WorldCAD Access

Using Asynchronous Communication in CAD

Guest editorial by Cedric Desbordes

 

More than any other DWG vendor, Graebert of Germany has done more to connect the primary design platforms with one another -- desktop/laptop on Linux/Mac/Windows; tablet/phone on Android/iOS; and Web browsers. The name of the company may not be familiar to you, as they tend to sell white label CAD. Companies like Corel, Dassault Systems, and Onshape use Graebert's "ARES" code for their DWG editors.

Here, business development manager Cedric Desbordes describes how this trifecta of CAD platforms is useful for today's WFH environment. Asynchronous communication means that all parties don't have to be online at the same time -- this like sending an email, instead of placing a phone call, which is synchronous communication. 

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With so many professionals forced out of office environments by the pandemic, even the most hesitant companies have had to reorganize their workflows to accommodate remote workers. During the first lockdowns, I was surprised to see large organizations using older and very expensive techniques like virtualization or VPNs [virtual private networks]. I remember too how the press was skeptical about our offer to make ARES Kudo [Graebert's browser-based CAD viewer and editor] free of charge for a period of time.
 
When this all started, people thought the virus would be a problem for only a couple of months, so the priority was to keep all systems in place and avoid stressing users, even if this meant a very slow AutoCAD streamed to your computer from virtual machines. So, during the first wave, IT teams acted more like firefighters: they weren't trying to implement new products or substantially reshape workflows.
 
Today, organizations understand that the virus-induced crisis is not acute, but chronic. It will continue to affect us for a long time. New waves or variants may come, resulting in further lockdowns. More importantly, working with remote team members has became the new normal. Previously, your co-workers sat next to you and worked the same office hours as you. Now you see them reorganizing their work hours, and working from different places, at different times, and even from other countries.

Recently, I watched a Webinar from Onshape. The guest speaker was a customer we have in common, Kichler Lighting in the USA. They use our ARES Trinity together with Onshape. Kichler has suppliers in China and adds new ones frequently. In the lighting industry, trends change rapidly, and so they need to react quickly with new products. Reducing time-to-market with suppliers in China that they have potentially never met is a challenge. Part of the challenge is to secure remote access and to synchronize drawings; another aspect is collaboration by sharing ideas, commenting on issues, and getting design changes validated.
 
One key takeaway from the Kichler story is that communication was significantly improved through online collaboration. No one was afraid to interrupt other users with questions or comments. It was a smooth, asynchronous flow of communication. As a consequence, time-to-market was reduced.
 
This is where communication tools like online meetings or email or chat fall short. Users need to be able to collaborate in-place (inside drawings and documents) and do so asynchronously.
 
One clear example of asynchronous communication is how people use Google Docs:

• Manage and revoke user rights by determining who can only view, and who can comment and/or edit
• Comments help to organize the work and extend the collaboration to more people, without altering the document
• Document history that goes back in time to show what has changed, and who changed it
•  People working together as a team, but without needing to work at the same time
• Notifications to stay updated (without needing to open documents) and to react faster when help is needed.

What we are achieving with our Trinity workflow is very similar for DWG drawings (files in the cloud, user rights, view-only links, markups and comments, email notifications), but with additional advantages:

Do it your way. For each project, users can decide whether to keep working with local files or to access files from the cloud. Also, it is not required to switch to cloud-based ARES Kudo to benefit from collaboration features, as they are also found in desktop ARES Commander. Users in organizations can go at their pace — there is no abrupt/disruptive transition to new tools or workflows.
 
Your cloud. In contrast to Google Docs, ARES does not force users to place files on our servers. We recognize that many companies have already made the decision on which cloud storage provider(s) to use. There is no reason to isolate DWG files from other files, so it is just common sense to for ARES to connect to a large number of existing cloud services, as well as provide the WebDAV protocol to connect easily to any other service.

In addition, we partner with AWS for those customers asking for a dedicated infrastructure, as well as to offer some storage with ARES Kudo Drive for users who have nothing in place and so want first to experiment with a few projects on our servers.
 
Highly secure. Files stay on the servers customers are already using, and ARES is used only to edit them. Our infrastructure is reviewed by the AWS team for security.

I think another key difference with Google Docs is that our industry has a strong need to improve the workflow between the users who are producing drawings at the office (or in home offices) with others in the field needing that technical information while working at a construction site, who are on customer visits, or work at a facility or factory.

Efficient interaction between the two groups requires software with the following capabilities for workers in the field:

• Access any drawing without planning ahead of time which files to take with them
• Always view the latest version of the drawing to avoid mistakes, which cost
• Enrich the project with useful feedback collected in the field to help the users editing drawings to reduce time-to-market
• Email notifications to that allow every user to follow the project updates, and jump into the file promptly when needed

From my perspective, view-only links are the most appealing feature to get new users started with cloud-based workflows. As we offer some free storage with the ARES Kudo Drive, it becomes possible for ARES Commander users to upload one of their files, create a view-only link, and send it to a colleague or customer who can view — and comment or markup — for free.

Two core weaknesses of Onshape

Kernel and browser

I've come across a couple of Achilles' heels for PTC regarding Onshape. The two weaknesses are inherent to what makes Onshape Onshape.


Kernel Incompatibility. At the kernel level, Onshape is incompatible with PTC's CAD software. Onshape runs Parasolid (licensed from an arch-competitor to PTC, Siemens), while PTC has its own Granite geometric modeling kernel.  I wonder how well Onshape and Creo work together; I have not heard PTC address this problem.

The drawback to any translation is, of course, that data can be lost or, worse, mangled, and so it helps when two CAD programs share at least the same kernel.

Onshape uses the same Parasolid kernel as Solidworks, one reason being that Onshape was designed pre-PTC to take customers from Solidworks. Even so, sharing kernels is not nirvana: importing Solidworks models into Onshape can be a surprisingly difficult process, as was demonstrated at Onshape's user conference last month.

Onshape and Creo do have import-export capabilities, ones that even preexisted PTC's acquisition of Onshape. Pro/E-Creo 2000i thru v7 files are the list for Onshape imports, while a neutral file format like STEP is available to copy models from Onshape to Creo. 

The problem becomes significant now that PTC wants Creo run on the same Atlas-cloud platform as Onshape. Users will expect transparent data exchange between all apps on Atlas. How to fix the problem:

• One solution may be that PTC stores cloudCreo data in the same MongoDB database format as Onshape, and then cloudCreo acts as the translator for desktop Creo.
• Another solution could be that PTC replaces Parasolid with Granite; CAD companies have done that kind of kernel swapping before.
• A third solution is for PTC to eliminate Onshape. A second CAD program that's incompatible makes little sense.

Browser Incompatibility. During the Onshape user conference, PTC execs revealed that staying abreast of changes to Web browsers is key to Onshape's future survival. A new release of a significant Web browser could introduce incompatibilities that prevent Onshape from running properly, at least for a time. To avoid surprises, PTC runs Onshape on betas of browsers.

Onshape is, nevertheless, at the mercy of directions in browser development. For instance, Apple is not keen on making its homegrown Safari Web browser work particularly well, as that would allow third-party developers to avoid Apple's App Store by instead running Webapps in Safari.

This article on Apple details how the problem could affect Onshape: "In almost every area, Apple's low-quality implementation of features from [Apple's own] WebKit [browser engine] already requires workarounds." A Google researcher notes that "Safari is now something like 1,000 APIs behind Chrome, double the gap measured in 2016...".

Worse, Apple requires that all third-party Web browsers be built on top of Safari, even Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. While some argue that Google is, with this research, slamming Apple because it wants to run its Chrome engine as spyware on Apple hardware, the point is still valid: Apple is fearful of apps that could run well in Safari; so it makes its browser lackluster.

(Onshape runs as native apps on Android and iOS.)

 

The SaaS-ification of PTC's Software

Moving from dark green to light green

 

Saket Kalia (financial analyst): I'd love to zoom in on slide 20 a bit [see figure below], very useful slide. Understanding that diagram is a vision and not guidance per se, I'd love to hear how you  envision PTC's move to SaaS [software as a service].

Chart showing some aspects of some programs starting to run on Atlas; the lighter the shade of green, the more of the software is on the cloud

 

It looks like you'll have all your products available in a SaaS form -- well, the major products available in a SaaS form factor by fiscal '22.

And so the question is, is this something you perhaps drive your customer base to or encourage them to adopt? Or is this something that you're going to let happen naturally?

James Heppelmann (ceo PTC): There's a lot you can read into this slide. But if you notice that the logos, other than Onshape [Web-based CAD] and Atlas [Web-based platform], start a darker greener color and as they move to the right become more or less the same color as Atlas. That's because we call this strategy "an insidious SaaSification strategy," which means it happens step-by-step.

And it's already started. Vuforia [augmented reality software] already has the first offerings on Atlas, like expert capture. Which is one of the biggest ones. We're about to ship the second Vuforia product on Atlas, which will be called Vuforia Instruct coming out later this quarter.

We mentioned that Creo [MCAD] is shipping a capability on Atlas now for generative design called Creo GDX [based on Frustum]. And you'll start to see [capabilities] coming from Windchill [PLM] and coming from Thingworx [Internet of things].

So what we're going to do is begin to offer incremental or, in some cases, replacement modules on SaaS. And then over time, the whole suite of each product line will become available on SaaS. A customer could begin adopting a part of it, get comfortable with the idea, start to generate some incremental revenue for us. And then in year 2 or 3 or 4, [the customer could] even flip the switch and go 100% to SaaS.

So that's what that diagram intends to show you: that these products are all climbing on board, but it's not an all-or-nothing. It's step-by-step moving toward that all-state where they're fully based on Atlas, and we have really a dream, a unified SaaS portfolio.

I'm so excited about that, because a lot of these products have divergent heritages and they're on different architectures today, integrated together but still on different architectures. And we have like a spring cleaning opportunity here, thanks to the power of Atlas to unify on a single platform.

Everybody at PTC is aligned behind this. So we're making great progress. And if you think in a year or two, Windchill and Creo will have $1 billion of ARR [annual recurring revenue], if we can get some even modest degree of penetration on a 2-for-1 ARR uplift [making twice as much from subscriptions], it's a lot of growth in those businesses.

Our original thinking on SaaSification was more all-or-nothing, and then we decided that this so-called "insidious strategy" is much more interesting for everybody -- customers and PTC. The real big impact is farther to the right even in years yet to come on this chart.

Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4422268-ptc-inc-ptc-ceo-james-heppelmann-on-q2-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript

 

Our Cloud Development for 3D BIM

by Alexey Ershov

 

Viewing 3D models in Web browsers became popular in the mid-2010s with the introduction of WebGL that allowed the display of sophisticated graphics. New Web protocols and JavaScript then made it possible to build 3D Web applications with advanced logic and interactive user interfaces. 

Cloud-based BIM (building information modeling) became a primary target for development, thanks to the big data volumes that are typically generated by BIM projects. Big data requires big storage. As well, BIM involves collaboration between designers working on specific areas and layers of buildings, bridges, civil, and industrial projects. These requirements correspond well with the capabilities of the cloud from established large-scale platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS),  Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Added to this, there are only a small number of competitors in the BIM software market (as compared to the MCAD market). All this propelled interest from established companies and startups to develop brand-new BIM-in-cloud software services and platforms.

LEDAS immediately became involved in complex 3D Web projects. Our first client asked us to develop a BIM cloud product that combined architecture, structures, mechanical, engineering design, and related modules. The product focused on providing wide support for BIM entities typically found in Autodesk Revit and Solibri Model Checker, an IFC-based quality control solution. By using a 3D modeling kernel, we made it possible for the BIM product to have all the capabilities needed for users to create and edit sophisticated shapes. 

To meet additional requirements, such as fire prevention, ventilation, and accessibility, we developed a dedicated BIM verification module for the 3D BIM application. The verification module also took care of collision detection. Thanks to integrated 3D scanning and point cloud data management, we covered the later stages in a BIM lifecycle, including dynamic construction control and maintenance of buildings and constructions. 

The solution we developed was a fully functioning 6D BIM application, with detailed planning for costs, resources, tasks, workers, and dates.

 

Our Platform for 3D Web Projects

Following this, we decided to meet the need of the contemporary CAD market by developing our own 3D browser platform, with BIM and MCAD as the primary targets. So we created LEDAS Cloud Platform (LCP), a multi-user 3D-on-Web system that includes collaboration and supports many files formats. You can get more details about LCP on its dedicated page.

Since then, several companies have licensed LCP to speed up their Web BIM product development. Some of them are focused on civil BIM projects in the cloud, while others were more interested in using the 3D Web for industrial systems and applications. 

LCP is just a good start for the licensees. As most of them want to provide a richer set of functions to their customers, they ordered additional 3D Web development services from LEDAS. The goal for them is, by adding new functions and features, to shape the BIM products according to their vision. We fulfilled their requests by writing code in Javascript on the client side, and in C++ and Python code on the server side. 

For example, one of the products is focused on large industrial models that are hard to visualize in 3D Web environments due to memory limitations. To solve this problem, we at LEDAS added LOD (levels of detail) technology to our 3D Web offering. 

 

Alexey Ershov is CEO of Ledas Group

 

 

The best tweets about Google's signon failure

The Top 10

 

Google's signon servers went down earlier today for about an hour, meaning that you could not access its cloud-based software through your account: Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Google News, Google Translate,  Google Ads, Google Domain, Google Cloud Platform Dashboard, Google My Business, and more. Services that don't need an account, like YouTube, Maps, and Search, still worked, if you signed out. Offline software, like Picasa, kept right on working, naturally.

The outage occurred during the night for my timezone, so I never noticed until reading the excited tech media upon waking. I captured some of the best reactions from the twitteratti. As Richard Fernandez reminds us from time to time, Western civilization has become fragile, because it has tossed out too many of the redundancies that would otherwise make us resilient.

As The Register's Tim Anderson put it, "When authentication breaks, everything breaks," and commenter RGP added, "Complexity <> resilience."

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Joe Brown / @joemfbrown: I'm sitting here in the dark in my toddler's room because the light is controlled by @Google Home. Rethinking... a lot right now.

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Jason Jacobs / @jjacobs22: Google outages are the new Snow Day.

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@killedbygoogle: And ya'll want a Google Autonomous car, huh? smgdmfh.

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Harpreet Singh / @harry_jerry: 2020 is so bad it took Google down.

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@iancutress: Annual reminder, while Google is down, that the cloud is just someone else's computer. Always have a backup.

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Ryan Perry / @rynprry: Time to get some Google Candles.

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Dan Gainor / @dangainor: I hear light switches are all the rage.

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Kip Williams / @kiptw: And just think about how Google must feel, not being able to know what room you're in right now, or what you are listening to, or what you are watching.

 

Plus a few political tweets:

Mark Di Stefano / @markdistef: Google's entire suite of products crashing, bringing people to a grinding halt, less than 24 hours before Europe reveals its sweeping new anti-monopoly guidelines. You hate to see it.

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Dan Primack / @danprimack: Well, that's one way for YouTube to prevent election disinformation.

 

 

ChromeOS Grows Up

Now with Android & Linux support

 

A number of years ago, I bought one of the very first Chromebooks out of curiosity. It was pretty lame. About the only thing I found myself doing with it was periodically booting it up to update ChromeOS.

Chromebooks run Google's Chrome Web browser as the operating system. This means that the only thing a Chromebook can do is run Google's Chrome Web browser, and any extensions supported by ChromeOS. Very limiting.

I was limited to using apps like Google Docs and lame photo editors, which held no interest to me. Further, the Chromebook was designed to be cheap, like netbooks, and so the specs were low-end: slow CPUs, low-res screens, no touch screen or backlit keyboards, small amounts of RAM and tiny amounts of storage space, like 32GB (extendable by an SD card). I liked netbooks, because at least they ran Windows; Chomebooks, not so much.

After a few years of trying to like the Chromebook concept and failing miserably at it, I finally sent it to the local electronics recycling plant -- partly also because Google expires support on old Chrome systems. 

 

Software Is the Killer App

I realized it was the papacy of software that killed my interest in the Chromebook concept, not so much the lame hardware. So I watched with interest the reports that Google was adding Android support to ChromeOS. I wondered if this would be Yet Another Failed Experiment is merging systems.

At the same time, Google took Chromebooks upscale. Too upscale, of course. Who wants to spend close to $2,000 on a system I consider still experimental. But now the hardware was getting serious and, better yet, more future proof.

Last week, Google announced it would provide longer support for Chrome systems, and that was sufficient for me to pull the trigger. I liked what I saw:

• Long-term ChromeOS support (until 2025)
• Runs Android apps
• Support for Linux
• High-end hardware

I wanted a reasonably-priced high-end Chromebook for under $1,000. I found what I wanted in the Acer Spin 13 model # CP713-1WN-53NF:

• i5 CPU 1.6GHz, peak 3.4GHz
• 8GB operating RAM
• 128GB storage RAM
• 13" touch screen that rotates 360 degrees, 2256 x 1504 resolution
• Backlit keyboard
• Includes static stylus (and slot)
• ChromeOS updates to June 2025
• Handsome looking; the color is called "steel gray," but it looks dark brown to me

It is taller (and narrower) than most of today's laptops, owing to its 4:3 screen ratio, and so almost looks square when closed -- adding it its intrigue.

Regularly $1,344 in Canada (incl. taxes), I found it for $910 (after GST rebate). Curiously, it was $80 cheaper than the lower-spec'ed model (4GB RAM, i3 CPU).

 

Running Android, Stumbling Linux

The first thing I did was to install Android apps, like Opera Web browser, OfficeSuite word processor, and Netflix. They all worked, worked well, and worked in full screen mode. The only one to insist on running in a narrow, vertical phone-like mode was a game, Monument Valley.

TIP: To find the Android apps you've installed, press the Search key on the keyboard, then swipe up.

I enabled Linux, but wasn't able to get much further than seeing the terminal prompt with its four commands. Installing a Linux OS hasn't worked for me yet, so I need to research that further. Having a Linux like Ubuntu would allow me to run CAD programs, like BricsCAD and ARES, and office software like Libre Office -- presumably.

 

About the Hardware

The keyboard was an unexpected pleasure. The one on my primary laptop, the top-end HP Spectre X360, is pretty good for having so little key travel, but I find myself mistyping on it -- a frustration when typing at high-speed during conferences. The keyboard on this Acer is better.

Since the era of Palm ended, I've never used a stylus any more. While I appreciate this computer including one, I still don't use it. There's a keyboard, I am a touch typist, and I am a terrible free-hand sketcher.

Having 2256 x 1504 resolution on a 13" screen is overkill, and so ChromeOS (by default) scales it down to nearly half that. I do wish it were brighter, but otherwise it is good to look at.

The charger plugs into one of the USB-C ports; as there is one such port on each side, you can plug it in on the left or the right, whichever is more convenient. All the ports are

• 2x USB-C (powered)
• 1x USB v3 Type A (powered)
• MicroSD slot
• Headphone/microphone plug
• Power and volume buttons
• Stylus slot

I am disappointed at the weight. I was hoping for a lighter travel computer, but it feels as heavy as the HP Spectre. With my next overseas business trip coming up next week, I am weighing whether to take only the new Chromebook, and leave Windows behind.

Did I mention how handsome it looks?

What Ralph Grabowski Thinks

Being able to run Android apps well makes the Chromebook experiment a success. Android allows us to escape the Google prison, ironically enough.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/professional-model/NX.EFJAA.005

 

 

On Who Would Buy OnShape

Speculation runs rampant

 

Who would be interested in buying OnShape? Well, it needn't be a CAD vendor; it could be an Oracle or a SAP (both of who have long offered PLM) looking for a cloud-based CAD file editor. Both already have CAD viewers.

Or it could be a peripheral CAD vendor, like Hexagon or Trimble. Hexagon is keen on the cloud for its new line of Smart bundles, but doesn't have a cloud-based MCAD offering; on the other hand, it already owns nearly a dozen CAD packages. Trimble doesn't have an industrial strength (M)CAD system but is more into AEC.

Most traditional CAD vendors wouldn't be interested in OnShape, because they either already have such a product (Autodesk with Fusion, Dassault with V6) or else they can't afford the $169-million price tag. Two firms that don't already have cloud-based CAD and have the money are PTC and Siemens PLM -- which makes them possibilities. Of the two, I'd put my money on PTC.

But technology is not the only rationale a CEO makes to his board for an acquisition. Other reasons include:

• Eliminating a competitor (something Autodesk or Dassault might consider)
• Getting the staff and technology (valuable in its own right)
• Accessing the customer list (probably not that useful)

Here's a thought out of left field: a consortium of smaller players buys OnShape and then adds tech to it as the basis of a universal CAD system. Here I'm thinking of IntelliCAD Technical Consortium getting together with Open Design Alliance to make the acquisition. The ODA already works closely with OnShape, and ITC has a CAD development-testing-distribution system in place.

So, why would OnShape even want to sell itself. Here's my opinion:

• "Only" thousands of commercial (paying) customers after four years on the market
• Investors want their $169 million back, with growth
• Retirement planning

Image source http://isicad.net/articles.php?article_num=20677

 

Al Dean explains why Autodesk running generative design in the cloud is wrong

On Twitter,  DEVELOP3D co-founder Al Dean explains why it is a mistake for Autodesk to limit running its generative design software on a cloud service: 

So here’s the thing with this. Autodesk’s Generative Design tools run in the cloud, its rationalization being that it needs parallel computation and it needs collaboration.

The issue is that this is going to restrict experimentation -- experimentation that’s vital in both an industrial and an educational context. (It’s unlikely to be made available in Fusion Educational licenses.)

There’s also the fact that Autodesk say they need to recoup the costs of that computation. That’s entirely their decision.

Autodesk’s Generative Design tools run on GPUs, specifically CUDA. GPUs are cheap. Folks could stack out a machine and do the computation on their own hardware -- as they do now for rendering and viz[ulization].

My personal belief is that it’s a huge error on Autodesk’s part, and one that I doubt they’ll correct any time soon. </rant>

As a reference point, all other CAD vendors to offer generative design do so via desktop software, proving that no cloud is needed. Generative design from Autodesk is available through Fusion 360 Ultimate. https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/compare#generative-design

Autodesk hopes to have complete BIM in 5 years

Five-year plan

 

Autodesk ceo Andrew Anagnost describes where he hopes the company will arrive in five years, BIM-wise.

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Our cloud products have become an integral selling point for our EBA [enterprise] customers and usage within our EBA customer base has really taken off. For example, in Q1 [Feb-Apr, 2018], just over half of the monthly active users for BIM 360 were in EBA accounts. This really validates our relevancy at the top of the general contractor market, which is where we focused initially.

From High-end to Mid-market

That success is a strong foundation to build on and we’re now leveraging it in the mid-market contractors.

For example, Miron Construction, an U.S.-based construction company, is deploying some of the most advanced technology available in the construction industry. They use the new BIM 360 project delivery platform to process a change to their building project that [used to add] up to 70 design documents and the potential to add almost $1 million in project costs.

The 70 documents needed review by everyone in the project, which would have taken hundreds of hours to resolve to manual processes with their old digital document management software. But Miron resolve the issue in just a fraction of that time with BIM 360. The project manager also found several additional issues, which never would have been caught with their old document management tool. Now that’s real value delivered on real projects.

The Five-year Plan

...we expect in five years, Autodesk will have moved the building information model across the entire construction process from start to finish.

BIM will become the record of everything it is happening from design to pre-fabrication, to on-site assembly into the final handover of the building to its owner. BIM will become the single source of truth across the full spectrum of design and make processes.

...we intend to go deep on the entire process, just like what’s happened in manufacturing where the model has become the record of the entire process. That’s what’s going to happen in the construction space as well. So we intend to touch every piece of that process.

We’ll do some of that organically with internal development; we’ll do some of that inorganically. But we intend to touch just about every part of that process. We’ll probably stay clear of the ERP [enterprise resource planning] side of the business. But every other part of it -- from pre-construction all the way to field operations -- we’re going to be involved.

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Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4177021-autodesk-inc-adsk-ceo-andrew-anagnost-q1-2019-results-earnings-call-transcript

Why Dassault figures Solidworks will become a billion-dollar brand

Double-digit growth

 

For a CAD package as firmly set on the desktop as Solidworks, its sales are growing remarkably. Not only is it stuck on the desktop but doubly-stuck in Windows. Yet sales in 2018 are "double-digit," as marketing people and financial analysts would tout. In the last quarter (January-March, 2018), sales of Solidworks licenses grew 13% over a year earlier.

This wasn't supposed to happen. This is, after all, the age of Onshape (the self-declared Solidworks killer) and Fusion along with the rest of Autodesk's "infinite" cloud marketing. 

Heck, Onshape and Autodesk were so sure that the cloud (and rental payments) would form the immediate future of our industry that they... well, let's see:

• Onshape put itself into $160+ million in debt, but now has only "thousands" of paying users, as its co-founder told me last November.
• Autodesk's then-ceo gambled the entire company on rewriting everything for the cloud -- by 2015 -- but failed to reach the self-imposed goal.

Meanwhile, revenue from Solidworks, solidly on the Windows desktop, is up 13%, attaining $211 million this last quarter. Executives at parent Dassault Systemes are very excited about it reaching the magical $1 billion/year soon. 

At one time, Dassault also thought like the Onshape/Autodesk duo. Solidworks would need to move to the cloud. "Kill the baby in order to save the baby," as management gurus intoned back when it was still okay to talk about killing babies -- as well as to use the term "guru." That was 2010.

Today, in 2018, Dassault is very excited that Solidworks runs on the desktop. It makes sense, because CAD work is done on local computers, which are dedicated and more responsive than remote servers sharing tasks at a latency-fouled distance away.

For Dassault, the cloud is an assistant to Solidworks, which is, of course, its proper role. "For the Solidworks users’ community, [3DExperience cloud platform] represents the opportunity to benefit from a wide range of cloud services, from 3DExperience PLM services, to Marketplace, or to Solidworks xDesign, a browser-based solution."

Dassault cfo Pascal Daloz explains where the sales are being made:

"One is basically the 2D-to-3D migration. And, frankly speaking, when I look at the 2D install base, we still have a lot we can do before to convert them into 3D 100%.

"Two, more and more we’re seeing a traction coming from 2D-to-3D migration. And as you may know with Solidworks [we have] significant market share gains [in] almost all the entry-level and the mid-range 3D solutions on the market.

"And last, but not least, we are basically complimenting the portfolio of Solidworks with new domains, like simulation, manufacturing, and so on.

"Now from a numbers standpoint, the 2D and the 3D migrations represent 70% of the revenue of Solidworks; 30% are coming from all the new expansion we do, like EPDM, simulation, manufacturing and so on.

"My last point is when I look at where the new license growth is coming for Solidworks, ...55% is still coming from new customers we’re winning. And 45% of the new license are coming from existing customers extending what they have."

 

Quotation and numbers source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4165852-dassault-systemes-dasty-ceo-bernard-charles-q1-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript

 

 

 

PTC loves IoT (but not CAD) on the cloud

 IoT yes, CAD, not so much

 

Dassault Systemes and Autodesk continue to be the only Big 5 CAD vendors to wholesale their software from the multiple servers located who-knows-where (ie, the cloud). Siemens PLM, PTC, and Bentley Systems have little interest, as moving desktop software to servers has been proven to be a long, arduous, painful, and then largely unsuccessful haul.

In his conference call with financial analysts, PTC ceo Jim Heppelmann confirmed his company's lack of urgency of jumping on that particular bandwagon.

------------

Ken Talanian of Evercore ISI: I was wondering if you could talk about the initial results you're seeing from the Microsoft partnership, how you expect that to evolve and whether there might be some other similar partnerships in the works?

Jim Heppelmann:  I think what's exciting is Microsoft sees us as their go to market partner into the industrial world...

Microsoft is seeing PTC contribute a lot of deals into the joint pipeline. And vice versa when they have a customer who wants to take Azure IoT and apply it to an industrial problem maybe integrated with Dynamics maybe not, they tend to now point their customer toward PTC...  Microsoft loves what we have and of course we think they have the best device in the HoloLens. So lots of stuff going on there.

It's likely that we will pull PLM and CAD into this, but I'd say not a top priority. We'd like to focus our energy first on IoT and Dynamics and augmented reality, but it's a very exciting partnership...

Now, I don't really need another cloud partner at this point. I'm pretty happy with Microsoft. But of course, we're looking for other partners, we've spoken of our desire for example to have a similar strong partner that might help us in Industrie 4.0 factory automation.

That's a space where in my view we're selling a surprising amount of ThingWorx technology and Vuforia technology, but frankly we could sell a lot more if we had a partner who had a customer base and gave us more credibility and so forth because most people don't think PTC as a provider of factory automation amazing technology. We happen to have a very good product.

So we're definitely looking for partners of all types. But I'd say there's a couple of killer partnerships in industrial world that we really want to have and Microsoft was one of them and industrial automation partner would be a second.

Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4163907-ptcs-ptc-ceo-jim-heppelmann-q2-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript

 

On September 7, the cloud dies at the edge of CAD

A bus runs over Autodesk's future

 

When I wrote last week here on WorldCAD Access about how edge computing will replace cloud computing for certain applications, I could not know that a week later I'd be given a demo from a large software company about edge computing for 3D design.

The idea behind edge computing is this: the Internet as the data bus that connects the CPU with the display is too slow. The examples of edge computing I wrote about last week were for autonomous automobiles, drones, and robots -- they can't wait for data to arrive slowly.

A week on, and I've just learned of a new real-time program from ANSYS that runs on your desktop computer and laptop. The demo jock told me that there will be a cloud version for those who don't have the specific hardware, "but the best experience is running it on the desktop."

New software from ANSYS does simulations faster on the desktop than on the cloud

This is the sort of application that Autodesk all along has been telling us works best on the cloud. However, whether it is cloud-based rendering, simulation, or translation, Autodesk runs them all in batch mode: we submit a job, we wait for the results, and for some apps we pay for every run.

The cloud really is little improved over the computing environment of the 1970s-early 1980s when I ran programs on a terminal connected to the Amdahl mainframe computer at the University of British Columbia: we submitted the job, we waited, we paid.

The personal computer was greeted with such excitement by we engineers precisely because of the freedom it gave us -- freedom from paying for each computing job, freedom from waiting, and, back then, freedom from driving out to the computing center! This new technology from ANSYS moves the fastest simulation runs from the cloud back onto the desktop.

If the former Autodesk CEO blew a gasket over the claims by first-MCAD-on-the-cloud Onshape, I'll be interested in the reaction from the new CEO to this edge technology that starts to drive a stake into much of what Autodesk has been working towards: regular income derived from (eventually) locking all their software to the cloud.

The disrupter will be announced by ANSYS September 7. More details here on WorldCAD Access that day, and through an ANSYS Webinar: register at http://www.ansys.com/products/3d-design/discovery-live-registration

 

 

After Cloud Computing comes Edge Computing

Can you say, "Pivot," again?

 

Software companies like Autodesk, Graebert, and Onshape have gone all-in for the cloud. Others, such as Siemens PLM Software, Bricsys, and PTC, are cautious about jumping on a bandwagon. Dassault Systemes is a straddler, with V6 being cloud, but V5, Solidworks, and DraftSight firmly on the desktop. 

The development was logical: Computing moving from standalone PCs to proprietary local area networks (office-wide networking), to standardized LANs (twisted-pair ethernet), to Internet (worldwide networking), to WiFi (untethered networking), and finally to cloud (multiple servers online).

But design offices are not homogeneous, as much as some marketing departments wish it were so. In fact, PTC stated it bluntly in a recent conference call: only new companies and large companies are interested in the cloud; everyone else isn't.

On the other side of the equation, CAD vendors aren't necessarily able to deliver a cloud-based program. While Onshape has a full-ish MCAD system working in the Web browser, it started from scratch with the assistance of $168 million in outside funding. 

The more common experience, however, is that legacy firms are hitting barriers, as much of the desktop code is locked to Windows APIs. A decade after it launched V6, Dassault says only 2/3 of its V6 software is ready for the cloud. Autodesk is also well behind, failing its former CEO's goal to be all-cloud by 2015 or 2016.

Maybe hesitation and delay are good things. Because now comes news of the next advance in computing, edge computing. "Edge" means computing at the edge of the network, such as  in drones, robots, cars, and the "sheer volume of the Internet of Things." General partner Peeter Levine of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz warns:

Cloud computing is soon going to take a back seat to edge computing, and we will very quickly see the majority of processing taking place at the device level.

To understand why, consider how data is moved around inside your computer between the hard drive, memory, CPU, and graphics board -- very quickly over high-speed buses with pretty much perfect reliability. (Most crashes you experience with your computer are not the the fault of the computer, but due to the software running on it.)

Now think of the Internet as a data bus between your computer and remote servers -- a slow, unreliable bus. My hat goes off to companies like Onshape and Graebert that work very, very hard to make it seem like the Internet's fast and reliable.

As Mr Levine points out, computing moved from server-client once before, albeit slowly (in the 1980s). With the quickened pace of technology, the second move from server-client (cloud) will happen in less time. "If a car needs to a make decision, it needs the information instantly and no amount of latency is going to be acceptable."

You may argue that designing a widget is not a task that needs edge computing. Actually, it does. The graphics board in your computer is a high-speed powerhouse that makes real-time rendered 3D motion possible. It's an example of simple edge computing. Preliminary work has been undertaken for years now to make that GPU perform more computing, except that it works best on parallel operations, of which CAD has few.

Nevertheless, CAD vendors can take heed of Mr Levine's warning that the cloud is not the be-all end-all utopia that some executives insist it is.

With data breaches operated even by governments formerly considered trustworthy, I can already hear the marketing line pivoting in a few years from now: the cloud is slow and insecure; only legacy companies still trust their data there.

- - -

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/03/edge-computing-could-push-the-cloud-to-the-fringe/

 

 

 

Did Autodesk's near-monoculture bring down its cloud services?

Profits over reliability

 

Amazon's failure of its east cost server site was so significant that even the mainstream media wrote about it. As you probably know by now, an Amazon employee typed the wrong (probably Linux) command parameters, causing failures to cascade from server to server. Among the brand names listed by the generic and technical media that use this facility is Autodesk. Thanks to Steven Johnson for preserving the failure of the cloud for posterity:

How Did Autodesk Fail Its Customers?

The Register explains why:

Problem #1: The East coast facility of Amazon's cloud service is the oldest one, and so many companies began there -- and stayed there.

Problem 2: The way that companies interact with it is (apparently) different from Amazon's newer sites. People being naturally lazy, stick with what they know, and so this monoculture brought down so many services, including many of Autodesk's.

Problem 3: One more reason for monoculture: this east coast server is cheaper than Amazon's other, newer servers, and so companies who like to go cheap don't replicate to other sites, which are more expensive to access.

I, too, was a victim, as MailChimp uses Amazon and so I could not work on my upFront.eZine newsletter for the entire morning. All the rest of my business-critical software runs on my desktop computer -- with some duplication on other computers, plus daily back ups of significant work I do each day. This mean I could keep working, while those chained to the cloud could not. 

The Solution: After the Amazon systems recovered, Autodesk apologized in this way:

The sole -- only -- solution for Autodesk to "prevent similar incidents in the future" is for Autodesk to replicate its cloud services on more of Amazon's servers geographically. This means the cloud-determined company will have to pay more to Amazon, and so lowering its profits (well, increasing its losses) in future quarters.

 

Autodesk ceo Carl Bass talks a bit about Quantum

It's the future, don't you know

 

Autodesk ceo Carl Bass responds to a question from a financial analyst during this week's quarterly conference call. Comments are edited for brevity and clarity.

- - -

Financial Analyst: You have some very interesting things to say about your future architecture with the Quantum project. There are numerous references to what you talked about as a common data environment, new [software] architecture, and so forth.

Carl Bass: This goes back a number of years, we have firm belief that engineering software is going to move to the cloud -- all design and engineering software will be in the cloud. We started to demonstrate that with the number of products we talked about some, like BIM 360. We’ve shown kind of the basic architecture with products like Fusion 360, and how they take advantage of the connectivity and the compute power of the cloud.

As I have said before, while everybody is rightfully focused on the business model transition of our existing business and how we are using it to attract new customers, what I think people will be surprised as you look out the next couple of years, is the size of the cloud business that we build, and how we really expands our TAM [total available market].

I have talked in the past about it being a place for collaboration, as well as giving access to virtually unlimited amounts of compute power, which is something our users demand, and so it’s just a natural fit. It's unusual that engineering has been one of the slowest to move to the cloud, but we see lots of evidence of hitting the tipping point, not just in the U.S. but other places in terms of customers willingness to adopt it.

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/4027140-autodesks-adsk-ceo-carl-bass-q3-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript

For its future, Autodesk copies from Dassault

News from @martynday

 

Autodesk yesterday announced the future for some of its software at Autodesk University. (I am not at the show, but have been avidly followed Martyn Day's tweets from yesterday. He is the editor of AEC Magazine out of England.)

A year ago, I predicted that Autodesk would cloud-ify Revit. No big secret; this is a natural progression, from Autodesk's point of view. First AutoCAD was served up remotely (aka AutoCAD 360), then Inventor (aka Fusion 360), then a bunch of other programs that support Revit, such as BIM 360. The elephant in the room was Revit itself.

As Martyn tweeted it, "Revit orig[inally] developed as a point solution, collab[oration] was 2nd thought. Database clunks. Quantum has collab at core."

Yesterday Autodesk announced the cloud version of Revit. The core is Quantum, a centralized database that runs on a multitude of servers (aka "the cloud"). In a series of tweets, Martyn described the environment:

Multi-discipline collaboration in parallel. Independent workspaces, no files, common data environment, everything connected.

Adesk Quantum uses IP [intellectual property] from across Adesk portfolio. Will use Fusion tech for steel fabrication, all on the cloud backbone

Fusion and Quantum will talk together like inventor and Revit never have been able to before.

Adesk Quantum is pre-alpha, Adesk working with a few firms now. Ask for timeline for wider access - pushing hard, months not years.

[Autodesk] says Quantum will be compatible with Revit as it is. They will work to make that happen. Web and mobile [are] 1st platforms

If your CAD world goes beyond Autodesk, then this new plan sounds familiar. Nearly a decade ago, Dassault Systemes launched V6 of its CAD software. It now uses Enovia as a central database that stores all CAD and other data. There is no file format, making translation from V6 a nightmare -- probably as Dassault intended it. Expect the same for Quantum-based BIM from Autodesk.

 

 

Twitter clash over online software

Reliability models

 

 

Proposed emergency office, as envisioned by some, not being my cup of coffee (image source Wired.com)

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 2: A reader writes: "...The cloud model, which I despise and think will fail soon. Everything is being hacked and all of it is porous."

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 2: I've said it before, and I'll be saying again: DO NOT upgrade to Windows 10 (unless forced to). It breaks too much software. My #1 job is...

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 2: ...is to be productive, not follow the whims of someone inside Microsoft, Inc. who knows neither us nor our needs.

Joe Dunne @jdunneCAD Nov 2: @upFronteZine Kind of the whole point of cloud based products isn't it? They don't break. Why should users spend anytime on issues like this?

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 2: Desktop software doesn't break and runs in perpetuity. Cloud software runs at the whim of the ISP, the vendor, the quality of the intertubes.

al dean @alistardean Nov 2: @jdunneCAD @upFronteZine Case in point. Workstation died recently. New one in 48 hours. Fibre went down. That was a two week fix. Two. Weeks

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 2: Last time Internet went down for me, it was for five days, last year. Cause: corroded wire terminals along the street.

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 2: Last time workstation went down for me: 1996. Hard drive died. I follow Google's advice: always leave computer on, to avoid thermal stress.

Joe Dunne ‏@jdunneCAD Nov 2:  @alistardean @upFronteZine Al, last time I checked Onshape users to not worry about whether Onshape is going to "work" after OS upgrade.

al dean @alistardean Nov 2: @jdunneCAD @upFronteZine Ha. Yup. Fair. What about browser upgrades? No?

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 3: Web browser is the OS of software like Onshape. Not all browsers are supported, perhaps not our favorite one.

Joe Dunne ‏@jdunneCAD Nov 3: @alistardean @upFronteZine I see and you went 2 weeks with no email? no Twitter? no communication? come on.

al dean @alistardean Nov 2: @jdunneCAD @upFronteZine Not in the workshop. Cell only.

Joe Dunne ‏@jdunneCAD Nov 3: @alistardean @upFronteZine Use Cell in a pinch, or find a Starbucks :) kidding.. kind of. lots of options.

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 3: Cell phone only, and my cell plan is not set up for lots of data (100MB per month).

upFront.eZine ‏@upFronteZine Nov 3: Desktop software doesn't require me to relocate to Starbucks (which I don't like) or engage in 'lots of options'. I get to work in my office.

 

PTC's plan for cloudifying Creo

Gingerly

 

Whereas Dassault Systemes and Autodesk are going whole-hog into cloudifying their software, major competitors Siemens PLM Software and PTC are being cautious. They understand that CAD is a desktop program, not a tethered-to-the-Internet app.

When PTC ceo James Heppleman was asked about Creo-on-the-cloud at this week's conference call with financial analysts, here was his response:

 - - -

Cloud-based [Creo] CAD will come in some phases. Some early phases involve repositioning the product largely in its current form, but served through a cloud SaaS [software as a service] model. And then subsequent to that, we're likely to go into some deeper phases where we do more fulsome remodeling of the architecture to fully optimize it for the cloud.

But that will be an option. We're not going to take [Creo] off the market in its current form. We got a lot of customers who quite frankly use it on-premise and like it that way. So this, for us, will be an optional way to deliver the power of Creo. We're definitely not trying to flip the base to cloud. If some of them want to go there, absolutely.

I think what we see is an incremental opportunity to do a better job participating in the low end with different pricing schemes, different delivery schemes, quite frankly, digital marketing schemes, things like that, that have kind of not really been in our playbook here today. So I think this means we run the CAD business as we know it and we'd pursue an incremental opportunity enabled by a different technological delivery and go-to-market model.

- - -

So while Dassault and Autodesk are driving customers to the cloud via executive fiat, PTC is letting customers decide.

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3990025-ptc-ptc-james-e-heppelmann-q3-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript

Where is Revit 360?

M.I.A. (Missing In Announcements)

 

Autodesk's big three CAD packages are AutoCAD (general design work), Inventor (mechanical design), and Revit (architectural design). Autodesk's executives have repeatedly stated their plan to eventually become all-cloud all the time. Two of the big three have nascent cloud versions:

• AutoCAD -> AutoCAD 360
• Inventor -> Fusion 360
• Revit -> ??? 360

Never has Autodesk talked about Revit 360. The cloud version of Revit is missing from announcements. The reason is, I believe, that Autodesk is having a tough time converting this particular Windows-based desktop-bound program with a poorly constructed API to run on a remote server and display its screen on local Web browsers.

During last week's conference call with financial analysts, Autodesk was finally asked bluntly why the software is MIA:

Jay Vleeschhouwer (Griffin Securities): "One almost obviously missing brand in your portfolio is -- let's call it -- Revit 360. You've got all kinds of other [server-based] 360s, but you don't have a [server-based] Revit 360. Is that something that would make sense for you?"

Scott Herren (Autodesk CFO): "There's a bunch of work going on online stuff for the AEC industry... You'll see more of the design and analysis for AEC coming online during the next year."

So, it sounds like no Revit 360 until 2017 at the earliest, with more feeder products like BIM 360 in the meantime.

Source: https://www.thestreet.com/story/13579365/14/autodesk-inc-adsk-earnings-report-q4-2016-conference-call-transcript.html

 

Neolant Says InterBridge Far Better than Navisworks, et al

 View from a cloud

 

Neolant is a Russian software company with expertise in plant design. They recently began following the ASCON model by making their core technology available an an independent product. For ASCON, it was their C3D modeling kernel; in the case of Neolant, it is their server-based InterBridge data viewer and manipulator for 2D and 3D files from CAD and PLM systems (a.k.a. cloud-based project review and maintenance software).

The company freely admits that CAD vendors have their own products, and that InterBridge is not first to the market. And so their job is to convince customers that InterBridge is worth a look against competitors like Autodesk Navisworks, Intergraph SmartPlan Review, and Bentley Navigator. Neolant targets 3D plant design, industrial operations, and civil construction specifically.

Here are some of the arguments Neolant makes for InterBridge:

• While other systems come from an architectural background or are better suited to short-term projects, InterBridge is designed to handle interdisciplinary models over the long-term. This comes from its experience with nuclear power plant design.
  
  
• While integrated models from other vendors "might be only a beautiful 3D picture useful only for boggling the minds of managers," InterBridge does collision analysis
  
  
• InterBridge's native format is more lightweight than most other viewers, handling hundreds of thousands of elements and and storing all information about facilities, obviating the need for CAD licenses
  
  
• Neolant says InterBridge is useful for construction planning (install, say, the piping system separately from the ventilation system) and operations (reporting pipe diameter and manufacturer for replacement units)
  
  
• In addition to reading a variety of CAD and standard formats, InterBridge also loads 3D point cloud, which can then be used to compare as-builts with the design documents
  
  

Large 3D plant model in InterBridge

 

Neolant makes some remarkable claims for InterBridge, saying it is...

... a smaller 2MB download, versus 6GB for Navisworks from Autodesk, for example

... faster at loading files, such as opening an 842MB DGN model in 9 seconds, versus 540 seconds for Navisworks

... faster in drawing, such as 0.3 seconds for a large 3D model, versus 1.7 seconds for Intergraph SmartPlan Review

... uses less memory, such as 1.9GB for a 131,000-element 3D model, versus 4.2GB for Bentley Navigator

(It did these benchmarks using a 3.4GHz i7 desktop with 8GB RAM and a 4GB nVidia GT640 graphics board.)

Get more info from http://www.neolant.com/interbridge.

 

 

 

Live Blog: Onshape's 2 Announcements

 

Alright, here we are awaiting Onshape’s press conference. The Web-based CAD vendor this morning gathered the press for a Web-based press conference, appropriately enough. We’re just waiting for the 8:30am even to begin…

…and as we wait, here is a summary of speculation, as collected by Al Dean:

• Onshape is closing beta and going ‘released’ or whatever the cloud equivalent is
• They’ve launched the partner app store [oh, I hope that’s not the news]
• They’re buying a simulation startup [Al’s money is on SimScale or SimSolid]
• They buying a CAM company [that’s someone else’s bet]
• They’re being bought out [my bet is on PTC]; see http://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2015/12/whocouldbuyonshape.html
• …

 

Oleg Shilovitsky ‏adds, “I think one option missed in your blog - what if Onshape will just build a product and business? Or IPO is another option. Both PTC and Autodesk did it in the past.”

Randall Newton is going with a and b, closing beta and opening an app store. No one will buy Onshape until the $144 million is spent, he feels.

Another editor writes, “They have had so much investment money the valuation would have to be off the charts. DS refuse to buy off of Hirschtick as they see it as a major slap in the face. An acquisition would be a major defensive move. And would only make sense for someone with a load of tech to pour into it. Siemens doesn't do SMBs [small and medium size businesses] very well. PTC would probably develop it themselves and use their own kernel. Would be gobsmacked if they sold it. Hirschtick said the company was set up so it would be hard for him to sell. I can't see that as being an option.“

Now that I think about it, Randall Newton is right: the Onshape app store was announced (prematurely, perhaps) at the Graebert event in Berlin, last October. So, that will be one of the items announced this morning.

Onshape has to come out of beta at some point. Calling all the media to a press conference would be the appropriate time to do this.

Before the news comes out, all speculation is equally valid!

 

OnShape Press Conference

 

[I’m writing this with a new blog editor, Open Live Writer, so excuse misspellings as the spell checker is not yet implemented on this beta software.]

First slide confirms Randall Newton’s speculation:

Onshape is announcing 10,000 beta users of its software, with 390,000 CAD files imported and exported. 1 in 6 sessions are on the mobile version, Android and iOS, with 54% of paying users on mobile. “Saving parts while on the plane.” That’s the thing about server-based CAD: the vendor tracks exactly what is being done by you.

 

Uptime has been 99.9% and nearly zero crashes, so some downtime and some crashes resulting in work loss. “We are the only CAD system working over a network of cloud servers” – a dig at Autodesk’s repeated claim that Fusion 360 is, which it is not.

 

Joe Dunne gets the title “Partner Manger” for the Onshape App Store at appstore.onshape.com. Initially, 24 partners in the app store, launching next week.: 5 simulation vendors, CAM, rendering, and content like nuts and bolts. App are integrated into Onshape on the server, or else connected via the server, or else connected through the desktop application with Onshape. Also on app store: parts that you have designed in Onshape. Free and not-free offerings; no download or install, so use instantly after ordering; apps that you buy work on all devices. The app store runs in a Web browser, as well as inside Onshape.

 

One isue is how billing is handled. Available are subscription, pay per use, CPU hours, and free trials of all software. As Onshape leaves beta, the app store goes into beta, and so access is limited initially.

 

Being server-based means that all Onshape users will see the software in their Web browser switch from beta to commercial release without doing anything. [Heh, we are being told 30 minutes into the Webcast that we media were supposed to have kept this news confidential until next Monday.]

 

Q&A

 

Q: What is the difference between the three kinds of apps?

A: Integrated app – is free, runs inside Onshape, like Graebert’s drafting component; runs in a separate tab.

Connected app – runs on a server, and connects to Onshape

Connected desktop – program installed on desktop and communicates with Onshape through Open Authentification, with data shutteling back and forth.

All data is stored in the Onshape database, and includes things like versioning and branching.

 

Q: What are forms of payment?

A: Uses the same mechanism as Onshape, no PayPal. [I guess this means that however you pay for Onshape, the apps are billed onto that.]

 

Q: What about free users of Onshape?

A: They have access to free apps. [Update: "Free users have access to all apps (free or otherwise). Use of apps is not tied to an Onshape Professional account."]

 

Q: What is the value to deelopers in being on the app store?

A:  It allows them to reach the market, easier to reach customers who use Onshape. It is in front of every Onshape user, a few clicks away, with an easy transaction. [From my experience with CAD app stores, this is no guarantee of success for third-party developers.]

 

Q: Is there ba preference between tablets and smartphones?

A: Twice as many use phone over a tablet, but tablet users tend to be twice as long. I wonder if giant tablets like iPad Pro will even lengthen the time? [There already are large tablets, like Surface.]

 

Q: What happens when I receive a document that has been made by an app purchased by someone else?

A: There will be a link to a free option, although some might be limited use. All apps have some kind of free option. [So, a compatibility problem; will they implement a proxy system, like Autodesk had to?]

 

Q: What is the certification process for third-party developers?

A: We are more stringent, like Apple. We want to make sure the app meets expectations, but developers are responsible in the end for the quality. We make sure it meets certain cases, but we cannot test them all.

 

Q: What incentive does a third-party developer have to provide a free version?

A: Customers get to try it without having to first pay $600 or $6,000 just to try it. [Most programs on the desktop already have free 30- or 60-day trials.]

 

Q: Will mobile apps also come out of beta next week?

A: Yes.

 

www.onshape.com

 

 

All about the drafting component in OnShape

(It was written by Graebert)

 

Now we are hearing from Robert Miner of OnShape

2000: Wrong database (from Microsoft), and market not ready

2009: Operations expertise missing, and funding faded

2011: Funding fading again

What's needed to get server-based CAD working:

• Need CAD experts
• Need databases that can scale with the Web; use NoSql, SQL not good enough
• Need 3D graphics in the browser, like WebGL
• Need fast Internet everywhere, and cheap
• Need to be able to provide 24/7 support
• Need faster JavaScript, like V8 from Google
• Need support and funding
• Need to do all of the above on a mobile device, and runs like a regular app (not like TinkerCAD)

OnShape changes its software every 3 weeks.

Now we are hearing how Onshape integrated ARES Kudo into their software. I am waiting on Dropbox to upload photos over the s-l-o-w Wifi so I can show you some of the details.

 

 

 

Carl Bass on why translation with cloudCAD isn't a problem

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. One of the things that we've done with both our cloud and with the products is hopefully made it more of a non-issue: we will read in models from almost any vendor, dozens and dozens of different formats and operate on them almost as if they're natively.

Look, I would be worried if I had a 77-set of plans with 12 million parts in it. So the question is not does it translate, but how do you check that it translated 100% correctly?

And so I think there are some industries that will be slower in adopting this, but I think we're getting to the point where the majority, the mainstream of customers, deal with files that come from heterogeneous systems every day and have worked through that, and have come to trust that the translation of these things just works well.

The one thing that's really good about moving this to the cloud has -- digging a little bit deeper on the technical side -- two nice benefits:

• Number one is the translations that existed in desktop products we were not able to see and could not see the failures of. When they're on the cloud, you can look at the failures.

• The second thing is as we recognize whatever shortcomings there are in the translation process, we can update those translations instantaneously.

So there's a lot of benefits: sort of while we're wholly protecting the customers' data and IP, you can actually give them a much better experience, and so it's one of the many benefits of doing this cloud-based engineering.

 

[Reprinted from http://seekingalpha.com/article/3473396-autodesk-adsk-carl-bass-on-q2-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript. Edited for clarity.]

 

 

10 things to know about Onshape Drafting

Powered by Graebert Xenon

 

1. Onshape Drafting is the first example of integrating a third-party add-on into Onshape, an example of what to anticipate from other add-ons coming in the future.

2. The drafting technology is based on Xenon, a cloud-based DWG editor developed over the last three years by Graebert Gmbh of Germany, and in collaboration with Onshape for the last year.

3. If you have used AutoCAD's drawing layout methodology, then this works similarly: place 2D views semi-automatically on a template sheet, then take off details and sections, and add dimensions, tolerance notations, and annotations. See figure.

2D drawings generated by Xenon from 3D models in Onshape

4. Full associativity between the the 3D model, 2D drawings, and dimensions: change one, the others update automatically.

5. Runs in a separate Drawing tab in the Onshape browser environment; reads DWG and DXF files, exports drawings in DWG and DXF

6. The Xenon module's APIs talk with Onshape's API, exchanging data back and forth

7. Does not plot directly to printers. Instead, drawings are exported as PDF files, which can then be emailed, Dropbox'ed, printed, and so on.

8. Provides the same data management, sharing, and versioning functions that Onshape has, although these might be limited in the first release. For example, two people could dimension a part at the same time.

9. Price will for 2D layout module be $0 for both paid and free users of Onshape.

10. Not yet available. Goes into private beta soon, public beta this summer, and ships in Q3.

Brief video of Onshape Drawing at work: https://www.onshape.com/videos/drawings

 

Seven flaws in Onshape today

Difficult Birthing of new MCAD Software

 

1. Runs only on the Internet. No or poor connection = no working

2. No one-time perpetual license available. $1,200/year perpetually

3. No drafting, no generation of 2D drawings

4. Switching from paid mode to free mode can be tricky

5. No third-party add-ons available yet. No FEA, no CAM, no advanced rendering

6. App promised for Android not available; only for iPhone/iPad

7. Waiting list for getting an account. No immediate access

 

Ten things you need to know about OnShape

Launched this morning at 8am Pacific

 

1. It's free. No limited functions; no time-out bomb; no limit to online storage.

2. It is a history-based feature modeler that is also a direct modeler-editor; it employs features, extrusions, parts, and assemblies -- just like Solidworks users are used to using.

3. It is a pure cloud play that runs in desktop browsers and on apps specific to Android and iOS. There is no local version; there is no local install; there is no local saving of files.

The OnShape user interface, when the program first starts up in a Web browser

 

4. It uses Parasolid for the kernel; it uses D-cubed for constraints and other MCAD functions, like Solidworks.

5. Users can co-edit models down to the feature level, both editing the same feature.

6. If a server crashes, Parasolid moves your modeling session to another server automatically.

7. The free version makes your files public after the first five; to keep all your proprietary data private, you pay OnShape $100 a month.

8. To keep more than five files private on free account, you deactivate the other files (can't be viewed or edited, but are still sharable).

9. The $100/month includes unlimited file storage on the cloud, unlike any competitor. The free version gives you 5GB.

10. As of today, you can try it at www.onshape.com in any modern Web browser on all operating systems; there are separate apps for Android and iOS users.

- - -

Link to OnShape presentation (PDF): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28941239/Onshape%20Press%20Kit%2003092015.pdf

 

What Dassault plans for the cloud

It's to be new from the ground up

 

During last week's conference call with financial analysts, Dassault Systemes ceo Bernard Charles answered this question about its plans for the cloud. (Text edited mildly for clarity.)

Jay Vleeschhouwer (Griffin Securities):  Could you talk about your plans and expectations for your cloud products and services? It seems very clear for those who must have been tracking this industry for a while that we're in the early stages of a potentially fairly significant platform shift, perhaps not dissimilar to what we saw a couple of decades ago on the desktop.

And could you compare your plans with what you've seen so far from some of your traditional competitors or perhaps from smaller companies moving into this new platform? {I suspect Mr Vleeschouwer make oblique reference to Onshape.]

Bernard Charles (Dassault): The first comment I would do on that is that the cloud mobile world is not putting a desktop on the cloud. Something else has to be done, and I think that something else is what we have done with 3Dexperience platform. I think in terms of work process, practices, experiences, trying to just take an application, putting it under the cloud is not the way to do it.

So I think clearly for us the cloud is absolutely the game changer for AEC [architecture, engineering, civil]. It's a game changer for retail, and it’s game changer for CPG [consumer packaged goods].

We have done an amazing project with an engineering service company, AKKA, a big company. (They do service for the big brand names of automotive.) They have done an entire connected vehicle fully on the cloud. So we can now confirm that we can design an entire vehicle on the cloud, without any imitation in terms of capabilities to design, simulate and produce.

I think in the years to come, new industries will go first on supplementing existing additional industry for cybersecurity reasons, because people don't talk enough about that topic, but it's a real topic. And I think we have developed very important special infrastructure for extremely high security environment, especially when you do collaboration.

So enough said, but I don't think the companies who are trying to port application from the past to the cloud will be as successful if they don't think about the new experience. And that's what we are building here. And we are in a good start with AEC, as I said, and also CPG retail.

[Mr Charles did not respond to the question about new competitors, such as Fusion 360 and Onshape, which are new from the ground up.]

 

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/2888756-dassault-systemes-sa-dasty-q4-2014-results-earnings-call-transcript

 

 

It is time to declare browserCAD in a deep funk

by Ralph Grabowski

 

It was a scant two years ago that a flurry of start-ups launched 3D MCAD software that runs in Web browsers. The catalyst was HTML5 and other browser technology that allowed users to interact with 3D models in their Web browsers on any hardware. No more installs to desktops; no more being limited to Windows. Wanna run 3D CAD on an Android ultrabook or a FirefoxOS phone -- no problemo.

(Well, almost no problemo. There were a few caveats. The hardware had to be powerful enough; the Web connection speed had to be fast enough; the Internet latency had to be low enough; the Web browser had to be HTML5-compatible enough; and so on. See figure below of Sunglass running on an iPad, kind of.)

Never mind. Even CAD-unaware publications like TechCrunch heralded this New Era in 3D design. Lanuched with the financial assistance of VC firms, firms erupted with funky software names like TinkerCAD, To3D, and sunglass.io . 

And then it was like 2001 all over again. The answer to step 2 of the old joke...

Step 1: Idea!
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profits!

... is Paying Customers!

The Web sites for Sunglass.io and To3D aren't even zombies; they're gone entirely now. TinkerCAD was in the process of shutting down when Autodesk snapped it up. And as I write this, Lagoa was bought by Autodesk for $60 million. Earlier, GrabCAD was bought by Statasys, and TeamPlatform by 3D Systems.

Web-based CAD is just too funky to be useful in an efficient way to end-users.

 

How Sanctions Affect the Russian Building Industry

by Vladimir Talapov

 

This is a new issue for us. To be honest, it is a very unpleasant one, since it involves an artificial (aggressive) influence upon economic processes painstakingly organized by the business-community -- bilateral, multilateral, and, in any case, mutually beneficial. 

Still sanctions are our today’s reality. Thus, I would like to make a few points.

First. Sanctions are introduced by the governments of some countries and not by software developers. I think that to a greater extent, sanctions are a blow against vendors rather than users, but it is rough luck on both. 

Second. Formally, sanctions have not yet affected the design-and-building industry in Russia, and so do not threaten BIM adaption, although it may only be a matter of time. 

Third. No software firm is going to take back purchased licenses, so day-to-day work is not coming to a halt. 

Forth. The time has come to think seriously as to how efficiently available software is used in our design and building industry, particularly because at the time vast sums of money were spent to purchase it. Based on the experience, I dare say that software is employed to no more than 20% of its capabilities. Becoming better at mastering the available programs and optimizing their operational procedures (sometimes even just developing such procedures) coupled with cutting down on the cost of acquiring new programs (as they are already purchased) forms significant resources for advancing design and building industry in Russia. 

Fifth (and the most important). Sanctions create truly unique conditions for developing Russian programs, particularly in BIM. I have no doubt that such developments will happen. It is simply a must.

Cloud Technologies and Sanctions

The cloud is entering our lives, but rather slowly. I am aware that many have tried to use them, first of all for visualizing.

I think, however, that in light of the recent sanction wars, we shall have to forget about cloud technologies for several years. It is unlikely that any serious organization would wish to lose control over its information and risk “foreign switching-off” of access to software resources.

[Reprinted with permission of isicad.net]

 

Lagoa going from simple rendering to Parasolids cloud-based MCAD

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com

Who or what is Lagoa? And what makes a relative newcomer think they can go up against a reigning champion?  CAD Insider readers know of Lagoa for its cloud-based renderer and a user part library/gallery. It was a hit at SolidWorks World, where it was nominated for a Best of Show.

I am invited to see them last week at COFES, where they rented a suite. I expected them to show me a newer version of what I had already seen. I'm expecting a hit; I have no idea they'll be swinging for the fences.

I find Lagoa founder and CEO Thiago Costa and marketing guy Chris Williams finishing an earlier interview. Thiago is talking in English, then switches to French. He is from Brazil -- I think -- and Lagoa may be named for a town in Portugal, but the company was once Canadian. Recently, it has situated itself in Boston. And that's where they find their pot of gold -- as in VC money.

Then it's my turn, and they ask if I had heard their announcement: "We will be releasing a 3D modeling program." I hadn't. There was nothing on the wire, nothing on Twitter. It was being leaked at COFES.

"It's a soft launch," says Chris. Chris is known at COFES, and in previous years he pushed his collaboration product, Vuuch. Now he is handling Lagoa marketing and has talked Thiago into coming to Scottsdale, Arizona. "We're telling a few press people," says Chris. 

It's All Happening in Boston

Boston has proved fruitful to Lagoa. The area is a beehive of CAD activity, old and new. PTC, Dassault and Autodesk have offices in nearby Waltham. Talent bred at MIT in Cambridge is grown with VC funding pools nearly which seem as deep as those in Silicon Valley -- at least for design and engineering software. GrabCAD has recently benefited from this largesse ($13.6 million in funding). But the one on which all eyes seem to be riveted is Belmont Technologies, now named Onshape. The name is not as important who is in it: none other than originators of Solidworks, Jon Hirschtick and his gang. 

Onshape has raised $34 million. Everyone bets on the horse that won the last race so VC money piling up behind Jon Hirschtick and company should be no surprise. Thiago is betting his horse is faster, younger, and, in contrast to the very secretive gang at Onshape, this horse has jumped the gate.

"We are backed by some of the investors of SolidWorks," he says. "And Siemens." Lagoa has raised almost $7 million. They have 30 employees. Now this is getting interesting.

What Does Lagoa Have?

The Lagoa modeler (company name and product name is the same) is cloud-based and will work through a thin client on your browser. It can be used on mobile devices though not on my iPad at the time of this writing. The model resides on the cloud, which Lagoa will provide.

The model can be passed around with a hyperlink. Two users can operate on an assembly regardless of their location. Moving a part around on one screen will update the part on the other screen. "The model is no longer tied to the user's desk," says Thiago.

The price has not been determined. Currently, only Lagoa's rendering products are for sale.

You Really Want to take on SolidWorks?

"What is Solidworks except an interface to Parasolid?" asks Thiago. "We are using Parasolid, too." A brash young challenger could be easily dismissed. Hasn't Solidworks had 20 years to refine its tools? Generated an immense user base? Emerged as the language in which mechanical design is spoken?

Blame the confidence on youth. Thiago, his knit hat pulled over his head, doesn't quite fit in among the, um, shall we say distinguished attendees who take the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software quite seriously. Will they dismiss Thiago, who looks more like a game developer?

Moms on SolidWorks

But according to Thiago, CAD is easy compared to special effects (which he did) and game development. "My mother could use SolidWorks," he says.

He shows Maya on his MacBook on a screen so cluttered with commands it shrinks the Maya work window. Mastering such a software require not just a knowledge of a myriad of commands but writing scripts. "Film guys are making things that no one else has made," says Thiago. A film company had to create the skeletal muscle system to get realistic facial expressions in CG characters.

Supermoms to the contrary, is Lagoa really easy to use for the casual user or non-CAD user, the sort who has no experience with CAD or desire to learn to learn it? He just wants to get a model made so he can 3D print it, for example.

Thiago concedes Lagoa is not easy enough to use just yet, but by the time of release, he promises it will be.

http://home.lagoa.com

[Reprinted with permission of CAD Insider.]

Dassault ceo on the launch of 3DExperience

Bernard Charles is the ceo of Dassault Systemes spoke during the company's quarterly conference call with financial analysts:

Following the successful Lighthouse [3Dexperience beta] program, which we have conducted over the last six months, we are shortly launching 3Dexperience release 2014x. This is a very major release from several perspectives.

By introducing our 3Dexperience platform, we are bringing to companies a business platform for product innovation. We are introducing a completely new user interface, dashboarding, search and analysis capabilities on a platform for social, collaborative innovation.

Release 2014x is about providing end-to-end support of the innovation spiral in our targeted industries and targeted domains. It is on-premise, on-the-cloud for companies of all sizes. This is a significant cloud offering, representing about one-third of the number of processes we plan to offer in total. We have simplified product packaging and ensured that what we offer is well-aligned with industry processes. 

We are introducing Solidworks Mechanical Conceptual, the first Solidworks product on the 3Dexperience platform.  

 

Reprinted from Seeking Alpha.

Updated: Autodesk cloud-based TinkerCAD suffers 5 days of outages

I've been asked to provide some input on a new book about TinkerCAD, and so first thing this morning I checked out the software, which is cloud-based and runs only in Web browsers. When I pointed my ChromeBook to tinkercad.com, the following sign greeted me:

 

(Autodesk bought TinkerCAD last year.)

I tracked the service's Twitter feed to learn that the problems began last week, January 9:

Tinkercad (@tinkercad) Jan 9: Sorry everyone, the team's been scrambling to get it back on all day. Check this feed for more updates.

Tinkercad: Tinkercad hit a certificate expiration, causing the editor to freak out. Have to go offline to refresh, hoping to be back up tomorrow AM. 

Tinkercad: Aaaaaand… we're back. Tinkercad is back online, locked and loaded. Sorry for the inconvenience! #3Doh!

 

 Then a far worse problem struck this week, beginning Tuesday:

steffanie yeakle (@steffanie) Jan 14: @tinkercad Hi ! Are you having problems today ? Been trying to log in for a couple hours or more and just isn't working

Mr. Cooper (@MrCooper30): Trying to use your site in my classroom today. Is the site down?

Tinkercad (@tinkercad): I'll check with the team, hang tight.

 

The first estimate from Autodesk was that TinkerCAD would be back up the same day, but then the estimate grew. At time of writing this, Autodesk hopes to have the site back Friday, a four-day outage.

Tuesday:

Tinkercad (@tinkercad) Jan 14: Tinkercad is stalling out a bit today - the team is aware and we're pushing a fix - hopefully by end of day. Please forgive the delay. :(

Wednesday:

Tinkercad (@tinkercad) Jan 15: Tinkercad is down for maintenance - rather than let it limp with the issues from the last few days, we're doing a complete reboot.

Rod Milstead (@rpmteacher): Any timeline for bringing the site back up? My students are eager to get back to work. Thx.

Tinkercad: We're addressing all the issues that have come up in the last few days, aiming for the end of the week.

Corinne Okada Takara (@CorinneTakara):  End of the week; do you mean by Friday? I'm teaching a free public #3dprinting workshop Saturday & we are using Tinkercad.

Tinkercad: Sorry all, we're about halfway through the server correction. It's been a couple of late nights and early mornings to get it back.

Thursday:

Tinkercad (@tinkercad) Jan 16: As a free app, Tinkercad wasn't built to bear such an awesome spike in use, we're creating infrastructure to better support our users. 

Tinkercad: Best TC explanation: There were lots of dominoes set up and the dog bumped the table, hang on while we superglue them back in order.

Todd Schlemmer (@theschlem): I would pay cash monies for a version of your great machine that didn't require an internet connection. I'm dead in the water.

Tinkercad: We've got something in the works :) Hang tight

 

From the last bit, it appears that Autodesk has a solution to the problems created in running software on the cloud. I wonder what it might be.

 - - - -

Update: TinkerCAD reported it was back up on Friday, 17, but Saturday some users on Twitter were complaining it was running slow.

PTC ceo: Sure, we could do the cloud, but customers aren't interested

PTC made its first step towards cloud-hosted CAD through last quarter's acquisition of NetIDEAS. Here's how PTC ceo James E. Heppelmann explains his thinking about the cloud: 

Windchill is the first PLM system and, I'd argue, one of the first enterprise applications -- period -- to be available in a pure native way of architecture back in 1998. And there was this group of customers, actually in a large defense company who purchased this technology and then said, "Wow, this is really an interesting breakthrough," as compared to the client/server technology of the day.

They got so excited, they decided, "We're going to start a company to host Windchill [called NetIDEAS]". So NetIDEAS has existed since right around 2000, give or take a year, and their whole business has been hosting Windchill.

Now we at PTC didn't exactly know how to deal with them sometimes, but nonetheless their whole business was predicated on hosting our technology. They had built a portfolio of about 80 customers, including some big ones like the U.S. Navy, where they were hosting systems for the customer. We'd sell the software to the customer, but we ship it to NetIDEAS, and NetIDEAS would host it.

 So first of all, they're an excellent company and hugely knowledgeable in how to host the PLM systems, both large and small. Okay, so now to the question: How does our technology portfolio evolve over time? There's really two thrusts:

• One, is how to take some technologies we've acquired and better integrate them together?
• The second question is, how fast to move some or all of that into the cloud?

I think there's not a simple answer to that, but I think what we're talking about here is an evolution.

Nobody today is kicking down our doors and saying, "I need a product that's fundamentally different than what you're trying to sell me." I think we're trying to stay ahead of our customers, and make sure that by the time that day comes, we're already for it. 

So we are both driving initiatives to think about how to bring some of this technology, first into a managed service environment with NetIDEAS; second, maybe into a peer cloud SaaS environment over time; and then I think that for the integration-in-enterprise-fabric story, some amount of it will be done on premise, and then over time I think that the cloud SaaS model gives us a slightly different approach to sort of finish that project.

And I'm not sure we'll ever be finished, because we'll keep making acquisitions, and we'll have to keep updating our technology strategies to accommodate some hot new piece of technology we just acquired. 

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1817542-ptc-management-discusses-q4-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript

TeamPlatform Takes on the Email-FTP-Dropbox Troika

This is a comparison of popular systems like email, FTP, and Dropbox with an engineering coordination portal named TeamPlatform. Generic approaches to project management cannot meets the needs of engineers the way a centralized location like TeamPlatform can, because it is designed to cater to the needs of engineers.

I'll look at the pros and cons of each system as they apply to coordinating CAD designs. When we work with more than one person on projects, we need ways to communicate with one another, move files between us, and coordinate the who-does-what tasks. Email remains the most popular way to coordinate these activities for most of us. But there may be better ways to coordinate projects - especially for engineers.

Communicating Through Email

Electronic mail predates the Internet as universities and corporations ran proprietary email systems as early as the 1970s. Being this "old," every so often someone proclaims email dead; despite the rumors of its death, email thrives. This is because it offers benefits that make it handy for continued use:

Email is universal. Any email client works with any email system, because all are based on the same standards, which carry names like POP (post office protocol), SMTP (simple mail transport protocol), and IMAP (internet message access protocol) - even modern systems like GMail and Outlook. Access to email continues to be universal through Web browsers and mobile clients.

Email has user-friendly benefits, like being able to drag and drop files into messages, tracking conversations through threads, and queuing and delaying the sending of messages. Best of all, email is essentially free.

These benefits means email gets used on just about every project I have ever been involved with, with the exception of sending very large files. This hints at the one of the drawbacks to email for project coordination: the size of email attachments, which is often limited to 10MB, usually.

Email was never meant to handle binary files, and so files have to be converted on-the-fly to 7-bit ASCII files, which bulks up files by 12%. Email has no inline viewers of CAD formats, and so relies on external viewers being installed manually on every computer. While conversations can be threaded, they are not project-oriented. There are no limitations on accessing emailed files, so there is nothing like a read-only permission. And most irritating, email clients can be inconsistent in displaying simple things like text and positioned images (which sometimes are displayed as a jumble or at the wrong size), and they can be pretty bad at printing neatly.

Taking into account the limitations of email, project engineers need a system that handles very large files, that displays files in engineering formats without installing viewers, and that displays text and images correctly.

Transferring Files with FTP

The primary purpose of FTP (file transfer protocol) is to send and receive files of any size. An FTP site allows anyone to access them, given the correct password. Because it uses a single FTP server computer, files are centralized; project management is handled through folders. Like email, FTP is free and universal, because any FTP client program works with any FTP server.

But FTP has drawbacks sufficient to make it rarely used anymore. (Only one of my clients still asks me to deposit files on their FTP site.) FTP clients are awkward to setup and to use for normal CAD users; someone with IT expertise must set up the FTP server software and computer for the project.

FTP lacks versioning; engineers need to rename the newest files manually, or else move old files into archive folders manually. There are only two permission levels, read-only and read-write. And there definitely are no online viewers; every file must be downloaded before it can be viewed.

While FTP allows centralization of files, project engineers need to look for a management system that handles FTP's drawbacks in the areas of versioning, permissions, viewing, and archiving.

Sharing Files with Dropbox

Dropbox allows access to files that are stored on a server on the Internet (a.k.a. cloud). Indeed, Dropbox is a user-friendly version of FTP. Because the idea is so simple, Dropbox has many competitors, such as SugarSync, Box.net, and even services even from CAD vendors, such as Autodesk 360 and Vectorworks Nomad.

Dropbox is nicely integrated into portable devices running Android and iOS, and benefits from drop-and-drag on desktop clients. It handles any size of file, up to the maximum space allocated to the account (although there is a 300MB cap on files uploaded through the Dropbox Web site). It has these advantages for projects:

• Password-protected access
• Project management through folders
• Initially free

But Dropbox has its drawbacks. It is free for only the first 2GB of storage space, with options for increasing the space through referrals and other offers. Beyond this, we pay. For instance, Dropbox for Business starts at $795 a year for five project engineers, and can cost $31,000/year for very large teams, albeit with unlimited storage space.

Dropbox is not universal; only Dropbox clients work with Dropbox folders online, although Windows Explorer (and similar apps) can access files from the desktop. I have found that Dropbox tends to lag its competitors in important areas like security and read-only access. It definitely lacks conversations and online viewers for CAD formats.

Dropbox is much handier than FTP, and for large files it is better than email. But it isn't actually oriented to project use. And so engineers must look elsewhere, especially in light of Dropbox being implicated in handing our private data to the US government's PRISM spying program.

Project Coordination with TeamPlatform

As handy as email and Dropbox are, their limitations become apparent as projects grow beyond a few engineers and a several dozen files. I know firsthand the panic that arises from wondering which file is the most recent one (overwritten, maybe), and whatever happened to that communication (misfiled, probably).

TeamPlatform is one Web portal that provides everything engineers need on projects. It's meant to handle 3D models as well as regular documents; it lets us collaborate on projects; and so on. So let's take a look at how it competes with email, FTP, and Dropbox in the areas of communications, file sharing and archiving, file viewing, universal access, and cost.

Communications

TeamPlatform has a nicely threaded comment and reply section that can be applied to files, pages, tasks, and entire workspaces. We can make ad-hoc comments; or use the @mention function to link items. Comments made at TeamPlatform are sent as summary emails to project members.

By the way, I appreciated how easy it was to create a new account: I just needed to click Sign In and then choose Sign In With Google; no need to think of a new username and yet another unique password; no need to share intimate data with Facebook.

File Sharing, Revision Tracking, and Archiving

To upload files from our computers to TeamPlatform, we just drag-and-drop files from computer folders to the Web browser.

After files are uploaded to TeamPlatform, it tracks changes and maintains revisions (see figure 1). When files are sent, TeamPlatform generates delivery confirmations automatically. We can opt to receive daily summaries of actions taken in each workspace.

Although TeamPlatform has a dashboard to show overall progress and status, it seemed to me that nearly every screen had its own set of dashboard-like info tags, such as the "Updated" tag on one file and "File Share" warning for the page.

Figure 1: A TeamPlatform workspace with files and actions

File Viewing

Email and FTP display only text files natively, and Dropbox cannot display anything on its own. In contrast, TeamPlatform provides online previews of more than 130 file formats inside the Web browser. The list includes STL, IGES, and STEP; native CAD formats like DWG, SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, PTC, and Autodesk; Office formats and PDF files; videos and photos; and 3D point cloud formats like Faro FLS and FWS.

I checked the viewer capabilities with some MCAD test files, one of which is shown in figure 2. In 3D, we can measure distances and angles, change measurement units and viewing angles, make a screen grab, change transparency and contrast, and export the part as an STL file.

Figure 2: Displaying a SolidWorks part file in a desktop Web browser

As I write this, the company is private beta testing a new plug-and-play 3D Viewer cloud API service that allows other Web sites to display 3D files, like SolidWorks, CATIA, Creo, UG-NX, IGES, STEP, IFC, Parasolid, and STL.

Universal Access

Email, FTP, and Dropbox are available on just about any computing platform today - as is TeamPlatform. Because it runs in Web browsers, TeamPlatform works with any mobile device that can run an HMTL5 browser.

I tested it with a Firefox Web browser on an Android tablet to find that TeamPlatform provides a mobile version of its portal (suitable for smart phones and their small screens; see figure 3) and makes the desktop version available for tablets and their larger screens (Desktop View).

 Figure 3: Mobile interface of TeamPlatform on a smart phone running FireFox OS (top); viewing a SolidWorks assembly on the smart phone (bottom)

When the tablet can handle TeamPlatform's desktop mode, then we can redline drawings and perform all other tasks available to desktop computers (see figure 4).

Figure 4: Desktop interface of TeamPlatform on an Android tablet showing redline markup tools for a drawing in DWG format

Portable access lets us check files and update statuses from our Androids, iPads, and other mobile platforms - provided we have the proper permissions. Being HTML5-compatible means TeamPlatform can be used as a file viewer on nearly any portable device with a modern Web browser.

Cost

Email, FTP, and Dropbox are typically free at a simple level, such as 10GB storage for GMail and 2GB for Dropbox. Even at a useful level, TeamPlatform is free: unlimited team members, up to five workspaces, up to five guests up, and 500MB storage.

Going beyond this level, TeamPlatform charges $25 per person per month for unlimited projects, unlimited guests, and 50GB storage per member.

Conclusion

	Email	FTP	Dropbox	TeamPlatform
Cost	Free	Free	Free for first 2GB	$25 per month per user*
Requires IT support		Yes
Universal access through browsers, etc.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Very large file transfers		Yes	Yes	Yes
Password protection of files		Yes	Yes	Yes
Versioning of files				Yes
CAD viewers built-in				Many
Collaboration by threaded comments	Yes			Yes

*Basic version is free but provides only 500MB per user.

In a comparison written by Israeli CAM engineer Daniel Dobrzynski, he wrote that TeamPlatform is more mature than Autodesk 360 (see   www.caddigest.com/exclusive/MCAD/teamplatform/050213_teamplatform_vs_autodesk_360.htm. He found that, for instance, while Autodesk 360 displays some 3D formats, it cannot edit them.

In contrast, TeamPlatform handles nearly all 3D MCAD and common office formats. It allows us to perform manipulation, such as 3D orbiting and parts explosion, on just about any kind of platform - Windows and Mac desktops and non-Windows portable devices. For project engineers, it provides a better alternative to the traditional stand-bys of email, FTP, and Dropbox. For more information, take a look at the Getting Started support page at   support.teamplatform.com/forums/22018638-6-Step-Intro-to-TeamPlatform.

[This article first appeared on CADdigest.com.]

 

Why Adobe's "cloud" software doesn't work for customers

With a hacker claiming to have broken PhotoShop CC's authorization mechanism, we are getting an idea of how Adobe's "cloud" software works. In addition, I spent about a week trying to upgrade my license of InDesign CS5 to CS6. So here is how it all works:

Adobe still sells its Creative Cloud software as traditional desktop installations. We download a 30-day demo copy of PhotoShop CC or InDesign CC, and install it on our desktop or laptop computer. CC software then provides access to additional features online, as well as updates.

Monthly Payments

The first difference is in how we pay for the software to get the serial number. Instead of paying once to use the software for as long as wish to, we now have to have pay all the time -- for either PhotoShop or InDesign.

Adobe's Web site misleadingly states the price of each is $20 per month, but during checkout the commitment jumps to 1 year, plus tax, making it $268 for me.

How does $268 a year compare to paying once for a perpetual license? I tried updating InDesign CS5 to CS6, but in speaking with an Adobe sales rep, she wanted to charge me over $1,000 to upgrade my copy of Master Collection. However, of the 21 programs in Master Collection, I use just one: InDesign.

I looked on and off for a few days for the InDesign CS5 upgrade, but could find only upgrades from CS5.5. Well, heck, I thought, then I'll just buy a full license. Adobe's list price is US$700 and Amazon.ca offered it to me for $806 (incl. tax), but then I found it at half-price ($355) from itdirectdeals.com. Because it is downloaded software, there is no sales tax.

In summary, for the same price, I can use:

• InDesign CC for a year and four months

• InDesign CS6 forever

Monthly License Checking

After entering the serial number in the software, CS6 checks with Adobe once to ensure the number is valid. The only other time the serial number is checked is when we want to deactivate the license so that we can use InDesign on another computer.

In contrast, CC checks with Adobe every month. If our credit card was declined, then it doesn't work. What about accessing the data that belongs to us? As of May 29, Adobe didn't know:

Adobe completely agrees that customers should have access to their files if they choose to stop their Creative Cloud membership.... but there are a number of options open to us here and we expect to have news around this issue shortly.

Oh yeah. For me, $355 is worth the certainty of forever.

When Adobe designed the new splash screen, they visualized -- by accident -- the exploding anger of customers as they realize the implications of Creative Cloud.

 

With NetSuite linkup, Autodesk confirms that it's no longer just a CAD company

Autodesk adds a bi-directional integration between PLM 360 and NetSuite, which it calls the "world's #1 cloud ERP solution," and calls its own PLM 360 "the fastest growing in the market" -- a point that was repeated. Of course growth for any new product is fast because of the mathematics of percentages on small bases. (ERP is short for "enterprise resource planning;" PLM is short for "product lifecycle management.")

The announcement was made to us media last week, but we had to keep the news secret until today. I'd heard of the NetSuite name, but don't know anything about it. So here is some of what Autodesk told us it can do:

• Approved vendor list and vendor audits
• Work orders
• Product development from concept to recycling
• Create M-BOMs [manufacturing BOM]

For me, this is all eye-glazing stuff -- like "Step 2: Create initial vendor record in NS as inactive."

Ken Wong: Will this cost additional fees, or will NetSuite be available to all PLM 360 subscribers?

Autodesk: Customers already of NetSuite will purchase PLM 360. PLM 360 customers will have to contact NetSuite to pay them. [Autodesk is providing the integration only.]

Randall Newton: How easy or tough was it to put together the technologies to make this happen?

Autodesk: We use our PLM Connect for integrating systems like this. It is similar to integrating with traditional PLM. On a relative scale, it was easier than with traditional, because Web-based technologies make integration easier.

Unknown media: How customers get it: are you or your resellers are reselling it? Or do customers contract NetSuite separately?

Autodesk: It is the latter. We will each have listings on our partner pages. We will work with our respective sales teams to help customers get the joint solution.

In Other PLM 360 News

In other news, Autodesk told us that they have new partnerships with Assent, Octopart, and Jitterbit. PLM 360 will have its own app store with several categories, like quality management. Last October, Autodesk acquired Inforbix and now its search technology is built into PLM 360: it recommends other documents that are potentially related. For example, search for a BOM item and related drawings are also returned.

Some 70% of Autodesk customers who started up PLM 360 did not have PLM before, mainly SMBs (small and medium businesses).

Kenneth Wong: What are these partnerships allow people to do? If I am working on an assembly in Inventor, will I be able to see costing or compliance? Or is it confined to the PLM environment.

Autodesk: Most of the data will be inside PLM, but not from inside Inventor.

Al Dean: I have a question-- It is completely gone! It's quite late in the day. Sorry!

Autodesk: That's my favorite type of question.

Al Dean: Got it! You said 2/3 of customers of PLM 360 did not use PLM. How many used PDM [product data management] or EDM [engineering data management]?

Autodesk: A majority, if not all of them. There are a bunch of our Vault users in there. We are getting a lot of Solidworks users, as well. A majority of PLM 360 users work in multi-CAD environments.

Al Dean: Pulling compliance data-- this is going to be useful to pull this information at a very early stage. Can you see it going to the guys using Inventor? Or will it always be a two-stage process?

Autodesk: We have nothing for that yet. There might be a bridge we might make one day. That is a future expansion idea.

So it seems that information is being kept in PLM 360, and isn't particularly available to MCAD and AEC designers early enough in the project. From the answers given to the questions posed by Kenneth and Al, we can summarize that the "product" and "lifecycle" parts are truncated in PLM from Autodesk, but that the "management" part is growing. 

http://usa.autodesk.com/360-lifecycle-management-software/plm

Viewing, Sharing Revit and SketchUp Models with Vizerra Revizto

In business since 2008, Russia's 3DreamTeam (which does business as Vizerra) writes software for viewing 3D worlds interactively. Their idea is to make it easy for designers and clients to collaborate in areas like AEC, urban planning, product design, and even virtual tourism (see figure 1). For now, however, emphasis is on AEC, and in particular, Revit and SketchUp.

 

Figure 1: Vizerra's Revizto Viewer software displays 3D models exported by Revit or SketchUp

What Revizto Consists Of

There are three tasks that Revizto software performs:

• Convert and Edit - Revizto for Revit ($399) converts Revit and SketchUp models to Visual Information Model (VIM) format and edits the lighting and materials; Revizto for SketchUp ($99) does similar work with SketchUp only. The software runs on Windows, with a Mac version for SketchUp coming soon.
• View - Revizto Viewer (free) allows one or more people to view the files output by the converter software. There are versions for Web browsers, Android and iOS devices, and for Windows and Mac computers.
• Gallery - stores the VIM files on the cloud for viewing by the public or authorized users. The gallery operates in supported Web browsers only.

There is a lot more to Revizto than meets the eye, and so I strongly urge you to review the help file online at help.revizto.com. In addition, I found useful the set of video tutorials the company provides atwww.revizto.com/support/tutorials. There is a lot of support for starting up.

Exporting Models to Revizto

The primary Revizto software exports 3D models from Revit and SketchUp into VIM format, and then allows you to edit the result to make models look more realistic.

To export from inside Revit 2011-2013, choose the Add-ins tab, and then click Export to VIM. Vizerra recommends that you next click Revizto on the Add-Ins panel - instead of immediately opening the VIM file in the Revizto. This is because the extra step applies additional optimizations, such as compressing data and replacing Revit plant objects with more realistic ones.

To use custom Revit materials, be sure to export the model with the Export Custom Materials checked box in the export options which will export all the custom materials you have used within Revit. While it has generally been considered impossible for non-Autodesk products to export custom materials along with the Revit model, Revizto provides that option.

In the case of SketchUp, don't export models from inside SketchUp; instead, use Revizto to import the SKP files and then convert them. There is no FBX option, naturally.

Using Revizto for SketchUp

I tested the Revizto for SketchUp software, as Revizto for Revit software would not install on my computer because I do not have Revit.

Revizto for SketchUp is a 200MB download. During the setup process, I got blocked from finishing the install until I created an account with revizto.com. Once I verified my account through an automated email message, the setup continued, installing Revizto for SketchUp, Revizto Viewer, and Revizto Activation. The latter ensures “correct” use of the software.

To test out the software's abilities, I got some SKP files from Trimble (Google) Warehouse atsketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse. After downloading the SKP files, I used Revizto for SketchUp’s File | Import command to open one of them. A big file opened pretty quickly, in five seconds flat (see figure 2).

Figure 2: A 3D model created by SketchUp displayed by Revizto

 

Once Revizto opened the model, I could fine-tune the materials and lighting settings. I won't get into detail about the many functions, but I'll provide this overview:

• Imports and export files
• Applies lights, and sets the position of the sun
• Inserts panoramic images and skyboxes
• Optionally excludes selected objects, families, and categories
• Merges meshes, generates flat-ish terrains, reduces object complexity, and groups parts
• Edits materials (see figure 3), and imports them; a single scene can have multiple material libraries and can switch between them
• Creates new projects (groups of VIM files) and synchronizes them

Figure 3: The Materials dialog box has an extensive set of parameters for creating and tweaking the look of materials

 

As you can see from the list, Revizto does a lot more than just show off pretty models. Note that the Revizto for SketchUp version lacks some of these functions, such as changeable light settings and plant replacement, as well as other features specific to Revit. Hence, the lower price.

While in the model, I can place markers to indicate places of interest. I click the "i" icon on the toolbar, and then enter a note that gets attached to numeric markers (see figure 4). The marker consists of a rotating colored "i" icon.

Figure 4: Markers indicate places of interest

 

I can use Revizto to view models interactively, or use the Revizto Viewer. To do so, I need to first save the SKP model as a VIMPROJ project file using the Project | Save VIM to Project As command. The model then becomes part of a list of VIM files saved in the VIMPROJ file (see figure 5). Project files are used for viewing and for collaboration, as described next.

Figure 5: Project files contain one or more VIM files

Revizto Viewer

The free Revizto Viewer is meant for anyone who doesn't have the primary Revizto software. I tested the Windows and Android versions of the viewer, and found the two so identical to each other that the Android version did not adopt any Android user interface elements. This consistency of user interface is good when switching between Windows and Android. Looking at the Apple AppStore, I see that the iOS version also looks the same.

I initially made a mistake, which was solved by Vizerra's fast response to my tech support question. My problem: when I started testing the viewer, I found that it would not open VIM files. The solution: the viewer only opens VIMPROJ project files; this is to ensure synchronization.

When the Windows Viewer starts up, it displays a Configuration dialog box in which I select the resolution and the quality of the viewing area (see figure 6). The default settings are "1024x768" and "Fastest." I found that Fastest quality was sufficient, because Fantastic quality didn't look any better to me yet slowed the viewer's response to a crawl. Fantastic mode turns on SSAD (screen space ambient occlusion), tone mapping, HDR (high dynamic range). The slow speed could well be due to the integrated Intel graphic chip my computer uses; the display speed would improve with a dedicated AMD or NVIDIA graphics board.

Figure 6: Start up options for the viewer

 

Selecting a resolution is unnecessary for tablets because they display all apps full-screen and so the dialog box does not appear. To change the quality, click the Options button on the toolbar.

I clicked the Input tab to review the list of keyboard shortcuts that let me navigate through the 3D scene (see figure 7).

Figure 7: Modifying keyboard shortcuts

 

I'll reproduce them here so that you can cut out the list as a handy reference:

Control Name	Cursor	Keyboard
Horizontally right	right	d
Horizontally left	left	a
Upwards	...	e
Downwards	...	q
Forward	up	w
Backwards	down	s
Jump	...	spacebar

The keyboard assignments can be changed by double-clicking a control name, and then tapping the key I prefer to use instead. In practice, I found using a combination of both keys and the mouse to be best:

1. Right-click the screen to go into navigation mode.
2. Move the mouse to change my viewpoint - looking left, right, up, and down.
3. Use the cursor keys to move forwards, backwards, and side to side.
4. Right-click to exit navigation mode.

There is one significant difference between the desktop and tablet versions. Touch-based tablets cannot right-click to switch between viewing and motion modes. To overcome this problem, the Android viewer screen is split into two parts: I drag my fingers in the left one-third of the screen to move through the scene, and drag them in the right two-thirds to rotate the view. Because tablets have limited working RAM, yet they can open files with average complexity.

Also missing from the tablet versions are keyboard shortcuts (a pity, for my Android has a keyboard dock). The option for recording track is still available, although they cannot be exported into AVI or MOV format, unlike the standalone one viewer.

The toolbar across the top of all versions of the viewer has icons that perform the following tasks (see figure 8).

Figure 8: The Viewer's toolbar

• Show/Hide Toolbar - toggles the toolbar
  
  
• About - displays the About dialog box
• Open Project - opens a .visproj file
• Synchronize Project - syncs changes back to the online storage
• Layers - toggles the visibility of layers
• Open Scene - opens a scene
• Markers - more about these later
• Movies - records movies of navigating through the scene
• Screenshot - grabs screen shots
• Settings - accesses the settings dialog box
• Fly/Walk toggle - switches between flying and walking at ground level
• Collision toggle - switches between crashing through walls or not
• Help - accesses on-line help
  
  
• Close - closes the program

Tip: When Revizto Viewer stores VIMPROJ files locally on Androids, it uses the/Android/data/com.Vizerra.ReviztoViewer/files folder. This is useful information, because the software is not (yet) linked with Dropbox or other file sharing services.

When the desktop viewer is not in navigation mode, it is in selection mode. In selection mode, I can click items to get information about them (see figure 9).

Figure 9: Clicking on objects tells you about them

While I could run both Revizto and Viewer at the same time, open files are locked and so changes cannot be saved until I closed one of the programs.

Revizto Gallery

To give others access to my models, I needed to save them to the online Revizto Gallery. The gallery provides 2GB of online storage at no charge, and this is where screen grabs and videos are also stored.

The process for saving models online is easy enough, but then sharing it with others was more complex than I thought necessary. Here are the steps I took:

1. In Revizto, I clicked the Sync to Cloud button.
2. I entered my username and password, and then waited for the project file to be uploaded.
3. Revizto Gallery was opened in my default Web browser, listing my projects (see figure 10).

Figure 10: Revizto Gallery lists projects and related data

1. To give access to others, I can make the project public, or else restrict viewing to selected people, or generate a Web link. Alternatively, I could add people to the Project Working Group list, which generates an email inviting the recipients "to join the project as a Viewer atwww.revizto.com."
2. As the recipient, I clicked the Accept button in the invitation email, and then I was taken to a registration page.

I feel that this is too much resistance for inviting people to view my projects; it should be more like Dropbox, where a link accesses a file without needing to signup. Vizerra tells me that they have these measures in place to provide additional security, and they feel that the signup process is pretty simple.

For public examples of projects, visit the Gallery at http://www.revizto.com/gallery/demo. Click the 3D tab to experience the viewer with your desktop Web browser; it uses the Unity plug-in. I also accessed the online Gallery using Firefox on my Asus Android tablet (see figure 11). I could view the Gallery Web page, the screenshots, and the video walkthrough (hosted by YouTube). I could not, however, launch the 3D viewer in the Web browser, because Unity is available for Windows and Mac only.

Figure 11: The Revizto Gallery in Firefox running on an Android tablet

Summary

Revizto was announced and has been shipping since last November. It currently works with files generated by Revit and SketchUp. I think that some of its workflow could be smoother; nevertheless it is sufficiently mature at this young age to be useful even now. I was impressed at how it handles large files effortlessly.

Free 14-day versions of all the software packages are available from http://www.revizto.com/products. Revizto is an interesting solution for teams that need to modify the look of buildings and products - whether in the same office or on the other side of the world.

http://www.revizto.com

 

CAD vendors will be tempted into biasing their cloud pricing

The price you pay for CAD software depends on several factors, including these:

• The country in which you purchase the software (USA workers get the baseline price, with customers in nearly every other country paying as much as double)

• Educational status (students and teachers routinely get the software free; other occupations do not -- except for software reviewers)

• The status of your company (networked licenses cost less; bulk licenses cost less)

• Whether you are part of a target market (I hear cases of software being seeded, given away free to specific customer in specific cities of specific disciplines; in addition, there are competitive upgrades to lure away customers, and so on) 

This is why most CAD vendors no longer list prices, but require you to contact one of their salesman. It's his job to customize the price to you -- meaning that for the same software you might pay more or you might pay less than your competitor. In the end, it seems that the only customers who pay full price are the least appreciated and hardest working ones: the self-employed.

Those CAD software vendors who like the cloud, like it because it allows them to know you in the biblical sense: personally and intimately. The Wall Street Journal this morning is reporting that vendors like Staples vary online pricing depending on the income they guess you have, as well as the distance of the location of your Web browser from competitors. You pay less when your Web browser is closer to a competitor and/or determines you might have a higher income from your geolocation or buying habits. (Remember folks, surf safe: turn on your Web browser's privacy miode.)

But the idea of an unbiased, impersonal Internet is fast giving way to an online world that, in reality, is increasingly tailored and targeted. Websites are adopting techniques to glean information about visitors to their sites, in real time, and then deliver different versions of the Web to different people.

Prices change, products get swapped out, wording is modified, and there is little way for the typical website user to spot it when it happens.

The cloud allows CAD vendors to do away with the salesman sharpening his pencil; like airline seat pricing, the price of your next CAD upgrade or subscription may well be biased -- er, dynamically adjusted -- in real-time.

 

Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323777204578189391813881534-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwMzEyNDMyWj.html

Autodesk ceo confirms: "Everything will be available on the cloud"

Fusion 360 introduced this week at Autodesk University is only a transition product, probably.

http://apb.directionsmag.com/entry/carl-bass-i-do-believe-that-everything-is-moving-to-the-cloud/294177

Whereas Inventor is desktop-bound, Fusion 360 is the stepping stone, running half on the desktop, half on the cloud. In my opinion, it is the predecessor to the cloud-only version of CAD, which customers can expect in 2-3 years.

 

 

Small files not worth processing on the cloud, apparently

Some months ago, I reviewed Autodesk's render-on-the-cloud function, and found it less convenient and slower than rendering on my desktop. Some readers then complained that my model (which is one of the most complex ones included with AutoCAD samples files) was not big enough. 

So I asked, how does one determine which models are sufficiently complex enough to pay extra to have rendered on the cloud, and which are small enough to render more quickly on the desktop? 

Which leads to the next level of abstraction: if there are models too small to benefit from rendering on the cloud, what does this mean for those CAD firms wanting to move everything to the cloud?

If cloud proponents say that one of AutoCAD's largest, most complex 3D sample files (Oil Module.dwg at 2.3MB)  should not be processed on the cloud, what does that say for the millions of other drawings that are smaller and less complex?

The big stumbling block of cloud proponents is the contradictions they expose by their arguments.

The cloud has its place for limited applications. This throwing an entire company's lot into the cloud is as silly as those who thought during the bubble of 1999-2000 that profits had no place in selling dog food over the Internet. Those who thought clearly back then knew that the Internet had its place for some things, but not everything.

As James Maeding wrote on blog.cadnauseam.com:

The people flocking to the cloud are consumers that need their phones and music backed up. The rest of us know the cloud as simply remote storage, and generally companies only use that if forced to by some client.

Autodesk responds: 'No way we are going cloud-only'

Autodesk this week reacted to bloggers quoting company ceo Carl Bass, that in 2-3 years "The only way to use [every one of our products] will be online." Evan Yares in April was the first to highlight the video shot by TechCrunch. I read Evan's piece, and puzzled over the statement by Bass. In early November, Steve Johnson repeated it on his blog. The quote was recycled on a number of bulletin boards.

I watched for Autodesk's reaction, but after seven months there was nothing -- other than Autodesk's Marc Petit saying that there was no way all of his Media and Entertainment division's software could be cloud-based, due to the amount of data that gets processed for animations.

When Phil Bernstein was this week quoted by Business Standard as saying, "Our long-term strategy is to move everything there," I ran with the story. Then yesterday and today, Autodesk reacted by having Scott Sheppard place comments on Steve's blog and mine, suggesting that the private cloud is a viable alternative to the public one.

Today, Autodesk senior vp of industry strategy and marketing Andrew Anagnost called to emphasize that "'Everything moving to the cloud' is completely inaccurate. We are adding to what customers are doing today." There will always be desktop software; Autodesk just wants to be in the lead of all the technology changes occurring these days. Why Mr Bass said that, he does not know.

 

I'll run the full interview with Mr Anagnost in Monday's upFront.eZine. Subscribe now by sending 'subscribe upfront' to editor@upfrontezine.com.

 

 

The problem to Autodesk's approach to PLM is named "DEXMA"

The problem with original PLM is that it was heavyweight. It needed lots of cash upfront, lots of installation, lots of customization, followed by lots more cash. It could take a year to fully implement.

The heavyweight systems sold by Dassault Systems, PTC, and SAP also raised walls of protection. It was so embedded, so-- like bad pizza, it lay heavy in the stomachs of customers.

Autodesk's approach was to make their PLM 360 lightweight, price it with a low cost (free for the first three), pre-customize it-- stuff like that. Now, Autodesk was not the first to use this approach, but they are the most visible.

The problem to lightweight PLM is, however, is that it is cast off as easily as it is taken on. Cloud PLM can be developed easily by competitors. And Autodesk can be underpriced.

There may well be other competitors, but one I've become aware of is DEXMA from Russia's largest MCAD developer, ASCON. This month they unveiled their public beta at http://cloud.dexma-plm.com. I won't go into all the details, other than to note that they include a part library, have a contractor resource system, generate images of CAD drawings using HTML5, and have a three-level pricing scheme:

• Free -- when you use the online site
• $25/user/month -- for running design-only on your corporate server
• $49/user/month -- for running designs, project logistics, and production control on your corporate server

By comparison, Autodesk charges $60/user/month (minimum one year) after the first three free users, and for that price users get everything included. DEXMA's pricing problem is that they don't beat out Autodesk until a firm reaches 17 users (at the $49 price point). OTOH, free for all users is about as cheap as it gets.

Autodesk defense is to add more verticals and more capabilities quickly. Oh, and be glad that DEXMA is targeting Germany first.

(For more on DEXMA, see

http://isicad.net/articles.php?article_num=15601)

Your cloudy future, part LVII

Google updated its Google Chrome Web browser, and now elements of its Google Docs software keep crashing.  

alcove9 prez speaks about Google's shutdown of Mini

Google Mini was a piece of hardware that looked like a rack server, and boasted of being able to search the contents of 220 file types, in-house, at Google Search speeds. It cost $5,000 to search 300,000 documents a year.

Recently, the company discontinued the hardware, as part of the new ceo's efforts at eliminating distracting projects. Not all Web pages, however, pertaining to Mini have been wiped from the Internet, yet: google.com/intl/en_uk/enterprise/mini.

Sam Abu-Hamdan is the president of search company alcove9, and he had this to say about Mini's demise:

Google’s withdrawal from this market is not surprising. Although they pioneered the ‘out of the box’ search appliance, the Google Mini still didn’t solve structured data access, which even small businesses have nowadays.

He noted that "the browser-based and embedded versions of the a9 Hub, Alcove9’s base module, have been designed to index and optimize search by going beyond naming conventions, metadata, and file attributes. This optimization allows the a9 Hub to return search queries in 2 seconds."

The purpose of his comments is to offer Alcove9 as a replacement for Google Mini. alcove9.com

 

 

Alternatives to Autodesk's cloud rendering service

Amongst the controversy created by upFront.eZine's benchmarking of Autodesk's cloud rendering service, RevUp Render president Ry Bruscoe wrote to tell me that he has an alternative.

His competitive service seems more comprehensive than the one provided by Autodesk. For instance, it has an EasyView window that shows you the progress of the rendering as it is performed by nVidia GPUs on Amazon's computer farm. (Video.)

The video shows a model taking six hours to render in Revit, but just a few seconds on Amazon. (Using a RevUp browser window, the model viewpoint is changed, and the scene is re-rendered in a few more seconds -- nearly interactively.) As I asked in upFront.eZine, is Revit just really s-l-o-w at rendering?

RevUp supports more CAD programs than Autodesk's own stable, including ones crucial to designers, like SketchUp and Rhino. With third parties providing the service makes one wonder, Does Autodesk need to be in the cloud rendering business?

 

Survey hints at paying for a premium AutoCAD WS

Autodesk this week asked AutoCAD WS users to answer questions in an online survey.

As matter of course, I ignore requests to fill out surveys (does anyone actually offer their comments on "Web site experience" surveys?), even those that provide a lure, like winning an iPad (I know I won't win it, and neither will you). But perusing surveys of CAD vendors can provide hints of things to come, if not biases in their current thinking.

Both were on display in the AutoCAD WS survey -- in addition to the usual mundane queries, like how many people in your company?

Here is the Inherent Bias Question:

11. How do you mainly share your drawings with others to review and edit designs?

• AutoCAD Sheet Sets
• Printed drawings
• Other CAD data management application
• AutoCAD WS
• Shared folder in your company network
• I don't share my drawings
• Cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.)

Notice what's missing from the list? The most-used method to share files, email.

Missing from the list of cloud storage brand names: Autodesk 360.

And what's with the wording of the "other CAD data management application" item? I get the feeling Autodesk Vault got left out, perhaps by accident.

I suppose the inclusion of sheet sets was to see if this AutoCAD function should be included in WS.

And then the Interesting Question -- or, perhaps the $64,000 Question:

12. Would you be interested in paying for a premium version of AutoCAD WS with advanced features?

The question is impossible to answer, because (a) we don't know what the cost will be, and (b) we don't know what the advanced features will be (sheet set support?).

Having seeded the cloud market with free software, Autodesk is now looking to customers to monetize its "biggest platform change in the history of the company."

 

Sunglass.io releases its API

We introduced Sunglass.io and their HTML5/WebGL CAD system in upFront.eZine #738, and today the company is spilling the first beans about its API [applications programming interface]. The official announcement is next week, Thursday.

Sunglass API logo

For now, we know the following about the API:

• Powers plug-ins to Rhino and SketchUp initially, with more to come
  
  
• Hooks desktop software into Sunglass's Stage interface
  
  
• Directly accesses Sunglass's HTML5-based cloud collaboration 

If We Build an API, Will They Come?

It's one thing to make your software available to others -- third-party developers, private corporations, other CAD vendors -- through your API; it's another for anyone to take up the offer. Even when access to the API is free, third parties have the cost of paying someone to write the code linking their software to Sunglass.

It will be interesting to see who takes  up the Sunglass API.

Sunglass UI

In other news, the Sunglass software is now out of beta. http://sunglass.io.

And they're off! The cloud storage war beings among CAD vendors (corrected)

Autodesk offers 1GB cloud storage for everyone, and 3GB for those who pay an annual subscription fee. It upped to limits to 3GB for anyone, and 25GB for subscribers (thanks to Mark Dooley for the correction).

Vectorworks offers 1GB, but only to those paying the annual sub fee (no outsiders). Until this morning, when the company lifted the limit to 5GB.

Autodesk, now it's your move.

www.vectorworks.net/cloudservices

Q&A with Vectoworks

Vectorworks is one of the pioneers in desktop CAD, and now it is a pioneer in cloud CAD.

The company began in 1985 under the name Diehl Graphsoft, first releasing its 3D architectural software on the Mac, and then extending it to Windows in 1997. In 2000, the company was acquired by Nemetschek after the German company failed to plant its Unix-based AEC software in the United States. Today, the company is known as Nemetschek Vectorworks, and its founder, Richard Diehl, is still chairman of the board.

CADdigest's Ralph Grabowski and Roopinder Tara spoke with Jeremy Powell, the Global Director of Product Marketing at Nemetschek Vectorworks.

Q: Vectorworks is known primarily as architectural software, yet you added a solid modeler. Tell us about that.
A: We added Parasolid with Vectorworks 2009, because we saw BIM would evolve with robust 3D technology as being core to architectural design.

Q: Parasolid is mainly used for mechanical design, and so isn't it unusual using it for architectural software?
A: We saw the PLM community had already figured out the concept of BIM years ago, and decided that Parasolid was an integral technology in making it possible. What better way to build a BIM solution that works than to use the world’s most powerful 3D modeling technology kernel?

Q: Do other AEC products use Parasolid?
A: Yes, Bentley does, but Vectorworks is the only architectural package on the Mac to use Parasolid.

(Image source: Vectorworks)

Q: Let's talk about your cloud offering. You released it just a month ago. How is it going so far? 
A: We are seeing a decent amount of initial uptake, and people trying the service in USA, Canada, UK, Portugal, Denmark, Ireland, and Spain; we just added Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Liechtenstein. We have seen a spike in our usage, but we are still early in the offering stage.

Q: Of the people using it, what do they like about it?
A: They like the idea of freeing themselves up to work, while viewports and sheets are calculated in the cloud. They also like the simplicity of our Vectorworks Nomad app for the iPad. They like its uncrowded interface for markup and communication.

Q: What about Android?
A: We get asked about that, and it is coming later this year. We began with iOS mainly because 55% of our user base is Mac-based, and so we assume this majority also uses iPads.

Q: What are your biggest hurdles in introducing it to other countries -- is it technology?
A: No, not technological, because we use Amazon Web Services, and so countries do not matter. The reason for the staggered releases is due to the need to translate the app and Web interface to local languages, as well as the time it takes for submissions to clear the Apple App Store [for the Nomad app]. We are expanding next to Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and then Japan later this year.

Q: What are the biggest challenges to your customers accepting cloud services?
A: It is no different than introducing revolutionary new tools on the desktop. People have to be willing to fundamentally change the way they work. Also, we have to deal with different mindsets of what you should be able to do on the cloud. Complex model design will remain on the desktop, but non-interactive workflow steps that are compute-intensive will move to the cloud -- generating sections and renderings, for example -- to allow the user to keep working on other things.

Q: Vectorworks allows just 1GB of cloud storage. How does that compare with other cloud services?
A: We are evaluating raising the limit. Because people are still trying it out at this stage, we believe the storage is lower than will be in the future when more users more consistently adopt cloud services into their workflows. The cost of storage is downward, and so we can pass on that advantage to the user.

Q: Is the biggest selling point the cloud computing, not so much the storage?
A: Yes, that things can be computed. Sheet layers contain viewports showing elevations, sections, 3D rendered views, and any time a change is made, the viewports need to be updated; and on large project this can be time consuming.

Q: Is the cloud available within the the Vectorworks interface?
A: There is a separate desktop app that runs in the background. Users can decide whether to manually sync or have the file synchronization occur on a schedule. They specify which folders need sync; these can be the cloud services folder, or can reside as shortcuts.

Q: Has the price of computing services been determined?
A: Not yet. We are still evaluating the statistics of computing time being used. So, it continues to be free for Vectorworks Service Select subscribers for now; at some point, we intend to charge for 3D credits while continuing to provide storage and 2D credits for free.

Q: How do you measure acceptance of cloud technology? Can you give us any numbers?
A: Right now we don’t have hard numbers to share with you, but as the system matures we look forward to having more details. We are looking to expand the services available to our customers as we continue to build our Cloud Services platform. For instance, we recently linked with CadFaster for real-time collaboration and markup of our 3D models. We continue to look for new solutions to develop and other solutions with which we can partner

www.vectorworks.net

[Reprinted by permission of CADdigeset.com] 

How expensive is cloud computing?

Autodesk charges if you want to render more than 50 images. Vectorworks has said that cloud storage is cheap, but cloud computing is expensive -- and so will be charging its customers (eventually) for processing 3D drawings into 2D plans online. So, how much does the cloud cost?

In summer 2011, Cycle Computing delivered a 30,000-core cloud for under $1,300/hour, using Amazon Web Services. [source]

For an end user, employing the service for a few seconds, it's going to cost just $1.80 or so. For a Cloud Services Reseller like Autodesk and Vectorworks, it's going to cost $1,300 an hour or $11 million a year, should the service be fully utilized by thousands and millions of CAD customers.

(Naturally, the $1,300/hr pricetag doesn't necessarily apply directly to CAD renderings; it's a number we can work with. And yes, I did invent the new "cloud services reseller" moniker.)