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Issue #489 : : October 3, 2006 |
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C o n t e n t s -
Failure to Launch Readers Respond: Engineering's a Yawner
Below the Radar, and our other regular columns. |
Write the editor. Through Paypal donate $25 to upFront.eZine. Access nearly-daily CAD commentary at our Weblog: WorldCAD Access. |
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.I was present at a secret confab last month that tackled the "AutoCAD Problem." Meeting near Bellingham International Airport, the CEO and COO of a mid-level CAD vendor presented their plan to impinge on AutoCAD's market domination. (None of us were from Bellingham WA USA; the location was a convenient and neutral meeting place.) As seen by competitors, the AutoCAD Problem is this: since the late 1980s, competitors feel slighted that Autodesk has the #1 CAD program, and not them. The question that irritates them is: "Why should Autodesk have all those customers that rightfully belong to us?" (Ford must be thinking a similar thought of Toyota these days.) The executives who led the meeting have been in the software business for a couple of decades. They've seen the mistakes made by other CAD vendors in attempting to displace AutoCAD as the King of Kad. Now, over boxed lunches, they asked for input on whether their plan could work. Some elements of their plan have been tried before, but with limited success. Their plan, however, is multi-pronged, has a financial footing, and can access CAD programming skills not available a decade ago. (I can't provide more details, other than to note that the plan is to be launched in phases over the next 12 months.)
Failure to Launch Some of the previous attempts failed due to lack of money and time -- money to pay for sufficient programmers; time to complete the code by deadline. IntelliCAD 98 was one spectacular example: it had all the sure-fire elements in place to displace AutoCAD, but then failed to meet expectations. Let's look briefly at the advantages of this CAD vendor's plan:
Understanding Market Dynamics When attempts by competitors failed in the past, it was partly due to Autodesk's ability to find weak point(s) in competitors' offerings, and then to launch counterstrike marketing campaigns. A successful plan needs to take that into account. Dispensing with their prepared PowerPoints, the CEO and COO took to the whiteboard to illustrate their plan. They had many questions about competition in the CAD world, and a couple were general enough to repeat here: Q: Why does pre-CAD software not do well, other than SketchUp? Q: Why do people prefer AutoCAD LT three-to-one over AutoCAD? Those questions, among others, pinpoint a few of Autodesk's weak points. The biggest question, though, pointed back to the CAD vendor: "Do you think our plan has a chance?" In my reply, I noted that it was the best thought-out plan I'd ever heard. Ever the skeptic, however, I added, "That doesn't mean it will succeed." That's for the market to decide. This CAD vendor discreetly launched its first salvo last month; the next is due by year's end. Meanwhile, Autodesk is closing in on $2-billion in annual sales.
Readers
Respond: I received numerous thoughtful letters from corporations and individuals on solving the problem of fewer students entering engineering. Here's what readers had to say: - - - "Thanks for following-up on this key problem facing domestic (US) companies: making engineering an attractive career option for today's students. "It seems as though this problem may have begun in manufacturing. Manufacturing facilities are portrayed as dirty, smelly, oily, and downright dangerous. In reality, today's modern manufacturing facilities are far from that. "I've attended industry events where the sentiment being expressed was, 'Who wants their kids putting tires on Toyotas!' Compare a career in manufacturing with one that asks, 'Do you want paper or plastic?' or 'Do you want fries with that?' I think most would appreciate what manufacturing has to offer them as a career. "There has been considerable mention in the press of job losses in the manufacturing sector, yet at the same time there are many manufacturing firms that are unable to hire qualified employees. This trend may have started with the vilification and outsourcing of manufacturing, but now the white collar engineering jobs have also started to take a significant hit. We find ourselves in a situation where if we don't reverse this trend, we won't have the workforce to keep our product development and production capability operational. It's well known that other countries are graduating classes of engineers significantly larger than the US currently does. I'm a believer of quality over quantity, but this is a numbers game that does not bode well. "As has been already mentioned, a number of programs on television -- such as Monster Garage, American Chopper and BattleBots -- have really captivated their young audiences, creating a real interest in making something. At Gibbs, we have found through our own efforts in attracting students to engineering that nothing quite beats building something that you've designed, and then competing with it against other designs. "BattleBots IQ < www.battlebotsiq.com > and FIRST < www.usfirst.org/robotics > are two great programs Gibbs has been involved in. They allow teams of students to have hands-on experience, exposing them to physics, teamwork, project management, CAD, CAM, and fabrication. Many students have decided on a career in engineering as a result of their experience. And the passion that is created is overwhelming; teachers comment on the dedication the students have for the programs. Sure beats the dry textbook approach. "Kudos to companies out there, like Autodesk and SolidWorks,
who are putting forth an effort to introduce engineering in the
lower grade levels. In a way, it may be self-serving, but in the
bigger picture it is really ensuring that we will have engineers
and engineering in our future, which is a key part of our economy."
"You might be interested in this site: www.civeng.co.nz . It's not as pretty as it could be, but serves a purpose. John Irvine is sponsored by local companies and travels around the country in a bus visiting high schools to promote civil engineering as a career. "He has considered taking his road show to the US, but its
such a big place he could only hope to cover a small fraction of
it."
"I have four kids in school in a region with with plenty of engineering work (mostly military-related, but not all). I've asked them and their friends why they're not going into engineering, computer sciences, or other technical fields when they head off to college. Almost every one of them says the same thing: Because the news is rife with off-shoring of engineering and computer stuff. "Most of them want to go into law, medicine, or become professional skateboarders (some really do). They see America as becoming a 100% service-oriented world where anything technical in nature is done by cheaper labor with higher test scores. "Regardless of whether their views are accurate or not, it's what many of them at high school age believe. Big business and government need to get busy pumping up the image of these fields, or there won't be anyone chasing after them. They learn from MTV and other TV shows that sports, entertainment, medicine, and law are the fields that attract bling and status. They view engineering as a bleak, unattractive field. "This potential brain-drain will only accelerate the spiral
and force corporations to make that perception a reality by seeking
yet more talent overseas. It's really sad."
"I manage Bentley System's global program that stimulates students into the harder fields. Our focus is not to give software away or look at providing software to schools at a profit. The Bentley Empowered Careers program < www.becareers.org > focuses on education out of necessity for our profession. Developed countries are facing the Y2Grey problem where retirement in the next 3-5 years will require a massive infusion of talent. "Facts show that other country education systems graduate ENGINEERING students at rates that far exceed the United States. Cases in point: China graduates 600,000 per year, India 450,000, while the United States graduates 70,000 engineers a year. In the US, demand for engineers exceeds the supply. "University engineering programs are under pressure to make the programs less demanding, meaning that adding additional requirements is not an option. A study released 60 days ago in Shanghai reported that 51.5% of graduates said that what they learned in school was not relevant. "National programs use our engineering technology to teach
geometry; countries use our technology to allow students to compete
to solve national problems and getting engineers/architects to convey
what they do -- this is not the traditional way of teaching concepts
or technology but necessary."
A summary of CAD industry news you may not have read elsewhere, or that I found interesting: - - - UGS enhances motion simulation and animation in Solid Edge v19 through the Assembly Engineering Manager. www.solidedge.com ICEM announces v4.6 of its surface design modeling software, ICEM Surf, with enhanced photo-realistic real-time design visualisation. It's due to ship in November. www.icem.com VariCAD releases the 2007 version of its 3D/2D VariCAD mechanical CAD system, with rebuilt 3D kernel for Windows and Linux. Free trial version can be downloaded from www.varicad.com Kubotek USA again urges CADKEY users to switch to KeyCreator, this time at half-price: US$1,750. www.cadkey.com/NEWTOOLS Dassault Systemes integrates NVIDIA CgFX technology into CATIA Real Time Rendering 2 on V5R17 for real-time 3D visualization. www.3ds.com Bentley Systems ships these add-ons for MicroStation
V8 XM < www.bentley.com/bim
>: Spatial Data Technologies (mapping, not ACIS) releases CartoPac Data Interchange for ArcGIS and mobile computers. www.spatialdatatech.com SolidWorks unveils new eDrawings Professional with new support for files from Office, AutoCAD, and Google SketchUp. The software is included free with SolidWorks Office Premium 3D, but a free reduced-function download is at http://www.solidworks.com/pages/programs/eDrawings/e2_register.html Softland offers novaPDF, a PDF creator at www.novapdf.com and Backup4all backup software at www.backup4all.com . Design Master Software releases a new version of Design Master HVAC: designmaster.biz/news/items/2006/09/HVAC5.0Released.html - - - 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:
Hardware News Tormach introduces its PCNC 1100 CNC 3-axis milling machine for US $6,800. www.tormach.com
Seminars & Conferences VSMM'06 is Oct. 18-20 in Xi'an, China. http://china.vsmm.org Boeing's Ninth Annual Product Data Exchange Conference is Oct 24-26 in Mesa AZ USA. 10th ECF European PLM Forum is Nov 7-9 in Paris, France. http://www.ecforum.com
People/Companies on the Move GiveMePower of Calgary Canada opens a sales office in Dallas Texas. Sescoi India doubled its sales and technical support teams this year. Cadopolis.com moves its head office to 8395 Jane St, Suite 203, Vaughan, ON, Canada, L4K 5Y2. New phone number is 416-693-4333.
Market News Avatech Solutions reports FY revenues of US$39.6 million, up 16% from the year before.
Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "SolidWorks 2007 for Designers"
"Doctor Walt’s KEYCREATOR 6 Highlights"
"Tailoring AutoCAD 2007"
WorthWhile Web http://www.adclassix.com/
Letters to the Editor Re: Where's the Acrobat 8 Buzz? "Unless the PDF content is encrypted, it is trivially easy to extract the U3D data from a PDF. Once you have the U3D out, it is no big deal to convert it to a more useful format that your CAD program can read. "Even if it is encrypted, there are probably tools that shunt a DirectX polygon stream into a file, similar to the OpenGL hacks that have been around forever. "If the U3D data is compressed, then there will be a bit
of error introduced by quantization. Whether this matters or not
depends on your intended use. But almost nobody uses U3D compression,
so this is a moot point anyway. (Acrobat does not compress U3D data,
for example.)" The editor replies: "By not compressing U3D data in the current release allows Adobe to announce a large reduction of filesize in a future release -- as a feature." - - - "Have been on the list for a long time, and appreciate all
the news and comments regarding the CAD industry."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "...we're delivering not only a device, but a shared, social
experience that will be shaped by the collective imagination of
consumers. We're infusing the spirit of discovery and sharing into
everything we do..."
Notable Quotable
"It's not that Americans have a bad impression of their northern neighbour
-- it's that they have no impression at all."
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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