3D CAD NEWS

It is hard for small third-party developers of CAD add-ins to get recognition in the market. Most suffice themselves to be listed in a CAD vendor’s directory; some get noticed by resellers or gain sales via word of mouth. To gain attention, they need to be clever and creative. Which may be the right adjectives to describe a new campaign from Etrage, which makes add-in applications for PTC products Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire and Windchill.

This week Etrage announced an IWBIWYBI contest. Pronounced “Eebbie-wibbie,” IWBIWYBI is short for “If We build It Will You Buy It?”The contest is a challenge to PTC users to suggest new ideas for third-party applications for Wildfire and Windchill. Applications can be in the areas of engineering automation, data integration, triggers or other Pro/TOOLKIT applications. Etrage will turn one or more of the ideas submitted into new products. Unless the development costs are huge, if your suggestion is selected you’ll get the resulting product for free.

Etrage’s Ron Zabilski says PTC users are a varied lot, and their need for custom features are diverse. “Examples range from triggers that activate programs based on conditions that exist in the part, assembly or drawing or control how these models are saved in the PDM system to automatically creating plots or viewable files to large scale engineering automations where companies look for optimizations of designs through automatic feature creation, automatic drawing creation and annotation, and downstream feeds to NC controlled manufacturing systems,” Zabilski told us via email in a sentence I doubt he would say in real life without taking a breath or two in the middle.

Some PTC shops are large enough to have in-house development teams who can create custom applications. The majority rely on third party developers like Etrage. “In many cases,” notes Zabilski, “the development of these types of projects are complex because they require software development skills in C and C++, as well as knowledge in the underlying CAD and PDM API’s.”

Bruno didn’t make the final cut.

He put himself through an Ivy League graduate education doing stand-up comedy.

Two clues this time, actually.

He has done “bringer shows.”

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.

As detailed in our recent posting, 3D CAD News is sponsoring a contest to see if anyone can guess the identity of the secret celebrity keynote speaker for this year’s SolidWorks World.

I narrowly missed being the victim of a random waterboarding session yesterday, adminstered by a group of thugs with strong New England accents. It seems Rainer Gawlick and his band of mad marketers will stop at nothing to prevent this contest from going forward. They were unable to carry off their plans because they couldn’t melt the snow fast enough to stick my head in the bucket.

Rainer Gawlick of SolidWorks doesn’t look like a man
who would order a sneak waterboarding interrogation. They never do.

Today’s official clue: Craigslist changed his life.

As detailed in our previous posting, 3D CAD News is sponsoring a contest to see if anyone can guess the identity of the secret celebrity keynote speaker for this year’s SolidWorks World. The entire marketing team at SW has now stopped all preparations for the event and are focusing their talents and resources on figuring out how this esteemed online journal learned this man’s identity. Oops, we just gave out an unofficial clue, and eliminated 51% of the human race as suspects.

Today’s official clue: He is afraid of heights.

3D CAD News is pleased to gloat that we know who will deliver the traditional secret celebrity keynote presentation at SolidWorks World later this month in San Diego.

This is a fiercely guarded secret, and let me tell you, Jeff Ray and the rest of the SolidWorks brass in Concord are turning green with apolexy, fearing we will blab.

SolidWorks has hired a private detective to find out how 3D CAD News learned the identity of the SWW secret celebrity keynote speaker.


Not wanting to bring wrath down on our heads without a darn good (generally satirical) reason, we have decided to play along, with a twist. We won’t say who the speaker will be, but we will run a contest to see if anyone can guess. Every other day or so between now and SolidWorks World (opens Jan. 20 in San Diego) we will publish a clue to the speaker’s identity.

If you think you know the identity of the secret celebrity keynote, send an email to editor (at) cadcamnet.com. If there is a winner, they will receive a $24 gift certificate to Applebee’s. (Yes, we are cheap, and proud of it.) If the winner is attending SolidWorks World, he or she may elect to have the 3D CAD News team buy dinner in San Diego instead. We choose the place, and we promise it will have indoor seating and plumbing. We will announce the results after the mystery person’s presentation.

This fine establishment is on the short list for our winner’s dining pleasure.


Employees of SolidWorks or their French overlords at Dassault Systemes are not eligible to participate, and neither are employees of a certain unnamed media conglomerate that might in some way be connected to the secret celebrity keynote speaker. Let the astute reader note that we have just given an unofficial clue. Also banned from participation are employees of the speakers bureau that is chargingSolidWorks an arm and a leg for this person to appear.

Today’s official clue: Clark Kent thinks he has eyeglasses to die for.

Neither of these gentlemen, seen at SolidWorks World 2006, are this year’s secret celebrity keynote speaker.