|
upFront.eZine |
|
|
a
publication from |
|
|
Issue #444 : : September 20, 2005 |
|
|
C o n t e n t s From the Editor GraphiCalc Advanced Technology 20th Anniversary Quiz, 40 Answers Below
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.
|
|
|
|
|
The IntelliCAD Technology Consortium holds its second-annual World Meeting next month in The Netherlands. I'm listing this conference upfront, because I'll be there, speaking on "Understanding the Bigger Picture." The event takes place Oct 19-20 in Leiden, a half-hour's trainride south of Amsterdam. www.intellicad.com/WorldMeeting2005 - - Tailoring AutoCAD 2006 With each release of 'Tailoring AutoCAD', the PDF ebook gets fatter, Over four editions, it has grown from 168 pages to 372. Because chunks of the text never change -- such as scripts and linetypes -- this year I published two versions of the ebook: 1. As before, the complete text is available in 'Tailoring AutoCAD 2006'. This ebook covers all the new features and updates existing features. US$37.20 - www.upfrontezine.com/ta6 2. The all-new features -- dynamic blocks, CUI, and QuickCalc -- are available separately as mini-eBooks. This provides each area of interest separately, without needing to buy and download the Big Book. (The content of these mini-eBooks is identical to their chapters in 'Tailoring AutoCAD 2006' -- so don't buy both!) The three are:
Earlier in the year, I instituted a "fair pricing" policy: the price of each ebook is now 10 cents per page (15c/pg for mini-eBooks). For instance, a 168-page ebook is US$16.80, while a 372-page ebook is $37.20. I've updated the prices of all 22 ebooks at the www.upfrontezine.com/ebooks site, and now many are now cheaper, while a couple are priced higher. - - - Updates on Hurricane Relief "Bentley is also sponsoring a matching grant of up to $1,000 for each Bentley colleague who donates to a charity supporting the Katrina recovery effort," reports Frank Conforti. ["Colleague" is their term for "employee."] "Regarding Hurricane Katrina: we are raising money and matching employee contributions. It is our hope that we will raise as much as we did for the tsunami (over $250K). We have chosen not to publish this fact as we did not want to be seen as self-promoting," writes the CEO of a CAD company. [I agree that there is a fine balance between wanting to help, and being seen as self-promoting.] "DATACAD introduced a forum thread for Hurricane Katrina Relief/Help. Several professionals have already joined the group offering help, from many places, including outside USA. www.datacad.com/bbs/viewforum.php?f=22&sid=38fe99a2587493754995c2d65c52b284 ," reports Miguel Palaoro of DATACAD Brazil. AVEVA is making its training facilities available to customers whose operations are disrupted by the hurricane. Two of its software packages are being offered free until 29 Feb 06: Laser Model Interface and Review. "Thanks for mentioning the Mennonites. I didn't lose my house in the October 2003 fires [in California USA], but lots of people in our community did, and the Mennonites have been there helping for well over a year, building new homes for those without insurance. An encampment of them is staying on a friend's ranch, in trailers, coming to town in shifts, for a month at a time. I sure appreciate what they are doing," writes Linda Eskin of MIVA Small Business. GrafiCalc Advanced Technology Shyamal Roy of Geomate called to talk about his new GrafiCalc AT software. The name is short for "graphical calculator, advanced technology." Think of it as a 2D sketcher, as found in most 3D MCAD software, coupled to a built-in spreadsheet. Thus, GraphiCalc, as in "VisiCalc," the name of the first spreadsheet program. "CAD vendors don't think this way," exclaimed Mr Roy: fully optimize the 2D profile before handing it over to the 3D MCAD program (through DXF). GraphiCalc has 100 built-in functions to handle areas, moments of inertia, centroids, and so. For AutoCAD users, think of QuickCalc combined with Field and MassProp, plus having calculations and results update in real-time. The AT part of GraphiCalc involves backsolving (goal seeking) and motion simulation. For example, you want a wrench to weigh less than 1.2kg, yet keep its length at 25cm. Assign a thickness and a density, and then constrain the length. GraphiCalc iterates design modifications at high speed; in a second or two, the shape changes to accommodate the weight and length restrictions. Motion simulation animates the 2D sketches, plus allows you to find out the area of sweep, etc. For analysis, you have two options. You can automatically collect transient data for analysis using another Windows application. Or, the built-in wizard allows you to perform instants Monte Carlo analysis of measured or calculated values. GrafiCalc AT is US$999 and is available now. /www.inventbetter.com 20th Anniversary Quiz, 40 Answers Several readers sent in their answers to last week's 20th Anniversary trivia quiz. Bryan Bergstrand was one who made the weakest attempt to arrive at the correct answers, and I've included his guesses (as BB:) with comments from me and others:
Q01: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q01.jpg BB: "The Parhelia line of graphics adapters. Not that the guy sitting in the chair could be making much use of one." Ans: This promotional item is a calendar packaged in a CD case, featuring images created on Matrox graphics boards, which can handle up to four monitors. Matrox PR sent me four or five of these calendars,s some of which are still in cellophane. Steve Ostrovsky of TPM adds: "Since I'm only 34, I was still learning how to spell 'drawing' at the ripe old age of 14. I would hate to see what your place of business looks like with all the promotional items that have been sent to you over 20 years. Hopefully you don't have to keep it all in your house (my wife would kill me)."
Q02: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q02.jpg BB: "Sorry, it's a secret. I won't tell you what the new product was, or give you even a clue about the celebration." Ans: Hat from Autodesk to celebrate the publicity launch for their then-new Actrix Technical software. There were also T-shirts, sunglasses, twisty puzzles, and other promo items given to the media during the three-stage "secretive" launch that annoyed the heck out of us. Being media, we nevertheless ate the free breakfast and grabbed all the freebees proffered to us.
Q03: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q03.jpg BB: "A Jaz concert." Ans: Iomega is the company name, and the Jaz 2GB removable storage is/was the product. Picked this one up at a computer show in Sydney Australia.
Q04: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q04.jpg BB: "Martini & Rossi enter the PC business with their new line of 3D wineglass screens." Ans: Martini glass from Graphisoft USA to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 1999. Wasted on me as I don't drink that stuff, but adds a touch of class to the ballcaps and t-shirts.
Q05: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q05.jpg BB: "Bolt your information together with our product, from yet another acquired company." Ans: A pen that looks like a bolt and nut: pull off the nut to reveal the pen tip. On Bedrock was going to be an Web portal for the global construction industry, but a lack of funding killed it; see www.cyberplaces.com/404.htm . Picked it up at the A/E/C Systems 2001 show at the peak of the Internet bubble. (That show was a personal record for bringing home loot: my entire suitcase was filled with freebees, including 9 t-shirts, some of which my landscape gardener friend now wears.)
Q06: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q06.jpg BB: "It's round, like the rolls of paper that went into their plotters. They also made digitizers." Ans: This CalComp button featured three flashing LEDs; the company produced large-format plotters, digitizers, and even CAD software, second only to HP. Owner Lockheed cut it loose when it failed to make money year after year, after which the division shut down.
Q07: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q07.jpg BB: "Bentley's now vanished Viecon data-managment PLM going-to-save-the-world aplication." Ans: Viecon from Bentley Systems was an Internet-based project management application. Bentley held a party for the media, where attractive, but modestly dressed, young ladies handed out promotional items, such as this one, to the media. Sitting with marketing vp Yoav Etiel (who ordered all these items), I convinced a young lady to give a reluctant Yoav several of them. She had no idea who he was. Keith Little of Adage Books adds: "Although I could only answer about half your quiz queries, I was able to find an unusually large box filled with my 20+ years of much the same. Were you in attendance in Dallas the evening my wife (Queen Mia, in a full-length red evening gown) made an international audience grovel before her (or at least, sing an Elvis song) to receive one of them way-cool black MicroStation mugs (while Keith and Barry stared, in obvious disdain, at us, the drunken hospitality hosts)? [I have two of those classic wide-base mugs, but given to me direct from the hands of Scott Bentley.] But I regress. Ralph, you are still, indeed, a wild-man."
Q08: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q08.jpg BB: "Desq brought out the Desqview product to serve as a sort of pre-Windows file and application management system." Ans: Quarterdeck Systems created Desqview to provide multitasking and windowing to DOS in 1985. The company failed after (1) overhyping the product too early; (2) taking too long to ship; and (3) Windows proving successful.
Q09: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q09.jpg BB: "Um, let me think a moment. I know this one, er, er, it's, aw shucks, it crossed my mind and just kept on going." Ans: The Artist Graphics software contained a multi-featured display-list driver for AutoCAD. Its biggest features were toolbars and multiple viewports. Artist Graphics was part of Control Systems; the company died when high-resolution graphics boards became cheap and Autodesk added those features to AutoCAD.
Q10: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q10.jpg BB: "Kurta made digitizers. I still have a 12x18 model in my dayjob office, and a Summagraphics model of same size at home." Ans: Kurta produced digitizing tables. This item was a calculator that looks like a book of matches. Evan Yares of Open Design adds: "Acquired by Mutoh."
Q11: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q11.jpg BB: "It's one of them ferrin Canadian (just kidding) companies making neat little key chains for AutoCAD hardware locks." Ans: I had no idea, but Ferranti Lucio knows: "An answer for your Q11: go to www.sirti.com . It's an Italian telecommunications company."
Q12: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q12.jpg BB: "And a pie in the face for being asleep before dawn." Ans: "You Asked For It!" was a promotional mailing from GEnie, the AOL-like online service owned by General Electric in the early 1990s. The mailer contained a diskette with software for joining the service. Like CompuServe and others, GEnie failed when the Internet became available to the masses in the mid-90s.
Q13: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q13.jpg BB: "Obviously an early Gateway mug [the computer company used cows in its early ads]. I received a similar one when I bought a Gateway laptop. Then again, MicroStation was sometimes written with that Greek u-like symbol -- hmmm." [It was written as "uStn".] Ans: The Mu mug was handed out at 'Microstation Manager' University, run by OnWord Press. The first cow says "Mooo." Then it attends MU. Afterwards, the cow says "Mu" (12th letter of the Greek alphabet). Four puns on one mug. Miguel Palaoro of DATACAD Brasil adds: "I've got vague ideas about some of this objects, but one certainty: You have drinked a lot of coffee in this years! Congratulations for being so careful with your memories." [Tea, actually.]
Q14: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q14.jpg BB: "Oh that's easy. It's software for mirroring your Web site to another location. It's made by the Fahrenheit-Celsius company." Ans: Looking Glass Software run by Phil Kreiker, who gave me this "digital" thermometer. I won't repeat his description of its purpose. He adds: "How nice of you to include our desktop thermometer in your ezine. And yes, we're still in business." www.lookingglassmicro.com
Q15: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q15.jpg BB: "It's from the McDonald's internet cafe in Budapest." Ans: CAD Cafe mug from the Generic Software division of Autodesk. The division, located in Bothell WA USA, was shut down shortly after celebrating the shipment of 550,000 software packages. This heavy mug is one of my favorites, out of the 17 on my bookshelf.
Q16: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q16.jpg BB: "An early ASP arrangement for the dissemination of design and construction information -- sort of like Sweet's before they started using Aspartame." Ans: This e-idc CD contained a promotional video (a rocket ship taking off) for yet another international portal for the AEC industry: International Design and Construction Online. Unlike the other overhyped competitors from 2001, e-idc.com continues to operate.
Q17: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q17.jpg BB: "Let's go Dutch on this one. Was that a Delft enough answer? I also like the Tori Amos song 'China'." Ans: Delft hand-painted ceramic shoe from Cyco International of The Netherlands. CEO Vince Everts was famous for flamboyantly handing out pr items. Another favorite: a red T-shirt from Cyco's first event in Russia, featuring a big image of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Q18: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q18.jpg BB: "I like panfried seafood as much as the next guy, but haven't a clue on this one. I do have this vague feeling of having seen it somewhere though. Maybe I need a better way to solve all of my problems." Ans: Panacea produced lowcost display drivers for AutoCAD that took up small memory footprints. One of their t-shirts read, "Cheap, Easy, Fast," something my wife did not appreciate. Former owner Jake Richter now lives on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, is a registered US patent agent, and calls himself a "serial entrepreneur."
Q19: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q19.jpg BB: "Hmm, could this be AMD? You know those gold chips will bring you money." Ans: Gold keychain from Intel, promoting a Pentium CPU. Intel would use flawed chips and place them in keychains.
Q20: www.upfrontezine.com/Figs/20quiz/Q20.jpg BB: "Ralph, you drink WAY too much coffee. I'm outa here." [Tea, actually.] Ans: LM mug from LaserMaster, the very first CAD-related promo item I ever received. The company in 1984 promoted its modified laser printers to handle 300dpi full-page graphics -- at a time when HP's laser printers lacked sufficient memory to perform to their potential. David Cohn of EA Report adds: "I've still got that mug too. Must be something about mugs. Please tell me that you didn't save all that junk for all these years." [Yip, I shore did. How about a copy of Mannequin Software? Or a hardware lock for the Vermont Microsystems display driver?]
A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting:
Cimmetry Systems is shipping Release 19 of its AutoVue viewing software. Well, more than just viewing of CAD drawings: it also accesses object level attributes and product structures. http://www.cimmetry.com/autovue19.html BRL-CAD Release 7.6.0 adds of a new quantitative analysis tool for geometry models (computes weights and volumes of objects, as well as overlaps, air gaps, external air regions, and more), an interactive shot selection tool (examines geometric components along paths, etc), system improvements, and a handful of bug fixes. http://sourceforge.net/projects/brlcad/ MITCalc of the Czech Republic notes that they now have an interface for Solid Edge (v15, 16, 17), as well as a new extension pack for pinned couplings. http://www.mitcalc.com John Stark Associates has a PLM Project Support Package to help you with PLM [product lifecycle management] awareness, feasibility and strategy development. http://www.johnstark.com/prgrs.html Smart Tools X for AutoCAD simplifies everyday commands. More info here: http://www.grsoft.com/products.htm An extension to LMS Virtual.Lab Motion from LMS International features an Auto-Recursive Solver designed for long series of linked components and many contact points between components. http://www.lmsintl.com Earlier in the year, Bentley Systems made its 2D MicroStation PowerDraft software free to students and instructors. Now they have versions in simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Korean, and Spanish. My son downloaded a copy for himself. Perhaps not the easiest way to learn Spanish. http://www.becareers.org Gibbs and Associates announces ProAXYZ, a new suite of software add-ons that support 5-axis simultaneous machining. http://www.GibbsCAM.com ProgeSOFT releases a new version of ArchT:ProgeARC, a 2D/3D parametric AEC software package for the drafting of civil and industrial buildings. Download a trial version from http://www.progesoft.com/compra/index.asp?left=progearc&lang=eng
These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com >:
And on the Gizmos Grabowski weblog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos/ >
Seminars & Conferences 2005 Solid Edge User Summit and Executive Symposium is Sept. 28-30 in Cincinnati OH USA. www.solidedge.com/summit Adobe's On the Road with Acrobat 7.0 seminar is in Toronto and several American cities during October. More info from www.adobe.com/tour Visio Conference 06 is Jan 19-20 in Seattle WA USA. www.msvisioconference.com/ Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates Welcome 'Desktop Engineering' magazine to the 10 Year Club. As it celebrates its 10th anniversary, editorial director and founder Anthony Lockwood writes, "Ten years is quite the accomplishment in our industry." People/Companies on the Move Peter Lawrence joins Technesis as director of marketing. Mr Lawrence was formerly with Autodesk and Oce. Proficiency moves to 880 Winter Street, Suite 320, Waltham, MA 02415 USA. The new phone number is (781) 314-0500. Market News In its Q305, Adobe's revenues were US$487.0 million, up from $403.7 million a year ago, but down from $496.0 million in Q2. Letters to the Editor Re: CAD's a Job "My entry into AutoCAD, with which you have helped me with on more than one occasion, was with regard to GIS [gographic information systems]. The map I created was a compilation of many scales -- working between SPANS and AutoCAD -- with the finished work in E00 format now residing in Yellowknife [North West Territories, Canada]. "It was not the easiest way to learn something about AutoCAD and more especially about computers some ten to fifteen years ago, aggravated by having been made redundant a few months before. I'm a little more comfortable now with computers but very far from feeling at ease with the instruments. "I shall probably never be comfortable with computers or any of modern technology as I wonder what is the purpose to anything you cannot eat or take to bed with you. I was by trade a university laboratory technician (something not really appreciated in North America, in my view) specializing in cartography and photography. "Most of my work is done in CorelDraw, but I am now trying
to teach myself 3DStudio Max as I feel the could be an outlet for
some types of scientific visualization -- crystal structures, for
instance. If I finish on time I'll send you my Xmas card as an animation."
Re: Editorial as Advertising "I can't believe you fell for the obvious advert from SolidWorks
'does any other CAD system have smart components, SolidWorks does'
from Name Withheld. Free advertising, eh!" The editor responds: "I had thought of that, but also figured it might spark some discussion. But then, just about every 'news' item in upFront.eZine is a form of advertising. Marketing people figure that an editorial mention is worth 10x its value in paid advertising."
Re: 'Blue-print' is better than 'Prints Charming' "And much better than 'The Copies Formerly Known as Prints'."
Re: Cadig AutoTable 3.2 "Just to set the record straight, there has been an Excel
> AutoCAD LT import tool available since 2002, with over 4,000
seats currently in use. It communicates with LT through Windows
messaging and script files, procedures acceptable to Autodesk." "LT-Extender is a great add-on if you are familiar with
AutoCAD."
Re: HTML Format "I do appreciate your ezine. But I would like to point out
it's difficult to read, due to the fixed size of the lines length.
Why don't you adopt the same format of the WorldCAD Access? Or even
better you could adopt a resizable line length, so one can adapt
it as one likes?" The editor responds: "This newsletter is sent with resizeable line lengths; either your email software or an email server along the way changes it to fixed lengths. "If you wish to read upFront.eZine like WorldCAD Access, you can always read the HTML version online at www.upfrontezine.com/current.htm" - - - "It’s very nice that your very newsworthy eMag comes out
of Canada, complete with its objectivity." "Thanks for the newsletter. It was a good read."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "Jasper? I guess we’re going to have to find out where Jasper
is." Notable Quotable "Checkbox marketing -- about the only way to market when
non-users make purchase decisions -- drives software companies to
bolt-on features without regard to consistency of or destructive
interactions between features."
Copyright 2005 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.00.
All trademarks belong to their respective holders. "upFront.eZine,"
"Talking About CAD," and "On your desktop every Tuesday morning"
are trademarks of upFront.eZinePublishing, Ltd. |
|
|
|
|
