Three Questions with Lynn Allen, Autodesk Evangelist

A CAD event isn’t one without a certain Autodesk Evangelist showing up. Thankfully, Lynn Allen not only made an appearance during the [acronym] Magazine’s Public Sector CAD Awards virtual event and expo, she gave the keynote talk. 60 AutoCAD Tips in 60 Minutes provided users with more valuable tricks and shortcuts than a magician carries up his infinite sleeve and within his endless hat.

We caught up with Lynn afterward to bring you her thoughts on her most useful tips, cloud, and the next five years of digital design.

You presented 60 AutoCAD tips in 60 minutes. If someone only has five minutes, which five would you offer?

Well that’s a tough one – as everyone works differently. I’d probably share the BLEND command (blending two endpoints together with a curve), PEDITACCEPT and TRAYNOTIFY (as they seem to get a strong audience response), OVERKILL (a great means of cleaning up your drawings) and maybe DIMREASSOC to unearth and correct those overridden dimension values.

How do you see Autodesk in the cloud affecting how CAD teams design facilities?

The mobile aspect is huge – being able to take your drawings into the field and mark them up digitally. AutoCAD WS also makes it easier for design teams to work on the same drawing simultaneously – which could potentially save quite a bit of time in the overall design process. Add in the BIM 360 offerings (such as Energy Analysis), and I feel the cloud will open the door to so many possibilities.

We are just entering into a new phase of CAD/BIM, but five years from now where will we be?

As I travel around the world, I see more and more companies moving away from standard CAD and adopting BIM. There is no doubt in my mind that five years from now we will have a very strong adoption of BIM and cloud tools worldwide and be on our way to designing and building more sustainable buildings in a shorter period of time.

If you missed Lynn’s keynote and any other presentation from Wednesday, [acronym] has made them available on-demand for your enjoyment – CAD Awards Presentations. Please also visit their winners and finalists pages to learn more about their projects. Congratulations to all the winners!

Follow @Lynn_Allen and @AcronymOnline to stay up-to-date on digital design tips and news.

Image courtesy of CADMagazine.nl