CADalyst articles from July 2000

CADalyst archives from July 2000

WORKSTATIONS AT FULL THROTTLE.
July 1, 2000... This time around we intended to showcase the latest, hottest workstation systems running Windows 2000. After we sent out our initial request for systems, one manufacturer after another called to say that they were unable to get their 3D drivers...

Refund policy survey.
July 1, 2000... What can you do when you aren't satisfied with your new workstation? Several readers have expressed frustration with unclear refund and return policies from companies we regularly review in CADALYST, so we decided to ask twelve major...

Windows NT 4.0 vs. Windows 2000.
July 1, 2000... The 1GHz AMD Athlon and the 866MHz Pentium III systems from Xi Computer Corp. were the only dual-boot systems among those we received, offering both Windows NT 4.0 (service pack #6) and Windows 2000. This provided an ideal opportunity to run...

What are we going to do with the Web?
July 1, 2000... That question dominated COFES (Congress on the Future of Engineering Software), held from May 17-20 in Phoenix. COFES was designed to provoke lively discussion among participants, who ranged from vendors to consultants to press to a very few...

Dialog Box : Thoughts from our readers.
July 1, 2000... Changes I've received CADALYST for about five years. You probably assume that I still use some version of AutoCAD. I do, but only occasionally, when I must. We are among the companies that have switched to SolidWorks, and I doubt we'll...

Corrections.
July 1, 2000... Credit for the rendering on p. 55 of November's ArchiCAD 6.5 review should go to Amos Byington of Michael Gaertner & Associates. The image on p. 59 was created by Doug Engel, also of Michael Gaertner & Associates. Mechanical Desktop 4 does...

Bentley launches VIECON Internet strategy, takes over Intergraph line.
July 1, 2000... Bentley Systems announced its comprehensive Internet strategy, called VIECON. VIECON is designed for organizations that engineer, construct, and operate permanent assets such as buildings, plants, roadway systems, and utility networks. VIECON...

MICROCADAM drops U.S., Europe.
July 1, 2000... MICROCADAM will cease to offer Helix Design Systems in the Americas and Europe as of June 30, 2000. IBM and Dassault Systemes will provide a migration option to move current Helix users to CATIA v5. The offering includes a native Helix-to-CATIA...

IMSI extends TurboCAD's lease on life.
July 1, 2000... Despite earlier reports of its demise, IMSI will continue to develop its TurboCAD product. TurboCAD Professional v6.5 shipped on May 17 and v7 will follow later this year. V6.5 supports AutoCAD 2000 DWG and DXF file sharing and new 2D and 3D...

Autodesk rolls out mobile solutions.
July 1, 2000... Autodesk released its OnSite mobile enterprise solution for hand-held devices that use the Palm OS platform, Oracle8i Lite, and the Microsoft mobile computing system. Support for Windows CE will follow this summer. OnSite communicates live data...

Alventive prefers community to portal.
July 1, 2000... Alventive (formerly Visionary Design Systems) seeks to distinguish itself by creating an on-line design community rather than an Internet portal. In this design-to-order model, the customer and the marketplace drive the creation of products...

Business.
July 1, 2000... ENCAD and Hewlett-Packard settled their legal dispute over patent infringement and below-cost pricing of large-format printers. Their agreement resolves patent issues for current products and gives each company the right to license a limited...

Acquistions.
July 1, 2000... ZoomOn International acquired long-time Autodesk third-party developer Tailor Made Software. Tailor Made products such as Flat Out!, Hp2Design, and CadServer will be integrated into ZoomOn's line of vector viewing products. | MUSE...

Standards.
July 1, 2000... The OpenGIS Consortium unveiled its Web Map Server Interface Implementation at www.opengis.org. Conforming software will overlay map images obtained from different map servers in Web browsers, regardless of map scale, projection, earth...

HARDWARE : 620 color inkjet printer.
July 1, 2000... Mutoh America Inc. announced the RJ-6100/62 (call for pricing) 620 color inkjet printer. The printer features a 61.20 print width, six colors, and resolutions up to 144031440dpi. It produces full color images up to 8 square feet per hour,...

HARDWARE : 200 LCD display.
July 1, 2000... Sharp Electronics Corp. announ-ced the LC-20VM2 ($5,995) 200 flat-panel LCD video monitor. The monitor features a 2.40 deep display and a wide-area video chroma IC (integrated circuit) for wider viewing angles. A gamma correction circuit...

HARDWARE : 1GHz Athlon workstation.
July 1, 2000... Compaq Computer Corp. announ-ced the Presario 5900Z series (starts at $2,499). The system features a 1GHz AMD Athlon processor and a DCIC (Digital Creativity Imaging Center) that offers two IEEE-1394 ports to attach a variety of digital devices...

HARDWARE : 3D printer.
July 1, 2000... Objet Geometries Ltd. announced the Objet Quadra ($39,000) 3D inkjet printer that uses 1,536 nozzles to deposit layers of the company's proprietary photopolymer resin to create 3D models. A sealed cartridge delivers materials and sprays a...

HARDWARE : Special edition 1GHz.
July 1, 2000... Dell Computer Corporation an-nounced the Special Edition Dell Dimension ($5,999) desktop system. Features of the Dell Dimension include a 1GHz Pentium III processor, 43 AGP, 256MB R-DRAM, and a 64MB DDR GeForce video card. The Dimension also...

MCAD AND AEC SOFTWARE : Surface modeling.
July 1, 2000... think3 released thinkdesign 5.0 ($1,995 for annual subscription) 3D design software. Release 5.0 includes surface modeling functionality for conceptual design and new engineering-oriented features for parametric solid modeling, drafting and...

MCAD AND AEC SOFTWARE : Mold designer.
July 1, 2000... Cimatron Ltd. introduced MoldBase 3D (call for pricing). MoldBase 3D supports tools and components such as guide pins, leader pins, screws, ejectors, spacers, and cooling channels. MoldBase supports industry catalogs such as DME, DMS, Futuba,...

MCAD AND AEC SOFTWARE : Civil/survey software.
July 1, 2000... Eagle Point Software announced the release of Civil/Survey 2000 (call for pricing). Features include a command-line COGO that performs COGO operations without dialog boxes, drafting annotation shortcuts, and multiuser access to a networked...

MCAD AND AEC SOFTWARE : Plant-diagram software.
July 1, 2000... Intergraph Corporation announced SmartPlant P&ID 2.0 ($6,000) software to create piping and instrumentation diagrams for the process and power plant life cycle. SmartPlant P&ID 2.0 offers 501 new features and improvements, such as upgrade...

On the Job: Australian orchard blooms in United States.
July 1, 2000... Bidcom, Inc. (www.bidcom.com), a building and real estate industry e-business services provider, announced that construction of The Orchard Hotel in San Francisco will be completed two months ahead of schedule. Bidcom's services utilize BPMs...

3D design -MCAD -OK.
July 1, 2000... SDRC announced I-DEAS 8 (starting at $4,995 for combined 2D/3D applications and $2,000 for 2D applications), a set of software solutions designed to automate e-design. I-DEAS 8 combines the I-DEAS Master series with the I-DEAS Artisan series...

2D-to-3D conversion -MCAD -OK.
July 1, 2000... Imagecom, Inc., announced FlexiDesign 2.0 ($4,995), an ObjectARX application for Mechanical Desktop 4.0. FlexiDesign converts 2D legacy CAD drawings to parametric feature-based 3D models. FlexiDesign v2.0 offers a new interface and supports...

Skills assessment program.
July 1, 2000... Office Technology, Inc., announced XLQuest 3 (prices start at $99) skills assessment program for AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop. XLQuest 3 features a questions database of more than 1,300 questions, an on-line answer guide with dozens of...

Project communication -OK.
July 1, 2000... Framework Technologies Corporation released ActiveProject v2000/E project communication software ($79,995 includes licensing for one server and 100 collaborators for Oracle). ActiveProject is a Web-based software solution that enables...

AutoCAD tutor -OK.
July 1, 2000... New Vision Sotware, Inc., announced SofTutor ($298), an on-line training and technical support tool for AutoCAD Release 14 and 2000, in 2D, 3D, and advanced versions. You can use SofTutor as a stand-alone audio and visual training tool, as an...

CAD support sofware -OK.
July 1, 2000... CoCreate Software Inc. announced ME10 2000 ($5,200) 2D CAD software with tools that support industry standards and Internet technology. ME10 2000 features OLE server technology, direct integration of Microsoft NetMeeting, DXF/DWG translation,...

ASCII file creation -AEC -OK.
July 1, 2000... Robert Steltman Inc. announced Sections from Breaklines ($140) and Sections from Points ($140). These civil engineering software tools help you create cross-section ASCII files for import into Autodesk Land Development Desktop or Softdesk S8....

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Document manager.
July 1, 2000... Cyco Software released AutoManager Meridian 2.0 ($1,200 per license) that provides Web-enabled document management for AutoCAD users in the mechanical and manufacturing markets. AM-Meridian is based on a scalable, multitiered architecture and...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : AutoCAD extension.
July 1, 2000... Manusoft released LTX 2.0 ($2,000 for annual subscription) to load and run AutoCAD ARX applications in AutoCAD LT. The LTX 2.0 toolkit supports AutoCAD LT 97/98/2000. The LTX engine is designed for use by commercial ARX application developers...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Surface and solid modeling.
July 1, 2000... SolidWorks Corporation introduced SolidWorks 2000 (call for pricing) 3D mechanical design software. The software provides more than 150 enhancements and a comprehensive migration path from a 2D to 3D environment. The SolidWorks Explorer file...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Paperless field mapping.
July 1, 2000... Avatech Solutions Inc. announced AvaStrand (call for pricing) to facilitate paperless field mapping and inventory on a pen-based, hand-held PC. You can save the maps in AutoCAD DWG format. The product aids telecommunications, cable, and utility...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Project planning.
July 1, 2000... Primavera Systems, Inc., introduced Primavera Enterprise (typical installation for 100 users of various interfaces is about $85,000), to plan and manage resources, budgets, and costs on an enterprise-wide level. Primavera Enterprise evaluates...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Management solution.
July 1, 2000... Motiva introduced Motiva eChange Solutions (server starts at $10,000, seats start at $695) design change management solutions for e-business with five core components. ChangeDocs manages the lifecycle of document-based information, including...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : 3Dmotion controller.
July 1, 2000... Digital Immersion and LogiCAD3D announced Nav3D ($395), a real-time 3D motion controller. The controller is offered in conjunction with Merlin 3D, a 3D modeling and rendering environment for Windows. Nav3D is a 3D input device that features...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Data conversion tool.
July 1, 2000... Theorem Solutions, Inc., released DXN (Data eXchange Navigator; $2,500), a data conversion tool for collaborative design and manufacturing for use with Theorem's CADverter products on HP-UX, AIX, IRIX, SunSolaris, and Windows NT (coming soon)....

GENERAL SOFTWARE : AutoCAD LT AutoLISP toolkit.
July 1, 2000... drcauto released LT Toolkit 2000 ($245) that runs AutoLISP programs on AutoCAD LT 2000. LT Toolkit re-enables AutoLISP, and features layer manipulation, extended keyboard functionality, fast input of viewpoint, text-editing functions, and...

MARK YOUR CALENDAR.
July 1, 2000... SIGGRAPH 2000 July 23-28 Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans, LA 312.644.6610 siggraph2000@siggraph.org www.siggraph.org/s2000 URISA 2000 August 19-23 Omni Rosen Hotel Orlando, FL 847.824.6300 info@urisa.org...

AIA Convention show report.
July 1, 2000... The AIA (American Institute of Architects) National Convention and Exposition is one of our favorite shows to attend. There are lots of behind-the-scenes tours of interesting local architecture, fun evening events, and best of all, the people...

MYRIAD v4.2 : Document viewing and markup.
July 1, 2000... With the evolution of the Internet, company intranets, and portable document management needs, document viewers now must be more powerful and offer more functions than before. You may need to integrate a typical engineering CAD drawing, for...

ReLayerIt : Layer management for AutoCAD.
July 1, 2000... ReLayerIt 2000 from Ketiv Technologies, Inc., is a straightforward utility that manages layers within AutoCAD drawing files. ReLayerIt 2000 converts layers in existing drawings to predefined or customizable layer schemes. You can standardize...

Digital Entourage : Blocks, textures, and links.
July 1, 2000... Blocks and textures for computer visualization are necessities. You either spend the time and energy to create your own, or you purchase a collection--usually based on a topic such as office furniture. Having a broad collection of such blocks...

PRO-STEEL 3D : Tools for structural modeling and detailing.
July 1, 2000... PRO-STEEL 3D from Structural Software Distributors provides a unique collection of tools for structural steel design in AutoCAD Release 14. An AutoCAD 2000 version is currently in beta and will be released in mid-July. The program is designed...

Navigating Design.
July 1, 2000... Like most engineering-based organizations, kayak maker Perception Inc. faced the need to move from 2D to 3D design a few years ago. It confronted a unique set of problems, however. "A kayak's surface is always curving and changing, so we need...

Solid Edge 8 builds on success : Assembly features and motion analysis lead the list of improvements.
July 1, 2000... Last September CADALYST Labs reviewed Solid Edge 7 from Unigraphics Solutions, Inc. Naturally, four months later, v8 appeared. Solid Edge 8 offers a few very nice new features on top of its older version. Please refer to my review in CADALYST,...

Catch the Wave! From international product design firms to special effects studios, Alias/Wavefront Studio v9.5 is the future of CAID.
July 1, 2000... Alias|Wavefront Studio, a 3D surface modeling and rendering package, is a powerful industry-leading CAID (computer-aided industrial design) package for conceptual designers. Its well-developed modeling capabilities and photorealistic rendering...

Bentley banks on ProjectBank DGN : Track all your design changes.
July 1, 2000... ProjectBank DGN is a client/server module that manages engineering project information at the component level. It requires MicroStation/J v7.1 or greater, MicroStation PowerDraft, EEM Access' Project Review, or MicroStation PowerScope on the...

Lost in paper space: Should paper space be your standard?
July 1, 2000... AutoCAD Release 11 marked the debut of two momentous features: xrefs and paper space. The xreference feature had precedents in manual pin-bar drafting and in competing CAD programs such as MicroStation, but paper space appeared as a magnificent...

Customization Options : Make AutoCAD 2000 do what you want.
July 1, 2000... In this overview, we introduce options for customizing AutoCAD 2000, from tailoring your menus and toolbars to writing simple scripts to exploring the arcane APIs (application programming interface). Available programming interfaces are ActiveX...

ADT's stairway to heaven.
July 1, 2000... Stairs are important in almost every project and, because they are so complex, often give rise to mistakes. Although Architectural Desktop R2 features an automatic stair-calculating system, you need to understand the underlying concepts. There...

Extract vertex coordinates from a polyline.
July 1, 2000... This month Joe Harrison sent an e-mail request to extract the x,y,z coordinates from a polyline and export them to an ASCII file. My AutoLISP solution is vertext.lsp, which exports the vertex points from any type of polyline. The polyline can...

Time for a change.
July 1, 2000... As Captain LearnCurve and his beautiful wife glided silently homeward from the Rolls-Royce Owners' Club spring meet, he contemplated the changes going on in the world. With the coming of spring, the local mountains were losing their snowy caps,...

Tips from our readers.
July 1, 2000... $50 BONUS WINNER Welding Symbol Tip #1629 [WELD.LSP] weld.lsp draws a symbol for a single- or double-sided fillet weld. It calculates default sizes for the arrowhead and text based on the current values of DIMSCALE and DIMTXT,...

Lost layouts.
July 1, 2000... We use Land Development Desktop R2 on Windows 95. When we save drawings with layouts to AutoCAD Release 14, the converted drawings contain only the information with the most recent layout and model space data. How can I save ten layouts to the...