WorldCAD Access

Roopinder Tara's #2 pet peeve: "Never mind what I said before: THIS is the best product evah!" –

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Too often we are told by CAD vendors that we are being shown the best product ever. We understand that your products are better than everyone else’s -- that’s pride of ownership, and we get that. But when you say your new stuff replaces the old stuff -- which was just garbage, by the way -- we can’t believe anyone falls for this. And that’s a pet peeve. The Conversation That Never Happened I was seated at lunch with a few other journalists and a CEO, who, for reasons soon to be apparent, will remain unnamed.... Read more →

Roopinder Tara's pet peeve #1: Keep it in your pants

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com I’ve probably sat through hundreds of presentations given by excited CAD executives. So many times has one of them pulled out his iPhone to make a point that I am sick of it. I can see it coming as they reach in. Then they pull it out. It's followed by something clever, like: "10 years ago, it took a roomful of computers to do what this little thing does. I don’t need a user manual to operate this." Hey! Look, just cause you have an iPhone, it doesn’t mean we all do. We might secretly want... Read more →

After Voyager exited the solar system, Solid Edge goes about reviving its partner program

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog. Or you can be a cool dude who wears dark shades at all hours. Meet Mark Burhop, who, unlike his avatar persona, is in real life is a down-to-earth CAD guy, nice enough to have as many friends in real life friends as he has followers in his virtual one. But Mark needs help. He has been plucked from his comfort zone of Femap (Siemen PLM's FEA software) and put in charge of creating a “app ecosystem” for Solid Edge -- in other words, reviving a... Read more →

Exactly what are generative components? We find out from Huw Roberts

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com After seeing wondrous projects at Smart Geometry 2011, I wanted to know more about how Generative Components worked so I tracked down Huw Roberts, Bentley’s global marketing director, to answer a few questions. As you might guess from Huw’s title, generative components is just a small piece of Huw’s world, “but an important one.” Even after the conference was over, I had trouble categorizing generative components. Was it a technology? A module? An application? A programming language? A development kit? A what? It’s an application, says Huw. It’s also an environment. Luckily, he was able to... Read more →

We've got Autodesk's roadmap for its motley CAE crew

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com A $500-million shopping spree has left the biggest CAD vendor in the world with a wealth of CAE [computer-aided engineering] tools. Autodesk, known for design software such as AutoCAD and assorted vertical apps (Inventor, Revit, Civil3D and the like), now also has to figure out what to do with Algor (general purpose FEA), Moldflow (mold flow analysis) PlassoTech (FEA, again), Solid Dynamics (kinematics) and Blue Ridge Numerics (fluid dynamics). It is as motley a collection of CAE tools as there ever was. Each product has brought with it a unique interface, developers and code base… and... Read more →

With 123D, is Autodesk taking on Google? (part 4 of the series)

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Autodesk chose Maker Faire -- the annual gathering of inventor, hobbyists and craftspeople -- for the public debut of 123D, its consumer design software. I didn’t know what to expect at Maker faire. Maybe Autodesk did not know either. The consumer market is fairly new territory for both of us. Google SketchUp's booth at Maker Faire, drawn in SketchUp, a favorite among DIYers. But not so new for Google, who was there in a big way with SketchUp: a trailer, a stage and several exhibits, and big crowds. It turns out that SketchUp has achieved a... Read more →

Roopinder Tara takes the first look at Autodesk's new 123D

By Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Autodesk is today lifting the veil off its new 123D consumer design product. Targeted towards the hobbyist, craftsman, tinkerer, inventor,it will be available for a very popualr price: $0. Here is an early look of the UI. Graphics and descriptions are preliminary and were supplied in advance of the product release. (click for bigger picture) The interface. With commands for Extrude, Constrain, etc., it doesn't seem dumbed down enough for your average Joe (Update: 123D is based on Fusion.) 123D appears to be based on a solid modeling engine, as commands such as Sketch and Extrude... Read more →

Inforbix aims to be the Google of CAD metadata

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Oleg Shilovitsky maybe best know to us as the most prolific blogger on the subject of PLM. (See plm think tank and Beyond PLM). His posts are familiar to readers of TenLinks. But Oleg is about to embark on a new venture, this time with a commercial software product. Along with partner Anatoly Savin, Oleg will soon make available Inforbix, a data search tool still in beta, recently received the recipient of Top Technology Award at COFES 2011. Oleg’s Inforbix is a multi-purpose application for the metadata found in CAD models. I recently saw a demo... Read more →

Autodesk resurges the Maker movement: 123D, part 2

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Curiosity piqued by Autodesk ceo Carl Bass’s announcement of 123D, I head to Autodesk's San Francisco office to hear more. I am introduced to Tatjana Dzambazova, Autodesk’s fair haired, super-driven, yet quite personable seniorr product manager of creative products, who -- despite being in the final phase of product launch -- pushes aside her stack of executive summaries, product descriptions, etc., to make time for me. She looks familiar. Perhaps we know each other in her previous life, she volunteers. She was once in charge of Revit. She is modest. She has authored several books on... Read more →

Autodesk joins the Maker movement with 123D (part 1)

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com Autodesk CEO Carl Bass announced 123D on May 6 in New York in an interview in Wired Business Conference. 123D will be a Windows desktop application for design, but unlike Autodesk’s other software created for professionals, 123D will be targeted towards consumers. It is currently in beta testing. According to Bass, “There are tens of thousands of people –if not more—who want to make something.” Autodesk aims to give this software away. That’s right: free! Mentioned in practically the same breath was a connection with TechShop, a DIY workshop that seems to be popping up all... Read more →

Who's #1? Roopinder Tara checks out the claim

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com LAS VEGAS, NV (PLM World), May 3, 2011 -- I am herded into a Tecnomatix presentation at Siemens PLM's annual user meeting. The speaker wastes no time in declaring Tecnomatix the world leader in DM. That's digital manufacturing, if you must ask. I'm watching the presentation and it looks good, robots on assembly lines, digital mannequins...but #1? We in the CAD media get that a lot. So many products, all of them clamoring for a way to differentiate themselves, all superior. The conference itself has been hailed as the #1 PLM conference in the world. I... Read more →