Among the plethora of product updates unveiled at this year’s Autodesk University, AI-powered manufacturing efficiency gains will have been among the more exciting announcements for manufacturing organisations. The Manufacturer’s James Devonshire was at Autodesk University 2024 (AU24) in San Diego when the updates were announced. Here, he goes over what they included, what they mean for manufacturers and what the future of AI in design and manufacturing could look like.
At a time when manufacturers are significantly struggling to recruit the right talent, operational efficiency is arguably more important than it’s ever been, which is why technologies that boost efficiency have the potential to be literally game-changing for manufacturing organisations.
One such technology is AI, perhaps the most hyped buzzword in the world right now. But as Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk CEO, explained at AU24, the AI-powered updates being launched for the company’s manufacturing cloud, Fusion, and its automotive design tool, Alias, look likely to live up to the hype.
Anagnost said: “A lot is being said about the promise of AI. But the one thing I want our users to come away with this year is that Autodesk AI offers incremental productivity gains, with simple and practical ways to get work done more efficiently today while building a foundation for a reinvented tomorrow.”
AI-powered capabilities come to Fusion
During a media and analysts session at AU24, Anagnost said: “The manufacturing space in general has shown a great willingness to adopt digital technologies if they provide real benefit and a real turnover.” Anagnost also said that the company has invested heavily in its manufacturing offerings relative to the amount of revenue they generate versus the company’s architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) solutions.
It was interesting, then, to hear Anagnost say that AI will move a lot faster for Autodesk manufacturing products, including Fusion, Autodesk’s CAD, CAM, CAE, PCB, collaboration and data management software solution.
Anagnost cited two reasons for this. The first is that Autodesk has been in the cloud longer with its manufacturing solutions, so has generated enormous amounts of usable and trainable data which AI can take advantage of. The second reason is that Autodesk knows what manufacturers’ problems are and has the capabilities to help solve them.
The first of several AI-powered Fusion updates announced at AU24 was ‘AutoConstrain for Fusion Automated Sketching’.
“We’re basically teaching computers to speak 3D modeling,” Anagnost said. “We started at the fundamental level with sketching. We basically have a model. It’s a big one, with lots of parameters that we taught to understand sketches and to understand how sketches are constrained and what it takes to do that.”
AutoConstrain uses AI to analyse project sketches and understand relationships between different parts. It can then suggest dimensional constraints to maintain design intent through the entire project, saving the designer significant amounts of time by not having to define the constraints manually.
‘Drawing Automation in Fusion’ was the second AI-powered Fusion update announced at AU24. Drawing Automation enables designers, with the click of a button, to generate 2D drawings and dimensions froms 3D models, again saving significant amounts of time and effort.
The final update announced, which involves exactly what its name suggests was ‘Autodesk Assistant in Fusion’. It is an on-demand expert in the Fusion solution which is trained with both Autodesk-specific knowledge, such as Fusion’s capabilities, as well as general industry knowledge. This addition enables designers to ask questions from directly within the platform, such as “What manufacturing methods should I consider for this part?” Autodesk Assistant will then respond with Fusion-specific answers, or answers specific to manufacturing, and share hyperlinks to original sources.
The future of AI for Design & Manufacturing
During an exclusive Design & Manufacturing (D&M) Q&A session for media and analysts at AU24 (think fireside chat without a fire), Jeff Kinder, Executive Vice President, D&M, Autodesk, provided some valuable insights into how the D&M organisations should view AI.
Kinder said many people imagine the future of AI to be “doom and gloom”, citing the Disney Pixar movie WALL-E, in which humans are depicted as having become overly reliant on technology for every basic need. But Kinder said he views the future of AI completely differently.
“There’s so many challenges that AI can help solve. And one of the things I’m most excited about is delivering real world value from it and generating trust to make AI less threatening,” Kinder said.
He used a hypothetical example of AI saving someone 30% of their time on a project, adding that, by delivering practical value, we can go a long way to build trust and confidence in the technology, which will see more and more people embrace it in their day-to-day work.
Autodesk’s Jeff Kinder, Srinath Jonnalagadda, Derrek Cooper and Stephen Hooper during the Design & Manufacturing media and anaylsts session
Kinder also noted AI’s potential for manufacturers in the face of skills shortages. While it won’t necessarily replace people ‘s roles, it can play a significant part in helping train new starters, getting them up to speed faster and benefiting manufacturing organisations in much shorter time frames. Morevoer, he outlined how the Autodesk customers who invested in new technologies like AI a few years ago are a lot better positioned to take advantage of the opportunites that are now arising.
On the theme of arising opportunities, Kinder talked about the manufacturing sector in India’s solid growth over the past few decades, establishing itself as a global manufacturing hub.
“The government there is fully committed,” Kinder said, a reference I would say refers to Indian PM, Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, launched a decade ago, which is designed to ‘facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property & build best in class manufacturing infrastructure’.
Kinder said: “The Indian Government saw a China Plus One opportunity and wanted to stimulate their manufacturing sector as a result. It was a conscious effort that’s taken several years of investment and new technology adoption.”
But it’s a strategy that is paying dividends. Indeed, the Indian manufacturing sector recorded a PMI of 57.5 in October 2024, which saw it top the J.P. Morgan global PMI growth rankings list.
The point I believe Kinder was highlighting is by taking definitive steps and investing in new technologies (like AI), manufacturers can set themselves up for success and realise tangible benefits moving forwards.
Project Bernini
Another new innovation unveiled at Autodesk University 2024 was Project Bernini.
Project Bernini is a generative AI 3D shape creation tool that can quickly generate 3D shapes from a variety of inputs. So, for example, you can give Project Bernini a drawing or a picture of something and it will create a 3D shape from it. Now, whlie that sounds pretty straightforward, what sets Project Bernini apart is its ability to generate objects that are actually functional. And Project Bernini can even come up with 3D shapes from simple text inputs.
Indeed, as we were toured around the expo element of Autodesk University, we got to see Project Bernini in action.
Above is an array of Project Bernini’s creations, all made from one simple input: “A Chair”, on display at the Autodesk University 2024 expo. As you can see, the variety is pretty incredible, even if some of the designs would be unsuitable for enabling a human to comfortably sit. Can you spot the flower themed chair?
According to Autodesk’s 2024 State of Design & Make report, 78% of business leaders believe AI will enhance their industry and 79% agree that AI will make their industry more creative. And with advancements like Project Bernini, it’s easy to see why those figures are so definitive.
At this stage, Project Bernini is strictly experimental and is not available for public use. Nevertheless, the potential it holds for real-world applications means it’s definitely something to keep a close eye on for the future.
Speaking about Project Bernini at AU24, Raji Arasu, Chief Technology Officer, Autodesk, said: “AI foundation models like Bernini have the potential to shift paradigms for our industries and reinvent your workflows… Think about the possibilities… You will be able to spend less time creating geometry and more time designing and making. Because we believe that your value is not in just creating shapes – it’s in creating new ideas.”
Check out this video for more on Project Bernini:
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