WorldCAD Access

Updated for V12: Customizing Bricscad ebook

This is the only book on the planet that tells you how to customize Bricscad. Customizing Bricscad V12 is the 7th edition, and offers you the following newness:

• New chapter on Fields
• New chapter on customizing mouse buttons
• Updated text and figures for V12
• Now 426 pages long

Covers both Linux and Windows versions of V12. Price is $40 and can be purchased by cheque or PayPal through the ebook's Web page:

www.upfrontezine.com/cb8

 

 

 

What Solid Modeling Solutions Plans for 2012

Solid Modeling Solutions offers a suite of NURBS-based geometry libraries: SDLib, NLib, GSNLib, TSNLib and SMLib

 

For 2012, the company plans to add the following functions:

• AssertValid will continue to be expanded to detect more error conditions and to support graphical displays of reported problems.
• New and more rigorous tolerance modeling.
• Improved Boolean operations.
• Gordon patch improvements.
• Database diagnostics, repair, and healing functions.
• Multithreaded OpenCL implementation.

http://www.smlib.com

 

Using SugarSync with AutoCAD and AutoCAD WS

Autodesk has a cloud infrastructure for its software, and so I wondered if it is possible to use a third-party cloud service, such as SugarSync or DropBox. (I have accounts with both, but use SugarSync since it has the advantage of optionally restricting shared folders as read-only; DropBox doesn't.)

I found that SugarSync works just fine: I could save a drawing in desktop AutoCAD and view it on AutoCAD WS.

Here's how I did it:

0. When you sign up for SugarSync, you designate a SugarSync folder on the desktop. Any file in this folder is uploaded to the cloud any time it changes. (The same applies to Dropbox.) Uploaded files are overwritten, so you would need to save revised drawings by incremental names, manually. (AutoCAD WS keeps track of revisions.)

1. In desktop AutoCAD, I opened a drawing from the SugarSynch folder, and then made some changes. 
2. I saved it. (Performance note: smaller DWG files sync -- upload to the cloud and download to all your registered devices -- faster than big DWG files, naturally!)
   
   
3. I switched to my Android tablet, and started the SugarSync app. 
4. I tapped the icon that represents the SugarSync folder on my desktop computer: My Devices, Acer7, SugarSync.
5. I selected the DWG file. SugarSynch then downloaded it, from its cloud to my Android.
6. Once downloaded, SugarSynch asked me which app should complete the action. I selected AutoCAD WS.
7. The DWG file appeared in WS's list, and I opened it. I noticed a substantial delay before WS opened the file; I figure this was due to WS sending the file to Autodesk's cloud. (Internet uploads are 5x slower than downloads with my ISP.) Subsequent loads were faster.

Android and iOS devices have limited amounts of storage space, and so sync services tend to download files on-demand, rather than update all in the background as on desktop versions.

Here are some of the pros and cons I found betwen using  SugarSync or Autodesk's cloud:

• Autodesk's cloud is integrated into WS, and presumably will be in its desktop software in the future. This means you don't need to switch between WS and an external app, like SugarSync; the synching is done inside WS with Autodesk's cloud servers.
  
  
• Autodesk limits non-subscribers to 1GB of cloud storage. SugarSync starts with 5GB free, and allows you to earn another 3.5GB free through referrals.
  
  
• Autodesk limits paid subscribers to 3GB of cloud storage. SugarSync seems to go up to 500GB for paid customers, and perhaps more for business customers (it was hard for me to figure out).
  
  
• AutoCAD WS on the Web has a cool feature that lets you visually see the history of drawings, as they looked in earlier versions. 
  
  
• Both SugarSync and WS on Android limit the sharing of drawings through an email message; no other options are available. Both let you assign permissions to folders, but WS has more options.
  
  

Historical note: We saw this integration the first time the "cloud" rolled around (a.k.a. the Internet bubble of the late 1990s), when Autodesk added commands that allowed AutoCAD to save to and from URLs and ftp sites. Later, the functions of the URL commands were integrated into the usual SaveAs, Open, and other file-related commands.

Imaginit launches its support portal, "Productivity Now"

Imaginit Technologies is one of the largest Autodesk dealers in the world, and late last month they launched a new portal for its customers around the world -- as well as non-customers (or guest users, who get free registration and some content from the site.) Actual customers get support and learning tools. 

The site is called ProductivityNOW, and the following are available from the front page:

• Discussion forums
• Video library (several hundred already)
• Polls
• Imaginit on Facebook

Also available: blogs, news feeds, Webinar listings, Autodesk resources, downloadable software, and industry links. The eLearning link sends customers to all of Imagint's self-paced training courses written and recorded by the company's trainers. The company made sure that the site and its videos run on iPad devices.

Customers can get information about their subscription contracts with Autodesk, their training history with Imaginit, and manage other users associated with a corporate subscription contract. If you phone or send an email, you can expect to get 2-hour turnaround on support issues.

During the Webinar, Imagint's director of Ascent product development Paul Burden told me that they see this portal as "a way to share the technological knowledge acquired by the company and its staff. It's a platform for us to build off from, to keep adding information."

http://portal.imaginit.com

 

 

What PTC Sees for 2012

Mobility and Mobile Applications  

By 2014, 46% of employees will be mobile only (IDC research). 2011 saw the introduction of many design apps in the industry. We’ll see this continue as more and more employees (and designers) cut the cord from the confines of their desks. Tools like Arbortext for the iPad give service information and engineering professionals portable access to real-time, contextual service and parts information

PLM and Crowd-sourcing Creates Collaboration 2.0

As PLM drives product development by including more people in the process, designers can contribute to a project anywhere, at any time. With more PLM tools including social networking capabilities, crowd-sourcing product design will become more popular.

Software Is the Product

The nature of the products is changing due to the software inside that makes it smarter and and/or easier to use. Continental's new windshield wipers detect rain, start up, and roll up the windows.

Community Enhancing Programs

Corporations launching programs to benefit the social good is not new. PTC likes the idea of “shared value,” businesses create economic value that also creates value for society beyond social responsibility. Through sponsorships of STEM and FIRST, PTC helps build its own future workforce

IMSI/Design updates their iPad TurboViewer Pro to 2.0

While Autodesk is still talking about adding 3D to its AutoCAD WS software, IMSI/Design has delivered its second release of TurboViewer Pro, which displays 2D and 3D CAD drawings. The non-Pro version is free; release 2.0 of the Pro edition is $20.

The primary feature in this new release is the support for 21 file formats, including multi-page formats (see list after the photo).

The viewer supports model and paper space layouts, SHX and TrueType fonts, and custom perspective 3D viewpoints.

 

IMSI Formats
===========
TCW - TurboCAD for Windows
2CD - DoubleCAD
DCD - DesignCAD

CAD Formats
============
3DM - Rhino
DGN - Microstation (2D only)
DWF - Design Web Format
DWG - AutoCAD Native Format
DXF - Drawing eXchange Format
FCW - FastCAD Windows
SKP - SketchUp

Exchange Formats
===============
ASAT and SAT - ACIS
IGS - IGES Drawing
OBJ - OBJ Drawing
STEP and STP - STEP

Other Formats
===========
3DS - 3D Studio
CGM - Computer Graphics Metafile
EPS - Encapsulated Postscript Format
PDF – Adobe Portable Document Format
PLT - Hewlett-Packard HPGL plot files
STL - Stereolithography
WRZ - VRML Worlds

The only way to get it, unfortunately, is through Apple's online software store. We await the Android version.

http://www.itunes.com/AppStore

[Disclosure: IMSI/Design provided the iPad with which to test the software, which I can't, because Apple locks its app stores to countries.] 

 

 

In upFront.eZine this week: taking the cloud private

This is the last issue before the annual Christmas break. Look for the next issue of upFront.eZine on January 9, 2012. In upFront.eZine this week, we have for your reading pleasure... 

1. FirstTrace's Take on Taking the Cloud Private

2. Readers Respond: What the Cloud Really Means 

3. Out of the Inbox, and other regular columns.

  You can read all about the business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-716

 

In upFront.eZine this week: what the cloud is actually about

In upFront.eZine this week, we have for your reading pleasure...

 

 

1. What the Cloud Really Means
    - What is the Cloud?
    - Virtualized Software is A Next Generation 
    - Meanwhile, Back in the CAD World
    - What Needs to Be Done

2. Out of the Inbox, and other regular columns.

 

You can read all about the business of CAD at upfrontezine.com/2011/upf-715

 

 

 

 

Like China, Russia wants its own software

China is well-known for developing its own technology, such as its own cell phone system, Linux-based operating system, and space program. It does not want to rely on foreigners (primarily Americans, since they develop most of today's technology); the cost, however is that China becomes incompatible with the rest of the world.

It seems that the Russian government is thinking the same as China. Today, David Levin reports Russia awarded $22 million to STANKIN Moscow State Technology University to develop a new MCAD modeling kernel (ht: @DeelipMenezes).

There are a few puzzlements in this announcement:

• The ceo of STANKIN's engineering center is also ceo of Top Systems, whose T-FLEX MCAD system uses Parasolids.
• 
  "Parasolid is indicated 'as a functional prototype' for the project," writes Mr Levin in his blog at http://levindavid.blogspot.com/2011/12/russia-invests-690-000-000-rubles-into.html. I wonder if it will use JT as its neutral data exchange format -- or will they have their own made-in-Russia format?
  
  
• Russia is already home to a locally-developed MCAD kernel, the one found in KOMPAS-3D from ASCON Group, the arch-competitor of Top Systems.

Will Top Systems switch its T-FLEX software to the new kernel, after STANKIN develops it? If so, this would save the company some 25% on the licensing fees it pays to Simens PLM Systems. Problem is, writing a 3D modeling kernel is a long, hard job. And having their own kernel could further isolate Russian MCAD vendors.

Here is the source article translated into English.