upFront.eZine Issue #808
by Ralph Grabowski
I call 2013 "the end-of-the-line for book writing." After getting my start in 1990 writing books, I now have around sixty titles and updates. Thank you to Que, Delmar, Wordware, OnWord, and Springer for taking me and my words on.
But, sales have plummeted. The good folks at Delmar tell me they think the problem is that people prefer to watch free YouTube tutorials rather than buy and read books.
I know that piracy also plays a devastating role, as people can get my ebook PDF files free from numerous disreputable sources, and there is nothing I can do against them. To my dismay, even respectable engineering firms would rather steal than pay, I have learned. As there is too little money in it for my time involved, I no longer will update (most of) my ebooks.
What does this mean, in practice? Well, I continue to update some ebooks for generous commercial clients, like Bricsys and Graebert -- such as "BricsCAD V14 for AutoCAD Users" and "Inside ARES 2014." But I will no longer update my library of 100+ ebooks titles, such as "What's Inside? AutoCAD" and "Tailoring AutoCAD."
As for paper books, these are mostly dead now, of course. Delmar Publishing (Cengage) is the publisher who handled most of my books since 1990. They went into bankruptcy protection last year. This year, they didn't bother renewing their Autodesk Developer Network membership, and canceled the planned digital update to my "The Illustrated AutoCAD Quick Reference" book. In short, they have no more interest in the CAD market, an editor there told me, and he wonders how competitors like J Wiley are making any money at CAD publishing.
The one thing that's been constant during my 23 years of freelancing is Change. There is nothing that I was involved in my first few years that I am doing today, except for speaking at the occasional conference. So how does a freelance technical writer make a living these days? Here is what consumes my time:
- Producer of a series of video tutorials for a commercial client (going live March 3)
- Technical and legal consulting
- Technical editor of computer books
- Copy editor of press releases and other documents
- Speaker at conferences and attendee of product launches
- Writer and designer of ebooks for commercial clients
- Publisher of upFront.eZine e-newsletter and WorldCAD Access blog
Plus my volunteer work, such as leading a weekly men's reading group (current title: "Orthodoxy" by GK CHesteron) and heading up the Sevenoaks Extreme Weather Shelter for homeless men in our city.
Naturally, my existing ebook titles will continue to be available at www.upfrontezine.com/ebooks. Thank you to you who purchased ebooks from me over the last dozen years!
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And One More Thing...
Version 2.6 of Vectorworks Cloud Services and related Nomad mobile app (for Android, Kindle, and iOS) is 12x faster than before in processing documents, and is integrated with Dropbox, so that any kind of file can be saved. A reminder that this service is available only to subscribers. www.vectorworks.net/cloudservices
Heard on Twitter and On the Blog
upFront.eZine: Autodesk replaces Bentley for this year's SmartGeometry conference. Odd, given Bentley invented SG -> http://smartgeometry.org/index.php
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Owen Wengerd (@owenwengerd): Reading WorldCAD Access, and I wonder: would improved ShapeManager parallelization on non-cloud platforms hurt the push toward the cloud?
upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine): Maybe Autodesk has two versions of ShapeMannager: non-parallel hobbled for the desktop, massively parallel for servers.
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upFront.eZine: Autodesk slides boast $286-million Delcam acquisition being most expensive ever; compares it with Battery/Vero's $80 million of acquisitions
upFront.eZine: Autodesk paid 3.6x annual revenues for Delcam; Battery Ventures got the better deal at just 0.9x revenues (roughly).
Rande Robinson (@randerobinson): Why is paying the most for something a "good thing" I know I always try to pay as little as possible...inquiring minds ask
upFront.eZine: The slide deck Autodesk released today almost seems defensive about the cost. Maybe the PPT was meant to placate shareholders
Rande Robinson: Interesting don't think they are getting buyers remorse do u?
Jon Banquer (@JonBanquer): I can see Battery/Vero buying Cimatron/Gibbscam, DP Technology (Esprit) or CNC Software (#mastercam)
upFront.eZine: Autodesk paid 3.6x annual revenues for Delcam; Battery Ventures got the better deal at just 0.9x revenues (roughly).
Jon Banquer: CAM business still needs a lot more consolidating
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upFront.eZine: "Maxwell," the name of nVidia's new GPU that replaces the current Kepler.
upFront.eZine: Why so soon? nVidia found an oopsie in Kepler: CUDA cores that were accidentally idle during compute operations,consuming power unnecessarily
On the Blog
Here are items that appeared on the WorldCAD Access blog recently at http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com:
- Founder of IB Systems David Heller launches new PR firm by Roopinder Tara
- Dassault ceo on the launch of 3DExperience
- Dassault's CEO says his roadmap for growth a Social Industry Experience strategy
- Is the mouse now redundant?
Letters to the Editor
Re: Standing At Computer Workstations
"Standing up: I bought an old Hamilton power-lift drafting table off Craigslist. Works great as a stand-up/sit-down desk. Adjusts with a flick of a toe."
- Evan Yares
NanoSoft USA
"Regarding standing desks, I put a few construction blocks under my my garage-sale computer desk, and my wife found a bar-height swivel chair at a second-hand store. I now have a standing desk which I sometimes sit at. I still use a second desk for non-digital tasks."
- Randall Newton
Consilia Vektor
"My chiro calls it 'death by computer'. I suffer too, yet in other ways. No matter, as long as the shareholders make their profits, everything's fine in slave-land, far as they're concerned."
- Chris
Re: Autodesk Core 1.0
"Please see the following sentence from your most recent issue: 'Core can be used only for niche solutions in education and 3D printing, where the accuracy requirement is weaker'.
"Why do you think the accuracy requirement for 3D printing is weaker than any other manufacturing process? Users of 3D printing and additive manufacturing (the terms are used interchangeably) expect good accuracy from all processes that produce parts. Ask Boeing or GE Aviation about their accuracy requirements for additive manufacturing. Boeing is flying tens of thousands of parts made by AM and GE Aviation is gearing up to produce 30,000 to 40,000 fuel nozzles annually by AM. Relatively inaccurate data is not an option for them and many other companies that use the technology."
- Terry Wohlers
Wohlers Associates, Inc.
The editor replies: "I was thinking of the target market of Tinkercad/Core users, whose consumer-grade 3D printers are not as accurate as professional models. In fact, the developers of Gen6/Core say as much: 'Gen6 generates output data at a precision that is good enough to satisfy the printer but not any higher so as to limit output size'. Elsewhere, the precision of Gen6/Core is noted as being limited to 1mm. See https://api.tinkercad.com/libraries/1vxKXGNaLtr/0/docs/topic/Tinkercad's+Gen6+Geometry+Kernel.html "
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"Thanks for the highly valuable and inspiring weekly newsletter. You're one of the very few remaining CAD analysts who really write what they think! Keep up this good job."
- Gabriel Guigue, managing director
TraceParts, France
Notable Quotable
"Robots demanding equal API rights? It's just a matter of time."
- Adrian Bridgwater, The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/18/robots_drones_set_to_explode_api_universe/
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