u p F r o n t . e Z i n e
t h e b u s i n e s s o f c a d
Issue #684 | March 29, 2011
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In This Issue
1. Autodesk Software 2012 Webcast
- MCAD
- Simulation
- Infrastructure
- AEC
- Bundles
- Q&A
2. Autodesk Manufacturing 2011 Investor Webcast
- New Opportunities
- Q&A
Autodesk Software 2012 Webcast
Monday a week ago Autodesk hosted a pre-release Webcast, in which the company introduced its new 2012 line of suites -- suites, more suites, and just about nothing but suites -- to editors. We expressed frustration as we viewed the event through a somewhat-larger-than-postage-stamp-size video interface provided by Thomson Financial; no full screen button. We trust Autodesk won't contract out future Webcasts to Thomson.
Another frustration expressed by editors: too little info in the one-hour presentation. I understand, however, that it's tough: there is a ton of new features in many software packages. On top of the new features is a mind-boggling array of suites, from which Autodesk hopes to bring in a lot more revenue by upselling them to you.
The event was broadcast in front of a live audience of locals from San Francisco. The live Q&A was good, but could have been longer. One way to make more time for answers would be to drop the unnecessary introductory video.
Here are notes I took during the event:
MCAD
Fusion graduates from Labs. "The introduction to 3D modeling for many users." [This would seem to contradict Autodesk's 1990 claim of AutoCAD Release 10 being "The 3D Release."]
Eco Material Advisor in Inventor reports on three aspects of the design: environmental impact, cost, and performance. "It's one thing to make an environmentally responsible design, it's another to make it profitable."
Simulation
BlueRidge Numerics is mentioned, but there is no description ofhow it fits into Autodesk's other software. Real-time injection simulation now in MoldFlow. Algor renamed "Autodesk Simulation."
Infrastructure
Integrated hydraulic and hydrologic (water) utilities. "Customers can actually predict where the pipe will overflow in a storm." [I recall doing that in 1980 with my HP-41CV calculator.]
Visualization now supplements early 2D work, and is done near the beginning of a roadway project. [I see the result as new freeway interchanges near us are much more complex than simple overpasses -- but not necessarily better for driver navigation.]
AEC
Revit now supports large work teams via a central Revit Server. [Revit catches up to ArchiCAD.] Also new, Vault AEC for model sharing, documentation generation, and project data.
Revit can split and manipulate objects like walls to better simulate construction methods. "Until now, you couldn't tell what materials it [the wall] was built from." [Really?] Virtual construction workflow modeling outputs shop drawings for pre-fabs.
Bundles
Each vertical gets levels of suites packaged as Standard, Premium, and Ultimate. Software like Sketchbook Designer, Mudbox, and 3ds max is thrown in with the bundles. Editor Martyn Day tweeted, "Autodesk develops a suite tooth." Software delivered on a 32GB USB key. We don't know the pricing of bundles, yet.
Q&A
Q: Will there be Revit and Inventor for Mac OS X?
A: Autodesk is pleased with AutoCAD for OS X, and continue to be committed for that; there will be a 2012 version. I cannot comment on other products for Mac.
Q: When will Mac 2012 be released?
A: Not ready to announce or ship it today. It takes a while to add in all the new features from AutoCAD 2012.
Q: Are suites available globally?
A: Availability will vary by language and country, starting this quarter.
Q: Will all suites really fit on a single USB drive?
A: Yes. Lot of work done to make sure installing suites meets customers needs. No more multiple discs. [Inventor Pro 2011 came on 9 DVDs.]
Q: How much more expensive are the suites?
A: The price starts at a few hundred dollars more than the base standalone product. Standalones, such as AutoCAD, are still available.
Q: How will suites work with subscriptions?
A: Subscriptions will be oriented specifically to suites.
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Autodesk Manufacturing 2011 Investor Webcast
Autodesk's MIG [manufacturing industry group] is attacking all three levels of customer size: enterprise, SMB [small and medium business], and professionals [individuals, some 10 million users for Autodesk]. Naturally, enterprise is smallest for MIG, "a relatively small set of customers," Robert Kross, senior vp. Manufacturing Industry Group, told us during last week's Webcast. Mr Kross, however, sees expansion opportunity to add new users and revenue in all three sectors.
MIG has been trumpeting their financial prowess lately, almost as if they were independent of Autodesk. "Q4 was the best quarter in my history." The marketing onslaught could be to counter the fact that SolidWorks currently outsells Inventor, according to stats compiled by financial analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer.
Mr Kross gave us some selected stats. His division's share of the MCAD market is growing at 5% a year, four times faster than the market average. He sees Dassault Systemes and PTC as his competitors, but left out Siemens PLM Systems, and did not mention SolidWorks specifically. And in a most surprising claim, he felt that Dassault's growth rate is lower than Mr Vleeschhouwer's calculation of 9%.
From the Webcast's slides, here is one on how Autodesk figures the YoY [year over year] growth rates from recent fiscal years:
- Dassault = 26% [9% when IBM PLM acquisition is left out]
- Autodesk Manufacturing = 21%
- PTC = 8%
(Perhaps Siemens was left out because they do not provide CAD stats.)
Mr Kross showed an interesting slide that overlaid his divisions annual revenues with PMI [Purchasing Manager's Index ] confidence levels; values over 50 indicate a growing economy. See figure 1. He explained that manufacturing often leads the economy, since machines have to be built before products can be made. "We have to watch Japan, but we are seeing positive things in Japan [revenue-wise]."
Figure 1: MIG annual revenues vs PMI confidence levels.
New Opportunities
The reason for the growth is Autodesk's newly broadened product portfolio. "A few years ago, our team used to sell CAD. We are no longer just a CAD company; we are a product design company: design, simulate, manufacture, and bring products to market [through Alias software]."
He listed four areas that his division will be emphasizing:
- Assembly instructions, repair, and maintenance through Publisher (also runs on iPad).
- Digital factory and 3D simulation through Factory Design Suite. Competitors have old fashioned, expensive $50,000 tools, he reported.
- Nearly everything can now be simulated virtually by Autodesk's $500 million worth of acquisitions made since 2003. "Fusion is the ideal front end for prepping models for simulation, something our competitors are lacking. We are putting all our simulation tools on the cloud to get high performance computing quickly."
- Enterprise PDM [product data management] is not the typical BOM, but is visually appealing. "We have been in the data management for some time now. The growth rates are in the 50% range for our PDM tools." Not just in MCAD but in AEC also: "l am starting to see large orders from AEC customers."
Q&A
The conference call was meant for financial analysts, but the media was invited to listen in as well. All questions came from analysts.
Q: What is Fusion? How does it work with simulation?
A: Fusion software was built by a real small team two years ago, building a new version of Inventor that is very small and that only does modeling, using direct modeling. It can read models from any source, Catia, Pro/E, and so on. In terms of simulation, it is used to clean up models before applying simulation [from other software, such as Ansys].
Q: I think we are dying for any kind of up-to-date commentary on Japan.
A: I grew up in Japan, so I have a lot of empathy. I haven't seen an economic downturn as a result.
Q: How do you compete with Ansys, how are you complimentary?
A: We are competitors; our software does everything their's does. They have a reputation and a brand; we don't [yet], because customers think "Ansys" and "Nastran" when they think simulation. We are working to make ours like an AutoCAD, easy to use, and we will charge less. We dropped the "Algor" name early this year, changed it to "Autodesk Simulation."
Q: Which customers have you seen the most success with [simulation]?
A: It's the customers we already have a relationship with. It is not due to a difference in technology; there are no technology limits [in our products]. Also, we have a unique advantage with cloud-based simulation; the desktop is a severe limitation for simulation.
Q: For a long time, we have heard Carl Bass say PLM is not something you want to get into. Where do you draw the line between PLM and PDM?
A: PDM and PLM [product lifecycle management] are quite different. We target engineers helping with their data; you could call it EDM [engineering data management]. PLM extends outside of engineering to the rest of the enterprise; we have not entered that part of the market. I think PLM market has changed a lot; three years ago, I would have said it is a horrible market, it doesn't work. Customers now tell me that it works, but they don't particularly like it. They are asking me to integrate their data with PLM.
Q: You say you have three types of customers [enterprise, SMB, individual]; where do you see the demand for suites coming from?
A: Mostly SMB, because they want easy administration. Large customers have flex licensing, and so tend to use everything [all software] already.
Q: Do some customers not need suites, because they are comfortable with products from multiple suppliers?
A: Suites does two things: [a] product integration with a common data model and common user interface, and [b] a strong sales team to sell and support solutions to customers.
Q: Customers tell us that product integration is disjointed. What have you done to make it better?
A: "AirMax" was the name of the effort we started three years ago to make the data model and user experience the same in AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, and 3D Max [from which the AirMax name derives]. Problem is that these days it is hard in demos to see [the demo jock] move from one app to another, they look so similar. Material definitions are the same across products, steel looks like steel. So these are available only in the suites, where AutoCAD, Architecture, and Inventor are integrated to model the entire factory, and contains factory-specific technology, like automated conveyor design.
DraftSight is a no cost*, easy-to-use 2D CAD product that generally takes a few minutes to download and runs on multiple operating systems, including Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and the Mac.
Delcam sales in 2010 grew to £36.6 million [about $60 million], up 17%.
Happy news for shareholders as Nemetschek decides to doubles dividend payouts.
FM:Systems vaguely says it had an "average annual" 21% increase in total revenue.
Lantek increases turnover in 2010 to e10.58 million [about $14 million], a 34% increase.
Autodesk appoints Lorrie M. Norrington to its board of directors. Ms Norrington is president of eBay Marketplace.
Spatial Media launches Machine Control magazine. Digital copy available here: http://machinecontrolonline.com/emag/2011/vol1no1/index.html
BRL-CAD is pretty pleased that it's one again a student mentoring organization for Google's Summer of Code. Student application deadline is April 8: http://brlcad.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code
And the Solid Edge ST4 Global Launch Event is June 15-16 in Huntsville AL USA. The event is a training session for $250 for early birds signing on by March 31. https://www.seeuthere.com/rsvp/invitation/invitation.asp
- - -
These were some of the news items that were posted during the last week at our WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com>:
- "What's Inside?" customers ask. We answer
- 5.5 years later, IntelliCAD v7 enters public beta, kind of
- Microsoft competes with Autodesk in the make-3D-models-from-cellphone-cameras market
-
The Vleeschhouwer Report: Autodesk's 2012 product launch, fiscal year highlights
-
What's Not Inside? Autodesk Press Releases
-
It's like the annual swimsuit issue for CAD users: "What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012" is on electronic newsstands today
Letters to the Editor
Re: AutoCAD 2012
We read last week about Gerald Davis' editorial on 'single click' construction documents. AutoCAD 2012's new 3D Model Documentation feature takes a stab in this direction; however, it certainly is not single-click nor even wizard-driven.
On the other hand, we were struck by its similarities to TurboCAD's (and now DoubleCAD XT Pro's) Drafting Palette, a tool that gives you the ability to create associative, 2D views, and cross sections of 3D models from multiple CAD formats -- a feature of TurboCAD Pro since version 11! If you have the opportunity, you should look at TurboCAD's Drafting Palette.
- Bob Mayer, coo
IMSI/Design
Notable Quotable
"Before installing a paywall on your newspaper's Web content, ask yourself this question: Is my resume up to date?"
- Fake AP Stylebook
Contact!
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Entire contents copyright 2011 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved worldwide. Letters sent to the editor are subject to publication. Article reprint fee: $250 and up. All trademarks belong to their respective holders. "upFront.eZine," "The Business of CAD," and "On your desktop every Tuesday morning" are trademarks of upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. Letters to the editor may be edited for clarity and brevity. Translations and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd.
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