|
upFront.eZine |
|
|
a
publication from |
|
|
Issue #537 : : November 13, 2007 |
|
|
In this issue: - Readers React - DataCAD 12 - The CoCreate
Acquisition Out of the Inbox and the other regular columns.
|
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. |
|
|
|
|
Readers
React: "PTC has been among the ranks of the software vendors with
incompatible offerings for years. It bought Computervision's CADDS
line 9 years ago, and still sells and supports it. The whole CoCreate
acquisition seems a lot like a smaller version of the Computervision
deal. I doubt that PTC will actively push history-free modeling.
Most of the other CAD vendors are [instead] adding direct-face operations
to their tool sets, and I suspect PTC will too, eventually."
"What about Pro/Desktop and CADDS 5i?"
"Ashlar-Vellum's Cobalt and Xenon offer both history and
non-history based 3D modeling. And in a unique way, they also allow
history to be created for modeling operations that are typically
thought of as only available history-free. As well, Argon 3D modeling
software is history-free."
"I would just like to point out that Siemens PLM Software (UGS) has been taking direct modeling (non-history based) seriously for some time now. NX is capable of editing solid and surface models directly, allowing designers to move and resize topology of CAD models, whether parametric features built in NX or converted from other systems. "In fact the real benefit of direct modeling is when it is used in combination with parametric-based methods within the same system. Direct modeling has benefits when re-engineering from scanned physical models (e.g. clay models of styled products) or working from CAE optimization models (particularly with cast and forged parts). It is also very powerful when applied to the full product development process. "Parametric history-based models have advantages during the development phase of a product when major multi-component changes can still take place, and when design changes will influence many features. However, once tooling manufacture has started or the product is in the market, engineering changes are generally component-specific and localized. "The original CAD model would probably have its feature
history influenced by design intent; the edits required however
(such as moving ribs or changing tapers or wall thicknesses) will
probably not be related to the way in which the CAD model was built.
Providing the designer with the freedom of both methods is a major
advantage."
The editor notes: "By coincidence, IronCAD v10 ships today -- another 3D MCAD software package that combines history-based parametrics and direct geometry manipulation. www.ironcad.com/product/IronCADV10/IRONCAD.htm "
Just days before PTC announced it was interested in buying up all of CoCreate, marketing communications manager Todd Black spent an hour bringing me up to date on the Germany CAD company. There was no major software release to talk about; CoCreate v15.5 had come out in September with support for Vista, while Unix support is being dropped after this release. Instead he wanted to send the message that CoCreate is a unified suit of software that provides a different approach to the most popular 3D modelers. He figures that CoCreate is the world's #1 provider of dynamic modeling-based 3D CAD, "dynamic modeling" being the company's term for non-history-based modeling. "Third generation PLM," "PLM that makes sense," and "it starts with PLM" were some of the phrases expressed by him in the interview. Whether this was warm-up for joining the PTC team was not clear to me. Mr Black was also keen to show the company's redesigned Web site, the result of "18-24 months of work." I had to admit the new design made the company's offerings very clear at www.cocreate.com/products : 2D, 3D, collaboration, and PLM. At the end, Mr Black asked if I thought if his company's "alternative modeling" message of was getting through. I replied, certainly more than a couple of years ago. Of course, now everything changes, for it's been given the stamp of approval by PTC.
Four times a year I look forward to Parametric Technology's quarterly conference call with financial analysts. As a continuation of their brazen past, PTC execs produce some of the most quotable material. Like dissing UGS's TeamCenter software: "There is no 'center' in TeamCenter... It's a great story until you start installing the CDs, and then it is less great." But now it may be PTC employees doing the dissing. Three months ago, the company said it would layoff 200; in this conference call, executives admitted to laying off 31% more, 262, at a cost of $13 million in severance cost. And they promised to lay off even more during the rest of this year. [Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!] "We are continuing to reduce headcount in high-cost regions in Q1 [Oct-Dec '07], and will continue to do so throughout 2008." How many more will lose their jobs? PTC didn't say, but interpolating from indirect references, it looks like another 210, for a total of 470 -- not so far off from the 600-number that has been rumored. Here are the areas in the firm where employees are at most risk in losing their jobs:
Calling it their "globalization initiative," the company will instead increase its headcount in China.
The CoCreate Acquisition Through a third party, I heard there was much cheering at CoCreate headquarters when the sale to PTC was announced. Um, it may help to speak Chinese. CoCreate calls its non-history based modeling "dynamic modeling," but soon-to-be-new-owner PTC calls it "explicit modeling," making it sound superior to Pro/E in some ways: "Compared to [Pro/E's] parametric modeling, this approach is simpler and faster, because the user only interacts with the geometry, and is not creating or maintaining a recipe of parametric design features that produce the geometry." Heh. But there is this drawback to explicit modeling: "Reuse of designs, or the automation of designs, is more difficult [with dynamic modeling], because critical design-intent information is never captured." Naturally, PTC is looking forward to throwing its product portfolio at CoCreate's 5,000 customers: Arbortext, Windchill, Mathcad, ProductView, and more. Which lead one astute financial analyst to ask: why would a CoCreate user need Windchill? In addition to gaining the non-history modeler, PTC also gains CoCreate's OneSpace Live Web-based sharing, a product PTC says it lacks. CoCreate has annual revenues of about $80 million, but the company was not growing, according to PTC; some 75% of CoCreate's revenue came from subscriptions and services. On the bright side, PTC said it was shocked at how religious CoCreate's customers were about non-history modeling. A financial analyst asked, "[CoCreate] did the dot.net thing. They had some new modeling and collaboration technologies. Why didn't that lead to better growth?" He suggested that PTC overpaid for CoCreate. PTC responded that CoCreate's primary problem is that the company was "too small to compete against the giants in the industry." PTC said that CoCreate lacked PLM, which was felt to be an obstacle to sales. The large companies that PTC targets don't want stand-alone CAD. Although PTC has $263 million in the bank, it chose to withdraw just $50 million towards the $250-million purchase price of CoCreate; PTC is borrowing the remainder.
Summing Up PTC's Q4 revenue was $267 million; FY07 revenue was $942 million. The company hopes to join the CAD world's Billion-Dollar Club next year, and then by 2010 reach $1.5 billion -- excluding the contribution of future acquisitions. Pro/E Wildfire v4 is due to be released by year's end.
CADMAI is a relational 2D and 3D CAD system that can be integrated into third-party applications or in a SOA [service-oriented architecture] environment. Version 3 is now available from www.cadmai.com/html/home_en.html INUS Technology release the 64-bit versions of its XOS/Scan and XOR/Redesign software, which can process nearly unlimited numbers of 3D point clouds on Windows x64 operating systems. www.rapidform.com Think3's Component Business is promoting the use of its ThinkCore in OEM products. www.think3.com/en/company/release_detail.aspx?id=1076 Softcover releases Scan2CAD v7.6 raster-to-vector converter with Vista compatibility, improved automatic color reductio, and read/write/convert of raster PDF files. Seven day trial from www.softcover.com AVEVA's forthcoming PDMS [Plant Design Management
System] 12 supports the .NET user interface with interactive
3D graphical editing functions for initial design and intelligent
modifications. www.aveva.com/pdms
Autodsys releases ArchT 2008 for AcceliCAD and IntelliCAD v6.2+. The AcceliCAD version includes features previously only available in the AutoCAD version, including sections, elevations, 2D projections, and automatic assignment of rendering materials. www.autodsys.com/ Lattice Technology has an XVL Plug-In for Acrobat 3D 8. It does bi-directional conversion between PDF and Lattice's XVL format. www.lattice3d.com SpaceClaim sends out SpaceClaim Professional 2007+ with sheet metal parts, lightweight assemblies, 3D modifications via 2D sections, driving dimensions, and integration with Adobe, Ansys, and Rhinoceros. www.spaceclaim.com OFCDesk ships ProjectControl, a CAD plug-in that reveals managerial information about CAD jobs: tracking CAD usage; sensitive to application switching; works in AutoCAD, Revit, OFCDesk IDC, Excel, and Word, with future support for 3Dstudio and Photoshop. www.ofcdesk.com SAMTECH launches release 12.1 of its Finite Element software suite with advances in linear and non-linear mechanical modeling, thermal analysis, parallel computing and results post-processing. It runs on Linux, Unix, and Windows 64-bit platforms. www.samcef.com CAD Fusion's plug-ins integrate PHX ModelCenter with Dassault CATIA, PTC Pro/E, and UGS NX. It automatically imports geometry so that 3D geometry can be optimized in ModelCenter, and then exported. www.phoenix-int.com/products/cad_fusion.php ShareCAD for AutoCAD is PHASE 2 International's centralized SharePoint platform for contractors and manufacturers to share project data securely over the Internet. US$79/month/user or less. www.phase2int.com OPTIS' NOESIS is software for CATIA V5 that automatically optimizes visual aspects of products, including lighting and optical effects. www.optis-world.com - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Seminars & Conferences NAFEMS 2008 UK Conference (International Association for the Engineering Analysis Community) is in Cheltenham England on June 10-11 2008. www.nafems.org/events/nafems/2008/UK/
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates myCADsite.com updates its free 48 tutorials to AutoCAD 2008. Subjects range from the basics to advanced 3D concepts. wwwmyCADsite.com
People/Companies on the Move Parametric Technology acquires Logistics Business Systems of England. PTC plans to offer LBS' solutions standalone or with the PTC Product Development System (PDS) and plans to maintain interoperability and integration with various CAD and PLM solutions. www.lbs-ltd.com/ Dassault Systemes says its SmarTeam PLM division has its 5,000th customer. CoCreate's OneSpace Modeling Personal Edition has been downloaded 50,000 times. To get another 50,000 downloads, CoCreate is offering "a prize to the person who refers the most people." Dunno what the prize is, tho'. www.cocreate.de/cocreatenews/8_07/PE_Insider_50K.htm
Letters to the Editor Re: FirstTrace Ships Kinnosa EDM 4.0 "I thought it might interest you that Kinnosa is the latest version of Motiva, a EDMS company and product of the same name that closed its doors rather abruptly in 2000 [see upFront.eZine #225; Motiva was renamed from WorkCenter after Autodesk unloaded its EDMS software]. The business that bought the Motiva code has gone through several evolutions: "Empresa Solutions <www.empresasolutions.com> bought and renamed Motiva to eChange in 2002 (I think) and maintained it. FirstTrace.com was created to code and support Kinnosa (which is a complete rewrite, and originally named after a PDM system used by Motorola, I believe) and eChange. "I don't quite understand the differences between the companies, and I think there was another predecessor to Empresa Solutions but can't recall the name. It's all been a bit confusing as far as just who it is we're doing business with, but they've been pretty good at stamping out bugs in the original Motiva code and improving the product. "eChange has limitations, since it requires FileNet's Panagon
IDMS system, which runs on MS SQL 7 and Windows Server 2000, which
drives our IT division batty. Kinnosa runs on Windows Server 2003
and any SQL server (so they tell me). I'm glad to see they're getting
their name out, at least!" The editor replies: "The naming history of WorkCenter reminds me of a National Lampoon skit about a rock band under constant personnel and name changes." - - - Re: All Cheese, All the Time "Good to see dialogue raised by my comments on cheese. I agree: bottled water is daylight robbery wherever you go in the world. Try drinking water from a bubbling brook in the Lake District in the mountains in the UK. The taste difference is amazing. Plus, the plastic bottles leach chemicals in to the bottled water, so give me real mountain water anytime! "Secondly, the taxes in the UK just seem to get higher and higher, especially on fuel, but us Brits just don't see any new initiatives from the government here to utilise that money to encourage us to use public transport. Hence the cynicism. "In the scheme of things, Autodesk is just using the good exchange rate right now to build profits. Who wouldn't? "As for Big Macs, never really liked them, but would always
have a quarter-pounder (with cheese -- LOL)!"
"Regarding Brian Jones, 'If you don't LIKE the product (be
it hamburgers, fuel or software), DON'T BUY IT.' How can I not buy
petrol for the car?"
Spin Doctor of the Moment "There is no opting out of advertising."
Notable Quotable "Hopeware."
Copyright 2007 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide Article reprint fee US$250.0 and up.
All
trademarks belong to their respective holders.
"upFront.eZine," "Talking About CAD," and
"the business of CADg" are trademarks of
upFront.eZinePublishing, Ltd. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|