Autodesk Labs is how Autodesk shares new technologies while they are still early in the conceptual phase. It hosts many programs for architecture, manufacturing, civil engineering, movies, games and more. Autodesk refers to these programs as “previews” — you can consider them beta versions. You’ll find more than 20 of these previews in the Autodesk Labs site. All of them are free.
From a preview’s home page, you are able to access downloads, review project news and peruse forums related to the technology
Some previews are trials which never catch on. Others are deemed successful, usually by their popularity by users (i.e., a large number of downloads) and “graduate” from Labs. They can then be found as either features in existing Autodesk products or, in some cases, as full-fledged standalone programs.
Autodesk Labs recently announced that Project VUE Viewing, which was previously invitation-only, is now available to the entire Autodesk Labs community. Project VUE Viewing is “a Navisworks file reader that helps users import Intergraph Smart 3D and SmartPlant 3D models into Autodesk Navisworks software.” Navisworks allows users to review 3D models. It includes tools for navigation, commenting, redlining, measuring and even interference detection. This allows users to be able to easily present this information to all parties involved in a project in an easy to understand platform. The Project VUE Viewing page describes its functionality as:
- Support for both model geometry and data properties
- Load VUE and MDB2 files created by SmartPlant® Review
- Optionally load VUE and XML files exported from S3D
- Support for obstruction volumes including insulation
- Option to include or exclude welds if desired to reduce file size and time to import
- Aggregate models including point clouds and data from various sources
- Plus the many inherent benefits of Navisworks including: ease of use, navigation, searching, filtering, isolation, measurement, markup, clash detection (manage only), rendering and cloud rendering, 4D simulation, animation, appearance profiling, data compression, Navisworks API, etc.
The ability to import and access data from Intergraph Smart 3D/ Intergraph SmartPlant 3D models, as well as the current ability to do so with AutoCAD and Revit models, is a great step in the direction of providing a complete viewing and collaboration platform that gives you greater control over your projects.