AECbytes Turns Three

The inaugural issue of AECbytes was published on December 9, 2003, and this month marks the completion of its third year of existence. Since its launch, the subscriber base has grown to over 4,600, representing over a 100 countries from around the world. In addition, the website currently welcomes over 25,000 unique visitors a month who view close to 200,000 pages. None of these terrific statistics would have been possible without the continued interest of readers as well as the generous advertising support from vendors. Many thanks to all of you!

December is typically the time I publish my articles on Autodesk University, Autodesk's annual user conference, which was held last week in Las Vegas. This year, the event was packed with 7,500 attendees, a dramatic increase from the 5,000 attendees in 2005 and more than double the 3,300 attendees from 2003. Of the 7,500 attendees this year, close to 2,500 came from the Building industry alone. The dramatic upward trend of attendance is an unmistakable sign of the increasing importance of software technology in all the different industries Autodesk caters to. The efficiencies and benefits to be gained by implementing intelligent, 3D, discipline-specific technologies like BIM in AEC are so significant that more and more firms are being forced to pay more attention to their technology implementations and re-think their business processes and practices. Read about the highlights of the general and building industry sessions of Autodesk University in AECbytes Newsletter #28. An overview of some of the key products on display in the Exhibit Hall will be covered in a separate article in this month's issue of the Building the Future series.

Last but not the least, the Tips and Tricks section this month features a tip on how to automatically compare two versions of a drawing in PDF format and find out the differences, as well as a detailed tutorial on working with the Favorites Palette and Visual Legends in ArchiCAD.

Wishing you all a very festive holiday season and a wonderful New Year!

Thank you!

Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > December 2006