upFront.eZine News Archives

Readers Respond: Measuring the Unmeasurable

Issue #946

 

I was reading the good piece about trying to get reasonable numbers on software product revenue. I can empathize with the challenge, because I was involved for many years (and even led efforts) in trying to guesstimate our competitors’ revenues by product, industry, and geography. I did this as an executive at MSC, Fluent, Engineous, Blue Ridge Numerics, and CD-adapco. I also did similar research as a consultant to CIMdata a few years ago and on my own in and around those other efforts. So I was struck by the statement below: “We can then triangulate by product (easy to do, as public companies publish their results)”  I know from my own efforts (and being a corporate officer at a public company, MSC, from 1990-97) that public companies usually don’t publish their results by product line/name, only overall revenue by quarter and sometimes by geography and major business division. As Monica Schnitger wrote on February 9, 2016: “When Dassault Systemes reports results, there’s a blizzard of information to wade through, all carefully orchestrated to lead the reader to the desired conclusion: that DS is a healthy, growing business with activities on many fronts contributing to long-term success. We get a lot of useful information, but many questions remain unanswered such as how are SIMULIA and DELMIA doing?” So I wonder if the “easy to do” is Peter Thorne's statement or Ralph's interpretation? Either way, it’s questionable. However, my comments here are not meant to distract in any way from the generally high-quality efforts of Cambashi and upFront.eZine.  Compared to some market research charlatans (we’ve all seen their ads or postings on LinkedIn) who claim without hesitation that the FEA market in [fictional] Lower Slobovia will grow 10.283% between 2017 and 2020 and we should order their $1,500 report for all the details, your work is excellent.  I recall an anecdote from when a consulting firm paid a Chinese market research supplier to provide a report on the PLM market in China. In that report, there happened to be data on CD-adapco’s revenue in China. Since I was with CD-adapco as vice president until Jan. 1, 2011, I was amazed that the Chinese PLM report had CD-adapco China revenue numbers at a level of detail that even we at CD-adapco didn’t have!.     - Dennis Nagy     BeyondCAE Peter Thorne of Cambashi replies: Dennis is correct, I said 'easy', but I was exaggerating, as it’s not easy and some of my Cambashi colleagues have also pointed this out to me! However, it is easier than some of the other drill downs and Sudoku-like constrain-and-converge steps. One thing that helps is that we have a model for every major supplier, and each model has absorbed snippets provided by the supplier over the years. This doesn't mean a supplier’s five-year-old statement at a presentation in Singapore of A&D as a share of business in APAC [Asia-Pacific] is some kind of fixed point, but that statement will have influenced our model, and by adding these snippets in, it does mean we’ve got continually evolving supplier models into which we expect to fit this year’s figures.” - - - There's nothing easy about creating market numbers. Even if companies report data by product, geo [geoggraphy], seats, and units, they're often self-inconsistent over time and there's certainly inconsistency from vendor to vendor. Whenever a company releases this type of data, it needs to be viewed as marketing: What message are they trying to get across? Does a number of units include commercial, educational, both? What's in a product category and how are bundles handled? This type of data should be suspect, because there are no clear definitions. What Cambashi brings (and what I tried to do at Daratech) is a set of definitions that don't change across vendors or time. It's very hard to do, and I appreciate the deep sanity-checking  Cambashi does. It's the only way to even approximate something meaningful. I wrote that paragraph [referenced by Mr Nagy] about Dassault Systemes after one of their earnings releases. It's frustrating when a vendor creates a bucket of random things simply to show growth. Dassault's "Other" category includes BIOVIA, CST, DELMIA, SIMULIA, Quintiq, and its other smaller brands. It's not clear which products grew during the period, or by how much.  Of course, Dassault isn't alone in this; others also define categories to create their desired perception. It's a trend that's not merely annoying to industry analysts, but dangerous for investors because they don't really know what they're buying. Yes, there may be overall growth but it's important to know what's driving the growth to assess how likely it is to continue. Investors are always buying future performance [which determines the current stock price].     -Monica Schnitger, principal analyst     Schnitger Corp.   - - - Interesting reading how Cambashi does what they do: gathering data, triangulating, adjusting as they learn about numbers that don’t appear to match. Cambashi is very, very good at what they do.     -Jim Quanci     Autodesk   And Now the Rest of the News... Some of the most recent posts on my WorldCAD Access blog: How I access the Internet internationally foto of the sunday: dresden cathedral Recovering from a smashed smartphone There are four Androids - - - IntelliCAD Technology Consortium quickens the pace of releases, with IntelliCAD v8.4 out just four months after v8.3. New in IntelliCAD v8.4 are the following functions: multileaders, quick leaders, break lines, select similar, get selection, explode text, explode attributes, more MText formatting options, auto numbering, and drawing properties. Drag'n drop is now possible in the Customize dialog box. And they added support for IFC, and improved handling of DGN files. http://www.intellicad.org Aleksey Abramovsky describes how to use the Teigha Architecture APIs to draw a house in a CAD system that mimics AutoCAD for Architecture. As well, he lists the benefits to using the ODA's Teigha over Autodesk's ObjectARX. https://www.toptal.com/designers/css/dwgs-teigha-architecture (You have to be a member of ITC and ODA respectively to take advantage of IntelliCAD and Teigha. Members then decide whether to integrate the new functions into their software sold to end users.) Siemens PLM Software launches a new Automotive Solution, sounding a lot like PTC: "unites ALM with PLM" to combine embeddedhttps://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en/automotive-transportation/automotive-software-development/index.cfm software and physical systems. (ALM is Application Lifecycle Management.) But then sounding a lot like Dassault, Siemens also says that in the coming months it will launch a series of solutions aimed at a wide variety of industries. https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en/automotive-transportation/automotive-software-development/index.cfm Mapping company Bluesky has first map of heights for 41,083,111 buildings in all of  England, Wales, Scotland. http://www.bluesky-world.com Cenit of Germany acquires majority ownership of Keonys of France to become the largest Dassault VAR. But wait, there's more... Cenit AG also acquires majority interest in SynOpt GmbH, based in Leinfelden-Echterdingen and its simulation solutions for SIMULIA. IronCAD updates Multiphysics (for stress, thermal, electrostatic and fluid analysis) with Extended Markup Language Data (XMD). http://www.ironcad.com/press/ironcad-announces-multiphysics-analysis-update-ironcad-2017-product-update-1/ Google's new Blocks program makes 3D parts for VR [virtual reality]. Export as OBJ files to AR [augmented reality], VR, Web pages, or as animated GIF files. https://www.blog.google/products/google-vr/blocks-easily-create-3d-objects-vr . In other VR news, IDC says sales in first half of 2017 were... Facebook Rift: 520,000 units HTC Vive: 770,000 Sony PlayStation VR: 1.6 million Meanwhile, in the world of IoT [Internet of Things], Intel is axing 140 staffers as it scales back its IoT operations after canceling Galileo, Joule and Edison modules. It seems that all Intel is successful at is making CPUs and only 8086-compatible CPUs.  Of all the problems that CAD creates, multi-generation data access is the most interesting one of all, as it is dead-serious. "Aerospace & defense no longer tolerates the escalating cost and risk of data loss associated with a PLM technology refresh," says James Roche. He'll be the speaker in a data obsolescence webinar hosted by CIMdata on August 10 at 11:00am EDT. Register at http://www.cimdata.com/en/education/educational-webinars/webinar-managing-plm-solution-and-data-obsolescence - - - For late-breaking CAD news, follow upFront.eZine on Twiter at @upfrontezine.   Letters to the Editor Re: Big Data I just said to someone the other day that we're living in times when people are so disconnected from reality that fantasy rules! But then, who's going to farm, invent, and fix things? The editor replies: My wife's best friend married a farmer in Alberta, who with just his sons and sons-in-law does grain farming on nearly a thousand acres, including hundreds leased from retired farmers. I am astounded at what he does -- and puts up with.   Thank You, Readers! Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: 3D PDF Consortium (small-company donation) Cristiano Sacchi and Franco Folini of NOVEDGE (USA): "Keep up the good work!" Andrew English of Civil Survey Solution (Australia, small-company donation): "We appreciate your independent reporting on the CAD industry." Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $150 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/150 $625 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/625 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.comand the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "The license model change for Autodesk and PTC led to down years for both, which pulled the overall market down."      - @CIMdataPLMNews

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Readers Respond to 'BIM Angst'

Issue #928

 

Great BIM review. Luv the politics!     - Chris - - - The only reason most firms are adopting BIM is because of government mandates. We're pushed into it or we can't bid on the contracts. The workflow is hastily patched together with software that's incomplete and incompatible. It's not like just going from the drawing board to CAD. There is just too much which needs to be learned and formalized before a single wall is drawn.  What used to be an enjoyable career has turned into a nightmare of dis-coordination. Solutions are not ground-up reinventions, but layers of complexity on top of layers of complexity. There is never time for a more incremental approach as there was with CAD.      - David William Edwards     Dave Edwards Consulting - - - It is rare that a statement in your excellent newsletter requires clarification, but in issue #926 you mention, "IFC is bigger than BIM." How can a standard be bigger than a concept? That’s like comparing apples to dreams. Do you mean that a file exported as IFC is larger than the original file?     - Bill Glennie     Autodesk The editor replies: The link provided by IFC reaches out to hundreds of ancillary programs -- analysis, facilities management, and more -- as well as the BIM programs themselves. In this way, the business of IFC is a bigger than BIM. - - - While the adoption of BIM in the marketplace does seem to be lagging compared to the adoption rate we experience with CAD, I still see its dominance as inevitable due to one simple fact: it can save contractors and owners huge amounts of money.  Traditional 2D architectural documents have a massive inefficiency in the lack of coordination of the building trades, which results in added cost. A properly-managed BIM project can significantly reduce those costs, allowing the contractor and/or owner to pocket the savings.  For us architects, there’s no real advantage. I’m a believer that we all do better quality work when we work in a 3D environment, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into increased fees or profits. And it certainly costs us more to buy, maintain, and train for BIM software.  But in the end, we’re the tail being wagged by the dog. Whether we like it or not, our clients will increasingly be requiring we use BIM software. because they receive a huge economic advantage from it.  All the above obviously applies most to large and complex projects, so it will be adopted quickest in that market. Trickle down to the level of getting your bathroom remodel done in BIM will take longer, or indeed, may never happen at all.  The added costs and complexity of BIM might well be enough that the market will bifurcate into a high-end (where large firms migrate to big projects with BIM), and a low-end (where small firms continue doing smaller projects with 2D CAD). Love your newsletter. Keep up the excellent work!     - Andrew G. Blyholder, senior associate architect     Architectural Resources Group, USA - - - I run a very small building company. I do most of the detail design work myself. Most architects are simply not able to do the required detail design work for manufacturing; basically, 95% don't use 3D CAD for final design.  I would love to be able to exchange 3D models with parties involved as the design evolves, but alas this is not possible. The only way to make it happen would be for me to manage the 3D model. This does not really fit the way responsibilities are shared in the building process.  If 3D models are still a problem, BIM is even further off. It would require a complete re-alignment of the building industry. Where BIM can work is in tightly-integrated building teams, but at present this does not fit with current contracting practice. Governments requiring BIM is not the way forward. The benefit to all partners should drive BIM implementation and not a top-down requirement. A requirement would put smaller business to a serious disadvantage. A useful BIM implementation is no simple matter.      - Rene Dalmeijer     The Netherlands The editor replies: BIM vendors are keen to have government mandate BIM so that design firms are forced to buy their software. - - - We barely got CAD translation working. As long as there is profit in locking us into a proprietary vendor format, there will never be interoperability. Autodesk expects Revit to be it, as was AutoCAD. There needs to be a single standard format (similar to SQL) that is managed outside any vendor.     -Charles Haber, client strategist     Haber Group, USA The editor replies: With all the additions to IFC, it has become a kind of STEP or SQL. I am unsure, however, how effective it is, such as if it is good enough yet so that both Revit and ArchiCAD could be used on the same project. - - -  Thank you for going to the conference and reporting to us. (We couldn’t make it, as we were busy waiting for Revit to 'synch to central'.) One elephant in that room was no doubt the unavoidable truth about Autodesk, who have consistently proven themselves to be faithful to their shareholders first, which is as it should be in a free-ish capitalist market. The problem that arises from this (correct) orientation of their mission is that it is rare for the goals of Autodesk and the goals of paying users to align perfectly. This includes paying users who do work that is bounded by state or federal law, licensed AEC firms that design structures to comply with the myriad building codes and energy regulations. Since shareholders come first, Autodesk’s goal is to mete out minimal improvements with every update, in order to maintain revenue flow. The software (Revit) is never going to work as well as it could, because if they were ever to make the software fully functional, the paying users wouldn’t buy the next release, and revenue will dry up for several quarters -- long enough for upper management to be voted out. They learned this lesson with AutoCAD R14, (which was nearly flawless) and they will not be making THAT mistake again. Another scenario that could arise is that Autodesk no longer sees any profit in using a particular add-on or sub-licensed software module, which many customers may have relied on for years. Autodesk chooses to remove that portion, then re-writes their software for the next release, leaving many customers with no way to use the work that they had done previously. This happened with Revit MEP 2011, when Autodesk swapped out energy tool IES for GBS. In short, Autodesk can't be trusted by state or federal entities to do what is best for the designers or for the final customers. Autodesk’s FIRST obligation is to its shareholders, everyone else is secondary. If Autodesk were to be taken over (by millions of frustrated users buying up their stock) and converted into a non-profit, then using their software and file format as a national standard would be far easier, safer, and more likely.     - Peter Lawton, mechanical     Affiliated Engineers, USA The editor replies: I get the feeling that BIM is at the level of PLM, in being complex to implement, and expensive to run. Mr Lawton responds: Since I have only ascended to the middle rowing deck of this particular trireme, I only hear the beat of the production drum, and the occasional cracking whip, so I am not familiar with the level of development in other software silos. This is why it’s so important that we have you to keep an unbiased and experienced eye on these things, so thank you for your dedication. Revit / BIM is an order of magnitude more complex than CAD, possibly two orders of magnitude in certain respects. It requires higher end hardware to run quickly, but it will run slowly on the cheap stuff (which is another frustration altogether). The learning curve is long for old folks, less so for new grads. Revit is terrifically maddening in many ways, and it is obvious that those shortcomings could be readily addressed by Autodesk, but again, they must maintain a steady income. Having said that, the software still has immense and impressive power to extract information from a given model, which can help to very quickly resolve issues that used to take weeks to figure out. Our customers are architects or owners for larger projects (100k square feet+), so they decide what software we need to use. We still use AutoCAD for 5% of our work, and probably will for another five years. Some of that is up to Autodesk – if they were to improve Revit enough, we could drop AutoCAD completely, but that seems unlikely. Many customers will never adopt Revit, because they do not need its power and they can meet the needs of their clients with other, cheaper, less complex software – which should alarm no one. Irrational demands for "everyone to move to BIM" are stupid and pointless, and irrational. It shows a blindness to (or an intolerance for?) the workflows of others.   And One More Thing... C3D Labs is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of St Petersburg's ASCON Group with a free conference being held just before COFES in Scottsdale Arizona. ASCON Group is Russia's largest CAD vendor, and the most aggressive in developing spin-offs, such as Renga.  C3D Labs is responsible for developing the C3D kernel used by the company's KOMPASS-3D MCAD software, as well as by other CAD vendors and a version is available through the Open Design Alliance. C3D consists of modules that handle 3D geometry, 3D constraints, import/export, and rendering.  The two-hour event takes place at 10:00am on April 6 at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, with the keynote address by ASCON Group ceo Max Bogdanov. Attendees can take home "Geometric Modeling," Dr. Nikolay Golovanov's book on the mathematics of 3D modeling. Register for free at http://c3dlabs.com/en/sources/events/?ev_id=1544#events_reg Even More News There is more at our WorldCAD Access blog about the CAD industry, tips on using hardware and software, and our popular travelogues. You can keep up with the blog through its RSS feed and email alert service. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week: My new laptop is $1000 cheaper than my old one Why aren't tablet keyboards sporting a second battery? foto of the sunday: a phone recharge - - - We're on Twitter at @upfrontezine with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary throughout the day, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Feb 7: Getting ready for retirement, Carl Bass made as much in 2 days as the rest of us make in 320 years: $7.9M Jan 10 and $8M Jan 13, shares sold Letters to the Editor Re: Open Design Alliance opens up the Revit file format I understand the need to be able to interact with Revit files, but I don't understand why this is under the "Teigha BIM" label. To be BIM-compliant in any way you have to be able to interact with a BIM model and that means .ifc or .ifcxml -- Revit is just not relevant in this context.      - Simon Geard (via WorldCAD Access)     CAD-Schroer, England The editor replies: The ODA could not use Revit or RVT in the name, as Autodesk has in the past been particularly litigious with regard to similar efforts by ODA and other CAD vendors. I agree that the use of "BIM" in the name is unfortunate as the product has nothing to do with the pioneer of BIM, Graphisoft ArchiCAD, or any other BIM program -- except that these programs now can read RVT and RFA files directly.   Re: pdf2cad: From PDF to CAD Drawing Did Visual Integrity tell you that we’ve been a reseller of pdf2cad for years and that we actually helped create the Mac version of the product?     - Bob Mayer, president     IMSI/Design, USA The editor replies: I don't recall these items coming up, so it is interesting information to learn from you. - - -    Thanks for writing about PDF and CAD. I found your article to be entertaining. There are a couple of points that you make on which I have a different perspective than yours. I don’t find 3D to be a kludge in PDF at all. Quite the opposite, I find it to be a very useful tool that can create extremely compelling engineering documents. It is true that you have to click on a poster image to activate a 3D model and while I agree that is not optimal, it is a pretty low barrier to overcome. Companies like Boeing, GE and Honeywell and institutions like the U.S. Navy have all had great success using 3D PDF in their engineering processes.      - Phil Spreier, technical director        3D PDF Consortium  - - -  Finally I find out how where and how PDF and Acrobat Reader fit (or fit not) in the picture. Thanks for letting me in into your secrets.     - Herb Grabowski - - -  I want to let you know about a new blog recently started by AGACAD CEO, Donatas Aksomitas called “InfiniBIM: BIM to the point”. It’s linked to some of our current R&D at AGACAD and focuses on new approaches to BIM data management and exchange. Here are two initial blog posts: LOD [levels of detail] is wasting our time and holding BIM back SOI [sets of information] a potential revolution in BIM data management      - Bryan Bradley, communications officer        Agacad, Lithuania  - - -  PDF and CAD.  In one sentence: No chance. I see the same problem in cloud based software.  The idea of installing nothing, letting the browser do it, is a race to the bottom of  a common denominator, HTML5. CAD looked better in 1979, even on the green screen. Looks good on middle management, though. Hey we just took it to the cloud. What can it do? Vapor trails. But hey, it runs on any system. But what can it do? Very little, but the buzz is so loud we can sell it anyways. What if the customer gets informed? No problem, we have a team of 12 in marketing and just got rid of our expensive software developer. China will do it for free. So we can sell a piece of cr*p by spinning it AND eliminate our IT group?  Do it!      - Chris Hannukainen The editor replies: There was a reason we left mainframe-based terminals as fast as our PC-buying abilities allowed us!   Re: Change of CEO at Autodesk Thought you might be interested: http://www.enr.com/articles/41476-autodesk-ceo-carl-bass-steps-down-but-no-successor-named      - Dick Coates        Canada The editor replies: The surprise retirement announcement came just a few months after Autodesk was forced to take on three activist board members last fall. When the ceo announced his retirement, two of the activist board members immediately announced that they too would be leaving -- once a new ceo is in place.My understanding is that the agreement was mutual: the ceo would leave, as would the activist board members. As one insider put it, "Both won, and both lost."   Thank You, Readers! Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine.  Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $125 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/150 $500 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/625 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "I prefer social media to interviews in the mainstream media as many journalists don’t do their research."      - Black Swan author Nassim Taleb        http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-07/not-fascism-nassim-taleb-warns-theres-global-riot-against-psuedo-experts

Letters to the Editor: Our Readers Write

Issue #922

 

Re: What's New in Solid Edge ST9 EFD stands for "Engineering Fluid Dynamics" and Mentor's FloEFD exists since the end of the 90s with integrations also in Catia V5, PTC Creo/ProEngineer, and Siemens NX. Back then, it was sold by NIKA, which was acquired by Flomerics in 2006, and then acquired by Mentor Graphics in 2008.  So, only the Solid Edge integration is new. They were doing it already, and better than Autodesk. It is not a single button integrated in the CAD system, which moves the model into a different system -- to simulate like Autodesk Simulation CFD (former CFDesign) did -- but a fully embedded CFD simulation into the CAD environment. At no point does the user leave the CAD system for the analysis.      - Anton Webers (via WorldCAD Access) - - - Did you know that before the turn of the century Mentor had a MCAD package? When they dropped it, they gave customers IDEAS. It was at least as expensive as Mentor.     - Henry Sommer  The edit replies: I vaguely recall that. I definitely remember I-DEAS, which UGS bought and added to UGS to create NX, now owned by Siemens. - - - You said, "The CAD market is no longer growing much, so CAD vendors try to grow by poaching users from competitors. So, they have no choice but to write great translators." I would suggest a different characterization, more like, “In addition to writing software that is equivalent or even superior, newer CAD vendors must also include great translators, in order to more fully appeal to customers who may be considering a switch from their current solution.” 'Poaching' has the connotation of illegality? 'Luring' might be a more accurate term. The capitalist market is open to anyone who can build a better mousetrap, and a company that is doing so does not need to violate any laws.   Thanks as always for your excellent reporting.     - Peter Lawton The editor replies: I would argue the big players work hard to frustrate the benefits of capitalist market through actions like getting standards agencies to impose harsh standards that make it too expensive for small players to enter the field (such as ISO 5000, LEED, and getting governments to require BIM); proprietary files and APIs; cloud-based services and subscriptions; and avoiding multi-vendor conferences. Mr Lawton responds: We are both correct, because we are discussing two different issues. Your point is that big players (in any industry) spare no expense to throw up obstacles to competition, which is legal, until it is not.  That is, any company can be creative in making it harder for others to compete with them, until that company breaks a law in doing so.  You will get no argument from me on this point. My point is that the vendor who builds a better mousetrap (or CAD Translator) is luring, not poaching -- poaching is illegal, which means that poachers are criminals in many parts of the world. Making the better product is one way to work around a big company -- another is to bring a lawsuit.  A third way is to take over the offending company -- encourage everyone to buy their stock, until enough stock is owned by enough people that we gain controlling interest.  Then we re-direct their efforts, and get rid of the uppermost management, who must think first about how the shareholder feels today.   Re: Erik de Keyser on the Future of BricsCAD We’d like to correct several inaccurate statements from sources in recent installments of upfront eZine. In 2016 alone, AutoCAD had two major releases in March and early October underscoring the continuous innovation and investment that we are delivering to AutoCAD subscribers. This year AutoCAD’s significant 3D functionality gains resulted in up to 10x performance improvements. Most recently, the fall update contained customer requested features like “Share Design View” that allows you to create a web URL and share with anyone. We also recently added the ability to import PDF files directly into AutoCAD and convert the lines, arcs and text into editable geometry and text objects, saving users hours of reformatting and redrawing.  AutoCAD continues to be available in a variety of ways -- as part of an Industry Collection or standalone, in the office and out in the field. DWG is the file format of choice for professional designers. Somewhere between three to five million DWG files are opened each day. Through 35 years of continuous development and investment in the AutoCAD platform, Autodesk has built a strong network of more than 2,500 developers worldwide who regularly create new applications and customizations for AutoCAD and the DWG format. Additionally, the Design Automation API on Forge demonstrates our commitment to handling DWGs in the cloud and future cloud-based partner opportunities.  Re: Project Quantum: It’s a pre-beta concept that extends BIM to cover the full ecosystem of roles and disciplines on a project. The vision of Quantum is to detach the data from a specific application, which makes things open rather than proprietary. Quantum will provide the connective tissue in an AEC ecosystem where new cloud apps and existing apps like AutoCAD and Revit can play together in a bigger landscape.  We hope this clarifies our position for your readers.      - Amy Bunszel, vp of digital engineering products     Autodesk    Re: What was ANSYS thinking when they bought SpaceClaim?”  SpaceClaim is great software but it could be better and more competitive:  Follow Fusion 360, make it standalone and cloud-based  Support Windows, Mac, and Linux  Minimize the cost of updates to $250; this alone would attract many new customers and keep them Increase user friendliness in common tasks, like not having to give your life history every time you want to download something; once you have registered and have MySpaceClaim one should never have to more than just login to download  Try to be as responsive to user demands as is Fusion 360  Add guided design wizards for complicated tasks, such as for gears, cams, and airfoils Update software more often  Add some other tools, such as CAM and FAE  Add a Create Library function  Add a lab notebook or project notebook function  Address the issue of people leaving the company!  Add more special functions, such as the golden ratio and other ideas found in Nature! For example, see The Mathematics of Trees (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HMe3FGovD4) and Secret Design Rules of Nature  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da7pSWBAaS8). As nature has been at this for some time, let's make use of nature's work.      - James Mahoney (via WorldCAD Access)     mahoney-tech.de, Germany   - - - I'm a constant reader of your blog, since it allows me to get the recent news for my MCAD specialization. Today I've found that indents for all the articles are shifted, so text doesn't fit the column. I noticed it for Opera, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. Screenshots of two browsers are attached. Main page has good fitting. Could you please check the issue?     - Egor Ermolin, sheet metal team     Bricsys, Belgium The editor replies: I found the error: the margin width was specified as 600 pixels by the software I use. I now remove the width specification, and the text reflows properly. Thank you for pointing out the problem! - - - Receiving issue #920 makes me wonder when I began with upfront.eZine. I think we first met at one of the early COFES conferences. Kudos to you for having done so well for so long. I hope you keep it going for many more years; you make a difference.      - Carl Howk, founder       PlantSuccess The editor replies: Thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot coming from a pioneer like you. I searched my mailbox of subscribers, and found you subscribed on 18 Nov 1997, so about 2.5 years after upFront.eZine launched.   And One More Thing... Ayoga is a new cloud-based collaboration platform from DesignSense, the same folks that bring us CADPower with 350+ LISP routines, GeoTools for processing geographic data, and DSTools for sheet metal and die design; see http://www.thedesignsense.com. Director Rakesh Rao tells me, "We have about 10 enterprise customers using it in India and plan to roll-out internationally the next 4-6 months." It offers the following modules: Ayoga Pull Planner Ayoga RFI  (request for Information} Ayoga DMS (document management system) Ayoga IoT (Internet of things) Ayoga Geo-fencing Ayoga ActBOT (chat) Ayoga Billing Ayoga Project Insights (analytics) Ayoga Transmittals  Ayoga Plugins (access engineering data) It works inside CAD software, in browsers, and on mobile devices. To learn more about Ayoga, visit http://www.ayoga.in Even More News There is more at our WorldCAD Access blog about the CAD industry, tips on using hardware and software, and our popular travelogues. You can keep up with the blog through its RSS feed and email alert service. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last weeks: Insider's view of developing the C3D kernel's translation module foto of the sunday: Merry Christmas from WorldCAD Access Here's hoping my new cell phone will be really great When I shot a roll of film, it was the first time in 17 years My newest tablet is frozen in time - - - We're on Twitter at @upfrontezine with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary throughout the day, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Dec 7: health.autodesk.com/  showing that BIM360 for DOCS is down, as well as Fusion 360. Buzzsaw and Cloud Rendering not so good, either. upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Dec 7: This is a snapshot at how grim things are right now at cloud-is-the-future-of-CAD Autodesk -> (*) upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Dec 7: These aren't brief downtimes. User tells me "We’re nearing the 12 hour mark for BIM360 Docs, A360 Team, BIM 360 Team, Fusion 360 Team, etc" (*) Image cropped to list those Autodesk services not serving customers fully   Thank You, Readers! Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Jim Balding (The ANT Group): "Once again, thank you for all your efforts. Happy Holidays!" Donald Larson  Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $125 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/125 $500 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/500 Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected]. Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "Silicon Valley’s biggest failing is not poor marketing of its products, or follow-through on promises, but, rather, the distinct lack of empathy for those whose lives are disturbed by its technological wizardry."      - Om Malik         http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/silicon-valley-has-an-empathy-vacuum

*6825

Autodesk, Rent Seeker?

Issue #912

 

This issue sponsored by PLM Components Innovation Conference Boston, MA October 11-12, 2016 An outstanding lineup of 20 industry experts and CxOs -- including George Allen, Jon Hirschtick, Sean Flaherty, Jon Stevenson, and Ken Versprille -- presents at the new Siemens PLM Components Innovation Conference.  Topics include product design, additive manufacturing, BIM, CAE, cloud and mobile deployment, robotics, interoperability and visualization.  Exchange ideas on best practices and applications for Parasolid, D-Cubed, JT, and Kineo components!  Register here for free.

Opinions expressed by readers The upFront.eZine newsletter and WorldCAD Access blog received letters and comments from readers about the end of long-term licenses for Autodesk software. Here is what readers had to say. What to do about Autodesk's apparent indifference? It's like the relationship between drug dealers and junkies. Except in this case the junkies are mostly to blame. I've been trying to make this point for years now, albeit without much enthusiasm due to my perception that there is a general lack of interest in changing the status quo, but perhaps that now is changing. In years past no one was interested because everyone was always convinced they needed the newest and shiniest version available. But we don't. Simple truth is that we don't have to be victims. Before the take over by computer-aided design, I worked for years with a pen and pencil. Remember those days, when the work was about the design and not about  the process? Back when architectural firms could afford to hire drafters because new employees didn't come with the expense and overhead that technology brought with it? Sorry, I digress.  I realize there's no going back to those days, but we still have choice. Yes, Autodesk has done a masterful job of steering us all to the cliff, but it's not too late; we don't have to jump. The customer has the power and ultimately the last word. At this point I don't honestly know if this will work across all platforms and programs, because I only follow Revit and AutoCAD, but all we have ever needed to do, to get their attention, is to just stop paying! Even if only for a time. If in 6 months they don't collect a single dime from us, they will pay attention; if we could keep that up for a year, they might even display a bit of contrition. Just say no.  The question is: how do we organize such an effort and can we get a pledge started? Just a thought. By the way, if you're looking for an excuse to take an Asian vacation, you can pick up all the software you need for about $10. It's like pharmaceutical drugs: only Americans are crazy enough to pay what the drug companies want. .      - Shawn Graham via WorldCAD Access - - -   My firm dropped Autodesk for Solidworks/Draftsight for 200 users due to the change to subscription licensing. The reason: potentially losing access to our data       - Derek P    Letters continue following this advertisement... Sponsor: Solid Ege www.plm.automation.siemens.com ...letters now continue. It wouldn't surprise me if pirate copies of AutoCAD bypassed the phone-home requirement, putting pirate users at an advantage over legal users, and not for the first time in Autodesk's history. (Unless pirate users get found out, in which case they get slugged hard). But let's assume Autodesk could totally prevent the illegitimate use of its most recent products. It wouldn't be safe to assume that pirate users would then all rush over to Autodesk, waving the large sums of cash required to rent those products.  A handful might, but the vast majority would likely do something different:     a. Pirate earlier versions of Autodesk products;     b. Pirate other vendors' products;      c. Pay much smaller amounts to legitimately use other vendors' products.     - Steve Johnson      adnauseam.com - - - The question isn't "Does it check the license every time you open the software?" The question is, "Will it fail to run if you're not connected to the internet?" Surely it doesn't prevent running it if you're not connected right now. Could they change it? Sure. By the way, Bentley does the same thing with Microstation, at least with their license server. I have no idea how tight it is now, but there used to be a 30-day grace period. I would expect Autodesk to do something similar with future versions.      - Anonymouse - - - My office would like to switch out from AutoCAD. Just not a big fan of the subscription license. Do you have any recommendation on other CAD software that are similar to AutoCAD? We would like to minimize the learning curve. Also the new replacement has to have AutoLISP functions, including the dialog box types. Much appreciated to hear what you think.     - Dixon The editor replies: There are a number of CAD systems that do a good job replicating the functions of AutoCAD, such as BricsCAD from Bricsys, ARES Commander from Graebert, and a number of offshoots of IntelliCAD. All of them handle LISP and DCL for dialog boxes -- as well as offer similar sets of command names and system variables. The good news is that you can test just about any CAD system today by downloading their free 30-day demos.   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, [email protected]) 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     And One More Thing... One of the constraints to 3D printing is the maximum size of what can be printed. Printers for the home are limited typically to inches in size, and industrial ones can print products feet in size. But now Stratasys is demonstrating its Infinite-Build 3D system that makes parts from thermoplastic in unlimited length.    To do this, they turned a 3D printer on its side, so that the print table is vertical, and then the material is squirted from the side. Stratasys says that Boeing is helping to define the specs, and that Ford is also taking a look at what is possible when length is no longer limited. I need to emphasize that this 3D printer is being demo'ed and so you and I cannot rush out and buy one yet, and even if it were available, it would be horrendously expensive.  Above is the photo that Stratasys provided, but it's not to clear to me what is happening. The video they have at YouTube is also a bit vague, perhaps to ward off competitors. http://www.stratasys.com/corporate/newsroom Even More News There is more at our WorldCAD Access blog about the CAD industry, tips on using hardware and software, and our popular travelogues. You can keep up with the blog through its RSS feed and email alert service. These are some of the articles that appeared on WorldCAD Access during the last week: The Cliq of Death Miscellaneous Tips about Storage Media  We're on Twitter at @upfrontezine with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary throughout the day, such as.... upFront.eZine (@upFronteZine) Aug 29: "Facebook's Trending News section features fake story..." 'Cause when you're morally neutral, fakes stories are no worse than real ones.   Notable Quotable Whatever happens with HoloLens itself, it is interesting to see a company continuing to champion the notion of AR [augmented reality] after Google Glass sank without trace and everybody else is shunting us into VR [virtual reality] headsets just to play motion sickness-inducing shooters.     - Peter Gothard, The Inquirer     http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2468673/hololens-secret-hpu-specs-are-finally-revealed-by-microsoft

*7127

 

Readers Respond: The Future of Autodesk, After October 1

Issue #897

 

Our issue on Coming October 1: Autodesk's Future is Different (upFront.eZine #894) was the most-read one over the last 12 months. And so we got a lot of letters from readers, which we share with you here. A reminder that statements are the opinions of the holders, and are not necessarily shared by upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. and its staff. Letters are edited for brevity and clarity. - - - You have reminded all of us that, as ADSK is publicly-traded capitalist company, the only reason Autodesk does anything is because it will make them a profit.  Profit is a great thing, but when we, the paying users, are continually shortchanged for the sake of shareholder benefit (profit), we ought to start feeling ripped off and get mad enough to become shareholders ourselves.  We are not helpless sheep who can do nothing to stop this behavior. Autodesk’s corporate activities are not driven by some inexorable tectonic force over which mere humans have no say. Buy stock, and your voice will be heard. If we collectively buy enough stock, then we, the paying users, will dictate the terms. If 1,000,000 suffering, paying users each buy just two shares per month (today about $60 each), in just one year we collectively will own 24 million shares, enough for two seats on the board.  After three more years at that rate, we will own 96 million shares, and be well on our way to full control of the company, which currently has about 240 million shares outstanding. We should form a new AOGI -- Autodesk Owner’s Group International -- whose ultimate goal is to make Autodesk a user-owned company.  From there, we can change the release cycle from every year to every four years, and demand that the software work as advertised. Be warned, however, that the stock will no longer pay cash dividends. Indeed, investors may not see any increase in the value of their shares after the stupid subscription ("leech") business model is gone. The dividend will instead be awarded through lower levels of aggravation at work, higher productivity, fewer hardware upgrades, and less re-training. It may be inevitable that a user-owned Autodesk become a non-profit. This saves tremendously on taxes, and Autodesk would finally become a good corporate citizen. Many folks are intimidated by the thought of taking over Autodesk, but they need to realize that it is the nature of a corporation to simply keep charging more, until it starts losing customers to competitors (which is how they determine what the market will bear). Autodesk’s strategy has been to buy up as many competitors as possible to minimize the possibility of losing customers to them. Thanks as always for your helpful reporting.     - Peter Lawton The editor replies: While your idea has merit, I think the flaw is that most users do not care, because they are the customer; someone else buys the software for them.  - - -   Activist investors are why some companies are issuing non voting shares.     -  Dan M (via WorldCAD Access) - - - Wow! Fantastic article!  I know I send a lot of kudos, but this one really stands out. Nice work!   My gut feeling on this is that with such a preemptive expectation of dread about these three new board members, they would certainly expect a knee-jerking downside on the stock price. Any time bean counters toss a blanket on a creative environment, it leads to departing staff and sinking morale. All of this leads me to suspect they are really shorting the stock. I smell something bad in this.     - David Stein The editor replies:  Clash-of-the-Titans stuff, as there are two forces at play here: Activist investors, who want to make Autodesk into something its executives don't want. Executives, who want to make Autodesk into something its customers don't want. - - - Just saw the write up. It's a perfect piece of reporting.      - R. T.  - - -   The truth is customers have been maneuvered, bit by bit, into a situation where they have no choice: continually pay corporate welfare, or have no access to CAD/CAM tools. Really, there needs to be a class-action pushback on these. The trouble is most users are far too passive about their consumer rights and don't offer an organized opposition, so corporations push it to the max and write their own one-sided rules.      -Neil Larsen (via WorldCAD Access) - - -   By the way, really great and fascinating article on Autodesk you wrote this week!      - Bill Gordon   Article continues following this advertisement... ...article now continues. So glad I did not succumb to the temptation a few years ago to switch over to AutoCAD Inventor. Given that Autodesk has given up on providing products that its customers actually want, and that the new sort-of-owners apparently plan on just looting the company, it sounds like they are a dead duck.  I'm sure they will be successful in driving the price of the stock upward, so they can cash out before it falls apart.   The most valuable thing that they have, which is the ability to create engineering software that people will happily pay for and use, is still in there somewhere. Maybe the end result of this will be that those people will go back to doing that. Seems like an ideal time for some enterprising outfit to hire themselves some good, experienced software developers, free them from the burden of trying to support a massive marketing and customer-looting bureaucracy, and become the dominant supplier of CAD software by selling a good tool for what it's worth.     - Jess Davis The editor replies: Autodesk's direction is a puzzle, given that several of the execs are engineers and other kinds of professionals.   - - -   Dmitry Ushakov translated your recent post [into Russian] athttp://isicad.ru/ru/articles.php?article_num=18458.     - David Levin - - - Institutional investors now on the Autodesk board say all we need to know as customers. Divorced from prudent planning and R&D for the future, since that will become an "unnecessary" expense to creating immediate profits things will at the least stagnate. What I figure will be their undoing will be when it is decided for Autodesk by these hostile investor types to end permanent seats entirely and to renege on the promise made to support them forever. Loot and plunder and make captive your customers and then make their expenses go through the roof.  The breakeven point for permanent seats at full price plus maintenance at the current levels is just under five years for Inventor Pro HSM. At the end of 15 years, subs will have cost $22,000 more at today's prices, prices that are sure to go up once the captives have been contained. Many people in the past never did pay full price (as deals could be made with Autodesk), and so the true break-even point for lots of buyers was probably three years or less.  I am laughing at the latest and greatest offer from Autodesk to expired Inventor seat holders from 2015 and back: cash in your permanent seat for three years subscription at the cost of a one-year. Whoohoo, and enter the world of never-stopping paying whatever they ask in the future, because you gave up your choice.  Trouble in investor paradise is coming. I really hate to see this happen to Autodesk, especially since they have acquired so much top-drawer CAM programing. The future was theirs to give away, or take the market over, and I think the investor piranhas have determined which it will be now.      - Dave Ault (via WorldCAD Access) - - -     Wow. That’s eye- opening to me. Loved the article, especially so since my specialty is AutoCAD customization (using mostly old-school methods).       - P. R. And One More Thing... Opencartis has a new version of Spatial Manager for AutoCAD (2008-2017), BricsCAD (V13-V16), and stand-alone desktop that accesses background maps from OpenStreetMap, Bing, MapBox, and so on. V3.1 of the software lets you design and edit the structure that stores data attached to objects, and manages tables and fields. There are new tools to attach, detach, and select data; data attached to the objects through xdata or eeds is no longer read-only. Download demo versions from http://www.spatialmanager.com/downloads/ Thank You, Readers! Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine.  In return, you receive our 56-page whitepaper "MobileCAD is Reaching Maturity," free and unavailable from anywhere else. Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $125 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/125 $500 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/500 Or you can mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada.   Notable Quotable "Science research is respected and uses confusing jargon; so if I use confusing jargon, my research is respectable science."     - David Burge

Don and I Talk About Computers

Issue #883

 

Don is a friend from the days we both worked at the same engineering firm. We were best man at each other's wedding, and even through we now live far apart, we continue to keep in touch 35 years later.  To start off the new year, I thought I'd let you listen in as we chat by email about geeky stuff. - - - I can relate to this computer reviewer's reluctance to purchase a new computer for herself -- why purchase something that's known to have flaws? "I want all the things, but also none of them" at http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/07/being-a-reviewer-has-made-me-dread-gadget-shopping/,     - Don So true. It is due the vendors' drive to make laptops thinner and lighter, and so too many compromises are made. Remember when laptops came with everything! -- DVD drive, floppy drive, spare battery slot, PCI slots, even a remote control. Last week I gave in, and bought a shiny new laptop, literally shiny: HP Spectre X360 with a machined aluminum body, to replace the Lenovo Yoga 2, whose RAM[soldered onto the motherboard] became corrupt just three months after the warranty ended. The HP has 2.3GHz i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB solid-state drive, backlit keyboard, 360-degree-tilt touch screen, three USB3 ports all powered, full-szie HDMI and miniDisplayPort, and SD slot. I can get a replacement motherboard from Lenovo for US$950; with the Lenovo Authorized Repair Center's labour charge [and conversion to CDN$], the repair is estimated to cost around $1500 for a $1000 laptop. I've since found that there are places strip laptops and resell the parts that still work. From them, it would be US$300, instead of US$950 that Lenovo wants. I can do the labour myself.       - Ralph Is Intel and their Ultrabook standard to blame for loss of functions? RAM capacity has been stalled for years. My 8 year-old (+/-) laptop is maxed out with 8GB RAM. It's hard to find a new laptop with more than 8GB RAM. None of the mainstream PC companies are catering to laptop power users. A 256GB [solid state] hard drive is also painfully small. Are they trying to force us to store our data on the cloud? (Yes). An excellent Samsung 1TB SSD is about $480 now -- still uncomfortably expensive, although I recall spending $1000 for my first 70MB hard drive.     - Don Is Intel's Ultrabook standard to blame? Short answer, yes. Longer answer. It is a reaction to Apple, who looks for ways to differentiate itself from Windows. Apple began with targeting the education market, then tried colorful plastic cases, then nice industrial design, and most recently minimalism -- some might call it 'anorexic design'.  Apple's approach worked until about a year or two ago, when the rest of the industry leapt ahead and now it's Apple who peddles furiously to keep up with the latest cell phone, computer, and OS trends. Look at how badly iOS functions lag behind Android, and how Apple was last to market with a phablet.  Both Apple and Microsoft-Intel are always looking for ways to raise prices. Apple does it by appealing to the BMW-wanna-be crowd, and so charges its premium. The other way to make more profit is to cut the cost associated with hardware, as Apple does through minimalism; Intel's thinner laptop design copies the Apple excuse to cut out hardware.  Components cost $$$, and Apple's latest reduction in cost is the implementation of that single USB C port that does triple duty as power connector and video connector. So, four hardware components (2 USBs+video+power) reduced to one, leaving the consumer stuck with paying $79 for (and carrying along) the missing universal adapter (also overpriced by Apple, deliberately) to make the USBs, video, and power work simultaneously.  Microsoft and Intel are effective monopolies (as is Apple in its area), and as monopolists they fume at the low computer prices brought about by the horror of competition. Most of the laptops I bought my kids during high school were in the $300-$400 range -- complete with a free printer-scanner thrown in.  Microsoft and Intel in the past looked for ways to bring prices up to the MacBook range, but failed. The worst example was the truly awful UMPC; more recently, the Surface series is offering consumers laptops at engineering workstation pricing, what with the top-end SurfaceBook costing $4,000 in Canada. I am starting to see a trend of BMW-wanna-be-ism among Windows users, and sowith Ultrabooks Intel has a winner. People want thin and light computers after being spoiled by thin and light cell phones and tablets. Mr and Mrs Average Consumer doesn't know what functions are missing, anyhow.  As for RAM capacity, it been stalled for years. Limiting laptop RAM to 4GB or 8GB partly is to save power, as more RAM takes more power as it needs to be continually refreshed. It's hard to find a new laptop with more than 8GB RAM, as most mainstream PC companies don't cater to laptop power users. Workstation class laptops go to 16GB. Yes, 256GB is painfully small for a hard drive, because it is effectively 156GB after the byte-rounding, with the space taken by Windows and the restore partition, and after programs are installed. Good SSDs reserve another 10% for bit failure.     -Ralph More on the evil new touchpads: the managing editor of Engadget has a review on the HP Spectre X2 at http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/16/hp-spectre-x2-review/: "Too bad the touchpad isn't nearly as refined [as compared to the keyboard]. To be fair, when it works it works well, with smooth enough scrolling and precise cursor tracking. But it doesn't always work. I wasn't always able to get the pointer to go, and I frequently found myself accidentally rearranging pinned browser tabs. Worse, there were times when I swiped my finger across the large touch surface only to find that it wasn't responding. Usually, a little persistence would do the trick, as would detaching and then reattaching the tablet. But it shouldn't be that way. Fortunately, I think this is just the sort of problem a firmware update can fix." Here's another reviewer essentially saying the touchpad on a new laptop is a complete, utter, and infuriating failure.  The write rationalizes the horrible touchpad design as being "fortunate," because it's "just the sort of problem a firmware update can fix". Then she ignores her own observations, and concludes that the laptop as a "fine runner-up." Keep an eye out for other laptop reviews. I think they'll say the same thing asEngadget: the laptop is crap, but they recommend it because it is among the finest pieces of crap on the market. No one wants to say "Boycott new laptops until touchpads are fixed."     - Don  Reviewers don't want to lose the free flow of hardware. If they write a proper review with negatives, they would get cut off. Tech writers seem to suffer from cognitive dissonance. PC World was mocking Firefox for taking so-o-o-o long to get a 64-bit version of their Web browser out the door, but then admitted that users would find no difference from the 32-bit version -- except that some plug-ins no longer work. Do these guys ever read back what they write? I find that the trackpad on my HP Spectre X360 is much better than my decommissioned Lenovo Yoga 2. But not as good as the one on my very old LG netbook!     - Ralph   Article continues following this advertisement... Sponsor: Siemens PLM Software Try Solid Edge for Free Now you can try a fully loaded version of Solid Edge with no obligation. Discover how the Solid Edge 3D design system provides the speed and simplicity of direct modeling with the flexibility and control of parametric design -- all in one easy-to-use package. Download the 45-Day trial. Or call 800-807-2200 ...article now continues. [Later.] I pried apart my new HP laptop and found that its SSD drive can be replaced. It uses the M.2 form factor, which is a lot smaller than regular SATA-based SSD drives. Amazon.ca has a Samsung EVO 500GB one for $261 or the fastest model Samsung SM951 for $500. PC World recommends getting M.2 drives that use x4 PCIe with AHCI and NVMe technology, as it is many times faster than SATA -- assuming your computer supports the faster standard. What I might do is wait until the one-year warranty is over, and then replace it. By then, they'll be cheaper, too! On the HP forums, they warn to make sure you get the right physical interface: some M.2 cards have one notch, some have two.     - Ralph I got this email from SpiderOak today. This company does cloud-based storage. You load their encryption/decryption software on your PC; your data is encrypted before it leaves your PC; the company never knows your password (assuming that they haven't installed a backdoor on your PC) and can't read your data. It's a great concept. They allow sharing of selected on-line directories with people you trust. The idea sounds good, but my wife and I couldn't get sharing to work (we gave up without trying too hard). It sounds to me like they're having financial problems: "As you know, a company can't survive on a free product." They are threatening me to not continue protecting my data: "Upgrade to one of our monthly or annual plans so we can continue to protect your data." I guess this should be a warning not to entrust the only copy of your data to the cloud.     - Don  It's true: free is a bad business model. I first went with SugarSync, because they had the cloud storage functions I needed that Dropbox lacked back in the early days. But then SugarSync forced all free users onto a paid model. By then I didn't care, because I had scored 23GB free space with Dropbox and they had finally added the functions they were missing, like the ability to create an encrypted link to a single file.  The good thing about cloud storage is that there is no lock-in. Files can be moved to a new provider in minutes. I also have 50GB free from Box, which is supposed to provide industrial strength cloud storage, but is not as convenient as Dropbox. One of the magazines I write for asked me to use Box, but horror of horrors: when I placed files in a variety of folders (for organizational reasons), the files disappeared together with the folders. So I abandoned Box. I use Dropbox for three things; no, four things (as the writer of Proverbs likes to say): Secondary, off-site backup for some crucial files Large file transfer to clients Automatic transfer of photos from my Androids to my desktop (very nice!) As a replacement for the awful networking Windows provides. For example, when I take screen grabs on a different computer (like a Mac or a tablet), Dropbox immediately places a copy on my desktop computer. It is near-instant, because it uses my LAN. BTW, I would never use encryption. I've heard sufficient horror stories of problems with encryption, where people lose their data because they forgot the password or for some technical reason that prevents access. I just make sure I don't have any private data public that could be stolen.      - Ralph   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, [email protected]) 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 Thank You, Subscribers! Thank you to you subscribers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine.  Darren Young Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $125 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/125 $500 for for large companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/500 Or you can mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada   Notable Quotable "In game development, the first 90% of a project is a lot easier than the second 90%."     -  Tim Sweeney, Epic Games, founder

*7469

Readers Respond to The Internet of Things

Issue # 683

 

Finally, an article that explains IoT in a clear, understandable way!  “IoT is defined as products made smart with sensors that are interconnected.” Priceless. Then I was further educated in the size of the market -- good job collecting data from various sources -- and the major players. So many, but for me it helped clarify the CAD companies’ posturing on this subject as that is what I need to keep an eye on.     -​Roopinder Tara, director of content     ENGINEERING.com There was a question regarding whether or not there is any standards group working on standards for consumer IoT. Though not consumer-oriented, the MTConnect standard (www.mtconnect.org) is addressing interoperability throughout the factory floor, and so is definitely worth checking out. Initiated by Association of Manufacturing Technology (AMT), it is viewed as critically enabling to manufacturing as standardized threads were: pretty heady claims!   Any of the MCAD companies who are doing work with manufacturing systems are already probably aware of MTConnect. I had exposed Autodesk’s Factory Design Suite team to MTConnect while I was still there. Speaking of IoT and connectivity, Siemens still probably has one of the best opportunities to demonstrate a complete solution in manufacturing. With the breadth of their product offering, they cover it all from design engineering to manufacturing engineering to manufacturing -- from NX to Siemens machine tool controllers. I’m really enjoying the IoT discussion that’s now rippling through the MCAD market.       - John Callen     Lutron The editor replies: "I sometimes wonder if Siemens is too big to understand what it has."     ...article continues following this advertisement.   Sponsor: Siemens PLM Software Buy Solid Edge, get a Microsoft Surface Pro3 free This offer is a unique opportunity to modernize your workflow and your work device in one easy step. Submit the form or call us to learn more. This offer expires on June 30, 2015. Available only in USA. Questions? Call 800-807-2200, option 1 https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com    ...article continues.   I always get a good laugh when people ask if IP6 will run out of addresses. Then again Ip6 will be great for spammers, they can collect IP addresses by the boat load.     -Chris Hannukainen The editor replies: The number is so big it is unimaginable. But perhaps people recall the limitations in computer program design when it came to Y2K and IPv4. The Internet of Things is as nebulous as the cloud, so anyone can define it anyway that makes them a profit? Question:  What exactly are these "Things?"  Are they personal, household things? Toasters?  Cell phones?  Electric leaf blowers?  Washing machines?  Mailboxes?  Or are they supposed to be industrial things, like tooling and controllers? If these Things are the former, I suspect there is really a very limited number of things that need this kind of connectivity. If these folks mean industrial, then these items are likely extremely specialized, and will need proprietary software (and likely hardware), so there will never be "one standard to bring them and in the darkness, bind them." In either case, these seems like just another instance of a great deal of heat and not too much light. It's much ado about very litttle, but it keeps the marketing departments busy. Thanks again, sir.     -Peter Lawton   The editor replies: "Things" can be anything that can be connected to the Internet. While I am not fond of IoT, our city a few years ago installed IoT water meters that measure water consumption on a hourly basis. This lets the city detect leaks.  And then a couple of years ago, the local hydro electrical utility installed IoT electricity meters. We can go to their Web site to see our consumption on a daily basis. What's really useful is seeing our home compared to our neighbors -- and we have the lowest consumption! I am not, however, fond of IoT devices like Nest, that report back to Google my home's temperature settings. Mr Lawton responds: Well, ok, home utilities could be better managed (by Big Brother), so that’s 4 (electrical, gas, water, sewage. I’m struggling to come up with more than a handful of personal household Things, and so it hardly seems to be a crisis for the development of a standard.  Lotsa fluff, tho.     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, [email protected]) 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   And One More Thing... Stratasys is bulking up 3D printing with new agreements for 3D measuring and 3D designing. One agreement is with Canada's Creaform for 3D scanning: scan objects and then 3D-print them. Dealers for both will sell each other's products in North America. http://www.creaform3d.com/en The other agreement's wtih PTC: design objects in 3D and then print them. PTC's Creo 3.0 is getting a module Stratasys' Objet500 Connex3 multi-color multi-material 3D printer for now. Other printers to be added later. http://www.stratasys.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: Microsoft doesn't want you printing folders; we show you how  Geriatric computing Why I don't provide print versions of my ebooks I'm also on Twitter at @upfrontezine  throughout the day with late-breaking CAD news and wry commentary, such as: upFront.eZine (‏@upFronteZine): PTC copying Autodesk, no longer ferrying media to its events. Reporters expected to drink from the same social media trough as everyone else   Thank You, Subscribers! Thank you to you subscribers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine: Novedge (2 subscriptions): "Here is our donation from Franco Folini & Cristiano Sacchi @ Novedge - keep up the great work!" R L Capper, New Zealand Scott Hucke, progeCAD United States 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: [email protected] 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 Spin Doctor of the Moment “As a professional designer, I am deeply disheartened that our government would choose to exploit students in this manner, despite our efforts to educate the government that contests like these are unethical, detrimental to students, to professional graphic designers, and to Canada in general.”     - Adrian Jean, president, Graphic Designers of Canada     http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-design-poobahs-bemoan-150th-birthday-logo-selected-by-ottawas-philistines

* 7675

Readers Respond: Onshape = Solidworks + Google Docs

upFront.eZine Issue #852 

 

I like the simultaneous editing idea. I tried that about 10 years ago but ran out of resources. Two or more people working in the same CAD file: each can see what the other is doing in real time. You should be able to optionally draw a shape around a protected area so others can't modify your section.

Branching and merging. Oh, just that word MERGE! When merge day comes around, it's good day to take a one-week vacation and let somebody else have a crack at it (:

- Chris Hannukainen

 

It's rather interesting to see how Carl Bass has just reacted to Onshape buzz at http://inthefold.autodesk.com/in_the_fold/2015/03/setting-the-record-straight.html.

- Vitor Neves, chairman of the board
IntelliCAD Technology Consortium

Autodesk is going to do its very best to bury Onshape before it gets a grip. (Solidworks has yet to make its move.) Autodesk has this thing that Onshape are liars, which is perplexing Onshape. It's all about the first Web-based CAD system. Autodesk claims it was, then but Fusion is a 200MB download; Onshape has no download and runs straight from the browser.

- [Name withheld by request]

The editor replies: They are both wrong. Onshape is not the first server-based CAD system; Alibre was the first, way back in 2000. But neither is Fusion at all cloud-based: it runs on the desktop and only occasionally uses Autodesk servers for auxiliary functions, like model translation or advanced rendering.


Great article, the entire team was very excited to read it.

- Joe Dunne
Onshape

Nice job Ralph. Had a chance to visit the Onshape offices last year with Ken Versprille, who of course could ask the more interesting, challenging questions of the team.

- Stan Przybylinski
CIMdata

The editor replies: Read Mr Przybylinski's very early look at the impact of Onshape from his blog of a year ago at http://www.cimdata.com/en/resources/cimdata-blog/item/1779-a-box-of-chocolates.

That was a great article on the challenges of bridging client and cloud processing and availability. Nice work! It also shines a light on how far we still need to go before we can really pat ourselves on the back as it pertains to being "online". Ask anyone in rural areas and it's pretty obvious. We've barely scratched the surface.

If this was the the 1950s, the government would've knocked this out just to spite the Russians. That pervasive paranoia, for good and bad, got us pretty far (interstate highways, national parks, sending people to the moon). Now we don't take those kinds of risks unless it pleases the shareholders. Sad.

- David Stein

The editor replies: Fusion is the better product today, precisely because it runs on the desktop and is more mature than Onshape. OTOH, Autodesk admits that only 10% of Fusion users are existing Autodesk customers, so it's not that popular among Inventor users.

Thank you for taking the time and thoughtfully commenting on us. As many of your readers say, please do keep up the good writing on our industry.

- Jon Hirschtick
Onshape

And One More Thing...

IRONCAD LLC's new Compose Mobile lets iPad users not just view IronCAD 3D models (like everybody else), but configure them as well -- rare in the portable field. To do so, models are published as models or catalog components from IronCAD Design Collaboration Suite on the desktop. Once these files are on the iPad, users can configure new assemblies using the automatic positioning and alignments that IronCAD pioneered. The initial release is free (implying follow-ups might not be free) from http://www.ironcad.com/compose-mobile

Even More News

WorldCAD Access is blogging nearly every day about the CAD industry and tips on using hardware. (The feed is available on RSS and through email alerts.) The following articles appeared during the last week:

• Seven flaws in Onshape today
• McSwain honors decadal bloggers

On Twitter, @upfrontezine offers CAD news, late-breaking updates, and wry commentary throughout the day.

To donate to this newsletter's operation through PayPal, click http://www.upfrontezine.com and then choose the Donate $25 (personal) or Donate $500 (corporate) button.

 

Letters to the Editor

Re: CorelDraw Technical Suite X7
I was intrigued by this line in the recent newsletter: "New this year are the $360/year and $39/month subscriptions, which an optional alternative to perpetual licenses. Why optional? 'Large enterprise customers have very little interest in subscription model, because they want to own the software for perpetual use,' said Mr Vossen."

This is something that appeals not just to large firms, but often to small ones too. It is interesting to me, as the statement implies that Corel have actually spoken to their customers about what they prefer -- rather than deciding what they want, and then enforcing it on customers.

- Matthew Taylor
United Kingdom

The editor replies: Yah, I was surprised to hear Corel say that, after listening to big CAD vendors going on about big corporations liking the regularity of annual subscription payments.

Me, being a one-man firm, I like the certainty of the one-time payment for perpetual licenses. If my income declines next year, I'm not going to be worrying if I can work because I can't afford another sub payment, which would shut down the software upon which I rely to earn a living.

Mr Taylor responds: Absolutely. I think most small firms prefer a single cost, rather than being tied into ongoing subscriptions, that they then forget to cancel as they downsize etc. The discount for subscription doesn't generally equate to a good enough saving to make it a worthwhile alternative for most smaller firms in my experience.

Re: About Trademarks, Copyright, and Protecting Against Legal Action

I wanted to say hello and tell you that I've been receiving your newsletter for about 5 years now. Your consistency in posting regularly is amazing and seeing the 800s count on the issue is quite an achievement. I'm always looking to find new ways to connect the CAD audience to relevant content and would love your advice. 2015 will be a big year and your ideas and thoughts on approaches would be amazing!

- K. C.

The editor replies: You need to be in it for a long haul. upFront.eZine only had 100 readers after the first year. WorldCAD Access for a long time had 700 readers. Fortunately, my addiction to writing keeps me going, even when the audience was in the 100s. There two keys that I keep in mind:

• I write about other people are doing, not about me (well, once in a rare while I write about I am doing)
• I try to tell readers what they don't know (if they already know it, then my newsletter and blog are not useful to them)

I trust this helps.


Re: Software Reviews

I'm unaware of any kind of serious online analysis of "big iron" plant/piping design software like PDMS or SmartPlant (or even mid-range products). Are you?

- Paul Bowers

P.S. Have go gone to the dark side? I notice you're not poking fun at global warming any more.

The editor replies: I am unaware of any such reviews. There is ever less budget for specialized reviews, and I am unqualified to review plant software. As for poking fun at climate change opportunists, I do that on my Twitter feed. Here is the most recent one:

"Ocean circulation in Atlantic more sensitive to temperature than models projected." Odd, given that computer models are never, ever wrong.

Mr Bowers responds: I've inquired to Aveva and Intergraph about cost of working software so as to start an evaluation (via crowdfunding) but it seems like no one wants to quote a price. Almost as if an independent review would be unwanted.

The editor replies: Not to defend them, but not publishing prices has become more common in recent years among CAD vendors.

Another reason: companies like Intergraph and Aveva deal with huge corporations, selling lots of seats of differently configured software packages. These kinds of buyers get nice prices that are custom-tailored to ensure the sale, taking advantage of the bulk sale. Sometimes you can get a price indirectly through Ingram and other distributors.

 

Re: Running Generic CADD in 2013

I've just started running Generic CADD on my windows machine in DOSBOX, works great, now I can exchange stuff with the old DOS PC in the workshop. Wish I could work out how to use it with the touchpad on the laptop though: none of the mouse options in CONFIG seem to give me a working right click for the menu.

- Trevor Stride
via WorldCAD Access

Spin Doctor of the Moment

"And since wealthy people don't spend nearly as high a percentage of their incomes as poor people do, much wealth is sitting around not doing its job."

- Mark Bittman, nutrition, agriculture, and health policy reporter, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/why-not-utopia.html

 

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* 8069

Readers Respond: Meanwhile, Back in the Real World

Issue #767

 

"On the one hand, Autodesk has made rendering an unlimited number of images from AutoCAD and Revit available to student accounts, which I concede is a brilliant long-term goodwill policy. It is certainly tasty bait on the hook.

"On the other hand, once the students get out into the real world, there is a limit to the number of jobs each seat can run. [Autodesk provides] very little clear information about what constitutes a job: each push of the "Render to Cloud" button? Or a final image after ten test runs? Is additional capacity available for sale, and for what cost?

"Autodesk's cloud rendering currently only accommodates images up to 2000x2000 pixels, less that 14" square when printed at a reasonable 150 DPI. Doesn't come close to even a small 24x36 presentation board. Animations, where all those cores would be far and away the most useful, are not supported at all."
      - Bill Gilliss, owner
        realerthanreal.com

The editor replies: "I knew that Autodesk also places limits on cloud rendering, but I didn't have data on it -- other than the couple of times when an online rendering failed for me. Thank you for the added data points."

 

"Yay, Ralph! Thanks for looking into the realities of the cloud. I suspected there was no free lunch."
     - Roopinder Tara, ceo
       Tenlinks.com

 

"Interesting quote from Box, and I may have to review my DropBox usage. Stuff like this link makes me wonder how much effort to put into all of the security I do as there is always an army out there poking about... literally: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-14/a-chinese-hackers-identity-unmasked "
      - James Martin

The editor replies: "Box was designed from the start for corporate environments, while Dropbox first went after the easier consumer market. I have accounts with both, as well as SugarSync. I started with SugarSync because they had more features initially than Dropbox, but then Dropbox caught up. Between the three of them, I have 100GB of online storage free, of which I use about 2GB."

 

"Again, thanks for telling the truth and exposing these greed-driven frauds. This is how I believe these devils justify their fraud to themselves: They market 'ideas' instead of 'products and services'. They have lawyers to back them up in case of a legal battle."
      - cadman777

 

"Thanks for the link to the Network Management survey. This is a huge topic and always good to have some data to support the thought process."
      - Stan Przybylinski, vp research
        CIMdata

 

The editor replies: "Some of the percentages in the article seemed high to me, but I suppose if they included "has happened at least once. The concept of rogue cloud services was interesting to me, and while I didn't explicitly state it, the concept would apply to Autodesk 360, Vectorworks Cloud, and similar offerings from other CAD vendors.

 

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Autodesk to Roll Out More Rentals Mid-Year

Autodesk and a few other CAD vendors have experimented with software rentals, in which the CAD software license is valid for only 90 days or so. Design firms apparently utilize these during peak periods of design phases. For a typical engineering office, there is a lot of design work in the first year of a project, and then as construction gets under way, fewer licenses are needed. By paying tri-monthly, the overall cost is cheaper for the firm, while the software vendor makes more per month.

Design firms are in a legal bind because of the law's vagueness over the resale of software. Litigious CAD vendors like Autodesk insist software is only licenses and so cannot be resold; the customers of CAD vendors would rather work with a brokerage that would buy software packages no longer needed by one firm and sell them to a firm that needs them -- no different than the legal resale of gaming software.

At last week's conference call with financial analysts, Autodesk announced its plan to go big on software rentals this summer, and so the analysts quizzed company executives on how the plans work. Ceo Carl Bass introduced the topic:

 

Carl Bass (Autodesk): Starting later this year, you will see more rental and usage-based offerings from us. These offerings will be designed to give our customers even more flexibility in how they utilize our products and will provide us with new ways to capture new market opportunities. These offerings are a significantly different model, and we expect adoption and consumption of our cloud and rental offerings to increase gradually over time.

Sterling P. Auty (JP Morgan Chase): [paraphrase:] How will rental changes affect future income?

Mark Hawkins (Autodesk cfo): I think when you look at the rental, it's not going to have a material impact on our business model for the year. It actually serves a new market opportunity for us.

Mr Auty: And do you think that the rental is not an impact on the business model because it's rental and not usage-based, and that's why it goes after a different part of the market?

Mr Bass: I think the take-up will just be slow. We've seen that historically. When we make more new offerings, it takes a while for them to gather steam. I don't think this will be any different. Second thing is, I think some fraction of this is actually coming from people who didn't actually pay for our software. There is certainly some legitimate use that's transforming into rental use, but a fair amount of that is, there are illegal ways of having rental models right now. And so I think in some ways -- we're actually tapping into that. People who really do want to pay for it but haven't availed themselves of that opportunity before.

Jay Vleeschhouwer (Griffin Securities): Vis-a-vis rentals, you've been running an experiment on 90-day rentals for Max and Maya. When you talk about rentals later in the year, is that across the product line? And will you limit future rentals to 90-day terms or might they go longer?

Mr Bass: We've been building the back-office infrastructure to support rentals and shorter-term licensing models. 90 days is something we chose to go out there and pilot. And we will [not] limit ourselves to just those two products or to the 90 days. More details to follow as we roll it out during the middle of the year.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1223161-autodesk-management-discusses-q4-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript

---

Out of the Inbox

Majenta PLM is Siemens PLM's major UK reseller, and last week it set up a new division to handle CAE [computer-aided engineering]. Dr. Peter Ward is running things as the new CAE Business Development Director. Cool image of a watch on the home page of http://www.majentaplm.com

It's after 9am GMT, and so I can tell you that CADfaster's public beta of MyCadbox is available from http://www.mycadbox.com. It does STEP co-viewing, sharing, and markup on Windows PCs and iOS tablets. The iPad app is at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mycadbox/id581184797

Erica Perkins from Cometdocs tells me that her company's free online document management system converts PDF files to AutoCAD's DWG and DXF formats, "which is a very useful tool for PDFs that were designed with AutoCAD to begin with." Cometdocs also does file transfers and storage. http://www.cometdocs.com

By coincidence, the day before the Cometdocs email landed in my Inbox, Investintech.com wrote me that their PDF converters are avaialble for mobile devices, too -- kind of. While Able2Extract Mobile runs on Android and iOS phones and tablets to convert PDFs to Office formats, it does not output to DWG/DXF, as the desktop version does. The mobile versions sends conversions to servers, so I'm not sure why CAD formats were left out. http://www.investintech.com/apps

Redsdk is a rendering engine popular with some segments of the CAD industry, and now Fabien Chuavira tells us that he has a free Bridge for Parasolid module, including a free Parasolid viewer that saves files in .red format. He notes that some customers have integrated the .red format into their application's native format. http://www.redway3d.com/pages/redsdkBridgeParasolid.php

And finally, March 28 is the first day that AutoCAD 2007 users can upgrade by paying full price for an upgrade. Yup, half-price upgrades are gone like the Dodo bird for you after March 27. But just because you are on subscription doesn't mean you are protected from price increases. Here is how Autodesk approaches this delicate subject: "However, to reflect the increased value offered and provide more consistency in Subscription pricing ratios across the product portfolio, price adjustments are being phased in." http://www.cadsoft-consult.com/news/news/364-02-15-13-autodesk-policy-pricing-changes-announced . As Autodesk cfo Mark Hawkins explained in last week's conference call, this is only the second of three price increases planned.

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Re: Sales of SolidWorks seem to be blowing the doors off Inventor, Creo, and so on
"Has anyone ever come up with a truly accurate, credible, auditable, independent way of measuring software use? I've been to more than a few media events where the CEO or other high executive of the host company breathlessly announces that they have reached xxx number of 'users'. When questioned closely and backed into a corner, (and perhaps after a couple of drinks at the evening cocktail reception) they'll sort of admit that since Day 1 they may have issued xxx number of serial numbers, including educational seats and upgrades, and promo copies to CAD journalists, but they don't actually know how many are being used on a fairly regular, current, production basis.

"In a perfect world, software would log into an independent score-keeping auditing site, say twice a year, to simply proclaim "Hi! I'm still alive!" No need to collect usage data or even the user's name, just the fact that a particular copy had been used in a commercial environment within the last six months.

"Note that I'm not picking on SolidWorks specifically, nor am I necessarily disputing your statement, but it might be nice to know what the 'real' numbers actually are for everyone."
      - Bill Fane

The editor replies: "I wrote the sentence as a provocation, because PTC and Autodesk no longer announce seats -- while Dassault proudly does so. Analysts agree that SolidWorks is outselling Inventor, because they check into sales made by dealers and distributors."

 

"Funny, I was reading your comments while I'm about to get a SolidWorks demo. I've found out that of the big three mid-range products SolidWorks is the easiest for what I do (pressure vessels/piping).

"The thing is, when I mention the Catia V6 issue, the salespeople feign ignorance or so it seems anyway. To me that's alarming in and of itself, that I know more about this than they do! So, if I choose their product then it's best to wait years for the bugs to be worked out before jumping on? Would like your take on this if possible."
      - Tim Neumann, draftsman
        Addison Fabricators

The editor replies: "They are not feigning ignorance; the sales people are being kept in the dark by Dassault.

"All products have bugs, and so the question I ask myself is, 'Is this new software better suited to me and my workflow than an older one?' After 30 years of being in computing, the answer for me increasingly is 'No' as older software is good enough for my needs and new software has no benefit to my bottom line. Some of the software I use every day was end-of-lifed five or ten years ago, but still runs on Windows 7, thankfully. I only get new software for compatibility with clients, and this is a surprisingly rare occurrence, because the software of my clients also have to be compatible with everyone else."

 

"I enjoy your newsletter and books."
     - Phil Craven

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Notable Quotable

"I've got Dropbox, Box, YouSendIt, Teambox, Google Drive. From the standpoint of corporate IT, my team is a problem."
      - Delyn Simons, Mashery
        http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/technology/it-managers-struggle-to-contain-corporate-data-in-the-mobile-age.html

 

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* 11287

Readers React: Benchmarking Rendering: Desktop vs Cloud

Issue #741 

 

 

Last issue, I tested the speed in rendering AutoCAD's largest sample 3D model on my computers vs Autodesk's online rendering service. The results generated many letters to the editor, which I reproduce here. The content of the letters fell into two distinct camps: (a) See! The cloud is useless; and (b) Argh! Your benchmark was unfair, because it should have used a more complex model more fair to online rendering.

Of those in the unfair camp, many said I should have used a more complex model, especially from Revit. Which mads me wonder....

... is Revit really slow at rendering?

... is cloud rendering not meant for AutoCAD users?

... how do users know where the cut-off is between models simple enough to be rendered faster on their desktop computer. and those complex enough to pay extra to have them rendered on the cloud?

I know that benchmarking is controversial, and so I clearly laid out ALL the specifications for the benchmarking I performed. Autodesk's online rendering is free to everyone, and so I look forward to others doing their own benchmarks in the near future so that we can see how results differ objectively. I am not interested in subjective reports, such as "cloud should be faster" and "cloud felt faster."

Readers Respond, Part 1

"I am in a bit of a quandary here. I read your latest newsletter and I need some clarification. I thought that this cloud stuff was supposed to allow us to fire our IT [information technoloyg] department, because the cloud would just work quickly and reliably, saving us time and money. Especially when compared to all that clunky dated archaic laptop/desktop dinosaur stuff from yesteryear we so foolishly cling to.

"Also, weren't these cloud guys supposed to enable us to work from only a cheap, smart terminal? I heard that that we would not have to buy workstations anymore, since their servers would be doing the heavy lifting."
      - Dave Ault

The editor replies: "I wonder when Autodesk will stop using the phrase 'infinite computing',"

 

"Your special on 'Benchmarking the Cloud' is timely. Information Week is currently running a series on cloud ROI [return on investment] and its pitfalls. (IW is a more general IT site, but its readers are the folks at the big companies who pull the mandate trigger on these types of things.) My take on this is that you can save money -– in some instances -– but you have to have a very sharp pencil, and someone has to be watching the till at all times. If you have some down time, below is some reference reading:

• Does The Cloud Keep Pace With Moore's Law? (…and its Direct impact on billable computing time)
  http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232601509
• Cloud's Thorniest Question: Does It Pay Off?
  http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/data_centers/240001236
• Why Cloud Pricing Comparisons Are So Hard
  http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/240001491
• Cloud's Big Caveat: Runaway Costs
  http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/240001508

"For most folks, go slow on this -- watch the show (it's gonna be good!), but join in later."
      - Lynn Brielmaier, Thrustmaster

 

"I always enjoy your weekly eZine, because it is so unbiased and 'upfront', just like we Germans like it. I have to comment on the 'Desktop vs. Cloud Rendering' article:

I guess you can call the desktop rendering a 'rendering'. To me, this is some advanced Phong shading that you can do in realtime in any CAD application. So it basically is a screenshot. Mid-90s state-of-the-art.

"The cloud rendering result is also awful. Look at the noise in the image, not to mention the lack of realistic materials, ground shadows, global illumination, etc. Also, were you able to preview this in realtime so you know exactly what you are getting, prior to hitting the [online] Render button? Or are you doing this on the desktop prior to uploading it to the cloud? And what happens if you need to make a change to the assembly?

"But thanks for sharing. It proves the point that the hype about cloud rendering is just that: hype. The workflow completely sucks and the software used to create the rendering delivers useless results. What is the point?"
      - Thomas Teger, vp of products and strategy
        Luxion, Inc

The editor replies: "To answer your questions: There is no preview before uploading the image to the cloud renderer, other than what can be generated in AutoCAD anyhow. If the assembly changes, you need to re-upload the entire model. (To readers: Luxion provides desktop rendering software.)"

Mr Teger responds: "For those in the unfair camp: if the workflow for a 2.3MB model already sucks, how much worse will it get with a big model? Plus, complexity is not necessarily related to file size. It is related to complexity of the model itself along with materials that have been used. And the size of the image doesn't matter. 640 by 480 or 6400 by 4800. If it sucks at 640 by 480, it will suck even more for a larger image.

"Those who think that the comparison is unfair have obviously no clue about rendering. At least for the most part. They are just jumping on the 'cloud' bandwagon without understanding the issues on hand."

The editor replies: "To answer your additional question: The workflow is the same for big models, so it would not suck worse."

 

"I really must take issue with the methodology you used in comparing AutoCAD's built-in rendering command with the new cloud-based rendering. A rendering that takes only 4 seconds on your local machine is hardly a valid test.

"I have been testing computers and graphics cards and writing about AutoCAD about as long as you have. My reviews are regularly published in Desktop Engineering magazine, and I have taught numerous classes about rendering at Autodesk University. I also recently added more that 3 dozen lessons on rendering, both local and cloud-based, to the CADLearning series of video-based tutorials for 4D Technologies' AutoCAD 2013 course.

"As part of my reviews for Desktop Engineering, I perform a rendering test using a drawing I obtained from Heidi Hewett at Autodesk. Although the drawing itself is relatively simple, it includes numerous materials and multiple light sources, all of which result in much longer rendering times. On a relatively fast dual-core workstation, it is not unreasonable for the rendering to take up to 5 minutes, whereas on a system equipped with two 8-core CPUs with hyper threading enabled, the rendering might be completed in less than a minute. In addition to the number of materials and light sources, the resolution of the rendered image as well as the render quality will also impact the overall rendering time.

"Again, this is for a relatively simple model. It would not be unreasonable for a highly detailed model with multiple light sources, all casting shadows, to take 30 minutes or more even on a very fast system with multiple CPUs. While I have not performed any benchmark tests yet comparing local rendering of such a model to Autodesk's online rendering service, I would expect the online service to be considerably faster.

"While you do make some mention of the fact that it does take some time to initially transmit the model to the Autodesk 360 service (and you experienced some problems in doing so), it is also worth noting that the online service can render multiple scenes from the same model, whereas to do this on a local system, you would need to render each scene individually. Furthermore, when you render locally, you cannot do anything else in AutoCAD while the rendering is being computed, whereas when you use the online rendering service, you can go back to work in AutoCAD as soon as the online render request has been processed.

"I also suspect that most people who use the Autodesk 360 service log in when they first start AutoCAD. They would therefore already be connected when they clicked the Render Online button and therefore would not experience the same delays as you.

"From the image you supplied, I can see that you rendered the model at a resolution of 640x480 using the Medium render preset, settings that are hardly representative of real-world situations. In my tests, I typically render at a resolution of 1280x1024 using the Presentation Quality preset. It's also apparent from the lack of shadows and materials, that you likely rendered using the default lighting mode and that the Oil Module drawing contained no materials.

"I suggest that you come up with a more realistic test before you start publishing results that are purported to be representative of real-world results or typical user experiences."
       - David Cohn

The editor replies: "I clearly laid out the specifications for the benchmarking so that readers could take it at face value. I look forward to seeing the results you obtain from running Ms Hewett's model on Autodesk's cloud rendering service."

 

"I would be interested in a rendering test of a real rendering, with highlights, shiny material, and a normal resolution, not just 640 x 480. Renderings are used for presentation; a tiny, matt image like yours is not a realistic test subject IMHO. I bet when it comes to real renderings, the cloud will win."
     - Ralf Steck
       Die Textwerkstatt, Germany

"I was looking forward to the read on desktop vs cloud rendering, but it does not seem like you are comparing apples to apples, nor are you realizing where the power of the cloud rendering is coming into play. It looks like on your AutoCAD rendering that you have no light source casting shadows on the one you did on the cloud. The Autodesk rendering you did looks nothing more than AutoCAD's realistic visual style, which as you said is rendered in real time.

"Using a rendering that only takes 4 seconds to do on the desktop is OBVIOUSLY going to take longer to do over the cloud and is just not worth it. It's going to take more time uploading/downloading the data than it took the desktop to do what you did. The benefits of using the cloud are for large renderings with high quality that normally run hours on the desktop. Not only will the cloud do these renderings quicker, but you can send multiples, where the desktop can only do one at a time.

"There are times it may be better to use the desktop, like these small jobs that was done in the article, but the rendering on the cloud will be just as much a no brainer for larger or multiple renderings."
    - Dave Wahl
      Bergmann Associates

Mr Wahl responded to my question, 'Is Revit really slow at rendering?': "I honestly have never rendered in AutoCAD before, we only use AutoCAD for 2D drafting. We use Revit for our 3D models, from which we render from. For our larger renderings we export in fbx [format], and do the rendering in 3dMax, for which we have a 24-core processor rendering farm machine. We have tested rendering to the cloud from Revit and it has worked wonders. The process of uploading, downloading, and monitoring the rendering is great.

"Rendering from Revit can be very slow depending on what you are rendering. Of course complexity of lighting and materials are what drives a lot of this.

"I agree I am not about to dive into this cloud-based CAD hype, but from what I have seen and tried so far with the Autodesk 360 cloud rendering, I LOVE it. I just wish Autodesk would get their act in gear as far as a way to manage our corporate units, so that I would feel more comfortable utilizing this tool on a corporate level."

 

"I get that was the most complex you had, but really? 2.3 megs? Why not ask for a larger file from someone and then run the test? I would think Autodesk would be rather unhappy with your article as it didn't paint their solution in a very good light.

"I'm thinking of running a similar test for the Vectorworks Cloud Service, which also renders, and see what happens. It can also do animations. Those take hours to do if they are very high quality (bounced light with GI + HDRI backgrounds, etc). These guys should be installing a version on 8-16 chip AMD servers which allow the threading in the rendering code to really fly. But you need longer renderers to really see the speed up."
      - Anthony Frausto-Robledo
       Architosh.com

 

"I got your eZine forwarded to me today. I'm the Technical Product Manager for Autodesk 360 Rendering. Your experience is a bit atypical, but it has some elements that a lot of first time users face when trying our service.

"I saw you mentioned some mix-ups with 32-bit components and .Net framework becasue of your beta installations. (I'm not aware af other users having similar issues.) Typically, users have firewall issues because of restrictive policies an their companies, or entitlement set-up issues when their subscriptions are not connected to the serial numbers of the products they are using.

"I wanted to address a couple of other points you mentioned:

"The AutoCAD rendering was extremely fast locally, because it looks like you were not using any lights. This make the rendering extremely easy for mental ray, as no GI [global illumination] or dome skylight is used. Once on the cloud, that file is rendered with full GI, and the process is of course slower.

"We expect that small, simple renderings will take longer on the cloud because of overhead processing. But that's not the typical use, especially for our main product, Revit, where renderings have very complex lighting and geometry.

"Interior rendering also performs much better on the cloud renderer because of the advanced GI technology we use.

"On large renderings that take hours in Revit, the overhead is a minor issue and the speed of the renderings is more noticeable. We have renderings that take 66 hours on an 8-core [desktop computer], rendering in 32 minutes on the cloud.

"The other advantage is the ability to batch-render all views. On Revit files with dozens of views, a user can expect to have the first image start rendering in 2-3 minutes (our average queue time), and often have 2 or more rendering processing at the same time. Of course, these numbers depends on the service load. You are just one of the hundreds of users that use the service daily. The service scales up to maintain an acceptable queue time for the first image. The queue is a fair queue, and tries to satisfy everyone equally. Tuning of the service is constant, and adjustments are done as the service load increases over time.

"AutoCAD is at its first version of the full integration, and it has lighting standards that are not supported by the cloud renderer because they are not physically correct."
      - Roberto Ziche
      Autodesk

 

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Out of the Inbox

Risersoft releases UnitCAD ($995) drawing automation software for AutoCAD 2012/13. It works by "defining reusable unit components stored inside a database and controlled through parameters." http://www.unitcad.com

Big release of IntelliCAD, in which v7.2 has 600+ fixes, plus faster speed, and lots of new features: .NET application support, find and replace text, import .dgn files, underlays, Collada (.dae) and MrSID (.sid) files, Notification Manager, and new entity snaps. You cannot, however, access it right now, because the new code needs to be integrated by consortium members into their software. http://www.intellicad.org

TRL and Design Pro Software launch two new programs, Sign Design Pro and Line Design Pro for designing traffic signs or lines according to TSRGD 2002 and international standards. Includes an integrated structural tool designing posts and foundations. http://www.trlsoftware.co.uk

InspectionXpert has a new add-on for InspectionXpert for PDF and InspectionXpert OnDemand. CMMXpert imports data from almost any CMM software directly into InspectionXpert projects. CMM = coordinate measuring machine. http://www.inspectionxpert.com/Products/CMMXpert/tabid/220/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Now also on Android: ForceEffect from Autodesk, for interactively calculating structural forces on joints, etc. Download at no charge from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.autodesk.fbd.activities

Jimmy Bergmark upgrades DWG Columns with support for DWG 2013 file format at http://www.jtbworld.com/dwg-explorer-column-handler.htm , as well as DwgInfoTip at http://www.jtbworld.com/DwgInfoTip.htm

Bricsys updates Bricscad Linux so that the RedSDK now supports graphics boards from AMD (ATI); it also fixes a bunch of bugs. http://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp?i=2899

Until end of July, you can save $60 on up to five of nVidia's Quadro 4000 graphics boards through the mail-in rebate downloadable from here: http://www3.pny.com/QuadroPDFs/Disti-11-71574-Quadro-Limit-5.pdf

MecSoft Corporation ships VisualMILL 2012 for SolidWorks with a new 5-axis continuous milling module, new toolpath generators, and hundreds of other enhancements and fixes. http://www.mecsoft.com

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Letters to the Editor
"Sad news about Jake [Richter]. He was always a good head and a pleasure to engage in conversation."
      - John Moran, Boeing

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Notable Quotable

"Giving your CAD data to someone else, and then renting it back from them is idiotic."
      - Matt Lombard, Dezign Stuff
      http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=7616#comments

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