www.upfrontezine.com
Inside this Issue
Aussie Distributor Quits ITC
Moments after I shipped out last week's upFront.eZine,
I received a press release from Struc
Plus stating they had resigned from the IntelliCAD Technology
Consortium, and would no longer distribute or support IntelliCAD
in Australia and New Zealand. It seems the company was getting
too much competition from the free versions of IntelliCAD 2000;
they couldn't make money from it anymore. Struc Plus says they
will, however, continue to develop their structural design plug-in
for IntelliCAD 2000, AutoCAD, and AutoCAD LT.
In related news, the IntelliCAD
Technology Consortium announced that solid modelling and xref
clipping will be added to next release.
Below
the Radar
A summary of press releases you may not have read elsewhere:
Autodesk is expected to increase the wholesale price of AutoCAD by 10% on 1 February. - The McNeel News [That would be an increase of roughly $250.]
The Pro/ENGINEER collection of engineering software can be rented via short-term licenses that last 30 or 120 days. The rental includes technical support via PTC's Silver Maintenance Plan. Pricing starts at US$874 for a 30-day license of Pro/ENGINEER Foundation. https://www.ptc.com/estore/catalog/catalog.jsp [$874 for 30 days? PTC must be dreaming!]
Microsoft's new Visual Studio for Applications (VSA) is the ".Net" version of VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) programming environment. [Expect CAD vendors to follow in lockstep by adding VSA to their next release.]
Mechanical Power Tools 4.0 (US$495) is shipping. The software is a 2D parametric design application for AutoCAD 2000.
SolidWorks 2001 (US$3,995) is now shipping.
IronCAD v4 (US$4,995) is now shipping.
Eagle Point Software's ColorFast (US$495) creates artistic renderings of CAD designs by applying colors, borders, shading, and display order options.
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.
New
Newsletters/Webzines
'OCG News' - The Open GIS Consortium is starting its own
newsletter to keep members and interested parties up to date.
Adena Schutzberg is the editor. Subscribe by clicking the link
at the bottom of http://www.opengis.org
Computer
News Summaries
Intel has stated it will offer a 2GHz Pentium III
chip in the third quarter of this year. - ZDNet News
Boston City Campus of South Africa approached the anti-piracy
BSA 18 months ago because the college was concerned about
the proliferation of software among students. "We asked for
advice on how to curb this," says director Ari Katz.
Instead, last week the BSA imposed a fine of US$500,000 [R4 million]
without visiting the campus. "The owner of the [computers]
is responsible for the software installed on them. We haven't
been on the premises, and they might now have licensed software,
but that doesn't change the previous non-compliance," claims
BSA chairman Mark Reynolds.
The day following the charge, consultants gave the college a clean
bill of health. "The BSA is welcome to come and inspect our
premises," replies Mr Katz, who plans to challenge the cash
grab. - www.itweb.co.za
"The more that companies are required to pay the cost of being fully licensed (not to mention the cost of the associated self-auditing), the more they'll take a closer look at Linux and free software alternatives." - Evan Leibovitch, ZDNet
PC makers may be lining up to offer bad news, but handheld manufacturers like Palm and Handspring can't seem to boost production fast enough. And those in the industry say the growth in sales of PDAs (personal digital assistants) will continue for the foreseeable future, fueled by the devices' relative cheapness, their increasing functionality, and the advent of the wireless Internet. - CNET
Pentaguard last week performed the largest mass defacement of military and government Web sites. All sites were running Windows NT and Microsoft's IIS Web server software.
Market
News
PTC had revenues of US$234.9 million for the 1Q ending Dec 30,
down from US$239.0 million for the same period last year. PTC
is calling itself "the product development company."
Tools4CAM LLC has separated itself from former parent C-Solutions.
Hewlett-Packard renewed its contract for CoCreate's collection
of mechanical engineering product design software: SolidDesigner,
ME10, and OneSpace. CoCreate was formed in 1984 as a division
of HP, then was spun off as a separate company a few years ago.
Intel is buying Xircom for US$748 million cash; Xircom makes PC
Card products.
The
WorthWhile Web
http://www.mvps.org/vb/index.html?rants/dotnot.htm
VB.Not
Lists all the incompatibilities between VB v6 and its replacement,
VB.Net.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/16223.html
"The merest of twiddles, and off scamper the happy hackers
again."
How to get around the copy protection in Whistler and Office 10
betas.
http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/primevalC.html
"Very Early C Compilers and Language"
The history and source code of the original C compiler:
/* C compiler Copyright 1972 Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.
*/
Letters
to the Editor
"In response to P. Solis, upFront.eZine can be put on your
Palm if you sync your email to your Palm. It actually looks quite
good."
- Brian Grishaber
"I realize you must get a lot of email, but I was hoping
for a little more info. I am seriously considering the Seiko SmartPad
for my new Visor."
- Casey Swain
The editor replies: "These are the flaws I found:
* Seiko provides two large Velcro strips. Who wants to go around
with a Palm that has fuzzy Velcro on its back?
* One of the Velcro strips must be positioned over the battery
compartment, sealing it shut.
* The SmartPad doesn't do handwriting recognition.
* Detailed drawings are very slow to display when zooming in (to
be expected, I guess with the Palm's relatively slow CPU).
* It doesn't work with any Palm software, except for the version
of Address, To Do, Schedule, and Memo modified by Seiko.
If you get the SmartPad, let me know if you find any use for the
it!"
"In reference to the comments about 'Magazine Awards'
and 'Agressive Press Releases' -- reminds me of the 'blue sky'
and 'smoke-screen' CAD demos at early AutoFact shows.
"Really enjoy your newsletter, your comments, and telling
the truth about the way things are, and not as some of the CAD
companies would have us believe they are."
- Ken Dellenbach
"Copies of Architectural Desktop 2i and 3 (and possibly
AutoCAD 2000i, I haven't checked) have a Render subfolder when
installed, which appears to contain a copy of 3D Studio Viz. When
I attempt to run 3dzviz.exe, it fails with missing files messages.
I wonder why it's there! Could we be seeing Viz integrated into
the next AutoCAD? AutoCAD render has been due for a re-write since
the days of R13 and AutoVision."
- Tim Bates, Excitech Computers
The editor replies: "Yup. AutoCAD 2000i has that Render folder containing 3dsviz.exe and other files."
"Do you know if there's any way to hook up your Palm to
the wireless network you've created?"
- Michael Shook
The editor replies: "I think not, unless there is a way to connect via the Palm's infrared port. 3Com/Palm has an ethernet HotSync terminal, but it is wired."
"I was reading in your latest newsletter that you also
get a digital camera newsletter. Could you pass on the link for
that?"
- Steve Cherry, Mid-Atlantic Business Communications
The editor replies: "Sure. The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter is a free publication. To subscribe, send an email to join-irnews@lists.sparklist.com "
"I'm a diehard AutoCAD user, but I am really disappointed
in MicroStation v8. Nothing ground shaking in that release. MicroStation
is becoming more and more like an AutoCAD clone. Truly disappointing."
- David Lewis
The editor replies: "I think that's the point."
"[MicroStation v8] beta's not out yet. Any day now.
"In general, the 3COM system works great. I've installed
a number of them for my clients. There's nothing cooler than using
your untethered laptop anywhere in the office. We were, however,
having some weird intermittent problems. Turns out it was due
to the 2.4Ghz portable phones, which just happen to be on the
same band that wireless LANs operate on."
- Charlie Haber, The Haber Group
"Enjoyed and depended on your e-zine for quite some time
to stay on top of CAD news."
- Jan Vegt
"The information you provide is valuable and very interesting.
Thank you."
- Aaron Kelly, SolidWorks Corp
"I don't want to miss a single issue from you."
- Ed Goldberg
Spin
Doctor of the Moment
"Whistler will be significant because it will bring consumers
the rock-solid reliability of today's Windows 2000 operating system
that businesses are using, and it will provide a number of new
advancements."
- MS Consumer Division Veep Rick Belluzzo, vp Microsoft Consumer
Division. Comments The Register: "So there we have it:
'rock-solid reliability,' which 9x users clearly haven't been
getting, is going to be the 'need' pitch... Some of the more cynical
among us might go so far as to imagine that [users] deserve a
free Whistler upgrade as compensation for having put up with 9x
for several years, and maybe even an apology for taking so long
to develop it."
Notable
Quotable
"I'd put the Linux phenomenon really as threat No. 1."
- Steve Ballmer says both Unix and Linux threaten Windows'
stronghold in the marketplace, but that the latter is the bigger
headache. - CRN
Contact!