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Issue #513 : : April 3, 2007 |
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In this issue: Do
Savings Come from Software -- Or the Design Team? Under the Tail of the Dinosaur Out of the Inbox, and other regular columns. |
Write the editor. Make him smile. Through Paypal, consider donating $25 in support of upFront.eZine. Or else. We're trendy. We have a Weblog: WorldCAD Access. |
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Do Savings Come from Software -- Or From the Design Team? Guest Editorial by Gregor L. Markel I disagree with Leonard Horowitz's statement that pushing design teams to go to Revit (or any other 3D program) allows anyone to realize a savings in the construction process. I am sure it will help the sales reps sell more expensive CAD programs, though. I think the issue here is the technical skill of the designers in the construction industry. Currently, the push seems to be to utilize the drafting staff to get things done, whereas modeling a building in 3D requires a certain level of understanding of what you are doing. On a daily basis, I fight people over the ability to do simple things, like freeze the correct layers in viewports to get sheets to print correctly. Sometimes, if I don't do it for them, "It cannot be done" is their excuse. Not to mention larger things, like designing mechanical systems that fit within the building structure or envelope. I can't imagine what would happen if I turned to them and said, "Now you need to model this in 3D."
Some Drafters Lack Deep Knowledge The underlying issue here is that there is no deep pool of CAD technical ability within the ranks of skilled designers today; junior staff with CAD ability does not have the technical knowledge to do it correctly on their own. Another factor is that I don't see the deep understanding of CAD programs that occurred in the early days of CAD. If you had a problem, you figured out what the CAD program was trying to do, understood the tool, and learned to work with it. Today, drafters don't seem to have knowledge of the tools they use. Pre-CAD, when you used a drafting pencil, you learned to roll it, put an edge on the lead, and make it do what you wanted to. Today, the program is tells drafters what to do, because they don't know how to make the program do what they want it to. Just cut-and-paste from the last project, and on they go. Without the technical knowledge they don't know what errors they just pasted into the project. Until we have a consistent and stable set of 2D CAD abilities within designers and drafters, I think David Stein's comments are spot on: Give us a 2D package with the tools we can work with to make us better at the 2D thing. Once we are all very comfortable with the training wheels, and can prove we won't kill ourselves, then we can take them off and shred it up in the X-Games with the big kids. Not before then.
[Gregor L. Markel is senior architect at Dahlin Group Architecture Planning in California, USA]
Under the Tail of the Dinosaur I've been reading 'The Long Tail' and appreciate author Chris Anderson's enthusiasm for huge sales in small quantities. For example, Real Network's Rhapsody online music store makes 25% of its revenue from the 100,000th most popular song and lower. The 100,00th most popular song sells 5 or 6 copies a month. Multiply this by several hundred thousand songs at the end of the long tail, and there's real (pardon the pun) money to be made. That's because there are a few people who like a songs that no record store will ever carry. (For instance, a retired couple on our street from me likes The Carpenters, a singing group popular in the late 1970s. The wife downloads tunes for her husband.) I think we're see the Long Tail happening in CAD software. What's the current trend? The surprising number of small CAD companies that start up, many of which concentrate on new ways of creating 3D surfaces. (Surfaces? Don't they know that 3D solids is where it's at?) Recently I read Scobilizer describe a new Web service launching the next day: "But what was remarkable was just how much was built without spending a single dollar." You can cater profitably to a microniche when your costs are micro-sized. Well, almost always. While it is profitable for the Reals, Amazons, and eBays to cater to the long tail, what about the musician whose song sells just 5 or 6 copies a month? That's called "being under the tail of the dinosaur." I stole the phrase from a frustrated publisher (sorry, lost the attribution) who can't get the attention of Amazon to sell his long-tail-positioned books. Ironically, since reading his lament, I've had the same experience with Amazon -- its brain apparently unable to communicate with its tail.
Links: [Announcements of new and updated products.] - - - T-Splines announces free beta release of T-Splines for Rhino 4: flexibility of subdivision surfaces with the precision of NURBS. www.tsplines.com Gibbs and Associates' GibbsCAM software for programming CNC machines now directly reads data from Rhinoceros surface modeling software from Robert McNeel and Associates. www.GibbsCAM.com CIMSystem releases six new plug-ins for Rhinoceros 4: Bamboo, Rave, Drill Matrix, Mosaix, Shot, and ElectrodeX www.rhino-plugins.com Engineered Design Solutions releases Chronos v2 (US$49.95) time logging software for AutoCAD Release 14 to date. New job logging informs users of projects being worked on. www.engds.com/Products/Chronos/Chronos.html AUTOMGEN8 automation software programs standard PLCs and simulates 3D processes with physics engine. www.irai.com/a8e ZwCAD of China releases IntelliCAD-based ZwCAD 2007 with 22 new features and 400 improvements. Current users update free for one year. www.zwcad.org ICS Triplex ISaGRAF will soon release ISaGRAF v5.3 with support for the entire range of ISaGRAF controllers. www.isagraf.com Pinnacle Series from Eagle Point Software catalogues workflows so that users with little CAD experience can follow the steps to complete work in Eagle Point, Autodesk, or Bentley software. www.eaglepoint.com/pinnacleweb And CIMdata says that the PLM market grew 10% in 2006.
Hardware News Open source 3D printer costs "just" $3,000: www.3dubiquity.com/index.php?/archives/160-Open-Source-3D-Printer.html (Thanks to David Prawel for the tip.) Damon Darlin of the New York Times reports, "HP's numbers show that half the printing done in homes is material from the Internet, like e-mail and Web pages, while software like Microsoft Word accounts for just under 20 percent of printouts... half the printers sold in the world carry the H.P. logo." < www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/technology/09print.html?ex=1333771200&en=adbb1d340fea25ae&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss > Seminars & Conferences GeoTec Event 2007 is May 14-17 in Calgary Alberta, Canada. www.geoplace.com/ME2/dirsect.asp?sid=F1E958ECB4E84C1C97324D4851580DDB&nm=GeoTec+Event DIME Rhino 4.0 is June 1-2 in Puerto Vallarta MEXICO. (I'll be attending this event.) www2.mcneel.com/tradeshows/tradeshows.asp 2007 AEC Technology Strategies Conference is June 7-8 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa in Las Vegas NV USA. events.zweigwhite.com/technology/pg.asp?pg=1 2007 International Forum on DFMA [design for manufacture and assembly] is June 19-20 in Providence RI USA. www.dfma.com/forum Info-CybernEthics 2007 is July 8-11 in Orlando FL USA. www.iiis-cyber.org/wmsci2007/website/Info-CybernEthics.asp
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates CAO says '(3D)2' is the first 3D magazine in 3D. It's a magazine in PDF format with embedded 3D models. Read it at http://www.cao.fr/3dsquared/issue6 Terry Wohlers has his informative blog at http://wohlersassociates.com/blog
People/Companies on the Move Delcam appoints Roger Onions as international business development director of large accounts. Mr Onions is the company's former UK sales director. Lattice Technology moves to 582 Market Street, Suite 1215, San Francisco, CA 94104. Phone and email contacts are the same. Creaform has new logos for itself and its Euroform, Handyscan 3D, and VxScan divisions. www.creaform3d.com
Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "Grabowski/Berry Discuss AutoCAD/TurboCAD"
"Tailoring AutoCAD 2008"
"Tailoring AutoLISP - DCL - Diesel"
WorthWhile Web http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/07_16/b4030068.htm?chan=gl
Letters to the Editor Re: In the Mood for a Sketch "In your Ezine you recently said, 'Companies like Alias, Nemetschek, Autodesk, and AtLast (now Google) create sketching software that attempts to mimic the ease of sketching with a pencil. Products from Alias" and Google are a success; those from Nemetschek and Autodesk failed.' Were you referring to AutoCAD or Inventor? Before you answer I'll add a bit more. "If you meant AutoCAD, I'm in 100% agreement. I feel AutoCAD mimics the act of drafting quite well. (Draw a line 10 units line at 45 degrees; make this line meet that line, and erase the part that runs over, etc.) Great for documenting shapes, but horrible in aiding the creative process. "If you meant Inventor (or SolidWorks or Alibre, for that matter) then I disagree. This is the biggest problem we have teaching new IV [Inventor] users: they are no longer drawing, but sketching. They do not draw a line from 0,0 to 5,4 and then 10 unit long at 20 degrees; they just sketch. Draw like they would on a napkin, and then massage the sketch into shapes by applying dimensions and constraints. Honestly, it's much like SketchUp. "I feel that IV's sketcher is so much better than AutoCAD
that I use it even when I need to make simple 2D drawings. Could
it be better? Yep. But it's already 100 times better than AutoCAD.
Sketching is a subject near and dear to my heart. I'm curious
to see what comes of your article." The editor replies: "With Autodesk, I meant Architectural Studio."
"Moi? No, merci! Excruciatingly weak attempt at something?
Not sure what however." The editor replies: "I just print 'em as I get 'em. Usually."
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Re: The Competitive World of CAD Viewing Formats "Thanks for the info posted on the current eZine about Web
publishing formats. It will be very interesting for me to see whether
the world of 3D CAD Publishing explodes in popularity or just waddles
along as it has over the last seven years. Its success will bubble
down to the basic requirements of user demand and user need."
"I am writing in response to your reader's list in #512 that inaccurately lumps together two different kinds of technology. Sure, there's a long list of viewers and converters. And we agree that there's not much new technology in that area. But we want to make sure people don't misunderstand a whole class of important new applications, because they are misclassifying new technology as more of the same. Confusing new with old may lead to people not realizing the value of a whole new application space. "Seemage isn't just a viewer or a converter: it's a new
XML-based system that condenses an expensive part of the design
process by providing associative access not just to the CAD files,
but also to any other important product data, such as BOM information.
Your gut will tell you how expensive this can be for manufacturers
when you realize that many companies treat these deliverables as
afterthoughts. Anything that's treated like a by-product is bound
to be a source of re-work and waste." - -
Re: Sometimes, The Story Isn't There "Would this be like a resurrection of the dead?"
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Re: Giving It Away "By modern standards, I'm an old man. YET, I use an ipod in my car, in my house, everywhere, and can’t remember when the last time was that I listened to the radio? What’s the point? It’s all 'bread and circuses' propaganda designed to dull the minds of the masses. Why would any intelligent, analytical, observant non-emotion-led man desire to pollute his mind with THAT kind of rubbish?? "I wonder what the generations a few 100 years from now
will say when they look back on our times and comment?" The editor responds: "Perhaps with pity."
Notable Quotable "The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in
shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological
chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate
technology, led them into it in the first place."
Copyright 2007 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.0 and up.
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