WorldCAD Access

Who Invented "PLM"?

Dassault Systemes is heavly into "PLM" -- short for "product lifecycle management." Who was the first to use the phrase? Let's look at the press release record: Dassault's press release archive goes back to 1996. The earliest date for one of their press releases including the terms "PLM" or "product lifecycle management" is June, 2000. Over at the SAP.com press release archive, the earliest mention of PLM is in a press release dated February, 2000: "SAP PLM is available via a flexible, role-based licensing model with mySAP.com Edition 1 Update December 1999." So we know the term was in use... Read more →

Autodesk Readies for Vista

Today's hooray-for-Vista press release from Microsoft includes this quote from Autodesk: "Autodesk has worked closely with Microsoft through the development of Windows Vista....Our internal tests give us confidence that Windows Vista will offer a highly stable and feature-complete platform that will bring our customers' 2-D and 3-D designs to life. Receiving RC1 is another important milestone on the way to making this happen, and we look forward to testing it." So now you know: running Autodesk software on unstable and feature-incomplete versions of Windows (could that be 2000 and XP?) is making your 2-D and 3-D designs lifeless. Read more →

TX - GPS Update 3

Thursday is the most exciting day of the week in our household, for that's the day the local paper arrives stuffed fat with weekly fliers from technology stores. This week I got particularly excited, for one of them seemed to contain a solution to my TX-GPS dilemma. But 'twas not to be. The flier from The Source (the Canadian version of the old Radio Shack rebranded by Circuit City) listed Microsoft's Streets & Trips 06 (CDN$160) with the following description: Trip planning software and a GPS receiver plugs into pocket PC or Palm Pilot. Wow! I thought. That was the... Read more →

Blogs Puzzle PR Firm

Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher extrapolates an admission by the head of Waggner Edstrom's UK office ("...regarding all this stuff about blogs, I just don't get it.") to "Microsoft's PR agency admits it doesn't 'get' blogs!" Foremski goes on to note that a good blogger is worth far more (and costs far less) than any PR agency. He doesn't get into the reasoning behind WaggEd's admission, but I think PR firms and marketing departments don't get blogs because they cannot control the blogosphere. All it takes is for a PR firm to think it has control over some bloggers,... Read more →

32" 3D Monitor

The Register briefly describes a 32" (81cm; measured diagonally) monitor that displays images in 3D. Reporter Lars-Göran Nilsson notes this drawback: you have to be sitting 13 feet (4m) away to get the 3D effect! Read more →

Acad 07: Service Pack 1

Autodesk released Sept 1 a 9.8MB service pack for AutoCAD 2007 and LT. It fixes dozens of bugs in the software, including these areas: 3D DWF, Blocks, Calculator, Command line, External references, Fonts, Grip tools, Hatching, Materials, Modify, Multiline text (Mtext), Navigation, Object snaps, PDF Export, Plot and Publish, Properties palette, Raster image, Recover, Render, Startup, Save, Open and Close, Toolbars, User Coordinate System (UCS), Views, Visual styles, and Workspaces. Many, but not all, details here [autodesk.com]. I am hoping this will fix the bug I've most often experienced: AutoCAD 2007 crashes while opening the acad3d.dwt template file when the... Read more →

Press Release Pokes the Google Bubble

Intermedia.NET ships a great press release that pokes holes in the Google bubble. (The company uses Microsoft Exchange to host for small and medium businesses, so they have an interest at defeating the Googlenaut.) Commentators have not had a favorable reaction to the new Google Apps for Your Domain service, which promises to read all your documents for Google's own amusement and profit. Here's the points that Intermedia makes, which bare consideration: - Latent support: Clients cannot pick up a phone and get support 24 hours a day; instead, Google makes you fill out a form and wait. - No... Read more →

PTC: Prepares for Change of Control

PTC has made public (as required by US law) the changes in benefits to its senior executives should a change in control (or other reason for termination, such as death) take place. Details here. Read more →

"PLM" More Powerful than "Web 2.0"

"...we're now witnessing the backlash against Web 2.0 and a plethora of me-too business plans, marketing pitches and analyst reports exploiting the nebulous phrase," says Gavin Clarke of The Register. Here is the remarkable part: Not a single marketing department or hired PR firm has managed to slip "Web 2.0" into their spin for CAD software companies. That's is truly a remarkable testament to the holding power of "PLM," which has dominated CAD press releases since early 2000 -- some sort of record, I would imagine, for an acronym-du-jour. (In my collection of press releasees, the first to mention "PLM"... Read more →

INGR: Good-bye Stock Exchange

Intergraph is following the lead of UGS in going private, reports Michael Paige of MarketWatch. Hellman & Friedman and Texas Pacific Group are paying $44/share at a 20% premium to buy up the old-time CAD vendor for US$1.3 billion. Other investors and advisors include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JMI Equity. Jefferies & Co. analyst Matthew G. McKay understands the real reason the buy-out is happening now: the stock is undervalued, having fallen by 25% over the last year because (1) Intergraph has been spending money on the next round of software releases; and (2) gearing up for the next... Read more →