It's rare for one company to publically dis another, although it happens in private all the time. Today UGS sent out a press release annoucing that MSC isn't good enuf: "UGS decided to terminate the contract due to MSC's consistent failure to deliver upgrades to customers on a timely basis."
The story: UGS offer results directly from its decision to terminate the OEM agreement between UGS and MSC that allowed MSC to bundle Femap with MSC.Nastran. As a result of UGS decision to terminate the contract, MSC can no longer provide Femap inside MSC.Nastran for Windows nor offer upgrades.
And the net result: UGS is giving a free upgrade to all current MSC.Nastran for Windows users to UGS' own Femap with NX Nastran analysis solution. (MSC.Nastran is based on UGS' Femap,and was previously sold by MSC.) The "free" offer includes:
* Femap 9.1
* NX Nastran 4.0
* Plus all future updates "in a timely fashion." Burn.
* But also requires the purchase of a 12-month maintenance agreement. So not so free.
Wow, that's pretty rough. What's next, will UGS pull the rights to use Parasolid in Patran?
Posted by: Concerned | Feb 26, 2006 at 03:28 PM
The URL isn't working. Try this: http://www.ugs.com/products/velocity/msc_nastran.shtml
Posted by: | Feb 27, 2006 at 02:27 PM
"...will UGS pull the rights to use Parasolid in Patran?"
No -- UGS won't do this. ParaSolid is licensed by UGS on a level-playing-field basis. If they pulled a Parasolid license from a competitor, they'd lose the faith of the entire CAD/CAM/CAE industry.
Under European Community rules, ParaSolid is considered an "essential facility." That is, it is something that is essential for competitors of UGS to have, in order to compete. If UGS tried to refuse to license it to a competitor, they might have a problem under Article 82 of the EC Treaty. But then -- the discussion is academic. My understanding is that UGS has always treated their ParaSolid licensees evenhandedly.
Posted by: Evan Yares | Mar 01, 2006 at 01:00 AM