CADalyst Buyout Attempt

A rumour circulated earlier this week around the press room at SolidWorks World that CADalyst magazine was on the block. A prominent columnist had already lost his position there, and another columnist told me he heard the magazine's staff was thinking of buying the mag from the pub.

Roopinder Tara did the leg work, and found the rumour to be true: Questex to Abandon Cadalyst Magazine; Staff attempting to raise money to continue publishing.

(I was the magazine's first full-time employee, back in 1985 when the editorial office was still located in Vancouver Canada.)

Comments

[AutoCAD IntelliCAD]

Wow, that would be sad news indeed if the only AutoCAD rag disappeared. Much like the rest of the AutoCAD industry. Was a time back in the day when thousands upon thousands would wait each month for their copy to arrive, then read it four or five times over before the next would arrive the following month. Of course there was also a time when you could choose from 10 different architectural packages all created to run on AutoCAD. A natural progression. Kill the vertical application industry, kill those that rely on the industry for advertising dollars. Thanks Autodesk!

[R. Paul Waddington]

In the early days of Cadalyst I used to give away subscription cards to every person I sold an AutoCAD systems to and every person I came across that had any type of CADD system and still would if….

Cadalyst was a good source of info' an you contributed greatly to its usefulness of Ralph. I for one would still like it to proceed, but I guess it will only do so if subscribers want it too and remain subscribers to the production staff who have indicated they are willing to carry it on; and they can find enough revenue to make it pay.

As much as I have always looked forward to receiving this mag', as it grew-up, it lacked one very important component all industry mag's needs to remain as a key source of information; the missing component has been hard hitting, controversial articles on the industry itself - vendor behavior/service, product deficiencies and in particular invasive licencing issues.

Issuing five (5) star ratings to software products has proven no indication of close scrutiny, hardware articles are very important but applicable to only a small portion, and simply mentioning things like pricing structures and licencing does no more than indicate editorial staff are not game enough to take on industry vendors when they are not servicing their customers’ best interests.

I hope Cadalyst succeeds/continues - we need an independent voice – we also need it to be driven by people who can increase its value by making it relevant, covering ALL areas of the industry.

[ACADtrumpsIntelliCAD]

"Kill the vertical application industry, kill those that rely on the industry for advertising dollars." Pretty big words for a software company that has verticals as well. Sound more to me like Steve Bass hit this guys dog and didn't stop. Anyway, Cadalyst is not just an AutoCAD mag. It just started out that way based on the market it had. Now it services many software's but since there is still more AutoCAD than anything else, you have to play to your market. I think last count was somewhere around 4.5 million seats of ACAD.

[AutoCAD IntelliCAD]

"Pretty big words for a software company that has verticals as well."

You assume a lot Mr. AutoCAD Fanboy.

To compare our effort to meet a customer need with OEM products developed by EXISTING INTELLICAD DEVELOPERS to Autodesk's policies of the late 90s, is like, um, oh, comparing the ITC and ODA policy of building industry interoperability and compatibility to Autodesk's policy of "if you can't beat them sue them". doh!

[H. Edward Goldberg AIA, NCARB]

I wrote for CADALYST for ten years, and was, and still am the only practicing Architect that is an Industry Analyst. When I asked for more money last year, CADALYST turned my column over to a non professional.

The problem with CADALYST in recent years was that it tried to cover the AEC news with journalists, not practing users. The news you got was the news that the PR sent out.

I now publish my own newsletter.

Ed Goldberg AIA, NCARB
Ed's Independent Voice
HEGRA Architects http://www.hegra.org

[H. Edward Goldberg AIA, NCARB]

To R. Paul Waddington:

Paul, you can get my AEC and BIM Newsletter "Ed's Independent Voice" by going to my architectural website http://www.hegra.org, and signing up. You can also contact me directly at [email protected]

WEd Goldberg AIA, NCARB