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Issue #514 : : April 16, 2007 |
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In this issue: UGS
Releases NX5 PTC
Solutions Marketing Out of the Inbox, and other regular columns. |
Make the editor smile Write him. 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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As CAD vendors try to reach more customers, they are blurring the line between "Big Iron" CAD and mid-range CAD. The first was Pro/E, which now steps from Inventor-level pricing to Catia pricing; now UGS is close to doing the same, with the entry level version of NX5 (NX Mach Advantage) priced at US$4,995, yet topping out at $22,000 per seat when ordered with bells + whistles. One differentiator used to be that high-end CAD was hard to learn and use -- but now NX's user interface has been overhauled in 5. So, if NX5 blurs the line between high-end and mid-range, where does that leave Solid Edge? UGS sees it as useful for "personal design," while NX is better for company-wide workflow design. Paul Brown is the market director for NX, and he spent 1.5 hours last week showing me what's new and changed in NX5. I've never seen NX before, so to me it was all new. (NX is kind of short for "new technology," and represents the combining of two old-time CAD packages: Unigraphics, with its strength in machining, and I-DEAS, with its strength in meshing and analysis.)
What's New UGS has a 14-page PDF that documents all the changes, so I make no attempt to replicate its content here. Some of the highlights shown by Mr Brown include the following:
Running On All OSs I suspect NX is unique in running on almost all engineering platforms, which are the following:
Mr Brown noted that while Windows version is the biggest seller by far (20:1 over the others), Linux "screams in raw computing power" and tends to be popular in Europe. You can run NX5 on computers with all operating systems, and interchange files and so on.
Flavors of NX5 NX5 is available in these flavors, with multiple subgroupings:
For example, the Digital Simulation flavor is available as two packages: Advanced FEM and Advanced Simulation. The software is available now for download by customers, and becomes available on disc later this week. www.ugs.com/nx5
Some weeks ago, I complained that the wording of a press release from PTC was unfathomable: "The intent of this framework is to help discrete manufacturers in multiple industries understand the linkage between product development process improvements, PLM technology investments, and business value." Translation anyone? I asked. Robin Saitz offered me the translation, she being PTC's vp of solutions marketing. To understand Value Roadmap Framework, it helps to step back to the first generation. You might remember PTC's "Product First Roadmap," a document that tried to help potential customers understand what (PTC) software their could use. Value Roadmap is the second generation of product advisor. It moves from paper to software, and adds a whole lot of detail. Typically, this software is run by PTC's sales team during customer visits. The customer's need is defined by the type of industry, improvement needs, level of maturity, and so on. Dozens of options can be added and removed, for dozens of different kinds of industries. The end result is a report that suggests how to implement new procedures, as well as compatible software from PTC. The Value Roadmap also assists PTC in determining feature sets in future software releases. The company has Process Managers who learn how processes work at different kinds of customers; they then work with Product Managers to determine the new features. Ms Saitz is pretty sure this is the only needs analyzer in the CAD industry. www.ptc.com/solutions/global_product_development/value_roadmap.htm
Pro/E (v3) Ships In related news, PTC quietly launches upgrades to its Pro/Engineer CAD software:
The hot "Wildfire" name was dumped from the press release, and it's not calling this third release of Wildfire "v3" -- just "new Pro/ENGINEER." One spot of the following Web page, however, keeps the faith, calling it "Wildfire 3.0." www.ptc.com/go/anysize [Announcements of new and updated products.] - - - Krupa CADD Solutions updates its KCS Productivity Pack for AEC. 60-day free trial downloadable from www.krupacadd.com Adobe is today shipping the Creative Suite 3 that I partly overviewed a couple of weeks back. www.adobe.com/go/creativesuite In related news, the company hopes to release in a few months an off-line version of its Flash video player; just as digital photography and music benefited from single dominant formats (JPEG and MP3), so too digital video needs a single dominant format. Chaos systems of Sweden releases its Mapsuite+ 5.0 CAD system for surveying calculations, COGO, transformation, and GIS connectivity. www.mapsuiteplus.com Autodesk was going to buy out France's Robobat, but then called it off. Now the two are announcing extensions for Revit Structure: structural analysis, reinforced concrete drafting, and a free variant of Robot Millennium structural analysis software. Some add-ons are free, others are priced around US$300. All add-ons require an Extensions Engine. www.extensions4revit.com Um, ohyah, the Autodesk vs Open Design Alliance lawsuit ground to a halt. Autodesk gets its prohibitions but no cash, both sides get to pay their own legal bills. End of story. Details here: www.adskvoda.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&EntryID=45 ICEM ships the R17 release of its surface modeling suite ICEM Shape Design. www.icem.com SolidCAM announces SolidCAM2007 R11.1 for SolidWorks. www.solidcam.com ALGOR releases V10 of PipePak, its piping design and analysis software with bi-directional associativity between spreadsheet and graphical display windows. www.algor.com/products/comp_advantage/pipepak And the Spatial division of Dassault Systemes makes available release 17 of ACIS Modeler, its extensions, and the InterOp CAD translators. New features include assembly modeling, memory consumption reduced 30%, 3-entity blend, tolerant modeling, non-manifold stitching, support for Vista, and more. www.spatial.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:
Hardware News HP ships two new big-shop inkjet printers: CM8060 (US$23,500) outputs 60 black-white and 50 color pages per minute; the CM8050 ($19,000) is ten pages per minute slower. Both printer use an inkjet head that's as wide as the page. www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2007/070411a.html The new prototyper from Stratasys, called the Arcam A2, makes metal parts up to 75% larger than previous models. It comes with two interchangeable build chambers: high or wide. Due out in May. www.Stratasys.com
Seminars & Conferences COE (CATIA Operators Exchange) 2007 Annual PLM Conference & TechniFair is Apr 29 - May 2 in Las Vegas NV USA. (I'll be attending this event.) http://www.coe.org/EventsEducation/AnnualConferenceTechniFair/tabid/211/Default.aspx DIME Rhino 4.0 is June 1-2 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (I'll be attending this event.) http://www2.mcneel.com/tradeshows/tradeshows.asp European PLM Summit 2007 is June 5-6 in London England. http://www.plmsummit.com 13th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia is Sept 23-26 in Brisbane Australia. http://australia.vsmm.org
Market News Now that Intergraph has gone private, it's gone quiet. We don't hear much news out of it anymore, except what can be gleaned by scraping the Internet. From the Birmingham Business Journal via Yahoo, we learn that Intergraph acquired GISquadrat of Austria; the 15-year-old company provides geospatial software and services to 200+ local governments and utilities in Austria, Germany, Croatia, and Hungary. biz.yahoo.com/bizj/070410/1445074.html?.v=1 "It's always nice to see strong sales," says founder Bill Gibbs of Gibbs and Associates' highest-ever monthly sales in 23 years.
People/Companies on the Move JL Labs Group now distributes the KOMPAS collection of MCAD software in Sweden and Norway. www.jl-systems.se/ CDV Systems partners with London Infotech of India, who is providing Revit modeling services. www.londonites.com
Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "Grabowski/Berry Discuss AutoCAD/TurboCAD"
"Tailoring AutoCAD 2008"
"Tailoring AutoLISP - DCL - Diesel"
Letters to the Editor [Note from the editor: I received many letters regarding Gregor Markel's guest editorial last week, and will run them in next week's issue of upFront.eZine.]
Re: AutoCAD on the Mac "With Mac running with Intel chips and the seeming success of Parallel's Virtualization software, AND many (well, a delusional few) who would like to see AutoCAD for the Mac (again), why not an objective test of AutoCAD with Parallel? "Now, AutoCAD and Bootcamp -- that's a no brainer. With the possible exception of the more advanced 3D effects, depending on Apple's Bootcamp drivers for Windows for its (ATI's) video cards. More intriguing, I think, would be performance numbers under Parallel, at least for the 2D end of thinks. "All I (we) need is an AutoCAD user with a Mac, Parallels, and say Cadalyst's downloadable benchmarks. Run the benchmarks, present the numbers: see the penalty imposed by the Parallel solution. "A user like myself in need of a hardware upgrade could
run such a benchmark on existing hardware, and be able to make an
somewhat objective decision as to the Apple-Parallel 'upgrade.'
Not bleeding edge, I am sure, but perhaps significant as compared
to existing to make the the cross-platform move attractive." The editor replies: "The people to do this is archintosh.com -- they cover CAD on the Mac. See www.architosh.com/ " - - - Re: Longest Command Name in AutoCAD "You reported [on WorldCAD Access] the new longest command name in AutoCAD history: Customerinvolvementprogram. But I think it prudent to warn the wider CAD community of an associated problem. Sure no one will type this at the command prompt, however there is an undocumented system variable that could be easily set to enable this functionality. CipMode:
"This system variable is readily accessible from the command
prompt, and an inquisitive mind would turn it on to see what it
does without going through the agree process! Perhaps the variable
name should be ROLLOVERANDGIVEMEACCESSTOMYPUTER." The editor responds: "The Customer Involvement dialog box pops up on its own the first time you run AutoCAD 2008, and then helpfully reappears every 7 days, until you tell it to stop." - - - Re: AutoCAD and Vista "I know you like spin so I figured i would pass this along:
lists.wi.gov/read/attachment/17177/1/htmlversion.html
" The editor notes that the link contains the following advice from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: "Project Lead The Way, Inc. recommends that participating schools not upgrade to Microsoft VISTA for the 2007-08 school year. While Autodesk Inventor 2008 will install and run on Windows VISTA, it will not be officially supported by Autodesk until sufficient information can be collected to assure that the system meets the Autodesk high standards for full support. It is not expected that such information will be fully attained and analyzed for the 2007-08 school year."
Notable Quotable "10:49am: Some event handler asked us to close our laptops
and put away our cameras! As if!
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