Federal, state, local, and city governments are setting ambitious targets for reducing energy consumption of existing buildings through building retrofits. A challenge has been the scaling of energy analysis across large building portfolios in order to identify and prioritize the buildings and retrofit measures. Prior methods were limited to single buildings, but this session will introduce new capabilities that enable evaluation of entire building portfolios with minimal data inputs required. Results are presented dynamically in the context of a digital model and a custom Forge-based building portfolio management dashboard that serves as an executive summary for users or consumers of the rapid energy modeling (REM) tools, and enables easier communication and understanding of the workflow and results with clients. The session is intended for owners and managers, including the Department of Defense (DoD); federal, state, and local government; airports; higher education; architectural firms; and planning entities.

The industry is moving from mass production to customized solutions, creating a tremendous increase in the demand for custom BIM (Building Information Modeling) software solutions. However, custom solutions are expensive to develop. With Forge, you can build custom BIM configurators with minimum investment and time. We created a custom simulation app for HVAC professionals to produce a sustainable design. The app simulates the performance of design spaces and HVAC systems configuration in the cloud. The class will demonstrate how to use Forge to create a new user-defined office build space. We will elaborate on how the assembly of complex 3D HVAC system configurations can be created. You will see how Revit design automation APIs can construct an accurate intelligent model on the server. Attendees will learn these techniques, as well as how to create vast varieties of online BIM system configurators such as kitchen design, furniture design, infrastructure design, and others.

Are you working on ways to help automate design and make workflows for you or your customers? Are you trying to share product information between applications such as Fusion Lifecyle software and Fusion 360 software, or those outside the Autodesk ecosystem? Learn about how Forge data is powering a shared product information model to enable your design and make data flow more seamlessly across your workflows, teams, and the applications you use.

This class will describe Goldbeck's experience in the development of their very own cloud services for the automation of model checking. Goldbeck's BIM (Building Information Modeling) department is cooperating with Autodesk in the definition and creation of a framework for automating the execution of standard checks. The project aims at capitalizing on cloud computing to increase the overall quality level and free up resources for other tasks.

Design Automation for Inventor software generally enables the desktop APIs to be used in the cloud—similar to how they would work on the desktop, but without the need of any installed software or dependent licenses. An additional, easily overlooked advantage of Design Automation for Inventor is its capability to run iLogic scripts in the cloud. These scripts being embedded in the CAD file itself can be programmed to auto execute under certain conditions. This class will address taking advantage of this capability to combine the Forge Design Automation API with iLogic to create a configurator by modifying an input Inventor file (IPT) in the cloud, according to the inputs provided by the user on an easy-to-use user interface. The results can be viewed immediately on a web browser using the Forge Viewer API, and are available for download in multiple formats such as IPT, IDW, and PDF. This web application sample uses the latest web technologies and is OS independent and mobile-device friendly.

CAD software requirements are drastically changing from the traditional use of desktop-based software usually consumed by the design department. Demand for cloud-based CAD web apps (also consumed by non-technical executives) is increasing. In the class, we will see how the Forge platform and various cloud infra providers can be utilized together to create modern-day vertical CAD configurators as per the specific need of each organization. Based on stats and test cases, we will demonstrate how a serverless CAD configurator can scale up massively to address the peak-hour needs of industry while staying low on budget. We will explain how Forge services can help us to bootstrap our applications and reduce the development time to as few as just three months, and bring down the development cost substantial.

For Maire Tecnimont, going digital is all about capitalizing on technology to boost employees’ productivity; streamline engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) workflows; and deliver on-time projects of the highest possible quality. In this scenario, Forge is one of the most valuable enablers of the digital transformation process. In this class, you will discover how to exploit Forge technology for building analytical, strategic, and operational dashboards; integrating different data from different sources; and extending capabilities of the existing platform through dedicated customization. We will particularly focus on maximizing Forge application performances to enhance the user experience. With the OTG format, the multimodel feature, and other specific procedures, we can handle thousands of 3D objects and relevant data sets in the blink of an eye. In conclusion, we will discuss the benefits gained by adopting Forge technology, highlighting its disruptive impact on company traditional workflows.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) practitioners are seeking more-efficient ways to analyze the accumulated data in BIM 360 projects on a daily basis. Microsoft Power BI is a popular, powerful tool that provides intelligent dashboards to inspect the data. In this class, we will show you three different ways to analyze BIM 360 projects data with Power BI for BIM coordination and communication purposes. The first way will be with no coding; the second will be with a little bit of coding; and the third way will be with real programing (and handy templates). You will also learn how to build a simple app that integrates Power BI and Forge. Join us and discover which method is suited for your skill set and your workflow, or combine them in different scenarios.

Learn how Johnson Controls has used Forge to let its customers interactively design gaseous fire-suppressant-system configurations on a webpage. The application enables dynamic section-by-section placement of pipework, and it automatically inserts appropriate fittings, warns the user of configuration mistakes, and automatically verifies the system design effectiveness. In this class, Johnson Controls team members will demonstrate their Forge-based application, design an agency-approved fire-suppression system, discuss why they used this current approach in development, and explain the benefits that their new Forge-based solution has given them.

Ask your programming and business questions to our panel of hardcore cloud and mobile experts from our software development teams. If you’re writing solutions that are based on these technologies or you’re just about to start and want to know more, then this is the perfect forum to get to know the people who create the APIs and services you work with and your fellow programmers who use those APIs. Come and ask questions, add your expertise to the discussion, or just listen and learn.

There are a variety of formats that the Forge viewer supports. The Model Derivative API enables translation of more than 60 different types of source file formats. Yet, there is one format ubiquitous in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry that does not find its place in the list—RFA. There could be various ways to visualize RFA files in the viewer; the most common is: conversion to a format that's supported by Forge, though it's not the fastest or most effective. In this class, we'll look at a workflow that can help developers optimize up to 90% of their Forge credits usage. Accomplishing this requires building a headless Revit plug-in using the Revit API, preparing it for the Design Automation API, processing the outputs using the Model Derivative API, and finally rendering individual Revit families in the viewer. We'll also look at how we can give end users the ability to switch between multiple family types, as well as access the Instance and Type parameters directly in the Forge Viewer.

You need to strictly control project schedules to ensure the success of a project. Therefore, contractors need a simple, useful application that can also be accessed online in order to perform project management tasks with the intelligent model during the construction process. In this class, you will learn how to build a Forge application to visually manage project progress by utilizing intelligent models. The Forge platform consists of cloud-based developer tools from Autodesk. We will introduce Forge APIs by walking through some sample code demonstrations to help you gain access to your BIM (Building Information Modeling) data. Forge APIs also provide you with a way to manipulate and update more information in intelligent models in the cloud. If you are interested in learning Forge to innovate the way you work and make the best use of your data, then this class is for you.

Autodesk cloud experts train Forge Certified Systems Integrators to provide reliable support to customers looking to digitally transform their businesses. Forge Certified System Integrators have proven track records building software integrations within existing systems, and deploying custom cloud-based solutions built with Forge. In this panel discussion, top Forge Certified System Integrators will share some of the innovative solutions they’ve built using Forge, as well as their experiences with becoming Forge Certified System Integrators, and they’ll also share advice for anyone looking to join the program. Join us live to learn how to capitalize on existing solutions from our partners, or how to become a Forge Certified Systems Integrator.

Are you building apps on the Forge platform today? Are you using Forge as part of your digital transformation strategy, or helping your customers transform their businesses? Do you want to learn more about what the Forge team has been working on throughout the past year? We’ll discuss new design automation engines, including Revit software, Inventor software, and 3ds Max software; new BIM 360 APIs, including BIM 360 Cost Management and BIM 360 Model Coordination (clash detection); the order of magnitude increase in size and performance of models you can view; and more. Join us to learn about what's new with Forge APIs and what's coming in the next generation of the Forge platform. Get the insights you need to confidently create your application development plans.

Forge is a set of web services provided by Autodesk. The Design Automation API is one of its components that added support for Inventor software roughly a year ago. In this class, we will provide an introduction to the Design Automation API and how you can use it to automate Inventor processes. We’ll show how you can estimate and optimize the costs of using this service, and the various ways you can run and speed up processes on the Design Automation service. We will also cover some of the specific tips the speaker learned while helping customers with specific workflows, for example, how to get modeling error details from Inventor, how to obtain a list of supported files types, and other useful ideas. We will demonstrate the coding ideas using the .NET Core development environment.

The software industry has changed quite a lot recently; Autodesk is heavily investing in porting their most important packages to be accessible in the cloud. Revit software, for instance, can run as a part of the Forge platform. Microsoft is investing tremendously in its Dotnet platform development (which was rewritten from scratch to be open source and modular). When dealing with Revit API development, however, we often see monolithic apps that directly couple modules and components like the UI layer to gather input, introducing several technical challenges. Trying to manage and scale this type of codebase is frustrating and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. In this lab, you will discover a free and open-source framework that helps you quickly prototype Revit applications, while providing you with an easy way to develop modular code that can be portable to multiforms of Revit environments, like add-ins, Dynamo, and even the Forge Design Automation API.

RPA (robotic process automation) is growing fast. RPA is mimicking the repetitive human activities with software robots. Almost 25-30% of every project has repetitive tasks that are done by engineers, designers, and modelers, including data copying from Microsoft Excel to a software, headers and footers for drawings, drawing info extraction, conversions, analysis, and so on. For some of these activities we use plug-ins, programs like Dynamo software, coding like VBA, .NET, and Forge. But these are specific to each software and work for a specific task. In this session, I'm going to introduce an innovative solution using RPA that works with most Autodesk software, including AutoCAD software, Civil 3D software, Revit software, and Navisworks software. You will see RPA in action preparing inputs, transferring data between different sources, performing analysis, extracting data, filing data, generating reports, and much more, aiming to automate your business processes. Join this exciting session to learn about RPA and its application with Autodesk products.

Are you killing the planet? You may be proud of your net-zero energy buildings and carbon offsets, but have you considered the embodied carbon impact of your buildings throughout their entire lifecycles, including embodied carbon? If not, you're leaving a carbon legacy for future generations to deal with. In the presentation, we'll dive deep into the science of embodied carbon. We'll look at how it's measured through advanced technology such as Revit software, Dynamo, and Autodesk Platform Services (formerly Forge), and why it is crucial to consider. We will explore real-world examples of how embodied carbon impacts building portfolios over time, and how it can affect the planet's future. We'll also examine how considering carbon assessments at different scales (regions, cities, buildings, interiors, and products) can help investors and executives make more-informed decisions on strategies to decarbonize their property portfolios.

In this class, you'll learn how to use AWS Amplify to connect your Autodesk add-ins to a database and let your users exchange data. You'll also learn how to use AWS Amplify and React to host the Forge Viewer to build clients custom web dashboards with authentication for your clients. AWS Amplify is a complete solution you can use to build and host full-stack applications, letting you concentrate on app development and avoid spending time and money on server maintenance and complex admin tasks. Adding database, account authentication, file storage, and several other functions can be achieved quickly using a command line interface, which makes it very easy to start new projects.

Fabrication Data Manager is the new cloud-based offering that enables database management in the cloud. Built on the Autodesk Platform Services platform (formerly Forge), the new UI facilitates intuitive visual management for collaboration and consumption in both Revit software and Fabrication authoring products.