CADalyst articles from May 2005

CADalyst archives from May 2005

Bullish on BIM: Autodesk juggles demands of two radically different AEC products.(building information modeling)(achitecture, engineering and construction)(Editorial)
May 1, 2005... Pity poor Carl Bass, Autodesk COO. He made a joke about Architectural Desktop outlasting Revit, we quoted him in the April issue and AUGI's Revit forum interprets it to mean Autodesk doesn't like Revit and plans to dispatch it to the land of...

PLM, innovation dominate COFES.(CAD CENTRAL)(Congress On the Future of Engineering Software, product life cycle management)
May 1, 2005... Despite the theme, "Ideas in an Innovation Economy," much of the discussion at COFES this year focused on the lack thereof in today's engineering software. Asked where the innovative software is, one group came up with Dassault's Cosmic...

Essential guide to 2D CAD publishing: what you need to know for successful sharing, archiving.(computer aided design)(Editorial)
May 1, 2005... Once designers invest time and energy into creating a drawing, it can be used for a variety of purposes beyond the original intent. Repurposing that drawing can at times be difficult, but help is at hand with a variety of applications designed...

Actify Publisher 2005.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... Actify Price: $4,995 415.227.3800 info@actify.com www.actify.com Actify Publisher 2005 is designed to centralize and automate batch publishing of native 2D and 3D CAD files in Actify's .3D file format. Users can define and...

Microstation v8 2004 edition.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... Bentley Systems Price: $4,795 800.236.8539 www.bentley.com As far as repurposing information goes, certainly the most visible aspect of the latest release of Bentley MicroStation V8 2004 Edition is the ability to generate the...

AcroPlot Pro 2006.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... CADzation Price: $99-$249 847.973.9460 sales@cadzation.com www.cadzation.com CADzation's AcroPlot Pro 2006 ($99-$249) is adept at DWF and image (BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG and TIF) file creation. In addition to its own PDF printer...

Net-It Batch, Net-It CAD for AutoCAD 2005, Net-It CAD for MicroStation.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... Informative Graphics Corp. Price: $200, $99 Net-It CAD 602.971.6061 info@infograph.com www.infograph.com We looked at three applications from Informative Graphics: Net-It Batch ($200) and two plug-ins, Net-It CAD for AutoCAD...

Deep exploration.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... Right Hemisphere Price: $149, additional modules available (includes modeling program) 510.818.2880 sales@righthemisphere.com www.righthemisphere.com Deep Exploration v3.5 ($149) is Right Hemisphere's standalone client...

Bluebeam Pushbutton Plus V3.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... Bluebeam Price: $249 626.296.2146 sales@bluebeam.com www.bluebeam.com Bluebeam's latest iteration of Bluebeam Pushbutton Plus offers many options for producing PDF files. Bluebeam Pushbutton Plus v3.0 runs in Windows 2000/XP...

AutoCAD 2006: Autodesk retires the Command line.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... THE BRITISH HAVE a traditional saying at the passing of a monarch: "The king is dead. Long live the king!" The time has come to acknowledge that the Command line is dead. Long live the Command line! At first glance, the most prominent...

Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2006: tools for model-based architectural design.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... Autodesk's annual update schedule brings us Architectural Desktop 2006, a mature building design and documentation solution (figure 1). This latest version is enhanced with many new features. Architectural Desktop 2006, like its predecessors,...

PlassoTech 3G.author: parametric simulation for validation and optimization.(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2005... When it comes to using FEA (finite-element analysis) products for product validation and optimization, many come up short either in the number of additional, complex steps involved or in the true utility of the results. Product validation and...

Drawing Security: protect your data.(CAD MANAGER)(Column)
May 1, 2005... IT SOUNDS SIMPLE ENOUGH: Secure your CAD data so your company won't lose valuable intellectual property. In recent years, collaborative software platforms running on wide-area networks and the Internet have conspired to make CAD security...

Best practices for 3D file transfers: don't just send the file--plan ahead to minimize problems.(MCAD MODELING METHODS)
May 1, 2005... WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE. You're modeling merrily along and the phone rings. "I have this file my vendor sent me that I can't open," the caller says, "Can you do anything with it?" "Well," you stammer. "I, uh...." Your e-mail bleeps that...

State of the AEC industry: BIM implementation slow, but inevitable.(architecture, engineering and construction)(building information modeling software)(Column)
May 1, 2005... PERHAPS BECAUSE I'M SO CLOSE to the AEC industry, I often think that architects and engineers are more aware of industry trends than they really are. It amazes me how often I get a blank stare when I mention BIM (building information modeling)...

City combines CAD and GIS: Garden Grove's GIS system blends Autodesk Map 3D and MapGuide.(geographic information system)
May 1, 2005... EVER SINCE GIS USERS tried to edit shapefiles and CAD users tried to analyze geospatial data, users have wanted to integrate the two technologies. Integrating the drawing and editing capabilities of CAD programs with the data analysis and...

CAM on the rebound.(market size forecasts of CAD-CAM systems industry)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Research firm CIMdata (www.cimdata.com) says that 2004 was a turnaround year for the CAM software and services market. It estimates that the market grew by 7.2%, from $1.107 billion in 2003 to $1.187 billion in 2004, after four straight years...

Strange bedfellows.(speeches of Guy Kawasaki and Lynn Allen)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Headline speaker at Autodesk's Realize your Ideas roadshow is noted Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki. He'll be joined on the podium by AutoCAD evangelist Lynn Allen. Could this be a sign of the second coming of AutoCAD for the Macintosh?

Quick poll.(survey about overtime)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... QUICK POLL HOW MUCH OVERTIME DO YOU WORK EACH WEEK, ON AVERAGE? * None (83) 22% 1-2 hours (45) 12% 2-5 hours (69) 18.5% 5-10 hours (87) 23.3% 10-15 hours (44) 11.7% 15+ hours (45) 12% * Data...

More bits.(target marketing of Microsoft Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Microsoft is targeting the CAD/CAM/CAE market with its new 64-bit Windows XP Professional, but there's no real rush on the part of CAD developers to come out with 64-bit versions of their software. Hardware vendors were ready with 64-bit...

Rapid rollout.(deployment of CATIA V5 by Toyota Motor Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Daratech says its sources in Japan indicate that Toyota Motor Company may complete its deployment of CATIA V5 this year, just two years after it began implementation. A reported 3,500 seats of CATIA are currently in production at Toyota,...

Thanks for the memory.(mid-sized companies surveys on data storage)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Data storage is expected to be the top priority for IT spending at mid-sized companies in 2005, according to a study by Info-Tech Research Group. Regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley, continuity planning, and the popularity of...

If you can't beat 'em ...(Jonathan Knowles appointed at Autodesk Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Former Autodesk product manager Jonathan Knowles returns to Autodesk to head its efforts to promote the DWF format as director of worldwide market development for Autodesk collaboration services. He leaves Adobe Systems, where he served as the...

No thanks to Linux.(companies surveyed)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Info-Tech reports that close to half of companies that don't have Linux installed already are not at all interested in it. Of 1,400 companies surveyed, 27% have Linux installed, and another 10% plan to evaluate it in the next three years. Frank...

NASA gets nod.(National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Crew Systems Division honored with Great Moments in Engineering award)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... GlobalSpec bestowed its first Great Moments in Engineering award on the members of NASA's Crew Systems Division who devised ad-hoc air scrubbers for the Apollo 13 spacecraft 35 years ago. N

Five-year trend forecast.(CADFIDENTIAL: BEHIND THE SCENES)(product development of automotive industry)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Results of a study conducted by CAR (Center for Automotive Research) at the behest of software developer PTC identifies the following product-development trends that will affect the automotive industry over the next five years (www.ptc.com):...

Cost control: trim manufacturing costs during product design.(Imaginestics to develop CAD software)
May 1, 2005... Knowledge reuse management technology recently earned Imaginestics (www.imaginestics.com), a company based in Indiana in Purdue Research Park, a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovative Research Program grant worth half a million...