Coming on Autodesk Labs… “Plug-in of the Month”

This is less an announcement of something we’re doing than it is a call for input (or perhaps a cry for help? ;-).

For the last 3 months, we started posting plug-ins on Autodesk Labs containing a “plug-in of the month, brought to you by the Autodesk Developer Network”. The plug-ins we’re providing will be simple productivity enhancing tools and utilities that streamline the use of one of our products.

The drivers behind this are to a) solve customer problems and b) demonstrate the benefits of investing in software customization. All the plug-ins we provide – with full source code, to show what goes on inside – will have taken a relatively small amount of time to develop (from half a day up to about a week), the idea being that nothing we deliver will be especially “out-of-reach” for someone wishing to invest in learning and using our APIs.

We already have a few plug-ins posted for M&E:

• RemovePrefix for Maya
• a Mathematical DG Node or on labs
• The MotionBuilder Shelf made by Kristine

To help drive this forward, I’d really like to hear from this blog’s readership:

• Are there annoying issues you would like to see addressed (whether in an Autodesk product or via a simple utility)?
• Do you have your own simple utility you would like you make available as a “plug-in of the month”?

Regarding the second question: we’re encouraging people outside my team to provide plug-ins through this initiative, bringing attention to their development skills (as mentioned earlier we will – as a requirement – be making the source-code available for these plug-ins). We will, of course, be giving clear credit – on the website and in the plug-in’s ReadMe – to the person who developed and provided a particular plug-in.

If you have a topic for a plug-in you’d like to see my team develop or you have your own you’d like to make available as a “plugin of the month” on Autodesk Labs, please send me an email.