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#326
4 February 2003
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#326
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Contents Slow
Drives Slow CAD Intergraph and Bentley Make Money Below
the Radar, - - - - - - - - - (ADVERTISMENT) eBooks.onLine The First Book for IntelliCAD Users! Tailoring IntelliCAD is now available for download as a 160-page e-book in PDF format (US$19.95) or on CD ($24.95). Covers all areas of customization, from changing the user interface to writing LISP routines. Includes history of IntelliCAD, undocumented support file formats, compatibility comparisons with AutoCAD, and more. Click here to sample preview pages and place your order. - - -
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Slow Drives Slow CAD My dad caught the computer bug at age 75. Last year, he bought a second notebook computer, this time a Compaq Presario that runs at 1.2GHz. I'm his tech support person, and as I installed software, I marveled at how slowly his new computer ran. I turned off some speed-hogging "features" of Windows XP (an operating system that's easy to dislike). Later, a search on Google found others complaining of the computer's slow hard drive. Last week, a CAD vendor dropped by to show off new CAD software to myself and 'EA Report' editor David Cohn. As an aside, he asked if we found that notebook computers tend have slow hard drives these days. Checking the specs, I found that notebook vendors place slow 4200rpm hard drives in most of their machines. This concerned the CAD vendor, because his software makes much use of the hard drive, and slow drives make his software appear to run slowly. From my experience with my dad's computer, the problem affects Windows as well, as it shuffles data between RAM and virtual memory on the hard disk. As notebooks start to take over from desktop computers, check the drive speed before purchasing: The speed of the hard drive should be at least 5400rpm, the fastest available for the 2" drives used in notebook computers..
CPU Speed Doesn't Seem to Matter Much Anymore Last summer, my son and I hand-built a 2.4GHz desktop computer from parts. I picked out f-a-s-t everything: 533MHz motherboard, 512MB RAM (expandable to 2GB), dual 7200rpm hard drives using the UltraATA/133 interface, three FireWire ports, a graphics board with 128MB RAM, plus too much other stuff (CD/DVD burner, SCSI backup, USB v2 ports, etc). Know what? It doesn't feel 6x faster than my 400MHz desktop. The only areas in which I notice speed improvement are searches and printing pages/PDFs from PageMaker. Oh, and Web pages snap faster into place. It appears that raw CPU speed is being bottlenecked by other parts of the computer system. When looking to upgrade your computer, consider replacing components other than the CPU. As I noted in my earlier review of the Matrox Parhelia card, it was as good at speeding up games on that old 400MHz computer as having the cheaper ATI Radeon 8500LE on my 2.4GHz computer. Adding a 7200rpm drive provides a noticeable improvement over 5400rpm drives. And so on... No wonder IDC is predicting poor sales of PCs for the next few years.
Picasa Excites Or maybe we just need innovative software. The first software in some time to excite me is Picasa (US$30) from Lifescape Solutions <http://www.picasa.net >. It finds all digital camera photos and movies on your computer, as well as on networked drives; the photos don't need to be in a specific folder, such as the corny-sounding "My Pictures." Instead, _all_ photos are displayed in order of date, name, etc. It does slideshows, crops to specific sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10), does some image enhancement, and very cleverly shows a grayscale preview when printing to a grayscale printer. Picasa works with other software: 'Locate on Disk' opens File Manager with the filename highlighted, while 'Open File' opens the image in your computer's default image editor (PaintShop Pro, in my case). The 15-day free download is worth just the experience of its fabulous user interface. And the company is responsively adding features. Maybe CAD vendors could learn a few tips from Picasa: the user experience has become more important than the feature set.
What Will We Do with 64 Bits? I read of a recent conference of heavy thinkers answering the question, "What software will make use of 64-bit CPUs" being introduced slowly by Intel and AMD. Of the limited applications mentioned, CAD was not one. Would CAD benefit from a 64-bit CPU?
Bentley Opens DGN After Visio formed the OpenDWG Alliance (based on the MarComp .dwg/.dxf read/write APIs), Bentley Systems joined, and called for Autodesk to: (1) join; and (2) open its .dwg format. Some called Bentley's action "hypocrisy," because the company hadn't opened its own .dgn file. Only half true: through to MicroStation v7, the .dgn format was a mixture of Intergraph's IGDS (which Intergraph had published) and proprietary extensions added by Bentley, which were not published. With v8, however, Bentley completely changed the .dgn format, making it entirely proprietary. Last June, I reported that the OpenDWG Alliance claimed to have developed a set of libraries to read and write .dgn files. "The libraries currently support V8, and we will add V7 support. The libraries are not yet ready for general distribution." I followed up for release dates, but was told, Not yet but soon. In the meantime, I heard rumors that Bentley was informally canvassing for opinions on the pros and cons of opening .dgn. One contra opinion is the reason why Autodesk and other CAD vendors don't publish their file formats: it frees them to make changes without needing to worry about compatibility with competitors. - - - Last week, Bentley tentatively "expressed" an "articulation" for OpenDGN. The press release stated that the company "intends" to provide support to an unnamed non-profit consortium; the OpenDWG Alliance is not mentioned. (The opendgn.com and opendgn.org domain names were registered by Bentley Systems last October. A New Zealand company, Cybertal, used to sell a software toolkit called OpenDGN, but their domain name is now for sale.) The job of the consortium is to:
And, Bentley's v8 View .dgn and .dwg viewer software "will be" free for downloading from http://www.bentley.com . It is currently free to subscribers. Chief technical officer Keith Bentley says that OpenDGN for V8 includes DRM (digital rights management) for limiting access to data, as desired. We have is a statement of intention, but with numerous details missing. Missing, for instance, is mention of opening up .dgn v7 and earlier. Or whether OpenDGN will handle .dwg and CadKey data. What does OpenDGN mean? It makes it easier for developers to access data stored in V8 .dgn files. Translator companies will love it. Some CAD vendors may add .dgn translation. The end-user may benefit if Bentley incorporates ideas from licensees of OpenDGN.
Intergraph and Bentley Make Money Intergraph reported 4Q02 net income of US$90.1 million on revenues of $122 million. For fiscal year 2002, the net income was $377.8 million on revenues of $501.2 million -- the results are skewed by the huge payment made by Intel to settle part of a law suit. Revenue was down 9.4% from the year before. The company has $506 million in the bank. The company has "some good candidates" for ceo to replacing outgoing Mr Taylor. Ceo Jim Taylor said, "Unfortunately, we do not see an improvement in the IT sector of the economy in the near future, and the uncertainties of future terrorist attacks and a possible war are not helping." Intergraph launched law suits in December against Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett-Packard/Compaq over cache memory management patents. Intergraph last week sued Texas Instruments over its DSP (digital signal processing) chips, which contain Intergraph's patented parallel instruction computing technology. The overview statement during Intergraph's conference call was pleasantly brief; most of the time was given over questions from analysts. And most of the questions were about Intergraph's patent portfolio; there were no questions about the company's CAD software. Intergraph said that the cash generated by payments (from Intel, Fujitsu, and IBM for now) is a benefit they have over other, struggling CAD vendors. The company is spending $175 million on repurchasing stocks (which helps their value increase), but has not decided what else to spend on. - - - Bentley Systems is not a public company, but it is acting like one in anticipation of issuing shares to the public at some point in the future. Bentley, for example, has been paying for recent acquisitions with shares. Last week, the company released some financial figures for 2002: Revenue was up by 14% to US$230 million, of which $160 million came from subscriptions. The company has 1,500 employees, and hopes to carry on with double-digit growth this year.
Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: LX-Viewer is a .dwg/.dxf viewer being developed for Linux and Windows under a modified GPL license, in English, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Indonesian, and Italian. http://lx-viewer.sourceforge.net/ BetaNews reports that the new beta of Office 11 includes a local install version of SharePoint for sharing information between users. [I wonder if Solid Edge can make use of this "local" version of SharePoint?] LineType Software has a LineScale (US$39) plug-in for Adobe Acrobat that snaps the cursor to selection points of the vector geometry. This allows it to make accurate length and area measurements of CAD drawings stored in PDF format. Free demo from http://www.linetype.com . Corel plans to ship Designer 10 (US$469) technical diagramming software in early March. (Corel acquired the software as part of its Micrografix acquisition.) New features include Gravity Snapping, Transformation Docker, Virtual Segment Delete tool, and Link Manager. http://www.corel.com/designer10 Also available from Corel is SVG Viewer Preview Edition [Scalable Vector Graphics] at http://www3.corel.com Autodesk is dumping its pointa.autodesk.com Web site, integrating the content into its primary www.autodesk.com Web site. In addition, the next AutoCAD release will eliminate the Today window. [Good moves both: I found Point A too cluttered to bother visiting, and the Today window annoying enuf to disable.] Says Autodesk, "The Today page in AutoCAD 2002 and AutoCAD 2000i products will remain throughout the life of those products, but it will become a simpler, non-personalized experience." [I don't understand the need for "personalization" of Web sites: it's just another word for "missing out on content you might not realize you need to know."] Xpress 3D is an on-line service bureau to which you upload STL files, and then returns plastic parts created by stereolithography. Prices vary widely, from US$195 for a small simple model like a computer mouse to $1,095 for a larger complex model like a bike helmet. In a clever marketing move, you can collect Xpress3D Points with orders and referrals redeemable at Amazon.com. https://www.xpress3d.com Right Hemisphere has CAD modules that load CAD data into Deep Exploration (translation and Web publishing) and Deep Server (automatic re-purposing of data for training, collaboration, visualization, 3D web delivery and technical documentation). The modules support AutoCAD, SolidWorks, IGES, CADKEY, Pro/ENGINEER, STEP, and VDA. http://www.righthemisphere.com Haestad Methods' WaterObjects is an object-oriented SDK [software development kit] for accessing model databases related to pipe, pump, junction, valve, and tank and reservoir data. http://www.haestad.com/pr_wo_030130-76RKRTP5
People/Companies on the Move InternalMemos.com indicates that Thomas Register has laid off 53 employees. CoCreate Software created the position of chief technology officer for John Alpine, formerly director of research and development.
Computer News Summaries The next release of Windows (code-named Longhorn) has been delayed until late 2004. New features include a unified user interface for all applications, a new file system based on SQL, and Palladium save-users-from-themselves support for hardware. -ENT News IBM says it had US$1.5 billion in Linux-related revenue in 2002, and that Linux will eventually replace its AIX operating system: "The road map is clear. It's an eight-lane highway." - CNET
Market News PTC is back in compliance with Nasdaq. Avatech Solutions has changed its stock ticker symbol from PCD to AVSO. A few readers were upset that I painted Avatech with PlanetCAD's financials. One Avatech employee was enraged enough to unsubscribe. Last week's press release <http://www.avatechsolutions.com/aboutus>, however, confirms my point. Moldflow implemented a Shareholder Rights Plan that activates when any one person acquires 15% or more of the company's common stock. The upFront.eZine stock index is at www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks
The WorthWhile Web http://home.attbi.com/~minpart/IfPiWere300.jpg
http://www.cadwire.net/commentary/?23551
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7555
Notable Quotable "Dreams without implementation are fairly easy to come by, particularly in the software industry." - Will Poole,
Microsoft vp Windows new-media platform division |
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