Advanced nuclear is challenged to design and construct on short timelines, with smaller budgets and fewer workers. Digitalization can help companies overcome these constraints. Unfortunately, a digital twin (DT) is often presented as a monolith. This results in organizations abandoning DTs as having benefits that are minimal or unrealized in time. Many perceive DTs as too large an undertaking to even begin. However, digitalization isn't a track meet; it's a marathon of incremental milestones. And, like all races, it has a starting line. This session will summarize a journey that Argonne National Laboratory and Implexus Lab made to digitize the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL), a test facility for advancing sodium fast reactors. Components were designed with Inventor software and assembled in Navisworks software, and AutoCAD software generated construction documents. Integrating with Revit provided a DT foundation. Ultimately, the suite of Autodesk tools enabled the creation of a DT boasting live data visualization within a virtual reality (VR) environment.

In this class, a panel of Autodesk experts will share productivity tips and tricks, and answer audience questions about real-time challenges. Attend this class for expert AutoCAD advice. The class will start with a brief presentation to introduce the support organization, the speakers, and the current customer support options. This is a real-time question-and-answer session, so please come prepared with questions about AutoCAD software. A computer will be in the class running AutoCAD 2025 software for attendees who need to demonstrate their issues. Panel experts will include members of the Technical Support, Quality Assurance, and Licensing teams.

Join us to learn about AutoCAD software's AI features that make your drafting more efficient than ever: Smart Blocks, Markup Import, and Markup Assist. We'll start by covering Markup Import and Markup Assist, the workflow that uses AI to interpret and apply feedback from marked-up PDFs directly into your AutoCAD drawings. You'll learn how Markup Import and Markup Assist can enhance collaboration, drastically reduce the time it takes to incorporate feedback, and reduce errors in your design workflow. Then we'll review Smart Blocks, a suite of AI tools designed to streamline your drafting and drawing cleanup processes. We'll cover Block Placement, Block Replacement, Block Search and Convert, and Object Detection—all of which use AI to help you find, create, and use your blocks. We'll end the session with an opportunity to share ideas on how else AutoCAD might use AI to increase productivity, enhance collaboration, and improve your drafting and documentation workflows.

AutoCAD users spend most of their time drafting based on markups and incorporating revision changes. This session will show you how to automate workflows and decrease the time spent on design changes using Trace, Markup Import, and Markup Assist in AutoCAD. Whether design changes are made in the field, at the office, or remotely, these tools will increase your efficiency and improve collaboration on markups and revisions.

SAMSUNG C&T uses digital twins to optimize building operations. We have developed a digital twin with BIM and AI in an office building with a total floor area of 100,000 square meters, and we are utilizing it to operate the building. The basic functions are the Energy/Asset/Space Management, and Virtual Tours. In particular, the energy management function monitors building energy usage in real time. And we have developed 10 solutions for energy management that can save energy while maintaining the comfort of occupants in the building. These solutions are derived through AI-based machine learning models and optimization algorithms to provide real-time notifications to building operators for sustainable and optimized building energy management. Therefore, SAMSUNG C&T aims to provide efficient building operation and management services by simultaneously implementing digital spaces, going beyond the role of a construction company that constructs physical spaces.

Data Exchange has launched an Open Ecosystem of Connectors that enable interoperability between the myriad of apps you use every day. Imagine packaging a subset of your model in Revit software—and shipping it through Autodesk Docs software to a colleague in another firm who uses Rhino software! Well, that's possible with Data Exchange. But Revit and Rhino are just the first two connectors we've launched—there are connectors for Inventor, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Tekla, Power BI, and many more! In this class, we'll provide an overview of Data Exchange capabilities today, and in the future. We'll explore case studies of how lighthouse customers are using this new cloud capability. And we'll talk about tips and tricks to get you started quickly! You'll hear directly from customers about workflow solutions for coordination, data validation, automation, and even native element creation. We'll quantify the steps reduced from preexisting workflows when customers move away from files toward a data-focused future.

Finding it tough to uncover the elements you want to see in Revit software? So much time is spent finding elements in your views that it can affect your ability to get work done. Through examples of common visibility problems, we can uncover the typical problems in a given view. This course will take you through the Revit Graphics hierarchy to explain the ways you can find and uncover elements throughout your model in a systematic way. Learn ways to uncover visibility issues in your model and change the behavior of the model editors and consultants for best-practice results. Understand how work sets, filters, line styles, view templates, links, and computer hardware like graphics cards can all make a difference in adjusting your model appearance. You will walk away from this course with the knowledge of how to adjust your views to see what you want with the minimal amount of troubleshooting required to save time, effort, and sanity.

Your next big factory layout project requires you to collaborate with various stakeholders and you would like to use Autodesk Construction Cloud. This class will walk you through the process of producing a factory layout using Autodesk Factory Design Utilities software and interfacing with a collaborative project on the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform. Embracing this new technology may be the key to the productive outcome of your next project.

In an ever-changing world of technology, organizations must continually evolve their software use to remain competitive in their industries. This is true whether you work in 3D or with the tried-and-tested 2D AutoCAD software. Openly embracing AI, incorporating automation into design data, and sharing it through Autodesk's cloud environments can also play a vital role in an organization's digital maturity. In this class, we'll discuss how to automate existing AutoCAD blocks to make them into smart, parametrically driven dynamic blocks that allow for variations when used. Dynamic blocks represent good data elements that not only allow you to maintain consistency, but also significantly reduce rework and improve productivity. Who doesn't love that! To finish, we'll discuss one last key factor in driving effective digital maturity: implementing cloud-based processes to centrally store and manage the project data, or, in this case, sharing your dynamic blocks with the other kids (or colleagues).

With the dramatic shift in the diverse use cases of real-time visualization, traditional 3D CAD, high-performance computing, and generative AI across industries, a one-size-fits-all approach is no longer viable. Balancing increasing IT demands, tighter deadlines, and budget constraints necessitates investing in the right technology for the right users at the right time. AI is emerging as the defining technology of our era, and determining where to start can be challenging. In this session, discover how to best equip your organization for success with insights into using Lenovo solutions to maximize your Autodesk experience—from initial steps to hybrid working, generative AI, and larger global deployments—helping you reduce costs and enhance workforce agility.

Navigating the imminent growth in the renewable energy market presents challenges around skills and project data quality. Autodesk tools enable customers to overcome these challenges by investing in upskilling and ensuring high-quality data for their projects. AutoCAD files are critical in this, providing the precision needed, especially with the shift toward 3D designs for energy yield modeling. Well-optimized and structured preconstruction stage designs in AutoCAD can make or break a potential project's funding and eventual construction, thus driving customer value. This panel will explore how Autodesk software can empower customers to unlock the renewable energy sector's potential, overcome bottlenecks, and mitigate risks. By addressing these challenges, users can contribute significantly to achieving the ambitious Net Zero emissions targets and combat climate change, driving positive outcomes for their businesses and the world.

In this session, we'll use an interactive design-thinking approach to tackle this problem: How do you elevate both your tech staff and your tech stack to drive productivity and profitability across a digitally transformed project lifecycle? We'll consider the "What If" scenarios: What if we flip and elevate our perspective? What if, in addition to considering information as knowledge, knowledge is considered information and this big data is compiled, managed, and analyzed as an IT tool? What if we consider knowledge management as a productivity enhancement tool that integrates with any existing learning technology and acts as a catalyst to elevate technology adoption? What if we adopt AI power to augment human input and get faster at developing custom workflow training to develop industry skills and solve real-world challenges? We will identify insights into team engagement and productivity with a direct relationship to competitiveness, project planning, profitability, and ROI.

In this session, we'll showcase how to use drawing standardization, Autodesk proprietary formats, and publicly available information to quickly create dynamic near-real-time models of our sites in InfraWorks software. This process can often take hours to carefully insert each bit of information and set a style to carry out and get the desired look. However, by using drawing standards and InfraWorks rule sets, we can generate a site model in a fraction of the time—making this ideal for discussion with stakeholders and the public.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to significantly affect our industry. How can we use AI to improve our programming skills and make us more efficient? In this session, we'll go over the creation of a program using LISP to copy files from one location to another. Once created, we will use AI to convert a portion of that code into a visual basic script (VBS) so that the user can continue to work while files copy in the background.

In today's rapidly evolving design landscape, efficiency and customization are key factors in staying ahead of the curve. With the abundance of existing standard content in AutoCAD Mechanical software, you can now harness the power of these resources to craft your own bespoke mechanical components. Users can pick from more than half a million standard predesigned parts, ranging from nuts and bolts across 18 different standards. By using these standard parts as building blocks, you can significantly expedite your design process and ensure the building of custom content with industry standards. Once you've selected the foundational components, the real magic begins: customization. Whether it's adjusting dimensions, altering materials, or adding intricate details, the ability to tailor each component ensures that the final design aligns perfectly with your vision. By building a library of custom content, you can streamline the design work, reduce redundancy, and maintain consistency in your projects.

The second of a two-part series discussing the ways to Configure your vault without expensive custom code that has to be compiled year over year. Part two will cover the use of Data Standards. We will explore various use cases and configurations of Data Standards to make your Autodesk Vault work for you in your environment. How does Data Standards work? How to effectively deploy Data Standards to your end users. And how to create effective utilities with Data Standards, solving irritating discrepancies in your data. Learn how to utilize your Custom Objects in the first part, Vault—Configure Don't Customize: The Power of Custom Objects (Part 1 of 2).

Drawing templates, when used to create drawings in Fusion 360 software, can both accelerate the time it takes to complete your mechanical engineering documentation, and ensure your drawings consistently represent your business and project standards. We will start by creating a new title block, with fields that can be automatically populated with information from the design, project, and your profile. We will add this to a new template, then walk through other options for customizing the template for your specific office and business needs. We will then show the power of "placeholder" elements in your template, and demonstrate how they can help remove much of the tedium of creating a new drawing from scratch.

Have you ever wanted to automate complicated or time-consuming design processes? Maybe you've been intimidated at the idea of learning how to program, or even where to start? In this class, you'll learn how to write your first plug-in for AutoCAD software, using the C# language. If you've already started your programming journey, you'll benefit from learning some coding best practices. Join a two-time Autodesk University Top Speaker for this exciting introduction to programming in AutoCAD.

Customizing the AutoCAD software or AutoCAD LT software is a great way to increase productivity, but many users are unsure of how to get started. In this lab, you’ll learn about several of the basic customization features that you can use to simplify workflows and reduce repetitive tasks. You can customize features such as command aliases and the ribbon to improve access to frequently used commands, and you can create tool palettes and script files to reduce the number of steps required to complete a task.

This award-winning panel is back this year with a new list of topics to discuss. Learn from the experiences of this panel of diverse CAD Managers that are widely respected as leaders in their field. Hear their unique perspective and solutions to challenges faced by CAD Managers from organizations of all sizes and backgrounds. Topics include CAD standards, keeping up with rapidly changing technology, managing users, communicating with management and other non-technical people, budgeting and much more. There will also be time for Q&A where you can ask these experts the questions you’ve always wanted to find answers to. Join us for a panel discussion that has become an anticipated AU tradition. Bring your questions and get answers from four CAD Managers who have been there and done that.