www.upfrontezine.com
We're taking our annual summer vacation, so this is our
last issue until the first week of September. This year, the entire
staff of upFront.eZine is off to see the beautiful Banff National
Park, as well as spend time in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. As has
become tradition, this pre-vacation issue contains non-CAD topics.
I also have for you reaction to last issue's editorial on the
B2B/P2P business, as well as a survey that I hope you will take
the time to fill out.
- Ralph Grabowski
Revit
& Software Cycles
Revit called last week talk about their forthcoming version 2,
which is due out by the end of August. The purpose of the call
was to discuss the new features, but instead we got into a discussion
about software release cycles. Version 2 is being released just
over 90 days after v1 shipped, with v3 scheduled for "before
the end of the year." This schedule is more familiar to mechanical
CAD users than to architects and builders.
"Faster releases are more digestible," Revit told me,
so I asked, "How can that work, given that Autodesk has problems
getting all its users to upgrade every two years?" Indeed,
it has become policy at some firms to skip every other major upgrade.
Part of the answer, Revit believes, is in the consistency of the
user interface. Revit v2 doesn't look or work any different from
v1. One fallacy in the software industry is that users expect
new features to sport a different user interface, which bites
back by making it harder to learn the new features.
Another answer, Revit believes, is the subscription-only revenue
model that they employ, coupled with Web-based updates. The users
get the upgrade free -- or, more accurately, at no extra cost.
Speaking of cost, I asked when we would get to hear the number
of users, rather than the number of firms ("over 100")
now using Revit. I got back this answer: "We don't want to
get into a numbers game." Reminds me of Visio in the early
months of IntelliCAD.
Wonders one CAD vendor: "If, say, a Gensler, which standardized
on AutoCAD and MicroStation, takes a one-month subscription with
Revit on 1 copy, what does that mean?" Since Revit uses monthly
subscriptions, the number of users fluctuates every month. This
is different from, say, Autodesk, who can count a purchaser of
AutoCAD v1.0 some 18 years ago as one of their millions of users
-- even if the software is no longer used. On the other hand,
when a magazine such as upFront.eZine boast of the number of subscribers,
it is the current number of subscribers, not a cumulative total.
This makes it difficult for subscription-based vendors, such as
think3 and Revit, to play the numbers game.
As for new features, Revit's phone call emphasized just two out
of 100: cost estimating early in the project (already shown to
me at the AEC Systems show) and parametric detailing. A PDF file
describing what's new in v2 can be downloaded from http://www.revit.com/cornerstone/index.html
Reader
Survey
I've haven't done this in a long time, and since it'll
be three weeks until the next issue of upFront.eZine, you have
lots of time to reply to this short survey. I'll summarize the
results, and present them in a future issue. Thanks!
Q1: How many other people read your copy of upFront.eZine?
Q2: Which other CAD ezines you to subscribe to?
Q3: What do you like best about upFront.eZine?
Q4: What irritates you the most about upFront.eZine?
Q5: Have you ever responded to an ad in upFront.eZine?
Q6: Which CAD package do you use the most?
Q7: What do you consider the primary issue facing CAD users?
Q8: Please describe your position in the CAD world, in a couple of words.
Q9: What would you like to see added to (or removed from) upFront.eZine?
Q10: Any other comments?
Please email your response to ralphg@xyzpress.com by 1 September, 2000.
Ralph's
No-CAD Summer Reading List
Most of my time is spent reading and writing about computers
and CAD, so I spend some portions of my free time reading about
non-CAD subjects. I find non-fiction more interesting than fiction,
and here is the list of some of the books I have stacked up to
read over the summer, and beyond. As well, I include a book review
by Howard Cohen, a long-time upFront.eZine reader.
"The
Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain
World."
Robert Shwartz describes a method used by Shell Oil and other
successful corporations to plan for the future by guessing three
possible outcomes: (1) things will only improve [this is, unfortunately,
the only possible outcome most corporations plan for]; (2) things
will get worse in our industry; and (3) things will change in
ways we cannot forecast.
Currency Doubleday: 272pp; US$15.95. For more info or to purchase
online from Amazon.com
"The
Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War"
Robert Kaplan is a journalist who casts a dour eye on the future
of democracy. He says that a democracy works only in countries
with a thriving middle class that pays its taxes. In all other
countries, we should not be trying to force democracy -- Russia,
Ivory Coast, Yugoslavia, etc -- because it leads to the horrors
we currently witness on tv. He also condems the new "holocaust"
mentality in American foreign policy, and proposes a vision for
the future of the United Nations.
Random House: 198pp; US$21.95. For more info or to purchase
online from Amazon.com
"Darwin's
Leap of Faith: Exposing the False Religion of Evolution"
I've been reading a number of books over the last couple of years
that deal with the problem of reconciling science and religion.
In brief, "Science is Fact; religion is Faith," and
there ends the discussion. But increasingly, scientists and theologians
are beginning to approach each other across the divide. There
is an increasing awareness that much of science is based on faith
(a.k.a. theories) and that much of religion, such as Christianity,
is based on fact (a.k.a. archaeology). Of the ones I've been reading,
this is a more lightweight treatment by John Ankerberg and John
Weldon. They place they emphasis on how evolution has become the
religion of today's society, instead of remaining a theory within
science.
Harvest House Publishers: 392pp; US$11.99. For more info or
to purchase online from Amazon.com
"Dragonfly
Beetle Butterly Bee"
I love lavishly illustrated books, and this is another in my
collection. Maryjo Kock handlettered and illustrated this entire,
large book. It is a joy to the eye, as well as a reference book
on insects. She has written similar titles on "Pond Lake
River Sea" and "Seed Leaf Flower Fruit."
Collins Publishers; US$14.98. For more info or to purchase
online from Amazon.com
Book Review by Howard Cohen: "The
First Conglomerate: 145 Years of the Singer Sewing Machine Company"
by Don Bissell
In the way of background, I note the following. Don is a personal
friend whom I met during my days as director of The Boston Computer
Society's CAD Special Interest Group. He spent years working as
an engineering supervisor (mostly CAD related) at the Portsmouth
Navy Shipyard (hated Intergraph, loved AutoCAD). His first love
is writing, and has done so extensively in trade and technical
magazines. This work was the fulfillment of his personal ambition
to become a recognized writer outside of the world of technology.
The book is extremely well written, and recounts the history
of a segment of American industry that is really unique. I wouldn't
suggest that "you can't put it down, etc." but it does
made good summer fare. Singer and his partner were marketing geniuses,
pioneering real mass marketing -- "a dollar down, a dollar
a week," a machine in every home, simple to operate, easy
to fix. They created the ever popular Singer Sewing Centers in
every town's business district, with the young woman sitting at
her Singer in the store window, busy sewing.
Audenreed Press: 250pp; US$19.95. For more info or to purchase
online from Amazon.com
Reaction
to CAD-Napster Concept
Readers reacted to my worries about B2B sites for CAD
users, and the possibility of applying P2P (peer to peer) technology
to CAD files. Letters have been edited for clarity and brevity:
"Nice one Ralph. I do believe the issue of insurance for
sites storing precious videos, snapshots or, help us, critical
documents like DWG files has not been fully discussed or appreciated.
"However, I'm not going for the Napster approach. The whole
beauty of the extranet idea is that the information is out there.
I want to be able to travel all over the world with nothing but
a simple PDA, and someday nothing at all. Every hotel, airline
club, waiting room, and bar will have access terminals where I
can get to my work, do it, and leave it there. Safe, I hope, and
centralized."
- Kathleen Maher, Jon Peddie Associates
"Keeping things local seems like a good idea, so that
we can have access to the most recent files without having to
copy them to/from a server somewhere. The more critical links
in a data transfer, the more opportunity for a broken chain. Shorter
chains are automatically more reliable.
"Since most projects have a prime consultant, that would
be the place to keep the files. And since we need a dedicated
connection to get the fast loads, that issue takes care of itself.
Sounds like the P2P concept is an easy choice. It will probably
be part of the OS in a year or two."
- John Brunt
"The inertia of moving from one service to another is
more pervasive than you state for several reasons:
"1. Importance of single signon: some services actually
consist of hundreds of separate sites, each with its own set of
userids and passwords administered by each site owner. For consultants,
contractors and owners with many projects this can quickly become
a nightmare. Other services, on the other hand, have a single
unified user directory model (like AOL).
"2. Four degrees of separation: That's probably the right
number separating any two companies in the AEC industry worldwide.
What that means is that all participants will learn to shun sites
that serve narrow needs (architectural collaboration vs. construction
collaboration) because they can't stand learning and remembering
passwords for, and retransferring data to, umpteen different sites
selected by their owners, AEs, or contractors on multiple projects.
"You can't just be concerned with the processes connecting
you to others; you also have to accommodate the processes between
all those other team members that don't involve you.
"3. Usability: Browsers are easy to use (for passive browsing)
but all the sites have very different ways of handling workflow,
doc mgt etc. How many browser-based email clients can you manage
without going bananas? And email is much simpler.
"P2P has amazing potential (after all, that's what email
is) but is not applicable (yet) to Web collaboration for several
reasons:
"1. The corporate security implications are horrendous.
"2. The challenge of managing user access rights are horrendous
for both the data provider and the external user. We're talking
about highly confidential info here, not pirated CDs.
"3. The point of these systems is to reduce the unmanageable
proliferation of COPIES of documents (as email and FTP does);
and to replace that with a site where each participant puts (and
maintains) ONE copy of his work for access by any other team member
he designates. Napster is all about multiplying copies of completely
static data.
"4. Internet standards for workflow and doc management do
not exist.
"Finally, convergence to defacto standards, like Windows,
AutoCAD, and English, does not require collusion by competitors.
Customers learn that in certain areas they must demand it, and
they get it through their own uncoordinated choices. "
- Barry Milliken, Cephren
"Great minds think alike. I wrote the same editorial for
this month's CBC re: Napster -- not yet in print, so I know you
couldn't have seen it."
- Joe Stoddard, Construction Business Computing
"Uh, Ralph - Mr. Disney passed away several years ago."
- Ken Elliott
Computer
News Summaries
K Desktop Environment is one of the user interfaces
available for Linux. This article describes what's new in KDE
v2: http://www.kde.org/announcements/k3b-announce.html
And speaking of Linux, IBM has introduced a prototype watch-sized device that runs Linux, to prove the operating system can be scaled down. http://www.mercurycenter.com/cgi-bin/edtools/printpage/printpage.pl
I have no interest in game boxes, but Xbox365.com has uploaded the spec for Microsoft's future Xbox, which makes for interesting reading. For example, the Xbox runs a version of Windows 2000 that boots in one second and uses no DLLs. http://www.xbox365.com/stories/xdkcomplete.shtml
Palm is shipping its new M100. Press release at http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000807/ca_palm_sc.html and a review at http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2612023-54,00.html
CAD News Headlines from www.TenLinks.Com
-- August 1 --
Immersion
to Acquire 3D Haptic Leader Virtual Technologies
Nemetschek
North America Plans to Support Mac OS X
Contract
Cancellation Mars Evans & Sutherland's Q2
Eagle
Point Introduces New Construction Software
-- August 2 --
GEOMATE
Launches CAD-Free Behavior-Modeling Software
Cimmetry
Includes 2D & 3D SolidWorks Support in AutoVue
Oce, Intergraph
Team on Oce 9600 Printer Driver Pack
Engineous
Software Launches iSIGHT 5.5
Lush
Tropical Plant Images Available for CAD Visualization
Intergraph
Government Solutions Offers Deals at E-Store
-- August 3 --
ANSYS
Launches DesignSpace for Autodesk Inventor
New
Release of Autodesk Map 5 Delivers Easy Access
CADCAM-E.COM
Puts CATIA Translator in SolidWorks
ChiefSymbols
Introduces Viking Line of Kitchen Appliances
Global
Geomatics Geodata Products Now on Red Hat Linux
-- August 4 --
Soligen
Leads Breakthrough in Auto Cylinder Head Design
SpinCircuit
Launches XML Symbols Mapped to Database
Spatial
Inc. Reports Unimpressive Q2 Results
-- August 7 --
PTC
Announces CADDS 5i Release 11
Framework
Tackles Schedule Problem with ActiveProject
Eagle
Point Issues Irrigation Design Computer Training
Eagle
Point Offers Civil Design Computer-Based Training
Alias|Wavefront
Brings Studio|Tools to HP-UX Platform
New
Altris Software Certified for Windows 2000
SDRC
Strengthens Management with Executive Promotion
SDRC
Appoints PRI CEO to BOD
CAD
Repair Helps Solve Interoperability Problem
Spin
Doctor of the Moment
"Tip: Switching to a PC-based accounting system can save
dozens of manhours each week."
- www.biztalk.com
Notable
Quotable
"The record companies have kind of blown it. They've completely
lost the ability to train music listeners into the kind of online
consumption patterns that would be beneficial to them."
- Malcom Maclachlan, International Data Corp
Contact!