we know that when you share with an external collaborator, it's much different than when you're working actively on a project with your team. So just for a quick show of hands, how many of you are using some sort of cloud storage? Yeah, OK.

So if I had asked that question 3 years ago, the answer would've been a bit different. Today, more than 45% of our users are using cloud storage in some form or another. And there are over 5 billion DWGs, in the cloud-- 5 billion. So that's 10 DWGs, more than 10 DWGs for everyone in the United States.

So we're working on improving that experience in two principal ways. So first, when you're in AutoCAD, we want you to have access to your data wherever you go. So within AutoCAD, you'll have your cloud storage solutions right there for you. We're also working with some of the leading cloud storage providers to help us with native AutoCAD experiences within their collaboration platforms.

So our goal is that whether you're on desktop, web, or mobile, you have access to that file first. So we're providing direct connections from all of our apps to be able to access your files from wherever you go. But that's really only half the story.

We also heard from Microsoft about a year and a half ago that they had a lot of DWGs, like a lot. We got this sort of call, like what is a DWG? And how do we work with them? And so we knew that there was like a workflow here that we had to try to optimize for. And so we started to partner with Microsoft to try to understand that workflow better and to streamline it for you in their collaboration experiences online.

So without further ado, I'd like to introduce a partner of ours, Ian Story. He is the principal program manager for OneDrive in SharePoint. And he's going to tell you a little bit more about the work we've done together.

IAN STORY: Thank you, Dania. All right, hello, everyone. My name is Ian Story. I am a principal program manager at Microsoft. I sit on the leadership team for OneDrive and SharePoint. And first, I'll just say thank you to everyone for having us here from the Autodesk team and also for all the shared customers here in the room.

So let's jump in a little bit and talk about our current experience with AutoCAD files. Have you seen this before? This is what happens today in OneDrive and SharePoint if you try to view a file. And one of the things that we've consistently heard from our customers, many of you in the room, even folks on stage with me is that this experience is actually no good. I'm looking through my SharePoint. I'm looking through my OneDrive. I'm trying to find that particular DWG file that I want, and I get this.

Now, we support storing any file, of course. And many of you store millions and millions and millions of files with us, billions of files with us collectively. And you know, it's obvious that this is a bad experience. So while we support 321, I believe, file formats for viewing, there was one file format in particular, DWG, that we were giving you this sad, bad experience. You either see this or you see this little tiny thumbnail looking thing. And that obviously is not what we want.

And so we've been partnering together and working very hard to bring you a much, much better experience when you actually try to view an AutoCAD file in either SharePoint or OneDrive. And that allows you to actually see a big beautiful preview of it and do all of your SharePoint and OneDrive things with that file. But in addition to that, we thought, well, it would be wonderful if I didn't just have the option to view the file, but I could also, as you see in the top corner of the screen, open that file in AutoCAD Web or in the AutoCAD Desktop.

And so this allows you to do exactly that-- open that file up, get a nice full, fidelity experience here in AutoCAD Web. Take advantage of much of the things that the team was just showing you. And we are really, really thrilled about this vision.

So what you're seeing here, of course, are kind of design mockups of where we're headed. This is work that we're going to be working on together over the next few months. And we're excited to bring this to you next year. We want you to have that best in class experience of working with your AutoCAD files in AutoCAD properties, not in some other tool. But at the same time, we want you to have that great experience in the OneDrive and SharePoint UI when you have to share those files, store those files in the cloud, etc. So thank you so much for having me. And thank you to the audience here for using lots of SharePoint and OneDrive.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Thanks, Ian. That's great. Cool. Yeah, so there you have it. I mean I think the thing to note here is that AutoCAD kind of follows you everywhere. Whether you're in OneDrive, whether you're in our apps, you're using AutoCAD trusted technology to view these thumbnails, to preview your drawings, and to open in AutoCAD Web. And this is a really key thing for us. It's a good development in our story.

You also may have seen an announcement last week about Dropbox. So we are also working with two other of the leading providers to bring you similar experiences in those. So we announced that there is a Dropbox extension that allows you to open in AutoCAD Web. And we're working on the same experience with Box in the future as well.

Cool. So let's go to the polls. So tell me, will the cloud storage improvements benefit you and your team?

AUDIENCE: Yeah.

SCOTT CRIDER: Hey, there you go.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Oh. I wish I could just close that.

SCOTT CRIDER: Can you see if you can move that? Probably not. I think it'll exit PowerPoint. A lot of strongly agrees.

DANIA EL HASSAN: I'm happy to hear that. Ian's probably happy to hear that. Very cool.

SCOTT CRIDER: We keep strongly agree above about 30%, we can keep seeing it, so--

DANIA EL HASSAN: We got some buffer.

SCOTT CRIDER: Awesome. Great. So we also know that blocks are critical to our productivity. And in Qubit, our next release of AutoCAD, we're going to be working to make it easier for you to find, visually reference, and insert blocks into your drawing.

In Qubit, the new Blocks Palette command, it's going to pull up a Blocks palette for you, where you can see your recently used blocks, any blocks that are stored in your current drawing, as well as blocks that are in other drawings. By either double clicking or dragging and dropping, you can insert these blocks directly into your drawing.

Additionally, with a toggle, you can do the multiple inserts, where you don't have to go back and select the block again. You can insert it multiple times.

There's also a search feature. If, for example, you're doing some landscaping and you know you're looking for a boulder and you want to search through all of your blocks and find your boulders. There's something called fuzzy search where it has an asterisk at the end and you type in bou, it'll pull up everything that starts with bou, or you put it after the thing and it'll pull it up here. So here, we searched for boulder. And we can find it and insert it right into our drawing.

But again, it's not just blocks that are inside your current drawing. You're also able to navigate to other drawings and pull in any blocks from that drawing. And they'll be available for you to search through and then easily insert into your drawing.

We know that blocks are powerful. They save you time. And we wanted to make it easier for you to get the most out of them by finding them, viewing them, and quickly inserting them into your drawing. And we're really excited to bring this to Qubit.

So let's go to the polls. Will this BlockStream feature be beneficial to you and your team? Are you searching for blocks, can't find them?

Great, it looks like a lot of block users.

The search feature is one of the best. We are always out visiting customers. And we see the DWGs with thousands of blocks in them. So being able to search and pull up things that have the name you're looking for is really helpful. Great.

So now I want to go back to cross-platform workflows. Everyone in this room probably thinks that CAD is really cool. And that's what we love about being here. The people outside of this room sometimes need a reminder.

And in the last six months CAD has been really cool again. AutoCAD has been featured on the main stage of Google and Apple within the last six months. And the reason is that we're ahead of the curve on cross-platform workflows.

Adobe had an announcement recently. Many companies are trying to give you a multiple platform experience of desktop, web, and mobile. But AutoCAD started that three to four years ago. So now, we have a really powerful experience where the core AutoCAD engine that you're used to on desktop is powering our web app and powering our mobile app. And that's tough to do. And companies are taking notice, and they're talking about it.

So we wanted to give you a little bit of a taste of a sample project of how AutoCAD helping you be more productive in more places than ever before can help you out in your work. So in this project, I'm an architect working on a remodel. I've received a drawing of the existing conditions from a client, but it's a PDF. So I'm going to import the PDF into my desktop AutoCAD.

I'm going to make my selections and convert that vector geometry into DWG. I'm then going to save it to the cloud, to my OneDrive folder, so that the rest my team can collaborate on it with me, because not my whole team is in the office here. So hopefully, now my structural engineer, Maayan, our structure engineer, can help us out in the field.

MAAYAN GOTTLIEB: So I'm the structural engineer. And luckily, I'm at the job site today with my iPad. I'm here to inspect the structure of the building for the remodel. And it's always good to have my drawings with me on my iPad as a reference.

While inspecting the structure of the building behind the demolished wall, I notice a discrepancy. The existing column is about 5 inches to the left of what's shown in Scott's drawing. So let me show you how I can use AutoCAD Mobile to note this discrepancy and add an annotation.

I'm just opening the shared OneDrive folder in the relevant project and the floor plan drawing. As you can see, it's the same drawing that Scott was working on. And I'm going to use the Annotate section in the toolbar to add a revision cloud around the existing column. I'm also adding an arrow and an annotation that explains this discrepancy.

All done. As you can see in the top left, changes are automatically saved to the shared OneDrive folder. This way I know that my colleagues in the design team are always looking at the most updated version of the file. Using the AutoCAD mobile app, I can make quick annotations and also edits and measurements on the go.

So let's go to the polls. I'd like to hear you. Will accessing files and editing with AutoCAD Mobile benefit you and your teams?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Have you all voted? All right. Pretty good. So I'm Dania. And I am a designer on Scott's architecture team. So now knowing that Maayan made some comments on the floor plan, I want to be able to understand those changes that she wants to make and to be able to update my drawings based on the new structure and the location that she noted.

So in Draw and Compare in AutoCAD 2019, I can then open my original drawing and layer in Maayan's drawing for comparison. So let's take a look.

So, first, I'll go get that file and compare it to my own. You can see here that immediately I can tell the differences. So the red is Maayan's markup. The green is my drawing. And the gray represents all the geometry that's in common.

So I can then use these toggles to be able to better understand the changes here. I can change colors. I can navigate. I can include or exclude text or hatch. All to be able to try to understand those changes in my drawing.

I think the video paused. Hm, well, you get the idea.

So in 2019, the controls were hosted in the ribbon in a contextual ribbon tab. And the drawing was compared in a separate tab from my original drawing. And that's all right to be able to understand changes. But in Qubit we change that interface.

And so now, the key difference is you're able to see those changes right in your drawing. And the controls are hosted in a floating panel at the top. This makes it easier for me to be able to update my drawings based on those changes that Maayan made.

So one of the other things that you all have told us is that when you're trying to adopt those changes from Maayan, that you'd just like to import that geometry so you don't have to go and recreate it. So here, we've been able to do that for you. So I just imported that wall that Maayan had moved. And now you can see that the geometry is in gray.

So what I'm doing here now is I'm trying to understand it all of the other changes that she's made. It looks like here she's updated one of the column blocks because the size has changed. And so when I import that geometry, I'm able to update the block definition in my drawing as well. So I have that new block definition, and I don't lose any of the information in that transfer.

So this is some of the key improvements we've made here. We hope we've made it easier for you to understand the changes, but also to update your drawings based on those changes, because we know that this is part of a complete workflow for you. So let's go back to the polls. Please tell us how these improvements of and compare in Qubit will benefit you and your team.

AUDIENCE: Now is there a log that keeps track of who made those changes and when those changes were made?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Good question. So I didn't mention this, but in the video you might have seen that there was a snapshot that I created. So I can save a snapshot back for it to keep for reference for later on. And anyone with AutoCAD of any version is able to see that change. So you could then put that in your archive folder. And you'll have that change log on your project file.

Pretty cool.

OK, let's move on. So now, I want to make that update on more of my drawings on the other floors where the column is moved. But I have to run. I have to leave the office. And I know that when I put my stuff on a cloud storage solution that I'll be able to access it when I get home.

So now from the AutoCAD Web app, I'm able to open that drawing and to edit it right in the web browser. So I just go to web.autocad.com and I'm able to see that drawing directly. So this is the same DWG that Maayan had on her device.

So here, I'm just moving the column over. And I'm going to extend the wall to reach the column encasement. I think one thing you'll notice here is that we've also added the command line recently to the AutoCAD Web app.

AUDIENCE: Woo, hoo.

DANIA EL HASSAN: And we've done that to basically unlock the power of AutoCAD. So again, as Scott mentioned, this is AutoCAD running in the browser. This is real AutoCAD technology, trusted AutoCAD technology in the browser.

One of the other things that I'd like to point out is that whether you're a newer user and you might be using the toolbar, if that's what you're more comfortable with, or you're using the command line, we make it simpler for you to access those powerful tools in the web app. So this is the AutoCAD Web app. And we hope that that helps you access AutoCAD from wherever you go.

So you know the question, right? Will the AutoCAD Web app benefit you and your team? Getting better. Awesome.

AUDIENCE: All of this actually comes with both of these subscriptions?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Good question.

AUDIENCE: Can you repeat the questions?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yes. So the question is, does all of this come with the subscription? And the answer is yes. So the AutoCAD Web app went live in March and is available to all subscribers and has the editing capabilities, as well as the mobile app, same deal. So if you have a subscription to AutoCAD, you can get the web and mobile app as part of that, or a collection.

AUDIENCE: Is this something that you can--

DANIA EL HASSAN: I can't quite hear you?

AUDIENCE: Does it come with the educational download?

DANIA EL HASSAN: It does not come with an educational download today. The mobile app does. But that's something that we're looking into in the near future.

So just to wrap up, this has been kind of a glimpse at what we've been working on over the past year and what we hope to work on in the very near future. We focused on three key things. So we focused on core cohesive experiences, on seamless data, and on cross-platform workflows. And we really hope that you take advantage of the web and mobile apps and to continue to give us feedback. That helps us improve these apps for you.

So with that, we can go to questions. It looks like there are already some in the room. Go ahead.

AUDIENCE: I work on educational software out of AutoCAD. How does this app work with-- and I hate the app expression-- but how does it work in conjunction with Revit?

DANIA EL HASSAN: How does the AutoCAD app work with Revit? so there are a lot of different ways that you can work with AutoCAD in Revit. You can import DWGs into Revit. You can export DWGs from Revit it. There's a lot of ways that you can reference that data back and forth. I don't know if that helps answer your question.

AUDIENCE: Well, if you're doing it in the app making all those changes, does it also put it Revit? Does it show those changes?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Sure. So it's not automatic. The Draw and Compare. I think is what you might be referring to. So Draw and Comparison is in AutoCAD. And so if you want to do your comparison on two DWGs, you would do that in AutoCAD.

AUDIENCE: But you wouldn't do that together? They're linked, that's what I'm saying.

DANIA EL HASSAN: That's a good question.

MARCUS: There's no live link. So basically you have it as a DWG and import to wherever you want to see those changes.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Thank you, Marcus. Questions? Cameron.

AUDIENCE: So when you guys compare the two files, is there similar to the like Microsoft Word accept all the changes? So if you make changes, then the person comes in, and you like their changes better, you can just accept all or accept some and then have them import them in.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah, so one of the ways we're streamlining that experience-- sorry, let me repeat the question. So the question was, is there a way to accept the changes that somebody else made? And the answer is yes.

So with the import function, you're able to select any of the geometry that you want and to be able to import that directly into your design. Does that answer your question?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Cool. Go ahead.

AUDIENCE: So if you're using [INAUDIBLE] capability, working our desktop, syncing to SharePoint 5. Somebody accesses the file using the web platform on that same file, what's is the interactive [INAUDIBLE]

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah, good question. So the question was about what happens when two people or two platforms try to access the same file on OneDrive at the exact same time? The answer is we're not quite sure yet, because we're still in the design phase of this feature. But there is going to have to be some sort of conflict resolution to be able to help you manage that workflow. It's a really common request.

IAN STORY: Hey, Dania, sorry. Hi. Microsoft guy again. Our sync client will resolve those changes as you go. So when you have somebody that's working locally on their sync client and you're working away and somebody else in the web. If something changes in the web, it'll push down to your client. And you'll actually get notified. And then you can decide whether you want to accept that or revert back.

And so typically, what people do is they talk to the person before they revert their changes back. But we do that across file types. So it will be the same for AutoCAD files as it is for Word files or something like that.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Awesome. Thanks for jumping in.

IAN STORY: Yeah, sure.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah.

AUDIENCE: Kind of along that line, instead of you work remotely in the drive, you have two people trying to access the web copy, but at the same time and make changes. They have two different subs who are working the same web phase, does it do the same thing where it will upgrade both sets from it or does one overwrite the other?

DANIA EL HASSAN: I think it's the exact same workflow, right? So the question was, what happens if you're doing the same from the web, not just from the desktop product. And it's the same workflow.

IAN STORY: Yep. Ultimately, it will be up to the AutoCAD web application to recognize that, hey, the file has changed in the underlying storage and then notify you in some way there, because we're not then in the sync line on the desktop. You're done in just the Autodesk Web experience on two different machines. And it would have to notify you.

AUDIENCE: Do you have plans for a check-in, checkout?

DANIA EL HASSAN: So it's going to depend by provider on what features that they have and how we can leverage those to provide you with a better experience. So, yes, I mean, it's definitely something that we're considering.

Oh, sorry, the question was is there any plan for a check-in, checkout sort of mechanism or some sort of kind of more advanced conflict resolution workflow? Yes, we're looking at lots of these things. And it does depend by the provider.

IAN STORY: We do that.

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah.

AUDIENCE: Is there a collaboration workflow where two people can be looking at the same file at the same time because they're working together?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah, so one thing we want to look at is how you use X references today to be able to help do that. And so how do we fit into the workflows that you already have to be able to leverage that kind of paradigm, because it's quite universal that people use Xrefs to split up the work. And so want to work within those paradigms. Does that make sense?

AUDIENCE: No.

DANIA EL HASSAN: No. OK, I misunderstood the question.

AUDIENCE: So like if, I know for a while on 8360, two people could be working with you. You could have someone on AutoCAD out in the field, and somebody in the office and you could be references the same file, making comments back and forth, live changes. Similar to Office 365. Will that functionality would be available on a platform like SharePoint?

DANIA EL HASSAN: So it's definitely something that we want to continue research on, because I think we haven't quite thought of the whole problem space and how it might work within your workflows. One thing you can do if you're really just looking for comment and markup is that Shared Views workflow, the external collaborator feedback kind of tool, so you might be able to use that for some of the more basic needs. But you can also share the file, communicate about who's got the file and what they're doing to it, and work with us, provide some feedback in the future to see how you might use a file all at the same time. Yeah.

AUDIENCE: Do you have any idea how many of your customers are saving their DWG files in the cloud right now as part of their workflow--

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah, so--

AUDIENCE: So that you have expectations that more are going to be using--

DANIA EL HASSAN: I think it is right. So today, from some of the larger surveys that-- oh, sorry, the question is, do you think that more and more people will be using cloud storage to be able to manage their projects? Did I get that quite right?

AUDIENCE: Using it as a primary--

DANIA EL HASSAN: Using it as the primary location for their active projects. And that is something we do believe. So we have been kind of keeping an eye on this over the past couple of years. When we came here just a couple of years ago, we asked the same question to the room, just how many of you are using cloud storage? What are your concerns about it? And there was a lot. There were a lot of concerns about it.

Now, today, we feel that the market has really shifted. And so when you ask our customers, 45% of them say they actively use a cloud storage solution to collaborate with other people. And so we do see that shift. And we think that it's going to continue.

SCOTT CRIDER: It's not always as your only storage. Sometimes if you're working with outside collaborators, it's a great way to get them access to your files. So even it's not where you have all of your storage, when you're collaborating, it's a great way to bring your partners in.

AUDIENCE: On that note, can you control security.

SCOTT CRIDER: So security is--

IAN STORY: The question was on that note, can you control security? I was just saying repeat the question.

SCOTT CRIDER: Yeah, question was, to repeat security. And my assumption would be this would be based on the platform that it's being stored on. So we do AutoCAD. And we're wanting to make sure you have a great AutoCAD experience there. But the cloud storage provider is going to own a lot of that Cloud Storage type workflow stuff. And I would think security is one of those.

IAN STORY: Yeah, so in SharePoint and OneDrive, you can control if people have view access or edit access or they have access to delete the file or different levels of security there.

SCOTT CRIDER: One other note, it's great that everyone is-- real quick, we've got people in AutoCAD shirts around the room. So these questions are amazing. And I encourage you to reach out to us because we brought all the people who build the product here. I mean, you can look around the back of the room. There's quite an AutoCAD clan here. So keep asking questions and reach out to us over there as the week.

DANIA EL HASSAN: There was a question back in the back there.

AUDIENCE: Yes. Are any of these features of the web app going to be available in Civil 3D or anything like that?

DANIA EL HASSAN: I think I heard the question. So are any of the features for the web app going to be able to use Civil 3D? So can you use Civil 3D on AutoCAD Web?

AUDIENCE: Yeah.

DANIA EL HASSAN: OK. Yes, I think there are some plans to explore that into the future. Today Civil 3D is one of the parts that isn't supported in the web app. But there's definitely customers reaching out about that. And so we would like to hear from you about how that would work for you and again in your workflow and to explore that possibility in the near future. Yeah.

AUDIENCE: Is there any additional integration between Vault, the cloud and AutoCAD?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Vault, the cloud, and AutoCAD. So Vault kind of works with DWGs already. I don't know-- what? Oh sorry. The question was, is there any future plan to be able to work with Vault, AutoCAD, and the cloud? I think you heard a lot about our cloud storage solutions. And we're really doubling down on that today. And Vault already works well with AutoCAD. So is there something kind of in addition that you're thinking about?

AUDIENCE: Yeah, I'm thinking of Vault as a gatekeeper to AutoCAD to the Cloud.

DANIA EL HASSAN: So Vault does it as a gatekeeper for AutoCAD to the cloud? No, not necessarily. I think we want to be able to provide the solutions that work best for you. And so if that's how you would like to implement Vault and AutoCAD, I think you can do that.

Questions? It's 8:30. Usually, we're on Thursday afternoon. So there's a little bit more energy. Yeah.

AUDIENCE: Can you talk about the licensing requirements for the web app, so like partners who maybe don't have a license for AutoCAD?

DANIA EL HASSAN: Yeah, good question. So the question was, can you talk about the licensing requirements for the AutoCAD Web app? So for both AutoCAD Web and Mobile. If you're a subscriber, so either to a point product of AutoCAD or a collection, you would be able to access the AutoCAD Web or Mobile apps as part of that subscription.

So whether you're a token flex customer, your on collection, you have a standalone subscription, or a multi-user subscription, all of these models work to be able to give you the AutoCAD web app. So you would have an Autodesk ID. And you would be able to log in with without Autodesk ID associated with your account and get access.

AUDIENCE: What about partners that don't have a full subscription.

DANIA EL HASSAN: What about partners that don't have a full subscription?

AUDIENCE: Wants to comment on it. Say there's a sub that's doing something. A comment pops up. They don't have the latest and greatest. If we have-- say we're the owner. We've got a license. Can we have them comment on our drawings?

DANIA EL HASSAN: So two ways that you could do that you could do that. Sorry, the question was what if our subcontractors do not have a subscription to AutoCAD? You could use Shared Views again to get just simple comment, markup without sharing the DWG itself.

Second, you're able to use the web app to be able to view and measure, to be able to actually see the file. So they can provide feedback using that DWG. But they cannot access the editing tools unless they have their subscription.