upFront.eZine Issue #839
[This article is expanded from one first posted Nov 20 on WorldCAD Access.]
It was scant two years ago when a flurry of start-ups launched 3D MCAD software, running it in modern Web browsers. The catalyst was HTML5 and other browser technology. This allowed users to interact with 3D models in Web browsers on just about any hardware. No more being forced to install software on desktops; no more being limited to Windows. Wanna run 3D CAD on an Android ultrabook or a FirefoxOS phone -- no problemo.
Well, almost no problemo. There are caveats. The hardware has to be powerful enough; the Web connection speed has to be fast enough; the Internet latency has to be low enough; the Web browser has to be HTML5-compatible enough; and so on. See figure 1 below, of Sunglass not running on an iPad.
Figure 1: browserCAD unable to run on Safari using default settings
Never mind. CAD-unaware publications such as TechCrunch heralded in the New Era in 3D design, overly excited by the technology but blissfully unaware of what the market really was. Launched with the financial assistance of VC firms, numerous browserCAD firms erupted around the same time with software names as funky as TinkerCAD, To3D, and sunglass.io.
To venture capitalists and generic tech publications, the market was clear: anyone with a Web browser could now do 3D design anywhere. The old myth resurrected. Never mind that most people have no interest in 3D design, even fewer have an ability -- and that Apple blocked such design activities in its Safari browser. The answer to step 2 of the old joke...
Step 1: Idea!
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit!
... is, Paying Customers! And so it was the Internet Bubbleburst of 2001 all over again. Here is where things stand at the end of 2014:
- The Web site forTo3D isn't even a zombie; it's gone entirely
- sunglass.io is now wikineering and promotes "Open Engineering"
- TinkerCAD was in the process of shutting down in 2013 when Autodesk snapped it up. But it suffers from repeated outages as the company is unable to scale its cloud-based software sufficiently to meet the demand of a growing non-paying user base
- GrabCAD bought by Statasys for a reputed $100 million
- TeamPlatform bought by 3D Systems
- And as I write this, rumours say that Lagoa is being bought by Autodesk for $60 million
About the only independent still standing is OnShape (nee Belmont), founded by some ex-Solidworks guys. It's in closed beta; it's only partially based on browserCAD technology. According to rumours passing my way, the VCs funding it want a Soldiworks-killer. Ho hum. Adjacent seats may be the best it can hope for, rather than displacing Creos or NXes. Even a by-now-oldtimer like SpaceClaim (hard to believe that next year it's a decade old) continues primarily in its role of adjacent CAD package.
Figure 2: TinkerCAD today running on an smartphone powered by Firefox OS
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Article now continues...
How the Deep Funk Came About (Why browserCAD Failed)
CAD running over the Internet has been around since the late 1990s, when Alibre tried it. The Internet pipes were too weak and it didn't work. The company pivoted to desktop CAD, stayed there, and was finally was swallowed up a year ago by 3D Systems.
I'm not talking streamingCAD, where raster images are generated by servers and pushed over the network to your computer's screen; your computer becomes the dumb terminal of the 1980s. (Heh, that's how desktop CAD works, too: the graphics board converts the CAD program's vector data into raster images that are updated 30 times a second on your computer's screen(s).) browserCAD isn't the dumb terminal approach: the HTML5 Web browser runs actual programming code, although heavy lifting is still done on the backs of servers.
browserCAD fails, because of the low barrier to entry on the development side. "Anyone" can write one and so anyone does, never mind the market potential; hey, an ex-Googler wrote TinkerCAD for his kids.
browserCAD fails, because of the low financial barrier. VCs are facing their own bubble as too much capitalization money enters the market. CAD that's easy for the man-on-the-street to understand is easy for VCs to understand, and so fund.
browserCAD fails, because its target market doesn't exist. Once we strip away six billion customers implied by the "anyone, anywhere" myth, it turns out the target market consists of the following subset: People who are...
...willing to pay
...to design-collaborate on tiny screens
...using incomplete toolsets
...over Internet connections of varying latency and reliability
...and who don't already have design software that's paid-for, mature, and runs reliably on optimized desktop hardware.
In the end, browserCAD was just too funky to be useful in an efficient way to end users.
What We Do Instead
The solution is the hybrid approach:
- The desktop computer doing the grunt work running CAD reliably
- Access the Internet as a supplemental tool for research, content sourcing, communications, and so on
That's how we get our work done.
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Letters to the Editor
Thanks for upFront.eZine issues 837 & 838 on user interfaces and reader responses. In issue #838 you wrote: "...I talked about my experiences using punch cards" and "sending the cards fluttering to the floor." That happened to a lot of people, once. Then they learned to mark the sides of the stack with colored diagonal lines to speed reordering.
- David Cerruti
I started my CAD career in the early 80s, prior to AutoCAD taking off. We used an IBM system called FastDraft with two 19-inch black-white monitors connected to a central mainframe processor the size of a refrigerator. It had 11MB of memory and we drew using "light pens." The system cost $50,000. We saved our data to 5-1/4" floppies and made sure we kept backup floppies in case the originals got corrupted. We plotted to an IBM pen plotter.
We used this system for segmental bridge shop drawings, which were very repetitive; the background information for each segment was basically 80% the same. Hundreds of segments for each bridge.
Anyone remember using this system? (Sent from my iPad.)
- Bob Melusky
Alfred Benesch & Company
The editor replies: I had a young CAD user ask me, "How was it possible to sell CAD in the early days?" He correctly surmised that back then CAD systems must have been really slow. I explained that CAD systems were indeed slow, and so they were not sold on the basis of making new drawings, but for the speed of revising drawings -- much faster than using the eraser machine and its eraser shield.
In response to user interfaces, I think you would enjoy this future approach. It's quite forward thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8
- Tom Lehnhaeuser
Magnacad
And all the others, what a great walk down memory lane. Remember the teletypes and what a wonderful thing a VDU was when it first arrived, and what a graphic screen image meant when the CPUhad crashed and you had forgotten to save. Remember the joysticks that would lose their centering ability dwelling the cursor off the screen. Ralph, judging from your first experiences we are from the same first computer CAD generation. We are getting old, but still there and mainly typing.
- Rene Dalmeijer
The Netherlands
You wondered what icon could replace the diskette used for the Save command. A USB key? Because even though we have cloud storage and document management and solid state drives in our computers, we still want that thing we can leave in a drawer where we can see it.
- Greg Hruby
Minnesota Department of Transportation
I sometimes have to wait a while to read your e-mail, so I'm replying late on this one. The article on user interfaces is great. I too still make my AutoCAD 2014 look like the classic Release 13 interface with toolbars and drop downs. I also use a digitizing tablet with commands on it as well. IMO, the classic interface was much easier to use and edit. Commands were always in the same place, whereas they move around on the ribbon. Not to mention using a simple text file to make changes, as opposed to the new GUI interface [thru CUI].
I keep extra pucks around just in case mine quits working. Knock on wood.
- Richard Klepper, engineering technologist
Parkhill Smith & Cooper
I wonder: What is the average age of the folks who responded to your Interface piece? Autodesk is very far from my favorite company, but they have to appeal to future customers and, as you point out, they ALSO retain the older interface options, for those of us (including me) who learned on earlier releases.
I prefer the classic interface, but I am over 50. I wonder what your younger readers like. Thanks as always for interesting content and insights.
- Peter Lawton
Affiliated Engineers
The editor replies: All in our 50s or older, I guess. Nevertheless, visits to my blog spiked upon the news of the article on user interfaces, receiving 2.5x more visitors than average.
I realize that you probably have no aspirations of going into competition with Craigslist or Ebay, but is there any way you could pass on my email address to Michael Gilroy. Tell him that I'll make him a deal on two brand-new Digi-Tab digitizers with 16-button cursors? If he just wants the cursors; I'll continue with my long-standing plan to someday make picture frames out of the digitzing tablets.
- Jess Davis, president
Davis Precision Design, Inc.
The editor replies: I am happy to report to readers that Messrs Gilroy and Davis came to an agreement over the digitizer deal.
Not sure if you heard the news yet or not but 3D Systems has announced their acquisition of Cimatron (Gibbs). The CAM market consolidation continues. It will be interesting to see what 3D Systems does with these assets.
- John Callen
Lutron
The editor replies: What industry observers were wondering about is finally happening. I suspect companies are buying up CAM vendors to ensure competitors don't.
Notable Quotable
"Taylor Swift is not some sort of Luddite futilely standing against the forces of modernity; rather, she is a highly differentiated content creator capturing the immense value she is creating, instead of ceding it to an aggregator that treats every piece of content the same."
- Ben Thompson
http://stratechery.com/2014/differentiation-value-creation-internet-age
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