CADalyst articles from February 2002

CADalyst archives from February 2002

Autodesk plays its ace-in-the-hole.(Autodesk Inventor Series)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... The already intense competition among developers in the "midrange" MCAD market is about to get brutal. On Janaury 30th, Autodesk will release the Inventor Series, which contains AutoCAD Mechanical, Mechanical Desktop, and Inventor, for a mere...

Dialog box : Thoughts from our readers.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2002... talk to us HELP WITH AUTOLISP? I have used AutoCAD since Release 2.4. Since Release 13, I've experienced frustration with AutoLISP documentation in Help. Entering Lisp in the Keyword index in AutoCAD 2002 doesn't even return a generic...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2002... In January, p. 15, we transposed two digits in the phone number for CompugraphX, creators of the 100 Plus Hatch Pattern Library. The correct number is 949.459.5406, www.compugraphx.com. Also in January, p. 4, the colors for the legend in...

Autodesk bundles three MCAD products for bargain price.(Inventor Series)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Autodesk's new Inventor Series gives Mechanical Desktop, AutoCAD, and AutoCAD Mechanical users the option to acquire Inventor at a fraction of its normal cost. Inventor Series is aimed at users who work mainly in 2D but want to evaluate the...

PTC PROVIDES FREE CAD PRODUCT.(Pro/DESKTOP)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... PTC (www.ptc.com) introduced a free version of its Pro/DESKTOP product. Pro/DESKTOP Express is designed for partners and suppliers who don't have a CAD program but need to access drawings. Pro/DESKTOP Express, built on PTC's Granite One kernel,...

EAGLE POINT COMPLETES MERGER.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Eagle Point Software Corp. (www.eaglepoint.com) completed its merger with an entity formed by John Biver, a founder and director of Eagle Point and former vice-president of the civil applications division. Biver says the company will focus on...

SMS ACQUIRES NLIB.(Solid Modeling Solutions)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Solid Modeling Solutions purchased Nlib, the NURBS geometry library developed by Geomware, Inc., of Tyler, Texas. SMS will continue to offer Nlib in source code form and without payment of any per-seat royalties, only a license fee. SMS has...

BUSINESS.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... ELSA plans to develop products solely for the professional graphics market. It will continue to produce workstation graphics accelerators based on the nVIDIA Quadro line of chips. ELSA's current workstation products include the Synergy 2000,...

ALLIANCES.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... IronCAD and ENGINEERING.com formed a strategic alliance to deliver IronCAD's InnovationSuite through ENGINEERING.com and the RAND Worldwide customer base. IronCAD also announced that more than 37 channel partners will promote InnovationSuite....

PRODUCTS.
February 1, 2002... Informative Graphics Corp. released inViso v3, a simple CAD viewer available as an ActiveX component or a desktop executable. The free version supports AutoCAD DWG, DXF, and DWF file formats. Download dwgviewer.exe at...

HARDWARE : 190 LCD DISPLAY.(ViewSonic VG191)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... The VG191 ($1,519) 190 viewable LCD monitor from ViewSonic Corp. offers 1,28031,024 native resolution, OptiSync digital and analog dual-mode technology, and SuperClearMVA technology. Its video display response rate delivers enhanced picture...

HARDWARE : 100GB DESKTOP SYSTEM.(Dell Dimension 8200)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Dimension 8200 ($1,199) is an expandable multimedia desktop from Dell. Its midnight-gray chassis lets you access internal components and change internal PCI cards, such as modems and sound cards, without the need for tools. The system features...

HARDWARE : DESKTOP MANAGEMENT.(Appian Graphics's Appian Rushmore )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Appian Graphics's Appian Rushmore ($599) four-port desktop management solution powers up to four monitors from a single PCI slot. It features 64MB of DDR SDRAM and two ATI RADEON VE multidisplay graphics processors, HydraVision multiple-monitor...

HARDWARE : DIGITAL CONTENT WORKSTATIONS.(BOXX Technologies released the 3DBOXX R1 series )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... BOXX Technologies released the 3DBOXX R1 series (starts at $2,100) high-performance workstations and the RenderBOXX R1 series (starts at $2,069) rendering systems powered by the new AMD Athlon MP processor 19001, a seventh-generation x86...

HARDWARE : TABLETOP MILLING MACHINE.(Roland DGA Corp. announced the MDX-650 )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Roland DGA Corp. announced the MDX-650 ($23,995) tabletop milling machine that mills 3D prototypes of CAD designs in DXF and STL formats. The MDX-650 mills objects on all four sides at 3,000- to 12,000rpm. The bundled CNC miIling software...

HARDWARE/CAM SOFTWARE : HYBRID EIGHT-COLOR PLOTTER.(ENCAD Inc.'s NovaJet 880)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... ENCAD Inc.'s NovaJet 880 ($18,995) hybrid eight-color, wide-format E-size plotter prints on flexible and rigid media up to 0.50 thick. The plotter features a media thickness sensor that helps you fine-tune the head height. The NovaJet 880 uses...

HARDWARE/CAM SOFTWARE : MATTE PAPERS/POSTER BOARDS.(EPSON Enhanced Matte Paper and EPSON Enhanced Matte Poster Board)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... EPSON America, Inc., expanded its line of matte papers and poster boards for archival ink-jet printers. Its Archival Matte products are now called EPSON Enhanced Matte Paper ($17.99-$149, depending on size) and EPSON Enhanced Matte Poster Board...

HARDWARE/CAM SOFTWARE : VISUAL WORKSTATION.(Silicon Graphics' Octane2 )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Dual-head operation and PowerDuo capability upgrades are available for Silicon Graphics' Octane2 workstation, which supports two simultaneous users on a single system. The dual-head option ($14,500) is available with V10 graphics with 32MB...

HARDWARE/CAM SOFTWARE : POCKET PC.(HP Jornada 565 )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Hewlett-Packard's HP Jornada 565 (call for pricing) pocket PC is a color personal digital assistant with 32MB RAM, a 206MHz StrongArm processor, and 103MHz memory data bus. The unit features a pen-and-touch interface, a 16-bit color display,...

HARDWARE/CAM SOFTWARE : 190 MULTIMEDIA MONITOR.(Compaq CV935)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... The CV935 ($299) 190 color multimedia monitor from Compaq offers 1,6003 1,200 maximum resolution with 0.26mm dot pitch. The monitor's antiglare, antireflective screen reduces eye strain. It features an 180 viewable image area, onscreen display...

SOFTWARE : CONCEPT DESIGN AND MODEL.(Rhino 2.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Robert McNeel & Associates released Rhino v2 conceptual design and modeling tool ($895), a new version of its NURBS modeler. Rhino v2 features hundreds of new modeling and editing commands, new import and export formats, and a C11 software...

SOFTWARE : SHEET METAL FOR INVENTOR.(SheetMetal Inventor Release 5 )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... SPI GmbH's SPI--SheetMetal Inventor Release 5 ($1,200) generates flat patterns of 3D sheet-metal parts to generate complete 2D flat information in Autodesk Inventor 5. SheetMetal Inventor 5 unfolds Inventor parts designed with bend radii,...

SOFTWARE : 3D CAD TOOLS.(SolidWorks Office)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... SolidWorks Corp. unveiled SolidWorks Office ($4,995), which combines SolidWorks 2001 Windows-based 3D CAD software and six of the company's add-on applications in one package. The software's features include part and assembly modeling, drawing...

SOFTWARE : PARAMETRIC SOFTWARE.(Synthesis 16.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Synthesis Release 16 ($6,500) parametric software from The Synthesis Company is compatible with AutoCAD Release 14-2002. The solution is for made-to-order manufacturing companies. It lets users create, detail, and customize CAD drawings...

SOFTWARE : 3D FILE VIEWER.(3DView 4.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Actify, Inc., introduced 3DView v4 ($495) CAD viewer software that features e-mail and Web-based solutions for collaboration throughout your extended product development organization. 3DView v4 lets you view, measure, and mark up designs and...

SOFTWARE : TOOLPATH OPTIMIZATION.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Tool4CAM announced a free Web service for toolpath optimization. The service works directly with machine-ready G and M code to optimize milling operations from any CAM or manual programming system. According to the company, it reduces machining...

ON THE JOB : CYRA TECHNOLOGIES, BENTLEY BREAK NEW GROUND WITH ARIZONA HIGHWAY PROJECT.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... In August 2001, ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) and York Consulting, LLC, of Scottsdale, Arizona, selected Cyra Technologies' Cyrax 2500 and Cyclone 3.0 software (www.cyra.com) to laser scan the canyon walls for the purpose of...

CONFERENCE.(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Autodesk combined the ninth annual Autodesk University and the second annual GIS User Conference to maximize attendance of both users and vendors. Held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, November 27-30, the expanded show attracted 2,600...

SOFTWARE : PARAMETRIC BUILDING.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Revit 4 ($149 per month, depending on length of subscription and number of users) parametric building modeler from Revit Technology Corp. now supports CBAs (concurrent building assets), which comprise all information used for a design in...

SOFTWARE : ARX PLUG-INS.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Spatial Terrain's ARX plug-ins ($129- $795) help you calculate triangulations and contours and perform 3D Boolean operations on complex triangulated surfaces and solids within AutoCAD. The plug-ins are based on algorithms that process large...

SOFTWARE : CIVIL COLLABORATION.(Infrasoft's Arenium)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Infrasoft Corp. released Arenium (call for pricing) Web-enabled collaborative engineering software. Multiple engineers share 3D design models over the LAN, WAN, and Internet. At the center of Arenium is at least one PC connected to an Internet...

SOFTWARE : COLLISION CHECKING.(Blue Diamond Technologies)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Blue Diamond Technologies introduced Collision Checking (call for pricing) software that lets you link with others through a network or the Internet to coordinate drawings and modifications in real time. If you draw anything that collides with...

Mechanical design take your team online.(Buyers Guide)
February 1, 2002... Logically, it's the only way to go. But culturally, we have a long way to go before we see widespread adoption of the powerful online tools that are now available for managing mechanical design projects. First, let's examine the...

New Tools Automate Plot Tracking.(SEPIALINE's Argos 4 and TECHNESIS' SmartPLOT 3.7)(Evaluation)
February 1, 2002... During normal economic conditions, it's important for companies to monitor expenses. During a downturn, even daily activities that are sometimes thought of as insignificant, such as printing and plotting, come under close scrutiny. Although...

Argos 4.(Evaluation)
February 1, 2002... Argos 4 Sepialine Argos comprises three main components: Argos Manager, a client, and an SQL database. You can install the SQL Server database on any computer in your network. You use Argos Manager to manage the database and generate...

SmartPLOT 3.7.(Evaluation)
February 1, 2002... SmartPLOT 3.7 Technesis Technesis provides a suite of components designed to capture and manage print and plot information. The major components include SmartPLOT, SmartPRINT, and Console. Designed to capture plot information from CAD...

Allplan FT takes object-oriented approach to AEC projects : Software delivers amazing array of design and project management tools.(Evaluation)
February 1, 2002... With each new upgrade, Allplan becomes easier for drafters to use. Allplan FT v16.2, released this summer, continues the trend. It is faster than its predecessor (more on this later) and has a cleaner on-screen look with more room for drawing....

Solid Edge v11 delivers free document management : Insight technology provides basic PDM tools inside Solid Edge.
February 1, 2002... EDS PLM Solutions continues to deliver high-quality solid modeling software with plenty of free add-ons with its latest release of Solid Edge v11. This release is devoted almost exclusively to a free integration of a PDM (product data...

AutoManager TeamWork : Document management for small workgroups.(Cyco Software)(Evaluation)
February 1, 2002... Many readers will be familiar with the name Cyco in association with its excellent drawing viewing and management software, AutoManager. Its latest offering, AutoManager TeamWork, incorporates AutoManager in a very well designed document...

Graphite : Basic AEC drafting package.(Ashlar-Vellum's 2D/3D drafting solution)(Evaluation)
February 1, 2002... Ashlar-Vellum has a great reputation for making programs with extraordinarily easy-to-use interfaces, and Graphite, its latest 2D/3D drafting solution, continues that tradition. Graphite is the base part of the Designer Elements product line...

The next big thing : What's on your CAD wish list?
February 1, 2002... In the computer press, much of the chatter about software development tries to identify the "next big thing"--the next killer application that will create a new generation of computer millionaires. What do you think that killer app will be?...

Find AEC jobs on the Web : Web sites put a wealth of job listings and career advice at your fingertips.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... You may seek new employment opportunities for a variety of reasons. Some moves are based on choices such as desire for greater career growth opportunities, more compatible colleagues or bosses, and higher wages. Other reasons are forced on us,...

Essential presentation tools : Hardware and software you need to create digital multimedia presentations.
February 1, 2002... More than a year ago I noted that the AEC market was becoming interested in digital multimedia presentations. Since then, I have given several seminars on this subject at the AEC Systems and Computers for Construction shows. To my surprise, not...

Locate multiple insertion points : Extract block insertion points to a text file.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Mary Bass e-mailed a request to extract to a text file the insertion points of multiple blocks within a drawing. Hundreds of the same block may be referenced in a single drawing, so listing each one would be a tedious business. The AutoLISP...

Spin out of control : Avoid commands that crash your system.
February 1, 2002... I work with large AutoCAD 2000i drawings with 3D data. I generally work in plan view and don't use the 3D Orbit command. Sometimes, I accidentally activate the button in the list of shortcuts in the Zoom dialog box (figure 1), and it really...

Tips from our readers.
February 1, 2002... $50 BONUS WINNER Zooming PAPER SPACE viewports Tip #1772 [VSR.LSP] This handy routine uses model space to simplify zooming in paper space viewports. Run Vsr while in paper space and select the viewport to zoom. The routine saves...