3D CAD NEWS

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.

A few days ago in this space I wrote a phrase typical of the “bit of attitude” we try to bring to CAD reporting. I noted that the purchase of Seemage allowed Dassault Systemes to continue its pursuit of “proprietary 3D for all.” Which, while historically true of Dassault, isn’t really true at all when it comes to 3DLive, the 3D data viewer DS acquired in the Seemage acquisition; 3DLive reads many CAD formats. (Astute regular readers will notice the gratituous use of a semi-colon in the previous sentence, just to confound the amateurs in the audience.)

Anyway, Evan Yares (at his blog) jumped on the phrase “proprietary 3D for all” like a cat jumps on a mouse. He put it on a T-shirt that you can purchase. I’ve already ordered mine; you should do the same. If my baby (the phrase I wrote) is growing up to become a monster, at least we need to feed it. I intend to wear it for at least a few minutes at COFES, even if it does mean dressing down a bit at my favorite industry event. After all, I’m a journalist, no one expects me to dress to any particular standard. Buy your own shirt by following this link.


The infamous T-Shirt. Text by Randall Newton, Layout by Evan Yares. Production by CafePress.
Inspired by the hard work of the usual suspects.

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.

eBay seller Timothy S. Vernor gives no ground in a video interview today at CADCAMNETtv. They may be large software company with a large team of lawyers, Vernor says, but “The biggest thing going for me is that I know I’m right … the law is on my side. … I really do expect them to propose a settlement soon.”

Timothy S. Vernor, aka HappyHourComics, remains poised and confident.

Vernor’s case is based on the legal principle known as the First Sale Doctrine; the Wikipedia entry linked to says it is not an area of settled law when it comes to computer software.

One of the CAD industry’s leading experts on software licensing issues, former Open Design Alliance executive director Evan Yares, thinks Vernor has a pretty good case; read his article “Old Copies of AutoCAD” for details.

Former software arms merchant (just ask Carl Bass) Evan Yares thinks Vernor might have a case.

The complete text of Vernor’s complaint against Autodesk, as filed with the US District Court in Seattle, is now available at AECnews.

You can watch the complete interview with Vernor, conducted via Skype video, at CCNtv.

Oh, and don’t get to excited about Kera Cauthorn’s opening line — a skirt is not pants.

–RSN