Secret, Like Microsoft

A recent posting by Roopinder Tara caused some mulling to take place in my mind. In Solid Edge Ready to Take Off?, he reports:

I imagine the developers at D-Cubed and Parasolid [both owned by Siemens PLM Software] have saved a few tricks for the company from which their paychecks are issued. Could it be some undocumented features are never found by the competitors?

I wonder if Siemens will get into trouble with European Commission regulators if a competitor complains about aspects of D-Cubed and ParaSolid that are unavailable to competitors -- just as Microsoft has had to pay billions after keeping APIs for its server software undocumented.

Afterall, it's not longer UGS, the under-noticed MCAD vendor; it's now Siemens, one of the largest (and unfortunately corrupt) companies in Germany. The EU loves filling its coffers with corporate fines.

Or, maybe competitors will pull an Autodesk (as with ACIS -> ShapeManager) and write their own equivalent code. #1 on that list would be SolidWorks, which uses the ParaSolid kernel. Perhaps it's time for SWX to come home to the family and begin using the ACIS kernel. 

PS: For an excellent sturm und drang over the "new" Solid Edge from an ueber SolidWorks user, read the synchtech series by Matt Lombard.

Comments

[Jon Banquer]

For many years on Usenet I said that SolidWorks Corp. should dump Parasolid. No one agreed.

When Solid Edge takes off faster than what often happens with a prom dress, SolidWorks Corp. will have no one to blame but themselves.

Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA

[Tony Tanzillo]

Last I checked, Siemens held no monopoly in Design Automation software.

Monopolies are subject to different rules.