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Issue #431 : : May 17, 2005 |
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C o n t e n t s CEOs Don't Blog Why CAD Will Never Be Open-Source
Under the Radar and other
regular columns. |
Write the Editor. Donate to upFront.eZine with Paypal. Access nearly-daily CAD commentary at our blog: WorldCAD Access.
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Some weeks ago, a technical columnist from California complained that blogs were under-represented by race and a few other categories. Unexpectedly, it was 'USA Today' that broke ground by reporting on a socio-economic segment that is overtly underrepresented in the blogosphere: chief executive officers. "A blog by a prominent CEO would attract instant traffic, could influence public opinion, perhaps steer legislation and maybe sell a few widgets," wrote the tabloid-style newspaper read in hotels across large swaths of the USA. But they don't -- other than CEOs of marketing companies, that is. The same goes for the CADosphere. Some CAD vendors have one or more blogs manned by their staff. And some have their CEOs answer questions on corporate bulletin boards. When corporate blogging hits the glass ceiling, it's at the level of vice president. And when those next-to-top executives blog, the result can be as palatable as filling out a sexual harassment form. "We've had an interesting couple of weeks as a company, that's for sure," wrote Randy Baseler, Boeing's vp of blogging and commercial airplanes. "But none of that has made a bit of difference down here on the ground." No need to comment on Boeing ousting its CEO for an affair with a vp, because: "The focus at Commercial Airplanes is, as always, on our customers and on the future." Yawn. There's one to take off my Favorites list. Despite that, have pity on the anti-blogging CEO. Perhaps they understand, better than the editors at USA Today, that blogging is lose-lose for them. Their entries would be censored by the marketing department, hence boring. Feedback would be ferocious, hence censored also. And it takes up much too much time. Why CAD Will Never Be Open-Source: Readers Respond "CAD is too small (and esoteric) of a market to enjoy the alternative of open-source development, although it is probably the one group of tech-savvy, non-programmer type people that could make a decent go of it. "Open-source browsers (Firefox), word processing programs (OpenOffice) and many others are successful because there is a large base of users that are willing to take a chance. With professional CAD users, most are locked into whatever they already have. From my varied, 25 years of work in different engineering firms I can tell you that most experienced people in those companies can be separated into a few camps. "There's BRL-CAD for the hardcore, but that doesn't seem to be getting too far because it's foreign (Linux) to most CAD guys. Supposedly there's a Windows port 'coming soon'. "What worries me is that the tools are controlling the capabilities
of the user. That's not right."
"That would be Matra's OpenCascade, www.opencascade.org
. I remember them demo'ing not-yet-open Cascade at A/E/C Systems
'95 (or '96? the one next to DisneyLand). It's still alive."
"Your statement 'Why CAD Will Never Be Open-Source' explains
why upFront.eZine seldom -- if ever -- mentions open-source or open-source
OS-compatible CADs. It also doesn't promise any news which would
be of interest to me in the near future." The editor replies: "Part of the problem of open-source CAD is that they have no awareness for letting editors know about their programming efforts."
"Interesting article about CAD and open source. I am having similar discussions with friends and colleagues of mine lately. "Pretty much all the successful open source projects that I am aware of develop software programs for which there is an enormous talent pool out there -- part of which is willing to donate time to the development of such programs: operating systems, Web servers, databases and things like that. Very complex programs indeed, but lots of people know how to do them. "CAD (and I believe many other applications) does not have such large talent pool of people able to develop state of the art products (or close to it). Not many people out there know how to write a good NURBS library (I would venture to say that there are no more than a few tens of such people) and they are all fully employed and paid well enough. And NURBS is just one of the many many components of a state of the art CAD system. "In other words, there is only a handful of people that
know how to develop a Catia or a Unigraphics from scratch without
using one single line of Closed Source code. And most (all?) of
these people are not available to donate their time."
"I know of following projects/attempts: Two C++ Frameworks, which are (partly) Open Source:
And a few applications:
- Stefan Boeykens,
K.U.Leuven
A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: - - - GiveMePower unveils PowerCAD SiteMaster 2 software for wireless building surveying. Using Leica's DISTO Plus Bluetooth wireless lasers, SiteMaster does speedy production of AutoCAD-compatible building surveys and inspection drawings. www.disto.com Bentley and Oracle are working on integrate MicroStation workflows across disciplines by using databases designed around Oracle 10g. Susan Smith of 'AEC Weekly' reports that Bentley's You-Deserve-Better campaign attracted 100 accounts. Also: Bentley Building Electrical Systems developed with elcoSystems UK for electrical system design and management. www.bentley.com ProgeSOFT has announces the availability of ProgeCAD 2006 Professional, based on IntelliCAD 6, " for the pleasure of all the worldwide CAD users." Thirty-day trial version from www.progecad.com D-Cubed, owned by UGS, has new releases of 3D Dimensional Constraint Manager, Assembly Engineering Manager, Collision Detection Manager, and Hidden Line Manager. www.d-cubed.co.uk Spatial, owned by Dassault Systèmes, says the 64-bit Windows version of its ACIS solid modeler will be released in June. www.spatial.com Autodesk is reworking its DWF Writer software to capture 3D models from any non-Autodesk software that uses OpenGL. Competitors being targeted include Dassault Systèmes and Bentley Systems. ICEM ships ICEM Shape Design surface modeling, surface quality analysis and design visualization software. www.icem.com - - - And these news items were posted during the last week at our WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
And on the Gizmos Grabowski weblog < http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos/ >
People/Companies on the Move H. Edward Goldberg is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Market News UGS reports Q105 revenues of US$252million. [Multiply that by four, and we get another billion-dollar year projected for this privately-owned CAD corporation.] ATA Engineering acquires ROTATE software from Vold Solutions. The software engineers rotating and driveline systems. www.ata-e.com Bentley Systems buys up the rest of Moss Italia for its road and rail engineering software, of which Bentley already own a minority. Dassault Systèmes and i2 Technologies agree to develop a new 3D sourcing software. www.i2.com Nemetschek had 1Q05 revenues of e22.2 million, down a smidgen from e23.0 million euros the previous year.
Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "AutoCAD LT 2006 for Designers" by Sham Tickoo.
These two PDF e-books describe what's new and different in AutoCAD 2006:
By Ralph Grabowski. Includes undocumented features. Full color and formatted for printing. Corporate and bulk pricing available. More information at www.upfrontezine.com/wia6 Letters to the Editor Alternatives to Network License Reporting "Currently we use SAM Report Lite, a free scaled-back license reporting tool, for collecting data on our AutoCAD license pool usage. However, it is very, very limited. The upgrade to a full version of the product is US$6,000. This is especially bad since the tools in the old ADLM [autodesk license manager] were free and did everything I needed them to do. "I am wondering if you know of any other tools for getting
information on my license usage etc, -- that does not cost $6,000?
Re: 10th Anniversary "Thanks for the history, Ralph. I remember Upfront [software]
well -- I was an AE [application engineer] for Alias at the time,
the Sonata division. Remember that?"
"Congrats on your 10th anniversary! All the best."
"Congratulations on a great ten years! As the model, you're
the Wade Keller of CAD in my book! Best regards for the next ten!" Spin Doctor of the Moment "I didn't particularly see anything in Yahoo's announcement
that was innovative, fresh. I heard people say it was cheap."
Notable Quotable ""Craft has to do with technique and talent and practice,
but crossing over from craft to art involves mastering your craft
to the point you can imbue it with truth."
Copyright 2005 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide All
rights reserved worldwide. Article reprint fee $250. |
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