#5. Autodesk (Last year's rank: #4)
#18. Bentley Systems (#22)
#29. Visio (#41)
#39. MapInfo (#40)
#47. IMSI (#57)
#48. Softdesk (#44)
#49. ViaGrafix (#69)
#65. Eagle Point Software (#61)
#99. CadNet (--)
Both Autodesk and Bentley Systems appeared on Softletter's International
Top 10 as companies with the greatest sales
outside of the USA:
#4. Autodesk -- International sales: 62%
#9. BentleySystems -- 52%
If you're wondering why Intergraph, Computervision, et
al, are missing, it's because Softletter only includes
independent, US-based corporations that generate at least 50% of their
revenues from personal computer software.
Softletter admits that it is a hard job to define "personal
computing" and it could be argued that CAD vendor shouldn't
even be on the list. For more information, contact Softletter
at 17 Main Street, Watertown MA 02172-4491 USA,
+1 (617) 924-3944; fax +1 (617) 924-7288
"In May 1997, the Company [Intergraph] received notice of the
adverse determination of an arbitration proceeding
with BSI [Bentley Systems] in which the Company had alleged that
BSI had inappropriately and without cause terminated
a contractual arrangement with the Company, and in which BSI had filed
a counterclaim against the Company seeking
significant damages as the result of the Company's alleged failure
to use best efforts to sell software support services
pursuant to terms of the contractual arrangement terminated by
BSI.
"The arbitrator's award against the Company is in the amount of
[US]$6.1 million, against which the Company will
offset approximately $5.8 million in fees otherwise owed the Company
by BSI. ... In addition, the contractual
arrangement that was the subject of this arbitration has
been terminated effective with the award, and as a
result the Company will no longer sell the related software support
services. The Company believes the cessation of
such sales will not materially affect its financial position, results
of operations, or cash flows in future
periods, although there likely will be an increase in the expense of
providing support services for certain
MicroStation customers."
Elsewhere, Intergraph notes that they had experienced a 21% decline
revenues in selling MicroStation. The complete
text is available from: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/351145/0000351145-97-000004.txt
Convergent: The sale of MicroGDS to Informatix of Japan has been finalized.
Cyco: Users of AutoManager
Classic, Professional, and Orgranizer get a US$100 discount from now until
30 Sept'97
when upgrading to AutoManager View or WorkFlow.
Daratech: To help CAD vendors
keep track the Internet, CAD/CAM, CAE: Survey, Review, and Buyer's Guide
for US$972 per year.
Focalink Communications: Web advertising rates are rising, now averaging US$40/thousand.
Intergraph: Web-savvy U.S. customers can now purchase interactive
graphics hardware and software through easy,
secure credit card transactions at Intergraph's
Web site .
Marcan: Alchemy CAD2CD software
stores AutoCAD DWG and DXF files on CD-R discs. You can retrieve the drawing
files themselves, or
any data inside, such as text, blocks, and attributes. Price is US$995
and requires Alchemy Gold, another US$2995, for multi-user access.
Netscape: The shipping version of Communicator (aka Navigator v4) is due out at end of May or early June.
Oracle: After giving up on the dream to acquire Apple Computer,
Oracle's Network Computer division will now buy a
controlling stake in Navio Communications, the co-venture firm
created by Netscape and Novell. The company will take
on the name of Network Computer Inc. Marc Andreessen says that
development of the Net appliance will expand home
computer usage to 90% of households in the USA.
PTC: Parametric Technology was rated the #4 top firm by the Boston Globe in the state of Massachusetts, USA.
Sense8: A free interactive CD-ROM is available for World Up Release
from +1 (415) 331-6318 or
http://www.senses.com/offer/
Silicon Graphics: "A new era in 3D graphics" is coming with SGI's
release of a technology roadmap for expanding its
OpenGL API. The extensions are said to help drive the graphics market
-- from PCs to supercomputers -- to a new
level in visual computing.
Step Tools:
In addition to their support for STEP, STEP Tools now supports IGES via
an IGES to STEP translation
service.
links:http://www.yoururl.com
where http://www.yoururl.com is your Web address.
"My view on the R14 PostScript font support issue is that -- while it
is clearly undesirable that this is not done yet --
I don't consider it worth delaying the release. This is the sort of
problem where I think it is justifiable to still
release the product: [PostScript font support] is irrelevant to the
majority of users and can be easily fixed after the
fact (in R14c1?) without leaving a mess. A minority of users
will have a delay before they can use R14 in full
production, but if the release had been delayed until it was fixed,
they and everybody else would have had that delay
anyway, so what's the problem?
"However, I believe it is the responsibility of Autodesk and its
dealers to point out this issue to
prospective buyers who may be affected by it. Otherwise, they can expect
a lot of irate and justifiable complaints
from those who were caught out.
"All software has bugs and other problems, and R14 is no different.
Getting it right is different from getting it
perfect. The sort of problems I consider unacceptable at launch
time (or any other time) are commonplace crashes,
data corruption issues, and badly designed features that leave behind
compatibility problems in later updates and
releases.
"An obvious example of the latter is R13's implementation of multilines.
These have to be the most
half-baked objects in AutoCAD's history, with the possible exception
of Version 2.5's pseudo-ellipses. When objects
like these are introduced, they take a long time to get fixed. When
they are fixed, it tends to introduce
compatibility problems. It took about a decade and six more releases
before real ellipses arrived. By the look of R14's
multilines (still as dumb as ever), we will probably be stuck with
these near-useless artifacts until well into the
next millennium. If -- and when -- they are fixed, we can probably
expect the fix to break things.
"The PostScript output problem isn't like that. When the
fix comes, it will be early (if enough people complain)
and transparent (if Autodesk get it right).
"The next few weeks and months will be the real test of whether R14
is production-ready or not. The new features
will get a real workout, the bug reports will start coming in, people
will start pointing out things that Autodesk and
the pre-release testers never considered, and then we'll really know
how close Autodesk came to getting it right.
Just don't expect them to get it perfect: that simply doesn't ever
happen."
One of our readers found a benefit in Intel's MMX CPUs to CAD users:
"The advent of the Intel MMX chip is the best thing since sliced
bread if you're in the market for a new
computer. I waited until the machine I wanted was just about to be
released in a 'new and improved' MMX version and saved
about US$800 by buying the regular old, run-of-the-mill non-MMX 200MHz
version. Woo-hoo!"
And a word of congratulations from Brazil:
"I've been an upFront.eZine reader since Issue #5
and have never missed an issue. Thanks for the insightful,
inspiring, interesting and HOT-from-the-oven weekly news. Happy anniversary!"
-- Luiz Cortez <lcortez@xpnet.com.br>