Issue #1,104 | Inside the Business of CAD | 13 September 2021
Press Releases Of the Summer
Acquisitions that were (and weren’t) made while we were off vacationing:
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Autodesk gave up on its attempt to acquire Altium, after the EDM firm purportedly wanted too much. Altium makes software for designing printed circuit boards. “While we did verbally improve our initial proposal, we were unable to agree on the basis to advance discussions,” Autodesk said.
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In July, Sanvik acquired GibbsCAM milling and turning software, Cimatron molds and die design software, and SigmaNEST nesting software from Battery Ventures. Then in August, Sandvik, which has 100,000 users, purchased MasterCAD and its 270,000 users.
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Epic Games acquired SketchFab, which will keep its name but drop its store fee to 12%. SketchFab’s Web site offers four million 3D models.
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Siemens bought FORAN from Spain’s SENER for its ship design and construction software. FORAN is used by 150 shipyard and design offices in 40 countries.
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Vectorworks established its Australia office by acquiring 20-year-long distributor OzCAD Pty. OzCAD manager Annabel Carr stays on to run operations for the new Vectorworks Australia office.
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In financial news, we have…
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Ansys, the simulation people, reported Q2 revenues of $447 million, up 16% from a year earlier. The company plans unspecified acquisitions with its “growing cash horde.” Details from Monica Schnitger at schnitgercorp.com/?p=18783. If Ansys were a CAD vendor, it would be the 4th biggest.
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PTC had Q3 revenues of $436 million, up 23% year over year, of which over half came from its oldest lines of software, Creo and PLM. “Sales of ThingWorx [Internet of things] are still growing more slowly than expected,” reports Monica Schnitger at schnitgercorp.com/?p=18730.
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C3D Labs enhanced their C3D Toolkit 2021 with the addition of a FairCurveModeler module to draw smooth Class-F curves and surfaces (fairings) that are smoother than Class-A curves. Learn more at c3dlabs.com/en/blog/products/c3d-labs-bringing-advanced-surfacing-to-3d-modeling-updated-c3d-toolkit-2021-boosts-high-end-3d-soft.
The toolkit also gains a Web Vision module for client-server viewing of CAD models in Web browsers. A no-charge evaluation version of the entire toolkit’s SDK is available by making your request at c3dlabs.com/en/evaluation/.
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Graphisoft shipped ArchiCAD 25 at the start of the summer. At 37 years old, the company has the longest-running BIM program in the world. This year’s release has these features:
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Custom-shaped openings and custom stairs designed according to regional standards
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Import and export of 40+ file formats, including Revit MEP 2021
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Surface textures on section and elevation views
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BIMx viewer and BIMcloud collaboration integrated, with BIMx handling 100K files and now working with Android
And more. Get the full details from graphisoft.com/solutions/archicad/archicad-25.
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Open Design Alliance is holding its annual ODA Summit 2021 this year on September 21. It is, sadly, virtual again, but I hear in-person next year might be in Munich, if possible. Details of the two-hour event and free registration are here -> conference.opendesign.com
As well, the ODA is working on a STEP [STandard for the Exchange of Product data] SDK so that ODA members can incorporate the translation standard in their software. The software development kit is due to ship by year’s end. opendesign.com/blog/2021/july/oda-starts-development-step-support
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Lots of companies that employ visualization are jumping on the DLSS [deep learning super sampling] system from nVidia.
Enscape is using it for improving performance of its virtual reality walk-throughs for architects, such as going from 20 frames per second to 60fps. They call it “visualize as you design.” enscape3d.com
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Hexagon updated MSC Apex Generative Design to v2021.2 with these new functions:
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Simulation with 3D transversely isotropic and 3D orthotropic materials
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Tsai Hill and Tsai Wu failure criteria
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Faster facets-to-NURBS partitioning
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Clone existing loads with the Copy Loads function
amendate.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ApexGD212H/pages/2619211781/What%27s+New+in+2021.2
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CAD Exchanger from CADEX now supports 30 CAD formats with the addition of 3D XML and Solid Edge import, mesh colors for Solidworks, asynchronous model loading in Unity, and more. Try the desktop program 30 days free (after registration) from cadexchanger.com/products/gui/try.
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Siemens updates Parasolid 33.1 with more commands for working with integrated models that mix B-rep designs with facet-based shapes: blending, tapering, offsetting, hollowing, and thickening mixed models. The company notes that its geometric kernel is in software used by four million people. plm.automation.siemens.com/global/en/products/plm-components/parasolid.html
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IntelliCAD Technical Consortium in mid-summer released a beta of IntelliCAD 10.1 to the general public, and then in mid-August did the full release.
Some of the new features include the following:
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Supports 3Dconnexion devices, like 3D Space Mouse and CAD Mouse
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Inserts geographic maps from Esri shapefiles, Autodesk .sdf, and Spatial .sqlite
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Clones existing entities to activate their command and draw new entities
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Adds sheet sets, tables, enhanced grips, real-time spell checking, dimension breaks, layer filters in ribbon and toolbar droplists, and layer states.
More details at intellicad.org/intellicad-10.1-release. You can’t download a demo version of IntelliCAD from the ITC, as it acts as a distributor, but you can still access the beta after registering (and getting approval) from intellicad.org/intellicad-beta-registration.
Member company progeCAD plans to release an IntelliCAD 10.1-based progeCAD 2022 Professional software in the second half of October, 2021. www.progecad.us
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Nemetschek Groups owns about 14 companies that run largely independently of each other, and refers to them as “brands.” Now the company has merged two of its brands: Graphisoft (BIM design software) with Data Design Systems and its MEP design software.
The reason given for the merger is this: “The merger of Graphisoft and DDS in the Planning & Design Division is another strategic step in harmonizing the Nemetschek portfolio.”
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IFC.js is a JavaScript library for reading and writing IFC [industry foundation classes] files, with its parsing engine based on WebAssembly and C++. The library is designed to allow compatible Web browsers into BIM viewers. Developers are looking for coders:
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If you know C++, WebAssembly, or the technical part of IFC — work on the parsing engine
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Three.js coders — work on the geometry side of the library
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Contribute — by building application on IFC.js
More info about IFC.js at ifcjs.github.io/info/docs/Introduction.
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The primary flaw in uploading photos to sites like Google and Facebook is that it lets those nosy behemoths abuse our images and embedded metadata. A solution is to encrypt photos transparently, such as described by schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/07/storing-encrypted-photos-in-googles-cloud.html.
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PROSTEP’s OpenCLM [configuration lifecyle management] is a Web application for generating digital threads. The software creates a web of relationships between objects in their domains, throughout a product’s life. openclm.prostep.com/?L=1
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Voxelmaps has the modest goal of creating a digital twin of the entire planet to 10cm-position accuracy with its MRVOGs — multi-resolution voxel-occupancy grids. voxelmaps.com
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An ABI Research headline made my eyebrows bounce: “Manufacturers to Spend US$2.6 Billion on Simulation Software by 2030.” The number seemed low, given that ANSYS alone generates nearly $2 billion/year in revenues selling its line of simulation software.
So I asked them if their headline perhaps had the decimal in the wrong place. They replied, “We are only considering simulation software supporting industrial and manufacturing firms designing their products and looking to optimize their production lines. We are not considering construction or firms in the defense sector nor automotive firms using simulation in the work on autonomous vehicles.
“In addition, the forecasts covers software license revenues and not any maintenance or service revenues. I see in the latest annual report for Anysys that the firm’s $1.7bn 2020 revenue is split between software license ($780mn) and service & maintenance ($900mn). Ansys is certainly a leading player in this market.” abiresearch.com/market-research/product/7779549-simulation-software-in-a-manufacturing-set
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In other bad news from Autodesk, it found that one of its servers was part of the supply chain attack on SolarWinds’ Orion software. The good news is that no customer operations or Autodesk products were disrupted. The bad news is that this shows that making customers dependent on servers isn’t safe over the long run.
Shown below is Autodesk’s new logo looking like sheet metal.
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Letters to the Editor
I was thinking about how different the coalescence of CAD vendors/products was from the ’80s and ’90s, into maybe 2010, compared to cloud vendors. Rather than a pool of many cloud vendors, it started as basically three, maybe even two, from a shareholder aspect. What happened? I’d say it was the incredible initial investment costs that immediately cut out all but the biggest players.
Cloud never really started with the same organic base that most every other software category has been through: word processing, spreadsheets, databases, graphic editors, publishing, Web platforms, CAD/CAM, even operating systems. Most of them grew to six competitors or more before narrowing down through mergers or strategic annihilation.
I like competition. It benefits the masses, usually. But, as you mentioned, the CAD playing field has reached maturity, maybe even saturation. What will happen when cloud competition reaches that point? I find it weird how most assume the big players will remain forever, when tech history has shown otherwise.
- David Stein
The editor replies: I think the difference is due to the nature of the two types of technology.
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One person can write a CAD program; only a regular computer is needed. Here the focus is on the software, which is cheap, and so anyone can write it.
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The cloud needs thousands of computers right off the bat. Here the focus is on the hardware, which is expensive, so only a very few can afford it.
The cloud came about when Amazon, which already had server farms handling its online shopping network, realized it could rent out its machines during off-peak periods. Things grew from there.
What is interesting is that Google didn’t clue in until too late, and so it, of all people, is running a distant 4th:
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Amazon
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Microsoft
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IBM
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Google
Re: A Contractor’s View of BIM
This is absolutely spot on. Your point about design intent resonated with me especially, as does the point about getting BIM data into the right hands. Interoperability is what will make or break BIM ultimately.
I also wonder whether reality capture data might help designers to create more construction-friendly plans.
- Mark Senior (via WorldCAD Access)
Notable Quotable
@merbroussard: How would you define “AI ethics” in 1 sentence?
@MadamePratolung: Marketing device for some, pressing social and technical challenge for others.
@kbish: Balancing between cool & creepy all the time.
@neilturkewitz: An unfortunate anthropomorphic expression that suggests that questions of ethics may be addressed in a silo, divorced from the world in which they operate, & that AI is capable of possessing intent, whether good or bad.
@MLeiser: A waste of time. The only thing corporations will respond to is a law backed up by the threat of sanctions for non-compliance.
@AndrewOrlowski: Job Creation Scheme
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