There was a new addition to Autodesk University (AU) this year — AU Theater. AU Theater featured TED-like talks throughout the week. Each session (either 1 hour or 1.5 hours long) focused on a separate topic and presented 3-4 speakers sharing their story-first presentations.
The first one I attended featured the Glen Canyon Dam.
I learned some fascinating facts:
- The 60-year-old Arizona Glen Canyon Dam is one of the largest concrete dams in the world.
- The Glen Canyon Dam is one and a half times the size of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
- With its construction predating CAD, as a case study, Autodesk worked in partnership with the Bureau of Reclamation using drone and helicopter photography with ReCap to create a 3D model so that the dam’s caretakers now have a more complete understanding of its design and vulnerabilities.
- The Bureau of Reclamation used sonar to measure the amount of sediment at the foot of the Glen Canyon Dam.
- The most surprising find from creating…