Industry first: Autodesk offers 3D design in a browser

3D design and modeling software firm teams up with Amazon Web Services, OTOY and NVIDIA on groundbreaking web service

Autodesk, Inc. announced Tuesday its customers can now access its 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software on a web browser without having to download them to a PC, calling it an industry first.

The San Francisco-based company called the rollout a “tech preview” that allows users 90-day access Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max design tools furthers its strategy to offer its most popular software “from almost anywhere, anytime, regardless of device and without compromising performance.” (Click here for the 3ds Max page.)

“Designers and engineers face deadline pressures and efficiency targets that demand work be more mobile than ever,” said Jeff Kowalski, chief technology officer at Autodesk. “It’s no longer a requirement to run sophisticated 3D design applications such as Inventor, Revit, 3ds Max or Maya on a powerful workstation. Now all you need is a simple browser and an Internet connection. We are excited to be first in the design industry to provide this capability.”

Autodesk said the new service is an expansion of the remote access capabilities provided through its Remote software, which debuted in August for subscription and rental plan customers worldwide, and allows them to use Autodesk software installed on their primary computer from a remote PC or iPad.

The company’s collaboration with cloud-services firm Amazon Web Services and OTOY Inc., a rendering technology for running games and other applications in a browser, expands on the Autodesk Remote software’s capability by adding real-time, path-traced GPU rendering inside Autodesk applications hosted in the cloud, the company said.

Autodesk’s new service also uses NVIDIA Corporation’s GRID technology, which accelerates a graphic processing unit (GPU) for users running graphics-intensive applications and games in the cloud.