Autodesk’s AutoCAD Web App—Named Finalist in User Experience by Fast Company

Autodesk has some cool news to boast this month, the company’s famed AutoCAD application and specifically its web app version have been named a finalist in Fast Company’s “Innovation by Design Awards,” specifically in the user experience (UX) category.

AutoCAD Capturing More Limelight

Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards celebrates trailblazing design in the business world. This year there were over 2,800 submissions across 16 categories, ranging from Design Company of the Year to Web, Workplace, User Experience, Apps and Games, and more.

01 – AutoCAD Web App shown here, now a Finalist for user experience (UX) at Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards program.

Autodesk’s AutoCAD Web team was a noted finalist in User Experience but also an honorable mention in Design Company of the Year, Web Design and Workplace. On a side note, architecture firm NBBJ won the award for Workplace.

AutoCAD Web

AutoCAD Web App was also featured in Google I/O’s “the web: State of the Union” address:

“AutoCAD is now universally accessible on all devices instantly. So if you’re away from your workstation, you can make edits to your CAD drawings, regardless of device or operating system.” 

And AutoCAD product line manager Marcus O’Brien spoke about AutoCAD’s 35-year journey to the web at the same event. You can see that talk here.

The Command Line Finds the Web App

Autodesk says the Command line has been the most requested feature to be added to the web app. Now it is available, so users working from anywhere how the full power of this time-honored power feature.

To learn more about AutoCAD visit here.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Using WebAssembly, a new web standard, and Javascript Autodesk was able to abandon the idea of rewriting their massive C++ legacy AutoCAD code base in Javascript and instead use their C++ code base but compiled with Emscripten.  (Marcus O’Brien notes that AutoCAD in the browser this way is more performant than if their code base was actually rewritten in Javascript alone.) 

02 – WebAssembly is a key new technology that is enabling, along with Javascript and WebGL, very advanced app experiences fully in the browser.

The push for AutoCAD on the web has likely been served by multiple internal needs, including AutoCAD users wanting to access AutoCAD from anywhere on any device. Yet the presence of web-based rival solutions may have also played a factor in the development of AutoCAD the web app. You can see this image and learn more by watching O’Brien’s talk here.