
Autodesk
Autodesk is pulling 3D Gaussian Splatting into its infrastructure and AEC toolchain — ReCap, Civil 3D, InfraWorks, Revit, and Autodesk Construction Cloud — so handheld and mobile reality-capture scans flow directly into BIM and digital-twin workflows as lightweight splat-based models.
Location
San Francisco, CA
Size
14,000+ Employees
Total raised
Public (NASDAQ: ADSK)
Hiring?
Yes
Platform
Desktop applications on Windows and macOS, plus browser delivered services through Autodesk Platform Services and Autodesk Construction Cloud
GPU
Varies by product and Autodesk publishes no single figure. 3ds Max 2027.2 and Maya need a workstation GPU meeting each product's certified hardware list, Arnold GPU requires an NVIDIA GPU, and the APS Viewer runs in a WebGL2 capable browser
Pricing
Subscription per product, with free educational and student licences
License
Proprietary
Best for
Moving reality capture scans into BIM, AEC and DCC production pipelines
Updated
July 2026
Autodesk is treating Gaussian Splatting as a first-class reality capture format for AEC. Their approach combines splats with traditional photogrammetry and laser-scan point clouds, mapping splat scenes into the BIM and digital twin ecosystems alongside Bentley and Esri. The result is faster, cheaper as-built documentation: handheld captures from a job site can be turned into shareable, lightweight splat scenes without tripods or formal setup.
3ds Max 2027.2 makes Gaussian splats an editable native object type, released 22 July 2026, importing PLY, SPZ and LCC into a polymorphic Points object and exposing four modifiers, Point Select, Turn to Point, Point Instance and Array. Rendering runs through Arnold for 3ds Max 5.9.3.0. Arnold 7.5.2 had added splat rendering and relighting through the points node in June, introducing a Gaussian Splat shape node and the gaussian_splat_shader, and MtoA 5.6.2 carried that node into Maya with Viewport 2.0 display as bounding box, point cloud and a 3DGS preview. Arnold 7.5.3.0 with MtoA 5.6.3 followed on 22 July 2026, moving that preview onto the GPU under MTOA-2947 and feeding it spherical harmonic coefficient data under MTOA-2958, so view dependent color and lighting stay accurate while the camera orbits.
Recently Autodesk VRED for automotive visualization began supporting gaussian splatting.
For Autodesk's AEC customers, the near-term value of splatting lies in rapid documentation, stakeholder communication, and early-stage visualization. Combined with Trimble survey-grade LiDAR or Esri ArcGIS Reality outputs, splats slot into a hybrid pipeline rather than replacing legacy reality-capture formats.
Alternatives
Recent Headlines
Autodesk Makes 3D Gaussian Splats an Editable Native Object Type in 3ds Max 2027.2
Arnold 7.5.2 Adds 3D Gaussian Splat Rendering and Relighting via New Gaussian Splat Shader
3DGS Comes to Autodesk's APS Viewer
Autodesk VRED 2027 Adds Gaussian Splatting Support
XGRIDS Releases Gaussian Splatting Revit Plugin


