WorldCAD Access

fotos of the sunday: recent photos by Katrina Grabowski

Floating, off the coast of Galiano Island

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House sitting, in Kitsilano.

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Sleeping in, Saturday morning

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All images (c) 2011 by katgrabowski.blogspot.com

 

A few years for Icad 7; a few weeks for 7.0a

It may have taken the ITC five years to ship IntelliCAD 7, but the new architecture means updates now are available likity-split.

This week's 7.0a release improve PC3 printer configurations, attributes, entity editing, "and many other areas."

ITC development director Dave Lorenzo gives us a sneak peak: "I expect IntelliCAD 7.1 based on a newer ODA Teigha platform will be released in early fall." Likity-split on, Dave!

www.intellicad.org

 

"Tailoring AutoCAD" ebook: updated & available for 2011 & 2012

now updated for AutoCAD 2011 and 2012*

"Tailoring AutoCAD 2011/12"

$39.90
upfrontezine.com/ta12

*) Will be updated for OS X 

 

That free DraftSight keeps getting better

Dassault Systemes didn't just license Graebert's ARES, and then dump it out there as DraftSight for free. They've gotten Graebert to add features, making DraftSight more and more viable as an AutoCAD alternative. Well, of course, that's was the master plan all along -- displacing AutoCAD, I mean.

It now runs more more operating systems than does AutoCAD, and last week's update adds a few more keen features to catch up a bit more with AutoCAD:

• One command to place every kind of dimension: linear, aligned, radial, diametrical, arc length, and angular. Now, the interface is a bit awkward, since the command-prompt area becomes a hodge-podge of options, but it is a first good step. (In AutoCAD: QDIM)
  
  
• You can place dimensions in sheet view (paper space of layout tabs), and have them connect to geometry in model space. Prviously, dimensions were only allowed in model space. (Also in AutoCAD.)
  
  
• Click a dimension node (grip) to flip the arrowheads in or out. (In AutoCAD: AiDimFlipArrow)

http://www.draftsight2dcad.com/new-release.html

 

 

 

 

Pix from ASCON's ninth annual modeling contest for KOMPAS-3D

ASCON Group of St. Petersburg has been holding an annual modeling contest for nearly a decade now, and this morning they released the names of the winners in eight categories. I particularly liked this image of a portion of a 3D model of a mobile drilling rig, model SBSH-250D, manufactured by UGMC-Rudgormash-Voronezh:

The design was the honorary winner in the “Implementation of PLM Concept” category. The parts were modeled with KOMPAS-3D, the 3D parametric MCAD software from ASCON.

www.ascon.net

In upFront.eZine this week: we got the details on Spatial's new CGM APIs

In this week's issue, we have for you...

1. Spatial CGM Capabilities Webinar
    - Q&A

2. Updating Civil B   
    Part 3: CivilB Replies to Autodesk's Response

 3. Out of the Inbox and other regular columns

You can read all about this week's business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-701.htm

 

 

The Wengerd Report: New isn't always better

Remember modems? Now we complain when there's no wi-fi available. I'll give credit to the smart phone, and even begrudging credit to the iPhone in particular, for improving the way we communicate and the way we work on the go. There's no denying that we've made real progress. But what if sometimes the old fashioned way really was better?

Remember the digitizer vs. keyboard debate? Well old-timer, say hello to the ribbon.

Remember when HTML was invented to encapsulate content and relationships in a view-independent way so that consumers could decide how to format it? Step right over here, and let me introduce you to HTML 5 and an "immersive web experience" that you have very little control over.

Remember NNTP social networks? Welcome, friend, to an HTTP world where cartoon avatars are perfectly normal, even on professional discussion groups.

I don't want to roll back time, but wouldn't it be nice to undo some of the changes?

• Imagine if we could erase the .NET framework and "just-in-time" compilation.
  
  
• What would the world be like if our software started instantly instead of having to be compiled and "optimized" before it can run?
  
  
• What if our CAD software UI was fast enough that the digitizer vs. keyboard debate was actually still relevant?

Jay Vleeschhouwer predicts the CAD revenues reports that begin next week

Jay Vleeschhouwer now does software research for Griffin Securities, Inc. Here is a summary of a report he released this morning:

• Dassault will be reporting 2Q11 results on Thursday July 28th. For the quarter, we are estimating total revenues and non-IFRS [ie, International Financial Reporting Standards] earnings of €407.9 million [roughly US$585m], up 6%.
  
  
• We are assuming Catia revenues up 3%; “Mainstream 3D” [ie, SolidWorks] revenues up 11%,  and Enovia revenues up 1%.
  
  
•  PTC will be reporting 3Q11 results after the close of market on Tuesday July 26th. For the quarter, we are estimating total revenues and earnings of $279.9 million, up 15%.
  
  

As for Autodesk, he notes that "at a time when the value of Flash has been questioned, Autodesk committed $36 million to buying a company [ie, Scaleform] that relies upon that technology." (Autodesk's earning come a few weeks later.)

As a side note, I find it an interesting exercise to multiple Dassault's quarterly earning by four and by the Euro-US$ exchange rate -- e408 x 1.44 x 4 = $2,350 -- implying that it could soon become a two-billion-dollar-a-year corporation.

Spatial CGM Capabilities Webinar

OK, here we are at the CGM Capabilities Webinar, which we joined late, since WebEx spent the first ten minutes insisting the event starts at 4pm this afternoon -- instead of 7am this morning. After a few "Huhs?" and refreshes, WebEx let us in, but then complained that our Opera 11.5 Web browser is not supported by WebEx (boo).

Over to FireFox 5.0 and we're in!

We're hearing someone telling us that CGM does robust modeling. For example, a parting line is a sharp line that goes across curves. Fillet the area, and many sharp parts are added by other modelers; CGM handles this as a special case to ensure the fillet as only a sharp edge at the parting line.

Why are we listening in on this? Spatial is a division of Dassault Systemes, and Spatial this year is finally licensing the modeling kernel used by Catia V5 and Catia V6 CAD programs. This means that non-Dassault CAD systems can use the same modeler as Catia. In particular, it allows competitors to read Catia files accurately. (Writing Catia files is not available until later this year.)

Data is not translated by 3D InterOp (the name of the API licensed by Spatial), but is extracted, and so is fast and accurate, according to the presenter.  Practical short-term effect: SolidWorks can finally read (and eventually) write Catia files. Huh, how about that. Took only, what, 10 years?

Seeing a bit of a demo  now. A summary, and we're done with the presentation.

 

In upFront.eZine this week: we celebrate 700 issues!

Yessiree, this week upFront.eZine is 700 issues old. The number is just about incomprehensible to me, but it's the kind of number you get when you publish something pretty much every week since 1995 -- with appropriate breaks for summer and at Christmas, 'natch. The newsletter began as an irregular supplement to the CAD++ newsletter, my monthly print publication that focused on programming and marketing in CAD.

Then the cost of printing, postage, and paper overwhelmed the incoming subscription fees, and so upFront.eZine replaced CAD++, first as a bi-weekly, and then weekly. The e-newsletter was "all-e," in that it eschewed physical contact addresses; the only contact info I permitted was an email or a (then new) Web address.

I am proud to say that upFront.eZine was the very first independent CAD newsletter distributed electronically. I recall fondly when the number of subscribers hit 100; now the number wavers just under 12,000. Some special thank-yous are in order:

• Evan Yares for pointing me to the software that made sending the newsletter to thousands of email addresses so much easier for me.
  
  
• Yoav Etiel for his word of advice to me on focusing the newsletter's content: "Tell me what I don't know."
  
  
• Joel Orr for his words of encouragement, which tended to arrive when I most needed them.
  
  
• Readers who respond enthusiastically with letters to the editor, outraged or otherwise -- and who donate funds to help cover my salary. Special tip-of-the-hat to SolidWorks for their $3,000 donation this year!

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In this week's issue, we have for you...

1. Arup MassMotion
    - Running MassMotion
    - Practical Uses
    - Q&A

2. Updating Civil B
    Part 2: Autodesk Responds
    (Next week, CivilB replies, in part 3)

 3. Out of the Inbox and other regular columns

You can read all about this week's business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-700.htm