3D CAD NEWS

When Airbus went public in 2006 and confessed to its inability to deliver the A380 DumboJet on time, the repercussions were many. Executive heads rolled, the unions were pressured to put product first, and several airlines cut back their orders. The two big winners were Boeing and Dassault Systèmes.

Since then Airbus has placed several large orders for CATIA and related software tools. Today Dassault announces that Airbus has standardized on its Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, from Dassault's SIMULIA division.

To quote the press release, "This decision comes as a result of an extensive benchmark of several FEA codes. The Abaqus FEA software has already been successfully applied on the A380 aircraft program for structural virtual testing, and represents a first step in what is to develop into a longer-term collaborative relationship." That last phrase is marketing-speak for "we have both hands deeper into their pockets than you can possibly imagine."

The A380 design team knew they were in trouble when the wiring inside the aircraft started to look like a set from the movie "Aliens".

We are not holding our breath.

Autodesk somehow managed to trudge along, despite the weight of its 2D user base.

After 6 weeks of pestering and cajoling readers of CADCAMNet to complete the 2007 CAD Interoperability Survey, the results have now been posted in the form of a white paper.

The introductory summary is available free of charge to everyone. The White Paper is freely available to subscribers of CADCAMNet, and available for purchase by non-subscribers at $54.95. David Prawel, principal at Longview Advisors, acted as consulting editor in the survey.

It was a pretty interesting process to delve through all the results, which were split out into OEM and Supplier responses. Out of some 44 questions that drilled into what formats, how many files, and what strategies are used by OEMs and suppliers, we came out with a large amount of conclusions.

Results highlights include: 30% of respondents believe improvement in feature-based translation was a high requirement (that's a good sign for the companies working on feature translation tools); only 30% regularly exchanged data in preferred native CAD formats - for most of the time, STEP is used as a viable translation option; use of 3D CAD in the shop floor is very limited; and there is a great opportunity for growth of 3D CAD in downstream uses. And more than 90% of respondents think that CAD vendors be held responsible for CAD interoperability.

Now there's a thought :)

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OK, so I'm working on an article for this week's edition of CADCAMNet, right? And it's about Dassault Systemes, right? OK. So, I thought it might be a good idea, you know, to read the press releases from Dassault that came out during the recent PLM Summit at COE (CATIA Operator's Exchange). Right? OK.

And, like, I read the first press release and I'm flabbergasted, OK? Totally flummoxed, right? Yes. To a person, we the Mr. and Ms. Noseys of the CAD/PLM press missed the biggest news of the week! It was, like, right under our noses, OK? In a Dassault press release! Like no other!

In the third paragraph of the press release titled, "Innovation, Collaboration Technology Highlight PLM Summit Opening Day Presentations at COE 2007," it says:

"Dassault Systèmes CEO Bernard Charlès keynote presentation will focus on Dassault Systèmes’ PLM strategy, vision and product portfolio, including the recently announced acquisition of WHITE, the leading XYZ company, as well as current market and business trends driving PLM market growth."

Those websites that just reprint press releases were the only ones to publish this important story. Makes me want to rethink my publishing strategy, OK? To think, Dassault bought WHITE! This is world-changing! Right! If I had only read the press release before my interview with Dassault CEO Bernard Charles, I could have gotten the scoop on the big news of the day! Arrgh!

Bernie, the new WHITE mascot at Dassault Systemes.

Everyone is confused about the various roles and products that Dassault delivers – except that we all know that SolidWorks is from SolidWorks and CATIA is from Dassault, right? And most of the industry vaguely remembers that SolidWorks is owned by Dassault. What then, we ask, does Delmia, and Enovia, two other lesser known Dassault companies, actually do? No one I talk to can ever really explain what it is they do although the Dassault web site states “With DELMIA, the lean digital manufacturing processes are defined. With ENOVIA, product lifecycle information is managed in a collaborative way.” yeah. That’s clear!

Dassault has evidently realized the same, and also recognized the powerful brand that SolidWorks maintains. Thus, Dassault announced this week during the CATIA Operators’ Exchange (COE) that the SolidWorks reseller channel would now be known as the ‘Dassault Systemes Volume Channel’. Roopinder’s CAD Insider blog, where this news broke, stated that “When pressed to name what products Dassault would be pumping into the "volume channel" in the future, [Bernard] Charles was not clear.”

So, without any clarity in its complete intent, Dassault would seem to be setting up the strong SolidWorks VAR channel to be able to sell other Dassault products, along the lines of its PLM offerings for the SMB (Small-to-Medium_sized Businesses).

The grapevine indicates that SolidWorks themselves were caught flat-footed with this news, with reports of sales managers at SolidWorks unaware of the announcement even after Roopinder broke the news on his CADInsider blog.
On being contacted by various VARs SolidWorks reportedly managed to get a hurried message out to its sales channel essentially saying (I am paraphrasing) ‘Ignore! Stay focused on selling SolidWorks!’ We anticipate that SolidWorks management will have better guidance promptly for their sales team.

We believe that, if improperly managed, this move will serve to defocus the SolidWorks resellers, allowing gaps for other vendors to fill. Additional products being forced on the resellers also increases their costs of doing business, and Dassault will have to take a mature approach to tackle this or else the resellers simply will not sell those additional products.

The long run gamble is that we think SolidWorks will allow the name change, (Dassault after all does own them), but nothing will essentially change in the product line up and sales focus for the SolidWorks VARs.

Hey. Maybe they should set up a sales channel with IBM!

Posted by the Brat

Our name is 3D CAD News, but 3D CAD is about more than creating geometry. So we stick our nose into many interesting areas, following the model.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is becoming more and more intertwined with the engineering/design process. As firms learn to work in a dynamic, concurrent fashion, analysis and design become closer--and more valuable.

Thus the news note from a Formula 1 (motor sport) news site caught our attention this morning. Advantage Honda, a CFD consulting service for F1 racing teams, is ending all out-of-house consultancies. It will be working strictly to improve performance for Honda's two F1 teams. As F1 fans can tell you, this year Honda needs all the help it can get.

If the F1 teams do poorly, there's always Cart racing. (Photo courtesy Advantage Honda)

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.

We may jokingly call the new technology preview of Autodesk Inventor LT "Little Tool," but there's nothing little about the size of the download -- 934MB. You may want to curb your enthusiasm and wait until the end of your workday to start the download.

Autodesk recommends putting the download in C:/temp, not a directory several levels deep (such as your desktop). If you don't know what I'm talking about, should you be downloading 934MB files all by yourself?

Little Tools of great ability come in all shapes and sizes, such as this Nut Tool.

This morning without fanfare, Autodesk posted Autodesk Inventor LT for free temporary download at Autodesk Labs.

The pitch at the Labs website is all about "improving communications with suppliers and customers. ... It allows you to quickly import, export, create, and modify 3D part models in many common file formats to meet today’s increasing need for communicating in 3D."

More to come, both here later today and at CADCAMNet tomorrow.

A big wheel rendered by a Little Tool. Photorealistic rendering in a product called "LT"? Somebody pinch me.