And it was tedious work. Each car's wireframe took 80-100 hours to complete:

"...the on-screen image remained far from perfect and manual 'modeling' was necessary. ...some areas of detail, such as wheels, headlights, door handles, and the Toyota emblem, could not be accurately measured using current technology; those features had to be added at the second 'sculpting' stage. Approximately 90% of the data points ...were... manually expended at the second step."

Then another aspect of the job puzzled me, the low-grade end-result:

"The... product of these processes... were 2D wire-frame depictions of Toyota's vehicles that appeared three-dimensional on screen, but were utterly unadorned -- lacking color, shading, and other details."

Meshwerks spent 90 man-hours per car creating wireframes. Manually. In 2D. In 2004.

Was Toyota unable to deliver 3D wireframes from its TOGO in-house CAD system four years ago? Or were there hoodwinking going on? According to Hiroshi Toiya's '3D Manufacturing Innovation' book, Toyota was outputting surface models to Lattice's XVL format prior to 2006.

But then a dispute arose over who owned the wireframes when a second ad agency made use of the wireframes. Meshworks felt their contract was for one-time use only. In court, the judge decided that the wireframes were such accurate copies of Toyota's cars that they contained no original content, and thus Meshworks could not claim copyright on them.

- - -

In the aftermath of the judge's decision last week, the Web's chitter-chatter was under the mistaken belief that wireframes cannot be copy written. Not at all; Toyota owns the copyright on the wireframes, because they are such exact copies of the automobiles whose design they own.

Does this become a problem for companies who sell wireframes and meshes of recognizable product? The owner of the product now has reason to halt sales or demand royalties.

In a similar sounding event earlier this year, Ford claimed ownership of any photograph that happened to include a Ford automobile. I wonder if there is a relationship between the two events, for it sounds as if corporations are becoming restrictive over casual and for-profit reproductions of their products.

Links:

www.sltrib.com/business/ci_9630368
ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/06/06-4222.pdf
www.meshwerks.com/

Open Source CAD:
More Readers Respond

[Readers continue to respond to Graham Hemingway's Wildcat open source CAD project at wildcat-cad.blogspot.com .]

- - -

"[Open Source CAD] has nothing to do with having a perfect CAD tool or whatever. All CAD products have matured to a respectable level today. What we (consumers) need, REALLY, REALLY need, is something like AutoCAD LT but with built-in features for AutoLISP, VBA (or VSA), and network licensing for under $1000. You know, like it almost used to have.

"Autodesk has heard this for almost a decade now and ignored it in favor of pumped up revenue. Shareholders speak louder than customers. I'm not trying to pick on Autodesk. All software vendors are guilty of proprietary lock-in efforts and revenue optimization.

"The problem is that within every software market segment these efforts spin horribly out of control when competition is lacking. I don't want ANY vendor to 'win'; I want real competition to exist and flourish. It makes for better features (rather than self-induced, annual updates) and cheaper prices.  

"Being a consumer, this is what benefits me.  If Wildcat can make it, which is a long shot by anyone's view, it can't hurt anyone but those who fear competition. Consumers will vote with their budgets."
        - David Stein

- - -

"For reader FC Upland who commented, 'Limping along in parallel with open source CAD development is a sorely needed open GIS software. Any thoughts?' check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GIS_software  .
        - Joe Tilman

- - -

"I found the commentary about the new Wildcat entry into the Open Source foray rather interesting, thanks for sharing them. A few comments from readers stuck with me:

        "'Does anyone really think open source CAD is going to change
        the fundamental problem? I think it will only exacerbate the issue
        of everyone trying to tweak features and functions, and forgetting
        that being on the same page with everyone else you work with is
        the real battle.'

"I absolutely believe open source CAD is going to help improve the fundamental problem. Not only will it eventually challenge the industry price tags, but it'll also eliminate the stagnant repose the industry has on the tools and techniques that are put to use.  Open source software development brings a completely different social dynamic that intrinsically requires better communication and collaboration.

"Ever since BRL-CAD was released as open source, our activity and community participation has been steadily accelerating.  It's afforded the opportunity to address issues like user interface and usability that were previously not fundable priorities, put us way ahead of the development curve for developing CAD tools that are more universally useful, and allows us to participate in great events like the Google Summer of Code.

        "'I really wish Graham Hemingway the best of luck and good fortune.
        The retail vendors have drowned in their own Kool Aid and let the
        prices go insane.'

"Ditto. It would be even better if Graham would collaborate with the BRL-CAD project since his goals are nearly identical, but I respect his desire to do his own thing and wish him the best of luck if that's the path he chooses to take.

        "'Limping along in parallel with open source CAD development
        is a sorely needed open GIS software. Any thoughts?'

"GRASS is a healthy project making lots of good steady progress. grass.itc.it/

"From a user's perspective, open source software development is often viewed as making slow progress.  The truth of the matter is that it is often much slower than commercial development rates.  One of the best aspects of open source that most users aren't used to, though, is that they can directly make things better.  Even if they don't know how to code, just about anyone can contribute positively in many ways.  The user is empowered.  To complain about the rate of development or available features without getting involved is selfish and useless perspective. If you want things to change, get involved.
        - Christopher Sean Morrison
        brlcad.org

Out of the Inbox

The AIA reports that architectural billings continue to decline in the USA, calling it a "dramatic contraction in design activity," with the worst of the decline in the west. The architectural advocacy group notes that architectural billings precede construction activity by 9-12 months. www.aia.org/release_061808_abi

Cambashi notes that engineering software grew 11% in Czechia [Czechia?], Hungary, Poland and Slovakia -- of which Poland has the biggest share. www.cambashi.com

MFG.com finds that 47% of buyers are sourcing more business from the USA as a result of the declining US dollar. [No kidding. Hence the worry of inflation in the USA.] 500 purchasing professionals, engineers, and operations managers responded to the survey on the MFG.com Web site. www.MFG.com

- - -

TransMagic R7 SP2 introduces parallel processing on dual- and quad-core CPUs for CAD translation software. No-charge trial at www.transmagic.com

Bunkspeed's HyperShot rendering software is now a plug-in for Rhinoceros -- currently a no-charge beta. HyperShot's continual rendering process provides near-instant high-fidelity previews of the final images. www.bunkspeed.com/hypershot/rhino

Asuni CAD of Spain releases VisualARQ, which adapts Rhino for architects. www.visualarq.com/default.htm

Lattice Technology is nearly ready to ship its XVL Converter Plug-in for Inventor 2009 -- it'll be ready June 30. labs.autodesk.com/utilities/xvltranslator/  

DWG TOOL of China (formerly FreeFire Studio) releases Acme CAD Converter v7.9 for batch conversion of DWG, DXF, and DWF to raster and vector formats. www.dwgtool.com/cadconvert.htm

1Spatial's new MapRelate (BP99.00) positions CAD designs in-context on maps. 30-day no-charge trial from www.1spatial.com/products/maprelate/index.php

PARTsolutions unveils the Pacific Bearing Online Product Catalog and Configurator. www.partsolutions.com

Bentley Systems releases Bentley Water V8 XM Edition. [Notice that is it called "Bentley" and not "MicroStation."] www.bentley.com

CADsoft gets seminars for its Envisioneer software approved by construction organizations NARI [National Association of the Remodeling Industry] and AIBD [The American Institute of Building Design].www.cadsoft.com/support_training.php

And Swedish-funded Animech Technologies announces aniDim3nsion v1.5 for visualizing product configurations. www.animechtechnologies.com/products/anidim3nsion

- - -

These news items were posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:

• Introducing Synchronous Technology in Your Organization
• Sniping Continues Between Autodesk and ODA
• Engineous Software Worth $40M to DS
• Autodesk's Second Customer Briefing Center
• PR Sez
• Believe Us, We're Doing Great
• Secret, Like Microsoft

Hardware News

VRcontext and Intel demo an advanced parallel ray tracer that renders 3D models with raytracing in real-time. Using a multi-core CPU from Intel, VRcontext was able to generate one hundred million polygons at 80 frames per second. The company figures this capability will run on Palm PCs within a couple of years. www.vrcontext.com

NVIDIA makes its Gelato Pro v2.2 GPU-accelerated rendering software available as a no-cost download from www.nvidia.com/gelatozone

People/Companies on the Move

Creaform opens its Creaform Japan office, and opens its European Calibration Center in France. www.creaform3d.com

Dassault Systemes buys Engineous Software $40 million, making it part of its Simulia division.

Bentley Systems acquires Common Point for an undisclosed sum.

VUEWorks hires Alex Von Svoboda as vp of sales and marketing. Mr Svoboda is the former Channel Director at Autodesk.

Delcam appoints Steve Creron as General Manager of its UK business.  

John Callen is no longer with Gibbs and Associates.

New Books/eBooks

"ModelMetricks"
by Bonnie Roskes
Eleven books with design projects for kids aged 8-15 using Google SketchUp.
www.f1forkids.com

"What's Inside? AutoCAD 2009 - 4th Edition"
by Ralph Grabowski
Published by upFront.eZine Publishing
Now 100 pages, still in full color; PDF $13.20
www.upfrontezine.com/wia9

Letters to the Editor

"Btw, thought you would like this (if you haven't seen it already):

"'To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.'"
        - John Brunt

- - -

"I take issue with your response to Dave Ault, relating to your numbers of CAD openings based on the different software titles. This is a small pet-peeve of mine for quite some time, dating to the days when Autodesk touted a huge jump in the seat counts for Inventor software, which was based on the giving away, for free, 100,000 seats of Inventor to Mechanical Desktop users. (I have no affiliations or agenda related to SolidWorks or Inventor. At my company, we use Solid Designer by CoCreate.)

 "I have tracked the openings for both Inventor and SolidWorks via Monster.com since 2004, with the following results:

 June 2004
        Inventor        99
        SolidWorks      585

April 2005
        Inventor        138
        SolidWorks      550

March 2006
        Inventor        252
        SolidWorks      769

February 2007
        Inventor        286
        SolidWorks      1,026

June 2008
        Inventor        331
        SolidWorks      1,372

 "(Used both search terms 'Solidworks' and 'Solid Works.') I realize you were not using Monster.com, nor do I know the general geographical area being searched, but with the above results I would have to question CADtalent.com methodology for choosing the most popular software titles."
        - Bill Coleman
        Manitou North America

The editor replies: "I search for the three CAD names for the state of Alabama."

Mr Coleman responds: "Very interesting. I do now see the exact figures you used, though Monster.com returned 3 available positions in Alabama for Inventor and 9 for SolidWorks. After some research, I see that a large number of CADtalent.com's hits were based on Craigslist ads. After reviewing a large number of the ads attributed to Inventor, I could not see any reference to that software title (see attached ads attributed to Inventor software). There appears to be a major flaw in CADtalent's search logic. I would have hard time using them as an indicator of seat numbers."

- - -

"Software can be paid-for, downloaded, and activated over the Internet from the OEM/mother corp. There's no inventory to be stocked, no bulky instruction manuals to be transported, no showroom where products can be test-driven and compared against the competition using actual, real-world end-users' needs.

"When was the last time an authorized reseller's help arrived without a price tag, and was not just a relay to the actual software company's help desk?

"With the general engineering/architectural world's computer skills and savvy increasing, the Authorized Reseller concept is becoming obsolete, in my opinion. The new blood doesn't need hand-holding for the typical questions.

"I am unsure exactly what function most Authorized Resellers perform these days, other than acting as gatekeepers, schmoozers, and record-keepers -- and local market intelligence-gathering, of course. Just my (perhaps cynical) opinion, possibly I've overlooked something obvious."
        -  Paul Bowers
        PipingDesign.com

Notable Quotable

"Companies don't usually want to tell you anything about their products. Look at a Sony or a Canon camcorder ad. Can you tell them apart?"
        - Robert Scoble
        scobleizer.com/2008/03/20/mike-arringtons-dream-team-has-wrong-goal/

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