upFront.eZine News Archives

MobileCAD is Reaching Maturity: Part II

Issue #868

 

Part II: Why Graebert is Going Mobile Now, Cloud Later

by Ralph Grabowski

ARES Touch is, in my opinion, the most advanced mobile CAD app today, and so it is interesting to look at where Graebert Gmbh wants to take it. In part II this week, let's see why Graebert went first for mobile CAD, instead of the cloud. - - - ARES Touch for Android has been much longer in beta than I expected, and it still is. (See Figure 1.) Last week the company opened the beta program to anyone who clicks the Join Now button near the bottom of the https://www.graebert.com/en/arestouch Web page.      Figure 1 ARES Touch is Graebert Gmbh's app for CAD on Android tablets The reason for the long beta: there is a lot to rethink when porting most of of a mouse-and-keyboard-oriented desktop CAD program over to a touch-only, keyboard-less tablet. No other CAD vendor has set as ambitious a target, not even Autodesk.   Why CAD Vendors Aren't Making Full-Featured CAD Apps As described last week in upFront.eZine #867, there is insufficient money in mobile apps. Either apps suffer from few downloads or from the freemium complex. Still today it is unsurprising to see a CAD app on the Android store with the dismal download statistic of 100. (Apple does not provide download stats.) Meanwhile, smartphone and tablet users expect software to be all free. In this lose-lose environment, CAD vendors aren't inclined to spend money -- even as they feel the pressure to keep their toes in the chilly waters of online app stores. And so here's what users (I won't call them "customers") get in return for their miserliness: a toe of a CAD program, apps that merely view drawings, or at best make rudimentary changes. To force a few more fistfuls of dollars out of users, CAD vendors cripple their free apps and tease out payments through on-going subscriptions or one-time Pro updates. How few dollars? $5-$50 in a world in which vendors traditionally enjoy charging four- and five-figure price tags for desktop software. So, they're stuck. They have little financial incentive to go big, yet vendors daren't go home.  Oh, and that other problem -- insufficient hardware -- is an issue no longer. Mobile CPU speeds now go beyond 2GHz, operating RAM reaches 4GB, and storage is plentiful -- both on-device and on-line. In a twist of irony, the latest Android tablets are more powerful than Apple's newest MacBook latops.   Why Graebert Wants Full-Featured mobileCAD We're excited, because mobile is churning the CAD market like the Internet before in 2000 and the DOS/Unix->Windows transition before that in 1995. Just as CAD vendors were puzzled how to react to the pressure they faced from the Internet and Windows opportunities, they are still unsure in which direction to strike at mobile:  Among tier-1 vendors, Autodesk and Dassault Systemes are convinced they must follow the cloud to wherever it leads them, thus hoping to assure their companies' futures. Siemens PLM and PTC are waiting to see the mistakes made by the others, thus hoping to avoid the cost from plunging blindly ahead.    As for second-tier (under a billion dollars a year in revenues) and third-tier (under $100 million) CAD vendors, they haven't the financial resources to make a total pivot like an Autodesk -- with one exception. Under the radar, Graebert Gmbh accumulated the second-largest base of users of .dwg editing software. Seven million people are running its desktop CAD software under brand names like ARES Commander, DraftSight, and CorelCAD.  Now the company wants to repeat the same success on portable devices. But why would Graebert emphasize mobile, instead of following Autodesk's lead to also do server-based CAD? Autodesk is chasing the cloud for these reasons: To make some aspects of desktop and mobile software more powerful by performing certain calculations and drawing translation through remote servers   To make CAD program settings and drawing files available universally to users, like the way that Google docs  and Chrome bookmarks are; the computer at which you sit down isn't supposed to matter   To rope customers into paying annually for services, instead of just once every few years for perpetual software licenses (which Autodesk is now discontinuing)   To go in a bet-the-company direction that Autodesk management hopes few competitors will dare to follow, or could afford to go with   In its vision, Autodesk suffers, however, from being USA-centric, like Apple with iPhone. Steve Jobs designed the iPhone for people like himself: people who are (a) wealthy and (b) live in the small part of the world that's well-connected. As a result, iPhone is the best selling smartphone in USA and... parts of China. Elsewhere it sells less well or even poorly, because the bulk of the world's population (a) isn't wealthy and (b) lives without reliable electricity or Internet connections.  Autodesk and Apple picked their markets. To differentiate itself, Graebert needed to break away from the crowd of view-only and edit-barely apps. It decided on the path of writing a full-featured CAD program for tablets. The aim: to put as much of the ARES CAD program from the desktop onto an Android as permitted by tablet technology. But why take on this tough job when no one else is?    Article continues following this advertisement... Sponsor: Siemens PLM Software Buy Solid Edge, Get One Free Get the power of Solid Edge 3D Design and get a second seat free. Offer expires September 23, 2015. Offer good in USA only. Questions? Call 800-807-2200, option 1 www.plm.automation.siemens.com ...article now continues.   First of all, Graebert has the experience of putting a lot of a CAD program onto a small form factor, as it did in years prior with portable Windows CE devices. Secondly, Graebert is located in Europe yet has strong ties to India and the Middle East for business and personal reasons. The company understands that the bulk of the world's population lives in areas that lack reliable electricity and Internet connections. This means that today mobile is more important than the cloud. (Not that it is ignoring server-based CAD, Recall that the company showed Xenon first in upFront.eZine #855.) Thirdly, Graebert makes most of its sales from OEM products. As well, the company sees that it is important for desktop and mobile software have similar workflows -- notwithstanding UI differences. Furthermore, Graebert went with Android because it is designed for everyone in the world, and so is available in the broadest range of prices, sizes, and capabilities -- as opposed to the iPad, which Steve Jobs designed for his First World audience. Here is how Graebert explains it: "In North America and Europe, Graebert sees that users have one or more computers, even more than one OS (Mac and/or Windows and/or Linux), plus one or more smartphones, plus one or more tablets. They also tend to use larger screens and purchase premium products. This market is a target for Graebert's cross-device offer, in which customers pay for one license and then use the software on tablets, smartphones, and other PCs.  "In Asia and Africa, people tend to buy one computing-communications device to suit all their needs. Typically, they want a phablet [phone with a 6" screen or larger] to be a laptop, phone, camera, and tablet. These markets are showing a very strong interest for Graebert's ARES Touch app that performs most CAD functions on a small device." Surya Sarda, who heads Graebert sales in India, describes the world's second largest mobile market to us: "More than 50% of the Indian population is below the age of 25. The preferred device of this generation is the smartphone or phablet, with a laptop or tablet used only as a backup for tasks that cannot be done on phones. Until recently, India was the second largest telecomm market in the world and has by now probably overtaken China as the largest telecomm one. South Korea is still the most mobile savvy market in Asia. "LTE [high-speed cellular data] is available only in a few cities in India, and so the next big push is to make it available throughout the country. Until that happens, cloud computing with phones and phablets as client devices doesn't make sense." Ergo, you need software that runs fully on a phablet, not through a remote server or with a desktop computer. Which is the market Graebert is addressing.  Ericsson is one of the largest manufacturers of cellular data switches, and twice a year updates a report on worldwide mobile use. Their definition of "mobile" is any device that connects to the cellular system, rather than through WiFi. So, when reading their reports, keep in mind that they have a financial interest in exploding data use around the world. Nevertheless... "India, China, and Japan are among the fastest growing markets in terms of mobile subscriptions. India alone represents currently 25% of the new subscribers. "Mobile data consumption will be multiplied in the next five years by 12x on tablets, by 10x on smartphones. This is mostly due to video consumption, but it shows that people will spend more and more time on these devices compared to computers and even TVs. By 2020, a third of mobile users will have LTE [fourth generation data access through cellular] connectivity, which shows a strong potential for mobile and cloud professional apps." Graebert's head of marketing and sales Cedric Desbordes tells me, "I feel this is showing a change of paradigm, especially in emerging markets and Asia, where mobile will become the first and preferred device compared to the desktop. Professionals will likely continue using computers at work, but smartphones and tablets will reach 6.5 billion units by 2020 -- roughly the same as the world population. As a result CAD on mobile becomes a must-have, if you are a seller of CAD software." In the next issue, part III: Rethinking How mobileCAD Works And One More Thing... Origin focuses on dimensional metrology, and now has its Equator Authoring programs for PCDMIS and Calypso available as a stand-alones or as add-ons to CheckMate for Solidworks. Now, I am no expert on metrology [science of measurement], and so I'd rather quote them: "This software reads in a typical PCDMIS program including the golden part measurement data and outputs an Equator/Modus-compliant DMIS program and a CALibration file. All that is left to do is master the golden part and run your production parts." http://www.originintl.com  Even More News Read the blog at WorldCAD Access as I write more about the CAD industry, and give tips on using hardware and software. You can also keep up with the blog through RSS feeds and email alerts. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week: 7 Ways to Cram More Apps onto Your Android Tablet How much tablet can you get for $200?  I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine  throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Jul 8: "3D Systems was sued today for allegedly making misleading statements about its business prospects. Details here -> http://www.tenlinks.com/news/kendall-law-group-files-lawsuit-against-3d-systems/" Thank You, Subscribers! Thank you to you subscribers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Chris Huminski: "Ralph, thanx for another great year!" Solid Modeling Solutions (small company donation) Should you wish to support upFront.eZine, then the suggested amounts are $25 for individuals, $125 for small companies, and $500 for for large companies. You may make the donation by PayPal, as follows:   1. Log into http://www.PayPal.com 2. Click on Send 3. To: grabowski@telus.net 4. Fill in the Amount, and then choose 'Goods or Service' 5. Click Send Money How to donate through PayPal using a credit or debit card: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2358 Letters to the Editor Re: MobileCAD is Reaching Maturity  Interesting variance on those 360 downloads: 90,000 [Android comments] to only 450 [iOS comments]. I would have thought thousands of architects on Mac mobile systems would have downloaded it. Heck, I'm more the engineering type and I have it on my iPad. Of course, here we go again with AutoCAD 360 vs. Autodesk 360, or is it A360?? Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!      - P. R. Always look forward to your articles, especially on CAD. I was wondering if you’d care to look into doing a piece on Kubotek’s Keycreator. Judging from the videos on the website, it seems to offer quite a bit for the price. Might be a good alternative for those looking to jump to 3D without a having to deal with a questionable business model.     - Tim Neumann, project engineer     Addison Fabricators The editor replies: Fortunately, the software has already been reviewed. See http://www.caddigest.com/exclusive/keycreator/112712_keycreator_analysis.htm   Spin Doctor of the Moment "We happily give children paint brushes when they're young, with no experience; it should be exactly the same with technology."     - Sinead Rocks, head of learning, BBC     http://www.slashgear.com/bbc-microbit-explained-in-5-steps-07392076/

*7632

MobileCAD is Reaching Maturity, Part I

upFront.eZine Issue #867

 

Part 1: Who Today Are the Top 3 Vendors? by Ralph Grabowski I've seen CAD vendors bravely plunge into the churning waters of mobile apps, only to find them icy cold. The effortless interfaces that we mobile users enjoy are back-ended by brain-freeze headaches for programmers:  Developing for iOS is painful, because Apple keeps crucial technical details hidden under its kimono, like how much RAM is available to apps Developing for Android is painful, because every device is freaking different (*)  Developing for Windows Mobile or Blackberry is painful, because their market shares are too small to ensure sufficient customers Developing for Web apps that run on any platform is painful, because they're not as fast, elegant, or feature-rich as native apps (witness the difference between running Twitter in a Web browser or as an app) (*) One CAD developer confided in me that his team is wasting time designing yet another larger set of icons just so that they'll display nicely on today's ultra-high resolution tablet and phone screens. On the other hand, he says, "We have to do them over again anyhow to adapt to Lollipop's [Android 5.x's] new flatter user interface guidelines." Then there is that universal problem of profit: CAD vendors are making close to nothing in selling their mobile apps to this narcissistic economy that expects everything free -- and to work perfectly.  As a result of the pain that is ongoing, most CAD vendors are freezing further app development or else pressing ahead more slowly. One CAD vendor, for example, triumphantly told me upon launching their iPad app a few years ago, "Updates will come monthly!" Over the past year, I've barely heard from them. It costs money not making money. As a result, I narrow the field down to just three vendors who have mobile CAD apps that impress me and are updated aggressively. Listed in alphabetical order, they vendors are...  Autodesk with AutoCAD 360 -- offers the broadest range of platforms, and overwhelmingly the largest number of downloads (*) Graebert with ARES Touch -- endeavors to pack in the most complete set of drawing and editing functions (Android only) IMSI/Design with TurboSite -- boasts the most significant data collection abilities (iPad only) (*) Downloads do not equate to users; the industry rule of thumb is that 5-6 downloads equals one user. A user is someone who uses the software at least once a month. AutoCAD 360 has over 10 million downloads on Android; Apple does not report downloads, but we can get an idea from the number of feedbacks: Google Play Store reports 90,000, while Apple iTunes reports 450. Autodesk has versions of AutoCAD 360 for Android, iOS, Windows, and Web browsers, but not OS X. What we are seeing is mobileCAD reaching maturity. Signs of market maturity include a winnowing of the number of competitors, a very few vendors significantly outpacing the others in feature sets and user numbers, and the software gaining a robust set of functions.    From One to Four This article began as a simple Q&A about Graebert's current and future plans for their ARES Touch app, but when we blew away the pencil shavings and pushed aside the piles of eraser dust, we found ourselves facing 5,000 words -- much too long for a single newsletter. So, our think-piece is split into parts: Part I: Introduction (this week) Part II: Why Graebert is Chasing Mobile, and Not the Cloud (next week) Part III: Rethinking How MobileCAD Works Part IV: Q&A with Graebert Staff The publishing schedule will be irregular, on and off for the next several months as upFront.eZine takes its annual summer break, and then in September and October attends these conferences: September 7-8  Open Design Alliance, Prague October 7-8    Graebert Annual Meeting, Berlin October 13-14  Bricsys International Conference, Munich October 15     Dassault Spatial Conference, Munich October 26-28  Solid Edge University, Cincinnati   ARES Touch Beta Opens Up to All The original reason for the Q&A was that Graebert this week opens access to ARES Touch to anyone who wants to try it out on an Android tablet. Until now, the beta has been extremely limited; heck, even I couldn't get a copy until now.  The software is fully working, and will receive updates. The only catch is that the license expires September 31, 2015. To ask for a copy, to go https://www.graebert.com/en/arestouch, and then click the Join Now button near the bottom of the Web page. (The reason for the Sept 31 expiration is that's when Graebert hopes by then to have its new licensing system in place.)   New Home for eBooks.onLine That the Web is ethereal is clear as link rot sets in. Ironic, given the material nature of books (they can rot, you know) and the permanence of digital media that can be copied perfectly endlessly, except for when it comes to an abrupt halt at the perfectly symmetrical 404 error number. Which is just my way of warming up to say that upFront.eZine Publishing's online bookstore eBooks.onLine has a new home. ISPs are imperfect, and so a new home needed to be found. After two months of work, the move was completed last week, and so our 90 titles can be found at http://www.worldcadaccess.com/ebooksonline.  Here you will find our ebooks on learning how to use and customize ARES, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, BricsCAD, CAD management, CorelCAD, Generic CADD, General CADD, IntelliCAD, TurboCAD, and Visio.  Prices range from $0 to $40, and payment can be made with PayPal or through credit cards. Your ebook order will be fulfilled in fewer than 24 hours. Thank you for supporting eBooks.onLine! Sponsor: Okino Graphics == Professional 3D File Conversion/Viewing/Rendering Software == For over 2 decades Okino (Toronto) has provided mission-critical 3D conversion software used extensively by tens of thousands of professionals. We develop, support and convert between all major CAD, DCC & VisSim formats. Robert Lansdale (CTO, lansd@okino.com) tailors each package to the specific conversion requirements of each customer. Popular formats include 3ds Max, Maya, C4D, LW, ProE, SolidWorks, Inventor, SketchUp, DWF/DWG, DGN, CATIA, IGES/STEP/Parasolid, 3D PDF/U3D, JT, FBX, Collada & more. We know data translation, and provide immaculate developer-to-customer relations. http://www.okino.com Even More News With the earliest patents running out on 3D printing, vendors are losing their grip on specific technologies unique to themselves. And so we see aggressive protection of remaining patents, such as from Stratasys. They were pretty happy that  the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board denied requests from Afinia for inter partes review of three Stratasys patents relating to liquefier structure, temperature control, and tool paths for constructing part perimeters.  Inter partes previews the review of a patent's validity, and USPTAB figured that it was unlikely Afinia would prevail in its challenge. Turning the tables, Stratasys is suing Afinia for infringing on the three patents that relate to FDM (fused deposition modeling) technology that prints 3D models by the method most commonly used today, by laying down layers of material, and invented by a Stratasys co-founder. Thank You, Subscribers! Should you wish to support upFront.eZine, then the suggested amounts are $25 for individuals, $125 for small companies, and $500 for for large companies. You may make the donation by PayPal, as follows:   1. Log into http://www.PayPal.com 2. Click on Send 3. To: grabowski@telus.net 4. Fill in the Amount, and then choose 'Goods or Service' 5. Click Send Money How to donate through PayPal using a credit or debit card:  https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2358 Letters to the Editor Re: Italian Architects Protest Uber-ization Of Design   I have heard horror stories of the grandchildren of architects being sued for building failures 50 or 60 years after they were built.  I can’t imagine there could be any merit to those.     - Jim Balding, architect     www.theantgroup.com - - -   Have you looked into the lawsuit that Intellicad has over Gstar’s noncompliance? Or have they spun off like ZWsoft? Or just ripping off an American company? I am looking to buy a AutoCAD work alike and GStarCad was at the top of my list, but not now.       - Jerome Mitchell The editor replies: I ran a major article that interviewed both sides. See upFront.eZine Issue #860 "ITC vs Gstarsoft" at http://www.upfrontezine.com/2015/05/itc-vs-gstarsoft.html Notable Quotable "We... ask ourselves, how can we make this better? You’d be surprised at how often the answer to those questions is to not do anything. If users want their applications and screens to look different, they’ll download the app they want. Android’s great flexibility lets you do this..."     - Seang Chau, senior vp of software engineering, Motorola     http://www.greenbot.com/article/2933474/android-influencer-motorolas-seang-chau-chats-bloatware-and-motorolas-lack-thereof.html

* 7631

 

Vabi Apps for Revit

Issue #866

 

by Ralph Grabowski with Frank Schuyer

Vabi is a 43-year-old company that most of us never knew about, and this year they are making their splash in the AEC industry internationally: they have the first building analysis add-ons that run inside of Revit; all their competitors make us export data from Revit in IFC format, and then import it into their programs that run external to Revit. Vabi was founded in 1972 by a collective of installation and construction companies, the government, TNO and technical universities, because the government wanted one standard for its buildings. The institute developed standards for building simulation. Vabi was spun off by TNO in 2010 as a private company to concentrate on commercializing building performance software. Today their software is used by 5,500 engineers at 2,000 clients, and not surprisingly has 90% of the Dutch market. The company employs 55, and is profitable. The focus today, ceo Frank Schuyer told me, is on architects, subcontractors, and Revit users, but he sees future growth possibilities in other areas, such as property management and real estate. Next year, the company plans to target SketchUp users in Canada. For this year's international expansion, Vabi is concentrating on Revit. The modules it offers are meant to affect decisions early in the design process using generalized parameters -- rather than at the end with jurisdiction-specific. Here are the modules that are currently available or will ship soon. (See figure 1.) Figure 1 Thermal Comfort Optimizer module running inside Revit Functional Modules Spatial Requirements Assistant ($10) Daylight Ratio Evaluator ($10) Accessibility Evaluator ($10) Comfort Modules Thermal Comfort Optimizer ($10) Daylight Ratio Evaluator ($10) Financial Modules Financial Simulator ($20) Energy Assessor ($30) Green Building Modules Energy Assessor ($30) Lighting Organizer ($10) (The price shown is a true monthly fee, where we pay only for those months we use the software; a two-month-free discount is applied to annual subscriptions. Apps can be purchased from the vabisoftware.com site or from within Revit using Autodesk's Apps Exchange store. Full-function demo versions are available free for 30 days.) Tying them together is a dashboard that shows how well the building's design is meeting criteria. The dashboard is free. (See figure 2.)   Figure 2 Vari's dashboard app   Q&A Q: Why are you the only ones running analysis software inside Revit? A: You have to ask our competitors. Revit's API is not very easy to use, and so for programmers it is easier to write an external program. We worked harder to make it easier for users. By running inside, we have a market advantage. Q: Until now, your firm's software was specific to standards of The Netherlands. How are you localizing standards for areas like North America? A: Our modules do without local rules and regulations. This lets our apps be used internationally at the early design stage. Now, the results are  very accurate, based on our gained expertise, and so are good enough to make projections. We have a video on our Web site that shows how this works:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxIJS0NrBwo.. Q: Can any local standards be specified? A: Users can enter general local standards, such as pricing in US dollars or British pounds, and measurements in inches, mm, or percentages, etc.  But otherwise we use international standards to do the initial analysis at a low cost. For detailed, localized analysis after the design is complete, Revit users need to employ different software that typically cost more; our solution works at the front end. Q: Your modules currently run on Revit only. Are you considering other AEC programs, such as Vectorworks or ArchiCAD?  A: Yes, we might consider them. Our next challenge, however, is that Autodesk is moving Revit to a cloud-based model and so we have to get our software ready for this as well. We made a decision to build desktop apps first to create a market, but 2-5 years from now most design projects will be run with cloud-based models. The market is changing. www. vabisoftware.com

And One More Thing...

Datakit of Lyon France already had a translator plug-in for Rhinoceros 4 and 5 called CrossCad/Plg, and now they've added CGR and JT as export formats. Other export formats include Catia V4 and V5, Parasolid, and 3D PDF. Import formats include Catia V4, V5, and V6, Inventor, Pro/E, and many more.  Translators are available separately (e200 to e1,200) or as a bundle (e2,50). Get the details at www.datakit.com/en/conversion-plug-ins/rhino-25.html

Even More News

Read the blog at WorldCAD Access as I write more about the CAD industry, and give tips on using hardware and software. You can also keep up with the blog through RSS feeds and email alerts. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week: Software review: PDF Converter Elite  Tutorial: How to take control of a blank Android  Research: Goggle sez AutoCAD 2017 already available I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine  throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Jul 1: It's a brave new world as Chicago adds the 9% cloud tax to "nonpossessory computer leases," like AWS and Azure. Probably Autodesk 360, too.

Thank You, Subscribers!

Thank you to you subscribers who donate towards the operation ofupFront.eZine: Cambashi of England (small company donation) Zsolt Engli of Germany: "Thanks for your news and ideas!" Should you wish to support upFront.eZine, then the suggested amounts are $25 for individuals, $125 for small companies, and $500 for for large companies. You may make the donation by PayPal, as follows:   1. Log into http://www.PayPal.com 2. Click on the Send Money tab 3. To: grabowski@telus.net 4. Fill in the Amount, and then choose 'Service/Other' 5. Click Send Money How to donate through PayPal using a credit or debit card: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=FAQ2358

Letters to the Editor

Re: Italian Architects Protest Uber-ization Of Design I had a feeling that design crowdsourcing was coming soon. There will be plenty of issues with this type of thing. It is one thing to get a graphic design or Web page like 99designs.com, but there is real liability in designing spaces.  Maybe this is a way to get a design direction or concept, but I would advise owners to get someone who knows buildings, local codes, and construction to develop the design. The value is in the knowledge and wisdom of the professional.  The construction of the project is where a great deal of the cost is: "If you think it is expensive doing it right, that is nothing compared to doing it over." Like most anything else, you get what you pay for.     - Jim Balding, architect     theantgroup.com The editor replies: This is one of the reasons I got out of engineering. Here in British Columbia, engineers are legally responsible for their designs even after they are dead, meaning my kids could be sued. It was unfortunate CoContest did not respond to a request for an interview, as it would have been interesting to see how they handle the liability issue. Generally, I like the idea of the CoConnect virtual business for design by competition -- from both sides, as customers seeking plans/ideas and as a deliverer providing services. In human terms this new virtual business  is like the desktop PC to the old mainframe computer. It doesn’t intend to function exactly like the business its competing against. But these business models do unfairly compete, from the traditional perspective by bypassing requirements and costs that traditional business pay. Professional services are experiencing  the job-value shift that blue-collar manufacturing workers experienced as off-shoring and robotics has occurred over the 1980s-2010s. In addition, automation is coming to much of that business environment, which will displace a lot of work that would otherwise justify a full time position. I think the hardest part about these changes is that the unintended consequences. The new idea had an intended purpose (narrow) but then impacted more widely. But a $500 [building] plan, hmm...     - Name withheld by request It really brings home globalization when you think of how desperate the young professionals in Europe are compared to us older, more established design professionals. I suppose that if you dig up the statistics, there’s a growing number of young unemployed professionals here in the Americas as well -- but with construction as busy as it has been, it couldn’t be anything like that.     - Ron Powell Very interesting article and comments from you; it says so much about how our world is changing.  I am sure you will have more of this than you need, but just in case: there are a couple of typos where you wrote CoCreate instead of CoContest. Thanks once again for this newsletter.     - Susanna Holt     Autodesk   The editor replies: Grrr... both me and my copy editor missed those. Thanks for catching 'em! My fingers found type CoCreate so much easier than CoContest.   Re: OrthoGraph  Interesting bit on OrthoGraph. Sounds good, so I went to web site, and whoa! US$600 for a floor plan program? Very little info on how it works, on why it is worth more than an iPad. Not for the layman, so I am just wondering why does a professional need it?     - John S. Brunt, AIA     jsbarch.com OrthoGraph replies: The reason we increased our pricing is so that we could involve more developers to work on new and exciting features, and that costs money. We are transforming this US$99 app into a more professional one so that we can sell it to those AEC people who need a strong on-site CAD tool. To appeal our existing customers, who don’t have this kind of money for an app, we have a US$80 version which is a good option for simple jobs. Thank you for keeping an eye on our floor plan application, and giving it some coverage. It is always good to see some buzz the program generates.     - Zoltan Toth, partner manager     OrthoGraph Ltd. Mr Brunt responds: Interesting that they are charging more now, so that the software will be more valuable in the future. Kind of a cart before the horse. Do they really think adding more code (I assume that is what they have hired more developers to do) will automatically make it a better product? A limited iPad version at 99 cents or even $5.99 that demonstrates the value would probably raise more money. As a potential but occasional user (once every month or two), the price seems pretty steep, and the software limited to 10 rooms. What if I have an 11- or 12- or 20-room house or office to measure?   Re: Apocalypse nearing as computers slow down Chip makers moved away from cranking up chip clock speeds in favor of adding cores as a way to boost performance about a decade ago. Bumping up clock speeds generated more heat and consumed more electricity. Performance improvements over time have also come by shrinking chips and integrating more components such as graphics cores. This is just basic physics with CMOS, the fundamental way to construct quality semiconductors in volume. Intel had made a prediction back in 2000 that they would have 10GHz CPUs by 2011. See http://www.quora.com/Will-10Ghz-processors-be-possible-by-2020. Intel now has single-CPU chips with 16 cores onboard, 32 available after hyper threading.  But 10GHz CPUsIt just weren’t doable without liquid nitrogen cooling. And it still isn’t, because sockets for memory aren’t practical at microwave frequencies. Try soldering 32GB of ECC RAMn down on the motherboard!  Long traces on the PCI bus to the video card are problematic as well. The traces can’t be kept in-phase with one another at those speeds. And there’s that socket again for the video card: how about trying to solder an nVidia TitanX onto the motherboard? A better story to dive into is why the CAD/ CAM guys won’t (can’t) multi-thread their design programs to take advantage of more cores. Photoshop showed the way some time ago.     - Lynn Brielmaier      Thrustmaster The editor replies: On the software side, the only parts of a CAD program that can be multi-threaded are those where the outcome can be predicted, such as loading a DWG file, rendering it, doing FEA analysis, and so on. These all are extended activities that do not involve the operator. All other operations -- like drawing and editing -- cannot be multi-threaded because the CAD program doesn't know what the operator will do. Multi-threading only works when the task can be split into multiple threads and then processed by the CPU or GPU. We kind of get multi-threading, in that the OS runs in one and the CAD program in a second. Hence, all we need is a 2-core CPU. Mr Brielmaier responds: I'’m glad you recognize that FEA is fully capable of utilizing multiple cores. It would it be a huge labor saver if the program could run FEA on about a half a dozen different options in little windows on the screen to show cause-and-effect!  One huge, big, everlasting-problem you bring up is that the computer is waiting for the operator to make the next move. Yep, that’s a big time productivity waster. Especially when the operator doesn’t exactly know what he wants to do next. I don’t want to dive into what does and doesn’t qualify as AI here… I’m happy to pick a choice myself. Let's get real a minute. I have a dual-Xeon workstation with 12 cores, 24 available to Windows after hyper-gobbledy-gook + 32GB RAM + 240GB boot SSD + 1TB main disk + 1Gb network connection. I’m running AutoCAD Electrical. If I so much as move a single existing trace on an old schematic, I totally wreck the drawing. In no time at all! <Serial Undo Operations!> Stretching the drawing works, but it looks ugly. Why can’t it re-route, optimize, fill-in-the-blank-with-the-feature-you-want? The needle on my CPU utilization gauge hardly ever budges off the zero peg – maybe just a tad towards 5% utilization. Could the software do a better job? I wish! All down my hallway are legions of SolidWorks guys with the same efficiency-of-operations task problems I have, except in mechanical design and modeling issues. OK, thanks for hearing the rant, I feel betta already!

Notable Quotable

"Is your child panicked about taking a test? Call it a 'celebration of knowledge'. Did your boss catch you doing nothing? Say you were 'zero-tasking'. Do you feel bad about firing employees? Call it 'synergy-related head count restructuring' and you'll sleep soundly, you monster."     - Mark Peters, reviewing "Spin-glish: A Smorgasbord of Evasive, Duplicitous Delights" (thanks to reader Don Beaton)     www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dogeared/spinglish-a-smorgasbord-of-evasive-duplicitous-delights/

 

*7644