upFront.eZine NEWS #579

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Issue #579 : : November 4, 2008
In this issue: IntelliCAD World Conference 2008 Report Part I: Keynote Address - The Outsider Speaks - Fixing IntelliCAD's Image - Becoming the Disrupter - Conclusion Part II: State of the ITC Address - IntelliCAD 7 - IRX - New Display Engine - The New BDO - Reactive vs Proactive Links - Photos from Greece	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. Previous Issue < > Next Issue

Special issue: IntelliCAD World Conference 2008 Report The IntelliCAD Technical Consortium's conference is one of my favorites. In part because of the locations, but more importantly, I enjoy the frank presentations from its directors. Whereas all other CAD vendors speak only of their strengths, these guys also frankly describe the organization's weaknesses -- and how they plan to fix them. That's refreshing. As Deelip Menezes reacted in horror to the occasional negative entry in my blog coverage: "They let you print this?" Yup. Part I: Keynote Address The ITC's annual World IntelliCAD Conference justifiably includes "World" in its name, for it attracts attendees from around the world, and is held in a different country each time -- so far USA, Holland, Canada, and this year in Greece. The current chairman is Cedric Desbordes of DataPrompt Technologies, France, which markets IntelliCAD as IntelliPlus. The keynote address was by the ITC's former president, Arnold van der Weide. Now the president of the not-unrelated Open Design Alliance, he took on for the first time the role of the outsider. (Some had wondered about his switch between organizations. For some time, he was president of both, but found himself too busy; he decided that the ODA was more strategic than the ITC -- "We cannot afford to lose the ODA," he declared, making reference to Autodesk's multi-pronged attempt to shut down the file-documenting organization and its 1,000+ corporate members. Despite the ongoing legal hassle, the ODA adds 10% new members each year.) "We don't want to fight Autodesk, that is a misperception in the market place. We don't want to fight Autodesk," he repeated. "We want to develop software." He described some of the ODA's new initiatives, such supporting HOOPS graphics and ARX-based apps abandoned by Autodesk. The new DRX API allows you to view and use older ARX-encoded drawings from Architectural Desktop and Civil 3D. [From requests I get from users, another big one would be the ability to view and translate Actrix Technical files.] The Outsider Speaks He held forth on the state of the CAD industry, and the changes the ITC needs to make. Autodesk, PTC, and Bentley Systems have made agreements to exchange formats, which he feels block innovation. It is small companies who innovate, not large ones. The oligopoly keeps prices artificially high, such as AutoCAD LT's price doubling from $600 to $1,200 over just a few years; if the CAD world were competitive, then prices would fall -- not double. Making the situation worse, he noted how annual subscriptions tend to lock customers to vendors. Because there is no competition and no innovation, the market is stagnant. It is a "replacement market," with few new customers coming in. [Hence SolidWorks' need to target AutoCAD users.] As for emerging markets, such as India or China, he predicts that their new users won't want the old software programmed over here in the "New World", just as emerging customers jumped from no phone to cell phones, ignoring land lines. Fixing IntelliCAD's Image He criticized ITC members for selling their software too cheaply. "It you want opportunity, look at this graph and think." The slide showed AutoCAD LT outselling AutoCAD 3-to-1, overtaking AutoCAD in total seat numbers back in 2003. His criticism hit a few of the ITC members who sell IntelliCAD for $50 or cheaper. [I agree that the price needs to be increased.] Higher prices even infer higher quality in some cultures, as in Germany, he reported. His next slide may have stunned the audience, for no one likes to think that their baby is ugly. It listed his ideas of the market's perception of the ITC and Autodesk: ITC Autodesk Strategy No Yes Leadership No Yes Visibility Low High Quality Low High Inexpensive Yes No Products Many Few [I would switch the last line: Many products for Autodesk, few for ITC.] The next slide was a similar chart for the software: IntelliCAD AutoCAD & LT Stability Low High Confusion High Low Performance Medium High Price Low High Availability High High He added a positive item missing from his slide: IntelliCAD enjoys the benefit that ITC members are local and understand local needs -- more so than large CAD vendors. This is valuable to customers. He urged the ITC to be in control of IntelliCAD, and to reorganize itself for quality, reliability, and leadership. The ITC and its members should be one organization. He admitted that one of his failures was to allow "[insert member name here] IntelliCAD" naming. If he could have his way today, he would allow just three types of brand names: 1. "IntelliCAD" -- One price and one name for IntelliCAD. Ask $600 at least. 2. "IntelliCAD Inside" -- any add-on should work with any member's version. 3. "Based on IntelliCAD Technology" Becoming the Disrupter The next several slides described recent disrupters in the computer world, including these: Intel's Atom CPU and mini ITX board forcing Microsoft to delay the infanticide of XP. The disruption: Bill Gates had always urged his programmers to assume ever more powerful computers, but first CPU speeds stalled, and are now headed downward due to the wildly popular netbooks, and rendering Vista less viable. Google Docs integrated with Android [and GMail] for document editing, sych'ing, and sharing anywhere. The disruption: Bill Gates had dictated a (Windows) computer on every desktop, but now the computer is moving to the cell phone, rendering Office less viable. [Speaking of disruptive, he boasted of his sailing boat's wireless Internet, while speaking at a hotel that with a straight face charges US$13/hr for Internet access.] When it comes to CAD, there are more engineers in production than in design, and this group of engineers have different needs: fewer graphics, more data, and greater mobility. Client-server systems are changing to specific to generalized i/o devices (client) and the Internet (server). Point solutions will replace generic software. And we may see Android as a desktop OS. Mr van der Wiede finds remarkable the number of members of the ODA who have nothing to do with CAD: these large corporations simply need access to DWG files. All of them are an opportunity for ITC members, selling IntelliCAD as an intelligent viewer. Conclusion The role of Open Design Alliance is to create a CAD development platform, nothing more or less. The role of the IntelliCAD Technical Consortium is to replace seats in the enterprise, and to sell to adjacent users. In the long-term, the ITC should look at non-desktop apps, such as CAD in the cloud and data access by cell phone. He concluded by asking: Does the ITC have a strategy? Does the market know it has a strategy? Autodesk knows what it wants to be five years from now -- the sole vendor, claimed Mr van der Wiede. Part II: State of the ITC Address Dave Lorenzo presented his annual report on how IntelliCAD is progressing. He listed the history of revisions since the last World conference two years ago: 2007 March -- IntelliCAD 6.3 July -- IntelliCAD 6.4 November -- IntelliCAD 7 alpha 2008 July -- IntelliCAD 6.5 December -- IntelliCAD 6.6 2009 June -- IntelliCAD 7 code shipping to members [Expect IntelliCAD 7 for customers by the end of 2009.] IntelliCAD 6.6 will be a slipstream release with the VSTA programming language (replaces VBA), raster enhancements, and critical bug fixes. IntelliCAD 7 If you haven't heard before, the point to IntelliCAD 7 is that it is a new CAD program; all of the original code has been replaced. [I think that v7 should be renamed to distinguish it.] The big change is that it will use DWGdirect to read, write, and display DWG entities. (In v6 and earlier, IntelliCAD actually translates from DWGdirect to its own internal database, amazingly enough.) The DXR API will be exposed, as will an additional API for IntelliCAD internals (these extended DRX functions are called "IRX"). DRX is used to create all IntelliCAD V7 commands internally. Custom entities will be displayed as proxies in IntelliCAD when the related ARX/ARX app is not present. Some of its other features include: Replaces the command stack with a new one for all commands, as well as COM [common object model], SDS [Softdesk development system], and LISP. Uses a new graphics system for a faster, interactive display. Compiled with Visual Studio 2008. New components in V7 include: WiX installer Facet modeler VSTA replacement for VBA ADTdirect object enabler for Architectural Desktop C3Direct object enabler for Civil 3D DGNdirect import/export of MicroStation design files Redway3D graphics accelerator HOOPS high performance 2D/3D display and print/plot support DRX and IRX With all these new APIs, the ITC has provided a road map on how to port code from V6 -> V7. (More on some of these items in next week's report on the ODA.) IRX First there was ARX [AutoCAD runtime extension], and then BRX from Bricsys, DRX from ODA, and now here's IDX from IntelliCAD. It extends the API beyond that provided by DRX. IRX'll manages documents [drawings], layouts, and the print/plot interface. It provides specific GETxxx input functions, and handles the cursors and their content. It provides editor reactors and entity display jigs, as well as extended selection functions and system variables. At past World conferences, the ITC was proud to describe its automated test infrastructure. This year, they've made it bigger. Or, rather, it has gotten bigger: (4 operating systems + 2 languages + 3 compilers) x 2 levels x 2 versions x 155,000 tests x 44 configurations = 4.14 million tests. [I got a bit lost in the math here, but the upshot is that...] ...the ITC requires 6 days of server time to conduct a round of tests. To handle this, the ITC is renting numerous servers. Spreadsheets are generated automatically that report problem areas, and members have access to a dashboard-like utility that gives them an overview of the development progress. New Display Engine Mark Barrow demo'ed the new Redway graphics engine that will be made available to members. "Made available" means that it won't be in regular IntelliCAD; members need to pay a royalty to Redway, but the ITC had done the work adapting the code to IntelliCAD 7. He showed the Redway implementation, which greatly speeds up IntelliCAD displays speed. A complex rendered 4MB 3D model of two sports cars was effortlessly dragged around in 3D rotation. Eventually, he says, raytracing complete with shadows and reflections will be added to the realtime display. The New BDO The ITC hired Bob McGill for the new position of business development director. His job to develop plans for sales and marketing, and figure out how to add more members. Add to that the job of improving the reputation of the IntelliCAD brand name, as well as relations with members and partners. Oh, and then there's improvements the ITC's Web site, as well as generating collateral sales materials. A laundry list that needs to be implemented, so it's good that the ITC board brought in Mr McGill. Reactive vs Proactive Mr Lorenzo admitted that in the past the ITC has been reactive -- by design. The point of it originally was to mimic AutoCAD, after all. Becoming AutoCAD is futile, the ITC has come to understand. Still, there are market forces to contend with: AutoCAD 2010 [due March '09]. Visual Studio 2008 with VSTA [visual studio tools for applications], .Net, and the [ugh] ribbon. Multi-core and 64-bit operating systems. Powerful GPUs [graphics processing units]. The doing-more-poorly economy. Competition. And so Mr Lorenzo feels that the ITC can be proactive by being smart in how (and when) features are implemented: Depend on the ODA's DWGdirect to provide IntelliCAD's core functions. Let other technology developers provide key components [HOOPS, ACIS, ParaSolid, and more]. Provide the right APIs. Choose carefully new features, ones that meet the need of the market. Leverage the vertical apps produced by ITC members. The list has its vague parts (like 'carefully choosing new features'), but it's good to see the ITC modifying its approach to dealing with the market and with competitors. I'd sum it up as "Recognize the competition, but avoid following them." Links ITC www.intellicad.org Additional Conference Coverage worldcadaccess.typepad.com www.deelip.com Photos from Greece Do you know the way to the Acropolis? The Acropolis (city on the edge) seen from the bald marble top of Areopagus (Mars Hill). Tiny portion of Athens seen from the Acropolis. The remains of the temple at Delphi. Monestary of Agios Stephanos (St Stephen) high on a mountaintop near Meteora. Portion of the monument to the 300 Spartans who defended Greece at the Battle of Thermopylae, and popularized by the movie '300.' Buskers hope for a Euro coin in the tambourine at an outdoor cafe in downtown Athens. Evening IntelliCAD World Conference reception at the hotel in Athens. Notable Quotable " tl;dr stands for 'too long; didn't read' and it is going to change communication as we know it."\| - Ted Dziuba,The Register www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/03/dziuba_azure/ Thank You to Our Subscribers & Donators These great people support upFront.eZine through their contributions of $25 (or more). Thank you, guys! James Mims Bob Bennett, Luxology Bilal Succar, ChangeAgents AEC (Australia): "This is a token of my appreciation of your newsletter, which is always succinct yet more informed than many other newsletters landing in my inbox." Copyright 2008 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. 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