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Issue #519 : : May 22, 2007 |
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In this issue:
Update on Informative Graphics
Out of the Inbox, and other regular columns. |
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This is a slow news week, so I thought I'd write about things I've collected and wondered about over the last year.
Software Grants We editors often get press releases announcing software given to schools, such as this one: "University of Cincinnati Receives $289 Million Software Grant from UGS; Largest Software Grant Ever Received at the University." There are the obvious benefits to this largesse: good publicity, plus the possible future benefit from students forced to train on a single brand of CAD software. I've wondered about the tax implications -- charitable tax deductions for "gifts in kind." Giving away a quarter-billion worth of software must do wonderful things for the bottom line -- and cost the company very little. I asked UGS about this, but didn't receive a reply.
Who Is Ford Going With? At Dassault's recent COE/PLM event, ceo Benard Charles announced that the ceo of Ford told him the automotive company was going all-Dassault. So, what shall we make of this headline from a year ago? "Ford Motor Company Deploys UGS' In-Vehicle Software Data Management Solution on 57 Worldwide Vehicle Programs." Maybe the all-Dassault plan is for vehicle design only, while this UGS software is for monitoring the firmware running inside cars.
Mix'n Match Numbers See if you can spot the mixed up numbers: "Planet Products was named... February's Inventor of the Month for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation, selected from among more than 500,000 worldwide Autodesk Inventor customers." It reads like Planet was a really lucky firm to be selected out of a field of 500,000. A very select standing. But the press release mixes _sites_ with _seats_ (aka customers). Assuming an average of 100 seats per site, then the chances are 1 in 5,000 that a customer will be named Inventor of the Month. And since the award is given every month, the chances improve to 1 in 417 over a year's time.
100+ Million Parts Gabriel Guigue last week sent out a press release announcing "100+ million downloadable 3D CAD models accessible for free from Google 3D Warehouse." A tenth of a billion. That's a big number, so I looked at sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=e4187175485eda3455cfaf023c5ae32c , but could find just hundreds of parts, not millions. I asked about this, and Mr Guigue responded minutes later: "We are publishing only one Google model for each part family. (We have now 9,200 SketchUp models on the Warehouse, and this number will increase to 30,000 in the next couple of weeks.) "From those SketchUp models posted in the Warehouse, users then jump to the other 100 million configurations available at TraceParts Online < /www.tracepartsonline.net >." So, thousands in Google Warehouse, with the millions of parametric variations available once you make the jump to the TraceParts site. I like the way he signs his emails: "Cordialement / Best regards / Mit freundlichen grüßen / Saludos / Cordiali saluti," and that the German version uses the tradtional umlaut and sharp s.
Everyone's A Winner Some CAD vendors obsess over handing out award after award to their customers. Editors tire of receiving narcissistic press releases. Indeed, some editors asked the more agregious CAD vendors to stop sending them to us, partly because they are not interesting, and partly because we cannot figure out for whom are such press releases written. Adena Schutzberg of directionsmag.com asked her readers. Of 27 responding to her online poll:
So, primarily of interest to friends and family. [Announcements of new and updated products.] MITCalc releases v1.20 of its mechanical calculations package. New features include worm gear calcs, Chinese translation, and more. www.mitcalc.com View22 announces their Immersiv 3D web commerce platform with 3D virtual stores, 3D product configurators, interactive 3D room planners, and more. Interactive demo at www.view22.com/immersiv GTX updates GTXRaster CAD Series v11.0 for AutoCAD 2008's mleaders, Vista, and software/hardware locking. The series includes GTXRaster Tools, GTXRaster CAD, GTXRaster R2V, and GTXRaster CAD PLUS. www.gtx.com National Instruments introduces Multisim v10.0 with enhanced SPICE for PCB design and simulation. Download 30-day demo from www.ni.com/multisim/ NavisWorks reports that their JetStream v5.4 3D review software is certified compatible with Inventor 2008 by Autodesk. www.navisworks.com ETRAGE releases PSI for Windchill and Pro/INTRALINK 8: for batch plotting and PDF creation. www.etrage.com Cimmetry sponsors a report, "Printed Circuit Board Design Integrity:- The Key to Successful PCB Development," that emphasizes the importance of -- wait for it -- electronic design document viewing software, such as sold by Cimmetry. [Would the report say any different?] www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3973 Nemetschek North America gets "Works With Windows Vista Logo Certification" for its VectorWorks v12.5.1 line of software. The company notes that "VectorWorks is ideal for firms that don't have unlimited IT budgets." [Hmm... what does that say about Allplan?] www.vectorworks.net Following up from hints made during my interview with the head of Graphisoft USA, Nemetschek plans to integrate PDF generation in Allplan software through Adobe's PDF Library Software Developer Kit. The company modestly notes that "The two companies are thus consolidating their roles as technology leaders with the introduction of PDF as the format of the future for the exchange of data in the building industry. www.nemetschek.net JETCAM International releases Expert v15.59.14 CAD/CAM and nesting software for CNC punching and profiling machines. Free to customers with a maintenance contract. www.jetcam.com And CADCAMNet releases its 3D CAD interoperability survey. You can purchase the PDF from www.cadcamnet.com - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.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
7th Annual DEVCON Conference of Dassault Systemes's third-party developers is Jun 26-27 in Paris, France. www.3ds.com/news-events/devcon/
2007 DELMIA Worldwide Customer Conferences < http://www.delmia-cc.com >:
9th Annual COFES is Apr 10-13, 2008 in Scottsdale AZ USA. www.cofes.com People/Companies on the Move nCode International appoints Michael Singer as ceo and member of the board of directors. Former ceo Brian Dabell becomes executive vp of business development. The company is owned by Coller Capital. Bentley Systems acquires TDV GmbH of Austria, whose RM2006 software designs and analyses bridges, such as the "8206-kilometer-long" Sutong Bridge in China. [Honestly, that's what the press release says;in reality, the bridge is 1000x less impressive at "just" 8,206m long. See www.roadtraffic-technology.com/projects/sutong]. Dassault Systemes acquires WHITE, the leading XYZ company. [The press release has since been edited to read, "...the recently announced acquisition of ICEM, the leading provider of styling, high-quality surface modeling and rendering solutions..." Hat tip to 3dcadnews.blog.com/1765292/ .]
Market News CEO Rick Fiery co-founded Envista. Mr Fiery is the previous vp of global finance for Bentley Systems. Prior, he was ceo of Infrasoft, which was acquired by Bentley. He founded Infrasoft by purchasing the distribution rights to (and later purchasing) a MOSS Systems software package from Auto-trol Technology. - www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/05/28/story10.html?from_rss=1 Market News . . . . .
LMS International completes its acquisition IMAGINE through buying up privately-hold shares, and plans to buy the remaining public shares at e32 each.
Letters to the Editor Re: 'Our Second Life Island is Hip' "With your recent articles about virtual worlds, I thought you might be interested in an item about Google Earth on a New Zealand current affairs TV show. It featured a Christchurch architectural firm that is making money by creating virtual 3D building's in Google Earth for clients around the world. "Here are some links: The ZNO Web site of some projects
at homepage.mac.com/fumill/ZNO/PhotoAlbum71.html
and their blog znonz.blogspot.com/
" The editor replies: "That's interesting, I mean, the part about being able to make money at it. I'd've thought with SketchUp being free, there'd be no money in it. But maybe people download it, try it, and then find they're no good at it." Mr Burke responds: "Only since the introduction of free software, like Google Earth and Virtual Earth, has it been financially possible to do what this little architectural firm in New Zealand is doing -- creating 3D models and getting paid for it, without leaving the office."
"Your cynicism about the efforts of UGS on SecondLife has some merit. And this is a move presumably to be followed by various CAD companies in the near future. But don't most of us generally admit that engineering and CAD are so 'boring' in the eyes of younger generations that we, as an industry need to do more? "With that in mind, I applaud UGS' move to at least try
and be more interesting and to engage a whole new crowd of people.
Let's not be too harsh on the people who are trying to make things
attractive and let's hope that they do manage to make CAD interesting." The editor replies: "Depends on your idea of boring. I love making (and looking at) beautifully made engineering drawings. I have a collection of my dad's when he was in technical school in the early 1960s, such as of a helix gear drawn in pencil by hand. Worth framing. "If there really is a problem of fewer kids in engineering, it could be because there are so many more opportunities today. I went into engineering only because that's what respectable teenage boys did following their Grade 12 graduation. My true loves were trains and media; I actually wanted to work for the National Film Board of Canada as a producer, but my parents were aghast at the thought. But then they were also aghast when I quit 'CADalyst' and went off on my own as a freelance CAD writer."
Ms Taggart responds: "Most of the kids I talk to at the local trade school up the street figure that animation/3D game design rates Very Cool. IT/systems is Fairly Cool, as with graphics. Engineering is sooo boring. "Conversely, when you talk to Joel Orr's grandkids, they find engineering fascinating, intriguing and all those other words (two of them now have jobs at NASA). Unfortunately there are very few Orr grandkids around, and a lot more of the standard 'trade school' kids. "I figure that in terms of opportunity, many of the kids foresee a much easier path to the very cool jobs (two years in trade school for animation, graphics etc) compared to taking an arduous four-year engineering course that leads to what they think is a so-so job in engineering. Of course, we find the odd one that wants to design cars and Apple Macs. But not enough. "Would parents now be aghast at their kid wanting a movie production job? Probably not in these times, same as wanting to do animation and game development -- high rewards for the lucky few. "The joke, of course, about any software is that it enables kids with 10% of the talent and almost no skill to create the same things that took four years of engineering school and another three in apprenticeship. I know that is flippant (I do flippant good), but it may not be far from the truth. However, there is a difference to being able to use CAD software and being able to engineer something. And given the alternative jobs/careers available, many see the ability to engineer something as 'too difficult', 'not their thing' etc. "Are there kids hanging around on Second Life who would
be attracted to CAD/3D design? I would like to think so. I hope
that the end result is that the naysayers will be proved wrong,
in the best possible way: not as a vindictive outcome but proof,
perhaps, that CAD and engineering is as cool as the other stuff."
[AsI edit this newsletter, I'm downloading a mouse driver direct from Logitech's Web site. After much downloading, installing, and a reboot, the brand-new driver offers to check for updates. Amazingly enough, it finds one.] - - - Re: Update on Graphisoft "In your newsletter on Archicad 11, you wrote: > The new Worksheet tool automatically adds more sheets as
"Both of the above statements are incorrect; either you misquoted Mr. Mays, or he did not do his homework, but:
"Your reputation is deservedly high; please don't endanger
it by not checking." The editor replies: "I passed the article to Graphisoft, and they did not have any comments on it, so I assumed it was correct."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "Linux doesn't exist in 2007."
Notable Quotable "You [Microsoft] just spent 6 billion on an ad company
[aQuantive], and only 1 billion developing a new OS [Vista].
Something is wrong with that."
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