Zach Kron

Usually working for Autodesk can feel like being a secret agent . . . I could tell you what I’m working on, but then I’d have to kill you. But right now I’m helping build Dynamo, a visual programming language for Revit and Vasari, which is a very different creature than the proprietary software that we all know and love/hate:  it’s free!

Reader:  Free you say? No way, nothing is free.

Z:  Way.  Gratis+Libre. It’s free like beer, free like speech.

Proof:  fire up your free SharpDevelop or other development environment and go build the code yourself RIGHT NOW.  Explore the latest submissions, make your own, report bugs, all that good stuff.

Of course, you will be living on the edge, building software that is piping hot out of the oven can burn your mouth.  If you want to take a safer route, you can download the installer from here. Keep an eye on this site, as we are going to roll out a new installer presently, but you can get started with this “last stable” release.

Yes, I know, free is trendy.  All the cool kids are doing it.  But we of course have our own sinister purposes.  

  1. Staffing:  There are a few geniuses working on it full time, but we need more user feedback, testing, and feature development.
  2. Brains:  You are more interesting than us, and we want your brains.  You are also making stuff in this thing people call the “real world” and have the needed insight to create appropriate content RIGHT NOW. Therefore, we are hoping/relying/begging for your feedback
  3. RIGHT NOW:  we have noticed that people like to have new features, bug fixes, etc now, not later. Open development allows for faster delivery.
  4. Community:  we like people, we like to work with them.  We also think that a healthy community can support itself. We believe that a community that builds and can contribute into a project can create tools that are uniquely appropriate for what they need to do.

So now, reporting to you from deep inside the belly of the beast, I can tell you it is a rich and soupy broth down here.  We have some truly lovely stuff in the new code, lots more nodes, way better stability, more samples, better search and browsing, more and more.  We are sewing up a couple lingering bugs, but I wanted to let you know what was in the works.

Stay tuned!