Convergent Group announce at the end of January that it would no longer invest in software development of its GDS and MicroGDS product lines. The planned releases of GDS v5.6 and MicroGDS v5.1 later this year will be the last. Convergent Group will provide support, bug fixes, operating system and database upgrades, and system maintenance for at least three more years. More info from +1 (303) 741-8400.
Dassault Systemes, PTC, IBM, HP, Prosolvia Clarus, Silicon Graphics, and SDRC intend to define an open standard API based on the OpenGL graphics library to provide efficient rendering of CAD and analysis data. The new API is supposed to minimize the effort to develop CAD applications on Unix and Windows 95/NT. In the next 60 days, the group plans to form a committee to look at critical components of a standard API as defined by hardware and software vendors.
Jacobus Technology announced PlantSpace Integration Server, software that allows plant engineers, designers, and owner-operators to make integrated plant information available around the world using Web browsers and plug-ins on the Internet. ("Plants" means facilities like chemical and oil refineries.) Information is combined from multiple sources -- such as CAD drawings, databases, and schedules -- then made available in HTML, VRML, and PlantSpec object format. Available end of March, 1997.
The National Association of Manufacturers' NDES (National Design Engineering Show) and conference is 10 - 13 March, 1997, at McCormick Place South, Chicago IL USA. Show features CAD, CAM, and CAE. More info at http://nmw.reedexpo.com
Products are coalescing in the world of VRML:
Silicon Graphics convinced Netscape to use Cosmos, so features from Netscape's Live3D VRML plug-in will get merged in with Cosmos, the VRML browser from SGI.
Netscape is working with chipmaker S3 to implement RIO (redistributed Internet objects) in Navigator to help reduce the need to download texture maps and audio clips for VRML worlds.
Microsoft had originally tried a year ago to get the VRML community to accept its ActiveVRML as the v2 spec. When that failed, Microsoft licensed VRML technology from Dimension X. More recently, Microsoft has purchased VRML technology from InterVista, best known for their stand-alone VRML browser. Now Microsoft says they have handed all that over to the VRML Consortium.
Newfire (formerly Axial Systems) announced Heat, a 3D player and authoring tool that is based on VRML v2.0 and Java. Available now as a Netscape plug-in from http://www.newfire.com for developers.
To get another idea of where VRML (virtual reality modeling language) is headed, take a look at what Paragraph intends to deliver this year:
Components will be sold in a suite US$300 - US$500. More info at
After we reported Paragraph's claim in upFront.eZine #44 that it had sold 150,000 copies of its VSHB software, a competitor questioned that figure. Says he, "I don't see 150,000 VRML sites on the Internet, let alone 15,000."
Baystate Technology: CadKey 97 is due to ship soon with integrated solids modeling.
CGrieder: TimeSheet AC is a program to track time and create invoices in AutoCAD. There is a free demo available from Web site.
Eagle Point Software: The home page at http://www.eaglepoint.com now has working evaluation software of 2D and 3D frame analysis, pile cap design, WoodCAD, Quick Wall, and TG Post. Eagle also announced it had opened an office in the United Arab Emirates. More info at http://www.albawardi.co.ae
FastSurf: Advanced FastSOLID beta 1 is now available for running in CadKey v7.5 and CadKey 97; the final version is due to ship in three weeks.
IMSI: Announced last week that they have licensed ASIC technology for future releases of TurboCAD and perhaps other products.
Tri-Star Computer: The StarServer computer is designed for NT networks, Web hosting, and intranets. Base product (US$4.595) has dual 200MHz Pentium Pro CPUs, 64MB RAM, 4.3MB hard drive, 64-bit graphics, 12X CD-ROM, and 100Mbit ethernet. Windows NT Server operating system is a US$699 option.
Western Micro Services: Get instant delivery of scanning jobs via FTP (file transfer protocol), which is included in Netscape Navigator. To scan any size of paper drawing costs US$0.84 each plus US$0.05 per megabyte of raster file for delivery; their raster viewer, IVLite, is included free with the transfer or US$10 separately.
According to Internet Daily, xChaos Software of the Czech Republic has developed a graphical Internet browser that runs old 80x86-based machines. Arachne 1.0 requires just 640KB memory.
Ralph Grabowski enthuses: "While I wait patiently (or otherwise) for Myst 2, I have been playing Time Lapse from GTE Entertainment (I paid US$34). This four CD-ROM game is similar to Myst, except that I am learning about real places. In the game, I am following an archaeologist who thinks he has found the link between Easter Island, Egypt, the Incas, the Aztecs, and Atlantis. I time-travel to those five lands using Myst-like controls, reading the professor's journals, and solving puzzles. My kids like it, except for the horrors of the Incas, unfortunately based on reality." More info at http://www.im.gte.com
After having studied history, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe see 80-year repetitions (they call them 'saecula') in Anglo-American history since 1480. Each saecula has a four patterns (they call them 'turnings') that follow this order:
AltaVista at http://altavista.digital.com/ indexes 31 million pages found on 476,000 servers; four million articles from 14,000 Usenet news groups. Tip: To find how many pages point to a site (say, digital.com), try: link:http://digital.com
Looking for last-minute hotel rooms and airfares at reduced prices? Check out http://www.travelweb.com for bargains online.
E-mailaholic -- someone who sends and receives email messages almost every day (as defined by IDC/LINK).
WOM -- IBM's "Web object management" for managing reusable objects and dynamic content creation.
RIO -- "redistributed Internet objects"
PINE -- "Pine Is no Longer Elm", the email software based on Elm.
EULA -- Microsoft's "end user license agreement," which, for example, prevents you from running Visual Java on anything but a Microsoft operating system. Duh!
Q: "What do you know about no telephone listing in Seattle for Numera? And a returned email to both the guys I had dealings with @numera.com?"
A: "Numera Software is no more. I guess their venture capitalists lost patience with the slow sales of Visual CADD and forced Numera to sell out to Corel. Corel had earlier received a license to market Visual CADD as Corel Visual CADD, but now Corel owns the source code, too. Hence, no more @numera.com, either.
"Noel H. Browning tells me the Numera User Group's Web site is at http://www.rockisland.com/~jbark/nug with information about Corel Visual CADD, downloads of patches, utilities, tips and tricks, etc.
"The current contact I have for CAD at Corel is http://www.corel.com/products/cad/index.htm "
"Operations, such as processing invoices and ordering supplies, will be greatly streamlined now that we have no money."
-- Mikki Halpin, editor of Stim ezine, quoted in Time, 10 Feb'97.