1. © 2012 Autodesk The Confluence of AutoCAD® Mobile, Desktop, and the Cloud Albert Szilvasy Software Architect, AutoCAD Engineering Team

2. © 2012 Autodesk Summary  This is a developer oriented presentation  An overview of how the technology landscape is changing  How we are evolving AutoCAD to fit into this landscape  Some future looking content  My guesses are educated but future is uncertain  The future is not static: please provide feedback both positive and negative

3. © 2012 Autodesk Agenda  State of the art in  Cloud  Client device (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop)  Browser  Evolution of the desktop application  Office 2013/Office 365  How is AutoCAD evolving?  How can developers prepare?

4. © 2012 Autodesk Cloud  Heavily overloaded term  From strictly technical: on-demand computing infrastructure …  To anything that you do with a connected application  How does it matter to my application?  Storage  Compute  Data and Services from others  Connectivity

5. © 2012 Autodesk Cloud providers Rent a virtual machine Sophisticated services Database as a service Identity directory Notifications Autoscaling Etc.

6. © 2012 Autodesk Cloud storage  For an application there are 2 aspects: 1. Storing customer data in the cloud  Drawing files  Other data (e.g. comments) 2. Acting on the customer data already in the cloud  A360  Skydrive, Gdrive, DropBox, Office 365  APIs to access data are important

7. © 2012 Autodesk Cloud Compute  Amazon started with allowing you to rent a virtual machine  Maximum control and responsibility  Easiest to migrate legacy server applications  Azure introduced this capability recently due to it popularity  The execution environment has become more managed  Amazon Elastic Beanstalk  Azure Cloud Services  Google AppEngine  More software readily accessible as virtual machine image  AWS marketplace AWS marketplace  Azure VM images Azure VM images

8. © 2012 Autodesk Cloud Data and Services  Applications (client or cloud) can access a vast array of data online  Machine friendly presentation  Lot of XML/JSON-based formats  Bing/Google/Nokia maps  Azure Data Marketplace Azure Data Marketplace  OData format is widely used OData  Every major website exposes some level of programmability  Facebook, Twitter, Google (+, apps, search), Microsoft (messenger, skydrive, search)

9. © 2012 Autodesk Cloud Connectivity  Client applications can rely on inexpensive servers  No upfront investment, easy to scale  E.g. Windows Intune (use the cloud to manage PCs)  Interesting pattern  Most work happens on the client  Requires minimal cloud storage or compute  Still provides mobile, browser access  Virtual Private Cloud  Rented servers are isolated from internet  Connect to on premises network via encrypted channel (vpn)

10. © 2012 Autodesk Client Devices  Trends  Desktops are getting more parallel (6-8 core CPUs)  The difference between laptop and tablet is disappearing (touch screens)  Software stack unification  iOS/Android on tablet and phone  Windows on tablet, phone and desktop  Sandboxed execution  Apps are purchases from Store and run with well understood rights  More apps each with limited, focused function  Challenge for developers  Support multiple operating systems  Support parallelism  Break down your large application into smaller apps

11. © 2012 Autodesk Browser  The virtual machine that works across all OS-es and device types  One programming language: Javascript, becoming an intermediate language  Google GWT, Dart Google GWTDart  Microsoft Typescript Microsoft Typescript  HTML as a UI framework  2D and 3D graphics  Canvas and WebGL  More device access  Local storage, sensors

12. © 2012 Autodesk Desktop vs. Mobile vs. Cloud DesktopMobileCloud CPUCISC & ManyRISC & Few‘unlimited’/pay as you go GPUCommon Rare StorageTBsGBs‘unlimited’/pay as you go NetworkGbitMbitGbit Power‘unlimited’Limited by battery‘unlimited’ SensorsFewManyNone InteractionHigh precisionLess preciseProgrammatic only

13. © 2012 Autodesk Office 2013/Office 365  The most widely used desktop application suit  Historically many parallels with AutoCAD  Large C++ code base  Rich client programmability (vba,.net)  Large 3 rd party developer community  Similar UI elements (e.g. ribbon, task panes)  No reason to believe the future will be very different  Looking at Office today may inform the future of AutoCAD and vice versa

14. © 2012 Autodesk Office 2013 vs. AutoCAD 2013  Sign in with Microsoft account  Save/Open from SkyDrive, SharePoint  Browser-based viewing/editing in Office Web Apps Office Web Apps  Apps for Office: Javascript/HTML extensibility  Server-side: Word, Excel, PowerPoint services in Sharepoint  Sign in with Autodesk account  Save/Open from A360, Buzzsaw  Browser-based viewing/editing in AutoCAD WS  ?

15. © 2012 Autodesk Apps for Office  A webpage displayed inside Excel, Outlook etc.  The webpage is hosted on remote server, it can be updated without having to install anything on the client  The only thing that needs to be installed is an xml file  The webpage can access the host app via JavaScriptvia JavaScript  This is allows the webpage to use the power of the Office app  HTML/Javascript is portable  The same app can work in the desktop or web version!  Mobile can also work but the form factor does not lend itself very well to extensions (small screen, tricky to get right)

16. © 2012 Autodesk Demo: Creating an App for Outlook

17. © 2012 Autodesk Apps for Office cont.  Servers to host webpages for the app  Provided by Microsoft – simple no need for additional accounts, infrastructure  Provided by developer – very flexible but requires more work  Office Store to sell your application Office Store  Users take less risk since the app is just a webpage (sandboxed by the browser)

18. © 2012 Autodesk AutoCAD Futures  What happens if AutoCAD follows a similar evolutionary path as Office?  Apps for AutoCAD – JavaScript/HTML extensibility  It is already happening: Design Feed in AutoCAD WS  AutoCAD services on the server – Process DWG files on the server AutoCAD Add-in Mobile/Browser app AutoCAD Add-in Web Site

19. © 2012 Autodesk Apps for AutoCAD  JavaScript/HTML rendering is readily available in open source  Chromium, Chromium Embedded ChromiumChromium Embedded  Inject our own functions into the Javascript context Acweb.dll (.net) AutoCAD CefSharp.dll (.net/c++) HTML/Javascript Chromium (C++)

20. © 2012 Autodesk Demo: Javascript/HTML integration in a AutoCAD

21. © 2012 Autodesk How developers can prepare?  Learn HTML/Javascript/CSS  Learn to build websites  ASP.NET or another stack  Building Apps for Office is a good way to practice

22. © 2012 Autodesk Server friendly components  The economy of the cloud comes from maximum resource utilization  Host as many task as possible on a given hardware  Running the entire AutoCAD with UI is expensive  nobody is there to see it, interact with it  Need components that are server friendly  RealDWG = DWG DOM  AutoCAD Core Engine = Real DWG +

23. © 2012 Autodesk acad.exe.arx apps AcDb (RealDwg).dbx apps AutoCAD 2000 acad.exe.arx apps

24. © 2012 Autodesk.crx apps AutoCAD Core AutoCAD.arx apps AutoCAD 2011 AutoCAD.arx apps AcDb (RealDwg).dbx apps Osnap Core commands Plot Command processor Input acquisition Viewports Lisp Selection Layouts Toolbars Menus Palettes Dialogs

25. © 2012 Autodesk AutoCAD Core Technology Stack AcDb (RealDwg) AcCore.crx apps.dbx apps Graphics Subsystem AutoCAD for Windows.arx apps AutoCAD Core Engine AutoCAD for Mac … AcCoreConsole.exe

26. © 2012 Autodesk Demo: accoreconsole.exe

27. © 2012 Autodesk Exposing AcCoreConsole.exe as a service  It has not been done. How would we do it?  AcCoreConsole.exe /i /s  Inputs  Uploaded  Service to HTTP/GET from a web address  Outputs  Downloaded  Service to HTTP/PUT,POST to a web address  Script  Custom commands (autoloader package)

28. © 2012 Autodesk How can developers prepare?  Start building CRX applications  It is like an ARX application but  C++  Don’t link acad.lib .NET  Don’t reference acmgd.dll  Lisp  Don’t use vla, vlax  Learn HTTP/REST  Live API Live API  Google Apps API Google Apps API

29. © 2012 Autodesk Local File Server AutoCAD Core Engine Service Upside down Cloud Web Site Mobile/Browser App AutoCAD Core Engine Service AutoCAD Core Engine Service AutoCAD Core Engine Service

30. © 2012 Autodesk Upside Down Cloud  Use the computers on the local network  To process dwg files, extract or imprint data  Use the computers in the datacenter  To coordinate and manage the local workstations and their “jobs”  Store metadata  Interact with the users on mobile device, browser  Original design data never leaves the premises.  Service is cheap to provide because all heavy duty computation is done on hardware that is paid for.  You can do it now. AutoCAD 2013 ships all you will need.

31. © 2012 Autodesk Summary  Desktop applications will need to be more connected  Javascript/HTML is the lingua franca of the client. Learn it.  Websites will need to be more programmable  REST is the lingua franca of the programmability. Learn it.  The difference between desktop, cloud, mobile is rapidly disappearing  Difficult to predict the future.

32. © 2012 Autodesk Autodesk, AutoCAD* [*if/when mentioned in the pertinent material, followed by an alphabetical list of all other trademarks mentioned in the material] are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.