CADalyst articles from December 2000

CADalyst archives from December 2000

Alias/Wavefront Studio v9.5.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Alias|Wavefront Studio v9.5 Reviewed 07.00, p. 36 Studio is one of four applications in the Alias|Wavefront StudioTools family, along with DesignStudio, AutoStudio, and SurfaceStudio. Its rendering capabilities make it ideal for conceptual...

Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 1000 Series Reviewed 10.00, p. 70.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Hewlett-Packard's 1000 Series includes the 360 1050C and 1055CM plotters and uses the company's modular ink delivery system, which consists of four long-life 600dpi heads connected by tubing to replaceable ink cartridges. It's hard to impress...

Unigraphics Solutions Unigraphics v16 Reviewed 06.00, p. 36.(Software Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
December 1, 2000... We've never had a program so highly regarded in our CADALYST reviews as Unigraphics v16. And no wonder, this 3D CAD system from Unigraphics Solutions differentiates itself from the pack with flexible and robust core modeling tools, a wide range...

CADDIES 2000 : CADALYST Image Awards.(News Briefs)
December 1, 2000... This year we opened the CADDIES up to all CAD users--come one, come all. Thanks to all who entered. CADDIES 2001 is approaching fast. We're splitting the CADDIES into two competitions that focus on different design areas. AEC entries are due...

Dialog Box : Thoughts from our readers.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2000... Tools or talent? I must strongly disagree with Art Liddle's editorial comments in October, p. 8, that "designers are only as good as their tools." This suggests that anyone can be an innovative designer, regardless of ability. ...

Corrections.(News Briefs)
December 1, 2000... For redline.lsp (October AutoLISP Solutions, p. 80), users need to put the three text files in the current local directory, not in the support directory.

Leverage your CAD data.(Technology Information)(Column)
December 1, 2000... In this month's Dialog Box (p. 10), two of our readers questioned the importance I placed on CAD in the design process in October's editorial (p. 8). I remember the days before CAD--I learned to draft and then design using pencil, paper, T-bar,...

ActivMedia Research.(business-to-business forecast)(Industry Trend or Event)
December 1, 2000... ActivMedia Research (www.activmediaresearch.com) estimates that online B-to-B (business-to-business) sites will see revenues total $134 billion in 2001 and double that in 2002. B-to-B sites make up 38% of public domain names on the...

Vendors unite to push Web stores.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... SolidWorks Corporation, VerticalNet, and Microsoft Corp. announced their agreement to deliver 3D-powered storefronts to companies in North America. Through this relationship, SolidWorks adds a new dimen sion to VerticalNet's e-commerce systems...

Oracle releases collaboration product.(Oracle Product Development Exchange)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Oracle (www.oracle.com) has entered the collaborative product development and product lifecycle management software market with its Oracle Product Development Exchange, part of the Oracle Exchange product suite. Oracle allied itself with...

Document management software vendor Motiva shuts doors.
December 1, 2000... On Friday, October 13, San Diego-based Motiva Software shut down operations, leaving more than 300 customers without support. Motiva's DesignGroup software offered typical document management features such as secure vaulting, revision tracking,...

Autodesk previews new design concept.(Product Development)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Autodesk lifted the veil on its future AEC strategy. StudioDESK adapts traditional architectural design methods to today's computer tools. You use pen-based tools to sketch and create 3D study models. The StudioDESK interface is customizable,...

Spatial changes ACIS pricing.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Spatial (www.spatial.com) announced a new pricing structure for its component technology, including the ACIS geometric modeling kernel, CAD data translators, and IntraVISION Software Developer's Kit. Instead of an upfront license fee,...

Bidcom, Cephren merge into Citadon.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Bidcom and Cephren (formerly BlueLine Online), both providers of Internet tools and services to the AEC industry, plan to merge. The combined company, to be called Citadon (www.citadon.com), will count more than 30,000 subscribers and a...

Alliances.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Engineous Software will integrate its iSIGHT design optimization software with MathSoft's S-Plus data analysis, statistical modeling, and data mining tools. IBM and ESRI formed an alliance to serve the government and telecommunications...

Acquisitions.(Charrette Corp. purchased Capitol Technigraphics Corp.)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Charrette Corp. purchased Capitol Technigraphics Corp., a reprographics firm with three offices in Washington, D.C. Reprographic firms ReproCAD and miniMAX merged to form a new entity, ReproMAX.

New products.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Autodesk released its CAD Standards Extension for AutoCAD 2000i, Architectural Desktop R2i, Land Development Desktop R2i, and AutoCAD Map 2000i (www.autodesk.com/estore). The extension lets you interactively check drawings against corporate or...

HARDWARE : Aesthetic desktops.(Sony Electronics' VAIO Digital Studio series workstations)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Sony Electronics' VAIO Digital Studio series workstations (prices start at $1,400) feature cases that unlatch at the top and sides to easily upgrade the system. The models feature a 163 DVD drive, a 4343243 CD-RW, a V.9 integrated modem,...

HARDWARE : 1808 display system.(Elumens' VisionStation hemispherical display)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Elumens' VisionStation hemispherical display ($19,995) is now part of a 3D design and visualization system based on IBM's IntelliStation workstation. The Elumens-IBM solution lets teams collaborate on 3D CAD or animation projects from multiple...

HARDWARE : Graphics accelerators.(3Dlabs announced the Oxygen GVX420 and GVX1 Pro graphics accelerators)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... 3Dlabs announced the Oxygen GVX420 ($2,499) and GVX1 Pro ($1,199) graphics accelerators. The GVX420 comes with 128MB of memory and dual-display capability. It deploys two GLiNT R4 processors and the GLiNT Gamma G2 geometry processor in a...

HARDWARE : Affordable scanner.(The EPSON Perfection 610 scanner)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The EPSON Perfection 610 scanner ($99) from Epson America Inc. delivers a maximum resolution of 60032400dpi and 36-bit color depth for sharpness, detail, and color-accurate scans. The Perfection 610 features Epson's Micro Step Drive technology...

HARDWARE : Stereoscopic screens.(Monitor ZScreen 2000 and Monitor ZScreen 2000i, from StereoGraphics Corp)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Monitor ZScreen 2000 ($1,895) and Monitor ZScreen 2000i ($2,195) from StereoGraphics Corporation are stereoscopic visualization systems for working with 3D images. The screen lets you view and manipulate digital survey photographs in stereo,...

MCAD SOFTWARE : Part libraries.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... PartSpec and PlantSpec Edition 5 CD-ROMs from Thomas Register (free to qualifying professionals) are consolidated sources of millions of dimensionally accurate, predrawn, manufacturer-specific DWG drawings and product detail libraries. PartSpec...

MCAD SOFTWARE : Inventor add-ons.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... CAD Management Group, Inc., released Power Duplicator ($295), Power Steel ($395), Power Fasteners ($495), and Power Piping ($595) add-ons for Autodesk Inventor R2 and R3. Power Steel includes 21 steel shapes, and Power Fasteners includes 124...

MCAD SOFTWARE : Part and mold design.(Moldflow Corporation announced Moldflow Plastics Insight 2)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Moldflow Corporation announced Moldflow Plastics Insight 2 (call for pricing), an integrated suite of software products for plastics part and mold design. MPI extends Moldflow's fusion functionality to include the simulation of fiber-filled...

On the Job: ALSTOM Power steams ahead with Solid Edge.
December 1, 2000... ALSTOM Power, Inc., designs heat recovery steam generators. Not only does the company model products in 3D, it links its CAD system to information in spreadsheets to automate the production of solid geometry and 2D drawings. The results include...

MCAD SOFTWARE : Design tool.(WATT Mechanism Design Tool from Heron Technologies)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... WATT Mechanism Design Tool (call for pricing) from Heron Technologies is a design tool focused on mechanism and linkage design that invents mechanisms on command. WATT presents a single-window user interface and searches and finds solutions for...

MCAD SOFTWARE : CAD collaboration.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... ANSYS Inc. announced ANSYS/DesignSpace v5.0.2 (price please) for companies that work in multiple CAD software and hardware platform environments. Version 5.0.2 adds full CAD associativity with Autodesk Inventor R2 and R3, Pro/ENGINEER 2000i2,...

MCAD SOFTWARE : Data processing.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Spider ($5,000) from Alias|Wavefront features advanced scan data processing capabilities. With Spider combined with Alias|Wavefront's Studio, AutoStudio, and SurfaceStudio, you can incorporate physical models into a digital design workflow. You...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : CAD symbols library.(PenDean Inc. announced PDSYMS v1.1)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... PenDean Inc. announced PDSYMS v1.1 ($50), a universal CAD architectural symbols library. PDSYMS is available in two versions, sorted by name or folder, and is designed for AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, FelixCAD, TurboCAD, GenericCAD, DataCAD,...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Document tracking.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Conisio ($500) from GCS Scandinavia AB helps track different types of documents. Features include full revision history, document previewing from Windows Explorer, advanced search facility, and the ability to assign rights at user and group...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Batch plotting.(Sepialine announced Chorus Batch Plotting Software)(Product Development)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Sepialine announced Chorus Batch Plotting Software ($200 per site, $25 per seat). Chorus, a stand-alone batch-plotting engine that is compatible with AutoCAD Release 14, automatically prints multiple drawings. Chorus uses standard Windows...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Project management.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Info.trak (call for pricing) from Bamboo Solutions is a Web-enabled collaboration, document management, and database application with workflow and event notification. Info.trak manages your project data and provides a tool to collaborate with...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Batch conversion.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Trix Systems released Trix RasterServer 2000 ($1,965) for automatic batch conversion of CAD files and documents to raster and PDF formats. RasterServer works as a stand-alone program or as a front end for EDM, intranet, and B2B...

AEC SOFTWARE : Project Tracking.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Eagle Point Software announced JobTracker1 ($495), a project management tool that lets the builder, designer, and project manager track as many as 1,000 projects simultaneously. JobTracker1 is a stand-alone product that tracks up to 100...

AEC SOFTWARE : Drafting tool.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... GraphStore announced the eCADLite ($300) 2D drafting tool for MicroStation users. ECADLite lets you view and edit MicroStation-based DGN files, reference files, and cells using a Microsoft Office-style interface. eCADLite lets you read and...

AEC SOFTWARE : Architectural design.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... DataCAD 9 ($995) from DATACAD LLC is integrated 2D/3D architectural design software for architects, engineers, and contractors. You can externally reference an unlimited number of external DataCAD drawings into a single file, allowing multiple...

AEC SOFTWARE : Manufacturing tool.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Haitek Solutions announced Envision ERP v5 (pricing starts at $100) for engineer-to-order manufacturers. Version 5 includes an import utility that lets you design products in AutoCAD and import the bill of materials into Envision ERP without...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Modeling software.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... MultiGen-Paradigm, Inc., announced MultiGen Creator 2.4 for Windows 98/NT/2000 and Vega 3.5 for IRIX (call for pricing). MultiGen Creator 2.4 is a 3D modeling, assembly, and synthetic environment generation system for real time visual...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Drawing creation.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... PANELdraw (call for pricing) from Hoffman creates panel and enclosure layout drawings. PANELdraw accelerates the control system design and documentation process and lets you select from a library of symbols, generate BOMs (bills of materials),...

On the Job: WaterCAD helps win design competition.(Product Information)
December 1, 2000... Haestad Methods announced that Dan Bauer, Dan Kranenburg, and Rebecca Mac-Issac (pictured), seniors in civil engineering at the University of Portland, won the 2000 Parsons Brinckerhoff Student Design Project Competition at the ASCE...

IMET 2000 Show Report.(Industry Trend or Event)
December 1, 2000... Attendance was extremely low at this year's IMET (International Manufacturing Enterprise Technology) Exposition and Convention, held at the Rosemont Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois, on October 10-12. The good news is that there were no...