WorldCAD Access

Where is the market for AutoCAD for Mac?

After hearing of a book publisher canceling their Acad/Mac text until the academic market is proven, Bill Fane remarked to me:

Interesting. They are either right or wrong:

Right:
     - Macs are not often used in engineering.

Wrong:
    - Macs are much more heavily used in certain architectural areas.
    - There has been a lot of excitement in the CAD community (blogs, etc) about CAD software generally on the Mac, and not just AutoCAD.

Right:
    - Is there a real market, or are the bloggers simply hyped because it is something different to chat about? 

I would add that Acad/Mac is up against ARES for Mac at a quarter the price, and (soon to be) DraftSight for Mac (free). What with Ashlar, Vectorworks, Graphisoft, and more, Autodesk is facing a crowded market of both direct and indirect competitors.

Catfight! CAD vendors press-release each other over Tesla

On Sept 20, Autodesk raised the car:

Tesla Motors’ Model S Pulls Up to Its New Home in the Autodesk Gallery at One Market in San Francisco

 ...The Model S -- which took the place of a Ford Mustang Shelby -- will be one of 20 exhibits regularly on display showcasing the work of companies using the Autodesk 3D design software to shape their products...

 

On September 29, Dassault Systemes raised the stakes:

Tesla Motors Selects Dassault Systemes’ V6 PLM Solution

Tesla is beginning its upgrade to V6 with implementation of the ENOVIA V6 collaboration solution [for its Model S]...

and raised them up more

Phase two of the implementation will involve the launch of the DELMIA digital manufacturing solution in late 2010.

and upper

Future phases will migrate Tesla’s product authoring solution from CATIA V5 to CATIA V6.

and upper more

Additionally, Tesla is using the CATIA ICEM solution for Class A surfacing, DELMIA Human for occupant ergonomics, plus solutions from Dassault Systèmes software partners.

Awaiting PTC press release in three, two, one...

 

 

 

 

In upFront.eZine this week: HP and Vectorworks

In this week's issue of upFront.eZine:

1. HP IPG Holds an Innovation Summit
    - The Web is All
    - Android on the Tablet

2. Vectorworks 2011
    - Paraphrased Q&A
    - Cinema 4D

3. And in Other News

You can read all about the business of CAD this week at www.upfrontezine.com/2010/upf-661.htm  

Vuuch Webinar, Live

Alright, I'm sitting in on the Vuuch Webinar this morning. Their tag line is "Put the Power of Social to Work" so I am interested to hear what that's all about. The name is pronounced "vooch."

The company is headed up by Chis Williams, who you might know made a mint from selling his previous company Seemage to Dassault Systèmes.

Founded in 2009; want to create a solution to mechanical so compelling that you want to reach for it first. Based in Wayland MA USA near Boston. Boston is turning into quite the CAD hub, with PTC, SolidWorks, Revit, and other firms in that area.

Alex Neihaus is telling us that people are using computers for simple task lists; and then emailing these lists. So, what is different about Vuuch? It is...

1. Social technology that understands products.

2. Understands lists, people, and the connections between people and their work.

It tries to make teamwork using social technology a natural extension to existing CAD and PLM software.

Demo

Vuuch creates a Web page for each part being tracking from design to manufacturing. Two basic concepts in Vuuch are (a) Pages represents the part being delivered; and (b) Activities are things that need to be done.

For example, the project manager might work in Outlook and the Web, and gets a summary of what is happening with the project. Vuuch adds a panel to Outlook, displaying a number of folders that track the project. Drag emails from Outlook into the appropriate category in the Vuuch panel. Right-click an item, and the choose Go To Web to view the parts in a Web page.

The Web page shows the part, as well as the project's progress in a number of categories, such as Activities, Shout Outs, People, Properties and History. The project manager can assign tasks to designers and others, and attach files.

Switching over to the designer...

The designer sees the list of tasks that have been assigned to him, or things he hasn't deal with yet. He can create his own customized pages within Vuuch's Web interface to track his own progress.

The demo has switched to SolidWorks, which also has a Vuuch panel as part of its user interface. The panel is kind of like a feature tree, but also contains the notes and other info made by the designer and others on the design team.

Vuuch panel is at right, running in SolidWorks.
Overlapping dialog box is a note that the designer is adding to the project.
(Click for full-resolution image)

For example, the designer is notes that a mounting hole might develop a crack, and adds a note to the Vuuch folder structure -- which is also seen by those to whom the note is directed.

Vuuch can be added to many programs, such as AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, Pro/E, SolidWorks, Inventor, PDF, and so on.

Q&A

Q: Can the data collected by Vuuch be exported in a neutral format?

A: Yes; data can be exported to a PDF package, including the entire discussion thread. The open API can extract all data into other software.

Q: Can Vuuch work with other software?

A: Yes, the API lets it work with "any" software, if you write the link; the AutoCAD one was written by a developer in Sweden. Takes about a week.

Q: How is Vuuch charged? 

A:  People who create Pages pay; people who access Pages do not. There is no charge for bandwidth. Since it is a SaaS [software as a service], you have to have access to the Internet.

Q: Can Vuuch be run inside the firewall?

A:  You can install a Vuuch server, and are charged on a subscription basis. You can switch back and forth, from SaaS to inside the firewall, and back.

Q: How is access controlled?

A: It is simple: Whether or not you are invited to a page; and whether or not activities are private, team-related, or public -- and public is really public. This is a break from old-style (with complex sets of permissions) to new-style social technology.

Q: Are time-reporting activities available? 

A: We are working on it.

Q: Can custom forms be created?

A: Through Pages, you can create your own page types. One customer has the entire assembly process through Vuuch Pages. Another has created product-specific pages. Two different ways of looking at parts and data.

Q: Where does the name Vuuch come from? 

A: It is a name that can be used as a verb -- "to vuuch." Also, wanted a non-engineering name; based on "vouch" [personal assurance].

And we're done!

www.vuuch.com

ZWSOFT Global Partner Conference 2010

The marketing folks at ZWSOFT forwarded to me this photo of their Global Partner Conference, which was held last week in Guangzhou (also known as Canton, and is located in mainland China just across the water from Hong Kong).

I mention this is because I had planned to be there and report from the conference, but then the visa process became to hairy. In short, it is extremely difficult for a journalist to get a visa to China.

The big announcement at this event was ZW3D 2010, which is the ZW-ized version of VX CAD/CAM software, available in three flavors: Standard, Professional, and Premium. More info at zw3d.zwcad.org.

 

 

 

foto of the sunday: breakfast in Germanny

Breakfast with this aunt and uncle is a five-course meal. Make sure you peel your apple with the apple-peeling knife provided. 
(Southern Germany, 2009.) 

What's inside DraftSight for Mac (beta) -- a running commentary

I've downloaded and installed the beta Mac OS X version of DraftSight, the free DWG-based 2D editor from Dassault Systemes (OEM'ed from Graebert of Germany). I'm going to run through all the menu items to see what's new or different from AutoCAD for Windows...

 

Application Menu

All Mac apps share the same menu bar (bad design, in my opinion), and all have an application menu that's made from the name of the app. In this case, it is DraftSight. This menu item holds the Preferences (Options) command, as well as system commands, such as About, Hide, and Quit.

 

File Menu

New provides access to just two DWT template files, Standard.dwt and StandardIso.dwt. Naturally you can create your own. There is no start-a-new-drawing wizard.

Open opens DWG and DXF files, I think. The dialog box is strange, because it lacks a "files of type" extension filter. All files in the current folder are listed, even though most cannot be opened. Select a JPG and nothing happens.

You can open files regularly, as read-only, or with encoding -- which refers to the text code for international languages.

Save As does have a 'files of type' dropdown, and it supports the following formats:

• DWG -- R12 through 2010
• DXF -- R12 through 2010, ASCII or binary
• DWT

Export exports drawings in a number of bitmap formats (JPG, BMP, etc), PDF, and "Export Drawing," which brings up the WBlock dialog box.

Drawings Now didn't work for me. My understanding it that it should upload the current drawing to Dassault's servers, for viewing by others in their Web browsers or iPads. Same for the Publish eDrawings command; perhaps both are activated once you pay maintenance?

Print brings up the Mac-style print dialog box, with options specific to DraftSight. It is nothing like AutoCAD's Plot dialog box, so be prepared to spend a bit of time learning how it works. I like the way it easily saves print configurations.

 

Edit Menu

This menu is missing OLE-related commands, which are not possible on OS X. Pasteboard-related commands like Copy and Copy with Reference Point, Cut, Paste and Paste as Block are available.

 

View Menu

This menu contains 3D viewing commands, even though DraftSight is considered 2D-only. (See more comments about 3D under Draw Menu, below.)

The 3D-related commands include Constrained Orbit (3dOrbit), Hide, Shade (flat, grourard), and Animated Rendering. I was surprised by the name of this last item, because the rendering is not animated movie-style -- more like real time rendering, in which you can interact with the model.

Insert Menu

This menu lets you insert blocks, hyperlinks, xrefs, and images.

 

Format Menu

Here you have access to properties (layers, linetypes, etc), as well as styles (dimensions, text, etc). The interface is different from AutoCAD, in that most of these items are part of a master dialog box called "Options." So these commands just open the related portion of this dialog box; only Layer has its own dialog box.

The name of the Options dialog box should be changed to match its Mac name, Preferences. It really needs a Find facility, to make it easier to locate specific settings in this monster dialog box.

 

Dimension Menu

All the usual dimension commands, including some of AutoCAD's new ones, like Jogged and Arc Length, are here. Dimension Styles opens the appropriate part of the Options dialog box.

 

Draw Menu

The Draw Menu has most of AutoCAD's 2D drawing commands, including Table, Mask, and Region. The Mesh section of the menu is limited in 3D drawing of polyface meshes, like TabSurf. Curiously, the 2D Solid command got stuck in this section.

Thickness is not available at the command line, so you cannot turn 2D entities into 3D.

DraftSight can open drawings of 3D solids and new-style meshes -- thanks to the Open Design Alliance's DWG API. Some do not display correctly, however, such as section jogs not cutting objects.

You can perform basic editing on 3D drawings created by AutoCAD, such as move, copy, change properties (color, layer, etc), erase, and so on.

 

Modify Menu

Here you have many of AutoCAD's modification commands, including the Properties palette, clipping, ref editing (of "components" nee blocks), trimming, and so on. This menu shows the Graebert heritage in that they forgot to subsitute the AutoCAD names. So you see Pattern (instead of Array), Split (instead of Break), and others.

This CAD program is based on another, named ARES, which has its own set of command names. The names are AutoCAD-ized through aliases, so you can always type the AutoCAD version of a command; no need to memorize a new collection of names!

 

Tools Menu

This menu repeats the Properties command, accesses the Reference Manager, and sports something called "CCS" -- short for custom coordinate system, which is the ARES name for UCS.

Also on this menu is the Customize command, whose dialog box is very, very different from AutoCAD's CUI command. You can customize command macros (including Diesel), menus, tooblars, mouse buttons (single, double, and right clicks), keyboard shortcuts and overrides, and UI profiles, which are like workspaces in AutoCAD.

 

Windows Menu

This menu contains a unqiue command, Switch UI Mode. It switches DraftSight's user interface between Mac and Windows styles:

• Mac style -- all user interface elements are independent of one another, irritating, in my mind. Drag the drawing window, and everything else stays in place. Some people like this, apparently.
• Windows style -- this mode is called "fixed style toolbar mode" curiously enough, and only comes into effect after you quit and restart DraftSight.

 

Help Menu

The help is fairly comprehensive, although it lacks any reference to system variables. And the section on system requirements still lists the specs for Windows and PCs, instead of OS X and Macs.

- - -

In summary, DraftSight for Mac is similar enough in most areas for AutoCAD users to adapt quickly. The two areas that will probably be initially problematic are the very different Options and Customize dialog boxes. For Windows users, the Print dialog box will also prove to be a challenge, initially.

 

CAD Schroer reminds us, "Hey, we do cheap 2D CAD on Linux and Windows, too!"

And yes they do, now. CAD Schroer is launching STHENO/LX ­ Intelligent for 2D drafting on Linux and Windows, compatible with DWG R12-2010. From the "LX" portion of its name, you may have already guessed it doesn't work with add-ons or APIs. Or, as managing director Thomas Schubert put it, "It's a 'shrink-wrapped' solution with no add-on modules or design automation capabilities."

So what do you get for your e799 (approx. US$1,000)? Quick sketches, Smart Drafting tool, flexible dimensioning, dynamic editing, symbol

creation, 35,000 symbols, customizable user interface, DXF export, and works with five dialects of Linux (CentOS, Fedora, RedHat, SuSE, Ubuntu) and three of Windows (XP, Vista, 7).

 

You can get more infro from http://www.cad-schroer.com/Software/STHENOLX/r/140. Curious thing is that all the images accompanying the software's Web pages show people engaged in hand drafting. I trust that "dynamic editing" is more than an electric eraser tool!

 

 

PAS creates CMM code from SolidWorks in-a-flash

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com

Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) may have added much precision and automated much of the task of ensuring a part is actually manufactured to its specification, but someone still has to do all the drudge work of keying in feature dimensions and other GD&T.

Until now, says Sam Golan, president and CEO of PAS Technology. Sam says that his company has the only product that will read a SolidWorks drawing and automatically create the CMM code that the CMM machine needs to make its measurements. The software is will not only program the CMM machines to take all linear, angular, and feature dimension, it is also capable of understanding GD&T. Hmm, the system is actually smarter than I am.

Figure 1: PAS will add its own unique numbers to each dimension in a SolidWorks drawing and....

     ...then PAS will automatically generate the CMM code needed to run your CMM machine 

Here's how it works. PAS will work within the SolidWorks model and drawing and automatically assign a unique number to each dimension. It needs the datums to be labeled on the drawing, and if they are, PAS will take over and generate all the tool paths for each of the dimensions based upon the given datums. The measurements can be shown in an animation, complete with the model of the CMM and the part.

Now that I've seem the PAS product, I've got to wonder why the CMM companies have not thought of this on their own!

[Reprinted by permission of CAD Insider.]

 

Hands-on with HP's new ePrinters

HP had all of their new printers lined up for us to paw over, and it was their new consumer printers that I found most interesting, such as the one meant for the living room. I doubt my wife would allow it in our living room, despite HP's attempt to make this new $99 Envy printer look pretty. (Picture from HP.)

The printer is also a scanner, so it has the usual large footprint. The scanner lid is suprisingly heavy, being made of aluminum and glass. When a print start to come out, an arm swings out below to catch the print, and the control panel tilts up on it own -- to get out of the way of the arm. After you remove the print, the arm swings back, as does the panel. This was done to hide the printer's paper tray, and make the printer look less like a printer.

Its front panel runs Android, and has a smooth flowing interface like an Andoid phone. You swipe the panel to scroll through options, and then tap to select. The printer has a wireless connection to computers.

Next to the $99 printer was the $399 7" tablet that has an eStation multifunction printer thrown in for free. The tablet also runs Android 2.1, but does not have access to Google's App Store, so you are pretty much stuck wtih the Yahoo front end for email and whatever HP allows you to install. (Picture from HP.)

This printer comes with its own email address, and so I tested it out. I took a picture of the printer with my Samsung Android cell phone, and then emailed the photo to the printer. After a few moments, my cell phone got a confirmation email that the photo file had been received by the printer. The printer first spat out a cover sheet (8.5x11"), which contained the text of my email, followed a few minutes later by the photo printed on the 4x6" photo paper.

I took a photo of the printed photo next to the printer and its email address. I wonder if it is still connected and if the entire world can now email it pictures? (If you own such a printer, you will be able to limit who can send it emails, because it will also print regular emails -- not just ones containing photos.)

The printer's email address consists of a complex pattern of letters and numbers, but apparently you will be able to assign a more easily rememberable alias.

As I mentioned in the earlier posting, the idea is that you take pix of your kids at socer practice, and then email them to granny's printer in her living room. Or pictures of the construction site back to your boss back at the office.

- - - - - - - - - -

Here is the text of the confirmation email sent to my cell phone:

Thank you for using HP's ePrint service. Your print job has been received and prepared for printing. If you are the account owner for the printer, you can check the status of your print job at http://www.hpeprintcenter.com.

If the job does not print, make sure:
1. The printer's email address was entered correctly
2. The printer is online, and
3. You have permission to use the printer.

Please note that a print job might be delayed by slow email delivery or a slow Internet connection.

For more information about HP's ePrint service, including troubleshooting tips, visit www.hp.com/go/eprintcenter/about/eprint. If you do not want to receive ePrint status messages for this printer in the future, you may ask the printer owner to turn off your job status alerts at www.hpeprintcenter.com.