CADalyst articles from March 2000

CADalyst archives from March 2000

Your chance for fame and riches.(Editorial)
March 1, 2000... Every year for the past nine, an intrepid cross-section of CADALYST readers have entered the CADDIES, (CADALYST image awards), seeking fame and fortune. Here's your first call to participate in the 2000 CADDIES competition and perhaps find your...

XDeaths.(Column)
March 1, 2000... I am a crew leader in a structural engineering firm that runs AutoCAD Release 14. Due to space restrictions, I had to move a large number of directories between network drives, and all the drawings with xrefs lost their path. The files still...

Find the length of an AutoCAD polyline segment.(Product Support)(Tutorial)
March 1, 2000... Fred Wilson Jr. wants to find the length of a selected segment of a polyline. lwseg.lsp does the job for any kind of 2D open and closed polylines (lwpolylines and regular polylines). I tested the code for AutoCAD 2000, but it should work in all...

Move your Art Part to.(Company Operations)(Tutorial)
March 1, 2000... Moving from concept to digital manufacturing One of the great attractions of adopting 3D solids-based CAD software in design and manufacturing companies is the promise of passing digital design files seamlessly among industrial design,...

Dealer debate continues.(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2000... It's apparent to me that readers dissatisfied with their VARs should ask questions of VARs before doing business with them. Users should shop around for a VAR that offers a service contract in writing and is willing to give references. Users...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2000... Several readers have written wanting more information on RAM Design and Drafting's windmill generator (On the Job, December 1999, p. 28). Go to RAM's Web site at www.windmill.on.ca. On p. 55 of "Cardboard to Computer: Use 3D Studio VIZ to...

Science fiction no more.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 1, 2000... Science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein published a novella in 1950 in which he imagined electromechanical robotic arms that would serve as extensions of human arms. His creations would allow people to perform repetitive or exacting work...

E&S RAPIDsite 3D visualization software.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... In the land development industry, clients often expect you to provide 3D views and photorealistic images of their project sites. Typically, this process is cumbersome and time-consuming, and requires staff that is well versed in 3D...

IBM P260 210 monitor.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... What is stealth black and yet designed to be seen? The IBM P260 210 monitor. It combines good looks with a display that's very easy on both the eyes and the wallet. The P260 monitor is a short-tube design that measures 19.6250 3 19.8750 3...

Tips from our readers.(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2000... $50 BONUS WINNER Escape Returns Tip #1597 [ESCAPE.LSP] It drives me crazy that my frequently used Escape command isn't accessible from the mouse. To fix this, add the folowing line to your POP0 menu: [Escape]^C^Cescape...

Customizing annotations, and predictions for the future.
March 1, 2000... If you're not happy with the way AutoCAD Architectural Desktop's automated annotations appear, you can customize them to suit your specific needs. Also this month, in addition to the usual tips and tricks for AutoCAD Architectural Desktop, I...

think3 woos manufacturers with mass 3D.(Company Business and Marketing)
March 1, 2000... Upstart think3 and its new brand of 3D software-thinkdesign-debuted in 1999. Named to Upside magazine's "Hot 100" list of privately held high-tech companies, think3 has received accolades for its unique business model and breakthrough...

Revolutionary evolution: IronCAD 3.0.
March 1, 2000... The first solid modeler to use both ACIS and Parasolid kernels intrigues the engineering world. New releases of software usually fall into one of two categories. Most new releases are largely evolutionary in that new features are added but...

The case of the missing Sketch command.(Product Support)(Tutorial)
March 1, 2000... Captain LearnCurve and his beautiful wife had just driven back to Vancouver from Las Vegas. They welcomed the new millennium with 350,000 of their best friends in front of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino on the Strip, watching the tons of confetti...

Modify layer groups in AutoCAD.
March 1, 2000... Establishing a consistent layering system within a multidiscipline office is a critical part of good CAD standards. A layer management system must cover each specific discipline, outside consultants, and specific customers with their own...

Avoid parametric pitfalls, part two.(Product Support)(Tutorial)
March 1, 2000... In January we saw how a part can be fully constrained and look right, but have serious problems as a parametric part. This month we explore more problems and solutions. The first problem we discussed in January arose from the sequence in which...

Autodesk announces Inventor R2.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Autodesk (www.autodesk.com) plans to ship Release 2 of its Inventor solid modeling program in March. Perhaps the most significant new feature is the use of a COM interface for add-on applications. This means that you'll be able to upgrade to...

Vendors develop OpenGL for Linux.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... NVIDIA Corp., SGI, and VA Linux Systems are collaborating on developing an OpenGL graphics subsystem for workstations running the Linux operating system. Fruits of the effort will be NVIDIA-based systems that provide hardware 3D transform and...

SDRC buys Sherpa PDM business.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... SDRC purchased Inso Corp.'s PDM Division, which includes subsidiaries Sherpa Systems Corp. and Inso France Development. The Sherpa acquisition gives SDRC a PDM user base of 340,000. Inso France develops advanced XML (eXtensible Markup Language)...

Cephren combines Internet companies.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Project collaboration service provider Blueline Online merged with eBricks, which plans to provide product and equipment procurement services. The combined company is called Cephren (www.cephren.com), after the master builder of the Great...

LandXML specs target land development.(Technology Information)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Autodesk developed initial specifications for LandXML, a version of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for land development professionals such as surveyors, civil engineers, and land developers. LandXML (www.landxml.org) is a common, open data...

A/E/C SYSTEMS show embraces Web.(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Starting with its June 5-10 show in Washington, D.C., A/E/C SYSTEMS (www.aecsystems. com) plans to focus on Internet tools and services for the construction industry.

Mergers.
March 1, 2000... Belgium-based Bricsnet acquired The Architect's Catalog, Inc., a publisher of building product catalogs, CD-ROMs, and Web sites. | ViewSonic Corp. purchased Nokia Display Products' branded monitor business. | S3 will acquire the assets...

Business.
March 1, 2000... GeomWare reports the sale of the 100th license of its Nlib NURBS geometry kernel libraries. Roughly two-thirds of Nlib customers are in the CAD/CAM/CAE and graphics industries. | Unigraphics Solutions gained U.S. Product Data Association...

Alliances.
March 1, 2000... Magic Earth LLC will develop and market Texaco's GeoProbe proprietary 3D visualization technology for the oil and gas industry. | 3DLabs will enhance its Oxygen graphics cards' support for AMD's Athlon processors. | DatapointLabs,...

Large-format printers.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Hewlett-Packard introduced the DesignJet 2800CP ($13,995) and 3800CP large-format printers ($18,995). The printers use an EFI Fiery X2-CP Raster Image Processor to produce up to 31 square feet per hour in high-speed Best/Photo mode on...

Graphics workstation.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Intergraph Computer Systems introduced the Zx10 ViZual Workstation (pricing starts at $4,895) based on the company's Wahoo technology systems architecture. Wahoo Technology features a Streaming Multiport Architecture for more memory and higher...

Wide-format printers.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Oce introduced the CS5000 series of color printers (pricing starts at $13,495) with 420 and 620 printing widths at up to 600dpi. The CS5050 prints up to 46 square feet per hour, and the CS5070 prints up to 56 square feet per hour, according to...

Wide-format color printer.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... EPSON announced the Epson Stylus Color 1160 printer ($399 after $50 mail-in rebate) for color prints as large as 130 3 440 at resolutions as high as 1440dpi. Users can view ink levels on screen before starting lengthy print jobs, tile prints to...

Wide-format scanner.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Contex Scanning Technology introduced the Chroma series of 400 color scanners (3040 is $19,900; 6040 is $21,900; 8040 is $24,900). The scanners scan materials mounted on rigid board as thick as 0.60 at speeds as great as 2.50 per second at...

Flat-panel monitors.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Samsung announced two 150 flat-panel monitors in its SyncMaster line. The SyncMaster 570pPlusTFT ($968) offers a 0.297mm dot pitch, 1608 viewing angle, and 128031024 resolution. It comes with image downscaling capabilities, pan and zoom, PIP...

LCD monitors.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Eizo Nanao Technologies introduced the FlexScan L661 and L680 18.10 LCD monitors. Both monitors offer 0.28mm dot pitch, 30-82KHz horizontal scanning frequency, and 50-85Hz vertical scanning frequency. The recommended resolution is 128031024 and...

LCD monitor.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... Proview Technology, Inc., introduced the PT-580 TFT (thin-film transistor) 150 LCD monitor ($849). The monitor includes a built-in microphone and attachable speakers. Features include 30-60 KHz horizontal frequency, 60-85Hz vertical frequency,...

Analog LCD monitor.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Princeton Graphic Systems, Inc., introduced the APP800 analog 18.10 flat-panel monitor (beige model is $3,349, black model is $3,395). It offers a maximum resolution of 128031024, 300:1 contrast ratio, and a brightness level of 200 cd/m2. Other...

19" monitor.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... ViewSonic introduced the GS 790 short-depth 190 (180 viewable) monitor ($499) with 0.22mm dot pitch and 128031024 resolution at 88Hz. It features the company's SuperClear screen technology and ViewMatch color control system. The monitor is PC...

Graphics accelerator.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... ELSA, Inc., released the GLoria II ($850) 2D/3D graphics accelerator that incorporates the company's OpenGL technology and Quadro workstation graphics processing unit from NVIDIA Corp. The card generates as many as 17 million triangles per...

Pentium III workstation.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Dell developed the Dell Precision Workstation 420 (pricing starts at $2,609) with single or dual Intel Pentium III processors at either 733- or 600MHz and the Intel 840 chipset with 133MHz front-side bus. A single Rambus DRAM transfers data at...

Multifunction office machine.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Sharp Document & Network Systems of America introduced the FO-3800M multifunction digital laser fax/copier/printer/scanner (call for pricing). The device performs two functions at once-you can initiate a print job while a fax is being sent, for...

3D piping design.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... QuickPen International introduced PipeDesigner 3D (call for pricing), an AutoCAD-based 3D solid modeling process piping design application. Written totally in ObjectARX and C++, the software is built on the company's VSME (Virtual Solid...

Document management utility.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Document Imaging Solutions, Inc., released AutoIntegrate ($2,995) to capture title block information and extract external references from AutoCAD Releases 14 and 2000. It speeds the loading of drawings into any document management system by...

Utilities.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... BudCAD released three utilities for AutoCAD Releases 14 and 2000. Q-Log ($40) is a VBA program that lets you log and track all drawings opened in AutoCAD with user-defined aliases in either an Excel spreadsheet or ASCII file. It compiles time...

On the Job: 3D migration.
March 1, 2000... Energy company Western Resources, Inc., changed from mainframe CADAM to PC-based CAD in less than two weeks. The PC application, Helix Drafting from MICROCADAM, Inc. (Burbank, California), integrates with the AEC Guardian suite of auxiliary...

Automate Web drawings.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... OfficeCAD released OfficeCAD ($1,495) drawing software to create automated AutoCAD DWG and DXF drawings from your Web browser. It can also create a JPEG drawing for non-CAD users. You can generate 2D or 3D drawings automatically from AutoCAD,...

Automated drawing program.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Autodesk released Actrix Technical 2000 (call for pricing), an automated drawing environment for creating facilities layouts, electrical and engineering schematics, networking and telecom diagrams, and sales automation applications. It is...

Modeling tools.(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... 3DPowerTools released 3DPowerToolsViz (electronic copy is $95, CD-ROM is $110), a set of 3D modeling tools for use with Autodesk's Mechanical Desktop 4.0, AutoCAD 2000, and Architectural Desktop 2.0. The software offers enhanced Orbit...

Finite-element modeler.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Algor released its new Report Wizard that you can access through Superdraw III, Algor's single user interface and precision finite- element model-building tool (call for pricing). A Report Wizard automatically generates an HTML report with...

Document collaboration software.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Informative Graphics Corp. released Brava! 2.1 (server prices start at $4,995), a Java-based drawing and document collaboration application. The software views and prints native CAD and image formats, including DWG, DXF, DWG, TIF, and JPG....

Document organizer.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Open Archive Systems released echive ($2,495), a series of electronic archive management programs. echive Organizer captures property data from files and arranges electronic archives into Microsoft Access- compatible database files. echive...

Document distribution.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Intergraph Corporation released Digital Print Room Version 10 (starts at $7,500), a Web-based application for distributing engineering documents. This new version extends the functionality of Intergraph's InterPlot production plotting solution...

Culture database for GIS.(WhiteStar Enhanced Culture Database)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... WhiteStar Corporation upgraded its Enhanced Culture Database (call for pricing) that includes detailed city and county boundaries, roads, railroads, hydrology, power lines, and transportation features. The database is composed primarily of...

Document viewer.(Cimmetry Systems AutoVue SolidModel CAD software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Cimmetry Systems Inc. released AutoVue SolidModel drawing viewer ($995). New features include 3D viewing and precise measurement. The viewer provides native viewing, printing, measurement, and markup support for more than 200 document formats,...

Windows print driver.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... DocuJet and DocuJet Professional 2.1 ($500 for 10-user license) from Spicer Corporation are Windows print drivers that let you capture image renditions of documents and drawings in a neutral file format suitable for indexing into document...

Document management.(RESCO Document Manager II)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Document Manager II ($2,995 for the first user, $295 each additional user) from RESCO automatically updates its database whenever an AutoCAD document is changed. When a record is added to the database, the program creates and transfers the...

On the Job: Air traffic.(HP and MUSE demo)(Technology Information)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... At the Air Traffic Controllers' Association annual meeting in September 1999, Hewlett-Packard and MUSE demonstrated a method by which traffic flow researchers can collaboratively monitor air traffic all over the United States in real time. The...

Mechanical Desktop saves time for plastics molder.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
March 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....

Piping and HVAC design.(AEC Design Group's Building Services 2000)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... AEC Design Group released Building Services 2000 (call for pricing), a piping and HVAC design package. The software lets you work with more than one drawing at a time, cutting and pasting intelligent objects among them. The AutoRoute feature...

Sheet-metal design.(Varimetrix VX Vision FabDesign)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Varimetrix introduced VX Vision FabDesign ($1,495), a suite of tools for designing sheet-metal parts. You can create solid models in the context of a full 3D assembly, including metal, plastic, and other components. You can fold and unfold...

Calendar.
March 1, 2000... RI/SME Student Robotic Challenge 2000 March 19-20 Robert Morris College Pittsburg, PA 313.271.1500, x1704 www.manufacturingiscool.com WESTEC 2000 Advanced Productivity Expo March 20-23 Los Angeles...

Worth the wait.(Microsoft Windows 2000)(Product Information)(Editorial)
March 1, 2000... About the time you read this, the long-awaited next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system will be here. Touted as the culmination of a long engagement, Windows 2000 brings together the friendliness of Windows 9x and the depth of...

Windows 2000.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... What's in it for you? The Windows 2000 operating system, Microsoft's long-anticipated successor to Windows NT, combines the best features of Windows NT and Windows 98. Microsoft's goal was to build the best operating system for business,...

Windows 2000 logo certification program.(Product Information)
March 1, 2000... Microsoft puts gold seal of approval on software A new wrinkle with Windows 2000 is the Windows Certification program. Software applications earn the Certification logo by meeting standards set out in Microsoft's application specification,...

Notes from CADALYST Labs.(Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Our first look at Windows 2000 We had very limited time to look at the beta version of Windows 2000 Professional. Even so, four new features caught our eye. Dual boot. At the beginning of the installation process, you're given a choice...

Fasten your seatbelt:High-speed Systems Review.(3D CAD workstations evaluation overview)(Technology Information)
March 1, 2000... Ron LaFon, a contributing editor for CADALYST, is a writer, editor, and computer graphics and electronic publishing specialist from Sonoma, California. Art Liddle is CADALYST's senior technical editor and director of CADALYST Labs. With...

Pentium III vs. AMD Athlon.(TriStar Computer StarStation AX700, Xi Computer 750K MTower SP)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Both TriStar and Xi Computer sent CADALYST two systems for testing, one from their Pentium III line and another from their AMD Athlon line. We've included the Pentium III systems in the master table, with notes on the Athlon systems following....

Professional AP550.(Compaq workstation)(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Compaq Computer Star rating: 5 stars out of 5 Our January review (p. 36) of Compaq's AP550 was our first look at Intel's 0.18 micron 733MHz Pentium III processor with 256KB full-speed L2 cache and i840 support chipset. For this review...

Dell Precision WorkStation 420.(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Dell Computer Corporation Star rating: 5 stars out of 5 Though the Dell Precision WorkStation 420 was one of the quietest systems we tested, it's about to get quieter. In January, Dell began shipping this system with cases created from...

PhEnix QA-700.(Core Microsystems workstation)(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Core Microsystems Star rating: 4 stars out of 5 At $2,130, the PhEnix QA-700 (picture on p. 55) from Core Microsystems is the least expensive system in this review, less than half the price of the most expensive system. You can also...

IntelliStation M Pro.(IBM workstation)(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... IBM Star rating: 5 stars out of 5 Sleek, stealth black, quiet, and very fast, the IBM IntelliStation M Pro is the top performer in this review. It blazed through our test suites with remarkable speed, and for many sections ranks as the...

StarStation SX700.(TriStar Computer)(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... TriStar Computer Star rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 TriStar's StarStation SX700 is based on a 700MHz Intel Pentium III processor using the tried-and-true 440BX chipset. At $3,995, the SX700 falls slightly above the median price of the...

SYS Cold-Fusion 1000 hits 1GHz.(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Sys Technology puts AMD processor on ice to boost speed At Fall COMDEX 99, I noticed an odd-looking workstation. It looked as if a standard tower case was welded to a flared base with large gill- like vents in the front. It turned out to be...

733 MTower SP.(Xi Computer workstation)(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2000... Xi Computer Corp. Star rating: 5 stars out of 5 The Xi 733 MTower SP is based on an Intel 733MHz Pentium III using the i820 Camino chipset and 133MHz SDRAM, which is currently somewhat less expensive than RAMBUS RAM. Such systems...

SGI sticks with workstation business.(Silicon Graphics)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2000... SGI drops proprietary components, shelves plan to find partner SGI has seen a lot of change in the past fourteen months. The company unveiled its first NT workstation-the SGI 320-in January 1999 to raves in the press. We found the SGI 320...

[3] Sheet-metal design.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2000... Sheetmetal Desktop 4.0 ($995-$3,200) from SPI is designed for parametric design and unfolding of complex sheet-metal parts and assemblies within Autodesk Mechanical Desktop. Features include quick design of parametric boxes, design and...