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Issue #268: 23 October, 2001

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Inside this Issue

• Spatial & TSA Announce OpenHSF
• PTC Earnings Call
• Q&A: Five Minutes with Alibre
• Below the Radar

• A new corporate id
• The future corporate direction
• The OpenHSF initiative

The new corporate ID consists of a stylized "3DS" logo, short for 3D Spatial, and not to be confused with 3D Studio. You can see the new logo at http://www.spatial.com -- you gotta squint real hard to make out the logo's "3".

The future for Spatial continues to be its old "3D Everywhere, Anytime, for Everyone" slogan. Ceo Mike Payne took pain [sorry about the pun] to emphasize that Spatial was not out to dominate, but to expand the market. He doesn't want Spatial known as just "the ACIS company," but that it also has:

• Interoperability (translation)
• 3D geometric modeling (ACIS)
• Visualization (OpenHSF)
  
  Spatial is aiming for 99%+ accuracy in translation. When asked where accuracy stood today, vp of sales and marketing Linda Lokay admitted the number was "close to 90%," and was realistic enough to admit that 100% would never be possible.

In continuing to "cooperate with the competition," Spatial announced -- together with Tech Soft America -- the OpenHSF initiative for visual interoperability. Or, yet another [sorry, if my skeptisim shows] free 3D graphics standard for the Web. OpenHSF (short for "HOOPS steam format") is an extensive spec; you can read about it at http://www.openhsf.org . Initial supporters are DaimlerChrysler, Ansys, Cadkey, Techplan, Fluent, and Dassault Systems.

In related news, Samuel McCammond alerted me of the free download of Pro/Desktop Express from http://www.ptc.com/cgi/products/desktop_agree.pl . This reduced-functionality version has no VBA, does not not export ParaSolids, and can't do renderings. As ProDesktop.net Web master Steve Schweitzer sums it up, "Express basically does not include anything that PTC has to pay licensing fees to someone else to use." [Reminds me of the free version of IntelliCAD.]

Q: How does this p2p stuff work with your MCAD software?
A: We firmly think that p2p is the future of CAD. We don't see the software running off a central server, or as an ASP [application service provider, which serves the software over the Web] as some vendors are trying. Instead, we think you should be using local computing power to share data. The data might be stored on a server, but just as often is distributed in Web-based repositories on client machines. Everyone has access to the data -- and not just a streamed or facetted representation of the model (as in Autodesk Streamline). P2p means that data can reside anywhere, on the local hard drive of any peer client. Anyone who needs to access and edit the model can do so, regardless of location, whether the designer or the manufacturer.

Q: Who's your closest competitor?
A: CoCreate and their OneSpace, but that is just a visualization/collaboration tool. To do true design you'd have to also buy SolidDesigner, and then it is a separate product based on a traditional desktop architecture. Another is ImpactXoft, but they target consumer product companies, which is not our market. We target heavy industry, like power generation, aerospace and automotive. You could take any number of collaboration/visualization products, but no one else is similar to our MCAD software built on a native Web architecture.

Q: In their earnings call, PTC announced they are adding Groove p2p technology to the next release of Pro/E. Does that worry you?
A: No, it validates what we're doing. Even if UGS, Dassault, and everybody else adds p2p to their MCAD software, we'll compete by becoming the low-cost supplier. PTC, UGS, AutoDesk, Dassault all have a high-cost model -- channels, staff, marketing. We the Web to keep overhead low. We employ just 50; even if we double our workforce, we're still a lot smaller than anyone else. We license our software for US$1,000/year/seat.

Q: What's the "Alibre Experience?" I couldn't figure it out from the press release.
A: It's a no-charge program targeted at potential mid-range customers, where we come in and help you get Alibre Design installed, help you translate data from other MCAD systems, give you training. Your only expense is the time you spend using it. You try out Alibre Design on a real project for a length of time that we agree upon.

Q: What happened to the lawsuit from SolidWorks?
A: It was basically over us hiring a SolidWorks employee. They were worried we would get access to confidential information. We agreed not to, and that satisfied them. The employee has since moved on.

"Taleban singles out Intergraph for obloquy. What has scourge-of-Intel done?" headlines The Inquirer at http://www.theinquirer.net/17100110.htm, which reports the British satire magazine 'Private Eye' has published a list of items banned by the Taleban Islamists for import into Afghanistan, including Intergraph machines "in case it is used in Cinama [sic]." Intergraph's Tom Greer told me that his company "believes that it is being confused with another company or brand of device." [I don't know about that: I still have a copy of the poster Intergraph handed out following the end of the Gulf War in 1991 that boasted of Intergraph's rapidly-created detailed mapping of Kuwait City.] Other items prohibited: cassettes, beer, pig, lobster, fireworks, musical instruments, neckties, bows, Christmas cards, nail varnish, and animate idols.

Christopher Rogers wrote me that the toy wooden train sent to editors spells r-e-v-i-t, not Tiver, as I had thought.

Jim Longley agrees: "Now, I could be wrong, but being a long-time armchair model railroader, it occurs to me that you might be running your TIVER train backwards. Either change the reversing switch on your power pack or reverse the power leads -- betcha it looks like a whole new train." Thanks for the tip, Jim, but these wooden trains don't electrically. See photo.

Revit's pr firm, Sterling Hager, submitted that r-e-v-i-t is short for real, exchange, vision, integrating, and technological. Since they sent out the toy train, they could be right, but...

...I am not convinced. The train could also spell t-r-i-v-e, as in retrieve. If you subscribe to other newsletters and magazines, you may want to ask the editors what they think their toy train spells.

Viewing CAD drawings wirelessly on PocketPCs: Docupoint says it has committed to supporting all of its software on wireless Pocket PC devices [what? not PalmOS!], including its DrawingSearcher application, which combines functions of a Web server, search engine, and DWF and PNG viewers.

Caligari says it will resell IMSI's TurboCAD 2D and 3D drawings CAD software, while IMSI will resell Caligari's trueSpace 3D modeling and animation program. [Press release notes indirectly that neither can read each other's files, but require intermediate translation to DXF, VRML, etc.]

@Last Software has upgraded SketchUp 1.3, and has released a viewer at http://www.sketchup.com/newsletter/newsletter_2_sketchup_viewer.html

Uclid Software is offering its IcoMap 3AutoCAD plug-in for cadastral mapping at half-price until the end of the year, or until 500 licenses have been sold. [I'm guessing they prefer the latter over the former.]

Web4 is offering a Web-enabled version of Xsteel software starting at US$40/day, a whole lot cheaper than the usual US$20,000 desktop license Xsteel charges [unless you plan to use the software for more than 499 days].

The Inquirer noticed that HP is charging US$526 for 64MB of SDRAM for its HP LaserJet printers. Kingston sells the equivalent for US$26 (part # KTH-DJ5000/64). [And I thought HP made its profit from solely from ink cartridges.] But it gets worse: Cisco charges US$1,200 for 64MB to upgrade the memory in their 7200-series router; Crucial charges $12.59 for the equivalent part. [Reminds me of when in 1983 extra RAM cost $1,000 per 128KB for my old Victor 9000 computer; needless to day, I never bought any.]

UK chip designer ARM unveiled its 64-bit processor design for handheld computers, but it may be three years before you see any PalmOS products running it. - ZDnet

Intel is closing its Connected Products Division, which sells computer-related toys, wireless keyboard and mouse, digital camera, and MP3 player, as well as its unreleased Web Tablet Internet accessory and Dot.Station countertop Internet appliance [Sheesh! Who thinks up these names?]. Intel had earlier eliminated its Rexx personal organizer and closed its Intel Media Services division, looing to eliminate 5,000 jobs by year's end. [It's a good time to be self-employed.]

Microsoft formally apologized to Novell for sending out advertising suggesting NetWare was obsolete and wouldn't be supported in future. It promised to not repeat the allegations, and will send out corrective information to the same 3,000 Novell customers it originally targeted. Joe LaSala of Novell sensed a rare victory for the networking company over Microsoft by declaring, "We are anxious to move to the next phase of the litigation where discovery will begin, and we will put together our case for damages." - The Register
In further bad news, InterTrust Technologies added three patents to its lawsuit against Microsoft alleging the software monopolist's .Net framework and features of Windows XP, Office XP, and other products infringe on InterTrust technology patents. - CNET

Nice Timing... not: Stanley Kubrick's landmark film '2001' is getting a widespread re-release -- in 2002, reports Jason Silverman in Wired. - Spike Report

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