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Issue #464 : : March 7, 2006 |
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C o n t e n t s Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions Summit
Below
the Radar, and other
regular columns. |
Write the Editor. Donate to upFront.eZine through Paypal. Access nearly-daily CAD commentary at our blog: WorldCAD Access. |
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Autodesk Manufacturing Solutions Summit Autodesk last week invited a dozen CAD editors to a two-day event. The primary idea was to reintroduce its Inventor MCAD software to the media as: (1) #1; and (2) all-encompassing. Some weeks ago I theorized that Autodesk needs a high-end MCAD program to go against CATIA and NX. Autodesk's Andrew Anagnost disagrees; Inventor will eventually take on the Big Boys, he feels, and without the $$$ price. Not that the overall pricetag won't creep upwards. I heard that Inventor Pro will be unbundled, and that future pricing will consist of Inventor + whatever modules you want separately. In the Aspen Creek room of Portland's 5th Ave Suites hotel, we were introduced to Inventor 11, whose tagline is "2D or 3D? Yes." New features are in the areas of:
You can learn more about the new release from the live blogging I did at worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2006/03/autodesk_mechan.html . The "Technical Gala" was a grandly-named event where seven stations were set up, each one emphasing the items listed above. It was a good way for us media to receive 15-minute overviews of each new feature, but it meant standing for two hours. Sigh! - - - A highlight of summit was attending a few hours of the regional FIRST Robotics competition in downtown Portland -- sponsored in part by Autodesk. It was pretty cool seeing the mobile robots designed by high-school teams in a mere six weeks (from a kit of parts). The robots had to play a modified form of basketball in changing teams of three. There were several all-girl teams. Bill Fane and I had a chance to talk to the David Thompson Secondary School team from Vancouver BC in our homeland of Canada, where we discovered that knowledge of robotics is not the only skill needed. The young lady we chatted with was in charge of marketing the team: buttons, t-shirts, media relations <g>; she plans to make that her career following university. www.usfirst.org/
Snipets of Thoughts Here are items I scribbled down on pieces of paper during the summit: - "We're still far from solving the mechanical problem," admits Buzz Kross, vp of Autodesk's Manufacturing Solutions division. But, functional design is as big a revolution as was parametric design. Functional design means concentrating on the design, instead of drawing lines and circles. The CAD system takes care of drawing the parts, while you deliberate over the design. - Inventor and AutoCAD Electrical exchange wiring data through XML [what! not DWF?]. Although Autodesk has electrical software, they do not want to get involved PCB [printed circuit board] design. - The Manufacturing Solutions division is relieved it doesn't have the either-or ADT/Revit problem. Well, except for the users still on MDT... - Mechanical Desktop has a bend function lacking in Inventor, which keeps customers with MDT. Speaking of which, what is the future of MDT? We got no response to the question, except for Autodesk stating it is proud to be supporting MDT three years longer than originally announced -- although I don't recall the MDT obit declaration. - There was a quickly-hushed mention of a new product named "Showcase." From the name, it might be Alias technology adapted to MCAD. In other future product news, it appears Autodesk is writing their own mold design software, because they don't care for any products out there. - The external marketing people had the job of diverting excitable attendees. Complaints about the Autodesk marketing stunt at SolidWorks World were met with "Do you iron your own clothes?" Or this bland diversion: "I've always hated my last name." I rather like mine, which is why I'm a writer and perhaps why they're not. "I didn't realize she was doing that," admitted the Autodesk executive when the diversionary tactic was pointed out to him. "I get it every working day," I responded wearily. - Buzz Kross is proud of not adding to outsourcing overseas. Not that it doesn't occur. The fine point of distinction is that no American programmers have lost their jobs to overseas; but overseas programmers are employed by Autodesk. The China office, for example builds Inventor Pro. - I found the Alias software fascinating, running on a big Wacom touch-sensitive LCD screen. My daughters would love it. Autodesk found that getting Alias data into Inventor works, and plans to let raster images be painted on solid models, among other things. - The Manufacturing Solutions division, being located in the outpost of Oregon, feels quite independent from Autodesk, and even has the blessings from future-ceo Carl Bass: independence within Autodesk, with some sharing of technology. - - - As Bill Fane, David Cohn, and I sat in Portland airport's Standfords Restaurant, I remarked at how much I enjoyed the two days: the exposure of new Inventor and Alias software was interesting, and I really liked the time with fellow editors: Randall Newton, Martyn Day, Bill, David, and the others. Thanks, David, for picking up the dinner bill! www.autodesk.com/manufacturing Autodesk shares jumped over 10% following its Q4 good news. Profits were US$83 million, up from $65.8 million a year earlier. Revenues were $416.8 million, and subscription revenue increased by 53% to $80.3 million, whereas license revenue increased 11% to $336.5 million. It was noted that 3D software has higher ASPs [average selling price] and higher margins. That means more revenues and more profits for Autodesk when users switch to the likes of Civil 3D, Revit, and Inventor. AutoCAD 2004, one of the really popular releases, will be retired by Autodesk next March 15. The company's cfo projects upcoming Q1 revenues of $425-$435 million, and Q2 revenues of $440-460 million. This means that Autodesk could become a two-billion-dollar corporation this year. This was the last financial conference call for outgoing ceo Carol Bartz, who has done a great job of moving Autodesk to the front of the line. Q&A [Questions and answers are paraphrased from the call recording.] When asked about AutoCAD sales increasing faster than sales of most 3D competitors, except for perhaps SolidWorks, ceo-in-waiting Carl Bass said Autodesk just happened to have the right products at the right time. "I think a lot of people [competitors] are executing on decades-old strategy, but the market has changed fundamentally. Look at some of the things the other companies are doing, trying to change the focus to small-and-medium-size manufacturers. Basically, what they are messaging is the fact that they no longer have appropriate products for the majority of that market."
Q: Do you have any expectations for the 3D workstation market this year? A: I don’t even know what the 3D workstation market is anymore. I don't think there is such a thing anymore. 3D is done on general purpose PCs now.
Q: What percentage of revenue is coming from 3D now? A: Approx 21% in the first quarter.
Q: The emphasis is not PLM, but seems to be conceptual design and post-design presentation. A: The easiest market for us is gaming, computer graphics, and such. A few years ago animation was stalled, but it's the hottest market for us now.
Q: You have said that PLM is a longer term opportunity. Can you give a sense of where the market is now? A: I think we are still early in the adoption -- Vault and ProductStream. One of the things to know about PLM is that it involves a change of process. We have spent the last year or two seeding the market, getting the customers to where they are changing their process. If we think the migration of 2D to 3D is going to take 5-10 years, this is certainly similarly true for lifecycle management. We think we are well positioned; we have the unique solution for bringing it to market; we're looking at the mainstream part of the market. We're now looking at the high-cost, high-implementation of 20-year-old systems [by competitors]; we're looking at a newer approach, the Web service approach that we think is much more appropriate for most customers. We're moving this along slowly and appropriately. The thing I would add is that our incremental approach is being very well received by customers, because they feel they can try [the software] and buy [the software], try and buy, try and buy -- as opposed to just chocking down a huge hairball.
Q: Could you share your thoughts on shelfware of 3D products [software that is acquired by customers, but not installed]. A: I think there is a myth being perpetrated about the shelfware. Some of our competitors are frustrated by our success. And so there is a rumor that it's not being used. [Autodesk sells Inventor only as bundle with AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop.] People don't buy 3D subscriptions for the fun of it; they don't buy 3D subscriptions for shelfware. We can tell by registrations, error reports, and other online activity. I would say that the high-90s of our products are deployed.
Q: My question would about getting people using legitimate products in emerging area -- China and India in particular. A: We have anti-piracy programs in every country, and we are getting more efficient at sharing best practices in the emerging geos [geographies]. The country that has done the best is China. And Korea. It's working with local governments, informing customers when we think they are not legal.
Q: You used to mention there were roughly ten million in China and about seven million in India of illegitimate licenses. Do you have some feel about where you are at in making those legitimate ones? A: I don't recall ever saying that. What we do say is that those countries are in the low 90s [percent of] piracy. If that's the case, then there's 9 stolen for every 1 bought.
Q: You seem to be speeding up your acquisition strategy. What can you tell us about your acquisitions coming up? A: We continue to like the small acquisitions complimentary to our business. Relatively small and adjacent. You won't see far-reaching acquisitions.
Q: Are you going to be able to continue this north-of-30% growth in new seats, or are we going to start to see it slow down a bit? A: There doesn't seem much to change the concept that 2/3 of our revenue from new seats. It's been very stable, fourth year in a row. I don't see this changing at all. A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting:
Evolve Consultancy updates its report on the CAD manager's role in the UK architectural engineering and construction industry. You can read it at www.eatyourcad.com/article.php?incat_id=865 AutoSolids 4.0 (US$295-$495) adds parametrics to 3D solid modeling in AutoCAD 14.01 - 2006, plus all versions of Mechanical Desktop and Architectural Desktop. www.autosolids.com VizUp (US$299-$1,495) polygon reducer and optimizer is now at v2.1 with improved support for large VRML models, added STL import/export, and more. www.vizup.com/whatis.html IMSI has Realtime Landscaping Pro (US$60) with a water garden studio. www.imsisoft.com/prodinfo.asp?t=1&mcid=367 Autodesk says that AutoCAD 2007 and a lot of its other updated software will ship on March 23. /www.autodesk.com CADsoft's Envisioneer 3.0 for architects has new roofing and surface tools, a 3D stereo mode, dynamic cutaway viewer, and more. www.cadsoft.com And OPTIS announces OptisWorks Studio for light and optical design based on SolidWorks: you can design both optics and mechanics in one product. www.optis-world.com - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Hardware News Triple LCD monitors for notebook computers: Matrox's TripleHead (US$299) is a box that plugs into notebook and desktop computers. It fools Windows [easy to do?] into thinking it is outputting to a 3840x1024-monitor; three 1280x1024 monitors [not included] are attached to the TripleHead box. www.matrox.com/graphics/triplehead2go As they promised coupla' weeks ago, Stratasys makes another in a steady stream of announcements. This one's for the ARCAM EBM S400 rapid prototyper that uses electron beams to melt titanium powder and make 100% metal parts. Dunno how much it costs. www.stratasys.com
People/Companies on the Move Design & Drafting Software's LD Assistant software (for lighting design) celebrates its 20th anniversary. www.ldassistant.com/web2005/index.htm IMSI ceo Martin Wade takes over as president from Gordon Landies, who continues to help out as an officer of the company. Market News Geomagic's 2Q06 sales set a record, with license revenue increasing 43% over the same quarter a year earlier. The company is not, however, giving $ numbers. Parametric Technology last week got itself a US$230-million line of credit, and executed a 2-for-5 reverse stock split. Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "NX 3 for Designers"
"Tailoring AutoCAD 2006" WorthWhile Web http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4313772690011721857
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/autoCAD.html
Letters to the Editor Re: Pain vs Logic: Readers Respond "You sure hit a nail on the head with these responses. I don't know if the additional views expressed indicate a momentous volume of shared ideology (wishful thinking?) or just a sampling of those that are of equal (or more) enthusiasm. "It struck me that compared to the rapid growth and advances in CAD/CAM/CAE through the 90s, we're now in a relative flat period. It seems the past few years have been consumed with vendors stuffing features into products, and THEN beating on their marketing staff to sell them. "I used to beta-test for a lot of vendors, and it seems that the shift is now to 'here's a new feature, tell us how we can use it', rather than what used to be 'hey, what features could you really use?' I can't recall a single question like that being asked in the past five years now. Sad. "Really sad. Reminds me of Daffy Duck shouting, 'Hey bub!
You need a house to go with this doorknob!!!'"
"I got to know CAD in order to advocate the use of 3D CAD, because we needed accurate BOMs [bills of material] for our configure-to-order business. I supported the acquisition of SolidWorks. It was one step in the chain, which gives us much more than accurate BOMs. "Prototyping plastic parts has been a breeze, checking for
parts interference and much more has been great. It was during this
research that I stumbled across your newsletter. Tuesday has been
a red-letter day ever since. I really appreciate your efforts. I
wish all application areas were as well served."
"You and your readers continue to add refreshing perspectives that are otherwise difficult to find in CAD media. We found the letters in this week's issue particularly compelling. "We are in the earliest stages of developing a new CAD product,
and our interest in talking with designers is to make sure that
our product plans are on track. Thanks for being there with something
interesting to read every week."
"Autodesk's other extra modeler (no. 8, but who's counting), was AME Advanced Modeling Extension. I bought it. Wish I hadn't. "I am an Inventor user, AutoCAD since 1983. They gouged us for AutoVision [renderer], then added in to the next release. "I think Inventor is constantly playing catch-up. In Release
11 [due out later this month] it finally got assembly configurations,
something SWX [SolidWorks] has had since 1996!" The editor replies: "I think AutoVision was $500. I recall John Forbes showing it off at Comdex '87 -- that's 1987. We media were impressed that it could render faceted spheres so quickly!"
Notable Quotable "If the project is uneconomic, it shouldn't get a subsidy.
Copyright 2006 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. |
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