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#324
21 January 2003
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a l k i n g a b o u t c a d
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#324
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Contents Conference
Call: PTC 1Q03 Readers
React 2:: Below
the Radar, - - - - - -
(ADVERTISMENT) eBooks.onLine Inside General CADD Pro is the new e-book by Ralph Grabowski in PDF format. This 300-page tutorial and reference book is available by email, ftp, or on CD. - - -
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Conference Call: PTC 1Q03 "An OK quarter," is the ceo of Parametric Technologies description of the first three months of his company's new fiscal year. The OK quarter featured a net loss of US$11.4 million due to a $33 million accounting error discovered by new software that tracks maintenance contracts (more later). The company expects the next quarter to break even, meaning no profits, but no losses, either. Q1 revenue was $171.9 million. The year-over-year comparison, which I would insert here, isn't available because PTC changed the way it accounts for "goodwill," in accordance with the New Thinking Regarding Accounting. On the good-news side of the ledger, PTC reported 649 new PRO/Engineer accounts, the biggest increase in two years. Nevertheless, the company bemoaned the lack of big contracts, defined as over $1 million. Ceo Richard Harrison said, "I continue to be confident and optimistic" due to these reasons:
Some snippets from the Q&A session with financial analysts:
PTC Delisting Possible Following the ho-hum financial report, PTC sent out a press release declaring that "engineers using Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire were able to design a series of objects using as few as half of the mouse clicks [as] SolidWorks 2001+." No surprise: the test was sponsored by PTC. If the result were reversed, we would never have heard of it. Where any other competitors tested? Is WildFire released or not? A PTC press release of January 16 calls WildFire "the company's award-winning new release." To me, that says it is released, shipping, and available for purchase. On the same day, however, the company's 'PTC Express' e-newsletter promised, "The release of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire is imminent." This software last December won the "Reader's Choice" award from 'Desktop Engineering Magazine' and "Editor's Choice" award from 'Cadence' magazine last July. But it's not shipping for another month or so. Last Friday, PTC sent out a press release warning that it faces delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange. The reason? That US$33 million accounting error noted above is delaying PTC from filing the paperwork accompanying its annual report. Nasdaq has sent out its warning letter, and changed the stock ticker to PMTCE [best I can tell CE is short for "Continuing Education"]. PTC has filed for a panel hearing to review the situation, and hopes to avoid the delisting.
What is PLM? PTC is running an ad in 'Fortune' magazine (and maybe others) headlined, "Given that your company's future depends on its implementation of PLM, wouldn't it be nice to know what PLM is?" I can hear editor Martyn Day amen-ing that. And it's refreshing to hear a CAD vendor admit that "the term PLM may create confusion." Purpose of the ad is to prompt readers to get a free copy of 'PLM Schizophrenia' from http://www.ptc.com/go/fortune
Readers React
2: "I knew there was resistance to change, but sometimes I forget how much! As a CAD tech for a facility management (FM) office, I was pleased with [Autodesk ceo] Carol Bartz's speech -- particularly with the bit about keeping documents electronic! In my first year on this job it seemed like pulling teeth just to get the electronic copies of building plans from consultants -- much less asking them to use AIA standards: Consultant: 'We'll use those standards, but our fee will
increase to cover the cost of changing to that standard.' "It has become better, especially now that the contracts are being re-worded to cover the electronic universe. Yes, there are many reasons plans _have_ to be plotted, and even occasions when it is more expedient, but the electronic version is becoming vastly more important. Virtually every aspect of a building's lifecycle management revolves around those plans being in electronic form (networked HVAC controls, emergency planning, systems upgrades, remodels); and if the plans are 3D: even better!
"The most accurate concern I saw: will DWG, DXF, etc be viable in 98 years? Maybe, maybe not. Paper burns. Keeping data current as technology changes is one of the challenges in facilities management. I have data in many formats (DGN, TCW, SHP), which I currently strive to update to r15 DWG -- but now that may change with Revit. "Instead of vectorising, we are now faced with the likely hurdle of 3D modelling, whether from paper or 2D electronic form (of course, starting with an accurate 2D electronic file is faster!). There isn't a one-answer-fits-all; this is, yet, an evolving beast. "I, for one, think Carol was right on the mark!" - Joe Tilman
"I've read with mild amusement your readers' reaction to Ms. Bartz's keynote at Autodesk University proclaiming the digital future of design information -- hardly a new concept. "The undeniable truth is that, in our litigious society, the hardcopy will be with us for the foreseeable future. Heck, I've got some wonderful digital design information on 5-1/4" floppy disks that only can be read by a disk drive I no longer have, on an OS that no longer exists, with software that is no longer published, from a company that has gone out of business. On the other hand, there's some 5,000-year-old papyrus, from which, provided that you could read hieroglyphics, you could still extract some information. "One wonders how altruistic Autodesk is in this vision since their commitment to open access to digital data is questionable. DWG, while a de facto standard, is still proprietary, and only usable by other CAD programs thanks to the engineering talents of the OpenDWG Alliance (of which Autodesk is not a member). "And now Autodesk's support for the IAI's IFC interoperability standard has been relegated to an arm's-length third-party relationship. Could it be that Autodesk's vision of the future is one in which digital design data is only accessible through Autodesk products? "In his letter, Nemetschek North America's Robert Anderson
makes a valid point that PDF is a great tool for publishing, distributing,
viewing, and printing CAD drawings, and I think that it's a format
that every CAD program should support." The editor replies: "To play devil's advocate, the opposite is true, too. How many papyrus have been lost? OTOH, a local computer store gave me a 5-1/4" floppy drive free (they were in the process of throwing them out) and I am able to access old documents stored on those diskettes."
"I would also comment on Carol Bartz AU address: I think most of us understand what she meant, that the most downline computer-extractable information does need to 'stay digital'. "I think the reason that many highers-up in the CAD chain
get remarkably negative feedback from users is that her comments
(taken slightly out of context) seem to verify an out-of-touch attitude
with the work-a-day world of most designers and drafters. I can't
get thru a single project with out any number of checkprints. The
eyes just can't pick it all up on screen."
"People sure like paper. I can't wait to get rid of the stuff myself. I agree the construction industry has its issues, and some of that has been hashed out in this very e-newsletter. "However, for manufacturing outfits (Howard Gibson's remarks aside) you can't escape the fact that somehow the design definition has to get into the ERP/MRP [enterprise resources planning / material requirement planning] system. Quite a few outfits, even those with modern 3D CAD systems, still have a body who types the stuff into the ERP/MRP system. It can be avoided pretty easily if you have a modern 3D CAD product that produces BOM [bills of material] with structure, but it requires disciplined control of the attributes that describe the CAD data. "No other system in an enterprise, save the engineering department (say, and FEA [finite element analysis] programs), has any need to understand a CAD file. They are for people, because computers just aren't smart enough to have a clue what the drawing or model represents. Computer systems need alphanumeric attributes. If you want to integrate your systems to the fullest extent possible, the only way to do it is to control the attributes that describe the bits of interest in a machine-reliable way. So if you want your CAD documents to have some 'intelligence' for the rest of the outfit it doesn't have all that much to do with the CAD aspect of a CAD program. "I am biased, but I think SolidWorks with eDrawings Professional is pretty close to not needing paper representation in a manufacturing or non-field work enterprise (the one guy has a point about diggin' a sewer line in the winter -- laptops don't like that sort of abuse). The only spot where one could argue that is on the shop floor where appropriate display devices for all positions are not available in most outfits. Some larger companies have made some progress, but there is a long way to go and frankly the reasons to really go all the way at this point aren't all that compelling. Paper will still be around for a while but for many of us (though not you construction folk) its days are numbered. "For whatever its worth late on a Monday evening."
"That was an insightful remark that 'idealism is directly proportional to the distance from the problem.' It may also have something to do with vested interests! There's not a lot of dough in selling red feltpens. "No digital paper-replacement idea is going to succeed as long as vendors are focused on proprietary binary data formats, even if they cease keeping them secret and obstructing conversion. Even PDF has its worries, although it probably can be expected to survive long-term. The main worry there is whether Acrobat readers will always be produced for every new computer system for evermore. "When it boils down to the ultimate basics for very longterm survival of data in readable form, there's only plain ASCII text and the simplest raster image formats like BMP or uncompressed TIFF. For pure vector graphics, which 2D CAD can be reduced to fairly well, ye olde CGM vector format will probably outlive all others, and is still the most reliable in my experience. "But what about 3D design models? XML may be able to provide a universal solution, but it hasn't got there yet. I used to be a keen supporter of the IAI's IFC system for 3D building data, but that seems to have bogged down in the international official committee roundabout that it's just too far behind the real needs to catch up. "The very big companies that do work in 3D store their
design data digitally (since there's no other way with 3D), such
as Boeing, all use the 'enterprise-level' CAD products such as Catia,
Unigraphics and PRO/Engineer. They are big enough to demand that
associates use the same single CAD product, thereby solving the
data transfer issue (neglecting inter-version issues!)." The editor replies: "Re: the future viability of PDF. I am sure there are Russian programmers ready to oblige."
Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: - - - A whitepaper from Bentley Systems says Autodesk is going down the wrong path by expecting users to switch from .dwg to Revit -- unlike Bentley's own MicroStation-based TriForm architectural design software. http://www.bentley.com/files/industry_groups/building/bim_white_paper.pdf Bluebeam Software is debuting its Bluebeam Pushbutton PDF software for SolidWorks at this week's SolidWorks World 2003 user conference. http://www.bluebeam.com AutoSolids lowered the price of its solid modeling software for AutoCAD users to US$495. http://www.autosolids.com ESI Group released PAM-CAST 2002, its casting simulation software. http://www.esi-group.com RealCADD v3.00 2D CAD software ($US75) is available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Mac OS9. http://www.realcadd.com/realcadd/realcaddus.htm Cimmetry Systems released AutoVue 17, its visualization software with collaboration. http://www.cimmetry.com/autovue17 Haestad Methods is shipping StormCAD v5 software for stormwater engineering. http://www.haestad.com MicroSurvey Software updated its FieldGenius Data Collection XG system for Windows CE devices, making it easier to zoom, pan, or view data in 3D perspective views. The software creates surface models and contours as measurements are taken with a Total Station. http://www.microsurvey.com CADKEY Workshop Version 21 is now shipping. http://www.cadkey.com
People/Companies on the Move Autodesk appointed Steven Scheid to its Board of Directors. Mr Scheid served as vice chairman of Charles Schwab & Co.
Redo "All of the LEGO software tools are open source, and free
for download and use. Visit http://www.ldraw.org/
to learn more about them, or browse over to the LUGNET CAD
discussion forum at http://news.lugnet.com/cad/
" "It would be great if, in future issues, CATIA can be referenced
as a Dassault Systemes solution. There is no reference to the company
in Jeffrey Hall's guest editorial."
Computer News Summaries HP's new GS1280 AlphaServer computer features "processor partitions" that allows it to run two different operating systems at the same time. HP Norway no longer guarantees the security of cordless keyboards after a third report that the keyboard transmits keystrokes to computers located in other buildings. "This time typing went astray in Oslo," reports 'Aftenposten Interaktiv'. - Jerry Bragstad [I wonder if there are similar issues with the cordless mouse?]
Market News SofTech reported 2Q03 revenue of $2.2 million, up 12% over a year earlier. The company suffered a net loss of $213,000, compared to a net loss of $623,000 a year earlier. The upFront.eZine stock index is at www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks
BrandNew CAD Books "The
VectorWorks Visual QuickStart Guide" For more info or to save 30% by purchasing on-line:
The introduction and excerpts from Joel Orr's next book, "The Dandelion Principle: Structuring for Greatness," are available by email after registering at http://www.dandelionprinciple.com
Notable Quotable "Last year, Microsoft forced us to conduct an audit, which
was very painful. And it turns out that the bottom line was that
we have overbought. They didn't offer to refund any of those overbought
licenses. But if we had underbought, they certainly would have required
us to pay more money, I trust." |
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