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Issue #504 : : February 3, 2007 |
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C o n t e n t s Wow! Vista Runs CAD (up to) 50x Slower
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Wow! Vista Runs CAD (up to) 50x Slower Bill Gates thinks Vista is "Wow!", and Tom's Hardware thinks so, too. The popular benchmarking site ran the SPECviewperf 9.03 benchmarks on several CAD systes, and found that they slow to a crawl under Vista. Compared with XP, here are the results:
The reason for the dismal performance? Vista's lack of support for the OpenGL graphics library. Details here: www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/page7.html.
CAD Vendors Knew a Year Ago This is not an unknown problem. Almost exactly one yea ago, I met with Ron Fritz, co-founder of Tech Soft 3D -- the HOOPS people. He worried about Microsoft abandoning OpenGL, which 3D CAD software relies on for speedy real-time graphics of realistically rendered models. Mr Fritz described the problem to me: In Vista, all graphics are accelerated using Microsoft's homegrown Direct3D. That includes mundane items such as menus and windows. To access Direct3D, OpenGL-based applications have to run through an emulation layer that significantly slows performance. This week, I asked him to update the situation. His response: "I can say that our experience with graphics testing on Vista is that the quality of the video card drivers can vary greatly. With some, we see performance that is quite good, but with others it's unacceptably bad when going through OpenGL. We expect this to settle out rather quickly as the next generation of graphics cards & drivers are released, but this variation will continue to be the reality for anyone with pre-Vista graphics cards." He feels that Direct3D will win the CAD market in the future for two reasons: (1) the games market is so much bigger than CAD, so device drivers will eventually be optimized for Vista; and (2) Direct3D needs to be fast to run the operating system. He concludes: "OpenGL will remain important on any pre-Vista Windows system. I think the world can expect the current hardware and Windows XP systems to stay in use for awhile. OpenGL will also be the best (only) approach for hardware acceleration for any platform other than Windows."
OpenGL Graphics Boards With Vista's abandonment of industry-standard OpenGL, CAD users take a second hit. Their high-speed, 4-figure OpenGL graphics boards are junk. For example, ATI's high-end FireGL 3X-256 is an OpenGL-only graphics board that just last year was priced at $1,500 in its home country of Canada. It does not work with Vista; see ati.amd.com/technology/windowsvista/Products.html , and then click on Workstation. Can you say, "Community college donation"? In related news, some customers say they want launch a law suit against nVidia for failing to deliver drivers on time, and over its claims of Vista-compatibility, such as subtlety changing the "Vista Ready" tag to "Vista Capable." See www.nvidiaclassaction.org In summary, it's not that OpenGL is impossible for Vista; it's that Microsoft continues to look for ways to maintain -- and broaden -- its monopoly at our cost. (Linux and Apple's OS X use OpenGL.)
Other CAD-related Vista News Many CAD vendors pre-announced support for Vista last November, but are now silent on issues affecting customers, such patches, upgrades, and workarounds. SolidWorks warns that "graphics performance in SolidWorks may be noticeably slower under Vista," and that MoldflowXpress and the MDT translator no longer work. files.solidworks.com/supportfiles/Release_Notes_VISTA/2007/English/relnotes.htm 3dconnexion says they have beta Vista drivers for their 3D input devices, "beta" being the status of numerous drivers for an operating system that began shipping last November. Download v3.1.1 from www.3dconnexion.com/support PTC plans to ship a maintenance release of Pro/Engineer that is certified on Vista later this quarter.
Richard Harrison gave the reason he was so upbeat at last week's media event: "We have been growing at twice the rate of the market, and we think we can sustain this growth. Therefore, by 2008, we believe we can easily outperform the one-billion-dollar revenue goal." In the meantime, PTC pegged the official 2007 target at under a billion: $950 million. So optimistic is he that he announced PTC's new long-term goal: US$1.5 billion in revenues by 2010 -- requiring PTC to grow an average of 15% per year. Mr Harrison credits the growth to PTC being the only CAD vendor with a single, scalable solution -- marketing talk for one CAD package that's works for any size of corporation. Windchill 9.0 comes out in May. About 5,000 seats of Pro/E were licensed this quarter.
Paraphrased Q&A [This call took place before Siemens announced its plan to acquire UGS.] Q: Regarding acquisition strategies, it seems you have gaps, holes, whitespaces. It seems most of your recent acquisitions have been technology tuck-ins. Am I correct in thinking this? A1: Our M&As [mergers and acquisitions] have typically been smaller technology tuck-ins that expand our footprint to new, adjacent spaces, and therefore make our overall solution much more powerful. Because it's been working well for us, the baseline is to continue with that strategy. That said, we'll look at other things that come along. A2: We are excited about extending the associativity out to the technical documents [with Arbortext]. Arbortext isn't selling as well as it could be, because it is integrated to Windchill [PTC's new PLM software] and not Intralink [old PLM software]. There is an endpoint of June, 2008 for the old Intralink product. We can use Arbortext as a "velvet hammer" to get our customers to switch from Intralink to Windchill. Arbortext is one of our biggest differentiators [from other CAD vendors]; it makes us unique from our competitors.
Q: What's interesting about your long-term forecast to the end of the decade is that it is very similar to the forecasts from two of your major peers. In the case of Dassault, they are talking about something similar. In the case of Autodesk, they are at least in a number of vertical markets, some of which are under-penetrated; they are not only in manufacturing. Explain why you think you have those chances of sustaining growth in the mid-teens [percentage], mostly organically [without boosts from acquisitions] -- which would be so far above CAD and PLM spending expectations [by customers], which we think are in the mid-single digits. A1: If you look at the trend of our business over the last six quarters, we have seen an acceleration of our organic growth. A year ago, organic growth was about 7% for the quarter; now it is 12% [organic]. 2010 is a long way off, but I think we have some momentum taking us there. A2: If you look at the sweet spot for UG and Dassault, it is at the high-end, where those big customers really are. You take NX and iMan/Metaphase from UGS, which is not growing, or 1 or 2% growth at best. You take Catia plus Enovia, that is declining for the last two quarters, including the clawback from IBM. And then you have Pro/Engineer and Windchill, which is growing at 15%. So in the sweetspot, which is the high-end customers, the big deals, on those core products, we're winning today because of our single-data model. And they can't win, because of the problem they have, which is all the acquired [PLM] databases in all their acquisitions; they just can't reconcile them. Autodesk doesn't have a high-end product; both Dassault and UG offer a separate low-end product. Some of our competitors have inflicted self-damage: when Dassault picks up Matrix, their story becomes even more convoluted. They have to explain how Matrix is going to work with SmarTeam, work with Enovia, work with VPM, "Trust me, it's all going to work..." -- that scares customers. Then they turn to UGS, and that's messy and ugly. phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=116312&p=irol-eventdetails&EventId=1453890 The following companies will be at SolidWorks World 2007 this coming week, as will I and 127 other media and 3,500+ registered users. - - - Tacton Systems launches TactonWorks software that lets SolidWorks automatically configure complete assemblies as specified by customers. www.tacton.com Elmo Solutions' new Agni Link 2008 links CAD to ERP [engineering resource planning]. www.elmosolutions.com Open Mind pre-releases its hyperMILL CAM software integrated into SolidWorks. www.openmind-tech.com Next Limit Technologies demonstrates its Maxwell Render rendering engine, the Light Simulator. "Maxwell Render and SolidWorks 2007 give engineers... images of an eye-popping quality," says SolidWorks Solution Partner Program Manager Efrat Ravid. www.maxwellrender.com GibbsCAM from Gibbs & Assoc creates CNC programs to machine SolidWorks part models. "Easier than rocket science," says one of their ads. www.GibbsCAM.com SolidProfessor provides training and support for SolidWorks. www.solidprofessor.com AutoVue from Cimmetry Systems views native documents, presumably including SolidWorks. www.cimmetry.com Lambda Research announces TracePro 4.0 and TracePro Bridge for SolidWorks, software for optical modeling, design and analysis. www.lambdares.com RuleStream is sponsoring CPDA PLM research director, Ken Verspprille, who'll be talking during a sit-down breakfast. [Don't you hate stand-up breakfasts, balancing the croisant with the orange juice in one hand?] He publishing the first description of NURBS, non-uniform rational B-splines. www.cpd-associates.com Genus Software's design automation software, DesignIt, creates true parametric assemblies with SolidWorks -- partial or complete design automation for configure-to-order products. "Genus" is a group with common attributes. www.genussoftware.com NC Graphics udpates DEPOCAM 2007 with collision free 5-axis tool-paths for creating milled parts from SolidWorks drawings. www.ncgraphics.net Roland's LPX-60 3D laser scanner automatically scans, aligns, merges planes, fills holes, and decimates 3D models. [Um, decimate? Must be a technical term.] Data is provided in point cloud, STL, PIX and 3DM data formats. SolidCAM announces its new SolidCAM2007 R11.1 computer-aided manufacturing software. [I don't want to get snippy, but there seems to be an awful lot of CAM software at this event.] www.solidcam.com CCE converts CAD data between SolidWorks, CATIA, Unigraphics, Pro/ENGINEER, Mastercam, Parasolid (upon which SolidWorks is based), IGES, and STEP. www.cadcam-e.com Seemage releases Seemage 4.0 with 40 new features. It imports product definitions from 3D CAD to create documentation for marketing, sales, manufacturing, service, and support. www.seemage.com QuadriSpace's Document3D Suite converts CAD drawings to 3D instructions, technical illustrations, and parts catalogs. www.quadrispace.com Pathtrace is demonstrating the associative link between their EdgeCAM Solid Machinist software and SolidWorks to combat the problems of late design changes. www.edgecam.com Creaform's Handyscan 3D is the first self-positioning hand-held 3D laser camera. Now this sounds rather interesting. It outputs STL files for input to CAx software. www.handyscan3d.com OPTIS launches OptisWorks 2007 light and optical simulation software for SolidWorks, with conoscopic intensity, iso-level and iso-surfaces tools. optis-world.com For just US$2,000 a month, you can rent Konica Minolta's VIVID 910 3D laser scanners with rapidformXOR software to scan objects directly into SolidWorks as parametric models. www.rapidform.com SDH Development releases ToolWorks BOM [bill of materials] Manager v7 (US$595) for SolidWorks. Download the demo from www.toolworks.info Big daddy Dassault Systems is showing, no, not Catia, but Enovia SmarTeam plm software, to "demonstrate its unique value to SolidWorks software users." www.3ds.com - - - These news items were posted during the last month at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Seminars & Conferences Ecobuild Fall and AEC Science & Technology Fall is Dec 11-13 in Washington DC USA. www.ecobuildamerica.com/fallhome.shtml
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates Online video tutorials from www.CADclips.com
, which also has three blogs by Daryl Gregoire: QuadriSpace launches its corporate blog at www.the3dpub.com As does Graphics Systems, with its SolidWorks-oriented blog at gxsc.typepad.com
People/Companies on the Move Bentley Systems acquires Design Power for its Design++ software, a multi-dimensional engineering solver. CoCreate Software and TechnoStar are happy with each other: a direct connection between CoCreate's 3D CAD software and TechnoStar's simulation software lets product designs be optimized. Noran Engineering signs up Topologica Solutions to be its distributor in Canada. Canada-based super-dealer RAND Worldwide is paying cash to acquire Texas-based AutoCAD dealer CADVisions by April 1.
Market News Bentley Systems reports that its revenues exceeded US$400 million last year. NavisWorks said 2006 profits were up by 1.8x, and revenue up by 50% over last year. The Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority approves Nemetschek's takeover of Graphisoft..
Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "Doctor Walt's KeyCreator 6 NC Introductory Guide"
"Tailoring AutoCAD Rendering"
WorthWhile Web http://software.seekingalpha.com/article/25680
http://big.faceless.org/index.jsp
And, he adds, "Here's something that may interest your readers.
It's free for home users:"
Letters to the Editor Re: Vista - Do Not Seek the Treasure "Our SMB company is setting April 2009 as a deadline for
deploying Linux on the desktop. We definitely will not be letting
Vista's nose under our tent." The editor notes: "Apr'09 is when Microsoft drops support for XP." - - - Re: Where Can't You Buy AutoCAD "You and I would clash badly on this point [that AutoCAD
is a pointless product]. AutoCAD's general nature, including its
wrongly criticized and maligned 3D, is still the best for general
engineering involving unique designs, machinery, and products. And
it should be seen as the basis for training future users, again
due entirely to its general, open, and non-restrictive nature."
"The problem with using LT is that Adesk crippled it enough to not permit the level of customization we need; and the third party stuff I tried made the combo of LT & lsp/arx add-ons a serviceable alternative. "The vertical ADT version methodology is too restrictive for the nature of our drawings. The few drawings we receive from client's in-house staff, who are using ADT, require a major purge with a third party add-on to rip out the ADT junk that create continuous error messages during editing. And the bloat of ADT features we find completely useless has accumulated over the years. "If Autodesk priced the vanilla Acad at the LT price, I'd be motivated to stick with AutoCAD. We had tailored our vanilla Acads with some menus, scripts and a few lisp routines into an efficient package for dealing with the multitude of layer schemes, linetypes and fonts that come in from our clients. "Give me Acad LT with the lsp/arx/3d-primatives enabled in the $1,500 range and I'd stick with Acad. Alas, I believe Adesk wants to own the whole CAD market. "Hey, it's only my hunch." - - - "Thanks for a most informative read. I don't want to miss
a single issue of your newsletters."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "It is recommended that a graphics manufacturer go beyond
the strict letter of the specification and provide additional content-protection
features, because this demonstrates their strong intent to protect
premium content." Spin Doctor of the Moment "There won't be a PC sold anywhere in the world that doesn't
have Vista within six months."
Notable Quotable "Business Week claims that it took nearly 10,000
people more than five years to make Vista. As the Seattle Times
points out, since the average Microsoft salary is $200,000 that
is $10 billion that Vole shelled out for salaries alone."
Copyright 2007 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.0 and up.
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