Autodesk Dreamcatcher
Pricing Details
Not Applicable (experimental research project, not a commercial product).Features
Generative Design (AI/ML based), Constraint-based Design, Goal-directed Design, Design Space Exploration, Design Optimization, Additive Manufacturing Focus, Research Project.Integrations
Not Applicable (research project). Concepts integrated into commercial Autodesk products (e.g., Fusion 360).Preview
Autodesk Dreamcatcher was an experimental generative design research project by Autodesk Research. It was not released as a standalone commercial product, but its concepts and technologies, based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), significantly influenced the development of generative design tools in Autodesk products like Fusion 360. Project Dreamcatcher was actively developed and publicized in the mid-2010s. Its primary goal was to explore the possibilities of computational design, where a computer, using goals and constraints specified by an engineer or designer (e.g., weight, strength, material, manufacturing method), automatically generates numerous production-ready design options. The AI algorithms in Dreamcatcher allowed for rapid exploration of a vast design space, proposing sometimes non-obvious but highly optimized shapes, ideally suited for additive manufacturing (3D printing). The project was showcased at conferences, and research papers and videos were published on the Autodesk Research channel. As a research project, Dreamcatcher did not have a commercial pricing model or traditional software integrations (apart from possibly data import/export). It played a key role in popularizing and practically implementing the concept of generative design.