November
2, 2004
Issue
405
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- - - C
O N T E N T S HOOPS
Becoming Pervasive Q&A: Q&A: Below
the Radar Write - - - Donate
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A press release from Tech Soft America puzzles us: "Autodesk Licenses Tech Soft America’s HOOPS Toolkits". We wondered, Doesn't Autodesk already have HOOPS? TSA's Yanick Fluhmann explained to us the history: back in 1992, Autodesk bought Ithaca Software, the inventor of HOOPS -- which came out of the CADIF lab at nearby Cornell University in Ithaca NY USA. (Another connection: current Autodesk vp Carl Bass headed up Ithaca back then.) Four years later, Autodesk spun off HOOPS, which was taken over by Tech Soft America; Autodesk kept the rendering pipeline portion of HOOPS for its HDI device drivers, now used by AutoCAD, 3ds max, VIZ, Volo View, and DWF-related software. HDI may well be the acronym with the longest definition: it's short for "hierarchical object-oriented picture system extensible immediate drawing interface device interface." Actually, HDI is short for "HEIDI device interface"; HEIDI, in turn, is short for "HOOPS extensible immediate drawing interface", and HOOPS is short for "hierarchical object-oriented picture system." TSA generates a number of acronyms on its own. You may read about HSF [HOOPS Stream Format] and HOOPS/3dAF [3D application framework]. - - - Autodesk has some of HOOPS, but not all of HOOPS. So they licensed it (back) from TSA to use for the 3D components of DWF, currently available only through Inventor and DWF Viewer/Composer; we expect it to be added to AutoCAD 2006 (due in March), and to DWF Writer (at some point). Mr Fluhmann explained that the variant of HOOPS used by DWF is incompatible with the HOOPS used by SolidWorks in its eDrawings, and also incompatible with the HOOOPS used by IronCAD in its viewer. That needn't be the case, TSA told me. A third-party could easily write a translator to make DWF and eDrawings interchangeable. Or, the CAD vendors could take that step themselves. Q&A: Five Minutes with Bob Bean Kubotek's mainline business is US$35 million a year in sales of LED inspection systems. (The company is located in Japan under the direction of Dr Kubo.) They use CADKEY MCAD software for designing their products; in addition, they resold CADKEY into the Japanese market. Earlier this year, Kubotek purchased CADKEY, the company. What was known outside of Japan as CADKEY is now KeyCreator. Bob Bean heads up Kubotek in the USA. He called a couple of weeks ago to talk about KeyCreator's future directions, which I was not permitted to reveal until now. Mr Bean started off a provocative (but true) statement: "The CAD oxymoron is that the CAD market is mature, but CAD software is immature." Here is a paraphrase of our telephone conversation. - - - upFront.eZine: In a world filled with MCAD software, and software vendors battling for supremacy, how can KeyCreator distinguishing itself? Bob Bean: KeyCreator is better than other MCAD software for modifying measured models, because it uses non-historical modeling. It is geometry-based, instead of history-based. In addition, we target small to medium size businesses. upFront.eZine: What does this mean for the future of KeyCreator? Bob Bean: Dr Kubo has a vision called "M3" [M cubed]. The three Ms are Measure, Model, and Machine. Our niche for KeyCreator is to convert realworld data into CAD data, and then modify it. The long term vision is to remove the barriers that exist between measurement, modeling, and manufacturing. upFront.eZine: What's the market for a "3-M" CAD package? Bob Bean: We see a growing demand for custom products, maybe even for audiences of 1. The idea is to quickly create very targeted products for niche markets. upFront.eZine: Examples being? Bob Bean: Chopping cars. Car seats. Very high end audio systems, those costing $100 thousand. Companies are losing their mass-market business to China. One way companies can combat that is to go into niche markets. The designer is the manufacturer. upFront.eZine: Describe how this is supposed to work. Bob Bean: There are six steps:
KeyCreator handles all those steps, because it is not constrained like other MCAD software; it handles surfaces and solids. Our other news is that we are announcing KeyCreator version 4. upFront.eZine: Version four? I though you were up around version 19 or 20. Bob Bean: Our last release under the old numbering system was 21.5. CADKEY was completely re-written with Release 20. To make things easier to understand, we now call the old architecture "CADKEY" -- and it's still for sale -- and the new architecture we call "KeyCreator." Pricing ranges from US$3,000 to $14,000 for KeyCreator Standard through to KeyCreator NC. We expect to ship the new release by the end of this year. L.A. Responds Thanks for publishing my letter; the feedback has been astonishing. Within two hours of your newsletter going online, I was asked by our CAD manager, "Are you L.A.?" He had received a copy of the newsletter from three different sources. It's a small world. With the benefit of hindsight I should have said my name was Bjorn and I'm modelling a fish factory in Iceland. On the plus side, I have received accolades from the guys in the office. I'm now called "the scribe" by those in the know, and a small Mexican wave follows me down the passage. I suspect that a lot of guys agree with what I've said, but didn't want to put it in writing. I suppose it's a lot easier to criticize than it is to come up with solutions. You seemed to have received a good cross-section of replies. (If the pen is mightier than the sword, then an email can really stir up a storm.) - - - I have some more questions: Q5. If the way forward is to tie a subcontractor (say a vessel fabricator) to the output of your model -- without 2D detail drawings -- then how do you get him to convert his system to accept your software? He's looking at considerable expense + training + upkeep for something that will be out of date in 18 months time. Q6. On our last job we found that it took so long to produce the 2D drafts using the modelling software that 2D AutoCAD was just miles ahead -- even though we still have to make the basic 2D draft from the model before we can export it (via DXF). It all came down to deadlines (no pun intended). Can you produce a 2D draft within a comparable time frame? We have found that modelled 2Ds take at least 3x longer than standard 2D. Do the benefits of a linked 2D draft give you a 3:1 time saving down line? Q7. How can you go to your management and say, "We've just bought all this magic 3D software, but before we can make any drawings we need XYZ add-on package"? Q8. OK (with tongue firmly in cheek) I've seen a formula that goes something like this: the chances of picking the wining Lotto numbers are 49x48x47x46x45x44 = more digits than I've got on my calculator. If drafting disciplines are civil, structural, mechanical, instrumentation, electrical, piping, and3D modelling (add more if required), then the chances of finding an fully experienced drafter are 7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 5,040. So if you want a drawing office of eight guys, do you need to interview 40,320 applicants? How many engineers are multi-discipline? Have you ever met a qualified instrument/structural engineer?" (Les Astrop now writes under the pen name of Bjorn.) Below the Radar A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that we found interesting: - - - Gehry Technologies is an independent company created from Gehry Partners. They've now shipped their Digital Project software to their first customer. The software is for construction of "ambitious projects." Digital Project is meant to handle all aspects of construction projects: design, engineering, fabrication, construction project management, and on-site construction. Digital Project runs on top of CATIA V5, and Dassault Systèmes is tickled: "Digital Project is expanding the scope of V5 PLM in the construction industry," said Dominique Florack, executive vp. http://www.gehrytechnologies.com SolidVision announces PropertyWorks 2.0 (US$295), a property management add-on software for SolidWorks MCAD software: it records custom properties, such as part numbers, descriptions, materials, and suppliers, in parts, assemblies, and drawing files. http://www.solidviz.com Informative Graphics supports DWF [design Web format] in Brava, and plans to support DWF 3D in MYRIAD and ModelPress. http://www.bravaviewer.com/download.htm Delcam gets a US patent for a high-speed machining technique it calls "Race Line Machining." It increases machining efficiency through:
With Race Line Machining, the roughing passes are progressively smoothed out as the toolpaths move further from the main form. http://www.delcam.com LMS International releases LMS Virtual.Lab Designer, an add-on to CATIA V5 for simulations of system dynamics, acoustics, fatigue-life, and durability. http://www.lmsna.com Autodesk is letting its Inventor subscribers [basically all Inventor users] preview Design Accelerator tools acquired from MechSoft. The preview includes dynamic engineering reference database, mechanical calculators, and a component generator. http://www.autodesk.com/subscription . GTX Corporation announces its new series of GTXImage CAD 8 software for bringing paper drawings into CAD, EDM, and GIS. The raster-editor and converter is based on the AutoCAD 2004 OEM engine. http://www.gtx.com Cadalog releases SI-Mechanical 5.2 for AutoCAD at its new Web store, http://www.OhYeahCAD.com . SI-Mechanical is a mechanical design plug-in for AutoCAD 2004/2005. AVEVA will ship its updated Plant Design Management System v11.6 in December. http://www.aveva.com And CAD Systems Unlimited has just released Slick! View v10 (US$49), supporting viewing and printing of AutoCAD drawings and DXF files from Release 12 thru AutoCAD 2005. http://www.slickwin.com/skftp/slickviewx.exe . For additional news items not covered in upFront.eZine, read our Weblog at worldcadaccess.typepad.com :
Seminars & Conferences The largest CATIA V5 event in Canada is at Famous Players SilverCity, Windsor on November 18. www.ascendbridge.com Market News Intergraph is correcting its financial statements to account for the company's SmartPlant 3D Early Adopter Program -- a limited release of SmartPlant 3D Version 4. It appears that some maintenance obligations and a specified upgrade to SmartPlant 3D v5 were included in the program. The revision changes downward its 4Q03 net income from US$1.4 million to $0.5 million; the changes affect net income in other quarters, as well. Dassault continues its takeover of portions of Canada's RAND. "Dassault added it would acquire RAND Worldwide's subsidiaries in Europe and Russia, and increase its ownership of RAND North America to 70% from 60%, for e32 million," reports CBS MarketWatch. The upFront.eZine stock index is at www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks Letters to the Editor "I am concerned that you have been sucked into some sort of time-line spatial distortion. Last issue of upFront was dated Oct 5, Then there was none for the week of Oct 12 and now! October 20, 2004. Cool! "Here in Nova Scotia, it is still only
Oct 19. What time zone are you in? (Just kidding of course.)" The editor replies: "I recently read of a guy visiting Adelaide, which is 1/2-hour timezone different from other parts of Australia. He was going to be flying back the USA on October 31, when Australia springs ahead one hour, and much of the USA falls back an hour. As well, his flight would cross both the Equator and the International Date Line. That made him wonder just what dimension he would end up in." - - - "Select Help in Acrobat 6.0, and then
choose About Adobe Plug-ins: you are presented with a nice dialog
box showing the plug-ins Acrobat is loading, as well as their file
dependencies. This will allow those who use some of the advanced
functionality in Acrobat to keep them, while still shedding only
those we don't use. This gives a little more control of feature-vs-performance
than just removing all but the three plug-ins suggested." - - - "Read your VoIP [voice over internet protocol] experience with interest. Sorry to hear you had such a bad time with that vendor. I'm using VoIP from Vonage over a Comcast high-speed Internet connection and, other than having to do a minor configuration of DNS server IP addresses, the service has been flawless. I was even able to switch over our old phone number to the new service (this took two months thanks to Verizon dragging their feet). "What's been really nice about the Vonage
is the lack of long distance charges, all of the options that I
normally have to pay for with Ma Bell lines (Caller ID, Call Waiting,
etc). I'm also considering adding a separate virtual phone number
in my father's area code in Florida so he can call me as a local
call and thus save him the worry about running up his phone bill." Spin Doctor of the Moment "Apple Unveils Fastest, Most Affordable
iBook G4 Ever" Headlines of resulting articles: "Apple adds fastest, cheapest iBooks" "Latest Apple iBook G4 Faster and Less
Expensive" "Apple Debuts Fastest-Ever iBook G4" "Apple peels wraps off fastest ever iBook
G4" "Apple Unveils 'Fastest' iBook G4" "New iBook G4 is fastest model to date" "Apple unveils faster iBook with built-in
wireless networking" "New iBooks from Apple add speed and
WiFi" Notable Quotable "This portable mp3 player seems nice and I've been shopping around for a while, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Does it have additional GPS functionality, in case I get lost where the streets have no name? I heard the new black ipod is nature-proof and can be used even in places of high elevation." - 'Eberlin' commenting on slash.dot about the U2-branded iPod. |
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