upFront.eZine Issue #830
by Ralph Grabowski
Things are these days quiet in the lawsuit wars as lawyers regroup for the next battle.
Auto-Dimensions vs Siemens, Autodesk, and Dassault
One of the law suits by a patent troll against Siemens, Autodesk, and Dassault; Siemens folded by agreeing to pay royalties for patents covering an auto-dimensioning function, while Dassault succeeded in getting the venue moved from patent-holder-friendly East Texas to the Solidworks-friendly and home state of Massachusetts. Not sure where the action against Autodesk stands, but at least one (un-sued) CAD vendor pulled QDim from its code -- just in case.
Just as well: that old QDim produced results awful enough to avoid using it for its intended purpose, quickly dimensioning many objects. The patents are as old, technologically-speaking, as the clubs by which they are being used in a caveman fashion. Object-based CAD software capabilities have progressed to the point where QDim's system of blindly attaching extension lines is as useful to designers today as a Hello Kitty PDA. In short, this law suit is a mere irritant, and is boring.
Autodesk vs ZWsoft
The other CAD lawsuit going on these days is the one launched by Autodesk of America against ZWSoft of China, saying that the Chinese company directly ripped off code from AutoCAD. The proof? Some functions exhibit the identical bug in both programs, and so the algorithms must be identical. So argues Autodesk.
You'd think this would be slamdunk proof, but not at all. Programmers tell me that it is possible for identical bugs to occur because the same programming language was used, and not because of the algorithms being the same. It was on this point that Autodesk stumbled.
This case is fascinating, because it involves a culture clash, missteps by both sides, and potential fallout affecting the entire AutoCAD workalike industry.
Cultures Clashes. In terms of cultures clashing, we have an American software firm suing a Chinese software company (and its distributors) in Holland. Autodesk went with the Dutch courts, because they have a reputation for quick judgments for these cases, usually the same day. Autodesk asked for sales of ZWCAD to be shut down in the Netherlands; with this initial victory, the world's second-largest CAD vendor planned to pursue shut downs of ZWCAD sales in other countries.
Autodesk suffered a setback, however, when the judge realized there was more to the case than what Autodesk's lawyers had presented to him, and so announced that he would need a few weeks to think about it.
Autodesk suffered the second setback when the judge decided against the sales ban. Instead, he decided that the source code of both packages would need to be examined by an independent expert acceptable to both parties. I think the two sets of code will be looked at in China.
Then there is the clash of culture when it comes to the status of copying. In the United States (and other Greek-based Western countries), plagiarism is just a step or two lower than the sin of racism, with people in high positions (c.f. several German government minsters) losing their jobs as new technology allows the detection of passages copied in theses written decades ago.
In China, copying is a sign of respect for those great ones who proceeded you.
In North America, companies are fiercely independent of the government (c.f. Microsoft vs. NSA).
In China, technology firms are close to the government; or, should I say, the government is close to technology firms, with government officials holding seats on the companies' boards. And so by suing "just a small CAD vendor," Autodesk is de facto suing the Chinese government.
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Missteps. Then there were the missteps. As part of the initial Dutch ruling, both parties agreed to keep the lawsuit quiet so that the reputation of ZWsoft would not suffer from Autodesk's allegations. Autodesk, however, broke the agreement when it launched a parallel lawsuit in the United States too soon. (Once this case was made public by the US courts, I was free to report on the Dutch case on my WorldCAD Access blog.)
Staff from ZWSoft then opened up about the case, going on Twitter and posting court documents on Scribd. See http://www.scribd.com/pzchen72. Problem: ZWsoft announced it had won the lawsuit when so such thing occurred. The company has since quieted down.
Should Autodesk win ultimately in its sales ban, the result will be "living in interesting times" for sales of AutoCAD to the MIddle Kingdom.
Workalikes. There will be no impact on workalikes, if their code is clean by not being plagiarized.
The UI is a different matter: it can look the same and operate the same as in AutoCAD -- as a lawsuit many years ago involving Lotus 1-2 3 established in the United States. (I mention this because ZWCAD's UI mimics that of AutoCAD.) What must be different are the algorithms that produce what is seen on the screen.
Motivation. Autodesk employs competitive analysis researchers (as does any large firm) who discovered the bugs that operated identically in both programs. One bug produces an incorrect hatch pattern under rare conditions. When Autodesk management saw this, they probably burned with the white-hot indignation that I experience when I discover some lazy blogger has reproduced my original research -- as his own, and without permission. Or pirate sites hosting my hard-written ebooks free.
Whereas lazy bloggers and pirate sites (and those who download from there) have little excuse, ZWSoft might find its excuse in the flaw of a programing language.
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For More News
WorldCAD Access: blogging nearly daily with articles about CAD and tips about computers; available on RSS and through email alerts:
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Letters to the Editor
Re: Interpreting 3D Models from Formalized 2D Drawings
I am happy to see Alexander's article http://isicad.ru/ru/articles.php?article_num=16934 now available to a lot of worldwide readers.
- David Levin, isicad
What's the point of all this extra work when you can make it in 3D from the start?
- Chris Cadman
Sorry, Ralph, that was an ordinary gable roof not a mansard roof.
- Rudy Horowitz, architect
Can you please help me find the files and LISP routine in English, as the link to the English version is no help. I downloaded the Russian drawings and LISP file, but the LISP file is not reconized by AutoCAD. This looks like it could be very useful, if I can get it working. Great newsletter, keep it up.
- G D Midgley
The editor replies: I have passed along your request to Mr Yampolsky.
Re: How Dassault Systemes Achieved Success
Hopefully DS is bringing competition to the BIM market: http://aecmag.com/software-mainmenu-32/635-new-kid-on-the-block
- Peter Lawton
The editor replies: They have talked about this for a couple of years now, but haven't shipped anything yet. After this morning's news that Trimble bought Gehry Technologies (in which both Dassault and Autodesk had made investments), Dassault's AEC effort seems to be faultering.
Retiring after 37 years with Boeing. P.S. I was on the original team that investigated and brought in the DS tool suite, and have been involved with its implementation since.
- T. C.
Re: End of an Era
When I was an instructor at college, I relied on your AutoCAD Quick Reference book [published by Delmar]. The question is: is 2013 the latest release? I just picked up a new gig teaching high school CAD.
- Eddie Mull
The editor replies: Yes, 2013 was the last print edition, I am sorry to say. The publisher found sales of CAD titles falling so much that last year they got out of the area altogether. They did ask me to produce an 2014 electronic update, which is a PDF file that lists what's new and different.
Notable Quotable
""I don't understand why we can't have options: rental and purchase." - MauricioPC
"Apparently it's because the market doesn't want us to have options." - BenR
- http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5436
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