Going back in time, there was 123D Catch and related processing engines. Basically, it was a tool that took photos and turned them into something real in 3D. There was also something called Remake.

Now, we have Recap Photo, which basically does the same things. Over time, the processing engines have improved. Recap Photo is part of your Recap Pro licence, and now integrated into your Recap Pro install. It looks something like this when you install the latest version of Recap (I downloaded the web installer from manage.autodesk.com):

Once installed, you can start the standalone ReCap Photo app:

 

Features of ReCap Photo include:

  • A new photogrammetry engine that can process up to 1,000 photos, a 4x improvement from the previous maximum of 250 photos (note: using the cloud service consumes Autodesk Cloud Credits)
  • The ability to set GPCs (Ground Control Points, survey points) in any coordinate system.
  • New functionality to support vertical and nadir photos (photos taken by drones and UAVs at 90 degrees above the site)
  • View your 3D photo-textured mesh
  • View the geolocated orthographic view, zoom in and out, and add measurements, tags, and annotations.
  • Share the project, including its additional metadata (measurements, tags, annotations), with anyone.
  • Merge laser scan point clouds with UAV-based point clouds.

From this post http://blogs.autodesk.com/recap/introducing-recap-photo/

In case you missed it, the AEC Collection now includes:

  • Revit Live
  • Robot Structural Analysis Professional
  • Structural Bridge Design
  • Dynamo Studio
  • Advance Steel
  • Fabrication CADmep

You should find these in your Autodesk account after logging in.

Quote from In The Fold:

Here are some highlights of what we’re adding to the AEC Collection.

In the new Collection, you’ll find Revit Live. Revit Live allows you to visualize your Revit models by turning them into immersive visual experiences. You can even take your designs into a virtual reality environment—in just two clicks of your mouse.

Also included is world-class analysis and computational design software. Robot Structural Analysis Professional and Structural Bridge Design work with Revit to extend your capabilities to perform structural analysis for any structure.  And, you can now access the Dynamo Studio standalone programming environment to help solve challenges faster by automating workflows that drive the geometry and behavior of your design models.

Finally, the AEC Collection now extends capabilities from design to fabrication. Interoperable with Revit and Navisworks, we’ve added Advance Steel and Fabrication CADmep to the Collection so you can conceive, model and fabricate better MEP and structural steel systems on an integrated platform.

Original post: http://blogs.autodesk.com/inthefold/aec-collection-additions/

If you are using more than one Autodesk SSO, you may come across this problem…

  • After a Windows Update or something similar, Revit is not responsive after first launch. Clicking has no effect, but there is no dialog shown either.
  • You may investigate the process details and determine that LMU.exe is thrashing, and you could look at log file in C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet and see it growing. You can also observe something like this in the Revit Journal file:
    ‘C 08-Aug-2017 14:53:49.479; 0:< manage licensing
    ‘C 08-Aug-2017 14:54:03.845; 0:< License checkout failed: 20
    ‘C 08-Aug-2017 14:54:03.845; 0:< License cleanup skipped
  • This is telling us there is a licensing problem. In this case, a perpetual license has somehow become deactivated. What is the fix?

You need to login with Autodesk SSO login credentials that have the Perpetual license for that product available…

To do this:

  1. Start Revit Viewer for the same year version that is causing the problem, such as Revit Viewer 2015
  2. Use the top right panel to logout and login with the correct SSO (login credentials)

  3. Then, attempt to launch the full Revit application
  4. It should re-activate itself now that the correct login credentials have been used
  5. You can probably switch back to other credentials now that the activation has occurred

You can also use the A360 icon to sign in, this may be more reliable in some cases:

Yet another situation where you need to know What Revit Wants 🙂

This recent announcement revealed some new features coming to 3dsMax 2018.1, primarily a real-time VR engine in Max based on Stingray. This page has the steps to install it. Basically, you install update 2018.1, then install Max Interactive:

Here are some ‘facts at a glance’ coming from Autodesk:

What’s the news with 3ds Max 2018.1?

Autodesk 3ds Max 2018.1 now includes 3ds Max Interactive, a real-time engine based on Autodesk Stingray. This new 3D to VR workflow is designed to provide 3ds Max users with a new way to create interactive and virtual reality (VR) experiences. It is included with the 3ds Max 2018.1 update.

 

Who is 3ds Max Interactive designed for?

3ds Max Interactive is a real-time engine for design visualization specialists based on Autodesk Stingray. It can be used in a number of different contexts but its focus is on helping to simplify the process of turning animations, such as architectural visualizations, into stunning virtual reality experiences.

 

How does this relate to Autodesk Revit Live?

Autodesk is committed to creating VR solutions for the widest spectrum of users.  Last year we rolled out Autodesk Revit Live, the powerful, easy-to-use cloud-based visualization service for architects that transforms Autodesk Revit models into VR experiences in one click. Autodesk Revit Live is designed for architects who require a solution to quickly explore, understand, and share Autodesk Revit designs on their desktop or in virtual reality.  The new VR tools in 3ds Max 2018.1 we are announcing today are aimed at design visualization specialists working to produce high-end, photoreal experiences. With the new 3ds Max to VR workflow, we’re shoring-up data drudgery with capabilities like support for translating materials from the popular V-Ray renderer in 3ds Max to VR – freeing visualization artists to focus on the part they care most about: creating stunning imagery.

 

How much does 3ds Max Interactive cost?

3ds Max Interactive is available to all current 3ds Max subscribers – either as a standalone product, or as part of an Autodesk industry collection – at no additional cost. It cannot be purchased separately.

Links:

As usual, these will typically be trial links. You will need appropriate serial numbers to activate, obtained from Autodesk.

AUTODESK 2018 DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINKS

AutoCAD 2018
English 32 bit

English 64 bit – Part 1
English 64 bit – Part 2

 

AutoCAD LT 2018
English 32 bit

English 64 bit

 

Inventor Professional 2018 x64
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

 

Revit Live 2018

Download

 

Navisworks Manage 2018
Part 1
Part 2

Navisworks Simulate 2018
Part 1
Part 2

 

DWG TrueView 2018

32 bit
64 bit

Inventor View 2018
Download

 

Recap 360 Pro
Download

 

AutoDesk Advance Steel 2018 (x64)

Part 1

Part 2

 

AutoDesk Alias Design 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2

 

AutoDesk Alias Surface 2018 (x64)
Download

 

AutoDesk Alias Speedform 2018 (x64)
Download

 

Autodesk Moldflow Insight Ultimate (x64)

Download

 

Autodesk Moldflow Adviser Ultimate (x64)
Part 1
Part 2

 

AutoCAD Plant 3D English 2018 (x64)
Part 1

Part 2

 

 

Autodesk Network License Manager 2017/2018

Info Here

 

 

Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium 2018 (x64)*
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

 

 

3DS Max 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2

 

AutoCAD Civil 3D English 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Revit 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Revit LT 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Vehicle tracking 2018
Download
Autodesk Building Design Suite Ultimate 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Premium 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Autodesk InfraWorks 360 Pro 2018 (x64)
Download
Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis Professional 2018 (x64)
Download

 

 

Autodesk Factory Design Suite Ultimate 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate 2018 (x64)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

 

Autodesk Vault Professional 2018 (x64)

Server

Client

 

 

AEC Collection 2018 (x64)

AutoCAD 2018
Part 1
Part 2

Revit 2018
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Revit Server Download

Civil 3D 2018
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Infraworks 2018
Download

Navisworks Manage 2018
Part 1
Part 2

AutoCAD Raster Design 2018
Download

3DS Max 2018
Part 1
Part 2

Vehicle Tracking 2018
Download

AutoCAD MAP 3D 2018
Part 1
Part 2

AutoCAD Architecture 2018
Part 1
Part 2

AutoCAD Electrical 2018
Part 1
Part 2

AutoCAD MEP 2018
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

AutoCAD Plant 3D 2018
Part 1
Part 2

Recap 360 Pro
Download


AutoCAD Mobile App
Download

FormIt Pro App
Download

Insight Plug-in for Revit 2018
Download

Structural Analysis for Revit 2018
Subscriber Login

 

Other:

 

Also refer to forum, where these can be found:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-licensing/autodesk-2018-direct-download-links-until-available-on-virtual/td-p/6998450

DWG TrueView 2018
http://download.autodesk.com/esd/dwgtrueview/2018/DWGTrueView_2018_Enu_64bit.sfx.exe
http://download.autodesk.com/esd/dwgtrueview/2018/DWGTrueView_2018_Enu_32bit.sfx.exe
For your language, replace “Enu” by “Fra” or “Jpn”

Autodesk Design Review 2018
http://download.autodesk.com/us/support/files/designreview/2018/EXE/enu/SetupDesignReview.exe
For language, replace “enu” by “fra”, “deu”, “esp”, “ita”, “jpn”, “kor”, “plk”, “ptb”, “rus” or “chs”

Autodesk Inventor View 2018 (X64) Standalone
http://download.autodesk.com/us/support/files/inventor_view2018/Inventor_View_2018_English_Win_64bit_DLM.sfx.exe
For your language, replace “English” by “French”, “Czech”, “German”, “Italian”, “Japanese”, “Korean”, “Polish”, “Portuguese_Brazil”,
“Russian”, “Spanish”, “Simplified_Chinese” or “Traditional_Chinese”.


Also refer to:
http://www.autodesk.com/products/dwg/viewers

Navisworks Freedom 2018
Navisworks_Freedom_2018_dlm.sfx.exe

The internet is bleeding hard today due to the well-publicized Amazon S3 outages. Autodesk services are also severely affected.

Collaboration for Revit (C4R) users may be wondering how to get access to their files when the service is down. Your best bet is to find the most recent local copy and possibly use that for the day.

You can find it by going to Windows Explorer and copying this address:
%localappdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2016\CollaborationCache

or for Revit 2017:
%localappdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2017\CollaborationCache

Then, go looking for your RVT files. They will have a long name with letters and numbers.

I recommend you open this file ‘detached’, and be fully aware that your project will not sync to C4R after you do that. You could isolate your work to part of the project only, and then possibly copy / paste back to the C4R project when it comes back.

Alternatively, save it as a new Central to your local file server, and then overwrite the C4R project later when it comes back online.

None of this is ideal of course, but if you want to get any work done today, you may have to try the above workarounds.

Related forum link:
Where are A360 Collaboration for Revit local files stored?

In case you missed it: Autodesk Suites are gone, you can’t buy them officially anymore. Instead, you can buy into an Industry Collection. Here are products in each Collection, from the FAQ:

collections.png

And here is some information on renewals and floating license provisioning:

 

You can get an idea on pricing from the Autodesk UK Store.

Main page:
Industry Collections | Autodesk

As we move more and more information and services to the cloud, 100% uptime becomes more and more necessary. In our BIM world, if you are running a project on C4R (Collaboration for Revit), and that cloud service goes down, the project could be severely affected.

If uptime is important, so is monitoring and reporting. You can now view the latest “health” status and history of Autodesk Cloud products using the Autodesk Health Dashboard.

https://wrw.is/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/status.png

Check it out here:
https://health.autodesk.com/

Recently I had an issue sharing colour overrides from Navisworks to BIM 360 Glue. This has been ok for a while, but something broke. After some investigation, it turns out that one of the sub-Models in the Glue merged model was causing the problem.

I typically convert IFCs using the Link method, which results in DirectShape objects. It seems that one of the Architectural files that I converted this way from ArchiCAD to Revit and then to BIM 360 Glue was stopping the colours from getting baked into the BIM 360 Shared View.

To workaround this issue:

  1. Determine what problem model/s you have (possibly those converted from IFC)
  2. Open your Merged Model in Navisworks for BIM360
  3. Hide these problem models in Navisworks scene
  4. Run Appearance Profiler or otherwise apply colour overrides
  5. In the BIM 360 Shared Views pane, click New to make a new Shared View on BIM 360 Glue with the colours ‘baked in’
  6. Go to Glue desktop app and confirm the colours are working
  7. Then, Unhide the problem model here…
  8. And then make a new view in the desktop app
  9. This new view should have all models you want showing, and the colour overrides working ok.

On a related note, you may have seen this warning:

 
View in model is still processing and some items may not be overridden

It seems that this might put your Glue merged model in a dirty state? Try deleting all views with this message before trying to create Shared Views from Navisworks with colour overrides.