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Squeezing in four questions into the space of one

So that everyone gets a turn, financial analysts are supposed to ask just one question during conference calls with public companies. But they have their ways of sneaking in four questions. Here are examples from last week's PTC Q4 2011 earnings call transcript:

- - -

Operator: Our next question comes from Jay Vleeschhouwer with Griffin Securities.

Jay Vleeschhouwer (Griffin Securities): I'd like to ask first a two-part question...

Jay Vleeschhouwer: Just two follow-ups, if I may...

 - - -

Operator: And our final question comes from Ross MacMillan with Jefferies.

Ross MacMillan (Jefferies & Company): Either Jim or Jeff, you obviously made a change...

MacMillan: Great. And just one related to maintenance...

MacMillan: One last one for you, Jeff...

MacMillan: And the very last one for Jim...

 

In upFront.eZine this week: readers support and Twitters pounce on "The Cloud is Dead."

In upFront.eZine this week for your reading pleasure things like GfxSpeakRSN tweeting, "Scheduling the 'We make RG eat his words' Party" and martynday agreeing, "One of the most utterly utterly bonkers rants I've read."

1. The Cloud is Dead  
     - Part 1: Readers Respond

2. The Cloud is Dead  
     - Part 2: Twitterers Respond

3. Out of the Inbox and our other regular columns 

You can read all about the business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-710.htm

 

In upFront.eZine this week: "The Cloud is Dead." Well, someone had to be the first to say it

In upFront.eZine this week for your reading pleasure:

1. The Cloud is Dead  
     - That's What Steve Said  
     - Appropriate Uses of Technology, Please

2. Out of the Inbox and some of our other regular columns
 

You can read all about the business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-709.htm

 

In upFront.eZine this week: We find out if Aras PLM is open source

In upFront.eZine this week for your reading pleasure:

1. Just How Open is Aras with its Open-Source PLM

2. CAD-related Software for Android Smartphones and Tablets

 
You can read all about the business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-708.htm

 

Registering DWG: It's all over but the crying (over lawyer fees misspent)

Concerning the attempted registration by Autodesk of the "DWG" file name extension, the United States Patent and Trademark Office this morning announced:

A final Office action refusing registration has been sent(issued) because the applicant [Autodesk, Inc.] neither satisfied nor overcame all requirements and/or refusals previously raised.

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78-852798 

 I wonder how much this fruitless legal action cost ADSK shareholders?

foto of the sunday: an afternoon at the war museum

Earlier this month, my wife and I flew with her dad to Ottawa to visit the War Museum. Her dad had been part of the signal corps that set up communications after the Canadian army liberated Holland. We were disappointed that the museum did not recognize the signal corps.

  The entry area to the museum is a massive, large, empty area that reminded me of a subway station.

The museum consists of five connected areas documenting the history of war in Canada, starting with inter-tribal warfare among natives in pre-European times through to the most recent conflicts.

 

My father in law.

So, does the direct modeling in Bricscad V12 work? Yup.

I modeled a small part (from inside a cheap Web cam I had disassembled) using direct modeling and editing in the new Bricscad V12.

Direct Modeling 

Modeling it was straight forward. For instance, I drew a square from a polyline, and then used the new Quad cursor to extrude it into a box. Or, extruded two circles, and then subtracted one from the other to create the a cylinder with a hole. If you have used 3D ACIS modeling in AutoCAD, then none of this is new.

I union-ed all the bits that make up the part. In the figure above, you see the real-time shaded mode in which you work, along with the gradiated background. (Hidden lines are shown only when editing parts.) To the left is the quad-cursor, and the blue color highlighting the currently selected feature.

One mild irritation is that I found I needed to switch between Quad cursor and the regular cursor for certain operations.

Direct Editing 

What I wanted to see was this: how easy was it to modify the model? Specifically, I made two holes too big by mixing diameter for radius.

While fiddling with the model, I noticed an interesting effect during direct editing. As long as the editing action is OK, the entire model takes on a green hue; when my cursor dragged a part too far, the entire model changed to orange as a warning.

Finally I found the solution to resizing a hole: grab its inner wall with the Quad cursor, and then use the default push-pull function to resize. In this case, I entered 0.5 (into the dynamic dimension) and pressed Enter.

One other irritation is that this new 3D stuff is not yet fully documented, so there are things happening that puzzle me. For instance, sometimes a casual looking X appears on the model, but I don't know what it means.

In upFront.eZine this week: Bricsys, Bricscad V12, and Smartphones

upFront.eZine to report on the Bricsys Conference that took place in Brussels last week.

1. upFront.eZine at Bricsys Conference 2011

- An AutoCAD Clone No Longer
- They Bought the LEDAS Store
- Architecturals as API
- It Used to Be Called Vista
- Entering Education with a EuroContest
- Branching Out

2. Smartphone Strategies for CAD Vendors

- Pros and Cons of the Leading OSes
- What about HTML5?
- Summary on OSes
- Pricing
- Low Hardware Prices
- Low Software Pricing
- Other Considerations
- Choices for the Future

 
You can read all about the business of CAD this week at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-707.htm

 

 

 

Wrapping up Bricsys Conference 2011 & What will happen to Architecturals?

We are in the final hour of this year's Bricsys Conference 2011. We just heard from  Dmitry Ushakov, current CEO of LEDAS and future CEO of Bricsys Development Russia. He gave an excellent review of the history and current state of history vs direct modeling, as well as the pros and cons.

During the Q&A that followed, he allowed that there might be CAM coming, although it is not clear how, at this point. He reminded us that Inventor has no integrated CAM module.

All About Architecturals 

What about Bricsys and AEC? "We have been there before," says Erik de Keyser.  "It would be silly of us to not rethink how modeling is done, such as how well a job SketchUp has done. I think modeling is headed in that direction. The technology in V12 will allow us to do that."

Architecturals for AutoCAD and IntelliCAD was dropped in 2003 when the company had to cut back. "We cannot afford, as a platform, not to be in all of these: AEC, GIS, MCAD."

Customers have asked, when is it coming back? Others urged Bricsys to put Architecturals into open source. "We will not do that," he said. He plans to enhance the software, with easy conceptual modeling. But he does not what to compete with their third-party developers. So the plan is to let the third-party developers to use the code for more advanced versions.

"It is not our intention to make it an end-user product. It is our intention to enhance existing products that our out there.

"Of course, there are core features that others cannot do. We have to do that, and move it forward to make it more friendly. It has a full data model behind it, and we will make it connect wtth Vondle."

So, it is free but not for sale. Full API for developers. Code is available. Bricsys will concentrate on making an intuitive GUI. Data model is ready for partner; but it still needs IFC compliance. Available on Bricscad Pro and higher.

Education Users

Now making the Platinum version free to all universities and students free. Yearly renewal. Apply on the Bricsys Web site. Own support site, forums, and galleries on bricsys.com. All Bricscad and Vondel APIs open to the educational community.

New contest will not give away iPads, since all students already seem to have one. Instead, e10,ooo to the winning student and e5,000 for the school. Aim of the contest is for best development idea and implementation for Bricscad and/or Vondel -- called u-apps  --, since it is hard to find good developers in Western Europe.

Students will be encouraged to develop apps and sell them for under e20 at the Bricsys web site. Students will be expected to provide support, or risk being kicked off.

"We are going further than just giving away software for free, like other companies do. We want to make it practical." Launches in Q4 this year.

 

Exclusive Q&A: What it means, now that Bricsys bought IP from Ledas

Eric De Keyser, the cheerful yet intense CEO of Bricsys had promised me that there would be big news at his company's kind-of annual developer conference. I already knew about Bricscad V12, having worked with the beta and its direct modeling, constraints, and parametric features. 

Days before the event, he slipped me the news that the parent company of Bricsys (Menhirs) had purchased the source code for all of the software products from Russian developer LEDAS. You can read the press release here: http://isicad.net/press_releases.php?press_num=14702.

(Update: David Levin writes on his blog why he sold the IP to Bricsys. Read LEDAS enhances its key business in service after selling its technologies to Bricsys at http://levindavid.blogspot.com/2011/10/ledas-enhances-its-key-business-in.html.)

The list incudes the following items:

• LGS 2D -- (LEDAS Geometric Solver) two-dimensional parametric sketches with geometric and dimensional constraints.
• LGS 3D -- three-dimensional parametric sketches with geometric and dimensional constraints.
• Dynamic Dimensions -- plug-in for constraint-based parametric design.
• RhinoWorks -- plug-in adds constraint-based parametric design to Rhinoceros from Robert McNeel and Associates.
• DD for SketchUp -- plug-in adds constraint-based parametric design to SketchUp from Google; available in free and not-free versions.
• LGSConstraints -- component used by, among others, Open Design Alliance.
• FlashLGS -- online 2D Flash-based sketcher accessed through Web browsers.
• Legend 2D and Legend 3D -- parametrics for the Open CASCADE Technology open-source 3D surface and solid modeler.

The related press release quotes Mr De Keyser as saying, "We intend to use the new technology to extend our reach into the AEC and the civil engineering markets" -- in addition to the MCAD market that the company tentatively stepped into with last year's Bricscad V11 Platinum.

Ledas co-founder David Levin and Bricsys CEO Erik de Keyser explain the new acquisition.

So what is the practical effect of this agreement? I had the opportunity to interview Mr de Keyser of Bricsys and David Levin, co-founder of LEDAS, the night before the official announcement was made in Brussels.

Here is my paraphrased transcription:

- - -

Ralph Grabowski: Why did you buy this software from LEDAS?

Erik de Keyser: We felt we had to, before someone else did. We wanted to make sure that the software would continue to be available, and not be locked up by someone else.

Ralph Grabowski: This tells me that there were other bidders for LEDAS IP.

David Levin: [Mr Levin declined to reveal names, nor would he say if in fact there were other bidders.]

Ralph Grabowski: What did you buy, just the retail software?

Erik de Keyser: No, we got all of the software made by LEDAS, including APIs.

Ralph Grabowski: Does this acquisition mean that Bricsys is getting into the add-on market for SketchUp and Rhinoceros?

Erik de Keyser: Not at all. We will continue to sell these two plug-ins, and if anyone wants to buy them, then that's great. But we have no interest in SketchUp or Rhino. We concentrate on Bricscad.

Ralph Grabowski: Does the new ownership have an effect on ODA? [Open Design Alliance licenses the parametric constraints code from LEDAS on behalf of its members.]

Erik de Keyser: No, it has no effect on them. ODA simply arranged a license [for LGS 2D] with LEDAS on behalf its members. Instead of dealing with LEDAS, they now deal with us.

Ralph Grabowski: How will that work from now on? I mean, say Graebert wants to license LEDAS Geometric Solver 2D. Who do they deal with? [It is important to note here that I am simply using "Graebert" as an example, for they are perhaps the primary competitor to Bricsys. I have no knowledge of Graebert's intentions.]

Erik de Keyser: Us, Bricsys.

Ralph Grabowski: And who do they pay?

Erik de Keyser: Us for the license, and then they pay LEDAS for implementing the code in their software, if necessary.

Ralph Grabowski: Why did you sell your software to Bricsys?

David Levin: [It would appear that LEDAS determined that they are not the best at marketing software to end users. They will now concentrate on their long-term outsourcing contracts with CAD vendors, something they have been very good at now for a more than a decade.]

Ralph Grabowski: [The Russian programmers working on this software get to stay in Novosibirsk in a new subsidiary called Bricsys Technologies Russia.] Where will the new Bricscad Russia office be located, in the same building as LEDAS?

David Levin: They will rent space in our office.

Erik de Keyser: I have no problem with this, since it makes sense that the two groups have to consult with each other.

Ralph Grabowski: [Dmitry Ushakov will move from being CEO of LEDAS to CEO of Bricsys Russia.] Who will be the new CEO of LEDAS?

David Levin: This is not known as this time.

Ralph Grabowski: [Mr Ushakov took over from David Levin as CEO earlier this year.] This means LEDAS will have three CEOs in one year.

David Levin: Yes.

- - -

From the press release: "Dmitry Ushakov will remain a member of the LEDAS Board of Directors, a entity separate from Bricsys Technologies Russia." 

As a result of this acquisition, Bricsys will now has two development teams in Russia: (a) the new Bricsys Technologies Russia office, which will be staffed by some former LEDAS programmers; and (b) LEDAS, whose own programmers will have always worked on Bricsys software.

See http://www.ledas.com and http://drivingdimensions.com