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upFront.eZine |
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a publication from |
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Issue #491 : : October 17, 2006 |
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C o n t e n t s
Special Report: My Dinner with Buzz |
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Special
Edition: Tucked away in Tualatin OR USA is the anonymous-looking business park housing the headquarters for Autodesk's mechanical CAD division, lead by vp Buzz Kross. Intense yet likeable, he ponders his masterplan to turn the Manufacturing Solutions Division into a billion-dollar-a-year domain. As he strides impatiently around the labyrinthine hallways with his ear-mounted Bluetooth communicator -- making the occasional non-profane outburst -- his employees look up from their work and tell a visitor, "That's Buzz for you." Over two days, the Tualatonions unveiled their future plans to upFront.eZine -- and the possible impact on Autodesk's other divisions. Data management, education, instant hyper-realistic rendering, all-encompassing file formats, and even the elimination of CAD itself -- as we have known it for the last three decades. It's all there in their early, formative stages. Did I mention driving Buzz's new 400hp Corvette through the car-hostile streets of downtown Portland? What a way to bribe a journalist. "The Revit people might have nicer-looking buildings," he jibed. "But our parking lot's got nicer cars." Best of all for me, however, was having all meetings on the record. No NDAs. "Is this a warning shot over the bows of competitors?" I asked my bemused hosts. The negative side? I suspect Mr Kross does not dwell on negativity. In answer to his "What are you hearing about us? What's good, what's bad?" question, he dismissed any negatives I related.
Data Management Jim White's in charge of the software that manages data. Initially just for mechanical drawings, the technology's now spreading to nearly all areas of Autodesk. This was the first example I noted of software developed at the MCAD division being spread out to the rest of Autodesk: AEC, civil, media, and so on. The quiet-spoken Kiwi shows me a sheet of paper listing the rollout of his division's products -- ProductStream (for cataloging and accessing data), Vault (for storing reusable components), and Streamline (for displaying products) -- throughout Autodesk's other divisions. Some, such as for AutoCAD, are available to subscription customers only. "What about AutoCAD LT?" I asked, noting that AutoCAD LT has 3x the sales rate of AutoCAD and must be used for a lot of companion seats. "No, we'll never do AutoCAD LT," he stated categorically. Not exactly a case of giving the customer what he wants, I thought. Autodesk is taking the "weak" approach to data management -- PLM, or "proprietary lifecycle management," as one outsider put it. Small companies ("Autodesk's traditional strength"); 5-10 seats; start at the bottom and work up; those who use Windows Explorer as their data management system (as I do). The effects of Autodesk's acquisition of Compass technology will soon be felt as it's being tied in with Vault. The software lets you access drawings from UGS, Catia, Solid Edge, SolidWorks, and Pro/E. Look for integration with SAP in the future, as well as management of scanned drawings. It seemed to me that every major CAD vendor has a PLM-type product that works with all competitors' files. "If there's no difference, why wouldn't an Inventor user employ TeamCenter?" I asked. "There's no monopoly," he replied. I asked about Geometric Software Solutions' newly-released shape search, where the software searches for components based on a given shape; Mr White saw no demand for it from Autodesk customers, because they tend to work with part numbers. Summing up the brief interview: "That's my entire life's work in 15 minutes," he semi-apologized. Glancing at my business card, he was startled. "You're from Abbotsford, Canada? I used to live in Abbotsford, Australia."
Education Sam Antos showed me his company's newest education initiatives. There is a new Web site < www.engineersrule.org > that lets you download many of Autodesk's software offerings -- free. The catches are that you need to have an .edu email address, and that drawings are overlaid with an education-type comment to prevent commercial use. Inventor Personal Learning Edition is a new spin-off product, available (soon) to anyone who needs a second seat at home, or for self-training if unemployed, or hobbyists, and so on. The catches are that you have to get the DVD from an authorized reseller (for sales lead generation, I presume), that there is no Series sub-products included (AutoCAD, Mechanical, etc), watermarks are added, and the licenses run for just six months. Included is an intro to 3D, plus the usual electronic manuals and sample drawings. To be announced soon. To help with school budgets, Autodesk will have a new program where a company buying at least five seats of Inventor gets to have a Design Academy package ($25,000 worth of software) donated to an educational institution. I am guessing this software doesn't have the restrictions of the freely-downloadable software noted above, otherwise there's not point to this program.
Instant, Hyper-realistic Rendering Acquiring Alias may have been Autodesk's most strategic investment ever. The deal got them two things: big-time access to the automotive manufacturers (most of whom use Alias for designing car bodies), and the addition of hyper-realistic rendering for CAD models. Richard Jones is in charge of making Alias work with Inventor and beyond. He's pretty pumped, because he now gets to fly around the world hobnobbing with automotive executives and dealing with the sexiest part of the business: body design. (Over dinner, Mr Kross tells me part of the plan for new offices closer to Portland includes six-foot screens for showing off Alias-created car bodies to visiting execs.) I find it's sad that those perfect images of new cars are computer-generated: the car not exist, and it may never be built. Those roughed-in hand sketches at least alerted us that the dealer had none of those new models in stock. Still, this is another area where the MCAD division's efforts will spill over to other areas of Autodesk: Showcase is the name of a new hi-fidelity realtime visualization software that uses hardware to get its speed. "No more rendering a frame at a time to get those slick car commercials you see on tv," exclaimed the enthusiastic Mr Jones in his British accent. The automotive industry wants hyper-realistic renderings, where the reflection from the car's "paint" is crucial. Other divisions at Autodesk could take advantage of the technology for building interiors, animated movies, and so on. For now, the Mr Jones sees applicability to consumer products and product brochures. DirectConnect uses APIs on both sides to avoid translation between Alias software and Inventor. The next release will have one-way data transfer; two-way associations eventually. Other Autodesk software may get access to Alias technology in the future.
All-encompassing File Format(s) It's clear that MSD sees SolidWorks as its primary competitor. "We come up against SolidWorks everywhere," Mr Kross told me over dinner. "The others very little; some Solid Edge in China." With Alias giving Autodesk greater access to the car companies, I asked him about Inventor going up against the two heavyweights, Catia and NX. "That's not likely to happen; they are far too ingrained in the automotive and aircraft industries." A year ago, I recognized that DWF was one its way to becoming a powerhouse format for Autodesk when the company began using it as the exchange file format for some of its AEC products. The last few revisions of DWF's file format were largely driven by MSD: 3D, sectioning, and rendering. Future releases will see the 2D and 3D formats combined into one, and the ability to use DWF for analysis and simulation. Mr Kross told me to expect future Autodesk applications built on DWF as their native file format. Amy Bunszel and Garin Gardiner showed me how, in the future, AutoCAD DWG files will store Inventor drawings, and Inventor will display AutoCAD drawings "without translation." This doesn't mean that AutoCAD and Inventor can edit each other's drawings; instead, the idea is that the two products can access a single file per drawing -- at least when it comes to viewing, plotting, and measuring. Once AutoCAD drawings are in Inventor, they can be used as the basis of 3D models. Conversely, Inventor's 2D views are saved as blocks in the DWG file. At this point, Autodesk is nowhere near making AutoCAD/Inventor drawings interchangeable in both products; indeed, this hybrid file format is just a preview and won't necessarily make it into the next release of either software program. Still, the demo shows Autodesk is working to overcome the problem it created for itself when it claimed to be the only CAD vendor providing 100%-accurate DWG translation. The spin, of course, was to overlook the problem with Revit, Inventor, Civil 3D, 3D Max, etc. all having their own unique, DWG-incompatible file formats -- so translation is needed between these Autodesk products. The job for Autodesk, then, is to minimize the disruption caused by translation -- disruptions like misrepresented and missing data, and users having to work with two sets of files. The solution of merging Inventor files into DWG helps overcomes another problem: you know, the one of SolidWorks having "stolen" 300,000 of Autodesk's AutoCAD customers. Merging the two formats would, I suppose, make it less likely for mechanically-oriented AutoCAD users to leave the fold. Not that this tactic locks customers into DWG, but it makes it more convenient for them to move to Inventor instead of SolidWorks et al. To support the merging of file formats, Autodesk staff repeated one comment that I found curious: coming out of school, more students are familiar with Inventor than AutoCAD. Really? As for spreading the technology to other Autodesk divisions, all Ms Bunszel would tell me is that the multi-format DWG won't be in Revit soon. But she did declare that "DWG is the common currency," and so I assume that the future there may be one format for all. I foresee, however, that Autodesk faces a clash two all-encompassing formats:
Just as PLM products claim to provide access to all CAD formats, perhaps one day DWG or DWF will virtualize the formats of competitors. Bentley has already accomplished this with MicroStation XM's hybrid format that stores AutoCAD files whole. Format-merging is another of MSD's initiatives that affects Autodesk's other divisions.
The Elimination of CAD One word describes Andrew Anagnost: hyper. He is Autodesk's point man for the masterplan to Eliminate CAD As We Know It. His bookshelf has titles on how to manage future economies. And his left knee bounces with frustrated energy as words get in the way of getting out The Message: functional design is Autodesk's bet on the future; "The way CAD will go." Computer-aided design software is primarily concerned with placing geometry -- either through commands or semi-automated "wizards." Instead of drawing lines and circles, engineers should be solving design problems with "CAD," following which the software should generate the drawing(s); as well, workflow and simulation should be integrated into CAD. That, in a nutshell, is functional design. We have some of that in place now, where engineers draw 3D models, and then the CAD software generates the 2D plans. Add-on software evaluates the strength and mobility of the design. Following last August's media briefing (which I didn't attend, because it was during my summer vacation time), there were several less-than-enthusiastic articles about Autodesk's functional design demos. At the time, I contributed my comment: shouldn't all designs be functional? Autodesk was frustrated with that response, and now it was time for the education of Ralph. Autodesk's interpretation of functional design is that the functional requirements defines the design, which is simulation-ready. [I say "Autodesk's definition" because other CAD vendors claim to have similar features.] The aim of function design is to reduce the number of prototypes needed; the dream is to eliminate all prototypes. (Look out STL companies!) Simulation-ready means that the future product can be tested digitally by computers, instead of as physical prototypes. I got to see the same example of shaft design shown in August, plus some others. Mr Anagnost gave the example of conveyor belt systems -- the engineer specifies the path of the belt through the factory, and then functional design generates the drawings. The plan is to have dozens, hundreds of functional design modules. "Wouldn't it get, like, really complex to have thousands of these modules each trying to get in their two-bits worth?" I wondered. Take the conveyor example: there's the rollers, the motors to run them, the framework to hold everything in place, the bolts to connect it to the concrete floor, and more. "That's the challenge," agreed a satisfied Mr Anagnost.
[Disclosure: Autodesk provided a rental car, hotel accommodation, dinner, and several cans of pop.]
Copyright 2006 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.00.
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