CADalyst articles from September 2001

CADalyst archives from September 2001

Tips from our readers.
September 1, 2001... $50 BONUS WINNER Automated Weld Symbols Tip #1735 [WELD.LSP], [WELD.DCL], and [WELDS.SLB] Here's a powerful routine to help you easily create weld symbols. Its dialog box interface prompts you for the appropriate options depending on...

Text as geometry.(AutoCAD 2000's Express Tool)
September 1, 2001... I have AutoCAD 2000 and I want to cut text with a laser. This requires exporting the data that describes the characters as an ASCII DXF file that a cutting application recognizes. The problem is that text is not made up of lines and arcs, so it...

Top training tools for AEC software.(from Referentia Systems, Autodesk)
September 1, 2001... I really wanted to hide from this topic because the subject of training and training tools for AEC and especially architectural software is a sore spot within the CAD community. The number-one complaint is about the manuals that come with the...

Coping with CAD burnout, part II: Know thyself.(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2001... Many readers wrote to say how closely they identified with the burnout symptoms described in my November 1999 CAD Manager article, "Coping with burnout" (www.cadalyst.com/ solutions/mc/1199mc/1199mc.htm). Though that article explored the causes...

Dialog Box : Thoughts from our readers.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2001... Generation time I am an avid reader of CADALYST magazine and have done visual modeling for two or three years in mining engineering, civil engineering, and highway environmental analysis. My company uses 3D Studio VIZ now, but we started...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2001... The feature table in our August workstation review showed the wrong size for the AMD Athlon MP processor's L2 cache. The correct size is 256KB.

Will Inventor replace Mechanical Desktop?(Autodesk Inventor 5.0)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... At first, Autodesk Inventor held little appeal for Mechanical Desktop users--because it was newly built from the ground up, it had trouble importing existing AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop files. It also lacked functionality in some areas. With...

AutoSolids A2K v2.0.3 : 3D solid modeling and editing.(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... Do you use AutoCAD for 3D solid modeling? Yes? Then you most likely need to modify your models once you create them. AutoSolids is a relatively low-cost add-on that extends AutoCAD's existing 3D solid modeling functionality. AutoSolids is...

eDrawings 2 : 3D publisher and file viewer.(from SolidWorks)(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... EDrawings 2 from SolidWorks is an e-mail-enabled communications tool that lets you publish SolidWorks and AutoCAD drawings to an executable file with a self-extracting viewer. Anyone using Windows NT 4 (SP31)/98/ME/2000 and Microsoft Internet...

i-Collaboration--State of the Industry.(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2001... Designing and producing anything requires several people working together in a joint intellectual effort. Technologies such as the telephone, fax, computer applications, and the Internet enhance this collaboration by allowing us to leverage...

Engineering sites evolve by adding new tools.(Engineering Exchange, Web4engineers.com, other collaborative sites)(Directory)
September 1, 2001... The culling of the dot-com herd during the last twelve months has given us a much better view of what works well on the Internet and what doesn't. Though we may not buy cases of dog food online, we do use the Web to gather information, stay in...

Online product management.(SDRC's SDRC TeamCenter collaborative software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... SDRC announced SDRC TeamCenter (call for pricing), a suite of collaborative product management solutions. TeamCenter is based on Sun Microsystem's Java 2 Enterprise Edition and features the Collaboration Foundation, a Web infrastructure to...

Online training service.(CAD Potential's i.get.it)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... i.get.it ($450 for annual student subscription, $950 for administrator account) from CAD Potential is an Internet-based training system. i.get.it lets managers create and deliver customized Internet-based training courses and assessments. An...

AEC Web collaboration.(Graphisoft's ArchiCAD 7.0, ProjectXChange)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Graphisoft debuted ArchiCAD 7 and its integrated Web-based design collaboration tool, ProjectXChange. You manage project workflow and manufacturers' objects via the Internet with ProjectXChange's publisher, reviewer, and markup tools. Project...

Mastercam tools handle modeling and machining : CADALYST Labs checks out Mastercam milling and solid modeling applications.(CNC Software's Mastercam 8.1)(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... Mastercam 8.1 is a family of CAD/CAM products for 2- through 5-axis milling, turning, wire EDM, design, drafting, surface, and solid modeling. This review covers Mastercam Solids, a solid modeling add-on, and Mill Level 3, which generates NC...

Supersize your monitor for le$$ : Big picture, small price, high quality.(21-inch, 22-inch monitors)(Buyers Guide)
September 1, 2001... Big monitors are standard for CAD and visualization work, and have been for some time. The 210 and 220 models strike a reasonable compromise between image size--the drawing is big enough to work with easily--and physical size--the display...

FlexScan T962 : Eizo/Nanao Tech.(color monitor)(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... FlexScan T962 Eizo/Nanao Tech. 4 stars out of 5 The Eizo/Nanao FlexScan T962 monitor is based on an aperture-grille CRT that has a 19.60 viewable image and a dot pitch of 0.24mm. Horizontal scan rates are 30-130KHz, and vertical scan...

HP P1120 : Hewlett-Packard Co.(21-inch color monitor)(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... HP P1120 Hewlett-Packard Co. 4.5 stars out of 5 The HP P1120 is a 210 monitor that produces a 19.80 viewable image area. Based on an aperture-grille CRT, the HP P1120 has a dot pitch of 0.24mm. The bandwidth (dot clock) of this...

CM828 : Hitachi.(21-inch color monitor)(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... CM828 Hitachi 5 stars out of 5 Hitachi's new CM828 is a 210 monitor with a 200 viewable area. One of only two monitors in this roundup based on Invar shadow mask technology, the CM828 has a very fine dot pitch of 0.21mm--unusual for a...

P275 : IBM.(color monitor)(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... P275 IBM 5 stars out of 5 IBM's P275 monitor sailed through our test suite with perfect scores. The P275 weighs 68.2lb and is housed in a dark charcoal-gray case. There is one standard D-sub connector, along with one DVI connector on...

VisionMaster 505 : iiyama.(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... VisionMaster 505 iiyama 4 stars out of 5 The iiyama VisionMaster 505 monitor is an attractively designed 210 (200 viewable area) monitor with one of the darkest flat screens I've ever seen. Combined with a bright image, this results...

MultiSync FP1355 : NEC-Mitsubishi.(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... MultiSync FP1355 NEC-Mitsubishi 5 stars out of 5 The MultiSync FP1355 from NEC-Mitsubishi Electronics Display Company is certainly connectivity-friendly--one standard D- sub connector, one DVI analog video connector, and one upstream...

SyncMaster 1200NF : Samsung.(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... SyncMaster 1200NF Samsung 5 stars out of 5 Samsung is definitely onto a good thing with the SyncMaster line of monitors. Like the 190 SyncMaster we tested recently (CADALYST, June 2001), the 220 (200 viewable area) SyncMaster 1200NF...

P225f : ViewSonic.(Evaluation)
September 1, 2001... P225f ViewSonic 5 stars out of 5 ViewSonic offers several lines of monitors. The P225f reviewed here is from its top line of professional monitors. The P225f is a 220 monitor with a 200 viewable area that is capable of resolutions of...

Autodesk buys back Buzzsaw.com.
September 1, 2001... Autodesk plans to acquire Buzzsaw.com, the AEC collaboration portal that it spun off in 1999. Autodesk holds a 40% interest in the company and will purchase the remaining 60% for $15 million in cash plus the assumption of liabilities. "The...

IAI certifies IFC-compliant software.(International Alliance for Interoperability certifies industry foundation classes-compliant software)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Twelve AEC software vendors gained IFC certification for products that incorporate IFC (industry foundation classes) R2, a set of standards developed by the IAI (International Alliance for Interoperability). The IFC object model enables...

Autodesk reveals Inventor 5 details.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Autodesk's Inventor 5 is due to ship in September. Estimated price is $4,995, though resellers are free to set their own prices. With this new version, Autodesk appears to be positioning Inventor to become its single solution for mechanical...

UGS ships new Parasolid version.(Parasolid 13.0 CAD software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... UGS released Parasolid v13 (www.parasolid.com), the latest version of its geometric modeling kernel. This release introduces automated detail removal for creating simplified representations of a CAD model for functions such as visualization and...

CAE market thrives.(according to Daratech)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The virtual prototyping and CAE market should surpass $1.3 billion in 2001, a growth of 19.2% over 2000's figures, according to research firm Daratech. MSC.Software, SDRC, ANSYS, PTC, and LMS lead the market. The changing role of CAE is the...

Bentley moves steel shape data to XML.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Bentley Systems has formatted the AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) data on rolled steel shapes in XML. XML format can be used to add structural design data to engineering models, communicate data to mobile devices, and supply...

Business.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... ANSYS earned ISO 9001 certification for its internal quality assurance system. | Bricsnet plans to acquire Constructeo, a provider of project management and e-commerce tools for the construction industry. |

Alliances.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... PlanetCAD will offer Theorem Solutions' cadverter.com online translation service while it temporarily suspends its 3dshare.com translation service. | Dassault Systemes added two new partners to its Software Community Program. EADS Matra...

Products.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... 3Dlabs' Wildcat II 5110 and Wildcat 4110 are now available to qualified systems integrators through the Wildcat Partner Program. The cards were previously available only to Tier-One OEMs. 3Dlabs (www.3dlabs.com) also developed an optimized...

HARDWARE : 3D plotter.(ENCAD CADJET3D)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... ENCAD updated its CADJET 3D ($5,495) 360 wide-format inkjet plotter, which prints in color and monochrome. It can now use four black-ink cartridges as well as a CMYK color combination. According to the company, the unit in super draft mode...

HARDWARE : Notebook computer.(Sharp PC-AR50)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... The PC-AR50 ($2,499) notebook computer from Sharp Systems of America offers an 850MHz Mobile Intel Pentium III processor with Intel SpeedStep technology. It includes 128MB SDRAM (expandable to 256MB), a 20GB removable hard drive, and video...

HARDWARE : SCSI storage systems.(nStor Ultra160)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... nStor Technologies introduced the NexStor family of Ultra160 (call for pricing) SCSI storage systems which feature 802S/1202S JBOD modules and 3000S series RAID systems. The NexStor 802S and 1202S are JBOD storage systems that provide storage...

HARDWARE : Wide-format scanner.(Oce CS 4040)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Oce-USA Inc. released the Oce CS4040 (prices start at $21,780) 400 wide-format color scanner available in three models. The unit scans thin paper documents and documents mounted on rigid boards up to 0.60 thick. It includes 36-bit color data...

HARDWARE : Printing material.(Synnex' printer paper)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Hewlett-Packard Company ann-ounced four new HP Basic large-format premium printing materials ($12.99-$256.99) that are compatible with HP Designjet 5000, 1000, 800, 500, and CP Series printers as well as other large-format printers. They are...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : CAD tools.(SolidWorks Utilities)
September 1, 2001... SolidWorks Corp. introduced SolidWorks Utilities ($795) 3D CAD software for geometry analysis to identify and highlight problematic data imported from other CAD systems into SolidWorks. You can analyze and compare geometric features, compare...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : Mechanical design.(CoCreate Software's SolidDesigner 2001)
September 1, 2001... CoCreate Software, Inc., released SolidDesigner 2001 (call for pricing) mechanical design software. Features include SolidWorks import, I-DEAS direct interface, and SolidDesigner Access modules. With the software's Rapid Design feature,...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : MCAD software.(Solid Edge 10.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Solid Edge v10 ($4,995) mechanical computer-aided design software from UGS features alternate position assemblies, a drawing view tracker, and part, feature, and assembly color options. The software's family of assemblies capability lets you...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : Piping design.(ALGOR PipePak 7.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... PipePak 7 (call for pricing), from ALGOR, Inc., provides piping design, analysis, visualization, and reporting tools for Windows 95/98/ NT/2000/ME. A new piping library manager lets you add and remove items through Windows-based dialog boxes...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : Plans and plan sets.(MapCAD PlanSet Manager)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... MapCAD PlanSet Manager ($295) from MapCAD, Inc., harnesses AutoCAD 2000 features such as paper space, model space, xrefs, blocks, attributes, viewports, clipping boundaries, and multiple documents to automatically create plans. You can view and...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : Behavior modeler.(GeoMate GrafiCalc 3)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... GeoMate Corp. announced GrafiCalc 3 ($795; $295 introductory price until December 31, 2001) software that can be used as a stand-alone program or in conjunction with existing CAD sketch geometry to interactively explore multiple design concepts...

MECHANICAL & GENERAL SOFTWARE : Quality standards.(Engineous Software iSIGHT 6.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Engineous Software presented iSIGHT 6.0 (pricing starts at $7,500) software that helps engineers meet Six Sigma quality standards. Other features include integration with Microsoft Excel and a direct interface to Insightful's S-PLUS, a...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Digital document storage.(Imaging Group ImageSuite Appliance)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... ImageSuite Appliance from The Imaging Group lets you access CAD files, image files, and digital documents via an intranet or the Internet without native application software. Once you load documents onto the server, authorized personnel need...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Server training.(OpenCAD Server Training Paks)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Three OpenCAD Server Training Paks (starting at $25 per user per year) from OpenCAD International Inc. provide instruction for Autodesk's AutoCAD and 3D Studio VIZ that users access through corporate intranets. The AutoCAD training packs...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Product lifecycle management.(IBM/Dassault Portal Solutions)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... IBM and Dassault Systemes announced updates to their collaborative product lifecycle management solutions. The Portal Solutions V5R6 (call for pricing) features nine new products for Web-centric 3D e-business collaboration. Its 3D collaboration...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Mobile CAD solution.(Arc Second, Inc. PocketCAD PRO CAD 4)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Arc Second, Inc., released PocketCAD PRO CAD 4 ($199) software for Windows-powered mobile devices, including Pocket PCs. The software incorporates AutoCAD OEM technology and lets you create, view, edit, and save DWG and DXF files. It operates...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Piping diagrams.(Intergraph Process & Building Solutions' SmartPlant P&ID 2.2)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Intergraph Process & Building Solutions' SmartPlant P&ID 2.2 (contact company for pricing) data-centric software creates intelligent piping and instrumentation diagrams. The software provides multiple P&ID printing and productivity features...

GENERAL SOFTWARE : Workflow solution.(ACS Software AutoEDMS 6.5)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... AutoEDMS V6.5 from ACS is an Internet-ready document management and workflow solutions. The software includes the Navigator for finding and selecting database records for use in batch-processing situations. AutoEDMS also integrates with all...

AEC SOFTWARE : Utility design application.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Autodesk Utility Design (contact company for pricing) from Autodesk and its subsidiary Gentry Systems provides utility-specific design functionality to Autodesk Powerline, an enterprise GIS solution for electric utilities. The software lets you...

AEC SOFTWARE : Architectural CAD program.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... DataCAD LT ($99.95) is a new low-cost 2D/3D architectural CAD program from DataCAD LLC that lets you develop contruction drawings and architectural design presentations without the system overhead. Features include unlimited Undo and Redo,...

MARK YOUR CALENDAR.
September 1, 2001... Ariba LIVE 2001 World Tour September 9-12 Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans, LA 650.930.6200 www.aribalive2001.com URISA 2001 Caribbean GIS Conference September 9-12 Wyndham Rose Hall Montego Bay, Jamaica...

UGS plans post-merger product line.(Company Business and Marketing)
September 1, 2001... UGS revealed some of the details of its planned merger with SDRC at its annual analyst and press event, held in Anaheim, California, in mid-July. To go with its recent name change from Unigraphics, UGS is also updating its logo to highlight its...

Unigraphics V18 : A CAD industry leader continues to set the pace.
September 1, 2001... Unigraphics V18 is the core of a diverse array of products and services offered by UGS. Unigraphics' base modeling package provides more than enough modeling power for your needs, whether you produce jet engines or toasters. The optional...