3D CAD NEWS

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.

3D CAD News has learned Siemens PLM Software, the former UGS, has decided to postpone the release of NX 5 for the Macintosh OS X environment. Instead, Siemens will next release NX for OS X  as part of the NX 6 release in 2006.

The original plan called for the release of NX 5 for the Mac after the release of the Leopard update, now scheduled for October 26. But a source inside Siemens says doing so would have meant releasing a beta version of both NX 5 and NX 6 for the Mac to early adopters for testing at almost the same time. "We are releasing [NX for the Mac] with NX 6," said the source, who did not want to be identified. "This gives us time to incorporate some additional functionality based on customer feedback from our early adopters."

Our sister publication CADCAMNet gave NX 5 an enthusiastic review earlier this year. As reviewer Al Dean noted, NX 5 sports a new user interface, Active Mockup, Requirement-Driven Design Validation, and many more features. Beyond the specific new features, Dean said NX 5 "removes ambiguity, maximizes knowledge retention, and reduces the time invested in learning." We can only imagine at this point in time what goodies await the (rarely) patient Mac users who want the power of NX in OS X, now that they must wait for NX 6.

NX 5 as it appears in Windows. 

Two announcements landed in my inbox this morning. They came from two different vendors, but they carried the same underlying message: Despite the catcalls from many in the CAD media, and despite the mocking from Autodesk, product lifecycle management (PLM) software isn’t shuffling off into the sunset anytime soon. So, 3D CAD News finds it necessary to announce that the reports of PLM’s demise are greatly exaggerated. But we do believe the industry could use a little help with its collective image.

First, the reports from the inbox. PTC (a company that could use a little good news) says Samsung SDI, a division of the global electronics conglomerate, has deployed Windchill as its enterprise-wide PLM system. Siemens PLM Software, (nee UGS), announces that Burgmann Industries GmbH, a leading manufacturer of seals, is standardizing on Solid Edge CAD and Teamcenter PLM.

These two announcement, from manufacturers with two very different product lines, and many like them, are a regular reminder to us that manufacturers—particularly firms with more than 100 engineering seats—really do want the “single source for all product and process knowledge,” that PLM offers. The newer solutions, like PTC’s Windchill and the latest version of Teamcenter, use modern technologies and are much simpler to install and maintain than previous generations of PLM. The smaller PLM vendors are starting to sell Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), web-based PLM, and the big guys are hot on their heels. Why is PLM viable? Why is it a multi-billion dollar industry with good growth prospects? Consider is quote from the Siemens press release. “To convert development from 2D to 3D, we considered and tested solutions from several providers,” said Daniel Ketterer, project manager for Global Technology Management at Burgmann Industries. “During the testing phase, we were sold on the simple derivation option from 3D to 2D constructions offered by Solid Edge. We develop our seals in 3D, but most customers want to see the constructions in 2D. With the automatic 2D derivation, we are able to tighten our cycle times and optimise delivery times and costs in order to carry out our development processes more efficiently.”

The boom in mechatronics—the combination of mechanical and electronic design—opens up a particularly vein of opportunity for PLM vendors to mine in the coming years.  The Samsung deal is one such example.

Perhaps PLM suffers from an image problem. After all, it is hard to get warm and fuzzy with a database that offers to give a manufacturing enterprise a single source of truth. So, in the spirit of what we do best here at 3D CAD Blog, we offer a few modest suggestions.

A global firm like Siemens PLM needs an image recognized all over the planet to sell their software as “a single source of truth.” Perhaps Siemens could commission themselves a PLM theme song such as “No PLM No Cry” and license the tune from the Bob Marley estate.  

“In me rasta heart I say, PLM de only true way.”

PTC needs a particularly American image, one that stands for speaking truth to power (a real makeover), such as former slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth. We doubt her fund-raising motto of “I sell the shadow to support the substance” will go over well as a way to promote Windchill. Consider this one a work in progress.

“Am I not a fellow engineer? Do I not also deserve the efficiencies of PLM as my birthright?”

Only a few miles separate the Venus de Milo from the front door of Dassault Systèmes, which makes this long-standing symbol of one artistic source of truth a possible marketing image for the French PLM vendor.

“The missing parts of our vision of PLM beauty will be along shortly.”

[Editor’s Note: This is about PLM. Please refrain from yawning.]

It is a dog-eat-dog world, they say, so today your economic geography lesson is about the portion of that world known as PLM. Some of the inhabitants are names familiar to CAD users, including Dassault Systèmes, UGS (now Siemens PLM Software), and PTC. There are other inhabitants, like Agile Software which is currently being eaten alive—pardon me, acquired—by Oracle. And there are smaller players like ARAS Software and Arena Solutions (the former BOM.COM). And then there is SAP. (Autodesk is considered by professional analysts as a PLM firm, but in this dog-eat-dog world Autodesk is a cat and refuses to acknowledge the dogs.)

Oracle takes a $495 million liking to Agile.

Look at total revenue and you realize quickly that Oracle and SAP are the true big dogs of the territory. The CAD firms are Chihuahuas nervously treading beneath the feet of Irish Wolf Hounds. Thus we must pause and note when one of these big dogs marks his territory. That’s what SAP did today in announcing its PLM road map.

Over at CADCAMNet I’ll do a more complete (competitive analysis and all that), less doggy explanation of what SAP has in mind, but here we cut to the chase. Here’s what SAP will do to make you sit, roll over, and beg:

2008 (Sit): Simplify the SAP PLM user interface with role-based presentations.

2009 (Roll Over): Offer a “new enhancement package” for the bean-counters to ram down engineering’s throat.

2010 (Beg): Assimilation of real-world information such as RFID data.

[Editor’s Note: The prohibition against yawning is now lifted.]

We tried to get everybody together for a portrait, but only SAP and Dassault Systemes showed up.

UGS PLM Software announced today that Tilo Brandis, who was appointed President when UGS became a division of Siemens Automotive and Drives,must step down from the position due to family health issues in his native Germany. Brandis had started to relocate to UGS HQ in Plano, Texas, but is returning to Germany.

Tilo Brandis,
outgoing
UGS PLM Software
president

Brandis will be replaced by Dr. Helmuth Ludwig, who joins UGS PLM Software from Siemens Systems Engineering, a division of A&D, where he has served as president since 2002. As created when UGS merged with Siemens, the office of president reports to UGS CEO Tony Affuso, and is responsible for overseeing the integration of UGS into Siemens. Ludwig has already started relocating to Plano.

Helmuth Ludwig,
incoming
UGS PLM Software
president

UGS also announced to its staff today that effective October 1, 2007 the name of the division will change from "UGS PLM Software," to "Siemens PLM Software." The name "UGS" will continue to be used in front of product suite names.

More details later today at CADCAMNet.

 

In an announcement that took nobody by surprise the European Union has approved the proposed merger of UGS and Siemens.

In a bit of understatement, the Commision said:

The Commission’s examination of the proposed transaction showed that the limited horizontal overlaps resulting from the merger would not give rise to competition concerns since a sufficient number of alternative competitors would remain active on the markets concerned.

I'm in Long Beach, California today, for the opening of the UGS Connections Americas conference. UGS has invited a few members of the press and analyst community to attend this annual user's conference.

In addition to the usual UGS executives and end users, there will be one speaker this year that will probably draw more than the usual interest. Tilo Brandis of Siemens will discuss the pending acquisition of UGS and describe the company's vision behind the purchase.

I've been told there is a 10-year plan under development for the integration of UGS into Siemens. I'll be curious to hear if Siemens is ready to describe it in any detail.