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Issue #271: 13 November, 2001

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Inside this Issue

• From the Editor
• Q&A: Five Minutes with Carl Ransdall
• Below the Radar

• "The Illustrated AutoCAD 2002 Quick Reference" (Autodesk Press).
• "Learn AutoCAD LT 2002" (WordWare Publishing).

Carl Ransdell: You are correct, although I look at Numera's history in two parts aligned with it's two rounds of VC funding. In each case, however, the goal of attracting a large number of customers (which we promised our investors) did not happen.
The company was started with one million dollars (a small amount by today's standards) in venture capital. With that amount of money, we were able to develop Visual CADD through v1.2, and obtain a user base of over 10,000 in just over a year.
Believe or not, we did do things on the cheap. Our office (which you've written about) did have a great view, but because of the unconventional layout and the 1993-vacancy rate in downtown Seattle, we leased it for under $14 a square foot.
Before Visual CADD hit the market, unfortunately, Autodesk released AutoCAD LT, which turned the low end of the CAD market upside down. Visio released the hugely successful Visio Technical about the same time, making the low-end CAD market even tougher.
In relative terms, AutoCAD was in a market known as the "value" segment. For under $5,000 you could get AutoCAD plus a great third-party application. Instead of just languishing as another low-end CAD company, we decided to try something different -- the "ultra-value" market, with the goal that for under $1,500, you could get Visual CADD plus a great third-party application. To do this, we decided that we needed a second round of financing, so we raised an additional three million dollars. Even with the additional funding, we were trying to do too many things:
- We had a wonderful loyal user base who we wanted to satisfy with new features.
- We had third-party developers who wanted new features.
- We were courting prospective new third-party developers who requested a lot of new disparate CAD functionality.

It became clear that third-party developers would only be attracted if we had a giant user base, so we looked for a mass distribution partner. Corel was a powerful company with a lot of marketing muscle. Right about that time, unfortunately, Corel bought WordPerfect and they focused their energy on competing against Microsoft Office.
With Corel's strategic focus shifting away from vector graphics, the Visual CADD user base did not grow enough to hit the critical mass to attract the third-party apps. After not getting the users, we thought we could with two rounds of funding. But with little chance of getting more investment, the Visual CADD product line was sold to Corel. Numera closed its doors.

upFront.eZine: Visual CADD went from Numera to Corel to IMSI, and now to TriTools. Do you have any involvement with Visual CADD anymore?

Mr. Ransdell: After Numera, we did consulting work for Corel, and then a small amount for IMSI. We are not currently involved with Visual CADD.

upFront.eZine: What did you do following the end of Numera Software?

Mr. Ransdell: Matt Brown and I formed a partnership and we began doing contract software development under Ransdell & Brown, Inc. (Matt Brown was co-founder of Numera, and one of the original developers of Generic CADD. We've worked together for over twelve years.)

upFront.eZine: It sounds like Ransdell & Brown is doing the same kind of thing as Numera.

Mr. Ransdell: Our new company is quite different from Numera; we don't sell an end-user product. Our core business is the sale of programming and consulting services, so our CAD engine is available only as part of those services. We are not in the business of selling just software libraries without our programming services.

upFront.eZine: Okay, so tell me about your CAD engine.

Mr. Ransdell: We offer our rbxCAD Engine to distinguish ourselves as more than just contract programmers. With our arsenal of CAD components, we can "snap" together a CAD solution faster and more economically than by building on top of an existing CAD application.

upFront.eZine: Was rbxCAD written from scratch, or does it have any relation to Visual CADD?

Mr. Ransdell: The rbxCAD engine is written entirely from scratch, with no relation to Visual CADD. It comes in three modules:
- rbxCAD 2D is 32-bit, Windows-based, AutoCAD file compatible (DXF/DWG) with all regular 2D geometric entities, layers, vector linetypes, hatches, fills, text, snaps, trims, dimensioning, entity modifiers, and more.
- rbxCAD 3D is a viewer module add-on to the above engine
- rbxCAD 2D Pocket Edition is the 2D Pocket PC version.

upFront.eZine: I don't want to sound harsh, but why should anyone care about yet another CAD engine, especially in this age where CAD vendors are merging like iron filings to a magnet?

Mr. Ransdell: I agree. Most people who work in today's CAD world won't (and probably shouldn't) care about another CAD engine. We're focused, however, on entrepreneurs and organizations not living in today's CAD world -- the non-traditional users of CAD. We are consultants looking at creating original and unique solutions based on CAD component technology to solve specific problems.

Cadopolis.com says you can purchase any of 50 Autodesk add-ons for 10% less than anywhere else on the Web.

OfficeCAD (US$1,495) has three new on-line examples of Internet-based design automation for the custom elevator, conveyor, and crane manufacturing industries. By entering data at a Web page, CAD drawings of cranes, elevators, or conveyors are created in seconds.

Topocad is CAD software for surveyors and civil engineers, and is available in 14 languages. A new module vectorizes raster formats (JPEG, TIFF, BMP and GIF).

Zygote Media Group is providing 3D content for VectorWorks. The first collection is 3D PopulationWorks containing 1,800 pre-posed, human figures.
Meanwhile, GDL Technology signed an agreement with EON Reality/realityBUY for an exclusive contract to develop GDL objects for Office Depot, representing 2,500 products.

Extended data exchange (XDE), shape healing, and improved sewing modules are available for free downloading with OpenCASCADE v4.0 at http://www.opencascade.com.

SiteMenu for MicroStation is a free, Java-based toolkit for deploying corporate CAD standards and customization. The company plans to support future development through sales of a 112-page 'Users Guide', and resulting programming and consulting services.

Beat Fehr, president of ADGE, reports that the Autodesk Developer Group - Europe will be closing down at the end of November.

Infrasoft Corporation hired George Manthous as director of sales, and Tom Bergeron as an account executive.

Dakantus AS last week launched VectorWorks 9 and ARCHITECT 9 in Norwegian.

Buffalo Technology says it has doubled the speed of 802.11b wireless LANs to 22Mbps.

Windows XP was to re-ignite the world economy, but so far isn't doing well: (1) Notebook computers with Pentium III-M Tualatin CPUs may suffer overheating and shortened battery life due to a missing device driver. (2) Repairing, reinstalling, or upgrading computers with pre-installed XP may cause loss of data. (3) The first time XP connects to the Internet, it downloads 20MB of updates from Microsoft.
CAD vendors, on the other hand, are eyeing with interest the program and data space, which XP expands by 1GB to 3GB.

Look for the answer at http://www.upfrontezine.com/trivia.htm

The editor comments: "When I replied, as instructed by the message, I received the following heartfelt response from Nabisco:
"Our company has detected a message which violates our company policy and it has been blocked. Action: Delete."

Re: Revit Direct Sales
"We in the distribution channel find it interesting to watch Revit ignore dealer-channel distribution. They should learn from history: wining and dining people like you in the CAD media is not enough.
"What made Autodesk successful? The dealer channel put together by Mike Ford, and carried on by Richard Cuneo and Malcomb Davies.
"What made SolidWorks successful? The dealer channel put together by Vic Leventhal.
"No one has been able to capture market share in this mainstream CAD market without a strong dealer involvement."
- Ed Russell, Esolids.com

The editor replies: "I like dining, but I don't drink wine. Revit just got more funding, so we'll see if ignoring dealers works -- or not."

Re: MicroStation V8
"What happened to investigative journalism? Foot-in-the-door kind of interview -- keep the camera rolling -- give 'em the list of questions -- then ask a different set on-air? Here's a PDF document on V8. Enjoy."
- Robert McCartney, Rail Infrastructure
Australia

The editor replies, "Readers apparently sent some twenty emails to Bentley Systems wondering about the lack of coverage here. The company subsequently sent off a batch of info on uStn v8 by courier. It should arrive shortly."

Re: 100GB Not Enough
"Oh ditto that: I just got into digital video. The 100 gig is easy to fill, and I thought music production was taking up space. If you are curious what your little Swedish friend is doing these days, look at http://www.NinaGoddess.com/video/
"The singing lady is my wife. I wrote and produced the music and recorded and edited the video -- my first."
- Mr 'Zap' Andersson
http://www.Master-Zap.com

The editor replies: "Zap and I know each other from the days of the VRML mailing list, when I was impressed by the cleverness of his 'Whirrled Peas' sig line."

Re: Summer Reading List
"While browsing your Web site, I found that you have read one of my favorites, 'The Cuckoo's Egg'. I was wondering if you have heard of 'The Adolescence of P1' by Thomas Ryan. A college computer programmer writes a simple program to teach a mainframe how to play tic-tac-toe using information from a 'Scientific American' article on strategy. The mainframe crashes; he leaves college. Years later, while working at a data services company in California, program P1 calls him back on his terminal."
- R. W. Stephens
Florida

The editor replies: "Mr Stephens kindly lent me his copy of this out-of-print book."

"I have been reading your column for years, and love every minute of it."
- Trevor Seib, CAD Soft
Australia

"Thanks for an excellent eZine!"
- Djordje Grujic
United Arab Emirates

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