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Issue #530 : : September 18, 2007 |
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In this issue: Autodesk's Grand Unification Plan - AutoCAD
P&ID 2008 Out of the Inbox, plus the other regular columns . |
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Autodesk's Grand Unification Plan Back in the 1980s, Autodesk undertook a grand unification plan. AutoCAD was its primary product, which ran on multiple operating systems -- each with its own user interface and, in some cases, file format. The DOS version didn't look like the OS/2 version didn't look like the Macintosh version didn't look like the Apollo version. And there were two varient on the DWG file format, one for computers with Intel CPUs and another for Motorola CPUs, which reversed the byte order. Autodesk's Proteus project created a unified user interface and file format for all. Today, Autodesk's problem is the reverse: it has 76 programs, some built in-house, some acquired, some running on of AutoCAD, some independent. Proteus, the Greek god who changed his shape, reemerges. Next month, Autodesk begins to unveil its grand unification plan to make the user interfaces, file formats, and visualizations more similar between its disparate products. "Autodesk is looking for interoperability of its formats beyond DWG," an insider told upFront.eZine. We've seen a little bit of this already, with AutoCAD 2007 gaining its somewhat-like-Inventor 3D modeling workspace, and Inventor gaining some DWG file compatibility with AutoCAD.
AutoCAD P&ID 2008 Mark Strassman was on the phone last week to tell me about Autodesk's update of Plant Solutions P&ID 2008, released a short time ago. He's vp of the Plant Solutions Group. Mostly, the new release takes advantage of new features in AutoCAD 2008, such as annotations and DWF. For instance, DWFs can now be created with all piping metadata. There is a new Project Manager for keeping track of everything. An extension to Block Editor converts imported objects to piping objects by adding intelligence and metadata. (Pipes in P&ID are like objects in Visio -- or, dare I say, Actrix -- where they know how to connect and how to cross each other. Move a valve, and the pipes move along, etc.) Next year, P&ID 2009 will ship at the same time as AutoCAD 2009, around March 2008. Current price is US$4,995 + cost of subscription; includes AutoCAD. Also due next year is 3D Plant Piping, also running on AutoCAD. It uses technology that was acquired, developed in-house, and borrowed from Inventor and MEP [mechanical, electrical, plumbing]. The recently-acquired Navisworks will be linked to provide visualization, walk-throughs, and clash detection. There'll also be a link to Inventor, which can provide the frameworks for the pipes. What does P&ID have to do with grand unifications? Read on...
Autodesk's Full Plant Design Solution The company only recently got into plant design, and now it appears that Autodesk has its sights on toppling the giants of plant design, such as Intergraph and Aveva. Autodesk says it will soon have the only complete system for designing plants, a system more completely integrated than any competitor can possibly put together. It would include:
This is where the grand unification plan become significant: all that software running with similar user interfaces and interchangeable file formats. Competitors: start your acquisition engines!
It was back In 1993 when the Russian software company ParaGraph began working with VRML [virtual reality markup language], producing one of the first VRML viewers. VRML was seen at the time as the future for 3D Web graphics. VRML didn't live up to expectation, and four years later Silicon Graphics acquired ParaGraph for $50+ million, folding it into its Cosmo Software division, which also developed 3D Web software. In 1999, Silicon Graphics spun off its software divisions, such as Alias (now part of Autodesk) and Cosmo Software. Management bought out Cosmos, renamed it ParallelGraphics, and headquartered it in Ireland. ParallelGraphics soon began working with Boeing on the concept of reusing 3D CAD data in customer support and training. This collaboration resulted in Cortona3D Rapid, their current software offering. Earlier this year, Dassault Systemes founder Francis Bernard became CEO of ParallelGraphics. - - - Company president Connell Gallagher WebEx'ed me through his company's software and its philosophy. The company aims at different target customers than do the PLM-centric Dassaults and UGSs of the world. Mr Gallagher feels that the "lifecycle" portion of PLM doesn't get much beyond the design and engineering stages of products, because PLM is too complex to implement as its original vision envisioned. The reason that the vision of PLM is a long way from being done is because giving end users and customers access to PLM systems isn't happening -- and because it's not just about extracting data from 3D graphics ParallelGraphics sees that product support and training departments people operate differently from engineering, and so its Cortona3D Rapid software series operates differently from, say, 3DLive and Navisworks. Cortona3D Rapid software (running in Internet Explorer) pulls data from a variety of sources, such as multiple CAD, PLM, and ERP systems. Mr Gallagher showed me how his software creates disassembly instructions for an aircraft landing wheel. The operator adds the instruction "Remove the bolt" to the list of numbered instructions, and then in the 3D graphic drags the bolt out. Behind the scenes, the software adds all the 3D code, which can be tweaked manually, if necessary. When revealed, the code provides parameters for color, animation, transformation, and so on. In effect, the company has found a way to keep the ugly parts of 3D in the background. The other special tactic of ParallelGraphics is to return information. As product support staff encounter issues, they can add tags (dots with embedded text) to the 3D graphics and database. These indicate issues found with parts, as well as the coordinate positions on part. (Some parts are large enough that exact locations need to be specified.) The tags are added to the database, which can be accessed by customers and manufacturers. This feedback system is important in aircraft maintenance, where every action must be logged. I asked how far back the tag data can go. Well, not yet back to the CAD system; perhaps one day. The company uses open files formats, such as U3D and VRML for graphics, and XML for text and databases. Depending on the options, the software costs between US$8,000 and $12,000 per seat. Check out the demos at www.cortona3d.com/try/tour.php Luxology ships modo 301, its newest 3D content creation software for Mac OSX and Windows. www.modo3d.com SivanDesign introduces CivilCAD 2008 Simulate with real-time 3D simulation. The software turns civil engineering projects into 3D simulations at any time during the design process. www.sivandesign.com aniPart combines 3D animation with text to create interactive materials. It can read data from CAD, PDM, and ERP systems. http://www.anipart.com Allegorithmic announces ProFX 2.6 for generating advanced texturing for real-time 3D content using its patented procedural texturing. www.allegorithmic.com Noran Engineering updates its NEi Nastran, NEiFusion, and NEiWorks software with automatic impact analysis, design optimization, automatic surface contact generation, and hyperelastic and composite material modeling. www.NEiNastran.com SpaceClaim now reads and writes Rhino files. www.spaceclaim.com FreeDesign releases FreeDimension v1.2. www.freedesign-inc.com Alibre ships Alibre Design 10.0 with 10x speed improvement in some functions, and reduced memory consumption of 35%. New is the integrated CAM add-on, Alibre CAM, supporting 2.5 and 3-axis NC [numerical control] machining. www.alibre.com PTC puts together a technical publishing packages consisting of Arbortext Editor, Arbortext Publishing Engine, Arbortext IsoDraw, Arbortext IsoView, and Windchill. www.ptc.com Data translator CCE updates its Mastercam Interoperability software, MC/Ug, to support GD&T [geometric dimensions and tolerances] and Unigraphics NX5 part and assembly files being imported into Mastercam. www.cadcam-e.com Ergonis Software's PopChar Win 3.1 improves the insertion of special characters in AutoCAD drawings and other documents. www.ergonis.com/popcharwin The latest version of MachineWorks supports full machine simulation and improves rendering performance. www.machineworks.com Dassault Systèmes ships Abaqus v2.5 software for advanced finite element analysis in CATIA V5. www.simulia.com - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Hardware News IDEAL.com introduces Scanning System3 that does color copying, network printing, and Internet collaboration of drawings. The system is based on a 36" or 42" IDEAL/Contex scanner and bundled software. www.ideal.com SpheronVR's latest high-dynamic-range camera captures 360x180--degree, full spherical images with a single scan, and includes a 3D immersive measurement device. www.spheron.com Seminars & Conferences International Conference on Computer Applications in Shipbuilding (ICCAS) is Sept 18-20 in Portsmouth UK. www.aveva.com/products_services_events.php?id=35
People/Companies on the Move COADE appoints Xiaojun Lu as Senior Engineer/Developer for Plant Engineering Solutions. UGS PLM Software gets Microsoft to join its UGS Velocity Series Consortiumm, an Asia Pacific initiative aimed at stimulating the use of PLM technology among small- to mid-size manufacturing companies.
Market News The IGE+XAO Group reports 2006-7 fiscal year revenues of e20.5 million (about US$ 28 million),up 4.2% over the year before. Hitachi Software Engineering acquires 800 shares (9.85%) of Lattice Technology, becoming the second largest stockholder next to Toyota Motor Corporation with 23.4%. eBay vendor Timothy Vernor sues Autodesk for US$10 million after Autodesk was successful in getting eBay to block re-sales of ten-year-old AutoCAD Release 14 software. Mr Vernor hopes for a settlement; industry observers hope it goes to trial to clarify the legality of shinkwrap licenses. Letters to the Editor Re: When Locking Turns on Its Masters "One of my ongoing concerns with CAD vendors, and data in general, is will the data be available 50 years from now? Or, even 10 years from now? As data is structured in such a way as to prevent access by outside means, will a copy of today's software run on a machine in 10 years, to get it back on line? "On top of that, the concept of compound documents using OLE linking to drive parameters from an Excel spreadsheet seems to be a very risky proposition for the future of one's data. Now you have to have multiple programs running, and the operating system managing the connection, in order to render a document. "I hear very little on this subject; perhaps IT managers
are more savvy than I to the dangers." The editor responds: "In addition to accessing the data, what about the operating system and hardware required to access the storage devices containing the data."
"I wonder if CAD software's locking behavior isn't somehow
programmed in by the trinket & swag cartel. I have stuff from
product versions that I've never loaded. Anyone else?" The editor responds: "Huh?" Mr Hruby explains: "I sometimes think that new releases are delivered not because a product was improved, but to develop a new marketing scheme with trinkets and swag (coffee cups, mouse pads, etc.) bearing the new product logo. Basically acting on the axiom, 'Better to be mentioned than not at all.' "When I talk to users in different organizations, I come across the same phenomenon. I'll see a product logo on an item in their office and ask them if they've loaded the [associated] software. The answer is just as likely no, with these explanations:
"So, my tongue-in-cheek premise for why companies seem to constantly release new software versions on an annual basis seems to be driven by the folks who make the trinkets and swag."
"Your article reminded me about this article: www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000052.html.
I believe you will appreciate reading it as it provides an interesting
view on 'locking'." The editor replies: "Joel Spolsky explains how to wrest market share from locked-in users. He lists barriers faced by Microsoft in getting Lotus 1-2-3 users to switch to Excel. Some of these continue to be relevant today in our market: Barriers
"With this many barriers, every potential customer has at least one non-negotiable deal killer, he summarizes. And then he lists another barrier: 'Not how hard it is to switch in: it's how hard it might be to switch out.'" - - - Re: Notable Quotable "Glad to have you back. August is such a dull month as it
is. 'Spider pig, spider pig, does whatever a spider pig does,' also
Homer Simpson."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "You must have JavaScript and Flash 8 enabled to view this
content."
Notable Quotable "The press picked it up and ran with it like a well-trained
dog, or perhaps more succinctly, an innocent but ignorant puppy."
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