WorldCAD Access

Logitech removed double-clicking from its mice; here's how to get it back

For my 3.5-week trip through Europe this month, I look along my trusty three-year-old ASUS Android tablet and my brand-new Lenovo Windows 8.1 ultrabook, one of their Yoga models. The Yoga has three input devices, and none of them is just right for me: Trackpad (its built-in buttons are insufficiently responsive for my needs, and scrolling occurs even though I turned it off) Pointing stick (I never got the handle of it, but then I never figured out 3D mice, either) Touchscreen (user interface elements are too tiny with 1920x1080 resolution on a 12" screen, and so not easy to... Read more →

This week in upFront.eZine: We analyze what Bricsys and Graebert are doing right

Issue #834 Back from Europe and the 2014 Graebert Annual Meeting in Berlin and Bricsys International Conference in Barcelona, and so this week's issue of upFront.eZine newsletter reports on how the two CAD vendors are similar and different: Twin Peas of Different Pods by Ralph Grabowski You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2014/upf-834.htm. Read more →

Actual details of BricsCAD BIM

Building information modeling BricsCAD V15 is shipping today, and it includes the first edition of the return by Bricsys to architectural design. Recall that the company created the AEC software that was purchased in the 1990s by Bentley Systems for its architectural needs, TriForma. Here is the excerpt from the V15 release notes that talks about the new BIM functions: Concepts Instead of creating a set of dedicated BIM primitives like walls, slabs, columns, etc..., each with their own restricted behavior and properties, we opted for offering maximum flexibility. Any 3D solid can be used in a BIM model, whether... Read more →

Jeff Ray talks about his time at Solidworks, briefly

Autobiographically A brief article (New at the top: Jeff Ray is chief executive officer at Ellucian) in The Washington Post newspaper carries a brief autobiography by Jeff Ray, the former ceo of Solidworks: [The experience (at IBM) helped me ultimately land at a company called SolidWorks, where I was named chief executive.] The company had been wildly successful. But I felt that we were reaching the end of what the platform could do and we needed to work on the next-generation technologies. The hardest thing to change is a successful company. It’s easy to change when you’ve been diagnosed with... Read more →

fotos of the sunday: on my travels through Germany

October, 2014 Lichtefeld train station, Berlin Alexander Platz funkturm, built by the former East German government Bicycles waiting at the Waidmannslust S-Bahn station, Berlin Hairdresser after hours in north Berlin Chillin' at my cousin's home, Berlin Aunts, uncles, and cousins from Canada and Germany get together for dinner In the villiage of Celle Becklingen miltary cemetary for Allied troops killed duirng a 1945 battle Read more →

Bricsys ceo de Keyser sums up BIC 2014

Closing remarks "I bought a Revit course, and was surprised it was 215 courses. Then I bought a Revit MEP course, and it was another 139 courses. Visiting an architectural firm in the USA, training was the biggest hurdle. I refuse to believe that people freely accept complexity. I tried it out: you can view 250 lessons in a few days, but you have not learned Revit. "I believe there is a better way. Our ambition is to teach BircsCAD BIM in 20 lessons. In all fairness, BricsCAD BIM does not have the features of Revit. It is our real... Read more →

Chapoo's online 3D CAD viewer

Slices and dices It's getting towards the end of the Bricsys International 2014 conference, and we are being treated to a early preview of the 3D CAD viewer that's being added to Chapoo. The 3D models we are seeing are being streamed from a server from the head office in Belgium (we are in Spain). The viewer slices the model to see inside, and it also does more than one slice plane -- live sections that can be moved around in real time. Naturaly, there are standard viewpoints, as well as perspective mode. (The programmer is giving the demo, who... Read more →

BricsCAD addresses the mobile question: CADO

Through orange juice "We have done no investment in mobile," states Bricsys ceo Erik de Keyser categorically. "We are following it; we think it is not yet necessary. We are investing in mobile [project] management through Chapoo, which runs on mobile -- but not [investing] in CAD." Instead, he introduces to us Orange Juice, who are developers from London England. They have a new approach to the user interface for using CAD software on mobile devices. (I am proud to say that I introduced Orange Juice last year to readers of this blog, which caught the attention of Bricsys and... Read more →

Update on BIM by Bricsys

More to come With BricsCAD running on the Mac (and due to be released after the Windows version of V15), we are now seeing that the same 3D modeling for architectural also working on the Mac version. (We need not remind readers that AutoCAD for Mac is feature-incomplete, even in the latest 2015 version released yesterday.) So we are seeing more of the 3D house modeling but now on the Mac. But what about BIM -- the information that's attached to building model? During lunch, I had the chance to ask ceo Erik de Keyser about this. He agreed that... Read more →

Hey, BIM by Bricsys

From the inventor of Microstation TriForma This is the time a lot of us have been waiting for. What will Bricsys show us in the area of BIM. First off, a movie that shows now new AEC software constructs buildings using direct modeling, and a lot of the new functions we saw earlier today in the V15 announcement. So far, we are seeing just an architectural application of solid modeling -- more than what Dassault seems to have been able to do to date. BIM is limited to IFC export. However, DWG is used as the base file format, and... Read more →

Hooking BricsCAD up with CAM

From LVD Taken during the morning break of the Bricsys International Conference The current speaker is from LVD, sorry didn't get his name. His company manufactures the machinery that makes stuff, like laser cutters and sheet metal benders. LVD uses BricsCAD to clean up drawings from other CAD packages, and then use its sheet metal module to design the sheet metal version of 3D models. These are some of the problems created by other MCAD packages: Spline curves and advanced notches, which cannot be CAM'ed. MCAD software not capable of creating sheet metal files No radius applied to corners (sharp... Read more →

BricsCAD V15 premiers at Bricsys International Conference

For Windows, Linux, and now Mac Bricsys ceo Erik de Keyser introducing day 2 of the Bricsys International Conference The new day is starting, and now its time to hear what's new in the next release of BricsCAD, V15. Hans de Backer is head of product development, and is in charge of the core code that makes up the CAD program. What's New? BricsCAD V15 Under the hood, he updated wxWidgets from 2.9 to 3.0 (primarily to support the Mac version), Teigha 3.9 to 4.0 (Bricsys supplies 1000 to 1500 improvements to it), and RedSDK from 3.2 to 3.4 (rendering... Read more →

Here’s what’s planned for 3D in BricsCAD V16, next year

Shhh... Direct modeling will get lofting Array and mirror in parametrics Recognize assembly structures automatically Clash detection Large and lofted bends in sheet metal Different kinds of reliefs in sheet metal Associative dimensions and annotations on generated drawings Exploded views for assemblies and sheet metals Import assembly structures from Solidworks and Inventor By 2020, Bricsys plans to be the dominant 3D vendor due to its unique value proposition of low cost combined with direct modeling, parametrics, and so on. Read more →

BricsCAD does sheet metal and other 3D advances

What's new in V15, part i It's the afternoon, and now we are hearing about the new stuff from Bricsys -- the stuff that bloggers live for. CEO Erik de Keyser admits that the first release of sheet metal in BricsCAD a couple years ago was not great, but the sheet metal functions showed that it was possible to do such technology in a sub-$1000 CAD package -- and one that is considered 2D at that -- and that the data could be stored in DWG files, no special file format needed, like with Inventor. Sheet metal part designed in... Read more →

BIC 2014: Third-party developers report on their BricsCAD Experience

The first cheer of BIC Wildemann We are now into a trio of third-party developers, who are pushing BricsCAD to its limits. First up is Wildeman, a German developer of land development software. They got the first cheer of this conference by showing real time rainfall and water flow on a DTM [digital terrain model] file. As the developer said, "Doing just plain DTM is pretty old by now." See photo below. Blue dots falling from the sky represents rainfall, for which a variety of parameters can be determined, such as rain density, height of clouds. Blue dots on the... Read more →

Erik de Keyser keynote

#BIC2014 Attendees at the Bricsys conference at the Hesperia Tower hotel in Barcelona In 2002, Bricsys pivoted and based BricsCAD on IntelliCAD. A decade later, after some issues, they left the ITC, and now program their CAD program independently – like Graebert goes with ARES. Erik de Keyser is ceo of Bricsys, and these are the notes I took of his keynote address: “It is our impression that Autodesk is defocusing on AutoCAD,” Eric de Keyser told attendees this morning at Bricsys International Conference 2014. And so applications are disconnected from the core program. Autodesk applications are getting new functions... Read more →

Live blogging Bricsys International Conference 2014, day 1

Hello from Barcelona Okay, we’re ready to start covering the annual Bricsys International Conference here in warm Barcelona by the Mediterranean Sea. The theme of this conference is Choice, the choice being between BricsCAD and some other CAD package that has millions of users (no, not Graebert ARES). The slogan “I Choose BricsCAD” is everywhere. Just before the keynote began, I happened to be speaking with a customer from California, who does roadway design. He wants to have CAD licensed for every workstation, but it was too expensive to license Autodesk’s Civil 3D on them all. Autodesk suggested that he... Read more →

fotos of the sunday: Berlin at night

Berlin leuchtet While in Berlin this weekend, the city was having its annual festival of lights, where buildings are lit up in colors, with LEDS, or with images from giant projectors. Energy problems? No problem! Here are soome of the photos I shot. The "Dom" Cathedral Altes Museum DDR Museum Checkpoint Charlie Inside the Holocaust Memorial Holocaust Memorial Brandenburg Gate All of these photos were taken handheld with my Canon SX280HS point'n shoot camera. Thank you to Robert Graebert for giving us the evening tour of Berlin. Read more →

Programming with Graebert's ARES Touch CAD program for Androids

Coding LISP on a Samsung Graebert GmbH is not just porting an entire CAD system to Android. They're also throwing in two programming environments: LISP interpreted programming language and C++ Tx API. I'm sitting on a programming seminar on how to work with it. The goal is that desktop add-ons can simply copied to Android tablets, albeit with a few caveats. At this point, LISP is largely complete, but does not include VL-COM functions (because they require Windows common object model) or DLG dialog builder. It does, however, include DCL dialog box description language. Teaching programming for Android-based tablets We... Read more →

ODA starts running CAD in the cloud

In St Petersburg, actually President of the Open Design Alliance Neil Peterson shows his organization's first stab at creating a cloud-based CAD program. He emphasized several times that it is not the ODA's role to develop a full CAD system. Rather, their job is to put together the infrastructure for their 1,200 members, and develop a rudimentary DWG file viewer as a proof of context. This cloudCAD program is not for sale It is a WebGL-based DWG viewer running in Web browser with no client-side software at this point. It offers: Zoom, pan, layers, shading Layouts, selection, load files Open... Read more →

Second only to AutoCAD: 2,918,786 DraftSight users

And 6,454,656 downloads, precisely Here we are at the second day of the Graebert Annual Meeting. This is a bit of an odd name, considering this the first time the CAD media is invited. Graebert has three developer locations, and so once a year they all come together in Berlin for a week of meetings. After a few years, someone had the idea to also invite a few customers, to get their feedback on the ARES and SiteMaster programs. And this year, four CAD journalists were invited to join in the last two days. Today we moved from the hidden... Read more →

Shhh! Here's the secret future plans for ARES Touch

“We want to go much further.” -- cto Robert Graebert As a Christmas special, Graebert GmbH will bundle ARES Commander and ARES Touch with a free tablet: Galaxy Tab 10S, an 8.4" octa-core 1.9GHz tablet wtih 2560x1500 resolution screen and 3GB RAM. (LTE version might be available as an option.) The tablet is provided as a voucher, which is redeemed online in your country. Roadmap for ARES Touch Beta 1: November Beta 2: January General availability: April Service pack: July (with ARES 2015 service pack 3) Things to add for version 1: Add to Dropbox: Google Drive and email first,... Read more →

Pictures from Grabert Annual Conference - Day 1

Break time during the Graebert conference Inside the secret theatre behind the Snuggery store in Charlottenburg, Berlin Left: Graebert's first CAD system running on Windows CE and a Compaq handheld computer in 2000 Right: A more recent version running on an HTC 5" tablet, linked with Bluetooth to a laser measuring device Ralph Grabowski testing out the beta of ARES Touch on a Samsung Android tablet (photo credit: Randall Newton) Read more →

Graebert Announces 2D Mechanical CAD

For desktop and mobile Ceo Wilfried Graebert is easing us into their new software, a 2D mechanical version of ARES. They don’t want to compete with Solidworks, and so the new product is easy-to-use 2D. (Indeed, the 3D door is closed to Graebert, because of their relationship with Dassault Systemes.) Since 2D mechanical is no longer taught in schools, so the user interface is simple. One target is factory planning, which combines architectural with mechanical. “We want to cover both sides of it,” concludes Mr Graebert. Hans Stahnke is OEM and Partner Manager at Graebert, and he tells us about... Read more →

The State of the 2D Mechanical Market

by Norman Roith of ING Network Norman Roith is formerly with Genius, which was bought by Autodesk for its 2D mechanical software, now AutoCAD Mechanical. He asks the question, “Is 2D mechanical a dinosaur or a competitive advantage?” He shows us a hand-drawn sheetmetal drawing made 60 years ago. (This talk is a lead up to a new product to be announced later this afternoon.) Who Uses 2D CAD? He asks, “Isn’t the world 3D?” Why do we use “stupid” 2D? People from technical sales of industrial equipment, designers, and factory layout planners still use 2D. Technical sales guys start... Read more →

ARES Touch is full-feature CAD on Android tablets

All 2D commands and 3D viewing Running full CAD on a mobile device is not new for Graebert GmhH. Company owner Wilfried Graebert in 2000 asked his son, “Can’t CAD run on Windows CE?” “Of course,” said his son, and wrote it for his Master’s thesis. Not even Autodesk ever did this. And so Graebert had the first DWG-based mobile CAD that is known as SiteMaster and is popular with surveyors. It turned into a service business for Graebert under another company name. The most recent version is SiteMaster BIM, which exports drawings in IFC format. This year, Graebert ports... Read more →

All about the new ARES Commander 2015

Shipping next month Robert Graebert is cto of Graebert (yes, one of the sons, in case you’re wondering), and he is now previewing the desktop version of ARES 2015, called Commander. Robert Graebert Migrate utility migrates settings from older versions installed on the computer Multiple licensing options; registration with Graebert is no longer required Last year the ribbon was added; this year, it can be customized (no ribbon on Mac or Linux) Interactive table editing Dimension palette developed with technology from Solidworks; easily edits dimension text; useful existing text that needs fixing; no need to delve into dimension variables to... Read more →

Live Blogging: Graebert Annual Meeting – Day 1

This being Berlin, maybe the headline should read “Love Blogging” Alright, so here we are tucked away in a small theater behind a room at the back of a craft store (The Snuggery). This is the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, part of the former West Berlin, and so holding a product launch in this secret cinema feels all very Spy vs Spy. Left to right: CAD writer Randall Newton, Cedric Desbordes , and Wilfried Graebert Wilfried Graebert is the CEO of Graebert GhbH, a software firm that began as an Autodesk distributor for Europe. I won’t go into all the... Read more →

Two two-day conferences in two countries

Conferences for ARES and BricsCAD Starting tomorrow and going on for the next week, I'm at two CAD conferences in two countries: Grabert Annual Meeting is in Berlin, Germany on October 9 and 10. This is the first year the event is open to the media, and here they will be launching their new ARES Touch software for Android tablets. And they promise a surprise announcement. Bricsys International Conference is the following week in Barcelona, Spain on October 14 and 15. Here they will be showing off their new BIM software, and another software package I am not at liberty... Read more →

Microdesk Scans Buildings in 3D with UAVs

by Roopnder Tara, Tenlinks.com BIM consultant and reseller Microdesk is open for business in San Francisco, with their new office in the financial district. In their first Tech Talk Thursday, they invited potential customers -- and yours truly -– to show how UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles a.k.a. drones) can photograph nearby buildings, leading to 3D models. Microdesk got its start in the Boston area 20 years ago, and now has 11 offices around the country. It sells its products and services mostly in the architecture and construction industry. Their newest office is in San Francisco office and houses eight employees.... Read more →

My first few hours with Windows 10

Downloads and runs perfectly Microsoft made the preview of Windows 10 available October 1. October 2 I had airplane tickets to fly to Europe. This was going to be a real fast eval. I have, fortunately, one too many Windows 8 computers (don't ask), and so it was easy for me to pick the one on which I would install the experimental operating system. I tested it on my Sony Vaio Tap 11 tablet, which like a Surface tablet: super thin, with independent keyboard, 1.2GHz Pentium CPU, 4GB RAM, 128GB solid state drive, 1920x1080 11" screen -- a device I... Read more →

New Capabilities in ACIS R25

by Ralph Grabowski, presented by Vivekan Iyengar, vp of R&D at Spatial Spatial is the exclusive provider of Dassault Systems technology, no surprise, given that the 25-year-old company is owned by Dassault. Currently, its V5 and V6 translators are built using Dassault technology, along with the CGM modeling kernel; other specialized components from Dassault include hidden line removal and the constraint solver, which Spatial makes available to 3D application developers. Their two primary products, however, are 3D InterOp for translation and 3D ACIS Modeler, a geometric kernel for solids and surfaces. 3D InterOp The 3D InterOp software natively translates CATIA... Read more →

Dassault can't decide: should it be SOLIDWORKS or SolidWorks?

Both We editors worry about grammar and stuff so that you, dear reader, won't need to. One worry we have is how to print trade names that are capitalized annoyingly, such as "upFront.eZine" and "CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE." The problem with all-caps (as we in the biz call it) is that it SHOUTS!, which is the intention of the marketing genius who invented it, of course. Now, it took a marketing genius to invent it, because all-caps normally refers to acronyms, like STEP and BIM. The smart reader asks, "What is CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE short for?" But that would be a dumb question.... Read more →

On top of all else, Solidworks 2015 also does 3D printing

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com With every major release of a CAD program comes a dilemma: how to convey all that information? Solidworks 2015 is no exception; Dassault did its best to dumb down the changes -- there are literally thousands -- for the assembled press. As most of the press are not CAD users, the significance of most enhancements is lost upon us. For example, is the new Treehouse feature going to be a hit? I have no idea. But Dassault missed a opportunity to trumpet one enhancement that would have resonated with all the media present. Say “3D printing,”... Read more →