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Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

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31–40 of 153 posts

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#31
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goat Simulator.

Goat Simulator is Unreal Engine 2.

Unreal Engine 3, actually. The generation (with various iterations) from Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War, and Bioshock Infinite.

Unreal Engine 2 would be from the period of UT 2k4 and Killing Floor.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#32

Wonder how many of the layoffs will be from QA? Fusion 360 is the buggiest shipping product I've ever seen. Really hoping they don't lay off any QA staff. But, seeing the shipping product so far, I'm not optimistic. :(

I don't get your comment. If the product is buggy, isn't the QA to blame and should thus get the axe first?

>If the product is buggy, isn't the QA to blame and should thus get the axe first?

Obviously not.

While it CAN be, one much more common issue is project managers death marching the developers with impossible deadlines and tons of hard features for the next release, and then rushing to market when it's not yet read.

The QA can file all the bugs they like and do a perfect job, but developers can't fix them soon enough, or they fixing requires working around complex architecture choices that were done in a hasty manner.

Think of open source projects with thousands of open bug reports submitted by users (thus serving as QA team in this case). Is it the fault of those users that the bugs are not fixed?

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#33
All I can add is that Autodesk has the best office layout that I am aware of. In 1990s.

In their HQ, every single employee got a little glassed in office with enough room for a desk, chair, and 2 chairs IN front of the desk. There was room for an employee to bring in a sleep bag and sleep if necessary with some privacy.

IMO much better than this open office stuff. Hopefully they still have that.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#34
I really wish all the various companies that use 3D modeling and animations software would fund and/or contribute to Blender (or some other open source 3D app)

Maya and 3dsmax are great and arguably better than Blender but it seems like if they pooled their resources they could change that and everyone would be better off for it.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#35
post #30
post #26

Just in case people are not familiar - Autodesk owns a considerable share of cad market (which is far more encompassing than just Autocad) and they've palmed few of the biggest 3D modeling suites - Maya, 3DMax and (sigh ) XSI. Their DWG format (Autocad's native databaseformat) is a binary blob that still has a huge impact in construction industry and is a major PITA unless one is using Autocad tools. They are a huge…

> They are a huge player with many expensive software suits. But they are not very innovative. Compared to what? "Disruptive" social sites and Uber for X? There is orders of magnitude more computer science innovation in Autodesk than in the average "unicorn".

Arguably most of their more innovative stuff like XSI, Mudbox, etc have all been acquisitions and not original IP.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#36
post #30
post #26

Just in case people are not familiar - Autodesk owns a considerable share of cad market (which is far more encompassing than just Autocad) and they've palmed few of the biggest 3D modeling suites - Maya, 3DMax and (sigh ) XSI. Their DWG format (Autocad's native databaseformat) is a binary blob that still has a huge impact in construction industry and is a major PITA unless one is using Autocad tools. They are a huge…

> They are a huge player with many expensive software suits. But they are not very innovative. Compared to what? "Disruptive" social sites and Uber for X? There is orders of magnitude more computer science innovation in Autodesk than in the average "unicorn".

Compared to SolidWorks, SketchUp, and even parts of MS Visio. The UI and meta-data handling is very cumbersome and every time we use it we think how much better some parts could be. As with many mega-corps they tend to follow or buy the innovations of others, eventually.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#37

I really wish all the various companies that use 3D modeling and animations software would fund and/or contribute to Blender (or some other open source 3D app) Maya and 3dsmax are great and arguably better than Blender but it seems like if they pooled their resources they could change that and everyone would be better off for it.

Part of the trouble is that the FBX format in parts of these industries is like the DOC(X) and XLS(X) formats in office productivity software: everyone uses it, so if you want to use a tool that doesn't reliably convert to/from it losslessly you are at risk of severe friction when working with others. And like DOC(X) and XLS(X), it's a proprietary format, which creates various complications for anyone who wants to create and maintain any sort of conversion tool.

Another part of the trouble is that Blender suffers from some common ailments in the FOSS world, notably a lack of UI refinement, stability, and documentation. While there are people trying to improve these things, and over time they are making some decent progress, and it's not as if the Autodesk products themselves are perfect on any of these counts, on balance there is still a much stronger ecosystem around the incumbents. A challenger like Blender needs to be not just playing catch-up but dramatically in the lead to shift this sort of market.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#38
post #30
post #26

Just in case people are not familiar - Autodesk owns a considerable share of cad market (which is far more encompassing than just Autocad) and they've palmed few of the biggest 3D modeling suites - Maya, 3DMax and (sigh ) XSI. Their DWG format (Autocad's native databaseformat) is a binary blob that still has a huge impact in construction industry and is a major PITA unless one is using Autocad tools. They are a huge…

> They are a huge player with many expensive software suits. But they are not very innovative. Compared to what? "Disruptive" social sites and Uber for X? There is orders of magnitude more computer science innovation in Autodesk than in the average "unicorn".

"There is orders of magnitude more computer science innovation in Autodesk than in the average "unicorn"

I was under the impression that they've bought most of their marketable innovations. I realize this was not a fair comment to current employees there - yes, the software suites are impressive and Autocad reseachers have produces very nice things. I would still categorize them as a huge corporation with vested interests rather than an innovator in themselves.

Now, offering stable products is a good thing for many people. Owning DWG gives them an underhanded advantage though, and slows down the evolution of computer assisted design as a discipline, IMO. The DWG situation weights more in the anti-innovation camp more than a hundred clever Maya plugins.

DWG is considered a "standard" while effectively it's just a black-box binary blob. The prevalence of the DWG format means that either new players in CAD need to licence the RealDWG suite from Autocad, they can use third party reverse-engineered libraries like Teigha or they can hack their own. Teigha has been at it with several hired developers for a decade and they still lack bug-free support for the format. The fun part? Autocad can very well deny RealDWG to anyone they don't like. How's that for a market space for disruption.

It's nice to see there are new things happening in CAD world like OnShape (https://www.onshape.com/) that is not yet bought by them :)

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#39

I really wish all the various companies that use 3D modeling and animations software would fund and/or contribute to Blender (or some other open source 3D app) Maya and 3dsmax are great and arguably better than Blender but it seems like if they pooled their resources they could change that and everyone would be better off for it.

Part of the trouble is that the FBX format in parts of these industries is like the DOC(X) and XLS(X) formats in office productivity software: everyone uses it, so if you want to use a tool that doesn't reliably convert to/from it losslessly you are at risk of severe friction when working with others. And like DOC(X) and XLS(X), it's a proprietary format, which creates various complications for anyone who wants to cr…

> notably a lack of UI refinement

That's a common misconception. Blender's UI is extremely simple and innovative.

Re: Autodesk announces 925 layoffs

#40
post #26

Just in case people are not familiar - Autodesk owns a considerable share of cad market (which is far more encompassing than just Autocad) and they've palmed few of the biggest 3D modeling suites - Maya, 3DMax and (sigh ) XSI. Their DWG format (Autocad's native databaseformat) is a binary blob that still has a huge impact in construction industry and is a major PITA unless one is using Autocad tools. They are a huge…

>They are a huge player with many expensive software suits. But they are not very innovative.

In architecture and construction they are by far the leader in Building Information Modeling, so i think it depends on what you put in the spotlight.

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