By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief
Autodesk has discontinued Autodesk Architectural Studio, a sketch-based design communication tool. The product was in its third major release.
News of the end of AAS first came in a brief note in an Autodesk message forum. Architectural Studio product manager Jim Flanigan wrote, “Autodesk has decided to discontinue the development/sale/distribution of all versions of Architectural Studio. I was the project manager for the AAS development team. We are all disappointed that this great product has come to an end. Customers can continue to use the current version of AAS as long as they like. I still use the product almost daily for many of my management tasks and plan to continue using it.”
Late today Autodesk issued the following statement:
Autodesk has decided to discontinue development and sales of Autodesk Architectural Studio software.
Product research on Architectural Studio began in 1999 as Project Nora, a forward-looking exploration of digital design tools and how they might relate to the emerging technologies of the Internet and pen-tablet computing. Developed under the codename StudioDesk, the product was commercially released in 2002 as Autodesk Architectural Studio. From its inception, Architectural Studio has always been a laboratory of new ideas, technologies, and ways of thinking about design. Many of these concepts have found their way into more recent Autodesk design tools and viewers, such as DWF Composer. With the evolution of the Autodesk product portfolio, we have found that further development of Architectural Studio as an individual product is unwarranted.
As of September 15, 2004, Architectural Studio will no longer be available for purchase from Autodesk nor for download from the Autodesk Subscription Center. Current Architectural Studio customers can continue to use the software for as long as they like.
Robin Capper, a CAD manager in New Zealand who favors Autodesk products, has written a good obituary for the product for his personal blog.
The discontinuing of AAS leaves SketchUp from @Last Software as the primary architectural sketching product in the market. SketchUp 4.0 was recently released to glowing reviews.