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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

Graphisoft announces ArchiCAD 17

In all modesty, upFront.eZine was going to be the first to announce what's new in ArchiCAD 17. We did the interview and demo last Friday, but logistics prevented the story running in yesterday's issue of the newsletter. Gosh, editors hate it when we lose an exclusive!

(I notice that Graphisoft, a division of Nemetschek, does not call itself "Nemetschek Graphisoft," the way that "Nemetschek Vectorworks" does.)

Anyhow, the big deal in 17 is details, with Graphisoft harnessingg multi-cores and background processing to automatically generate details of junctions (intersections of walls and floors), even slanted ones, through a new super attribute that prioritizes materials, so that the software knows which to trim and which does the trimming.

I hope to run the story on Graphisoft 17 when upFront.eZine returns from vacation on May 27. Meantime, here is the official page: www.graphisoft.com/archicad/archicad_17/overview.

 

 

The unthanked who put on CAD events

We show up at CAD marketing events and expect it to be interesting, worthwhile the trip. Some are not; many are. While we in the media show up on the day the event starts, others have been preparing and practicing.

The CAD vendor's staff can spend entire days just doing dress rehearsals. Staff are trained in how to react positively, enthusiastically towards the media. Spiral bound photocopied notebooks document the resumes of every media attendee so that the CAD staff have an easy source of conversation making. And at the end of the event, sometime a CAD staff member will let it slip by looking exhausted. We don't notice any of this, but do complain about the food or the transportation or the content of the presentations or the location of venue. (My pet peeve location: Orlando.)

So it is with interest that I read today's press release from ZWSOFT, which contains a thank-you to the staff that put on the company's annual reseller event. The headline features the over-the-top adjectives characteristic of Chinese marketing: "Behind GPC 2013: The Bitter-sweet Story of 100 ZWSOFT Young Staff."

Here are excerpts from the press release:

---

GPC 2013, an annual gathering for ZWSOFT global partners to exchange ideas about product development and business opportunities, concluded satisfactorily in applauses and cheers. While behind the curtain, there is the unsung heroes -- the 100 ZWSOFT young staff, who have worked tirelessly for over 3 months and put together their minds to ensure the success of the conference. 

...Representing the future of ZWSOFT, some 100 young staff assumed the responsibility of this great work. Every detail, from keynote speech discussion and rehearsal, to venue selection and decoration, has been well-designed to give a professional and impressive experience to partners.

During the three-month preparation, though everything stayed within schedule, to ensure perfectness, no one knows how many modifications of speech contents have been made to ensure the quality of the presentation, how many rehearsals of award ceremony have been organized to make sure every detail is well considered and how many free talk topics have been changed to make them fruitful and beneficial. During the tough three-month period, the young staff clubed ideas and exertions to combat every difficulty. Their work was proven by the consummate conclusion of the big day.

After long preparation, ZWSOFT unveiled the most exciting part of GPC where they managed to present the result of their extraordinary efforts in the past three months. On the stage, ZWSOFT management team made a stirring speech about the remarkable achievements made together with global partners. At the same time, groups of young people were carrying out their responsibilities behind the scene to ensure the conference to run smoothly. Some of them were listening to every word of the keynote speaker and made adjustment to PPT, sound and lighting, while the others were busily preparing tea break and live demo. When hearing the conference successfully concluded, they were so moved that everyone was surrounded by cheers and hugs.

After a whole day’s hard work, these young people had fun with global partners and fully enjoy at the thank-you banquet... This banquet is not only for ZWSOFT partners but also for their team members.

 

In upFront.eZine this week: CAD war in Russia, and a cross-cultural wedding

From the editor: This week is the one time a year when I ask for donations to upFront.eZine. Please consider sending $25 (for individuals) or $500 (for corporations). To pay by PayPal, I have added buttons at www.upfrontezine.com. Thank you for supporting upFront.eZine!

In upFront.eZine #776 this week, we have for you:          

1. CAD Wars Erupt in China and Russia
    - Part 2: In Russia

2. Dual-Culture Wedding in Germany

3. Redo, and just a few of our other regular columns.

You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-776.htm

Note:
upFront.eZine takes a break for two weeks as I travel through Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. See you again on May 27.

What Kind of a Threat Does Autodesk Faces from China? (part 2)

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com

In the wake of the GstarCAD8 launch last month in Beijing, to which three of us western journalists were invited, I reflect on the chances of success of a Chinese CAD company in the US and world market.

GstarCAD8 was launched with sufficient fanfare. There were pretty girls, bright lights, a big stage. As more CAD companies are choosing to soft-launch major releases from behind WebEx screens, this did make us sit up and take notice. One might read a lot into their willingness to fly three Western industry journalists half way across the world to see the unveiling.

We listened through translator headphones as company executives extolled the product’s technical prowess, as well as to their deliberate, longterm campaign that over the years sought to establish Gstarsoft first as a regional CAD product, then as an international tool of choice. 

Can they do it? We are only too well aware to what China has done to us with manufacturing. Can they do it with software?

Guess what: Your software is probably already made in China – and India. I cannot think of a major CAD vendor that does not have a development team in China or India [or Russia] – or use Chinese or Indian labor on its home soil. A CAE vendor once told me that almost all of its developers were in two distinct groups, one from China, one from India. That was 20 years ago. The world has only got flatter since. 

Still, to hear one Chinese company extolling their CAD product is not enough to convince me that it will rule the CAD world. GstarCAD has only about 400 employees [Autodek has 7,500]. It is funded privately, and not by the vast concerted might of the country itself. Autodesk and other CAD companies can exhale.

There are signs, however, of a national directive for China to establish itself as a major player among software vendors. At the GstarCAD8 launch, president of GstarCAD Ky Xiang told us, "China will be the software center of the world."

Clearly, China is no longer content to be bridesmaid, earning pennies for factory, sweatshop, and cubicle labor while it sees US stockholders pocket the big bucks. This has to hurt. God help our current CAD market leaders should China ever get its act together. Even current heavyweight Autodesk would be knocked clear out of the ring if that happens.

[Reprinted with permission of CAD Insider.]

BricsCAD V13.2 released today with 64-bit support for Windows

Bricsys keeps putting out frequent, significant updates of BricsCAD, and today they began shipping V13.2. Well, not so much "shipping" as making available for download. Semantics aside, this free, point-2 update adds the following functions to the Windows version:

• Version for 64-bit Windows

• Read and write DWG 2013 file format

•  Connect to Chapoo file sharing and project collaboration, and keeps tracks of xrefs. (Vew 
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgOJ0l6jv0Q for more info.)

• Improvements to visual styles, changes to sheet set dialog boxes, more options for splines in the Properties panel, fixes for 3D assembly design and direct modeling.

You can read the full set of release notes at  http://www.bricsys.com/common/releasenotes.jsp. Download a 30-day demo version from http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/.

 

 

 

 

Now Dassault has easy-to-uise floorplan software, too

Had you heard of SquareClock? Me, neither. First time was during Dassault's conference call last week with financial analysts, when he brought up SquareClock, first casually and then more intensely. But it's not for consumers. Here is what ceo Bernard Charlès had to say:

...if you recall we acquired a company called SquareClock last December. And SquareClock is now going to be renamed and put as part of the 3DVIA product family. This is online under cloud through a browser. You can do 3D design and do what we call 'floor planning.' Very interesting scenario: why so? Because by providing this easy cloud browser-based 3D capabilities, [French retailer] SFR is the most traded that brought people in the store, could themselves do the store planning without even being asked to do it.

On the number of casual users is amazing, because it’s average of three users per store, which almost makes it 3,000 users -- casual users online creating 3D for planning to improve merchandizing. That’s why we bought SquareClock, that’s why we are doing what we call '3DVIA store'.

I’m going to do '3DVIA store', '3DVIA office' and '3DVIA home'. So, the usage is really, to create reality of 3D usage with that. [I'm] asked very often, "When do you think cloud is going to be a value for 3D design?" This is a good illustration about how it works, and why.

Sournce: seekingalpha.com/article/1372171-dassault-systemes

 

What Kind of a Threat Does Autodesk Faces from China? (part 1)

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com

Autodesk, the heavyweight champion of the world, is about to take on a contender. This one’s from China. Gstarsoft invited me to their 3rd annual conference in Beijing where, with great fanfare, introduced their contender GstarCAD 8.

Being virtually unknown outside of China (80% of its sales) did not deter GstarCAD from laying out its plans for world domination, a confidence inspired by the success of Chinese manufacturers and a hope that this will somehow translate to the software. GstarCAD resellers were on hand to point to the inevitability of the business software market caving in to the just-as-good-for-a-lot-less philosophy China is adept at capitalizing on. Why would anyone in their right mind spend $4,000 for AutoCAD, when they can do everything with GstarCAD --for only hundreds of dollars?

It is a familiar refrain for CAD insiders. We’ve heard contenders, foreign and domestic, proclaiming that they will be the ones to knock out Autodesk out of the ring. Remember DataCAD, TurboCAD, VersaCAD, Ashlar Vellum...? IntelliCAD and all the AutoCAD clones it spawned? Even Draftsight, which is propped up by CAD heavyweight Dassault, is unlikely to do much damage. But none seemed to even have slowed Autodesk. Autodesk gets bigger and stronger every year. With annual revenue of billions, profits of hundreds of millions and a seeming endless number of 2D users only too willing to convert to its vertical applications, Autodesk is indeed in an enviable position. Bentley, a long way back in the #2 spot with MicroStation, has about a quarter of Autodesk’s revenue.

One might dismiss previous contenders as lightweights, but can you ignore China? China’s will and weight of numbers is sufficient to frighten established market leaders – in any market. The list of big American manufacturing industries that have suffered from Chinese competition is long. Can China’s success in manufacturing be duplicated with software? To aspiring Chinese contenders, Autodesk’s success represent a huge target, no different than a Chinese factory undercutting a domestic manufacturer of doorknobs, underwear, cameras, dog food, computers...and almost anything else you can think of. China has proven it can rule in making all sorts of physical and consumer goods. Almost the same, for a lot less. It works. We’ve all bought into it.

But here is CAD software selling for thousands of dollars. It makes no sense to the Chinese. It’s vexing that it has continued so long. Artificially priced, as opposed to value priced, like diamonds. Ready to cave in, they’re sure, like all the other industries.

It’s only going to take perseverance, some sustained pressure and patience.

[Reprinted with permission of CAD Insider.]

Uh, oh: PTC lowering its FY13 revenue expectations, blames recession

PTC figures that the rough economy isn't going to pick up as they expected, and so they are lowering their revenue expectations for this year to $1.305 - $1.315 billion -- down 3.3% from the earlier projection of $1.34 - $1.37 billion. The company expects to lose $10 million alone due to poorer currency exchange rates.

The latest manufacturing industry reports indicate that European and Japanese manufacturing is in a difficult recession, and the U.S. manufacturing recovery has stumbled as well, recently. ... 85% of our revenue is coming from customers that are in recession.

And the earnings results of a number of enterprise software companies suggest that we're not alone in our view of a difficult macro environment.

During the conference call, one analyst noted that the number of active CAD seats has declined, and wondered if the trend would reverse -- or continue. PTC cfo Jeffrey Glidden felt that the seat number will go up in Q3 and grow from there.

 

 

Blackberry says tablet is a useless form factor, and I agree

I've had access to tablets since 1991. Back in the early 1990s, Microsoft was pushing Windows for Pen Computing after companies like Grid and AT&T beat the convicted monopolist to the punch with operating systems that accepted input from pens tapping and dragging on touch screens. Until the iPad, these flat computers failed, of course, because they were a category for which there was no popular demand. There was no popular demand, because the hardware and software were wrong.

The earliest tablet computers, like the Grid, adapted a version of DOS or created a new OS. They required the use of pens. They were heavy. I did find it fascinating, however, how quickly my young kids adapted to them. I recognized that children liked the immediacy of the medium: direct input to the screen. And so I held out hope, even after the pen computing craze of the early 1990s crashed and the slates retreated to the second last refuge of a failed enterprise, the vertical. (Then the Palm Pilot showed how to do teh category correctly, but that's a different story.)

Microsoft periodically made attempts to resurrect the category, not because tablets had become any more useful to consumers, but because they were seen as a way to jack up the prices of PC, which were falling precipitously. So the company several times grafted a dreadful software experience onto ridiculously-expensive hardware. You'd pay $1,700, double the "normal" price. This alone ensured that consumers would avoid each offering in droves.

Those pen computers that I reviewed in 1991 were just loaners from hardware companies, like NEC and Fujitsu. In the early 2000s, I did own one, an HP convertible. This was a tablet grafted onto a swiveling keyboard:

• Great concept: I could use it as a tablet or as a notebook computer, due to the swivel that held the screen to the keyboard. Great for watching movies on planes.

• Terrible concept: it was too heavy to hold as a tablet, and the resistive screen meant I found myself repeatedly stabbing the screen to get the software to respond. (Software like MoI was written specifically to take advantage of computers like this one.)

Even though this was one of the first notebooks with a dual-core CPU, it ran like molasses, because the Microsoft operating system was not ready for splitting tasks between cores. Ultimately, the entire TX series failed because HP and Nvidia didn't care that the GPU was incorrectly glued down, causing many (most? some?) to fail six months after the 1-year warranty ended.

As was proven by iOS and then by Android, the problem always was a poorly conceived operating system tied to a poorly designed form factor. Apple accomplished what Microsoft after 20 years had failed. Steve Jobs introduced the iPad as something positioned between the smartphone and the notebook computer.

Today, BlackBerry ceo Thorsten Heins announced the death of the tablet: "In five years I don't think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore. Tablets themselves are not a good business model."

(I agree with him, and I'll tell you why in a few moments.)

Now, he may have been speaking of Blackberry having no reason to produce tablets. Or he may have seen the plunging prices of Android tablets, and realized his Canadian company could not make a profit when most of the ones made in China using Chinese technology are under $100. When Microsoft tried last fall jacking the pricing of tablets closer to $1,000, it could not overcome the consumer expectation successfully set by Apple that prices should be $499 or less.

In the last couple of years...

• 
  I bought a super cheap Android tablet from China, and it was dreadful. It now sits on my shelf as a museum piece.
  
  
• Then I was given an iPad, but didn't like holding its heavy weight and having its sharp edges dig into my hands. (In any case, after being spoiled by Android, it's hard to go back to the walled city of Apple; to me, it feels like going from modern democracy back to a medivel monarchy.) My wife uses it as her kitchen radio and to play Sudoku.
  
  
• Then I bought a better Android from China, and my daughter uses it for watching movies.
  
  
• Finally, I bought an ASUS Transformer TF101 tablet, and it has become one of my favorite toys of all time.

The Transformer tablet is a delight because it isn't a tablet, specifically. The "transformer" name refers to it transforming between tablet mode and netbook mode through the detachable keyboard -- all the time running the touch-enabled Android operating system and its hundreds of thousands of free apps.

Here's the nub: I don't detach the keyboard, evah. The keyboard has three crucial benefits:

1. It holds up the screen so that I don't have to.
2. It hold a second battery, doubling the battery life to 12-16 hours, so I don't worry about running out of power. Indeed, on long trips I use the tablet to recharge my phone!
3. It holds additional ports, like two full-size USB ports and a second SD card slot, so I don't need adapters. (It also has a miniSD and mini HDMI ports in the tablet part.)

The TF101 is now old, but it has the distinction of being the first tablet with a dual-core CPU, running an OS that splits tasks among cores. For $400, ASUS did was HP was unable to do with its $1,700 TX series.

Here's the strangest part: I rarely use the keyboard, and I never use the built-in trackpad. Still, ASUS used all the knowledge it gained from being the first and longest producer of netbooks to bat home its winning line of tablets with keyboards that weigh about as much as an iPad.

Microsoft kind of got it right with its Surface tablets shipping with keyboards. Indeed, I suspect Microsoft saw what ASUS had begotten and got scared -- but then flubbed the marketing and then the pricing.

And so this is why I think the Blackberry ceo is right: tablets on their own make little sense, and the category will die out as consumers tire of the fad of impractical simplicity, and properly replace it with practical utility.

(PS: I don't get why Google is producing ChromeBooks, when Android-Books already exist and are already successful.)

Using WiFi with a digital camera, part iv

Over the few months I have owned the EX2F camera, Samsung has issued numerous updates to its software (firmware) that the Cloud function now works. (In the early days, the camera would try to connect repeatedly and unsuccessfully.)

There is, however, one more update Samsung needs to issue: to make the Cloud upload service work with Dropbox. Samsung make some sort of deal with Dropbox, and so I am hopeful this may well show up in the Ex2F.

Right now, the camera's Cloud upload service works only with Microsoft's SkyDrive. The first time I connected, the camera showed a rudimentary Web browser on the screen that reminded me of Web browsing with a Palm Pilot. There I entered the email address and password of my wife's Hotmail account, and told the camera to remember the settings.

The camera then prompts me to select certain photos or to choose to upload all photos. It works pretty well, but with one deal breaking problem: somewhere along the line, the photos are reduced in resolution to a fuzzy 2 megapixels, making them pretty much unusable.

I don't know if the camera does the reducing, or SkyDrive, but it renders the service useless.

 

TIP    A drawback to using WiFi with this camera is that it wears down the battery pretty quickly.

 

 

In upFront.eZine this week: we start a two-part look at CAD wars in China and Russia

In upFront.eZine #775 this week, we have for you:           

1. CAD Wars Erupt in China and Russia
    - Part 1: In China

2. Document Managers Need to be Vaulting, Says Synergis
    - Part 2

3. Out of the Inbox, and some of our other regular columns.

You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-775.htm

Tristram Carfrae is an engineer with an eye for aesthetics

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com

Civil engineering firms work on the grandest scale. pushing back the sea, building dams, bridges, highways. Tristram Carfrae, structural engineer, director and Arup Fellow and keynote at Smart Geometry 2013, is used to overcoming the vast forces of nature. Carfrae and his firm, Arup, have built many big projects, including tall buildings, bridges, the Birds Nest Stadium and the Water Cube for the Beijing 2008 Olympic and plenty more. He is accustomed to moving heaven and earth. But when came up against a frog, he had to back down.

The diminutive green and golden bell frog (litoria aure) was endangered, and lived where Arup was digging for bridge.


The Kurilpa Bridge in Brisbane, Australia. (picture courtesy of Arup)


The distinguished and accomplished Carfrae admits to being "out of phase" here at Smartgeometry, where a decidely more youthful crowd forms clusters to build structures which can resemble modern art and playful experiments without immediate practical application. But Carfrae’s use of digital tools are lesson to all, especially in simulation. He is able to combine aesthetics with the practical… and deliver results.

One of his creations is in Brisbane, Australia, a cable-stayed bridge like no other, is as likely to invite criticism as it is praise. “I love that it has a polarizing effect,” says says Carfrae. What might appear as a random jumble of rods actually is. A spreadsheet produced random numbers which determined the length of each supporting rod. All in one shot. "We liked it, and left it alone.”


The Helix Bridge, Singapore (image courtesy of Arup)

But Carfrae really let the computers hammer away during the digital simulation of a high rise office building that employed twisted columns. It took millions of iterations to get the columns to twist yet still be able to sustain wind and structural loads. The tower was grown one floor at a time, each time satisfying structural criteria, until all floors were created. After 20 towers were declared okay by the computer, the final design selection was based on aesthetics – by humans.

But it was another aquatic creature that almost stymied Carfrae once again. This time, fish. He was pitching a bridge in Singapore. The design was inspired by a Malaysian fish net. A local touch sure to be appreciated, right?

“Mr. Carefrae, what makes you think Singaporeans would like to get to get caught in your net?,” he was asked. He was also getting vibes that Singaporeans and Malays were not exactly friends. It seems that Singapore, a city state of 5 million, maybe be the most modern of Asian cities, was cautious of its more backward neighbors. in fact, the bridge was over a body of fresh water source, meant to reduce Singapore reliance on Malaysia.

Changing gears, Arup looked into a spiral construction, but a spiral is not structural, something easily observable with a Slinky, which droops easily when its ends are pulled apart. But combine that with an opposing Slinky and connect them? Simulation validated the design. But the maintenance cost would go way up, unless the bridge was built with stainless steel.

“What would that add to the project?," the customer wanted to know.

“$15 million.”

The Singaporeans didn’t blink. They were already in love with the design. The double helix would link Singapore forever to biotechnology, a business they were chasing, and one with a ridiculously high economic potential. Singapore was already in love with the design. The double helix would link Singapore forever to biotechnology, a business they were chasing, and one with a ridiculously high economic potential.

Arup got the job, now worth $45 million.

[Reprinted with permission of CAD Insider.] 

 

In upFront.eZine this week: Alibre Design gets a new name and we find out why

In upFront.eZine #744 this week, we have for you:        

1. Introducing Geomagic (nee Alibre) Design
     - Q&A
     - Software Demo

2. Document Managers Need to be Vaulting, Says Synergis
     - Part I

3.  Out of the Inbox, and some of our other regular columns.

You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-774.htm

Using WiFi with a digital camera, part iii

My new Samsung EX2F point-and-shoot camera has seven ways it can communicate over WiFi. Some are direct WiFi links, some are indirect:

Direct WiFi means that the camera communicates directly with another device, like an Android tablet or a smart tv. It's as if there were a USB cable or Bluetooth connection between them.

• The benefit of direct WiFi is that we don't need to have a WiFi hotspot nearby -- or need to use cables; it just needs two devices that have WiFi. 

• The drawback is any other WiFi connection is lost. I can't have this camera communicate to my Android tablet, while my Android tablet is connected to the Internet, such as if I were blogging at a conference.

• This camera uses direct WiFi for MobileLink, RemoteViewfinder, and TV Link modes.

Indirect WiFi means that the camera communicates with the Internet via an WiFi hotspot, just like a laptop computer or Android tablet.

• The benefit is that my Android tablet retains its Internet connectivity, yet can "communicate" with the camera, though indirectly through another site.

• The drawback is that a WiFi hotspot needs to be within range.

• This camera uses indirect WiFi for Social Sharing (Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, or PhotoBucket), Email, Cloud (SkyDrive), and Auto Backup.

Since this camera does not run Android, it cannot be be enhanced with new apps. (Samsung has another camera that uses full Android, complete with touchscreen.) This means its indirect WiFi modes are extremely limited.

For instance, the Social Sharing mode works only with Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, and PhotoBucket. I cannot add Twitter, TypePad, or another social service I might prefer. (I don't use any of the four provided by Samsung.)

The same problem occurs with Cloud, where SkyDrive is the only option. (This is puzzling, because Samsung in January signed a deal with Dropbox.) I use Dropbox, but if forced to I can access SkyDrive through my wife's Hotmail account.

Users of the EX2F are at the mercy of the whims of Samsung's camera group. This sort of statement would have been unthinkable two years ago, complaining that "my camera can't access Dropbox." But that's how the technology scene changes, and how slowly camera design departments catch on.

 

Using WiFi with a digital camera, part ii

Samsung's EX2F offers many WiFi modes, but none of them work on the camera while taking pictures. (There is one exception.) It won't transmit photos to my nearby laptop computer as I take photos at a seminar, for instance. I wish it would, and maybe a future update to the firmware will allow this. Or maybe the camera's computer architecture makes this function impossible.

 This EX2F camera cannot take photos when in WiFi mode

 

Samsung EX2F WiFi Modes 

Here is a summary of the modes available when the camera's Selector dial is set to WiFi:

WiFi modes displayed by the screen;
I reach a mode by pressing the camera's control wheel. 

 

MobileLink - camera sends via WiFi selected photographs to an Android or iOS device running the MobileLink app

RemoteViewfinder - allows an Android or iOS device running RemoteViewfinder app to control the camera via WiFi; low-resolution versions of photos taken by camera are saved on the phone/tablet

Social Sharing - camera sends selected photos via WiFi to your Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, or PhotoBucket account

Email - camera sends selected photos to anyone by email through WiFi; it has simple built-in email software

Cloud - camera sends selected photos through WiFi to Microsoft's SkyDrive; it has a rudimentary built-in Web browser

Auto Backup - camera sends photos not yet copied to a computer running the Auto Backup software over WiFi; this function is also available when the camera is connected to the computer with a USB cable

TV Link - camera displays via WiFi up to 1,000 photographs on DLNA devices, such as smart tvs

In addition, I can assign one of these functions to the dedicated WiFi button as a shortcut.

Those are the options. I've used some of them, and so let me give  you an summary of my experiences of (a) connecting to the WiFi, (b) using MobileLink and (c) using Remote Viewfinder.

Connecting the Camera to WiFi 

Before the camera can do any of these functions, it needs to connect to a WiFi network. If I have not yet connected it to a WiFi netowrk, it displays a screen automatically from which I can pick from the networks available around me. See figure below, at left.

If the network is secure, I need to enter the password, which on this camera is as painful as using a remote control to enter text in a smart tv: pushing the cursor keys and then selecting individual characters from the on-screen keyboard. It is at this point I start desiring a touch screen model!

 

Left: Choosing a WiFi network from the camera's screen
Right: Entering the password, painfully (image credits: Samsung Ex2F user manual)

 

Fortunately, the camera remembers passwords. The next time I need to use WiFi, the camera attempts to connect to the most-recently accessed network. I find it is a bit slower than an Android in connecting to WiFi, about 10-15 seconds.

Using MobileLink and Remote Viewfinder 

Here is how useful/useless I found the first two of  the camera's WiFi modes:

MobileLink. After installing the MobileLink app on my Android devices, I start put the camera into MobileLink mode, and then start the MobileLink app on the Android. (The app refuses to run if the camera is not already in MobileLink mode.) After a half-minute or so, the two devices find each other.

The camera prompts me to select the photos I wish to send to the Android, or I can send previews of all photos and then select them on the tablet's touch screen. The files are saved in the MobileLink folder. A recent update to the app means that images are saved in full resolution, fortunately.

This system works alright, except that on tablets the software insists on running in portrait mode, which is annoying, because I always use tablets in landscape mode.

 

MobileLink software running on Android, as I view it
(I've blurred the faces of people)

WARNING   The limitation to WiFi on most devices is that it can handle just one connection at a time. When MobileLink sets up the WiFi connection between the Android and the camera, the Android's other WiFi connection (to the Internet) is disabled.

This means, for example, that I cannot use Dropbox to upload photos via WiFi while the Android is connected to the camera. iOS devices suffer from the same WiFi limitation. 

RemoteViewfinder. This app sets up a WiFi connection between camera and mobile device, just like MobileLink. While waiting for the two to connect, the following screen appears on the Android, and a similar one on the camera:

 Waiting on the connection 

After the connection is made, the app lets me control the following functions on the camera (see figure below). From top to bottom, left to right:

• RemoteViewfinder icon -- does nothing
• Flash -- changes the flash mode between Automatic or Off; I must manually open the flash on the camera for this to work
• Timer -- delays the photo by 10 or 2 or 0 seconds
• Resolution -- limited to 2 or 9 megapixel modes
• Zoom slider -- controls the optical zoom on the camera; cannot do digital zooms
• View box -- view the pictures taken and then save selected ones (see below)
• Shutter -- takes the picture; hold the shutter button to lock the focus

 

Remote Viewfinder app running on Android

I could use this system to have pictures appear on my tablet as they are taken with the camera, but there is a serious flaw: the photos saved on the tablet are of low resolution, just 640x3o0! Even 800x375 would be acceptable for blog use. I would need to use MobileLink to move full resolution photos, and so I might as well use it instead of Remote Viewfinder.

Another flaw is that Samsung has not adapted the software to tablets, and so RemoteViewfinder appears in a small area in the center of my tablet. I can switch to Zoom mode which fills the screen, but then the app looks blurry. iPad users know what I am talking about.

Below is the interface of this app's View mode:

• Play button (upper left) -- does nothing
• Camera button (lower left) -- returns to RemoteViewfinder mode
• CellPhone button (lower right) -- stores the image on the Android device in low resolution. (The camera keeps the full resolution version.) The files are saved in the DCIM/RemoteViewfinder folder.

 
Viewing the remotely-shot photos on the Android

 

In part iii: communicating photos via SkyDrive

Using WiFi with a digital camera, part i

(I've merged the content from my Gizmos Grabowski blog into this one, and this is the first Gizmos Grabowski-style posting.)

I've been spoiled by how well Dropbox integrates with my Android phone and tablet. I take any number of pictures, and the next time I am at my desktop or laptop computer, the pictures I took with the Android devices are already there. Very slick.

(DropBox running on the Android device automatically uploads the image files to the DropBox servers, which then download them to my computers. This works best when preset WiFi connections are present.)

 
Dropbox running on my ASUS Transformer tablet. These are all the photos taken by any of my Android devices.

 

Late last year I bought a new digital camera, Samsung top-of-the-line EX2F compact point-and-shoot. I bought this  handsome camera primarily because it has the largest lens among all point-and-shoots on the market, an astounding F1.4. A lens this bright is rare even among DSLRs. I bought it, because I don't use a flash; the bigger the opening in the lens, the easier it is to take shake-free photos in low-light situations.

 
Samsung EX2F camera boasts a f1.4x zoom lens, full HD video, and full swiveling LCD viewfinder -- as well as WiFi communications

 

The camera also has WiFi, and so I was eager to try it out. In brief: it is disappointing. Here is what I was hoping for: as I take pictures, they are automatically transferred to my nearby laptop. I gained that expectation from the Android-Dropbox combination. But the EX2F doesn't.

Now, Samsung over the last half-year has slowly improved the camera's software through a series of updates, and so it is not quite so awful. But it still isn't Android-Dropbox slick, a surprise, given that my Android phone (Google Nexus) is made by Samsung. They should know how these things ought to work.

Next in part ii: the many WiFi functions of the EX2F 

 

What happens when we try Nomad with no Vectorworks sub

Vectorworks last week released its Nomad app for Androids, and so I was curious to check it out. I read from the press release that it was only for people who pay into the subscription program run by Vectorworks.

I thought, well, let's see how far I can get without a sub. Going to the https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.vectorworks.nomad page, I found that the app is compatible with three of my Android devices: Google Nexus phone, ASUS Transformer tablet, and MOMO8 tablet. It was not compatible with older devices of mine: my first Android phone (Samsung Vibrant) and my first Android tablet (WonderMedia WM).

Google shows a chart of downloads for each app, along with an imprecise number of downloads. For Nomad, the chart today looked like this:

The chart shows a peak of interest shortly after the release on April 11. The "100 500" means the software has between 100 and 500 installations so far. (Apple doesn't provide this kind of useful information)

I downloaded the app to my ASUS Transformer tablet, started it up, and got blocked on the very first screen:

 

No userid/pw, no go. I was hopeful that the Work Offline button would let me take a peek at functions, but it was also a no-go zone:

 
This is too bad. Vectorworks could include a sample drawing so that prospective users (and subscribers) could try out the functions without a subscription and without accessing the Amazon cloud service.

 

In upFront.eZine this week: Vendors react strongly

In upFront.eZine this week, we have for you:       

1. Vendors React

2. Cmd Ref 2013, Rough eBook Edition

3. Out of the Inbox, and some of our other regular columns.


From the editor: We know of two CAD editors who were in today's Boston Marathon; both are safe, one being six miles from the finish line, the other finishing 13 minutes prior to the blasts.

You can read all about the business of CAD at www.upfrontezine.com/2013/upf-773.htm

Newish eBook: Ralph Grabowski's Command Reference for AutoCAD 2013

  This book was formerly known as The Illustrated AutoCAD Quick Reference 2013 and Beyond, a paper book printed by Cengage Delmar publishing company. They had added the "and Beyond," because to save money they wanted me to update the book every third year, instead of every year.

The publishing company decided last month, however, to shut down its CAD book division entirely as book sales plummeted due to the abundance of free YouTube instructional videos, they tell me. I received from them the copyright on the books I wrote for them for the past 22 years. 

I'm calling this ebook the "Rough eBook Edition," because I essentially output the 1,106 pages to a PDF file, added a new cover, created a new title, and fixed the errors that were in the original print edition.

Ralph Grabowski's Command Reference for AutoCAD 2013, Rough eBook Edition offers you

• All commands in alphabetical order, all their options, and all the ways to invoke the commands 
• Every dialog box illustrated
• One thousand tips 
• Commands and system variables not documented by Autodesk 
• History of commands discontinued by Autodesk 
• System variable reference
• Quick references of shortcut keystrokes, buttons, cursor icons, and other user interface elements (see figure below)

Now, being 1,106 pages the ebook weighs in at a hefty 17MB, and so I will be sending you a download link through Dropbox.

Pricing and Ordering

Cengage Delmar charged $60 for the print book; I'm pricing the ebook edition at $29.95. You can order this PDF ebook through Paypal or by mailing a cheque.

To order through PayPal, please follow these steps:

1. Go to the ebook's Web page at www.upfrontezine.com/cr13
2. Click the PayPal button, and then following the instructions.

Should you prefer to pay by cheque (in US$, Euros, British Pounds, or CDN$), then please mail it to the my address:

Command Reference for AutoCAD 2013
34486 Donlyn Avenue
Abbotsford BC
V2S 4W7 Canada

Thank you!

Ralph Grabowski, author

 

PS: This is what two of the quick reference pages look like:

www.upfrontezine.com/ebooks