November
16, 2004
Issue
407
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- - - C
O N T E N T S Adobe
Aims Acrobat at Autodesk SolidWorks
Births Blobs Financial
Report: Below
the Radar Write - - - Donate
$25 - - - Look for additional,
nearly-daily CAD commentary at our Weblog: --- Visit our new digital photography Weblog at The Canon S1iS Fan (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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Adobe Aims Acrobat at Autodesk With the relaunch of its DWF format a coupla' years back, Autodesk went into a rage over Adobe's PDF format. The company later toned down its attack ads, and now even admits PDF [portable document format] is useful for text. While that was going on, Adobe made PDF v6 more friendly towards drawings. It comes as little surprise, then, that the latest release (#7) of Acrobat takes more of Autodesk's criticisms, and incorporates them as features into PDF. Last week, Randt Swineford and Patrick Aragon called to walk us through a demo of Acrobat 7. Both are senior product marketing managers for AEC at Adobe. Integrated Animated 3D As we watched the demo, we thought the most impressive feature is that PDF files now can contain interactive 3D images. They can rotate and zoom, have their lighting changed, switch between named views, show animations, and create links between words and the images. (Click a boldface word, and the 3D image executes an animation, such as air flowing through a turbine.) User manuals can now have 3D animations (written in Javascript) to show how parts are assembled and taken apart. The catch is that the 3D image must be in U3D format, as championed by the 3DIF consortium headed up by Intel. How, we asked Messrs Swineford and Aragon, d'you get 3D CAD models into U3D? So far, it turns out, only Bentley Systems is actively writing a DGN->U3D translator. Other members of the 3DIF group, such as PTC and UGS, might; no promises. We could see third-party developers, such as Tailor Made Software, also writing U3D translators for AutoCAD and Inventor. Embedded Markups in DWG Redlining is beefed up in Acrobat Professional with a new call-out tool and a palette of commonly-used symbols. An 'Acrobat Markup' item gets added to the menu bar of AutoCAD (2002 through 2005). Mimicking AutoCAD 2005's Markup Set Manager, markups in Acrobat can now be embedded in drawings. (Technically, they are placed as 'acrobatcommentpopup' objects and stored on their own layer.) We thought of a problem: what happens, we asked, when we send marked up drawings to users who don't have Acrobat 7? The markups turn into proxy objects: viewable, but not editable. And later we thought of another puzzler: Bentley is a loud and public supporter of PDF, but they're having to write the PDF/U3D code themselves. Autodesk is an even louder anti-supporter of PDF, but Adobe is writing the code for AutoCAD. Now there's a head-scratcher... Other New Features
But no support for DWF. Acrobat is not cheap. The Pro version is US$449 ($159 upgrade), while the Standard version is $299 ($99 upgrade). The Reader is free, and will allow markups, if enabled by the Pro users. The software is expected to be released on the last day of 2004. www.adobe.com/products/acrobat Meanwhile, Back at Fleishman-Hillard Tony Peach is director of DWF strategy at Autodesk, and he's done an excellent job of framing the issue as "DWF vs. PDF," and in that order. He's made many of us give little thought to the many alternatives, like SVF [vector graphics standard approved by the World Wide Web Consortium], eDrawings [for 3D MCAD from GSS], CSF [content sealed format from Informative Graphics], JT Open [from UGS], and so on. The message has been pounded home -- PDF: okay for text; DWF: better for drawings. Mr Peach pushed to give DWF a heaping portion of mindshare, though its marketshare has not yet gelled. Autodesk has spent a lot on developing, marketing, and distributing free DWF software. But when it comes to for-fee products, well, Autodesk has further extended DWF Composer's half-price introductory offer of US$99. "The success of the DWF format is one thing," comments Martyn Day, group editor of 'MCAD' and 'AEC' magazines. "What matters is how the company expects to create a business model to make money. Adobe's is pretty clear-cut. "Up until now, Autodesk has judged the success of DWF by the number of [free] downloads. Autodesk would have to sell a heck of a lot of DWF Composer software to refund the development and marketing effort. I think DWF is being used an increasing amount, but it's nowhere near a critical mass. With Composer out for a while now, perhaps they have a shorter view on return on investment, although I doubt it." With that background, CAD editors were puzzled to receive an email from Mr Peach and Andrea Cousens of Autodesk's pr firm, Fleishman-Hillard. The content wasn't news -- it repeated Autodesk's grievances against PDF -- and so we wouldn't normally mention it. The news was in the timing of the press release, however, and also in the working of the headline. The timing: the Friday afternoon before the Monday morning announcement of Acrobat 7. And the headline: "PDF Falls Flat in a 3D World." A pre-emptive move, perhaps? The first product is emerging from SolidWorks' skunkworks-like division, the New Product Concepts group. Last week, the head of the group, Scott Harris, called us to talk about -- and show off -- his new baby, Cosmic Blobs Lab Rat Edition. The 3D graphics software is aimed at children -- and those with child-like curiosity, we'd add. The software represents the first time that parent Dassault Systemes can say "3D for All," and actually begin to mean it. The software has three parts: create, decorate, and animate. As suggested by the name, you tend to work with blobs. Of greater interest is the technology behind Blobs. Mr Harris didn't reveal too much, other than it uses a different kind of surface modeling that uses a new shape language. (Not NURBS, not subdivided surfaces, not facets.) The mathematics allows real-time transformations of "digital modeling clay": smooth surfaces stay smooth, and sharp edges stay sharp. The kernel is written in C++. It has an API, which provided hooks to the user interface. In addition to punching and pulling surfaces, you can draw on the surface and then pull the curve to distort the surface. A mirror plane creates symmetry: anything you do on one side happens on the other. Can a CAD vendor find happiness in the low-end retail world? For now, the product is available only through Web sales -- that's no way to distribute nor generate awareness for a $40 product. We asked Mr Harris about future plans and products from his group. An public API may be possible for third-party developers to create add-ons. Blobs could be matured for conceptual product design, but more math is needed for that to happen, he says. There are plans to link up with a retail distributor next year. You can download the 30MB limited-use demo from www.cosmicblobs.com . In fact, we recommend trying out the demo before ponying up the credit card. Blobs needs to run on recent-model computers, and it's best to check if yours qualifies. The retail-CAD software company best known for TurboCAD is focusing on house plans -- specifically, house plans sold over the Internet. That's the current plan of a company whose focus changes year by year. And that was the gist of IMSI's 1Q05 conference call that we listened in on last week. The company plans to acquire more purveyors of house plans, seeking to capitalize on the current home building boom. Not stated explicitly, but it appeared to us that buying and selling of divisions is another source of revenue. In selling its ArtToday.com site to Jupiter, for instance, IMSI earlier received a US$1 million payment, a $600K payment this quarter, and is looking forward to a bonus $2 million payment next year. CEO Martin Wade says his company is focusing on reducing costs and growing revenue. One way is to sell more direct so that profits don't need to be shared with distributors and retailers. Current direct sales are at 51%, and IMSI hopes to increase that to 56% this quarter. In the bad news department, the company's auditors dismissed IMSI as a client. The accounting firm didn't give a reason, but IMSI figures they were too small a client. IMSI expects to earn $23.6-24.9 million next year. www.imsisoft.com A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that we found interesting: - - - 'Forbes' magazine reports that Dassault Systemes will be making a "big" announcement together with Microsoft. A media briefing is scheduled Wednesday. RxViewServer, from Rasterex Software, is server-based software for sharing documents and drawings over the Web, with no software installed on the client computers. The first time you view a file, an ActiveX component is downloaded automatically. And then any Web browser connected to the servber can view over 250 file formats. viewserver.rasterex.com Noran Engineering ports its NEiNastran V8.3 software to Itanium 2 and Opteron 64-bit CPUs running the Red Hat Linux operating system. They figure you can expect linear and nonlinear problems to be solved in half the time, or quicker. www.NENastran.com . Both Bentley Systems and Alibre are separately targeting AutoCAD users. Bentley has an upgrade program for those facing Autodesk's retirement of AutoCAD 2000i in mid-January <www.bentley.com/AutoCADusers>, while Alibre says you can have 3D parametric solid modeling (Alibre Design at US$795) for less than the price of AutoCAD LT (US$899) <www.alibre.com>. Word from Europe is that LT outsells AutoCAD eight-to-one. IntelliCAD for LaunchPad (US$695) is bundled with CadOperator software and hardware. [We wonder if that should be LaunchPad for IntelliCAD.] www.aclaunchpad.com Gibbs and Associates ships GibbsCAM 2004+ with dynamic view orientation, exporting of work-in-process stock for reuse, and comparisons between in-process stocks and finished parts. www.GibbsCAM.com And ARCHIdigm releases their Fences 5 eKit for Architectural Desktop 2004/2005, which includes a suite of chain link fences. www.archidigm.com You can read additional news items nearly daily at our WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com>. From the last week:
Hardware Hits HP's new Designjet 4000 (US$9,995) uses Double Swatch technology for high-speed color and monochrome printing up to 42" wide. The new plotters don't ship until Feb 7, 2005. [We wonder if wallpaper media is available yet?] People/Companies on the Move Duane MacDonald is the new pr contact for Intel Canada. Internet Business Systems (aka IBSystems) makes a second acquisition from IMSI: FreeCADApps.com Computer News Summaries Betanews.com reports the end to WinAmp: "The last members of the original WinAmp team have said goodbye to AOL and the door has all but shut on the Nullsoft era. Only a few employees remain to prop up the WinAmp player, but no further improvements are expected." [We favor QCD Player for upFront.eZine's office computers.] Market News Privately-help UGS reports Q3 revenue of US$253.8 million, up 18% from a year earlier. The Nemetschek Group had revenues of e68.4 million euros for its first nine months in the 2004 fiscal year. That's flat from the previous year's timeframe, but profits were up. The upFront.eZine stock index is at www.cadwire.net/to?upfrontezine/stocks Brand New CAD Books/eBooks 4D Technologies announces the release of a new line of computer-based training products. These video training discs include digital versions of the related Autodesk Press book:
More info from www.4dtechnologies.net
"Tailoring AutoCAD 2005" by Ralph
Grabowski WorthWhile Web www.kongisking.net/kong2005/proddiary/
www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/041104_corrigan_cartoon.jpg
http://olafforpres.com/
www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries
Letters to the Editor Re: Table PCs "Call me gullible, but I have been chewing on the idea that a tablet PC might just be the very best platform for engineers and architects, especially those at the project-management level, who do more meeting, note-taking, brainstorming, and scheduling than CAD. "The wind is definitely out of the sails of the tablet vendors; after multiple emails and calls, only one vendor answered, and that was to say, not interested. And all I was looking for was engineering and architectural users to interview! "I'm trying to find users to interview,
and I am also interested in your thoughts on the matter. The result
will be one or more articles in EAReport, and maybe a white paper.
Any help will be warmly appreciated." The editor replies: "I predicted TabletPCs would be duds, and not the biggest selling category of PCs in 2006, as counter-predicted by William Gates. For sites, tablet PCs have to be ruggedized, and that ups the price." - - - RE: Graphisoft Virtual Construction "Sorry to disappoint our friends at Graphisoft, but Intergraph was marrying 3D design with 3D reviews for constructability, aesthetics, and schedule simulation since the late 1980s for the AEC and plant design industries. "Our DesignReview and ModelView applications and their successor, SmartPlant Review, have been taking intelligent models from our flagship plant design application, Plant Design System, as well as our architectural suite (Project Architect and the accompanying Professional Engineer series). Some of our customers have integrated 10,000-task Primavera schedules with SmartPlant Review via our ScheduleReview interface, available since the mid-1990s. "We agree that this is a great opportunity
for the engineering software business. It's a tough business, though,
and staying power is hard to come by. Good luck to Graphisoft."
"Great to see construction news in your
ezine. I hope it gets more builders on your list and continues the
industry dialog about the power of models beyond design and into
estimating, project planning, purchasing and construction."
Re: Autodesk's IFC "Autodesk's? Since when?"
"IFC is an ISO standard and does not
belong to Autodesk or any other company. Autodesk's support for
this standard has been lax in the extreme, to the extent that they
outsourced the development of support for it in ADT to another company;
Revit does not support it yet. Graphisoft have supported the development
of the IFC standard and have probably the best implementation of
it in the industry."
"This is a very unfortunate mistake.
Graphisoft are very firm believers and supporters for the software/vendor-neutral
IFC, and have support-plugins for all released versions, free of
charge. A big difference with Autodesk, who only supports IFC in
ADT (not in Revit, yet) and who charges for the plugin <www.inopso.com>."
"Though Autodesk played a key role in
the initial development of the IFCs and the founding of the International
Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) in 1995, the IFCs belong to
the IAI and not to Autodesk. The distinction is significant because
the IFCs are a public, non-proprietary data format definition, and
not a proprietary data format of any individual software company."
"I don't think Autodesk has had very much input into IFC data exchange. To imply that they invented it is at least as inaccurate as their print ad claiming to have invented BIM. Revit doesn't have it, AutoCAD can't use it, and ADT relies on (very competent) third-party support. "Surely this is a slip of the finger
on your keyboard. The editorial content of your eZine is first rate,
and so if you know something I don't please clarify the statement."
The editor replies, "When Release 13 came out and custom object became possible through ObjectARx programming, Autodesk realized there was a problem translating drawings. So they created the IAI, which created the IFCs. Later, Autodesk lost interest, first making the IAI independent, and then handing over Autodesk IFC programming to a third-party. "I was being provocative, but correct in a literary manner. We speak of Edison's lightbulb, even though he no longer makes them."
Mr Bourgoin responds, "I appreciate the clarification. In the context of your piece on Graphisoft, the quote still seems somewhat offhand and to those of us who know less of the history of the IAI, BLIS, etc. than you, it could be taken out of context."
Mr Tardif responds, "Well, take comfort in that if you must, but the Edison/lightbulb analogy does not, in my opinion, port over very well to Autodesk/IFCs. Knowledge of IAI and IFCs, and their potential benefit to the industry is not as widely known as it should be, even among otherwise well-informed upFront.eZine readers. "I also think that most readers are unlikely to detect the intended provocative tone (it certainly escaped me entirely, even on second reading), and are more likely to take the statement at face value. "The industry bemoans the problems of seamless, reliable data sharing, but no one seems to know that the technology already exists to solve those problems today. Software developers at a number of AEC software companies have admitted to me privately that IFC support could be incorporated into their applications in as little as twelve months, if only the market demanded it. It's not a primarily a technical problem -- it's a business problem. "The reason the market does not demand it is that most people don't know how to ask for it, and don't realize how quickly it could be done. So, sadly, we keep limping along with proprietary data formats that inhibit fundamental innovation and process reform in the construction industry." - - - "Despite the fact that it always seems
like Cadalyst
tries to beat you to the news punch releasing their ezine, I always
find myself reading yours first. Keep up the great work!" The editor replies, "They tend to ship their's during the day, while we tend to ship our's in the evening."
"I enjoyed the whole 3D CAD debate series.
All I can add is history repeats itself; only differently."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "A company that advertised for hard-working
staff was banned by a job centre in Southampton since it discriminated
against those who evade work." Notable Quotable "I think people have truly grown up when they realize that what they have is amazing, and to stop chasing the 'next' new thing." - Phil Stollery |
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