Autodesk intros new LIVE visualization environment—viewer for iOS platform

Last Friday Autodesk launched its new Autodesk LIVE, a new interactive, real-time rendering visualization service which offers Revit users in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) the ability to simply publish their designs into fully interactive 3D environments.

Autodesk LIVE

Autodesk LIVE is a fully cloud-based interactive 3D experience that taps the power and investments Autodesk has made in video game technology to enable an expedient way in which to inhabit a Revit design model quickly and interactive with the both the environment and elements in the model.

Architects and engineers both are under increasingly pressure to get 3D environments into the hands of project stakeholders quickly and Autodesk LIVE is designed to do just that. With one click inside Revit, Autodesk LIVE seamlessly converts a Revit file’s geometry and BIM data into an interactive model in the cloud.

01 – new Autodesk LIVE for Revit offers users one-button simplicity to immersive 3D output that stakeholders can experience directly with a viewer that is simple to operate and works on Windows and Apple iOS.

“While a picture may say a thousand words, Autodesk believes that an immersive experience says everything,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, Autodesk. “LIVE is a perfect example of how film 
and game development is influencing client expectations in the AEC world. Imagine the ability to step inside a building and experience everything well before it is real. With such simplicity, clients can do more than just see what a space looks like, they can better know what it feels like. Autodesk LIVE may forever change the way AEC professionals communicate with their clients.”

With the addition of LIVE, Autodesk now offers a full spectrum of visualization tools for AEC professionals of all levels of tech experience seeking to up their game.  LIVE is the latest offering in the company’s 
LIVE Design family of visualization tools.  In summer 2015, Autodesk unleashed the power of Stingray, Autodesk’s 3D game engine, and 3ds Max, to bring Revit building information models into the virtual reality world.  Autodesk LIVE support for virtual reality technologies such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and other popular brands is expected to be available at a later date.

Saving Time and Frustration—Stakeholders Don’t Like Waiting

In today’s market architects and engineers are finding that that stakeholders can’t often wait for finished 3D renders or animations produced from dedicated visualization pros; architects are also finding that they need more of their staff to be able to produce such visualizations and tools like Autodesk 3ds max take years to master.

Autodesk LIVE is a much faster and accessible environment. With it architects and engineers can:

• Prepare Revit models for real-time exploration in just a few minutes
• Integrate Revit models with an environment terrain template to more quickly add scale and context around any building
• Convert rich photorealistic content (RPC), people models and vegetation models to real-time 3D models so the world looks alive, and…
• Under better how BIM objects should behave, as BIM data is brought over to the Autodesk LIVE environment. For example, LIVE knows a door is a door, and as such it will open and close as the user moves to and through it. Another example includes the ability to show the time of day and year, which can be adjusted by the stakeholder participating in the LIVE environment. This means for example the client can see their building at dusk or mid-day in the winter.

It’s possible to shape an audience’s experience by customizing the navigation points, the render style, and even the time of day.  When the interactive visualization is finalized, the free Autodesk LIVE viewer lets users share on select Windows and iOS devices.  

02 – An Autodesk LIVE advantage over rival tools is that Revit data is carried over into the LIVE environment for use in various ways; the data instructs the environment so it knows a door is a door but also which side to put the hinge on.

Autodesk LIVE’s viewer application runs on Apple’s iOS environment as a native app. It contains all the same experience settings as the LIVE environment running through Windows. There is no Mac support for the LIVE environment at this present time.

“With the arrival of Autodesk LIVE, the era of delay in producing and editing fully interactive models has become the era of now, which is what clients expect and deserve in the real-time, experiential design world in which we live,” said Taylor Cupp, technologist at Mortenson Construction.  “With just one click from Revit, LIVE lifts my design into the cloud and quickly delivers an interactive space that my team and customers may explore and feel together, including how sunlight shines at different times of the day or even throughout the four seasons, to doors that actually open – behaving as they should in the real world. With this kind of ease and simplicity, LIVE should have a place in every virtual design and construction toolbox.”

Availability

The new Autodesk LIVE service is available now to subscribers of Autodesk Revit for an additional affordable, monthly cost. At launch, the service is available in English only through the company’s online store.

To learn more about Autodesk LIVE, the all new interactive visualization tool for Revit go here.

Architosh Analysis

Autodesk is in some ways playing catch-up to several of its rivals such as Bentley but with Autodesk LIVE the company has taken the real-time, rendering and interactive movement a few steps further. LIVE is exactly in the same camp as tools such as Abvent’s TwinMotion, Bentley’s LumenRT and Lumion. All of those tools basically make the same claim: you don’t have to be a visualization expert to turn 3D BIM models into stunning interactive 3D environments.

What is really happening now in AEC is nothing short of the “Keyshotting” of the AEC industry. If you follow this site you know about KeyShot’s success in bringing great simplification to the high-end visualization process in product design. Autodesk said in a call just to press that many of their Revit customers need a much faster path to visualizations. Also, firm architects don’t have the time or resources to bone up on professional 3D applications such as 3ds max, Maya, Cinema 4D and many others that produce stunning results but take years to master. In essence, the results don’t always need to be so stunning.

What the industry is really experiencing is a battle now between 3D software companies delivering either high-end photo-realistic visual results versus delivering simplicity, interactivity, and quickness to output. Look for more news and features in this AEC area soon on Architosh.