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Report from Siggraph 2013 in Anaheim

Issue #785

 

SIGGRAPH is not a CAD show, which is why I was surprised when CADdigest publisher Roopinder Tara asked me to help him cover the event last week in Anaheim, California. Siggraph is short for "special interest group, graphics," and this year it turns 40. It had a brief fling with CAD in the late 1980s, and so as technical editor back then of CADalyst magazine I flew to conferences in Boston and Philadelphia. Now Siggraph tends to stick to the West Coast, because the nerve centers for its audience are the technology of Silicon Valley and the movie production of Los Angeles.

My job was to land appointments with vendors, interview them, write them up, and then email the text and pix to Roopinder, who posted them to his CAD Insider blog. Between the two of us, we booked 33 appointments over three days. Following this hectic pace, I had no difficulty sleeping eight hours sleep each night!

So, Is There CAD at Siggraph?

Technically, none. No CAD vendor had a booth there. Even Auto-our-software-is-in-every-movie-Desk had no booth (more later). But ancillary firms have a foot in the CAD world, or at least tried to pitch their product to us CAD media as CAD-friendly. Specifically, 3D-friendly. Here is an overview of just some of the hardware and software vendors who I visited.

 

zSpace. I had interviewed Infinite Z's ceo Paul Kellenberger way back in 2011 (see http://www.upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-714.htm#a) but it was not until last week that I finally saw his zSpace hardware for real. It was during NVidia/Dell's Limelight dance-floor party in the Platinum Ballroom. zSpace's take on 3D interaction is a large monitor designed to rest on the desk at an angle. As I put on the polarizing clip-on glasses, a 3D model pops out into the air. Grasping ahold of a tethered stylus, I see a green line shoot out, helping me determine which part I am selecting from the model. $6,000 from http://www.zspace.com

 

Cintoo3D. Booth-sharing is a common practice, in which small companies get affordable spots with larger sponsors, whether NVidia, the province of British Columbia, or the country of France -- and larger sponsors cut their cost of expensive, massive booths on the show floor. In the AMD booth, brand-new company (launched in July as a university spin-off) Cintoo3D promised 50x data compression of meshes and textures through wavelet-based CODECs using vector quantitization running on the GPUs of AMD's FirePro graphics boards. The technology could be applied to CAD models, CEO Andre Labat told me. http://www.cintoo3D.com

 

Heterogeneous System Architecture. The GPUs installed in our computers and tablets hold a tantalizing key to accelerating many kinds of calculations, but the key has remained of tantalizingly limited use. This is because CPUs are designed to crunch calculations sequentially (and can page data to disk), while GPUs do the job in parallel (and must hold all data in their own RAM) -- and thus the twain are hard to meet. I attended a talk by the HSA Foundation, a group working on APIs that let "any" software run on CPUs and GPUs -- using OpenCL and other software. (HSA consists of nearly all hardware vendors and many software ones, with the haughty exception of Apple.) This November, the first such software may appear. http://hsafoundation.com

 

Thinkbox. Here is the archetypical Siggraph story: a company figures out how to do special effects for movies and games, then realizes the technology could extend to 3D CAD. Thinkbox CEO Chris Bond spent a decade refining algorithms to create realistic effects of flowing water, burning flames, and blowing smoke by manipulating billions of points. He had seen special effects firms using laser scanners to collect 3D data of buildings, and then add them to scenes digitally. With his new FROST software, he put the two together: it can render 40 billion 3D points in 28 minutes, turning scanned buildings and other objects into meshes. He told me that the software is 37,000 times faster than Geomagic, and costs ten times less. (Mr Bond's ultimate aim is to model every cell in the human body, all 300 trillion of them.) http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com

 

Dell. A company in transition, Dell this year showed up at Siggraph, determined to sell its MCAD-oriented workstations to the M&E (media and entertainment) crowd. To create some media waves, they invited us to a "whisper suite" in a nearby hotel on an appointment-only basis. Here they showed us hardware that you won't see until the fall, including "the world's lightest workstation" (their claim, not mine) boasting a 3200x1800 resolution touchscreen, and a new 32" monitor with 4K (3840x2860) resolution -- plus some upgraded workstations. No prices were given; when I suggested a $1,500 price-point for the big monitor, the Dell product menager looked aghast: I think it will be much more expensive. "We're spanking our competition, especially one named after a fruit," Dell summarized. http://www.dell.com

 

Leonar3Do. The funnest stuff at tradeshows is for me the unexpected, and for me the funnest was Leonar3Do from Budapest, Hungary. They have 3D sculpting software and infrared tracking hardware. Neither are new; other, larger companies were showing the same at their booths, and to me their Leopoly software was just another Mudbox. But their Go Bird hardware is kewl: a bird-like 3D "mouse" for editing 3D models and selecting commands from the screen ($499). Sales manager Peter KIertesz showed me how it requires polarizing glasses for seeing the model in 3D, and a pair of infrared cameras to track the position of the glasses (moving my head moves the 3D model), and the Go Bird (pressing the buttons select parts of the model or commands from the screen). Two take-aways: Go Bird vibrates when it "touches" the surface of the 3D model; and it was 3D printed. http:// www.leonar3do.com

 

Christie. At the other end of the hardware spectrum was Christie, the company that makes most of the giant digital projectors used by movie theatres. Senior director of technology and visualization Larry Paul gave me the booth tour. First, the 84" LCD tv screen to which they added infrared six-touch-point technology and whiteboard software for placing and annotating images by hand. Next, a shopping-cart-size projector hooked up to four specialized workstations rendering car models in realtime-3D at 4K resolution and 120Hz. And lastly, the world's first turnkey (all-in-one) CAVE (computer aided visualization environment) that lets a couple of people stand in an immersive modeling environment. This last item fits in an office elevator, and costs around $300,000. http:// www.christiedigital.com

 

NVidia. This graphics board company had spilled the beans about their new K6000 graphics board the Friday before Siggraph during off-the-record interviews with us media. (See http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/nvidias-new-graphics-board-probably-holds-more-ram-than-your-computer.html). The main features are that it is faster (naturally) and boasts 12GB RAM, which means that it can render much larger models faster. But, it is not meant for CAD users generally, and it costs around $2500, and it doesn't ship until this fall. http://www.nvidia.com

 

AMD. The other big graphics board company had no FirePro announcements to make, but instead public relations manager John Swinimer showed off his boards supporting 4K monitors. One board can drive not one, not two, but six 4K monitors at once! -- that's 55 million pixels. Also, they gave us media a wonderful no-marketing-talk dinner at a Disneyland restaurant. http://www.amd.com/us/products/Pages/graphics.aspx

 

As you see, many firms at Siggraph send a we-have-a-foot-in-CAD message to those of us from the CAD media.

An Industry Eats Itself Up; Finds the Taste Distasteful

We got a hint this sumer that Hollywood is in trouble after several blockbusters in a row failed. (The definition of "failed" is failing to make back 50% of the movie's cost after its first weekend of showings.)

When in 2011 I last attended Siggraph, it was all about 3D for consumers, whether through TVs, movies, or games. One research firm foolishly predicted that by next year (2014) all cell phones will have 3D interfaces. But then 3D died, as consumers did back-of-the-envelop cost-benefit analyses and decided to not throw out their recently-purchased monster-size 2D flatscreen TVs for something that gave them headaches.

 

Autodesk was a sponsor of Siggraph, but did not have a booth. They provided a breakfast for the media in Disneyland, but had few announcements. Instead, they gave us a gloomy outlook for M&E, as did Jon Peddie during a luncheon the following day.

Gloomy? How can this be, what with Playstation 4 and Xbox One about to burst forth, Netflix booming in revenues, and so on. The problem is down at the level of the small companies who specialize in creating special effects (sfx) for the movies, ads, and games -- and are Autodesk's M&E customers. As clients demand increasingly complex sfx, the cost to create them outpaces the growth in revenues. As a result, Autodesk told us, while the film industry is growing 5% year-over-year, none of Autodesk's customers are turning much of a profit. Indeed, revenues at Autodesk's M&E division have been declining annually over recent years, perhaps leading to the lack of the monster booth.

The solutions from Autodesk M&E are to "standardize" and be "open," as follows:

• Standardize production cycles (production houses in the past kept reinventing ways of doing sfx)
• Standardize ways to exchange data, such as using OpenData to access datasets from Autodesk's Maya software
• Scalability
• Support open workflows

The company announced one new program, FBX Review, a stand-alone FBX file viewer, which displays 3D and animation from programs like AutoCAD and Maya. One demo illustrated interactively viewing a model from Revit. http://area.autodesk.com/products/features/2013fbx

 

Jon Peddie Associates. As worrying as Autodesk's message was the graph produced by Jon Peddie that showed Siggraph attendance declining even as the M&E industry was growing. Worse, vendor participation at Siggraph is declining faster than the number of attendees. I suppose we should be happy Siggraph exists at all, when we consider how many general CAD trade shows have expired in the past decade.

Mr Peddie did, however, provide some good news. He feels that tablets are at the tipping point between being consumption devices (of old) and creation devices (the future). This is due partly to this year's addition of OpenGL 3 to mobile CPU-GPUs, and accompanying improvements in the Android operating system. In the end, however, the hope dies hard, as the 25 July issue of Peddie's TechWatch newsletter pleads, "3D needs its Napster moment." http://jonpeddie.com

Summary

If there was a theme to Siggraph 2013, it was big data: working with lots of points and pushing lots of pixels. Siggraph 2014 next year will be back to Vancouver, Canada, after Los Angeles Conference Center apparently jacked up its price tag way too high. http://www.siggraph.com

[Disclosures: Tenlinks.com paid for my airfare, ground transportation, hotel, and some meals. Siggraph provided me with a media pass and some meals. Some vendors mentioned in this article gave me corporate gifts (mostly small-capacity USB thumbdrives) and some meals. Don Beaton gave me a tour of the desert outside Anaheim.]

Further coverage of Siggraph 2013

• CAD Insider blog's coverage of Siggraph 2013: http://cadinsider.typepad.com

• Much to my surprise, I am at SIGGRAPH 2013: http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/much-to-my-surprise-i-am-at-siggraph-2013.html

• Why the 3D hype of SIGGRAPH 2011 failed by SIGGRAPH 2013: http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/why-the-3d-of-siggraph-2011-failed-by-siggraph-2013.html

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: RTC NA 2013
"I really loved the Revit and Design Technology Conference reports. Having made the jump from AutoCAD to Revit Structure for one project, I completely get it (the degree of difficulty, that is)."
     - Ron Powell

 

"I see you report on BIM a lot. I recall back from the late 80s to early 90s when what appeared to be BIM in Intergraph's Microstation that I used. What ever happened to Microstation's building design program? Does Microstation compete in BIM today?

    "How does it take the industry so long to not quite perfect an ever churning building software that should have been perfected ten years ago?"
    - Chris

The editor replies: "You are speaking of Microstation TriForma, but I don't know what has happened to it. Financially, Bentley seem to be stuck at making around $500 million a year -- plus or minus.

    "The difference between MCAD and AEC software, is that MCAD designs one part of which millions will be made, while AEC software designs one thing made of millions of parts, which is a problem that's a lot tougher to solve through software."

Mr Chris responds: "Thanks for your info bank of current market news. Ever think of joining Bloomberg's news reporting?"

 

"Isn't part of the problem that the end goal is somewhere in between what you say Autodesk and DS think: the end product is getting a building/plant/physical asset that meets the clients' requirements. As you say, the tools should make generating the things you need to reach that goal, including 2D drawings and information to support purchasing, subcontracting, etc. as easy as possible.

     "It took the mechanical side quite some time to get to understanding that having a 3D master was a desirable end, but it took vendors like DS a while to understand that you cannot change the dominant paradigm by fiat. 2D drawings are part of the AEC dominant paradigm, just as they still are in parts of the supply chain where the OEMs have 3D masters."
       - Stan Przybylinski, vp ofresearch
         CIMdata

The editor replies: "While software companies have differing programming priorities, I think that for the last ten years the big push was in the area of 3D and rendering, and only now are they coming back to what matters, 2D."

 

"Thanks for providing an unbiased, honest report!!"
     - Ellen Stevens

 

"You reported, 'We would rather hire an architect and teach them Revit, than hire a Revit user and try to teach them architecture.' As you may have heard, rumour has it that I know a little bit about AutoCAD. I have taught it to a lot of people, and I have also taught mechanical engineering. Back in the days when I worked in the real world, I had occasion to hire mechanical designers. AutoCAD was the last thing I looked for on the resume, because I could teach them AutoCAD a LOT faster than I could teach them mechanical design.

     "(I cringe whenever I see the job title CAD Operator. There is no such job. They didn't used to call them a 'pencil, paper, T-square & eraser operator'.)

     "Having CAD software proficiency certification doesn't prove much, in the same way that knowing how to touch-type doesn't make you a writer. Shakespeare couldn't type worth a darn, but he was a pretty good writer.
     - Bill Fane

- - -

"Your readers may be interested in this study of phoney product reviews:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/07/15/new-study-investigates-online-reviews "
      - Don Beaton

"upFront.eZine has helped me immensely during my drawing career. Thank you."
      - Randall Abbey

"Thank you for all the good and to-the-point information you provide."
      - Antoine Reymond
        AMD Professional Graphics

 

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Notable Quotable

"RSS, semantic markup, microformats, and open APIs all enable interoperability, but the big players don't want that -- they want to lock you in, shut out competitors, and make a service so proprietary that even if you could get your data out, it would be either useless (no alternatives to import into) or cripplingly lonely (empty social networks)."
      - Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper
        http://www.marco.org/2013/07/03/lockdown

 

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* 11602

About That Exploit in DWG Files

Issue #788

 

 

Two security researchers in Argentina earlier this year found an exploit in DWG version AC1021 files used by AutoCAD 2007 and later, as well as TrueView and Autodesk software based on AutoCAD. The exploit is severe enough ("Medium") to be listed in the US government's National Vulnerability Database (see http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2013-3665).

Security research firm Binamuse reported the problem to Autodesk on March 27, following which Autodesk quietly released a hotfix July 10 at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?id=21972896&linkID=9240618&siteID=123112 . The patch is for AutoCAD 2011-2014, but not for the truly affected releases of AutoCAD 2007-2010, oddly enough. (The more recent releases are affected only in that they can read DWG 2007-10 files.)

Binamuse two weeks later reported the problem publicly; the CAD media ignored the story, except for my WorldCAD Access blog. I contacted Binamuse and the Open Design Alliance to learn more about the exploit.

The Finder Explains

Felipe Manzano of Binamuse pointed me to his company's blog for the technical explanation of the exploit:

"AutoCAD is vulnerable to an arbitrary pointer dereference vulnerability, which can be exploited by malicious remote attackers to compromise a user's system. This issue is due to AutoCAD's failure to properly bounds-check data in a DWG file before using it to index and copy heap memory values. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code by opening a specially crafted DWG file."

For the full technical details, see http://blog.binamuse.com/2013/07/autocad-dwg-ac1021-heap-corruption.html.

Open Design Alliance Responds

Neil Peterson is the chief technical officer of Open Design Alliance, and he explained why Teigha is not vulnerable to the exploit but is getting an update anyhow. (Teigha is the name of the ODA's DWG API.)

"Loading one of these specially-crafted .dwg files cannot result in the execution of arbitrary/malicious code in an ODA Teigha-based application. (Heap corruption can occur since Teigha is not performing bounds checking in certain situations during loading.) However, no additional exploitation is possible due to the modern architecture and code structure used in Teigha.

"A source-code fix for the heap corruption issue is already available to ODA founding members, and the fix will be included in the 3.9.1 release of Teigha scheduled for December 2013." http://www.opendesign.com

Binamuse's proof-of-concept exploit written in Python can be downloaded from http://www.binamuse.com/exploits/BINA-20130724.py

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Can a Monitor Be Too Big?
"I regularly use a 13" Apple MacBook Pro to create 2D detail drawings using Vectorworks. Besides this, my main CAD system is a 27" iMac. I find that although I work carefully on the laptop, I find numerous small mistakes when I switch to the 27" screen. There, the mistakes are glaringly obvious.

"A big screen is definitely a big advantage: I work faster, the feedback loop is much more direct. While a high resolution is obviously important, it does not substitute for big image size: it simply makes working easier specifically for older eyes. (I am 57.) I used to have problems in the mid-80s with the then high-res 18" 1024x768 screens -- specifically Sony's Trinitron-based monitors. I would see their rectangular grid pattern imprinted in my vision as I sometimes worked 10-12 hour days.

"I now know this is not good. I have much less trouble with the modern screens I now use."
      - Rene Dalmeijer
       The Netherlands

 

Re: Leap Motion

"Guten Tag, Herr Grabowski: Did you test [the 3D air controller] Leap Motion with CAD? (https://www.leapmotion.com). What do you think about this device?"
      - Jose De Jesus, alias "No more CADsualties"
        Switzerland

The editor replies: "No, I have not tested it, as the device is still quite rare. My experience with using a large touchscreen Windows 8 computer for nearly a year now shows me that touch and gestures are only sometimes better than the mouse. Touch cannot, however, replace the mouse in CAD for the following reasons, and I see the similar problems facing 3D air interfaces, like the one from Leap Motion:

• When drawing and editing, we cannot see the area of interest under our finger; things like grip boxes are hidden and too small
• When working for more than a few minutes with touch, the arm becomes tired
• While Windows 8 allows most programs to react in some way to touch, most are not fully touch-enabled, and so even simple actions like zoom are sometimes unavailable

- - -

"I was a free-lancer for years, but as an amateur in developing some CAD freeware I enjoyed the reading upFront.eZine about progress and decay in those big idea-selling CAD companies. I have been diagnosed with pancreas cancer, and only a few weeks (and a lot of pain killers) are given to me to make my life liveable. Regards, and enjoy life; keep up the good work."
      - H. M.
       Belgium

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Notable Quotable

"Google Glass, iWatch, [Fitbit Flex] activity monitor... you're halfway to RoboCop."
      - Bob Dormon, The Register
        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/03/review_fitbit_flex_activity_monitor

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* 11817

RTC NA 2013 (Revit Technology Conference)

Issue #784

 

 

I spent three days last week at the ninth annual Revit Technology Conference, North American edition. Actually, I was at two conferences, as Design Technology Conference took place the day before RTC.

DTC was an invitation-only event for people who (a) are interested in BIM and (b) would promise organizers that they would contribute. The result was 35 men and women from several countries, of large architectural firms and small.

From the all-day DTC sessions and the RTC BIM management session the following day, I learned there are three areas of concern managers have of BIM:

• people
• process
• product

People. I was surprised at how frank attendees were in expressing their frustration over employees who hold up efficiency -- known as "laggers." During DTC, "let the laggers lag" was the most blunt statement by one attendee. Another toned down the sharp edge by saying, "We are stubborn optimists, because we love the technology. Laggers just want to get their job done."

At the BIM management session the next day, many more complaints were made about under-performing employees and the training they got outside the firm. Here are a few of them:

"Ask the question 'Why?' a lot, because a lot of people don't know why they are doing what they do."

"You need skilled people, because school-trained AutoCAD users are a wiz at drawing with AutoCAD, but don't know what they are drawing. In some cases, they don't even know that they have problems. We rolled out Revit MEP six months ago, but only two people have complained about problems, and that scares me."'

"We would rather hire an architect and teach them Revit, than hire a Revit user and try to teach them architecture."

Process. Problems in the area of process was primarily between firms. For instance, one attendee is a sub-contractor whose clients all use different project management software, and so he is master of none. "We are not a leader, we are just following the train," he said. Another attendee suggested that projects are 10% technology and 90% sociology. "The effort is to make sure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing. Sometimes it helps to have someone from outside the organization implement organizational dynamics and team building," she said.

Product. As for product, attendees expressed their frustration that major software vendors like Autodesk and Dassault Systemes do not understand the end product needed by architectural and engineering firms designing buildings. One said that Autodesk thinks the end product is information, while another chimed in that Dassault thinks its all about the model. It is neither; above all, the end product desired by architects and engineers are the 2D building plans; vendors have no idea how important -- and time consuming -- these are. Software that makes it trivial to generate these end-user drawings is highly desired.

That, and faster software. At the end of one session, I thought it was over and had packed away my computer when attendees erupted into a litany of complaints over the slow speed of Revit, and so I was unable to record them. It made, however, for fascinating listening.

About Revit Technology Conference(s)

RTC organizers tell me that 425 registered for this conference. And that's as big as they want it to grow. They began in Australia, and then launched additional RTC events in North America and Europe to keep the size small. In addition, they have additional non-BIM events, such as one specific to rendering and another for architects, like last week's DTC.

Once is not enough, and so I am planning to attend RTC Europe, being held in Delft Holland, Fri-Sat 27-28 September. More info at http://www.cvent.com/events/rtc-europe-2013/event-summary-c1a669c3464c45969779b065420d88e3.aspx.

BIM for the Smaller Firm

As an example of one of the 86 sessions and labs held at RTC NA, here are the notes I took at "BIM for the Smaller Firm." The presentation was given by Will Wiens, who is a consultant helping firms justify and adopt Revit (only).

Mr Wiens says that most of the architectural firms he deals with are small. What is a small firm? In British Columbia where RTC NA took place, there are 769 registered architectural firms, with an average size of 7.6, but more than half have just one or two people. The remainder are split evenly between 3-4 staff, 5-10, or more than 10.

When he speaks with potential clients about adopting Revit, he get these negative responses:

• BIM is slow. Counterpoint: he found that this is a result of process changes, in which a firm tries to mold existing processes into the way BIM needs to do things, instead of adopting new BIM-efficient methods.
• BIM is expensive, as $5000 per seat is substantial for licensing cost. Counterpoint: this is a "small" one-time capital cost with a gain in efficiency. [He did not mention the mandatory annual subscription cost.]
• BIM is complicated. Counterpoint: it automates tasks that are tedious, such as automated balloons. He finds that some firms add complication unnecessarily.
• BIM is data-driven but firms do design. Counterpoint: BIM can inform design and resolve designs for effectiveness, which allows time for more design.
• "We're too small to compete" or "We don't have a BIM guy." Counterpoint: Smaller firms can do better than the big guys, because they know their niche market really, really well. Sometimes small firms are more nimble, more efficient, and can adopt technology faster.

Six steps of strategic implementation

Mr Wiens then provided his six steps to implement BIM:

Step 1: Assessment is the process of documenting knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Who in the firm has what knowledge? And why are you wanting to switch to BIM?

Step 2: Planning is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve the goal. Try a pilot project, create implementation schedule, select the reasonable goals, and choose team members; communicate stages to staff. Leave out the nay-sayers.

Step 3: Organize by forming into a coherent unity, a functioning whole. Implement a new workflow, set naming conventions, views, assemblies, content, and libraries.

Step 4: Templates establish a pattern to get drawings done quickly and repeatedly. Process template for workflows, project-specific generic templates impose the look on the drawing sets and their organization, and content templates with all the content needed, such as doors.

Step 5: Build by ordering and uniting materials gradually into a composite whole. Know what you want before you start and build accordingly, build smarter not quicker, take advantage of style guides and take advantage of parametric families.

Step 6: Reuse to use an item for the same or new functions, without reprocessing. Review the last project, audit, and purge what did not work well. Create libraries and warehouse files to store reusable content.

He concluded by saying, "Drafting is not BIM."

Further coverage of RTC North America

...on WorldCAD Access (all 4,500 words of it):

1. Live blogging RTC Day -1: Design Technology Conference
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/rtc-day-1-design-technology-conference.html

2. Live blogging RTC's Design Technology Conference: afternoon sessions
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/live-blogging-rtcs-design-technology-conference-afternoon-sessions.html

3. Revit Technology Conference opens in Vancouver Canada
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/revit-technology-conference-opens-in-vancouver-canada.html

4. Live blogging: RTC Day 1, keynote addresses
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/live-blogging-rtc-day-1-keynote-addresses.html

5. Live blogging: Thursday morning session at the Revit Technology Conference
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/live-blogging-thursday-sessions-at-the-revit-technology-conference.html

6. Live blogging RTC afternoon sessions: Fractals with Revit
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/live-blogging-rtc-afternoon-sessions-fractals-with-revit.html

7. Live blogging: RTC seminar on subcontractors
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/live-blogging-rtc-seminar-on-subcontractors.html

8. Exhibitors at RTC: Looking at TurboSite 1.3
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/exhibitors-at-rtc-looking-at-turbosite-13.html

9. Live blogging RTC day 2: BIM for small firms; also, cloud-enabled structural analysis
http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/live-blogging-rtc-day-2.html

[Disclosure: RTC provided me with hotel, parking, and some meals.]

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Out of the Inbox

Cengage purchased Delmar Publishing some years ago, and thought it could make the long-time publisher more profitable by cutting costs. This does work well, because publishing and music companies operate very differently from any other form of company, and Cengage did not understand this. In publishing, cost-cutting means fewer sales, and so lower profits. (Delmar is the publishing company through which my paper books are printed and distributed. I have written for them since 1990. At one time, they held the Autodesk Press imprint.)
      Cengage has now applied for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, which allows overly indebted US corporations to reorganize their finances by reducing the amount of their debts they need to pay to creditors. This is all regulated by a bankruptcy court. One of the group of creditors is authors, like me, to whom Cengage owes royalties. Cengage has applied to the bankruptcy court for permission to pay royalties it owes to authors. The court might say yes, no, or that Cengage can pay only a portion of the full royalties.

So this is pretty interesting. IntelliCAD has only ever been available from members of ITC, who sell and market the software independently. But now that Rob Berry is the business development director, anyone can become a member of the ITC Beta Site, and then download 90-day trial versions of the latest release. https://download.intellicad.org/register

CIMdata's report on PLM in China finds that the software category grew 17% last year, as compared to global slowing in the second half of last year. Some 54% of the market belongs to Dassault Systemes, PTC, and Siemens PLM Software, but locally produced PLM is getting stronger. http://www.eworksglobal.com

BRL-CAD 7.24 is getting a new geometry editor, with functions like integrated graphical tree view, drag and drop editing, information panels, shortcut buttons, improved polygonal mesh and 2D sketch editing, and NURBS shaded display. The alpha version is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at http://brlcad.org/d/node/186

Bricsys is making the LGS component technology it uses in BricsCAD available to CAD/CAM/CAE software developers. LGS is useful for parametric drawing, variational direct modeling, assembly design, and kinematic simulation. http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/developers/components

Well, Bricsys may have purchased LEDAS technology and staff, but here LEDAS Labs pops up with their latest offering -- a cloud-based geometry comparator. It doesn't use Boolean subtraction, but new technology developed by LEDAS for the Russian Geometry Kernel project. http://ledas.com/group/press_releases/?press_num=184

Redsdk 3.2 adds physical lights, sky, and sun; vectorized hidden line removal, and Windows 8 support. Get the details from http://www.redway3d.com/news/news030713.php

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Linux beats Microsoft to 3D printer support, maybe
"In one paragraph you explain the issues that might exist in STL export, thickness and geometry, etc. My guess is that this is a bigger hurdle than any of those companies are currently admitting to, especially when it comes to scaled models, such as those exported from architectural products, such as SketchUp, AutoCAD, or Revit -– who will be wanting to use Windows 8.1 etc.

"The traditional path has been to redraw these designs specifically for 3D printing. 3DMTP is saving those designers a lot of time and cost by allowing them to work with the existing CAD and not having to re-draw for 3D printing. Please see some of our samples in our Shapeways shop: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/3DMTP."
      - Phil Magenheim, business development and strategic planning
         Direct Dimensions, Inc.

 

"Nice work, Ralph, on the 3D printing article."
      - Terry Wohlers
       Wohlers Associates, Inc.

 

Re: First Firefox phones launch on Dominion Day

"In your July 2nd newsletter, it is stated that AutoCAD 360 does not run on Firefox because it requires Flash. This was true of the older AutoCAD WS app; however, AutoCAD 360 is based on HTML 5 and does not require Flash plug-in to run. Can you please correct the statement so it's accurate?"
      - Stacy Doyle, senior pr manager manufacturing
         Autodesk

The editor replies: "The article was about Firefox the operating system for cell phones, and not Firefox the Web browser. When I checked your concern, I received the same response from AutoCAD 360 as when I first researched my article (i.e., Flash is not supported on my device). It seems that Autodesk is redirecting my Firefox OS smartphone from AutoCAD 360 to WS. This could be because Firefox OS is still in beta and so is sending the wrong metadata to Autodesk. At this point, my statement in upFront.eZine stands."

 

"Thank you for years of a high quality newsletter!"
      - Heron Technologies
        The Netherlands

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Notable Quotable

"Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880 - 5 June 1963), was a British Army officer of Belgian and Irish descent. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War; was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; survived a plane crash; tunneled out of a POW camp; and bit off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. He later wrote that "Frankly I had enjoyed the war" when describing his service in the First World War."
      - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Carton_de_Wiart
       (hat tip to Matthew Barrett)

 

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* 11602

Linux beats Microsoft to 3D printer support, maybe

Issue #783

 

Microsoft last week announced that Windows 8.1 would support 3D printers directly. Almost immediately, the news was eclipsed by Fedora, which said it already had direct 3D printing. Fedora Version 19 shipped last week but Windows 8.1 will not be ready for end users until this fall, although a preview is downloadable now.

There is keen competition between the two, as the Fedora team says that they intend to "make Fedora the best distribution for 3D printing," while Microsoft insists "Windows 8.1 is the first and only platform to support it natively." (Fedora is the freeware version of Red Hat Software's commercial Linux.)

Does this mean we can now hook up cheap 3D printers to our computers, and then immediately print 3D files from 3D CAD? Not at all, as I found out. First, let's look at the steps traditionally needed to turn a 3D CAD model into a 3D product:

1. Create the 3D model in the CAD software.
2. Export the model from the CAD program to an STL file.
3. Convert the STL data to slices using G-code generator software.
4. Transmit the G-code file to the 3D printer via a the printer communications program.
5. Instruct the printhead to lay down layers of material through the 3D printer's controller firmware.

STL files [standard tessellation language] are very simple: they define the surfaces of 3D objects as a series of triangles, plus a vector to indicate the outer side of each triangle -- and no other data. Nearly every CAD program today has an STL exporter, although the quality of output varies from poor to fair.

G-code files contain simple instructions to control machines, including 3D printers -- kind of like MIDI for musical instruments. These printers lay down material in layers, which is why the 3D model is converted to slices, each slice corresponding to a layer of material. Some 3D printers use standard G-code, while others employ proprietary versions.

Because the STL files can be poor representations of 3D models, additional software is needed to check if the data is watertight (no unwanted gaps) and manufacturable by adding supports, making thin walls thicker, and so on.

The Theory

The new release of Linux Fedora is said to combine steps 3 and 4 with a program that integrates the slicing activity and communicating the data to the 3D printer; see figure 1. This means that it should be possible, for instance, to send an STL file (generated by a Windows CAD program) to be printed by a Linux computer.

Figure 1: How Fedora 19 shortcuts the 3D printing process

 

On the Windows side, Microsoft went further, combing steps 2 through 4 by creating an API [application programming interface] and writing a driver model.

Microsoft also invented a new XML-based file format called 3MF. Their shortcut requires CAD programs to do the slicing work and saving the data in a 3MF file, which is forwarded to the 3D printer.

The API lets third-party developers add the 'Print' button to their menus (shouldn't that be a '3D Print' button?), which displays the 3D model in a print preview dialog box. Here users adjust settings typical to 3D printing, such as having more or less supporting material, setting the size based on the volume the printer can handle, and specifying the quality. You can see an example of a 3D printer preview program illustrated by Autodesk's free 3D Print utility in figure 2.

Figure 2: Print preview of a 3D model

 

The driver model lets Windows 8.1 support a number of 3D printers. I assume they are consumer models such as Makerbot's Replicator 2 used in Microsoft's demo. If the quality of the drivers is as poor as those provided by Microsoft for large format plotters, then you won't want to use them for precision work.

Microsoft's new 3MF [3d Manufacturing Format] format is written in XML [eXtensible Markup Language]. It packages the 3D data and other information in a ZIP file. The 3D data does not consist of simple triangles, as in STL, but of slices defined by lines, Bezier curves, elliptical arcs, and fills. STL specifies nothing but coordinates; in contrast, 3MF adds colors, size, and textures.

The "other" information in the ZIP file includes printer settings, 2D thumbnail previews, raster texture files, and digital signatures. The format can be extended by vendors to handle unique functions in their printers.

3MF also contains digital signatures to protect files when they are transmitted to another computer, such as by email. It looks to me that CAD vendors can inject their own IP [intellectual property] protection method.

The workflow looks like this:

1. The user clicks Print in the 3D CAD software, which displays a 3D print preview dialog box.

2. The user selects the printer and adjusts its parameters. This data is stored in a Print Ticket, which is added to the 3MF file.

2. When the user clicks OK, the CAD software exports the 3D model as slices in 3MF format. (Two Microsoft sources contradicted each other, and so it is not clear to me if the slicing occurs now, or later when the G-code is generated.) This requires CAD vendors to add a 3MF exporter, or for users to purchase it from third-party developers; Autodesk showed a preview using an unreleased version of its 123D Design software.

3. Windows 8.1 sends the 3MF file to the XPS print spooler (printer buffer). If this is like the current 2D spooler, then Printing 3D models uses the XPS printing subsystem.

4. The spooler sends the data to the Print Pipeline, which uses filters to convert the XML data to the 3D printer's G-code (I think), and then sends it on to the printer. Printer setup information is stored in PrintTickets.

Microsoft provides no information on how filters work. Also, it was not clear to me whether Windows 8.1 outputs printers' native G-code, or if printers have to have new firmware installed to handle 3MF, or if printer makers must provide users with new drivers that read 3MF; Microsoft will provide some drivers.

The Practice

Linux. I tested the Linux implementation by installing the 0.8GB Fedora 19 on a VM drive. The online documentation indicated that OpenSCAD is included in Fedora, as is the integrated slicer and printer program; no need to download them separately apparently. But 'twas not the case. Fortunately, it was easy to add the two applications through Fedora's Software utility, which downloads and installs programs in one step.

I opened OpenSCAD, and then exported a 3D model (provided as a demo file) in STL format. Now what? I double-clicked the STL file, but the generic GEdit text editor opened the file (no relation to G-code). I tried changing the file association to the slicer-printer program, but could not find it. After some further mucking about, I gave up.

 

Windows. I then tested the Windows implementation by installing the 2.4GB Windows 8.1 preview. I had read that Autodesk would be supporting the direct-3D-print function in 123D Design, and so I installed it. After it installed, it prompted me to install the Autodesk 3D Print Utility, which I did. And then somewhere along the line I was prompted to install Makerbot's MakerWare software, and so I did.

I opened a simple model in 123D Design, and then clicked the 3D Print button. Well, I didn't get to experience 3MF, because 123D Design still only outputs to Autodesk's own 3D Print utility; Autodesk says the 3MF-enabled version is not yet available to us.

As I last resort, I hunted around Windows 8.1 for some proof for the existence of 3MF, but found nothing in searching for "3MF"; in looking through the formats handled by XPS Viewer; hunting the Control Panel under Devices and Printers; searching the Windows Store (as suggested by Microsoft); nor in online help.

In conclusion, Fedora and Microsoft might claim to be best or first, but the reality today is nothing and zip.

What Ralph Grabowski Thinks

As you can tell from my experience, I have no experience with 3D printers, other than watching a few at work. So I read up on what bloggers had to say. Joseph Larson of Joe's Makerbot wrote, "A good slicer makes all the difference. Microsoft is going to make the slicer." He means that 3MF will be not be good enough for complex print jobs. 3d Printing Era agrees, writing that Microsoft is "proposing a custom format that pays little regard to existing formats; Microsoft is oversimplifying the print process."

(In contrast, Makezine.com proclaims, "Why Microsoft's 3D Printing Rocks!", while The Official Microsoft Blog yells, "...a factory on every desktop!" and claims parts are printed "at home in a few minutes.")

Microsoft is losing to Androids and iPads, and so sees 3D printing as one way to regain its former kinghood. It won in the days of Windows NT when it killed the market for high-end CAD running on Unix. As vendors switched to NT, users were forced to follow, and today we cannot imagine MCAD running on Linux, seriously.

Should 3MF actually attract users to Windows 8.1, then companies like Autodesk face an uncomfortable decision. Its 123D Design runs on iPads, Macs, PCs, and in Web browsers, but the one-click 3D Print function won't be on three of the four platforms -- Apple lost what little interest it had in the engineering market, and Google is oblivious to it.

Microsoft says it is supported by hardware makers 3D Systems, Formlabs, MakerBot, Stratasys, and Tiertime, and by software vendors Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, netfabb, and Trimble. Microsoft directly supports Aurduino-based hardware.

As prices of 3D printers fall, makers will have little interest in spending profits on writing 3MF code. Similarly, CAD vendors will have little incentive to add slicer and PrintTicket code to their programs. They would be writing code that works with only Windows 8.1 and its tiny market share -- an operating system that maker customers have no need to embrace. For Microsoft, the aim is to monopolize 3D printing inside Windows 8.x, and I trust it will again fail.

Resources

"Fedora 19 Features: 3D Printing": http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/3D_Printing

"Microsoft, Autodesk Bring 3D Printing Closer to the Mainstream": http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421319,00.asp

"Windows 8.1 will have 3D printing support": http://joesmakerbot.blogspot.ca/2013/06/windows-81-will-have-3d-printing-support.html

"Problems with Windows 8.1 3D Printing API": http://www.3dprintingera.com/problems-with-windows-8-1-3d-printing-api/

3MF file format documentation: http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/6/C/C6C3C6F1-E84A-44EF-82A9-49BD3AAD8F58/Windows/MS-TDPRP.pdf

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Reporting from the Second Solid Edge User Conference

"The numbers that SolidWorks claims are right, but need explanation. SW World is pulling together not only the users but also resellers and staff worldwide. As far as I know, resellers are forced to send some people to keep their statuses as official dealer. As far as I found out, the 5,000 attendees are split in roughly 1,500 SW employees, 1,300 resellers, 2,000 users -- and don't forget the huge press corps of 200.

"The user count is 2,000-2,500, all figures rough estimates. Still, this is 4-5 times the Solid Edge user count. But SW World has had more than ten years to build up a reputation, so let's wait to see what Karsten Newbury and his team make up over the years. (I was at the Solid Edge event last year and liked it very much.)

      - Ralf Steck, Die Textwerkstatt
       Germany

The editor replies: "In his report on SEU 13, John  Evans writes:

• 500 users in 68 Sessions
• 18+/- vendors and partners
• 100 Siemens experts on hand ­ blue shirts everywhere."

 

"You might want to correct this: SEU 2013 was the third national Solid Edge event, although it was the second one named University. Huntsville in 2011, Nashville in 2012, and then Cincy. The numbers did double from the first event to the second one, but I think they did not grow a lot for the third one. I have not seen numbers yet to know, but I bet they did not top 600 users."

     - Dave Ault

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Notable Quotable

"We really should talk about PRISM and how it absolutely screws up cloud CAD."

     - Alex Bausk, @bauskas

 

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Reporting from the Second Solid Edge User Conference, and First Firefox phones launch on Dominion Day

Issue #782

 

Some refer to Solid Edge as the red-headed stepchild. I had never gone to one of the Siemens PLM Connection conferences, but I'm told that there was a distinct class structure: the NXers in black suits, the Solid Edgers in black t-shirts. With an attendance ratio of something like 100 to 1, it became clear an all-in-one conference just wasn't working on the Solid Edge side of things.

And so last year Solid Edgers got their own conference. This year was the second annual, and the attendance doubled to a little over 500. Siemens PLM marketing courted us in the CAD media to attend, and I went, because I wanted to hear first-hand about the next release of Solid Edge, ST6.

"ST6" is an abbreviation for the sixth release with Synchronous Technology, not the sixth release of the software since its 1995 founding. SynchTech is that technology developed by Siemens PLM that lets direct modeling and history modeling to coexist. (They call history "ordered" modeling.)

At last week's Solid Edge University 2013 (see figure 1), the company claimed the new release has 1,300 enhancements, although the full list was not offered to us. Nevertheless, there were two enhancements that alone would make the other 1,298 superfluous: surface modeling and integrated CAM. (See http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/velocity/solidedge/st6/index.shtml.)

 

Figure 1: Inside the conference center in Covington, Kentucky

 

By adding ST-based surface modeling, Siemens PLM is targeting industrial designers as a new customer category, as it now handles G2 curves. ID types like the swoopy curves afforded by the subjective shaping of surfaces through push and pull editing.

With partner Geometric Software, Siemens PLM integrated CAMworks into Solid Edge. CAM users I spoke with at the conference were really excited after working with the beta, because switching between CAD model and CAM tool path is now just a click away: update the CAD model, and the tool path updates (but not the reverse). All CAM data is stored in the Solid Edge design file.

Name change: Solid Edge Insight XT vaulting and collaboration software is renamed "Solid Edge SP," where SP is short for SharePoint (as in Microsoft SharePoint). Other take-aways: no cloud version of Solid Edge, ever; SoldWorks files are now imported in bulk with intelligence; goal seeking is now in 3D; sheet metal can be placed on ordered parts; and the software will ship annually every July.

(Solid Edge was developed in the late 1990s by Intergraph as part of its new-technology Jupiter program, then sold to UGS, which subsequently was bought by a venture capital company, and then sold to Siemens PLM. While all employees of the mother Siemens AG corporation can use Solid Edge free, competitor CAD programs continue to be used inside Siemens due to project stickiness.)

What Ralph Grabowski Thinks
How big is Solid Edge. How many Solid Edge users are there? Siemens PLM refuses to divulge numbers, other than a 25% growth on a blank Y axis. It states, repeatedly, it is a tiny division of a large unit of a huge corporation, and so they can't split out results. If they won't say, then we relegated to guessing. There are indicators that point to a market share smaller than Inventor, perhaps much smaller.

• 500 attended the user conference, a small number relative to the thousands at SolidWorks World. I wonder if we can extrapolate from conference attendees to overall number of users?
• Small group of third-party programmers in its developer program. Frankly, I was shocked to learn that until now Solid Edge had no integrated CAM; this is not new technology.

Throughout the keynotes, one competitor was targeted most frequently, even if obliquely: SolidWorks. SolidWorks used to boast that most of its new customers came from AutoCAD; now Siemens is returning the favor, capitalizing on Dassault's seriously bungled effort(s) at adding direct modeling to SolidWorks.

What all this means is that Siemens PLM is taking Solid Edge serious, finally, after several years of what some have called "near neglect." Proven technology is in-place; the users have their own conference; third-party developers have little competition among one another; and a new set of targets is locked: industrial designers, SolidWorks users, and CAM shops.

Siemens landed former SolidWorks author and independent-minded blogger Matt Lombard as a Solid Edge convert (and now as an employee), and hopes many will follow. Now all they need to do is get rid of their bland gray color scheme for something that looks as exciting as their future.

http://www.solidedge.com

For another view of Solid Edge ST6, see "Solid Edge Wants to Be the Best MCAD Program, That's All" by Roopinder Tara at CADdigest.com: http://www.caddigest.com/exclusive/solid_edge/062813_solid_edge_wants_to_be_the_best_mcad_program.htm

[Disclosure: Siemens PLM provided me with flight, hotel, ground transportation, and most meals.]

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First Firefox phones launch on Dominion Day
Mozilla announced today that the first consumer phones were available (in Spain) running Firefox OS. It is (yet another) competitor to the Android-iOS duopoly in smartphone operating systems, following others like WebOS, Blackberry, MeeGo (Intel-promoted, Linux-based combo of Maemo and Moblin), and whatever Microsoft is currently calling its smartphone OS.

Mozilla intends for Firefox OS to be different, like this: (1) all apps are written in HTML5, with extensions available to access the phone's hardware and to link to more powerful code; and (2) the (largely) low-end phones are marketed at low income parts of the world.

A couple of weeks ago, after a month of trying, I snared one of the rare Geeksphone smartphones meant for Firefox OS developers. The developer-preview Peak phone (e149.00) has higher specs than the consumer models released today, it being much like a mid-range Android. I got one, because I like to try out new technology, and see for myself whether it has a future.

The phone's interface is very similar to that of Android, but it runs the Firefox browser full screen as the user interface, as well as making the Firefox browser available as an app. There are two types of "apps":

• Icons on the desktop that simply link to Web sites, like YouTube, Dropbox, and even Autodesk. In the case of the YouTube Web page, I have access to videos; Dropbox, to my files stored there; Autodesk, their home page. So, the content varies, depending on how the Web site reacts to being accessed by a phone. Mozilla calls these apps that don't need to be installed; nice spin. These "apps" do not operate when the phone has no Internet access, naturally.
• Apps stored on the phone that run, even when there is no Internet access. These include Phone for making calls, Contacts, Calendar, and Camera. (Contacts and calendar data can be imported from Google and Facebook.) The Firefox Marketplace app lets us download additional HTML5 apps.

The phone has one iPhone-like hardware button: short press to get to home screen, long press to access all running apps, Home+power for screen grabs. I really miss a hardware Back button.

Should CAD Vendors Target Firefox OS?

If the chief technical officers at CAD companies are wondering if they should bother targeting Firefox OS, they don't need to; they probably already do. Just about any Web page "runs" on this phone. (There is, however, no support for Flash, and never will be.)

For instance, I accessed TeamPlatform's portal with my FireFox phone. (See figure 2.) I could review and update projects, view MCAD files, and so on. AutoCAD WS (aka 360 Web) does not work, because it requires Flash. Here are the ones I tested:

• Json3d Gallery (TftLabs) - works fully, including rotating and slicing shaded 3D models
• GrabCAD - works (although I did not test all areas of the site)
• Revisto - site works, but requires Unity plug-in to view 3D models
• Sunglass.io - works, except when Firefox crashes loading 3D models
• TinkerCAD - site is down for updating
• TeamPlatform - works; can view documents and 2D plans, but not 3D models
• AutoCAD 360 - fails, due to FxOS's lack of the Flash plug-in

           

Figure 2: (left) TeamPlatform displaying 2D shaded drawings on Firefox OS smartphone; (right) JSON interactively displays 3D model on TFTWeb

 

Here, however, is the problem for CAD vendors: they might be ready for Firefox OS, but Firefox OS is not ready for consumers. I was surprised to hear of today's launch, because much of the OS and some its built-in apps are not ready for picky users. There are a lot of rough edges that need to be smoothed before the fox can emerge from its hole.

PS: Dominion Day is the old name for Canada Day, which is July 1.

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Out of the Inbox

At the end of first year engineering, I had to take two weeks of surveying. Apologies to the surveyor folks, but I found it dead boring, as it was all about getting triangles to triangulate. Later, as an engineer, I filled in as a surveyor's helper for an entire unpleasant day, holding the rod: "Move it a red **** hair left, move it a blond **** hair right," the surveyor yelled at me. At least, the sun shone.
        Nevertheless, I find the surveyor's hardware fascinating, especially the old, pre-electronics gear with which all of North and South America were mapped. Today, however, we find Hexagon Metrology releasing Leica Absolute Tracker that does full-guided 3D measurements, with IR remote control, level to gravity, hot-swap 8-hour battery, and built-in WiFi. As for the "Tracker" part of the name, the AT402 finds and locks onto moving reflectors automatically, using a field of view of one square meter at 5m. Photo of the shockingly slim device here: https://www.hexagonmetrology.us/news-and-events/press-releases/803-hexagon-metrology-releases-leica-absolute-tracker-at402

The Web site has a truly dreadful design, but the KeyWild CAD Library offers a sets of 2,000 free blocks in DWG format, mostly of bolts, but also miscellany like rulers and cartridges of the rifle kind. http://www.keywild.com/cad_library/index.htm

Rakesh Rao writes that he has a promotion going on, in which is GeoTools-CADPower add-on for BricsCAD and AutoCAD is now $99. There's a lot of useful utilities packed in them. http://rakeshrao.typepad.com/work_smarter_geotools/2013/06/geotools-cadpower-special-anniversary-promotion-99-only.html

TFTLabs supports Intergraph's .vue 3D visualization data in TFTWeb, TFTPad, and TFT4iT. This'll be of interest to those in the plant design, oil, gas, and energy sectors that use Intergraph's plant software. http://tftlabs.com

We weren't impressed by Haswell, so how does a desktop workstation maker market it? BOXX overclocks it at 4.3GHz in a compact chassis and a 3-year warranty for under $3000. See the 3DBOXX 4150 XTREME at http://www.boxxtech.com/Products/3dboxx-4150-xtreme

GrabCAD is busy, the same week announcing partnerships with (a) Siemens PLM and (b) Autodesk. In the case of Autodesk, GrabCAD users can edit their public library models and private workbench models in 2D-only AutoCAD 360 and 3D-enabled Fusion 360; the later can also directly publish to GrabCAD, which says it now has 700,000 users. Solid Edge has the publish function, but not the edit one. http://grabcad.com/toolbox?utm_campaign=workbench&utm_content=toolbox_button

It is little known that Bricsys makes apps for CAD programs other than its own BricsCAD. RhinoWorks 3 ($595; upgrade $175) brings constraints-based parametric design software that is normally a freeform modeler, Rhino 5 from Robert McNeel & Associates. http://www.bricsys.com/common/applications/application.jsp?app=495&apploc=803

And finally, we learn from Randall Newton's Graphic Speak blog that Microsoft will add direct support for 3D printers in Windows 8.1 through an API available to developers. http://gfxspeak.com/2013/06/28/windows-8-update-will-add-3d-printing-support

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Do CAD vendors contribute to PRISM?

"Hmmmm. Today when I navigated to the Autodesk website, my browser inquired 'Would you like to share your location with Autodesk?'."
      - David Kozina, comment on WorldCAD Access blog

Re: What BIM Can't Do

"I read the same 'Der Spiegel' article and I am following these various stories in Germany, as well. Very interesting. Seems a holistic information lifecycle and integrated project management approach is missing. I was, however, about to throw the magazine in the corner, and refused to keep reading because the star architects seem so relaxed and avoided any blame of their own.

"I truly believe that good project planning, a clear governance model tied with BIM, can help mitigate a lot of the risk. Other elements, especially in Germany, can come as a surprise, but shouldn't result in these dramatic cost and schedule overruns -- or be an excuse for not finding the light switch!"
       - Rolf Gibbels, global power generation solution leader
         IBM

 

"I would leave the projects incomplete as monuments to man's lack of thought, even if weeds were to eventually overrun the sites. It seems to me that we haven't learned from the past. If I have this correct, there is an unfinished temple in Asia Minor spanning, I believe, six centuries of endeavor.

"The great value of the incomplete temple is that it does provide a record of styles and methods of construction of the times. I believe Denver airport had teething problems with regard to luggage distribution costing a few million per day for a year or so.

"Anyway what is new? The Titanic would have gone down even with an inner hull, and styrofoam is quite a lethal projectile hurled at speed. Forgiveness is divine, but money is not."
        - Edward Hearn

The editor replies: "Leaving the projects as incomplete monuments is a thought, especially the new airport unloved by Berliners."

Re: What Marketing Gives, Engineering Takes

"I found your bit about the Haswell processors interesting. That 'Haswell shows that Intel no longer cares about desktop users' is even more true since Intel has announced that they are getting out of the non-server motherboard market."
      - Dave Schaller

 

"Even with the highest performing Haswell graphics, Intel is more than a factor ten behind AMD's 7990 in floating-point performance. On mobile computers, it's a different story: it is much closer to state of the art and also energy efficient. "
      - Henrik Vallgren

The editor replies: "I wonder if this is why software companies like Autodesk, after getting frustrated with Intel's failure to make ever faster CPUs (Moore's law broke down back in 2000), saw the cloud as the way to break the bottleneck and so run software faster."

Mr Vallgren responds: "While Moore's law broke down with regards to speed, it continues to be valid for transistor count. The question is: what should Intel do with them? Five years ago, there was a rumor about an Intel CPU with 70 cores; an absolute monster for parallel software, a disaster for single core software. Instead, Intel is moving towards heterogeneous cores: a few fast complex x86 cores and plenty of simpler cores in the form of graphic cores. As developers, we have to adjust but we have an unparalleled opportunity to write faster software. But how could AutoCAD run faster in the cloud? Water cooled and overclocked CPUs, quad channel memory using intels 2011 socket, RAM-cached SSDs?"

The editor replies: "I think they do it through massively parallel computing systems, such as nVidia's GRID. It is already handling some FEA software in the cloud. Portions of AutoCAD would be rewritten to run on the nVidia hardware, as is the case with Fusion 360."

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Notable Quotable

"Apple has talked up HTML5, but it doesn't offer the hardware access developers need to actually build HTML5 apps."
     - Christian Hellmann, developer evangelist, Mozilla
       http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/03/my_month_with_firefox_os/page2.html

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