WorldCAD Access

blog nauseam Begs Adesk: No Acad for Mac, Please

Steve Johnson this morning makes very good arguments against porting AutoCAD to the Macintosh (at Why AutoCAD for Mac is a bad idea), but I disagree with him.

Mr Johnson argues that Windows has its roots infecting (my word) too much of AutoCAD; in any case, Autodesk's $250 million worth of personal and other cuts should prevent it from spending the manpower and dollars on coding a Mac version. 

He summarizes, "Reversing or working around that [Windows->Mac] process is a very substantial undertaking."

I disagree. Creating new CAD programs is trivial these days. Even one-man programmers do it, like the touchscreen-oriented MoI. 'Nother example: small CAD company IMSI/design produced the better-than-LT DoubleCAD in under two years (I think that was the timeframe). An example from Autodesk Labs: the new Project Dragonfly online "CAD" program.

I suspect that Autodesk would not port AutoCAD/Win to the Mac. They would start from scratch, linking code modules to create something fresh that happens to use AutoCAD's command structure/APIs and reads/saves in DWG format -- all wrapped in the OS X interface.

They would... they would be reading a Mac version of Deelip Menezes' book, "OpenCAD: A Step by Step Guide to Developing a Professional CAD Application." But instead of using ODA's APIs, Autodesk'd use their own. 

(On the other point: Autodesk is not just firing employees; Autodesk is also hiring in some areas.) 

The tough one is whether Acad/Mac would sell, and here I agree with Mr Johnson, who writes, "Any Mac user with any sense wouldn’t touch the first new Mac release with a bargepole." While today's Mac market is hundreds of times larger than when Autodesk made its original attempt 20 years ago, a brand-new Acad/Mac today must compete against established vendors -- VectorWorks, Graphisoft, Ashlar Vellum, and so on -- who spent the last 20 years improving their Mac-based software.

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At time of writing this, the Macheads must still be asleep; 67% of the comments are begging for AutoCAD/Linux. 

The BIM Standard

Nigel Davies is director of Evolve Consultancy, and took a few minutes to explain the AEC (UK) BIM Standard. How did this differ from, say, IFCs? I wondered.

This isn’t the same kind of thing as the IFC initiatives. It’s about grass roots BIM usage standards.

Just like the AEC (UK) CAD Standards was an “off the shelf” convention for all those 1001 companies out there writing their own layer standard yet trying to communicate with other companies using different standards, the AEC (UK) BIM Standard is being aimed at all those people who’ve had Revit or Bentley Architecture (or ArchiCAD or etc etc) installed and sit there, drumming their fingers thinking, “OK, now what?”

It’s being put together because there is a need in all of our committee-represented companies (and many others) for answers to these questions that no-one is stepping up to answer except at a large cost (consultants, pah, who’d employ them!?) and on an individual basis:

• “How do I name my objects?”
• “How do I split my files up?”
• “How much detail should I model?”
• “If I need to take this model into analytical programs, how will that affect the way I construct my model?”
• “What about the other 15 people on this project using 2D AutoCAD?”
• “When do I need to stop worrying about exchanging intelligent information and start thinking instead about exchanging information intelligently?”

I’m sure we’ll be referring to the work of initiatives like IAI/BuildingSmart (particularly for object hierarchies), but this is about providing a “starting point” of understanding and commonality for companies adopting BIM to a level of project-biased necessity that IFCs will never be able to convey.

We’re still at the formative stages ourselves in terms of content, but we’re trying to keep this real. We can’t solve all the big BIM questions, but we can start people off on the right footing. 

 

Further details about the Committee’s work can be found at www.aec-uk.org.

Copy/Tech Editor Qualifications

It's easy to become a copy editor or technical editor for an AutoCAD book. The qualifications you need can be as few as these: 

• Knowledgeable about the subject matter.

• Accurate in your work.

• Capable of reading a thousand pages of text and figures without eyes glazing over nor brain shutting down.

• Able to add poor puns and rotten jokes to the text...

(Click the image for the full-size version.)

The red text belongs to the copy editor of my Using AutoCAD 2010 book, while the penciled text belongs to the technical editor.

Not Just Me

Engadget publishes a photo of Steve Wozniak asleep during a Palm Pre demo:

1:05PM And it's official. This Palm conversation has lulled Woz to sleep. We kid you not.

(A blogger had posted a photo of me snoozing off during the SolidWorks press event last fall in Barcelona. I blamed the jetlag.)

The Restless User Interface

A key aspect of productivity is to know intuitively the operation of software. This is no different from fingers memorizing the locations of keys on the keyboard -- and the reason the Dvork keyboard failed.

Companies like Microsoft and Autodesk seem determined to impede productivity of users through frequent changes to their software's user interface. Case in point: AutoCAD's Dashboard. Lasted a mere two years.

Last year: the new ribbon.

This year: the very cluttered ribbon.

Next year? Something even worse, I imagine.

Bill Fane writes...

I find it interesting that over the years we have changed from the rigidity of sequential step-by-step command-line entry, through the convenience of random-entry dialog boxes, to the ease of step-by-step wizards.

Circle of Life: Bricsys-Flynn Hookup

There is irony in today's announcement from Bricsys that Global Force DIRECT is now handling distribution of its Bricscad software in India and North America.

The head of GFD is Tony Flynn, former head of marketing for Bentley Systems.

An earlier incarnation of the Bricsys corporation produced the architectural TriForma software, subsequently bought by Bentley. 

I heard the news direct from today's Bricsys press release, but CAD editor Randall Newton also passed on the news. Randall spent a season at Bentley, as well.

After the manner of Bill Fane: "There are three kinds of people in the CAD community: those who pass through, and those who circulate around and around."

Deelip.com's Future-of-MCAD Series

Deelip Menezes this last week wrote a series of articles that ended up becoming a thesis on the future of CAD software for mechanical design. I'm not sure that he intended it this way, since you can detect the development of thought, going from one posting to the next.

In brief:

• "Real" MCAD was parametric-based since PTC burst onto the scene.

• Direct modeling was the underdog technology employed by CoCreate, IronCAD, Cadkey (KeyCreator), and others.

• Direct modeling was not taken seriously until SpaceClaim arrived. (Coincidence? Perhaps.)

• Since the arrival  of SpaceClaim, direct modeling was added to Solid Edge, NX, and is being added to Inventor and Pro/E, with something vague happening over in France with Dassault's software.

• That leaves SolidWorks and Alibre with no direct modeling roadmap.

Mr Menezes' summary: customers are being (will be) dragged into direct modeling by CAD vendors, much like the ribbon interface being forced upon them.

I recommend you read his series, the many comments, and muse upon them:

1. Inventor Fusion and SolidWorks Confusion
2. AutoCAD Fusion
3. Kernel Confusion and Legacy Models
4. GRANITE Cross-Release Interoperability
5. What is Digital Prototyping - Part 2
6. Kernel Conclusion
7. Direct Editing and the Future

AVEVA Up 29%

AVEVA Group reports revenues of £164.0 million (roughly US$262 million), up 29% from last year's £127.6 million. It's pre-tax profit was up 32% to £59.2 million.

The company has £126.2 million cash in the bank. But not is all rosy, says chairman Nick Prest:

As the current global economic slowdown continues and the oil price and shipping rates sit at lower levels than in recent years, some projects are now being postponed or canceled, awaiting project funding or visibility of more certain times. 

Source.

Siemens Extends SynchTech to Sheetmetal

Siemens PLM Software is today announcing that "Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology 2" (yep, that's the official name) is due to ship this summer.

The primary new feature is its synchronous technology has been extended to sheetmetal design -- ST being  history-free feature-based modeling. In an interview with Siemens, they confirmed that future releases will continue to extend ST to other areas of Solid Edge, NX, Femap, and so on.

One naming change: Femap Express is now called "Solid Edge Simulation Express" and is free with Solid Edge.

There is a nicely laid-out Web page of all the new and improved features here: Press Kit. 

Bhatt Assures Contractors

After a statement from Autodesk sounded to some that it was discontinuing development of its ConstructWare online project management software, owners of half-billion-dollar construction projects became concerned, reports ENR.com in Collaboration Tool Feels a Chill And Hearts Skip a Beat.

But an email from Jay Bhatt, senior vp of Autodesk’s AEC Industry Group, assured them: "The purpose of this e-mail is to tell you we are, in fact, investing in the development of Constructware and moving the product forward."

Again we see the danger in entrusting data to the cloud -- in this case, limited to a few days of worry. The only solution we can trust, however, consists of perpetual licenses for software running on our own servers -- aided by backups to an external site.