Issue #58: 6 May, 1997

Our Second Anniversay!

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    • A Summary Rebuttal to 
    "CAD Compatibility: An Independent Report Card"

    Autodesk last month released a white paper entitled, "CAD Compatibility: An Independent Report Card." It appears to 
    show that of six under-$500 CAD products tested, only AutoCAD LT Release 2 and LT for Windows 95 are 100% round-
    trip compatible with AutoCAD's DWG file format. The study included these four competing products: Corel Visual CADD 
    v2.0, IMSI TurboCAD 2D v3.0, Intergraph Imagineer Technical v1.0, and Visio Technical v4.1. 

     The study's thesis is: "Can CAD professionals be confident that the files they deliver and exchange are 
    identical?" We agree this is a question of crucial importance. For the last six years, in our seminars, books, 
    tutorials, and papers, we have been telling CAD managers that the best solution to drawing exchange problems is to 
    use the same CAD system your client uses -- whether AutoCAD, MicroStation, or whatever.

     The conclusion of the study is, "The AutoCAD LT line of  products is the only one in this group [of low-cost CAD 
    products] that can truthfully make the claim [to read and write AutoCAD DWG files] because the products rely on the 
    same native DWG format as AutoCAD itself." The study found that "text data was the only area of disagreement" between 
    LT R2 and LT R3.  

    We don't agree with the report's methodology. We think the study fails to find many areas of disagreement between 
    the DWG files created by three (soon to be four) versions of LT and two (soon to be three) versions of DWG created by 
    AutoCAD. 

     The study decided not to test compatibility with drawings created by AutoCAD R13 since "of the products 
    tested, only Intergraph Imagineer claimed to read AutoCAD Release 13 files but it failed...". How did the study forget 
    about the one other product that claims to read R13 DWG files: LT for Windows 95? 

     The study ignored the many problems of creating a drawing in R13 and exporting it to AutoCAD R12 or LT R2. As 
    the study itself notes, "The process of design to realization is never one-way." 

     The #1 problem, in our opinion, is that AutoCAD R12 and LT R2 cannot read a DWG file created by AutoCAD R13 and LT 
    R3 -- just like the four competitors. The drawing must be translated from within R13 (or LT R3) -- Autodesk provides 
    no stand-alone DWG translator. 

     When the R13 drawing is translated to R12, the list of problems is so lengthy that we do not have room to describe 
    them all here. It is sufficient to note that portions of the R13 DWG file are either erased or converted to simpler 
    objects -- the very uncertainty the study's conclusion warns against.

     Email ralphg@xyzpress.com for the full version of our rebuttal (all CAD vendors mentioned in the study received 
    the full rebuttal earlier). Autodesk's white paper can be downloaded from 
    http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/acadlt/wpsynop.htm

    upFront.eZine Starts Its 3rd Year

    This issue marks upFront.eZine's second anniversary and the start of our third year. The newsletter is now published in 
    English and German. It is read by 9,000 (estimated) readers in dozens of countries around the world: ae, ar, at, au, be, 
    br, ca, cr, cz, de, dk, ee, es, fr, hk, hu, id, ie, il, in, is, it, jp, kr, my, nl, no, nz, pt, ru, se, sg, sr, su, uk, us, and za (based on 
    email addresses containing a country code). 

    Where is A/E/C CAD Headed?

    "When you consider the acquisition of Softdesk by Autodesk, the announcement that Parametric Technology Corp is bringing 
    a new CAD product (Reflex) to the A/E/C market and, most recently, the acquisition of Boomerang Technology by Visio 
    Corp, one cannot help but wonder, what is the future direction of this marketplace? You might also wonder what 
    will happen to other A/E/C software developers?"

     To help answer the questions, Eagle Point Software -- which has done a fair bit of acquisition work itself -- is 
    hosting Media Day 1997 on June 2 at its headquarters in Dubuque IA USA. Eagle Point plans to show how they are using 
    DLLs, OLE, DDE, MFC, and OpenGL "to bring true solutions to the A/E/C marketplace." 

    Get Your Act Together

    In a strongly-worded editorial, the editor of Engineering Automation Report newsletter challenged software vendors to 
    stop presenting questionable claims in their marketing. Wrote Steven Weisburg, "...we do not believe any of them 
    intentionally try to deceive us. Yet..." He goes on to list examples:

    GIS Software Busts Out All Over

    At the annual IGUG (International Intergraph Graphics Users Group) conference, Intergraph announced its next generation 
    GIS product: GeoMedia v1 is now shipping. Intergraph says "GeoMedia is the first GIS to access native files from other 
    geographic information systems, including Arc/Info, without the intermediate step of translating the data." GeoMedia has 
    advanced spatial data processing via Oracle's Universal Server Spatial Data Option. GeoMedia lets users build a 
    custom interface Visual Basic, Visual C++, PowerBuilder, Delphi, Excel, FoxPro and Access. 

    At its Geoengineering Summit, Bentley Systems announced three new GIS tools -- oops, Bentley wants them called 
    "geoengineering tools": Autodesk naming their GIS software "Autodesk World" has caused the magazine of the same name to rethink its name. We 
    expect to see a new launch of what used to be Autodesk World -- the magazine -- in June.

    Top 5 Software Sales

    In 1996, the top software sellers in the category of retail sales in the USA were:
     1. Microsoft
     2. CUC International
     3. Intuit
     4. The Learning Company
     5. Symantec
    According SofTrends, consumers in the USA spent US$5 billion on retail software sales in 1996.

    Worldwide Wireless Internet by 2002

    Teledesic's "Internet in the Sky" initiative will use several hundred low Earth orbit satellites to bring Internet 
    access anywhere on Earth by the year 2002. Boeing will get paid US$9 billion to be the primary contractor. 

    CAD and Internet News Headlines

    Autodesk: This is the week Jim Quanci, Autodesk Program Manager, makes it all come together for "Design Your World 
    Live." A simulcast to 180 cities on 8 May, Autodesk will show Release 14 to potential customers. 

    Intel: Tomorrow (Wednesday) Intel introduces the Pentium II CPU, which operates up to 300MHz and incorporates Level 2 
    caching. Yesterday (Monday), however, Intel had to react to a potential bug in the Pentium II. 

    Lotus: According to Newsbytes, Lotus marketers are urging Australian computer journalists to use the headline 
    "Microsoft in Turmoil" due to the advent of network computers, signaling the end of desktop computing as we now 
    know it -- according to Lotus. 

    Visio: SysDraw Software was purchased last week by Visio for US$6.5 million. SysDraw has the world's largest library of 
    network diagramming shapes.

    Xerox: Xerox has filed suit against US Robotics over patent infringement in the PalmPilot hand-held electronic personal 
    organizer and its Graffiti software. 

    Letters to the Editor

    We had mucho reaction to the article by  Bob Elman  in upFront.eZine # 56 on whether 
    there was a danger in running CAD software on the Intel Pentium MMX chip. Here are some excerpts from the email we 
    received:

    "Let's ask ourselves -- is it likely that Intel committed an unbelievably fundamental and critical design error and 
    created a chip that is not multitaskable? Puhleeeze. The chances of this happening are zero. Zero." 
        -- Matt Richards <mattr@attach.net>

     We believe Intel is capable of dumb moves, because they have done it in the past. Their EMS memory board (remember 
    those?) was one of the few that did not follow the LIM spec. BTW, "LIM" is short for "Lotus - Intel - Microsoft." In the 
    days that we CAD users needed a separate math chip, Intel's FPU design was inferior by a speed factor of 2x to 3x, 
    allowing companies like Wytek create a niche market for themselves. -- Ed.

    "I would expect the EMMS instruction to be added to the task switch routine on newer operating systems.  Installing an 
    older version of the OS on an MMX box might not be such a good idea, since it would not be using this instruction." 
        -- Joe Biegelsen <jmb@spatial.com>

    "There was a 50 clock cycle penalty each time there was a mode switch. Is this still valid, and if so, how much does 
    this really impact the CAD user? Does a 200MHz P6 outperform a 200MHz MMX P6 when using, say, AutoCAD and Word 
    simultaneously? Curious." 
        -- Rob Guglielmetti <Rguglielmetti@fmrs.com>

     Intel has responded to the "slow" 50-cycle switch time by stating they will release Pentium MMX CPUs with a faster 
    switching time this summer. We are pushing Autodesk and the CAD magazines to take on the task of actually testing the 
    effects of MMX on multi-tasking CAD and multimedia software. -- Ed.

    "How about operations from different vendors running in the same task. Let's think about two Netscape plug-ins: a VRML 
    plug-in using FP, a graphics plug-in using MMX. Or let's think about AutoCAD (using FP) with an embedded ObjectARX 
    application using MMX. Since the ObjectARX application runs within AutoCAD's address space and task, it has to reset the 
    MMX state whenever it passes control back to AutoCAD." 
        -- Dietmar Rudolph <dietmar_rudolph@compuserve.com>

    As for the R14 wishlist, well, it's too late. Autodesk is only accepting ideas now for R15. Reader David Stein 
    <dstein@cnu.edu> has these suggestions:

    "Re #7 (SlideLib) how about a nice GUI interface to make it [more] useful?"
        "How about extending the umbrella of the DIMxxx  settings as well as the effects of DDIM over LEADER and 
    TOLERANCE objects as well? Like, wouldn't it be nice to have the Leaders update when the Dimstyle is updated? I'd like to 
    use our own 'user' blocks for leader arrowheads too.
         "Why doesn't the Select User Arrow Block section under DDIM offer a BROWSE (for block names) feature to see what 
    blocks are available in the active drawing?
         "I'd like to be able to extrude Splines and Ellipses. Heck, even be able to give Ellipses thickness would be 
    nice."

    Notable Quotable

    "If you think you'd rather live your parents' lifestyle, it is a simple choice to make. Pare down to one earner per 
    family, get rid of the second car, quit going on vacations and eating out so often, forsake the CVR, microwave oven and 
    27-inch TV, move into a 1,000-square-foot bungalow, and live the life your parents lived -- on US$21,105 a year. If you 
    are not prepared to do this, then quit complaining."
        -- Peter Shawn Taylor, Saturday Night magazine, May, 1995.

    Contact! 

    All contents copyright XYZ Publishing, Ltd. Inc., 1997 and all rights are reserved. No material may be reproduced electronically or in print without written permission from XYZ Publishing, PO Box 3053, Sumas WA, 98295-3053, unless otherwise noted.