WorldCAD Access

Patented! 2D/3D Docs

Does your software create, edit, and display 2D documents with interactive 3D views? Then QuadriSpace has the patent on it: U.S. Patent Number 7,068,269 -- System and Method for Presenting Three-Dimensional Data. I'll let them describe it: ...page layout and interactivity of the 3D document is determined by an author and is part of the resulting document; not part of an application's user interface. In addition, 3D views are easily associated with separate data such as text, tables, buttons and images, to create a fully interactive 3D document. These 3D documents are viewable in an authoring tool or in a... Read more →

WiFi Warning

Some cameras have WiFi built-in. Specific models of camera from Nikon, Kodak, and others can transmit their photo files to your computer through wireless networking. Problem is that some photo Web sites are now reporting that this represents a security risk. More details are to come, but I suspect the problem is that the camera makers did not implement WiFi encryption, which prevents outsiders from hijacking the wireless stream of data. I think the risk is low, because of obscurity. Hijackers are not looking for wireless cameras to intercept because they are so rare -- just like very few viruses... Read more →

Microsoft's Lie to XP Upgraders

My son wanted to upgrade his computer from Windows 2000 to XP -- for the sole reason of being able to play certain games that work only with XP. He did the legit thing: purchased the overpriced XP Upgrade box from Future Shop. (Why overpriced? Because the American list price is $99, the Canadian exchange rate is about 1.10, so Future Shop and other Canadian retailers should be pricing the software at $110 -- but choose to sell it for $20 above the fair price.) He called me from the store: "Dad, the box says it upgrades from Windows 98,... Read more →

Real-time 3D Scanner

Before I give you the details (and you get excited by the specs), let me first provide you with the price: US$39,900. Now that you know you cannot afford it... Z Corporation says its ZScanner 700 is the first handheld, self-positioning 3D scanner that digitizes 3D surfaces in real time. (If it's the first, why is the model number "700"?) Other scanning systems are fixed in place; this one you hold in your hand, making it easier to scan hard-to-see nooks, but harder to head off to Starbucks while the scanner completes its job. The 700 orients itself to the... Read more →

Autodesk Chairman's Most Important Book

Business Week asked Carol Bartz (executive chairman) which book most helped her build Autodesk: "A little book called THE CONATIVE CONNECTION, by management consultant Kathy Kolbe, has been by my side for years. It explains motivations and work styles better than anything else I've read. In any business, you have to bring out the best in people. The only way to do that is to understand them." Read more →

The Old is New Again

My first computer was a Victor 9000, and it could be outfitted with a touchscreen. One of HP's first personal computers boasted the touchscreen as standard equipment; the marketing used a butterfly landing on the screen. Problem was, people didn't want to work all day long with their hand in the air. Precision was limited to the size of a finger end. And then there was the issue of smudging the screen. Back then in 1983, mice were unknown and tablets were too expensive; touchscreens were seen as the way to go -- but they never really took off. Touchscreens... Read more →

$$$/Employee

One measurement of corporate efficiency is revenue per employee. Pipelines tend to be the winners, requiring relatively few employees to generate revenues -- in the order of a million dollars per employee. THe average tends to about around $150,000/employee, due to the huge numbers employed in the service sector. From investor.reuters.wallst.com, I put together a short list of CAD vendors and their revenue (and net income) per employee: Company --- Revenue/Employee Autodesk --- $333,489 Dassault --- $236,423 P T C --- $214,536 Intergraph --- $170,078 Company --- Net Income/Employee Autodesk --- $62,645 Dassault --- $37,837 Intergraph --- $16,171 P T... Read more →

92,615,362

Wolfgang Gruener reports: The Internet to a new record number of websites, which now stands at 92,615,362 websites. Read more →

ANSYS: Doubles Revenue, Incurs Loss

ANSYS reports Q2 revenues of US$62.3 million, way up from $37.7 million a year ago. But the company suffered a net loss of $19.4 million compared to the net income of $9.8 million a year ago. The loss was due to the costs associated with the recent acquisition of Fluent. Read more →

Autodesk Tiptoes into 64-bit

Siggraph is one of the few remaining Really Important Shows, this one being held in Boston. (Siggraph is short for "special interest group - graphics".) At the show, Autodesk is demonstrating its upcoming 64-bit versions of 3ds Max 9 and (Alias) Maya 8. Maya 8 is the heavyweight, OS- and CPU-wise, running on 64-bit Linux and Windows, and can take advantage of multi-core and multiple CPUs. It's due to ship later this month. Next up: I'd expect to see a 64-bit version of Inventor. Read more →

Google Still Kewl

Randall Newton celebrates the first anniversary of his AECnews.com blog going independent (of Cyon), and reports on the new FreeDimension n-corner surfacing software importing drawings from Google SketchUp via the KML file format -- no exporting, yet, which would've made more sense to me. Randall tells more at Freeform Modeler FreeDimension to Support Google SketchUp. Read more →

Disney Imagineering: Use a Pencil

Message to those using CAD: Rohde stressed that pen and paper can be as important as modern graphics technology as a way to achieve authenticity. In the past, he said, technological constraints were constructive in some ways because they forced people to be both creative and collaborative. Candace Lombardi of CNET News reports on a speech given by Joe Rohde, executive designer and vp of Walt Disney Imagineering. We saw a similar message some months ago in a Lexus ad that emphasized how their automotive designers use the hand instead of AutoCAD (surprising, since the company doesn't use AutoCA for... Read more →

Early Days of think3

An excerpt from "Digital Game-Based Learning" book by Marc Prensky (2001), on page 10: Think3's product, thinkdesign was demonstrably better than the product that the vast majority of mechanical designers were using, known as AutoCAD. More like the rarified "high-end" CAD packages costing $15-20,000 per seat, thinkdesign allowed mechanical designers to work directly in 3D, instead of starting from the 2D drawings of AutoCAD. Backed by impatient venture capital money [$15 million] from Goldman and others, Costello’s business objective was crystal clear -- to convert as many of the 3 million-or-so AutoCAD users to thinkdesign as quickly as possible. His... Read more →

Discounted Upgrades from AutoCAD R14

It doesn't help that Autodesk makes it sound as if you cannot upgrade versions of AutoCAD older than three releases. Who knows why they popularize the belief, but even CEOs of competitors fall for the myth. Here's the facts: If you have AutoCAD Release 14 through 2000, you get a 35% discount off the current price of AutoCAD (US$2596.75 instead of $3995). If you also buy a one-year subscription, you get a 40% discount. The discount also applies to VIZ and 3ds Max software. Offer valid until January 15, 2007. More info here. Read more →

Digital Game-Based Learning

Is "digital game-based learning" still happening? The reason I'm wondering is that I came across a Google-archived PDF book on that topic. A key part of the book's "thesis is that learning through Digital Games is a wave of the future." Case study #1 is "The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy." Those in the CAD [computer-aided design] world will remember this as a great marketing tactic by CAD vendor "think3" back in 1998. It was meant to be a way to teach mechanical CAD through a computer game -- and sell lots of copies of thinkdesign 3D software. The ceo's aim was... Read more →

The Post-Name Contest

At SolidWorks World earlier this year, I told Tech Soft America's Ron Fritz his company needed to change its name. After telling me the history of the name (it's the American arm of a German company), he reassured me a renaming plan was in the works. Today, the new name is unveiled: Tech Soft 3D (ta da) In a bit of marketing oopsie, TS3D is holding a "Top Ten Names We Didn’t Pick" contest. Contrast that with cad.lab's $50,000 "The Company Fomerly Known As cad.lab" contest that resulted in the winner coming up with think3, although that name was already... Read more →