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Issue #536 : : November 6, 2007 |
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In this issue: - What Does The Acquistion Mean? Q&A With Mark Madura of DataCAD - DataCAD 12
Out of the Inbox and the other regular columns.
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Gee, you just never know what might happen in this industry. Until last Wednesday, Parametric Technology Corp's marketing has been all about a single, scalable solution, called the "integral Product Development System." Pro/Engineer is CAD software that scales from the desktop to the enterprise. PTC's management liked to spit in the face of Dassault and UGS for needing two incompatible products to span the distance, and doubly at Autodesk for lacking a big, expensive high-end product -- something we'd've called in the old days, "Big Iron." (For the desktop, Dassault has SolidWorks, UGS has Solid Edge; at the high end, Dassault has CATIA, UGS has NX.) And then last Wednesday, PTC could no longer crow, instead had to eat crow, when they announced they would borrow US$210 million to buy CoCreate for $250 million, the remaining amounts coming from cash reserves. CoCreate is best known for pushing the non-history line. It and a group of smaller CAD vendors (like Kubotek USA, SpaceClaim, and IronCAD) have been promoting the idea of editing 3D CAD models at _any_ time during the design process, and editing 3D CAD data from _any_ source. PTC was seen by them as the problem parent who created the current state of history- and feature-based CAD software being overwhelming popular. It's the type of 3D modeling sold by the the CAD world's Billion Dollar Club -- Autodesk, Dassault, UGS, and PTC. But it was PTC who invented it, and then popularized it. But as of Wednesday, PTC can no longer claim to be holder of the world's only unified modeling program. The problem was first noticed by British CAD editor Martyn Day, but within hours an email sent to CoCreate customers spun the solution like this: "PTC recognizes that there is a broad range of accepted modeling approaches in the industry. By adding CoCreate solutions to its product portfolio, PTC will become the first and only vendor in the market to offer a full complement of design solutions." Heh: I was unaware that PTC is active in the areas of architectural, GIS, and civil design. [Sarcasm=off] In any case, PTC joins the ranks of Dassault and UGS in having a second, incompatible software offering.
What Does The Acquisition Mean? For the mechanical CAD industry, the acquisition means that history-free modeling will now be taken seriously. For competitors, it means that Dassault, UGS, and Autodesk will be casting about to acquire a competitive product. SpaceClaim is easily available for acquisition; the others less so. (IronCAD is partly owned by a Chinese company, while KeyCreator is owned by a Japanese company.) For CoCreate, PTC is initially promising the following:
The acquisition is expected to close in December, following which some CoCreate employees face the prospect of being laid off. More on this next week. http://www.ptc.com
Q&A With Mark Madura of DataCAD "Business is normal, which is fine in the constantly-changing CAD business." Customers start to lose track, he says, of who owns their CAD software. It's been 11 years since DataCAD went independent of CADKEY (now KubotekUSA KeyCreator), and 22 years since DataCAD first launched. I recall from my early days at CADalyst magazine getting the press release that DataCAD was the official CAD package of the AIA.
DataCAD 12 The 12th release of DataCAD [surely there's been more than 12? - Ed.] introduces smart parametric walls, doors, and windows. Mr Madura said he looked at how smart elements were implemented in some of his competitors, and found an overwhelming number of parameters -- dialog box after expandable dialog box. "As a developer, how far do you take it?" he asked rhetorically. So he decided to take a hybrid approach: walls intersect automatically according to preset parameters. But then drafters can define their own "look" for the intersection. Automatic with manual override, as it were. There is global search and replace for substituting one smart entity with another. A new symbol editor lets you edit symbols in the drawing. Some users, he has found, embraced the smart entities. Others, who are "cranking out drawings, trying to get paid," stick with lines and arcs. And a third group use the hybrid approach: (1) initial layout is done with smart entities; and then (2) they are converted to standard entities for construction drawings. SketchUp support improves with each release. "How many of your users employ SketchUp? for preliminary design" I wondered. Mr Madura's rough guess is 5-10%. They bring in their SketchUp drawings to convert them into construction drawings. DataCAD 12 now imports layers and materials from SketchUp. DataCAD's self-written b-rep solids now perform Boolean operations. AutoCAD compatibility is improved with support for SHX fonts (now native in DataCAD, replacing CHR), mtext, and more. O2C (objects to see) now offers batch rendering, seamless materials, and output to HTML pages. There's also multi-scale plotting, up to 10 private clipbooks (like ten copies of the Clipboard), multiple scale dimensions, scale-independent linetypes, pen tables mapped to individual details, and more. Check out the full list at http://www.datacad/products/whats_new_12.htm
The Soapbox The normally laid-back Mr Madura became more animated as he began to expound on the lack of CAD interoperability at the most basic levels:
There is no common standard for this otherwise trivial items; every CAD vendor implements them differently, and differently even within a single CAD package. He gave the example of AutoCAD: plot styles are in binary files, but other support files are ASCII; hatch patterns are stored in drawings but linetypes are not. Setting the example, DataCAD presents its support files in easily readable ASCII files.
The Products DataCAD's primary product is DataCAD, which goes for US$1295. "Cheap!" I exclaimed. "It is cheap," Mr Madura admitted, "but we used to sell it for $495 and even $150 for a while." Support is free for the current version; new releases ship roughly every 18 months. There is no pressure on customers to upgrade, just because they are three releases behind. "But, if they want more than a single phone call's support, we suggest it would be worth their while to pay for the upgrade. And we don't penalize them for having an old version, either." It really irks him when software vendors pressure him for upgrades or unconscionable support contracts. He wanted to give a special tip of the hat to the Boston User Group, celebrating in November 20 years of monthly DataCAD user group meetings. DataCAD LT ships by the end of the year for $295. The company has about 240,000 customers, and is privately owned. The fastest growing overseas markets are the Czech Republic and Brazil. I asked about the impact of the numerous free CAD packages, like Solid Edge 2D and Alibre Xpress. They have no effect, since they do not target the architectural market. In particular, DataCAD appeals to the architectural-engineering office. "I like the phrase you invented some time back: we really are a BoutiqueCAD company."
"Popular Mechanics has a cool video on rapid prototyping
for the hobbyist at www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4224759.html?series=37
. There are some other interesting inventions, such as a new
method of generating electricity by wind."
"I thought you'd be interested in this: the ability for
a garage tinkerer to build their own rapid prototyping gadget at
www.reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
"
'3D CAD News' reports that Siemens PLM Software (aka UGS) will skip the V5 release of NX 5 for the Mac -- the CAD software Apple uses. Next release will be NX 6 "in 2006," according to 3dcadnews.blog.com/2218057/ Graphisoft spin-off Vico Software pre-announces Virtual Construction Version 2008 software suite, due to ship later this month. The software for builders and construction managers handles coordination, cost estimating, project scheduling and project control. www.vicosoftware.com Nemetschek plans to implement part of ArcelorMittal's predesign software for modeling and detailing steel structures. CAD Enhancement releases version 2 of Block Edit Plus for AutoCAD. It improves editing capability with dynamic blocks and nested dynamic blocks. Free trial from www.cadenhancement.com/products.html Spicer Corporation announces ViewCafé 4.1, which can be integrated into engineering change order management, and plant and facility management. It also updates to the latest CAD file formats. More info from info@spicer.com Kubotek USA introduces Kubotek Validation Tool
for ensuring that two versions of the same CAD model are geometrically
identical. Sycode has four add-ins for Solid Edge that import and export DWG and DXF files to overcome Solid Edge's limitation of handling 2D objects only. e195 each. www.sycode.com/products/index.htm Geometric Limited announces DFM Pro for implementing "Design For Manufacturing" in SolidWorks 2007 and 2008. dfm.geometricglobal.com Actify partners with AirZip to add extra security to its SpinFire software. www.actify.com Active Sensing ships PDXpert PLM 2008 with open PLMX (Product Lifecycle Management eXchange) file format for data export. www.ActiveSensing.com Delcam offers a direct link between its PowerMILL CAM system to CGTech's Vericut software for machine tool simulation and feed rate optimisation. www.delcam.com CADalytic Media updates SpecifiCAD beta for AutoCAD/AutoCAD Architecture and Google SketchUp. It displays building product data within the CAD environment using patent-pending technology in collaboration with McGraw-Hill Construction. Beta is available from www.cadalytic.com/index.php?dir=downloads&subdir=SpecifiCAD T-Splines now lets you license its software on one work computer and one personal computer. www.tsplines.com Autodsys releases Autodsys IntelliCAD 6.4 with support for DWG 2007 and 2008 files, and more. www.autodsys.com/ Eagle Point announces its first software for Autodesk's Civil 3D: Task Navigator for Civil 3D provides step-by-step instructions and executable links to commands to assist in the deployment of Civil 3D. www.eaglepoint.com/tnc3d. Browzwear's Fabric Testing Kit measures all parameters or fabric simulation in its V-Stitcher software, a realtime 3D engine for the fashion industry. www.browzwear.com And MecSoft Corporation releases VisualCAM 1.0 platform for hosting CAM applications, with two integrated plug-ins: VisualMILL 6.0 and VisualART 1.0. VisualCAM is the base platform for all future company products, as well as handling solid modeling, dimensioning and an SDK. www.mecsoft.com - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Hardware News Creaform offers 10% discounts on its Handyscan 3D products, as well as warranty extensions ranging from 6 months to 1 year. www.creaform3d.com Oce adds an inline folder for the its TCS500 large-format color print/copy/scan system: large format prints are automatically folded. www.oceusa.com
Seminars & Conferences 2007 Digital Manufacturing Symposium is Nov 14-15 in Dearborn MI USA. www.ugs.com/forms/symp_dig_mfg.shtml BlueCielo's European User Conference is Feb 10-12, 2008 in Cannes, France. www.bluecieloecm.com/frontiers2008
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates Alan James Wooldridge launches the "REVIT Structure Learning Curve" blog at cadalot-revitlearningcurve.blogspot.com CAD Garage celebrates its 10th anniversary this November. www.CADgarage.com provides hardware and software for designers and Mac users.
Market News SolidWorks Q3 revenues increased 20% over a year ago (in constant currencies); 11,350 new SolidWorks seats were licensed, an increase of 19%. Parent Dassault Systemes has combined SolidWorks and CosmosWorks into a new division named "Mainstream 3D." The Nemetschek Group increases its Q3 sales e24.1 million to e33.1 million euros, although much of the 37% increase is due to increased revenue following the acquisition of Graphisoft. France-based Dassault Systemes is being hit by the weak US dollar, in reporting e299.1 million Q3 revenues, up 8% from a year ago. If the dollar hadn't weakened, revenues would be up 13%. The share price fell when the company announced lowered expectations for future growth. http://www.3ds.com/corporate/investors/ AfterCAD Software closes Series A financing for $1.1 million. The company adds Rory Holland, Jeff Philipp and Gordon Walter to its board of advisors.
Brand New CAD Books/eBooks "BIG BIM little bim"
"Doctor Walt's Face Logic Strikes"
"NX 5 for Designers"
"Tailoring AutoCAD 2008"
WorthWhile Web http://www.micropersuasion.com/2007/10/the-web-20-worl.html
http://members.forbes.com/global/2007/1112/024a_print.html
Letters to the Editor Re: Media Summit in Paris "In reply to Randy Sanders' question regarding NavisWorks in issue #534, I'd like to assure him, you and all your other readers, that business continues as normal in all the NavisWorks offices while we continue the integration of NavisWorks into Autodesk. "We're busy developing the next release and continuing to
pursue the same openness and collaboration on file formats, metadata
and workflow processes -- with Autodesk and the many non-Autodesk
developers with whom we still partner. I look forward to providing
an update on our continued development and integration in the coming
months."
"The editor said, 'I'd rather pay less for gas than for
cheese.' Yes but if you buy bottled water, you are probably paying
more for it than for an equivalent amount of gas."
"Have everyone check on the amount of TAXES paid on the
fuel, take that amount off the total, THEN compare the cost of fuel
between countries. And while at it, the proud Brit should estimate
the value of the energy in that quality cheese. And I'm sure the
British McDonald's could use any cheese that they wanted on the
Big Mac. If you don't LIKE the product (be it hamburgers, fuel or
software), DON'T BUY IT."
- - -
"I have a Spin Doctor moment for you: while accompanying
a friend to Circuit City for a new desktop PC for his daughter,
I was entertained to hear the salesperson tell him, 'And another
great thing about this particular model -- none of those rebates
to mail in!'"
- - -
"Have enjoyed reading your newsletter over the years and
your travel bits."
"Keep up the good work."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "Facebook requires users to provide their real first and
last names."
Notable Quotable "That was no quake -- that was just Google flexing."
Copyright 2007 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.0 and up.
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