www.upfrontezine.com
Texans Shoot Up the Web
I suppose it had to happen, eventually. The Houston and Dallas/Ft.
Worth chapters of the Associated General Contractors of America
hosted two product evaluation "shootouts" for AEC project
collaboration and management Web sites. The scenario at http://www.agchouston.org/shootout/pdf/gcpres.pdf
required that 100 or so attendees evaluate the following aspects:
1. Add project contacts
2. Update project contacts
3. Request-for-information process
4. Follow-up to the RFI process
5. Change proposal/order process
6. Pay application preparation
7. Ease of Use
8. Functionality
9. Value vs. cost of the product
10. Reliability
The Overall result had Constructware winning by a sliver:
5. Cephren 3.15 (Worst)
4. Buzzsaw 3.17
3. Primavera 3.31
2. Meridian 3.75
1. Constructware 3.79 (Best)
The results at http://www.agchouston.org/shootout/results.htm are, however, further divided into many sub-categories: Dallas, Houston, Owner, Architect, General Contractor, Subcontractor, and Other. This allows vendors to manipulate the results to their liking. As an example, the Constructware press release listed Buzzsaw in 5th place, even though that placing belonged to Cephren. Having multiple winners ensures also that every vendor can claim to have "won" in at least one category. Buzzsaw, for example, was #1 among Owners. Bidcom was the only vendor to turn down the invitation from AGCA.
Contractors
Are Doubtful
Many of the new Web-oriented sites we saw at the AEC Systems
show last June were oriented to contractors -- so much so, that
we wondered if the A and E should be dropped from "AEC."
Two recent articles indicate that contractors are skeptical about
embracing [oewww, I hate that term!] Web project portals.
The current issue of Engineering News Record notes that
"an August survey of Associated Builders and Contractors
members shows that roughly half of its contractors are using some
type of software to aid in project management, with 25% of general
contractors using online collaboration. That number drops to just
10% for subs, with only 15% of respondents able to name a single
dot-com serving the industry."
ENR interviewed some contractors who have started using the Web
for project management. They report that: (1) they were indeed
saving money; and (2) the software is rough, like the early days
of CAD. More at http://www.enr.com/new/coverstry.asp
Construction Business Computing reports that "general
contractors feel no need for online commerce" because "in
their experience, their subcontractors do most of the buying."
http://www.cbczine.com
eCADLite
Review, plus Comments from Graphstore
Excerpt from a review of eCADLite by
Martyn Day:
"Utilizing the DGN format that's already in the
public domain and licensing technology from a file format specialist
developer, GraphStore has taken a competent viewing tool and given
it a suite of useful editing and entity creation features, with
the ability to save back to the original file.
"eCADLite looks and acts like a Windows product -- tear off
toolbars and all the icons that you are familiar with. In practice,
it opened every 2D DGN I threw at it quickly and then allowed
me to manipulate the data or add new entities through a limited
choice of types (all the basic ones were there -- line, arc, circle
etc.), using basic snaps, grids.
"It has its own file format, called AXP, which is a sort
of project file format, allowing the user to add/create multiple
'sheets' (read drawings), to which there is no limit. To keep
in the vein of things, the AXP file format is published in the
public domain (read: 'don't call us hypocrites').
"eCADLite doesn't just look at DGN, it supports AutoCAD DWG,
DXF, as well as MicroStation Cell libraries. This budget solution
can even display raster reference files: JPEG, BMP, and TIFF."
Graphistore's David Blain made the following comments about the philosophy behind his eCADLite product:
"eCADLite is intended to be a simple-to-use 2D application
primarily for casual users who need to view, redline, and edit
DGN data. The emphasis is on:
1. Simple to use.
2. 2D.
3. DGN data.
'Simple to use' means an Office look and feel familiar these days
to most computer users. As for 2D, we do not have any hard and
fast statistics, but we are aware that there is a large proportion
of users who use only 2D. If they are a Bentley user, however,
they have to purchase 3D functionality whether they like it or
not. Bentley, as a policy, has taken the DGN format out of the
public domain to the detriment of its users.
"You asked whether we can be successful when other so-called
clones have failed. We have deliberately set our cost base at
a low level. We will not be selling eCADLite through dealers,
but selling it direct via our Web site. The application is only
15MB, although we will also send out CDs. Modern marketing vehicles,
such as your newsletter and the Web, allow us to market the product
very cost effectively. The AutoCAD clones you discussed are competing
also with [low cost] LT. Of course most users would purchase LT
rather than a non-AutoCAD clone.
"As with most CAD vendors, Bentley have been adding more
functionality to their products. For example, if you purchase
MicroStation now, you get with it an engineering configuration
of your choice (Triforma, Geographics, etc.). Cynically, you can
say this is how Bentley has maintained the price of MicroStation
(£4,000+ in the UK). In our experience, 70-80% of users
do not want these engineering configurations, because they either
do not suit their business or do not have the users capable of
taking advantage of the software or both.
"Bentley has offered Powerdraft as a lower cost alternative.
But this is still £1,500+ in the UK. They have developed
specialist drafting tools, such as Accudraw and Smartline, which
are very good. The problem with these tools is that a significant
number of users do not or cannot use them.
"Bentley has deliberately modified the DGN file format, and
made it proprietary. This has all but killed what was an active
third-party developer program, and hence there is a shortage of
specialist applications. Integration with other systems is extremely
difficult. For example, many MicroStation clients have adopted
Documentum as their corporate information management system; Bentley
was unprepared to cooperate since they saw Documentum as competition
to their own offering.
"In our view, Bentley have abandoned a large proportion of
their users by concentrating their efforts on higher end applications,
and making their file formats closed. eCADLite is intended to
fill this vacuum."
Below
the Radar
A summary of press releases you may
not have read elsewhere:
Autodesk has beaten Microsoft at releasing its diagramming software as an ASP product. Actrix Technical 2000 is available to registered users at http://pointa02.autodesk.com/portal/nav/index.htm for 30 days free use until 15 November.
Autodesk intends to deliver future releases of AutoCAD as "Extensions" at a rate of roughly one per quarter. These extensions will be available for vertical products, but not AutoCAD LT.
Solid Edge v9 is due in October and includes new capabilities to assist in machinery and large assembly design, Web publishing tools, an engineering handbook, and new utilities to assist in the migration from 2D design techniques to 3D solid modeling. Solid Edge will support platforms based on the new Itanium processor when [and if] the CPU becomes available. http://www.solid-edge.com
Upperspace says that its DesignCAD 3000 products are among the first certified to run on Windows ME. http://www.designcad.com
For readers who want the CAD headlines delivered to their desktop on a daily basis, 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
People
on the Move
Yoav Etiel is now executive vp of worldwide marketing
at Bricsnet. Mr Etiel was previously senior vp of marketing
at Bentley Systems, and prior to that was marketing Cadvance for
ISICAD.
Computer
News Summaries
Radiata Communications has a two-chip wireless engine
based on the IEEE 802.11a wireless spec that transmits data at
a speed of 54 megabits/sec. Current wireless networks transmit
data between 1 and 11 Kbit/sec. - PC World
Lucent Technologies has announced a new modem chipset
the size of a thumbtack meant for use in PDAs. - PDAgeek
Microsoft is warning that disk corruption can occur at
shutdown on Windows 98 and ME systems running 933MHz
or faster CPUs and ATA100 hard disk drives with large physical
caches. These very fast systems sometimes power down before the
contents of the large drive cache have been completely written
to disk. - PC World
Market
News
Revit Technology has secured US$24 million in third-round
funding; Revit will be available in the UK at £165 per subscription.
Letters
to the Editor
Re: iDrop Not in AutoCAD 2000i
"It´s true that the i-Drop OCX is not installed
as part of AutoCAD 2000i. This behaviour is intended since the
i-Drop technology was not finished at the release time of AutoCAD
2000i. The i-Drop OCX is only installed as part of 3D Studio VIZ
3vx or 3D Studio VIZ 3i. Everybody, however, can download the
i-Drop OCX free of charge from http://www.autodesk.com/prods/idrop/download/idrop.cab.Installation
notes: (1) extract the CAB file using WinZip v8.0; (2) at the
Run command from the Start menu, execute the following command:
regsvr32 idrop.ocx. This applies to all AutoCAD 2000i-based applications,
such as Mechanical Desktop 5."
- Ralf Brugger, Technical Application Manager
EMEA, Autodesk AG
"The i-Drop OCX was still in development at the time of
the 2000i product launch, and was not included on the shipping
CD. It is now freely available, and I have built a Web site for
those interested in this technology: http://betaprograms.autodesk.com/idrop/index.htm
, I will be working on the Web site's content daily with examples
and instructions on how to build i-Drop sites. As the manager
in charge of i-Drop, I am available directly for questions or
comments and look forward to hearing from our customers about
this technology or our business in general."
- Eric
Stover, AutoCAD Product Manager, autodesk.com
"Thanks for a great newsletter."
- Robert Zymm
"I really appreciate your excellent e-zine. It is extremely
informative."
- Wayne Fleming
Spin
Doctor of the Moment
"...the corporate sex change also known as Microsoft's
.Net strategy."
- Media Grok
Notable
Quotable
"Generally plainspoken, few contractors appreciate
the unrelenting hype that construction industry dot-coms emit
daily through ads, press releases and marketing material, each
claiming to be the greatest."
- ENR
Contact!