Issue #1083 | The Business of CAD | 15 February 2021
Commentary by Ralph Grabowski
Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost is adamant. “I think there is something we need to acknowledge right now: that a file is a dead thing working,” he said in an interview last fall with Archintosh magazine.
Autodesk’s Achilles heel is its cornucopia of file formats that proliferated when it invented or acquired its 80 software programs. Revit has a hard time talking to Inventor has a hard time talking to Alias. The company tried its hand several times at universal translators and file systems, such as Navisworks, A360, Project Quantum, and Project Plasma, but the efforts fell short or else never shipped.
At its online Autodesk University 2020 last November, Autodesk presented the latest solution to rid its file woes: get rid of the files. Passing files through translators is to be replaced by code using APIs [application programming interfaces] written with Forge.
Forge is Autodesk’s all-encompassing programming system that it is encouraging customers to adopt. Forge is a proprietary programming system that handles automated workflows through projects, among other tasks. As Mr Anagnost explained, “APIs can enable tools to talk to each other, passing data around without the need for files.” See figure below.
For Autodesk, the future is made of apps and thick clients:
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Apps are small, task-specific programs that usually run on phones, like BIM Layout.
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Thick clients is a name for desktop programs that run with assistance from the Internet, such as doing generative design, of which Fusion is the best example.
The plan is for each program in the Autodesk stable to have an API that allows Autodesk, third-party developers, and programming-savvy customers access to data of just the type and format needed at that instance. Between 3D models and APIs sits the product information model; it contains the data that define models. Forge’s own Model Derivative API already extracts geometry and properties from sixty file formats.
It’s a big job to define APIs that access data from each Autodesk’s 80 apps and thick clients, and Autodesk so far has not released any hard details. This is why CAD writer Anthony Frausto-Robledo mused that “The death of the file is not going to be a quick death, and it may not happen in any of our lifetimes.”
Mr Frausto-Robledo describes an API-based data-exchange scenario of the future: “It is possible to imagine bespoke workflows where colleagues and teammates use a variety of different workflows customized to their exact needs. One can image Slack, for example, advancing its snooze feature so tasks automatically happen during certain hours of the day.”
Autodesk is not the only one working on the problem. The problem is most acute on the architectural side of design, and so a competitor to Autodesk’s vision is the AEC Delta Mobility project. It proposes exchanging small changes (deltas) between design programs at the object level, regardless of data format.
Other CAD vendors, such as Graphisoft, are also looking at exchanging data in just the chunks needed by ancillary software.
News from Autodesk University 2020
As Autodesk University was online for 2020, a remarkable 100,000 attendees took in 550 sessions. Here are some highlights that I picked out.
After Navisworks failed to become the all-encompassing file format, and after Project Quantum died, Autodesk in early 2019 promised that Project Plasma would be the next step in collaborative BIM [building information modeling]. We expected to hear details about it at AU 2020, but sources tell me that Autodesk gave confidential updates to just a few of its important customers.
Speaking of coordination, Autodesk and other software vendors are supporting the new Omniverse coordination software from nVidia. Omniverse merges 3D models from Revit, ArchiCAD, Photoshop, and a few other design programs in Pixar’s USD [universal scene description] format, and then does photo-realistic simulations in real-time. It requires computers with RTX-level graphics boards.
AutoCAD. In its very early years, Autodesk boasted that AutoCAD could run on any viable engineering platform, and back then we saw it on hardware ranging from low-cost CP/M-based Zilog Z80s to uber-expensive Unix-based Silicon Graphics workstations; even on Macs. Then, following a big rewrite, Release 14 in 1997 went Microsoft Windows-only.
At the time, it made sense. Windows had made final its domination. But that also was right about the time that the Internet burst into the consumer space, and the Web browser was anointed the new platform, followed a decade or so later by the explosion of apps running on always-connected phones.
Autodesk was caught off-guard, and so its Web and mobile apps were lacking compared to smaller competitors. It spent the last decade rewriting AutoCAD core code to again make it multi-platform. This is one reason why AutoCAD suffered over the last few years from an impoverishment of new functions, as well as why the DWG file format stayed frozen longer than usual.
The new AutoCAD Core Engine (ACE) means that the Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, and Web browser versions of AutoCAD will have a common graphics core. (Linux and Chrome OS are not on the list.) This will, I presume, allow Autodesk to unify functions between platforms, something that has been badly lacking.
Inventor. The CEO of Autodesk comes from the mechanical side of design, and so it was no surprise that many new functions mentioned at AU were in MCAD. Some years ago, Autodesk had to reassure Inventor users that Fusion would not soon be displacing their favorite MCAD program. The best proof of support is to show new functions, and here Inventor got pride of place during the AU keynote.
Autodesk is working on storing every manufacturing stage in Inventor models, which sounds like a precursor to digital twinning. To make documentation easier, users will be able to pick a template to generate drawings in Inventor automatically. Lightweight versions of Inventor models can be placed in Revit models, and then the mechanical parts scheduled in Revit. No delivery date for these features was given.
Fusion. Fusion represents Autodesk’s future in MCAD, and so it boasted the largest number of announcements. Concurrent design will allow multiple users to work on the same project at the same time, such as on designs involving sheet metal and electrical. SPICE analysis has been integrated for auto-routing of PCBs [printed circuit boards] and other electrical tasks.
Autodesk says that Fusion now runs on Chrome OS as a Web app in a Web browser, so not natively. While the official FAQ says fusion.online.autodesk.com works only on Chrome OS, I was able to launch it on Windows 7. See figure below.
A new management extension for Fusion starts up in three seconds, as compared to “weeks” for similar software in Solidworks, according to Autodesk. Moldflow solver is being included in Fusion 360 for testing the best way to manufacture plastic mold designs. ANSYS Workbench analysis software now works with Fusion 360, and is round-trip.
Other new extensions, such as Fabrication, Nesting, and Machining, can be turned on for just the durations needed. Among them, a new feature-based machining system applies strategies automatically for different areas of parts being made. Cooling analysis is being added through a new fluid solver.
Digital Twins. The hot marketing word in CAD these days is “digital twins,” which are 3D models that accurately mimic physical products, even after manufacturing. (To me, it sounds like what PLM already is.) At AU, Autodesk announced it had joined the Digital Twins Consortium and was beta-testing Tandem digital twin software for architecture. It made no mention of digital twins for MCAD, thereby lagging competitors in this area.
What Ralph Grabowski Thinks
Autodesk used AU to announce bold steps for its future with Forge’s API data exchange and multi-platform ACE, none of which have delivery dates. Many other new features, likewise had no availability dates, but I expect to see them in the March time-frame when Autodesk usually sends out new releases.
The single-database is a dream for CAD vendors, as it allows them to more tightly lock in customers. Microsoft wanted to rid Windows of files with its Cairo experiment. The single database never worked out and Microsoft gave up on the project in 1996 — except in the Registry and we all know the mess that has turned into. Dassault in 2012 launched a single database system using Envoia in Catia V6 (aka 3dExperience), but it has not been wildly popular with customers.
Single databases make sense for cloud-based software, but as we know, CAD software is no longer moving whole hog to the cloud. It remains firmly situated on the desktop, with just the occasional tentacle reaching out to a few very specific cloud services, like file sharing and database access. See figure below.
Techno-optimists are fond of declaring the death of this or that, but typically are misguided in their prognostication. I am optimistic that the prediction of the death of the file system is wildly wrong, for one simple reason: file systems allow customers to retain power over vendors.
[This article first appeared in Design Engineering magazine and is reproduced with permission. Some text has been edited and updated.]
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And in Other News
C3D Labs had a rip-roaring year, with 2020 revenues up 41% over 2019. The company credits increased demand for digitization created by the virus.
Its C3D Toolkit is an SDK containing modules for geometric modeling, 2D/3D constraint solving, data exchange, 3D polygonal mesh to B-rep conversion (see figure above), and 3D visualization. c3dlabs.com/en/products/c3d-toolkit/
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Siemens reports Q1 revenues of €14 billion (about US$17 billion) with 3% growth. This is for all of Siemens, a heavy manufacturer. Its Digital Industries division earned €3.8 billion (US$4.5 billion) on 0% growth -- this is the division that houses Digital Industries Software, within which are NX and Solid Edge.
Siemens does not break out individual numbers for its software division, giving only percentages:
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All software +5%
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CAD ?%
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Cloud and integration -1.2%
Siemens predicts total revenues for fiscal 2021 will be up by 8% to 12%.
In other Siemens news, ceo Joe Kaiser retired, placing deputy ceo Roland Busch in charge. The company moved responsibility for its 14% investment in Bentley Systems from Digital Industries Software to its pension fund.
Learn more details on all of this from Monica Schnitger at schnitgercorp.com/?p=17739
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Here are some of the posts that appeared on my WorldCAD Access blog:
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Part 1: Why Google (Cannot) Fall
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Part 2: The Reverse Network Effect
You can subscribe to the WorldCAD Access blog’s RSS feed through Feed Burner at feeds.feedburner.com/WorldcadAccess.
Letters to the Editor
Re: The Meaning of ‘M’ in MBx
This publication hit close to our home -- Model-Based Definitions and LiDAR scans. Creating digital twins have become the mainstream of our business.
Your example of MDx is correct. Although, unless you are a massive firm like Ford, Boeing, or Lockheed, few people understand that, let alone need that. It all comes back to a cost vs. reward. How much does it cost to create all of the MDx data? But said the other way, if you are a Ford, how much could you lose if you miss something? Creating PLM can be incredibly expensive.
And then with Lidar on our Apple phones. Yipes! That scares me to death. I cannot wait until we start receiving scanned data from them and we are expected to create valid CAD data from it. Everybody will think a cell phone is as good as a Faro or Creaform scanner. I know it is coming.
- Scott Shuppert
CAD/CAM Services
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I had to laugh at “The Meaning of ‘M’”. It’s disgusting to me how they continue to peddle their globalist agendas, acting like it’s of benefit to all of us!
This ‘M’ reads like it’s something new. But it isn’t. What it amounts to is an attempt by arrogant dreamers to remove humans from the equation of working for a living. Didn’t we see that in “The Terminator”? At least they made their point in that show!
The fact is, back ‘in the olden days’, 2D drawings had more info on them than PLM systems do today, because they were concise and descriptive in a way that nothing can rise above today. The intel was fully embedded into the human consciousness of the persons who created those ‘things’.
The reason we don’t see that in 2D drawings today is because most of that intel has been omitted from drawings for the sake of speed to market. To achieve the same level of creative result in ‘new and improved’ automated electronic systems, you first have to account for all the data that goes into that result.
To digitize it (into electrons, whether graphic or verbal), you have to break it apart into its constituent parts and pieces. But by the time you do that, the expansive amount of data (that you must manage properly to even know the job, let alone get the job done) is beyond human management in electronic systems. It all becomes way too complex and unmanageable. It’s the opposite of KISS [keep it simple, stupid]!
- Chris Cadman
Notable Quotable
“Whenever you think your life and work is meaningless, just remember that a whole team of people dedicated years of their life to Autodesk Quantum.”
- Nihilist Autodesk (@AuNihilist on Twitter)
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