Two and a half years ago I took the best proof-of-concept Forge code samples, as well as a handful of partner apps, and used them to deliver a 43 minute “Introduction to Forge” video on YouTube. It was early in the technology and every week we were learning something new about Forge while helping customers and partners develop their first "Forge powered" apps. Most of these early apps were about insightful dashboards and extracting data from various CAD files (attributes, parameters, metadata and the sort) – with just a wee bit of integrating CAD data with other data sources. That video was popular with both technical and business folks trying to understand what Forge was capable of at that time, with around 20,000 views.
It's due time for an update. Autodesk has been expanding the capacity and capabilities of Forge “basics” such as Data Management and Model Derivative services, as well as the Viewer. We also introduced the BIM 360 API, which has only been around 18 months, and the new Forge “CAD Engines on the Cloud” - AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor and 3ds Max (Forge Design Automation). You, our customers and partners, have been innovating with applications of Forge that no one at Autodesk was thinking about two and half years ago - Digital Twins, AR/VR, integrations with a wide variety of SaaS apps, parts catalogs – and now a rapidly growing number of configurator and automation apps levering the Design Automation CAD engines. And let's not overlook your BIM 360 integrations that have gone from zero to well over 100 (with many more “on the way”). You have changed how I (and Autodesk) describe Forge from “a set of building blocks” to “a powerful enabler of Digital Transformation”.
A single video of 43 minutes is clearly no longer enough to present what Forge is capable of with the variety of apps, services and integrations our customers and partners have built. So I have put together a brand new 7 part “series” of videos to show you what Forge can do today – “the state of the art using Forge”. It's not quite “everything” you can do with Forge, but it will give you a good view of the most popular use cases. And I am sure that soon a partner or customer will show me something else new and amazing they have built with Forge… it happens to me every few weeks.
If you are new to Forge, I encourage you to start with the first “Introduction” video before diving into specific videos for the use cases that most spark your interest. You will find many many more use cases then that first video of two and a half years ago… over 50 applications that are a mix of code samples and apps from Autodesk partners and customers. I hope you find all of these “Forge at Work” apps and integrations as exciting and inspirational as I do .
The entire 7 part series is live today. Enjoy the shows!
Part 1 of 7 Introduction to Forge
Part 2 of 7 Visualization and Analysis
Part 3 of 7 Digital Twin
Part 4 of 7 AR/VR/MR/XR
Part 5 of 7 SaaS Integration
Part 6 of 7 Parts Catalogs
Part 7 of 7 Configurators and Automation
A special thanks to all the partners and customers that have innovated on Forge – as well as my team of Forge expert engineers that have supported your efforts building numerous code samples (most all of which are live on GitHub).