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Issue #479 : : June 20, 2006 |
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C o n t e n t s Exclusive! Delcam's 3D CAD Software
is Free Multithreading Doesn't
Benefit CAD Before AfterCAD Below the Radar but no other regular columns.
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Write the Editor. Donate to upFront.eZine through Paypal. Access nearly-daily CAD commentary at our blog: WorldCAD Access. |
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Delcam's 3D CAD Software is Free Exclusive Delcam's a British company whose line of CAD software includes names like PowerMILL, PowerSHAPE, PowerINSPECT, CopyCAD, FeatureCAM, and PS Fixture. On Wednesday, the company releases a free version, PowerShape-e. Jon Hunwick enthusiastically showed me how PowerShape-e creates surfaces from any shape. Draw a single line segment, and -e turns it into a surface whose area spans the bounding box of the line. Select a second line, and the surface extends to meet it. And so on. When the surface could have multiple possibilities, a dialog box lets you chose the type of surface from a list. Or, click the Next button to preview the other types. The software has some features that Mr Hunwick believes are unique. If not, I'm sure readers will correct him:
For this last item, Mr Hunwick shows me how it works by importing a 3D STL part, and then embossing it onto the 3D surface model of a motorcycle cowling. "Power surfaces" are of Delcam's own invention, an extension of Bezier surfaces. The edges and internal points of these surfaces can be edited directly or along tangents.
Encrypted File Format PowerShape-e is identical to PowerShape v7, which shipped last week. The difference is that the -e edition encrypts its files. You can exchange drawings with other -e users, but to export to other formats, you pay per model. Here's how it works: 1. In PowerShape-e, you select the Save As command. (The voucher system isn't new: the company already charges BP34 [US$50] for each translation with its stand-alone version of PS-Exchange. See www.delcam.com/general/software/ps-exchange/costs.asp .) Here's the catch that you might not like: the payment is for one translation only. If you change the model, you have to pay again for translation. The good news is that importing CAD models into -e is free. Will the encryption prove a challenge to hackers? "We have made the encryption very complex indeed. As with all encryption software it could be hacked but we believe it would be very hard to do," says Mr Hunwick. It seems ironic that the company that cracked Pro/Engineer's encryption uses encryption for its own data files. "We had lots of customers who were being sent Pro/E models to manufacture, and couldn't read the parts. It took one full-time programme about six months to figure out how PTC did the encryption." PowerShape-e comes with a suite of e-tutorials and ready-to-run college teaching course. The name 'Delcam' is based on that of the original owners, Delta CAE software written by Delta Metals. Link: www.powershape-e.com Multithreading Doesn't Benefit CAD Readers Respond In upFront.eZine #477, I reported that "UGS sees no advantage to multi-core CPUs (which Intel and AMD are pushing), because most software, including CAD, does not multi-thread easily. We tend to work consecutively with CAD software, not concurrently." Readers disagreed: - - - "This is the silliest excuse. Think about your word processor. You type consecutively, but it concurrently does spell checking for you. What UGS probably means is that they lacked the foresight to write their software to be multithread-able. "CAD apps should easily benefit from multi-core CPUs and multi-CPU computers: sorting, stuffing the OpenGL pipeline, lots of numerical things like FEA, even handling user interactions can easily be divvied up amongst CPUs. If your CAD vendor's software isn't getting 60% better performance with a dual-core machine, make a fuss, because it absolutely should be. "Of course, if you use Windows, it's good to have another
CPU to run all the spyware and viruses so you can have one CPU for
the code you actually want to use."
"As far as I know, multi-threading has very little to do with the user's consecutive inputs, but with the knowledge that a lot of intense image/vector processing can be accomplished in parallel to great advantage. I point to PhotoShop and some of the better video editing programs that make use of multi-threading to speed up processing by a significant amount. "This is the same ignorance (I don't think you are the ignorant one, BTW) I found when I spoke up at an Intel conference after one of their product managers stated that there would be no advantage in moving from 32- to 64-bit processing. The advantages of wider data or multi-threading/processing are to be greatly desired in the CAD user population. "It is too bad they (whomever they are) consider making
CAD a multi-threaded application is difficult." Reader's Respond Following my coverage of AfterCAD, other developers wrote that they've already figured out how to convert CAD drawings to tiled raster image for plugin-free viewing in Web browsers. I'll let them tell their stories: - - - "BricsCad developed 18 months ago the same technology for the viewer of its project management system, BricsCad Vondle (released in November 2004). We tile the image on the server, a tiled image for every zoom required. We eliminate white tiles to make the file even more compact. "The user has a pager to position the zoom or the pan view. Redlining and annotations are saved to the server linked with the viewed document. Our viewer has also an annotation browser allowing the user to see the history, author, and time stamp of all annotations. "The viewer recognizes the different views of Excel, Project, AutoCAD, BricsCad V6, and so on. The views are indicated under different tabs in the mother application with the same name as in the original file, allowing the user to switch instantly from one view to another. The Vondle viewer also changes the transparency of the annotation polygon -- useful when annotations are made on photographs and maps. Documents can be printed with or without annotations. We can open a 10MB DWG file over the Internet in seconds, rather than in minutes -- a problem we had with licensed viewers. "BricsCad Vondle is a 100% ASP-based system and written in Java -- nothing to be installed on the desktop -- and is browser-independent. As such the system is used by a mix of Windows, Linux, and Mac-based machines, sometimes all working together on the same project and sharing the same documents. "Of course, we are planning to integrate Vondle and some
of our CAD bit by bit."
"Isn't AfterCAD some (more) of the same as EB document management used? (It used to be called Altris, now it seems to be Spescom.) The EB server made TIFF [raster files] out of parts of DWG files. It then generated and delivered to the viewer (client) more TIFFs as you zoomed and panned. "I saw this maybe five years ago. I found the links below, but not a clear description of the DWG/TIFF bit I remember:
- Ragnar Thor
Mikkelsen, designdata.no A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting:
Statement by Adobe on Office 2007 and PDF: "Microsoft has demonstrated a practice of using its monopoly power to undermine cross platform technologies and constrain innovation that threatens its monopolies. Microsoft's approach has been to 'embrace and extend' standards that do not come from Microsoft. Adobe's concern is that Microsoft will fragment and possibly degrade existing and established standards, including PDF, while using its monopoly power to introduce Microsoft-controlled alternatives –- such as XPS [XML paper specification]." www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/statement.html
Geometros announces its sgCore (US$400) 3D modeling engine for programmers and engineers. Evaluation version at www.geometros.com/sgcore/review.htm The General CADD Desktop Search Plug-In adds the ability of Google Desktop Search to look inside DWG, DXF, and GXD files and extract searchable text strings. www.generalcadd.com/misc/SetupGeneralCADDIndexer.msi SolidWorks makes available SolidWorks 2007, COSMOS 2007, and SolidWorks Education Edition 3D CAD and analysis software. Coverage of the release event is at CAD Insider < cadinsider.typepad.com > www.solidworks.com DrcAuto Software releases of the AutoCAD 2007 version of !SlingShot Max software (US$75). Try out a version at estore.drcauto.com/slingshottry.htm Bentley Systems ships ProjectWise V8 XM collaboration server to its Select subscribers. www.bentley.com/ProjectWise JETCAM International releases version 8 of its direct numerical control software, JET-Term. The release has a new reporting engine and nest view/part selection capability. Demo version at www.jetcam.com Autodesk changes the name of its DWF Composer software to "Design Review 2007" (US$199). www.autodesk.com/designreview Autoship Systems releases Autoship 9.0 ship hull design and surface modeling program. www.autoship.com Kubotek USA updates Spectrum, its free viewer of drawings stored in AutoCAD, CADKEY, CATIA, Inventor, KeyCreator, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, UGS NX, and other formats. Download from www.kubotekusa.com/products/spectrum ARCHIBUS announces ARCHIBUS/FM v16 with greater AutoCAD interoperability, task security, and expanded Web capabilities. The new DWG Editor is a version of AutoCAD tailored for facility and infrastructure management. www.archibus.com - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com >:
And at the Gizmos Grabowski <worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos/ > Weblog:
People/Companies on the Move VISTAGY appoints Ed Bernardon to lead the company's business development, and Mel Passarelli as vice president of worldwide sales.
Market News IMAGINiT Technologies acquires Redcoat 3D, a service provider of virtual prototyping. Financial terms were not disclosed. Bentley Systems acquires the map publishing and finishing products CADscript and MAPscript from Corporate Montage of Australia. Delcam reports $20 million in sales for the quarter, up 20% from the same quarter last year. IGE/XAO reports 3Q revenues of e4.9 million, an 8% increase over the previous year. Bentley Systems releases is 2006 Annual Report at www.bentley.com/annualreport Avatech Solutions sells US$6 million worth of shares to four institutional investors to help pay down the $6.5 million short-term note it needed to acquire Stirling Systems.
WorthWhile Web http://www.gapingvoid.com/
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html
Letters to the Editor Re: Outsourcing CAD "I completely agree with the reported results of outsourcing.
As noted, we are following other previous world-leading nations
in becoming a nation of shopkeepers, not a nation that adds (or
banish the thought, creates) real value." - - - Re: Visio 2007 "Microsoft has improved the AutoCAD compatibility to the
point where DWG imports and exports don't really require a lot of
advanced configuration and multiple steps in Visio 2007." - - - Re: MicroStation V8 XM and BE 2007 "Rocketship XM was launched about 50 years ago by Hollywood."
"By a quirk of fate, I had scheduled a trip to Prague for end of June, and so I was at BE in Charlotte instead. Thanks for the update on Prague -- the city and the BE. "I fully agree with your comment 'that free Internet connections at airports are very valuable, but people are getting tired of being always connected. In the future, I predict, being inaccessible will become a status symbol.' "I have a cell phone for personal reasons. I have the luxury
of NOT giving that number out for work. I got rid of my pager. I
turn off e-mail when I am working on a project. It's been pretty
refreshing to quit the mulit-tasking fantasy and live the attentive-constructive
reality. Although, lapses to occur, multi-tasking sounds so .....
productive."
"I am enjoying your BE coverage. Actually, this routine
[by Tony Flynn] fell flat in Charlotte, too, but it sounds even
worse in Prague."
"I've come to believe that according to chaos theory, the future CANNOT be predicted more than about six months out. I've therefore started classifying futurologists as meteorologists: short-term predictions are OK, long-term are fairly useless. "When I worked for HP, we would have to come up with five-year
plans. They worked because they were revised every six months. I
could convince no one that they really were six-month plans." - - - "Thanks for your good work on upFront. It's always an interesting,
informative read."
"Great newsletter!"
Notable Quotable "When something important is going on, silence is a lie."
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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