WorldCAD Access

Eli Attia's patent vs Google - Vannevar

Alexander Bausk digs deeper into the Attia-Vennevar controversy, and finds the patent filed by Israeli architect Eli Attia. Read Mr Bausk's blog posting at writandraw.org. The patent filed in 2008 describes automated design, fabrication, and construction management. Basically, you input a CAD drawing and it figures out what parts to cut how in the shop, which are quickly assembled in the field. Now, Mr Bausk feels this is an idea and not a method -- only methods are supposed to be patentable. Mr Attia names his system "Engineered Architecture" and calls it "ea" for short. Figures from the patent application... Read more →

First Look: YouTubing Inside Solid Edge ST 6

One of the more interesting new functions in Solid Edge ST 6 has nothing to do with MCAD: it’s an innovative ability to play videos from YouTube and to record the CAD program's actions for sharing on YouTube. Let's take a look at how it works. First, here’s how to access the YouTube function. I failed when I l initially looked for a "youtube" function on the ribbon. It turned out that access is through two spots along the window's edges (see figure 1): Viewing videos is accessed through a docking pane: click the YouTube button found along the right... Read more →

Can we believe "Giant corporation stole my idea" pleas?

They are heart-tugging stories, where an inventor approaches a large corporation with his idea, only to see it "stolen" and marketed by the giant corp (and its deep legal pockets) as its own. While a story today in Israeli business newspaper Globe carries the headline of Architect Eli Attia: Google stole my life's work, the story may well be different. Last week, we learned that Google X spun off Genie to Vannevar Technology, a company that some media outlets quickly anointed as "a technology that could earn the company $120 billion a year." See http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000886261. On Twitter, I immediately scoffed... Read more →

In upFront.eZine this week: who is CCE and why is their software free?

This week's upFront.eZine has for your reading pleasure: 1. All About CCE - Other Products - EnSuite Demo - Free Software in CCE Labs 2. In Twitter and On the Blog, plus lots of letters from readers You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-796. Read more →

How expensive will Solidworks get? And what about that cloud version?

Reporting on its Q3 financials, Dassault Systemes said that number of SolidWorks licenses sold fell by 6%, yet the revenues from the division rose by 6%. A financial analysts wondered how high the price will get -- and what the cloud plans are for SolidWorks. Gerardus Vos (Barclays Capital): On the pricing of SolidWorks, it seems to be very strong in the third quarter. The pricing for your products are already at the higher end, if you compare it to the competition. What gives you the ability to continue to push this up, and do you think these kind of... Read more →

OK, so now I like my new Canon SX500 after all

Most any digital camera takes a decent picture under ideal conditions, bright light and no zoom. It's when the light is dim and the zoom long when cameras buckle under my demands. This is the situation in which I take photos at conferences to illustrate my live blogging. Room lighting is dimmed to let the slides stand out, the presenters are moving about, dozens of feet away. And I want a great action pic, close up. Earlier in Three reasons I can't stand my new Canon camera; three reasons why I love it, I wrote that a year ago I... Read more →

Solid Edge Mobile Viewer for iPad and Android

It's become common in the last two years for CAD vendors to release viewers for mobile devices, usually at no cost. These let us see 2D and 3D models on our smartphones and tablets. Siemens PLM Software last year released a free viewer for iPad and this year for Android tablets. Solid Edge Mobile Viewer interactively displays 3D models exported from Solid Edge. Using multi-touch gestures, we view the models by rotating, panning, and zooming them. Images of the models can be saved and sent to others using the tablets' communication facilities, such as email or Dropbox. Currently, the app... Read more →

In upFront.eZine this week: we tell you about Bricsys' Master Plan

This week's upFront.eZine has for your reading pleasure: 1. Bricsys Continues on Its Vector - Does It Work? - The Future According to Bricsys - What Ralph Grabowski Thinks 2. In Twitter and On the Blog, plus lots of letters from readers You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-795. At the Bricsys International Conference 2013, held in Darmstadt Germany: Read more →

How to clone drives under Windows 8 (it's harder than before)

When you want to replace a hard disk drive with a solid state drive, then there is plenty of free software for cloning drives. (Solid state drives are more expensive than hard disk ones, but are much faster and have no moving parts, and so are more rugged. Cloning means to exactly copy everything from one drive to the other, including the operating system, locked system files, and hidden folders. I wrote about doing this in How I installed my new SSD.) Last weekend, one of my kids wrecked the hard drive in her laptop computer; this was the second... Read more →

What's changed in BricsCAD V14 for programming and licensing

Here's what's different in BricsCAD V14 among programming and miscellaneous items. (This posting is based on a beta release, and so the final release may be different.) - - - V14 is not binary compatible with V13, because some APIs are changed. Most third-party application need to be rebuilt, except for scripts and applications written in pure Lisp. - - - BricsCAD V14 installs and runs independently from previous BricsCAD versions, so no need to uninstall the older ones. After installing V14, you need to activate the license online, or run it for 30 days without activation. If you cannot... Read more →

New dimensions in BricsCAD V14 for 3D

Here's what's new'n improved in 3D modeling for BricsCAD V14 user interface. (This information is based on a beta release, and so the final release may have some differences.) - - - Sheet Metal Design is is the 3D highlight feature in V14. This module is not intended to compete with third-party developers, but to give them a base from which to turn BricsCAD into a sheet metal design contender. It does sheet metal design, and generates drawings that unfold the design automatically. The sheet metal functions supported for now are: flange, bend, bend relieft, and corner relief. You can... Read more →

Live blogging Bricsys International Conference 2013: introducing BricsCAD V14

Okay, here we are at day 2 of #BIC13 and staring off with an hour-long keynote by humourist Helen Keen who regaled us with a twisted version of the space program's history -- including cats that went into space. In the conference hall But now down to biz, especially what's new in BricsCAD V14. The first item is to show off the new interface (cleaned up), icons set (made consistent), and QuadCursor (vastly overhauled). Introducing new UI elements Next up, a live demo of the redesigned QuadCursor. I am not giving a lot of detail in this post, because I... Read more →

A glance at what's new in BricsCAD V14 for import/export, printing, and rendering

Here's what's changed in BricsCAD V14 in the areas of import/export, printing, and rendering. (This write-up is based on a beta release, and so the final release may be different.) - - - A big push by Bricsys in the area of MCAD is shown by the many proprietary formats BricsCAD V14 will import. V14 imports the following formats: DAE: Collada IGS, IGES: Initial Graphics Exchange Specification STE, STP, STEP: Standard for Exchange of Product data IAM, IPT: Inventor CATIA V4 and V5 PARASOLID PAR, PSM: Solid Edge PRT: NX ASM, PRT: Creo Elements / Pro Engineer SLDASM, SLDPRT: Solidworks... Read more →

Here's what's new in BricsCAD V14 for 2D drafting, text and dimensions

Here's what's new'n improved in 2D drafting, text, and dimensions for BricsCAD V14. (This list is based on a beta release, and so the final release may contain more functions.) - - - Annotative styles and entities for single-line and multiline text, hatches, tables, dimensions, tolerances, leaders, and multi-line leaders. Also, annotative block definitions. Annotative entities scale, locate, and rotate depending on the viewport New commands and system variables for annotative styles: ObjectScale, CAnnoScale, CAnnoScaleValue, AnnoReset, AnnoUpdate, SaveFidelity, and AnnotativeDwg. Some of the new annotative settings in the Settings dialog box - - - Multiline leaders and styles. New commands:... Read more →

Is 11 pages of new'n improved features enough for you? Bricsys shows off BricsCAD V14

About a month before Bricsys International Conference 2013, the company released the first beta of BricsCAD V14, which allowed me to peruse what was new. I was amazed: the readme file for new functions, changes, and bug fixes in commands, user interface, and programming ran to 11 pages. I found this stunning, because I am also beta testing a new release from one of the Big Five CAD vendors: its upgrade "features" consist of a few tweaks to the user interface; not a single new drawing or editing commands. I suppose I should argue that the big CAD vendor is... Read more →

An interview with Pieter Clarysse on redesigning the QuadCursor

About a month before the Bricsys International Conference, Pieter Clarysse of Bricsys used TeamViewer to show me all the facets of the redesigned QuadCursor. Along with him was Eric De Keyser, ceo of Bricsys. The original QuadCursor at work - - - Ralph Grabowski: Describe to me the layout of the new QuadCursor. It looks very different from the one in BricsCAD V13. (See figure above for the old one.) Pieter Clarysse: When the crosshair cursor moves over an entity, the QuadCursor automatically appears. In V14, the QuadCursor appears automatically in both 2D and 3D by default; before, it appeared... Read more →

Take a look at what's new in BricsCAD V14 for user interface elements

Here's what's new'n improved in the BricsCAD V14 user interface. (This data is based on a beta release, and the final release may contain additional functions.) - - - QuadCursor revisited. The QuadCursor name is not new, and was named after its diamond shape. But in V14, it is completely reworked, operating now as a context-sensitive customizable and dynamically configurable floating toolbar that works in 2D and 3D. The redesigned QuadCursor, shown expanded There is so much to the new QuadCursor that it warrants its own article. But let me say that I found it makes dimensioning a snap! -... Read more →

BIC13 Day 1 closing: What about the ecosystem?

160 attendees today, and 170 expected tomorrow. To close day 1, Eric de Keyser is wrapping up by describing in 2004 the first time a third-party developer contacted Bricsys about running on BricsCAD. They had a dual-API that ran on AutoCAD and BricsCAD, very limited. Nevertheless, this German developer wanted to port over their software, because Autodesk had bought their competitor. In 2008, however, this company said good-bye to Bricsys, because Autdesk bought it. Same happened to Savoy: last year they demo'ed their vehicle turning software on BricsCAD at BIC 12, but then Autodesk bought them, so Transoft Solutions began... Read more →

Third-party developers at BIC 2013

Day 1 of the Bricsys International Conference is devoted to third-party developers. We began with Bricsys staff telling us about what to expect in APIs, and now 11 third-party developers are spending the rest of the day describing the add-on software they wrote to work with Bricsys. Here's the line-up. (I'll be adding comments to each throughout the day, so press F5 for updates.) PIT (software solutions for buildings and facility management). They asked their users if they would prefer the ribbon interface (as found in Word and AutoCAD), and not one of them wanted the ribbon. So, it is... Read more →

Live blog: Bricsys International Conference, Day 1 -- Future API Plans

Alright, here we are in Darmstadt, a town just south of Frankfurt Germany, in the ultra modern Darmstadium conference center. Twitter stream is #bic13 Some of the media pose in front of the conference center. Left to right: Randall Newton (USA), Ralph Grabowski (Canada), and Deelip Menezes (India). Photo by Roopinder Tara Ceo Erik de Keyser says his company is growing -- unlike Autodesk and Dassault Systemes who are missing their numbers, and even shrinking in sales. Bricsys ceo Eric de Keyser launches the Bricsys International Conference in Darmstadium conference center, Germany His key to the market is encouraging third-party... Read more →

How to erase Windows from a reused hard drive

I wrecked the motherboard of my previous desktop computer, but the 500GB hard drive was perfectly good; plus, it contained all my files. So I installed it into my current desktop computer. It still had Windows and some Windows-oriented folders, which contained system-protected files that I could not erase -- even though Windows no longer uses any files on this second hard drive. I knew I could get Linux to erase the folders and files, but I didn't want to turn my desktop computer into a dual-boot machine. I tried running Linux in a virtual machine using Oracle VM VirtualBox... Read more →

95% of apps are free; why not MCAD?

By charging developers 30% to host their iOS apps at the iPhone/iPad online store, Apple drove down the prices. In days of the nearest equivalent, apps for Palm Pilots were priced typically $10 to $25 under a 0% service fee; with the 30% charge, Apple drove down prices to a tenth of the former level. (There is the myth that iOS apps are more profitable than Android ones. A recent analysis shows, however, that the number of free apps at Apple's online store rose over the years, and now is at 95% as developers look for revenue sources that avoid... Read more →

Paper books dying, ebooks too

I can call 2013 "the end-of-the-line for book writing." After starting in 1990, I at one time was writing multiple books for four publishers, resulting in some sixty titles and updates. Thank you to Delmar, Wordware, OnWord, and Springer for taking on me and my words. My last remaining book publisher, Delmar, earlier this year entered bankruptcy protection. At the same time, I noticed my ebook orders slowing down over the last year. The good folks at Delmar tells me they think the problem is that people prefer to watch free YouTube tutorials, rather than buy and read books. I... Read more →

Here's what to look for in an Android (not Google) tv box

Google is promoting Google TV boxes to counter Apple's TV box but Google is not making much headway with manufacturers. In the meantime, there are a ton of Android TV boxes available today. So, what's the difference? Google TVs run a modified version of Android designed to work with remote controls and television sets. Android TV boxes run pure Android, and so are not optimized for touch-less interaction. Hardware-wise, they are like Apple TVs: small plastic boxes with no physical input or output, no keyboard or screen. The keyboard function is provided by the remote control or a wireless keyboard;... Read more →

In upFront.eZine this week: we tour Contour's unique mouse hardware

No upFront.eZine next week as I travel to Germany and take in Bricsys International Conference 2013. Look for my live blog reports here on WorldCAD Access. In the meantime, this week's upFront.eZine has for you the following for your reading pleasure: 1. Hardware Review: Contour Roller Mouse Re:d - Initial Impressions - Installation - What Ralph Grabowski Thinks 2. But no more Out of the Inbox, but lots of letters from readers. You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-794.htm - - - From the editor: The Out of the Inbox section used to list synopses of... Read more →

3D CAD Needs the Leap Motion Controller

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com The best 3D interface to CAD product is one that is not yet created. Imagine, if you would, waving your hands in front of you to control an assembly, zooming in and out, moving part in and out, etc. without reaching for your mouse or using the keyboard. Half the size of a deck of cards, the Leap Motion Conroller detecting finger and hand movement Enter the Leap Motion Controller. A box half the size of deck of cards sits unobtrusively on the table and it is programmed to detect hands and fingers and their motion.... Read more →

AU fallout: Why Autodesk wants into social, badly

Digging through the backlot of my blog posting software, I discovered several items I had written but never posted. Here is one, written after I came back from Autodesk University 2012. - - - I was puzzled why Autodesk this year added a pair of commands to AutoCAD 2013 and its other CAD software that lead to NSFW sites, Facebook and Twitter. It seemed like an anti-corporate move. After all, when design firms remove USB ports from workstations (to prevent IP theft), they're not going to then allow employees to catch up on company time what their friend's cat ate... Read more →

Here's how to run full Microsoft Word on Android tablets

There are several top notch independent versions of Microsoft Office that run on Android tablets, but none support Word's review markups and comments. The solution is to use Word running on your PC back home, and displayed on your Android tablet where ever you have a connection to the Internet. In my case, I use TeamViewer. It lets me see and interact with the screens of other computers, whether my own desktop or that of relatives who need tech support. TeamViewer is free for non-commerical use. (The business version costs $689.) There are other similar products on the market, and... Read more →

IMSI/Design plugs its mobileCAD data right into Autodesk software

TurboSite ($499) is probably the best app out there for collecting onsite data. It runs on iPads only for now, but IMSI/Design has added the ability to plug the collected data right into AutoCAD and Revit. Here's how one press release words it: With the launch of TurboSite Plug-In For Revit, all Revit users on a project can, for the first time, view correctly geolocated video, photo, markup, and text documentation directly within Revit. TurboSite Plug-In For Revit is free and available now through the Autodesk Exchange for Revit. The same is available free for AutoCAD, and here's a pic... Read more →

Autodesk's pursuit of registering DWG is like a washing machine spinning

The US PTO (patent and trademark office) reaffirmed Monday that Autodesk cannot register DWG as a trademark in the United States. But the office is allowing Autodesk to trademark words that embed DWG, such as DWG EXTREME, DWG TRUEVIEW, and DWG TRUECONVERT. In addition, the PTO is allowing Autodesk to embed DWG in graphic elements -- like the one illustrated below, taken from the government document -- as long as Autodesk disclaims any exclusive rights in DWG apart from the graphic element. DWG in a graphic element: permitted; DWG on its own: not permitted Autodesk is, however, allowed to appeal... Read more →

Autodesk's filing of 8-K confirms $15-$20 million in cuts, mostly in layoffs

Form 8-K for AUTODESK INC 30-Sep-2013 Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities Item 2.05 Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities. On September 24, 2013, Autodesk, Inc. (the "Company") approved a restructuring plan that includes staff reductions and the consolidation of certain leased facilities. The Company expects to substantially complete these efforts by the end of its first quarter of fiscal 2015 (ending April 30, 2014). The Company anticipates incurring pre-tax restructuring charges of $15 million to $20 million, all of which would result in cash expenditures and of which $12 million to $16 million would be for one-time... Read more →

Seeking Alpha: Autodesk discloses restructuring plan

Quoting Seeking Alpha (source: http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/1306522): The restructuring involves both job cuts and "the consolidation of certain leased facilities." Autodesk isn't disclosing how many jobs will be affected, but does say it expects to record pre-tax charges of $15M-$20M, all of which will result in cash expenditures. There's a good chance some of the job cuts are related to the company's Platform Solutions & Emerging Business and Media & Entertainment units (sales -9% and -11% Y/Y in FQ2, respectively). Read more →