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Issue #2340: 13 March, 2001

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Inside this Issue

• Eagle Point to Sell Itself
• Full Disclosure, Autodesk
• PlanetCAD Conference Call
• Readers Respond: Distribution vs Protection
• Below the Radar, and other regular departments

Eagle Point to Sell Itself

Eagle Point Software last week disclosed it had received an acquisition proposal from an entity formed by John Biver, a founder of Eagle Point and a director. Until October 2000, he had been vp civil engineering division of Eagle Point. Mr Biver proposes to acquire all outstanding shares not already owned by him (he currently owns 26.8%) ande plans to pay US$6.40, with two exceptions.

* Exception 1: Rodney Blum (the former president and ceo but a current director) and Dennis George (the vp of finance and cfo) would receive seven-year promissory notes. The two own 28.9% of the shares. Mr Blum had left the company in November 2000.

* Exception 2: The proposal would require Mr. Blum to purchase the operating assets of the company's Building Design and Construction, and Structural Divisions for US$1.1 million cash. The two division's net revenues were $2.3 million at the end of 2000, but had incurred net operating losses.

Mr Biver original proposal in January 2001 was to pay $4.25 per share, which was rejected by the board. He then offered $5.30, also rejected, then $5.90. The current offer of $6.40 came as a result of the conditions noted above. The purpose of the sale is to help boost the share price. The 52-week range of EGPT shares has been 2 5/8 - 7 1/8. Share prices jumped nearly 30% on the news. The "merger," as it is being called, still has to pass a number of hurdles before completion. Eagle Point was founded in 1983, and today has 40,000 customers.

There were some details of interest revealed during the call:

• PlanetCAD said its customers told them they were not ready to go business via the Web. So, after making a big fuss about its Web-based services last fall, PlanetCAD is delaying, but not abandoning, further work on its Web services for a half-year or so.
• In the meantime, PlanetCAD has converted its Web-based 3Dshare software into an enterprise version, which it plans to ship in April. They feel that companies have a great need to accurately translate 3D models.
• US$17.4 million is left over from the millions Dassault paid for Spatial; $4 million was given back to Dassault because they had loaned the money to Spatial/PlanetCAD until the sale went through.

For the year ending Dec 31, PlanetCAD had revenues US$2.1 million, but a net loss US$11.4 million. http://www.planetcad.com

"The first question that needs to be asked when considering licensing software is, 'What am I trying to prevent?' It should be obvious that however the answer to this question is addressed, difficulty is not added to the intended use of the software. But this is precisely where most licensing fails. The added difficulty is too quickly accepted as 'the cost of doing business.'
"So, what are you trying to prevent? Most likely, it is use of the software by someone who has not paid for the privilege of such use. Can this really be prevented, entirely? Probably not. Then don't make it hard for good, paying customers to use the software! My ideas run along these lines.
"The software requires communication with a license broker of some sort that is part of the customer's system(s). If the machine is not networked, or doesn't share its license with someone else, the brokering software is installed on the same machine as the software. The broker can control multiple licenses of multiple products. (So far, nothing very imaginative
here.)
"This brokering software should _not_ need to know the MAC address from the NIC in the machine. It should _not_ care if it is installed on a second machine, (because the first one crashed or roles change.) And, most importantly, it should _not_ require contacting the vendor for some 'secret codes' that only a legal user can't understand. Anyone who truly wants to defeat the security system will find a Web site or someone else who has hacked the code. If contacting the vendor is required, it is guaranteed that the system will crash requiring a rebuild after hours, and the vendor will be unavailable to assist. Downtime for the engineering department will result.
"When the customer orders additional licenses, perhaps of new products, they simply edit a file. The paperwork will arrive from the vendor someday; why wait? This file could be easily edited with something as simple as Notepad. Don't make this a difficult step. Let the user edit the file, change the number of available licenses or add a new product, and save the file. The brokering software reads the newly updated file and allows the increased use. Simple, easy, quick, done.
"Since bootleg copies really can't be prevented anyway, this allows a legal user to quickly and easily add to their system while maintaining compliance. If you want to check on them, stop by for a visit and ask to see the file. More than likely, the user will be so pleasantly surprised to get a visit from their vendor, the check won't upset them at all."
- Dave Poppe,
Valmont Industries, Inc.

"The other part of the computer world is worried about software registration requirements, while our part that has been using CAD and engineering design software has juggled hardware locks and/or passcodes for years.
"Now subscription-based applications are coming, and again we are somewhat used to this with our application maintenance policies to obtain periodic updates -- especially important to keep up with the newer design codes.
"If this shift in general/business use computer software toward mandatory registration and software subscriptions is just a ploy to make everyone upgrade at more regular intervals, then there will be a big backlash from users. But if we just want to run the application forever -- and forego any of the application's improvements with the newer versions -- let us do so. (My old 90-MHz Pentium with Windows 95 at home is still running.)"
- Wilbur C. Bragg, II
Jack Lynch & Assoc

More letters next week.

The Autodesk-Revit pr skirmish continues. Autodesk complains in a letter to 'Engineering News Record,' saying, "Although Autodesk provided extensive information to the CAD for Principals Council on Autodesk Architectural Desktop ... the Council chose to base its ranking instead on our horizontal AutoCAD application." You can read the complete letter at http://www.enr.com/new/letters31201.asp .
Revit's wounded response, "Ouch! Taking it on the chin for being the good guy," is at http://www.revit.com/foundation/oncharrette.html

Bricsnet says they have launched the first -- and only -- ASP business software product for real-time access of data "across the commercial building owner's entire portfolio of built property and design/construction projects." http://demo.buildingcenter.net

Heide Corp will incorporate HOOPS technology into its Intent Knowledge Station, software that operates like a spreadsheet for engineers. The software captures and reuses configuration, engineering, and geometry rules. Free demo CD from http://www.heidecorp.com/CD.asp
Likewise, HOOPS will be added to Cadkey 20.

ASPire3D added new features to its Internet conversion portal, including more payment options; the ability to submit rush jobs; and automated zipping and unzipping of incoming and outgoing files. http://www.2dto3dcad.com/main.cfm

Buzzsaw.com is raising its prices effective 16 March. The cheapest plan, ProjectPoint Pro-1 (limited to one project and 100MB storage space) is US$1,080 per year, while a more expensive option, ProjectPoint Pro-20 (limited to 20 projects and 1GB disk space) is US$8,640/yr. Sign up before Friday to avoid the price increase.

Normica View is software for viewing and plotting data in HP-GL/2, HP-GL, RTL, and PCL 5 formats. Normica V2000 adds editing and converting; Normica Batch automates the export process. http://www.it-base.com

ImageSuite Document Appliance is a combination of hardware and software for access to CAD files, images, and other digital documents via the Internet or intranet. http://theimaginggroup.com/appliance.html

Autodesk will be shipping a new release of AutoCAD [called 2002, perhaps?] this year, according to a report from Silicon Valley AutoCAD Power Users. SVAPU says the next "big-R" release will have the Block Attribute Manager, the recently-released CAD Standards extension, plus other features. [I would guess all previously-released Extensions would be included.] Extensions will be renamed "Modular Enhancements" [never use a one-syllable word when a six-syllable phrase will do]. Autodesk also showed a new Building System software, which includes HVAC, plumbing, and electrical tools. Inventor R5 will come out in Q3 (Aug-Oct). http://www.power.org

Bricsnet IntelliCAD 2000 v2.2 (US$199; $129/yr subscription) adds fly-over snapping, xref manager, complex linestyles [well, it's about time!], and improved performance and stability. Bricsnet Architecturals v2.1 has increased modeling and drawing calculation speed, position links between forms, nested compound blocks, and the support of links within compound blocks.

Synthesis R16 (US$6,500; upgrade $650) has new Web-based parametric drawing generation. http://www.synthesiscompany.com

Nemetschek North America is shipping VectorWorks 9 and RenderWorks 9, its photo-realistic plug-in. The CAD engine now handles a 64-bit floating-point coordinate system. http://www.nemetschek.net

Adena Schutzberg <aschutzberg@tenlinks.com> reports in her 'GIS Monitor' that: "Autodesk rolled out its latest GIS product, Autodesk Field Survey. It's built on AutoCAD OEM 2000i. The price US$1,395 is a nice step down from full AutoCAD (US$3,295). The idea is to aim this lightweight product at smaller shops and those focusing on the field data collection and verification.
"And, it supports LandXML. What other packages support LandXML? None at the moment [can you hear the sound of one hand clapping? - Ed.], but Autodesk's Land Development Desktop will soon. My Autodesk reps inform me that Carlson Software had been involved with the development of Field Survey. They suggested that Carlson would not be upgrading their Carlson Survey product further." http://www.autodesk.com/fieldsurvey

Cyco Software is offering complete integration between Autodesk Inventor and AutoManager Meridian: while working on large assemblies, only those parts being changed are retrieved from the central AutoManager database. http://www.cyco.com

Quantum's DLTtape Group last week launched its Super DLT tape drives and 110GB media, with a native transfer rate of 11 megabits per second (works out to 82MB/min). Drive is US$5,999, while cartridges are US$149. [Problem is, I can see hard drives exceeding that capacity within the year.] http://www.quantum.com

And at the other end of the storage scale, Iomega will this fall finally increase the capacity of its PocketZIP drive and discs (previously known as Clik) from a useless 40MB to a more practical 100MB. The new discs are, however, serialized with DRM (digital rights management) so that "the music industry gains the assurance that secure music is protected and that licensing options are available for copies." [Sounds like a great way to kill that product.] http://www.iomega.com/clik

Process and Power 2001 International, 10-14 June, Orlando FL USA. Details and registration at http://www.p2c2.org . Sponsored by Intergraph Process & Building Solutions' Process and Power Client Community organization. Gene Kranz, former NASA flight director, is the special guest speaker.

PlanetCAD has appointed Craig Berry as vp of sales.

Rebis UK has been established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Rebis, Inc. The company says it has an installed base of over 65,000 of its plant design and management software.

Hammon, Jensen, Wallen & Associates changed its name to HJW GeoSpatial. "We view our new name as a natural progression in the company's evolution," said ceo Mark Safran. HJW was founded Alonzo (Lonnie) Hammon, Herbert (Herb) Jensen and Arnold (Swede) Wallen.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/17372.html
The Register
"Stop the antivirus vendor hype"

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