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 #632 |  February 9, 2010  |  English Edition

<  Previous Issue | Next Issue >

Write the editor. Make him smile! | Through PayPal, consider donating $25 in support of upFront.eZine.  | We're trendy. We have a Weblog. Read WorldCAD Access. | Twitter us on @ralphg.

 

 

In This Issue

1. SoldWorks World 2010, Part I

    - Day 0

    - Day 1 Keynote

    - Future of SolidWorks, as Told by SolidWorks

    - Future of SolidWorks, as Told by a Third Party

    - Meeting with AMD (ATI)

 

2. Out of the Inbox, and our other regular columns

 

 

SolidWorks World 2010, Part I

Anaheim Convention Center, Jan 31 – Feb 3

 

Day 0

Upon arriving in my hotel room Sunday night, I discover I left my netbook computer’s power supply at home. No problem; I brought the spare 7-hour battery, but then found I hadn’t recharged it before leaving home. Fortunately, the press room would have lots of Dell notebooks upon which I could write blog entries and recharge my iPod Touch, from which I Tweeted.

 

Bonus: my hotel room faces the convention center, and so the iTouch picks up the free SWWorld2010 wireless signal – much better than paying $14.95-plus-tax each day to Hilton.

 

 

Day 1 Keynote

SolidWorks ceo Jeff Ray gets better at speaking in front of audiences, and for this user group meeting his pr people worked extra hard at getting him to look, speak, and act like a “regular guy” – assuming your definition of regular guy is one who wears a dual- beercan siphon hardhat. Still, it is cool when he goes up into the stands to get the wave going.

 

SolidWorks is pleased to have “over 5000” registered for SolidWorks World 2010, an increase of 14% over last year. While it is true that Autodesk University attendance fell 40% year over year, AU ran a virtual event simultaneously, which convinced many to stay home.

 

SolidWorks fans are unhappy with parent Dassault Systemes increasing visibility in their world, and so I suspect they were unimpressed with Mr Ray leading off the user group event with a history of Dassault – beginning with Dassault Aviation a hundred years ago, and then on to the development of CATIA, which was first created to assist the design airplane wings. Dassault Aviation spun off Dassault Systemes, and here are we today.

 

Mr Ray introduced Bernard Charles, ceo of DS. This was the big boss’s first time at SolidWorks World, although not his first at a SolidWorks press event. The “intrusion” of DS into the affairs of SolidWorks was expressed by a surprising vacuum: during that evening’s Press Dinner. Mr Ray summarized the day’s events; after he described Mr Charles’ time on the keynote stage, he said something like, “What about that!” His applause line was met with…

 

…dead silence. Gamely, he carried on. But in 25 years of covering the CAD industry, I have never experienced such a remarkable expression of unenthusiasm.

 

Mr Charles is highly enthusiastic, using unique words that can throw off the listener. For instance, “lovemarks” are trademarks loved by users. “You like to use these products to do your job,” he enthused to the SoldiWorks-dedicated five thousand. He listed off his loved-marks:

“We are investing for the long term, we are a long-term company,” he reassured them. “We are not subject to takeover, since we control over 50% of our stock.”

 

I got interested when he got ready to tell us where Dassault Wants to Go for the Next Ten Years. But first we had to listen to a detour of competitor-bashing: “Unlike Autodesk, we do not believe the world is flat. And we will prove that for the next ten years.”

 

The master plan is to design everything produced on this planet virtually, before any energy and resources are used – including shopping. A slide showed the linkage between Research – Engineering – Consumers - Education. Disappointingly, he gave us very few details, except that DS want us “to use 3D everywhere.”

 

In the past number of years, DS marketing had emphasized PLM [product lifecycle management], even boasting that Mr Charles himself had invented the term (he didn’t), and then moving onto PLM 2.0 more recently. But not anymore, he announced: “No more PLM, but ‘put product in life’.”

 

Even as he was enthusing over his company’s future in virtual design, automotive analysts were beginning to suspect that the source of Toyota’s problems were linked to an over reliance on virtual design (blaming Catia by name, no less) and insufficient testing in real world conditions, such as the humidity that causes accelerators to stick. [Cf. “Toyota: Computer-Addled Design?” by Joann Muller, http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/02/toyota-recall-pedal-business-autos-virtual.html.]

 

At this point during the keynote address, I wrote down, “New SW technology possibile [sic] only because of tigher wtih [sic] DS.” I am not sure which executive made the statement, but as I reflect back on the three-day event I now realize that this sentence is the key to understanding the future of SolidWorks, an understanding that SolidWorks executives and marketing types alike attempted to make as murky as possible for users and media assembled in Anaheim for the purpose of learning more about the future of SolidWorks.

 

At this conference, I learned about two versions of SolidWorks’ future: (a) the one hinted at on the main stage; and (b) the one revealed by a third party. Here are the two versions:

 

Future of SolidWorks, as Told by SolidWorks

Mr Ray reported that his R&D team (which is now “one” with DS R&D) has been working on a cloud version of SolidWorks – one that operates like Google Docs, in which accessing google.com/docs runs a word processor in your computer’s Web browser. There is no software to install on your computer, there is no control over updates, and files are saved automatically to a server somewhere on the Internet.

 

A slide showed logos for Apple, Linux, Windows 7, FireFox, and Google Chome (in that order). That’s because one of the promises of cloud computing is that it works on multiple devices and operating systems. But as Google has found with Docs, universality is not trivial. It took a special effort to get Docs working on the Opera Web browser (the one I prefer) and Documents remains view-only on the iPhone.

 

We were briefly shown in turn a SolidWorks model viewer running on Mac, a touch computer using fingers and a pen (the pen for finer control), and the same cloud app on an HP-branded netbook. Video segments showed happy users accessing 3D models on a variety of mobile devices in a plethora of locations – including an angry housewife calling her SWV6-bound husband to dinner. Later I learned that the cloudy SolidWorks had been running on a Windows server, the graphical data piped to viewer software running on the devices. No Linux, no Chrome, no FireFox shown.

 

(There was some excitement briefly when the zoom lens of uberblogger Deelip Menezes’ camera revealed the product name on the software’s title bar: SolidWorks V6 – an apparent indication that the next SolidWorks was definitely based on Catia V6.)

 

We learned of the benefits of cloud-based CAD, and not the drawbacks. Here are the notes I took during the two-hour-long keynote:

 

 

(Mr Menezes noticed that visitors to his Deelip.com blog skyrocketed during these three days. The #1 source of traffic: autodesk.com.)

 

Future of SolidWorks, as Told by a Third Party

When SolidWorks executives refused to answer the media’s questions clearly, a third-party speculated that the company was working on dumping the ParaSolid kernel (licensed from arch-competitor Siemens PLM Systems) for CGM, the kernel used by Catia. This move would allow SolidWorks and Catia to swap models effortlessly, as well as adding Catia V6’s modeling and editing to SolidWorks, effortlessly.

 

 

Meeting with AMD (ATI)

“How do you distinguish yourselves from nVidia,” was my first question as I sat down in the cafe-less Internet Cafe at SolidWorks World with Bahman Dara. He has the impressive title of World Wide Senior Product Marketing Manager for AMD Workstation Graphics (aka ATI).

 

For one, AMD focuses on workstation and DCC graphics only. (DCC is digital content creation, those guys who create graphics for games and tv commercials.) For another, their graphics boards cost less than those from nVidia, when measured by performance per dollar. (nVidia skipped this show; in their place was retail proxy PNY.) AMD has just two product names: Radeon for consumers and FirePro for professionals. FirePro is divided into:

And then both are available in desktop and notebook (“mobile”) versions.

 

“And what about the future?” I wondered. Mr Dara told me that AMD is working on remote graphics, using compression to deliver graphics from a central server through a cable to desktops via ethernet or USB.  

 

There is the new Eyefinity Radeon board that can run up to six monitors at a time, which becomes available in 5-6 weeks from now. AMD also has a 10-bit/channel graphics boards, which displays more colors on HP’s 10-bit monitor.

 

Another push by AMD is in the area of unified graphics. I had a bit of trouble following the explanation, so I may not have it exactly correct. In the past, a GPU (the chip that powers graphics boards) could be optimized for pushing pixels (raster graphics, like from games) or geometry (CAD data). When AMD developed the GPU for the Xbox 360, they created the first unified GPU, one that did both tasks well.

 

As chips shrink in size, it becomes possible to put more processing in them. Indeed, Mr Dara declared, AMD (and nVidia) are finding it easy to double processing power, easily outpacing Moore’s Law. It is remarkable, especially now that CPU speeds have stalled for the last several years.

 

“What about 3D?” AMD supports 3D output but is not interested in selling 3D glasses, the way that nVidia does. He sees 3D in the consumer market pushing 3D in the CAD world.

 

Mr Dara sees DisplayPort replacing DVI (digital video interface) and HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface), because (a) it is royalty-free, (b) supports audio and multiple monitor resolutions in the interface, and (c) promises to lower the cost of monitors by removing processors from them.

 

And then there is AMD’s Fusion project, which melds the CPU and GPU into a single package – resulting in cheaper and more powerful computers. Look for increased performance combined with lower power consumption and lower cost, he advised. The CPU designers made CPUs more power efficient in response to demands from server farms, and that is now pushing GPU designers to do the same.

http://www.amd.com/firepro

 

Next week: Part II

[Disclosure: SolidWorks provided me with airfare, hotel accommodation, and meals.]

 

 

Out of the Inbox

 

SIMPO's SimpoEdge plastic injection molding simulation software now works inside of Solid Edge. The package performs four tasks:

    - FILL simulates complete part filling.

    - PACK simulates packing.

    - COOL simulates thermal exchange regulation.

    - WARP simulates deformation from warpage and material shrinkage.

http://www.simpoe.com

 

Siemens PLM Software is working on a wrapper between its D-Cubed 2D DCM constraint solver and the ODA's DWGdirect API. [You might recall that LEDAS did that last year with their constraint solver.] The D-Cubed development team is interested in working with potential early adoptersamong the ODA membership to discuss their requirements; contact d-cubed.support.plm@siemens.com

 

MWF Technology’s On-Hand Viewer allows iPhones to download 3D models via an ftp server, that havae been exported from CAD Schroer’s MPDS4  plant and factory design software. No-charge and paid versions available; http://www.absolute-apps.com/CAD/mechanical_engineering.html

 

Becky Stevens writes to say, "I don't know if you remember Strucsoft, but they were the company selling and customizing ProSteel in North America for several years prior to ProSteel's acquisition by Bentley Systems. Strucsoft Solutions is a spin-off of Strucsoft, and is now in the business of developing and marketing structural design and manufacturing/BIM solutions for Autodesk Revit."

     Strucsoft's light gauge metal and wood framing software for Revit is targeted at framing designers, engineers, builders, contractors and steel fabricators. http://www.strucsoftsolutions.com

 

Bunkspeed switches its rendering software's name from HyperShot to Bunkspeed SHOT, which works with CPUs, GPUs, and/or NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs. http://www.bunkspeed.com/shot

 

Geometric releases DFMPro v2.1 of for Pro/E and SolidWorks; the new injection molding module checks manufacturability of plastic designs. No-charge 15-day trial from http://www.dfmpro.com

 

Ashlar-Vellum's Graphite v8 SP2 2D/3D drafting softare now support large format printers at high resolution, direct access to tutorials within Graphite, and bug fixes. http://www.ashlar.com

 

Celeritive Technologies introduces VoluMill Universal stand-alone high-performance toolpath engine for any CAM system. http://www.volumill.com

 

iCADSales.com releases progeCAD 2010 Professional with read/write support for DWG 2010, increased speed, improved PDF import, and Windows 7 compatibility. http://www.progecad.us  

 

And IMSI/Design is celebrating the 24th birthday of TurboCAD.

- - -

These were some of the news items posted during the last week at the WorldCAD Access blog <worldcadaccess.typepad.com>. now with 4,400 daily readers:

Hardware News

3D mice from 3Dconnexion now follow a designer’s point of interest in SolidWorks automatically, continuously determinig the optimal center of rotation -- as indicated by an icon. The feature is available as a no-charge update from http://www.3Dconnexion.com

 

 

Seminars & Conferences

Annual Rapidform Success Conference is Apr 20-23 in San Francisco CA USA. http://www.rapidform.com

 

National High Performance Building Conference is Dec 7-10 in Washington DC USA. http://www.highperformancebuildingexpo.com

 

 

Magazine/eZine/Weblog Updates

Patrick Emin launches http://www.helpcad.com , an experimental "GetSatisfaction" site offering a different approach in CAD tech support: it bypasses the need to find the correct forum or category to post a request.

 

 

People/Companies on the Move

Bricsys leaves the IntelliCAD Technical Consortium. As the press release words it, "The release of Bricscad V8 was ... in fact a rupture with the former technology used  in IntelliCAD."

    Bricsys ceo Erik De Keyser says, “We have different opinions with the ITC about several things: being Operating System independent is very important to us. We wanted a higher level of API compatibility for our customers and application developers. All this required full control on the source code in order to speed up development." The company hopes to ship Linux and Mac versions of Bricscad V10 this year. http://www.bricsys.com

 

Vectorworks Architect 2010, with Renderworks 2010, and Designer with Renderworks 2010 can be purchased through Apple's online and retail stores in the USA. http://store.apple.com/us

 

T-Flex Parametric and TraceParts are working on accessing millions of parametric 3D models in native T-Flex format in the TraceParts library. http://www.tracepartsonline.net/ws/t-flex

 

BlueCielo ECM Solutions appoints Luuth van der Scheer as ceo. Martijn Janmaat remains as president.

    And the company just about owns all its Brazilian subsidiary BlueCielo do Brasil Solues de Gerenciamento Ltda; it bought a further 48%, bringing the total to 99%.

 

Think3 launches its new international VAR organization for MCAD and PLM indirect sales in the world, excluding Italy, Japan, China and India -- where the company has its own subsidiaries.

 

WorthWhile Web

http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/feb2010/tc2010024_830227.htm

Apple's Hard iPad Sell

by Arik Hesseldahl

 

 

Letters to the Editor

Re: Old Pen Plotters

I used an HP 7470A in the early '80s. I hate to see ancient history moved around by a decade or so. [It offered three interfaces: HP-IB, RS-232-C and HP-IL for connection to HP handheld computers.]

    - Stu Cox, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure

    Canada

 

The editor replies: I never knew that pen plotters worked with HP-IL; I owned an HP41CV from 1981, which subsequently was partially crushed a few years ago after my children left it in a folding bed.

 

Mr Cox responds: HP made a version of that plotter that used HP-IL.  You pretty much had to buy the plotter ROM for the 41 in order to be able to do much with it.  The native 41's speed and the amount of code you'd have to write would fill it up so much that you'd not have anything left in which to write your application or do your logging. I have a 41c that I bought in '80.  I treasure it and it and its keys survived my child (and wife).  I found a 41cv but it never worked too well and sits in a box waiting for repair.  I've got the digital tape drive, video converter, RS232 and parallel devices.  Hook them all up and you've got wires everywhere!  Just like what USB has turned into.

 

 

Re: Ribbon UI

I just added a blog entry inspired but your recent newsletter. Here are some of the thoughts QuadriSpace had when deciding on a ribbon interface: http://www.the3dpub/?p=20 .

    - Brian Roberts, ceo

    QuadriSpace

 

The editor replies: I find that the fundamental flaw of the ribbon is that it forces my eyes to scan it randomly looking for buttons -- sideways, up and down -- instead of linearly, as on toolbars and menus. Fortunately, AutoCAD continues to allow its users to use toolbars and menus, even as Autodesk [and Microsoft] rearranges the ribbon with every release (even between workspaces), making it impossible to memorize the locations of ribbon buttons. Memorization is crucial for being efficient (like a touch typist's fingers memorize the locations of the keys.)

 

Mr Roberts responds: Great points. Our brains are definitely trained to read from left to right and you have to know where the buttons are. We learned quickly in our early releases that users would squeal loudly when the user interface changed much at all. BTW, I am not a champion of either interface, I think they both have value depending on the user. I just wanted to post some of the thoughts we had when we picked the ribbon.  

- -

Best Buy adopted a customer characterization model, (not a profile! ) to help customer service staff better understand and assist different types of customers.  I think it would be cool if applications let you pick from five standard “interface types” to generally configure and arrange its UI.   But what would the five be ???   (1) All-Key-Ins,  (2)All-Pull-Downs, (3)All-Icons, (4) I’ll-Do-It-Myself, (5) I’ll-be-bock. Hmmm,  maybe not those 5, but something other than the current committee 1-design.

    - Greg Hruby, Office of Technical Support

    Mn\DOT

 

The editor replies: I do tech support for  non-technicalusers -- family and friends -- and so I get frustrated dealing with their frustrations. The #1 problem is that they cannot find stuff in Windows, such as settings as simple as the volume (there's 3-4 places in Windows where the volume might be turned off). I sometimes wonder if I should switch them to Moblin OS, since most need only a word processor and a Web browser.

 

 

Notable Quotable

If bird flu, H1N1 or Y2K didn't get you, the asteroid will.

    - Kelly McParland

    http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/11/no-the-world-isn-t-ending-in-2012.aspx

 

 

Contact!

upFront.eZine is published every Tuesday, except during summer and Christmas vacation. Editor: Ralph Grabowski. This newsletter is read by over eight thousand subscribers in 70 countries. Your comments are welcome! Deadline for submissions is every Monday noon.

 

To Subscribe

Send the message 'subscribe upfront' to subscribe@upfrontezine.com. All 600+ back issues at www.upfrontezine.com/welcome.htm.

 

Donations & Subscriptions

upFront.eZine is shareware. You receive this newsletter free. To support its publication, suggested one-time donations is US$25 or the equivalent in your country. If you prefer to pay an annual subscription fee of $25, you will be reminded each year around May 1.

 

Payment

-      PayPal - send payment to the account of grabowski@telus.net

-      Checks or money orders: 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.

-      Direct bank transfer: email for details.

 

Japanese Edition

www.rrcorp.co.jp/upFront.html

Editor: Yasu Ohgushi <yasu@rrcorp.co.jp>

 

Address Change

Send both your old and new email addresses to subscribe@upfrontezine.com.

 

To Unsubscribe

Send the message 'unsubscribe upfront' to editor@upfrontezine.com. I appreciate knowing reasons for unsubscribing.

 

Advertising

US$340 per two weeks. Position Available ads are $320 for three weeks; Job Wanted ads by the unemployed are free. Other rates available. For more info, email advertise@upfrontezine.com.

- - -

Entire contents copyright ©2010 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.

* 10741