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Issue #575 : : October 7 , 2008 |
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In this issue: Interview: SpaceClaim's New CEO
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Interview: SpaceClaim's New CEO Shortly after taking over the running of SpaceClaim, new CEO Chris Randles spoke with upFront.eZine. The paraphrased interview:
Q: Why take on this job? A: I worked at Borealis Ventures, which had invested in SpaceClaim, and so I was familiar with the company. I've spent 26 years in software and technology, much of it with engineering or manufacturing software. Most recently, I was at MathSoft. [Randles led the management buyout of MathSoft, and then was its chairman, president, and ceo until the company was acquired by PTC.] This is a market ripe for innovation. But there has been a lot of misinformation from established vendors who are allergic to the new entry. UGS was working on its synchronous technology and then pushed it harder because of the interest generated by SpaceClaim. Similarly for PTC/CoCreate and others, but I am skeptical that parametric and free-form can exist in a single model. SpaceClaim the company is making good progress. Like any new company, it has taken many paths through the forest. We have good investors who understand the rate at which new CAD software grows. Specifically, North Bridge Venture Partners was a founder investor in SolidWorks.
Q: Do you plan to take SpaceClaim in new directions? A: I haven't come as a tech visionary to redefine the marketspace. My background is in product management, and so I plan to communicate better the benefits of the product. We need to focus on the customers who benefit the most from SpaceClaim. Customers typically go through three phases with new products: I. Investigate Our customers are currently between phases II and III. Our innovation has created a stir. We're appealing because we're priced low and have a low total cost of ownership.
Q: You have been linking your software with other packages, such as Rhino. A: Because we work with geometry from other 3D CAD packages, SpaceClaim is strong in several markets: analysis and FEA [finite element analysis], such as ANSYS and Algor; and engineering-driven conceptual design -- different from the 'styling' world of Rhino, and more akin to industrial design. So we think of it us being between three segments right now: Styling/surface modeling software History-based parametric 3D CAD is not growing very fast, and yet penetration of the overall engineering market is still quite low. The reason is that it is too costly, too difficult to learn, and not tuned to the needs of a wide range of users. There is still a big demand for 2D CAD; AutoCAD LT is the fastest growing product! Despite that, parametric CAD is really over-deployed: many licenses are in the hands of users who do not need all the power. Companies have the packages because they need access to the 3D design data, and getting that data from A to B is hard! We believe we address both points: easy to learn, lower cost, good at manipulation and editing of existing models. Inside Everest 2009 Product manager Vinay Gandhi spent some time explaining to me how Altima Software's Everest 2009 data management is different from all others on the market: it does not use proprietary server software storage, as do Sharepoint from Microsoft and Vault from Autodesk. "The vast amount of documents are already created and organized in Windows folders; migration to a proprietary software storage is a major constraint," he noted. Drawings stay on network shares. Instead, Everest extends the Windows operating system by adding a data management layer, giving Windows features useful to CAD departments. There is no check-in, check-out, commit, or update. Another example: Windows can search for file names and content on local computers, but does not search content on networked computers; Everest overcomes that limitation. Everest 2009 integrates into AutoCAD and verticals (Map, Architecture, Civil 3D, and so on). It handles the following file types:
Inside AutoCAD, there are two side panels. One lets you conduct searches; the other shows the result. You can search for drawings, content (objects), and properties of objects. The search takes a second or two, and then the drawings are listed. When you open a returned drawing, it opens in AutoCAD and zooms to the selected objects. Revisions are stored in plain ZIP files, so that you can access them at any time. Everest compares the content of changed drawings. In AutoCAD, the additions, deletions, and changes are shown in colors; for other documents, an external viewer shows the differences. Everest reports on the changes, showing the old and new values. The report is linked to objects, so that you can navigate to them. Mr Gandhi sees his software as suitable for SMBs [small and medium size businesses] who do AEC and mechanical design. He plans to support MicroStation next year. The pricing is simple: $300 for desktop searches only. Esperient Corporation adds Smart Objects and Intelligent Materials to its Esperient Creator, software for 3D content:
Esperient Creator Community Edition is free, while Esperient Creator 3 is $500. Downloaded from www.esperient.com
Meggabyte Software uses RFID [radio frequency identification] tags for "intelligent environments" -- attach RFID tags to objects in the environment that don't move. "Imagine being a facilities manager and being able to swipe an office on demand and get the floor plans, furniture inventory and maintenance records for that room." The company just received a US patent on the concept. www.meggabyte.com - - - "A journey of a thousand lines of code begins with a single line, which is exactly what happened 18 months ago when the development of the Orca3D marine design software began," reports DRS Technologies. Orca3D is now shipping as a Rhino plug-in for naval architects. 15-day demo from www.orca3d.com Also for Rhino, MecSoft announceds RhinoCAM 2.0 with full data associativity with Rhinoceros 4.0. Download demo from www.rhinocam.com LMS releases Imagine.Lab AMESim Rev 8A with support for the open-source Modelica programming language, an object-oriented, multi-domain language for component-oriented modeling of complex systems, such as mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, thermal, control and electric power subcomponents. www.lmsintl.com JETCAM International's JETCAM Orders Controller Lite remotely orders 2D sheetmetal parts and assemblies into JETCAM Expert CADCAM SYSTEM systems for nesting. www.jetcam.com/joc.htm SiteComp ships v7 of its Survey, Mapping and Land Development software. Some new features include turn annotations into editable text; create lines by specifying point numbers; insert annotation by parcel; and insert crow's feet. www.sitecomp.net Spatial unveils its Thread-Safe ACIS Modeler, which uses concurrent threads of execution within ACIS with near-linear performance scaling on multi-core systems. www.spatial.com Buy progeCAD 2008 now and get the upgrade to progeCAD 2009 free, when it gets released. Also available: ProgeARCH for architecture, progeEARTH for survey design, and progeCAD Viewer DWG fors viewing, marking up, and printing of DWG files. www.icadsales.com Safe Software's FME has full read and write of AutoCAD Map 3D object data. www.safe.com/Map3DObjectData Bentley Systems licenses Nexus from Luxology "to build targeted 2D and 3D applications for the PC and Mac, or to add new 3D capabilities to existing software." Does Nexus exist? Perhaps not. Go to www.luxology.com/ and all you read about is Modo. (Nexus is also used by SolidWorks in its PhotoView 360 software.) Synergis Software releases Adept 8 document management and workflow software. Features include full text searching, bill of material automation, advanced workflow capabilities, and support for MicroStation V8. www.SynergisSoftware.com/features Autodesk ships a 64-bit version of Revit. www.revit.com And Marcel de Klein writes, "I have a short press announcement for your newsletter." He sure does: - - - "Thanks for marking us in your inbox news #574! As recognition, we are granting all your subscribers with ONE FREE license registration of QuoteCAD v2 and QuoteCAD DB Manager v2 until the 10th of October 2008. They need to create an account at www.quotecad.com and request a license registration to info@quotecad.com " - - - These news items were posted during the last month at the WorldCAD Access blog < worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
Seminars & Conferences 4th Annual IntelliCAD World Meeting is October 29-31 in Athens, Greece. (I'll be attending this event.) www.intellicad.org/WorldMeeting2008 3D Collaboration & Interoperability Conference 2009 is May 17-20 in Estes Park CO USA. http://www.3dinterop.com
Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates Cadalyst magazine's executive editor Kenneth Wong now has a blog at www.cadalyst.com/kw . He comments on the CAD industry. Arben Allaraj launches his CAD - DRAFTING - CORNER blog at cad-drafting-corner.blogspot.com/ . He writes 3D AutoCAD tutorials.
People/Companies on the Move BlueCielo ECM Solutions names Peter de Bode its new cfo. Mr De Bode is the former director of finance at ION Geophysical. Delcam appoints John Sare as business development manager for FeatureCAM and PartMaker in Europe. Mr. Sare is the former EAME distribution manager at Gibbs and Associates. Colortrac appoints Matthew Harris as director of operations, Mr Harris is the former head of Winning Solutions Limited. Dowco Group acquires FabTrol Systems, a maker of steel fabrication management software. Vero Software (aka Camtek Limited) moves to Hadley House, Bayshill Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK. WorthWhile Web http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/09/thinkism.php
http://www.healthbolt.net/2007/02/14/26-reasons-what-you-think-is-right-is-wrong/
Letters to the Editor Re: SolidWorks 2009 Press Event "Can you see the SolidWork resellers rebelling against the $12k price tag [of 3dvia Composer], and getting Dassault Systemes to lower it? "As for Cosmic Blobs, one of MY daughters somehow figured it out and loves it." The editor replies: "I expect SolidWorks would release an 'Express' edition that does almost as much for $1000, or else bundled in. SolidWorks users are not Catia users!" Mr Edwards reponds: "Quadrispace is much cheaper than 3D publishing rival 3Dvia Composer, partly because it has very limited translation capabilities. As far as I can determine, Quadrispace can't even import IGES and STEP files! [QuadriSpace supports Pro/ENGINEER, IGES and STEP through a $395 add-on module; all their products, including the free Personal Edition, directly import 3D from files SolidWorks, Inventor, and others. -- Ed. ] Also, the relatively inexpensive (US$700), Acrobat Pro Extended has way more file translation capability than Quadrispace. "All-in-all, MCAD platforms generally seem to have many of the translation and publishing features of 3Dvia Composer, without the additional cost. I like your 'Express' idea."
"This is the favorite site of ExPats living in Japan for mashed English: www.engrish.com . The Japanese are experts at creating the mashed up English advertising and after 10 years living there, every move was a new linguistic adventure."
Re: Autodesk Sues DS SolidWorks "Maybe I shouldn’t read the political part of your e-rag first thing in the morning, BUT let me ask you this: What’s the difference between THIS: 'We have seen Autodesk make deals with small firms (softelec) and large (Bentley Systems and PTC), and then to sue firms with whom it cannot make a deal (Open Design Alliance and now SolidWorks).' And THIS: "5th grade Joey finds little Ralphie on the playground at recess. He wants Ralphie to share his apple with him, b/c he claims that his daddy helped grow it at the local farm, which makes him entitled to some of it. Little Ralphie refuses, and the inevitable ensues. "My point: The law is a TOOL. It is FORCE, period. Autodesk can’t DO THE WORK required to legitimately COMPETE in the market place. Had they focused their attention on TAKING CARE OF THEIR END USERS, they most likely wouldn’t be in the position they are in today." The editor replies: "It does appear that some CAD vendors are changing the way they compete, from competing on the basis of features to competing through the courts." Mr Chris responds: "After about 2 decades of using Autodesk products (by force for the latter years), I've now switched to SolidWorks. Let's see if they're any better. If not, then I'll fire them, and find someone else."
Re: FastNotes "I was just cleaning my inbox out and came across an old newsletter, which of course I had to read. There was a thing about Mike Riddles' new FastNotes software that sounded pretty neat. Did anything ever come of that? I googled it and everything I can find is for pocket pc or win mobile. Nothing on the EasyCad site, either." Mr Riddle replies: "We are going to launch it about mid-month, although this is not a great time to launch a new product, with the economic concerns. I see no advantage in waiting. "It is in final beta now, and we are working on manuals, training videos, and Web site information. Most people are at a loss for about3-4 weeks, then they get it and they report it as being indispensable. "It is really a new category of program: digital glue, link management, thought collector, etc. Perfect for chaos workers that need to make sense of many different things, but organize them visually on the fly, not in some predetermined order."
The download page is at evtoolkit.com, but you will need passwords to access and install the software.
Spin Doctor of the Moment "The key focus here is to lead off our slow immersion into content as a major piece of the puzzle in terms of what consumers want from a PC."
Notable Quotable "I was there. Just ask Photoshop."
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