AEC TECH NEWS: Autodesk Launches LIVE interactive visualization service

San Francisco — Autodesk, Inc launched Autodesk LIVE, a new interactive visualization service that offers Revit users in the architecture, engineering and construction industries (AEC) the ability to transform their designs into fully-interactive 3D models.

Autodesk LIVE is a new interactive visualization service which offers Revit users the ability to transform their designs into fully-interactive 3D models. Image: Autodesk

Previously known as “Project Expo,” the Autodesk LIVE experience draws viewers into the story of an architectural design much like a video game. With one click in Revit, Autodesk LIVE seamlessly and invisibly converts a project visualization into an interactive model in the cloud. Architects, engineers and construction professionals may customize and more easily share the experience with clients to explore on their own, enhancing communication of a digital design before a project ever breaks ground.

“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.

With Autodesk LIVE, architects, engineering and construction design professionals can:

• prepare Autodesk 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
• understand 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 the door. Another example includes the ability to show the time of day and year, which may be adjusted at any point to see representative sun and shadow patterns.

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.

"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.”

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.