With the recent advent of high-performance desktop computing and (nearly) infinite cloud computing, optimization techniques are entering mainstream design processes every day. There are so many offerings in this space—where do you start!? This industry talk aims to shed some light on the topic by taking a close look at the various Autodesk offerings in topology optimization, lattice and skin optimization, generative design (topology synthesis), and optimization for additive manufacturing. Attendees will get a firsthand look at actual production processes in use today that utilize these design optimizations, and they’ll learn the larger business impact that can be realized through optimized geometry.

Traditionally, design decisions are made and solutions are developed before understanding the potential outcomes of those decisions. We then validate the solutions, revise decisions, and redesign, creating massive waste in the process. This is the paradox of design. Design optimization techniques and technology (APIs, visual programming, and simulation tools) can help break this paradox by simulating many options and the potential outcomes—informing decisions rather than simply validating them after the fact. This technology will change how we design, much like the advent of Building Information Modeling (BIM) did a decade ago. Therefore, it is critical to understand the fundamental changes to the design process that will be necessary to capitalize on this new technology. This round-table discussion will explore the paradox of design, as well as the challenges of design optimization, lean design processes, simulation technology, and computational design.

This class will cover how to apply automation and generative design principles to optimize the design of a road network. The design starts from geographic information system (GIS) inputs, describing the site and its features, such as the boundary, existing buildings, and streams of water. Using InfraWorks software and Civil 3D software, it’s possible to create a model to start the definition of the design. Dynamo is used to apply a computational design approach and define modeling strategies to enable optimization. With generative design, it’s possible to explore multiple scenarios and find the best solutions to the problem balancing multiple objectives. Finally, with Dynamo for Civil 3D it’s possible to create complex objects like alignments, profile, and corridors to curate the selected solutions and refine the modeling as needed.

Parsons explores the advantages of generative design and optimization tools (such as Dynamo & Refinery) in the scope of evaluating and altering the form, orientation and Gross Floor Area (GFA) of residential buildings in existing master plans, using Reem Island Sector 4 as a case study. A superblock is selected from the original design and studied in an attempt to deliver a proof of concept for optimized design oriented solutions, efficiently developed and scientifically driven to meet our client’s needs.

Implementing Simulation software early and often in the design process helps to reduce prototypes, get to market more quickly, and optimize your design for better performance. Designs are all around you—some that have used Simulation software, and some that could benefit from this optimization. In fact, most products require the use of multiple Simulation software products to achieve their best design. I know, I know . . . so where does the kegger come in to play? It might seem strange, but something as simple as a keg can be used to perfectly demonstrate nearly every Simulation software product. In this class, you will learn a bit of Simulation for Fusion 360 software, Autodesk CFD software, Autodesk Nastran In-CAD software, Simulation Mechanical software, Moldflow software, and Moldflow Design software. So, if you’re interested in how you can optimize your designs, or just want to grab a beer in one of the most entertaining classes of Autodesk University, this is the place for you! This session features Fusion 360 and CFD.

As automation and augmentation begin to define our future work, this talk will address how Autodesk Generative Design tools can be used today, to reduce the impact of design and manufacturing and optimize a range of workflows. Generative Design tools can help makers create more, better, and with reduced use of resources, energy, and time. We will introduce the conceptual framework of sustainability, including key metrics and strategies to evaluate optimization. We will explore the alignment of sustainability goals with Autodesk’s range of products, to enable makers to make more-conscious, more-informed decisions addressing the sustainability of their creations. Attendees will develop awareness of core competencies of Generative Design tools in Fusion 360 to analyze product-development workflows, identify key design and manufacturing constraints for example projects, and become knowledgeable about generative-design optimization to reduce material and resource usage.

How cool it is to watch the Landing gears of an Aircraft getting retracted back to its resting position and opening during landing and taxing! But a landing gear of an aircraft contributes to 20 percent of the total aircraft weight as they are very heavy and they should be as they have to support the entire aircraft weight while landing, takeoff, or taxing. So with this in mind, we’ve come out with an innovative solution of applying generative design to the aircraft landing gear for weight reduction and design optimization for drag reduction and more, so with this approach, we will be designing a landing gear in two variants in which we’ll apply generative design to one variant and second will be designed like the conventional landing gears and then we’ll 3D print both of them and we’ll take our models to wind tunnel and static structural testing. and then at last we will study and compare the performance of both the landing gears in various loads and wind tunnel conditions.

InfoDrainage for Civil 3D software is a tool designed to support the requirements of delivering BIM (Building Information Modeling) compliance with optimized drainage design workflows. Civil 3D pipe networks and surfaces can be created from InfoDrainage networks or vice-versa and kept up to date via Parts Mapping. With InfoDrainage providing the tools to design, optimize, analyze, and compare drainage designs, gaining approval can be easy. Including traditional drainage and green infrastructure elements as 3D objects, the design remains true to site, helping to better communicate and support sustainable design approaches. Drainage designs involve iterative changes, which can be a painful and time-consuming process. Round-tripping is supported from InfoDrainage to Civil 3D networks, which can help to reduce data errors during required model updates. Using InfoDrainage for Civil 3D, engineers can efficiently represent their designs, giving greater confidence in the validity and accuracy of design information.

There are several commercially available optimization software packages on the market. BD has successfully used HEEDS MDO (a multidisciplinary design optimization software package) with Abaqus FEA to drive part design. Now we take the next step: connecting HEEDS MDO with Simulation Moldflow Insight 2015 software to explore process space for optimization and strength of part quality.

Additive manufacturing—3D printing—is disrupting the manufacturing industry. It gives us the capability to create unique and efficient designs that were never possible before. One unique design method you can use to optimize designs is through part consolidation, or by taking a multipiece assembly and combining and merging the parts to create a single part with no assembly required. This class will focus on the various reasons and use cases to apply part consolidation, as well as general design practices you can use to successfully optimize a part using part consolidation.

In this class, we’ll cover Civil 3D software and the new Grading Optimization program workflow. One of the most time-consuming tasks in Civil 3D is optimizing the design surface for your project. Using the new Grading Optimization program can greatly reduce the time you spend on this task. We'll walk through a basic site and demonstrate how to set up your Civil 3D design for the Grading Optimization program.

The need for affordable housing has never been so high worldwide. One possible solution is to optimize the development of new neighborhoods. But how can you get a maximum number of residential buildings on your plot in a sustainable way while still providing comfort? In this class, we'll teach you step by step how you can use Generative Design for Revit and Dynamo to optimize the planning of neighborhoods of single-family residential buildings, including plot subdivision, land-use assignment, and placement and shape of structures. We’ll then review how Spacemaker brings even more value into this complex exercise for the optimization of multifamily residential buildings.

Want to learn how to use generative capabilities to design and optimize fluid flow with lower pressure drop and smoother channels—10-100 times faster? This class will present the Fluid Path study in the Generative Design Extension in Fusion 360 ("Generative Fluids” for short), a powerful generative technology for the CFD industry, explain how to apply it, and share advanced tips and tricks to significantly speed up the design process. You'll learn the Generative Fluids workflow, the physics and optimization behind it, and important aspects involved in getting as much as possible from the tool. Additionally, we'll cover how to connect the workflow with other Autodesk capabilities and products, such as Generative Design in Fusion 360 (to combine both generative technologies, structural and fluids); Autodesk CFD for result validation; and Fusion Electronics Cooling in Fusion 360. This session is a chance to ask direct questions to the people creating the product.

Do you spend days or weeks determining a corridor path for your roads and highways projects? Do you spend hours refining your roadway profiles to minimize costs and satisfy sophisticated constraints? Do you spend tons of money on software to help you design your roadways? No more. This class reveals the easy-to-use and cost-saving Corridor Optimization and Profile Optimization features available with Roadway Design for InfraWorks 360 software. We will present the enhancements included in our latest release and explain how to use them to achieve the most effective results for your roads and highways design projects. We'll also teach you tricks for configuring the services to work for mining, roadways, and railway design projects.

In the world of structural engineering, we are challenged to consider many design options, to find the fittest solution in the shortest time, and to be leaders in economic structure design. In this class, you will discover how computational design techniques can help automate this process in design and fabrication workflows for building structures. You will be blown away by several structural engineering workflows that you can use to optimize your designs with Dynamo. All kinds of techniques and computational design approaches will be considered to generate, evaluate, evolve, and cycle through structural design processes. You will understand how to perform your own design automation for repetitive structural tasks.

This class examines the difference between the traditional methods used to create traffic load combinations on bridge structures and the load optimization methods used in Structural Bridge Design software. We will examine the techniques that the program uses to create worst-case loading patterns according to the specification of a variety of bridge design codes. A number of different user-defined parameters are used to control the behavior of the module and we will examine these in detail. We will also discuss the benefits and timesaving garnered from using the resulting workflow. Additionally, we will use a demonstration to show how the optimization method fits into the general workflow of the design process.

Traditionally CAD and CAE have mostly been used for documenting designs and providing feedback on how they perform in operation. Improved tools, expanded computing power, and new manufacturing technology are now opening up new possibilities for computational design and engineering, where CAD and CAE are used to actually generate part geometry directly. These tools help engineers explore an array of design strategies and create lighter, stronger, or more-efficient parts by driving the design with functional goals, not just a handful of dimensions on a sketch. This course will provide some context for optimization tools as they exist today and introduce several new tools aimed at this goal-driven design concept.

Generative design, machine learning, algorithm, neural network—these terms flood social media and technical forums. But are you familiar with these concepts? If the answer is no, welcome to the first generative-design class for non-geeks! There is no need to hold a degree in computer science or to work on the most-innovative projects; everybody can optimize their workflows using Dynamo software and Generative Design in Revit software. In this class you will learn how to take your automations to the next level where you set the rules and select the end solution among the fittest results. After this session, you will be equipped with a set of samples to start optimizing your daily workflows.

In this session, we’ll discuss how design for additive manufacture (DFAM) can influence the performance of additively manufactured parts. This session will focus primarily on laser powder-bed fusion, but concepts can be transferable to other additive techniques. We’ll explore lattices, hollow geometries, and thin walls as common features in lightweight designs, including the challenges that these can pose in design, post processing, and actual performance. Autodesk Research is currently undertaking research to characterize how as-built features perform (mechanically) compared to idealized conditions—generic bulk-material values found in literature. This will enable better representation of these features at the design stage to facilitate more accurate simulation and optimization. Attendees will leave more familiar with DFAM, considerations during the design process, and the impacts these have on overall part performance.

Come hear how leading designers are interconnecting design, optimization and fabrication to support new ways of working.

Bastian Schaefer from Airbus and David Benjamin from The Living will show how generative design, optimization and new fabrication techniques are being used today in the aerospace industry. They will discuss their work on new aircraft designs and the Bionic Partition project, a new aircraft part designed via a novel optimization process and 3d printed directly in metal.

Gijs Van Der Velden of MX3D will speak about the exciting design, optimization and robotic fabrication processes they are creating in order to robotically construct a bridge in Amsterdam.

Achim Menges will show the stunning work his group is creating at the Institute for Computational Design in Stuttgart Germany using a variety of materials and robotic fabrication techniques. Achim’s practice and research focuses on the intersection of design computation, biomimetic engineering and computer aided manufacturing that enables a highly articulated, performative built environment.

Add the Design Computation Symposium Part 1 to your schedule.