Issue #5: 23 June, 1995.

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How to Gain R12-Equivalent Performance in R13

Now we understand why Autodesk marketing called Release 13 "the most powerful AutoCAD ever." At the time of the product's introduction last November, we in the press chided Autodesk for the wording of the slogan, since _every_ new version of AutoCAD is presumably "the most powerful ever."

With the recent mailing by the AutoCAD Product Manager (and Autodesk national marketing managers in the colonies) we now know the hidden meaning behind the slogan: With R13, you'll need the most powerful computer ever, as explainded by the "Here are the Answers to Your Questions about AutoCAD Release 13" brochure:

Q: "4. When I upgrade to Release 13, will I have to buy new hardware?"
A: "Not necessarily. Consider the following: The required system to run Release 13 is a fairly standard configuration for common graphics applications."

Really? You be the judge of Autodesk's opinion of a "fairly standard" configuration: "The hardware recommendation for Release 13 on a PC are [it's not stated if this is for DOS or Windows]:

Gee, how many design offices do you know with a 16MB 66MHz 486 on every desk? Last survey I read found that an 8MB 386 is the most common corporate computer. Let's read on...

"A Release 12 user, using a 66MHz 486 with 16MB RAM, can gain equivalent performance -- as well as all the new features of Release 13 -- by getting an additional 4MB RAM and a chip doubler, for around $400."

Ignore the fact that a 66MHz 486 is already clock-doubled (and that Intel has no doubler-doubler replacement CPU for it). Ignore the fact that a 16MB 66MHz 486 is not the norm.

Even ignoring those two facts, Autodesk states the true cost of upgrading is at least $400 more than.. what? The US$695 upgrade price for Release 13 is mysteriously missing from the six-page mailing.

There are a couple of other things in the brochure that made us chuckle. Like "Results of a recent real-world drawing test showed Release 13 for Windows completion time to be 22% faster than the same test using Release 12 for DOS." Now there's a mixing of apples and oranges: R12 DOS vs R13 Windows. I wonder what the results would be when compared between R12 Windows and R13 Windows?

A/E/C Systems '95 Attendance Way Down

We had questioned the A/E/C System's promotional mailings that predicted 30,000 attendees to the '95 show in Atlanta GA USA. Afterall, as David Cohn pointed out in his Cadalyst editorial, Autodesk University was in Atlanta the previous October -- it's not likely AutoCAD users would want to endure the horrors of the Atlanta airport twice in seven months.

The official attendence figures for A/E/C Systems '95 are now out and they are lower: 20,435. That's down:

As CAD++ Newsletter pointed out last October, A/E/C System's attendence has shown a downward trend for the last seven years. Next year, the show goes to Anaheim, so we suppose that we'll be hearing about that 30,000 figure again in pre-show marketing.

Autodesk Germany Meets with Author

We have an update on the last issue of Upfront, where we reprinted in full the (translated) letter Deitmar Rudolph received from Autodesk Germany. The letter, from Bettina Mueller (Press Relations) and Robert Gatz (Director of Marketing), ended with this ultimatum: "Partners in our Virtual Corporation need to see and follow the company's interests.

"Due to these reasons it is not possible to send you an English-language review copies of our products. Also, we request that you return all evaluation copies of our software ever sent to you for your work on books or software reviews by one month from now."

AutoCAD authors on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean mounted a massive email publicity campaign, resulting in a meeting between Autodesk Germany and Dietmar at this week's CAD Open.

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