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Inside this Issue
MCAD Uncensored
Think3 a month ago launched http://www.mcaduncensored.com
to give its outspoken ceo Joseph Costello a forum. Yet, the Web
site is strangely quiet; I first learned of it only last week
in 'Cadalyst Newsline.' Think3 issued no press release (although
there is a link from the www.think3.com
home page), and even Google is unaware.
Mr Costello is a great opinioned talker; it's hard to get in a
word edgewise. But the first -- and only -- Joe-monologue took
place 4 Oct; the schedule for future broadcasts is blank. Is the
distraction of recent cutbacks (half of think3's US-based staff
were laid off last week) having a chilling effect?
The 4 Oct monologue dispenses opinion on the recent EDS purchase
of SDRC and UGS. Mr Costello is upset that analysts and journalists
have praised the merger. He believes the lack of critique is due
to the smaller amounts of ad dollars available, because there
are fewer large CAD vendors (he lists Dassault, PTC, and EDS).
He held up a copy of 'Cadence' magazine, which is ironic, since
Mr Costello used to head up an E-CAD company called Cadence.
In contrast, Mr Costello states the EDS/UGS/SDRC merger is ill-conceived
because it fails some his Four Rules for mergers:
Rule #1: Mergers should be strategic; both sides should
be looking for a technology they don't already have, and customers
should benefit.
Rule #2: Minimal product overlap, preferably under 10%.
Rule #3: Similar corporate culture.
Rule #4: Financially attractive for both sides.
It's great fun listening to Mr Costello. So, because mcaduncensored.com's schedule is blank, here are topics Mr Costello could consider:
- According to Mr Costello, SDRC customers should be scared
about their software's future. Should SDRC customers wonder whether
the intent behind mcaduncensored.com is to sell them ThinkDesign?
- In its press releases, think3 continues to call itself an "upstart"
company. Should a company founded 23 years ago still call itself
that?
- When Mr Costello first took the helm of Think3, he said, "We
believe we're the spark of a massive revolution about to happen
in MCAD software." Has this occurred?
Dassault Earnings Call
After enduring 20 minutes of the dismal sound quality,
I gave up listening to Dassault's earnings call. The only tidbit
to report is that Dassault sees an explosion of 3D. They feel
3D will become the presentation layer of the more complex model
during its entire lifecycle.
Total 3Q revenue increased 15% to e178.8 million, up from e155.4
million in the same quarter a year earlier. Net income, however,
was e28.3 million, down from e33.0 million the year before.
Q&A: Five Minutes with drcauto
This Q&A is with Hugh Fox, head of drcauto, Australia's
largest third-party developer, and one of the companies extending
LT for his customers.
Ever since Autodesk pulled the LISP programming language days
before shipping AutoCAD LT Release 1, smart programmers have been
adding programmability to the cheapest AutoCAD -- first in Germany,
then Australia, and later in other countries. At 1/4 the price
of AutoCAD, LT is a tempting target. Despite Autodesk's persistent
effort to prevent extensions with each new release of LT, it is
the Windows operating system itself that allows programmers to
extend LT. This is ironic, for Windows was designed to create
a software monopoly by making it more convenient for developers
to use Microsoft's programming tools and APIs than those of other
operating systems or from third parties (like Borland). Because
LT relies on universally-documented calls to the OS, clever programmers
can hook in, thereby extending LT.
Q: Where did drcauto come from?
A: drcauto commenced as an architectural practice/building
company. We bought AutoCAD for our own use in 1984, and began
development of an enhancement for in-house use. By 1987 the software
development business overtook the building business, and drcauto
began to grow a national AutoCAD dealer network. In 1996 drcauto
re-oriented to concentrate on software development, and commenced
selling its product internationally via the Internet.
Q: And "drc" is short for?
A: [Gary] D'Arcy Auto[CAD]. Say "D'Arcy" and it
sounds a bit like drc.
Q: I notice your Web site describes drcauto as "The
Global CAD Specialist." Tell me about your range of software.
A: Our traditional program is an architectural enhancement
named Smart Architect. It is written in ObjectARX; we've ported
it to work on both full AutoCAD and LT. The other product is really
a line of LT productivity tools for 3D modeling, LISP, and ARX
enablers.
Q: Autodesk keeps trying to close off access to LT. How
do you keep getting around them?
A: LT was written to work in Windows, and it uses Windows
calls to communicate between the various portions of the program.
This means that there is always a way to connect. Over time Autodesk
has tried to make this more difficult, but at the same time increased
knowledge at drcauto has actually decreased our time-to-market
for new LT products.
Q: What with record companies trying to shutdown sharing
of music, and Microsoft steamrollering pirate CDs, is what you're
doing "legal"?
A: Oour software "interoperates" with another software
program. This type of programming is covered under different local
laws. In Australia, where drcauto software is developed, the Copyright
Amendment (Computer Programs) Act covers it. They allow a software
developer to delve into another program, and even modify it for
interoperability with another separately developed program. There
are some provisos: the programming API must be not available otherwise,
and copies of the software used during development must be legally
obtained.
Q: Reminds me of an important court case four decades ago
in the USA where IBM tried to prevent plug-compatible manufacturers
from creating hardware that worked with IBM mainframe computers.
IBM lost, fortunately.
From one of your FAQs, I take it you're not fond of Autodesk's
use of Object Enablers?
A: Object technology comes at a price: non-standard objects
in AutoCAD drawings. One solution is to distribute an Object Enabler;
another solution is to provide a mechanism for saving the custom
objects as standard AutoCAD objects.
Autodesk has chosen the first method; drcauto has chosen the second
because it allows other, non-Autodesk products to access the objects.
In Smart Architect, we covert our 3D objects into polyface meshes,
which is ideal for external rendering programs. When we save our
3D drawings as 2D, we completely dumb-down the Smart Architect
entities, squashing them to simple 2D lines and blocks. The 2D
option is a one way process, the 3D option is reversible.
Below the Radar
A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read
elsewhere:
Bentley Systems last week began shipping MicroStation v8 (US$4,450), and this week announced its V8-for-$888 Open-it-UpGrade program for "AutoCAD users frustrated by an Autodesk-imposed deadline to either upgrade from AutoCAD R14 by January 2002, or pay full price for a new release later." The offer includes a one-year subscription to Bentley's Select program, and is valid until Dec 31, 2001. http://www.bentley.com/openitup [Bentley joins ArchiCAD in targeting R14 users. Who'll be next?]
English version of ArchiCAD 7.0 v2 is due for release in November.
MSC.software ceo Frank Perna says, "All evidence points to the fact that customers are postponing, not canceling, purchasing decisions."
SofTech has given up trying to sells its ExpertCAM software. A letter of intent signed last January with an unidentified third party for US$4.5 million has been torn up after it was unable to raise the funding. SofTech released Cadra v12 in September.
freeCAD is a basic 3D CAD with motion simulation capabilities, available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Unix from http://www.askoh.com
CFX announced CFX-5.5, its latest addition to its line of computational fluid dynamics software. http://www.cfx-5.com
Mechanical Dynamics is developing a landing gear module as part of its Functional Digital Aircraft series, and will be released in early 2002.
SPEC/GPC's Application Performance Characterization (SPECapc) project group has new benchmarks for systems running Unigraphics v17 and SolidEdge v10, available for a free download from http://www.specbench.org . New models include an engine assembly containing more than 400,000 vertices, and an intake manifold assembly containing more than 200,000 vertices.
Martyn Day tells me that Autodesk [ever searching for that elusive US$1 billion in revenues] may be raising the price of networked AutoCAD by 15% on 1 Nov. Reasons are: (1) it costs Autodesk more to develop the network version [but Autodesk saves on lower distribution cost]; (2) royalty cost is higher on the new license manager [some users feel the new nlm is worse than the old boss]; (3) higher support costs are "expected" [dubious, since the larger the organization, the fewer support calls/user]; and (4) 1.8 customers use each copy of networked software [floating licenses were touted as a benefit to network versions]. Autodesk pr did not respond to my request for more information.
Seminars
& Conferences
Construct Canada, Toronto ON Canada, Nov 28-30.
http://www.constructcanada.com
International Process & Power 2002 conference, May 19 - 22, 2002, in Huntsville AL USA. http://www.P2C2.org
People/Companies
on the Move
Ex-employees of CollabWare Corporation have formed Rev2,
and launched their Web site at http://www.rev2corp.com
Attempting to branch out again, Nemetschek of Germany recently founded Nemetschek UK Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Clive Flynn heads the new company.
CADCAM-E appointed Emery Szmrecsanyi as technical advisor, and will serve as a liaison with the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) and other standards organizations. Mr Szmrecsanyi was formerly with DaimlerChrysler.
Docupoint named EPCM as their Brazilian distributor for DrawingSearcher.
They're falling like flies. No insult intended, but I have
wondered about CAD-oriented ezines and Webzines from publishers
for whom CAD is not a central focus. Adena Shutzberg reports
that About.com has cut all its CAD and GIS-related reviewers.
The CAD news section of a technology Web site got axed last week.
Neither are print magazines immune. I am the part-time editor
of AutoCAD User magazine, of which the publisher put out
a combined Spring-Summer issue. The editor of another CAD magazine
tells me they are struggling. CAE magazine is going from
monthly to quarterly. When a PalmPilot magazine has more pages
than either CADalyst or Cadence, ya' gotta wonder
about the future of CAD publications.
Redo
Chad Sanderson of Spatial wrote to say that "the new Spatial
logo is part of the Dassault Systemes brand and stands for 3DS,
not 3D Spatial. All companies in the DS organization share the
same 'bug' in the logo as part of the branding of the DS enterprise.
"Yes, OpenHSF is an open initiative; yes, it can be used
on the Web; but it is specifically designed for the engineering
space and can be used between applications without ever porting
to the Web."
Computer
News Summaries
As of November 1st, Palm Technical Support will
be charging for Technical support if your Palm device is out of
warranty.
"Several Windows XP stories will be timed with the launch,
including stories in Wall Street Journal, Fortune, New York
Times, eWeek, and Associated Press." Analysts attending
the launch parties will be given a free Xbox. You can read more
about how Microsoft generates excitement over XP and Xbox at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22456.html
There'll be no Windows release in 2002, saving Microsoft US$200
million in marketing expenses. The software monopoly plans to
ship its upgrade to XP in 2003, with the mythical Blackcomb (with
integrated database and .NET) delayed until 2005. The Gartner
Group, however, "finds it difficult to believe that Microsoft
will be able to resist another revenue-enhancing hit at the consumer
market next year." - The Register
Market
News
ANSYS reported a 23% 3Q increase in revenues, from
US$16.7 million to US$20.5 million. ANSYS lost a binding arbitration
case with a former distributor, which cost the company US$2 million.
The company plans to repurchase up to one million shares.
RAND Worldwide reported a 3Q net loss of CDN$4.5 million,
compared with net earnings of CDN$3.5 million a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter was CDN$88.9 million.
Engineering.com announced 3Q revenues were CDN$2.875 million,
up from CDN$0.363 million a year earlier. The RAND spin-off company
almost made a profit, and has a cash balance of CDN$4 million.
Moldflow had 1Q revenues of US$8.2 million, down 7% from
the same quarter a year earlier. Net income was US$133,000, down
from US$534,000 a year earlier.
MSC.Software announced its 3Q revenues were US$62.7 million,
a 46% increase, while net income was US$2.3 million, down from
US$4.1 million the previous year.
Mechanical Dynamics 3Q revenues were US$14.4 million, a
25% increase over the year before; net income was US$815,000,
up from US$668,000 a year earlier.
The
WorthWhile Web
A pair of freeware GPS mapping programs:
http://gschneid.free.fr/index_us.html
Mapglide
http://www.tapr.org/~kh2z/Waypoint/
Waypoint
Thanks to Don Beaton, who writes: "It would be nice if someone would come up with an easy method of converting GPS tracks to a DXF/DWG/DGN -compatible format (in the project coordinate system, rather than latitude/longitude).
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autoCAD.html
Ellen Finkelstein's Web site
Gwneral information on AutoCAD. Click on the AutoCAD Tips link
to find "Putting an AutoCAD Drawing in a PowerPoint presentation"
and other tips.
http://acguru.graphisoft.com/
ArchiCAD Guru is the public part of the TechSupport Knowledgebase
containing searchable assistance and workarounds.
http://www.graphisoft.com/ftp/pdf/ac4cadm.pdf
Graphisoft
"ArchiCAD for CAD Managers" book in PDF format.
CAD
Trivia
Q7. Think3 was renamed after a $50,000-contest in
1998. What was the company's former name? And, what was the former
name of its ThinkDesign software?
Clue: The company was founded in Italy.
Look for the answer at http://www.upfrontezine.com/trivia.htm
Letters
to the Editor
Re: Redspark's Icon
"While beta testing AutoCAD 2002, some clients objected to
the Point A, BuzzSaw, and RedSpark icons in the file dialog boxes
and wanted them removed. They were concerned about security --
files being uploaded without permission, loss of bandwidth, and
services being used without approval.
"We asked Autodesk to consider making the icons removable,
but Autodesk stated it wasn't a priority issue; they said that
if we wanted to remove them, we'd have to pursue third-party utilities.
We downloaded iClean from Owen Wengard's site, and it works fine."
- Dave Stein
The editor replies: "I recall when Bill Gates declared
that the difference between the local computer and the Internet
should be invisible to the user (or words to that effect). 'Foolish
man,' I thought, because I want to know when I am accessing files
from my safe computer and the dangerous Internet. Millions of
virus and worm infections later...
"iClean removes the Buzzsaw, RedSpark, and Point A icons
from file dialog's Places List. Security-conscious managers can
download the free 7KB routine from http://www.manusoft.com/Software/Freebies/Bin/iClean.zip
"
Re: Revit's Train
"Our Revit train's arrival was a tad delayed; however, it
has found a home with one of my editorial's staff's 18-month-old
nephew. He might not know who or what Revit is, but I'm sure he'll
cut his teeth on them. I guess you could say he's in train-ing!!"
- Martyn Day, editor 'CADdesk' magazine
London, England
The editor asks, "What are other editors doing with their toy trains?"
"From your picture,
the train looks like it might be a bit unstable/unsteady/meta-stable
in the turns. Probably okay on the straight and narrow (gauge).
Nostalgic, but I prefer the TGV. What if I need to go off the
beaten track?
"TIVER, a kind of ocher used in some parts of England in
marking sheep."
- Name withheld by request
"What is the scoop on Revit? An architect here wants to axe
AutoCAD and deploy Revit as the CAD software savior for architects.
Don't quote me."
- A CAD manager
Re: Quiet Period
"You are right that there is no legal requirement for 'quiet
times' before a financial announcement, but this is often mandated
by the company management -- specifically legal counsel and Financial
officer -- who have a duty to interpret the SEC and stock exchange
rules to properly protect the company. The main challenge in public
company reporting is ensuring that material information is not
disclosed selectively but that it is disseminated throughout the
market to create a 'level playing field.' Once that is handled,
the company has also to ensure that it is not seen to mislead
the market in any way, and announcing information a week or two
before a quarterly financial report could be regarded in hindsight
as very misleading.
"An example of this could be announcing a major customer
win or new license deal which could be regarded as material. If
the quarterly financials are announced straight after do not reflect
that positive note, you are running the risk of shareholder suits
and unwanted SEC interest.
"And such issues are decided and judged upon in hindsight
(which is always 20/20) and not always objectively. Therefore
to avoid such circumstances, most companies implement a quiet
time so that they err on the side of caution."
- Rachael Dalton-Taggart
PlanetCAD Inc
Spin
Doctor of the Moment
"Windows XP finally waves goodbye to what was essentially
twenty-five year-old code."
- Microsoft, who fails to mention that XP is based on 13-year-old
NT code, which began development this month in 1988.
Notable
Quotable
"Techno-fetishism: Unrelenting prostration before
the Church of the New."
- Kevin A. Bjorke
http://www.botzilla.com/photo/G1film.html
Contact!
