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Last weekend was the annual COFES get-together, where 228 CAD users, vendors, journalists, and analysts spent 2-3 days talking about the past, present, and future of CAD. For me, the weekend was like hearing thought bubbles, which I share here.

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The Isn't-The-Future-Wonderful keynote speech was on genetic programming (GP). I didn't particularly get it; the speech was oriented to optimizing electrical circuits. GP is apparently has to do with computers learning to program themselves -- one of those technologies, I suspect, that will always be just out of reach, like speech input.

At lunch a tablemate wondered why the keynote didn't show a kitchen designed by an architect contrasted with one designed by GP. There was mention of one thousand computers working for a month on solving a problem. Another attendee suggested GP-at-Home to harness the power of idling computers, seeing's how SETI-at-Home is a wasted effort.

There were also talks on nanotechnology, but no mention of the medical issues being raised by inhaling millions of nano-sized machines.

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The new use of MCAD software is for AEC projects.

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DRM for CAD files? That was a question posed to me by an attendee (sorry, don't recall your name). Say a company sends a CAD model to potential suppliers for manufacturing quotes. Weeks later, the product appears from a competitor. How do companies protect themselves from IP (intellectual property) theft of CAD drawings?

I put that digital-rights-management question to each vendor I met, when I thought to ask it. Numerous solutions are proposed, but after analysis none were found to be foolproof. Eventually, it comes down to trust.

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HP emphasized its line of hardware, ranging from the Bluetooth/WiFi-enabled iPaq h4150 (given free to each attendee) to the new XW4200 (I think that was its designation) desktop computer. We oohed over the ultra-quiet operation facilitated by oversize fans running more slowly. This desktop computer is designed to be disassembled without tools -- clips hold many parts in place. The drive bay is square, so that the case can be horizontal or vertical. Just US$700 (without graphics board). www.hp.com/workstations/segments/mcad/

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At a session with PTC, one attendee discussed "The Gray Model": Machine distances have tolerances, but CPUs (and CAD) have "infinite" accuracy. So, CAD software should take those variations of size into account, automatically. Related to that, assembly modeling has fit issues.

PTC had the coolest looking pen to hand out to those visiting its suite. www.ptc.com

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Remember Actrix? Autodesk's ActiveShapes technology is currently used by DWF Composer to place redline markup objects. Enter www.activeshapes.com and you get the Autodesk Web site.

And look for third-party products to emerge for DWF Composer. "Due this Spring" at www.autodesk.com/composer  

The "under the tent" meeting place on the Terraza.

The vice president of one CAD company dolefully told me he expects many more patent law suits over the next decade.

The president of another CAD company told me the reason he applies for patents is to horse-trade: if another company sues him for patent infringement, he has a treasure chest of patents with which to work out a deal.

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At the AEC forum, one participant said, "Standardize on as many components as possible, such as wire cages for buildings, bolts, cabinets."

In the MCAD forum next door, company reps from GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Boeing got into a circular argument with CAD reps over new features: "We want the next great thing!" But, wondered the CAD vendors, "What is it?" Replied the manufacturers, "We don't know. It's your job to think it up."

Too true. We want the next Big Thing, but don't know what it is.

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My favorite COFES speaker is Peter Marks, someone who thinks things through from many angles. His keynote address, "The Value of Engineering in an Outsourced World," described 2004 as The Year of Learning Precariously:

Is international outsourcing just another business cycle? (Or has something changed?) Three million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the USA. (Fast food jobs are not manufacturing jobs.)

[Mr Marks didn't mention a contrast I noticed at this event and elsewhere: on the one hand, we have people bemoaning the loss of CAD, IT, and manufacturing jobs to lower-cost centers, starting with Canada and ending with China. OTOH, we have firms like CoCreate and Autodesk boasting that their software helps with overseas outsourcing. Hmmm?]

The contribution by engineers is to "do with $1 what any bungler can do with $2" but today any bungler can outsource the engineering for $0.10 - $0.50. Mr Marks was looking for a grinder at the hardware store recently, and found three models:

        Made in USA - $139
        Made in Taiwan - $29
        Made in China - $9.99

For the price of one well-made American grinder, he could buy 14. Because grinders wear out, why not buy several of the cheapest?

What is the answer to keeping CAD jobs at home? Mr Marks' solution is that "the engineering value proposition must go through manufacturing." He listed three methods by which products are manufactured:

1. Build to Stock - make lots of different models,  stick them in stores, and hope that most of them will be bought. Cheap is good enough. Wal-Mart.

2. Assemble to Order - have it assembled your way from a limited list of options. Dell. Differentiation is simulated: there are millions of different windows, but all are made from a few basic components: mullions, glass, etc.

3. Build to Order - today targeted to the affluent, and the fanatic. Niche opportunities. The customer gets exactly what they want.

Mass customization requires meaningful differentiation -- a better fit emotionally and cognitively. More smarts means less emotion.

In contrast to his insight, his Web site lacks design, I am sorry to say: www.designinsight.com

Three former editors of the now-defunct Cadence magazine:
Roopinder Tara (TenLinks.com), Amy Rowell (Cyon Research), and Kathleen Maher (Jon Peddie Associates).

In the Graphisoft suite, I asked about the BIG announcement due last month. A bit of a misunderstanding, I am told. Not new software, but new strategies. ArchiCAD vp of worldwide field operations Mark Sawyer told me that some of the strategies include:

• - ArchiCAD's API is now stable from release to release, making the job of third-party developers easier.
• - Graphisoft is working on a new software module that handles "pre-construction," the stage after the architect finishes the drawings, but before construction starts. "Information loading is not the archicts's job."

That pre-construction niche is a new one, and one to watch, as builders use software to figure out how to optimize the construction of the building. www.graphisoft.com

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I can't mention any off-the-record conversations, the best part of a conference. Or the juicy gossip. (Did ya hear about the CAD company being shopped around by the banks?) Or the horror stories from editors who no longer work at certain publications.

In attendance was was a new-at-CAD editor who used to be the personal assistant to a movie star. And did'ya see the size of the rock (diamond) former-Cadence editor Kathleen Maher was wearing?

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Intel, the mother for most hardware companies, was instead talking software: a neutral 3D format. I recalled the announcement some time ago of Intel taking lead of the 3D Industry Forum to develop a format that makes more 3D CAD data available "downstream," meaning to people other than those who sit in front of CAD terminals.

Why not just use Open JT (from UGS PLM Solutions) or that open format from the HOOPS people? Not good enough in some way.

CAD vendors would rather lock in their customers than subscribe to an open standard. So why is Intel doing this? To prepare market for future performance level five to seven years from now, I'm told. Okay, but I leave the suite not convinced.

www.3dif.org  -- the Web home for the 3D Industry Forum.

Randall Newton (purple shirt) wrote the lyics to "Deep in the Heart of COFES"
held up by Bob McNeel.

Convenience is evil.

We all have wireless iPaqs. COFES has a wireless network running. Face-to-face interaction is disrupted by heads-down concentration as we check our email, browse Web sites, and play with our new boy-toys.

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Adobe talked about their flavors of PDF. There's PDF/A for government-mandated archiving, whose spec is that the documents should survive for "the life of the Republic." That lead to some interesting speculation over how to define the end of the Republic.

So, in 50 or 100 years, how would one read a PDF file? PDF is openly documented, so programmers in the future can write parsers to read the files.

There's PDF/E for engineering documents to handle complex data types, like layers and 3D. This one's so new that sub-committees have just been struck. How would PDF handle 3D, I wonder? Perhaps using 3DIF from Intel.

Adobe made a big fuss over being compatible with AutoCAD and other CAD software, but then took like a half-year to get compatible with AutoCAD 2004. How come, I ask? The development was slow because Adobe cannot get early access to the APIs.

And PDF/X for the pre-press industry. www.adobe.com

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My Canon G1 takes eight seconds to wake up, so I missed a clear photo of one vp coming over to shake hands and chat briefly with the ceo of his arch-rival. And that pretty much sums up the CAD industry: we compete hard, but remain civil. Even friendly.

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UGS PLM Solutions says to expect NX 3 in September. Employees are looking forward to coming out from the shadow of EDS, but told me that the EDS ownership had its positiveness: without the support of the multi-billion-dollar corporation, the merging of Unigraphics and I-DEAS (creating NX) would have been much rougher.

NX goes beyond CAD with features like product development control, validation, checking manufacturability, and conceptual design.

Enter www.ugsplmsolutions.com and you get redirected from www.eds.com/plm_from_ugs to www.eds.com/products/plm.

The Chocolate Fountain: dipping fruit in a chocolate fonue.

"This changes everything" was the myth that created, then destroyed the Internet bubble. Instead, new technology "comes along side" existing technology: it just becomes just one more choice. The more new technologies, the more choices there are, creating a SMALLER potential market.

Some technologies, such as the Pony Express and faxes, are not so much as new as stepping stones.

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CoCreate is the CAD software spin-off from HP, known for the ME 10 and ME 30 mechanical CAD software packages that no longer carry those names; it's now OneSpace Designer. At a breakfast meeting, chief technical officer John Alpine showed me OneSpace.net, their Web-based collaboration software. The software has workspaces for online team meetings, 3D model explorer, and fast deployment.

Free trial, demos, and interactive tours at www.cocreate.com

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SolidWorks former-ceo Jon Hirschtick shows current-ceo John McEleney how to enable real-time email on his brand-new Treo 600 smartphone. I have pictures.

Jon (left) shows John (center) how to use his new Treo 600, while Joel Orr (right) looks on.

After numerous false starts, I met up with new ceo Randy Oochs of Actify. His company just partnered with TTF to add their CAD translation software to SpinFire 2004. That lets Actify read native file formats 5-10x faster.

Actify Server hosts, publishes, controls, and distributes CAD data. Actify Reader is the free viewer for the company's .3D file format. SpinFire Professional handles many CAD formats, doing 3D viewing, markups, and so on.

www.actify.com has free trial downloads.

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I can't tell you which editor is dating which pr person. Makes for interesting conflict-of-interest issues, I'd think.

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Leaving the best for last, KollabNet is amazing software. Igal Kaptsan showed how his software enforces design intent, reading and writing specs issued in Word, Excel, SolidWorks, and Inventor -- recognizing values, converting units, and linking parameters.

For example, a specification written in Word is captured by KollabNet, and then output to Excel, where it drives dimensions in a metric SolidWorks drawing linked to an Imperial Inventor drawing.

When changes are made, a dialog box pops up, requiring you to document reasons for changes. Capturing design intent. Do check it out at http://www.kollabnet.com

It rained two inches in 24 hours, in a city that gets nine inches in an entire year.

The first day of COFES was April 1 this year, and it was nature who played the April Fool's Day joke. I remembered to bring my lightweight all-weather jacket, but forgot the boots. I had left Vancouver with frost on the ground, passed through Calgary where it was snowing, and arrived in the stifling heat of Phoenix.

That Thursday evening, during the outdoor reception, the clouds rolled in, the lightning flashed, the thunder roared, and the rain began. For a day and a half. Two inches of rain. People improvising umbrellas from plastic bags, pr folders, and towels. Several hotel rooms leaked from water blowing in the bathroom exhaust.

The Friday night event, planned for the open desert, had to be canceled due to mud. The alternative, the big tent that housed us for breakfast and lunch, had to be abandoned due to flooding. We were accommodated in one of the hotel's ballrooms.

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The sixth COFES will be held sometime next Spring, probably back in Scottsdale AZ. www.cofes.com

Hotel complex at which COFES is held each year.

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