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Issue #216: 19 September, 2000

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* Join Over 130,000 Construction Professionals Online
* Over 12,000 Building Projects
* Over 115,468 Vendors
* Now over $20,000,000,000 in Projects Online!

Sounds impressive. Digging further into the Web site, however, not all those projects and members were -- strictly speaking -- from RedLadder. For example, while the list of vendors may well be 115,468-long, less than 10% were members of RedLadder.

Launched last November, RedLadder had received US$3 million in funding from 21st Century Internet Venture Partners, plus additional undisclosed amounts from Net2Future and a group of construction and real estate professionals. It wasn't clear to me whether RedLadder received additional funding since then.

Joining the site was free, as were a number of services. The site made its money from charging US$20/month to view projects online; posting plans at $150/project; an unspecified charge to place your corporate logo and link throughout the site; $1,299/year for a personalized Web site; and $195/month and up for a Web cam.

It's one thing to create a confident looking Web site; it's quite another to get a steady flow of paying customers. Perhaps too many RedLadder members were simply sticking their toes in the water. After all, you and I could join for free, and there is no further commitment. I asked a number of RedLadder members for their comment. Said one:

"I looked into RedLadder.com for possible projects. The Internet has already affected our business, so we are on a continuous outlook for the new advantage. I know of several companies that are trying to make headway into the collaboration of the construction industry. I'm not sure the AEC industry is ready to embrace such efforts. I am watching for progress. It will be important for me to be involved."

Worried about dot.coms you might be involved with? This week's Fortune magazine's "Dot-Com Deathwatch" counts 59 dot.coms as having gone under. The Standard has an article on how B2Bs are not making money on their 2% or 3% or 5% transaction fees.

If your business is tied to a dot.com, you may have reason to worry. A place to get the heads up on which dot.coms are in trouble is at http://www.cyberplaces.com/404.htm, which lists 10 AEC dot.coms that have gone under or have been acquired. The page lists another dozen AEC dot.coms that are rumored to be in trouble, including some of the ones that made big splashes at the AEC Systems show just last June.

Meanwhile, Bentley released more details about MicroStation v8 due out in mid-2001. Many of the new features are already available in AutoCAD, such as unlimited levels (layers), unlimited reference file attachments (xrefs), unlimited design (drawing) file and cell (block) size, unlimited undo, multi-format text (mtext), paragraphs, native TrueType fonts, text masking, display priority (draworder), and a direct connection to Viecon.com to transfer design files (Buzzsaw.com). Bentley has added per-project licensing for all its software.

The new DGN2 file format combines data types found in DGN and DWG, which theoretically allows uStn to edit MicroStation and AutoCAD drawings without that data losses that would occur with translation. In practice, I doubt that uStn v8 will be able to read DWG files with 100% accuracy.

"'The current group of third-party DGN developers' has never been a big group. Pangaea has been one of the few that have produced a native DGN editor and the market has not precisely run after them, so I don't think BSI is so concerned about this.

"Second, anybody who has developed in Microstation knows the limitations of the DGN format. The format hit its ceiling long ago. I will argue that it has been a major cause in putting MicroStation at disadvantage with AutoCAD. There is only so much you can do when you have only, for example, three bits for an element style and you want to give the user the ability to create his own style. You end up adding extensions through whatever means the format allows (User Data, Type 5 elements, etc.).

Third,(and I think a lot of people do not like to hear this) proprietary formats give the vendor the flexibility to add capabilities without concern for compatibility -- as long as they provide migration tools.

"I see a lot of members aligning themselves with the OpenDWG Alliance, but some of them have proprietary formats for their software that they have not opened."
- Felix Lopez-Phillips, Agra Baymont

"A MicroStation clone?! Good grief."
- Jason Osgood

"I don't know how well eCADLite will sell as a MicroStation clone, but some sort of cheap MicroStation interaction is needed for occasional users/viewers and production managers. Bentley tried an inexpensive solution with PowerDraft, but still priced it around US$2,000 -- not cheap by anyone's standard.

"Years ago my office used IGDS on an Intergraph turnkey system, which was very expensive for a small company. Moving to MicroStation was dramatically cheaper, but we haven't any gotten cheaper since.

"We have several clients using AutoCAD, and we translate our MicroStation files to DWG format. To help in this process, we bought a copy of AutoCAD LT 97 to use as a DWG viewer and an editor for minor adjustments. ACLT97 was much, much cheaper than its big brother but was still almost double the cost of some of the other DWG-compatible CAD packages.

"We didn't want to hurt ourselves with possible compatibility problems with a non-Autodesk product. Some companies may think the same way when considering eCADLite."
- Wilbur C. Bragg II, Jack Lynch & Assoc

"I worked for Intergraph for nine years starting in the early 80s when it was still just IGDS (Interactive Graphic Design Software). I noticed that sprinkled throughout the article you sometimes refer to it as 'IDGS', which is something I too used to do quite often! The file format was ALWAYS a DGN, even before the Bentley brothers came up with PseudoStation. Interesting article. Keep up the good work!"
- Patricia Ferrick

Think3 will launch thinkdesign 6.0 on October 30.

PalmDraft 1.0 (US$7) is an electronics drafting application that features a large 800x640 sheet size; three zoom levels; built-in analog and digital symbol library, plus the ability to define your own IC library; snap control for high precision; and BMP converter for desktop viewing and printing.

EasySite v2.0 (US$298) is a 3D site modeling and visualization program for AutoCAD that automatically turns 2D polylines into full 3D features, such as building pads, lakes, roads with curbs and sidewalks, ramps, traffic islands, etc.

Nemetschek North America announced that VectorWorks seats reached 105,000 as of August. Two vertical products will target the landscape and theater lighting industries, and will ship before the end of the year. Nemetschek intends to fully support Mac OS X: http://www.architosh.com/features/2000/2000-07intev-neme.html

Flamingo uses raytracing and radiosity technologies to create photorealistic stills and animations from inside Rhino 2.0. . Unigraphics Solutions is offering a bundle of Solid Edge and Rhino free-form surface modeling software: when you buy Solid Edge by September 29, you get Rhino at no charge.

Remember DesignCAD? Upperspace Corporation has announced the release of DesignCAD 3000 for 2D drafting and 3D modeling for under US$300. Other features include real-time rotation of 3D models; VRML export; read and write AutoCAD 2000 drawings; direct scanner support; and OLE Automation. DesignCAD 3000 Express is the 2D-only, US$100 version.

A new plug-in for ArchiCAD interfaces with Piranesi, the 3D painting software from Informatix, and can be downloaded from http://www.graphisoft.com/down/

Cad Publisher v1.8 produces high quality pre-rendered vector art from DXF files as PostScript, Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat PDF, EPS, WMF and EMF files in monochrome, color and color separations.

Cardiff Consultants has released CADsymbols Library CS01, a series of 3D model libraries in DWG format for architectural CAD. Cardiff is producing 3D models in other file formats for ArchiCAD, ArchiTECH PC, AutoCAD, DataCAD, IntelliCAD, 3D Studio VIZ, and VectorWorks.

Chorus Batch Plotting Software is a stand-alone batch-plotting engine compatible with AutoCAD 14 (US$200/site or US$25/seat).

Open CASCADE is an Open Source tool for 3D modeling for mechanical CAD/CAM/CAE, AEC, and GIS. Open CASCADE v3.0 runs on Linux Mandrake and Red Hat, Windows NT and 95, IBM/AIX, Sun Solaris, and SGI IRIX platforms.

T-FLEX Parametric Pro v7 features the new "Sketch-To-Solid" methodology: parametric or imported 2D converted to 3D; 3D from primitives using Boolean operations; and 3D assemblies from 3D components. Sketch-To-Solid has been combined with the T-FLEX parametric engine, which supports more complex parametric links and calculations than otherparametric sketcher engines in the marketplace.

For readers who want the CAD headlines delivered to their desktop on a daily basis, you can subscribe at http://www.tenlinks.com/News/subscribe.htm. And if you prefer to bookmark a live page, go to http://www.tenlinks.com/news/cad_news.htm

Topocad Systems AB is arranging a user group meeting, November 8-10 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in St. Julians on Malta. http://www.chaos.se

http://vodreal.stanford.edu/engel/08engel200.ram
Earliest known demonstration of hyperlinking, and first use of a mouse; by Douglas C Engelbart in 1968.

The editor replies: The Autodesk Web site boasts of 3D Studio's iDrop technology in AutoCAD 2000i, but I have yet to find any evidence of it.

"When Autodesk was first showing ACAD LT to its dealers, way back when, the program had AutoLISP included right up until the final release. We, as a dealer, had egg on our face because we had showed the pre-release product (with permission) to several big clients. They loved the idea of LISP being in a cheaper program and then, after taking orders for many copies of LT from those clients, Autodesk decided to pull the LISP interface from the product. We ended up losing many sales due to this."
- Glen Cameron

The editor replies: I recall that, and I still have that beta with the Acadl.Ovl file. It is ironic that Autodesk now ships Actrix 2000 free with LT 2000i -- Actrix contains VBA, whereas LT does not.

"If you don't show up at the right time to deliver, then frankly you don't have any rights anymore."
- United Pan Europe Communications ceo Mark Schneider commenting on Microsoft's failure to deliver settop tv software.

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