3D CAD NEWS

Today Adobe released a free download that delivers updated 3D CAD translators for Acrobat 3D Version 8. The new version allows Acrobat 3D to support the latest version of many major 3D CAD file formats.

The file formats updated as part of the free download include Autodesk Inventor, CoCreate OneSpace Designer, JT, SolidWorks, and UGS NX and I-deas. The updated translators leverage technology Adobe gained as part of its 2006 acquisition of Trade & Technologies France (TTF).

The product update is available from the Adobe web site at: http://www.adobe.com/go/a3d_update. A complete list of supported file formats is at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat3d/supportedformats/

Here is the next clue for those of you trying to guess the mystery celebrity keynote speaker at next week's SolidWorks World conference:

He is still wondering if being called "sweet britches" is a compliment or a put-down.

We found a fascinating post on the Denver Craigslist job boards this week - a publishing firm based in Loveland, CO, which we are guessing is Penton, is seeking "Managing Producer to develop content for Engineering TV, an online video program for engineers."

With our very close connection to CADCAMNETtv, we took a quick look at the requirements. With a stated aim to produce four weekly broadcasts, the company wants something that is almost amusing in its naiveté: the applicant must be an experienced video camera and AV operator, video editor, experienced writer, journalist, on-screen personality, and engineering expert.

Now if they find this person, we will applaud. But the reality is that these roles are typically highly specialist skills that take very different kinds of personality and a vast range of training. Many of them can be mutually exclusive: just in training alone, this person being sought will have to have the following to qualify:

While at AU I have the unusual priveledge of staying at the Venetian Hotel, where, like it or not, you can only close the curtains using a remote control.

Something Carl Bass commented upon in this morning's keynote is about the digitalization of everything. Like it or not, our children will find friends online in their chosen social networks, communicate via blog, and think email is incredibly outdated. While the 40-year pluses here at AU expect to be able to close the curtains manually, the kids we have currently living in our houses will probably grow up to expect the curtains to close at a pre-planned specific time, or via voice command. I remain confident that my PS2-obsessed 9 year old will happily find a respectable job in the Air Force due to his long, hard training with video game consoles. Is this something to be proud of? I remain unsure and simply hope I am preparing the poor child for an uncertain future.

Why does closing the curtains by remote control bother me so? First, I am of an older generation even while I am ever so slightly under 40. I don't need the constant nagging of the TV to make me obsess about germs, gun control and voting. I can obsess just fine on my own, thank you. I find that the incessant minor keys on the various alarms of the microwave, oven, water softener, and heating system in the house are a negative and destructive backdrop to life. My alarm clock chimes in at a loud A Minor note that is highly effective at waking me up in a bad mood. I might be old, but I don't even mind shutting the curtains manually! What I do object to, however, is having technology shoved at me. The damn curtains in this room won't move without the remote: I cannot close them myself without a Duracell battery in the remote. What happens when the battery dies? Daylight... when all I wanted to do was move the curtains to a closed position, using my arm, you know...manually.

(The image shows the remote control gauranteed purely for closing my curtains, and blinds.)

The problem with it is that it uses energy that, as individuals, we do not make ourselves. It simply adds to the burden of electric power that is made using coal... with some hydroelectricity here in Las Vegas, of course. Carl Bass is a vocal supporter of sustainability in all areas, and that includes leaving enough natural resources for our kids to be able to simply breathe. And live. And if we continue to waste it on crap like remote-controlled curtains, there simply won't be anything left, right?

So, rant over. Let us have some balance in our lives. Let's find a compromise between utter waste and extreme self-sufficiency that allows us to close our own damn curtains, not rely on electricity to do it, and to use whatever energy we have - personal and corporate - on things that matter.

r xx

This week at CADCAMNETtv, Greg Smith, our Big Mac Guy (you'll understand the double meaning when you watch) gives an overview of both Parallels and VMwareFusion running Windows XP, with AutoCAD and Rhino software, on a Macintosh.

If you've ever been curious about whether you can run your CAD system on a Mac, well this might give you pointers. However, be warned that only a select few Windows CAD products will actually run on the virtual machine, but at least it opens up the options a little more from what we have now for CAD on the Mac.

To watch the review, go to www.cadcamnet.tv; Greg's review is about half way through the broadcast. If anyone knows of any other CAD products that work on the virtual machine, please do share!

r

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. 

Earlier this month private equity firm Ampersand Ventures made an offer to acquire RAND Worldwide, one of the world's largest value-added reseller of CAD and PLM software. Today CADCAMNet has learned that a Canadian investment bank has acquired a 10% interest in RAND and intends to oppose the Ampersand acquisition bid.

Full details later today at CADCAMNet.  

Tomorrow over at CADCAMNet we conclude a three-part series on what makes MCAD products doodoo what they voodoo, or something like that. For the most part, the series boils down to describing the difference between the two leading MCAD technologies, and helping the reader to understand which is best for various tasks. For the uninitiated, it must seem like Spy vs. Spy; the two are fighting but it is hard to understand why.

In today’s marketplace, if you want to buy a top-selling mid-market MCAD product, you can choose from a variety of constraint-driven, history-based products. SolidWorks, Inventor, SolidEdge, and several others all work on the same principle. The geometry on the screen is a reflection of the steps listed in the history (or structure) tree. Every modeling step is recorded, in order, in the tree.

A typical history-based modeler, relentless in its ability to log every piddling detail of how the model came to be; just don’t suggest changes at the last minute.

History-based models have been leading the market for more than a decade, and to a large degree they have defined MCAD. But in recent years 3D modelers that do not rely on a history tree, but allow users to directly define and edit geometry, have been gaining momentum. These products are described by various terms. Rhino uses the phrase “free form modeling;” KeyCreator says “geometry-based design;” and CoCreate says it is “dynamic modeling.”

A typical history-free modeler, a tireless crusader for free geometry. History tree? We don’t need no stinkin’ history tree.

In editing the CCN series, I realized I have a personal bias in this matter. I understand the importance of locking down design intent with a structure tree, but it still comes across to me as control-freak behavior. Give me a free form modeler any day. Unless I’m designing a brake assembly. Or a motor. Or a 10’ mining auger. Or a jet.

 

 

 

 

Good CAD? Bad CAD? It never ends.

See the problem. It doesn’t matter if I have a personal bias, there is no one tool for the job. No wonder Black Spy and White Spy fought for years, and there was no clear winner. They must have worked for enemy CAD companies.

More at CCNtv.

The astute, connected and occasionally smartypants jerk Robert X. Cringely writes a weekly technology column for PBS Online. This week he turns his attention toward Adobe Systems. In the Cringerster's estimation, Autodesk can relax. Adobe's plans for world domination don't include taking over CAD. But they do include knocking off Microsoft.

Catch the whole Adobe vs. Microsoft column, "An Air of Invisibility."

Bill Gates realizes Roadrunner = Adobe.