CADalyst articles from April 2000

CADalyst archives from April 2000

Things to watch.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2000... The first shoe dropped in November 1999 when I wrote about several CAD companies beginning to shift from their traditional dealer chain to Web-based sales. Readers voiced pros and cons on the process. Well, we've just heard the second shoe...

Dialog Box : Thoughts from our readers.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2000... Upgrade to 2000? "Upgrade to AutoCAD 2000?" (Editor's Window, January 2000) should have read "Downgrade back to Release 14." We upgraded, only to find that Softdesk 8 Building Services was not updated for 2000. We have work that must get...

Autodesk sells flagship product over the Internet.(Product Information)
April 1, 2000... Autodesk is now selling AutoCAD 2000 to customers in the United States and Canada at its Web store (www.autodesk.com/purchase). On-line price is $3,195, 10%-15% above the estimated street price. Upgrades from Release 14 are $545 and from...

German developer buys Diehl Graphsoft.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Nemetschek acquired Diehl Graphsoft, developer of MiniCAD VectorWorks, for around $30 million, or $9.50 per share. Diehl Graphsoft will market some Nemetschek products in the United States. Nemetschek's ALLPLAN is the leading AEC CAD product in...

Windows 2000 apps, drivers now available.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Applications certified for Windows 2000 now number 28, among them PTC's Pro/ENGINEER and the Alibre on-line solid modeler. As for Autodesk, it has issued two patches for AutoCAD 2000 in the past month. One fixes plotting problems with...

Linux attracts CAD vendors.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Unigraphics' Parasolid modeling kernel is now available for the Linux operating system. MSC.Software plans to release a certified Linux operating system called MSC.Linux in the second half of 2000. Hewlett-Packard will offer...

Mergers.(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Under an agreement with Microsoft's Visio division, BricsNet will distribute and support IntelliCAD in the United States and Europe. Existing customers can upgrade to BricsNet's IntelliCAD 2000 release for $99. New copies sell for a special...

Business.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Moldflow will purchase C-MOLD, a developer of plastics simulation software, for $11 million in cash. Moldflow develops software for plastics design and manufacture. Moldflow will continue to support all C-MOLD product lines. IMSI...

Alliances.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... Autodesk and SAP announced a jointly developed interface that links AutoCAD and the SAP product lifecycle management solution. SAP is also the first member of Autodesk's Enterprise Partner Program, which will focus on helping its mechanical CAD...

HARDWARE : Digital printers.(KIP America's KIP Starprint 4000, 5000, 9000, and 1230)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... KIP America announced four digital printers, the KIP Starprint 4000, 5000, 9000, and 1230 (call for pricing). The printers all offer 400dpi resolution, connect to any PC or network, and integrate with engineering, technical, and CAD...

HARDWARE : Graphics scanner.(EPSON America Inc's EPSON Expression 1600 graphics scanner)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... EPSON America Inc. unveiled the EPSON Expression 1600 graphics scanner ($799 for Special Edition model, $899 for Artist model, $1,099 for Pro model, and $1,399 for Pro Firewire model). Features include a 160033200dpi maximum hardware...

HARDWARE : 210 monitors.(SyncMaster 1100pPlus and SyncMaster 1100p from Samsung)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Samsung introduced two 210 monitors, the SyncMaster 1100pPlus ($899) and the SyncMaster 1100p ($797, pictured above). The 1100pPlus features a flat square CRT tube with 0.25mm dot pitch with Invar shadow mask. The monitor supports a maximum...

HARDWARE : 733MHz PC workstation.(ClientPro Dx5000 from Micron Electronics)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Micron Electronics, Inc., introduced ClientPro Dx5000. Based on the Pentium III processor and Intel 840 workstation-class chipset, the system supports RAMBUS memory, a 133MHz front-side bus, AGP Pro graphics, and ATA-66 hard drive. Features of...

HARDWARE : 190 CRT monitor.(Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc's Diamond Plus 91)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc., introduced the Diamond Plus 91 ($529), a 190 flat-screen CRT. Features include a polynomial curve applied to the internal screen for concave screen compensation, S-NX DBF electron gun for reduced spot size...

HARDWARE : Web scanner.(IDEAL Scanners and Systems Inc's eScanner)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... IDEAL Scanners and Systems, Inc., introduced the eScanner Series ($19,035) 400 wide color scanner with Web-enabling scan and view software packages that include 25MB of free storage space for image hosting on the Web. The Scan to the Web...

HARDWARE : 800MHz workstations.(HP Vectra VL600, HP Pavilion 8500, HP Kayak XU800)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Hewlett-Packard Company announced several new workstations using the Pentium III 800MHz processor. The HP Pavilion 8500 series ($1,995) offers 128MB SDRAM, 13GB hard drive, 403 CD-ROM drive, V.90 56k modem, 16MB video card with nVIDIA Riva TNT2...

HARDWARE : 190 monitor.(Hitachi NSA's SuperScan 769 190 monitor)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Hitachi NSA announced the SuperScan 769 190 monitor ($649). The 769 has a refresh rate of 85Hz at its maximum resolution of 160031280, an auto synchronization range of 31-115KHz, and a video clock frequency of 230MHz. The Superscan has dual...

On the Job: MDT saves time for plastics molder.(Product Information)
April 1, 2000... Injection Plastics and Manufacturing (La Paz, Indiana), a moldmaking and plastics injection-molding company, has reduced costs and turnaround time by integrating Autodesk Mechanical Desktop with NC Polaris CNC software from NC Microproducts....

SOFTWARE : Quantity takeoffs.(CADinfo Corp's CADminer)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... CADinfo Corp. announced CADminer to shorten the time and simplify the process of performing quantity takeoffs from CAD drawings. CADminer links external data files to CAD drawings and generates composite reports of information contained within...

SOFTWARE : Internet CAD system.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... CollabWare Corp. announced GS-Design (prices start at $29.95 per month), a solid-modeling 3D CAD system designed for use over the Internet. Originally developed to manage complex design programs such as the F-22 Stealth Fighter, GS-Design is an...

SOFTWARE : CAD and ActiveX component.(inViso from Informative Graphics Corp)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Informative Graphics Corp. released inViso ($49 per seat), a CAD drawing and image visualization application and ActiveX component for Windows 95/98/NT. InViso offers a functionality set that includes zoom, pan, layering, printing, page,...

VISUALIZATION SOFTWARE : Architectural modeler.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... SoftCAD International introduced SoftCAD.3D Lite 1.5 for Windows 95/98/NT ($199). New features include OpenGL support, improved library management, 3D text tool, terrain coordinate import, enhanced texture orientation, global sun settings, and...

VISUALIZATION SOFTWARE : 3D Studio VIZ tutorial.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2000... OpenCAD International, Inc., introduced an interactive training CD-ROM for 3D Studio VIZ 3.0 ($39.95). Tutorials teach you how to link AutoCAD Release 14 and 2000 and Architectural Desktop 2.0 projects to VIZ designs. You also learn how to...

VISUALIZATION SOFTWARE : Blocks and textures.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Tom Retnauer, architect, announced the Digital Entourage ($89) collection of blocks and textures from leading manufacturers in each CSI division. The CD-ROM offers more than 350 blocks in DXF and DWG format in categories such as accessories,...

CALENDAR.
April 1, 2000... AIA 2000 National Convention & Expo May 4-6 Pennsylvania Convention Center Philadelphia, PA 617.859.4475 aiaexpo@hhcc.com www.aiaonline.com COFES 2000: Congress on the Future of Engineering May 10-20 Scottsdale, AZ www.cofes.com...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Catalog and print software.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... CDS (Cad Design Services) released AutoCAD Block Catalog v2.0 ($99) and Print Program ($49). Print Program lets you catalog and print all blocks from a user-specified directory and features automated printouts showing the block name, block...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Productivity tools.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... DotSoft released ToolPac 5.0 ($195), a comprehensive collection of 500 productivity tools for AutoCAD. Features include AutoCAD annotation tables, an Attribute Grid Editor, Block Definition Editor, block reinsert, arc aligned labels, draworder...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : 3D modeling software.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Raindrop Geomagic, Inc., announced Geomagic Studio 2.0 software ($19,995) to create 3D computer models for CAD and manufacturing. This automatic digital duplication solution creates polygonal and NURBS models from scanned point cloud...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Lighting plug-in.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... 3DPowerTools announced 3DLighting, a free plug-in for AutoCAD 2000, Mechanical Desktop 4.0, and Architectural Desktop 2.0. Features let you interactively control light direction in each shaded viewport, realistically simulate a light in a...

On the Job: America's Cup uses SGI.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2000... America's Cup 2000's leading syndicates are using SGI solutions (www.sgi.com) to speed and optimize yacht development, share design information between engineering and sailing teams, and analyze race data. Traditionally, syndicates use...

ON THE JOB & AEC SOFTWARE : AEC CAD software suite.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Intergraph Corporation announced SelectCAD V8 suite (call for pricing). SelectCAD includes Inroads SelectCAD, Survey SelectCAD, Site SelectCAD, Bridge SelectCAD, and Storm and Sanitary SelectCAD. The suite also includes two software bundles:...

ON THE JOB & AEC SOFTWARE : Paper-to-digital file.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... UCLID Software announced IcoMap V2.2 ($4,995), which converts paper maps, deeds, and legal descriptions into digital files. Designed for surveyors, GIS professionals, attorneys, utility companies, and title offices, IcoMap uses Mathematical...

ON THE JOB & AEC SOFTWARE : CAD and project management.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2000... Diehl Graphsoft unveiled its VectorWorks ARCHITECT ($349) architectural add-on for VectorWorks ($795). ARCHITECT's project management capabilities automate routine administrative tasks and control product information, while its CAD technology...

Reading, writing, & renovations.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2000... When architects at the architecture and engineering firm Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates were called on to renovate an aging junior high school, they found inspiration in adjacent architecture and lighting. The 180,000-square-foot...

Intergraph supports engineers.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2000... Intergraph Corporation, headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama (www.intergraph.com/civil), is a leader in the civil engineering and transportation industry. Its wide range of customers includes most state departments of transportation and the...

Helix2000 takes to the stage : MICROCADAM's flagship product brings mainframe power to the PC desktop.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2000... Once upon a time, large aerospace and automotive companies wrote CAD systems for internal use. These systems ran on million-dollar mainframe computers. Lockheed Aircraft developed and used such a system, known as CADAM. Just as many others did,...

AutoCAD Land Development Desktop : Release 2 adds AutoCAD 2000 technology and a new DTM engine.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2000... AutoCAD Land Development Desktop Release 2 is Autodesk's premier tool for those in the land development industry. This updated tool is based on AutoCAD 2000 technology and boasts several improvements, including updated point objects and a new...

The NIBS National CAD Standards, v1.(Technology Information)
April 1, 2000... AAt CADALYST, we field more questions about how to develop and implement office CAD standards than any other topic. In the past, very few off-the-shelf resources were available for CAD managers to refer to when writing office CAD standards....

Native healing in 3D models, part 1.(Technology Information)
April 1, 2000... Native healing occurs within a solid modeling system either when a model is imported, after it's imported, or both. This is in contrast to healing tools that are not native, such as stand-alone IGES or STEP toolkits and the 3dmodelserver.com...

Solid modeling implementation advisor.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2000... If you're planning to migrate from 2D CAD to a 3D solid modeling system, these next few pages will guide you through this transition. The up-front material cost per user (hardware and software) to implement a solids-based design system has...

Tutorial: Add another D to your drawings.(Technology Information)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2000... So you're ready to switch from 2D to 3D, but aren't quite sure how to start. Let's begin by making sure you understand the different types of 3D. In the beginning was 2D. CAD systems produced drawings that were almost exactly like flat...

Break into 3D.(Technology Information)
April 1, 2000... CAD technology has come a long way from 2D drafting, yet nowhere is the dragging of feet as pronounced as when making the transition from 2D to 3D design. 3D promises significant cost savings and productivity gains once you learn the...

BUILD YOUR CAD STANDARDS.(Industry Trend or Event)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2000... Manager's guide to setting and enforcing standards You cannot make a vulgar offensive cad conduct himself as a gentleman.-- A.K.H. Boyd, Lessons of Middle Age, 1868. Were Mr. Boyd transported to our acronym-infested world, he might...

5 FABULOUS GRAPHICS CARDS : CADALYST Labs reviews graphics cards for CAD.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2000... What's new in graphics cards? More RAM and faster chipsets--it almost goes without saying. We're also seeing more low- and high-range multiheaded boards that run dual monitors. While this capability has been available at the system level for...

VIZ vs. MAX: Who needs both?(Software Review)(Evaluation)
April 1, 2000... Many architectural drawing offices that now use 3D Studio VIZ started out using 3D Studio MAX to render images and animations of their designs. When 3D Studio VIZ became available two years ago, some firms purchased VIZ and kept their MAX...

Develop database applications Step 1: Object data source.(Product Support)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2000... You may already have an intelligent drawing and not realize it. Objects you add to an AutoCAD drawing during the drafting process can be a valuable source of information in and of themselves. With a little planning, you can use existing AutoCAD...

Extract multiple title block attributes.(Product Support)(Tutorial)
April 1, 2000... In March 1999, I wrote Titles to extract the title from a particular title block. This month, in response to several requests, I wrote titles2.lsp and titles2.dcl to extract attributes from multiple drawings. You'll need to download both files...

Tips from our readers.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2000... $50 BONUS WINNER Dynamic Pickbox Tip #1605 [PICKBOX.LSP] While working in a drawing, I often find that the pickbox is too large to let me pick an entity that is between other entities. pickbox.lsp includes two routines to change...

Popup blowup.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2000... I wrote an AutoLISP program for a popup toolbar in AutoCAD Release 14.01, popup.mns, which I access with [less than] Ctrl[greater than] 1A. The accelerator in popup.mns works correctly in the session where I use Menuload, but then it reverts...