3D CAD NEWS

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.