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Issue #520 : : May 29, 2007 |
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In this issue: - Software
Grants 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/ .]
People on the Move 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.
WorthWhile Web http://www.mises.org/story/2590
http://publishing2.com/2007/05/26/user-generated-content-is-not-a-panecea/
Letters to the Editor Re: Update on Graphisoft "I wanted to clarify something from your interview with Patrick Mays. He told you that VectorWorks is a surface modeler, as you reported. This is true, of course, but VectorWorks also offers full solids modeling capabilities (more than 10 years now), based on the SOLIDS++ kernel from IntegrityWare. "This is integrated with our NURBS surface engine allowing
for a very complete solids/surfacing engine. To see these in action
feel free to check our the advanced 3D modeling page for VectorWorks:
www.nemetschek.net/training/library.php?movie=3Dmovies "
"What's up with the Patrick Mays piece. None of it makes
any sense. Were you in a Jimminy Glick kind of mood, or what?" - - - Re: 'Our Second Life Island is Hip' "Hey, based on some direct responses I received to my jaded comments on Second Life, I just wanted to clarify them, lest I be misunderstood. "I actually think the whole Virtual World thing is pretty cool. Cool, for casual social interaction and game playing. I just find it silly for stodgy CAD companies to think this will make them look cool or grow their business. "I suspect anyone hanging out in Second Life, or another
virtual world, is doing so to escape and relax, not to watch presentations
on CAD and PLM. That seems like exactly the sort of thing
people are going into Second Life to get away from. Just my
two cents." The editor replies: "Kind of like the danger of providing wireless Internet at conferences, where people use it to escape the droning conference speaker."
"Old engineering books (around 1900) have great drawings
of bridges, machines. A lot of times they have foldout pages. Classic
stuff. It's all 2D, amazingly. Pre-acronym." - - - Re: Oracle Buys Its Way into PLM "Sounds like they need someone like Ken Shain. Would you
believe?" - - - Re: FM Can Be Done More Cheaply "Working for a CAD vendor from 1998 to 2002, I was project manager for the facilities implementation with at a real estate from. The largest implementation at that time, the company paid $445K for software and $1.2 million for services. "Last year, I used Visio and AutoCAD to reproduce the same functionality for a major pharmaceutical company's research facility of around 800,000 square feet. The training took three hours, the implementation less than three months, and Visio cost around $300. "I wrote a complete workflow manual of how to set up a BOMA-
and IFMA-compliant space management system with Visio and AutoCAD.
If anyone is interested in checking it out, email me at lms173@columbia.edu
."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "New technology, such as the recently announced Adobe Media
Player, will allow consumers to download video for playback without
losing the ads that were sold with the video,"
Notable Quotable "The problem with assumptions is that they're usually correct.
For certain people, at a certain times, in certain places."
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