February
10, 2004
Issue
#372
< Previous Issue Next >
T
H E B U S I N E S S O F C A
D
|
February
10, 2004 < Previous Issue Next >
|
|
|
- - - C
O N T E N T S EDS
to Sell Its CAD Division - - - 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.
|
The 'Financial Times' is reporting that EDS has found a private buyer for its CAD division, UGS PLM Solutions. The price is set at US$1.8 billion, or 2x annual revenues. Readers of our Weblog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/> learned of this news Monday morning at 8:30am. (To raise much-needed cash, EDS had originally planned to sell just a minority of the division, probably around 20%, through an IPO [initial public offering of shares] in the first half of this year.) "EDS said it had received 'solid interest' in a private sale and expected to make a decision within a month. It would not say who had expressed the interest or what amount had been offered," reports FT.com. Who Might Buy? Reuters quotes Jeff Baum, EDS director of investor relations, saying, "We have some potential buyers who are looking at the business." The new CEO of EDS had said earlier that his company had no reason to be in the software business (because EDS is a services company). Who might the purchaser be?
- - - Q4 Earnings: EDS (UGS PLM Solutions) Prior to yesterday's big news, EDS reported a Q4 net loss of US$354 million, a massive reversal from a year ago, when it made a profit of $360 million. The loss was due to a write-off of $559 million for the glitch-ridden US Navy intranet contract, the revenue from which will be half as much as EDS expected -- $900 million a year, instead of $1.9 billion. Sales to General Motors fell 14%, and revenue from new contracts fell in half to $4.3 billion. The company expects its profits for 2004 to fall by half. One analyst said, "We think negatives outweigh the positives. The real hope for upside is now 2006 instead of 2005." Moody's Investors Service may cut its rating on EDS to "junk," which increases the interest EDS pays on $5.8 billion of debt. It also triggers clauses in some customer contracts, where EDS would have to prove it could still carry out the terms of the contracts. In more positive news, Q4 revenue was $5.76 billion, up 8% from a year ago. Revenue from the UGS PLM Solutions division were up 8% to $248 million, and its rofit increased by 49% to $56 million. - - - Q4 Earnings: Dassault Systemes "None of our competitors matched our performance." Dassault Systems was pleased to announced that Q4 sales rose to e227.8 million, but annual revenues 2.5% fell to e754.8 million over a year earlier. (For 2004, the company hopes to make e765 million.) Net profit rose 12.4% to e57.8 million. The company would have done better, had not the Euro strengthened against the US dollar. While sales were up 2%, they would have been up 8% without the exchange rate fluctuation. Some 10,493 CATIA seats and "a record" 7,068 new SolidWorks seats were licensed during the quarter. Autodesk touches many lives and a lot of companies, often with complex histories. Punch Software is one -- a company we had not heard of before. (No relation to Punch Web Groups.) The very first CAD package for Windows was Drafix from Foresight Resources, located in Kansas City MO. The company was bought by SoftDesk, which in turn was bought by Autodesk. Some of the Foresight people left Autodesk, forming drafix.com. Also out of that group was formed Punch Software, which sells low-cost CAD software into retail markets. They're located in... Kansas City MO. The software lineup from Punch ranges from Home Complete at US$19, through to Architectural Series 3000 ($199) for commercial users. In between, there are a variety of software packages for home design, decks, and landscaping. Stuart Cohen was part of that history; last time he visited here, it was to show off Autodesk's AutoSketch R5 He's now Punch's director of partner programs, and this time he was here to talk about their $200-CAD program being extensible by third-party developers. Correct us if we're wrong, but could this is the cheapest CAD platform on the market? The plug-ins are called "PowerTools"; the first were been written by Punch, but others are under development by 98 third-party developers, as you start to see at www.punchsoftware.com/PowerTool_store.htm . Examples include automatic framing, 2D elevation editor, layout manager, fireplace wizard, and estimation. The plug-ins run in external windows, but retain much of the Punch software look'n feel. As we understood it, the technical process works like this:
The PFX file (no relation to the similar-sounding DFX file) has an area called a "blackbox" for each PowerTool. That allows any copy of Punch to display custom objects and data generated by PowerTools; some limited editing is allowed, such as move and erase. Mr Cohen sees four kinds of people writing plug-ins: (1) users who like tinkering with code, and creating something useful for themselves; (2) corporations with internal needs; (3) new and existing developers who specialize in add-ons; and (4) entrepreneurs who are looking to build on Architectural. If you wanna sell a plug-in you've developed, that can be done only through Punch's online e-store. The advantage is that it becomes a one-stop location for all plug-ins; the disadvantage is that Punch takes a share of your profit. www.punchsoftware.com Autodesk has said rude things about Adobe, its Acrobat software, and the PDF [portable document format] file format. Not so long ago, visitors to Autodesk's DWF Web site saw pictures of inept acrobats and the letters PDF struck through with a red diagonal line. The negative campaign made the self-proclaimed "world's leading design software and digital content company" sound like an underdog. More recently, the anti-PDF rhetoric has been eliminated, with Autodesk's director of DWF strategy Tony Peach acknowledging that "Adobe's PDF is good for standard office applications..." and that "...the DWF file format was developed specifically for design and engineering industries...". At www.autodesk.com/dwf, the anti-PDF logo has been replaced with a curvy DWFit logo. Until last week, it was only Autodesk products and a few other software packages that handled DWF. Available at the Revit Web site was a piece of software called "DWF Writer." It is a printer driver that allows any software package to generate DWF files. Last week, Autodesk made the 5MB download available officially from its own Web site at www.autodesk.com/dwfwriter (registration required). In a press release, Autodesk pokes at competitors: "DWF Writer brings this same functionality to other CAD applications that do not offer built-in DWF publishing, such as Bentley MicroStation and SolidWorks." The truth is that neither company has any interest building-in DWF. Bentley is working with Adobe to make PDF more friendly towards CAD, and SolidWorks has its own highly-advanced eDrawings format. Adobe itself directly supports PDF output from AutoCAD 2004 (and earlier), but not for free. Shyly deposited in the midst of the press release is mention of another piece of software: "For users that need electronic review and mark-up capabilities, the soon-to-be-released DWF Composer both helps reduce cycle time and costly printing and plotting throughout the design collaboration process. DWF Writer will be a key component of DWF Composer, enabling users to composite multiple file types into a single DWF file, further facilitating the exchange and archiving of drawing sets." The DWF software collection from Autodesk now consists of:
Autodesk hopes DWF would become the universal exchange format for drawings in an uneditable format. Competitors are suspicious, and are developing their own formats (eDrawing) or relying on others (PDF and CSF). For now, Autodesk is making DWF generation, viewing, and printing available for free, perhaps hoping "grassroots" drafters will ingratiate DWF in their organizations. Missing from last week's announcement is mention of support for the Macintosh. Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that we find interesting. - - - Jim Longley has a blog with tips for VersaCAD users at versacad.motime.com Outline 3D is an online design service for interior designers, furniture suppliers, and real estate firms. (It doesn't work with Opera, sniff.) ParallelGraphics is now making the software available "offline," for running on your computer. The 31MB download is available from www.outline3d.com We weren't too sure why IMSI spent US$8 million on a company that makes utility software. But a recent mailing gives us the CAD angle: "Dear CAD User, StuffIt Standard Edition is the easy solution for all your CAD file sharing and other file compression and sharing needs." In related news, IMSI is selling AllCAD 2D and AllCAD 2D/3D macros for DesignCAD. No price for AllCAD, but DesignCAD Express is $39.95 -- or $49.95, depending on which button you click at www.imsisoft.com VX Corp says their new VX Version 9 software has "so much into this release it is impossible to cover everything." Some new features include assembly cuts, enhanced interference checking, history manager GUI, and 3D primitives for bypassing sketching. More info at www.vx.com . Don't miss the cool pitcrew shirt at www.vx.com/images/webstore/pit.jpg Corel's new Designer Professional SG software supports CATIA 4 and 5, AutoCAD 2000, STEP, Pro/ pre-2001, IGES, and SAT. It is priced at a very un-Corel price of US$4,750. Plain old Designer 10 remains at US$699. www.corel.com/designerpro In related news, Corel sells off its XML division, leaving it to concentrate on WordPerfect, CorelDraw, and Designer. D-Cubed updates its 3D DCM geometric constraint engine used to position parts in CAD/CAM/CAE applications. Improvements are made for manipulating spline curves, kinematic simulation, and underconstrained models. Look for these in future updates of your favorite CAD package. www.d-cubed.co.uk Altima Technologies has 60,000 equipment shapes for Visio, PowerPoint, iGrafx, AutoCAD, and so on. Prices start at US$399. www.NetZoomUniversal.com Users of Okino software now have access to affordable 3D CAD import converters, directly accessible as native and direct importers within the NuGraf, PolyTrans, 3ds max or Maya user interfaces. www.okino.com And the OpenHSF Initiative made available the free source-code version of the HOOPS Stream Toolkit v10.0. hoops3d.com Seminars and Conferences PLM World 2004 takes place May 17-21 in Anaheim CA USA. All attendees receive a free USB Flash drive, not exactly as pictured at event.plmworld.org People/Companies on the Move Alibre promotes Greg Milliken to president and CEO. Mr Millikin was vp of sales and marketing. Alibre founder J. Paul Grayson stays on as chairman of the board. Ex-employees of Visio have a new company called The Graw Group <www.grawgroup.com>. Visio co-founder Ted Johnson had been corporate vp of Microsoft Business Tools, but retired last August. Jeremy Jaech, the other Visio co-founder, stayed for just six months following Microsoft's $1.2-billion purchase of Visio Corp in January 2000. The Graw Group hopes to release an alpha of its social-networking software this fall. ("Graw" was one of several names recommended for ShapeWare Corp's new software; it is short for "graphics drawing." The company picked Visio instead. ShapeWare was later renamed Visio Corp.) - Microsoft Watch <www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1516766,00.asp> Helmers Publishing names Steve Kern associate publisher of 'Desktop Engineering' magazine. Computer News Summaries The first Blu-Ray "DVD" recorder from Sony is due in May. It'll record 23.3GB on PPD-RW and PPD-R discs using SCSI and USB 2 interfaces. At a write speed of 9MB/sec, it'll take 44 minutes to burn a disc. Market News Privately-held think3 is boasting of 80% growth during its fiscal year 2003, and 194% in the USA during the last quarter. "Finishing 2003 with two consecutive profitable quarters and nearly 1,000 new customers, think3's growth seems to be outpacing other companies in the PLM space," says pr guy Rob Pasquinucci. The upFront.eZine stock index is at www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks WorthWhile Web www.whidbey.net/visitor/ferry.html
www.cbcradio3.com
Letters to the Editor Re: Competing Against PDF, DWF, eDrawings "This smells suspiciously like where we've just emerged from within the CAD market: all the file formats competing for our content. Did we not learn anything from all this? It will become unsustainable in the short-term to have so many publishing- and delivery- based formats. It also appears the same players (as from the CAD market) are in this new game, too. "Why can't it be as simple as 'I am delivering my clients these files with the following usage rights/options':
- - - Re: Is AEC Harder than MCAD? "I find the 'automatic' 3D modeling of Revit gives me more confidence in my design and the resulting 2D documents given to the contractors for bidding and construction. The easily added static 3D views are helpful to the contractors to quickly grasp the intent of the documents (I usually add a page or two of 3D isometric and perspective views to the construction documents). And the owners are on board when questions arise because they have seen and understand the design intent. "Construction will probably change slowly but steadily toward virtual modeling of the building before actual construction to reduce conflicts and surprises. At a recent conference (AIA Technology in Practice in San Francisco, Nov. 2003) I was interested to note that many of the early adopters of Building Information Modeling are contractors seeking to make sense of 2D bid documents from architects. On multi-million dollar projects they found that the payback from a few days or weeks of drafting on Revit or ArchiCAD was a 'no-brainer'. "At the same conference it was noted
that of the annual trillion-plus dollar spending on construction
that about $24 billion was spent on design services, and hundred-plus
billion on dealing with coordination and construction errors. The
suggestion was made that if we could cut the errors in half, we
could double our fees and everyone would come out ahead. Interesting
thought."
"If labourers are missing the details
that are on the drawings currently, why should we show more detail?
This is not an architectural problem. Try convincing a retail or
commercial client that you should spend more time (money) detailing
every nut and bolt so the contractor doesn't miss anything. Who
gets shafted when they miss it anyways?"
"Techno-optimists, what a great term. "All I can say, Ralph, is that Autodesk circa 1990 said it was their goal to 'move' all their users to 3D, and what are the percentages now? Extend that graph out to about 2100 to be complete. "The great difference is between mass production and engineer- or build-to-order. It always has been the obvious dividing line. "The other big problem is the crappy quality of 2D drawings that are 'automatically' derived from 3D models. We have had this debate since way back in CompuServe days [the primary form of online communication between AutoCAD users prior to the Internet going mainstream]. I used to give Autodesk heck for treating its 2D designers (who made them) like stepchildren. It might seem like an old argument, but a lot of the basics have not changed: 2D drawing is graphic shorthand. It is not pictorial; it's a diagram. "All the information to locate a structural angle is given with two solid lines and one hidden line. A 2D drawing generated from the model of an angle always seems to have 5 to 7 lines. A lot of times, the hidden lines on the opposite side of an assembly are not to be shown, but they come thru on drawings generated automatically from models. "I have enjoyed using AutoCAD since
2000. I think they have a good product and have made many good recent
improvements. My suggestions for the future: 2D parametrics,
bill of material, and so on." Spin Doctor of the Moment "The new logo is a representation of
CyberLink's energy and professional spirit, and a reflection of
a company that has integrity, welcomes change and strives for innovation.
In an ever-changing digital multimedia market where speed is the
key to success, the slanting 'CyberLink' connotes activity, fast
motion, and implies of never standing still. Meanwhile bold type
depicts the company's sustainable business model and the professional
approach that CyberLink takes to dealing with customers. The red
platform reflects employees' passion, strength, and vision, in tackling
new market opportunities. CyberLink's record is of identifying new
markets and going directly for them with speed and the aim to be
the number one." Notable Quotable "Journalists view these events through
their jaundiced telescopes, finding ways to suck the life and color
out of all that happens below the level of Hewlett-Packard, IBM,
Intel, and Microsoft."
|
|
Return to www.upfrontezine.com. Entire contents copyright ©2004 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. |
This e-newsletter is shareware. You may read this free. If you would like to support the author in his work, we suggest a donation of US$25.00 to PayPal in the account of grabowski @ telus.net. Click here to make payment.
Reprint fee: US$500 |
.
