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#355
23 September 2003
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a l k i n g a b o u t c a d
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#355
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Contents AEC
Busting Out All Over! Q&A: Five Minutes with Eric Bouwer Spatial
vs Autodesk Below
the Radar - - - Donate Write - - -
(ADVERTISMENT) Updated and Expanded for AutoCAD 2004! Tailoring AutoCAD 2004 is the first book for AutoCAD 2004. Download as a 204-page e-book in PDF format (US$24.95) or on CD ($29.95). Covers all areas of customization, from changing the user interface to writing toolbar macros and LISP routines. Click here to sample preview pages and place your order. - - -
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Graphisoft Hires Autodeskers Graphisoft does its most aggressive acquisition to date: the company hires Dominic Gallello as its new ceo to, as the press release says, "Lead the Company into Phase of Aggressive Growth -- Graphisoft Launches Next Phase of its Evolution." Mr. Gallello is best known for launching Autodesk's successful MCAD division, but also heading up its unsuccessful RedSpark Website-spinoff. Most recently, Mr Gallello was executive vp of product development at Macromedia. He replaces Ray Small, Graphisoft's first non-Hungarian CEO, whose term is described as "a nearly 2-year transition period." A week later, and Mr Gallello hires Mark Sawyer from Autodesk, where he was vp and general manager of the AEC division. Mr Sawyer takes on the position of vp of World Wide Field Operations at Graphisoft.
SolidWorks Duz Conrete Design SolidWorks is hardcore MCAD (mechanical CAD), but now a third-party developer releases the first AEC add-on for SolidWorks. StructureWorks creates parametric 3D modeling software, and its first product is StructureWorks Precast for precast/prestressed concrete engineering. The software is expected to ship in February; in the meantime, keep up with betas at www.structureworks.net/ In semi-related news, SolidWorks unveils the Routing add-on for for automated tube, pipe, and cable route design.
Gehrye Goes Commercial Frank Gehry forms Gehry Technologies and partners with Dassault Systemes. Mr Gehrye's architectural firm is famous for using the NURBS feature of CATIA (meant for designing cars and airplanes) to design architecture, like the Guggenheim Museum in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He himself sketches on paper, however. In addition to selling AEC services, he plans a line of Gehry-branded lamps and watches. www.gehrytechnologies.com Q&A: Five Minutes
with Eric Bouwer Eric Bouwer is the CEO of Cyco Software. I interviewed him by telephone from his office in The Netherlands. - - - Q: You've indicated that Cyco is going through some changes. Tell me about them. A: Since we were founded in 1984, we have been selling primarily to small firms -- five to 20 seats -- through dealers. Our company was geared to selling in volume. With the introduction of Meridian, we find ourselves selling into mid-size firms -- several hundred seats at a time. This means we had to change from selling in volume to "solution selling." Part of the change involved a new management team. With the exception of the CFO, all of Cyco's executives have been with the company less than two years, including myself.
Q:With Cyco now selling solutions, what market segments are you targeting? A: We have identified three segments. One is our traditional business, which we call "CAD generic." We cannot leave behind our original customers. The second segment is manufacturing, but more specifically "engineering-to-order." I like to use the analogy of the Boeing 747. This is a standard aircraft, but every one of Boeing's customers wants a different set of features. So the engineering-to-order shops have to manage lots of data specific to many customers. Our research shows there are 12,000 such shops in Europe, 50% of them in Germany, plus another 5,000 in the United States. These firms often have two or more CAD systems, and typically have to re-type their bills of material at least twice. Our new BOM module works with multiple CAD systems, and eliminates the errors created by typing. The BOM module is two-way: when you make a change in the drawing, it updates the materials list; change the materials list, and it updates the drawing. The third segment is asset FM [facilities management]. Here we identified two sub markets: maintenance management and buildings FM. We formed alliances with MRO (they are the largest company in the world for maintenance management) and Archibus (building FM).
Q: How are you creating the links between Meridian and the outside partners? A: New features are added as modules, so we have BOM as a module, the Archibus connection is a module, the link to Autodesk Streamline is a module, and so on. And where there is demand for a specific link, we simply write another module for Meridian.
Q: Who do you see as your competitors? A: Globally, SmartTeam [from Dassault Systemes] is our only competitor. And then within countries, such as Germany and the USA, we have local competitors.
Q:But what about CAD vendors themselves? Increasing, they are adding document management, BOM, and other non-CAD features to their CAD software. A: CAD vendors will always be behind us. Any advances they make keep us on our toes to make a better product. In addition, the CAD vendor's products are isolated to their CAD system, whereas Cyco integrates the mutli-CAD environment.
Q:Where will Cyco's future growth come from? A: We plan to expand our business through growth and acquisitions. Spatial vs. Autodesk For background on Spatial's lawsuit against Autodesk, see: Q&A: Five Minutes with Robert Kross (4 Dec 01) Spatial Responds to Autodesk (11 Dec 01) Spatial Sues Autodesk, D-Cubed (29 Jan 02) Spatial's law suit had also named D-Cubed a defendant. Since then, D-Cubed has been dismissed in summary judgment, and the case is now between Spatial and Autodesk, tried by jury. - - - I asked Spatial to tell me what the lawsuit is about: Spatial's lawsuit against Autodesk has nothing to do with Autodesk attempting to hire people from our Cambridge office [as upFront.eZine incorrectly reported last week]. Our lawsuit against them is for breach of contract, and our belief that they abused our intellectual property. Autodesk is still a Spatial customer, they just no longer have to pay us royalties [having paid us a lump sum]. They do have rights to the source code, but not to the IP [intellectual property] -- they DID NOT purchase the IP. Our goal is to protect our IP, which in turn serves our customers. This is the crux of the lawsuit. The main issue with Autodesk hiring D-Cubed is that they did so when they had no right to use a third party. Autodesk pre-paid royalties to Spatial, which gave them rights (per the terms of their contract) to the use of source code, but they were limited to using that source code in specific locations, namely Autodesk company locations only. Our contention is that Autodesk shipped the source code to D-Cubed, a third party. The D-cubed people who worked on ACIS for the past ten years were the people D-cubed put on the Autodesk contract the day AFTER the D-cubed contract ended with Spatial. There was no 'cooling off' period, so to speak. Our view is this is a breach of contract and an abuse of our intellectual property. - - - I then asked for Autodesk to react to Spatial's statement: This lawsuit, filed by Dassault subsidiary Spatial, is without merit. It is unfortunate that this contract dispute is forced to be determined in a courtroom. Autodesk worked to resolve this dispute amicably and in good faith to avoid a trial, but Dassault Systemes was determined to bring this case. Autodesk believes that our industry thrives on healthy competition and as such prefers to compete in the marketplace rather than a court of law. In the technology industry it is not uncommon to see business competition turn into a legal battle and move from the marketplace to the courtroom when's one's market share is eroding. We think that's what this lawsuit is really about. A competitor is trying to reinterpret a contract that has been in place for more than ten years, and we will vigorously defend our right to continue to work with the most talented pool of resources available in the way the contract intended. Autodesk's priority is to build great products and to protect the investment our customers have made in the solutions that we provide. It may be customary or required to have a 'cooling off' period for employees between jobs in France, where Dassault Systemes is headquartered, but in the United Kingdom and California there are no such restrictions. Employees and contractors have very few restrictions on where they can earn a living. Autodesk respects the right for people to work where they choose as afforded and protected by applicable laws, and honors all contractual agreements in which the company engages." Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: ABI Mouse (US$19) maps AutoCAD commands and macros to mouse buttons using standard AutoCAD syntax. It also has a true one-click zoom-window command. Other mouse utilities available free from http://www.abicad.com NavisWorks says v3.2 of NavisWorks3 is compatible with the most recent releases of all "popular" 3D design file formats, including SolidWorks 2004. The software allows you to review 3D designs without CAD systems. http://www.navisworks.com/press_20030829.htm TTF reports its PRC compression technology converts 30MB CATIA V4 files to 0.2MB compressed files in nine seconds, yet preserves all data. The technology can be applied to other CAD formats, and is meant for emailing and Web-based collaboration. http://www.ttf-group.com Geometric Software Solutions is awarded a US patent for its Hole Recognition algorithms. "I am sure this patent is a precursor of more to come," says Manu Parpia, the company's managing director. CADKEY ships CADKEY Workshop V21.5 with 250 enhancements over Release 19/99. http://www.cadkey.com/upgrade Spatial ships V12 of its ACIS modeler and related 3D subsystems. http:// www.spatial.com NVIDIA Corporation is pleased that research by International Data found that the company increased its personal workstation market share to 73% for both 2D and 3D segments. http://www.nvidia.com Matrox Graphics says its new Parhelia HR256 graphics card (US$2,495) handles resolutions as high as 3840x2400 on LCD monitors, such as such as the 9-megapixel IBM T221. http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/p_hr256/home.cfm And nPower Software releases v2.0 of Power Solids for Rhino (US$295), which gives the NURBS modeler access to solids modeling. 30-day eval copy from http://www.npowersoftware.com Newsletter/Webzine Watch The offices of the 'TechniCom' e-newsletter and CAD-Portal.com were damaged by fire in late August. Owner Ray Kurland is relieved most of his data was backed up, but dismayed at the loss of treasures. Details here: www.cad-portal.com/eWeekly/issues/Issue126/eWeekly_Iss126.php3 People/Companies on the Move Well-known Australian CAD writer Geoff Harrod is now a dealer for Cadsoft products (Build, AP Design, Cadsoft Concepts, Envisioneer) in the Queensland and northern NSW area of Australia. http://www.cadsofft-qld.com.au 3D Systems names Abe Reichental as president and ceo and director. Mr Reichental is the former vp of Sealed Air’s Shrink Packaging Division. Market News Avatech ceo Donald Walsh announces a 2-for-1 stock split, which cuts the price of shares in half. In the last year, the share price has ranged between 30 cents and US$2.05. The upFront.eZine stock index is at http://www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks The WorthWhile Web http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/solaris-express/sol_index.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/email_tracker.htm
http://www.academia.org/lectures/lind1.html
Brand New CAD Books "The Survivor's Guide to MicroStation V8" Letters to the Editor "It is interesting to see the trend toward regional collaboration on major software upgrades that may impact business partners. We see the same trend on the GIS-side of the house. Thought you might like to know about this: > David Y'Barra and Alan Kroll of Arizona Department of - Edward Bronson - - - "It would seem that we are waiting for a major productivity boosting change in CAD. I have used Revit for two years, and think I have found productivity. What I have seen of ArchiCAD, it seems to also offer the same boost. They are still young programs, and I look forward to user interface improvements, faster save times, and better and more generic objects. "That said, I intend to teach and demonstrate Revit to my students and continue to use it in my own practice of architecture. Modeling buildings is far more productive than 'drawing' floor plans and elevations. "I am experiencing a productivity boost greater than the shift from manual drafting to CAD drafting. The automatically added 3D views and document coordination far outweigh the added care required in setting wall heights and aligning things level to level. "I sense a change in the way I do work, similar to the shift
from typed letters to word processor-generated letters, to the almost
exclusive use of email. I cannot imagine not using building modeling
to design and document my projects." - - - Re: What Can't CAD Companyies Make Money Anymore? "OOOOO --
I like your analysis. Why can't companies realize that and reduce
the number of new releases and stop the closeout of upgrades, i.e.
no upgrade cost advantage for AutoCAD 2000 after 15JAN04." The editor replies: "Money matters." - - - Re: Printed Documentation "I disagree with doing away with printed resources. I feel it is much easier to read and design instead of jumping back and forth with multiple screens. I will say the search and find feature in locating help issues are wonderfully and quick. But there are times when it is beneficial to move away from ones desk and read the subject matter and digest the information. "With the price of we pay for software (any software) you
would think it is the LEAST they could do is print some darn manuals." The editor replies: "I find I never use the printed documentation of any software product anymore. Alt+Tab works fine for me! Back when AutoCAD was just $1000, its documentation came as a hardcover book. I believe that R12 was the last hurrah, a huge package that 'PC Magazine' declared the heaviest software package ever." - - - Re: New Zealand Travelogue "Seeing the longest place name, reminded me of my early school days here in New Zealand. As part of our school lessons, the whole class had to learn the name off by heart. We then had great fun pretending to talk in Maori to each other, by reciting parts of the word to each other: Taumatawhakatangi. "This was long before the days when the Maori language became
part of schooling." - - - "Thank you for your unbiased, concise, entertaining, and
dependable reporting of the CAD industry." Spin Doctor of the Moment "Using the most conservative and realistic calculations,
we actually lose money on this." Notable Quotable "The 'pseudo-profound': those phrases that sound at first
hearing as if they reveal deep truths, but upon second thought are
found to mean nothing much at all." |
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