July 20, 2004
Issue
#395
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- - - C
O N T E N T S Vendor
Support Survey, Par Deux Joe
Dunne Comes to Visit UGS
Press Event Below
the Radar Write - - - Donate - - - Look for additional,
nearly-daily CAD commentary at our Weblog: (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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Vendor Support Survey, Par Deux We've been testing how well CAD vendors respond to pre-sales enquires from potential customers. In this second round, we again sent a fairly technical question (involving 3D-to-2D dimensioning) to ten vendors, from a Hotmail email account. We contacted the MCAD vendors by looking on their Web site for an email address or a Web form, which we then filled out. We kept track of the date of contact and when the firms responded -- if at all. The following firms were contacted: Alibre We heard back from these firms:
We plan a test of AEC CAD firms at some point in the future.
SolidWorks 2005 is now available, and so Joe Dunne flew to the West Coast to show us the new release. Many of the improvements can be segregated into three categories:
For the user interface, new aspects are the Task Pane, Design Library, File Explorer, and Design Binder. In the area of design, there is the Indent and Flex features, MoldflowXpress, dynamic lighting, curves on surface, enhanced weldments, curvature continuous loft, and more. For bringing together parts, there are enhanced assembly explode and interference detection. Also, the note editor has been enhanced, there is a new DrawCompare, multi-user tools, and more. - - - For the AutoCAD user switching to SolidWorks, there's the new DWGEditor (based on Cadopia's flavor of IntelliCAD 4), auto dimensioning, enhanced sketch trims, enhanced spline tools, and new quick snaps. When it comes to the AutoCAD-compatible DWGEditor, SolidWorks is quick to emphasis that it is not a replacement for AutoCAD. "If half your shop is AutoCAD and half SolidWorks, we're not saying replace the AutoCAD half with the DWGEditor," explains Mr Dunne. Hence, it is called "DWGEditor" -- and not DWGcreator. The DWGEditor is meant for reading existing drawings saved in .dwg format, and then being able to edit them, if necessary, before importing them into SolidWorks. In addition, SolidWorks 2005 automatically creates associative part files and drawing files from Autodesk Mechanical Desktop files. UGS Press Event The "new" CAD company, UGS, held an event for the media last week in New York City. I'd loved to have gone, but UGS was springing only for hotel, not the air fare. What with my son's Grade 12 graduation, the in-law's 50th wedding anniversary, and me fracturing my fibula, I'd forgotten about the event until pr guy John Day starting sending email after email loaded with press releases. I've reproduced the 15 headlines below, and you can take from them what you will:
"One more," Mr Day writes, "This should be it for today. Whew!"
- - - And, Mike Paludan has a new job at UGS Solid Edge as marketing director for the Americas sales zone. Taking his place at Solid Edge global public relations is Susan Cinadr <Susan.Cinadr @ ugs.com>. Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that we found interesting: Alibre Design 8.0, due out late this summer, adds free-form modeling for 3D sketches and surfaces. Version 8 also imports surfaces for slicing, extruding, and thickening. www.alibre.com L PRIZE is a software developer contest to write the next generation of freeware LEGO CAD tools. www.lprize.com Spicer releases DocuJet 3.0 for generating raster images from any Windows application, eliminating the need to print and then scan-to-file. Download free eval copy from www.spicer.com Informative Graphics says that its free ModelPress Reader now supports IronCAD’s native 3D file format, and is distributed with the new IronCAD v7. www.infograph.com Cadro's HatchKit v2.3 is a visual editor for hatch pattern definition (PAT) files used by AutoCAD, Revit, IntelliCAD, and others. www.cadro.com.au/hatchkit/ Cimmetry Systems reports that its AutoVue 18 (due out this month) includes digital mockup, where you simulate models and assemblies on-the-fly, and project real-world manufacturability. The update also verifies EDA designs for manufacturability, cross-probes 3D PCBs, and more. www.cimmetry.com CADAddOn.com has AutoXlsTable v2.51 for AutoCAD 2000 and higher. It does things that AutoCAD 2005's new Table command cannot, such as import Excel files and perform calculations. The company notes that the average upgrade fee for AutoCAD 2005 is US$700, but that their product is $168. www.cadaddon.com DRCAUTO Software completes LT Toolkit Max (US$450) for AutoCAD LT 2005, providing it the ability to run AutoLISP, ObjectARX, ObjectDBX, and !SlingShot Max 2005. estore.drcauto.com/lttoolkitmax.htm Dassault Systèmes has a SmartTeam-based PLM module for electronics manufacturers, called "Collaborative Systems Engineering for Electronics." www.3ds.com Empresa Solutions introduces ChangeWorks for full control over creation, revision, review, and release of SolidWorks designs. www.empresasolutions.com BricsCad V5 for Linux will be beta-released later this month, with a commercial version ready at the end of September. The software is the Windows version tweaked to run on Linux under the WINE emulator. www.bricscad.com And MultiCIM Technologies announces PRO Menu (US$99) for AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD LT 2005. Download a trial version from www.multicim.com/pmenu.html . The company also offers PRO Key (US$39), a new keyboard macro recorder/player for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. Seminars & Conference The first conference for application developers interested in IntelliCAD is Sept 16-17 in Denver CO USA. [I'll be speaking at this event.] www.intellicad.org/WorldMeeting2004/ SolidWorks World 2005 takes place at Disney Coronado Springs Resort Jan 30 - Feb 2, 2005 in Orlando FL USA. www.solidworks.com/pages/SWWorld05/main.html People/Companies on the Move RAND Worldwide acquired RGB Technologies, providing Rand with access to the northeastern region of France and its automotive customer sector. Former Visio founders Jeremy Jaech and Ted Johnson landed US$4.75 million in venture financing for their latest company, The Graw Group -- "a consumer Web-service company that is helping to coordinate family members and the communities to which they belong." Nautical Data International commenced a $68-million copyright infringement action against C-Map USA and Navionics over Canadian nautical charts. NDI claims that the two pirated the data, and then sold digital nautical charts for use with their proprietary hardware and software. The Canadian Hydrographic Service gave NDI the exclusive right to convert paper charts into digital format for resale. WorthWhile Web www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/phenom.htm
www.stargroup.com/ResidentialInspections.htm?hnt/rt003.html~main Letters to the Editor Re: How Many 3D Users? "Good work on the story. The June 24 press release issued by Wohlers Associates in cooperation with Joe Greco reported that an estimated 4.96 million MCAD seats were installed worldwide through the end of 2003. As you pointed out in your June 13 article, this total includes both commercial and educational seats. "Individual estimates were provided by the vendor companies named in your article, although seats are counted differently from one vendor to the next. Also, it's important to understand that the total does not necessarily reflect what is currently being used. Some of these seats may be (and probably are) inactive. "The commercial (only) installations
represent an estimated 1.194 million of the nearly 5 million seats,
according to our study. This compares to 1.172 million commercial
3D seats that Cambashi had estimated."
"There is a debate going on at the moment
in one of the Sydney architectural community's on-line discussion
groups re: CAD 2D or 3D or ?"
"2D drafting has been around since before the Greeks and Egyptians first carved their layouts into the stone slabs they were constructing with and will not be going anywhere soon. I do not see its demise in my lifetime. "3D is an excellent tool for explaining
how something works, but it will not be replacing 2D in construction
documents any time soon." The editor replies: "3D looks like the finished object, but hides information; 2D shows more data concerning the object to be built."
"I heard the story about an old, experienced carpenter who was told of the brave new paperless future in which projects would be built from plans on laptops, which were wirelessly updated daily from the home office to reflect changes and updates, etc. "'Well, with the old roll plans, when I drop 'em off the roof, they still work.' "Sort of typifies to me the difference
between function and paradigm shift."
"You reminded me of the first CAD program I used, down under here in Sydney, Australia. The package was from the United Kingdom, and was called MLDraft. "As far as I know, it was a minicomputer package, ported to the IBM PC. It ran on 8086s and above, DOS based, and developed into a fully parameterized version, with a programming interface developed by some users into some really powerful tools. "A local (Sydney) steel fabrication firm developed a package to automatically detail shop drawings, based on current Australian standards. One English company developed a package that only required a few inputs, to then calculate and draw a complete portal frame type building -- plans, elevations, sections and details automatically.
"MLDraft was competing with some much
more rudimentary packages, and decided to go 3D. Unfortunately,
an emerging giant -- AutoCAD -- appeared. Marketing overwhelmed
them as I recall. Anyone have any comments?"
"In response to your reader's letter,
Bentley Institute offers a comprehensive 3-day course titled 'Everything
3D'. This course covers 3D topics from how to navigate in 3D and
using AccuDraw in 3D to advanced 3D surface manipulation and, new
to MicroStation, Feature modeling. As part of this course, the student
is equipped with a thoroughly updated course guide (22 chapters,
406 pages.) For more information on when and where these courses
are being held, visit bentleyinstitute.bentley.com and
click on 'Instructor-led Courses'." - - - "I find the information you post quite
interesting, and I enjoy your editorial comments. Thanks for doing
such a great job of winnowing out the chaff, and providing just
the good kernels of news of the CAD world. Now if the hype writers
and publicity crowd would do the same."
"Keep up the good work." Notable Quotable "People in the industry have known that,
but there seems to be great reluctance to speak about it openly." |
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