For the first time after COVID, I’m coming to the City By The Bay to attend Autodesk DevCon 2023. For software developers, business innovators, and technical professionals committed to leveraging Autodesk’s state-of-the-art tools and services, the Autodesk DevCon 2023 stands as an unmissable event. The event was on and off for some time. The first Forge DevCon was in San Francisco in 2016.
After that, the event was mixed and co-existed with AU. And again, the event is coming independently in both cities – San Francisco and Munich.
This conference aims to facilitate a deep dive into the newest Autodesk trends, tools, and methodologies that are setting the direction for the industry’s future.
San Francisco Location
It is hard not to speak about such a nice event location. On Historic Klamath Ferry, with additional sessions at Autodesk’s Technology Center at Pier 9, the event will be just a 10-minute walk from the Autodesk office at One Market Street.
Autodesk DevCon usually has a great combination of technical and business attendees coming to explore the business of the Autodesk platform as well as to talk about technical topics. From developers who are just beginning to explore Autodesk Platform Services to seasoned professionals well-versed in its intricacies, the Autodesk DevCon offers a vast reservoir of knowledge. The sessions are tailored to cater to both new Autodesk API users and established industry leaders. I look forward to meeting the Autodesk Platform Service team (formerly known as Forge) team), engineers, and developers.
Exploring 2-days agenda
The agenda is available via this link. I took a look and here are a few interesting topics and sessions I’m looking forward to learning more about.
DevCon agenda is rich and runs in multiple tracks. It includes strategic perspectives looking into Autodesk’s Design and Make Platform vision. There are sessions focusing on collaborative applications, discussions about AI in design and technologies, and user stories and testimonials. There are multiple tracks such as AEC, Manufacturing, Data Strategy, Business Insight, and sustainability. Both days will start with the General Session and then split into multiple breakout sessions.
On the first day, two sessions about Autodesk Data Models covering APIs, and Data as well as speaking about moving from Files to Granual Data is clearly my favorite for the morning on the first day. The afternoon sessions with examples of the MFG data model and AEC data model.
On the second day, I look forward to the session about the natural language search experience, accessing Autodesk data models with GraphQL APIs, Large Model Viewer, and Connecting Fusion360 to the cloud. The last sessions about property APIs and Data Exchange connector kits will be ending the agenda.
Going Beyond APS+Autodesk PLM software?
The topic that triggers a lot of my interest is the growing capabilities of Autodesk Platform Services and their ability to be used to develop rich engineering and manufacturing applications. Autodesk (APS) Platform is undoubtedly the most mature piece of cloud software developed by Autodesk. At the same time, Autodesk holds its multiple CAD, PDM, and PLM applications (Fusion 360 Manage, Upchain, and Vault). How the capabilities of these applications are blended into Autodesk Platform is the most interesting thing I want to learn to understand how Autodesk CAD, AEC, and PLM applications are integrated into Autodesk Platform Services (APS).
What is my conclusion?
Building platforms and applications that are seamlessly connected is the dream goal of every industrial platform. Autodesk Platform Services (APS) is a result of a decade of Autodesk development and it represents an interesting blend of technologies and capabilities. It is very interesting to see how Autodesk CAD and PLM applications are extending the capabilities of the platform and how these PLM tools are seamlessly connecting to APS defines the most interesting aspect of Autodesk platform development – the ability to expand and integrate Autodesk PLM software with rest of the tools. I will learn more about it in the next two days. Stay tuned…
Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a digital thread platform including PDM/PLM and ERP capabilities that manages product data and connects manufacturers, construction companies, and their supply chain networks. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.
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