upFront.eZine News Archives

Table of Content

Welcome to the archive pages of upFront.eZine, the e-newsletter that for 20+ years has been reporting on the business of the computer-aided design software industry. We launched 1 May, 1995 and today bring thousands of subscribers our edgy opinion, weekly news reports, and beloved travelogues.

 

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Join the nearly 7,000 subscribers who love receiving their upFront.eZine at 4:00pm every Sunday afternoon by email.

---

 

Enter your email address: *

Select your email format:

htmltext

 

 

---

(In a few moments, you will receive an email from MailChimp asking you to confirm that you want to subscribe.)

Our newsletter is always free, and is funded through advertising (Thank you, advertisers!) and by reader donations.

 

Read the Back Issues

We keep all issues since 2012 posted -- in full! -- for your browsing comfort right here on this Web site. Use the links to jump to the first issue of each year:

• January 9, 2017
• January 5, 2016
• January 12, 2015
• January 6, 2014
• January 8, 2013
• January 9, 2012

Download All the Back Issues

Ever since 1995, upFront.eZine has been working hard at keeping alive the history of our beloved CAD industry. These our back issues are for your convenience bundled by year into a single ZIP file.

1995            2005

1996            2006

1997            2007

1998            2008

1999            2009

2000            2010

2001            2011

2002            2012

2003            2013

2004            2014          

After you download these files from Dropbox and unzip them to your computer, use any Web browser to read the newsletters.

 

Request Our Media Kit

We rely on advertising to pay our annual $900 bill, like hosting this Web site on TypePad and sending out the newsletter weekly by MailChimp. Our ads range in price from $680 to $2,200 per two weeks -- depending on the location of your advertisement in upFront.eZine.

Download our handy Media Kit (PDF) with all the details. It's so clearly written that it's only four pages long!

 

Contact the Editor

We love hearing from our readers! To write an email directly to editor Ralph Grabowski, click here.

 

Read Our Fine Print!

Copyright 2015 by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All right reserved worldwide. "upFront.eZine," "The Business of CAD," and "WorldCAD Access" are trademarks of upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. All trademarks are acknowledged as belonging to their respective holders.

By accessing this Web site, you agree that the jurisdiction for any disputes concerning content on the Web site must be brought in the Provincial Court of British Columbia. Disputes must be arbitrated, and the dispute will be determined under the laws of the Province of British Columbia.

Letters sent to the editor are subject to publication.  Letters to the editor may be edited for clarity and brevity. Translations and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. Article reprint fee: $840 and up.

 

Status as a Service

Issue #1,009 Commentary by Ralph Grabowski on Eugene Wei Social media was first known as Web 2.0. Whereas the original Web connected us directly to corporations (recall the “No intermediaries!” rallying cry of 2000), the second generation would directly connect... Read more →

The CAD Trends of 2019 and Beyond

Issue #1,008 by Ralph Grabowski Marketing can make some things more important than they really are, and so it is good to get the view from the ground. There is, for instance, a vast difference between what is presented from... Read more →

Varjo Targets Industry With its VR-1 Goggles

Issue #1,007 by Ralph Grabowski For just over two years, Varjo ("shadow" in Finnish) worked on the world's highest-resolution headset for virtual reality. Last week, they released it: Originally named 'Bionic Display', it now has the more utilitarian VR-1 name... Read more →

What 2019's looking like for Autodesk

Issue #1,006 Opinion by Ralph Grabowski It seems Autodesk cannot decide if it wants to be a compact software company or a huge one. Last year, it laid off 23% of its employees; on the other hand, its roster of... Read more →

Highlights from PTC's Q4 Conference Call

Issue #1,005 by Ralph Grabowski Once a quarter, corporations owned by shareholders must report their financial results and report on anything that might effect their share price significantly. The corporations hold conference calls with financial analysts, who want to learn... Read more →

Three MCAD Programs You've Probably Never Heard Of

Issue #1,004 This issue sponsored by Innovate Your Products Faster with ANSYS Discovery Advanced physics modeling and simulation – no engineering PhD required. ANSYS Discovery speeds product design and prototyping, in an environment built for product designers and engineers. All... Read more →

Q&A with Onshape CEO Jon Hirschtick

Issue # 1,003 by Ralph Grabowski Six years ago, two former CEOs of Solidworks launched a new stealth software company. They landed $9 million in initial funding on the strength of their experience with the MCAD market; the funding grew... Read more →

Q&A with ParaMatters Co-founder Michael Bogomolny

Issue #1,002 by Ralph Grabowsk Generative design is very hot these days, but it doesn't help that there are two definitions of it. One generates dozens or hundreds of design variations and candidates, usually in the field of architecture; the... Read more →

Readers Respond to 'Will Computers Revolt?'

Issue #1,001 This issue sponsored by Discover the A-B-Cs of BricsCAD at the inaugural Australasia BricsCAD Conference 19 March 2019 in Brisbane, Australia Book your tickets at http://www.trybooking.com/YIUA Readers Respond Will Computers Revolt? Best thing I've read in years! I've... Read more →

Will Computers Revolt? Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Issue #1,000 This issue sponsored by BricsCAD V19 catapults forward in BIM, mechanical, and traditional CAD. You work across all disciplines with the common DWG environment. Discover the ABCs of BricsCAD at the forthcoming one-day Australasia BricsCAD Conference, 19 March... Read more →

Top News from the London and Berlin Conferences: The Best from Bricsys 2018, Graebert 2018

Issue #999 This issue sponsored by BricsCAD V19 catapults forward in BIM, mechanical, and traditional CAD. You work across all disciplines in the universal DWG environment. Discover the ABCs of BricsCAD at the forthcoming one-day Australasia BricsCAD Conference, 19 March... Read more →

Q&A with CEO Wilfried Graebert at the Berlin 2018 Annual Meeting

Issue #998 This issue sponsored by BricsCAD V19 catapults forward in BIM, mechanical, and traditional CAD. You work across all disciplines with the universal DWG environment. Discover the ABCs of BricsCAD at the upcoming one-day Australasia BricsCAD Conference, 19 March... Read more →

Q&A with CEO Erik de Keyser: On the acquisition of Bricsys by Hexagon

Issue #997 Transcribed by Ralph Grabowski The bombshell announcement at last month’s Bricsys 2018 London conference was that Bricsys had sold itself to Hexagon of Sweden, and is now part of the Hexagon PPM division. (Hexagon Power Plant Marine was... Read more →

Q&A With CEO Jesse Coors-Blankenship: On Frustum's Release of Generate for Windows

Issue #996 by Ralph Grabowski Frustum did something wrong last month. They moved their cloud-based design software, Generate, from the cloud to the desktop. That's not supposed to be happening in our "post-PC" era, as former Apple CEO Steve Jobs... Read more →

Q&A with CEO Dr Biplab Sarkar: On the Release of Vectorworks 2019

Issue #995 by Ralph Grabowski The Nemetschek Group is rather unusual as it owns the largest number of architectural CAD programs in the world: three -- as well as a dozen ancillary programs, such as for doing steel design and... Read more →

ODA Conference 2018, Part 3 A Tale of Three Vendors

Issue #994 by Ralph Grabowski During the Prague conference held by the Open Design Alliance, I met with several CAD vendors. Nanosoft: nanoCAD 10 and 3DScan Nanosoft began in Moscow a decade ago with this proposition: write an AutoCAD workalike... Read more →

ODA Conference 2018, Part 2: Q&A with Neil Peterson

Issue #993 Following the Open Design Alliance’s conference in Prague last month, Randall Newton of Consilia Vektor and Ralph Grabowski sat down with ODA president Neil Peterson for a Q&A. - - - Q: With your new logo and Web... Read more →

ODA Conference 2018, Part 1: Going Where No DWG Has Gone Before

Issue #929 by Ralph Grabowski As an organization that for many years concerned itself primarily with documenting the DWG format kept proprietary by Autodesk, the Open Design Alliance found time on its hands as Autodesk pulled back from making significant... Read more →

"Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup"

Issue #991 Book written by John Carreyrou; reviewed by Ralph Grabowski When I was a pre-teen kid, I was bored enough in the northern Canadian community in which I grew up to invent stuff. On paper I designed things like... Read more →

New From Epson: The SureColor T3170 Large-format Printer

Issue #990 reviewed by Ralph Grabowski When we think of large-format printers for CAD drawings, we tend to think of brand names like HP, Oce, and maybe Canon (which now owns Oce). Epson is also in the market, but is... Read more →