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Issue #517 : : May 8, 2007 |
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In this issue:
Out of the Inbox, and other regular columns. |
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'Our Second Life Island is Hip' IBM wants the future to be virtual worlds, to see all virtual worlds as one. "The creation and promotion of a 3D Internet was one of the 10 potential business opportunities IBM unearthed last year." (In unrelated news, IBM is rumored to be laying off up to 100,000 of its 350,000 employees. To be replaced by avatars, perchance?) Last week, Dassault Systemes said the future of CAD is to make all design and analysis virtual. The week before, UGS announced its island in Second Life. Last year, Autodesk said the same, and last week repeated it. One vendor exclaims: "[We] will use various locations throughout [our island] to collaborate with customers and partners, host virtual conferences and provide a more immersive way to experience its solutions..." Another promises: "Second Life residents will soon be able to watch webcasts and presentations from the convention and participate in seminars to learn more about the key trends driving change in the architecture industry." Sounds... like... fun. Humans frustrated by their real existence can now change into their imaginary lives (Germans outnumber Americans on Second Life, reports TechCruch) to be confronted with-- Work. Reality. Seminars. Corporate logos. Other businesspeople with purple skins and fairy wings (clothing optional). This bandwagon marketing move by CAD vendors is a means for signaling their hipness. "We be not dull." Perhaps they should consider this scare y phrase: "Low barrier to entry." Anyone can have an island in Second Life; six million already do [nor not, calculates Clay Shirky]. It's me-tooism at a grand scale, for CAD vendors aren't even populating islands with market-differentiating technology. Don't color me purple; color me skeptical. Within the year, we'll be reading analysis pieces on why it was disingenuous for staid corporations to settle in the sexually-stained Second Life. Yet Another Virtual Gold Rush in which the sole benefit goes to the supplier of the shovels and spandex (a.k.a. Linden Labs).
Links: IBM -- www.pcworld.com/article/131511-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
COE is the annual user group meeting of CATIA users, the acronym being short for CATIA Operator's Exchange. The use of the odd-sounding word "operator" harkens back to this group's beginning, 25 years ago. This 25th annual gathering took place in Las Vegas NV USA, with 1,270 attendees -- up 10% from last year. CATIA is the 3D mechanical CAD software from Dassault Systemes of France. I have found the company's collection of software difficult to figure out, so here is a synopsis: CATIA - for designing products. Thus far, straightforward. Except that some of these are names of products, and some are the names of divisions. Dassault has been on a billion-dollar spending spree, and so there are many more names in its trans Atlantic stable: MatrixOne, SmarTeam, 3D Live, ICEM, SolidWorks, Cosmic Blobs, and more. Confusing to be sure, and competitors love capitalizing on the confusion. To counter, Dassault notes it has 3D products for every category, from children to A380s. Oh, and they don't use the word CAD anymore: now it's "3D Mainstream" software.
ICEM Press Conference Dassault's most recent acquisition is ICEM, maker of software for styling the look of transportation -- cars, boats, and airplanes. Their largest customer for the $35,000 (and up) surfacing and rendering software is Ford. (A side note to competitors: Ford is going all-Dassault eventually.) I wonder if the ICEM acquisition was driven by the need to be fully Ford-compatibile. A brief history: the ICEM software was developed at Volkswagen, who spun off the department to private investors 25 years ago. The company is named after the initials of the German venture capital firm who bought it. ICEM was associated with Control Data, and then bought by PTC in 1998 in the hope that ICEM's automotive industry connections would give PTC a wedge. In this time, some ICEM employees left for Dassault and helped create a nearly-finished styling program. It didn't work out for PTC, and ICEM was spun off again to private investors in 2002, to be purchased by Dassault last week. The company is small, under 100 employees, with its development office in Hanover Germany and head office in Southhampton, England. ICEM will remain a separate entity within Dassault, keeping its name, but matching its release cycles with CATIA. ICEM R18 is due out a month after CATIA V5 R18 ships in September. Thoerum will continue to provide links to other CAD software, and ICEM plans to pursue the aerospace and consumer products sectors. www.icem.com
That Matter with IBM Several editors met with Al Bunshaft, IBM's vp of PLM, to get a better understanding of the relationship it has with Dassault. The relationship changed recently, because markets have changed. Originally, IBM did all of Dassault's marketing and sales of CATIA, while Dassault developed the software, an arrangement similar to that of Intergraph and Bentley Systems' MicroStation 10-20 years ago. Back then, IBM sold mainframe computers with attached graphics devices and hard drives -- the sort of system that CATIA ran on. As Dassault acquired other companies, it also acquired their sales teams who began bumping into IBM's sales teams. During this time, IBM was reinventing itself as a software and consulting company. IBM knew that it takes more than just Dassault's software to run a company, and began selling more, different kinds of applications. Since IBM sees $$ in selling PLM software, it made deals with Dassault competitors, such as PTC at first, and then UGS. The customer chooses which software they want. So, IBM will sell software and consulting to a firm that already uses PTC or wants to use UGS -- or Dassault software. Mr Bunshaft emphasized that Dassault is the only _strategic_ partner of IBM in this field, and so is biased to lead with Dassault software. IBM has one sales force dedicated to PLM, and it sells only Dassault. Other IBM sales teams might team up with PTC or UGS, if that's what the client wants. The amendment to the existing agreement splits the market into two segments: IBM sells to the 1,200 largest companies on a country-by-country basis; Dassault gets all else. SolidWorks will become an Adobe-like Dassault Systemes Volume Channel (its new name), selling any "volume" software [software that can be sold by a reseller, instead of a dedicated sales team] made by Dassault. Top priorities for IBM are to exploit PDM [product data management], where Enovia has not had much marketshare. Top priorities are to sell more MatrixOne and Delmia. www.ibm.com/solutions/plm/ Paraphrased Q&A with Mr Bunshaft: Q: Has IBM's PLM revenue changed since the new agreement came
into effect? Q: IBM sells middleware, but Dassault's Spatial division also
sells middleware, as well as collaboration software. Will IBM buy
Spatial? Q: Was Solidworks part of the talks? Q: Would IBM sell SolidWorks?
3D Lives in Version 6 In last week's upFront.eZine, I cobbled together a report from numerous sources about the future of Dassault: Version 6, software that runs on the Internet. (Version 5 was its software running on PCs, Version 4 on Unix workstations, and Version 3 on mainframe computers.) The company has been talking up and showing off 3D Live since last June, and demo'ed it during the keynote at COE. With all that pulic exposure, the media engaged Dassault in a verbal tussle at a press-only demonstration after we were told the session was under embargo [could not be written about] until May 3. After some vocal members of the media demanded to know exactly which details weren't already public, Dassault finally decided we could not mention the delivery date (May 4) -- even though the press release issued May 3 gave a delivery date of June. It appears to me that there will be many components to 3D Live, of which the core parts are:
Paraphrased Q&A: Q: Will 3D Live connect to competitors? Q: Does this take PDM to the virtual world? Q: How much does it cost? Q: How is the data retrieved? Q: Where can 3D Live go? Many companies make many documents that are supposed to provide information, many of which are unnecessary. Instead, let's look at the product and its associated information. This is the best indexing method for people involved in products. Users of 3D Live don't need to know part numbers, just like users of Google Earth find places on earth without needing to know longitude-latitude. 3D Live is going to be a very comprehensive product line. IBM sees significant integration with enterprise software, to help fully exploit PLM as a single source of data, with connectors ultimately to enterprise-wide applications. 3D Live is a product, not a brand. Q: What happens to V5 going into the future? Q: So users won't experience a major disruption of the design
database (file format) [as they did going from V4 to V5]? A: They won't. The Virtools environment will be integrated into CATIA. - - - In summary, Dassault is proud of having the first PLM app to be downloadable online and operate through a Web browser, and the first to combine search, collaboration, and navigation. Being able to quickly view all components in huge models, as of aircraft, is the result of inhouse technology that Dassault will not make available to others. 3D Live is the first stage for Dassault going fully online. Links: http://www.coe.org [Disclosure: Dassault Systemes paid for my transportation, hotel accommodation, meals, and a ticket to Cirque du Soleil's "Beatles: Love" show.]
Las Vegas Momements When Brian Chang of China shipbuilder Yantai Raffles got up to give his COE keynote session, he quipped, "I never thought I'd be on stage in Las Vegas." Why do Las Vegas taxi drivers charge twice as much for the ride to the hotel as they do returning to the airport? Maybe they think we have no cash left. Bill Fane tells me, "I know how to come home from Las Vegas with a small fortune: arrive with a large one. A friend of mine arrived in 'Vegas in a $12,000 Honda and left in a $250,000 Greyhound." But seriously, folks. A neighbour of Mr Fane used to go to Reno quite regularly. "She would double her money every trip. No, she didn't just fold it in half <g>. She never went near a casino; instead visited pawn shops, bought jewellery, and then brought it back to Vancouver to sell it." After paying for a newspaper at the airport, a woman runs after me: "Sir, sir! Is this yours?" She's holding up a picture ID card, which features the smiling face of a young Hispanic woman. (For those who don't know me, I am neither young, Hispanic, nor female -- as my grey hair and beard would indicate.) "No, but that's my notebook computer [I left behind on the counter]." Most overheard comment on the airplane trip home: "I don't gamble that much." On Randall Newton's flight back home, the Alaska Airlines flight attendendent, who announced he could be called "Sir Norman," said he really liked the Mr Newton's cantaloupe-colored silk jacket, and thought the color would be "coming back soon." [Announcements of new and updated products.] - - - GiveMePower is showing its PowerCAD SiteMaster software running on Samsung's brand new Q1 Ultra UMPC during the product launch event. SiteMaster creates AutoCAD-compatible floor plans, Excel-compatible area and building reports, photo-enhanced building inspections, and Web-ready real estate tours -- via a Bluetooth wireless laser linked to the Q1 Ultra. www.givemepower.com/products/powercad_sm.cfm UGS will ship Solid Edge V20 in June. www.solidedge.com/v20 Graphisoft plans to ship ArchiCAD 11 in mid-May. The software runs on Mac and Windows, and will support a downloadable Google Earth bi-directional plug-in. www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/ac11/ Autodesk says Revit licenses have increased 100% in one year to 200,000. But AutoCAD Architecture (nee ADT) still leads with a half-million licenses. www.autodesk.com iSEEK ships CADSEEK Polaris for searching CAD shapes. New features include searches for the next assemblies and metadata, plus a new “Billboard” navigator and WebCrawler. [The billboard navigator looks pretty interesting. I wonder which CAD vendor will buy this company? Oh, here is the answer: ] iSEEK has developed partnerships with Dassault, PTC, UGS, SolidWorks, and TechSoft3D. www.iseekcorp.com/products/visual_navigator.cfm EatyourCAD launches its "Ultimate" CAD search engine target for CAD management, MicroStation, AutoCAD issues. [What does a meal of CAD taste like?] www.eatyourcad.com/advanced_search.php The Nemetschek Group releases new stand-alone IFC Viewer software for viewing IFC [Industry Foundation Classes] building models on Windows only. No-charge download from www.nemetschek.net/architect/IFC_viewer.php (registration required). Strucsoft Solutions ships PVGEN Pro for integrating steel structure designs with those of pressure vessels created with Codeware’s Compress. www.strucsoftsolutions.com Bentley Systems releases Bentley Electric XM and Bentley Expert Designer XM – GIS software for electric utilities. The company achieved IFC2x3 certification for its Architecture software. www.bentley.com LMS has a new simulator for landing gear systems; it's base on Virtual.Lab Motion. www.lmsintl.com XAO launches SEE Electrical Harness PLM for CATIA www.ige-xao.com GEOMATE releases GrafiCalc Expert 2007 (US$995) conceptual engineering software that combines sketching, calculations, behavioral modeling, motion simulation, and tolerance allocation, and analysis in one application. www.inventbetter.com DRCAUTO SOFTWARE ships Toolkit Max 2008 (US$450) for AutoCAD LT 2008: load and run Fast-Load AutoLISP files, Visual LISP Executable files, AutoLISP files, ObjectARX files, ObjectDBX files, and more. estore.smart-architect.com/toolkitmax2008products.htm - - - 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's Designjet T610 and T1100 large-format printers are 3x faster than previous models. www.hp.com
Seminars & Conferences DIME Rhino 4.0 is June 1-2 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (I'll be attending this event.) www2.mcneel.com/tradeshows/tradeshows.asp
People/Companies on the Move Metris agrees to acquire 100% of Coord3 shares for e1.5 million. Coord3 of Italy manufactures coordinate measuring machines with revenues e11 million. [The purchase price seems low; normal purchase prices are 1x to 3x of annual revenues.] Siemens completes its acquisition of UGS. www.siemens.com/ugs Autodesk ceo Carl Bass joins the board of directors of iRise, whose software visualizes business apps before they’re coded. Two Autodesk directors say they won't stand for reelection: Mary Alice Taylor, former CEO of HomeGrocer.com, and Steve Scheid of Janus Capital Management. Sescoi opens its new subsidiary office in Shanghai. Market News The Nemetschek Group grew its Q1 revenues by 45% to e34.4 million, partly due to the addition of revenues from the recently-acquired Graphisoft. FARO Technologies Q1 revenues were US$40.3 million, up 25.5% over a year ago. ANSYS reports Q1 revenues of US$89.6 million, nearly double from the $46.0 million of a year ago. The company expects to earn $363 - $366 million this year.
WorthWhile Web http://news.com.com/Even+in+Net+litigation%2C+its+all+about+location/2010-1028_3-6180169.html?tag=nefd.top
http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/01/23/paper_iphone.png
http://blog.digg.com/?p=74
Letters to the Editor Re: Inventor LT "What do you know? Inventor LT."
Re: Dennis Jeffrey's Guest Editorial "After all is said, YOU are ultimately responsible for yourself
and the continuation of your knowledge and training. Do not use
your employer as the excuse for not improving yourself."
"Dennis Jeffrey ought to thank his lucky stars that I'm not the CAD manager for one of his clients! Ouch! The blame is well and truly targeted! A nice bit of self promotion for the consultant and a boot in the back for the CAD manager. "Dennis may have 45 years under his belt but perhaps I can educate him a bit more: "1. CAD managers need budgets. The UK CAD Managers Survey 2007 < www.eatyourcad.com/article.php?incat_id=1493 > notes that as the number of companies who do not budget for CAD training drops, so does the number of companies reporting 'lack of user knowledge' as the most common reason for support calls. "2. CAD managers need senior management backing. A lot of CAD managers would prefer to wag the finger at senior staff, counteracting Dennis's claim for 'new and different' CAD managers, with a claim for a new breed of senior management please. The computer literate are on the rise and once we get rid of the old fogies who still fondly talk of draughting boards, the quicker the rise to 3D, BIM, and more efficient working methods will be. "3. CAD managers need recognition and formal qualifications. The correlation between the intellectual level of the software purchased and the likelihood of a full time CAD manager is worth noting. Once seen as the forced upon role of a diligent architect/engineer, the advent of 3D/BIM technology has pushed the need for full time managers, but also highlights a lack of formal career path or recognized qualification. Giving the small CAD management community more status and acknowledgement would bring to light the problems we face in moving the industry forward and provide opportunities for junior CAD Managers (of which there are very few) to follow. "We have a tough battle ahead of us, but we are clearly learning. The AEC(UK) CAD standards < http://www.aec-uk.org/ > are now the most widely used in the UK (surveyed), indicating that we are uniting firms in global standards. More and more companies are now testing potential employees (up from 13% to 60%) indicating that we are no longer reactive but proactive. "Blaming the CAD manager suggests that Dennis isn't aware
of challenges we face in our everyday role. A bit more communication
with his clients might uncover the hurdles in getting users to the
classroom in the first place. I suggest he works with us to bring
about change and improvement, not against us." - - - "Thanks for the newsletter - required reading on a Tuesday." "Thanks for many years of information. You provide a valued
service."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "...technologists tend to see restrictions such as those
in the DMCA as chilling innovation, but they fail to appreciate
that not all innovation is good, and that hyperbolic criticism of
the DMCA itself has the potential to chill innovation. "
Notable Quotable "'The Web just got richer.' Well, somebody's getting richer,
but I doubt it's gonna be the Web." Thank You to Our Subscribers & Donators Thanks to the 21 readers who responded to my annual subscription appeal. Over the next several weeks, your names will appear below:
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