October 12, 2004
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402
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October 12, 2004 < Previous Issue Next >
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- - - C
O N T E N T S AutoCAD
2005 for $40 Is
3D Without Hope? L.A.'s
Four Questions: Below
the Radar Write - - - Donate - - - Look for additional,
nearly-daily CAD commentary at our Weblog: (ADVERTISMENT) Updated and Expanded for AutoCAD 2005! Tailoring AutoCAD 2005 is the new e-book for AutoCAD 2005. Download as a 260-page e-book in PDF format (US$26.95) or on CD ($31.95). 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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AutoCAD 2005 for $40 Your story reminded me of April, 1997 visits to Autodesk Fair East and EDS Unigraphics Far East, both in Hong Kong. Eric Chiang, then the country manager of Autodesk FE, explained that there were about 500 legitimate (licensed) copies of AutoCAD in China at the time, yet the company estimated that at least 400,000 illegal copies were running throughout China. In Hong Kong, you could buy a CD for US$6 that included Microsoft Office, Adobe PhotoShop, AutoCAD, and many other software titles. The software installed and functioned beautifully, I was told. After the trip, I received an email from Chiang
saying that the new, not-yet-released AutoCAD Release 14 software
had been pirated, and began selling weeks earlier at the Golden
Shopping Arcade in Hong Kong for $65. The software was still being
beta tested by third-party developers in the U.S. Chiang joked that
this was Hong Kong's prerelease roll out of Release 14.
I have been in CAD/CAM/CAE for many years, working half my life outside India. Now I am working for a large automotive industry in India. I look after the IT requirement in engineering, including CAD/CAM/CAE support at all the plants. I love to play with various products and see what they are. Practically, it is not possible for us to buy every software. Nor would my company allow me to get a copy of every software. So at times I do buy these hacked software to play with, and then throw them out. But since the difference in exchange rates is very high compared to our living standard, I am only able to buy one or two every six months. I am attaching Web site that has all the CAD/CAM/CAE software. This URL works very well, and the guy responds very fast. To me, it looks his only job is to sell these illegal software. But apparently these guys keep on changing their contacts. I once asked EDS guys (when UG was with them)
to take some action, but finally EDS told me that they just can't
do anything.
[The editor notes that most software companies allow you to test their software through free downloadable demos that run for 15 or 30 days, or have some features disabled.]
The unsolicited email sounds like an unsolicited email scam. "Beacon mail" is sent under the disguise of solicited email. Once you click on the received email, a beacon is sent back to a server specifying your email address. If you click on an hyperlink within the email to a Web page, then the IP address and other details can be collected with potential spyware being loaded onto your machine, setting a dataminer tracking cookie. Basically the cheap software is a bait for spam, usage data collection, and active email verification to send more spam. Some of the best software products around are Ad-Aware spyware removal, Mailwasher spam bouncer, and Zone Alarm as a good preventive for beaconware. Lets not discount for a moment that they may
be scamming $40 without supply of the product. (I could talk about
this for hours, but the boss will kill me.) [The editor notes that upFront.eZine Publishing uses Ad-Aware <www.lavasoft.de>, Zone Alarm <www.zonealarm.com>, and eTrust AntiVirus <my-eTrust.co > on all our computers. Mailwasher is at www.mailwasher.net]
Is 3D Without Hope? I thought I would offer a condolence to L.A. He seems to have a very common tale. But there is hope. As with anything else, your success has everything to do with what you choose to do. At my company, we chose Unigraphics (UG). We had many of the same things happen to us, but not to the same magnitude described by L.A. I especially empathize with him on the standard response of, "Why ever would you want to do that?" I have heard it a hundred times or more; software companies seldom understand what you want to do. They are too far removed; another reason is that they are usually programmers who are honestly trying, but lack the background. As I said, we chose UG. I have heard of it being used to build everything from gauze bandages to aircraft carriers (well, submarines). We use it to create 3D models of injection molded plastic parts. We build the model (for industrial design concept and rapid prototyping then production), create assemblies of components, draft drawings, cut tools, and do illustrations for labeling and manuals. It's not perfect by any means but we usually have little problem getting the job done. I think most 3D packages are abysmal at drafting. UG is pretty good but even it has its DRAWbacks (pun intended). Unfortunately for those who have invested many years learning to draft, you need to learn to model in 3D. I'm convinced the primary reason 3D vendors aren't any better at drafting is that they intend to do away with it. I have been told that the days of the drawing are numbered. You don't need a drawing to create tooling anymore. Many shops don't use them. They cut steel directly from a 3D model of the part. Drawings have been relegated to inspection documents. When someone perfects a way to inspect to the solid, drawings won't even be there. There will continue to be drawings for quite
some time. Many companies either can't afford 3D systems or don't
want them. But how will they survive when industry brands them out-of-date?
Are you trying to say that 3D modeling is
not good? Nothing was said about the complexity of the design, except that the rendering time was slow; could it be because there computers were slow? I would love to see a description of the model that was made. My experience with 3D modeling is a happy one, and the drawings I produce with TurboCAD Pro look great. I know that TurboCAD is not in the same level as PDMS and other expensive programs, but come on now: 3D is the future. End of story. I do 3D modeling, and I will never go back to 2D again! And don't tell me that doing this type of drafting on paper would be faster than 3D modeling. 2D CAD is faster than 3D -- I grant you that -- but the result is less understandable at a glance than 3D. Other advantages of 3D are realistic rendering and animation, something 2D drafting lacks. Just a TurboCAD lover, nut, loon's rant. :-)
I see interest in 3D for civil engineering for roads. The particular issue is that one substantial part of the design, the earth beneath it (subgrade), varies continuously and erratically (muck, rock, etc.) - and that includes all of the utilities buried in the subgrade (which are notoriously poorly "located" until found with a backhoe!). It presents a unique problem to continuously map those subgrade variances (which can represent substantial $$s to correct) in their real 3D position while also mapping the "simple" geometry of the horizontal curves and vertical curves -- and maintaining all of the concerns for sight lines, stopping distances and public demand for esthetics. It is true, that once the accurate "in all contexts" 3D model exists, the engineer could cut cross-sections, profiles and plans as needed for presentations and published plans. It seems that getting the 2D from the 3D would be the easy part. Getting in accurate data is the hard part.
I believe that it would make an interesting follow-up to see where
3D is advancing civil engineering, particularly how accurate 3D
data is captured.
[The editor notes: The city in which we are located, Abbotsford, has been using GIS for about a decade now. Some years ago, fire trucks arrived at a burning house, they wasted time trying to find a water hydrant; the GIS-generated map showed the cul-de-sac to have one, but the nearest was located one street over.]
L.A.'s Four Questions Q1: Do 3D jobs still need to follow the normal route of producing general arrangements, and then 2D details and isometrics? Tom Greer [Intergraph]: All of the standard deliverables and construction documents come from 3D systems, and in many cases much more efficiently. The primary difference is in the mindset: attention to detail is put into the modeling phase and the intelligence that each of each 3D object (e.g., pipelines, equipment, structural systems, etc). Deliverables are simply a by-product of the 3D model. The adage "garbage in, garbage out" is especially true in the world of 3D plant design. Rene Dalmeijer: Yes, in general. Use 3D to define the design and GA [general arrangement or layouts]. You could displace the necessity of a 2D GA, though. The 3D pictures -- either shaded solid models or hidden-line removals -- tend to be much more insightful to most parties than the old 2D GA. It does require some additional annotation though. What I prefer is to create medium-specific views, with one overall view showing all systems together. Everybody gets the overall 3D GAs
Q2: Do companies using the 3D concept produce 2Ds from the model, or do they use AutoCAD (or similar) for the drafts? Tom Greer: Companies using 3D effectively generate most, if not all, of the 2D deliverables from the model. The purpose of the model is for pre-validation for constructability -- by revealing clashes and other construction-related issues before construction begins, as well as to obtain accurate material quantities and automated piping isos [isometric views]. Over our 20+ years in the business, we have seen our clients' field rework costs drop from 3%-7% of project budget to less than 1% through the effective use of 3D CAD. Our experience is that when 2D drawings are done apart from the 3D modeling effort, the old problems of field rework reappear. Rene Dalmeijer: It depends very much on the package. The last team I worked with used MicroStation with the then-current Bentley piping add-on (whose name I can now not recollect). This meant we could do everything in one package, which does help avoiding an early associativity cutoff between 3D and 2D. Depending on the drafting convention requirements a cutoff is nearly always necessary, though. I do strongly suggest that you adjust drafting conventions to the package's capabilities -- and not try to force the 3D package to model conventional 2D drafting requirements. When you do you create overly detailed 3D models, this causes tremendous hardware requirements. This means, for instance, that equipment and fittings have as low a detail as possible. All you need are blocks or cylinders showing the volume they occupy with three orientation points. If you need a very detailed 2D drawings, just replace the cylinders and blocks with the required 2D symbols.
Q3: Has anyone ever produced a good PDMS 2D general arrangement comparable to, say, an AutoCAD drawing? Tom Greer: People have been relying on our PDS software to produce project GAs for over 20 years. Depending upon client preferences and corporate graphics standards, it is possible that some drawings are manually embellished after the fact, but this is often the result of preferences and not so much inadequacies of 3D systems. Rene Dalmeijer: I have no direct experience, but have seen quite capable 2D drafts coming out of PDMS.
Q4: Do 3D modelers have to be multidisciplinary, or does a piper only do piping, and a structural guy only structures? I always wonder if the best 3D guys are IT specialists with a bit of drafting knowledge, or "drafties" with a bit of IT knowledge. Tom Greer: Many engineering companies have so-called "flex engineers" who have knowledge and capabilities across more than one discipline. If this is the case, then these engineers and designers certainly can function productively in more than one 3D design application. There are no hard and fast rules about 3D modelers having to be multi-discipline or single-discipline in their abilities any more than there are in the world of linen, vellum, mylar, and 2D CAD. Some people are specialists while others are versatile -- this is true with or without 3D. The best 3D designers are those professionals who take the time to get trained on their tools of choice and who routinely hone their skills. A little bit of computer aptitude might help in a jump-start situation but that is not an advantage over the long term. There is no substitute for skill and knowledge in a discipline such as piping design or structural design and neither the best computer software nor the deepest IT background can supplant engineering domain expertise. A non-degreed designer with good engineering knowledge and good 3D CAD skills will find himself or herself on a level playing field with a degreed engineer doing the same tasks with the same tool. By the same token, degreed engineers with a reluctance to master a 3D design application can often find themselves significantly behind the curve when compared to highly motivated and skilled "technicians" and "drafties" [drafters] with good 3D CAD plant design skills. Rene Dalmeijer: Preferably you are able to do both, but at the same time you will always be more of a specialist in one or the other. It also depends on team and project size. Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that we found interesting: - - - Elysium releases CADpdm for integrating CAD data management in multi-CAD environments with the SMARTEAM PDM system. www.elysiuminc.com Cimmetry has ported its AutoVue 18 viewing and markup software to UNIX. www.cimmetry.com/News_AutoVue18_Solaris.html Kreon Technologies' new plug-in (free) lets Geomagic Studio and Qualify software users to visualize real-time processing of physical objects captured by Kreon's Zephyr 30,000-points-per-second scanner. Download from www.geomagic.com DRCAUTO SOFTWARE releases Smart Architect LT PRO 2005 (US$1,495) for AutoCAD LT 2005 with improved smart wall technology, doors and windows, elevations and sections, user block library, roof builder, shadow diagrams, surface terrain, and more. The 30-day tryout is at www.drcauto.com VB2S annouces Subdo 3D real-time authoring tool. More info at www.subdo.com/english/ ART VPS supports two PURE cards in one system, providing access to 16 AR350 ray-tracing processors. Rendering is distributed automatically by the RenderPipe plug-in software for Catia, Maya, 3ds max, and VIZ. www.artvps.com Concurrent Systems has integrated IronCAD with its DesignDataManager data management software. www.designdatamanager.com With the assistance of technology from GeoTrust, Adobe Systems adds digital certificates to PDF files. The catch is that you have to apply to GeoTrust, who then issues you the digital certificate for US$109 or so. www.geotrust.com/ GEOMATE's GrafiCalc v4 ($95) pre-modeling analysis software adds bi-directionally associative geometry, dimensions, and calculations. www.graficalc.com ALGOR releases ALGOR V16 with Superdraw 3D sketching and modeling, and 2D and 3D structured meshing tools within FEMPRO. www.Algor.com And Graphisoft announced a set of applications for construction planning developed by YIT Corporation. They include Graphisoft Constructor 2005, Graphisoft Estimator 2005, Graphisoft Construction Services -- expected to be available by year's end. www.graphisoft.com
Seminars & Conferences PlantSuccess NorthEast 2004 is Oct 21 in Philadelphia PA USA. www.plantsuccess.com AmeriPAM 2004 (sixth North American conference and exhibition on virtual engineering) is in Troy MI USA on Nov 3-4. www.esi-group.com AUGI CAD Camp is in Jacksonville FL USA, Nov 9. www.cadcamp.com Presentations and photos for the IntelliCAD World Meeting have been posted to www.intellicad.org/WorldMeeting2004 Magazine/Weblogs Update Bentley Systems launches the digital edition of its quarterly BE Magazine (short for "Bentley Empowered") for 160,000 readers. www.be.org PTC selects Penton Media to produce a new e-magazine, 'Boardroom', aimed at business executives and new product development. www.intheboardroom.com/subscribe
People/Companies on the Move Fleishman-Hillard will be managing product PR for four Autodesk divisions: Manufacturing, Building, Infrastructure, and Platform/ACS. But not including corporate, Discreet, or LBS. Greg Taylor is the new vp of investor relations and corporate communications at National Public Relations in Toronto, Canada. Mr Taylor was formerly with RAND.
Redo "MicroStation 2D in Practice" is written by Kate Scaife of Cadventure; Khoi Dinh-Vu is the editor and publisher. www.penbrush.com
t WorthWhile Web http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20040930.html
www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/07/ballmer_doesnt_get_it/
www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/09/wo_hellweg091704.asp Letters to the Editor Re: Adobe Acrobat Ad "Funny:
the first line of the Acrobat 6 ad is, 'Make your time more profitable.'
I think my usage of Acrobat 6 has roughly doubled or tripled the
time it takes to open a PDF file (and I won't follow this with a
pitch for DWF). Do you have any insight on patches or best release
of Acrobat?" The editor replies: "Version 4 is probably the best, since it is small, fast, and most PDFs are made to be compatible with that version. The workaround to v6's slow loading time is to create a second folder for plug_ins, and the drag out all but the most important: search.dll and printme.dll." - - - "Thanks for all the good articles in
your newsletter." "I read every time your excellent Upfront.Ezine
NewsLetter end enjoy it every time." "Thanks for the great newsletter!"
Spin Doctor of the Moment "Some Dell AC Adaptors Recalled for Risk"
Notable Quotable "When a man suffers himself to be reasoned
out of the principles of common sense, by metaphysical arguments,
we may call this metaphysical lunacy." |
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