November
25, 2003
Issue
#364
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O N T E N T S $240-million Gift Protested by One - - - - - - Autodesk
Q3 Conference Call - - - 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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$240-million Gift Protested by One Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) last week gave CDN$240 million worth of software, hardware, and training to the University of British Columbia (UBC). The gift was presented by General Motors Canada, Sun Microsystems, and EDS to the UBC engineering department (called "applied science" by UBC; I'm a graduate from the program). Since 1999, PACE has handed out US$2 billion of gifts to two dozen universities. The gifts typically consist of hundreds of licenses of CAD software from UGS PLM Solutions, computer and networking hardware from Sun Microsystems, and -- I'm not able to figure out what GM provides -- funding and training, perhaps? The PACE Web site has slowed its pace, not having been updated since April <www.pacepartners.org/>. What do the companies get for their two billion?
In typical Canadian fashion to exhibit fairness, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) provided a dissenting comment: "Protesters said the gift could compromise the university's independence and limit academic freedom. 'We're against increasing corporate funding at the same time public funding is being decreased,' said Oliver Plessis." Mr Plessis and the other protesters are not identified further. My request to the CBC for more information was ignored. www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/19/ubc031118 - - - Companies target schools in the hopes of making customers-for-life. Does it work? At my children's secondary school, CAD is taught using the DOS version of AutoSketch. It was cheap, it still works, and it doesn't need expensive hardware upgrades. (The tactic can backfire: I recall a bank with the on-campus monopoly at UBC. But instead of creating lifelong customers for itself, the bank created business for its off-campus competitors. Having a monopoly means never having to say you're sorry.) Solid Edge Backgrounder The Japanese translation of upFront.eZine unfortunately stated incorrectly that Solid Edge software is being spun off from EDS. This lead to Japanese customers calling EDS, wondering about the status of the software. Bill McClure, vp of MCAD Products at UGS PLM Solutions, called to explain that Solid Edge won't soon be having a fourth owner, as surmised in an earlier issue of this newsletter. Here's the history: Intergraph sold its mechanical division to UGS in 1998. At the time, UGS was already 82%-owned by EDS. In 2001, EDS bought bought back the remaining 18% of publicly-owned UGS shares. Thus, Solid Edge has had two owners. Next year, when EDS sells a minority position in UGS, the amount will probably be less than 20%. Here's why: as along as an American company owns 80% or more of a division, its earnings can be included by the parent. Since PLM Solutions is profitable, it helps EDS look better financially. - - - A competitor puzzled over a pair of EDS press releases that contained two different growth rates. One said Solid Edge grew 10%; the second had larger numbers: +15% growth Solid
Edge EDS replied that the first press release discussed the past 12 months compared to the same period a year earlier (10%). The second compared 3Q03 with 3Q02 (15%). The percentage growth numbers quoted above are for total product revenue, including license, maintenance, and services. But why is the overall growth just 8%? "These products [listed above] represent a subset of all the products offered by UGS PLM Solutions and were highlighted due to their impressive growth. Obviously, since our overall revenue growth was 85, not all of our products grew at this rate." Autodesk Q3 Conference Call CEO Carol Bartz is happy with so many indicators up in Autodesk's third quarter:
But not everything was up. Sales in Europe declined 2%, and GAAP net income fell 31%. Sales of AutoCAD LT fell by 17%, perhaps due to its ever increasing price. Even with sales of AutoCAD are up, they are still at half of the level of back in 2000. In other bad news, Autodesk plans to lay off several hundred employees, and close more facilities. AutoCAD 2000 will be "obit'ed" in 2004, and AutoCAD 2000i in 2005 -- further upsetting customers. This also means new releases of AutoCAD in 2004 and in 2005. I wonder if Autodesk is finally onto an annual release cycle? Under its subscription program, it really has to be -- considering the rarity of extensions. - - - The next release of AutoCAD is named "AutoCAD 2005," and Autodesk hopes to ship all 2005-based products (that would be ADT, MDT, LDT, and so on) "in the Spring." Currently, AutoCAD and LT bring in over 50% of Autodesk's revenues; the company hopes to reduce that to 15-20% by getting more customers using (and paying for) the more-expensive vertical products. Ms Bartz is pleased that Inventor MCAD software has double the sell-rate of competitor SolidWorks: Inventor has been licensed 258,463 times in half the time that it took SolidWorks. Of these, 102,000 are commercial applications, with the remainder in education. Some 5,700 of AIS sold in Q3. She notes that Autodesk software has displaced installations from Bentley Systems. Competitors mentioned in conference calls are considered significant competitors. Autodesk counted a half-million downloads of the free DWF-only Express Viewer software between August and October. They claim that one million of their customers are using DWF (design Web format). To which I can only ask, "How do they know?" Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I find interesting: LiveLabel 2004 adds reactors to AutoCAD drawings. Text, attributes, dimensions, and object properties change automatically when other objects change in drawings. www.xanadu.cz/livelabel Gibbs and Associates rolls out GibbsCAM 2004 with next-generation Windows interface, 2.5D solids machining option, and automatic feature recognition. www.GibbsCAM.com SMLib v6.0 has faster tessellation, offset solid creation from one or more surfaces, separate debugger window, clean-up of "dirty" polygon data, and more. www.smlib.com/Manual/NewStuff.html Updates to Autodesk's ShapeManager include loft enhancements, 3D splines, and face drafts. ALGOR announces PipePak V9, its piping system design and analysis software with all-new user interface. www.PipePak.com Delcam's PowerMILL v5 improves rest roughing, variable thickness machining, and better collision checking. www.delcam.co.uk Elysium prices per-file 3D CAD translation: Under-25MB files US$100; up to 50MB $250; larger files by quote. Formats include Inventor, CATIA V4/V5, SolidWorks, I-DEAS, Unigraphics, IGES, Pro/ENGINEER, and ParaSolid. www.elysiuminc.com And RAND Worldwide releases TailorMade CONFIGURATOR, its Web-based software that reduces time and cost for custom product manufacturing, and operates with CATIA V5, Pro/E Wildfire, and Inventor v7. www.rand.com Newsletter/Webzine Watch Former Cadence columnist Lachmi Khemlani launches AECbytes "rather than move on to Cadalyst." She has set high goals: an e-mail newsletter focused on technology for the building industry, product reviews, case studies, comparative analyses, and more -- a one-person Cyon! www.aecbytes.com Cheves Media creates 'The American Surveyor' magazine for land surveyors and geomatics professionals -- in print and electronic format. Eight issues a year starting in January. No Web site, yet. allen.cheves@mindspring.com myCADsite offers free online CAD tutorials, and other CAD-related content, featuring 39 tutorials with self-quizzes by Art Whitton. myCADsite.com People/Companies on the Move Tom Greaves and Bruce Jenkins left Daratech last summer, and now opened their new venture, Spar Point Research at www.sparllc.com . They provide business research to aerospace, automotive, civil infrastructure, consumer products, and more. Océ appoints Michelle Griffin as vp of customer experience. Ms. Griffin was in charge of the six sigma program at Bank of America. Xanadu is the new name for CAD Studio, following the acquisition of i-Systems. "Xanadu" is a place of great beauty, luxury, and contentment. www.xanadu.cz Redo While RAND mathematically runs out of cash by January (as calculated at the end of September), the company is cutting costs in order to recover for the long term. In addition, RAND is in negotiations with a third-party for additional support, and is seeing strengthening sales. Computer News Summaries Creative Technologies is so fed up of people copying its designs it's going to start making cheapo versions of its own products and compete against people doing so illegally. - www.theinquirer.net/?article=12799 Market News think3 revenues in Q3 grew 110% over a year ago, primarily due to sales in Italy. The upFront.eZine stock index is at www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks WorthWhile Web www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2003 www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html
airsicknessbags.com
Letters to the Editor Re: DWF vs PDF vs Contender #3 "Not
likely. #1 is DWG, with billions of files extant. After this, the
positions are uncertain, but likely beating both DWF and eDrawings
are IGES/STEP and CGM." "Only the publisher of editable eDrawings
needs to pay for eDrawings Professional. Anyone who receives an
eDrawing created with eDrawings Professional can mark-up the drawings
free of charge. "If the eDrawings file was created with
a professional license ($$), you can mark up, section, measure (option
set by generator), move components, and save as STL (option set
by the generator). "You failed to mention some notable differences
when comparing eDrawings to the competition. eDrawings provides
support of 3D, shaded or unshaded, including animation. Additionally,
the FREE eDrawings viewer (supporting 3D and more) and SolidWorks
plug-in available via download from SolidWorks."
Re: IMSI Keeps on Acquiring "How likely do you think is the acquisition
by IMSI of engineering.com? This acquisition could change the landscape
of online CAD sales and that is why I am so interested in understanding
as much as possible about it." The editor replies: "It turns out my guess was off-base. At this time, I cannot yet reveal the purchaser of RAND's spinoff."
Notable Quotable "Let me speak up for the millions of Scots everywhere in expressing our annoyance at McD's for taking our surname prefix 'Mc' and turning it into a cheesy signifier for tasteless globalized pap." - Douglas Coupland on McDonald's complaining of his "McJob" word. |
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