WorldCAD Access

Do CAD vendors contribute to PRISM?

A report from Bloomberg this morning says that an awful lot more than just eight firms are contributing to the American NSA monitoring of communications:

"Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence..."

Of the thousands implicated, the report names just two, Microsoft and Intel-McAfee. However, the way Microsoft supports the NSA sheds a light on how CAD vendors might be helping out. Microsoft secretly provides advance notice of bugs to the American government, allowing agencies to exploit the bugs on computers running overseas. This from a company that pretends to be outraged when Google releases early information about bugs in Microsoft software.

Frank Shaw, [vice president of corporate communications] for Microsoft, said those releases occur in cooperation with multiple agencies and are designed to give government “an early start” on risk assessment and mitigation.

The article notes that when companies provide information willingly, then no FISA oversight is needed by the government. In addition, very few within a company -- "a key executive at a company and a small number of technical people" -- know that they are disseminating information customers assume is being held in confidence.

Data generated within Canada is particularly vulnerable, because Internet pathways between two points in Canada may well travel through the USA when routers deem it more efficient. As this traffic is deemed foreign, it so requires "less legal scrutiny."

 

Transoft duz April foolz early

In a press release dated 1 April but slipped out on March 29, Vancouver's Transoft Solutions announced it was such an innovative leader that it was moving technology into the fifth dimension. As their subhead put it, "Vehicle Turning Simulations Will Never Be the Same."

The is-it-real-or-is-it-april-fools aura is, however, immediately dashed as the press release starts off, "In honor of April Fool's Day..." and "...a video spoofing its flagship software...". It would have been more fun if the first two paragraphs were canned, and the press release instead emphasized the point made in paragraph three:

We asked ourselves, how can we help our users generate vehicle simulations that are more real, and how can we improve the user experience using today’s technology?

This is where the next generation of vehicle simulation comes into play. We skipped 4D and jumped into the 5D world. 

Below we see a transportation engineer experiencing road conditions in 5D mode, in this case the software simulating transport trucks battling a snow storm.

With the press release a disappointment, the video it promotes is actually pretty good. View it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmTB77mGRzY

How to read between the lines of a press release

For an editor like me, I see the purpose of press releases as a way of imparting information that a company deems important. Companies usually see it this way, as well.

Sometimes, however, the press release is a way to puff up the firm, unhappily. Unhappily, because it wastes the time of everyone -- the people putting together the press release, the people approving it, the people distributing it, and the people reading it.

In this case, I do like to examine the complimentary quotes, because they cast light on how justifiable the puffing-up is. Here is an example of how to read between the lines:

A press release I received recently announced a "strategic alliance" between two companies. Now, a siren should go off when you read the phrase "strategic alliance," because it usually means "another, larger company finally noticed us!"

Next thing to look for: the quotes from the principals involved. Read the quote by the company issuing the press release, and then compare its wording with the quote from the bigger company. The amusing (to me) part is when the bigger company does not even name its apparent strategic partner!

Or, the bigger company might acknowledgee the existence of the first, but not quite in the way that the first company might expect. Words to this effect:

Collaborating with a market leader like [firm #1] will further accelerate how our software users create rich engaging products.

Notice the use of the word "a" and "like", as in "a market leader like" -- a meaningless phrase designed to appease the new strategic partner without insulting all its other strategic partners.

 

Tech support, part 1 (marketing): 

 

Tech support, part 2 (reality):

Objet: We do cheesy cuts, too

Sometimes, marketing departments with too much money try too hard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRC9HfBJGOc&sns=em

 (hat tip: RT)

 

Autodesk yawns

Press release this morning from Graebert GmbH:

GRAEBERT ANNOUNCES ARES COMMANDER EDITION 2013 FOR WINDOWS 8, MAC OS & LINUX with 14 LANGUAGES, IN-PLACE TEXT EDITOR, 64-BIT VERSION, DWG 2013 SUPPORT, AND OPERATING SYSTEM ENHANCEMENTS POSE A PRODUCTIVITY AND PRICING CHALLENGE TO AUTOCAD

  (Emphasis mine.)

Wired's unfortunate juxtaposition of advertising and editorial

Wired this morning is running a story on Autodesk. Above it, an ad reads, "Who is the liar?" in the version showing in my Web browser.

The story is about Autodesk's efforts to get into the maker niche, and has nothing to do with pointing out liars.

The article does not quote anyone from Autodesk says that "anyone" can  make anything; this is something the headline writer made up. If it were true, however, then Mr Anybody is bound to run afoul of copyright law and patents as he makes his anythings.

Still, the article does provide us with insights that we don't normally get to hear from Autodesk marketing:

- 123D series of software fell flat, because it was too dumbed down for professionals and too hard for amatures.

- ForceField is not doing well, even though it is free.  Well, ForceField is just to geeky, and its vector load calculations can probably be done on a TI calculator these days.

-  Maker communities are suspicious of the likes of Autodesk (and Siemens PLM, and Dassault by extension, I would guess) getting involved. "Autodesk can’t own a community. How can you motivate people from the top down? You can't."

The article starts off with a pretty interesting subplot about Autodesk ceo Carl Bass travelling to a secretive indoor rare tree grow operation in Oregon -- and the seller refusing to sell to Mr Bass... initially.

Source: http://www.wired.com/business/2012/09/ff-autodesk-and-the-big-make/all/

 

CAD renderings now illegal on Kickstarter

Marketing departments love it that CAD models generate lifelike renderings -- as do the CAD and rendering software companies who make the millions licensing their software. Manufacturers, such as car makers, can stick their next model on brochures and ads without having to hire the camera crew -- or even have bring the car on-site. It's all virtual.

(Yes, every car commercial you see on tv is fake. The car was never filmed speeding through the parkade or bursting out of old self. That disclaimer about the car being driven on a closed course? It was driven on no course.)

Car manufacturers are reliable; their fake-car ads run when the real car becomes available for purchase. Not so in the kickstarter-world, where innocent hopefuls pony up their $20 bills for the temporary thrill of being preferred customer #1 or #100. 
I became concerned seeing the beautiful Pebble watch rake in $10 million on Kickstarter. I knew that the watch's images were perfect renderings, not imperfect results from manufacturing -- the display especially, because I already own an Android watch from Sony, and it is imperfect.

And so I was pleased to read this morning that Kickstarter is now banning renderings of proposed projects. Reports Scott Lowe of Verge:

Effective immediately, new Kickstarter campaigns will be unable to use simulations or design renders to illustrate what a completed product may look like or how it may function. Instead, creators must provide photos or video of prototypes as they exist at the time of posting.

The legal limitation of CAD renderings has be reached. When will the same occur to "democratized" FEA?

 

Expensive cost of CAD software limits its growth

With big CAD software vendors struggling to keep growing quickly in this double-dip recession, research firm Technavio (a branch of Infiniti Research Limited of England) says its the CAD vendors own fault:

However, the high license and maintenance costs of engineering software could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

Of course, giving software away doesn't encourage growth, either. But Technavio holds out hope for SMBs benefiting from lower CAD costs through cloud-enabled systems.

Otherwise, the market should grow just under 10% for the next three years, less than the double-digit growth CEOs are promising Wall Street.

Vendors named in the report, which you probably can't afford to purchase ($2,000 and up), include Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, Cadence Design Systems, Synopsys, Parametric Technology, Mentor Graphics, Nemetschek, Bentley Systems, Magma Design Automation, Siemens PLM, and Intergraph.

source
researchandmarkets.com/reports/2224509/global_engineering_software_market_2011_2015 

 

Vehicle lands on Mars; Siemens PLM: "yes!!!"

Siemens PLM and its pr firm are pretty excited that NASA used some of its software to design that latest vehicle to land on Mars, "from the initial concept to simulations of the harsh space environment."

You can read Siemens' overview how NX and Teamcenter were used at inr.synapticdigital.com/Siemens/MarsRover. The presentation is dull (unlike Dassault's Let's-tow-an-iceberg-to-Africa thingy), but at least Siemens is putting some marketing mileage into this prestigious event.

Where are the racing stripes?

NASA's clever "7 Minutes of Terror" marketing strategy is designed to get people excited about space travel again; more specifically, American taxpayers and their currently elected president. Because I don't know where the terror comes into play. The vehicle that landed felt no terror; for technicians, it's their job; for the public, it was Usain Bolt Day. What will NASA do as a marketing trick for the next landing -- "Six Minutes of Blood Curdling Horror"?

Nevertheless: Congratulations to the team!, because elsewhere I read that 70% of spaceships don't land on Mars cleanly. Or maybe it's 30% that don't. After Russia's last expensive screwup, this landing on Mars is neat.

PS: It is my take that man will not walk on Mars. Too expensive, too far away, too long a trip. Unless, of course, scientists finally get around to finding that stargate that's out there under the Antarctic ice...