upFront.eZine News Archives

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

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HxGNn Live 2019: The Las Vegas Conference

Issue #1,019 by Ralph Grabowski Data can save the world" was this year’s theme for Hexagon's 9th annual user conference. Introduced by pounding music offering doomsday lyrics amongst thick, artificial fog and seemingly hundreds of multi-colored spotlights, Hexagon ceo Ola... Read more →

Graphisoft's Key Customer Conference 2019 in Las Vegas

Issue #1,018 by Ralph Grabowski The Graphisoft Story is a remarkable one, begun by a man who in 1984 had an Apple ][ computer smuggled through the Iron Curtain into Hungary. Gábor Bojár had conceived of the idea of using... Read more →

Modeling Scaffolding Systems with Avontus

Issue #1,017 by Ralph Grabowski, with Brian Webb Where there is construction, there is scaffolding. Figure 1: Scaffolding at a building site (All images sourced from Avontus) Scaffolding is one of the most complicated parts of construction. (See figure 1.)... Read more →

DEX Expo Abbotsford 2019

Issue #1,016 by Ralph Grabowski At last week's DEX Expo Abbotsford 2019 exhibition, the keynote panel's topic was training. "Oh, no!" I thought. Boring! And I'm sitting right up front. It'll be hard to slip out of this one. The... Read more →

Book review: "3D Thinking in Design and Architecture"

Issue #1,015 Book written by Roger Burrows; reviewed by Ralph Grabowski We are saturated in CAD, and so the close link between geometry and design is obvious to us. You can't have one without the other. Computer-aided designing is based... Read more →

Readers Respond: Dassault and Solidworks

Issue #1,014 That article filled in some gaps for me regarding the awkward relationship between Dassault and Solidworks. My company got out of Solidworks 18 months ago when we had to replace Workgroup PDM and realized that the Solidworks brand... Read more →

Dassault Really, Really Doesn't Want You Using Solidworks Anymore

Issue #1,013 Opinion by Ralph Grabowski A year ago at Solidworks World 2018, Dassault Systemes promised Solidworks users that it endorsed two pillars: Solidworks and 3dExperience. The two-pillars announcement was important, because two million Solidworks users had been rejecting Dassault's... Read more →

Q&A with Neil Peterson, Open Design Alliance

Issue #1,012 by Ralph Grabowski Having spent 20 years working on SDKs [software development kits] for desktop software, the Open Design Alliance last year began adding a Web browser-based SDK to its offerings. (The ODA develops software that lets CAD... Read more →

Q&A With Mark Sawyer of Trimble

Issue #1,011 by Ralph Grabowski Trimble (USA) has a certain similarity with Hexagon (Sweden). Both began in the measurement business, Trimble in surveying and Hexagon in post-manufacturing measurements. Both are bigger in revenues than almost any CAD vendor, with Trimble... Read more →

What Happens to BricsCAD? New from the Australasia BricsCAD Conference 2019

Issue #1,010 by Ralph Grabowski Last month's Australasia BricsCAD Conference (ABC) 2019 was the first conference after Hexagon announced its acquisition Bricsys, and so attendees were interested to know what the future of their software would be inside the $4.4... Read more →

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 →