3D CAD NEWS

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

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.

Somebody call the trademark police! Online retailer Newegg.com is selling a device that straps onto your car's steering wheel, providing a flat surface for a laptop. The name of this fine device is the Merax AutoDesk.

 

The Merax AutoDesk is $14.95 plus shipping at Newegg.com. There is no mention at the website how much you must contribute to the Merax legal defense fund, after Autodesk sends a cease-and-desist order for trademark infringement.

This novel device with the obviously infringing name was brought to our attention by Evan Yares. This is the man once described by Autodesk CEO Carl Bass as “the arms merchant to my enemies.” It would seem Carl now owes Evan a debt of gratitude for unearthing this fine example of Chinese manufacturing prowess and marketing idiocy.

Evan Yares with Exhibit A for the prosecution. The next thing you know, he'll land a six-figure consulting contract with the real Autodesk.

Look for a terribly clever report on this during the next edition of CCNtv, coming to a browser window near you March 3.

As has been written elsewhere, the "news" from SolidWorks World last week can be easily summed up: 4,500 SolidWorks users had a nice party. Oh, and engineers who blog find some sort of deep mystery in the use of semi-colons. (Follow the link; I guess to one SolidWorks blogger, semi-colons are to CAD journalists what opposable thumbs are to mammals.)


Historic meeting of blogger (left) and CAD journalist at SolidWorks World. It seems bloggers have opposable thumbs; they just have not figured out how to write semi-colons with them.

But I digress. Sometimes the interesting stuff to be learned at such conferences isn't said in front of a crowd. I learned from a conversation with a Dassault Systemes employee (out on the patio of the San Diego Convention Center) that the recent acquisition of Seemage was preceeded by an ugly bidding war between Dassault and Autodesk. Not ugly, obviously, to anyone who owned a piece of Seemage. Perhaps unseemly would be the better phrase. But all's well that ends well, and now Dassault can continue to pursue its vision of proprietary 3D for all.

What's that you say? What about the contest? Oh, yes. I'll get to that in another post. I was waiting for one of those semi-colon-less bloggers to send me a photo. Moi is a writer, not a photog.

On January 10th, 2008, Autodesk invited a bunch of customers, and a couple of press, to watch the official opening of its newest Customer Briefing center in Lake Oswego, OR. The 3DCN team was there, finding out what was making Autodesk's Buzz Cross so proud of his 5th floor set up.

It is located in the new offices of Autodesk's Manufacturing Division, headed by Buzz Cross and Richard Jones, and supported by some 200 employees on site. As you leave the elevator, so you see an array of products created using Autodesk software including some guitars from RKS,  a novel geared wheelchair that prevents  wheelchairs from rolling backwards by Magic Wheels, and a whole bunch more. Even better, you are actually allowed to touch the guitars, take them off the stands and pretend to be a rock star. (Image: Jason Medal-Katz, senior manager of the Customer Briefing Center, has a moment of 'what if' with an RKS guitar.)



The banks of touch-screen monitors, created using flat glass and projectors with light sensitive cameras in them make for a pleasing display. And behind a large panel of frosted glass, which switches to clear at the touch of a remote control, are 2 RP systems, happily grinding away, or adding materials to some Autodesk Inventor Models. (PIcture 2: an image of a car designed using autodesk inventor and the Autodesk Alias products, displayed on the touch-screen monitors in the center.)



You will see a longer expose on this center in next week's CCNtv broadcast, where we get in depth about some of the products on display. However, it was an excellent evening, with short and friendly presentations by Buzz Cross and a gentleman from the local Chamber of Commerce who, we think, was getting paid every time he said 'Lake Oswego.'

But do check it out in-depth at CADCAMNETtv on January 21 2008.

3DCN team

Russian technology news site CNews is reporting the murder of an Autodesk Russian distributor.

Vladimir Kurochkin was Director General and sole owner of MasterCad, a successful Autodesk distributor. Investigators say he was shot in the head; a 9mm cartridge was found at the scene of the crime.

The full article, in English, is at: http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/12/19/280330.

Day 3 of Autodesk University was marked by the amiable groaning of people who were again walking the endless halls and floors that comprise the Venetian Hotel and the Sands Expo center. AU actually continues into Friday but Day 3 is always punctuated by the closing of the show floor and a corresponding high speed exodus by the exhibitors.

CCNtv, our online video broadcast, has issued three broadcasts directly from AU this week, where the lovely Amy Adams, our TV host, has charmed attendees and exhibitors alike. The team covered a lot of ground, finding and reporting on new products that include HP's Blade Workstations, Adapx' digital pen and digital paper, 2Bot's Modelmaker product, NextEngine's pretty neat little 3d scanner which costs just $2499, and much more.

Autodesk has basked in the glory of doing just about everything right. The show floor was well subscribed by exhibitors, the event attracted more than 9,000 attendees, the keynotes were creative, confident and bright. People were telling me that the software training they get at AU is 'beyond good.' Autodesk should be getting a nod from the industry for this one.


Adapting to Adapx
Image - Jeff Drust, a strategy consultant with Adapx, proudly displays the new Capturx digital pen - a product I hope might soon change the way I work.

Adapx is a newcomer to the industry, with a product which looks and acts like a pen, except that your handwritten notes can be immediately loaded into the corresponding documents on your computer. This is cool for many reasons, and the application of the technology makes some sense. For example when you are out in the field surveying a building site, or checking as-built details, instead of having to manually transpose the notes you made into the CAD file, it does it for you, instantly. It currently supports AutoCAD, ArcGIS and Microsoft OneNote. But indications are that it will soon support lots of other stuff. I spent the entire event trying to persuade them to support Microsoft Word, so that whenever I do a manual edit on an article, it can be immediately uploaded into the Word document.

The product technology is based on a dissertation undertaken by David McGee, the founder and CTO of Adapx, who is a man with a vision. It turns out that while the company has a fledgling 'rocking' product, he has his eye on the future: he believes that writing as a form of communication is not about to disappear. It will continue because using our hands, fingers and thumbs to write is inherent to our nature. However, he believes that the media we use to write on will absolutely change, has to. That we will probably end up using super-thin panels that will probably have a zero carbon footprint and immediate recyclability. They will fold into the size of a postage stamp and fold out to the size of a dining room table. And we will write on them, as well as view images, TV shows, play video games (there's a dated term eh?) and so on. He is planning on Adapx' technology being a part of that vision of the future.

You can view a more detailed article on Adapx at our sister publication, CADCAMNet, at this link (free trial or paid subscription required)
http://www.newslettersonline.com/user/user.fas/s=63/fp=3/tp=47?T=open_article,963664&P=article


CCNtv Gets Out in Public at AU
Some nutter allowed our entire CCNtv crew to spend the week at AU. Our host for the week was Amy Adams, and we did three broadcasts directly from the event, providing coverage of the keynotes, hot new products and attendees.

Image: the more diminutive of our two cameramen, JT, gets demo footage from Spheron for the CCNtv broadcasts.

Spheron was demonstrating an absolutely eye-popping 360 degree, high def scanner/camera, that can provide some incredibly detailed images of a space, and also delivers photogrammetry tools for 3D measurement of said space. It is way cool, but does not yet carry a published price, which therefore means it costs a lot. But that's not a problem really - if the need for this technology is there, people will inevitably pay the price.

Spheron is based in Waldfischbach, Germany which is somewhere on the western border, not far from France.

2Bot also got noticed by a lot of attendees for its very interesting CNC machine for architects. By focusing on taking away the problems inherent with CNC machines - mostly the need to do G-code programming, 2BOt turns out to be incredibly easy to use. Paul Nye, founder and CEO of 2Bot, claims that the receptionist could learn to use it in an hour. Having seen the product, I believe him! 2Bot has a few aspects to it that are not quite ready like the size of the material, but, rather than dwelling on the small details that will resolve themselves in time and in a similar attitude to Adapx, 2Bot rather is focused on its strong vision for the future. This involves a future where any and every kind of model, part, or product, can be made using this machine, and that eventually every home will have a 2Bot. Interesting idea.

Don't Press
In an effort to consolidate many of its press efforts, Autodesk has decided that press will be given the VIP treatment only at its separate press events, such as the recent Paris Summit, rather than host the press at AU as it has typically done before. It did invite a small amount of editors, but not to the extent that we have become used to. On the first day of AU, the MCAD press were given a lavish lunch (see photo) but no lectures. It was a really fun little interlude between lengthy walks.

Image: Brad Holtz (left) and Roopinder Tara compete for best-dressed CAD editor, although there's not much competition when you put them up against the 'down-and-out' look preferred by editors such as Martyn Day and Al Dean (pictured below).








I am now headed for home, and about to board my flight for denver. Will be checking in with you soon.

r

For once I have arrived early to Autodesk University, and have spent some of the afternoon hiding behind fake Italian Renaissance columns, spending time watching out for AU attendees at the beautiful Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

They start off not that easy to spot, looking like any other business traveller arriving at a destination. But soon it becomes obvious: between the flocks of Asian tourists all dressed in black, the feathers of cocktail waitresses, and the baseball hats of 23 year-olds who flew here to get married but prefer hanging out at the Craps table, you can see them start to appear. The button-down shirts are the first giveaway. The odd bowtie appears and flits off (an architect more easily scared by the crowd), the sensible shoes also start to make an appearance, a determined walk towards the poker room, and the glimpse of thousands of red name badges... yes. We have not just infiltrated a busy and attractive public place. The AutoCAD users are starting to take it over.

An anticipated crowd of more than 8,000 is gathering, and becoming evident. Rumor has it they have filled the host hotel and also taken over four more along the Vegas strip. Boasting the biggest user base, and user event, in the CAD industry, Autodesk is poised and ready to wow the crowd with a strong message about environmental sustainability and how its software can help.

Tuesday kicks off with the keynote by Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, followed by classes and the much anticipatd AUGI beer bust. By Tuesday evening, you will be able to view video highlights at CADCAMNETtv, sponsored by G10, as well as follow up posts on this blog.

Don't miss out!

R

3D CAD News learned today that SpaceClaim Corporation has been delisted as an exhibitor at the upcoming Autodesk University 2007, Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas.

Every year some one or some company gets booted from Autodesk University at the last minute. The line employees -- who don't know one person or company from another -- sign up anybody willing to pay the fee. Then eventually, somebody more senior at Autodesk starts going over the list of attendees and exhibitors and sooner or later gets the "oh-oh" feeling. Meetings are called, people yell and wring their hands, and eventually a line employee is told to make the call.

More than once the left foot of disfellowship has been extended toward industry gadfly Evan Yares, who until a year ago was Executive Director of the Open Design Alliance. One year he was so bold as to hang around the host hotel as a registered guest but not a registered attendee, striking up conversations with anybody who would listen. One Autodesk VP asked me after a brief conversation with him, "Was that really Evan Yares?" It seems they had never met.
I doubt Mike Payne, co-founder of SpaceClaim (also co-founder of PTC and SolidWorks) will pull a Yares and show up at The Venetian Hotel next week, but you never know. If he already has the plane ticket and the hotel room, might as well enjoy Vegas.

Part of the marketing line at SpaceClaim Corp. is that the product is not a competitor to existing CAD programs, but should be viewed as complimentary, thus the rationale for trying to become an AU exhibitor. To that we say, yuk yuk yuk.

Being kicked out of Autodesk University is a rare and exceptional accomplishment -- more people have won an Oscar than have been given the boot from AU, even though similar talents are required. We think such status deserves acknowledgement. So, on behalf of the staff and management of 3D CAD Blog, we award SpaceClaim Corporation our new trophy, which we will refer to from now on as The Yares Cup. We will award it when needed, not just for AU but for other industry events or when somebody really does a stellar job of outraging a CAD vendor. (For the record, we were the first winners of our own trophy. We still get anonymous phone calls late at night about the Bernard Charles Head Fake article. Especially from crabby English teachers who remind us the correct tern is "head feint." To which we say, blow it out your Funk & Wagnalls. On the basketball court, it is a head FAKE.)




The Yares Cup, awarded for exceptional performance in outraging a CAD vendor.

Want to see what this Digital Prototyping thing that Autodesk has been pushing is all about? CCNtv has a 13 minute (or so) video of the company's demonstration during their recent press event in Paris.




It is at

http://www.cadcamnet.tv/asseen.html

This week's main CADCAMNETtv broadcast is up and running at www.cadcamnet.tv



Kevin Schneider - Manufacturing Solutions Evangelist takes the stage at Autodesk's Manufacturing Media Summit.