3D CAD NEWS

This week's quarterly conference call with PTC was enlightening, to say the least. But then, there's never a dull moment during a PTC conference call. 

This is pretty neat.

The guys at Eos Software, who make the Photomodeler (photogrammetry) software, started using the photos delivered by the Mars Phoenix Lander to create 3d models of the Mars surface.

Why, I hear you ask? Just because they can. Using some of the photos from the University of Phoenix Mars Mission site, the photos are read into PhotoModeler and feeding in known camera specifications, the software then lets them pin-point a few 3D points on the photos and it starts to make 3D data out of it. This is a part-manual, part-automated process that also allows items such as the Lander's leg to be excluded from the model. Photogrammetry has definitely come a long way since I last used it.

The image below shows a screen shot of one of the models created. Click on that to see the video they made of making the model.

[Editor's Note: Our usual policy of providing the visuals is being pre-empted so you can obey the headline.]

 

Events of recent weeks have shaken the status quo in the CAD/PLM business. In no particular order:

 

1. Dassault Systemes unveiled "PLM 2.0" which can be summarized as "visualize whirled parts."

 

2. Autodesk bought Moldflow, which can be summarized as "visualize plastic parts."  

 

3. PTC released a new version of CoCreate, which can be summarized as "visualize our hand in your pocket. Please."

 

4. SpaceClaim is still in business, which can be summarized as "visualize working for a buyout."  

 

5. Siemens PLM Software "launched" (which in PR language is an intermediary step between "announced" and "shipped") new versions of NX and Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology. This can be summarized as "visualize us with hot new technology and an 18-month lead on our competitors."

 

6. Siemens PLM also announced the delivery of Teamcenter licence number 4 million. This can be visualized as a mountain when compared to the total sales of "pure" PLM seats (PDM on steroids) from all competitors combined.

 

 

Just recently the CADCAMNet team has been researching a lot of leads about engineers and manufacturers delving into the field of Green engineering. CCN's Green Engineering Reports are free, and are working towards understanding what it's all about - how the choice of materials can change the nature of a product being designed, how to find recycled materials, what technology (and believe me, it's few and far between) can help in green engineering.

So do check 'em out if you are curious about how you would make your products green(er).  They are all down the right hand side of the CADCAMNet home page.

R

While I was googling the Moldflow acquisition news today, I happened across an interesting sponsor link. It reads:

Moldflow Takeover Unfair?
Are you unhappy with the proposed takeover of Moldflow Corporation?

Click on the link and it leads to Levi and korsinsky LLP, NYC based lawyers who are investigating the possibility that the MoldFlow acquisition by Autodesk might be worthy of some further investigation.

According to the Autodesk press release on May 1 2008, "Autodesk will acquire Moldflow for $22 per share, or approximately $297 million."

According to lawyer Edward Korsinsky, some shareholders in MoldFlow have already asked the company to investigate if this is a fair offer, and the company is now seeking other shareholders that may be interested in a class action suit, if indeed its investigation proves that the offer is too low.

By way of clarification, the legal firm conducts investigations at no charge, and then negotiates a contingency fee if they feel action is appropriate. According to Korsinsky, the company is also a lead counsel in the Bear Stearns acquisition case, where the original, agreed offer was at $2 per share, later upped to $10 per share, and at this point, still unresolved. The Moldflow acquisition, by comparison, is very small beans - but it's CAD, so we are paying attention!

Is the law firm an 'ambulance chaser'? Maybe yes, maybe no. A couple of Moldflow shareholders alerted the company to the situation that they feel needs some observation and investigation. Korsinsky says that their service allows shareholders who feel that they are being left on the outskirts of a decision can take sensible action to ensure their rights are being heard and taken into consideration. That's fair, right?

Thus far, the case is still in the investigative stages, but the company is poised and ready for action, if merited. Maybe it is, maybe not. We will attempt to keep you informed.

r

It seems Autodesk is out shopping again, with an anouncement to acquire MoldFlow last week, and this week the news that it is acquiring REALVIZ, out of Sophia Antipolis, France.

According to Autodesk's Press release about REALVIZ, the company provides "efficient ways to generate 3D content and visual effects from photo imaging and 2D environments." or in other words, Photogrammetry. This discipline is pretty cool - the basis is of it is that using a scanned photo, or set of photos, you can pretty quickly create 3D points that in turn become a 3D model. This type of technology is used a lot in architecture, film graphics and gaming. The products also deliver motion capture and panoramic photo stitching. Already the products on realViz' web site have been renamed with Autodesk's monniker, and the company intends to continue to sell REALVIZ’s Stitcher Unlimited, Stitcher Express, ImageModeler and Movimento software as standalone products.

However, the Matchmover, Retimer and VTour products will no longer be available as standalone products but will be developed as core technology into future versions of Autodesk’s existing products.

The following REALVIZ offerings have been discontinued: Stitcher Pro, Stitcher Unlimited DS, and StoryViz. Education versions of ImageModeler and Stitcher continue to be available. Student versions of ImageModeler and Stitcher are no longer available. The terms of the acquisition have not been revealed.

So is this 'photogrammetry comes of age?' Probably not...yet. This niche discipline (focused on architecture, 'shape capture', entertainment etc) has only a few players including Eos Systems' Photomodeler, and PhotoPlan from Latimer CAD Ltd (a product that only supports AutoCAD) (Photogrammetry is used much more widely in GIS and mapping but that is not what these products aim at.) Photogrammetry is an important, but small, aspect for architectural projects that use existing structures, and for surveying buildings, in forensic projects, and its value in film graphics and game development is unquestioned. But we don't see this as a sign of the market maturing:- there are way too many other potential uses for this that have not been fuly explored and exploited including rapid (and affordable) reverse engineering and 'shape capture' of products directly into 3D CAD. Since REALVIZ was purchased by Autodesk's Media and Entertainment division, we suspect that reverse engineering of products using photogrammetry is not on Autodesk's radar screen.

REALVIZ' 3D format support is listed as: Maya, 3ds Max, DWG, Lightwave, Softimage, OBJ, WRML and Google Earth and we suspect that they will keep this support even now they are Autodesk poducts. I doubt that the support will widen any. By contrast, PhotoModeler has a much wider 3D CAD format support including IGES, STEP, STL, DXF, Rhino, and then Maya, 3DS, FDX, OBJ and Google Earth. Does this matter? if you use non-Autodesk products, then yes, it does.

The ignoble Pushmi-Pullyu (“push-me pull-you”) is a two-headed beast made famous by the Doctor Doolittle stories of the 19^th Century. The mythical animal is noted for its ability to do either two things at once or struggle to do nothing, and to oscillate between these two extremes. Our 21^st Century CAD equivalent is history-free feature-based 3D modeling. For years a few vendors struggled to gain market share with it (CoCreate and Kubotek come to mind), but suddenly Pushmi-Pullyu CAD has become the rage.

SpaceClaim got way more press than it deserved for its new “natural 3D design system” last year, then PTC embraced its inner pushmi-pullyu by buying CoCreate. Today Siemens PLM Software becomes the latest CAD company to abandon the CAD Reich gospel of parameters uber alles with the introduction of what it calls synchronous technology (as if there is something mysteriously asynchronous about using existing 3D CAD tools; but we digress).

The Pushmi-Pullyu, new mascot of Siemens PLM Solutions

No less an authority on these things than Dr. Ken Versprille, the father of NURBS and resident PLM guru at CPDA, says in a published quote (I’ll bet a dollar he was paid to write), “its ability to recognize current geometry conditions and localize dependencies in real time allows synchronous technology to solve for model changes without the typical replay of the full construction history from the point of edit.”

Ken's quote is a real mouthful, so let us translate for the SolidWorks bloggers among our readership: You don’t have to redraw the damn part to make a single damn change all the damn time anymore. The good doctor goes on to say that “… users will see dramatic performance gains. A 100 times speed improvement could be a conservative estimate.”

Wow! Models 100x faster than with Autodesk Inventor and probably 300x faster than CATIA? Siemens resellers must be doubled over with orgasmic spasms at the mere suggestion of such superior results, especially because this new technology will be added to both NX and Solid Edge. Maybe Solid Edge will actually sell some copies again.

When you get the previous word picture washed out of your mind, let us consider something a bit more serious. CAD pundits (self glamourously included as shown below) refer to the Big Four CAD Vendors: Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, Siemens PLM, and PTC. A year ago not one of these had history-free feature-based modeling; now two do. Not that long ago Autodesk and Dassault entered into a bidding war over Seemage; perhaps SpaceClaim just might survive long enough to be so lucky.

A self-proclaimed Leading CAD Pundit caught in the act of meditating on synchronous technology at COFES 2008.

Here, in no particular order, telling no particular story, are some photos from COFES 2008, which took place last week in Scottsdale, Arizona.


If COFES keynote speaker Karl Ulrich had pulled peanuts out of his pocket, most of the 300 in attendance would have gladly eaten from his hands. The summary of the chart on display is "don't spend so much time debating the merits of marginal and/or stupid projects" except that Ulrich said it like somebody who has a book on the subject coming out from Harvard Business School Press in 2009. That the need exists to say this in a power point and a book explains why innovation is a chimera in many manufacturing firms.




COFES co-founder and chief ramrod Brad Holtz swears on his grandmother's grave that the selection of green as the shirt color for COFES staff was totally unconnected to the selection of this year's conference theme of sustainability.



Bill Carrelli of Siemens PLM Software had a full house in the tech suite, but still wouldn't divulge what the big announcement coming April 22 is all about.




Most sports fans have heard of the San Diego Chicken. This is the San Diego Grouse, technical name Steveious Wolfeious.



Anton van den Hengel flew from Australia (where he is director of the Australian Center for Visual Technologies) to speak to COFES for five minutes during the Maieutic Parataxis session. Afterwards COFES attendees mobbed him like groupies at a rock concert.

More to come.

Once upon a time there was a general, an arms merchant, and a samurai. This is the story of how fate—with a little help from The CAD Society—brought them together.

Our story starts with a band of merchant-monks known as The Hungry Rats. They wanted to build a weapon that would offer 90% of the firepower of existing weapons at 10% of the price and would work on the new generation of weapon platforms just coming on the market. They did so, and as a result they created a grand army the likes of which had never before been seen.

The Merchant-Monks practicing their levitation.
The founders of Autodesk.

The General was a tall, likeable fellow who could be as nice or as mean as required by circumstances. He became known in his younger years as one who would speak his mind. Once when he was a young lieutenant he was fired for offering constructive criticism when none was requested. Not long after, the general who fired him brought him back, and he rose through the ranks to become general of a large army which built the weapons preferred by most soldiers, the army founded by the merchant-monks.

The General, testing new hardware.
Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, winner of the 2008 CAD Society Leadership Award.

The Arms Merchant never thought of himself as such. He preferred to think of himself as an entrepreneur who worked to enable a level playing field in times of war. The General once tried to bring shame upon this humble entrepreneur by naming him The Arms Merchant, who in turn accepted the new name as a badge of honor. For years The Arms Merchant supplied keys to all The General’s opponents. When the key was placed into the weapon built by the enemies, it allowed the weapon to use the same bullets as used in The General’s weapons. This was a wonderful benefit because millions of bullet makers were all creating bullets that worked in The General’s weapons, but few were making bullets that would work in each of the opponent’s weapons.

The Arms Merchant on a fishing trip.
Consultant Evan Yares, winner of The CAD Society’s 2008 Joe Greco Community Award.

The Samurai was a wise and gentle soul who only wielded his sword when his guitar could not solve a problem. Years ago, when the General was fresh out of military school and The Arms Merchant was an itinerant peddler, the Hungry Rats mentioned above asked The Samurai to solve a problem they had trying to build the weapon.

The Samurai went into hiding for weeks, meditating on the problem. When he came out, he spoke to them the code that answered all their problems. The merchant-monks became wealthy. They asked The Samurai to join their band, but he preferred life in the desert. After several years of disagreements over fees, a judge told the merchant-monks to pay The Samurai a handsome settlement, allowing him to continue to craft codes for other weapons and to play his guitar more often.

The Samurai, notoriously camera-shy, is spotted receiving guests in his desert hideaway.
Evolution Computing Chief Software Architect Mike Riddle, winner of the 2008 CAD Society Lifetime Achievement Award.

Years passed. The General turned his attention to building new weapons that would be nicer to the environment. The Arms Merchant was forced by his clients to stop selling keys after a thief was found in his camp. He found other ways to help small weapons builders and started to write his memoirs. The Samurai continued to meditate on codes and play his guitar. In time their work became known to The CAD Society, who decided they were as worthy as any to receive honor for their past exploits.

So, on the night of April 12, 2008, The General, The Arms Merchant, and The Samurai will gather under a tent in a desert oasis. Each will receive a trophy for their accomplishments, courtesy of The CAD Society, and they will set aside any thoughts of past animosity. All three owe a debt of gratitude to those merchant-monks.

The moral of the story is simple: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. You never know when the roles may change.

It is time for another episode of "Who Wants to Be Top Marketeer at Bentley!" This year's contestant is a nice guy (they are all nice guys) named Edward Mueller, who comes in with the title Chief Marketing Officer. He's been around IT marketeering for 20 years or so, his bio says. Most recently he was chief marketeer for Everdream; its dream came true recently when it was acquired by Dell Computer (which explains why he is available to Bentley; marketeers are always cast aside like yesterday's newspaper in acquisitions).

The game works like this. We (virtually and metaphorically) shove Ed (Ed, can we call you Ed?) into a revolving door. Then the audience--our readers--start laying bets on how long he can last. Either Ed gets dizzy reviewing the marketing history at Bentley and jumps out the door immediately, or he gets pushed the first time Greg Bentley thinks revenue is slumping and blames it on whatever poor schulmp happens to be chief marketeer at the time. Either way, Ed is a short-timer and everybody down the marketeering chain of command at Bentley knows it.

Ed Mueller gets his shot at the Bentley Revolving Door any moment now.

It didn't used to be this way. At one time Bentley's chief marketeer was the one and only Grand Poobah of CAD Marketeers, the esteemed Yoav Etiel. He launched some promotional campaigns that to this day bring tears to the eye. Who can forget the beautiful and/or handsome models (some of them were both) in Viecon shirts at A|E|C SYSTEMS 2001? Who can forget the Bentley bus circling the convention center when Autodesk University was in Philadelphia? This was grand and heady marketeering, the kind of in-your-face promotions that skyrocketed Bentley sales in the 1990s. But even a Grand Poobah of Marketeers can't last forever at Bentley. There was a power struggle over Viecon (their late entry in the online project management sweepstakes that soon after faded into oblivion), and Yoav Etiel became the first winner/loser (they are one in the same) of "Who Wants to Be Top Marketeer at Bentley!" Today Yoav Etiel is happy and successful, selling real estate in his native Israel when not introducing hot Israeli software prospects to VC in the USA.

So, rest at ease, Ed; there is life after Bentley. Just don't count on much of a life while you are there.