|
upFront.eZine |
|
|
a
publication from |
|
|
Issue #546 : : February 12, 2008 |
|
|
In this issue: 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. |
|
|
|
|
VX is a company from whom I receive press releases; one day I realized I knew little about the company, and so I spent an hour with Bob Fischer, he the vp of product management and business development. VX is MCAD, but with an emphasis on CAM. Or, more accurately, a single user interface for handling all operations, starting at conceptual design, and ending up with a machined mould:
The primary customer is the mould designer who needs to handle (1) conceptual design, (2) mould and die design; and (3) rapid prototyping. Mr Fischer showed how he could create part of a plastic casing in VX, import an IGES file of another casing, and then make the imported case fit the new one. The modeler uses its own proprietary kernel that features instant undo/redo and the ability to handle multi-gigabyte models. The history-free modeler is like a Pro/E or a UGS, but at a fraction the price. The basic package starts at $995 for the modeler and mechanical CAD, and maxes out at $10,000 for the complete kit -- about 2-3x cheaper than competitors. Maintenance costs are similarly cheaper. "What about the likes of SolidWorks and Inventor?" Too troublesome for customers, replied Mr Fischer. They buy SolidWorks and then learn the user interface. Then they add MasterCAM, and have to learn another user interface. Then one software package gets upgraded, but not the other. There's two different sets of support. In contrast, VX puts it all together in a single package.
About VX The company began in 1985 as Control Automation with its ModelMATE solid modeling software. Nearly a decade later, the company released the first hybrid CAD system for desktop computers. It worked equally well with solids, surfaces, and wireframes. You may recall that this company and its software used to be named Varimetrix, a name based on the CAD program doing variational parametric design. But the name was too hard to pronounce, and a few years ago was shortened to VX -- for the software and the company. The company is privately owned by employees and Shin Nippon Koki, the Japanese machining systems supplier. All programming is done in North America. VX tried employing overseas programmers, but found that the creativity was missing, the kind commonly found around the NASA space centers in Florida. Mr Fischer would not tell me the number of customers, but market share is split 40% Europe, 40% Asia, and 20% Americas.
The fundrace.huffingtonpost.com site lets us see how much money employees of CAD vendors are contributing to American political parties during these months leading up to the regularly-scheduled election in November. Last week, it appeared that they tended to favor Republicans over Democrats 2:1. Some 66% of donations went to Republicans; this is the reverse from other tech companies, like Google (78% to Democrats) and Microsoft (70% to Democrats). Autodesk employees:
SolidWorks employees:
PTC employees:
Siemens employees (not necessarily of UGS):
Thank you for the many notes of condolence sent by readers of upFront.eZine -- over 160! From the notes I received, it seems that a number of moms and dads passed away in January. Some readers asked about donations, and we have selected the following: Canadian Cancer Society -- BC and Yukon Division My dad writes: "After church, I started to read the condolences sent by readers of your newsletter, but halfway through I had to stop. It was too overwhelming to see the closeness of your readers and the outpouring of their sympathies and sharing. What a family! And one always thought computers estrange people from each other. "When I was doing the [manual] design/drafting in
the 'good old days', each man was an island in front of his
drafting board; his tools an assorted set of sharpened pencils and
a slide rule. It is such a revelation for me to see the closeness
in a process that primarily highlights technical advances, but does
spill over into the lives of families, their triumphs, and their
losses, and their prayers. A heartfelt 'Thank You' to all."
Siemens PLM Software says their D-Cubed 2D Dimensional Constraint Manager is being used by OptiTex for home-based fashion designers using Bernina sewing machines. My Label automatically creates many different sizes from parametrically-defined garment patterns. www.optitex.com Newforma says its now has 13,000 users of its Newforma Project Center software, managing 24,000 projects. www.newforma.com/trackdiscover JETCAM International announces V16 of its Expert CADCAM and nesting software for CNC punching and profiling machines. Slogan is, "Twice the power of V8." www.jetcam.com Elmo Solutions' Agni Link provides real-time bidirectional data integration between Microsoft Dynamics SL and AutoCAD, SolidWorks or Inventor. www.elmosolutions.com VRcontext releases Walkinside v5 virtual reality software with faster navigation of complex designs using .net for remote collaboration through the Internet -- even from low-end workstations. The software provides gravity, collisions, and relative dimensions. www.vrcontext.com AVEVA announces new versions of AVEVA PDMS 12, AVEVA VPRM (materials management and cost procurement), AVEVA Review (3D visualisation), and ReviewShare, the new 3D engineering model reviewer. aveva.com DotSoft's MapWorks Suite 2 combines legal description and import tools with new points, tools, and library modules. The software now detects the platform automatically. www.dotsoft.com/mapworks.htm Aras is pretty pleased that its Innovator suite of SOA for PLM is "one of the first ten systems worldwide" certified for Windows Server 200 -- and the first one that's open source. [Open source? Wouldn't that automatically disqualify them from working with Microsoft?] www.aras.com TeamViewer's updated desktop-sharing software features a new VPN [Virtual Private Network] connection and remote reboots. www.teamviewer.com COADE releases CodeCalc 2008 for pressure vessel and heat exchanger component design and stress analysis. www.coade.com Colortrac releases CopySmart v1.3H2 scan-to-copy software for duplicating color technical drawings and maps. www.colortrac.com/software_products/copysmart.htm Discounts from Bentley! Save 14% on all AutoPlant bundles between Feb 7 and 14. Mention offer # 14Percent. www.bentley.com IMSI/design is selling 30 million 2D drawings and 3D models for $70. CAD Symbols CD v3 has native formats for AutoCAD, Inventor, CATIA, Pro/E, and more. www.turbocad.com/TurboCAD/Symbols/tabid/557/Default.aspx - - - These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Hardware News Matrox Graphics has a new software utility for its Graphics eXpansion Modules running on Mac OS X, which lets it run at additional resolutions: up to 1920x1200 per display in dual-display mode and 1280x1024 per display in triple-display mode. www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/support/drivers/home.php Stratasys introduces a new additive fabrication system for direct manufacturing: the FDM 360mc is cheaper, slower, but as accurate as more expensive machines. www.stratasys.com/systems.aspx?id=2310&utm_source=PR&utm_medium=PR&utm_term=FDM360mc&utm_campaign=FDM360mcLaunch Oce introduces the TCS4XT large-format color scanner that handles thick originals up to 0.6". http://www.oceusa.com
Seminars & Conferences Autodesk World Press Days 2008 is this week in San Francisco. I'll be attending. SmartGeometry 2008 is sponsored by Bentley in Munich Germany, Feb 27 to Mar 5. www.SmartGeometry2008.com EOS International User Meeting is Apr 14-16 in Bad Goegging, Germany. www.eos.info/ium 5th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications is in Orlando FL USA, from Jun 29 to Jul 2. www.infocybereng.org/citsa2008 24th Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference is Jul 21-25 in Charlotte-Concord NC USA. www.cmsc.org
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates Headline in CoCreate customer newsletter: "CoCreate technology finds a safe haven in PTC; Two old rivals celebrate their differences." [Safe haven, yes, but I never thought of the two as rivals.] www.cocreate.com/ccnews/1_08/CCN_CC_at_Analyst_Day.html
People/Companies on the Move Okino Computer Graphics celebrate 20 years of software development, founded in January 28 1988 by Robert Lansdale. The company's pioneered the concept of universal conversion between of all major CAD, DCC [digital content creation] and VisSim file formats. www.okino.com Adobe Systems appoints Kevin Lynch as chief technology officer. Mr Lynch is the company's former chief software architect. Microdesk promotes Darren End to chief financial officer. Intel Corporation elects Autodesk executive chairman of the board Carol Bartz to Intel's board of directors. Sescoi wishes to expand its worldwide reseller coverage for its CAM/CAD software WorkNC and its job management system MyWorkPLAN. www.sescoi.com/uk/distribution/enroll/ Autodesk's chief accouting officer, Andrew Miller, resigns effective April to become cfo at Cepheid. Autodesk's cfo, Alfred Castino takes over the company's cao duties. Marketing coordinator David Pulgar leaves IronCAD as of Friday. The company's marketing director, Cary O’Connor, takes over his duties.
Market News Bentley Systems acquires ECT International. The company's CAD software is used for electrical control systems. Bentley also acquires Promisoe's line electrical system design software. Creaform acquires ActiCM, a manufacturer of 3D measurement systems. Planit is selling its Fusion retail business to 20-20 Technologies for US$38 million so that Plaint can focus on its CAD/CAM software: Alphacam, Cabinet Vision, Cabnetware, Edgecam, Jobshop and Radan. The IGE+XAO Group sells its 11% share of Anyware Technologies to Wavecom, following Anyware's acquisition by Wavecom.
WorthWhile Web http://public.blueorigin.com/job_EA_software.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_on_hi_te/missing_camera_quest_7
http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/philfactor/archive/2008/01/27/43174.aspx
Letters to the Editor "One note about the CoCreate/PTC deal: [PTC ceo] Richard
Harrison mentioned in the press roundtable at PTC World Germany
the opportunities of selling Windchill/Arbortext/Mathcad/ITEDO etc.
to the CoCreate customerbase. I think that's well worth in itself.
Plus the 40% revenue rate of CoCreate."
"I think you misunderstood the term 'open' [as used by Bentley].
In this sense, open refers to the ability to share data with other
applications. It's not tied down in a proprietary database
or format. They are also probably playing off of the word open as
it pertains to the ISO 15926 database. I believe if you look at
Intergraph's products you will find them to be 'open' too."
"Do you have any insight as to the affect (if any) this
announcement from Dassault might have on the SolidWorks PDM offerings
which currently include PDMWorks and PDMWorks Enterprise (the former
Conisio)? The editor reponds: "Mr Chaney refers to Dassault's announcement that MatrixOne will be their only PLM software for the v6 series of Dassault software. Here is the response from SolidWorks:" "SolidWorks offers a range of data management solutions
for 2008 and plans to continue improving and expanding our offerings
to provide the best integrated, easy-to-learn and use PDM solutions
for our customers. Today these solutions include SolidWorks Explorer,
PDMWorks Workgroup and PDMWorks Enterprise. The current and future
SolidWorks PDM offerings can stand alone or for larger companies,
can be used in conjunction with both Product Lifecycle Management
(PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions on the market,
including Dassault PLM solutions from Enovia."
"Your column exposes me to a much wider, non Autodesk world,
which I otherwise would not even know was out there. Thanks, and
keep the eZine coming."
Spin Doctor of the Moment "Microsoft is excited to deliver a feature complete CTP
during the Heroes Happen Here launch wave and a release candidate
(RC) in Q2 calendar year 2008, with final Release to manufacturing
(RTM) of SQL Server 2008 expected in Q3. Our goal is to deliver
the highest quality product possible and we simply want to use the
time to meet the high bar that you, our customers, expect."
Notable Quotable "There's nothing quite like hearing a group of network talk-show
hosts heaping praise on a piece of technology they barely understand
to jumpstart your day."
Copyright 2008 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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|