Bill Fane and I have been speculating over Autodesk's announcment tomorrow, which the CAD corporation has dubbed "DE8.16N."
Bill Fane: I assume you received this. My guess: 3D printing. It's about the only segment of the design process left that they don't have a direct hand in. Your guess?
Ralph Grabowski: I don't think so. They already have a 3D printing link in AutoCAD, and 3D printing is not useful for AutoCAD users. I wonder if the logo contains a hint, since the word "Design" is so prominent. Some new kind of Fusion-like add-on?
BF: Tomorrow's big announcement: I still think it's related to 3D printing. Yes, they have had support in the last few releases, but 123D in particular really emphasizes it. I think they are either getting into the 3D printing service bureau business, or even into the hardware side.
RG: I wonder if it has to do with AutoCAD for Mac. It's been nearly a year since the first release, and the logo is of the kind we Windows users are not usually courted with.
BF: But they don't usually make such a big deal out of a new release. How about Revit/Inventor/Fusion for Mac?
RG: Neither Revit nor Inventor will not be rewritten for Mac. Autodesk plans to create some sort of cloud-based version of Revit that makes it OS-independent. I doubt Inventor will ever be ported from Windows; the direct editing in Fusion could be Mac material, however.
BF: [My wife] thinks the announcement is that Microsoft have bought them. I countered with "No, it's the other way around."
Just noticed that the teaser movie was made with iMovie.
Update
In the final hours, let the speculation fly, as Bill Fane reaches for the stars:
1. They are buying SolidWorks.
2. They are buying Solid Edge.
3. They are buying/releasing a major PLM product.
4. They are dropping generic AutoCAD & selling only verticals.
5. They are filing for bankruptcy.
See also the comments section to this posting.
Have your say: http://www.acadnetwork.com/topic-128.0.html
Posted by: Patrick EMIN | Aug 15, 2011 at 11:46 AM
Autocad (thin) client app for iPad etc.
Posted by: RL | Aug 15, 2011 at 01:57 PM
What make you think 3D printing is "not useful for AutoCAd users", Ralph?
Posted by: R. Paul Waddington | Aug 15, 2011 at 03:10 PM
It's not what AutoCAD users do.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Aug 15, 2011 at 03:25 PM
Perhaps it's a new tool to interact with AutoCAD in a more efficient way than just the keyboard alone. The WII has been released for quite some time now - about time something came along to make modelling more intuitive...
Posted by: Matt Murphy | Aug 16, 2011 at 01:45 AM
"It's not what AutoCAD users do."?
Stunned? Pray tell why is it not what they do. I and others do so why would you make such a broad brush statement when it is higly unlikely you know what "all" AutoCAD users do. Is it that you about to tell me AutoCAD should not be used for 3D and those who do are incompetent business people.
Posted by: R. Paul Waddington | Aug 16, 2011 at 03:23 AM
They're "democratizing design" by dropping the price of AutoCAD and adding yet another API; unfortunately 5 years too late.
Posted by: Owen Wengerd | Aug 16, 2011 at 07:53 AM
How about multi-user-support?
Posted by: Gernot Jeromin | Aug 16, 2011 at 07:59 AM
You win: it was Mac.
Unfortunately I had to miss the webcast because water skiing conditions were perfect...
Posted by: Bill Fane | Aug 16, 2011 at 01:36 PM