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#314
22October 2002
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#314
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Contents Alibre's
CEO Comes to Visit Conference
Calls:
Autodsk's
AEC Strategy, Below
the Radar, - - - - - -
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Alibre's CEO Comes to Visit It's rare when the CEO himself goes on a media tour. Alibre ceo
Paul Grayson speaks candidly, and carries with him a history of
PC industry experience. There was only question of mine he would
not answer: "How many customers?" upFront.eZine was his
last stop before the next day's 7:40am direct flight back to Texas.
Is the Price Too Low? Earlier in the year, Alibre dropped its price to US$495, which
includes the software and one year of maintenance plus one-on-one
training. Each additional year is another $495 -- cheaper than most
competitors, and much cheaper than Revit's US$2,388/yr, the closet
similar business model.
Open File Format Alibre uses the STEP 203/214 file format, with proprietary extensions.
The first portion of the file is in standard STEP format, while
the other portion stores parametric data and model history as "foreign
data." Alibre is working at making its extensions part of the
STEP standard; no surprise, but no other MCAD vendor is interested
in supporting Alibre's proposal.
Customer Relationship Management The other, less visible half to Alibre is its custom-written
CRM system. The most noticeable part is the manner in which www.alibre.com
customizes itself for registered users and for visitors. Hooking
into to my office's wireless network, Mr. Grayson showed how the
Alibre Web site changes at his login: new options appear, allowing
him to access customer data, such as today's newly-registered customers,
incident logs for specific customers, and so on. The data is massaged
through SQL [structured query language] to produce reports on sales
and incident trends.
Feature Checkup New features in Alibre Design v5 include:
Version 5 is freely available as a 30-day demo at http://www.alibre.com , or packaged with 170,000 copies of a magazine. Version 6 is due out in February next year. Its major features are sheet metal design, an API [applications programming interface], and native file import of files from many other MCAD competitors.
Conference Calls: PTC and IMSI Parametric Technology PTC reported 4Q revenues of US$186.5 million, down 22% from a year earlier. Net loss was US$32.2 million for the quarter. The share price fell 17% on the news, but has recovered over the past week. "There is no doubt that business conditions remain difficult," said ceo C. Richard Harrison. "Our manufacturing customers are under constant pressure to improve profitability. Much of this has been reflected in reduced IT spending, which has impacted us, and many other software companies worldwide." The company expects to do no better than break-even for the next two quarters; break-even is defined as US$180 million in revenue per quarter. The uncertainty is so great that PTC will not provide a projection for next year's annual revenues. Another 210 employees were let go in the last three months. PTC said it could no longer rely on revenue from RAND, which used to be the major reseller of Pro/Engineer, and is also suffering financially. PTC did, however, allow that R&D spending [research and development] would continue at its current level of US$136 million a year. There was a promise of two major product introductions or upgrades in the next six months. The company has US$210 million in cash. When asked about Inventor 6, PTC described it as "a good product, but" its own Pro/E Wildfire is a breakthrough a product, because it is simple and powerful. I found it interesting that PTC called the "Solid X" products [Solid Edge and SolidWorks, I assume] as "low end tools." PTC asked, Why does Dassault need two products; why does EDS need three or four; why does Autodesk have half a tool? The answer, according to PTC, is that Pro/E is the only tool needed by mechanical CAD designers.
International Micocomputer Software International
IMSI introduced their new cfo, Bill Bush, previously a controller at Autodesk and Buzzsaw. Ceo Martin Wade declared, "We had a terrific year!" The goals met:
For the next year, the goals are:
The company suffered somewhat because retail sales of boxed goods being down 8% overall. IMSI is, however, #1 in unit sales of CAD software in retail stores. It believes its strength is in its diverse sales channels: direct, Web, retail, and international. IMSI reported annual net income of US$9.1 million, which includes the forgiveness of debt totaling $10.5 million. Net revenue was US$12.6 million, up 3% over the previous year. The company has $2.5 million in its bank account.
Autodesk's AEC Strategy, Part I by Martyn Day Ever since Autodesk announced its intention to purchase Revit back in February this year, Autodesk's AEC strategy has been, to say the least, a little unclear. Autodesk already had a fairly successful AEC [architecture, engineering, construction] vertical product in Architectural Desktop. One wonders if the company bought Revit to take the product out of the game, or to port the technology to AutoCAD, or to replace Architectural Desktop? One could infer a lot from the deal. Autodesk paid US$133 million for a company with little global reach, no developers, and only a handful of customers. From these facts alone, it seemed Revit was more of a strategic purchase for which many in the industry felt that Autodesk paid too much. Revit's aggressive marketing generated the perception that is was as much an up-start company, as it was a start-up! The previous time Autodesk bought AEC technology, it purchased SoftDesk (formerly DCA Engineering) and its AutoArchitect product. Initially, the deal ran into some trouble after Autodesk announced its intended purchase price of around US$70 million. PTC, an MCAD company with AEC intentions at the time, joined the bidding process, pushed up the price, and forced Autodesk to pay substantially more -- around US$90 million. For that price, Autodesk got a large, mainly US-based customer list, a mature product, and new technology based on Autodesk's own ARX development language (which promised to deliver a CAD system based on intelligent modeling). AutoArchitect and the new object technology became Architectural Desktop, which is sold worldwide as Autodesk's AEC solution based on the industry de facto standard AutoCAD. With the complex new concept of the Single Building Model, Autodesk had the choice to: (1) create a completely new product; or (2) develop on its hugely popular AutoCAD foundation. The SoftDesk purchase meant Autodesk was pursuing the latter option, even though using existing technology could create limitations in the future. (Autodesk's Mechanical team originally took a similar route, creating a solid modeling application, Mechanical Desktop, on top of AutoCAD. This proved too limiting, and they found themselves in an uneven fight against new 3D modeling tools like SolidWorks. This lead to the development of Inventor from the ground-up.) The big question was: would Autodesk's AEC division develop its own Inventor-style product, and replace ADT -- or buy something? At the time, Phil Bernstein (vp of Building at Autodesk) told me, "It's hard to predict, but we have always thought of ADT as a bridging mechanism, in much the same way that MDT was a bridge to Inventor. It's a way of starting to change the way people think about things, but whether it's going to last three years, five years, or ten years is something we are trying to figure out at this very minute." Little did I know that at that very minute Autodesk was opening channels with Revit concerning a possible buyout. - - - So, into this setup comes Revit and its Waltham (near Boston MA USA) -based development team. The Revit developers, after being purchased for $133 million, consider themselves the future, with backing from the very top tiers of Autodesk. The ADT team, while being successful in shipping the numbers, and working to fix shortcomings of the product, now find out they have internal competition. Autodesk's competition has been quick to jump on the incompatibilities between ADT, Revit, and AutoCAD. Because Revit was not developed by Autodesk:
On the face of it, Revit requires architects to jump from the relative safety of the AutoCAD platform to a new-new thing. Switching mission-critical applications is risky business, and I'm afraid to say that many architectural practices are institutionally risk-adverse. So Autodesk has had all summer to come up with a cohesive story for its Building Design Solutions division and various applications. Carl Bass, Autodesk executive vp of Design Solutions Division, recently visited England to launch the UK version of Buzzsaw, where I got the chance to ask him about Autodesk's elusive AEC strategy. - - - Next week, Part 2: The Interview with Carl Bass
Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: - - - 3D Compression Technologies has developed a mathematical algorithm to achieve compression rates at 70% to 98% of an original model size. The technology is meant for 3D CAD models. Informative Graphics is integrating 3DCompress into its 3D Web publishing products for its ISF file format. http://3dcompress.com/web/index.htm A letter from ceo Greg Bentley reassures customers that Bentley Systems will continue to support all current and future AutoCAD-based products in the AutoPLANT portfolio. In an accompanying FAQ, Bentley contrasts itself with Autodesk: "Although Rebis was a long-time member of the Autodesk Developer Network, after Bentley acquired Rebis, Autodesk terminated Rebis from its developer program and from its OEM program. Though this is not a significant commercial concern for us, Bentley believes that abrupt termination of long-standing developer program participants is inconsiderate to end-users who have invested in AutoCAD-based applications." Bentley insists it will continue to develop and sell plant and civil engineering applications for AutoCAD, without help from Autodesk. According to Merrill Lynch, Autodesk "may be planning an increase in AutoCAD upgrade pricing for mid-January 2003, perhaps as a way of inducing upgrades sales during 4QFY03" similar to the R14 obit campaign. In December, Autodesk is expected to release SuperDWF, which adds scaled printing and xrefs to its DWF format [drawing Web format]. J.D. Edwards' Advanced Order Configurator is a CRM [customer relationship management] application that allows sales reps and customers to visualize variations of a product before the order is placed. In its support for AutoCAD, JDE has added file compression, support for multi-document generation, double-click editing, and new support for end-user customization. http://www.jdedwards.com/public Infrasoft is shipping MXURBAN software for reconstructing roadways in highly confined urban and suburban settings. http://www.infrasoft-civil.com MassPlus calculates area properties for any AutoCAD 2D drawing, including centroid, moments of inertia, polar moments, radius of gyration, principal axes, and section modulus. http://www.slickwin.com/massplus.html Atlantech Solutions released the first in a series of Web-based training courses, called MicroStation V8 User Update. http://www.atlantechsolutions.com Elysium's CADporter CAD Translation tools now translates data to-and-from CATIA v5. http://www.elysiuminc.com Tailor Made Software's CADViewer v7 for PC, Mac and Unix/Linux users features enhanced support for saving redlines as a layer and in multiple file types; configurable toolbar; improved measurement tool; drawing comparison; save to server or client; support for Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian; and collaborator tool for simultaneous viewing and markup. http://www.cadviewer.com
Seminars & Conferences Bentley Systems is looking for papers to be presented at their 2003 Bentley International User Conference, May 18-22, in Baltimore MA USA. Submit a 250-word abstract for consideration by December 1, focusing on Bentley's content creation, management, or publishing solutions or their use in building, transportation (including civil engineering), plant, utilities, government, and communications. More info from http://www.bentley.com/biuc/default.cfm
New Newsletters/Webzines ConnectPress is launching a new e-newsletter in November: 'Solid Solutions Advanced', published monthly, will contain advanced SolidWorks tips, tricks, solutions, and Q&A. sddeditorial@d-digest.com
People/Companies on the Move Intergraph ceo Jim Taylor plans to retire once a new ceo is hired. Mr Taylor is stepping down after achieving his goal of returning Intergraph to sustained profitability. Consulting firm Christian & Timbers is leading the chief executive search. - AP Efficient Engineering formed PD Interactive as a spin-out company to address engineering and design interoperability problems with multiple CAD platforms. ManufacturingQuote is keeping www.mfgjobs.com (for job seekers, employers, and recruiters) free of charge until 2003.
Computer News Summaries NEC's new SX-7 vector supercomputer uses 32 CPUs and 256GB of memory, and costs more than US$100 million; prices start at US$2.2 million. The company expects to sell more than 20 per year to automotive and aerospace companies. - CNET Nehalem is an Intel CPU based on a new architecture different from the Pentium 4, and will ship in 2004. - IDG News Service As The Register notes, "the Microsoft marketing and PR departments are experiencing considerable difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. But we always knew that." Microsoft last week posted -- then pulled -- two fake testimonials, but not before the Google cache captured one of them at http://216.239.53.100
Market News Shareholders of Avatech and PlanetCAD have approved the merger of the two companies. The new company will have 20,000 customers worldwide and 185 employees in 21 locations. The company headquarters will be in Owings Mills MD USA (Avatech's head office), with a development center in Boulder CO USA (PlanetCAD's current head office). Business 2.0 reports that Penton Media issued insider loans worth US$10,823,659 for stock purchases, of which nearly US$4 million were given to CEO Thomas Kemp. The magazine notes that "roughly three-quarters of the nation's top 1,500 companies have disclosed loans to insiders in recent regulatory filings." Penton was the 37th highest loaner on the list at http://www.business2.com/articles To reverse lagging sales, EDS is warning of job cuts amongst its 140,000 employees.
Brand New CAD Books Save as much as 30% buying these new books; free USA-only shipping on orders over US$25. "The
CAD Guidebook: A Basic Manual for Understanding and Improving Computer-Aided
Design" "Inside
Pro Engineer 2002" "Inside
Solidworks 2002" "Software
Architectures and Tools for Computer Aided Process Engineering"
"Autodesk
Inventor 5/5.3: Basics Through Advanced" "Special
Edition Using Microsoft Visio 2002"
Letters to the Editor Re: "Fairly Compatible" General CADD Pro "Visual
CADD might be 'fairly compatible' with Generic CADD, but after beta
testing General CADD Pro for seven months, I can tell you it is
most definitely 'much more like Generic CADD' than any other CAD
software out there. As someone very close to the development of
GCP, I must tell you, not only is General CADD Pro providing the
exact same user interface Generic CADD users have become productive
in, its programmers and beta testers strive to tackle each and every
computability issue they can find. It is, in fact, the biggest
most important issue we deal with each and every day. The editor replies: "I feel that General CADD is 'fairly compatible' because:
"I was there when Visual CADD and IntelliCAD disappointed users by over-promising compatibility. I agree that General CADD Pro is very compatible with Generic CADD, but future customers should not be fooled into thinking compatibility is 100%." Mr. Abrahamsenm responds: "Yes, there are a few commands
still missing, and we can't save as a GCD.
Re: Frank Gehry and Such "The Bilbao
Gallery was designed on CATIA. Employees of Dassault and subsidiaries
got free admission to Guggenheim galleries around the world to celebrate
its opening."
Re: Reverse Engineering "If a court can grant US$18 billion in damages to a smoker,
then nothing that the legal profession does (and the culture of
litigation that they foster) actually surprises me! The only real
winners are the lawyers; the people who ultimately pay are the customers
of these companies with higher prices or reduced functionality because
no-one dare include new techniques and methodologies for fear of
litigation. "Will courts now disallow Chrysler from buying a Ford so
they can see how Ford builds products? How about denying Coke the
right to analyze Pepsi's formulation? Just because you examine a
piece of software, take its good points, and add your own innovation
-- how is that immoral or illegal? "As you might guess, OpenDWG Alliance has more than a casual
interest in reverse-engineering. Fortunately, we're reverse-engineering
data file formats, and not the programs that create them.
Re: Is TurboCAD Underpriced? "I disagree
with you on your assessment of IMSI. If it wasn't for their 'underpricing,'
I wouldn't have CAD at all. Hey, they are only on release 8, and
have to catch up somehow. Maybe selling to everyone who is at all
interested is one way. The editor replies: "I don't disagree with low pricing
(upFront.eZine is free, after all), but there needs to be a balance
between keeping the product affordable and keeping the company in
business. Mr Miller responds: "I didn't realize some of the things you cited. I thought they were in financial trouble because of being left hanging with a lawsuit from someone they licensed from or something like that. FWIW, I was one who bought their product when they were trying to raise cash. I hope it helped." The editor replies: "...and the lawsuit."
"I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your emails over the
years. Thanks for giving me an indispensable window on the outside
world, a thing of increasing rarity and value for those buried somewhere
in the bowels of large corporations everywhere." "I like your e-zine primarily because you don't just spit
back news and info, but give your opinions. It's a refreshing change
of pace to hear someone speak their mind." "Thanks for the nice ezine. I always read it."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "The uniquely designed EPIC (explicitly parallel instruction computing) architecture allows the highest possible performance via new levels of parallelism for enterprise and technical applications." - Intel's description of its Itanium CPU clashes with the court's finding it used PIC technology without permission from Intergraph. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news
Notable Quotable "The feature set is largely mature today, and at a time when people are re-thinking how many FEWER gadgets they want in their lives. How much LESS technology, per se, is the answer." - http://www.theregus.com/content/4/26668.html
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Return to www.upfrontezine.com. Entire contents copyright ©2002 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide. Article reprint fee $500. All trademarks belong to their respective holders. "upFront.eZine," "Talking About CAD," and "On your desktop every Tuesday morning" are trademarks of upFront.eZinePublishing, Ltd. Letters to the editor may be reproduced in an edited form for clarity and brevity. Opinions expressed in letters are not necessarily shared by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. |
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