by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com
On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog. Or you can be a cool dude who wears dark shades at all hours. Meet Mark Burhop, who, unlike his avatar persona, is in real life is a down-to-earth CAD guy, nice enough to have as many friends in real life friends as he has followers in his virtual one.
But Mark needs help. He has been plucked from his comfort zone of Femap (Siemen PLM's FEA software) and put in charge of creating a “app ecosystem” for Solid Edge -- in other words, reviving a partner program so that users can have choices in 3rd party programs. He may have to curtail his time on social media.
As Solid Edge gathers momentum, its executives must have noticed that ecosystems over on the competitive MCAD products (namely Inventor and SolidWorks) are extensive. In fact, the ubiquitous AutoCAD has so many 3rd party programs -- from LISP routines to full heavy apps -- that the program is often referred to as a "design operating system." SolidWorks has a half-dozen CAM programs alone that work happily inside its environment.
Meanwhile, the Solid Edge 3rd party program, previously known as Voyager, simply lapsed into oblivion. I am told it has been folded into the broader Siemens PLM partner program. According to one faithful Edger, “There were a few years where Solid Edge was in the doldrums,” a condition which no doubt had a lethal effect on Voyager.
But all of that is about to change. Siemens PLM states that there is “renewed vigor” in its Solid Edge business. Its new partner initiative is intended to create a streamlined environment, intended to make it easy for partners to participate and be available to the Solid Edge user base.
If I were a vendor, should I be worried that the Solid Edge population is small?
“Solid Edge licenses grew by 50 percent globally last year,” says Mark. “As for the vendors in our ecosystem, my goal is also to look for those with new and innovative ideas that address our customers' technology needs. We want to build a strong community that benefits our partners and customers in a better way than the traditional partner programs in the CAD industry. ”
Mark’s been at his new job for three months. The hallway at the ST4 Launch was crowded with a dozen vendors who Mark probably has on the hook. Already, he has signed up CADENAS, who does parts management and electronic product catalogs, and Striker Systems, whose sheet metal apps handle nesting, CNC punching, and profile cutting machines.
[Reprinted with permission from CAD Insider.]
The change is for real Ralph. There is a lot of stuff going on right now and as things get up to speed look for more announcements. This week begins the drive to establish the local user group community. The developement staff in Huntsville has grown by roughly 30% in the last year. No I don't have names but from what I am told some of the individuals that made SW into what it was before the stultifying hands of Dassault started it's little smother job now work for SE. I imagine they wanted to be where creativity is appreciated and not choked off to be replaced with "I" this and that aps. It is good to be here and maybe we will see you in Summit 2012.
Posted by: Dave Ault | Jun 29, 2011 at 05:10 AM
After all these years there *still* is no fully integrated CAM solution for Solid Edge. SolidWorks has at least 10 fully integrated CAM solutions at this point and several more coming on line soon.
What Siemens should be focused on is porting NX CAM to the Solid Edge user interface. Right now a Solid Edge user is expected to learn two totally different user interfaces (Solid Edge ST and NX)if they want to use NX CAM Express with Solid Edge.
Siemens does a lot of talking about Solid Edge but when it comes to action it's more often than not unable to be accounted for. If Siemens is truly serious about Solid Edge than an announcement should have been made by now that NX CAM is going to be ported to the Solid Edge ST user interface.
The silence and lack of real action from Siemens to support Solid Edge ST is unfortunately business as usual for how Solid Edge has been marketed over the years.
Nothing really significant has changed when it comes to Solid Edge ST marketing. Nothing at all.
Jon Banquer
San Diego, CA
Posted by: Jon Banquer | Jun 29, 2011 at 04:20 PM
Who is Jon Banqueer and why should anyone listen to him. I've never read anything from him that had any real world relevance... just childish snipping and sour grapes.
Does this person even use CAD and if so what? What makes him such an expert?
Posted by: Bob Mileti | Jul 05, 2011 at 04:59 AM