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Posted at 01:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The census says 115 I've written close to 200 books; what are they? Here is the list of (nearly) all e-books I've written. (The remainder are paper-based books.) Not in the list are bespoke editions, about two dozen e-books I've written for specific clients. Together, this makes the total of e-books written around 115. My very first e-book was "Tailoring AutoCAD," written for AutoCAD 2000 around that year. The e-book began as a series of articles I wrote for AutoCAD World, a now-defunct tabloid-style magazine. They called the column "Tailoring AutoCAD." The editor returned me the copyright on my articles... Read more →
Posted at 10:01 AM in Book Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0)
1,250 members strong We extend our summer break into the fall as we march off onto the conference circuit. If last week was Prague, then it must have been the Teigha Developer Conference put on for the second year in a row by the Open Design Alliance. The next issue of upFront.eZine appears September 28 with our review of what was said at the conference about the state of Teigha and the ODA's plans for the API. - - - Join the 7,500 subscribers who enjoy reading about the business of CAD. Email 'subscribe' to [email protected] Read more →
Posted at 05:37 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Genius today, OrthoGraph Survey System tomorrow One of the problems with mobileCAD is that there is little money to be made. (The other problem is adapting to hardware limitations.) One iPad developer put the blame on Apple, because the behemoth did not allow demo versions of software on its ubiquitous e-store. To get people to try software, it has to be priced so cheap that potential customers would not mind throwing away a dollar. This drove pricing expectations in the brave new world of smartphones down to a near-nothing level -- the pricing so feared by Bill Gates in his... Read more →
Posted at 01:34 AM in Android & iOS | Permalink | Comments (0)
Forgotten step-brother today leading the way For many years, AutoCAD LT was the Embarrassment of Autodesk. Not because it was the cheapest, most underpowered desktop CAD program offered by the company. But because LT was its best selling software, outselling AutoCAD, the supposed-to-be "market leader," 3 to 1 -- and so this was something Autodesk became loathe to publicize. Not that Autodesk didn't try to discourage sales. It upped the price from $499 to $1,200 -- and 2x even higher in unlucky countries like New Zealand. It imposed severe limitations on feature sets and programming. (AutoLISP does work with LT.... Read more →
Posted at 01:15 AM in CAD: Financials | Permalink | Comments (1)
Since Mid-September, 1985 This week marks my 30th year in the CAD writing business. Thirty years ago, the CADalyst founder, owner, editor, and publisher hired me on as the brand-new technical writer/editor. I was the first full-time employee. In those days, CADalyst magazine was concerned only with AutoCAD. The new version at the time was v2.17f, which offered the ground-breaking "Expressions and Variables" feature. The first issue I worked on featured the first use of color in the magazine, with the cover story by Bill Kramer on how to use expressions and variables in AutoCAD -- later to be known... Read more →
Posted at 01:11 AM in Blast from the Past | Permalink | Comments (9)
Real-time constraints engine runs on iPad ArcSite from Arctuition is the first CAD program for mobile devices that uses real-time shape recognition and constraints to convert hand-drawn sketches into connected lines and arcs. More than any other mobile app, it bridges the gap between the interface of the tablet (which lends itself to freehand drawing) and the precision required of CAD. Launching ArcSite on an iPad first runs through a few introductory screens, as is common now with iOS and Android software. (See Figure 1.) Figure 1 Introductory screens highlighting ArcSite's capabilities After the first launch, ArcSite goes right into... Read more →
Posted at 11:59 AM in Android & iOS | Permalink | Comments (2)
Real-time constraint engine runs on iPad We continue to take our summer break by publishing every other week. The next issue of upFront.eZine appears September 14 with our story about ArcSite from Arctuition and exclusive interview with developer Pei Zhan. To whet your appetite, WorldCAD Access later this week will post an illustrated walkthrough to show you how ArcSite works on iPad. To not miss out on the Business of CAD, email 'subscribe' to [email protected] Read more →
Posted at 01:45 AM in Android & iOS | Permalink | Comments (0)
A, C, & ? Now we are hearing about Teigha Architecture, not Teigha's architecture, which we heard about before the break. This one is for architectural design planning and is an extension to Teigha Core: design a building model with intelligent objects, and then take 2D sections and elevations. The objects are compatible with AutoCAD Architecture, and so objects can be used in both programs. (Intelligent objects are like walls, windows, and doors. They contain data that identifies the manufacturer, size, stock number, and so on. They are intelligent: if you move a wall, the embedded windows move with the... Read more →
Posted at 07:47 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
In business, it appears that Android and iOS (iPhone, iPad) share have nearly equal market share, yet ODA also supports WinRT (ARM verison of Windows 8) and WinCE (from 2005), even though their market shares are razor thin. Despite WinCE being ancient, ODA supports it because some members still use it. Indeed, DGN support was added to it this year. I was surprised to see that Android and iOS come on so many hardware platforms. I counted 15 architectures that ODA supports. The interface is built using Qt. Presenting the mobile work by ODA At the Teigha Developer Conference we... Read more →
Posted at 06:25 AM in Android & iOS | Permalink | Comments (1)
Reduced functionality C3D is the fast moving 3D modeling kernel from Russia. No, not the one funded by the Russia government that no one uses (so I am told), but privately developed some 25 years ago for the KOMPAS-3D MCAD software by ASCON -- the largest CAD developer in Russia. Couple of years ago, they decided to make the C3D kernel available generally, and formed a new division to adapt it to outside use, license it, and market it. As it now normal for ASCON, they spun it off as a separate division responsible for its own profits and losses.... Read more →
Posted at 04:07 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (2)
Survey results The primary purpose of the Open Design Alliance is to keep up with advancements in the DGN and DWG file formats. In addition, the technical organization branches out into other areas, like PDF import-export and other libraries, such as those from C3D Labs and Ledas. A survey found that ODA members are most interested in the following future technologies: 40% - doing renderings on remote servers (cloud) 40% - 3D PDF (no surprise, PDF has become the ASCII format of graphics) 30% - Point cloud data stored in DWG files 30% - Model documentation (where 2D drawings are... Read more →
Posted at 03:14 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (2)
Teigha Developer Conference Alright, here we are in beautiful Prague. Geographically, we are in Prague 6, the diplomatic area where many embassies are located, just north of Prague Castle. No wonder the hotel we're in is the Diplomat Hotel. I am here along with fellow CAD journalist Randall Newton, typing madly to keep up with the 16 presentations today, a new one every 20-30 minutes. As Randall says, we have to remember that this is a developer conference, not a user conference. This means that some of the things we hear about we cannot report. (Before I forget, my disclosure... Read more →
Posted at 01:36 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friends sitting on the rocks near Pebble Beach on the east cost of Galiano Island Read more →
Posted at 01:16 AM in Digital Photography | Permalink | Comments (0)
Annual Open Design Alliance Conference I'm planing next week to be in Prague for the annual Open Design Alliance developer conference. I was last in this beautiful city in 2006 (see the photo I took, at left), and so I am looking forward to being back. September 8 is going to be a jam-packed day with these topics on the agenda: Teigha Core Teigha Cloud framework Teigha 3D PDF Teigha Architecture Teigha Civil ... and new stuff not yet announced! Day 2 is time for one-on-one interviews, where editor Randall Newton and me plan to chat with ODA execs and... Read more →
Posted at 01:28 AM in Travelogues | Permalink | Comments (0)
Not paying $300 for a music player Petro-Canada is one of the gas station chains in Canada, and it runs a a Mobile Virtual Network phone network like 7-Eleven does. Right now they are giving away a free Android cell phone if you buy at least $35 of time. I was switching my wife's cell phone away from Rogers (Canada's biggest and most expensive cell phone carrier), and so got the free one (worth $160) but didn't know what to do with it. It was, after all, being given away free because it is a two-year-old phone no one would... Read more →
Posted at 01:50 AM in Android & iOS | Permalink | Comments (1)
Well, maybe two clicks There was a time when PayPal provided us merchants a one-click method for letting customers make payments. Then they took it away, and customers had to log into PayPal, fill out forms, and so on. Today, they brought back one-click payments, even though the short-memory tech media is calling it "new." No matter. I've implemented it in upFront.eZine for people wishing to donate to my newsletter. Should you wish to support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are like these: $25 for individuals > paypal.me/upfrontezine/25 $125 for small companies > paypal.me/upfrontezine/125 $500 for for large... Read more →
Posted at 08:52 AM in Behind the Story | Permalink | Comments (0)
All's fine in Cloudland Richard Hugh Davis (Canaccord Genuity analyst): So I know the cloud kind of helps you guys compete better, but one of the hardest parts that I hear from companies that are thinking about switching from one vendor to another is the fear that the engineers have with regard to their old models won't translate over seamlessly. Is that still an issue, or is that a legacy issue? Is that a data issue or is it not an issue at all? Carl Bass (Autodesk ceo): I think this used to be a huge issue in the industry.... Read more →
Posted at 01:52 AM in Cloud | Permalink | Comments (2)
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