Readers React to "Autodesk Wants to Kill the File"
Issue # 1,084 | The Business of CAD | 22 February 2021
Our readers had much to say about Autodesk’s statement that “a file is a dead thing working.” Here is what you wrote.
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About ten years ago I sat in a meeting with a CAFM software developer who insisted that his product didn’t have files or a language. “It’s written in data!” He repeated this at least a dozen times. We moved on to use another product. -RetroCAD Official (@Retro_CAD on Twitter)
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You wrote, “APIs [application programming interfaces] can enable tools to talk to each other, passing data around without the need for files.”
This is actually quite silly. An API is a tool that lets you pass data between systems. That data must be formatted in a certain way:
Some standard structured format; for a couple decades we all used XML [expanded markup language], but now we all use JSON [JavaScript object notation]
Expected data structures to be passed in each direction
What’s another name for a data structure passed in a structured format? A file! They aren’t getting rid of files at all; they are just getting rid of stored files. So they’ve solved nothing, but they’ve created a new problem: authentication.
Having a non-authenticated API on the Internet is obviously a problem, because the global botnet of unpatched things will quickly start attacking it. You could wrap it in an authentication mechanism (probably OAuth2 [open authentication v2]). Sounds easy, but it turns out it’s actually ridiculously hard when there isn’t an active user in the middle of things making all the connections work. Getting servers to talk to each other requires more layers of junk (SAML [security assertion markup language], for example) that hardly anyone understands, because it’s ridiculously complicated.
Secure and simple are incompatible design goals.
And, of course, the old problem of versions (that we have always had with files) is still there, but now it’s incompatible versions of APIs. As I said, quite silly. -Joshua Smith, chief technology officer Kaon Interactive
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I just read your upFront.eZine 1,083 “Autodesk Wants to Kill the File” from top to bottom, Autodesk has quite a problem on its hands. Is Autodesk still the dominant player it used to be? - Name withheld by request
The editor replies: In its early days, Autodesk could boast of being the fifth largest independent software firm for personal computers. Today it is about 2/3-to-1/2 the size of its primary competitors -- Dassault Systemes, Siemens PLM, Hexagon, Trimble, and so on.
While its AutoCAD software still dominates in terms of mindshare, the software is very expensive, given that it costs US$1,680/year to rent with customers receiving just a dozen or so new/improved functions each year.
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Tell Mr. Antagonist that if I can’t trust him now to do the right thing with my data, after he has enslaved all his customers to subscription, then how can he expect me to trust him when he takes total control of my data -- as well as the tools of my trade?
I always enjoy reading your historical surveys! - Chris Cadman
An interesting thought by Autodesk; maybe it’s way ahead of its time: “I think there is something we need to acknowledge right now: that a file is a dead thing working.” This reminds me of the old quip, “God is dead” -Nietzsche; “Nietzsche is dead” -God.
I can see that as computer processors and memory develop this becomes more and more possible. I can also see the cloud evolving into a massive application and storage resource. For profitability, I can see many software companies actually having their applications being cloud-based with no real software on computers. It solves problems for updates, patches, etc. and compels the use of a subscriber service.
I cannot see, however, most firms embracing these concepts. They will want to retain their data and ownership of the same. With total cloud storage, most firms will still want to keep their own hard copy of data and might use the cloud for backup storage. There’s something comfortable about being able to put your hands on a file on your system. Reliability of cloud-based stuff will have to be 100%-plus.
The complexity of having a program, as Windows currently does, running several different apps is possible as long as the format for the data being used is public domain, so that others with different apps can run the same data, and they do not want their apps to be cloud-based.
This would not likely be acceptable to Autodesk or others. I seem to recall a time in the past where they wanted to have ownership of *.dwg files.
I can’t see this happening in the near future. Maybe on some distant galaxy? - Dik Coates, P.Eng.
The editor replies: Some years ago Autodesk attempted to claim DWG as a registered trademark at the USPTO, and even sued some companies over their use of it. The result of the all that litigation was for Autodesk to fail in all its actions. DWG was already too broadly used inside -- and even outside -- the CAD industry.
And so Autodesk now says, “DWG has served and now serves as an Autodesk trademark. Autodesk has never precluded, and does not seek to preclude others from either using .dwg as a file extension or from making software that is compatible with the Autodesk DWG file format.”
The crucial word missing from the first sentence is “registered.”
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You forgot “convergence.” - Oleg Shilovitsky (@olegshilovitsky on Twitter)
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Is my interpretation correct that “There won't be any more files” really means that there’s still going to be a file, but just one file for the whole project? Or are they talking about one file for the entire company?
It’s hard for me to get my mind around, since files seem to be such an integral part of everything I’ve ever done. And it seems like some sort of diversionary tactic to my suspicious mind. For instance, what's the thing with claiming that the problems with translation of a model from one brand of software to another will be somehow solved by going from a thousand files to a single file?
Onshape claims to be doing the no-files thing, but when I asked questions of the salesman, he scheduled me a call with an engineer. That guy also had no technical knowledge, and he set me up a later call with someone else, and then I just lost interest.
Thanks for continuing to bring us great analysis of a very complicated business. - Jess Davis, president Davis Precision Design, Inc.
The editor replies: I think that non-CAD data about projects are stored directly in drawings (like PMI, but supersized), and then shared with other programs through APIs. But I could be wrong.
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Well, #AutodeskAndy says a file is a dead thing. Since they have dozens of file formats and UIs that don't work with each other, this is all just a pipe dream (meant to inflate stock prices). - Notandrewaganost (@NotAganost on Twitter)
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Following the virus-induced cancellation of all conferences last year, Hexagon made CAD history last fall when it became the first CAD-related software company to announce a live conference this year — HxGN Live Global 2021 for this June in Las Vegas.
Now Hexagon unmakes history by cancelling it. They’ll try again next year. hxgnlive.com
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Nanosoft releases nanoCAD Mechanica 20 software ($300 and up) for mechanical engineers, based on its nanoCAD Plus 20.1 platform:
Improved modeling with 3D constraints, direct modeling, and dynamic UCS
New 3D thread representation and library
New Offset dimension for measuring lengths of splines, polylines, and ellipses
Auto updates of drawing views, and auto rearrangement of section hatches
Arkance of France makes its tenth acquisition of a European CAD/BIM company in two years, the most recent being Agacad of Lithuania. Arkance is a subsidiary of construction machinery firm Group Monnoyeur.
Agacad has Revit-specific add-ons for the design of wood, precast concrete, and metal structures, managing BIM data, and so on. It has 13,000 customers. agacad.com
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I’ve come to rely on my newish Acer Spin Chromebook as my second laptop, primarily because it runs Android apps so effortlessly. Others are finding the same, as shown by ChromeOS machines in 2020 having outsold Macs worldwide (source IDC):
Windows: 80.5%
ChromeOS: 10.8% (sales up 68% over 2019)
macOS: 7.5%
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Here are some of the posts that appeared on my WorldCAD Access blog:
“To grow and improve its products, the tech industry needs to be open to more independent views, not more sycophancy.” - Geoffrey A. Fowler, technology columnist, Washington Post
Thank You, Readers
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