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Issue #535 : : October 30, 2007 |
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In this issue: Readers
Respond:
- SpaceClaim
Origins
Out of the Inbox and the other regular columns.
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Write the editor. Make him smile. 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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Autodesk Manufacturing Media Summit, Paris "Questions for all, including new and long established promoters of digital prototyping:
"There are excellent initiatives such as Alan Stafford's Digital Factory at Sunderland University in the UK < www.amap.sunderland.ac.uk/digital-factory > developing the skills, but it seems to me that there is a huge gap between the vendors' expectation, industry's capabilities, and the financial justification. "Finally, I trust you enjoyed Paris. Monmartre should be
seen at midnight, and a clear night view over Paris from the Sacre
Coeur is sheer magic." The editor replies: "The ideal Autodesk wishes to attain is to reduce the number of physical prototypes to 1."
"Of the '722,000 users of Inventor Series software' 36,100 are still using Mechanical Desktop. As I am one of these, I would be interested to know:
"Even without the promised continued development of MDT, we (36,100) use a product that works well and continues to achieve tasks its so-called replacement still cannot. All MDT users have [a copy of] Inventor to check, don't they! "If we made the assumption the 18% of Autodesk customers
using 3D, then out of 6.7 million users, 1.2 million are using 3D.
Now given 3D on PCs has been around and workable since before 1985,
when will CAD executives consider that 3D is profitable for only
a few CAD users? Their customers might actually be able to make
their own sensible business decisions in relation to this fact.
After all Autodesk talk a lot about moving users to 3D, but DO absolutely
nothing to demonstrate that they KNOW that this would be a profitable
step for customers. Categorizing 2D users as 'low-end' borders on
insult, and shows a level of thought that does little to convince
me Autodesk's executives actually know anything about how their
customers apply their products." The editor replies: "I think the 5% is a rough guess at the low-end of the range. Autodesk will continue to slowly migrate MDT features to Inventor. It has shifted payments so that dealers make more selling Inventor, et al, than they do AutoCAD."
"I think presentations from the big software companies are
often like 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. More integrated software,
more than import/export and linking is good, if it works easily."
"I'm pretty sure that TGV actually stands for Train a (sorry
don't know how to put a grave accent on the letter and I call myself
an engineer, a Canadian one at that!) Grande Vitesse -- High Speed
Train in French."
"I'm glad to read that you enjoyed your stay in Lyon (we
were neighbors for three days). I just want to let you know that
the meaning of TGV is Train à Grande Vitesse (High Speed Train)
and not Très Grande Vitesse as you wrote in your latest 'upfront.eZine'.
Thanks for your good appreciation of Lyon. Hope to see you next
time you come."
"You have some Tavel Monments mixed in with your Travel
Moments."
"Great issue. I don't think you meant to use the word 'vermicular',
but instead want the word 'funicular'. www.thefreedictionary.com/vermicular
= having a worm-like appearance." The editor replies: "I wrote that while still suffering from jetlag -- 12 hours sleep in four days. Yuk!"
"William R Jennings wrote, 'I will gladly trade some software for bulk cheese'. Well, William, try this: not only do we have to pay £3,500 for a licence of AutoCAD (when it is only $3,500 [£1,750] in the US), we are now having to pay roughly £1.00 per litre of fuel (diesel or petrol) -- about US$6/US gal. "Cheese is less to buy in the UK, because we produce from
the raw materials (cow and milk). It is not made of plastic like
the cheese in a Big Mac. We Brits produce quality cheese and charge
appropriately for it!" The editor replies: "I'd rather pay less for gas than for cheese."
Q&A with Mike Payne of SpaceClaim This isn't the 1980s anymore, when a CAD system -- any CAD system -- was deemed worthwhile. Today's software has its purpose and its defined slot. So when a superstar team of CAD executives launch a new product that's seen as wobbly defined, collective head scratching entails.
SpaceClaim Origins Much as been made of the executives running this new CAD company. Danny Dean was the technical founder of PTC, and after a few rounds of retirement golf, came back to write SpaceClaim. Took about 18 months. CEO Mike Payne denied his company's name has any meaning to it -- something a subordinate quickly denied: the term apparently comes from a portion of 3D modeling space claimed by individual engineers working in a team on a single design project. I was told that SpaceClaim is the"2.0" of the CAD industry. It works with a multi-CAD environment, dumps the CAD-is-too-hard-to-use interface, is real 3D available to 4x more potential users, and leaves behind the rigidity of history-based parametric CAD. Translators, however, cost extra. The key is geometry and SpaceClaim's ability to manipulate it. Any part can be edited at any time. Under the hood, SpaceClaim uses ACIS. But some of this seemed familiar to me. "Doesn't CADKEY [I meant KeyCreator] claim to do much the same?" I asked. Mr Payne said he didn't want to talk about competitors -- perhaps a first in the annals of CAD history. When I run some rough numbers, I can see why SpaceClaim needed a second round of financing. 63 employees x $100K each = $6.3 million expense; 500 licenses x $1700 = $0.85 million income; burn rate = $6.3m - 0.85m = $5.45 million. When Mssrs Payne and Dean originally created Pro/Engineer, "features" was the only approach they felt they could take back then, running the software on 1 MIPS CPUs [million instructions per second central processing units]. Today, the MIPS are so much higher, and so the software can do so much more. As the online demo showed, SpaceClaim shows many intuitive reactions.
SpaceClaim Release 2 SpaceClaim 2007+ is be released next month on the 15th. In this day, there are high expectations for what CAD software can do, and so new packages need to be updated twice a year to catch up with the competition. The online demo had way too many features, so I'll list a subset:
Finally, the API (VB and C++) is new, and so third-party developers are enthusiastically linking in, such as CircuitWorks for 3D PCB design. - - - SpaceClaim's claim is to be neutral in the CAD space, CAD-neutral modification software that anyone can use. But as the company works to add features, they begin stepping on competitor's toes and losing their neutrality. Limited time beta available from www.spaceclaim.com
I'm wanting to write another e-book, and am hoping readers can give me an idea. I've thought perhaps something on Inventor or another 3D CAD package, such as a quick command reference or something on customization or a series of tutorials. Do you have an idea for an e-book that could fill a missing niche? One that would sell a significant number of copies, 'natch! In the meantime, copies of my latest print book are available. Signed copies of "Using AutoCAD 2008: Basics" can be yours for a donation of $30 to upFront.eZine. (Please add $15 for shipping outside of North America.) Send payment via PayPal to grabowski at telus dot net or by cheque to 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford, BC, V2S 4W7, Canada. Thx.
HatchKit 2.7 improves its editing and import capabilities, with new pattern file formats and Windows XP 64-bit support. Works with ArchiCAD, Revit, VectorWorks, Rhinoceros, and more. Demo version from www.cadro.com.au/hatchkit Bentley Systems updates AutoPIPE XM Edition to exchange complete structures with STAAD.Pro and piping stresses with Caesar II. www.Bentley.com/AutoPIPE The IDX Beam Analysis Tool (US$299) operates directly in AutoCAD, providing analysis of deflection and stress on any beam. www.idx-design.com Robert McNeel & Assoc releases openNURBS 4.0 toolkit for .NET, free from www.openNURBS.net Forming Technologies ships CATIA ProgNest R18 for nesting sheet metal blanks on progressive die strips. Integrated into CATIA CAAV5 environment on R16, 17, and 18. www.forming.com Now available in English: ASCON releases KOMPAS-3D V9 mechanical CAD software popular in Russia. KOMPAS provides 3D solid parametric modeling , 2D drafting, design and documentation, with add-ons for photo rendering, animation, kinematic and dynamic analysis, extended CAD/CAM/PLM integration and more. www.ascon.net/?news=342 The updated Teamcenter 2007 from Siemens PLM Software, a division of Siemens Automation and Drives (A&D) and a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services [spare me, please!] features a new Business Modeler Integrated Development Environment for rapid deployment of changes to remote sites. www.ugs.com/teamcenter2007 Here's a new one for me: FirstTrace ships SP1 for Kinnosa EDM 4.0 [enterprise document management] software solution for CAD and technical documents. www.FirstTrace.com Advanced Computer Solutions announces that Caddie 12 (software for architectural, mechanical, and surveying applications) features native OpenDWG 2007/2008 format. www.caddiesoftware.com progeCAD 2008 Standard from iCADsales.com is priced lower than AutoCAD LT yet includes AutoLISP, reads/writes every version of the DWG drawing format, does rendering, and more. www.icadsales.com And Informatix Software International ships version 10 of MicroGDS for architects. www.informatix.co.uk
- - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Hardware News Logitech's 3Dconnexion mice are now supported by SolidWorks 2008 and eDrawings 2008. Subscribers to SolidWorks get 25% off until mid-December. www.3Dconnexion.com
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates CADCourse is celebrating its sixth anniversary. www.CADCourse.com SpaceClaim launches its blog at www.spaceclaim.com/blog/blog/Default.aspx
People/Companies on the Move SAMTECH locates its first Asian branch in Beijing China. Delcam celebrates the 20,000th customer of its CADCAM software. The publisher of CADalyst magazine launches it as a "digital replica" -- same content as the print edition but delivered by email. [I'm not sure if it costs US$47 a year or is free]. U.S. CAD acquires the assets of Aiea, Hawaii-based Pacific CADD Services. Bentley Systems appoints Tom Clemons as vp of Roads and Bridges Solutions, and Mike Sedgwick as vp of Civil and Transportation Sales. Redo "Thanks for including a mention of the AECbytes BIM Survey in your newsletter. Unfortunately, your brief summary of it was far from accurate. "You stated that the survey ended up showing that 58% of respondents prefer features in Bentley's own BIM software, while 38% were Revit-inclined. However, if you actually read the survey, you will find no such numbers or no such conclusions. Those happen to be the numbers Bentley has derived by plugging in the survey results into formulae it has developed. Another vendor could do the same and come up with a different set of numbers. "I would encourage you to actually read the survey report
and see what it has to say: www.aecbytes.com/feature/2007/BIMSurveyReport.html
"
Market News GE+XAO increases its fiscal year revenue to e20.5 million, up 4.2 from a year ago. Net income was up 17.6%.
Letters to the Editor Re: CAD Not Required "The story about FelixCAD and code-name Argon was very interesting.
Have you looked at Bricscad V8? There you have CUI and DIESEL working,
ARX/DRX is 'almost there'. LISP is OK. VBA is practically the same
syntax and object model as AutoCAD."
"The Graebert story is very encouraging. It's rare to hear
such a sweet ending to a potentially devastating event in the dog-eat-dog
business world." - - - "Thanks for your excellent newsletter." Spin Doctor of the Moment "It gives us the chance to surprise shareholders."
Notable Quotable "PLM is just a collection of CAD, PDM, BIM, ERP, MRP, FEA,
CFD, BFR, POS, LOC, SHT, and any other alphabet soup business/ collaboration/
engineering/ manufacturing/ procurement/ planning/ accounting acronym
you care to invent."
Thank You to Our Subscribers These great people support upFront.eZine through their contributions of $25 or more. Thank you, guys!
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