Journalists
flies to Las Vegas after an extended absense of 15 years to find it's
still "sin city." December 5, 2002.
Journalists
flies to Las Vegas after an extended absense of 15 years to find it's
still "sin city." December 5, 2002.
The
recreated la Tour d'Eiffel next
to Balleys.
Last time I was in Las Vegas was 1987 for Comdex, a time when 60,000 attendees were considered a success. When Comdex'02 was held a couple weeks back, 120,000 wasn't enuf to keep the organizers from threatening bankruptcy. How expectations change. Back then, Las Vegas was a boring place for us non-gambler geeks who understood the odds, and $70 was w-a-y too much to see Frank Sinatra in person. Over the last decade, I heard the gambling casinos were attempting to make the city family-friendly. Did it work?
Yes. The French-themed 'Paris Las Vegas' casino (2,916 rooms) is simply spectacular -- inside and out -- with its recreated 'la Tour d'Eiffel', 'Arc de Triump', and inner courtyards that capture the feel of twisting streets in small French towns. The 6.5 acres (2.9 ha) of fountains at the Bellagio casino (3,000 rooms) synchronize with pop and classical music -- and thumb their wispy fingers at the surrounding desert. The cramped architecture of the 'New York New York' casino (2,024 rooms) didn't impress me, nor did the distant Egyptian-themed 'Luxor' (4,400 rooms) with its full-size (and full-color -- oops!) sphinx and jet-black pyramid hotel with super-brite beacon of light. All paid for by people who don't understand the odds.
Adesk U is sequestered at the 'MGM Grand' casino with its 5,034 hotel rooms, two shopping malls, convention center, wedding chapel (not church, note), eight pools, too many restaurants and show stages, and the countless gambling machines. Employees are called "crew." One AU attendee figures it's a half-mile hike from his room to the integrated convention center. Another confesses she hasn't left the hotel all entire week. Being owned by a media company, the ads blare inside and out from persistent speakers and overbright plasma screens. The entire wall behind the check-in counter blasts oversize ads at incoming guests. At night, the hotel's four wings bathe in ghoulish green spotlights that infect the inside of the hotel rooms themselves.
A place for families? No. Not when you consider the sidewalks that mysteriously swerve away from the street to the front doors of gambling halls.Or the convenient overpasses (they're needed because The Strip is now 12 lanes wide) deposit you directly and without warning inside the casinos. Or the lack of benches in which to sit. Or the young Mexican workers snapping their catalogues of available prostitutes at passers-by ($60 for an in-room strip show, extra services extra, I s'pose). Ignore the glum hawkers, and they shove pornographic postcards into the hands of passers-by. LV NV gets to keep its "Sin City" moniker.
Keynote Address
During the keynote speech, which occurred early in the week (I wasn't there), ceo Carol Bartz apparently emphasized the need to keep drawings digital, and not going to paper -- ever. The purpose was to promote DWF v6 and its ability to handle drawing sets and retain scale information. "The shape of the future looks like this: After that design data leaves your hands, it needs to stay in digital form," she proclaimed. You can read excerpts of Ms Bartz's speech at http://www.directionsmag.com/features.php?feature_id=81
The emphasis on NOT plotting may, however, have dismayed major sponsor HP, who at its booth was pumping out E-size plots of non-CAD images. According to Adena Schutzberg's report <http://www.gismonitor.com/news/newsletter/archive/120502.php >, Autodesk employee "Lynn Allen later put it this way: 'Printing stops the intelligence process.' She quickly added that if you do need to print, using a printer from sponsor HP was quite appropriate."
Some magazine (and e-newsletter) editors engage occasionally in the Do-we-please-the-sponsor-and-if-so-how-much? debate; who'd've thunk the debate would extend to software vendors.
Booth Visits
I met with some vendors, spent time with fellow CAD (and GIS) journalists, and attended one class -- but I can't tell you the primary reason for being in Las Vegas for another four months or so. (Adesk U 03 will be back in Las Vegas, Dec 2-5, 2003.)
ACS SOFTWARE: Todd Hayes describe how his company adapted its AutoEDMS software for NavCanada (the Canadian air traffic control service). This organization has a central computer in Ottawa serving up AutoCAD drawings to regional centers. NavCanada didn't want .dwg files clogging its WAN, so ACS figured out how to minimize the impact of xrefs on the network. http://www.acssoftware.com
ANSYS: DesignSpace is for analysis during the design process. It is launched from Inventor, allowing you to make more design iterations, and hence create more innovative products. A SolidWorks version is due in January. http://www.ansys.com/ansys/designspace.htm
LOGITECH: 3DConnexion is the new name for Logitech's high-end input devices. Patrish Shah told me that the mouse is doing too many functions and moves around too much. Instead, he suggests "dual mode" -- using a mouse and a "motion controller." The concept is that you navigate with your non-dominant hand, and execute with your dominant one. "Use," he urges,"SpaceBall, SpaceMouse, or CadMan for two minutes." Look for the Motion Control Keyboard in the new year, a Logitech keyboard with integrated motion controller. These products provide six dimensions of view manipulation: pan left-right-up-down and zoom in-out. http://www.3dconnexion.com
I had hoped to visit more booths, but: (1) I found the booth numbering system confusing; and (2) the exhibit hall closed a couple hours earlier than I expected. In the evening, Delmar Publishers (aka Autodesk Press) hosted a lovely dinner at the Craftsteak restaurant for its authors.
Photo Gallery
The inner courtyards of the Paris Las Vegas casino capture the feel of twisting streets.
The 6.5 water acres fronting the Bellagio casino.
The cramped architecture of the 'New York New York' casino.
One of the many casinos in the MGM Grand.
The grand hallway of the MGM Grand's convention center, location of Adesk U.